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...

Maria Maghdid, a 20-year-old Iraqi-Kurdish woman, was recently stabbed to death in Erbil by her brother and uncle in an honor killing.  Maria was found along the side of the road, tied up, and with multiple stab wounds.  The reason for her death was that Maria defied her orthodox Islamic culture by posing on Tiktok wearing Western style clothes with her hair uncovered.  A long-standing advocate of woman's rights, Maria was forcibly married to a man at the age of 12.  Though she escaped the marriage 4 years later, she still lived under repression.  Some time later, Maria made the decision to covert to Christianity, and for her family, this was the final act of "Shame."  Maria's father was an orthodox Imam who was of great importance in the Muslim community in the region, and his family made the decision that they could no longer stand Maria's "dishonorable actions." In what can be considered an ironic "Twist of Fate," Maria was murdered on Inter...

On March 1, 2021, Iraq passed the Yazidi Survivors Law, which provides reparations framework for survivors of ISIS crimes.  This law encompasses Yazidi, Christian, Turkmen, and Shabak minorities who were targeted by ISIS.  Those who are eligible also include women and girls who were subject to sexual violence as well as child survivors who were abducted.  The reparations offered include a monthly salary, a plot of land or housing unit, support to re-enter school, and access to health services.  However, there are a number of victims that this law does not encompass.  Among these victims are the needs of children who were born of women who were raped by ISIS.  Many of these women were forcibly separated from their children, and are desperate to have them back.  The other major victim group that has not been addressed are the Shia and Sunni Arab Muslim women who were also abducted & raped by ISIS.   Many of these Muslim women were subject t...

In the year 1941, Mullah Maududi founded the Jamaat-e-Islami, a Muslim Brotherhood style organization that Pakistani Human Rights Activist Qasim Rashid identifies as the "KKK of Pakistan."  Formed to not only oppose British rule in India, the goal of the Jamaat-e-Islami is to resurrect the "Caliphate" and place the entire world under a Sharia enforced Islamic Empire.   Maududi stated “Islam wish to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and program of Islam regardless of the country or nation which rules it…Islam requires the earth-not just a portion, but the whole planet…because the entire mankind should benefit from the ideology and welfare program [of Islam]…Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces that can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is “Jihad.” …the objective of the Islamic “Jihad” is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic sys...

Ukraine Being Bombed The recent breakout of war between Russia and Ukraine has taken the entire world by storm.  The images that we see of buildings exploding and civilians being injured in a war of aggression is very sad and disheartening, but the sad truth it is only one of many wars that are raging across our world.  Whether it's Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the raging Civil War in Syria, the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, or the continuing conflict between Armenia & Azerbaijan, there is one thing that all of these wars have in common, they're the Fruit of the Devil.   Matthew 7:17-18 teaches us that a good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit.  The seeds of the good tree is Jesus, who sows the seeds of love, compassion, empathy, and forgiveness.  The Devil sows the seeds of hatred, envy, arrogance, abuse of power, and greed.  These are what motivates the conflicts we see all over the world.  When we allow ...

In the nation of Iran, a man recently beheaded is wife in the city of Ahvaz and posted an image of himself online smiling and holding her severed head.  The victim was 17-year-old Mona Heydari.  At the age of 12, she was forcibly married to her cousin, Sajjad Heydari, and was constantly subjected to physical violence and rape.  Impregnated as a young teenager, Mona leaves behind a 3-year-old son.   Mona constantly pleaded with her family to help her obtain a divorce from Sajjad, but they kept refusing to help her.  Eventually, she fled to Turkey to try and escape from him.  However, Mona was alone in a strange nation and frightened.  Her brother eventually persuaded her to return home, assuring her that everything would be fine.  Upon returning home, Sajjad and his brother tied Mona up, and beheaded her.  The commander of the Iranian State Security Fore (SSF) declared that the murder was motivated by "family differences."   For...