AFP     December 31, 2015, 10:55 pm    

Freed Afghan village reveals key to Taliban 'success'

QARA GHOILY (Afghanistan) (AFP) - Flanked by shaggy-haired gunmen, commander Ghulam Farooq peered out from a hilltop at the biggest military prize of his fabled career as a warlord -- a mud-walled Afghan village captured after five years of Taliban control. The village of Qara Ghoily in the remote northwestern badlands bordering Turkmenistan offers a rare glimpse into life under Taliban rule and encapsulates governance failures that have helped the Islamists gain ground against NATO-backed Afghan forces. When Farooq, a powerful anti-Taliban militia commander in Faryab province, wrested control of the village in August after a scorched-earth offensive, he found a population deeply disaffected with the government despite years of hardline Taliban rule.

"There," said Farooq, pointing down to a patch of clay dirt surrounded by fields of wild grapevines and deserted village roads. "The Taliban had no prison. They didn't need one. They beheaded all their prisoners over there." They also kept a chokehold on social freedoms, a throwback to their 1996-2001 rule that made them international pariahs, including a ban on music, shaving of beards and hip Hollywood hairstyles.

But despite their austere vision of Islam, the Taliban shored up support by restoring a modicum of order in the village through an effective sharia-inspired judicial system, filling a vacuum left by a Western-backed government seen as inept and corrupt. Unlike the official legal system, built with millions of dollars of foreign aid, the Taliban's informal court dispensed swift justice on all matters, from adultery to robbery. And one thing in particular set them apart from government officials: they never demanded a bribe. "If you go to a city court, the judge will take your money, the clerk will take your clothes and the guards will take whatever is left," remarked a village resident, requesting anonymity for fear of retribution. "People prefer to tolerate the cruelty of the Taliban than be robbed of justice and everything they own."

The testimony highlights the anguished choices faced by a population seemingly trapped between two evils and helps explain the insurgency's stunning rise despite a decade of costly Western intervention. The Taliban remain largely unpopular in urban centres, but in many rural areas the puritanical movement has entrenched itself among alienated groups, competing directly with the government for public loyalty.

The Taliban now control more territory than in any year since they were toppled from power in a 2001 US-led invasion, with the UN estimating that nearly half of all districts across Afghanistan are at risk of falling. NATO-backed Afghan security operations that claim to kill scores of militants on a daily basis are causing the "displacement of the insurgency, not its eradication", a Western official in Kabul told AFP. The Afghan government has frequently lashed out at neighbouring Pakistan for nurturing the Taliban, while ignoring their local support base, which the official stressed cannot be uprooted by military force alone.

- 'Taliban's advantage' -

"Insurgency is like a fever," said Sarah Chayes, author of "Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security", which looks at how Taliban propaganda appeals to graft-weary Afghans.

"Focusing only on violent insurgents might bring down the fever, but unless you treat the whole patient -- by paying as much attention to improving governance -- you will never durably stabilise the situation."

Commander Farooq, 49, is part of a constellation of informal militia groups seeking to bolster Afghan forces struggling to beat back the lethal insurgency as they suffer record casualties and a growing spate of desertions.

Unregulated and unaccountable, such groups are often accused of banditry and predatory behaviour that in some areas has driven Afghans into the arms of the insurgents, seeking protection.

But Farooq, a Soviet-era warrior who fought alongside the legendary resistance fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, styles himself as a formidable bulwark against the Taliban.

He managed to do what government forces could not for five years -- dislodge the Taliban from Qara Ghoily in an offensive that left an entire terraced hillock in the village gutted after being slammed by rockets.

The insurgents escaped on motorbikes, villagers recalled, planting landmines and booby traps in their homes and backyards as they fled. Joining the Taliban exodus were around 60 families from the village of 2,000 people, which is hemmed between caramel-coloured hills that cut through a hotbed of insurgency. Those who stayed back are distrustful of Farooq's forces, but also fear the wrath of the Taliban if they return. Pro-government forces have a poor track record of holding territory seized from the Taliban.

"I have assured them 'I will be with you when you harvest your grapes, when they shrivel into raisins, when you cook the sacrificial meat of Eid'," said Farooq, sporting a luxuriant silk turban.

"We are here to stay."

Farooq gazed from the edge of the wind-swept hill, surrounded by loyalist gunmen who were amused as their handheld radio crackled with the voice of an eavesdropping Taliban fighter hurling profanities and threats.

"It is hard to gain trust as the gap between the people and the government grows," Farooq conceded, impassive to the chuckling.

"That works to the Taliban's advantage."

This report will help you to understand and pray for those suffering under the scourge of the Taliban. Pray for the government to become effective in caring for its people and for the discrediting and overthrow of the Taliban and ISIS forces in the country so that the people of Afghanistan will finally be free.

As a Jewish believer in Messiah Yeshua, who lives in a Druze/Arabic community in Israel, with dear Arabic Christian friends and spiritual family, I yearn to share with you, and with the Church at large, my perspective on Israel and our peoples. FYI, I pray several times a week with Arabic and International friends, and worship several times a week with Jews and Internationals. Both sides cry with a combination of pain and hope. Both sides share deep-seated fears and amazing faith. Both ache and believe for God’s timing to bring forth His unity in our Land. Both yearn to accelerate that timing through prayers and worship. 

In fact, we are not two peoples, Palestinian vs. Israeli, Ishmael vs. Isaac, embroiled in ancient land and authority jealousies that rip us apart. Instead, we are one people battling the most intense religious/spiritual/political war that the enemy of our souls could possibly create. God promised Ezekiel (37:15-28) that Israel would never be divided into two nations again. God’s enemy is bound, set and determined to prove Him wrong. God promised us that we would have one king: David, and one Shepherd, and we would all live at peace under His commandments. Instead, most Palestinians are Muslims and most Jews don’t know their God. 

Let me explain. 

According to DNA research done at Haifa University and other locations, starting in 2000-2001, on the genetic pool of the Palestinians, 90% of Palestinians are 90% Jewish.  They include as many priests (Cohens) in their genetic pool as do Jews in general. They call this Land their own because it is. But other Jews also call this Land their own because it is. We don’t recognize ourselves as one, yet we are. God gave us this Land through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Similarly, many internationals, who inexplicably yearn to live in Israel, have discovered from personal DNA research that they are genetically Jewish.) 

We are NOT dealing with Ishmael vs. Israel.  We are dealing with Muslim Jew vs. Jewish Jew. We are fighting against religious principalities at war with each other, using the Church, world-wide media, and general deception to create an unsolvable conflict that they hope will cause God’s defeat and their victory in God’s land. 

Historically, how did this happen?  (Note the reference links at the end of this article.) From the research, the Palestinians’ common genetic pool with other Jews is about 2,000 years old. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and slaughtered its inhabitants, renaming Israel Palestine and renaming Israelis Palestinians, to honor Israel’s long-standing enemy and mock the Jews, the ancestors of current day Palestinians either stayed, or went down to Gaza and returned to Israel/Palestine as soon as possible. When the Muslims invaded Israel in the 600s or so, they were forcibly converted to Islam. Thus, our inheritance was divided. The Jewish people who fled Israel into the Diaspora retained their religious affiliation with GOD, and the Palestinians who stayed in the Land, and held it, lost their faith. 

Many in the older generation still know this. Prior to 1948, many Palestinian homes hid Jewish symbols, in stone flower decorations, over the doorposts of their houses. In 1948, both the Jordanians and the Palestinians probably knew that Palestinians were Jews. Heartbreakingly, there is something genuine in their permanent refugee status. Israel is their home. It is also my home, as a Messianic Jew. That doesn’t solve our dilemma, but it more adequately defines it.

So, what do we do from here? We pray for unity, for peace, for deepening understanding, for the removal of fears, for the ability to reconnect and love each other. We pray for family reconciliation. We pray for Yeshua. We pray for Yeshua to declare His Presence over the Land and in all our hearts. We pray for Him to reconcile our differences in His Blood. We pray for millions of Jewish Muslims to believe in Yeshua, for millions of secular and orthodox Jews to believe in Yeshua. I know He wants all of us saved and whole in His Name. I know He wants all of us home in Him, living here in His Land together in peace. Israel is crying out to us. Ezekiel 37 is calling us together. Can we hear God’s Voice of Return?

There will be a special prayer initiative here to hopefully bring together ministry leaders from across the ethnic and political spectrum, focusing on His heart for the land and its diverse peoples. It will be from May 10-13. We are expecting, in the LORD, much reconciliation and love and joy to come from these meetings. Please pray for us as we prepare for this prayer initiative. 

In conclusion, these are our requested prayer points:

1. Yeshua to take His Place as King over all our hearts, with all of our hearts ready and rejoicing to receive Him.
2. The world, and especially the Christian world, to stop taking sides, but to join in prayers for reconciliation and unity.
3. The enmity to completely cease, and truth and reconciliation between the brothers to be restored.
4. All idols to collapse, with false gods cast out, never to return.
5. Yeshua’s Love to strengthen us, body, soul and spirit, so that as we come together in His Love, we would make the surrounding nations jealous for Him.
6. The Prayer Initiative in May to bring forth ALL the GOOD FRUIT the LORD DESIRES, without any interference, and for all of us organizing this event, and/or participating in it to be completely covered in our LORD and Savior’s protection. All the finances for the initiative to be provided for completely. Amen and amen.

Dear Yeshua, thank YOU for YOUR WISDOM and for the depth and height and breadth and width of Your Love which you are pouring into and through all of us. Thank You for the salvation of all Your People, Jew and Gentile alike.  Guide us in understanding Your Truth and Your Love.  Bring us into the borders of Your Kingdom of Grace and Righteousness, so we can dwell in Your Peace. Ba Shem Yeshua, I pray!  Amen and amen.

Wendy Cohen

References:

http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/The-lost-Palestinian-Jews,

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/science/1.681385,

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/epiphenom/2009/01/shared-genetic-heritage-of-jews-and.html#sthash.fyFm6XYC.dpuf,

For more detailed scientific information go to:

M. F. Hammer (2000). Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97 (12), 6769-6774 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.100115997

A NEBEL, D FILON, B BRINKMANN, P MAJUMDER, M FAERMAN, A OPPENHEIM (2001). The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East The American Journal of Human Genetics, 69 (5), 1095-1112 DOI: 10.1086/324070

M THOMAS (2002). Founding Mothers of Jewish Communities: Geographically Separated Jewish Groups Were Independently Founded by Very Few Female Ancestors The American Journal of Human Genetics, 70 (6), 1411-1420 DOI: 10.1086/340609

Doron M. Behar, Ene Metspalu, Toomas Kivisild, Saharon Rosset, Shay Tzur, Yarin Hadid, Guennady Yudkovsky, Dror Rosengarten, Luisa Pereira, Antonio Amorim, Ildus Kutuev, David Gurwitz, Batsheva Bonne-Tamir, Richard Villems, Karl Skorecki (2008). Counting the Founders: The Matrilineal Genetic Ancestry of the Jewish Diaspora PLoS ONE, 3 (4) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002062

Islamic Incursion Across the Southwest Border

In light of the recent terror massacres in Paris and San Bernardino, CA, public attention has turned to lone-wolves or Islamic sleeper-cell attacks and the possibility that would-be terrorists are among those seeking to come to America as refugees or immigrants. 

Equally concerning however, is the Islamic infiltration across our Southwest border that has been ongoing for years. 

In August 2007 former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell stated that not only have terrorists used the Southwest border to enter the United States - but that they will inevitably continue to do so as long as it is an available possibility.

During 2010, Iranian currency and prayer rugs were regularly found near the southern border.In a July 2012 hearing before the full U.S. House of Representatives Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, confirmed that terrorists have crossed the Southwest border with the intent to harm the American people. It is well known that drug cartels are assisting Islamic terrorists in gaining entrance and crossing the border. 

Are Islamic Jihadists "Testing the Gates?"

In November 2015, two separate reports of groups of America-bound Syrians detained below the US southern border as well as the arrests of five Pakistani nationals and one Afghan national captured with smugglers in Sonoita, AZ raised concerns that Islamic State militants could be probing security and "testing the gates." 

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0019_3wlEQoC6z5FNKWd7rLAg4LLZMPmw4THRSEsftZKm7b8FbGEkxwJMozz_vm--eUDda7WcK-ORJaoe226P6YRxnQggDc8m-g_2TFOFUCQwdrluGv_nf5LIlTuaaw5NRjnfjjGQrbm5blhvE2714CtVO-eNq-i1q53-9yzJMwRwGHgEvQuvDVS6Jl-W_5J97wY7NnWhCgKa3BXC2FLsKr9qbcAWKxvzehqra-4zFhd20ySisQeAabVpoW1Q6leN2tWqsSSLwr4FqRZtIvqZD5Y9qR7P_KJC5i&c=QxfoBJd-vtUXQzZBrlzvjpAr9zuTngPgHO6qLZIRT4qCcxKzipknNg==&ch=Oxz53Tqyxxck9YbLbmABg6FhL_FrEeA3VAzc1z4YK-9TB-ecKP_LeA==

Later that week, Honduran authorities arrested five Syrians they said were headed for the U.S. with stolen or doctored Greek passports, but later said the men were college students fleeing war at home. On the same day and 1,800 miles north, two Syrian families were taken into custody at a border checkpoint in Texas.

Recently, 6 individuals from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen were picked up by U.S. border patrol near Laredo, Texas. 

"We know that terrorist groups look for the weakest link,

or any way they can gain entry."

- Jessica Vaughan, Center for Immigration Studies

Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) has previously said he believes ISIS will use the southern border to enter the United States:

"The drug cartels will bring people into the country no matter who they are, for money...National security does not start overseas; it starts at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. 

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has released a report exposing Mexican cartels and street gangs as conduits for individuals from Africa and Asia entering the U.S illegally.

Among other threats, Mexican cartels are assisting illegal border-crossers from Somalia, a known haven for Islamic fighters and terrorists from across Africa and the Middle East, according to this report.

Border Patrol regularly apprehends aliens from the 35 "special interest countries" designated as hotbeds for potential terrorist threats. 

Between 2006 and 2011 there were 1,918 of these "Special Interest Aliens" stopped at our Southwest border, according to the most recent numbers available.

Over 30 Recent Immigrants with Ties to Terrorism

Potential threats are not only coming across the Southwest border but via our immigration process, due to poor security vetting. 

1. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) released a list of some 30 terrorists who were recently granted access to the US through the nation's immigration system. 

Terror groups have demonstrated that they will recruit from among the massive influx of migrants and refugees coming into this nation. Better security vetting is needed in order to protect our nation

LET'S PRAY:

• Lord, we thank You for all those who stand guard over our borders daily: our intelligence, national security, and law enforcement agencies (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, FBI, DEA, ATF, and county sherifs).
• Keep them vigilant and grant them supernatural discernment to identify threats to our national security from jihadists who have pledged to attack Americans.
• Father of Light, bring good tips and leads to our law enforcement and uncover all terrorist plots and threats before they can bring harm to our nation.  We declare that "There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing secret that will not become known and come to light"  (Luke 8:17).
• Merciful God, we thank you for the many times You have spared our nation from terrorist inspired disasters over the years.
• We pray that Congress would tackle the issue of stopping radicalized Islamic immigrants and refugees who pose a national security risk from entering the US.
• We ask now for a sweeping harvest in the Islamic world and among Muslim immigrants in America and Europe! Continue to open eyes and hearts to the gospel and demonstrate signs and wonders to them, we pray.
• Thank you that more Muslims have come to faith in Christ in the past 10 years than in the previous 14 centuries combined! 
• According to Brother Rachid, son of a Moroccan imam who now hosts an Arabic language Christian program, many Muslims are questioning their faith: Many Muslims are saying, 'If ISIS is Islam, I'm leaving.' Some are becoming atheists... many are turning to Jesus Christ. Islam was never faced with this crisis before.

"The greatest power of Islam is the weakness of the Christians," according to another ex-Muslim. Lord, we cry out to You for a Great Awakening in Your Church in America and we praise You for the signs of this that we see in the beginning stages already!

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As we continue to press on by faith and cry out to God for His purposes and will to be done in these days, we want to encourage you to unite your prayers with many thousands of others during the 40-day Seek God for the City season. The prayers in Seek God for the City are written to help sustain you and your church or prayer network to pray solid, biblical prayers of hope and blessing that God intends for your city and community.  

WayMakers is able to provide you with several versions of Seek God for the City which will help you as you pray through this 40-day season: 

• The children’s companion version is now available as a free PDF download from our website. The children’s version has prayers that are framed with clear, simple language, making it easy for kids to express heartfelt prayer for others. Each one of the prayers springs from the same Bible verses as the adult version, making it easy for a family to read and pray together.
• A printed Spanish version will be available in late December. Clama a Dios por la Ciudad 2016 will help unite your prayers with the prayers of Spanish-speaking people of your congregation or Spanish-speaking churches in your community. The booklets will be available for the same low price as the English version. You can place your orders now.
• A Chinese version will be available as a downloadable PDF file in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. The daily topics, scriptures and prayers are all identical to the English booklet. Watch for an email in mid-December. 
• The companion app for smartphones and tablets (iOS or Android) will be released in early January 2016. The app contains the complete book plus some additional pages. It also connects you with Operation World so you have current data on the different countries we will be praying for each day. 
• A recorded version for the visually impaired will be available from Care Ministries. Call 662.323.4999. 

We can be tempted in these days to give way to fear and despair as our trust and faith in our God is challenged from every side. We want to encourage you to keep praying with the certain and solid truth that God will fulfill His promised word of blessing and life for peoples throughout the earth. Let’s remain confident in our prayers that His will will be done, here on earth, as it is in heaven. 

In hope,

Barb Hawthorne

Stephanie Tucker

PS Check our website for current information about the release of the Spanish and Chinese versions and the app.