Jerusalem to be 'capital of the new Muslim caliphate'

[Soldier4Christ]

Jerusalem to be 'capital of the new Muslim caliphate'
Islamic leader says Clinton punished by Allah for wanting to divide Temple Mount

Salah: Caliph will sit in Jerusalem

Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah tells rally of 50,000 in Umm al-Fahm: Jerusalem will be the capital of the new Muslim caliphate sooner than is thought; says Sharon, Katsav, Clinton punished by Allah for wanting to divide al-Aqsa mosque site

Head of the northern faction of the Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah said Friday that “soon Jerusalem will be the capital of the new Muslim caliphate, and the caliph’s seat will be there.”

Salah addressed an audience of 50,000 attending the Islamic Movement’s 11th annual rally in Umm al-Fahm. “Caliph” refers to a leader of the Muslim nation and in Arabic means the “heir” or “substitute” of the prophet Muhammad.

Salah noted that history tells of many occasions in which the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was occupied by foreign conquerors, but the occupiers left after a short time, and thus will also be the fate of the Israeli occupation.

“The Israeli occupation will leave Jerusalem soon. It will happen sooner than is thought,” Salah said at the rally, which was held under the slogan “Al-Aqsa endangered”.

'Punishment from Allah'

The sheikh added that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Moshe Katsav were “punished by Allah” after they plotted to bring harm to the mosque.

Sharon was punished because he planned to break into the mosque, and Katsav’s punishment came in the shape of the sexual harassment charges plaguing him after he supported the notion of dividing the mosque area between Jews and Muslims. The site is also holy to Jews as the site of the Temple Mount.

Former United States President Bill Clinton suffered a similar fate to Katsav’s, and after backing the idea of dividing the site he became embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Salah declared that ideas to divide the site still exist, but he reassured his audience: “There are all sorts of plans to divide the al-Aqsa mosque but they will not succeed.”

During his speech the sheikh called on Arab nations to provide financial support, whether with cash or with gold, to help save the mosque
and Jerusalem. He even called for the establishment of a fund for the purpose.

Salah responds to pope's comment

Salah also responded to the statements attributed to Pope Benedictus XVI which were interpreted by many as being offensive to Islam. Benedict quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'" Benedict did not explicitly agree with the statement nor repudiate it.

The sheikh expressed hope that the comment did not portray the official stance of the Catholic leadership. “I hope it was a slip of the tongue, because if it is not, his words are a direct call to the nations of Europe to stand behind President (George) Bush and Israel in their war against Islam,” he said.

The former mufti of Jerusalem Ekrima Sabri and the archbishop of the Greek-Orthodox church who is considered close to the Palestinian Authority also spoke at the rally. Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Musa also sent his blessings to the assembly.

________________

Does anyone else see the implications in this?

[nChrist]

Pastor Roger Said:

Does anyone else see the implications in this?

YES Brother - most definitely! Jerusalem is the center stage for end of the Age of Grace events. The beast will rule from there, and JESUS CHRIST will crush the beast and the forces of evil to take the Throne of David and Rule over the earth for 1,000 years from Jerusalem.

The interesting events that might be signals for the end of this age are getting closer and closer together. The time might be getting short. If so, that makes me very happy, and I'm ready. The Scripture below came up next in my random Scripture Quote program. WOW!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Deuteronomy 20:3-4 NASB  "He shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.'

[Soldier4Christ]

Definitely a fitting portion of scripture for this topic.

[nChrist]

Brother Roger,

I think that many people in this part of the world don't understand what a "Caliphate" is. I thought that I at least partially understood, but I wanted to know more. The real answers are fairly shocking and they explain many of the reasons for why terrorists do what they do.

I found an excellent article that really explains a "Caliphate" in simple terms that everyone can understand. It also sheds light on many violent events by terrorists and puts many things in a realistic perspective of what's really going on in the world RIGHT NOW.
_________________________________

What Do the Terrorists Want? [A Caliphate]

by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
July 26, 2005

What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not.

A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with success, the release of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany. Upon attacking the B'nai B'rith headquarters and two other Washington, D.C. buildings in 1977, a Hanafi Muslim group demanded the canceling of a feature movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (as reimbursement for a fine), the turning over of the five men who had massacred the Hanafi leader's family, plus the killer of Malcolm X.

Such "non-negotiable demands" led to wrenching hostage dramas and attendant policy dilemmas. "We will never negotiate with terrorists," the policymakers declared "Give them Hawaii but get my husband back," pleaded the hostages' wives.

Those days are so remote and their terminology so forgotten that even President Bush now speaks of "non-negotiable demands" (in his case, concerning human dignity), forgetting the deadly origins of this phrase.

Most anti-Western terrorist attacks these days are perpetrated without demands being enunciated. Bombs go off, planes get hijacked and crashed into buildings, hotels collapse. The dead are counted. Detectives trace back the perpetrators' identities. Shadowy websites make post-hoc unauthenticated claims.

But the reasons for the violence go unexplained. Analysts, including myself, are left speculating about motives. These can relate to terrorists' personal grievances based in poverty, prejudice, or cultural alienation. Alternately, an intention to change international policy can be seen as a motive: pulling "a Madrid" and getting governments to withdraw their troops from Iraq; convincing Americans to leave Saudi Arabia; ending American support for Israel; pressuring New Delhi to cede control of all Kashmir.

Any of these motives could have contributed to the violence; as London's Daily Telegraph puts it, problems in Iraq and Afghanistan each added "a new pebble to the mountain of grievances that militant fanatics have erected." Yet neither is decisive to giving up one's life for the sake of killing others.

In nearly all cases, the jihadi terrorists have a patently self-evident ambition: to establish a world dominated by Muslims, Islam, and Islamic law, the Shari'a. Or, again to cite the Daily Telegraph, their "real project is the extension of the Islamic territory across the globe, and the establishment of a worldwide ‘caliphate' founded on Shari'a law."

Terrorists openly declare this goal. The Islamists who assassinated Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 decorated their holding cages with banners proclaiming the "caliphate or death." A biography of one of the most influential Islamist thinkers of recent times and an influence on Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam declares that his life "revolved around a single goal, namely the establishment of Allah's Rule on earth" and restoring the caliphate.

Bin Laden himself spoke of ensuring that "the pious caliphate will start from Afghanistan." His chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also dreamed of re-establishing the caliphate, for then, he wrote, "history would make a new turn, God willing, in the opposite direction against the empire of the United States and the world's Jewish government." Another Al-Qaeda leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, publishes a magazine that has declared "Due to the blessings of jihad, America's countdown has begun. It will declare defeat soon," to be followed by the creation of a caliphate.

Or, as Mohammed Bouyeri wrote in the note he attached to the corpse of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker he had just assassinated, "Islam will be victorious through the blood of martyrs who spread its light in every dark corner of this earth."

Interestingly, van Gogh's murderer was frustrated by the mistaken motives attributed to him, insisting at his trial: "I did what I did purely out of my beliefs. I want you to know that I acted out of conviction and not that I took his life because he was Dutch or because I was Moroccan and felt insulted."

Although terrorists state their jihadi motives loudly and clearly, Westerners and Muslims alike too often fail to hear them. Islamic organizations, Canadian author Irshad Manji observes, pretend that "Islam is an innocent bystander in today's terrorism."

What the terrorists want is abundantly clear. It requires monumental denial not to acknowledge it, but we Westerners have risen to the challenge.
_____________________________________

(My Note: Have we really risen to the challenge and understand this? Maybe we are beginning to understand it. If you just read this article, do you understand and believe what's actually going on in the world?)

[Soldier4Christ]

Brother Tom, that does show the goal of the terrorists. In fact it is the goal of all islam, even those that call themselves moderate or liberal islamist. The only difference is that they attempt to accomplish it by "education" of others, by using the laws of the land such a the ACLU is doing ( or rather twisting the laws of the land to meet their agenda ).

Something that is not mentioned in that article on what a caliphate is. A caliphate is a ruling body that consists of one leader called a Khalif ( also spelled Caliph ) and a council of ten men. These ten men are leaders of their own individual areas, nations. These men are also considered to be Kings. Their position is to insure that sharia law is imposed within their geographical area, to follow orders of the Khalif and to be adviser to the Khalif.

The Koran teaches that the Caliphate will rule the entire world. That one person will come that will re-establish the Caliphate and bring peace to the entire world. All of islam is working right now to attempt to bring this into a reality. Some are doing it in a peaceful behind the scenes manner others are doing so using violence. Even those that are working in a peaceful manner have already made statements that they would be willing "to become a martyr for the cause". They just do not specify what this cause is. It is the bringing about of what they believe is the "will of allah" and that is the world to be under the rule of the Caliphate.

[nChrist]

Brother Roger,

It's fascinating that Islam is thinking this time is approaching when the reality is the facts listed in the Holy Bible. We are anticipating the reality of JESUS CHRIST and they are anticipating another Mohamed. It's very odd that we are anticipating opposing events at the same time.

Love In Christ,
Tom

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 NASB  But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

[Soldier4Christ]

Some more on the agenda of islam.



Iran leader's U.N. finale
reveals apocalyptic view
At U.N., Ahmadinejad makes illusion
to return of messianic Islamic 'madhi'

While most of the reporting and analysis of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N. focused on what he had to say about the West and specifically the U.S., his chilling closing remarks were lost on most listeners – and apparently all reporters.

The last two paragraphs of his remarks revealed his steadfast and driving conviction, as previously reported in WND ,that a messianic figure, known as the "Mahdi" to Muslims, is poised to reveal himself after an apocalyptic holocaust on Earth that leaves most of the world's population dead.

"I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet," Ahmadinejad said. "Oh, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause."

With Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons and already in possession of sophisticated medium-range missiles, mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah is of particular concern because of Iran's potential for triggering the kind of global conflagration Ahmadinejad envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

"People are anxious to know when and how will he rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'"

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon"). Some interpretations of the events that precede his coming include a war that wipes out most of the world's population.

In Iran, an institute set up in 2004 for the study and dissemination of information about the Mahdi had a staff of 160 and influence in the schools and children's magazines earlier this year. Theologians there say end-times beliefs appeal to one-fifth of the population. And the Jamkaran mosque east of Qom, 60 miles south of Tehran, is where the link between devotees and the Mahdi is closest.

As of last year, Ahmadinejad's cabinet had given $17 million to Jamkaran.

Shiite writings describe events surrounding the return of the Mahdi in apocalyptic terms. In one scenario, the forces of evil would come from Syria and Iraq and clash with forces of good from Iran. The battle would commence at Kufa – the Iraqi town near the holy city of Najaf.

Even more controversial is Ahmadinejad's repeated invocation of Imam Mahdi, known as "the Savior of Times." According to Shiite tradition, Imam Mahdi will appear on Judgment Day to herald a truly just government.

Ahmadinejad made reference to the Mahdi in his first speech to the U.N., too. He called on the "mighty Lord" to hasten the emergence of "the promised one," the one who "will fill this world with justice and peace."

Who stands in the Mahdi's way?

A top priority of Ahmadinejad is "to challenge America, which is trying to impose itself as the final salvation of the human being, and insert its unjust state [in the region]," says Hamidreza Taraghi, head of the conservative Islamic Coalition Society.

Taraghi says the U.S. is "trying to place itself as the new Mahdi." This may mean no peace with Iran, he adds, "unless America changes its hegemonic ... thinking, doesn't use nuclear weapons, [or] impose its will on other nations."

After Ahmadinejad last spoke to the United Nations, in September 2005, he told Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, in a videotaped discussion, about a strange, paranormal experience he had while speaking.

He recounted how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.

According to a transcript of his comments, obtained by WND last year, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention.

The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words 'in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."

Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.

"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!"

[Soldier4Christ]

The Mahdi is supposed to be the peace keeper that establishes the caliphate and rules over it.

[ibTina]

My Note: Have we really risen to the challenge and understand this? Maybe we are beginning to understand it. If you just read this article, do you understand and believe what's actually going on in the world?

   Yes, I have read and do understand. I am not sure what to say..except that I a afraid/concerned with the people out there that have no clue about what the Muslims are REALLY up to.
        And too, at the same time, I am seeing Bible Prophecy,  The End times coming about, taking place, just like a road map and we know where it is leading to! This is exciting and sometimes scary.

[nChrist]

Amen Sister Tina!

We simply need to remember that we are children of the real KING of KINGS, and we are in HIS hands. Absolutely nothing will change Bible Prophecy and the Perfect time that GOD will carry them out. Even physical death for us wouldn't mean much except "absent from the body and present with the LORD." Knowing this should bring great peace to us about the future and whatever might happen. On the other side of the coin, I feel sorry for those who have not accepted JESUS CHRIST as Lord and Saviour. Even if these are not the end times of the Age of Grace, I still feel a heavy burden on my heart for the lost.

As for the children of GOD, our real Citizenship, our real Hope, and our inheritance with the Saints in LIGHT await us.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Romans 11:33 NASB  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!