AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

March 23 2009

* SHARIA LAW TEARING THE WEST IN TWO

* LESBIANS GO WILD IN ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN CHURCH

* RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION NO LONGER REQUIRED ON LEBANESE ID CARDS

* NORTH KOREAN LEADER ANOINTS HIS YOUNGEST SON TO SUCCEED HIM

* PERSECUTION IN ERITREA RAGES ON

* ZIMBABWE EDUCATION SYSTEM ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

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SHARIA LAW TEARING THE WEST IN TWO

Sharia, or Islamic law, is gradually working its way into public life in Islamic and non-Islamic nations around the world. What is it and what does sharia mean for Christians and others forced to abide by it? “Sharia law is a legal system on the teachings of the Qur’an, the Sunna and the Hadith of Mohammed applied into the community as the legal basis for life,” said Jeff Hammond, a Christian who has lived and worked in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, for 35 years. “Christians are very concerned” Hammond explained.

He says Indonesian Christians are concerned about sharia law, now in place in half of the country’s 32 provinces. “It’s going from one province to another, it’s not something that’s happening all at once, but step by step,” Hammond said. For example: even Christian school girls are forced to cover their heads in Padang province. Elsewhere in Indonesia, children attending public schools are required to learn the Qur’an. In Indonesia’s Bandeh Aceh province, sharia police make nightly patrols to ensure that unmarried or non-related couples are not seen together in public.

In Somalia, devotion to Sharia law recently caused vigilantes to behead a 25-year old aid worker for converting from Islam to Christianity. Author and lecturer Nonie Darwish says the goal of radical Islamists is to impose sharia law on the world, ripping Western law and liberty in two. Darwish was born in Cairo and spent her childhood in Egypt and Gaza before emigrating to America in 1978, When she was eight years old, her father died while leading covert attacks on Israel. He was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza.

But Darwish developed a sceptical eye at an early age. She questioned her own Muslim culture and upbringing. She converted to Christianity after hearing a Christian preacher on television. In her latest book, Darwish warns about creeping sharia law – what it is, what it means, and how it is manifested in Islamic countries. For the West, she says radical Islamists are working to impose sharia on the world. If that happens, Western civilization will be destroyed.

Source: CBN News

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LESBIANS GO WILD IN ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Worshippers at a Bible-teaching church of 5,000 in Michigan, were stunned recently when members of a pro-homosexual, pro-anarchy organization named Bash Back interrupted their service to fling propaganda and condoms around the sanctuary, drape a profane banner from the balcony and feature two lesbians making out at the pulpit. The protesters also screamed at parishioners and pulled the church facility’s fire alarm. Printed material protesters distributed said, “We specialize in confronting homophobia, transphobia and every and all other forms of oppression.”

According to a spokesman for the Mount Hope Church “Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony. “‘Jesus was gay,’ they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss,” he said.

“Mount Hope churchgoers were unclear as to what the purpose of the demonstration was,” said a statement from David Williams, a spokesman for the church. “The leadership of Mount Hope Church does not attempt to identify the church as anti-homosexual, anti-choice, or right wing. The church does take the Bible at face value and believes what the Bible says to be the truth,” Williams’ statement continued. “According to the Bible, Mount Hope Church believes homosexuality to be a sin, just as fornication, stealing, drunkenness, and lying are sins. No sin greater than the next.

Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus’ example of loving the sinner but not the sin. It seeks to help people change their lives for God’s glory and their improved quality of life. Mount Hope Church is an evangelical, Bible believing church whose members provide free 24-hour counselling, prayer lines, care for families dealing with medical emergencies, support groups for men, women and children dealing with a wide variety of life’s troubles. They also teach respect for all human life and the Biblical sanctity of marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Source: WorldNetDaily

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RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION NO LONGER REQUIRED ON LEBANESE ID CARDS

A recent decree by the Lebanese government has allowed its citizens to remove their religious affiliation from their identity cards. In a country that has lived through years of civil war, and that is still deeply divided along religious lines, many see this decision as a very symbolic, and a very important step towards much needed unity and national reconciliation. Plenty of people in Lebanon still remember the days when the ID cards they carried served as potential death warrants.

During the civil war, which lasted through the 1970s and 1980s, different militias aligned with various religious groups would set up checkpoints and ask for the identity cards of those who tried to pass. People would often be shot on the spot if their documents revealed the “wrong” sort of religious affiliation. “These identity cards killed so many people,” says Samer Juidi, a 21-year-old business marketing student in Beirut.”I want to be seen as Lebanese. Not Lebanese Christian, not Lebanese Muslim but just Lebanese,” he adds.

But religious affiliation still governs the life of every citizen. Lebanon’s entire society, and its political system, is divided along sectarian lines: a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon could become a prime minister but never a president because that position is reserved for Maronite Christians. The speaker of the parliament can only be Shia Muslim. And when Lebanese citizens want to marry, divorce or adopt, or when they register a birth or a death, they have to refer to courts that are run by the religious sects to which they belong.

There are no such things as civil courts in Lebanon, and that is why human-rights groups say the government’s decision regarding the ID cards is a welcome – but purely symbolic – step. The decision is important, but its also only cosmetic. Human and civil-rights groups are campaigning for a unified civil code, under which representatives of all of the country’s religious groups will be treated equally. But for Lebanon that kind of law still seems to be a long way away.

Source: BBC

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NORTH KOREAN LEADER ANOINTS HIS YOUNGEST SON TO SUCCEED HIM

It is one of the most powerful and dangerous jobs in the world and, for decades, foreign politicians, academics and spies have speculated over who will one day succeed to it. It brings with it absolute power over 24 million people, the command of a fanatical, nuclear-equipped army of a million men and a brutal state security apparatus. The man who is likely to inherit it has emerged from the shadows – a little-known 25-year-old with a European education and fondness for sushi, German cars and baseball.

Reports from North and South Korea appear to confirm what until now has been only rumour – that Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, is being lined up to inherit his father’s title. It would be the second hereditary succession in what is the last remaining totalitarian communist dictatorship – and sets the scene for a period of instability in one of the world’s most unpredictable countries. Pak Jae Kyong, a senior general of the North Korean Defence Ministry, has promised the army’s loyalty to the “bloodline” of the senior Mr Kim.

Foreign concern about the North Korean succession has been intense since last summer when Kim Jong Il disappeared from public view for three months after apparently suffering a stroke. During his convalescence, his 62-year-old brother-in-law, Chang Sung Taek, is said to have taken over his responsibilities. It is still possible that Jong Un may eventually serve as no more than a figurehead while real power lies with older and more experienced leaders. Observers say that Jong Un has superb physical gifts, is a big drinker and never admits defeat.”

Source: Intercessors Network

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PERSECUTION IN ERITREA RAGES ON

Persecution of Christians in Eritrea continues to be overlooked by many western nations despite the arrests of over 2000 believers. The Eritrean government claims no persons have been arrested based on their religious practices and in fact denies that any amount of religious disunity exists in the country. However, there has recently been reason to believe otherwise. According to Voice of the Martyrs, persecution has been reported from several churches throughout the country.

Although the government claims to support the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea, even these churches have experienced conflict. Last October, Eritrean officials arrested 20 members of the Faith Missions Church, a congregation forced to worship in secret since they do not belong to any of the three recognized churches in the country. Later, another Christian died in prison after being refused treatment for his malaria with reports of 65 more believers being arrested simply because of their faith.

With such copious numbers of reports, it may be surprising that little has been said by other nations. “Because Eritrea is such a small country and because of other things going on in the world, it tends to fly below the radar,” says Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs. If anyone has taken notice of the injustice in the country, there is little financial incentive to put pressure on the government due to the very small amount of trade between Eritrea and western nations. This apathetic approach to the situation only deepens the frustration of the victims and organizations involved.

Source: Intercessors Network

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ZIMBABWE EDUCATION SYSTEM ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

Zimbabwe’s education system, once heralded as sub-Saharan Africa’s finest, is on the verge of total collapse. Education policies adopted by the government after 1980, which boosted the sector and gave Zimbabwe a literacy rate of more than 96 per cent, have now disintegrated. An estimated 45,000 teachers have left the profession since 2004. Today, no meaningful learning is currently taking place. Pupils have to pay teachers to give them private lessons, so those who cannot afford to pay are simply left out.

When Zimbabwe attained its independence 28 years ago, the new government inherited an education infrastructure ravaged by war. It was almost like starting afresh, but children managed to attend classes, teachers taught, and examinations were written. Virtually all that has stopped. The first term in 2008, which usually runs from January to April, ended in March because general elections were held that month. Post-election violence prevented schools from opening as youth militias targeted teachers and school buildings were used as bases for Robert Mugabe supporters.

Source: United Nations Integrated Regional Information Network

http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/

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