Exloring Life Eternal

North Korea - LORD, we commit the Prayer for North Korea website to you www.prayfornorthkorea.org, which is to be launched very shortly. We ask that your Spirit would be at work through this resource and that change would come to North Korea.

== Pakistan - Pray for an end to the escalating violent attacks against Christians in Pakistan, which have recently gotten even worse because of the Danish cartoons controversy. Pray for their protection and the growth of their community and that God will provide for those Christians who have lost their houses or other property in the anti-Christian violence.
== Nigeria - We pray for Christians who have been attacked and the families of those who were killed in riots organized in protest of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. We ask you to intervene in this situation and to bring your peace and justice.

Tibet – Pray for a great expansion of religious freedom for Christians in Tibet.

East Timor - We continue to pray for Christians in East Timor particularly in the light of the ongoing post conflict reconstruction. Pray that the Christian Church would have an important role to play, that they would have divine wisdom, love, and unity, that it may glorify your name and lead others to you.

This is a letter to the editor of the "Michigan Daily" the student paper of the University of Michigan - in response to an editorial attempting to justify not publishing the "controversial" cartoons but only publishing blank spaces:

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You wrote a justification for not publishing some political cartoons satirizing "Muhammed" but only publishing blanks. To my knowledge, none of them portrayed the Arabian poet since he is dead & the Arabian conquistadors did not possess any weapon of mass destruction other than swords & animals.

Please forgive the delay in replying, but after considering the issue of not wanting to offend unnecessarily:

If it is okay to offend other religious groups ...
& If it is okay to offend politicians ...
& If it is Islam has a definite political component (something that any half-honest Muslim in political science would concur with) ...
Then why should a paper that has a page of editorials that are bound to offend, be afraid to offend people by including cartoons of a person named Muhammed, though in some of them there was no direct portrayal of Muhammed the dead poet of Arabia, whom many Muslims praise? (Who died without any certainty of peace with God & thus many are still attempting to wish peace upon him.)

These cartoons are accessible on the internet quite freely & are all rather innocuous. Much worse & more libelous things have been said in your own publication of living people who hold power over militaries & jails.

Or, to put it another way,
If it is okay to search for truth ...
& If we may speak against what is not true ...
& If Islam is not true & rational (unless the presence of weaponry & threat of violence changes your mode of rationality) ...
Then why is it wrong to say that Islam is not an honorable system, but an oppressive system?

For one example of a former Muslim who came to this conclusion: look at Dr. Wafa Sultan from Syria who was featured in March 11, 2006 New York Times.

For an example of a nation affected by the Islamic Sharia Law mentality: look at Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Thanks for your re-consideration of this vital matter.

My conclusion: you are scared for your jobs & don't want your resumes tarnished by honest reporting. Why are you scared of dead people?

Abdul Kalimatullah // Mert Hershberger
M.A. - Theology
M.A. - International Development

Matthew 9:36 "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."

When I see the news reports of angry mobs storming mosques and multitudes, angry over drawings of Mohamed I think of Jesus having compassion on the multitudes, having compassion on them - won't someone take the better way to them? Tell them of Jesus.

Pray for laborers to Muslim lands ... when will the church of the living God start praying for Muslim people?

i love you,
M.O.
Psalm 91:1

(1) The number of churches that were burned, and the number of people that were killed in Saturday's riots in Nigeria has now been upwardly adjusted to 30 churches (from 15), and 17 people (from 15). This article is especially interesting in that it quotes from several Christians about how they plan to respond to the Muslim attacks on their community.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200602210563.html

(2) On Sunday, 2 churches and 1 Christian school building were attacked and burned by cartoon protesters in Sukkur, Pakistan. So far, the Pakistan government, which was accused by Christians of a deliberately slow response to the attacks, has charged 22 people in the incident. This article, which interviews the Catholic Archbishop of Karachi, provides a good summary of both the immediate incident, and its broader context of ongoing problems with the Pakistani blasphemy law and last November's burning of 3 other churches by Pakistani Muslim mobs.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.267541088&par=0

(3) I think this editorial by a Pakistani Muslim has correctly seen who will benefit the most from the way Muslims have reacted to these cartoons (non-Muslim majority nations).

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C22%5Cstory_22-2-2006_pg3_3

(4) Pakistan has also asked the 57 nations of the Organization of Islamic Conference to convene a special meeting about the cartoon crisis. This meeting would appear to have the goals of getting (1) the "EU to adopt necessary legislative measures against “Islamophobia”" and (2) try to get the UN to pass a "resolution aimed at prohibiting defamation of prophets and faiths".

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.267686128&par=

(5) Meanwhile, the Danish Prime Minister has defended, in every detail, how his government has handled the crisis,

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=a625c3e3-e66d-4c75-bf7f-81b42c25f903&k=23483

The Slovak Foreign minister has stated that the EU should be more "vigorous" in it's defense of the Danes.

http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=22545

(6) In terms of actual protests, yesterday's call by Iran for cartoon protests to stop may be having some effect, as today there were only comparatively small protests in Pakistan (2,000) and Iraq (10,000). This article also discusses the reasons for the continuing unstable situation in Libya, where 11 died in protests last week, why a Saudi paper published some of the cartoons in late January, along with some other interesting new bits of information.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1140562213286&call_pageid=968332188854&col

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This is being posted roughly 1 week after the date in the header. Now, the cartoon phenomena has died down, but now division within Islam is being prominently displayed in Iraq.

Perhaps some seeking the Truth will find a hint in the following Q & A format:

Q. What cartoons are okay for the serious sharia-minded Muslim?

A. Depictions of the destruction of non-Muslim nations is completely okay.

Conclusion:
The law condemns and gives no life.
It merely generates more strife.

==
Q. If depictions of Muhammed are ruled out as a general rule, would there be any cartoon depicting God which would be acceptable?

A. Caricatures of God would have to be in an Arabic font to be permissible, but to prevent any fatal fatwas against a cartoonist, it would need to be signed by Muhammed.

Conclusion:
The Truth is true in any tongue,
And tunes are shared among the young.

A desert script shall bear God's Word,
Where cartoon clammer is still heard.

A poet dead is social shame.
The Living Word gains global fame.

The Lord arose and shall return.
Mere ink on paper shall then burn.

Muhammed left a heap of scraps.
But Jesus gives escape from wrath.


==
Q. Are any foods named after Muhammed halal or is this a sort of canabalism which would be non-halal?

A. "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad" may be purchased from Iran. Formerly these were called Danishes. This indicates that a virtual communion is permitted, as long as lots of sugar is involved, there is a subtext of jihad/dawah in renaming foreign or otherwise non-halal foods.

Conclusion:
The comfort of sweet food
Can slow down your fleet foot.

Old David found mere pleasure fails.
But Jesus Christ who rose prevails!