Tag Archives: hits

Indonesia: Air Force Plane Hits Housing Complex

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  1. Indonesia air force plane crashes in Jakarta

    selenatom1

    Thu, Jun 21 2012 05:48:27

Latest Persecution News – 15 June 2012

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Suicide Bombing Hits Another Church in Jos, Nigeria

The following article reports on the latest news of persecution in Nigeria, where Boko Haram has continued its attacks against Christian churches.

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/nigeria/article_1596552.html

 

The articles linked to above are by Compass Direct News and  relate to persecution of Christians around the world. Please keep in mind that the definition of ‘Christian’ used by Compass Direct News is inclusive of some that would not be included in a definition of Christian that I would use or would be used by other Reformed Christians. The articles do however present an indication of persecution being faced by Christians around the world.

Latest Persecution News – 19 March 2012

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Nuns Traumatized after School Attack in Egypt

The following article reports on an attack on two nuns in Aswan Province, Egypt, by Islamists.

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/egypt/article_1449790.html

 

Crackdown in Iran Hits Official Churches

The following article reports on the continuing persecution of Christians in Iran. Official churches are now being targeted as well.

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/iran/article_1450525.html

 

The articles linked to above are by Compass Direct News and  relate to persecution of Christians around the world. Please keep in mind that the definition of ‘Christian’ used by Compass Direct News is inclusive of some that would not be included in a definition of Christian that I would use or would be used by other Reformed Christians. The articles do however present an indication of persecution being faced by Christians around the world.

Second Wave of Deportations Hits Foreign Christians in Morocco

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Muslim hardliners pressure government; nationals fears they may be next victim of ‘purging.’

ISTANBUL, May 21 (CDN) — In a second wave of deportations from Morocco, officials of the majority-Muslim country have expelled 26 foreign Christians in the last 10 days without due process.

Following the expulsion of more than 40 foreign Christians in March, the deportations were apparently the result of Muslim hardliners pressuring the nation’s royalty to show Islamic solidarity.

The latest deportations bring the number of Christians who have had to leave Morocco to about 105 since early March. Christians and expert observers are calling this a calculated effort to purge the historically moderate country, known for its progressive policies, of all Christian elements – both foreign and national.

“I don’t see the end,” said Salim Sefiane, a Moroccan living abroad. “I see this as a ‘cleansing’ of Christians out of Morocco, and then I see this turning against the Moroccan church, which is already underground, and then persecution of Moroccan Christians, which is already taking place in recent days.”

At least two Moroccan Christians have been beaten in the last 10 days, sources told Compass, and police have brought other Moroccan Christians to police stations daily for psychologically “heavy” interrogations.

Authorities are enquiring about the activities of foreign and local Christians.

Forcibly Ejected

Legal sources said that according to Moroccan law, foreigners who have lived in the country for more than 10 years cannot be deported unless they are accused of a crime. They have the right to appeal the deportation order within 48 hours.

With only hours’ notice and forced escort to the country’s exit ports, almost none of the deportees were able to appeal their deportations.

“Most of these [deportations] are happening over the weekends, when the courts are closed,” Sefiane said. “Most of them are done in a way where they’re bringing them in [to the police station], intimidating them, and manhandling them out of the country. Many of them are not even going back to say goodbye to their wives, or even to pack a bag.”

With the exception of three foreigners, in none of the forced deportations did authorities produce an official deportation order, sources said. In many cases, Moroccan officials used embassies to notify foreigners that they were being deported. In most cases, foreigners were presented with a document in Arabic for them to sign that stated that they “understood” that they were being deported.

Compass learned of one case in which a foreigner was forced to the airport, and when he resisted he was forcibly drugged and sent to his native country.

“The expats in the country are very vulnerable, and the way it has happened has been against the laws of the country,” said a European Christian who was deported last week after nearly a decade of running his business in Morocco. “When I tried to walk away from the situation, I was physically stopped.”

The deported Christian said that authorities never informed any of the Christian foreigners of their rights, when in fact there are national laws protecting foreigners. 

“Basically they are trying to con everyone into leaving the country,” he said.

Deported foreigners have had to leave their families behind in Morocco, as well as their friends and communities. Many of the deportees were the male breadwinners of the family and have left their families behind as they try to decide their future.

“It’s devastating, because we have invested years of our lives into our community, business community and charity sectors,” said the European Christian. “People flooded to our house when they heard I was bundled into the back of a police car by the local authorities. It was like a death in the family – forcibly ejected from the country without being able to say goodbyes, just like that.”

The deportees have included Christians from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, New Zealand and Korea.

“It’s come out of left field,” said the European. “No one really knows why this is happening.”

Internal Pressure

A regional legal expert said on condition of anonymity that a small number of extremist Muslims have undertaken a media campaign to “get [Christians’] good works out of the public eye and demonize Christians,” in order to expel them and turn the nation against local Christians – some of whom are third-generation followers of Jesus.

“There are too many eyes and ears to what they want to do to the native Christians,” said the expert. “They’re trying to get to them …They want to shut down the native Moroccan Christians.”

Deportation orders are coming from the Ministry of Interior, and speculation on the reason for the sudden spike in expulsions has centered on the arrival of a new, hard-line Muslim interior director in January.

Moroccan officials have cited “proselytism” as the reason for the deportations. Reuters news agency reported Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Toufiq as saying “proselytism” and “activism of some foreigners” had “undermined public order.”

On April 12 local media reported that 7,000 religious Muslim leaders signed a document describing the work of Christians within Morocco as “moral rape” and “religious terrorism.” The statement from the religious leaders came amid a nationwide mudslinging campaign geared to vilify Christians in Morocco for “proselytism” – widely perceived as bribing people to change their faith.

Religious rights advocates point out that under Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the more than 100 foreigners who had lived in Morocco, some for decades, not only had the right to stay in the country but had contributed to the nation. 

“They expelled people who helped build up the country, trained people, educated Moroccan children, cared for orphans and widows, increased the GDP and trade,” said the regional legal expert. “These people they expelled weren’t even proselytizing under their own law. There’s an international standard, yet they changed the definition of the terminology and turned it into this horrible ‘religious terrorism.’”

One of the country’s most prestigious educational institutions, George Washington Academy in Casablanca, has come under fierce criticism from media and investigation by authorities.

“The biggest problem is the image the Ministry of Justice is pushing about who the Christian foreigners are,” said another observer on condition of anonymity. “All the articles have been extreme exaggerations of the manipulative aspect of what foreigners were doing, and especially when it comes to minors.”

Local Christians have reported to sources outside of Morocco that attitudes towards them, which used to be more tolerant, have also shifted as a result of the extremist-led campaign, and some are experiencing family and societal pressure and discrimination as well.

International Forces

While the deportations have perplexed the local Christian community, the regional legal expert said that in some ways this was calculated and inevitable.

He said that the Organization of the Islamic Conference had been putting pressure on countries across the Middle East and North Africa to remove their Christian elements. Iraq, with its decline in Christian population from a few million to a few hundred thousand over the last decade, is a case in point.

“Countries which have been more forward looking and spoken about rights, freedoms and equalities have been pressured to demonstrate their Muslim credentials, and the best way to do this is to sanitize [religious] minorities from the borders,” he said.

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, has called congressional hearings on June 17 to examine the human rights situation in Morocco in light of the expulsions. On Wednesday (May 19) Wolf called on the U.S. government to suspend $697.5 million in aid it has pledged to Morocco based on criteria that it is “ruling justly.”

“We’ve been told the Christians are a threat to the national security, so they are using terrorism laws against peace-loving Christians,” said the deported European Christian. “But it is massively backfiring.”

The Christian described how the Moroccan friends of Christian foreigners have been asking why they are being deported for their faith.

“They are being impacted by the reality of Christ through this, and it’s having more of an effect on the community than years and years of quietly demonstrating Christ peacefully and lawfully,” he said. “By breaking their own laws, they have opened the lid on the reality of the life of Christ.”

There are an estimated 1,000 Moroccan Christian converts. They are not recognized by the government. About 99 percent of Morocco’s population of more than 33 million is Muslim.

Report from Compass Direct News 

Large Earthquake Hits Baja, California: Mexico

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There has been a large earthquake In Baja, California, across the border from the United States in Mexico. The quake was felt in the US state of California also. The US Geological Survey has said that the quake was a shallow one of 7.2 and that damage would be expected from such a quake.

Footage below includes reports on the quake and amateur footage of the quake hitting.

 

 

 

STATISTICS: particularbaptist.com

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Since I have nothing much to ‘Blog on’ about tonight, I thought I might indulge in some more statistics. A few days back I wrote about 5 000 visitors at this Blog (which is now above 6 250 by the way), which got me to thinking about my main web site called particularbaptist.com (it used to be Aussie Outpost and before that NRBC – for Northlake’s Reformed Baptist Church).

Particularbaptist.com has been that name since July 2006, when I switched the site to a new hosting company and adopted the before mentioned domain name. The Aussie Outpost ‘brand (so to speak)’ had been established for some time and so the move to a new URL, name and domain would take some getting used to and the early stats showed this to be the case.

In July 2006 there were 333 hits on the site, with a total of 13 visits and 108 pages viewed. By the end of the year there had been 8 960 hits on the site, with a total of 643 visits and 3208 pages viewed. This was about what I would have expected given the changes and the effort involved in becoming re-established as particularbaptist.com.

Having looked at the statistics for the site a couple of days ago I was amazed at how strongly the site is now performing and it has encouraged me to continue with the work (I had been contemplating abandoning the project). All of those doubts that probably plague ‘webmasters’ were mine – is it worth the effort, is it at all useful and profitable to visitors, is it making a useful contribution, etc?

Anyhow, I have been encouraged to press on by the figures and have found that the statistics prove useful as that – encouragement. At times, that is very important – at least I think it is. So what are the latest figures?

Toward the end of September 2008 there had been 368 756 hits on the site, with a total of 35 979 visits and 233 571 pages viewed. All that in just over 2 years is simply amazing to me and above what I had expected by a long way. With the growth trend the site should have its 500 000th hit and 50 000th visit early in the new year and possibly a million hits by the end of 2009.

Isn’t the Internet incredible – so many visitors from all over the world?

I’ve started a statistics page on the site mainly for my own benefit (so I don’t have to wade through all of the figures over and over from the web host which is a bit complicated) and for supporters of the site at:

http://www.particularbaptist.com/stats.html

It’s all very simple on the statistics page at the moment and hopefully it will stay that way. I will be adding other bits of statistical trivia to the page over time, including a list of what countries the site has had visitors from. All very interesting.

The site’s homepage is pretty simple to find these days:

http://particularbaptist.com