Pakistan: Six Christians Killed In Pakistan Bus Bombing

The Christian Chronicle – “QUETTA, PAKISTAN – A terrorist attack has claimed the lives of six Church of Christ members, according to a ministry trainer in the Middle East.

The deadly attack occurred June 11 near Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, the British Broadcasting Corp reported.

A bomb planted on a motorbike detonated, destroying a passenger bus. The apparent target of the attack was a bus of pilgrims who follow the Shiite branch of Islam.

Apparently, the timed device attached to the motorbike detonated too late, missing the bus of pilgrims and instead destroying a passenger bus. Six people died in the blast and at least 40 were injured, the BBC reported.

The number of deaths has since risen to 18, said Philip Ganta, an Indian Christian who oversees the Dubai School of Preaching, a ministry training facility in the Middle Eastern nation of United Arab Emirates. Foreign nationals who come to Dubai for employment study at the school.

Christians from Pakistan and Afghanistan were on the bus, Ganta said, and six of them died. At least 10 more were injured. Some of the Christians had studied at the Dubai School of Preaching and were en route to work with believers in Balochistan, Ganta said.

The school’s students and church members in Dubai collected more than $1,000 to help the victims’ families.

Oasis Outreach, a church-supported ministry that works with the Dubai school, also is collecting funds. The ministry is a work of the Brooks Avenue Church of Christ in Raleigh, N.C.

‘Over the coming weeks we are hoping to raise $5,000 in aid for the families of these believers,’ said Mike O’Leary, director of Oasis Outreach. ‘Many of them have lost the only breadwinner in the family.

‘Hopefully, we will be able to ease their suffering by showing God’s love to those of his household through those in his kingdom.'” Source – The Christian Chronicle.

Congo: Livestock Disease With 86% Mortality Called Worst Epidemic In Decade, 1.6 Million Goats And Sheep At Risk

Associated Press – “ROME — A U.N. agency has warned that a livestock epidemic in Congo that has killed more than 75,000 goats is the worst in a decade and is now threatening goats and sheep in neighboring countries.

The disease, called peste de petit ruminants, or PPR, is highly lethal, with an 86 percent mortality rate among goats. It is caused by a virus that is similar to measles in humans.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said 1 million goats and 600,000 sheep are at risk of contracting the disease. To protect them, farmers have been moving their herds away from infected villages, but that has only spread the epidemic to healthy flocks of animals.

FAO said it plans to vaccinate at least 500,000 animals and will try to limit the animals’ movements.” Source – The Washington Post.

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Preaching Israel’s Destruction After Election

IPT News – “‘Every Muslim will be asked about the Zionists’ usurpation of al-Aqsa Mosque. Why did he not seek to recover it, and wage Jihad in His way? Did he not care about the fatwa of the ulema [scholars] of the Muslims, ‘Jihad of self and money to recover al Aqsa is a duty on every Muslim?” asked Mohamed Badie, General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, in a June 14th speech translated exclusively by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

The speech from the Brotherhood’s Ikhwan Online website is evidence that the group has not moderated its position even an iota, despite assurances to Western audiences.

‘How happy would be the Muslims if all Muslim rulers made the Palestinian cause a pivotal issue, around which Muslims, rulers and the ruled, would line up,’ he stated. According to Badie, they would ally to make ‘the sole goal for all of them the recovery of al Aqsa Mosque, freeing it from the filth of the Zionists, and imposing Muslim rule throughout beloved Palestine.’

‘The Lord of Glory has threatened these murdering Zionists criminals with a penalty of a kind which operates in this world before the Hereafter,’ he said, before referencing a Quranic quote calling Jews ‘apes, despised.’

‘We say to our people and our brothers in Palestine (all of Palestine): Unity, unity, persistence, persistence, reconciliation, reconciliation, and patience, patience. Make your motto and your starting point be in confronting the Zionists,’ he added…

The inability of the Muslim Brotherhood to change its rhetoric, leads to questions about how Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi will serve to moderate the Islamist group’s beliefs and behavior.

Much has been written about how the election of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate isn’t a threat to U.S. and Israeli interests in the region, or even to Egyptian society. To take just one example, John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign Relations Committee, warned against ‘prejudging’ the Muslim Brotherhood as it prepared to take power in Egypt.

‘In our discussions,’ declared Kerry on Sunday, ‘Mr. Morsi committed to protecting fundamental freedoms, including women’s rights, minority rights, the right to free expression and assembly, and he said he understood the importance of Egypt’s post-revolutionary relationships with America and Israel.’

But Morsi was singing the same tune as other Muslim Brotherhood leaders less than two months ago.” Read more.

UK: Two Converts To Islam Arrested In London On Suspicion Of Terror Offences

By PAISLEY DODDS and RAPHAEL SATTER, Associated Press – “Two Muslim converts were arrested in London on suspicion of terror offenses Thursday, a British security official told The Associated Press, but it was unclear whether the men were taken into custody as part of an alleged plot.

The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said he didn’t know whether the arrests were related to the upcoming Olympic Games. Security is tight ahead of the London games, which begin on July 27.

Scotland Yard identified the men as an 18-year-old and a 32-year-old, but didn’t give their names. The force said the pair was arrested early Thursday at separate addresses in east London.

Intelligence officials say there has been an expected increase in chatter among extremist groups but there are still no specific or credible threats. The terror level is labeled substantial, a notch below severe, and what it has been for much of the past decade. A substantial threat level indicates that an attack is a strong possibility.

This week European security officials told the AP that they were tracking a Norwegian Muslim convert who had gone to Yemen for training and had since become ‘operational.’

Security services across Europe have long been alert to the activities of extremist Muslim converts.” Read more.

Palestinian TV: Suicide Bombers Are A Candle ‘That Lights The Tunnel Of Liberty’ For Palestinians

Ezekiel 35:1-3a,6b, “The word of the LORD came to me: ’Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Mount Seir … I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.’”

PA TV Reporter: “This is Palestine, which embraces its Martyr sons (2 suicide bombers), who are more honored than all of us, and which send a message to the whole world that our Martyrs are not numbers, but rather a candle that lights the tunnel of liberty for the Palestinian people on the way to independence.”

Flashback: Gaza: Killing Jews is an Act of Worship, ‘We Are a People That Moves Closer to Allah Through Blood, Body Parts, and Martyrs’ – “Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you… Allah’s prayers upon you, our beloved Prophet [Muhammad]. You have made your teachings into constitutions for us – the light with which we dissipate the darkness of the occupation, and the fire with which we harvest the skulls of the Jews… Yes, our beloved brothers, even though the entire world moves closer to Allah through fasting, through hunger, and through tears, we are a people that moves closer to Allah through blood, through body parts, and through martyrs… Oh sons of Palestine, oh sons of the Gaza Strip, oh mujahideen – wage Jihad, wreak destruction, blow up and harvest the heads of the Zionists.” Read more.

Flashback: The Palestinian Culture of Death – “A FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION in the Middle East conflict is whether the Palestinians can be saved, not from Israel, as many of them would have it, but from themselves. Consider that the Palestinians want their own state. But to achieve that end, which, depending on the Palestinian you talk to, may or may not entail the destruction of Israel, the Palestinians have relied on a grossly immoral means, the suicide bomb, used to kill not only Israeli soldiers but also civilians, including women and children. How can a people who sanction such an abomination achieve statehood?” Read more.