10 Things You Need to Know About the Islamic Republic of Iran

1. The head of the Iranian regime is not the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but rather the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

2. The Iranian regime, according to its 1989 constitution, is dedicated to jihad to spread the Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution, to re-establish the Caliphate, and impose Islamic law (sharia) globally. These are precisely the same objectives pursued by terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, HAMAS, and Hezbollah—which may explain why they have all been linked together with Iran in operational relationships for so many decades.

3. The primary mission of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is to keep the regime in power. In an especially visible way since the popular uprising after the fraudulent 2009 presidential elections, the IRGC and its subordinate Bassij units have used sheer brutality and terror to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.

4. The Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the IRGC to acquire deliverable nuclear weapons in the mid-1980s. Every Iranian president—including those touted as ‘moderate’—has supported the acquisition of nuclear weapons, but the program has accelerated markedly under the last two presidents: Khatami and Ahmadinejad.

5. By sheer numbers, Iran is the number two state killer of its own citizens in the world, second only to China, a country with 20 times the size of its population.  Per capita, Iran may be the biggest killer.

6. The Iranian regime has supported the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in a vocal way ever since the uprising began there in early 2011. The Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist organization with a pervasive presence in the U.S. government, intelligence community, and society as a whole, has reached out to the Iranian regime in return and openly expressed interest in forging close ties with it. The Obama administration recently announced that it is expanding its long-standing ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

7. Current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes that the Shi’a messianic figure (the Mahdi, or Twelfth Imam), who allegedly disappeared down a well 1,000 years ago—is helping guide his government and manage world affairs.   He has publicly expressed his belief that apocalyptic violence can hasten the return of this figure.

8. In spite of sanctions, Iran is far from isolated.  It is actively involved with many countries, diplomatically and economically, buying influence at a growing pace.  This includes the viscerally anti-American regime of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and a growing list of other countries in America’s backyard of South and Central America. Iran also has been developing relations with countries like Eritrea, Sudan,  Algeria,  Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, and recently Israel’s neighbor Jordan.

9. “Iran has methodically cultivated a network of sponsored terrorist surrogates capable of conducting effective plausibly deniable attacks against Israel and the United States.”   This includes a network of terror proxies, such as Hezbollah, which has an extensive presence across Latin America, especially in Venezuela, and also in Mexico.  Hezbollah operates at least a dozen cellswithin the U.S. as well.

10. The Havlish case (Havlish et al vs Osama bin Laden, Iran, et al.), filed in New York in May 2011, presented compelling evidence that the Iranian regime provided direct and material assistance to al-Qaeda for the 9/11 attacks.

Source.

Iran: Unless He Recants His Faith, Christian Pastor’s Death Sentence for ‘Apostasy and Evangelising Muslims’ Will Be Upheld

Luke 9:23-24, “Then He said to [them] all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.'”

“The death sentence handed down for apostasy to evangelical house church pastor, Yousef Nadarkhani, has been upheld by the third chamber of the Supreme Court.

Charges altered after arrest

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, a leader in the evangelical Church of Iran denomination, was arrested in his home city of Rasht on 13 October 2009 while attempting to register his church. His arrest is thought to have come after he questioned the Muslim monopoly on religious instruction for Iranian children. He was initially charged with protesting, however the charges against him were later changed to apostasy and evangelising Muslims.

Appeal unsuccessful

In September 2010 Pastor Nadarkhani was found guilty of apostasy, and a death sentence was delivered verbally in court, even though there is no such sentence codified in Iranian civil law. Written confirmation of the sentence was delivered on 13 November 2010 by the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Since then he has been held in Lakan Prison.” Read more.

Iran’s Supreme Court: Renounce your Christian faith to save your life – “Iran’s Supreme Court says an evangelical pastor charged with apostasy can be executed if he does not recant his faith, according to a copy of the verdict obtained by a religious rights activist group… Those who know him say he is not likely to do that, for if he were disposed to giving it up, he would have done it long ago.” Read more.

Pakistan: Christian Family Fears Their Daughter has been Forced Into Islam and Sold Into Slavery

“The first attempt of mediation by the ‘All Pakistan Minorities Alliance’ (APMA) in the case of Hatim Farah, a Catholic girl who was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam, has failed in the courts.  Farah was also forced to marry a Muslim man in the city of Zeehan in the southern Punjab region of Pakistan.

APMA, which was founded by Shabhaz Bhatti – a Christian politician who was murdered earlier this year by Muslim terrorists – is the best known organization defending Christians in Pakistan.  The case of Farah, explain local sources, is emblematic of the approximately 700 cases that occur every year in Pakistan for Christian girls kidnapped and converted to Islam. This is why Paul Bhatti, leader of the APMA and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for religious minorities has committed himself on this case.

A team of APMA lawyers and activists in Punjab have taken an interest in the case in recent days, trying to arrange a meeting between the Farah and her family, to ensure her health, physical and mental condition and, above all, to get absolute certainty – confirmed without conditions, threats or coercion of any kind – of her desire to go back home and leave the Muslim family where she is now.

A member of the APMA reportedly said, ‘We asked, through local authorities, for a private meeting with Farah. The Muslim’s family who has made her his wife says that she is consenting. If they are sure and if this were true, why prevent the family and lawyers from seeing and listening to her version directly? This impediment for us is really suspicious’.” Read more.

Solar Physicists Still Trying to Figure Out What Happened on the Sun

“Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only ‘M’ (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption–that is, until researchers looked at the movies.

NASA has just released new high-resolution videos of the event recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The videos are large, typically 50 MB to 100 MB, but worth the wait to download…

‘IN terms of raw power, this really was just a medium-sized eruption,’ says Young, ‘but it had a uniquely dramatic appearance caused by all the inky-dark material. We don’t usually see that.’

Solar physicist Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC calls it a case of ‘dark fireworks.’

‘The blast was triggered by an unstable magnetic filament near the sun’s surface,’ he explains. ‘That filament was loaded down with cool1 plasma, which exploded in a spray of dark blobs and streamers.'” Source.

Australia’s Muslim Leaders Want Islamic Sharia Law

Daniel 7:25, “And he shall speak [great] words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

Wake up world, give them an inch and they’ll go for the whole yard stick.  If these Islamist leaders keep getting their way in Australia, they’ll end up turning state courts into kangaroo courts …

“Islamic leaders say sharia law should be allowed to cover banking practices and family law in Australia.

The call is revealed in a survey conducted by the Herald Sun newspaper.

Imam Yusuf Parker, from WA’s Alhidayah Centre, said Australia should consider recognising sharia law as it applied to finance and family law matters.

Imam Parker told the Herald Sun that Islam forbade the charging or paying of interest ‘so finding interest-free loans will again help Muslims to practise their Islam better’.

Another WA imam, Sheik Burhaan Mehtar, said: ‘Islamic banking and the non-slavery of humans is a classic example. Interest is slavery,’ he said.” Read more.

‘Ugly Reality Has Dashed the High Hopes of the Arab Spring’ and has ‘Encouraged Religious Intolerance and Persecution’

By Doug Bandow – “Ugly reality has dashed the high hopes of the ‘Arab Spring.’ Although the dream of democratic reform lives on, only Tunisia appears on course. In Egypt, the fall of Hosni Mubarak has encouraged religious intolerance and persecution, especially against the Coptic Christian community.

Once a great civilization, Egypt long ago turned into an impoverished backwater. Only a large population and strategic location today deliver geopolitical importance. Hosni Mubarak ruled for three decades, but under him the Egyptian people enjoyed neither prosperity nor liberty. In fact, Mubarak was exhibit A for America’s foreign policy conundrum: stability or democracy? He held the Muslim Brotherhood in check, maintained a cold peace with Israel, and kept the Suez Canal open. For that he was richly rewarded with tens of billions in “foreign aid,” which he used to build an authoritarian kleptocracy — one that treated the needs of most Egyptians as an afterthought. Washington occasionally pushed for reform, but never too hard, lest stability be sacrificed…

While the ‘government does not actively persecute or repress Christians, a prejudicial legal framework has created a permissive environment that allows Egyptian officials and private individuals to discriminate against Christians freely and with impunity,’ noted Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.” Read more.

Tunisia: Secularists Fear Gradual Religious Takeover by Militant Islam – “Many Tunisians fear the growing assertiveness of militant Islam following a June 26 attack on a Tunis cinema which showed a film advocating secularism. A gang of some 100 bearded men shouting ‘God it great’ stormed Cinema Afrique, smashing windows and attacking the audience of the film Neither Allah, nor Master by Tunisian-French director Nadia El-Fani, a known critic of Islamization.” Read more.

Muslim Brotherhood Leader of Tunisia Calls for an End to Israel – “Arab media has reported an interview with Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi in which he calls for and predicts the end of Israel… Ghannouchi maintains that altogether the Arab revolutions are positive for the Palestinians, and threaten to bring Israel to an end. He says that the Palestinian problem lies at the heart of the Nation [umma], and that all the land between the mosque in Mecca and Jerusalem represents the heart of the Islamic Nation…” Read more.

Turkey: Erdogan’s New ‘Ottoman Region’

Daniel 2:28,41, “But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days… Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.”

Daniel 11:43-44, “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians [shall follow] at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.”

By Harold Rhode – “Erdogan’s recent electoral victory speech puts his true intentions regarding Turkey’s foreign policy goals in perspective. He said that this victory is as important in Ankara as it is in the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo, under Ottoman times, an important Ottoman city; that his party’s victory was as important in a large Turkish city, Izmir, on the Western Anatolian coast, as it is in Damascus, and as important in Istanbul as it is in Jerusalem.

What does all this mean? At the very least, this victory speech signals a wish for Ottoman cultural colonialism and imperialism. The places Erdogan names were all part of by the Ottoman Empire; the territory of the modern Turkish Republic is what remained after World War I and Turkey’s War of Independence from the occupying Allied forces. Turkey forms only the central part, and relatively small fraction, of what had been the Ottoman Empire, which at its height extended deep into southern Europe, and included most of today’s Arab world and even beyond.

In saying that this victory is as important in all of these former Ottoman cities, Erdogan apparently sees himself as trying to reclaim Turkey’s full Ottoman past. In religious terms, the entire reason for being of the Ottoman Empire was to spread the Sunni form of Islam prevalent there. Sunnis, who make up about 85% of the Muslim world, believe that when Mohammed died, the leadership of Islam was passed down through what amounted to the Meccan artistocracy, and not through Mohammed’s family — which is what the Shi’ites believe. The cities Erdogan mentioned are almost all Sunni, with a few non-Sunni ones thrown in.

The Ottomans had two major rivals: the non-Muslim Europeans to the northwest, and the Shi’ite Persian Empire to the east. Although the Ottomans saw each enemy as presenting a different set of problems, they saw their own role in traditional Sunni Muslim terms: Continuing the Jihad, namely the conquest of the non-Muslim world…

Shi’ites, as opposed to non-Muslims, have always been seen by Sunnis as an existential threat to Sunnism. Shi’ites, who make up about 12-15% of the Muslim world, believe that the only true rulers of Islam are Mohammed’s direct descendants, not merely local ‘aristocracy,’ as the Sunnis believe; these rulers they call Imams…

In spite of the historical animosity between Turkish Sunnis and the non-Sunni rulers of the neighboring countries –- such as the Shiites in Iran and Iraq, and the Alawis ruling Syria — Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria tried to forge a loose political and economic alliance, which lasted until the beginning of what the Arabs called the ‘Arab Facebook Revolution,’ and which we in the West call ‘The Arab Spring.’ But Erdogan’s Sunni inclinations seem to have overcome his political ambitions with his neighbors as the Sunni-non-Sunni basic differences re-emerged, as well as for political and economic reasons.

At the moment Erdogan is threatened by other problems that Iran is bringing to his doorstep…” Read more.

Egypt: Number of Abducted Christian Girls Being Forced to Convert to Islam Since the Revolution Has Skyrocketed

“(AINA) — The number of Christian girls abducted and coerced into converting to Islam since the Egyptian “January 25 Revolution” has skyrocketed, according to Father Filopateer Gamil of St. Mary’s Church in Giza. ‘More than two to three girls disappear everyday in Giza alone,’ he said. ‘The cases that are brought to public attention are few compared to what the numbers actually are.’

Many Christians blame the military council for not intervening to put an end to this problem, which has escalated after the Revolution because of the ’emergence of Muslim Salafists,’ says activist Mark Ebeid, ‘who believe strongly that converting a Christian Infidel is in some ways like earning a ticket to paradise — not to mention the earthly remuneration they get from the Saudis.’

Jackline Ibrahim Fakhry, 17, disappeared from a town on the outskirts of Cairo, prompting her parents to stage a sit-in until her appearance. They accused 31-year old Muslim Shokry Abdel-Fatah, who used to take lessons with her mother (a teacher) of kidnapping her. After she returned, Shokry said in a television interview that he has loved her since she was nine years old. He brought her to Alexandria where she met many sheikhs to convert, but she refused.” Read more.

‘The Year of Catastrophes’ – Only Halfway Through, 2011 is Already a Record Year for Natural Disaster Losses

By Colin Barr – “Call this the year of catastrophes – and not just the financial kind that the guys in Washington and Brussels seem resolved to lead us into.

Halfway through, this year is already the costliest on record for natural catastrophes, insurer Munich Re said Tuesday in its first-half review. Losses hit $265 billion in the first six months of 2011 – which exceeds the $220 billion in losses in the biggest previous year for natural disasters, 2005.

Most of the losses this year stem from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which caused more than 15,000 deaths and accounted for $210 billion in economic losses. That is another record, beating out the $125 billion in losses caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Losses tied to the quake have already taken a toll on insurance industry profits. First-half insured losses hit $60 billion, Munich Re said – five times the annual average over the past decade.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), which last year took a big stake in Munich Re, said in April that it would likely report an insurance underwriting loss this year for the first time in almost a decade, thanks to the Japanese disaster and other calamities, mostly in Asia.” Read more.

River Goes Missing After Moderate 5.3 Earthquake Shakes Costa Rica

“Today at approximately 2:11pm in the afternoon, Upala was rattled by a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that shook products off store shelves and rattled off home furnishings. No immediate damages were reported however later in the afternoon something strange was discovered as a result.

While reporting on the earthquake in Upala today, a local news station discovered that a district near the epicenter was missing a river. That’s right…A RIVER.

Apparently in the moments following the earthquake, a community stood watch as their river disappeared in to the Earth. As of this writing it is still unknown exactly which community this occurred in however once we have the name we will update this article. The affected citizens were interviewed and expressed concern for the loss of this substantial water supply to the area. Not only will this affect humans but also the livestock raised in the area.” Read more.

Oklahoma: Large Numbers of Dead Fish Continue to Show Up in Waters All Over State

By Jalah Gray – “MARSHALL COUNTY, OK – Large numbers of dead fish continue to show up in waters all over Oklahoma. Today we talked with local fishermen in Marshall County about what they’ve been experiencing.

‘I don’t know whether they run out of oxygen or what it is they ought to be able to test the water and find out.’ said Jack Campbell.

Jack Campbell has been fishing Wilson Creek all his life.

He says 3 weeks ago, small fish started dying and now large fish, many more than 40 and 50 pounds are dying as well.

Out here at Wilson Creek in Marshall County you can see literally thousands of dead fish lining the shore line. People have been coming all day and taking pictures, but they don’t hang around very long because the smell is unbearable.

Marshall County residents wonder if the dead fish in their area could somehow be connected to those in the Red River, but state biologist Matt Mauck says he doesn’t think so.” Read more.