A group of Australians are calling for the Bible to be banned at retail outlets that are refusing to carry a sexually explicit, violent video game.
The anti-Bible group is claiming that the Bible is just as bad as the video game and therefore should be banned at any location that does not carry the game. They say that Christians are just trying to earn “God points” by obeying scripture that calls for violence against women.
Kmart and Target stores in the country announced they will not be carrying a new version of the video game Grand Theft Auto Five, which was released last month for two new game systems. The ban came after a petition of 50,000 asked for the game to not be carried because it is a “sickening game that encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women.”
“Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fueling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia—and globally,” reads the petition.
“We have firsthand experience of this kind of sexual violence. It haunts us, and we’ve been trying to rebuild our lives ever since,” the petition continues. “Just knowing that women are being portrayed as deserving to be sexually used by men and potentially murdered for sport and pleasure—to see this violence that we lived through turned into a form of entertainments is sickening and causes us great pain and harm.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to solid steps to calm the tensions over Jerusalem’s holiest site.
Violence has been building over the last few weeks over the Temple Mount. Palestinians have been attacking Israeli police and fears had been building concerning a major uprising by Palestinians.
“Today, we are working to smother the sparks of immediate tension so that they don’t become a fire that is absolutely out of control,” Kerry added, flanked by Jordanian Foreign Minister Naser Judeh. The area, which contains the Dome of the Rock, is under Jordanian control due to treaty.
Members of the Israeli government have been raising discussions that Jews should be again able to pray on the Temple Mount. Judah told reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in the talks to maintain the status quo as a way to help ease tensions.
The agreement announced by Kerry also lifted all age restrictions on Muslims praying at the Dome.
A video has been posted online showing Muslim men near Atlanta beating themselves bloody to commemorate the death of Mohammad’s grandson.
The acts come on the Day of Ashura, marking the death of the son of Mohammad’s daughter during a battle in 680 A.D.
The video and photos of the Muslims outside Atlanta shocked viewers with images of infants having their heads cut with knives and men beating themselves until they bleed. They would whip themselves with chains.
“We’ve been doing this since we were kids. I started when I was three,” Mahmoud Jaber, 43, told the Associated Press in 2007. “It doesn’t hurt because the cry of pain goes away with the faith.”
Critics have been demanding to know why the government is not stepping in to protect children who are being cut and beaten.
“If this were happening in the home of an Atlanta resident, the department of child services would take the child from that home as quick as they could. If a family in Atlanta were encouraging their child to beat themselves or cut themselves… the state would not allow it!” writer Onan Coca said. “Yet, because Islam has strangely become some kind of protected cult in our society, we allow these children to be abused right in front of us— in view of the public and even our legal authorities.”
A pastor who helps victims of substance abuse, rescues minors from prostitution and provides a home for battered women survived an assassination attempt in Argentina.
Pastor Marcelo Nieva was driving in Rio Tercero when a gunman fired rounds from a 9mm handgun into the pastor’s car. Neither Pastor Nieva nor his passenger was hit with any of the bullets that penetrated the car.
A forensic exam of the car found that a bullet struck a vertical beam in the car frame and was deflected millimeters, sending the round into the car’s interior. Without the deflection, the bullet would have struck the pastor’s neck.
The Pastor credits the hand of God for keeping them safe during the attack. He also said that he is not going to slow down doing the work of Jesus to placate the drug gangs that have been objecting to his helping those in need.
“We are struggling and working to uncover the truth of the facts,” he said to Chrsitian News. “We firmly believe that truth overcomes lies and the light will always vanquish darkness.”
Police have been slow to investigate and local residents have said they believe the pastor’s actions are exposing corruption among local officials when they don’t take steps to stop the drug gangs from harassing the pastor and church members.
The government followed through on their proclamation they would find the people responsible for the mob murder of two Christians on false charges of blasphemy.
However, the local officials tried to deny that Muslims were behind the attack.
“We have arrested 44 people, it was a local issue incited by the mullah of a local mosque,” said Jawad Qamar, a regional police chief from Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab province, according to The Guardian. “No particular sectarian group or religious outfit was behind the attack.”
A Muslim mob attacked Shahzad Masih, 28, and Shama Bibi, 25, because someone found a burned Koran and claimed the Christian couple had burned it in a brick kiln before throwing it away.
The mob then beat the couple and threw them alive into the brick kiln to cremate the bodies.
“The Pakistani state has to act proactively to protect its minorities from violence and injustice,” Pakistan Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif said.
Local officials are teaming with Hindu extremists to attack Christians in India.
Christians in Madota, Bastar District, were summoned to a meeting by local officials to discuss issues related to problems with non-Hindu religions worshipping in the region. When the Christians arrived, no local officials were there, but a mob of Hindu extremists showed up to beat the Christians.
“Some of the injured Christians were admitted in a hospital in Jagdalpur, and some local Christians have also been forced to go into hiding due to the constant threats they received from the right-wing groups,” Bhupendra Kohra told Morning Star News.
The government has banned missionaries and Christians from worshipping in the region.
“The district authorities, along with some right-wing elements, are also pressuring us to withdraw the petition filed in the high court against the ban on the entry of non-Hindu missionaries in Bastar,” said Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum. “Now our writ is pending in the high court. We see this latest attack as a pressure tactic.”
Local officials have said their goal is to stop Chrsitians from being able to discuss their faith with Hindus.
Police are on the hunt for several suspects after a series of shootings took place in three locations in Ottawa, including the Parliament building.
Witnesses reported a gunman shooting and killing a military guard posted at the National War Museum, then entering the adjacent Parliament building where multiple shots were heard around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. Shots were also reported at the Rideau Centre shopping center, located only a few blocks away from the Parliament building.
The attacks were reported hours after Canada raised its terror threat level due to the death of another soldier on Monday. The soldier was killed by a radical jihadist.
At this time there is no confirmation that any of this week’s attacks are linked to ISIS or any terrorist organization.
The leader of Boko Haram, who the Nigerian government claimed to have killed, has appeared in a new video that was posted to the social media site YouTube.
“Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” Abubakar Shekau says in the video. “Nothing will kill me until my days are over. … I’m still alive. Some people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah.”
The video showed Shekau in the back of a pickup truck where he says they are running their Islamic caliphate. The video also showed them killing a man accused of adultery and lashing a woman for having sex outside of marriage.
Boko Haram also confirmed their alignment with ISIS, essentially spreading the terrorist group from the Middle East into Africa.
The executive director of the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans says that President Obama needs to stop focusing only on ISIS and realize that Islamic terrorism is spreading throughout the world.
“Obama will need to include other terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Hamas and Hezbollah,” Pastor Laolu Akande said.
The terrorist group ISIS has lost a key border crossing to Kurdish forces.
The capturing of the border crossing makes it harder for the terrorists to operate on both sides of the Iraqi/Syrian border and the victory against the terrorists was obtained by Kurds on both sides of the border. It was the first time Kurdish forces from both sides of the border worked together in a single assault on the terrorists.
It also marked the first time that a major Sunni group has fought against the terrorists. The Shammar tribe, one of the most influential in the region, proclaimed the terrorists as a group that had to be eliminated.
The leader of the tribe told Reuters they are in full cooperation with groups working to overthrow the terrorists.
“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga, and there is full cooperation between us,” Abdullah Yawar said.
The road that runs through Rabia is the major route between Syria and Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq.
A video smuggled out of a mosque in the Gaza strip shows a Muslim sheikh wielding a rifle and calling for violence against Israel as the only way to establish a Palestinian state.
Sheikh Lyad Abu Funun is shown in the video released by Middle East Media Research Institute. In the speech, he declares that Israel did not succeed on any level during the 50-day war for disarming Hamas terrorists.
“The Israelis came to conquer the Gaza Strip. Did they succeed in doing so? No, they did not. They came to take these weapons away from us,” Funun yells. “Do I still hold this weapon or not? They came to take these weapons away from us. Did they succeed?”
Those attending the event chanted “Allah Akbar” while the sheikh gave his rant.
The video also shows another part of the sermon where Funan says the weapons are the only way.
“This war has proven that these weapons are our only means to liberate our land,” Funan said. “These weapons are our only means to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These weapons are our only means to establish the Islamic state. These weapons are our only means to reestablish Muhammad’s caliphate. These weapons are our only means to instate the law of Allah.”