Christians Are The Cause of Ghana’s Problems

Chairman of the National Peace Council, Prof. Emmanuel Asante, is unhappy with the trend that seems to point the involvement of Christians in corrupt and negative acts.

Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante

Speaking at the climax of the 60th anniversary of the Church of Christ Spiritual Movement in Cape Coast, the Chairman of the Peace Council said the development is unfortunate and urged Christians to change in order for the country to develop.

“70 percent of the people in Ghana claim to be Christians but in spite of this fact, the police have a very hard time. 70% of the country’s problems are Christian problems because we pay lip service. That’s why we are where we are,” he averred.

He is worried about the crime rate and related corrupt activities in the country but is certain that once Christians change their ways, things will improve.

Most Rev. Prof. Asante was, however, full of praise for the Church of Christ Spiritual Movement in the achievement of their 60th-anniversary milestone.

The National Peace Council Chairman also admonished Christians to be wary of pastors who preach about themselves.

Migrants from west Africa being ‘sold in Libyan slave markets’

UN migration agency says selling of people is rife in African nation that has slid into violent chaos since overthrow of Gaddafi

West African migrants are being bought and sold openly in modern-day slave markets in Libya, survivors have told a UN agency helping them return home.

Trafficked people passing through Libya have previously reported violence, extortion and slave labour. But the new testimony from the International Organization for Migration suggests that the trade in human beings has become so normalized that people are being traded in public. 

“The latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages [in Libya],” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s head of operation and emergencies. “The situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants.”

The north African nation is a major exit point for refugees from Africa trying to take boats to Europe. But since the overthrow of autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi, the vast, sparsely populated country has slid into violent chaos and migrants with little cash and usually no papers are particularly vulnerable.

One 34-year-old survivor from Senegal said he was taken to a dusty lot in the south Libyan city of Sabha after crossing the desert from Niger in a bus organised by people smugglers. The group had paid to be taken to the coast, where they planned to risk a boat trip to Europe, but their driver suddenly said middlemen had not passed on his fees and put his passengers up for sale.

“The men on the pick-up were brought to a square, or parking lot, where a kind of slave trade was happening. There were locals – he described them as Arabs – buying sub-Saharan migrants,” said Livia Manante, an IOM officer based in Niger who helps people wanting to return home.

She interviewed the survivor after he escaped from Libya earlier this month and said accounts of slave markets were confirmed by other migrants she spoke to in Niger and some who had been interviewed by colleagues in Europe.

“Several other migrants confirmed his story, independently describing kinds of slave markets as well as kinds of private prisons all over in Libya,” Manente said. “IOM Italy has confirmed that this story is similar to many stories reported by migrants and collected at landing points in southern Italy, including the slave market reports. This gives more evidence that the stories reported are true, as the stories of those who managed to cross-match those who are returning back to their countries.”

After his sale, the Senegalese migrant was taken to a makeshift prison of a kind that has been well documented in Libya. Those held inside are forced to work without pay, or on meagre rations, and their captors regularly call family at home demanding a ransom. His captors asked for 300,000 west African francs (about £380), then sold him on to a larger jail where the demand doubled without explanation.

Men who lingered there too long without the ransom being paid were taken away and killed, he said. Some wasted away on meagre rations in unsanitary conditions, dying of hunger and disease, but overall numbers never fell. “If the number of migrants goes down, because of death or someone is ransomed, the kidnappers just go to the market and buy one,” Manente said.

His terrified family began scraping together loans. As he spoke fluent English, French and some local languages, he translated for his jailers to win time for relatives to collect the money.

Many other migrants flee Libya with similar stories, said Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission at IOM Niger. “Its very clear they see themselves as being treated as slaves,” he said.

Loprete’s office has arranged for the repatriation of 1,500 people in the first three months of this year – almost the same number as in the whole of 2015. He fears more horrors are likely to emerge.  

“There are now more migrants coming back from Libya, so that’s also why all these stories are coming to the surface,” he said. “And conditions are worsening in Libya so I think we can also expect more in the coming months.”

Even growing international awareness of the problems migrants face is being exploited. IOM has had credible reports of criminals posing as aid groups that help migrants to lure in people who have escaped or bought their freedom and want to return home.

The organisation is working to spread awareness across west Africa of the horrors of the journey through the personal stories of those who return. Though most migrants know the boat trips to Europe are extremely risky, fewer realise they may face even worse dangers in Libya before even reaching the coast.

“Tragically, the most credible messengers are migrants returning home with IOM help,” said spokesman Leonard Doyle. “Too often they are broken, brutalized and have been abused. Their voices carry more weight than anyone else’s.”

CHRISTIAN ANALYST: YOU CAN CONDEMN JEWS BUT NOT JIHADISTS?

“Offend the sensibilities of Islamists and you might get killed,” says CAMERA’s Van Zile.

Christians’ condemnation of Israel – and not jihad – have turned themselves into dhimmis, non-Muslims who have already submitted to Muslim rule, a Christian media analyst said. Writing for the Gatestone Institute in an essay titled “Jihadism: The fear that dare not speak its name,” Dexter Van Zile, the Christian media analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), said that although Christian groups occasionally blame the perpetrators of violence and terrorism, such as the Assad regime, Islamic State and Boko Haram in West Africa, it is never nearly close to the way they blame Israel.  “Yes, they issue condemnations, but their statements are lamentations that really do not approach in ferocity the ugly denunciations these institutions target at Israel,” he said.

Van Zile said the root of the issue is knowing that Israel and the Jewish people do not react the same way that the extreme, jihadi terrorists act.

“One source of the problem is that it is simply a lot easier and safer to speak out about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians than it is to confront the violence against Christians in the rest of the Middle East,” he said.  Israel has been allowing the entry of boycott supporters and detractors of the state, and only during the summer did the government begin preventing these activists from entering the country. Never did Israel do what other Middle East countries – and much more so terrorist groups – did to their critics.

“If you fly to Israel, you can participate in a protest against the IDF at the security barrier in the morning and be eating in a nice restaurant in Tel Aviv that afternoon without having to worry about getting shot,” he said. “Protesting against ISIS or the misdeeds of the Iranian government, which puts Westerners in jail, is another, rather more courageous, thing altogether.”

Van Zile said that one of the worst responses an attacker of Israel may get is a letter from his organization.

“Another factor is fear – fear of Islam. The threat of violence that comes with confronting the impact of Sharia law and jihadism on human rights and national security has been significant, but it has remained doggedly unstated in the witness of churches in the United States,” he said. “Condemn Israel unfairly or engage in Jew-baiting and you get a letter from CAMERA, the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] or the local board of rabbis. Offend the sensibilities of jihadists and you might get killed.”  Van Zile traced the Presbyterian Church USA’s anti-Zionist platform back to the election of Benjamin Weir, a former missionary who was kidnapped by Hezbollah in Lebanon, who had a significant influence on the church’s proceedings. Upon his release, while he did criticize Hezbollah, he used American support for Israel as his punching bag.

“Israel was a safe target for the rage he felt over being kidnapped and having a year of his life stolen from him,” Van Zile said. “The jihadists who kidnapped him were not a safe target.”

The analyst said that now is the time for Christians to speak out.

“In this time of trial, during which the very foundations of our moral and intellectual order are under assault, it is time we find our voice to address this problem while we still can.”

[written by BY BENJAMIN GLATT]

American prophets made in Africa

By Babylon Today staff writer 

While on vacation in West Africa I met a spiritualist who gave me names of American pastors who go to him for “spiritual fortification” to perform fake signs and wonders in their churches, he has given some of them magic that they wave in their handkerchiefs in church to make people fall out (the congregation will think that it is “the anointing” that’s making them fall). I became very interested in this scheme of the enemy so I interviewed an African man [who is also a missionary worker, author and teacher] named Mordecai Egwuowu Uka Dike asking him everything that I could think of regarding demonic powers in Africa, and how Americans/Africans dabble into this arena of witchcraft to obtain power to fool church goers, and here is just a little of what he shared with me: “There are spiritualists in Africa; Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, Benin Republic,Togo etc. who can fortify someone with a familiar spirit and the person will instantly begin to see spiritual things that the natural eyes cannot see. In 1993 someone called Prophet Peter, whose “church” was at Obalende, Lagos Nigeria (right opposite of P&T) tried to initiate me into his secret prophetic brotherhood, he said he loved the zeal that I have for the Lord and wanted to help me by giving me extra ordinary powers to prophecy and to manifest miracles.

In Niger Republic 2000, while serving as a missionary in Konni village, one of the oldest Muslim spiritualists offered to give to me “miracle working powers” he inherited from his ancestors, in which I refused. When the main “O O Obu,” known as the spiritual head of the Brotherhood Of The Cross and Star was still alive, I personally know certain preachers that went to him and received “a spiritual gift” to function as seers. When TB Joshua came to South Africa (I was there as a missionary worker) some “ministers” went to him secretly to receive spiritual impartation, so that they can attract large crowds and function as prophets. There are certain shrines (oracles) in West Africa where people go to take SPIRITUAL BATHS to become a “prophetic papa” with demonic wonder working powers. Using mediums to predict the future, reveal secrets, and manifest fake miracles through demonic powers is not something new, it is an ancient practice but our African ancestors did not use these ancient mystical powers to operate churches. It’s frightening how young people these days are conjuring up these old deities and using their powers to fool people in their so-called churches, calling themselves prophets and prophetesses. What most don’t know is that they are going to pay a bitter price at the end here on earth, except they confess their sins and do away with those mediums. Don’t be deceived, not every person who calls himself or herself a prophet or gives an accurate prediction is a true prophet. There are many occultists, witches and wizards, psychics, shamans, and spiritualists in churches today predicting future events such as accidents, promotions, telling you your name, address, bank account information, phone numbers and so forth to gain recognition and to lure innocent souls into darkness. Let us not forget that EVIL SPIRITS can prophesy too and work miracles….

I was in a place called “Dogodoutche” in Niger Republic, there I witnessed Bori (idol) worshipers levitate, prophesy, and they spoke in tongues when evil spirits known as “Zanzana”, “Dango”, and “Donkawa” possessed the worshipers. I have also encountered a spiritualist who told me what and how I prayed in my prayer room. There is no doubt that some wizards and spiritualists can monitor what you are doing wherever you are- there is no distance in the spirit realm!”

As mentioned earlier, just because someone makes an accurate prediction doesn’t mean that he/she is a prophet of God. Just remember that prophets, diviners, psychics, and spiritualists outwardly look very much alike and all have the spiritual ability to reveal hidden things, foretell futures and manifest “miracles” as a genuine prophet of God has the ability to wear a suit, or a white collar to preach in a pulpit, so can a magician transform himself or herself and put on a suit or dress with a bishops collar, change his/her occultic language to biblical language, and preach and prophesy in Christian’s church services and it’s happening every day; there are numerous dark spiritualists performing in “churches” today and the people are completely oblivious because they don’t know anything about the spiritual reality.