Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe says only God will remove him from office

24/06 Michael Ireland for Assist News | Since the elections in Zimbabawe on March 29, 2008, more than 80 people have been murdered, including opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders and other supporters, by Mugabe's ZANU PF.

And the country's embattled, but defiant, President, Robert Mugabe, has said that "Only God will remove me."

Sichuan Church faces Government persecution: 20 arrested, 7 detained, 2 sentenced to Education through Labor

24/06 Michael Ireland for Assist News | As more than 50 house church members gathered at a residence on Bei Street, Qujiang Township, Qu County of Sichuan Province, they were raided by more than 20 Public Security Bureau officials, Homeland Security Defense Brigade, the local police station, Office for Religious Affairs and cadres from neighborhood committees.

... According to CAA, the house church members were accused of "engaging in cult activities through an illegal gathering." Seven women were immediately taken away, while officials confiscated Bibles, books and other objects.
Among the people taken away, Zhou Yanying, Zhang Mingxiu, and Yan Zelie were sentenced to five days of administrative detention; Luo Qinghua was acquitted after a detention of 17 days; Wang Qingxiu, the head of the church, was accused of "undermining the implementation of the state law and regulations by utilizing a cult organization" and was sentenced to one year of education through labor on April 29.

Obama accused of 'dragging biblical understanding through gutter'

24/06 American Family Association | As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

... "Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which biblical passages should guide public policy -- chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is okay and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said.

 Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament. "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said. Added Minnery: "... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama's argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion's terms but in arguments accessible to all people. He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality," labeling it "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."

"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

CANADIAN TRIBUNAL INSTRUCTS PASTOR TO RENOUCE HIS BELIEFS

24/06 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | A Canadian human rights tribunal has ordered a Christian pastor to never again express moral opposition to homosexuality. In its decision, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal banned evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered him to pay $5,000 damages "for pain and suffering" as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt.

Boisson wrote a letter to the editor of his local Red Deer, Alberta, newspaper in 2002 denouncing the advance of homosexual activism as "wicked" and stating: "Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights." While agreeing that Boisson's letter was not a criminal act, the government tribunal nevertheless ordered the Christian pastor to stop expressing his opinion.

In part the wording of the judgement read, "Mr. Boisson and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall in future cease publishing in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, disparaging remarks about homosexuals. All disparaging remarks against homosexuals are directed to be removed from current Web sites and publications of Mr. Boisson and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc.,"

Author and lawyer Ezra Levant said "Other than in Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China, where is this Orwellian 'order' considered to be justice? This is like a Third World jail-house confession - where accused criminals are forced to sign false statements of guilt. In essence, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal is ordering the minister to renounce his Christian faith, since his opposition to homosexuality is based upon the Judeo-Christian Bible,".

JEWS ACROSS ISRAEL GATHER TO REPENT AND PRAY

21/06 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | Jews in 40 cities and towns across Israel have been holding prayer and repentance services in response to growing military threats against them.

According to Israel National News, "Historically and traditionally, whenever the Jewish people have been threatened, they have responded with an outpouring of prayer and repentance."
The Patriarch Jacob, Moses, and the nation as a whole several times during the period of the Judges, Mordechai and Esther - are just some of the many examples of Jewish prayer under tribulation.  Jewish Law clearly stipulates that when great dangers hover over the community, the people must gather in the public square with sackcloth and ashes, pray, repent of their bad deeds, and together cry out for Divine mercy.

The prayer services reportedly took place in: Jerusalem, Ofakim, Nof Ayalon, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tel Tzion, Be'er Sheva, Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Bat Yam, Afula, Petach Tikvah, Givatayim, Nesher, Tel Aviv and some 20 other cities and locations on both sides of the Green Line.

NETANYAHU DECLARES CHRISTIANS THE BEST FRIENDS OF ISRAEL

21/06 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu has publicly declared that Israel "has no better friends in the world" than Christians who love and support Israel. "This is a friendship of the heart, a friendship of common roots, and a friendship of common civilization," he told a conference in Jerusalem, organized by Christians United for Israel.

At the same Conference Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin described the burgeoning ties between Israel and the evangelical Christian world "one of the most important things," after close to 2,000 years of enmity and persecution. He said the increasingly close relationship between Christians and Jews was "one of the miracles of the 20th century."

USA: State lets Islamic school operate

13/06 Washington Times | State Department officials said Thursday they have no plans to close a Saudi-financed Islamic school in Northern Virginia that has failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in textbooks. "They told us they would revise the textbooks by the 2008 school year," State Department spokesman Rob McInturff said. "We don't plan to take additional action apart from the discussions that have been going on with the Saudi government."

Results released Wednesday from a federal investigation into the Islamic Saudi Academy - with campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax - found textbooks at the 900-student private school had passages that blame the Jews for "discord" and say it is sometimes permissible to kill non-Muslims. The investigation by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom focused on 17 textbooks used during the last school year and obtained from independent sources.

... The passages found in the review, according to the panel, include:

c A passage in a 12th-grade Koranic interpretation textbook that states it is permissible for a Muslim to kill those who have left the faith, an adulterer or someone who has murdered a Muslim intentionally: "He (praised is He) prohibits killing the soul that God has forbidden (to kill) unless for just cause ...."

The commission said the text defines "just cause" as "unbelief after belief, adultery and killing an inviolable believer intentionally."

... This is not the first time the school has been involved in controversy. In 2002, Mohammed Osman Idris and Mohammed El-Yacubi, both alumni, were denied entry to Israel over concerns about their ties to a potential suicide bombing.

In 2005, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the academy's 1999 valedictorian, was indicted on charges of providing material support to terrorists, bringing national attention to the school and prompting Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to ask if the school was just "another madrassa," or fundamental Islamic school.

The alumnus was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted on charges that included plotting to assassinate President Bush.

UK: The “Now I’ve Heard Everything” Feature.

13/06 Chesler Chronicles | "... Just the other day, the British government gave a $70,000.00 grant to a Muslim hate site (Muslimyouth.net) in which suicide bombings and the beheadings of Daniel Pearl and Ken Bigley are praised.
See HERE. This grant was awarded only weeks before the anniversary of the London 7/7/05 bombings by Islamists."

"..a recent United Nations Human Rights Council recently argued that Britain should abolish its monarchy. See HERE Oddly enough, this august body has 29 members including Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sri Lanka. What–and no discussion of abolishing the Saudi monarchy?

According to the Telegraph, the UN report was also critical of the UK’s treatment of immigrants from Sudan.” What? No critique of the ethnic Arab Muslim genocide and gender cleansing of black African Sudanese? Well, of course not.

Finally, “Syrian representatives accused the UK of discriminating against Muslims and Iran complained about the UK’s record on tackling sexual discrimination.”

Sudan's Islamic Terror

12/06 FrontPage Magazine | “Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, briefed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in an open meeting June 5 about his investigation regarding Darfur. He spoke of massive atrocities being committed there and warned, “The entire Darfur region is a crime scene.” The Brazilian lawyer said that the Government of Sudan is not cooperating in the arrest and surrender of the two suspects the Court has indicted, Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb. He asked the Security Council to make it clear that the two fugitives, and those who protect them, will not receive leniency from the international community. But there is no “international community.” The UNSC is composed of individual countries with their own interests to pursue, which leaves them divided on issues like Sudan....”

"... These militiamen are primarily members of nomadic Arab tribes who have long been at odds with Darfur's darker-skinned African farmers. According to the Prosecutor's evidence, the militias assaulted the civilian population, committing mass rapes, killings, torture, looting of residences and shops, and the displacement of the resident community ... This conflict in Western Sudan is separate from, but similar to, the 22-year-old civil war that has pitted the Islamic regime against Christian and animist rebels in Southern Sudan. Black Africans make up 52 percent of the Sudanese population, with Arabs accounting for 39 percent. Sudan’s official language is Arabic. Many of the Africans are Sunni Muslims like the Arabs, but race is as important as religion in the civil war. The use of irregular forces to suppress uprisings has been a common tactic in Islamic military history, one that has always produced horrendous crimes against civilians. It is truly the practice of state terrorism.."

Tony Blair launches foundation to unite religions in global action

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, calling faith a possible "civilising force in globalisation," has pledged to dedicate the rest of his life to uniting the world's religions as his "faith foundation" launched in New York on Friday.

Time magazine reports that the Tony Blair Faith Foundation will attempt to foster cooperation among religions to address global issues, such as those listed in the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals. The goals include eradicating extreme poverty and securing environmental sustainability.

Combating the spread of malaria will be among foundation's first priorities.

"If you got churches and mosques and those of the Jewish faith working together to provide the bed nets that are necessary to eliminate malaria, what a fantastic thing that would be," Blair said. "That would show faith in action, it would show the importance of cooperation between faiths, and it would show what faith can do for progress."

Abortion Supervisory Committee criticised by High Court

A telling judgement from the High Court was delivered this week, finding that the Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) has "misinterpreted its functions and powers under the abortion law," and that "there is reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions" in New Zealand.

The ASC was established to oversee abortions in New Zealand, to "review all the provisions of the abortion law, and the operation and effect of those provisions in practice." Right to Life, a pro-life charity, has taken the ASC to Court alleging they have been failing to fulfil their duties and to ensure the law is being interpreted as intended. Under New Zealand law an abortion is illegal unless it takes place with the authorisation of two certifying consultants, who have a limited number of grounds on which to grant approval. The most commonly cited ground is that the pregnancy would result in a serious risk to the mental health of the mother. In 2006 17,732 abortions, 98.9 percent of all abortions, were performed on this ground.

Justice Miller, the Judge hearing the case, agreed that at the moment in New Zealand we seem to effectively have abortion on demand, with figures showing that some certifying consultants decline very few or no abortions whatsoever. Justice Miller found that the ASC were wrong in their interpretation of the law that they had no power to "review or scrutinise" decisions made by consultants, and that this is in fact one of their functions. While Right to Life's argument that an unborn child should have a legal right to life was not upheld, Justice Miller held that our abortion laws show that "the unborn child has a claim on the conscience of the community."

Although this judgement shows that our abortion laws are being abused, and that practice is being inadequately supervised, Justice Miller has not required the ASC to take any particular action, but is still deciding whether he will make a declaration on the situation. It is shameful that there is such flagrant disregard for the law, especially one that impacts—and ends—the lives of so many of our citizens.

• Read Justice Miller's judgement

UK: Christians 'told not to preach'

02/06 BBC.Co.UK | Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham, a pastor at Grace Bible Fellowship Church, in Saltley, Birmingham, had been distributing leaflets in nearby Alum Rock on 19 February when the police support officer (PCSO) intervened. They claimed he warned them to leave the area, saying: "If you come back here and get beat up, well you have been warned." Mr Cunningham and Mr Abraham then agreed to leave. The men, backed by the Christian Institute, have complained to the force, saying their human rights were infringed.