A Conspiracy of Mutants, Disease, Germs and Greed
Jesse Ventura exposes the government's island of
horror
Situated
only a stone's throw from the major urban centers of New York City
and Boston, Jesse Ventura and his Conspiracy Theory team make the
hazardous journey to Plum Island, location of the US government's
super-secret bio-warfare lab. In the process, they acquire evidence
of an even more lethal conspiracy – there are hundreds of germ
labs in a ring of fire engulfing the entire nation. Ventura learns
that these creations of the military-academic-industrial complex
are timebombs that could kill us all. (44:17)
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has become a face of the persecuted around
the world. Since 2009, the Iranian regime has imprisoned Pastor
Nadarkhani under the threat of death for his faith in Jesus Christ. His
story has illuminated the plight of so many others who also face
persecution for their faith.
A year ago today, Salmaan Taseer the Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab
province was brutally murdered by his bodyguard because he publicly
supported overturning Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Taseer had advocated for
reform of Pakistan’s repressive blasphemy laws and championed the case
of Aasia Bibi, a powerless Christian woman whom he believed had been
wrongfully accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. A year later,
while many have forgotten Tasser’s death, his murderer, Mumtaz Qadri, is
heralded by others as a hero.
As we cross into a new year, after a year of increasing persecution
against Christians around the world, one can only ask what the future
will bring. Will more martyrs be forgotten while their murderers are
elevated to heroic warriors? Tragically, the outcome does not look
promising.
According to one report, nearly
70 percent of the world’s population
lives in countries with high restrictions on religion. Roughly 2.2
billion people, nearly a third of the world’s population, live in
countries where
religious persecution increased between 2006 and 2009. The trend of increasing persecution has continued in 2011 and is likely to continue into 2012.
Just this week,
the 2012 World Watch List,
which ranks the 50 worst countries where Christians are persecuted for
their faith, ranked 9 of the top 10 countries as Muslim-majority
countries. Of the entire list, 38 out of 50 worst offending countries
are Muslim dominant.
As Christian persecution increases around the globe and the Iranian
regime continues to hold Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani against all
international standards of human rights, it is imperative that the
international community remain engaged.
We are confident that prayer is working.
Prayer is powerful, but many in the Christian world lack awareness
about those persecuted for their faith. Without awareness, how can one
know how to pray? As you pray, we also encourage you to do your part in
making others aware.
Source -
http://aclj.org/iran/youcef-nadarkhani-face-persecuted
Islamic Majority Countries Top Open Doors 2012 World Watch List
Jan 02 2012
North Korea No. 1 Persecutor Of Christians for 10th Straight Year
SANTA
ANA, Calif. (Jan. 4, 2012) – The Open Doors 2012 World Watch List has a
familiar look to it. North Korea tops the list for the 10th straight
time as the country where Christians face the most severe persecution,
while Islamic-majority countries represent nine of the top 10 and 38 of
the 50 countries on the annual ranking.
Afghanistan (2),
Saudi
Arabia (3),
Somalia (4),
Iran (5) and the
Maldives (6) form a bloc where
indigenous Christians have almost no freedom to openly worship. For the
first time
Pakistan (10) entered the top 10, after a tumultuous year
during which the nation’s highest-ranking Christian politician, Cabinet
Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated for his attempts to change
the blasphemy law.
The rest of the top 10 is composed of
Uzbekistan (7),
Yemen (8) and
Iraq (9).
Laos was the lone country to
drop from the top 10 list, falling to No. 12 from No. 10.
View the full World Watch List
While
persecution has worsened due to persecution by Muslim extremists,
without question North Korea once again deserves its No. 1 ranking.
Defiantly
Communist, North Korea built a bizarre quasi-religion around the
founder of the country, Kim Il-Sung. Anyone with “another god” is
automatically persecuted. The estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Christians in
this country must remain deeply underground. An estimated 50,000 to
70,000 Christians are held in ghastly prison camps.
“How the
death of Kim Jong-Il last month and the coming to power of his son Kim
Jong-Un will affect the status of Christians in North Korea is hard to
determine at this early stage,” Open Doors USA President/CEO Dr. Carl
Moeller said. “Certainly the situation for believers remains perilous.
Please pray with me that the Lord will open up North Korea and there
will be religious freedom to worship the One, true God, not the gods of
Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung.”
There are significant moves on the
World Watch List, including Sudan moving up 19 spots to No. 16 – the
biggest leap of any country from 2011. Nigeria jumped 10 spots to No.
13. Egypt, racked by violent protests and upheaval during the Arab
Spring, rose four positions to No. 15. Increased Islamic extremism
triggered the upward movement of Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt.
“Being
a Muslim Background Believer or ‘Secret Believer’ Christian in a
Muslim-dominated country is a huge challenge. Christians often face
persecution from extremists, the government, their community and even
their own families,” said Moeller. “As the 2012 World Watch List
reflects, the persecution of Christians in these Muslim countries
continues to increase. While many thought the Arab Spring would bring
increased freedom, including religious freedom for minorities, that
certainly has not been the case so far.”
In July 2011 southern
Sudan, which is mostly Christian, seceded to become an independent
country, called South Sudan, leaving the Christians of North Sudan much
more isolated under President Omar al-Bashir. In response to the loss of
the south, al-Bashir vowed to make constitutional changes to make his
country even more Islamic. On the ground the military has attacked
Christian communities in battles over resources with many being killed.
Nigeria
remains the country with the worst atrocities in terms of lives lost.
More than 300 Christians were martyred last year in Nigeria, though the
actual number is believed to be double or triple that number. The total
is probably greater in North Korea, but impossible to confirm due to its
isolation. Since 2009 the extreme Islamic group Boko Haram has
destroyed more than 50 churches and killed 10 pastors in Nigeria.
Egyptian
Christians experienced a disastrous start to 2011 when a bombing at the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mark and Pope Peter in Alexandria
killed 21 Christians on New Year’s Day. After the ouster of President
Hosni Mubarak in February, hopes soared for new freedoms for all
Egyptians. But on Oct. 9 the military turned on its own citizens in the
Maspero massacre in Cairo, killing 27 Coptic Christian demonstrators. At
the close of 2011, Islamist parties flourished in the November
elections, prompting some to speak of an Arab Winter instead of an Arab
Spring for Christians.
China still has the world’s largest
persecuted church of 80 million, but it dropped out of the top 20 this
year to No. 21. Last year China ranked No. 16. This is due in large part
to the house church pastors learning how to play “cat and mouse” with
the government.
The good news behind the bad news of rising
persecution is an increase in church growth, which often results from
the persecution itself. A pastor in Iran states: “We wouldn’t be growing
if we didn’t have a price to pay for our witness.”
The WWL is
based on a questionnaire devised by Open Doors to measure the degree of
persecution in over 60 countries. The questionnaires are filled out by
Open Doors field personnel working in the countries, and cross-checked
with independent experts, to arrive at a quantitative score per country.
Countries are then ranked according to points received.
An
estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest
and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing
discrimination and alienation. Open Doors supports and strengthens
believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and
Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance,
Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and
advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors
USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to our Website
at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.
(For more information or to set
up an interview on the World Watch List, contact Jerry Dykstra at
616-915-4117 or email jerryd@odusa.org. For the list of all 50 countries
on the WWL and more articles, go to www.OpenDoorsUSA.org).
Click for Downloadable PDF on
World Watch List 2012
Source -
http://www.opendoorsusa.org/press/press-release/2012/January/Islamic-Majority-Countries-Top-Open-Doors-2012-World-Watch-List