This morning CBN is running a story about a former Palestinian terrorist named Tass Saada who has renounced Radical Islam, renounced the PLO, become a follower of Jesus Christ and become a friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Saada’s testimony is as miraculous as it is dramatic. Saada was one of our featured speakers at the 2009 Epicenter Conference in April, which is where CBN reporter Erick Stackleback sat down with him to do the interview for today’s story. Saada is also featured in the forthcoming Inside The Revolution documentary film, releasing next week on DVD. Please be praying for Tass — for courage and boldness to continue his ministry sharing the good news of Christ’s unconditional love for the Palestinian people and all Muslims and Jesus’ desire to forgive Muslims and give them hope, peace and eternal salvation if they give their lives to Him.
Meanwhile, please pray for Rifqa Bary, the 17 year old Sri Lankan girl from Ohio who converted from Islam to Christianity four years ago but has now fled to Florida after her father discovered her conversion and allegedly threatened to kill her as part of what’s known in Radical Islam as an “honor killing.” A Florida court has given her temporary protection as the state investigates the girl’s fears and allegations. This appears to be the first time a U.S. court has dealt with the issue of a threatened honor killing, though apparent honor killings have occurred in the last year or so in Buffalo, Atlanta and Irving, Texas. (see links below)
- CBN News coverage of Rifqa Bary, who says her father hit her with her laptop computer and allegedly said, “If you have Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me. You are not my daughter. I will kill you.”
- ABC News coverage of Rifqa Bary
- Local TV coverage of Rifqa Bary, the 17 year old girl who says she converted from Islam to Christianity and now fears her father will kill her as an “honor killing”
- Jeff Jacoby column from 2008: “Honor killings come to the U.S.”
- Buffalo, February 2009: Beheading in [Buffalo] New York Appears to Be Honor Killing, Experts Say
- irving, Texas, January 2009: Two daughters found executed in a taxi cab; First Time FBI Calls Case an ‘Honor Killing’ — U.N. report says 5,000 honor killings globally each year
- Atlanta, July 2008: Woman killed over divorce; ”I have done nothing wrong,’ said father charged with murder. Clayton case is not first such ‘honor killing.’
- Daniel Pipes article on honor killing, cites an article in Middle East Quarterly,” Beheading in the Name of Islam” by Timothy R. Furnish in the spring 2005 issue. ” Furnish establishes that ‘ritual beheading has a long precedent in Islamic theology and history.’ He begins with the Koranic verse 47:3: ‘When you encounter the unbelievers on the battlefield, strike off their heads until you have crushed them completely; then bind the prisoners tightly’ and notes how both premodern (Tabari, Zamakhshari) and modern (Yusuf Ali, Khatib, Mawdudi) commentators of the Koran interpret this verse literally. Furnish also notes a second Koranic verse, 8:12: ‘I will cast dread into the hearts of the unbelievers. Strike off their heads, then, and strike off all of their fingertips.‘“