Displaying items by tag: Middle East

Tony Fayez is a freelance singer-songwriter who performs for SAT-7, a media outlet broadcasting in Arabic, Turkish and Farsi. He writes lyrics and composes hip-hop worship songs, to reach out to young people and help young Christians worship in a language they feel belongs to them. ‘The fast rhythm of rap reflects the passion, energy and speed of teenagers’, he says. ‘That’s the music they listen to when they are together. It’s a good way to reach them, using Christian lyrics that they can remember and sing along to.’ Traditional churches and some parents say the language degrades Christian values and encourages poor vocabulary. Tony believes in giving youth freedom to express their faith in ways that are meaningful to them. ‘They can listen to whatever music they choose so instead of trying to fit them into a rigid form, we can reach out to them and speak their language.’

Mujtaba al-Sweikat, a Saudi Arabian young man, was accepted as a student at Western Michigan University, but is now facing imminent beheading in his home country for participation in pro-democracy protests. He was arrested and charged in 2012 at a Saudi airport on his way to the USA. He has been held since then and his execution sentence was given recently. Thirteen other minority Shi’ites are facing the same fate. After the recent sentencing, Mujtaba and the others were transferred to a prison in Riyadh where Saudi Arabia routinely carries out its executions. Many human rights groups and a large US teachers’ union are becoming involved, calling on President Trump to intervene. We can praise God that it is getting news coverage and drawing international attention because it involves a potential American student, but this is normal behaviour in Saudi Arabia.

For centuries the social and political organisation of many Iraqis has centred on the tribe. Socially, tribes were divided into related sub-tribes, which further divided into clans, and then into extended families. Today 75% of Iraq’s people are members of a tribe with a strict honour code. Despite the liberation of most of IS-occupied areas, political differences and a struggle for power remain. There have been clashes between the Popular Mobilisation Units and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces near Kirkuk. Also, on 20 July clashes between the Sunni Nineveh Guards and the Shi’ite faction of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada took place in Mosul. There are fears that these clashes might expand into open warfare amid deep differences over the disputed tribal areas extending from the Iranian border, through Kirkuk province and into Yazidi areas near the Syrian border. Terrorists have also been exploiting tribal differences for years. For historical roots, see:

Nessrine Hamad, aged six, is covered with a painful rash and has tears in her eyes. ‘She has been like that for three days,’ her mother said. ‘It is because of the dirty water. Most of the children here have sores on their skin.’ Dozens of families accused of having relatives in IS have been forcibly displaced to Shahama camp by the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), under the control of the Iraqi army. The camp, located north of Tikrit, has been described by Human Rights Watch as ‘akin to an open-air prison’. They are prevented from coming and going freely, only allowed to leave via ambulance for medical emergencies, and even then some are rejected by the main hospital in Tikrit when staff discover they are from Shahama. Dirty water, food and medical shortages have made living conditions in the camp unbearable. People in the camp are also barred from having mobile phones.

The UK Government is being tested on the issue of whether or not to stand with Israel. With terror threats on every side, the Jewish state is potentially in as great a peril now as its people were under the Nazis. An estimated 120,000 missiles are aimed at Israeli cities by Iran-sponsored, Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, while their supporters have been allowed to march through London streets waving flags featuring an assault rifle and calling for Israel’s destruction. To date 11,177 people have signed a petition calling on the UK Government to ban Hezbollah. On 22 June, in the House of Commons, Amber Rudd said she would look into banning the annual demonstration and proscribing Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Conservative MP John Howell believes that no lasting peace is possible if Palestinians continue to be indoctrinated to hate Jews, while Scottish MP Ross Thomson called for a full ban on Hezbollah, adding Israel was a beacon of democracy in a troubled region. See also

Nikki Haley, the new US ambassador to the UN, has described her first Security Council meeting, which was discussing the Middle East, as ‘very strange’. She expected to be addressing maintenance of international peace and security. However, the debate was not about Hezbollah’s illegal build-up of rockets in Lebanon, or about the money and weapons Iran provides to terrorists, or how to defeat IS. It was not about holding President Assad accountable for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of civilians. Instead it focused on criticising Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East. She said, ‘ I am new around here, but I understand that that’s how the council has operated month after month for decades. I am here to say that the US will not turn a blind eye to Israel’s needs any more.’

An Egyptian blogger writes: ‘Lack of parking spots used to be one of the few concerns on Cairo streets, but there’s a different perspective now. Families used to go to church together to celebrate; now they separate, attending mass in twos and threes in different churches. It’s a precaution so that at least part of the family will survive in the event of a bomb attack. Now that most places of worship have closed their doors to visitors for “safety” reasons, people have lost the opportunities to make their usual summer spiritual visits to places of peace and prayer. Churches have cancelled all children’s summer camps and trips. I make fewer trips to church, and have become very selective where I go. With many warnings on social media against going to malls and public places, I am wary about my errands. Security checks and metal detectors all around me add to my fear instead of making me feel secure.’

A civil council, which is expected to rule Raqqa once IS is dislodged from the Syrian city, pardoned 83 of the jihadist group's low-ranking militants recently as a goodwill gesture designed to promote stability. They were transported to the Raqqa city HQ, in an amnesty coinciding with Eid-ul-Fitr. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces predict that Raqqa could fall within months. ‘We would never release senior Daesh officials or anyone who has blood on their hands’, senior council member Omar Aloush told Reuters. ‘We are giving these men a second chance.’ Abdel Rahman Kalas, 43, worked in the IS department that imposed taxes on citizens. ‘I have seven children’, he said, as former militants walked away after the ceremony to face the uncertainty that hangs over the city. ‘I had no choice but to cooperate. They paid me $115 a month.’

Dr Daphne Burdman, a psychiatrist, pathologist and lieutenant colonel in the US army, says that in both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas-ruled Gaza, there are carefully planned and widespread campaigns to incite children to hatred. This process of incitement has had totally inadequate coverage in the international media, and these deeply ‘successful’ programmes - based on both old and new techniques of persuasion and indoctrination - are being ignored by the west. There is mounting evidence that some techniques are similar to, and been inspired by, those used by totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet KGB and Chinese intelligence services. This incitement of Palestinian children has led to widespread hatred and a propensity for violence among them. Palestinian leaders urge them to carry out violent acts against Israelis, even though they are likely to be wounded or killed. They are promised that they will become martyrs.

Ramadan is a time of increased security tensions, particularly on Fridays when hundreds of thousands of people gather on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for prayer. Lord, give wisdom to Israel’s security forces during this month to know how to handle the emotions of multitudes of Muslims, often stirred up against Israel by the preaching of their leaders. Give alertness to those who are guarding against people intent on doing evil acts of terror, especially after many days of high alert during President Trump’s visit. Protect security personnel from murderous attacks against them. Guard them against ‘alertness-fatigue’, tiredness, hot weather, and mobile phone distractions. Give police, government and security guards discernment of danger and decisiveness to act when needed. Pray that Jerusalem, ‘the city of the Great King’ (Psalm 48:2), will be kept safe. ‘Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 31:5).