Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

See No Qur'an, Hear No Qur'an [excerpts]
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsTBC - AP
Categories: Commentary;Contemporary Issues

What's that? The "gunman" was a Muslim? He said something about the Qur'an? Surely not! None of that is in the AP story, which is an object lesson in journalistic bias and obfuscation: "Source: Chicago gunman heard voices to kill family," by Don Babwin for Associated Press, April 14:

CHICAGO - A person close to the investigation of a shooting in Chicago that left a woman and three children dead says the gunman told police that he committed the crime after hearing voices telling him to kill his family.

Compare that to the Chicago Tribune [which] says that "the man had converted to Islam several years ago while serving time in prison and had a dispute with his wife - one of the victims - because she would not adhere to his faith. He told police that he needed to take his family back to Allah and out of this world of sinners, a source said....The wife's sister, Shirina Thompson, said the suspect had been talking about "going to Allah." Both Thompson and a neighbor in Wisconsin said the man had fought with his wife in recent days because she refused to wear Muslim garb....Letisha Larry, one of the suspect's sisters, said her brother had been acting strange, carrying around the Quran and telling family members that something in the book told him to kill someone."

But AP has none of that. He was just "hearing voices."

The whole process of news gathering and news reporting needs to be demystified, even in this Internet age, and news reports recognized not as objective, dispassionate accounts, but as the work of human beings with agendas. While it is possible that Kristen Schorsch, Annie Sweeney and Cynthia Dizikes of the Tribune are simply better, more thorough reporters than Don Babwin of AP, it is more likely that Babwin had access to exactly the same information that showed up in the Tribune report, but chose not to go with it.

He probably thought it would be "Islamophobic" to do so, or that to do so would fuel one of those fabled but nonexistent "backlashes" against innocent Muslims. So he probably decided it was better to cover up key facts about this incident. And the thing is, Don Babwin is no worse a journalist than thousands of others working today. He was just doing what they all do, in large and small ways, every day.

Pastor, Wife Killed in Northern Nigeria
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsCompass Direct News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

LAGOS, Nigeria, April 20  – Suspected Islamic extremists last week abducted and killed a Church of Christ in Nigeria pastor and his wife in Boto village, Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. The Rev. Ishaku Kadah, 48, and his 45-year-old wife Selina were buried on Saturday (April 17) after unidentified assailants reportedly whisked them from their church headquarters home on Tuesday (April 13) and killed them. Their burnt bodies were found hours later. On Jan. 22, suspected Islamic extremists had set fire to their church building days after Christians displaced by violence in Plateau state had taken refuge on the church premises. Police have reportedly arrested two suspects and have launched a man-hunt for several other accomplices. Authorities are not releasing the names of the suspects. The murdered couple’s son, Simeon Kadah, said an eyewitness who had come to the church premises to collect some rented chairs saw men dragging the pastor and his wife out of their house. Kadah said the men asked the eyewitness if he was a Muslim, and when he told them that he was, the kidnappers told him to leave the area and tell no one what he had seen. “This is yet another case of unprovoked killing of Christians, which we condemn, and demand that the law enforcement agents must fish out the perpetrators of this act,” Bishop Musa Fula, state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Bauchi state, told Compass.

Palestinian Zionist Organization is Born
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Palestinian Arab supporters continue to come out of the woodwork, confounding the efforts of Israel's antagonists, who insist that the Jewish state is a repressive entity that has stolen the lands of another people.

The latest Palestinian Arab supporter of Israel, Elias Issa, went so far as to mark Israel's 62nd Independence Day by launching the Palestinian Zionist Organization.

With the Palestinian Zionist Organization, Issa hopes to "show the world why it must support the Jewish people and to [distance itself] from the terrorist Palestinian government."

Issa insists that an independent Palestinian state would be nothing more than a haven for terrorism, not only against Israel, but against the West in general. He also explains that the world has been duped, either knowingly or unwittingly, into believing that the Palestinians truly want a peaceful two-state solution.

"The Palestinians don't believe in a two-state solution; they only believe in a one-state solution - a land called Palestine [which] does not involve any Jewishness," Issa wrote.

For his own safety, Issa now resides in the US, where another former terrorist-turned-Israel-lover, Mosab Hassan Yousef, now lives. Yousef recently released his book "Son of Hamas," detailing his years of undercover service for Israel's security agencies, despite being the son of one of Hamas' top leaders. Coming closer to Israel and the Bible eventually resulted in Yousef's conversion to Christianity.

Official Orders Halt to Beleaguered Church in Indonesia
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsCompass Direct News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

JAKARTA, Indonesia, April 20  – A local government official in Bekasi, West Java last week forbid all worship of the Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church in Jejalan village. Regent Sa’duddin on April 12 ordered a halt to all activities of the church, including worship services that have been held on a strip of roadside land since the government on Jan. 12 summarily sealed the church’s building, which was under construction. Announcing the order at a meeting of government officials with the Rev. Palti Panjaitan, Vice-Regent Darip Mulyana said the reason for the closure of the church’s makeshift site was that worship interfered with “community activities,” though the site is on a nearly deserted roadside bordering vacant fields. Mulyana said that Sa’duddin had ruled that the church needs to find a new place to construct its prospective permanent church building because local residents had rejected it – even though the church had secured approval from local residents when it submitted its application for a permit in 2008. The government has never acted on the application, and since then Islamic organizations have organized protests to try to pressure government officials to deny approval. The church on March 30 filed suit against Sa’duddin for unilaterally closing their church building under construction.

Obama Admin Angered By Jerusalem Commercials
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;Anti-Israel

Senior members of US President Barack Obama's administration expressed frustration and anger to Ha'aretz over a new series of television commercial airing in the US that support Israel's outright claim to a unified Jerusalem.

The first commercial aired this week, and featured famed author, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who told viewers that for him as a Jew, "Jerusalem is above politics." In the commercial, Wiesel goes on to point out that Jerusalem is mentioned more than 600 times in the Bible, but not a single time in the Koran.

It is widely believed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his blessing to the series of commercials.

A senior Obama Administration official told Ha'aretz that "these commercials are not a wise move."

Tensions between Netanyahu and Obama reached new heights last month when the American leader demanded that Israel stop building Jewish homes on the eastern side of Jerusalem. Obama termed the announcement of a new Jewish building project during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the Israeli capital an "insult," and used the incident as an excuse to ramp up pressure.

Thus far, Netanyahu has held his ground, and refused to order an official halt to Jewish construction in the city. However, there are reports that contractors are having a much more difficult time obtaining permits to start or continue Jewish housing projects in parts of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians.

In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America on Monday, Netanyahu insisted that his government would never accept the US-backed Palestinian demand that it halt Jewish construction in any part of Jerusalem.

Mitchell En Route, J'lem Freeze Rejected
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsJpost - AP
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

US officials say Netanyahu has agreed to nearly a dozen other steps.

Israel has officially rejected US President Barack Obama's demand to suspend all construction in contested east Jerusalem, aides to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

The aides said Netanyahu delivered his government's position to Obama over the weekend, ahead of the scheduled arrival later Thursday of the US president's special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the contact between the two leaders was private.

Washington had put Mitchell's shuttle diplomacy on hold for more than a month as it awaited a reply from Israel. The aides to Netanyahu provided no information on whether he had offered any other concessions to the Palestinians in an effort to restart the long-stalled talks.

But it appeared likely Israel tempered its rejection with other confidence-building gestures toward the Palestinians.

Science Minister Bennie Benny said it was "just impossible and unacceptable that people try to impress us that we should limit construction in Jerusalem."

"Jews and Arabs can live throughout the city," he said. "This policy will be retained."

US officials said that Netanyahu agreed to nearly a dozen other steps towards renewed negotiations, such as releasing some Palestinian prisoners from jail and removing more roadblocks in the West Bank, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Israel would also expand the responsibilities of the Palestinian security forces, and discuss borders and the status of Jerusalem in detail, said the report.

Netanyahu also reportedly agreed to stop construction in Ramat Shlomo for two years. Israel and the Palestinians had been set to launch US-mediated negotiations last month when Israel announced plans during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden to build 1,600 homes in a Jewish housing project in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim the city's eastern sector as capital of a future state.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the Netanyahu position "very unfortunate" and said he hoped the US "will be able to convince the Israeli government to give peace a chance by halting settlement construction in east Jerusalem and elsewhere."

Asked if anything short of an east Jerusalem construction freeze would bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, Erekat said it would depend on what Netanyahu told the Americans.

The government has debated proposals to free some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, turn over more West Bank territory to the control of Palestinian security forces and possibly curb Jewish construction in the heart of Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said Israel was exploring ways to restart talks, but refused to elaborate.

A Palestinian official said Mitchell was expected to meet separately with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday.

Mitchell's efforts are focused on launching indirect peace talks, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement on Mitchell's mission from the Americans.

Last week, Obama issued a surprisingly pessimistic assessment of peacemaking prospects, saying the US couldn't force its will on Israelis and Palestinians if they weren't interested in making the compromises necessary to end their decades-old conflict.

Groundswell of Support Growing for Anti - Obama Rally
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Hana Levi Julian
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

A groundswell of support is building in anticipation of the upcoming anti-Obama demonstration set for this coming Sunday, April 25, in New York City, outside the Israel Consulate. According to organizer Beth Gilinsky, head of the Jewish Action Alliance, groups are still calling to express their support and register for the event.

The protest is intended to convey to the Obama administration the intense dissatisfaction of American Jews and others with the increasingly hostile attitude of the White House towards the State of Israel. “The people are shocked by President [Barack] Obama's reckless and radical policies that they believe are endangering America, Israel and world freedom,” Gilinsky explained in an interview with Israel National News.

"Protesters will be calling on the president to stop disarming America, stop undermining America's best friend and ally in the Middle East – Israel – and to stand with Israel and America's friends, rather than appeasing Iran, dictators and Jihadists,” Gilinsky added.

More than 21 Jewish and other organizations have already signed on to the event.

Thousands are expected to attend the rally, which Gilinsky said will give voice to the increasing disillusionment with the president that Jews and others have expressed, including many who voted Obama into office.

That disappointment has gradually coalesced in response to the double standard displayed by the Obama administration in the wake of an ill-timed announcement during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden that ongoing housing project plans had been approved in Jerusalem. The numerous condemnations and recriminations showered upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the heels of the announcement -- beginning with a twice-issued harsh condemnation by Biden himself while still in Israel -- and the subsequent manner in which he was treated during a visit to the White House several weeks later, said Gilinsky, confirmed fears that the Obama administration was hostile to the State of Israel, giving the Arab world license to renew and escalate attacks.

The White House did not condemn – nor did it even mention – an official Palestinian Authority ceremony held during Biden's visit, honoring one of the most brutal terrorists in Israel's history by naming a public square in her memory.

“Many Israelis, and we, feel that the treatment of Israel during the last several weeks by President Obama, [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton, and spokemen for the administration has been an unprecedented attempt to humiliate the Jewish State and a willful isolation of it among the community of nations," Gilinsky said. "Those attending the protest believe Obama is encouraging other Western countries, as well as Arab countries, to treat Israel as a diplomatic pariah and even question Israel's legitimacy as a state itself."

“The large crowd expected to attend on Sunday is coming to speak Truth to Power,” she added. “We will not be silent.”

'Godless' Dems Have 'Death Grip' on Blacks
Apr 22nd, 2010
Daily NewsCharlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr., has set up the Stand America PAC to challenge members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Jackson tells OneNewsNow that that contingent of lawmakers does not represent black Americans.
 
"They are pro-abortion, they are pro-homosexuality, they are pro-gay marriage -- and the black community doesn't agree with any of these things...and it is time [those lawmakers] were challenged," he vows. "[O]ur PAC is going to challenge them, recruit candidates, and ultimately see to it that they are defeated, and that the black community has an alternative leadership to look to."
 
According to Jackson, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have insulted the black community by "conflating the black struggle for civil rights with the demands of radical homosexuals for marriage and other rights." That, he says, is "one of the most preposterous frauds ever perpetrated on a people."
 
Consequently, the bishop says he is "declaring war" on the Democratic Party and expects his PAC's candidates will be running as Republicans or Independents.
 
"The Democrat Party [sic] has become a coalition of the godless, and it has a death grip and it is a curse on the black community -- and it is about time that that death grip was broken and that curse was broken," says the Harvard Law School graduate.
 
The PAC is currently in the process of raising funds and selecting candidates to endorse in congressional races, but is looking forward to expanding into state and local races in the future.