From AP, with thanks to Susan:
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Suspected Islamic militants killed 16 people in a pre-dawn attack south of the Algerian capital on Saturday [October 23], an official statement said. It was the first bloodshed since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.The victims, mostly youths, were driving to Algiers for a soccer match when ambushed on the road near the city of Medea, 50 kilometres south of the capital. They were buried Saturday....
Algeria's Islamic rebels have in the past intensified their campaign of violence during Ramadan, killing about 1,200 people during the month of fasting in 1997 at the height of the insurgency.
But in recent years the bloodshed has decreased. An average of 50 soldiers and civilians were killed over the Muslim holy month in 2003 and 2002.
The North African country has been fighting the insurgency since 1992, when the army cancelled national elections to prevent victory by a Muslim fundamentalist party. The violence has killed an estimated 120,000 people.
Many Algerians are turning away from Islamic violence:
" "Christianity is Life, Islam is Death"
Berbers Embrace Christianity
By Charles Colson
Since the early 1990s, an estimated 100,000 Algerians have died in a
civil war that pits the Algerian government against Islamic extremists.
The extremists have targeted not only the government and the military,
but also anyone expressing what they call "non-Islamic" views, like
journalists and foreigners.
As you might expect, at the top of their list of targets is Algeria's
Christian community. In 1996, seven Trappist monks were kidnapped and
then beheaded by Islamic militants, an act that Pope John Paul II called
"despicable." Less than three months later, as if to emphasize their
disregard for world and Christian opinion, they assassinated the
Catholic Bishop of Oran.
All of this is part of their promise to "eliminate" all "Jews,
Christians" and other non-Muslims from Algeria.
You would think that such a campaign would deter conversion to
Christianity, but reports out of Algeria suggest just the opposite.
Since the beginning of recorded history, a people called the Berbers
have lived in North Africa. The Berbers, who are referred to in ancient
Egyptian records, were originally pagans, but many of them eventually
embraced Christianity in the first centuries after Christ as the Gospel
spread across Roman North Africa.
Then, in the seventh century, the Muslim army conquered North Africa.
Within a century, the Christian presence there, a presence that produced
theologians like Saint Augustine, disappeared. The Berbers, like nearly
everyone else in North Africa, became Muslims.
Now that's beginning to change. A recent issue of MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY tells us "people of all ages are converting to Christianity" in Kabylie, the heart of Berber culture. Despite obstacles that forced pastors to
work in "absolute secrecy," "the number of [Berbers] who have embraced
Christianity has grown rapidly."
What lies behind this spate of conversions? Well, the media plays a
role. The magazine reports that radio broadcasts originating in France
have played "an important role in the legitimization of Christian
doctrines."
But the conversions also point to a profound dissatisfaction with Islam
among Berbers. The QUARTERLY cites the deterioration of the "image of
Islam" as a factor in "the rise of conversions to Christianity."
Berbers, you see, have seen the atrocities committed in the name of
Islam in their own communities, and they had to ask the question that
many Westerners don't dare ask: Does the problem lie with extremists, or
is the problem inherent in Islam itself?
The Berbers have seen the impact of Islam on the lives of ordinary
people, especially women, and they have summed up the difference between
the two faiths in startling fashion: "Christianity is life; Islam is
death." These aren't my words; they are the words of numerous Berber
converts.
These Berber conversions should serve as a reminder to pray for Muslims.
Islamist extremists are causing Muslims to rethink what they believe. As
a result conversions to Christianity are occurring in North Africa,
Iran, and elsewhere.
Christianity's message of God's love and grace through the cross stands
in such marked contrast to Islam that people are choosing -- they're
choosing life over death."
(seegod.org)
If only more Muslims could show a glimmer of this intelligence, the world would be a very different place.
Sentata:
That was a heartening post.
Very often ppl ask how this war will end? Dhimmis cringe at the rapidly growing muslim population and counsel appeasement. "How can we fight 1.2 billion moslems?" is the common refrain.... Well, we can. And conversion is the weapon.
The best case scenario is that moslems leave islam and gain freedom. They dont necessarily hv to embrace christianity but anything other than islam can only elevate their quality of life. (and afterlife too, maybe?)
I'll drink to more converts and ex-muzzies anytime.
The Barbary jihadis never went away, they just keep popping out of the box that Thomas Jefferson nailed shut in 1805 and again by Madison in 1815. The Tripolitan War was the first war declared under the Constitution for the United States. The Second Barbary War is sometimes called the Algerian War.
Perhaps it is time for the United States to return to its roots and to tickle its collective memory of how it has traditionally confronted jihad with merciless destruction.
"From the halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli" Semper Fi
If I had any money to donate anywhere except rent, food and clothes, I would do what I could to send the Christian message everywhere: Arabic Bibles, missionaries, etc. There is a book called "Light Source" about the struggling Christian populations in the Middle East. I want to buy it; I heard the author who is a missionary there in the Middle East, speak on the Bott Radio Network.
Let us join forces with Christianity. We need another weapon besides destructive ones. (I am not against those; but many Muslims are in the clutches of Islam and need to be saved).
Christ is Risen!
The posting about Berber conversions to Christianity is indeed something for which we should all praise God. May many such conversions happen among Arabs, Turks, Fulani, Hausa, Fur, Persians...all the way to the Hui and the Moro, too.
BTW, at least one scholar has noted that the name Monica, borne by the mother of Augustine of Hippo, may be connected to one or another of the Berber languages. If so, the Berbers are returning to the religion to which they, through Augustine, contributed so much. Welcome home, brothers. I only wish I could say it in Kabyle.
Thanks to islam, many people is getting to protestantism in Algeria, I hope it will follow, like Mc Arthur say send missioneries not soldiers, many people in france would be agree with this, in the France-Algeria war, the uniques cases like Charles de Foucauld, catholic saint was killed by bereber people, but the things always will get better,