Bridge of Grace

During the time of Passover, Easter and Ramadan, three of the most sacred holidays for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, these times of celebration have been marred by violence, particularly on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, a holy site for all three faiths.   Recently, dozens of men, many of whom carrying Hamas and PA flags, marched into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, chanting inflammatory messages against Jews, and hurled stones at the Mugrabi Gate entrance of the Temple Mount.   News outlets have referred to these attacks on Friday and Sunday as a “riot,” but it is not.   This is a carefully planned attack by Jihadists.    Riots refer to large gatherings of people that spiral out of control.   Typically, they are associated with protests that degenerate into violence, or major gatherings for events such as sports matches or music shows that gradually lose order and ultimately erupt into controlled and unplanned violence.   This is not the case wi...

Terrorists do not allow their goals to be defined by national borders.  To them, they are no more than lines drawn on a map.  Abdou and his wife Halima learned this lesson.  The two are citizens of Niger, and it was last in the Spring of 2021 that Abdou learned Jihadist militants had crossed over the border from Mali & launched targeted massacres against Christians.  Jihadists identified Christians by looking for those who wore crosses.  When Abdou learned about this, he chose not to hide his faith, but to proclaim it.  He fastened his own cross necklace and began to wear it.  One of his daughters asked why Abdou chose to do this, knowing that it was placing him in grave danger.  Abdou said to her "If I have to die, I want to die with a cross hanging from my neck."  Three days later, on the final day of Ramadan in 2021, this prophecy was fulfilled.   On May 12, 2021, 18 Jihadist militants rode in on motorcycles and attacked thei...