bestcurrentnews 2024 Ramadan Prayer

Choose Life

Since 9-11-2001, there have been over 44,900 deadly terror attacks perpetrated by Islamic terrorists around the world. The vast majority of these attacks are never reported by Western media often because they do not occur in a Western nation. For instance, in the last 30 days, there have been 141 Islamic attacks in 22 countries, in which 689 people were killed and 714 were injured, according to thereligionofpeace.com. Chances are the only attack that Western readers are familiar with is the one that occurred in Russia on March 22, where ISIS killed 139 concertgoers.   

The governments of the U.S. and other Western nations often refuse to address the danger of Islamic terrorism to avoid being labeled Islamophobic. According to the Daily Wire, many U.S. intelligence agencies received instructions to avoid using terms such as “jihadist” in a newsletter called “The Dive.” One of the stated goals is “disentangling Islam from words and phrases used to discuss terrorism and extremist violence.” This type of policy keeps those who are entrusted with the safety of Westerners from understanding or identifying the potential threat of Islamic terrorists.

However, Robert Spencer, in an article published on frontpagemag.com, perhaps gave a most optimistic attitude, saying, “Each of us must decide, as surely as God offered the choice to the Israelites: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Spencer continued, “Jihadis love to proclaim how much they “love death.” Let us, in turn, love life all the more and stand to counter them and their inhuman totalitarian leftist allies, secure in the knowledge that in the end, life conquers death.”

PRAYER

Kamal Saleem, a former radical terrorist from the Middle East, is an anointed man of God today. In his recent book, “Ishmael Redeemed,” Kamal stated that of the nearly 2 billion Muslims worldwide, more than 4 out of 5 are not radical.” Apparently they want to live a peaceful life. 

“Heavenly Father, we recognize that Jesus died for the sins of Muslims and longed for them to be in the kingdom of God. Draw them, Lord (John 6:44), giving them a desire for truth and revealing the heart of Jesus to them, to bring them to salvation. In Christ’s name, we pray, Amen!”

bestcurrentnews 2024 Ramadan Prayer

Sharia: A Violation of Women’s Human Rights

On March 8, 2024, International Women’s Day, a group of Muslim and non-Muslim people from many nations lodged a formal complaint before the UN Human Rights Council on the violation of women’s human rights caused by Sharia (Islamic) law. This group includes victims of Sharia, human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and other concerned professionals from around the world. 

The complaint names the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), “the collective voice of the Muslim world,” as the violators. The OIC has 57 member nations, 56 of which are also members of the UN. 

This complaint addresses three different areas: violence against women, Sharia, and aspects of Islamic culture, which include practices such as unequal educational opportunities, female genital mutilation, and head coverings for women. According to the press release of the complaint, 71% of the Quran and 91% of the Hadith give women a lower status than men. In addition, the press release highlights Sharia-linked violence:

“Sharia-linked violence is inflicted upon women in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, and includes the recent extreme sexual violence committed against Israeli women in October 2023 by Hamas, proven by the UN. 

The complaint continues regarding the violation of women with the infliction of sexual slavery on Yazidi women by the Islamic State (IS); the killing of Iranian women for not wearing the hijab; the trafficking, kidnapping, and forced conversion of Coptic Christian girls in Egypt; and abduction of girls and women in Nigeria by Boko Haram. It also includes the mass attacks on women in Germany in 2015; the rape of girls in the UK by the so-called ‘grooming gangs’; the forced conversion, kidnapping, and murder of Hindu girls in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, to name a few.”

PRAYER

It is encouraging to see that an awareness of Sharia-linked violence against women has been presented at the UN Human Rights Council. Our concern is that some of the 47 nations that presently sit on this Council may allow this violence against women. 

  • Ask God to open the eyes of those nations who allow this violence and bring His conviction, causing them to change their mindset against women. 
  • Pray for an outpouring of healing, hope, comfort, and courage for all the women who have experienced this Sharia-linked violence, asking for visions and dreams of Jesus to appear in their midst, bringing them to salvation in Christ.
bestcurrentnews 2024 Ramadan Prayer

The Human Shields of Gaza

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel in October of 2023, the United Nations reports that 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children. Accurate casualty numbers are difficult to find in war situations. However, this percentage is certainly plausible, given that Hamas’ leadership has admitted that they are not responsible for the people of Gaza. 

On October 27, 2023, Russia Today’s Arabic channel interviewed Moussa Abu Marzouk, a prominent Hama political bureau member. He was asked by the interviewer why Hamas had never built bomb shelters for the citizens of Gaza, yet there are hundreds of miles of tunnels in the territory. He replied, “We built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being killed in airstrikes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels…Seventy-five percent of the population of Gaza are refugees, and it is the UN’s responsibility to protect them.”

Many residents of Gaza speak out against the Hamas and its leadership. For instance, a user on X wrote, “You have destroyed Gaza, killed its people, and displaced its residents, and you continue to trade in our [lives] and to delay the hudna [i.e. ceasefire with Israel].” Another Gazan Facebook user posted, “You saw what happened to us in Gaza when the resistance became a media show, a business, a [form of] robbery, and a livelihood; its leaders and their families dine on delicacies while feeding on our blood…”

PRAYER:

When Hamas became the ruling leader in Gaza in 2007, it was well known that the terrorist group Hamas taught the boys to be jihad warriors to kill Jews and used Palestinian women and children as human shields. Pray for God’s divine protection of the innocent in this war, and to send His holy angels to keep the women and children in a hidden place. Ask Jesus to appear to them in dreams and visions, giving the revelation that it is Christ who will save them and bring them hope.

bestcurrentnews 2024 Ramadan Prayer

The Women in Gaza and Hamas

Hamas won a majority in elections in 2006 and took control of the Gaza Strip. Elections have not been held in almost 18 years, and during this time, the status of women in Gaza has steadily eroded. 

The 1988 Hamas charter states, “The Moslem woman has a role no less important than that of the Moslem man in the battle of liberation. She is the maker of men…Woman in the home of the fighting family, whether she is a mother or a sister, plays the most important role in looking after the family, rearing the children and embuing them with moral values and thoughts derived from Islam. She has to teach them to perform the religious duties in preparation for the role of fighting awaiting them.”

Women make up approximately 50% of the population in Gaza, but under Hamas rule, their influence and fundamental rights are often denied. Since Hamas’ rise to power, the unemployment rate for women has risen by 27%, with only 22% of women in the labor force. 

Beginning in 2013, Hamas instituted gender segregation in schools and began to enforce a “code of modesty” in public places mandating that women wear a hijab. The code also included a prohibition on women using a male hairdresser, smoking in public, and even submitting complaints of incest. 

No law in Gaza prohibits violence against women, and those who submit an official complaint may find themselves the subject of public shame and abuse. 51% of married women in Gaza admitted to being victims of some form of violence from their husbands. 16.7% of 12-17-year-old girls reported suffering physical or psychological violence from teachers or classmates. Child marriage is common, with 29% of women married before the age of 18 and 13.4% before the age of 15.

PRAYER POINT

Consider the present life of a Muslim woman in Gaza. Not only is she living amid war around her, but she does not have the liberties in her home or her community that Western women enjoy. She is expected to raise her sons to be a jihad warrior and teach them to hate the Jewish people. Her life is stressful and fearful, and she is without peace in her heart. As we realize how our God loves her, pray He will draw her to Himself, and reveal the tenderness of Jesus to bring her to salvation.

bestcurrentnews 2014 Ramadan Prayer

Arab Support for Hamas in the Israeli-Hamas Conflict Waning

2014 Ramadan Prayer Day 20The current conflict between the nation of Israel and the terrorist group, Hamas in the Gaza Strip has sparked criticism of Hamas in Arab media. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports, “Arab media voiced sharp and extensive criticism of the Hamas leadership’s handling of the crisis. …Media in Saudi Arabia and in Al-Sisi’s Egypt…accused Hamas of taking unreasonable and irresponsible steps, of trading in the blood of the people of Gaza, and of exposing them to inevitable attacks.”

Following a call by Hamas’ political bureau head for the Egyptian army to aid Hamas in Gaza, many Egyptian columnists responded with anger. One questioned why the bureau head was not joining the fight himself and urged him to “Leave Doha’s [Qatar] hotels, which you have enjoyed, and go down into the trenches and fight…we are tired of defending the [Palestinian] cause that you have sold for cheap to a Muslim Brotherhood gang.”

Another columnist, Dr. Nagla Al-Sayyid criticized Hamas saying that it was trading in the blood of Palestinians while using the financial aid it receives to promote political and ideological interests rather than giving the money to those in need. “All the Hamas leaders are doing – as they sit securely in their hiding places while leaving the people of Gaza alone under the fire of the Israeli shelling – is collecting donations in order to use them in the service of their ideas.” Dr. Al-Sayyid continues by calling Hamas a failed movement.

Mahmoud Sultan, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood editor of a daily Egyptian newspaper criticized Hamas for not caring for their own people. Another Egyptian writer compared Hamas to Hitler saying that Hamas has done more damage to the Palestinian people than Israel has.Newspaper Rack at Souk

The Saudi Arabian editor of a London-based Saudi daily also claimed that Hamas was trading in the blood of its own people. “Nobody [in Hamas] is asking if the loss of [Palestinian] life if justified.” Another Saudi warned his readers to not be fooled by Hamas’ tactics. “The same sights are repeating themselves in Gaza once again: an abduction followed by mutual rocket fire, which triggers an Israeli invasion of Gaza. The result is always dozens of dead and hundreds wounded from among the weak Palestinians, and minimal damage on the Israeli side… While the poor, defenseless people …stand exposed to rockets and tanks, the jihadi and Brotherhood leaderships flee to the fortified holes they prepared for themselves.” He also points out that much of the leadership of Hamas are living outside of Gaza and tells his readers to “Beware of them!”

Hamas describes itself as one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood. The toppling of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt seems to have helped open the eyes of Muslims in the region to the tactics of Hamas in Gaza.

Prayer Points:

Each of these journalists still would like to see a separate Palestinian state, and they still support Palestine over Israel. However, we thank God that eyes are beginning to be open to the tactics of Hamas and these journalists have been courageous to speak out against them.

In Isaiah 56:6-7 and 62:6-7 God spoke prophetically through Isaiah that He would raise up intercessors for Israel – and we see this today in the nations of the world. Continue to pray that Christians will see the current situation through the Lord’s eyes and have the understanding to make His proclamations and declarations that will cause a shift in what is happening in this critical time, releasing the will and glory of God and bringing peace in the midst of it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stated:

“Israel targets Hamas terrorists and not innocent civilians. By contrast, Hamas targets Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians. Hamas, therefore, bears full responsibility for any harm that comes to Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike. We are determined to give our citizens the safety and security they deserve.”

Pray that God will protect the innocent people in Gaza and that the nations in the world will recognize when Hamas is using their people as “human shields”.  Just as these Arab journalists are courageous, pray for the media in the nations to also be courageous, recognize what is happening through the eyes of truth – and report about Israel and Hamas with honesty and accuracy.

bestcurrentnews Ramadan Prayer

Ramadan 2013 – Day 23 – The Plight of Islam’s Children

2013 Ramadan PrayerThe words of the “adhan” or the Muslim call to prayer are first words a newborn Muslim baby hears. His or her father whispers into the child’s right ear, “God is great, there is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer.”  This is the crux is Islam, acknowledging Allah and Muhammad as the perfect example.

By the time a Muslim reaches the age of 50, he has heard this repeated nearly 90,000 times. That is roughly 1,800 times per year every year since the day he was born.

In some nations, the call to prayer is not the only tenet of Islam that children learn at an early age. A 2011, report regarding school textbooks in the Middle East revealed the Egyptian school children are taught Christians and Jews are infidels. And for many years textbooks in Palestinian schools have rejected Israel’s right to exist, and have portrayed a Middle East in maps and through text without the nation of Israel on them. For instance, the following is from a 12th grade Palestinian textbook: “Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands and their houses, and established the State of Israel.”

Palestinian Media Watch released a video of a young girl reciting a poem about Jerusalem on Palestinian Authority TV that calls Jews the most evil among creations, barbaric monkeys and wretched pigs. It ends with the lines:

 As long as my heart is my Qur’an and my city

As long as I have my arm and my stones

As long as I am free and do not barter my cause

I will not fear your throngs

I will not fear the rifle.

In April of 2013, The Guardian reported approximately 37,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 to 17 were receiving weekly military training classes in the Palestinian area of Gaza. The boys learn about assault rifles and other weapons, first aid and firefighting. During school breaks, voluntary camps are offered where students can learn how to handle guns and explosives. The armed wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades assists in the training. They deny the use of real weapons, however a video that was filmed at a school near Gaza City shows students carrying assault rifles and one boy firing an artillery shell at a replica of an Israeli watchtower, complete with an Israeli flag. About 5,000 boys have participated since the program began in September 2012, and the Palestinian government is considering adapting the course for teenaged girls next year.

Another video, filmed in Deir ez-Zor, Syria was posted to the Internet in June which shows children training at an Al-Qaeda. Save the Children estimated that two million children were innocent victims of the war in Syria. Many children struggled to find enough food to eat, girls were being forced into early marriages to protect them from the threat of sexual violence, and armed groups were recruiting other children. Children as young as eight have been used as human shields in the fighting.

The Taliban in Afghanistan recruits orphans to act as decoys and to be suicide bombers against western forces in Afghanistan. According to Britain’s Channel 4, Taliban fighters promised an eight-year-old orphan boy named Neaz a handful of coins worth 91 cents to go with them. They gave him sweets and taught him to use a gun and build IEDs. After gaining the child’s trust they tried to convince him to use a suicide vest and blow himself up at a checkpoint. After questioning how he could spend the coins he was promised if he blew himself up, he eventually escaped and turned himself into police. He now lives in an orphanage.

Prayer Points:

In Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them…”  Pray for the children of Islam who have become orphans because of war in their nation. Ask God to watch out for them, enabling them to be cared for by people who will not use them as weapons or decoys.

Many Muslim children are taught to hate non-Muslims from the time they are small children. Pray that God will break through the years of indoctrination with His love and reveal His heart for all people.

Pray the Spirit of Truth will be revealed to these children, causing the stronghold of deception to be broken over the minds of Muslim children and that they will be introduced to salvation through Jesus Christ.