Nigeria: Muslims murder 20 Christians, burn down 10 churches

The Rt. Rev. Stephen Dami Mamza, the Catholic bishop of the Yola Diocese, stated: “It is on record that less than one week ago, no fewer than 20 innocent Christian farmers were killed in separate attacks in and around Tambo. Luru village in particular saw its worst days when herdsmen wielding sophisticated firearms stormed the area, killing 15 people. Within the period under review, not less than 10 churches were burnt down, and in some instances, worshippers were killed.”

Mamza was apparently careful not to name the persecutors. After all, he doesn’t want to get called on the carpet by Pope Francis, who insists that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” In line with this preposterous and insulting nonsense, descriptions of the Muslim persecution of Christians by Catholics generally omit any characterization of the persecutors. They, above all, must not be offended.

“Pastor, Other Christians Slain in Herdsmen Revenge Attacks in Northeast Nigeria,” Morning Star News, March 2, 2018:

Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday (Feb. 27) killed a pastor and 19 other Christians in apparent retaliation for attacks by ethnic Bachama militia on Fulani families, sources said.

The Rev. Haruna Enoch was killed along with the others in herdsmen attacks on four predominantly Christian areas in the Numan and Demsa areas of Adamawa state, area residents said.

The killings reportedly came in retaliation for an unspecified attack on Fulani families by young men from the predominantly Christian Bachama tribe who have formed militias in response to violence by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram and heavily-armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen. Tit-for-tat violence between Fulani herdsmen and Bachama militia in recent months has resulted in scores of killings, including women and children.

The anti-Christian dimension of the tribal conflict is prominent in Adamawa state as it is in tribal conflicts in other parts of Nigeria, according to rights groups and Christian leaders.

Sam Zadock, spokesperson for the People’s Democratic Party and a member of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN), was among those slain in an ambush by the herdsmen this week, area residents told Morning Star News. Area resident Margaret Inusa Habu said in a text message that Zadock was stricken with machete blows.

The names of the remaining Christians were not readily available, but local Christians told Morning Star News that they were members of either the LCCN or the Roman Catholic Church. They said an attack on Gwamba village began at about 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 27)….

After troops deployed in the Numan area later captured six of the assailants and killed 10 other herdsmen in a firefight at Gwamba village, the army reportedly recovered from the herdsmen an AK-47 rifle, ammunition, a locally made rifle with 25 cartridges, a cutlass, looted clothes and a motorcycle.

In January the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Adamawa State Chapter, spoke out against attacks by the herdsmen. The Rt. Rev. Stephen Dami Mamza, 49-year-old Catholic bishop of the Yola Diocese, accused the Muslim-controlled state government of supporting armed Fulani herdsmen.

“It is on record that less than one week ago, no fewer than 20 innocent Christian farmers were killed in separate attacks in and around Tambo,” Mamza said at a Jan. 10 press conference in Yola, the state capital. “Luru village in particular saw its worst days when herdsmen wielding sophisticated firearms stormed the area, killing 15 people. Within the period under review, not less than 10 churches were burnt down, and in some instances, worshippers were killed.”

He cautioned the Adamawa government to warn its officials to avoid unwise statements during and after attacks, as “the secretary to the Adamawa state government has propounded a new firearms narrative which seeks to justify the use of firearms by Fulani in the country.”

“This is dangerous and reprehensible, as the law of the country does not allow any civilian the possession of illegal firearms, whether herdsmen or farmers,” Mamza said. “CAN wishes to state in unequivocal terms that violent elements are easily emboldened and fueled to terror killings by such reckless and unguarded utterances.”…

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/03/nigeria-muslims-murder-20-christians-burn-down-10-churches

A Saudi Arabian Imam declares that Jesus is the Lord of his life

A Saudi Arabian Imam declares that Jesus is the Lord of his life.

I was born in Saudi Arabia as a member of a Muslim family. We were a very happy family, and I loved my relationship with them. I also felt very happy because I did all the things that God asked me to. I had learned one sixth of the holy Quran by heart and a lot from the Hadieth. When I was a teenager, I was an Imam for the mosque.

I was always very serious to do all that God ordered me to do--fasting during Ramadan, praying five times a day or more, Hadj and so on. I was, at that time, very desirous to meet God at the last day, even when I had no guarantee. But I had always hoped for this. My hope grew when I started to think about fighting in the name of God (Jihad) in Afghanistan. 

I was sixteen years old. My parents would not let me go because I was too young. So I decided to wait until I was old enough. I always had love and respect for the Muslim people. There was no love or respect in my heart for the Christians, and the Jews were my first enemy of course. After some time, the devil found his way into our home and our life, and my life became very hard. Slowly I drifted far away from God until the time that I believed in no God at all.My life became busy. I had a very good job and earned a lot of money. Still I was not happy because I was afraid for the day that I would die. Sometimes a question came to my mind--will I be with God in heaven or not? And it was very frightening to think about this, even for seconds, that I would not be there. What about my future? 

One day I had a big problem in my life. I was in my room looking through the window up to the sky. Then I remembered God, and I wanted to pray to him to ask him for help, but which God should I pray to. Allah? I was sure that he was very angry with me because I had not prayed for a very long time. Or Jesus? I knew He had done a lot of miracles in the lives of other people. Then I said, “Jesus help me!” I don't know why I spoke like this. I sat down on my bed and spoke to myself, “What is this stupid thing you just did?” Anyway, I did not expect anything to happen or the problem to go away. 

However, one and a half days later, my problem was solved! I decided to find out who this Jesus is. Is he God as the Christian people say, or is he a prophet, as I know from Islam? At this time, I left my country and went to Europe. On the third day, my circumstances became very difficult for me, and I decided to go back to Middle East. During that night I had a dream. I was standing in a cross shape with a low wall around it. In my right hand, I had a big stack of white unwritten papers. I was standing at the cross beam, and I was looking to a small group of people who were standing at the top. 

They all wore long white clothing, but one of them was different. He was standing at the right side, and with his left hand he was leading the people through a door in the wall. Beyond the door was light, and I could not see what was in there. One moment I was standing in the dream, and the next moment I was seeing the cross from above. It was difficult for me to understand this.When I woke up the next morning, I felt a very beautiful happiness in my heart that I never had before. And I felt a love in my heart and from inside my body a very special feeling. I felt also I just wanted to walk and to walk and to ask every one I met, do you know Jesus? 

It was more than a great feeling. It was happiness that I had never known before in my life. After one year of reading the Bible in an honest way, I understand now what happened to me. I found my way to God, the real God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope now for all the people I love, my family, my friends, and everyone also to change and begin to read the Bible in an honest way. I am sure that God will help them to find their way.

An Imam from Kerala now preaches the gospel of Jesus. Shakir became an Imam in Hyderabad and a meeting with a Muslim-turned-Christian changed his life

An Imam from Kerala now preaches the gospel of Jesus.

Shakir became an Imam in Hyderabad and a meeting with a Muslim-turned-Christian changed his life.

An Imam who set out to turn Christians against Jesus has himself become a follower of the Lord. 

Sajir, also known as Shakir from Kannur in Kerala studied at Jamia Nizamia in the old city of Hyderabad and became an Imam in 2010. 

He was an Imam in a mosque and also worked in an Islam Arabic college. “I had a special ministry also while I was in the certain Mosque i.e to work among Christians and teach them Islam to convert them into it. That's the reason I began to read the entire bible and also started reading Islam and Christianity comparative studies books,” he said in his testimony on an FB page “People of the Cross”.  

Shakir said he later found the truth about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. “I met a person called Rev K K Alavi, from Northern Kerala whom is a former Muslim and now a born again Christian. I met him in the month October of 2010. 

Shakir’s intention was to make him come back to Islam but through Rev Alavi he got to know Jesus more. “I found the truth and accepted Christ as my personal savior and Lord and I got saved on 10th January 2011,” he said.  Shakir was baptized by Rev Cheriyan at SIBBC, Coimbatore on August 19th of 2011 in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit before several believers.  

Shakir is now in full time ministry preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ – that there is salvation only through his name. “Jesus has paid the penalty of my sin and set a place for me in heaven. I thank and praise Jesus for He has brought me out of darkness to the Eternal light. I am seated in the Heavenly realms with the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said in his testimony.

Saudi Muslim is now a Strong Christian. Emad Al Abdy says it is his mission to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Muslim is now a Strong Christian.

Emad Al Abdy says it is his mission to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims in Saudi Arabia.

Emad Al Abdy was a staunch Muslim. He considered it a grave sin to question his beliefs despite having several reasons to do that. He had a rough childhood after his father had abandoned his family after getting married to another woman. This made him question his beliefs even more.  “I had many questions about my Islamic faith, but was afraid  

Task them because I feared I would be blaspheming. I got married and had four children, but I never treated them well because of the example my father had set for me,” Emad says. Emad once came across a group on ‘Pal-talk’ an online chat room where people discussed about God. He says that this was the turning point of his life and that he realized that Jesus Christ was the true God and Saviour. “I saw that the questions being asked there echoed my thoughts. I tried to defend my religion and prophet during the discussion, but could not. 

Then it struck me that I was stuck in the wrong faith,” Emad says. Emad visited a church in a neighbouring country and asked for a Bible. “I visited the Pastor in that church and we prayed together to the God who I never knew before. Three days later Jesus Christ appeared to me in a dream and spoke to me. My daughter who never heard of Jesus before, also began talking to me about Him. At that time, her hand was fractured severely and she needed to be operated on. We prayed using the name of Jesus and she was healed,” Emad says. In 2002 Emad was baptized and in 2004 was put in prison by Saudi Arabian officials because of his faith in Jesus Christ. “In prison, I was placed with 81 terrorists with whom I shared the gospel. I was tortured several times but still spoke about Jesus because in my dream, Jesus said that it was my duty to tell the gospel to the Saudis.” Emad now runs ‘Saudi Christian Concern’, an organization to spread the gospel in Saudi Arabia. He is also associated with Saudi Magazine which is run by Dr Khalid, another Saudi Christian.

“I’m an Arab and a Christian” God is at work in the middle-east, says Nabil Costa of Lebanon

 “I’m an Arab and a Christian”

God is at work in the middle-east, says Nabil Costa of Lebanon.

Although they often are overlooked, Christians live throughout the Middle East and provide consistent witness and sacrificial ministry in the name of Jesus, a Baptist leader from Lebanon told students, faculty and staff at Dallas Baptist University Feb. 24. 

Nabil Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development, countered numerous myths about the Middle East, most of them promoted by media coverage that does not represent the region’s rich complexity. Costa spoke to students during chapel and addressed faculty and staff during lunch, according to a report in The Baptist Standard. 

Despite images of hopelessness, “God is at work in the Middle East, too,” Cost said. “God is the God of all nations. … Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the rest. God is at work in all those nations.” Even though Muslims comprise the overwhelming majority of Middle Easterners, “Arabs are not only Muslims,” he said. “I’m an Arab and a Christian.” “Christians were in the Middle East even before Islam—since the first century,” he reported. 

The region’s architecture, literature and art all reflect longstanding Christian influence. But proportionally, Christians are small, he acknowledged. Of the region’s 400 million residents, 93 percent are Muslim. Christians comprise 4 percent, and most of the remainder are Jews. About 10 percent of Egypt’s 89 million residents are Christians, but because of religious tyranny, “they are silent; they have no voice,” he lamented. 

In Lebanon, life is better for Christians. “We are blessed. We are a free country, and we can worship freely,” he said. He expressed appreciation for American missionaries who settled in Lebanon a century ago and built schools and strengthened churches.  Because Lebanon primarily is bordered by Syria, it has received an overwhelming influx of those refugees, Costa said. “God could not work through us before he worked in us,” he said. “God has placed us in a position to reflect love for the Syrian people.” 

Christians all over the world must pray for the Middle East, Costa pleaded. “Ask God what God wants you to do.”

A Saudi Muslim discovers Jesus. Dr Khalid A Shamry, a microbiologist, is now reaching out to Muslims with the gospel.

A Saudi Muslim discovers Jesus.

Dr Khalid A Shamry, a microbiologist, is now reaching out to Muslims with the gospel.

For 33 years, he was a Muslim, a staunch Muslim. But the scientist in him made him ask questions. And his questions led him to the Lord Jesus Christ. And today, Dr Khalid A Shamry, a microbiologist by education, is a great witness for the Lord.  

Dr Khalid Al Shamry has a Masters in Micro Biology from King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia with an excellent grade. He studied embryology. “The Quran 23:14 (Arberry) mentions the bone first  and then the flesh.  Being an embryologist I knew this was wrong but I ignored this verse,” he says. When he read the Bible in Job 10:11 it read:  “You created me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews.” He was excited to know this. 

In 1997 when Dr Khalid got married, he went to the US for his honeymoon. And it was here that he was invited to a Church.  Out of curiosity, he went there and was also introduced to missionaries who suggested that he pray saying: "O Lord show us the Truth and give us the courage to accept the Truth and show us the evil and give us the power to avoid it." He did pray. “After a few weeks of holiday I went back to Saudi Arabia and there I got a dream and I knew that Jesus was the Son of God and the Saviour. But being a Muslim for 33 years this was difficult to accept. 

However, I decided to read the Bible and went to a website and downloaded the Bible. I found it to be powerful. While reading the New Testament I realized that some references of "it is written" was there and it matched with the Old Testament and it was talking about  the coming of Jesus Christ. I read the Bible for about eight to nine years.  

It is beautiful and I never wanted to leave it,” he says. Dr Khalid who is from Saudi Arabia, Jeddah had  memorized almost three quarters of the Quran and felt sad for Christians whom he  knew that they were good people but would be going to hell, as the Koran and his school taught him that. “After I came to know Jesus as my Saviour, the Holy Spirit  showed to me while reading about the crucifixion in the New Testament that Jesus had died for my sins, though I should have perished,” he says. Dr Khalid’s wish is that every Muslim realizes the great truth that Jesus died for the sins of mankind and that He is the only way to heaven. 

After he turned to Jesus, Dr Khaled’s heart beat for the Lord. He is one of the hosts of a programme on Al Hayat TV  and ministers the word in the Hejazi dialect. He also prays for Saudi Arabia

An Egyptian Islamic Imam Professor Rejects Islam And Says Jesus Is Lord

The Story of M A Gabriel and his Indian connection
The former professor of Islamic history at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt


Disillusioned at Al-Azhar

Fifteen years ago I was the imam of a mosque in the city of Giza, Egypt, which is where the famous Egyptian pyramids are located. (Imam of a mosque is a position similar to pastor of a Christian church.) I preached the message of the week on Fridays from 12 to 1 in the afternoon, as well as performed other duties.

One Friday the topic of my message was jihad. I told the two hundred fifty people seated on the ground before me: Jihad in Islam is defending the Islamic nation and Islam against the attacks of the enemies. Islam is a religion of peace and only will fight against one who fights it. These infidels, heathens, perverts, Christians and Allah’s grievers, the Jews, out of envy of peaceful Islam and its prophet—they spread the myth that Islam is promulgated by the sword and violence. These infidels, the accusers of Islam, do not acknowledge Allah’s words. At this point I quoted from the Quran: And do not kill anyone whose killing Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause. —Surah 17:33, The Noble Quran When I spoke these words, I was just freshly graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt —the oldest and most prestigious Islamic university in the world. It serves as the spiritual authority for Islam worldwide. I was teaching at the university, and I was an imam on the weekend at this mosque.

I preached my sermon on jihad that day according to the philosophy of the Egyptian government. Al-Azhar University focused us on the politically correct Islam and purposely overlooked areas of teaching that conflicted with the authority of Egypt . I was preaching what they taught me, but inside I was confused about the truth of Islam. But if I wanted to keep my job and my status at Al-Azhar, I needed to keep my thoughts to myself. After all, I knew what happened to people who differed from Al-Azhar’s agenda. They would be fired and would not be accepted to teach at any other university in the nation.

However, I knew that what I was teaching at the mosque and at Al-Azhar was not what I’d seen in the Quran, which I had memorized in its entirety by the age of twelve. What confused me the most was that I was told to preach about an Islam of love, kindness and forgiveness. At the same time, Muslim fundamentalists—the ones who were supposed to be practicing true Islam—were bombing churches and killing Christians.

At this time the jihad movement was very active in Egypt. Reports of bombings and attacks against Christians were common. It was such apart of everyday life that one time I heard a bomb go off at a church as I was riding the bus. I looked and saw a plume of smoke rising up a quarter mile away.

I had been raised in a family that was well established in Islam, and I had studied Islamic history. I was not involved in any radical groups. But one of my Muslim friends was a member of an Islamic group that was actively slaughtering Christians. Ironically, he was a chemistry student and had only recently become serious about his faith. Nevertheless, he was active in jihad. One day I asked him, “Why are you killing our neighbors and countrymen whom we grew up with?”

He was angry and astonished at my challenge. “Out of all Muslims you should know. The Christians did not accept the call of Islam, and they are not willing to pay us the jizyah (tax) to have the right to practice their beliefs. Therefore, the only option they have is the sword of Islamic law.”



Seeking the Truth

My conversations with him drove me to pour over the Quran and the books of the Islamic law, hoping to find something to contradict what he said. I couldn’t change the reality of what I read. As a Muslim, I realized I had two options:

I could continue to embrace the “Christianized” Islam—the Islam of peace, love, forgiveness and compassion, the Islam tailor-made to fit Egyptian government, politics and culture—thereby keeping my job and status.

I could become a member of the Islamic movement and embrace Islam according to the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Muhammad said, “I left you with something [the Quran]. If you hold on to what I left with you, you will not be led astray forever.”

Many times I tried to rationalize the kind of Islam I was practicing by saying to myself, well, you are not too far out. After all, there are verses in the Quran about love, peace, forgiveness and compassion. You only need to ignore the part about jihad and the killing of the non-Muslims. I went to every interpretation of the Quran trying to avoid jihad and killing non-Muslims, yet I kept finding support of the practice. The scholars agreed that Muslims should enforce jihad on infidels (those who reject Islam) and renegades (those who leave Islam). Yet jihad was not in harmony with other verses that spoke of living at peace with others. All the contradictions in the Quran were really causing a problem for my faith. I spent four years to earn my bachelor’s degree, graduating second out of a class of six thousand. Then there was another four years for my master’s and three more for my doctorate—all studying Islam. I knew the teachings well.

In one place alcohol was forbidden; in another it was allowed (compare Surah 5:90–91 with Surah 47:15). In one place it says Christians are very good people who love and worship one God, so you may be friends with them (Surah 2:62, 3:113–114). Then you find other verses that say Christians must convert, pay tax or be killed by the sword (Surah 9:29 ). The scholars had theological solutions to these problems, but I wondered how Allah, almighty and all powerful, could either contradict himself so much or change his mind so much.

Even the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, practiced his faith in ways that contradicted the Quran. The Quran said Muhammad was sent to show the mercy of God to the world. But he became a military dictator, attacking, killing and taking plunder to finance his empire. How is that showing mercy? Allah, the god revealed in the Quran, is not a loving father. It says that he desires to lead people astray (Surah 6:39 , 126). He does not help those who are led astray by him (Surah 30:29) and desires to use them to populate hell (Surah 32:13).

Islam is full of discrimination—against women, against non-Muslims, against Christians and most especially against Jews. Hatred is built in to the religion.

The history of Islam, which was my special area of study, could only be characterized as a river of blood.



Dangerous Questions

Finally, I reached the point where I was questioning the faith and the Quran with my students at the university. Some of them were members of terrorist movements, and they were enraged: “You can’t accuse Islam. What has happened to you? You have to teach us. You have to agree to Islam.” The university heard about it, and I was called in for a meeting in December 1991. To summarize the meeting, I told them what was in my heart: “I can no longer say that the Quran comes directly from heaven or from Allah. This cannot be the revelation of the true God.”

These were very blasphemous words, in their opinion. They spat in my face. One man cursed me, “You blasphemer. You bastard.” The university fired me and called the Egyptian secret police. The Secret Police Kidnapped Me to understand what happened next; you need to have a picture of how my family lived. My father had a very large home that was three stories tall. My whole family lived together in this house—my parents, my four married brothers with their families, my unmarried brother and myself. Only my sister lived elsewhere because she was married and lived with her husband. The house was divided into many apartments, and we were very comfortable. On the first floor were my parents’ apartment and an apartment I shared with my brother. On the floors above us were apartments for my other brothers. At three o’clock in the morning on the very same day that the university kicked me out, my father heard knocking at the door of our house. When he opened the door, fifteen to twenty men rushed in carrying Russian Kalashnikov assault weapons. They were not wearing uniforms, just regular clothes. They ran upstairs and all through the house, waking people up and looking for me. I think so many men came in at once so that I couldn’t run away before they found me.

They were all over the house before one of them found me asleep in my bed. My parents, brothers, spouses and children were awake, weeping and terrified, as they dragged me away. Everybody in the area heard the commotion.

I was taken to a place that looked like a prison and was placed in a cell. In the morning my parents frantically tried to figure out what had happened to me. Right away they went to the police station and demanded, “Where is our son?” But nobody knew anything about me. I was in the hands of the Egyptian secret police.

The Egyptian Prison

Spending time with the Egyptian secret police is much different than a visit to an American prison. They put me in a cell with two radical Muslims accused of committing terrorist acts. One was Palestinian and the other Egyptian.

For three days I was given no food or water. Every day the Egyptian man asked me, “Why are you here?” I refused to answer because I was afraid he would kill me if he knew that I had questioned Islam. On the third day, I told him I was a teacher at Al-Azhar University and an imam in Giza . Immediately he gave me a plastic bottle of water and some falafel and pita that were brought to him by his visitors, but he told me that the police had warned him not to give me anything. On the fourth day, the interrogation began. For the next four days the goal of the secret police was to make me confess that I had left Islam and to explain how it happened.

The interrogation began in a room with a large desk. My interrogator sat behind the desk, and I sat on the other side. Behind me were two or three police officers.

They were sure that I had been evangelized and converted to Christianity, so the interrogator kept badgering me, “What pastor did you talk to? What church have you been visiting? Why have you betrayed Islam?” He asked many questions. One time I hesitated too long when I answered. He nodded to the men behind me. They grabbed my hand and held it down on the desk. My interrogator held a lit cigarette. He reached over and extinguished it into the top of my hand. I still have this scar. I also have the scar on my lip where he did the same thing. Sometimes he used the cigarettes when he got angry; other times the officers just hit me across my face.

As my interrogation continued, the pressure grew stronger. One time they brought a fire poker into the room (the iron rod that you use to move burning wood in a fire). I wondered, what is that for? The next time the interrogator wanted to make his point, I found out. The poker was red hot, and one officer pressed it into the flesh of my left arm.

They wanted me to confess that I had been converted, but I said, “I didn’t betray Islam. I just said what I believe. I am an academic person. I am a thinker. I have a right to discuss any subject of Islam. This is part of my job and part of any academic life. I could not even dream of converting from Islam—it is my blood, my culture, my language, my family, my life. But if you accuse me of converting from Islam for what I say to you, then take me out of Islam. I don’t mind to be out of Islam.”



The Whip

My answer was not what they wanted to hear. I was taken to a room with a steel bed in it. They tied my feet to the foot of the bed and then put heavy stockings on them, almost like oven mitts.

One officer had a black whip, about four feet long, and he began whipping my feet. Another officer sat down next to me at the head of the bed with a pillow in his hands. When I cried out, he pushed the pillow into my face until I was quiet. I could not stop crying out, so a second officer came to put an extra pillow over my face.

As I was beaten I went unconscious, but when I woke up the officer was still whipping my feet. Then he stopped and they untied me, and one officer commanded, “Stand up.” I couldn’t at first, but he took the whip and beat my back until I stood.

Then he showed me a long passageway and said, “Run.” Again, when I couldn’t do it, he whipped my back until I ran down the passageway. When I got to the end, there was another officer waiting for me. He whipped me until I ran back to where I came from. They made me run back and forth. Later, I learned why they did that. The running was so that my feet wouldn’t swell. The stockings were so I wouldn’t have marks on my feet from the whipping. I assume the pillows were so nobody could hear my cries. Next I was taken to something that looked like a small, aboveground swimming pool. It was filled with ice-cold water. The officer with the whip said, “Get in,” so I got in. It was so cold that I tried to get out, but he whipped me every time I made a move.

I have low blood sugar, and it wasn’t very long before I passed out from the cold. When I woke up I was lying on my back in the bed where they whipped my feet, still in my wet clothes.


A Night in the Dark

One evening I was taken outside behind the building. I saw what looked like a small, concrete room with no windows or doors. The only opening was a skylight on the roof. They made me climb a ladder to the top and demanded, “Get in.” When I sat on the edge and put my feet down in the opening, I felt water. I could also see there was something swimming on the top of the water. This is my grave, I thought. They are going to kill me today. I slid down into the opening and felt the water rise up over my body, but then to my surprise I felt solid ground under my feet. The water only came up to my shoulders. Then rats, which were what I saw swimming in the water, started crawling all over my head and face. These rats had not been fed for a very long time. My interrogators were being clever. “This guy is a Muslim thinker,” they said, “so we will have the rats eat his head.” I was very scared for the first minute after they closed the skylight. They left me there all night and then came back the next morning to see if I were alive. When the skylight opened and I saw the sunlight, it was hope for me that I had survived and was still alive.

All that night not one rat bit me. They climbed all over my head and in my hair and played with my ears. One rat stood on my shoulders. I felt their mouths against my face, but it almost felt like kisses. I never felt a tooth. The rats were utterly faithful to me. Even today when I see a rat, I have a feeling of respect. I cannot explain why the rats behaved this way. Meeting with a Dear Friend The interrogation was not over. Later the officers took me to the door of a small room and said, “There is someone who loves you very much who wants to meet with you.” I asked, “Who is this?” I was hoping it was one of my family members or a friend to visit me or get me out of prison. They said, “You don’t know him, but he knows you.” They opened the door to the room, and inside I saw a big dog. There was nothing else in the room. Two people took me inside and then left me and shut the door. This was the first time my heart cried out. In my heart I cried to my Creator, You are my father, my God.You are to look after me. How can you leave me in these evil hands? I don’t know what these people are trying to do to me, but I know you will be with me and one day I will see you and meet you.

I walked to the middle of the empty room and slowly sat down cross-legged on the floor. The dog came and sat down in front of me. Minutes went by as this dog looked me over. I watched his eyes move from top to bottom over and over again. I went in my heart to prayer to the God I did not yet know. The dog got up and started walking in circles around me, liken animal about to eat something. Then he came to my right side and licked year with his tongue. He sat down by my right side and just stayed there. I was so exhausted. After he just sat there for a while, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the dog was in the corner of the room. He ran to me, as if to say good morning. Then he licked my right ear again and sat down again at my right side.

When the officers opened the door they saw me praying with the dog sitting next to me. I heard one say, “I can’t believe this man is a human being. This man is a devil—he’s Satan.” The other replied, “I don’t believe that. There is unseen power standing behind this man and protecting him.” “Which power? This man is an infidel. It’s got to be Satan because this man is against Allah.”

Someone watching over me they took me back to my cell. While I was gone, my Egyptian cellmate had asked the police, “Why are you persecuting this man?” They told him, “Because he is denying Islam.” That made my cellmate furious. As soon as I got back in the cell, he was ready to kill me. But I had only been in there fifteen to twenty minutes when a police officer came with transfer papers for this man and took him away. I had to ask myself, What is going on here? What power is protecting me? At that time, I did not know the answer. I did not spend much time wondering about it. In a short while my own transfer papers came through. I was to be taken to a permanent prison in southern Cairo . At this point I did not think that my interrogators were even human. I had been arrested for merely questioning Islam. Now my faith was really shaken. And I was on my way to another prison.

The next week I spent in a prison in southern Cairo . It was relatively relaxed time. God sent me a prison guard who did not agree with radical Islam. All during this time my family was trying to find out where I was. They had no success until my mother’s brother, who was a high-ranking member of the Egyptian Parliament, returned to the country after traveling overseas. My mother called him, sobbing, “For two weeks we have not known where our son is. He is gone.” My uncle had the connections that were needed. Fifteen days after I was kidnapped, he came to the prison personally with the release papers and took me home.

Later, the police gave my father this report: We have received a fax from Al-Azhar University accusing your son of leaving Islam, but after an interrogation of fifteen days, we found no evidence to support it. My father was relieved to hear this. Out of all my brothers and sisters, I was the only one who had studied Islam at the university, and he was very proud of me. He could not even imagine I would ever leave Islam, so he attributed the whole incident to a bad attitude toward my scholarship on the part of the people at the university.

“We don’t need them,” he said, and he asked me to start work immediately as a sales director for his factory. He owned a successful business that produced leather jackets and men’s and women’s clothing.

A Year without Faith

For one year I lived without any faith. I had no God to pray to, to call to, to live for. I believed in the existence of a God who was merciful and righteous, but I had no idea who He was. Was He the God of the Muslims, the Christians or the Jews? Or was He some animal—like the cow of the Hindus? I had no knowledge of how to find Him.

You have to understand that if a Muslim comes to the conclusion that Islam is not the truth and he has no religion to turn to, it is the most difficult time in his life. Faith is in the fabric of the life of a Middle Eastern person. He cannot imagine how to live without knowing his God. During this whole year, my physical body expressed the pain that was in my spirit. Though I had every material thing I needed, I was plagued with a deep tiredness from constantly trying to use my mind to figure out the identity of the true God. I suffered constantly from headaches. I went to a doctor who was a relative of the family. He did a scan of my brain, but heeded not find anything wrong. He prescribed some tablets that helped.



The Sermon on the Mount

I ended up visiting a nearby pharmacy one or two times a week for packets of tablets, getting a small number of tablets each time, hoping the headaches would just go away for good. After I had been coming for a while, the pharmacist asked me, “What is going on in your life?” I told her, “Nothing is going on. I have no complaint except for one thing: I am living without God. I don’t know who is my God, who created me and created the universe.”

She said, “But you were a professor at the most respected Islamic university in Egypt . Your family is very respected in the community.” “That is true,” I replied, “but I have discovered falsehoods in their teachings. I no longer believe my home and family are built on a foundation of truth. I had always clothed myself in the lies of Islam. Now I feel Unclad. How can I fill the emptiness in my heart? Please help me. ” “OK,” she said. “Today I will give you these tablets, and I will give you this book—the Bible. But please promise me not to take any tablets before you read something from this book.” I took the book home and opened it at random. My eyes fell on Matthew 5:38: You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.” But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

My whole body began trembling. I had studied the Quran my whole life—not once did I find words as inspiring as this. I had come face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I lost all track of time. It felt as if I were sitting on a cloud above a hill, and in front of me was the greatest teacher in the universe telling me about the secrets of heaven and the heart of God. I could easily compare the Bible to what I had learned from my years of studying the Quran, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was finally encountering the true God. I was still reading in the early hours of the next day, and by dawn I gave my heart to Jesus.

Ambushed I only told the pharmacist and his wife that I had accepted Jesus, but in Egypt, if anyone left Islam, it was automatically assumed that he had become a Christian and therefore must be killed. Because of this, fundamentalists sent two men to ambush me and kill me. It happened when I was walking home from visiting a friend. It was only a fifteen- or twenty-minute walk through Giza . I was on Tersae Street , near my home, when I saw two men standing in front of a grocery shop. They we redressed traditionally with the long, white robes, long beards and head coverings. I thought they were just customers. I never imagined they would do anything to me.

When I reached the shop, they stopped me, and then suddenly both pulled out knives and began trying to stab me. I had no weapon, and because it was a hot day, I was just wearing a T-shirt and pants. I put up my hands to protect myself. Again and again the blades struck me and cut my wrists. There were other people on the street, but no one helped me. They just gathered to watch. This was typical for those years. People would intervene if it was just a fistfight, but they wouldn’t get involved with knives. They also didn’t want to be in the way if someone pulled a gun. The first attacker was trying to stab my heart. He almost did it, but I moved. He missed by about five inches and got me in the shoulder instead. When he pulled the knife out, I remember looking down and seeing the blood come out in a stream.

I fell to the ground and just curled up in a little ball, trying to protect myself. Then the other attacker tried to stab me in the stomach, but the blade turned, and he stabbed me in the shin instead. By this time I had lost so much blood that I passed out. There was no hope for me until two police officers arrived on motorcycles and my attackers ran away. I was taken to the hospital and treated. In the hospital, the police asked if I knew why I was attacked. I said I did not. Again, my father rejected any evidence that I was abandoning Islam. He just could not think in those terms.

My Father Learns the Truth I continued to work for my father and did not speak of my new faith. In fact, he sent me to South Africa in 1994 to explore business opportunities for him. While there, I spent three days with a Christian family from India .When we parted, they gave me a small cross on a necklace to wear. This small cross marked the turning point in my life. After a little more than a week, my father noticed the chain on my neck and became very upset because, according to Islamic culture, only women are allowed to wear jewelry around their necks. “Why do you wear this chain?” he demanded.

It seemed as if my tongue spoke on its own as I replied,” Father, this is not a chain. This is a cross. It represents Jesus, who died on a cross like this for me, for you and for everybody in the whole world. I received Jesus as my God and Savior, and I pray for you and for the rest of my family to also accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.”

First, my father fainted right there in the street. Some of my brothers rushed out to him, and my mother started crying in fear. I stayed with them as they bathed my father’s face with water. When he came to, he was so upset he could hardly speak, but he pointed at me. In a voice hoarse with rage he cried out, “Your brother is a convert. I must kill him today!”

Wherever he went, my father carried a gun under his arm on a leather strap. (Most wealthy people in Egypt carry guns.) He pulled out his gun and pointed it at me. I started running down the street, and as I dived around a corner, I heard the bullets whining past me. I kept running for my life. Leaving My Home Forever I ran to my sister’s house, which was about half a mile away. I asked her to help me get my passport, clothes and other documents from my father’s house. She wanted to know what was wrong, and I told her, “Father wants to kill me.” She wanted to know why, and I said, “I don’t know. You must ask Father.”

When I ran away, my father knew exactly where I was headed because my sister and I were very close, and her house was nearby. My father had walked to my sister’s house, and he arrived while she and I were talking. He banged on the door, crying with tears streaming down his face, “My daughter, please open the door.” Then he shouted, “Your brother is a convert! He has left the Islamic faith. I must kill him now!”

My sister opened the door and tried to calm him down. “Father, he is not here. Maybe he went to another place. Why don’t you go home and relax, and later we can talk about this as a family.” My sister had mercy on me and gathered my things from my parents’ house. She and my mother gave me some money, and I got in my car and drove away on the evening of August 28, 1994.

For three months I struggled to travel through Northern Egypt, Libya, Chad and Cameroon. I finally stopped in the Congo. At that point I had malaria. They found an Egyptian doctor to examine me. He said that I would be dead by morning, and they made arrangements to get a coffin from Congo ’s Egyptian embassy to send me back home.

To their shock, I woke up the next morning. I left the hospital after five days and started to tell people everywhere about what Jesus did for me. Life as a Follower of Jesus Ten years have gone by since I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. He called me and gave me a personal relationship with Him—something that Islam never offered.

I have never stopped crying for my Muslim people, whom I left behind, asking the Lord to deliver them from the darkness of Islam. As you read the pages of this book, you will come to understand how great this darkness is. It is the teachings of Islam that have produced terrorists who seem capable of any kind of evil in the name of Allah. Now the whole world wants to understand what Islam teaches. A great amount of misinformation has been shared in the media and on the Internet. My goal is to help you see plainly why these people do what they do. I don’t want to motivate you to anger, however. I want to motivate you to believe—to believe for the fall of Islam and the release of its captives, in Jesus’ name.

Muslim Imam accepts Jesus Christ after studying the Koran

In the 14-minute video shown below, Mario Joseph, a former Muslim Imam shares how he became a believer in Jesus Christ by reading the Koran.

Mario was born into a Muslim family and raised as a devoted Muslim, eventually becoming an Imam. One day while he was teaching in the mosque, one of his students asked, “Who is Jesus?”

Mario did not have a good answer, so he read the entire Koran once again, all 6,666 verses, to find what it says about Jesus. He found in chapter 3:45-55 the Koran identifies Jesus as the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the Messiah, the Christ, born to a virgin named Mary, conceived in her womb by the decree, the spoken word of God. In addition, it says Jesus created a bird from the dust, healed the blind and the leprous, raised the dead, was put to death by the will of God, was then resurrected from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return. Verse 3:55 says God (Allah) will cause those who follow Jesus to be above those who do not believe in Him.

Based on the Koran, Mario compared Jesus with Muhammad and realized these facts:

• It says Jesus was the Word of God, but it never says Muhammad was the Word of God.
• It says Jesus was the Spirit of God, but it never says Muhammad was the Spirit of God.
• It says Jesus had power to create life from dust, but it never says Muhammad did anything like that.
• It says Jesus performed miracles of healing, but it never says Muhammad did any miracles.
• It says Jesus was raised from the dead and is now alive, but it never says Muhammad was raised from the dead. He still remains in his grave.
• It says Jesus ascended into heaven, but it never reveals Muhammad’s eternal fate, so Muslims cannot be sure whether or not he made it to heaven.
• It says Jesus will return, but it never says Muhammad will return.
• The Koran only mentions Muhammad 4 times, but it mentions Jesus 25 times.
• The Koran never mentions Muhammad’s mother’s name or the name of any other woman, except Mary, the mother of Jesus.

So, Mario concluded Jesus Christ is greater than Muhammad and became a follower of Jesus. The complete passage from the Koran is shown here.

[3.45] When the angels said: O Marium (Mary), surely Allah gives you good news with a Word from Him (of one) whose name is the ‘Messiah (Christ), Isa (Jesus) son of Marium (Mary), worthy of regard in this world and the hereafter and of those who are made near (to Allah).
[3.46] And he shall speak to the people when in the cradle and when of old age, and (he shall be) one of the good ones.
[3.47] She said: My Lord! When shall there be a son (born) to me, and man has not touched me? He said: Even so, Allah creates what He pleases; when He has decreed a matter, He only says to it, Be, and it is.
[3.48] And He will teach him the Book and the wisdom and the Tavrat and the Injeel (the Bible).
[3.49] And (make him) an apostle to the children of Israel: That I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I determine for you out of dust like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with Allah’s permission and I heal the blind and the leprous, and bring the dead to life with Allah’s permission and I inform you of what you should eat and what you should store in your houses; most surely there is a sign in this for you, if you are believers.
[3.50] And a verifier of that which is before me of the Torah and that I may allow you part of that which has been forbidden to you, and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. Therefore be careful of (your duty to) Allah and obey me.
[3.51] Surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord, therefore serve Him; this is the right path.
[3.52] But when Isa (Jesus) perceived unbelief on their part, he said, “Who will be my helpers in Allah’s way?” The disciples said: We are helpers (in the way) of Allah: We believe in Allah and bear witness that we are submitting ones (Muslims).
[3.53] Our Lord! we believe in what Thou hast revealed and we follow the apostle, so write us down with those who bear witness.
[3.54] And they planned and Allah (also) planned, and Allah is the best of planners.
[3.55] And when Allah said: O Isa (Jesus), I am going to terminate the period of your stay (on earth) and cause you to ascend unto Me and purify you of those who disbelieve and make those who follow you above those who disbelieve to the day of resurrection; then to Me shall be your return, so I will decide between you concerning that in which you differed. (Koran 3:45-55)

After he became a Christian, Mario was severely persecuted by his own family. His father tried to murder him, but Jesus delivered him. He shares his amazing story in this video.

Author: James Bailey

James Bailey is an author, business owner, husband and father of two children. His vision is to broadcast the good news of Jesus Christ through blog sites and other media outlets.

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(VIDEO) Virginia Imam Says Genital Mutilation Of Little Girls Can Help Tame Their Sexuality

Virginia imam is advocating for female genital mutilation, or FGM, despite the fact that the practice is illegal in the United States. Imam Shaker Elsayed of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, appears to believe that abusing women under the guise of religious purity codes is morally virtuous. Mutilating a little girl’s genitals today can prevent “hypersexuality” in the future, says Imam Elsayed in a sermon to parishioners. After suggesting that the more extreme forms of mutilation may need to be avoided, the imam lectures his parishioners about seeking guidance from Muslim gynecologists familiar with the illegal procedure.

FGM is “the honorable thing to do if needed,” he preaches, detailing the supposed virtues of the horrifying practice. Imam Elsayed explains: [Cut] the tip of the sexually sensitive part of the girl so that she is not hypersexually active…in societies where circumcision of girls is completely prohibited, hypersexuality takes over the entire society and a woman is not satisfied with one person or two or three. The depraved talk was posted on YouTube and caught the attention of MEMRI, a watchdog group that monitors Islamist rhetoric around the world.

Watch:

“Elsayed’s comments during a lecture on child rearing and family life last month sparked a brief controversy last Friday after a right-wing watchdog group circulated a video clip of his speech online,” reports The Washington Post. The Board of Directors at the imam’s mosque only condemned their religious leader’s comments Monday after the public began voicing outrage over the leaked video. Representatives of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center added that the brutal practice of FGM violates both U.S. and Islamic law. However, the mosque failed to acknowledge that FGM is not all that uncommon in the Islamic world. “FGM is practiced throughout the world, with an estimated 200 million women and girls having undergone genital cutting as a coming-of-age ritual, typically under age 15,” notes NPR.

Shockingly, FGM is practiced with increasing frequency in the United States. The high-profile arrests of three FGM-practicing Muslim doctors in Michigan recently introduced the topic back into the national conversation after complacency and naiveté fooled Americans into believing that such a horrific practice can only occur in third-world countries. Cases of FGM in America have been skyrocketing, largely as a result immigration from FGM-practicing Muslim-majority countries like Somalia.