.
Back to Fulfilling the Great Commission & the Last Days
Back to Reaching the Followers of the Religion from the Middle East
Note: “D” in this article refers to the predominant religion in the Middle East, while “Ds” refer to the adherents of that religion
On September 14, 2008 The TimesOnline of London reported that “[their] law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on D civil cases. The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence… Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a ‘parallel legal system’ based on sharia for some British Ds.'” See the complete news article below.
The intent of the “D” religion in Britain should be obvious to any observer. The D proportion of the population in Britain is increasing rapidly and one day the non-D British will be in the minority. There will then be legal channels through which sharia law will be given greater and greater power. As in every D-dominated country in the world, Christians in Britain will eventually become the persecuted and suffering minority. Sadly, this is what will happen to the land which sent out the likes of J. Hudson Taylor, Robert Morrison, William Carey, and David Livingstone to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
The “D” religion has similar designs on the United States, the superpower offspring of Britain both physically and spiritually. As did the United Kingdom earlier, the United States now sends out more foreign missionaries than any other country. But the inexorable advance of the D religion here has already begun. (Click here to read an article about the rapid growth of the D religion in America.) If the Church in America does not act, our descendants will face the same situation as Britain does today.
1 Corinthians 15:46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.
The current spate of deadly hurricanes attacking the United States—including Katrina in 2005 and Ike this week—may be foreshadowing a far deadlier attack against us. This invasion will be in the spiritual realm. It will seek to Islamicize our nation and way of life. For the D religion, America will be the big catch. The body of Christ must wake up from her slumber and complacency.
We challenge you to come out of your comfort zone and to confront the Goliath of the D religion which has arrived on our shores. You can be trained how to step out of the boat and to walk on water successfully—not like Peter who sank in the waves. You can be trained how to reach Ds successfully.
Prayer of course is essential. However, prayer by itself will not be enough. David certainly spent time with God in prayer and worship as he looked after his father’s sheep. But Goliath was not defeated until David obeyed his father’s command to go to the frontlines where his brothers were fighting the Philistines under King Saul. It was not when David got down onto his knees to pray that Goliath went down, but rather when David approached him and engaged him directly. In the same way the body of Christ can be trained to defeat the giant of the D religion. We are not referring to “spiritual warfare” in the heavenlies which is taught in some circles. We are talking about healing the sick on earth and proclaiming the kingdom of God to Ds on earth (Luke 10:9).
Many believers in America are willing to pray for the salvation of Ds and against the threat of the D religion. But extremely few dare to take the next necessary step and to share the gospel with them. They have not been trained. Until the body of Christ evangelizes them, they will not be saved and the threat will simply increase. We cannot depend on our “full-time” missionaries to reach them. Most of them have been shipped overseas to the foreign mission field leaving America defenseless. The Church in America must rise to the occasion to evangelize the millions of Ds in our midst. Legal and political action and the like may be in order but will not be enough. The Lord commands us to proclaim the gospel to them. For the Church the primary battlefield is not legal or political or community protest, but evangelism.
Do you have a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or acquaintance who is a D, Hindu, or Buddhist? You can be trained to reach them effectively. If believers do not share the gospel with them, it certain that no one else will.
Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts
“D” law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on “D” civil cases.
The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.
Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.
Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Ds.
It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose D Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.
Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.
Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Ds is what the sharia courts are.”
The disclosure that D courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.
In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.
In fact, D tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from D divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.
It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.
Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more D clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.
Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.
Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Ds.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”
Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”
There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because D law favours men.
Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.
The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.
In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.
In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.
Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the D Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”
From FoxNews.com on September 17, 2008
Union: D Workers Reach Deal for Prayer Break
OMAHA, Nebraska — A meatpacking plant has agreed to accommodate D workers’ request for prayer time during Ramadan, union officials said Wednesday.
Earlier this week 300 “D” JBS Swift & Co. workers, most of Somali background, walked off the job in protest of the prayer dispute. No one was fired after the protest.
Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said management at the plant has agreed to temporarily change the timing of the second-shift lunch break to accommodate workers wanting time to pray during the D observance of Ramadan.
Workers previously took the 30-minute break in shifts. The change will force the entire line to break at once. The arrangement will be in effect the next nine working days, which will cover the remainder of Ramadan, Hoppes said.
A phone message left with company officials was not immediately returned Wednesday.
The plant employs about 2,500 people, not including management, Hoppes said. He estimates about 500 of the plant’s workforce is D.
More than 100 workers at a Greeley, Colorado, Swift plant were fired last week because the company said they walked away from work before their shifts ended. The workers blamed the company’s refusal to allow their breaks to coincide with sunset so they could pray.