Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 31, 2014
“I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands.”[Revelations 4:20]
“This young mother is – and always has been – a member of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church, an institution centuries older than Islam“There are reports that Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death by a Muslim judge for refusing to abandon her Christian faith, is to be freed. The BBC announced it thus:Mother facing death penalty in Sudan for abandoning religious faith to be freedNo! That is a lie. Meriam was sentenced to death (as the Telegraph correctly reports) “for refusing to recant her Christian beliefs, and on Tuesday she gave birth to a daughter while she was in prison, and with her legs shackled”.This young mother is – and always has been – a member of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church, an institution centuries older than Islam. The thuggish Sudanese ruled that she was an “apostate” because her father was a Muslim. What rubbish. It was her Christian mother who raised her in her faith. And even if she had chosen to leave Islam and become a Christian, then she would have had every right to do so.Her ordeal, coupled with the continuing atrocities of Boko Haram, have finally alerted the international community to the fact that the malign influence of Islamism extends far beyond its terrorist aggression towards the West. It is directed at Christians in Islamic countries and is not confined to “apostates”.The wider global Muslim community (if one can speak of such a thing) does not believe in putting into practice the extremists’ homicidal agenda. But if it’s been campaigning furiously against the slaughter of Christians then I must have missed it.David Cameron, to his credit, publicly recognised at Easter that Christians are the world’s most persecuted believers. But what is he going to do about it?Continue reading…
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 27, 2014
… to her second child, a baby girl MayaMeriam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, gave birth to her second child five days earlier while shackled to the floor inside a filthy Sudan prison. The mother of two made headlines after a Sudan court sentenced her to a horrific death solely because of her Christianity, which has since sparked international outrage. Meriam’s American husband, Daniel Wani, is desperately fighting for her freedom before it’s too late.This story continues to break our hearts.Meriam, 27, was sentenced to death by hanging earlier this month after being found guilty of converting from Islam to Christianity and marrying a Christian man, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, who lives in Manchester, New Hampshire.She will receive 100 lashes before she is executed – sometime in the next two years.Before the birth, Meriam made the defiant claim that she would rather die than give up her faith.In a heart-wrenching conversation with her husband during a rare prison visit, Meriam told him: ‘If they want to execute me then they should go ahead and do it because I’m not going to change my faith.’An Islamic Sharia judge said she could be spared the death penalty if she publicly renounced her faith and becomes a Muslim once more.Meriam insists she has always been a Christian and told her husband she could not ‘pretend to be a Muslim’ just to spare her life.Meriam was arrested in mid-September, three weeks after her second child was conceived.She told him: ‘I refuse to change. I am not giving up Christianity just so that I can live.‘I know I could stay alive by becoming a Muslim and I would be able to look after our family, but I need to be true to myself.’Daniel, a 27-year-old biochemist, revealed his wife’s defiant stance during an exclusive interview with MailOnline at his modest home in the dusty Sudanese capital city of Khartoum.At first the couple dismissed the allegations against them as trivial, but when the case grew more serious Daniel went to the American Embassy in Khartoum for help.‘I thought this would be the one place which would help me, but they told me they didn’t have time to do anything,’ Daniel said. ‘I was upset because now that I am American citizen I thought they would help me.‘I was threatened. They said “well your wife isn’t American, so we can’t help”. I felt disgusted. My home is in America and still they won’t help. It’s getting uglier and it’s not going in the right direction.’Mr Wani said the State Department asked him to provide DNA evidence proving that Martin was his biological son.He added: ‘I have provided wedding documents and the baby’s birth certificate, but this is clearly not enough. It’s very upsetting that they don’t believe me.‘They want me to take a DNA sample in Khartoum, then send it to the US for testing. It’s as if they don’t believe a word I say.’They say the marriage is void. Now, even my wife is no longer my wife. And my son is not mine and my new daughter is not mine. They say I am a stranger to them.Her lawyer, Mohaned Mustafa Elnour, a Muslim, has received death threats for defending her but has already lodged an appeal. If he does not succeed at the Appeal Court, he will take the case to Sudan’s Supreme Court.Speaking from his office in a ramshackle building close to the River Nile, he said: ‘Once this case became public there was only one way that this case was going to go.‘The clamour for a guilty verdict from the Sudanese press and from government figures intensified and they got what they wanted. There is a large section of the public here that want her to be hanged.‘But even if Meriam was freed she would never be able to live in Sudan again. It just wouldn’t be safe.‘There are many Muslims who are very angry with this situation and they say that if the court doesn’t kill her then they will when she is released.A petition calling for her release had last week reached more than 650,000.Selected comments:
“I first read this story over a week ago about Merriam’s terrible plight I find it totally outrageous that the world leaders have sat around and left this woman and her family to this in humane fate.”“How the hell can this be happening in these modern times? It is like something from the middle ages. I hope something can be done to get her out of there.”“What is being done to help this poor family? This is shameful and all humanity must hang their heads in shame if this goes ahead. No one should be persecuted because of ‘religion’”“And yet President Obama has done NOTHING and said NOTHING. John Kerry – NOTHING. Michelle Obama has no hashtag for Meriam Ibrahim. Its disgusting.”“For all those Mothers who complain about Midwifery care in the UK….. Just stop and think about the drugs, medication, clean sheets, expertise and care you were given….. then think about what this woman possibly went through.”“Unfortunately, this woman’s story is emblematic of what goes on daily in countries that don’t acknowledge or respect human rights or human dignity . . . “Their” God is an enigma to me; “their” religious practices, barbaric.”“Poor woman! I admire her for her faith and courage can you imagine a Muslim being arrested in a christian country and forced to convert or die? Where is moderate muslim outrage? She is blessed in that this case is making mainstream news many nationals of Islamic countries that convert are murdered. I hope this will shine the light on christian persecution all over the world as for sudan what a wicked country they must be so afraid that if they give people freedom of religion or belief many will desert national religion. I am believing she will be rescued!!! Please any kind hearted muslim speak up for her”“I’m not surprised she wants to be a christian and not a muslim if that is the kind of behaviour they believe to be acceptable.”“This brave woman is an example to Christians everywhere to stand up for their faith and she is a huge inspiration to stay true and a confirmation to the doubters that Christianity is a faith worth dying for!”“May The Lord have mercy and spare her life. It’ll be a great testimony.”Source
Water is to the twenty-first century what oil was to the twentieth century: the commodity that determines the wealth and stability of nations.
People who think that the West’s interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria are only about oil are mistaken. Broadly speaking, Western interest in the Middle East is becoming increasingly about a commodity more precious than oil, namely water.According to the U.S.-based Center for Public Integrity, Western nations stand to make up to a US$1 trillion from privatizing, purifying and distributing water in a region where water often sells for far more than oil.Although over two thirds of our planet is water, we face an acute shortage. This scarcity flies in the face of our natural assumptions. The problem is that 97 percent is salt water. Great for fish, not so good for humans. Of the world’s fresh water, only one percent is available for drinking, with the remaining two percent trapped in glaciers and ice.Put differently: if all the water on earth was represented by an 11-litre jug, the freshwater would fill a single cup, and we can only access the last drop.Nature has decreed that the supply of water is fixed; all the while, demand is rising as the world’s population increases and enriches itself. By 2030, climate change, population growth, pollution and urbanization will compound, such that the demand for water globally is estimated to outstrip supply by forty percent.Increasingly, for water to be useful, it needs to be mined, processed, packaged, and transported, just like gold, coal, gas or oil. Unlike oil, there are no substitutes, alternatives or stopgaps for water.There have been three waves of resource-driven imperialism in the modern era.
A quest for gold
Thirst for oil
The Battle For Water
A quest for gold fueled the first wave. Old-fashioned colonialists, regal and unembarrassed, rode in on horseback, brutally took control of American territories, sent in ostrich-plumed governors, minted coins with the Queen’s head on them, and gazed proudly over natives toiling away in perilous mine-shafts. An unprecedented kidnapping of millions of Africans ensued, so as to replace the indigenous Americans that had initially been exterminated by their European conquerors. This coincided with white pioneers brutally conquering Southern Africa, also in search of gold.The second wave of imperialism has been driven by an unquenchable, post-industrial thirst for oil.Modern petro-imperialism, the key aspect of which is the U.S. military’s transformation into a global oil-protection armed force, puts up a democratic facade, emphasizes freedom of the seas (or pipeline routes), and seeks to secure, protect, drill, and ship oil, not to administer everyday affairs. Nevertheless, the means by which the U.S. is centering its foreign policy around oil is hardly new in spirit, albeit unprecedented in scope.The third wave of imperialist wars is currently being fought over nature’s most valuable commodity: water.Prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, CIA analysts reported on a prediction of a new theater of war: hydrological warfare, “in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over, or controlled”. These predictions became realized in quick succession, beginning with the recent wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria. It is now clear that the age of hydro-imperialism is upon us.On April 17, 2003, in Iraq, the American company Bechtel received a no-bid reconstruction contract from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for US$100 billion; thus, making it the largest Iraq reconstruction contract. Therefore, the most lucrative Iraq reconstruction contract was not used to repair oil facilities, build schools and hospitals, or to repair bombarded infrastructure: it was used to source, process, and distribute water.The secretive, opaque and no-bid nature of the water contract award process is made even worse by one incredible fact. Bechtel has botched many of its previous projects.In California, Bechtel installed one of the nuclear power plant reactors backwards. In Boston, what promised to be a US$2.5 billion job for an infamous “Big Dig” project became the most expensive in U.S. history costing US$14.6 billion. The tunnel project was plagued by charges of poor execution, corruption, criminal arrests, and even four deaths.In Bolivia, Bechtel`s record is one of privatizing water by inflating prices by 35 percent. The inflation caused public riots, in which several people died. Bechtel was ousted from the country and tried to sue the Bolivian government for canceling their contract.Since the turn of the century, Iraq was the first casualty of hydro-imperialism, and Colonel Gaddafi’s assassination marked the second. Libya sits atop a natural resource more valuable than oil: the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, which is a vast underground reserve of fresh water, estimated to be the largest in the world. Mr. Gaddafi had invested $25 billion into the aquifer, which had the potential to turn a country that is 95 percent desert into an arable oasis. As it now stands, France’s global mega-water companies: Suez, Ondeo, and Saur, control almost half of the world’s $400 billion water market. They are poised to rake in billions of dollars from Libya’s eighth wonder of the world.Mr. Gaddafi had intended the scheme to be designed by Libyans, constructed by Libyans, for the benefit of the Libyan population. Now it is being redesigned by Frenchmen and women at inflated costs, constructed by French contractors, largely for the benefit of French shareholders. Libyan taxpayers will undoubtably be stuck with the bill and higher water bills.The most recent case of hydro-imperialism is the war in Syria. Israel has been leading a Western campaign to support Syrian rebels; in part, because its leaders assert that the Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, poses an existential threat to Israel on the issue of water. Assad has vowed to reclaim the Golan Heights – a strip of land that Israel captured from Syria in the Six Day War of 1967. The Golan Heights provides a staggering 40 percent of Israel’s fresh water.
“Syrian control of half of our water poses more of a threat than Iran with one bomb”, once remarked ex-Israeli intelligence head, Meir Dagan.Assad has also been reticent to privatize the water industry and expose the population to predatory pricing, thereby preventing the West from tapping into a multi-billion dollar revenue stream.Mr. Assad`s refusal to play ball on water privatization and his choice to play hardball over the Golan Heights meant that the Syrian President, like Mr. Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi before him, is an obstacle to the West`s hydro-imperialist agenda.Control of nature`s most precious and increasingly valuable commodity will, for any nation, spell the difference between greatness and decline. Mr. Hussein, Colonel Gaddafi and a defiant Mr. Assad know that all too well.Source
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 25, 2014
The Deadly Egyptian Cobra Controls and Deceives its Western & Eastern Dragons“As for the terror of you, The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, O you who live in the clefts of the rock, Who occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s, I will bring you down from there,” declares the LORD. [Jeremiah 49:16 ]Mid January, I heard on South Korea’s global broadcast service, Arirang, the Egyptian ambassador to South Korea saying that Egypt is safe for tourists, and that many Koreans like to visit Christian sites in Egypt, such as the famous St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula.Exactly a month later, there was a bomb attack on a tourist bus carrying 33 South Korean tourists in the Sinai. Three South Koreans and their bus driver were killed.Egypt is in a desperate and dangerous state of affairs. The Egyptian nation has a poor soul which forces it to continuously apply some of the cheapest traits of human qualities when dealing with both its internal and foreign matters. Egypt has been deceiving itself and the masses of this world for years and centuries. Perhaps, the only two cunning nations that undeservedly capitalize or make a great deal out of their respective past civilizations are Egypt and Iran.Egyptians pride themselves on making the storied eagle as their national symbol (their flag) Eagle is a symbol of pagan forms of deity. The Nazis too used the same eagle on their national flag which represents Satan’s empire. In such a figure a symbol may both reveal and conceal, while to the ignorant the figure remains inscrutable. For example, The Prophet Hosea said, “He shall come into their midst as the land, as an EAGLE (The ungodly Nebuchadnezzar is meant) against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and have sinned against my law” (HOS 8:1) Now, it seems Egyptians too copied the same propaganda style that Nazi Hitler adopted during the Second World War. The river Nile has always been a paramount issue for the rulers of Egypt. These rulers brainwashed their own people as well as the international communities by hiding their true intentions, omitting relevant historical facts and by constantly making deceiving statements everywhere. All their ministers, and overrated “experts’ are acting in a similar manner as Hitler’s prime deceiver, Joseph Goebbels, to intimidate the world community as if the construction of Ethiopian dams brings disaster, not only for Egypt, but for the wider world, by indicating that without the Nile there won’t be the Pyramids or the Sphinxes for the world to visit.One of the latest deceiving tactics Egyptians have preferred to use is their aggressive propaganda campaign in the field of archeology and tourism. Since January 2014 there were more “discoveries” heralded in Egypt than during the whole of the 20th century. It looks as though the Egyptian snake is attempting to fool the world into believing that if Ethiopia blocks the waters of the Nile there won’t be any tourist coming to Egypt or no new discoveries to be made. In other words, Ethiopia is aiming to destroy Egypt, the heritage of the world, so, stop Ethiopia now from using the Nile!Egypt is using a publicity trick – a reverse psychology – when one of its ex-army general filed a court case asking for St. Catherine’s Monastery – the oldest functioning monastery in the world – to be demolished and its monks deported on the grounds that they pose a national security threat – “come to Egypt before we’ve destroyed everything worth seeing”-strategy. Some of the newest “Discoveries”:
Feb 12, 2014Archaeologists have discovered a school dating back about 1,700 years that contains ancient Greek writings on its walls, including a text about ancient drug use.
Mar 26, 2014A mummy of an Egyptian woman dating back to 700 A.D. has been scanned and stripped to reveal a tattoo on her thigh that displays the name of the biblical archangel Michael.
Apr 8, 2014An ancient Egyptian mummy found with an intact brain, but no heart, has a plaque on her abdomen that may have been intended to ritually heal her.
Apr 30, 2014The ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids may have been able to move massive stone blocks across the desert by wetting the sand in front of a contraption built to pull the heavy objects, according to a new study.
My note: The resemblance between the discovered image of young Jesus (left) and the older Ethiopian Jesus (right) is strikingA team of Catalan archaeologists believes it has unearthed one of the earliest images of Jesus Christ buried deep in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Experts at the University of Barcelona discovered an underground structure in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchu which may have acted as a resting place for a number of priests.More than 45 tonnes of rock had to be moved in order to access the hidden room. Another unidentified structure found nearby during this process is currently being investigated.Once inside, the team found five or six coats of paint on the walls, the last of which was from the Coptic period of the first Christians.The underground structure was also reportedly decorated with Coptic images and may contain one of the earliest-known representations of Jesus Christ, The Local has reported.Dr Josep Padró, the Emeritus Professor at the University of Barcelona who led the expedition, described the find as “exceptional”.He told the La Vanguardianewspaper that the figure is that of “a young man with curly hair, dressed in a short tunic and with his hand raised as if giving a blessing”.“We could be dealing with a very early image of Jesus Christ,” he added.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 24, 2014
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen
KJ from TheScariestMovieEver highlights “Conchita Wurst, shemale winner of Eurovision 2014, is a symbol for the coming antichrist and New World Order,” calling it the Illuminati Transgender Jesus Symbol. Our videographer talks about the “spiritual” and occult language we are seeing across the MSM and the internet as well as how it all connects together.
Baby Jesus being replaced with a gnome in Nativity scenes, along with the stories and how they are presented to the public, the followup news stories about a woman that drops one of these garden gnomes just to find a statue inside of it which appeared to be the face of Jesus with a woman’s body.
More is presented but the overall concept they are showing is the deliberate insult to those that practice certain religious faiths in order to invalidate faith as they know it, usher in the New World Order, the “One World Religion,” and to prepare for the rising of the Antichrist, the false God.
Source
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 20, 2014
“Give them the punishment they so richly deserve! Measure it out in proportion to their wickedness. Pay them back for all their evil deeds! Give them a taste of what they have done to others. For they do not understand the LORD’s actions, or the way he carries out justice. The LORD will permanently demolish them”.[Psalm 28:4-5]The case of Meriam Ibrahim, the pregnant Christian Sudanese women sentenced to death for ‘apostasy’ (leaving Islam), has sent shockwaves around the global community. But how common is this sort of case? Meriam Ibrahim was arrested on 17 February 2014, after Sudanese authorities found out she had married a Christian man. The court told Mrs Ibrahim she had until May 15 to convert to Islam, but she refused and the sentence was upheld. She remains imprisoned, along with her 20 month-old son, and her family reports she has not been allowed to receive visitors nor to access medical treatment. Her lawyers have filed an appeal which could take several months. So what is likely to happen? Will international intervention make a difference? And what does the wider religious and political landscape look like in Sudan? Here’s an overview of the key facts and analysis surrounding the case which has gripped the world’s attention.Is there proof that Meriam Ibrahim has always been a Christian, does that matter?Mrs Ibrahim was born in Western Sudan to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left the family when she was six years old and she was subsequently brought up as a Christian by her mother. Although she is a life-long practising Christian, under Sudanese law Mrs Ibrahim is considered a Muslim because her father is a Muslim. Under Shari’a law in Sudan, Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslim men, so as she is considered to be a Muslim, her marriage is considered to be invalid. She is on a separate charge of adultery, in addition to apostasy.Mrs Ibrahim testified in court on 4 March that she is a Christian, producing her marriage certificate, where she is classified as Christian, as proof of her religion. Three potential witnesses from western Sudan who went to the hearing to testify of Mrs Ibrahim’s lifelong adherence to Christianity were prevented from giving evidence.It should not matter whether Mrs Ibrahim has always been a Christian or whether she has left Islam to become a Christian – her right to freedom of religion or belief is protected under the interim Sudanese constitution, as well as under international conventions to which Sudan is party, that include the right to adopt a belief of one’s choice. This is a non-derogable human right.She’s allowed to give birth – what will happen to the child and her toddler if she is put to death?It is difficult to predict. The children will be seen as Muslim because their mother is considered to be Muslim, therefore it is unlikely that the state would allow Muslim children to be raised by their non-Muslim father. The children would be treated as wards of the state, or could be placed with estranged Muslim relatives from her father’s side of the family.What does apostasy mean? How is it proven? Is it a common offence in Sudan?Apostasy refers to the act of renouncing a religion. According to strict interpretations of Shari’a law, apostasy from Islam is an offence punishable by death. In Sudan, Shari’a law is one of the sources of law under the constitution. Furthermore, apostasy is codified as a criminal offence in article 126 of the country’s Penal Code. This means that a person can be charged, convicted and sentenced in a court of law, as has happened to Meriam, for this religious offence.What’s the religious breakdown of Sudan? How free are its Christians? What is the religious landscape in Sudan and where are the tension points?Over 97% of those living in Sudan are Muslim. Under the regime of President al Bashir, an Islamist, Christians and religious minorities have been consistently harassed. Both blasphemy and apostasy are illegal, with the latter carrying the ultimate penalty of death. Christians are prohibited from holding open air meetings, and violence against those identifying themselves as Christian is common.The challenges faced by religious minorities have existed for decades; successive governments have been hostile to religious and ethnic minorities, particularly since the Shari’a declaration of 1983. Decades of discrimination and violence played a decisive role in causing the South (which contains large Christian, animist and non-Arab communities) to separate from the predominantly Muslim and Arabised North. President al-Bashir repeatedly stated that following southern independence, Sudan would become an Islamic state with a new Shari’a-based constitution, which is in the process of being drafted in an opaque and non-inclusive manner.Since the 2011 secession of South Sudan, religious minorities have experienced even greater hardship, hostility, and isolation. In particular, since December 2012, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has noted an increase in detentions, interrogations and deportations of Christians, as well as the confiscation and destruction of churches and church properties.Do lots of people get put to death for apostasy? Are there other cases like this in Sudan which the international community doesn’t know about?If the sentence is carried out, Mrs Ibrahim will become the first person to be executed for apostasy under the 1991 penal code, prompting concerns that the charge may then be used increasingly against anyone who converts from Islam.There have been other cases where people have been charged with apostasy, which have not received international attention because often individuals recant their new faith before the sentence is confirmed.What is the international community doing? And how influential are they likely to be? A number of countries have spoken out strongly on Meriam’s case, including the UK, Canada and the US. The UK government summoned the Sudanese Ambassador to the Foreign Office on the matter and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has also spoken out, reminding Sudan of its obligations under international law. The more the international concern, especially from African and Middle Eastern countries and key Sudanese allies, the greater the likelihood that condemnation will make a difference. The Sudanese government has already been forced to issue a statement on Meriam’s case, which means they are paying attention to the growing chorus of criticism.You can add your voice by writing to the Sudanese embassy.SourcePregnant Sudanese Woman To Give Birth Before Being Killed For ChristianityAs she awaits her death sentence, Meriam is currently living in a tiny Sudanese prison cell with her son, Martin. The court has declared that Meriam will be able to carry her second baby to term, give birth, and nurse the baby before she is whipped 100 times and then killed.Should parents be alarmed if their crying baby turns blue? Dr. Sears explains what can cause a baby’s skin to turn blue, and when it…Meriam’s son is with her in prison only because he is considered a Muslim, which means his Christian father is not legally allowed to care for or raise him. Everything about this horrible situation is absolutely absurd.Daniel Wani, Meriam’s husband and the father of her children, was allowed to see his wife and son for the first time on Monday, May 19, since her sentencing.That’s when he saw that she was shackled at the ankles inside her cell, and that her legs were swollen. According to Daniel, she could give birth at any time as she is due at June Daniel is devastated about his wife’s sentencing and requested that he be able to bring her to the Sudan hospital where she gave birth to their first child, but his request was denied.
“I’m so frustrated. I don’t know what to do,” Daniel told CNN in a heartbreaking interview after his wife’s sentencing. “I’m just praying.”Our thoughts and prayers are also with Meriam and her family, especially her unborn baby. Hopefully, government officials will step up and get involved and work to save Meriam and her son, Martin.Source8 Months Pregnant, She is Being Shackled While Awaiting Death for Rejecting IslamNews reports out today indicate the Christian woman sentenced to death in Sudan for rejecting Islam is being shackled by Sudanese officials despite the fact she is eight-months pregnant. The Islamic court is waiting until Meriam Ibrahim, 26, gives birth before carrying out the sentence but she is reportedly held in chains until then.In addition, a statement from several attorneys associated with the Sudanese high court was released Monday, calling for an appeal of Ibrahim’s death sentence.
“The [Sudanese] government is afraid of the international attention,” Ramirez said. “They are paying attention and this [statement] is a sign of that.”Ibrahim and Wani were married in a formal ceremony in 2011 and have an 18-month-old son, Martin, who is with her in jail. The couple operates several businesses, including a farm, south of Khartoum, the country’s capital.Wani fled to the United States as a child to escape the civil war in southern Sudan, but later returned. He is not permitted to have custody of his son because the boy is considered Muslim and cannot be raised by a Christian man.Ibrahim was convicted under the Islamist-run government of apostasy (the crime of renouncing or insulting Islam) punishable by death in some Muslim-majority countries. According to news reports, lawyers representing her told Amnesty International that religious clerics in court had asked the 27-year-old Thursday if she would recant her faith, but she told them: “I am a Christian.”Hours after a Sudanese court sentenced his pregnant wife to death when she refused to recant her Christian faith.The death sentence issued to a woman who refused to renounce Christianity for Islam in Sudan is an “egregious violation of basic human rights,” Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees U.S. policy in Africa, said previously.
“This is an affront to religious freedom everywhere,” Smith said. “The refusal of the government of Sudan to allow religious freedom was one of the reasons for Sudan’s long civil war. The U.S. and the rest of the international community must demand Sudan reverse this sentence immediately.”
“Mrs. Ibrahim’s willingness to stand-up for her faith—even in the face of death—is a true mark of uncommon courage and bravery,” Smith said. “This case in Sudan mirrors a similar incident 18 months ago in Nigeria in which Boko Haram shot Habila Adamu, who refused to renounce Christianity just like Mrs. Ibrahim.”Adamu, shot in the head and left for dead, was the only adult male Christian in his village to survive that November 2012 attack. He lived to travel to Washington to give riveting testimony before a congressional hearing Smith held in November 2013: “They asked me, ‘Are you ready to die as a Christian?’ he testified, “and I told them, ‘I am ready,’ but before I closed my mouth, they have fired.”SourceIslamic Bloc Silent on Apostasy Death Sentence for Christian Mother in SudanThe sentencing to death of a pregnant Sudanese Christian mother convicted of “apostasy” has drawn sharp condemnation from a number of Western countries – but no word from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a number of whose member-states have apostasy laws on their books.At least 21 OIC members have laws at a national or state level penalizing apostasy, or leaving Islam. Eleven are Arab states, including Sudan and Saudi Arabia, while the rest are in Asia (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Maldives, Brunei) and Africa (Mauritania, Nigeria, Somalia, Comoros).The OIC, the 57-member Islamic bloc whose Saudi-based secretariat regularly issues statements on matters of concern relating to the Muslim world, has been silent on the case so far.Five years ago the OIC’s International Islamic Fiqh Academy, which issues global religious edicts on the OIC’s behalf, met to discuss contentious issues including that of apostasy, but scholars at the conference disagreed over ruling out the death penalty for offenders.The meeting issued a fatwa that affirmed support for the traditional view of apostasy while at the same time invoking conditional religious freedom.
“Avowed apostasy constitutes a danger to the unity of the Muslim community and to the Muslims’ belief. It also encourages non-Muslims or hypocrites to use it as a means whereby to cast doubts,” it said. “A person who does so deserves to be punished for apostasy, which is only to be meted out by the judiciary. This is to ward off the danger posed by such a person and to protect society and keep it safe. This ruling does by no means contradict religious freedom that is ensured by Islam for whosoever respects religious sensitivities and the society’s values and general order.”The fatwa did not spell out the punishment for an unrepentant apostate.Three days to repentSeveral Islamic states impose the death penalty for apostasy.Article 146 of Sudan’s criminal code says that a Muslim who renounces Islam must be put to death unless he or she recants within three days.Mauritania’s criminal code also provides for a three-day period of reflection and repentance for any Muslim found guilty of apostasy. “If he does not repent within this time limit, he is to be condemned to death as an apostate and his property will be confiscated by the Treasury,” it says.Saudi Arabia placed apostasy on a par with rape, murder and drug trafficking as offenses punishable by death.Iran’s treatment of apostates drew international attention with the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, a pastor sentenced to death for apostasy more than a decade after his conversion. After a lengthy legal battle he was eventually acquitted in September 2012.In Afghanistan, a Christian convert named Abdul Rahman was sentenced to death in 2006 for apostasy, but after the U.S. and other Western members of the coalition forces there brought pressure to bear on the Karzai administration, he was freed and allowed to seek asylum abroad.Five years later another Afghan convert to Christianity, Said Musa, found himself in a similar plight. Again, international condemnation saw him freed and able to leave the country.Just last month Brunei, a small sultanate in Southeast Asia, became the latest OIC state to introduce the death penalty for apostasy, among other shari’a-based punishments including stoning for adultery and limb amputation for theft.
‘Kill him’Scholars defending the death-for-apostasy view point to the Islamic canonical tradition called the Hadith, which does contain references to execution for apostasy, including one in which Mohammed commands, “Any [Muslim] person who has changed his religion, kill him.”That view still carries significant support in some Muslims countries, opinion surveys indicate.A Pew Research poll in 2010 found large majorities in Jordan (86 percent), Egypt (84 percent) and Pakistan (76 percent) voiced support for the death penalty for apostates from Islam.SourceSaudi Arabia: Filipino Maid Disfigured with Boiling Water for not Bringing Coffee on Time
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 18, 2014
Last month, when I heard that Russia launched spy satellite for the Egyptian army, and is ready to supply it with military hardware, my reaction was, ‘WHAAAT!’ How come Russians make the same mistake communist USSR made when they agreed to construct the notorious Aswan dam? Russians have been betrayed by Egyptians several times, why should they now allow themselves to get stuck in the Egyptian mud again? Given the current water dispute between Muslim Egypt and Christian Ethiopia, and Egypt’s constant threat of using force to stop the construction of the Renaissance Dam that Ethiopia is building over the Nile, the launch of such a spy satellite for Egypt by Orthodox Christian Russia perhaps capable of being used as a missile guidance system is immoral, irresponsible and costly.Last Friday, it was disclosed that Russia’s satellite mission is ruined as US$29b Proton-M rocket carrying an advanced communications satellite crashes after lift-off. Something (UFO) brought the rocket down?The lesson:
The cost of the Russian-built Egyptian satellite is rumored to be around 40 million dollars
But, Russia lost US$29b, two weeks after launching the Egyptian satellite.
Had Russia done something different and known to say NO! to the Egyptian military satellite project, it would probably have saved her lots and lots of time, money and disappointment.
A wonderful Ethiopian warns:
“Failure by masters of this world to heed to those warnings or, in defiance of them, to continue to engage in participating in the conspiracies of Ethiopia’s sacrilege or destruction in any way by any nations or group of nations, secular or religious, will surely result in committing the perpetrators themselves to another destruction of unprecedented nature and magnitude.” The great Russian military officer, explorer, writer, and leader of the imiaslavie movement in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Alexander Bulatovich, wrote in the 1896-98 report, ETHIOPIA THROUGH RUSSIAN EYES the following words concerning Ethiopian, Egypt and Russia:
“For the Abyssinians, the Egyptian, Arab, and, finally, European civilization which they have gradually adopted has not been pernicious: borrowing the fruits of these civilizations, and in turn conquering and annexing neighboring tribes and passing on to them her culture, Abyssinia did not obliterate from the face of the earth, did not destroy the uniqueness of any one of the conquered tribes, but rather gave them all the possibility of preserving their individual characteristics.Thus Christian Abyssinia plays an important role in world progress as a transmission point of European civilization to wild central African peoples. The high civilizing mission of Abyssinia, its centuries-old, almost uninterrupted struggle for faith and freedom against the surrounding Moslems, the nearness of her people to the Russian people in creed, won for her the favor of the Russian people.Not just educated Russians know of her and sympathize with her, but also the common folk who saw black Christians, devout and often living in poverty, in Jerusalem.We see much in common in the cultural problems of Abyssinia with our affairs in the East; and we cannot help but wish that our co-religionist nation would assimilate the best achievements of European civilization, while preserving for itself freedom, independence, and that scrap of land which its ancestors owned and which our greedy white brothers want to take.”And the supports of Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her strength shall come down from Magdol to Syene: they shall fall by the sword in it, saith the Lord. And it shall be made desolate in the midst of desolate countries, and their cities shall be desolate in the midst of desolate cities: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall send fire upon Egypt, and when all that help her shall be broken. In that day shall messengers go forth hasting to destroy Ethiopia utterly, and there shall be tumult among them in the day of Egypt: for, behold it comes.[Ezekiel 30: 6-9 – LXXE]
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 13, 2014
My note: The old photo displayed on the Source page isn’t a Church in Khartoum, Sudan, rather, an Ethiopian church in Addis Abeba: Bisrate Gebriel Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Lord Have Mercy!A Sudanese medical doctor has been convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death by the El Haj Yousif Criminal Court in Khartoum North on Sunday.Doctor Maryam Yahya Ibrahim was charged with apostasy under Article 126 of the Sudanese Criminal Law concerning conversion from Islam to another religion, and of adultery under Article 146 of the same law.Judge Abbas Mohamed Khalifa called the Islamic Dawa organisation and the Sudanese Fatwa Council of Fatwa as experts on the matter. The doctor was convicted for adultery as she had conceived without being married under Muslim law. Her husband was acquitted as he had married her under Christian law.The doctor, who is pregnant, has been held in Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison since 17 February, with her 20-month-old son. She was born in western Sudan to an Ethiopian Christian mother and a Sudanese Muslim father. Her father disappeared from her life when she was six years old. Witnesses have testified that her mother raised her in the Christian faith.
“The court gave her until Thursday to repent,” a lawyer told Radio Dabanga. “It seems that the court is pressuring her to convert to Islam in exchange for her life,” she noted.
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 