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Prophetic
Trends & Headline News
In
This Week's Edition:
|
| 1.
Where is the U.S. or EU in
Bible Prophecy? |
- Health Officials Say 40
Percent of Americans Could
Get Swine Flu This Year
- Jewish leaders upset over Obama reversal on
undivided Jerusalem
- U.S. missile defense test to protect Israel 'a
failure'
- Obama's science czar suggested compulsory abortion,
sterilization
|
| 2.
Israel - God's Timepiece |
- Serving in the IDF, 'for the sake of God and Jesus'
- US Christians Gather To Show Support For Israel
- Hundreds planning Temple Mount ascent for Tisha
Be'av
- Israel concerned over Hizbullah's growing strength
in South America
- Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rise to record
|
| 4.
The Gog/Magog War |
|
|
| 5.
Apostate Christianity |
- Gallery’s
invitation to deface the
Bible brings obscene
response
- Church of England Unveils New Liturgy for Families
'Living in Sin'
|
| 6.
The Rise of Islam |
- "Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam" -
Hizb-ut-Tahrir hosts first
Islamic Caliphate
Conference in US
- Hamas
begins to enforce Islamic
Law with headscarf,
modesty patrols
- Toronto's newest Muslim speaking star: a would-be
suicide bomber
|
| 7.
Increase in Knowledge &
New Technologies |
- Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man
- Chinese breakthrough with mice may mean cloning man
is closer
- Genetically modified food crops — tomato, brinjal
and cauliflower — could
be introduced in the
country in three years
- Air Force Drones - looking 30 years into the future
|
| 8.
Christian Worldview &
Issues |
- N.
Korea publicly executes
Christian for distributing
the Bible
- Christian
Doctor Loses Position over
Gay Adoption View
- Survey: Faith of Blacks Grows Stronger, More
Orthodox
|
|
Sign of the Times
Welcome to the 21st century, which, according to The National, a CBC news program with Peter Mansbridge aired on Tuesday, 24 June 2003, detailing the West Nile Virus did the snippet call this age in which we now live: the time, or epoch, of plagues and epidemics. Yet in the century previously recorded it was the age of the New World Order. Apparently, every decade has a new set of events taking place. Stay tuned!
But in this decade, or I should say in this year's flavor of the month, it?s the West Nile Virus, the SARS epidemic, the Mad Cow disease, and a Queen's University study published 7 August 2003, outlining a grave pandemic in hospitals, by Canadians being infected at a rate of 250,000 annually with 8 thousand to 12 thousand deaths a year as a result of this. Plus, a new mutated form of a corona virus described by a British Colombia epidemiologist as resembling the SARS disease, which infected many residents of a nursing home and killed many. And of all things, the Monkey Pox in the United States.
The floods in Newfoundland, the droughts in Manitoba with infestations of grasshoppers, depletion of Cod in Atlantic Canada, major heat waves across the country, weird weather in Manitoba, hails stones the size of baseballs on July 15,2003. While fire officials are seeing and experiencing major forest fires in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, N.W.T. and Ontario. (Broadcast August 1st, 2003)&( Renewed Floods, Fires and heat waves in Canada ,Broadcast on CBC The National ,June 2005)
Sweltering and blistering heat waves in Europe. Costing three thousands lives within a week?s overbearing heat in France, with the overall total at ten thousand when it was done. Torrential rains during abnormal monsoon season in India, Nepal, (July 19,2003) causing flooding and land slides, displacing 3 million people; floods not seen in fifty years. All this within a year's time of 2002-2003. By obiter, 50 million people experienced a major power outage August 14th, 2003 in NYC, Detroit, New Jersey, Toronto, Ottawa, Vermont, and Connecticut, shutting down airports, subways etc. and leaving many stranded in elevators, tunnels etc.
Also the continuing terrorist threat following the unbelievable September 11th tragedy heighten fears and anxieties. Which was still ongoing, during a horrific explosion in Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004, in which a subway train exploded , reportedly killing over 186 people. Then on July 7th, 2005, London, England suffered terrorism exploits which killed over 50 people during a coordinated attack in the early morning commute to work.
Plus, an unusual Tsunami disaster ravaging Sri Lanka and Indonesia, December 26,2004, whereas this apocalyptic wave placed preliminary estimates on January 2,2005 at over one hundred fifty thousand people killed. A direct result of an earthquake, which registered a staggering 9.0 on the Richter scale. Then another massive earthquake hit the Thailand area registering 8.2 off the west coast of Indonesia?s Sumatra Island, March 28th, 2005, an aftershock of the December 26,2004 earthquake in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Not to mention a devastating hurricane and tornado that utterly destroyed an entire city in Louisiana which also included the inundation of the city of New Orleans that catastrophically displaced over a million people that barely escaped the Apocalyptic scene in September of 2005.
While a litre of water is more expensive than a litre of gas! And the Caribbean coral reef covers are down 80% because of pollution and development, which affects our eco-system by displacing thousand of species. Seventeen large whales found floating dead, by what scientists presume, is in big part by toxic algae near the Georgian straits. Note: Many beaches are closed during summer months due to high levels of pollutants, making the waters murky and unhealthy for the simplest of dips.
Of course, we can not forget the photo-op congregation of world leaders, superficially implementing the Kyoto Accord on environmental issues, affecting the very survival of our specie, which, in the coming years ahead, will degrade even further than what we now take for granted.
In the mean time, wars abound elsewhere, and vast starvations continue with 32 thousand children dying daily from malnutrition. Or a child dying every six seconds.
Meanwhile, gays and lesbians are now prancing and parading about publicly, scantily clad, in revelry and marrying with such spectacles in church and court rooms, laughing at all of us who once thought this as an only myth read of in biblical times. While CTV television promotes lesbians and gays, naked on the program, The Sex Files, touching and caressing without having the least vestige of shame of the degrading immorality it now offers Canadians. And, of course, Catholic priests are still being shielded by some powerful, underlying menace in Rome, unwilling to acknowledge grave improprieties. Note: The Episcopal church voted on August 5th, 2003 its first openly gay and practicing bishop to head its denomination. Reported by CNN.
The increasing depletion of natural resources flourishes while wayward bungling and frauds in multi-billion dollar fiascos by private and government business dealings augments, leaving thousands upon thousands broke by a lifetime's worth of savings and hard work.
Also a whispering clamor is now coming to light as of March 29th, 2005 over an astonishing bribery scandal with the U.N. in cahoots with the very highest levels of governments about oil for food contracts with Baghdad. A bribery and kickback scheme designed to fleece the poorest of souls during the wars of Iraq over Kuwait, reaching the billions of dollars. Reported CBC, The National, March 29th and 30th, 2005.
Not to mention you, the taxpayer, are left with the bill to add insult to injury.
And Health Canada is now selling you a gram of weed at five dollars a bag! Or giving away free heroin or opiates through their methadone program. Oh Canada!
Also, very alarming news was broadcast on CBC news May 12th,2006 about a device which is implanted in your wrist underneath the skin to provide you with access to such things as your house , business, etc. Rev 13:16. Something jeered at and unthinkable just a few years ago, when in fact it was foretold about two thousand of years ago.
Now in 2009, a huge recession has blankeded the world and trillions of dollars have been wasted and still the governments keeps pumping trillions more to ravage the taxpayer’s liberties for the wealth and freedom of some.
Nuclear threats are ominously challenging us by those rogue countries like Iran and North Korea. Holding the world hostage for their pervasive doctrines.
China is becoming a player in these last days as is the European Union. World powers are already positioning themselves for what is surely to be a New World Order!
Health Officials Say 40 Percent of Americans Could Get Swine Flu This Year
http://www.foxnews.com
In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.
The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season.
Swine flu has already hit the United States harder than any other nation, but it has struck something of a glancing blow that's more surprising than devastating. The virus has killed about 300 Americans and experts believe it has sickened more than 1 million, comparable to a seasonal flu with the weird ability to keep spreading in the summer.
Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place.
A world health official said the first vaccines are expected in September and October. The United States expects to begin testing on some volunteers in August, with 160 million doses ready in October.
The CDC came up with the new projections for the virus' spread last month, but it was first disclosed in an interview this week with The Associated Press.
The estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the United States but was not as severe as the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. The number of deaths and illnesses from the new swine flu virus would drop if the pandemic peters out or if efforts to slow its spread are successful, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.
"Hopefully, mitigation efforts will have a big impact on future cases," he said. Besides pushing flu shots, health officials might urge measures such as avoiding crowded places, handwashing, cough covering and timely use of medicines like Tamiflu.
Because so many more people are expected to catch the new flu, the number of deaths over two years could range from 90,000 to several hundred thousand, the CDC calculated. Again, that is if a new vaccine and other efforts fail.
In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die from flu and its complications, according to the American Medical Association. That too is an estimate, because death certificates don't typically list flu as a cause of death. Instead, they attribute a fatality to pneumonia or other complications.
Influenza is notoriously hard to predict, and some experts have shied away from a forecast. At a CDC swine flu briefing Friday, one official declined to answer repeated questions about her agency's own estimate.
"I don't think that influenza and its behavior in the population lends itself very well to these kinds of models," said the official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's flu vaccination programs.
The World Health Organization says as many as 2 billion people could become infected in the next two years — nearly a third of the world population. The estimates look at potential impacts in a two-year period because past flu pandemics have occurred in waves over more than one year.
Swine flu has been an escalating concern in Britain and some other European nations, where the virus' late arrival has grabbed attention and some officials at times have sounded alarmed.
In an interview Friday, the WHO's flu chief told the AP the global epidemic is still in its early stages.
"Even if we have hundreds of thousands of cases or a few millions of cases ... we're relatively early in the pandemic," Keiji Fukuda said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
The first vaccines are expected in September and October, Fukuda said. Other vaccines won't be ready until well into the flu season when a further dramatic rise in swine flu cases is expected.
First identified in April, swine flu has likely infected more than 1 million Americans, the CDC believes, with many of those suffering mild cases never reported. There have been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 laboratory-identified cases, according to numbers released Friday morning.
Because the swine flu virus is new, most people haven't developed an immunity to it. So far, most of those who have died from it in the United States have had other health problems, such as asthma.
The virus has caused an unusual number of serious illnesses in teens and young adults; seasonal flu usually is toughest on the elderly and very young children.
Jewish leaders upset over Obama reversal on undivided Jerusalem
http://www.wnd.com/
American Jewish leaders are up in arms over recent U.S demands against Jewish construction in Jerusalem, pointing out that during the presidential campaign President Obama repeatedly told Jewish audiences that Jerusalem must remain undivided.
"I believe that on the issue of Jerusalem and the issue of Iran Obama intentionally misled both Jewish and Christian supporters of Israel," Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told WND.
"He said as a candidate in 2008 that he supports an undivided Jerusalem and will never permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, and now we see that these claims were simply false," said Klein.
Pessach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, told WND, "The Jewish community, in fact, the American community, has the right to expect that what they are told before an election will be what is acted upon after an election.
"Add to this the rights of a sovereign country, an ally, the only democratic state in the Middle East – and we find it very disturbing that the current U.S. administration is dictating to the state of Israel where it can and cannot build in Jerusalem," Lerner said.
During last year's presidential campaign, Obama numerous times told Jewish audiences he supports an undivided Jerusalem.
Replying to a 2008 questionnaire that asked about "the likely final status of Jerusalem,'' Obama wrote: "The United States cannot dictate the terms of a final status agreement. … Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital, and no one should want or expect it to be re-divided.''
In June 2008, Obama delivered a major speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, in which he stated that if elected "Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."
Immediately following the speech, WND reported Obama flip-flopped during a CNN appearance, explaining he meant Jerusalem shouldn't be physically divided with a partition.
"Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations," he said in response to a question about whether Palestinians have a legitimate claim to the city.
Obama said "as a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute" a division of the city. "And I think that it is smart for us to, to work through a system in which everybody has access to the extraordinary religious sites in Old Jerusalem but that Israel has a legitimate claim on that city."
The State Department last weekend summoned Israel's ambassador to Washington to demand a Jewish construction project in eastern Jerusalem be immediately halted, it has been confirmed.
The Obama administration has called for a halt to Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank in line with Palestinian claims on eastern Jerusalem as a future capital, even though the city was never a part of any Palestinian entity.
The construction project at the center of attention, financed by Miami Beach philanthropist Irving Moskowitz, is located just yards from Israel's national police headquarters and other government ministries. It is a few blocks from the country's prestigious Hebrew University, underscoring the centrality of the Jewish real estate being condemned by the U.S.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the State Department demand, telling a cabinet meeting Sunday that Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem was not a matter up for discussion.
"Imagine what would happen if someone were to suggest Jews could not live in or purchase property in certain neighborhoods in London, New York, Paris or Rome," he said.
"The international community would certainly raise protest. Likewise, we cannot accept such a ruling on East Jerusalem," Netanyahu told ministers.
In a statement released to WND yesterday, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, long considered one of the most powerful Jewish groups in the U.S., took strong issue with the U.S. demand against Jewish construction in Jerusalem.
"We find disturbing the objections raised to the proposed construction of residential units on property that was legally purchased and approved by the appropriate authorities. The area in question houses major Israeli governmental agencies, including the national police headquarters."
"The U.S. has in the past and recently raised objections to the removal of illegal structures built by Arabs in eastern Jerusalem even though they were built in violation of zoning and other requirements often on usurped land," read the statement.
The Jewish organization's statement pointed out Moskowitz's housing project formerly was the house of the infamous mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, who spent the war years in Berlin as a close ally of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, aiding and abetting the Nazi extermination of Jews.
Al-Husseini was also linked to the 1929 massacre of Jews in Jerusalem and Hebron and to other acts of incitement that resulted in deaths and destruction in what was then called Palestine. Some Palestinians have expressed a desire to preserve the building in question as a tribute to Husseini.
Historically, there was never any separation between eastern and western Jerusalem. The terminology came after Jordan occupied the eastern section of the city, including the Temple Mount, from 1947 until it used the territory to attack the Jewish state in 1967. Israel reunited Jerusalem when it won the 1967 Six Day War.
While the U.S. strongly protests any Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem, it has been actively aiding Palestinians building illegally on Jewish-owned land in eastern sections of the city, WND has exposed.
U.S. missile defense test to protect Israel 'a failure' http://www.wnd.com/
A joint U.S.-Israeli upgraded Arrow missile defense test conducted off the coast of California resulted in failure today despite a Pentagon effort to paint the effort as a partial success, an informed Israeli defense official told WND.
"The technical conditions for the meaningful part of the test, actually launching the Arrow interceptor, were not met. Instead, engineers were only able to obtain and exchange data on the target missile but not launch an interceptor missile," the Israeli official said.
"In other words, it would be like Iran launching a missile at Israel and we were only able to trace the missile but not to stop it," the official said.
The Arrow system, partly funded by the U.S., has been touted by Washington as appropriate defense for Israel against missile attacks from Syria and Iran.
Just yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drew heavy Israeli criticism when she implied the U.S. policy against Iran would be to provide Gulf nations with a U.S. "defense umbrella."
Speaking later at a press conference, Clinton suggested her remarks were misunderstood.
"I'm not suggesting a new policy. In fact we all believe that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, and I've said that many times," she said.
"I'm simply pointing out that Iran needs to understand that it's pursuit of nuclear weapons will not advance its security or achieve its goals of enhancing its power regionally and globally," she said.
Still, Jerusalem officials expressed disappointment with her sentiments.
Israeli Intelligence Services Minister Dan Meridor told reporters, "I heard without enthusiasm the American declarations according to which the United States will defend their allies in the event that Iran uses nuclear weapons, as if they were already resigned to such a possibility."
"This is a mistake," Meridor said. "We cannot act now by assuming that Iran will be able to arm itself with a nuclear weapon, but to prevent such a possibility."
Israel's Arrow II missile defense system, developed jointly with the American military, was tested at a U.S. range off the California coast, but the Pentagon said problems prevented the launch of the system's interceptor.
The test was called off after the "enemy missile" was launched in the air, due to communication problems between the control room located on the coast and the missile launcher, deployed hundreds of miles away on an island opposite Los Angeles.
Still, the Arrow managed to track the target missile, dropped from a C-17 aircraft, the Pentagon said in a statement. The missile was meant to mimic an Iranian Shihab missile, but the interceptor was not launched due to a communications glitch.
The Israeli system today exchanged data on the target in real time with elements of the U.S. missile defense system, the Pentagon statement said.
"Not all test conditions to launch the Arrow Interceptor were met, and it was not launched," the Pentagon said.
Other objectives were achieved, and the results were being analyzed, the Pentagon said.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported three tests in the U.S. of the missile defense system have been aborted over the past week. The tests were carried out in the U.S. because that would allow for greater distances than would be possible in Israel, Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said.
Dror said tests of the same Arrow system in Israel earlier this year were very successful.
Obama's science czar suggested compulsory abortion, sterilization http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
Internet reports are now circulating that Obama's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, penned a 1977 book that approved of and recommended compulsory sterilization and even abortion in some cases, as part of a government population control regime.
Given the general unreliability of Internet quotations, I wanted to go straight to this now-rare text and make sure the reports were both accurate and kept Holdren's writings in context. Generally speaking, they are, and they do.
The Holdren book, titled Ecoscience and co-authored with Malthus enthusiasts Paul and Anne Ehrlich, weighs in at more than 1,000 pages. Of greatest importance to its discussion of how to limit the human population is its disregard for any ethical considerations.
Holdren (with the Ehrlichs) notes the existence of “moral objections to some proposals...especially to any kind of compulsion.” But his approach is completely amoral. He implies that compulsory population control is less preferable, because of some people's objections, but he argues repeatedly that it is sometimes necessary, and necessity trumps all ethical objections.
He writes:
Several coercive proposals deserve discussion, mainly because some countries may ultimately have to resort to them unless current trends in birth rates are rapidly reversed by other means. Some involuntary measures could be less repressive or discriminatory, in fact, than some of the socioeconomic measures suggested.
Holdren refers approvingly, for example, to Indira Gandhi's government for its then-recent attempt at a compulsory sterilization program:
India in the mid-1970s not only entertained the idea of compulsory sterilization, but moved toward implementing it...This decision was greeted with dismay abroad, but Indira Gandhi's government felt it had little other choice. There is too little time left to experiment further with educational programs and hope that social change will generate a spontaneous fertility decline, and most of the Indian population is too poor for direct economic pressures (especially penalties) to be effective.
When necessary, then, compulsory sterilization is justified. This attitude suffuses the following passage, in which the possibility of putting a “sterilant” into a population's drinking water is seriously discussed. Holdren and his co-authors do not recommend this particular method, but their objections to it are merely practical and health-related, not moral or stemming from any concern for human freedom:
Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the oposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock...Again, there is no sign of such an agent on the horizon. And the risk of serious, unforeseen side effects would, in our opinion, militate against the use of any such agent, even though this plan has the advantage of avoiding the need for socioeconomic pressures that might tend to discriminate against particular groups or penalize children.
Even though they do not recommend it, note that Holdren and his co-authors treat this as a serious policy proposal with serious drawbacks -- not as an insane idea unworthy of consideration.
They look with more favor on this “milder” form of coercive sterilization:
Of course, a government might require only implantation of the contraceptive capsule, leaving its removal to the individual's discretion but requiring reimplantation after childbirth. Since having a child would require positive action (removal of the capsule), many more births would be prevented than in the reverse situation.
Holdren and his co-authors also tackle the problem of illegitimacy, recognizing that it could be one consequence of a society which, in its effort to limit births, downgrades the value of intact nuclear families and encourages lifelong bachelorhood:
Responsible parenthood ought to be encouraged and illegitimate childbearing could be strongly discouraged. One way to carry out this disapproval might be to insist that all illegitimate babies be put up for adoption -- especially those born to minors, who generally are not capable of caring properly for a child alone...It would even be possible to require pregnant single women to marry or have abortions, perhaps as an alternative to placement for adoption, depending on the society.
Holdren's suggestion here is presented perfectly in context. It stands alone in the text without any accompanying reservations.
President Obama has spoken repeatedly in favor of putting science before ideology. The real debate, however, has never been about whether ethics are needed in science, but rather over whose ethics should determine where science will or will not go.
Nowhere has Obama suggested that science should be completely ethics-free. But Holdren is his Science Czar all the same.
Jesus supports the IDF and he wants his believers to be the best soldiers they can be.
That was the message conveyed by members of the local Messianic Jewish community via sacred texts, prayer and talks, to a group of 18-year-olds who took part this week in a premilitary program called Netsor.
"I am a soldier of God," said Boris, an intense redhead accepted to an elite combat unit, who is one of the 28 young men and women who participated in Netsor.
"I will do my best during my service in the IDF to serve God spiritually and physically. Not for the sake of state authorities but for the sake of God and Jesus," added Boris, as we sat in the dining room of a guest house that overlooks Lake Kinneret on Wednesday.
Not far from here, according to Christian tradition, Jesus walked on water, healed the sick and preached. Now, nearly two millennia later, young "believers," as they call themselves, convinced they are walking in Jesus's footsteps, hope to become the next fighter pilots, reconnaissance soldiers, paratroopers, tank commanders and sailors.
Some 150 highly motivated believers will join the IDF this year. Many of them will serve in combat units. Some of them have been through Netsor's week of mental and spiritual preparation offered by the Messianic community. Netsor is a Hebrew word that means "to guard" or "to stand vigilant."
The return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel with the establishment of the State of Israel brought with it a small but growing group of Messianic Jews, numbering today between 10,000 and 15,000. These Christians celebrate their own version of Jewish holidays such as Pessah and Succot and set aside Friday night and Saturday as a day of rest.
But they also believe that Jesus is the messiah and that he is the only path to redemption. Messianic Jews are very open about their beliefs, including their conviction that traditional Jewish faith is not sufficient for redemption.
Due to their religious beliefs, Messianic Jews have been subjected over the years to physical attacks and discrimination, including in the IDF.
M., a platoon commander in an elite demolition unit who is one of the founders of Netsor, asked The Jerusalem Post to leave out identifiable personal details of individuals who agreed to be interviewed out of concern that they would be singled out and blackballed by antagonistic elements with connections in the army.
"In the end, we believe that God opens and closes doors," said M. "And if he does not want someone to advance in the IDF it won't happen. But we don't want to make any mistakes that will hurt someone's IDF career."
For Messianic Jews, military service in the IDF is not only a mandatory civil duty, it is a religious obligation. Lacking an exegetical tradition but serious about the sacredness and relevance of the biblical text, "believers" learn this obligation to serve in the army right out of the New Testament.
Romans (13:1-7) warns not to resist political authority, because it is "the ordinance of God."
Colossians (3:22,23) teaches that one must excel as a faithful servant of one's superiors, not for personal aggrandizement but to serve God.
The group's interpretation of these texts, combined with a strong religious faith, transform them into soldiers of God determined to do his will during their stint in the army of the Jewish state.
Other verses, such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, 5-7), which some Christians interpret as Jesus's support for pacifism, are seen by Messianic Jews as an obligation to love one's enemies while fighting and killing them.
"I hate what Palestinian terrorists do, therefore I will do anything, including kill, if necessary, to stop them," said Tzvi, an educator and counselor at Netsor. "But I do not allow that to prevent me from loving them as human beings."
Many Messianic Jews see their obligation to serve in the IDF as no different from the obligation of other Christians in the US, Britain or even Jordan and Egypt to serve their respective countries.
"If I lived in Jordan I would have the same feelings for the Jordanian army," said Tzvi.
But for some, serving in the IDF has special theological meaning. Yoel, who was an officer in an IDF combat unit, believes the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel is part of God's plans.
"The IDF is an instrument in the hands of God because it facilitates his plan," said Yoel. "But I would not call it a holy army or the army of God."
The Netsor program, which began three years ago, has quadrupled the number of students from seven in 2007 to 28 this year.
Yoel, one of Netsor's founders, hopes one day to create a premilitary academy for Messianic Jews modeled after existing academies for religious and secular Israelis.
"We pray that sometime in the future we will succeed in establishing a full-fledged premilitary academy that will offer a one-year program; with God's help."
US Christians Gather To Show Support For Israel http://www.jpost.com/
Christian supporters of Israel who gathered in Washington last week did not just sit through policy briefings and lobbying sessions; they danced the hora, blew a shofar, sang Hatikva and celebrated all that they love about Israel.
Whether repeatedly standing up to cheer for speakers or dancing to Israeli tunes, the over 4,000 animated attendees of the fourth annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Washington conference made their passion for the State of Israel absolutely clear.
For two days, the participants learned about Israel, its history, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, how to effectively defend Israel, what America's government should do, how to deal with Iran and how to lobby elected officials. On Wednesday participants met with their elected officials in Congress to voice their support for Israel.
"We're here to tell you and the people of Israel that there are 50 million Christians in this nation who support you and the State of Israel," said CUFI founder John Hagee to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who joined the conference via satellite.
"Your unwavering friendship strengthens us," said Netanyahu, noting that CUFI is helping open a new chapter in Jewish-Christian relations.
Within the Jewish community, there has been disagreement over how to deal with this vocal support.
The most common concerns expressed are that CUFI supports Israel in order to bring about Jesus's "second coming"; that the organization is too right-wing politically and that allying with a group with controversial views on a range of other issues might hurt the community.
In response to The Israel Project's Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi's decision to speak at the CUFI conference, left-wing Israel advocate J Street, on its blog, asked, "Does allying the pro-Israel community further with Pastor John Hagee by appearing at his conference hurt or help Israel's cause?"
Laszlo Mizrahi said that in her quest to form an effective Israel coalition, she does not rule out allies because of their views on other issues.
"The fact that I am speaking at a CUFI event doesn't mean that I endorse every thought all their leaders ever had," she said in an e-mail, echoing the sentiments of other Jewish organizations who cooperate with CUFI on Israel advocacy while setting aside other differences.
For their part, CUFI agrees that groups should join it in support of Israel, even of their views on other issues do not line up. Leaders did make clear, however, that CUFI has no conversion goals.
As for the "end of days" theory, Western Regional Coordinator Randy Neal said that while some people do believe that the second coming will occur when all the Jews inhabit the land of Israel, "That's not what drives us."
"What drives us is the biblical mandate to stand with Israel and the Jewish people," said Neal.
Speakers at the conference also acknowledged that the Jewish community is justified in being initially skeptical of Christians suddenly forming a strong coalition in support of Israel.
"Christians have brought it on themselves," said Florida Director Pastor Scott Thomas, referencing historical Christian violence towards Jews.
Founded in 2006, CUFI now claims over 220,000 followers throughout the US.
Recurring themes brought up by most of the conference speakers were the many aspects of Israel's right to exist and expand, a sense that the Obama administration was unfairly pressuring Israel to stop expanding and an urgent need to address Iran.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, joined in criticizing Obama's Middle East policy. He said he did not believe in Obama's theory that sowing some discord between America and Israel will give America legitimacy to negotiate with Arab states.
While CUFI is still confident of its ability to advocate for Israel under the Obama administration and a heavily Democratic Congress, some experts and CUFI leaders expressed concerns that with the current political climate, advocating CUFI's position might become slightly more difficult. However, there was no doubt that Congress remains a strong ally of Israel.
"Support for Israel in America I think has been so strong largely because Americans have been so pro-Israel, and we dare not let that erode," CUFI Executive Director David Brog said.
To continue advocating for Israel, CUFI's newest frontiers are establishing CUFI chapters on college campuses and pioneering the first CUFI trip to Poland and Israel, to take place this year.
"We want to broaden our base in three ways: We want to broaden it theologically, demographically, and politically," Brog said.
At the Night to Honor Israel, Sen. Joseph Lieberman was given the Defender of Israel Award.
"This convention is a miracle," said Lieberman, who has previously spoken at the conference. "It is all of you... who are the most important defenders of Israel."
Ambassador to the US Michael Oren and Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov expressed similar sentiments in their remarks.
Israel is also trying to reach out to the Christian community, establishing the Prime Minister's Task Force on Global Christian Relationships, on which Hagee will serve.
Hundreds planning Temple Mount ascent for Tisha Be'av http://www.jpost.com/
The Temple Mount Faithful is planning to conduct its annual march to the Temple Mount next week to protest the US demand to cease construction in east Jerusalem, its leader announced Thursday.
Gershon Salomon said that he hoped that this year hundreds would turn out for the Tisha Be'av event to protest US pressure to stop settlement activity, as well as building in eastern Jerusalem. In the past, the gatherings have attracted only a dozen or so participants.
The march by the fringe group, which is pending police approval, has been thwarted by police in years past, when Judaism's holiest site was closed off to non-Muslims on the fast day due to concerns of possible violence at the holy site.
"We're concerned that in the end, the Temple Mount will be part of a Palestinian state, with US backing," Salomon said. "We will say to US President Barack Obama, 'Get your hands off Jerusalem and the land of Israel!"
The planned event includes a morning protest outside the Temple Mount, as well as group ascent to the holy site.
Jerusalem Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said that police will review any request for a demonstration next week.
The 25-hour fast day, the darkest day on the Jewish calendar, marks the destruction of the two ancient temples at the site.
The Islamic group which administers the ancient compound is vehemently opposed to the entry of nationalist Jews to the site.
Israel concerned over Hizbullah's growing strength in South America http://www.jpost.com/
As Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman concluded his visit to Brazil - the first stop of his 10-day Latin American tour - Israel expressed concern over Hizbullah's growing strength in the region, especially in a country not on Lieberman's itinerary: Venezuela.
The minister was expected to discuss the progress that Iran and Hizbullah have made in Venezuela, as well as a report released by the Foreign Ministry in May which details how its president, Hugo Chavez, helped Iran bypass UN Security Council economic sanctions and provided it with uranium.
Iran moved into Latin American in 1982, starting with Cuba, and developed economic ties and opened embassies in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay, according to the report.
Israeli officials have expressed concern at the Islamic republic's growing ties with leftist-led nations in Latin America. Iranian companies are building apartments, cars, tractors and bicycles in Venezuela and the two countries' leaders have exchanged several visits.
Iran has opened new embassies in Bolivia and Nicaragua, and a secret Israeli report recently suggested that Bolivia and Venezuela are supplying uranium to Iran - an allegation sharply denied by both South American countries.
A top Israeli diplomat accompanying Lieberman told The Associated Press that Israel wanted to halt all Hizbullah activities in the region.
"Ever since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first elected as president in 2005, it seems Iran is making a big effort to penetrate Latin America," said Dorit Shavit, deputy director-general of Latin American and Caribbean affairs at the Foreign Ministry. "This is worrying for us."
There are Hizbullah cells in Venezuela's border area with Colombia, Shavit said. "It may be right now they're not active, but they might be active tomorrow."
And Hizbullah's presence has significantly increased in the northwestern region of Guarija and on the Caribbean island of Margarita, she said.
Venezuela has denied the allegation, but copious evidence of cooperation between Hizbullah, Iran and Venezuela has intelligence and terrorism experts concerned.
The relationship between Iran, Hizbullah's chief sponsor, and Venezuela has intensified, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting Caracas three times since 2006, and Chavez visiting Teheran several times.
"We've heard that they Hizbullah are training and financing in Venezuela, especially in Margarita Island, which is a logistical hub and center of money, document fraud, and visa fraud," said Fred Burton, former US counter terrorism agent for the State Department and currently vice president of the Austin, Texas-based STRATFOR private intelligence agency's Counter Terrorism and Corporate Security Division.
Hizbullah efforts in Venezuela have been aided by that nation's close oil and diplomatic ties with Iran, and the large Shi'ite Lebanese population that resides in Venezuela.
"Hizbullah has a history of being active in Latin America and using the vast Lebanese Shi'ite expatriate population to its advantage, specifically as it relates to the production and trafficking of narcotics," said Mathew Brodsky, legacy heritage fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.
"Also, last year the US targeted a Hizbullah drug trafficking ring in the Tri-Border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and they identified and dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money-laundering ring comprised of a Columbian drug cartel and Lebanese members of Hizbullah," he said.
Hizbullah's presence in Venezuela is particularly troublesome for Israeli government due to its distance from the long arm of the IDF.
"This is where you begin to worry if you're in Israeli intelligence, because you know you only have fixed number of assets to look at, and logistically this is a long way away from Israel," Burton said.
"The farther Hizbullah gets away from home base, the more difficult it is for the Israelis to operate against them."
The US government directly linked Hizbullah to Venezuela in June 2008 and saw the connections as troubling when the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assists Control designated several entities there as tied to Hizbullah, according to Brodsky.
He sees the growing Hizbullah presence in Venezuela as part of a larger Iranian effort to gain influence in the region.
"In sum, Hizbullah's connection to Venezuela is part of a much larger and more threatening pattern of behavior by Iran in South America," said Brodsky.
"Earlier, Iran also began banking operations in Venezuela in an effort to bypass the international sanctions already in place. So Hizbullah has been engaged in fund-raising and facilitating the travel of senior operatives - which has become easier since weekly flights between Iran and Venezuela began in 2007 with return stops in Syria.
Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rise to record http://abcnews.go.com/
Britain has seen an unprecedented number of anti-Semitic "hate crimes", with more incidents recorded so far in 2009 than in any previous entire year, a Jewish advisory body said on Friday.
Up to the end of June, there were 609 anti-Semitic incidents ranging from verbal abuse to extreme violence, compared with 276 in the same period last year.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain's estimated 300,000 Jews on safety issues, said it was the highest number it had recorded since it began collating figures in 1984.
Israel's Gaza offensive against Hamas militants which was launched at the end of December was the main cause, it said, with many of the incidents taking place in January and including direct references to the fighting.
"British Jews are facing ever higher levels of racist attack and intimidation," said Mark Gardner from the CST. "There is no excuse for anti-Semitism, racism and bias, and it is totally unacceptable that overseas conflicts should be impacting here in this way."
The CST said there had been 77 violent anti-Semitic incidents including two it classified as "extreme violence", an attack which could cause loss of life or grievous bodily harm.
Most incidents took place in London and Manchester, the two biggest Jewish communities in Britain.
'Extremism on the march'
"This rise in anti-Semitism is not just concerning for the British Jewish Communities but for all those who see themselves as decent human beings," said Shahid Malik, the government's Cohesion Minister.
Denis MacShane, an MP who led a 2006 parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism, said the issue was "once more a very real problem".
"This is a warning to all of our society, a warning that the damaging forces of extremism and scapegoating are again on the march," he said.
Earlier this month, a senior British counter-terrorism officer said police were concerned about a rise in attacks by far-right groups.
Last week, a white supremacist, who prosecutors said wanted to embark on a war with the "non-British", was found guilty of plotting bomb attacks after he was found with components for homemade incendiary devices.
The Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that Iran would strike Israel's nuclear facilities if the Jewish state attacked it, state television reported.
"If the Zionist Regime (Israel) attacks Iran, we will surely strike its nuclear facilities with our missile capabilities," Mohammad Ali Jafari, Guards commander-in-chief, told Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television.
The Revolutionary Guards are the ideologically driven wing of Iran's military with air, sea and land capabilities, and a separate command structure to regular units.
Iranian leaders often dismiss talk of a possible strike by Israel, saying it is not in a position to threaten Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. They say Iran would respond to any attack by targeting U.S. interests and Israel.
"We are not responsible for this regime and other enemies' foolishness ... If they strike Iran, our answer will be firm and precise," state television quoted Jafari as saying.
The United States, Israel and their Western allies fear that Iran is enriching uranium with the aim of producing nuclear weapons and have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.
Iran says it is pursuing only a nuclear power generation program.
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence. Iran refuses to recognize Israel.
Jafari said Israel was entirely within the reach of Iran.
"Our missile capability puts all of the Zionist regime (Israel) within Iran's reach to attack," Jafari said. "The Zionist regime is too small to threaten Iran."
Military experts say Iran rarely reveals enough detail about its new military equipment to determine its military capabilities.
Israel has so far quietly acceded to Washington's strategy of talking to Tehran about curtailing its sensitive nuclear work.
Israel believes that a multi-level missile shield underwritten by the United States would protect the country against possible missile attacks.
Jafari said such a shield could only protect Israel "in a limited way."
"But they will have no answer when Iran bombards them and sends a great number of its missiles," he added.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in May Iran had tested a missile that defense analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf. Washington said the test was a "step in the wrong direction" to remove concerns over its nuclear work.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for about 40 percent of globally traded oil, if it is attacked. The U.S. military says it will prevent any such action.
Military experts say Iranian missiles often draw on technology from China, North Korea and other countries.
Israel has three German-made submarines that are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles.
One of the submarines sailed from the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal, to Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat in early July, seen as a signal to Iran of the long reach of its arsenal.
Jafari said Iran "was not scared" of Israel's military capabilities. "It is part of the psychological war that the West has launched against Iran," he said.
Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, was re-elected in a disputed June 12 presidential vote that stirred the largest display of internal unrest in the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Russia builds key naval HQ in Syria: Missile presence worries Israel http://www.debka.com/
A high-ranking Russian navy source reported that the Soviet-era naval maintenance base near Tartus in Syria is to be expanded and modernized to become "fully operational."
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Russia is building the facility up as its main sea base for operations in four seas: The Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The upgrade of Russian port facilities at Tartus, its only foothold in the Mediterranean, will automatically enhance Moscow's strategic interests in Syria and Bashar Assad's regime.
The Russian source said that the 50 naval personnel and three berthing floats currently deployed at Tartus with accommodation for up a dozen warships will be beefed up with a new berthing float delivered by two tugboats from the Black Sea Fleet. DEBKAfile's sources disclose that those warships will include large vessels such as the nuclear-armed guided missile cruiser Peter the Great and the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which called in at Tartus in January.
In September 2008, DEBKAfile first disclosed that the Russian Navy commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky and his Syrian counterpart Gen. Taleb al-Barri, had signed contracts for converting Tartus into one of Russia's most highly-developed naval infrastructures outside its territory. Its warships based there will capable of reaching the Red Sea through the Suez Canal and the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar in a matter of days. For original disclosures click HERE and HERE.
Israel is deeply concerned, according to our military sources, by the sophisticated air-defense S-300PMU-2 and Iskander-E missile systems the Russians propose to hand Syria on the pretext of installing a shield to defend the facility against air or missile attack. Moscow claims they will remain under the control of Russian crews but, according to information reaching Israel, they will be quietly and gradually handedover to the Syrian army; the Russian teams are in fact instructors.
Russia justifies this, according to DEBKAfile's Moscow sources, by the deployment of the highly sophisticated American FBX-T missile-interception radar systems at the Israeli Negev base of Nevatim.
Furthermore, Moscow will have its rejoinder for the disputed US deployment of missile interceptors in Eastern Europe. As we reported last September, the Russian Black Sea fleet and new Mediterranean-based warships will coordinate their operations under a single command. They are designed as counter-deployments to the post-Georgian-war US and NATO naval presence in the Black Sea as well as its fleets in other parts of the Mediterranean including Israel's shores.
Gallery’s invitation to deface the Bible brings obscene response http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
A publicly funded exhibition is encouraging people to deface the Bible in the name of art — and visitors have responded with abuse and obscenity.
The show includes a video of a woman ripping pages from the Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.
The open Bible is a central part of Made in God’s Image, an exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow. By the book is a container of pens and a notice saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”
The exhibit, Untitled 2009, was proposed by the Metropolitan Community Church, which said that the idea was to reclaim the Bible as a sacred text. But to the horror of many Christians, including the community church, visitors have daubed its pages with comments such as “This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all.” A contributor wrote on the first page of Genesis: “I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this.”
The Church of Scotland expressed concern, the Roman Catholic Church called the exhibit infantile, and a Christian lawyers’ group said that the exhibition was symptomatic of a broken and lawless society.
The exhibition has been created by the artists Anthony Schrag and David Malone, in association with organisations representing gay Christians and Muslims. Mr Schrag, the gallery’s artist in residence, said that he did not believe in God, but that his research for the £7,000 show had underlined his respect for people of faith.
The community church, which celebrates “racial, cultural, linguistic, sexual, gender and theological diversity”, had suggested the “interactive” Bible and pens and Mr Schrag, 34, said he had been intrigued.
“Any offensive things that have been written are not the point of the work,” he said. “It was an open gesture. Are those who say they are upset offended by the things that people write, or just by the very notion that someone should write on a Bible?”
The artist, a Canadian who took a master’s degree at Glasgow School of Art, said that human rights were at the centre of the show. “If we are to open up the Bible for discussion, surely we have to invite people to speak out,” he said. “Art allows us to discuss difficult things, and Goma allows difficult discussions to take place — that is why Glasgow is at the cutting edge of contemporary art.”
Jane Clarke, a minister of the community church, said she regretted the insults that had appeared. “The Bible should never be used like that. It was our intention to reclaim it as a sacred text,” she said. While the exhibition’s supporters insist that the exhibit promotes “inclusivity” and should break down barriers between orthodox religion and gay and transgendered people, most contributors have paid scant regard to matters of sexuality.
One writer has altered the first line of the Old Testament from “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth” to “In the beginning, God (me) I created religion.” Another has written “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”. The main sentiment, however, is rage at Christianity. “F*** the Bible”, one message says.
Last night the producers of the exhibition indicated that the most offensive pages would be removed, but Christians expressed outrage and disbelief that the show had been staged at all. “This is symbolic of the state of our broken and lawless society,” said Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre. “We have got to a point where we call the desecration of the Bible modern art. The Bible stands for everything this art does not: for creation, beauty, hope and regeneration.”
The Church of Scotland said it condemned any sacrilegious act. “We would discourage anyone from defacing the Bible,” a Kirk spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: “One wonders whether the organisers would have been quite as willing to have the Koran defaced.”
Made in God’s Image is part of a series of exhibitions focusing on human rights organised by Culture and Sport Glasgow, part of the city council. The division’s chief executive is Dr Bridget McConnell, wife of the former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell. Church of England Unveils New Liturgy for Families 'Living in Sin'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
The Church of England unveils a two-in-one wedding and baptism liturgy today as it seeks to make peace with families “living in sin”.
The “hatch-and-match” service allows couples to baptise their children after the wedding ceremony. Parents can even get baptised themselves.
The aim is to encourage cohabiting parents to marry as the Church tries to become more relevant to the way people live their lives, but critics said that it appeared to sanction having children out of wedlock. One bishop described the idea as “nutty”. The liturgy, costing £272, is being sent out to dioceses and parish clergy today.
The move comes after research commissioned by the archbishops of Canterbury and York found that increasing numbers of couples marrying in church already had children. The latest figures on births and marriages show that about 44 per cent of children are born to unmarried women.
The Bishop of Fulham, the Right Rev John Broadhurst, said that the service trivialised the Church’s role. He told The Times: “It is a pity they have not put in a funeral for grandma as well. What are they playing at? It seems trendy, and it reveals a complete lack of awareness of the reality of what goes on in parishes. I do not understand why they want to do it.”
Stephen Parkinson, of the Anglo-Catholic group Forward in Faith, said: “The proper place for a baptism is not during a wedding but during the Sunday morning act of worship so the congregation can welcome a new Christian. It is a shame that what should be a bride’s day now stands to be hijacked by screaming kids.”
David Phillips, general secretary of the evangelical Church Society, said: “Putting these services together seems unwise. The proper place for sex is within marriage. That should be what people are taught when seeking baptism. If this is going to confuse the teaching of the Church, it does not seem a good way forward.”
However, the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt — an evangelical and the Church’s spokesman on marriage — said: “I suspect a lot of clergy have done services like this already. This will help clergy who might not otherwise feel competent when asked to do this.”
Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield and chairman of the liturgical commission, which drew up the service, said: “This does not mean the Church is changing its teaching. This is a way for the Church to reinforce its commitment to marriage. The Church has always attempted to meet people where they are. But it has also tried to teach something of what it believes the Christian faith to be.”
"Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam" - Hizb-ut-Tahrir hosts first Islamic Caliphate Conference in UShttp://www.jpost.com/
A global Islamic extremist political organization hosted its first organized conference in the United States on Sunday. Hosted by the group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the conference, titled "Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam," was hosted at a Hilton hotel in Chicago.
The conference was free to the public and attracted some 700 people, according to a report by Chicago's CBS 2 network.
The organization, whose name means The Liberation Party, is known for being a political, non-violent Sunni movement formed as a reaction to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The party was established in Jerusalem in 1953 by Palestinian intellectuals. The leader at the time, Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, established the organization as an ideological political party striving to create an Islamic caliphate, i.e. an ideal, unified Muslim state.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is "a political party whose ideology is Islam," according to the group's official Web site.
The group is the "first Islamic radical organization to adopt a global policy," said Reuven Paz, the director of Project for the Research of Islamist Movements (PRISM). The party has established centers across the world, but has been banned in much of the Arab world and central Asia because the group has been seen as an opposition to Islamic governments already in place, he explained in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Paz said that though the organization has a strong base in London, the US branch was created in the 1970s in states with large Muslim populations.
Kamran Bokhari, STRATFOR's director of Middle East analysis, explained that until this conference, the Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been largely dormant in the US, but he believes the group is trying to make a comeback and reestablish a presence.
"They are trying to make use of the financial crisis and show that capitalism is in decline and Islam is the answer," he said. "They decided it's the right time to come back - the hunt against Islam is not as intense as it used to be."
He explained that the organization is serious about theology, idealogy and methodology. "Unlike organizations like al-Qaeda, they do not use force. They are more into doing conferences and holding study circles to shape public opinion," he said.
Paz explained that the conference is taking place in the United States because the group is taking advantage of freedom of speech. Most of the members are young intellectual elites, he said.
Though anti-Israel, anti-Shi'ite and anti-Western, the organization is not at all violent, but is seen as a threat for having unique doctrines and attracting followers to demonstrations, said Paz.
"The group is a minority in the Muslim world, but they are very vocal. They can be very extreme, but never violent," Paz said. "They are far from the present doctrines of al-Qaeda."
In a phone interview with CBS News, conference deputy spokesman Reza Imam stressed that Hizb ut-Tahrir does not call for violence or spread radical ideas. He said the group has not been accused of being tied to violent activities.
According to the organization's Web site, Hizb-ut-Tahrir aims to educate Muslims as an "entity that seeks to change people's thoughts through intelligent discussion and debate," and "does not accept forcing people or societies to change by means of violence and terror."
Imam said the conference was hosted to highlight the disintegration of capitalism during the global financial crisis.
"Our organization is an intellectual organization, so anybody who subscribes to its ideas is a member," said Imam. "Our currency is ideas...it is not a card-carrying type of organization," he added.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has no headquarters in the US and no leader, said Imam, adding that it has a strong presence in Chicago.
The conference was originally scheduled to be held at Al Aqsa Islamic School in Bridgeview, Ill., but the school canceled the event. According to CBS News, school officials felt the group misrepresented their goals when they asked to use the venue Hamas begins to enforce Islamic Law with headscarf, modesty patrols
http://www.jpost.com/
The Gaza Strip's most senior judge said on Sunday that he has ordered all female lawyers to wear headscarves and a long, dark colored cloak under their black robes when they appear in court beginning September.
A Mounted Hamas security officer patrols the beach for 'indecently dressed' women.
Supreme Court chief justice Abdul-Raouf Halabi explained his decision as part of an effort to conform to Islamic law.
"Showing a woman's hair is forbidden," the Hamas-appointed Halabi told The Associated Press. "We will not allow people to corrupt morals. This dress code will improve work in the courts."
The Hamas government formally said that it is not imposing Islamic law on the territory's 1.4 million residents. Instead, it said that it is simply ensuring residents behave in line with the territory's own conservative culture.
Subyiya Juma, a female lawyer, said the judge's decision would affect only 10 or so lawyers - since the vast majority of the 150 registered female lawyers already cover their hair.
Juma, who does not wear a headscarf, said the point wasn't the number of women affected, but that freedoms were being eroded.
"This is dangerous - it's a clear violation of the law, it is taking away our personal freedoms - and by whom? The very person who is meant to defend our freedoms," Juma said.
Earlier in July, Palestinian female journalist Asma al-Ghul complained that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.
Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas's intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.
Toronto's newest Muslim speaking star: a would-be suicide bomberhttp://www.nationalpost.com/
'Long live the Taliban" might seem an unlikely thing for a prominent anti-war figure to declare, but that's to-day's peace movement for you. Stranger still, the man who recently uttered those words, Azzam Tamimi, is being promoted by a new Toronto-based institute that says it is embarking upon a national campaign to cultivate wholesome, faith-based civic virtues among Canada's young Muslims.
The Mississauga, Ont.-based Al-Fauz Institute for Islamic Thought claims its purpose is to teach young Muslims how to apply Islamic ideas to Canada's pluralistic society and "prepare young minds that will take up the mantle of the Muslim community." But Tamimi -- who currently has top billing on the Al-Fauz website, and is listed as a member of the institute's "faculty" -- has loudly renounced democracy. Indeed, he recently proclaimed: "I don't believe in democracy anymore," explicitly praises suicide bombers, and says he is willing to blow himself up in Israel: "It's the straight way to pleasing my God and I would do it if I had the opportunity." He distinguishes good Muslims from their adversaries this way: "We love death. They love life."
You'd never know any of this from the billing the Al-Fauz Institute gives Tamimi. He's presented as a Palestinian-born British academic and a "political activist." His leading role with Britain's Stop The War Coalition is noted. But nowhere does the institute mention that Tamimi is also a high-ranking advisor to Hamas, an organization considered by Canada to be a terrorist group. His best-known book is titled Hamas: A History From Within. Nor is this fact mentioned by Toronto's Ryerson University, which is permitting Tamimi to deliver a four-day "intensive course on Islamic history" from July 24 to July 27.
Aside from Tamimi, five well-known Canadian imams are listed by the Al-Fauz Institute as "faculty" members. But the best known among them -- Hamid Slimi, chairman of the Canadian Council of Imams -- told me he'd never even heard of the institute. "I don't know anything about this," Slimi said. "I must be completely out of the loop."
Iqbal Masood Nadvi, the institute's "senior patron," denied any knowledge of Tamimi's dodgy associations or his various bloodcurdling pronouncements. "I am hearing this from you for the first time," he said. "I don't believe in the Taliban. What I know about Tamimi is he is an academic person."
Nadvi referred further questions to the Al-Fauz Institute's co-ordinator, Junaid Mirza, who had taken the lead in bringing Tamimi onboard. While Mirza was quite familiar with Tamimi's political background, he said it was Tamimi's academic expertise in the history of Islamic reform movements that landed him the institute faculty post and the Ryerson gig. But if the point is to present Canadians with "a balanced and comprehensive vision of Islam," isn't a character like Azzam Tamimi pretty well the worst choice the Al-Fauz Institute could have made?
"We'll have other points of view down the road, too," Mirza said.
As for Tamimi's support for the Taliban, Mirza claims that's not so clear. "It's not a blanket defence," Mirza said. And what about Tamimi's grisly advocacy of suicide bombing? Mirza says the subject isn't expected to come up during Tamimi's lectures, which will look back on 1,400 years of Islamic history.
"This is an academic discussion," says Mirza. "We're not trying to get people motivated and inspired like you would at a political rally."
Is the Al-Fauz Institute really interested in helping young Muslim Canadians make healthy contributions to this country's mosaic? Azzam Tamimi preaches a toxic, anti-democratic Islamism and espouses a decidedly oppressive way of life. The Al-Fauz Institute must be called to account -- Canadians deserve to know just what this group has planned.
Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Manhttp://www.nytimes.com/
A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.
Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.
Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.
As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a “cockroach” stage of machine intelligence.
While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.
The researchers — leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California — generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon.
They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smart phones?
The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.
A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.
The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world’s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.
The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.
Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.
The idea of an “intelligence explosion” in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the “human era will be ended.” He called this shift the Singularity.
This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.
“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Dr. Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”
The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity University began offering courses to prepare a “cadre” to shape the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.
“My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,” Dr. Horvitz said.
The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of “the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.” It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?
Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.
The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.
“If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,” he said, referring to genetically modified foods, “then it is very difficult. It’s too complex, and people talk right past each other.”
Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. “I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,” he said. But, he added, “The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.”
Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, “Oh no, sorry to hear that.”
A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion.
Chinese breakthrough with mice may mean cloning man is closer http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
News that Chinese researchers have succeeded in growing healthy living mice from mouse skin cells takes scientists a significant step closer to human cloning, experts say, and thus figures to reignite an ethics debate.
The new feat — in which animals were grown from cells that had been reverted to embryos — is different from cloning.
Cloning, in which the nucleus is removed from a cell and implanted in a fertilized egg, has never been achieved in humans. Nor has the new technique — using induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells — been tested in them. Because that process works in mice, however, it should work in humans.
"We now have the technology to create iPS cells from skin or hair follicles," said Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology Inc., who was not involved in the studies. "...What's very troubling is that if you have a piece of skin from anybody — Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson — you could create a child."
The researchers involved in the new studies said it should not be tried on humans.
"It would not be ethical to attempt to use iPS cells in human reproduction," said Fanyi Zeng of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Her study, she added, was "in no way meant as a first step in that direction."
Genetically modified food crops — tomato, brinjal and cauliflower — could be introduced in the country in three years http://www.expressbuzz.com
Days before US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s tour of India kicked off, the Union agriculture ministry cleared three genetically modified (GM) food crops — tomato, brinjal and cauliflower — to be introduced in the country in three years. The final clearance will have to come from two committees — the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee and the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation. Given the consistent — and often uncritical — bias both have shown in favour of GM crops, there is every possibility that these three GM vegetables will soon be in the markets. There is no call to float conspiracy theories, but it must be significant that India has come down on the US side of the GM debate ignoring the European Union’s consistent scepticism about genetic modification, at a time when Clinton has made talks on agricultural technology part of the agenda of bilateral cooperation. It is nobody’s case that GM crops should be completely ruled out of court — potentially it has a serious role to play in meeting the crisis of food security that haunts developing countries. But precipitate action is extremely unwise for a number of reasons.
To begin with, there are health issues. At the current state of knowledge about GM food crops, no one can be certain about its health impacts. Much greater research and pilot testing will be necessary before GM crops can be declared completely safe for human consumption. A related issue is the matter of choice — a EU-US bone of contention for a long time. The question is: will the government be able to put in place a regulatory and labelling regime to ensure that consumers know what they are consuming?
It is unclear what the impact of the cultivation of GM crops will have on existing landraces and strains. There is a possibility that if the regulatory regime is weak and proper precautions aren’t taken to segregate GM crops from others, native strains will be adversely affected. This could, in fact, end up imperilling food security. There are other issues — the question of the introduction of ‘terminator’ genes, already played out in the case of GM cotton, and the control that it gives to seed corporations must also be revisited. But for the moment health and safety are the most crucial questions — and as long as there is public scepticism about the pro-industry bias of the two expert committees, the political establishment must proceed with far greater caution.
Air Force Drones - looking 30 years into the future http://abcnews.go.com/
If you think drone aircraft are all the rage at the U.S. Air Force, just wait a few years. The men in the Pentagon who look into the future believe UAVs -- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or pilotless planes -- are the future.
Comparing today's drones to the development of manned military flight, "we are in the 1920s," said Lt. Gen. David Deptula. He spoke at a Defense Department briefing looking 30 years into the future.
UAV's are already used, principally for reconnaissance, where they can fly high and steady. But Defense Department planners say they can foresee drones used as cargo planes, bombers or fighters.
Planners also say they imagine the development of nano-aircraft the size of bugs, which could be used to spy inside enemy buildings.
They expect to see jets that could fly at hypersonic speeds, far beyond the ability of even the hottest pilot to keep them under control.
And they painted a picture of multi-purpose unmanned planes, which could be fitted with "pods" up front for specific missions.
A drone can be remote-controlled, steered by a "pilot" on the ground at a U.S. base, far from danger. Or, eventually, they could be self-controlled, following a preset flight plan but changing it as conditions change during its mission. The Air Force says it has seen a more than 600 percent increase in demand for unmanned missions in the past decade.
"They are very important and very effective," in targeting enemies, said Deptula. He said drones hit what they are aiming at 95 percent of the time.
30-Year 'Flight Plan'
In the Pentagon's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan, which looks out to the year 2047, the sky is basically the limit, say the planners. They said they made their ideas public in order to attract interest from aerospace companies and university engineers, who are likely to come up with leading-edge innovations -- but need to know what the Air Force, the CIA and other users think they will need in the future.
The plan also suggests what the Air Force calls a loyal wingman concept. In this scenario, a pilot in a conventional manned aircraft could fly to a target, followed by a dozen or more heavily armed drones. The pilot, after dropping the bombs or missiles on his own plane, could then assign his "loyal wingmen" to do the same. It would be highly efficient -- an entire squadron, led by one pilot.
The Air Force is also experimenting to see how many drones one operator, back at a base, can control remotely at once. With a sufficiently advanced autopilot, a drone is unlikely to need full-time piloting.
There are obstacles to overcome. Right now drones are operating in airspace controlled by the U.S. or its allies -- but they are far from being ready to tangle with enemy pilots. If they are flying in contested airspace, "they'll start falling like rain," said Gen. Deptula. So the Air Force will consider stealth and other technologies to protect the drones in hostile territory.
Deptula couldn't suggest a ratio of manned to unmanned aircraft in the years to come, but he said it's clear UAV's are a big part of the future. As the No. 2 man in the Air Force, Gen. William Fraser, said, "We have embraced this technology."
N. Korea publicly executes Christian for distributing the Biblehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com
North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman last month for distributing the Bible, which is banned in the communist nation, South Korean activists said Friday.
Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korea groups.
Ri's parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, the report said, citing unidentified documents it says were obtained from North Korea. It showed a copy of Ri's North Korean government-issued photo ID.
It is virtually impossible to verify such reports about secretive North Korea, where the government tightly controls the lives of its citizens and does not allow dissent.
On Thursday, an annual report from a state-run South Korean think tank on human rights in the North said that public executions, though dropping in number in recent years, were still carried out for crimes ranging from murder to circulating foreign movies.
North Korea claims to guarantee freedom of religion for its 24 million people but in reality severely restricts religious observances. The cult of personality surrounding national founder Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, is a virtual state religion.
Citizens barred from churches
The government has authorized four state churches, one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox, but they cater to foreigners and ordinary North Koreans cannot attend. However, defectors and activists say more than 30,000 North Koreans are believed to practice Christianity secretly.
The U.S. State Department reported last year that "genuine religious freedom does not exist" in North Korea.
"North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime," Do Hee-youn, a leading activist, told reporters, claiming public executions, arrest and detention of North Koreans are prevalent.
The Investigative Commission On Crime Against Humanity also alleged in its report that in March, North Korean security agents arrested Seo Kum Ok, 30, another Christian, in a city near Ryongchon and tortured her. The agents alleged she was attempting to spy on a nuclear site and hand over the evidence to South Korea and the U.S.
The report said it remains unclear whether she survived. Her husband was also arrested and their two children disappeared, it said.
The commission said it was seeking to try to take North Korean leader Kim to the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity.
Activists claim that such atrocities — including murder, kidnap, rape, extermination of individuals in prison camps — cannot take place in North Korea without Kim's knowledge or direction as he wields absolute power.
"Let's file a suit against Kim Jong Il to the International Criminal Court," the activists chanted. Christian Doctor Loses Position over Gay Adoption View
http://www.christianpost.com/
A Christian doctor in England was removed from an adoption panel because she refused to endorse applications by gay couples.
Pediatrician Dr. Sheila Matthews had requested to abstain from voting in cases of same-sex couples, as she has done for the past five years. But the Northhamptonshire County Council said it decided to instead replace her on the panel because her view on gay adoption did not comply with England’s new Equality Law, as reported by U.K.’s the Daily Mail.
The Equality Law forbids discrimination against homosexuals or transsexuals in terms of access to goods and services, including adoption agencies. Under the controversial law, even religious institutions and churches are forced to hire open, practicing homosexuals.
Matthews said both as a medical doctor and as a Christian she cannot recommend placing a child with same-sex parents despite what the new legislation calls for. Men and women, she explains, bring different characteristics to parenting. Mothers are more nurturing while fathers are more challenging, Matthews said according to the U.K. newspaper. The pediatrician claims children of gay adoptive parents are more likely to be bullied.
“I don’t feel that placing children for adoption with same-sex couples is the best place for them,” said Matthews. “As a Christian, I don’t believe it’s an appropriate lifestyle and I don’t believe the outcomes for children would be as good as if they were placed with heterosexual couples.”
Although she requested to abstain from voting in same-sex couple cases, Matthews has been reporting on the health of prospective adoptive parents, including gay couples, to the panel for the past five years. She has indicated that she wants to continue to analyze the candidates’ health qualification but just abstain from voting if they are a gay couple.
But the Council has decided to remove her from the panel altogether.
Matthews has appealed the Council’s decision and said she may take the case to the employment tribunal over religious discrimination.
The case of the Christian doctor penalized for her views on gay adoption follows reports earlier this year of Catholic adoption agencies in the United Kingdom threatening to shut down if they are forced to work with gay couples due to the Equality Law. The Catholic Church in the U.K. has argued that the rights of homosexuals are given priority over the rights of Christians.
Last year, 90 children, out of more than 3,200 adopted children in England, were adopted by gay couples.Survey: Faith of Blacks Grows Stronger, More Orthodox
http://www.christianpost.com/
Blacks remain the most religious ethnic group in America, a new study shows.
And over the last 15 years, African Americans have grown even more religious and orthodox in their Christian beliefs, according to The Barna Group.
Findings from surveys that included 1,272 African American respondents reveal that blacks today are more likely than they were in the early 1990s to believe that the principles taught in the Bible are totally accurate; to say that their religious faith is very important in their life; to have a biblically orthodox understanding of the nature of God; and to be born again.
African Americans were found to be the most likely ethnic group to consider themselves Christian with 92 percent saying so. Nationally, 85 percent of Americans in general consider themselves Christian. Blacks were also the most likely to be born again Christians (59 percent vs. 46 percent nationally).
Moreover, blacks had the lowest population of unchurched adults and were least likely to be Catholic.
"While the beliefs and behaviors of America's white population have changed little since the early 1990s, the new research underscored that the faith of African-Americans is dynamic, generally moving in a direction that is more aligned with conservative biblical teachings," the Barna report states.
Today, 66 percent of blacks say the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. Only 49 percent of the general U.S. population agrees. Eighty-six percent of blacks say their religious faith is very important in their life while 72 percent of the American public says so.
More than four out of five African Americans also say loving God is the single, most important purpose of their life and that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe who rules the world. Meanwhile, three out of five in the general U.S. population agree with those statements.
African Americans are markedly more religious when it comes to attending church, participating in a small group, praying and reading the Bible.
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