Thursday, June 13, 2013

Muslim & Christian Women Violence


Gender-based violence ‘wielded mercilessly’ in Muslim countries. Christian women vulnerable due to profound lack of equality, claims new report.


 
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (WWM)


By Hélène Fisher


(WORLD WATCH MONITOR, June 13, 2013) The conclusion of a new report by the US Hudson Institute researcher Lela Gilbert is clear and unequivocal: gender-based violence plays a key strategic role in the plans of those who wish to eradicate Christians and Christian belief from Muslim lands.

Gender-Based Violence as an expression of Christian Persecution in Muslim Lands, written for the World Watch List, describes how a profound lack of equality between men and women in Muslim countries means that all women in these societies are structurally vulnerable to systematic violence and discrimination in their daily lives. A parallel review of statistics on Christian persecution in these lands is made in order to infer a picture of the plight of Christian women in Muslim lands.

The resulting image is striking: the combined status of being both Christian and female significantly increases the likelihood of experiencing aggression and repression in society and at home. Gilbert focuses on Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt in her disclosure of the appalling legal and social situation for women living in Sharia law-based societies. 
 
Anecdotal evidence is supported by extracts from US State Department Reports on the four countries in question. They focus on rape and domestic violence, societal exclusion, oppressive dress codes, lack of legal protection for women, female genital mutilation, child abuse, and child marriage. 
 
The premise of Gilbert’s research is that violence experienced by Christian women living in these countries can only be properly understood within a general context of deep-seated prejudice and aggression against women. This prejudice stems from Islamic beliefs regarding the supposedly dangerous nature of female sexuality, and the roots of these beliefs are briefly detailed along with their implications. 
 
Of note is the continued assumption in these societies that females are responsible for any sexual attack they experience. The result is that shame clings to the victim following an assault and some victims are even stoned. Gilbert argues that in the context of societies where women are defined as being of little worth and are shockingly vulnerable, it is not surprising that Christian women are the targets of even greater endemic violence as a means of driving out or neutralizing Christian communities. 
 
Nine common forms of abuse perpetrated against Christian women in this strategic intent are elaborated. A number of specific cases from Pakistan and Egypt follow, which illustrate gender-based violence as a deliberate means of destroying Christian families. 
 
This report also expresses a frustration at the lack of data available in order to fully study the scope of the problem and explains why it is so difficult to obtain reliable statistics. Perhaps because of this dearth of complete information, Gilbert takes great pains to address arguments which attempt to discount reports of Christian persecution in Muslim lands.

Much is made of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s public and unpopular acknowledgement in November 2012 that Christianity is “the most persecuted religion in the world”.... 
 
It has been said that persecution is always personal and the tone of Gilbert’s report reflects this view. Her well-documented report is both passionate and categorical in its conclusion: gender-based violence is an oft-used weapon wielded mercilessly against the most vulnerable in Muslim lands with the express goal of breaking Christians’ resolve.


©2013 World Watch Monitor

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Saturday, June 8, 2013

Abba God, Daddy God


Oh, Abba, man does not know you. He contrives himself many blind gods and guides with hearts of stone.

 
Gethsemane by Carl Block 1805


Abba God, Daddy God, I come to you early in the night to pray. I bow myself low in spirit to you, although my body will no longer bend for me.

I cannot pray for myself and all my aging cares and pains and body trembles. That's not your way to pray, I trust myself to you.

I have so many joys for which I do praise. A godly wife who is my friend and queen. She cares for me day by day, amazingly. A comfortable, clean old house in which to rest and watch your birds and your works of nature all around, the trees, the bushes, the grass, the wild flowers, waving in the breeze.

No, I pray with you for the loneliness of man and send up sweet incense where I may. I am your servant to obey.

I know your power to dispel great storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, raging forest fires, with a word. But I must pray for the earth's great storm, man. I see men, women, and children in scorn, the treasures of your eye. These need your Light in different ways.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, way beyond the ideas of the mind. The mind fails, but the heart is life. So as my prayers are answered with you, I must pray through hearts and souls to open the doors of Truth.

You, Abba, are the Way, the Truth, the Life. From birth, man's way is to seek and take. God's way is to love and give. Man must learn this by death before the gasping comes. He is not alone. He is never alone. Oh, Abba, man does not know you. He contrives himself many blind gods and guides with hearts of stone. He needs your Light to shine the Way to your Truth to your Life. May the knowledge of your Glory cover the nations of the Earth.

Abba, bless these prayers today with other brothers and sisters and now make miracles for man.

Blessings,
   Bill