God is moving the Body of Christ to prayer. The prayer and mission movements are connecting as we see in May 2019 three major prayer thrusts aimed at the unreached.

“Year of the Frontier” May 2019 through June 2020 focuses prayer on the largest people groups with the least access to the gospel—May 2019 highlights the largest 31 groups, all over 1 million population. Joshua Project, Global Prayer Digest, the Ethné Movement, the 24:14 Coalition and many others offer a myriad of resources to facilitate effective, fervent, specific prayer.

More on this year-long effort next month, but check out the Nov/Dec 2018 issue of Mission Frontiers Magazine to read more and connect with resources:

http://www.missionfrontiers.org/pdfs/MF40-6_Nov-Dec_eBook.pdf . Also, don’t miss the new podcast by Alliance for the Unreached: https://alliancefortheunreached.org/podcast/

For more than twenty-five years now, the annual 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World calls the church to make a deliberate but respectful effort to learn about, pray for and reach out to our world’s Muslim neighbors.This international movement began in 1993 and coincides annually with the important Islamic month of religious observation — Ramadan, a time of the year when Muslims are much more deeply aware of spiritual matters. This year we pray May 6 to June 4.

It was launched by a group of Christians who felt inspired to challenge the way they understood Muslim people. What if they saw Muslims in the same way God does? While media sound bites about Islamic extremism can too easily incite anger, fear and even hatred towards Muslims, these believers seek to resist this temptation to generalize, and instead, resolve to respond and pray with the mind and heart of Christ. The editorial work for this prayer movement was initially coordinated in Australia, then in France, then in Germany and then in the UK. The North American edition has been published continuously since 1993 by WorldChristian.com.

“It is not our intention with this prayer focus during Ramadan to disparage Islam or Muslim sentiments in any way. We recognize that humans and the Muslim world are far too complex to simply condense or explain with a mere booklet. However, at the same time, it is our sincere desire that Muslims the world over would have the opportunity to freely understand and consider the Good News — Jesus Christ.”

Thousands of ministries and churches from many denominations participate regularly. Many participants have commented on how much they have learned about Islam, and how their negative attitudes about Muslims have been changed as they read about, prayed for and even reached out to Muslims. Here are suggestions to consider:

• Order additional booklets (bulk-discounts start at 10 copies) to hand out, or to sell: https://www.worldchristian.com/product/30-days-muslim-prayer-guide-2019.
• Download, print and display the poster on bulletin boards at work and in churches: https://www.30daysprayer.com/resources/downloads/.
• Feel free to use their images and text to promote “30 Days” in your communication channels: https://www.30daysprayer.com/resources/downloads/.
• Let your Facebook friends know.
• Organize a meeting a couple weeks before Ramadan starts to talk about it.

Furthermore, Love Muslims is launching! Chris Ruge is ecstatic to share that Prayercast is launching Love Muslims – the most comprehensive and compelling Muslim-focused prayer resource the world has ever seen!

Over 130 new 4-5 minute videos will lead the Body of Christ in focused, strategic, passionate prayer for the Muslim world. Each video is led by a former Muslim who now follows Jesus!

“We’re rallying the Church around the world to join us in prayer each day during Ramadan, and we’ll be releasing a brand new video each day. Would you prayerfully consider SHARING this and INVITING your network to join in prayer through Ramadan.”

 Specifically, would you do the following?

• INVITE your mailing list, networks, and partners to join in prayer - including all the MENA prayer groups!
• SHARE about the movement through your social media and other communication channels.
• SIGN UP yourself and pray with us!

We want to make this as easy for you as possible. We have a series of media tools to make sharing Love Muslims easy and clear for both you and your community. Click to see a special preview of one of the videos: https://vimeo.com/291193744/3f1af42f77  Our heart cry is to gather as many people to pray with Love Muslims as we can leading up to Ramadan. Would you help spread the word? Forward this to everyone you know who should be joining in prayer. Share about the movement on social media using #LoveMuslims and directing your friends and followers to www.LoveMuslims.org

Whichever tools you use, join the millions of Christians around the world, and churches and ministries from many denominationsbeginning May 2019, including from May 6 to June 4, 2019 during the season of Ramadan, to understand and to persistently pray for our unreached neighbors and nations.

Liz Adleta

Global Prayer Strategist serving
Fellowship of Prayer Strategists, the Ethne Movement, & the 24:14 Coalition

The 24:14 Community is challenging our prayer partners to join in 21 days of prayer and fasting as God leads for the acceleration of movement engagement in every unreached people and place by 2025. Click on the link below for a two-page reusable 21-day prayer guide to focus your prayers and provide specific prayer points for Church Planting Movements. 

Pray

• Pray for the upcoming Ibero-America regional meeting, that out of it a regional team will be formed that spearheads movement engagement of all remaining unreached peoples and places in the region.
• Pray for movement leaders globally to share movement data with 24:14 so that we have a complete picture of the remaining gaps to share.
• Pray for volunteer translators for every major language to translate the 24:14 website, vision book, and other materials
• Pray for every country of the world to be covered by Geographic Stewardship Team members who ensure movement engagement

More: https://inheritthenations.net/2414-coalition-prayer-involvement/21-days-of-prayer/

This past March a group of 15 people gathered to pray together for seven days on the outskirts of London, England.  Nothing remarkable about such small beginnings, and still too early to know if it will ever become more than that. But this disparate group assembled as a faith-filled response to a conviction and dream given by God, and most of us have stories of such small beginnings growing into something much more.

From South Korea, Brunei, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, and England we gathered. Missionaries, worship leaders, researchers, educators, medical professionals, students, taxi drivers. Anglicans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Presbyterians, post-evangelicals, charismatics. Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. So much diversity in such a small group! But this was a core part of the vision – a vision best described by first sharing a few points about the spiritual challenges and opportunities of our times. Initially, they might seem unrelated, but their profound connections should become clear soon enough.

Christianity is a Global South religion. The Global South has eclipsed the Global North in both church growth and in sending missionaries. The worldwide reality is that our faith is increasingly an African, Asian, and Latin American majority faith. This is not news. In fact, Christianity has been a majority Global South population since around 1980. Think of it this way: the global median age is around 30 years old. This means that most people alive in the world today were born since the tipping point when Christianity ceased to be a Western majority religion.

The Global South Church is a praying church. Churches – and Christians – in Africa, Asia, and Latin America tend to be more engaged in and comfortable with prayer. This is in part due to the acceptance of the reality of the spiritual world and the supernatural, in contrast to the highly materialist and secular nature of Western societies. It is no accident that the most dynamic prayer movements of our day are happening in places where it is normal to expect God to actually answer prayer, and where the reality of spiritual evil is acknowledged and addressed.

The missionary task remaining faces increasing and intensifying opposition. There are many sensible sociological and cultural aspects that inform and explain this dynamic, but as Christians, we must acknowledge the spiritual warfare that is inevitable when the Gospel presses into the heartlands of other religious systems. The more progress we make in global mission, the greater the spiritual opposition is going to be. “The devil has come down to you in great wrath, for he knows his time is short!” (Rev 12:12, ESV). The persecution of Christians around the world is intensifying, with the horrific Easter attacks in Sri Lanka as just one recent example.

Prayer is being once again being understood as an effective tool for mission.It may be impossible to get missionary visas to many countries. It may be equally impossible for most believers to be able to travel to the most spiritually needy places on earth, even for short-term trips. Prayer, however, needs no passport or visa! We can throw vast amounts of money and human resources at an unreached part of the world, and apply all our cultural anthropology and linguisticsand missiology and see no fruit. But in recent years, the increase of targeted and sustained intercession is seeing an increase in breakthrough. It is no coincidence that global prayer initiatives such as 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World (www.30daysprayer.com) have coincided with the greatest response to Jesus among Muslims in history.

A globalized Christianitycan maximizethe beauty of unity in diversity. God places redemptive gifts into every culture, and we have much to learn from one another. What God has instilled in Nigerians, Indonesians, Brazilians, Samoans, and Finns are aspects that my own culture cannot present to Him. No one denomination, culture, or tradition can ever display on its own the glory of God the same way that we can when we demonstrate that we are one in Christ.But the threat of division among God’s people remains, and nothing delights the enemy more. We may not be murdering each other as happened centuries past in “Christian” Europe, but bitter acrimony between different denominations, doctrines, and networks seems everpresent.

Ancient wisdom is revitalizing the Church in these shallow times.The contemplative intimacy of the Christian mystics, the missional spirituality of the Celtic peregrini, the holistic outworking of faith in Benedictine communities, the singing of the Psalms in many Reformed traditions, are providing deep wells of living water for the increasing number of believers disillusioned with the shallowness of what they experience in contemporary worship.

The relationship between generations is under threat. The intensity of resentment, bitterness, and misunderstanding between boomers, Gen X, and millennials is a playground of the enemy and grieves the heart of God.  It is God who promises to send one who will “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers” (Mal 4:6, ESV). Those of us in global prayer ministry have seen the brokenness that comes from the rift between generations, and the beauty and power of reconciliation and unity.If there is anywhere such breakthrough can occur, would it not be the body of Christ?

Traditional missionary recruiting methods are in rapid decline in the West, and have never been widely successful in the Global South. Telling a younger generation that they must go and proselytize the world brings diminishing returns, no matter how many shiny pamphlets are distributed or how many water bottles are given out at mission conferences. What is working,it seems, is drawing them together to passionately worship and pray. When this worship turns into intercession, especially intercession for the nations, then we see the Holy Spirit calling forth people to serve Him in the fields of the world.

We are seeing a restoration of the power of community. Rationalism, enlightenment philosophy, modernity, and the global dominance of the West all put the individual atop the pedestal of human identity. Thankfully, the pendulum has swung the other way toward a healthier balance between community and individual. Intercession for the nations is not a solo performance! The mushrooming of houses of prayer around the world in the last 20 years bears this out. Intercession is best done in community. As the African proverb states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.”

God is bringing a convergence of the streams. Prayer movements are connecting (hence the existence of International Prayer Connect!). Mission organisations and evangelistic ministries are collaborating. Research initiatives are working together and sharing information. All of these are happening at unprecedented levels.  And now, these streams are overlapping, intermingling, and deliberately helping each other in the greater vision of the Great Commission – seeing vibrant communities of people from every tongue, tribe, and nation worshipping and following Jesus!

Serving with Operation World, it is part of our remit to study, report on, and mobilize intercession for all of the above. But for a few years now, God has been stirring us to pray and think about taking it to another level. And so the question on our hearts has been as follows:

What would it look like if a community was formed to be set apart specifically to intercede for the fulfillment of the Great Commission? A community where the prayer, mission, and research movements converged. A community that was deliberately diverse – intentionally multicultural, intergenerational, trans-denominational and trans-organisational. A community that drew from the richest traditions of 20 centuries of church history and the countless ways in which God is at work today. A community of people that gather from the nations, in order to pray for the nations. A community that could learn from one another as they walked out a lifestyle of intercession together – Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans, Middles Easterners, and all the rest, bringing the redemptive gifts God has placed in each of our cultures, coming from many different denominations and church traditions and all the richness therein. A community whose greatest desire is to see the Lamb upon the throne being worshipped by every tribe and tongue and nation!

What would such a community look like? What would it be like to be part of such a vision?

For seven days in March, 15 of us got to explore these questions. And it was glorious. On a leafy campus of All Nations (www.allnations.ac.uk), a college which exists to train missionaries, in partnership with Operation World (www.operationworld.org), a research ministry which exists to mobilize prayer, on the outskirts of one of the world’s most multicultural cities with its own great spiritual legacy and its own great spiritual needs, we got a glimpse of what God could do with such as vision.

The vision is so compelling, and our experience so positive, that we are not just repeating this gathering, but building it out to fill four weeks rather than just seven days. It will run from 9 June to 6 July this year. Despite this being a big step of faith, and on short notice, we are full of expectation to see what God will do! He is in the business of exceeding our expectations. He is in the business of answering prayer. He is in the business of fulfilling His purposes. And He is in the business of bringing glory to Himself!

If you are interested in being a part of this “School of Prayer for the Nations”, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visitwww.allnations.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/school-prayer-nations

Jason Mandryk – IPC Leadership Team
Operation World

Australia: 21 Days of Prayer for Elections 28 Apr - 18 May 2019

www.canberradeclaration.org.au/prayer/election-2019

USA National Day of Repentance 31th April 2019

http://www.dayofrepentance1.org

Australia Calls World to Pray & Fast for USA 30 April – 2 May 2019

www.nationaldayofprayer.org.au

Americas National Day of Prayer - 2 May 2019

www.nationaldayofprayer.org

30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World - 6 May - 4 June 2019

www.30daysprayer.com/

School of Prayer for the Nations - 9 Jun - 6 July 2019

www.allnations.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/school-prayer-nations

United Prayer Rising Europe – 8-11 July 2019

www.uprisingeurope.org

One God - One Day - One Africa – 31st May 2020

www.1gda.org

South East Asia Prayer Council Conference – 8-11 October 2019

https://www.seaprayer2019singapore.org/

Go 2020 May 2020

https://www.go2020.world

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he is 'appalled' at the ongoing persecution of Christians.

One of the countries clamping down is China. Churches continue to be closed, and Christians have been arrested because of their faith.

That is because the country is officially an atheist state, with freedom of religion guaranteed in the constitution. Sky's Tom Cheshire explains.

Watch the SKYNEWS video on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZE4y4PSjCw

Pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in China.

Christian Responsibility for Europe

Uniting in prayer, hope, reflection and action

Shaping Europe’s future – the European Parliament

The European Parliament can seem remote from daily life but it helps to shape the values and direction of our continent. Through its power to block and amend legislation and to lobby hard for other changes, the European Parliament has huge influence. Between 23rd and 26th May, EU citizens will get the chance to vote and thus collectively choose who will represent them at European level until 2024.

What will the European Union look like in 5 years’ time? What values will European society prioritise? Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will have a big say over the answers. What challenges will this continent face? MEPs will help choose Europe’s response.

Europe needs prayer

Of course it is always important to pray for politicians (1 Timothy 2: 1-4) and election seasons are especially significant. But, if we step back and look at our continent as a whole, it is clear that Europe is in trouble. So the importance of intercession is huge. Across Europe, fear, division and even anger are common, truth is often getting lost or ignored in the noise. Every nation and the EU institutions themselves are falling short of God’s standards as Evangelicals have historically believed them to be. We have been given good gifts of family, freedom, nation, human rights, security, sex, often relative economic prosperity, etc. but we have turned them into idols as we prioritise them over the Lord or distort them from what he designed them to be. Secularism, meanwhile, makes politics itself an idol and tries to silence other faith-inspired voices. There is also a growing culture of “them versus us” in which many believe that those they disagree with are completely wrong whereas they are completely right. This makes it difficult for people to see good in those who oppose them or to examine their own faults. As a result, wisdom is lost, pride and stubbornness abound.

Hope and responsibility

Individual Christians can feel powerless as they look at these socio-political and economic challenges. We can wonder if there is any point in praying about elections. But, hope returns when we focus our attention on the King of Kings, the one who is in ultimate charge and isworking out His eternal Kingdom purposes no matter what. As we remember that we are called to pray that “His will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, we are motivated to persevere in our intercession. But it also means that we have homework to do – to work to understand what is happening on earth and equally try to understand the will of the Lord. We do this in humility, remembering that we will not fully comprehend until Jesus returns.

Strength in unity

There is particular power and wisdom in praying and reflecting together with other Christians. The diversity of local Church (and indeed Church at national or European levels) means we can choose to understand the lives, problems, gifts and opinions of those who are very different to us. Our identity in Christ gives us a firm foundation for mutual respect, collaboration and the possibility of softening our opinions. We know that, when we pray in humility, repentance and unity for our nations, we can be confident that the Lord listens and will heal (2 Chronicles 7: 14). And when we consider socio-political matters with those who are different to us, it becomes much easier to find a truly biblical perspective on what is important.

A biblical worldview sustains democracy

There is much we can agree on from the Bible. We know that every single human being is made in the image of God and, therefore, has infinite value. So Christians are united in wanting to see European society valuing all, no matter their sex, age, ethnicity, faith or worldview, “economic usefulness”, health or if they are yet to be born etc. As image bearers, every human has the capacity for immense and creative good, so we seek a Europe where there is opportunity for that flourishing contribution from each one. But, since the Fall, each human is capable of unspeakable sinfulness. And so public policy and, indeed, the political system itself must take this into account.

It is this biblical worldview which has provided the foundation for sustainable democracy and free societies.

• Since human beings can do good, they should be able to contribute to the political decision making system and to society.
• Since human beings can do evil, democratic systems should spread power as widely as possible, not allowing any individual or institution to dominate.
• Since every human being has infinite worth, politicians should work for the good of all, including those who did not or could not vote for them.

So let’s be proactive in our praying, voting and influencing to speak up for these core biblical principles and to protect and strengthen the health (in God’s eyes) of our democracy, nations and continent.

Uniting despite differences

As Christians, we should be able to agree on foundational principles of what the Lord would want but there will still be much we continue to disagree on. Since no political party has a monopoly on truth and wisdom, Christians will vote in different ways. But, there is still huge value in praying and discussing together, asking for the Lord’s blessing and mercy, and seeking to understand what is needed for His Kingdom values to be more strongly reflected across our continent.

Therefore, the European Evangelical Alliance urges its members and local churches across the EU to unite in

• non-partisan intercession for our nations and continent,
• biblical reflection about the Lord’s values, listening to other opinions, asking big questions,
• challenging untruth, disrespect and idolatry,
• encouraging people to study political manifestos carefully and to vote.

Politics has its limits

However, no matter how important these elections are, politics becomes an idol when we expect it to solve every issue, give 100% guarantees of security and answer our every need. We look to the King of Kings first, trusting in His sovereignty and ultimate Kingdom purposes. And we also understand the responsibility of citizens to contribute to the common good. Local Church has a particular joyful task to offer the hope of Jesus Christ in word and deed. There is so much anger, fear, loneliness, injustice and hardship around. The Church is doing a vital job in serving communities, reaching out to the most vulnerable, encouraging neighbourliness, building peace, offering hope for today and ultimate hope for eternity. Let’s keep going, whatever happens in political life.

Pray for the European Parliament elections 23-26 May 2019

Christians may vote for different political parties but there is great significance in praying together in humility and unity for our nations and continent.

Here are suggestions for united intercession. We invite people to pray in non-partisan ways

so that all Christians can say AMEN.

Let’s pray for

• the well-being of all candidates and their families during this stressful time,
• peaceful and safe campaigning and voting,
• truth to be sought, seen and heard, valued and accepted,
• opportunities for respectful debate, with a variety of voices being heard,
• growing support for core biblical values, including love, truth, justice, righteousness, forgiveness, integrity, respect, service and generosity,
• the success of politicians who will
  • preserve and strengthen democracy and freedom,
  • work for the good of all, including the weakest and most vulnerable,
  • be a blessing to their nation but also work well with politicians from other nations.
• The next 5 years of the European Union to be a period
  • where mutual respect and listening in political debate increase,
  • where every Member State of the EU is able to be and to offer its best to the whole and to be humble enough to learn from others,
  • where there is greater understanding of the value of every human being,
  • where wise and just decisions are made to face the many economic, technological, environmental, social and security challenges Europe faces, and where the weakest are better protected,
  • where freedom of religion or belief and of expression are strengthened,
  • where decisions are made at the appropriate level – European, national, local,
  • where there is a stronger connection and trust between politicians and officials and the citizens of the European Union.

More: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanEA

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appointed a new chief commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), just days after the United States designated the paramilitary force as a foreign terrorist organization.

Iranian state media reported on April 21 that Khamenei appointed General Hossein Salami as the new head of the IRGC, replacing Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had been in charge for more than 11 years.

Salami, 59, had been serving as a deputy commander in the IRGC. State media gave no reason for Khamenei’s decision to replace the IRGC commander.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on April 8 designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in an unprecedented move that drew Iranian condemnation.

Tehran responded by designating the U.S. military's Central Command as a terrorist organization.

The estimated 100,000-strong IRGC is a branch of the military that also plays a major role in Iran’s economy.

It is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs and runs its own intelligence operations.

The IRGC has been involved in enforcing Islamic codes and crushing dissent at home, experts say, while taking part in covert operations, arms smuggling, and other efforts aimed at expanding Iran's influence abroad. It answers directly to Khamenei.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

More:https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-s-supreme-leader-appoints-new-chief-of-revolutionary-guards/29894970.html?ltflags=mailer

Pray that the devious and manipulative actions of the IRGC will be thwarted
Pray for the people of Iran, who yearn for freedom of speech and true democracy

Elections in Israel were yesterday.  This afternoon (Wednesday) with some 97% of votes counted, the Likud with Benjamin Netanyahu and the Blue and White party with Benny Gantz were tied, each having received 35 seats each in the new Knesset. 

However, because the two religious parties, the Sephardic Shas and the Ashkenazy United Torah Judaism, received an astounding eight seats each, and have vowed to join a Netanyahu government—and there are still several other right-wing parties expected to do the same,

Netanyahu is being seen as winner (President Rivlin will almost certainly give him the task of forming a coalition after the final military and write-in votes are counted tomorrow).  This will be Netanyahu’s fifth term.  It means that Israel will go into this next season with a proven, strong defense stance against the threat from Iran.  It will continue with a leader whose prowess as a statesman is respected (if not always loved) in the international community.  There should continue to be a government with strong feelings for Israel’s right to a presence in the Covenant Land of the Mountains of Israel—Judea & Samaria—the West Bank.  And, extremely important for the present time, the relationship forged between Prime Minister Netanyahu and U.S. President Trump continues in a realm of mutual favour no new Israeli leader could hope to imitate.

On the other hand, a coalition so strongly impressed with the religious parties means one which will likely continue with a “double standard” related to religious and civil responsibilities of citizens (most ultra-Orthodox demand to be allowed to study Biblical commentaries of rabbis rather than to fulfill those responsibilities).  And the Shas party will almost certainly demand to maintain control of the Ministry of the Interior and other offices related to immigration—thus deciding who is considered a “Jew”, and discriminating against Messianic Jews and others it considers not lining up with its narrow religious views. 

In general, a far-right government is far less concerned with civil rights of Israeli citizens.  Any overtures the government might wish to take, for example, towards allowing other streams of Judaism to have access to their own portion of the Western Wall, can (as happened two years ago) be nipped off at the bud by a threat from one of the religious parties to leave and bring down the government.

Another question mark relates to the “Deal of the Century” for solving the Israel/Palestinian questions, which President Trump is due to release within a few weeks after the new government is on its feet.  Will it “allow” Israel to annex portions of the Mountains of Israel, and for Jerusalem to remain undivided?  Will the present relationship with Mr. Trump and America be able to remain close if there are tenets of the plan which Israel finds impossible to accept?

The Prime Minister Elect will have a month to put together a coalition; if that fails, he may ask for one short extension.  That failing, the country goes again to new elections.

PLEASE PRAY:

• That the God of Israel will watch over and guard the building of the new government. That none will be allowed to be formed which would restrict His path of mercy for his covenant land and people during the coming season.
• That grace will rest upon Mr. Netanyahu—a grace which leads to humility, and to seeking heavenly counsel for his governance during this term.
• That no occult powers would be able to influence the forming of the new coalition.
• That the most recent Shas leader (a convicted felon) will not be allowed to again hold the office of Ministry of the Interior. That the anti-Messiah spirit would not be allowed to reign over that office.

Martin & Norma Sarvis

Jerusalem

The senior member of the world’s biggest Muslim organisation has insisted that Islamophobia is not rooted in racism and that the distrust of Muslims in many countries is a result of Islamist extremism and terrorism throughout the world.

Yahya CholilStaquf, the secretary-general of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama movement, which claims to have more than 90 million adherents, wrote in an article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph saying that the traditional Muslim mindset needed to change.

He called for a rejection of Islamic orthodoxy, condemning it as “obsolete and problematic” and “fuelling violence on both sides”.

 The influential cleric wrote that the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims was “factually incorrect” in linking the definition of the word “Islamophobia” to racism, and that it was “counter-productive” to do so.

“The truth, we recognise, is that jihadist doctrine, goals and strategy can be traced to specific tenets of orthodox, authoritative Islam and its historic practice. This includes those portions of sharia that promote Islamic supremacy, encourage enmity towards non-Muslims and require the establishment of a caliphate. It is these elements – still taught by most Sunni and Shiite institutions – that constitute a summons to perpetual conflict,” he wrote.

Staquf stated that Brenton Tarrant’s murder spree, which killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March, was part of an “ancient cycle of violence” and that the killer shared a “historical framework” with many Muslims that went back almost 1,400 years. He explained the traditional Islamic teaching that “Muslims and non-Muslims are and shall remain in a state of permanent conflict, until the end of time (according to Islamists) or the disappearance of Islam (according to advocates of a ‘counter-jihad’).”

“If Muslims do not address the key tenets of Islamic tradition that encourage this violence, anyone – at any time – can harness them to defy what they claim to be illegitimate laws and butcher their fellow citizens, whether they live in the Islamic world or the West. This is what links so many current events, from Syria to the streets of London,” he added.

More:https://barnabasfund.org/en/news/leading-muslim-cleric-says-islamophobia-a-result-of-islamic-extremism-and-not-racism

Pray with many others globally for 30 Days - for the Muslim world this Ramadan. See the article.

Over a dozen Christians, including children, were slaughtered by Fulani militants following an infant dedication service in the Nigerian state of Nasarawa.

Morning Star News reports that the attack took place on Palm Sunday as Christians in the predominantly Christian community gathered to eat after the child was dedicated that morning at Ruhaniya Baptist Church in the village.

Fulani militants, who have increasingly targeted Christians, stormed the party and opened fire indiscriminately, killing 17. The militants claimed the life of the baby’s mother, Safaratu John Kabiru Ali, along with several others, some of whom were children as young as 10. The baby’s father, John Kabiru Ali, is currently in critical condition after suffering gunshot wounds.

A local resident told Morning Star News that among those killed were “10 members of the Ruhaniya Baptist Church, five members of Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ, one member of the Evangelical Church Winning All, and a musician playing for guests.”

Samuel Meshi, chairman of the Akwanga Local Government Council, told the outlet the group of Christians did nothing to provoke the horrific attack.

“They just started shooting sporadically on a community that was just having a feast of the dedication of a child after a church service earlier in the day on Sunday (April 14) at a Baptist church in the area,” Meshi said.

“The killings occurred in the evening of that day. Unfortunately, these persons were killed in cold blood for just no reason,” he noted.

Pastor Samson Gamu Yare, community leader of the Mada ethnic group in Nasarawa state, described the killings as “barbaric” and called on the federal government to urgently take measures toward curtailing the menace of extremist herdsmen attacks on his people.

Nigerian outlet The Punch notes that the governor of Narasawa State, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, has demanded that the perpetrators be apprehended immediately.

“This is something we are going to take seriously. We are going to have a Security Council meeting and I have already directed security operatives to ensure that they fish out these people and bring them to book,” Al-Makura said, according to Channels TV.

Major General Adeyemi Yekini subsequently announced his strategy to track and arrest those involved in the attack.

“I have directed my troops to move to Akwanga and join other security forces to track down the perpetrators of this crisis; let us apprehend them so that justice can be done,” he said.

Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List.

The Fulani herdsmen are an ethnic group of over 20 million in West and Central Africa. Herders have been known to travel hundreds of miles while carrying weapons to protect their livestock. While they have clashed with indigenous tribes and Christians for centuries, only a small subset are extremists and engage in attacks, according to the Global Terror Index.

However, Open Doors notes that the clashes have intensified in recent years and led to the destruction of houses and churches, as well as the seizure of land and properties belonging to Christian owners. Open Doors concluded that the Nigerian government has historically failed to protect Christians, particularly women and children, from Fulani extremist violence.

Last Easter, Fulani herdsmen carried out an attack on morning Mass at Saint Ignatius Catholic Church in Mbalom, central Nigeria, leaving two priests and at least 17 parishioners dead. About 30 attackers also ransacked a burial ceremony and burned dozens of homes in the community, according to reports.

On March 4, Fulani militants in the Benue state reportedly attacked three villages, killing 23 people with bullets and machetes, according to International Christian Concern.

Also in March, 52 people were killed, dozens injured and around 143 homes were destroyed in attacks on the villages of Inkirimi, Dogonnoma and Ungwan Gora in the Maro district of the Kajuru Local Government Area.

PRAY

Pray for the bereaved that they will know the comfort and presence of God in their grief.
Pray that the extremists will be brought to justice.
Pray for the Government of Nigeria to have greater success with resolving this longstanding issue.

More: https://www.christianpost.com/news/nigeria-christians-slaughtered-by-fulani-militants-at-baby-dedication-children-among-the-dead.html