JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
GALTIONS 6:7
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
OTHER WORST HISTORY TERRORIST ORLANDO STORIES
http://ift.tt/21s8AW6
http://ift.tt/1UznHwc
http://ift.tt/1WOfC8X
http://ift.tt/1UbznHj
http://ift.tt/25W5KPL
http://ift.tt/1UPUau2
http://ift.tt/233F2Qa
CITY OF ORLANDO
http://ift.tt/Vd8Xls
http://ift.tt/233FVZ1
NEWS
http://ift.tt/1OkpQLA
VICTIM NAME WEBSITE
http://ift.tt/233F3Uc
GALTIONS 6:7
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
OTHER WORST HISTORY TERRORIST ORLANDO STORIES
http://ift.tt/21s8AW6
http://ift.tt/1UznHwc
http://ift.tt/1WOfC8X
http://ift.tt/1UbznHj
http://ift.tt/25W5KPL
http://ift.tt/1UPUau2
http://ift.tt/233F2Qa
CITY OF ORLANDO
http://ift.tt/Vd8Xls
http://ift.tt/233FVZ1
NEWS
http://ift.tt/1OkpQLA
VICTIM NAME WEBSITE
http://ift.tt/233F3Uc
UPDATE-JUNE 18,2016-07:00AM
THERE WAS A VIDEO THAT CAUGHT THE WHOLE SHOOTING BY MATEEN AT THE GAY CLUB IN ORLANDO FLORIDA. THE FBI IS CHECKING IT OUT CLOSELY. AND MATEENS FREIND WAS QUESTIONED ALSO.THE FREIND BEING QUESTIONED WAS THE ONE MATEEN PHONE WHILE DOING THE KILLINGS.THE CONVERSATION HAD SOMETHING TO DO ABOUT MEDICINE.
IT IS A SHAME-BECAUSE NOT ONLY WILL MATEEN BE BURNING IN HELL AS A RESULT OF MURDERING THESE SODOMITES. BUT THE SODOMITES THAT WERE GAY THAT DIED IN THIS TRAGEDY WILL BE BURNING IN HELL IN TORMENTS AS WELL FOR NOT BEING SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. AND OPENLY PRACTICING SODOMY. THIS IS A SAD CAUSE ALL AROUND. THESE SODOMITES NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO BE SAVED. AND AS A RESULT. THE MURDERER AND THE MURDERED ARE ALL BURNING IN TORMENTS NOW UNTIL JESUS RESURRECTS THERE BODIES AND SOULS TOGETHER TO STAND IN FRONT OF HIM AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT. ONE THOUSAND YEARS AFTER HE RULES AS KING FROM JERUSALEM ON EARTH DURING HIS MILLENIUM REIGN. THEN FOREVER ON EARTH. THEN ALL THE LOST AT THIS FINAL JUDGEMENT GET THEIR FINAL NEVER DYING BODIES THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE FOREVER WITH SATAN AND ALL THE ONE THIRD FALLING ANGELS THAT WERE BOOTED OUT OF HEAVEN AT THE REBELLION AGAINST GOD. ALL THIS CROWD WILL BURN FOREVER-NEVER ENDING IN THE LAKE OF FIRE. AND ALL THE SAVED WILL BE LIVING ON EARTH FOREVER-NEVER ENDING UNDER JESUS RULE FROM THE WORLD CAPITAL JERUSALEM FOREVER. SO IT IS SAD THAT THIS DELUTED ISLAMIC-MUSLIM MURDERER MATEEN TOOK A POSSIBLE 49 OTHER PEOPLE TO HELL WITH HIM-THAT STILL HAD A CHANCE TO BE SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. AND LEFT-WING-LIBERAL-DEMOCRATS DON:T EVEN CALL ME A RACIST,HATER BIGOT FOR SPEAKING BIBLE TRUTH. I BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAYS NOT NO LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIC ISRAEL-CHRISTIAN AND JESUS HATERS.
Religious conservatives attempt balance in Orlando response-Faith leaders overwhelmingly expressed grief over loss of life in shooting, but have often failed to note that gunman specifically targeted LGBTQ individuals-By ERRIN HAINES WHACK and Rachel Zoll June 18, 2016, 9:08 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The massacre at a gay nightclub has tested the limits of the “love the sinner, hate the sin” approach to homosexuality by conservative religious leaders.The faith leaders have overwhelmingly expressed grief over the loss of life in Orlando, led vigils around the country, offered counseling for the crowds of mourners and free funerals for the victims. But it has been less common for religious conservatives to note that the gunman specifically targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Gays and lesbians say the omission compounds the pain of the shooting.“This was a place where people came together — LGBT people — and if you erase that part of them, you’re not actually praying for people, you’re praying for an abstraction,” said the Rev. Paul Raushenbush, a gay American Baptist pastor and a vice president at Auburn Seminary in New York. “In order to truly honor these lives, we’re not going to erase them and we’re not going to erase them in church.”Authorities are still trying to understand the motivation of gunman Omar Mateen, who had expressed hatred of gay people and sympathy for Islamic extremists before his rampage left 49 people dead at Pulse dance club last Sunday. The shooting has laid bare ideological divisions over gay rights, gun control and Islamic terrorism. Many conservatives argue that LGBT advocates are trying to politicize the attack by complaining about the wording of statements of prayer and concern.However, Presiding Bishop Yvette Flunder of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries Network, an association of mainly black and gay churches, pointed to the shooting at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina a year ago, and noted, “we did not hesitate to say that the victims in Charleston were black.”“This is a time to grieve, to mourn and to consider what it means to stigmatize people,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who supports gay marriage as a civil right. “Religious communities have played a particular role in … marginalizing gay and lesbian and transgender people.”The tragedy prompted an outpouring from more liberal religious groups that included special attention to LGBT people. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the gunman seemed to believe that “the LGBTQ community was severed from our common humanity.” The Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents Reform Jewish clergy, said the group was “outraged that LGBTQ people have been massacred because of their gender identity and sexual orientation.”Conservative religious leaders were just as vocal and emotional in their remarks, but the focus of their statements varied.The Rabbinical Council of America, the major association for Orthodox rabbis, decried “murderous attacks in the name of religion” and said “no individual or group should be singled out” the way the victims were. The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, offered prayers and called for “ever greater resolve in protecting the life and dignity of every person.” The Southern Baptist Convention, at its annual meeting this week, passed a resolution extending “love and compassion” to all affected by the shooting and saying they consider the victims “fellow image-bearers of God and our neighbors.”But none of these statements specifically mentioned that gays and lesbians had been singled out.On the other hand, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, an association for Latino evangelicals, which helped local churches organize a vigil Wednesday in Orlando, issued a statement calling for “radical love” for all, citing gays in particular, despite the conference’s theological opposition to same-sex relationships.“We’ve preached to our people that everyone — every race, every culture, every orientation — they’re made in the image of God,” said the Rev. Tony Suarez, executive vice president of the leadership group, in a phone interview. “That doesn’t always mean we agree with everyone’s decision, but we respect their humanity.”In St. Petersburg, Florida, Bishop Robert Lynch took the rare step for an American Roman Catholic bishop of saying faith groups had a role in fueling violence like what happened in Orlando.“Sadly, it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for, gays, lesbians and transgender people,” Lynch wrote on his blog. “Singling out people for victimization because of their religion, their sexual orientation, their nationality must be offensive to God’s ears. It has to stop.”The Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of the evangelical Northland, A Church Distributed, in the Orlando area, said the attack and its aftermath have led him to reflect on how he has spoken about the Bible and LGBT people in the past.Hunter, who has been a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama, spent the week in community meetings and at events in response to the shooting, leading to the pastor’s first introduction to Carlos Smith, the government affairs officer for Equality Florida, an LGBT advocacy group. A photo of their handshake, taken by a local reporter, has drawn attention on social media.“The fact that I didn’t know him was indicative of the cubicle all of us have been operating in and my lack of relationships that I’m now regretting,” Hunter said in a phone interview.“My relationships and respect for LGBTQ people will not depend on any specific theological finding,” Hunter said of how he will re-examine his approach to gays and lesbians. “My recommitment is to focus on living out the basic nature of God — love — and leaving the judging up to Him.”
9 years before Orlando rampage, Mateen was expelled from prison academy after talk of bringing a gun to class-[Jason Sickles]-June 17, 2016YAHOONEWS
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Orlando gunman Omar Mateen failed as a prison guard because he was booted from the state’s training academy after talking about bringing a gun to class, according to documents discovered late Friday by the Florida Department of Corrections.Earlier this week, prison officials said Mateen was “administratively dismissed” in 2007, but did not give specifics on why he never received his certification to continue working as a correctional officer.A hand search of department archives, prison officials said Friday, produced another dozen pages of records.Among them was a memo from a warden recommending that Mateen be dismissed from the program for sleeping in class, being absent without permission and, “most disturbing,” asking a fellow student whether he would report him if he were to bring a gun to class.“In light of recent tragic events at Virginia Tech officer Mateen’s inquiry about bringing a weapon to class is at best extremely disturbing,” wrote P.H. Skipper, then warden at the Martin Correctional Institute where Mateen, a cadet, was assigned.His dismissal came days after the April 16, 2007, tragedy at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in recorded U.S. history until last Sunday, when Mateen attacked Pulse nightclub, a popular gay bar in Orlando. Police say Mateen fatally shot 49 people and injured 53 others before he was killed in a shootout with officers.Mateen, a longtime private security guard, aspired to work in law enforcement.When he applied to be a state prison guard 10 years ago, his highest recommendation came from a police officer in his hometown.“Omar’s character is beyond reproach,” Port St. Lucie Officer Steven Brown wrote in a letter to the Florida Department of Corrections. “Omar’s judgment, work ethic, sensibility, and problem solving ability are impeccable.”The officer ended his endorsement of Mateen by saying, “I would sleep soundly at night knowing that a person like Omar is protecting us [from] the element which resides behind your concrete and [steel] walls.”The letter — among dozens of documents released from Mateen’s short stint as a prison guard — is chilling in light of Sunday’s massacre, and adds yet another layer to the complicated portrait of the killer that is still emerging.Some former teachers and classmates have recalled the Orlando shooter as a hothead who celebrated the 9/11 terror attacks as a high school student. But a handful of neighbors and acquaintances, like Brown, thought enough of Mateen at one time to declare that he would do well in law enforcement.“Absolutely,” former neighbor John Updegrave wrote on a recommendation form. “Omar is very good candidate for an officer.”Another former Port St. Lucie neighbor said Omar was “always willing to give a hand if needed.”Brown told prison officials that he had known Mateen for three years, having met the teenager at Gold’s Gym and a nutrition store where Mateen worked.“Omar does possess a character which would compliment [sic] the requirements of a Correctional Officer,” Brown wrote in 2006.Mateen was a provisional guard at Martin Correctional Institution in central Florida for six months before being terminated for not finishing the academy and acquiring his state certification.Brown, who is still a Port St. Lucie officer, declined to comment for this story.“He informed me that he did not wish to speak to or give any interviews on the matter,” said Master Sgt. Frank Sabol, a spokesman for the Port St. Lucie Police Department.Authorities say Mateen, who was born in New York to Afghan parents, pledged his allegiance to radical Islamic terrorists during the Orlando rampage.Sources briefed on the FBI’s investigation have said Mateen watched Islamic State terrorist videos — including some showing brutal beheadings — and talked to co-workers about them.A sad paradox for a young man who, records show, signed a commitment to public safety and took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution when he started his prison job.(This story has been updated since it was originally published.)-Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).
Gay Muslims: Now is the time to speak out-[Caitlin Dickson]-June 17, 2016-YAHOONEWS
The Orlando shooting has once again shone a spotlight on the LGBT community as the target of a terrible act of violence, and also prompted an intense level of scrutiny over what role the Muslim faith of the gunman, Omar Mateen, played in his attack.In the aftermath of the shootings, some close to Mateen, including his ex-wife, have suggested that he may have questioned his own sexuality in the months and years before the attack.In general, mainstream Muslim teachings forbid homosexuality, although how this is interpreted varies. According to the Human Rights Campaign, “Depending on nationality, generation, family upbringing and cultural influences, Islamic individuals and institutions fall along a wide spectrum, from welcoming and inclusive to a level of rejection that can be marked by a range of actions ranging from social sequestration to physical violence.”Yahoo News spoke to three members of this small, relatively unseen community about the often painful paradox of being an LGBT Muslim in the United States.****MAZIN K.-Mazin K. was born and raised in Jordan by Palestinian parents. He says he started having feelings for men at a young age, but it wasn’t until he was about 12, and gained access to the Internet, that he first learned the word “gay.”It would take another four years for Mazin to accept that he was homosexual, but even then, coming out to his Muslim family wasn’t really an option. So Mazin kept his sexuality a secret until 2013, when, at 24, he was exposed.Someone found pictures of him on the gay dating app Grindr and posted them to Facebook. “My life just stopped,” Mazin says, describing the response from his father and brothers as “very aggressive.”“I had no family, no job,” he says. “I couldn’t stay.”So Mazin contacted a friend who knew people in the United States and asked him where he should go. His friend put him in touch with someone who had an open room in San Francisco, and he left Jordan on a six-month visitor’s visa. He hasn’t been back since. His family still doesn’t even know where he is.Once in San Francisco, Mazin learned that the United States offers asylum to gay people who face persecution in their home country. After a couple of months, he decided to apply for asylum and was approved. He’s now in the process of getting his green card.Mazin identifies more as “culturally Muslim” than practicing. He doesn’t always fast during Ramadan, but when he’s around other Muslims who are fasting, he won’t eat or drink water in front of them.“Islam is not the most tolerant religion, but I still find it’s not a bad religion,” he says. “It’s not what people think.”Ever since the shooting in Orlando on Sunday, however, Mazin says he’s become very hesitant to say anything in defense of Islam, for fear of being associated with the gunman because of his religion.As a result, he says, he hasn’t gone out all week, has avoided discussing the shooting with friends, and refrained from weighing in on Facebook debates, where, he says, he’s read hateful comments about Islam from people who know him personally.“It’s not cool to be called ‘faggot’ and ‘terrorist’ at the same time,” he said, referring to the deluge of hateful comments he has encountered on Facebook. “It’s very confusing. I can’t get it out of my head.”Mazin also can’t help but think about the fact that it was pure chance that landed him in one of the most liberal areas of the country.“If, three years ago, my friend had found me a room in Orlando instead of San Francisco, I could’ve been there that night,” he says. “I could’ve been killed at Pulse.”The night of the shooting, Mazin says, “I was out with my friends. We were drinking and having fun and dancing all night. This could happen anywhere.”Mazin still plans to go out and celebrate Pride in San Francisco this weekend, but “now I’m terrified.”“It’s not going to be the same anymore,” he says. “People will be going out to support each other, but they will still be worried and keeping an eye open. It could happen anywhere, anytime.”While as a gay man, Mazin feels like a victim of the attack, he’s also starting to feel alienated from the rest of the LGBT community because of his religion.In Jordan, “I felt guilty for being gay,” he says. “Now I feel guilty for being Muslim — and I didn’t choose any of those.”Even before the shooting in Orlando, Mazin says the political rhetoric of the presidential election over the last year has made him feel increasingly anxious.“Last year, I was so happy to be gay in a country that legalized gay marriage.” But now, almost a year after the landmark Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, Mazin says, “I feel this country doesn’t want me anymore.”“Now what?” he wonders. “Where should I go? It’s very confusing.”-NAMIR NASSIR-As a kid in Pakistan, Namir Nassir “was kind of flamboyant.” He loved music and dancing, and whether he was at home with his family in Karachi, or with his Muslim relatives in Los Angeles, where he moved at age 15 to attend high school, Nassir says, “I was always the odd one out.”“I spent the first 19 years of my life being in the closet, feeling ashamed of who I was,” says Nassir, now 35 and an actor.Then, during the summer after his sophomore year at University of California at Santa Barbara, he finally decided to come out.Nassir was visiting his family in Karachi, and his father was making fun of his newly dyed red hair. “He said, ‘Only fags do that. Are you a fag?’” Nassir recalls. On the spur of the moment, he decided to tell the truth.Nassir says his family disowned him for three months — until his older sister’s wedding.But although they agreed to make amends for the occasion, for the next 12 or 13 years, his relationship with his family remained strained. Every couple of years, under pressure from his sisters, Nassir says he would “take it back” to his father, insisting his homosexuality was just a phase.His father suggested electroshock therapy, sex with prostitutes, anything he could think of, Nassir says.Meanwhile, back in California after coming out, Nassir dropped out of college and moved to L.A.“I wanted to experience what it was like to be gay,” he says. After 19 years of repression, diving into gay life in Los Angeles was a shock to his senses — and to his Muslim sensibilities.“Do you know how hard it was for me to go to clubs and see white, gay culture? Men with their shirts off, beautiful bodies, drinking, smoking, doing drugs.”Nassir says he was compelled to assimilate in order to be accepted by the community, but at the same time felt fetishized by other gay men because he was different.“You don’t understand the self-loathing,” that comes with being gay and Muslim, he said. Or, he added, “how deeply, deeply affected a Muslim man is by his religion from the day we are born. And how wrong it is to be gay, how completely and totally against the code of God it is to be gay.“It messes with your mind,” he says. “It’s really, really hard.”It was a painful journey toward finding his identity as a Muslim gay man, one that he says he would not have been able to endure without his faith.“Even though I’ve been alone and lost friends and made friends and have family members I barely talk to anymore, throughout it all I have my faith,” he says. “I pray to God every day.”Nassir believes that even though he’s gay and has had sex — sins in the eyes of Islam — the fact that he’s never drank alcohol or tried drugs, prays five times a day and fasts during Ramadan, has “kept my soul pure.”Nassir also credits his religion with allowing him to escape the fate of so many gay Muslim men who spend their lives in the closet, often with a wife and children.“I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones,” he says. “You live your life as a straight man, but all you want to do is be gay and be held by a man, and you see men holding hands and kissing and going to clubs and being happy.”“It’s a terrible thing, because it eats away at your soul,” he added. “And the biggest problem is there is no one to talk to.”In the wake of the recent tragedy in Orlando, Nassir says, “now is the time for people who are gay and Muslims to speak up.”“I like that Anderson Cooper is getting teared up on TV,” he says, but “I want people to see that you can be someone like me and be gay and go to clubs and have sex and have fun, but I also don’t drink or do drugs.”There were a few years where Nassir and his sisters did not speak. Now, he says, “We have an amazing relationship.”As for his father, “He acknowledges I am the way I am, but he’s still really religious. He’s not going to be joining the Pride Parade anytime soon.”-RAFIQ-Rafiq (not his real name) is a 35-year-old gay man who works in finance in New York. He’s also a practicing Muslim.Though most of his family and friends know he’s gay, Rafiq asked that his real name be withheld, because he is not “out” at work.Rafiq was born and raised in the United States, the third of six children born to a Pakistani father and an American mother who converted to Islam.Rafiq said that marrying an American woman made his father seem rebellious by comparison to the rest of his family, but he still sought to impart Pakistani traditions and religious beliefs to his American children.Rafiq and his siblings were raised Muslim; they were taught to pray, learned Arabic, read the Quran, and went to the mosque. As a family, they didn’t eat pork or drink alcohol, and they fasted during Ramadan. When his older brother and sister started dating in high school, Rafiq says, it caused a “huge drama” with his father, who did not believe in dating before marriage.His dad’s attitude toward homosexuality was just as traditional.“I was closeted for a very long time, and didn’t come out to my father for a very long time for fear of being kicked out of the house,” he says.Rafiq made the deliberate decision to move out on his own as soon as he graduated from college, but knows how much harder things could have been if he had continued to live with his parents, as most Muslim kids are encouraged to do until they’re married.“I’ve met gay Muslim men who are married and have kids, and I totally get it it, because of the culture,” Rafiq says. “If everyone in your circle is strict Muslim, they’ll never approve of it. They see it as a lifestyle.”Based on the information that continues to emerge about Mateen — including reports that the gunman had used gay dating apps, regularly visited Pulse nightclub and, according to his father, had recently become enraged at the sight of two men kissing in Miami — Rafiq says, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Orlando gunman was struggling with something similar.“He may have had an inkling, he may have been questioning his sexuality, he may have been curious. You don’t really know,” Rafiq says. “He may have actually been gay and just afraid of himself.”“When I first was curious, experimenting with being gay, the last thing I wanted was for someone to find out,” he continued. “When you are so close with your family and live with them, you lead these dual, secretive lives.”In the case of Mateen, Rafiq says, “I could totally see if he was living a double life and hiding this from them, if his family was superreligious and if they found out, they might have shunned him or made him feel like a bad person.”Whatever Mateen’s sexuality, Rafiq said this tragedy highlights the need for “more support for LGBT people who are having this conflict of religion.”Rafiq has accumulated a number of gay Muslim friends over the years, but for most people, “who are struggling with being Muslim and being gay, there aren’t a lot of outlets for you. You can’t talk about it in the mosque. It’s hard to find each other.” If Mateen was in fact gay, Rafiq says, “had he maybe had other gay Muslim friends to talk to about what he was going through, or if he had those resources, maybe that could’ve helped him. That’s one thing I wonder, how that would’ve changed things if he had those outlets.”Now Rafiq says his mother is “totally cool with me being gay,” and his siblings are fine with it, too — though he still gets pressure from his older brother, who has recently become more devout, to conform and marry a woman.Before his father’s death from cancer this year, Rafiq said their relationship came a long way, but he never reached complete acceptance. “He always accepted me as his son, but he wasn’t going to accept the gay thing,” he said.One of the most common misconceptions Rafiq encounters from non-Muslims is that he can’t possibly be both gay and Muslim. In fact, Rafiq says he has many gay friends who were raised Muslim but no longer practice because, “there are so many things in the religion that are contradictory to who we are — especially if you’re gay.”He struggles with it himself, he says, “Like, why am I bothering fasting right now for a religion that believes my people should be killed?”Even today, he says, “I would never go into a mosque and profess my sexuality, because it’s not something they would accept. I would not feel safe.”But for Rafiq, being a Muslim is as much a part of his identity as being a gay man. So he’s found a way to balance the two.“We’re taught that Allah is all-giving and all-merciful,” and on the Day of Judgment, “all sins can be forgiven,” he says.Like Nassir, Rafiq figures that if “I don’t drink, I don’t commit other sins, I don’t kill others, I pray, I fast during Ramadan. … If I follow everything right and do things properly, the only sin left would be the fact that I’m gay.”He realizes this rationale may not be accepted by other Muslims, but says, “I don’t know how I could embrace my religion any other way.“That’s the only way that I’ve been able to really justify it.”
Belgian authorities arrest 12 in major anti-terror raid-Associated Press]-June 18, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian authorities have raided dozens of homes and arrested 12 suspects in a major anti-terror investigation which they said required "immediate intervention," fearing an attack could have been close.The federal prosecutor's office said Saturday that homes and car ports were searched in 16 municipalities, mostly in and around Brussels. The statement said there were no major incidents during the raids and that no arms or explosives were found.It said 40 people were taken for interrogation, of which 12 were arrested, and a judge will rule on their continued detention later Saturday.Across Belgium parties were being planned to watch live broadcasts of the country's soccer team playing Ireland at the European Championships in neighboring France and some media said such events could have been the targets.The federal prosecutor's office or ministers refused to elaborate on that possibility."I'm very happy our services are trying to anticipate things as much as possible," said Justice Minister Koen Geens.The operation came as Belgium remains under the second highest terror alert in wake of the March 22 attacks on the Brussels subway and airport which left 32 people dead."It is not over. We remain under terror alert 3, it means that something is still up," Interior Minister Jan Jambon told the VRT network. "Last night, we had a very successful action."The prosecutor's statement said that "the results of the investigation necessitated an immediate intervention," indicating a violent attack was likely planned in the near future.The federal prosecutor's office did not link the raids to the March 22 attacks, even though an eighth suspect was arrested as part of the investigation of those attacks late Friday. The Belgian man, identified as Youssef E.A., was charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to terrorist murders."At the same time, four top ministers, including Prime Minister Charles Michel, Geens and Jambon, received special protection following unspecified threats. "We learned about that late yesterday that this close protection would happen. They say there are good reasons for that," Geens said.
Death to traitors' says UK MP murder suspect-[AFP]-Dario Thuburn-June 18, 2016-YAHOONEWS
London (AFP) - British lawmaker Jo Cox's alleged killer ranted against "traitors" during a brief court appearance on Saturday, as EU referendum campaigning was suspended for a third day in tribute to her."Death to traitors, freedom for Britain," 52-year-old Thomas Mair said when asked to give his name at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after being charged with murder, the Press Association reported.Both sides in the deeply divisive campaign ahead of a referendum on EU membership on next Thursday have cancelled events amid calls for a less acrimonious political debate.A member of the opposition Labour Party and former aid worker, Cox was an advocate for refugee rights and immigration and wanted Britain to remain in the European Union.She was shot and stabbed in the street in a daylight attack on Thursday in her constituency in northern England as she was heading for a meeting with local residents.Although the motive is undetermined, some politicians and commentators have pointed to the heated referendum debate, where sensitive issues like national identity and immigration have featured prominently.Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday brought bouquets to a floral tribute near the scene of the attack in Birstall in Yorkshire.Cameron spoke out for "tolerance" and against "hatred" in British politics, saying the country was "rightly shocked" at the killing of the 41-year-old mother of two.- Flowers on the river -The murder, the first of a British member of parliament since 1990, has sent shockwaves around the world.US President Barack Obama on Friday phoned Cox's husband Brendan to offer condolences."The president noted that the world is a better place because of her selfless service to others, and that there can be no justification for this heinous crime," the White House said in a statement.Eyewitness Hichem Ben Abdallah, 56, told AFP on Friday that he heard two shots and saw her on the ground."Her face was full of blood," said Ben Abdallah, who campaigned alongside the Labour politician before she was elected to parliament for the first time last year."She stood for peace and transparency, fighting corruption, wanted justice for all. I think her flame will carry on," he said."I hope we learn lessons from this," he added.A 77-year-old man remains in hospital after being injured trying to help Cox during the attack.A fund created in Cox's memory by her friends and family has raised more than £250,000 (318,000 euros, $359,000) so far for charities close to her heart.The money will support the Royal Voluntary Service which helps combat loneliness in her constituency; the Hope Not Hate anti-extremism group and the White Helmets volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria.At a vigil in London's Parliament Square on Friday evening, hundreds of people gathered to lay flowers and pay their respects, holding a minute's silence.Cox lived with her husband Brendan and their two children, aged three and five, on a houseboat moored on the River Thames in London, close to the city's iconic Tower Bridge.Mourners laid flowers on the roof of the converted barge along with pictures of the slain MP.
THERE WAS A VIDEO THAT CAUGHT THE WHOLE SHOOTING BY MATEEN AT THE GAY CLUB IN ORLANDO FLORIDA. THE FBI IS CHECKING IT OUT CLOSELY. AND MATEENS FREIND WAS QUESTIONED ALSO.THE FREIND BEING QUESTIONED WAS THE ONE MATEEN PHONE WHILE DOING THE KILLINGS.THE CONVERSATION HAD SOMETHING TO DO ABOUT MEDICINE.
IT IS A SHAME-BECAUSE NOT ONLY WILL MATEEN BE BURNING IN HELL AS A RESULT OF MURDERING THESE SODOMITES. BUT THE SODOMITES THAT WERE GAY THAT DIED IN THIS TRAGEDY WILL BE BURNING IN HELL IN TORMENTS AS WELL FOR NOT BEING SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. AND OPENLY PRACTICING SODOMY. THIS IS A SAD CAUSE ALL AROUND. THESE SODOMITES NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO BE SAVED. AND AS A RESULT. THE MURDERER AND THE MURDERED ARE ALL BURNING IN TORMENTS NOW UNTIL JESUS RESURRECTS THERE BODIES AND SOULS TOGETHER TO STAND IN FRONT OF HIM AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT. ONE THOUSAND YEARS AFTER HE RULES AS KING FROM JERUSALEM ON EARTH DURING HIS MILLENIUM REIGN. THEN FOREVER ON EARTH. THEN ALL THE LOST AT THIS FINAL JUDGEMENT GET THEIR FINAL NEVER DYING BODIES THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE FOREVER WITH SATAN AND ALL THE ONE THIRD FALLING ANGELS THAT WERE BOOTED OUT OF HEAVEN AT THE REBELLION AGAINST GOD. ALL THIS CROWD WILL BURN FOREVER-NEVER ENDING IN THE LAKE OF FIRE. AND ALL THE SAVED WILL BE LIVING ON EARTH FOREVER-NEVER ENDING UNDER JESUS RULE FROM THE WORLD CAPITAL JERUSALEM FOREVER. SO IT IS SAD THAT THIS DELUTED ISLAMIC-MUSLIM MURDERER MATEEN TOOK A POSSIBLE 49 OTHER PEOPLE TO HELL WITH HIM-THAT STILL HAD A CHANCE TO BE SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. AND LEFT-WING-LIBERAL-DEMOCRATS DON:T EVEN CALL ME A RACIST,HATER BIGOT FOR SPEAKING BIBLE TRUTH. I BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAYS NOT NO LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIC ISRAEL-CHRISTIAN AND JESUS HATERS.
Religious conservatives attempt balance in Orlando response-Faith leaders overwhelmingly expressed grief over loss of life in shooting, but have often failed to note that gunman specifically targeted LGBTQ individuals-By ERRIN HAINES WHACK and Rachel Zoll June 18, 2016, 9:08 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The massacre at a gay nightclub has tested the limits of the “love the sinner, hate the sin” approach to homosexuality by conservative religious leaders.The faith leaders have overwhelmingly expressed grief over the loss of life in Orlando, led vigils around the country, offered counseling for the crowds of mourners and free funerals for the victims. But it has been less common for religious conservatives to note that the gunman specifically targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Gays and lesbians say the omission compounds the pain of the shooting.“This was a place where people came together — LGBT people — and if you erase that part of them, you’re not actually praying for people, you’re praying for an abstraction,” said the Rev. Paul Raushenbush, a gay American Baptist pastor and a vice president at Auburn Seminary in New York. “In order to truly honor these lives, we’re not going to erase them and we’re not going to erase them in church.”Authorities are still trying to understand the motivation of gunman Omar Mateen, who had expressed hatred of gay people and sympathy for Islamic extremists before his rampage left 49 people dead at Pulse dance club last Sunday. The shooting has laid bare ideological divisions over gay rights, gun control and Islamic terrorism. Many conservatives argue that LGBT advocates are trying to politicize the attack by complaining about the wording of statements of prayer and concern.However, Presiding Bishop Yvette Flunder of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries Network, an association of mainly black and gay churches, pointed to the shooting at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina a year ago, and noted, “we did not hesitate to say that the victims in Charleston were black.”“This is a time to grieve, to mourn and to consider what it means to stigmatize people,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who supports gay marriage as a civil right. “Religious communities have played a particular role in … marginalizing gay and lesbian and transgender people.”The tragedy prompted an outpouring from more liberal religious groups that included special attention to LGBT people. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the gunman seemed to believe that “the LGBTQ community was severed from our common humanity.” The Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents Reform Jewish clergy, said the group was “outraged that LGBTQ people have been massacred because of their gender identity and sexual orientation.”Conservative religious leaders were just as vocal and emotional in their remarks, but the focus of their statements varied.The Rabbinical Council of America, the major association for Orthodox rabbis, decried “murderous attacks in the name of religion” and said “no individual or group should be singled out” the way the victims were. The president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, offered prayers and called for “ever greater resolve in protecting the life and dignity of every person.” The Southern Baptist Convention, at its annual meeting this week, passed a resolution extending “love and compassion” to all affected by the shooting and saying they consider the victims “fellow image-bearers of God and our neighbors.”But none of these statements specifically mentioned that gays and lesbians had been singled out.On the other hand, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, an association for Latino evangelicals, which helped local churches organize a vigil Wednesday in Orlando, issued a statement calling for “radical love” for all, citing gays in particular, despite the conference’s theological opposition to same-sex relationships.“We’ve preached to our people that everyone — every race, every culture, every orientation — they’re made in the image of God,” said the Rev. Tony Suarez, executive vice president of the leadership group, in a phone interview. “That doesn’t always mean we agree with everyone’s decision, but we respect their humanity.”In St. Petersburg, Florida, Bishop Robert Lynch took the rare step for an American Roman Catholic bishop of saying faith groups had a role in fueling violence like what happened in Orlando.“Sadly, it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for, gays, lesbians and transgender people,” Lynch wrote on his blog. “Singling out people for victimization because of their religion, their sexual orientation, their nationality must be offensive to God’s ears. It has to stop.”The Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of the evangelical Northland, A Church Distributed, in the Orlando area, said the attack and its aftermath have led him to reflect on how he has spoken about the Bible and LGBT people in the past.Hunter, who has been a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama, spent the week in community meetings and at events in response to the shooting, leading to the pastor’s first introduction to Carlos Smith, the government affairs officer for Equality Florida, an LGBT advocacy group. A photo of their handshake, taken by a local reporter, has drawn attention on social media.“The fact that I didn’t know him was indicative of the cubicle all of us have been operating in and my lack of relationships that I’m now regretting,” Hunter said in a phone interview.“My relationships and respect for LGBTQ people will not depend on any specific theological finding,” Hunter said of how he will re-examine his approach to gays and lesbians. “My recommitment is to focus on living out the basic nature of God — love — and leaving the judging up to Him.”
9 years before Orlando rampage, Mateen was expelled from prison academy after talk of bringing a gun to class-[Jason Sickles]-June 17, 2016YAHOONEWS
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Orlando gunman Omar Mateen failed as a prison guard because he was booted from the state’s training academy after talking about bringing a gun to class, according to documents discovered late Friday by the Florida Department of Corrections.Earlier this week, prison officials said Mateen was “administratively dismissed” in 2007, but did not give specifics on why he never received his certification to continue working as a correctional officer.A hand search of department archives, prison officials said Friday, produced another dozen pages of records.Among them was a memo from a warden recommending that Mateen be dismissed from the program for sleeping in class, being absent without permission and, “most disturbing,” asking a fellow student whether he would report him if he were to bring a gun to class.“In light of recent tragic events at Virginia Tech officer Mateen’s inquiry about bringing a weapon to class is at best extremely disturbing,” wrote P.H. Skipper, then warden at the Martin Correctional Institute where Mateen, a cadet, was assigned.His dismissal came days after the April 16, 2007, tragedy at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in recorded U.S. history until last Sunday, when Mateen attacked Pulse nightclub, a popular gay bar in Orlando. Police say Mateen fatally shot 49 people and injured 53 others before he was killed in a shootout with officers.Mateen, a longtime private security guard, aspired to work in law enforcement.When he applied to be a state prison guard 10 years ago, his highest recommendation came from a police officer in his hometown.“Omar’s character is beyond reproach,” Port St. Lucie Officer Steven Brown wrote in a letter to the Florida Department of Corrections. “Omar’s judgment, work ethic, sensibility, and problem solving ability are impeccable.”The officer ended his endorsement of Mateen by saying, “I would sleep soundly at night knowing that a person like Omar is protecting us [from] the element which resides behind your concrete and [steel] walls.”The letter — among dozens of documents released from Mateen’s short stint as a prison guard — is chilling in light of Sunday’s massacre, and adds yet another layer to the complicated portrait of the killer that is still emerging.Some former teachers and classmates have recalled the Orlando shooter as a hothead who celebrated the 9/11 terror attacks as a high school student. But a handful of neighbors and acquaintances, like Brown, thought enough of Mateen at one time to declare that he would do well in law enforcement.“Absolutely,” former neighbor John Updegrave wrote on a recommendation form. “Omar is very good candidate for an officer.”Another former Port St. Lucie neighbor said Omar was “always willing to give a hand if needed.”Brown told prison officials that he had known Mateen for three years, having met the teenager at Gold’s Gym and a nutrition store where Mateen worked.“Omar does possess a character which would compliment [sic] the requirements of a Correctional Officer,” Brown wrote in 2006.Mateen was a provisional guard at Martin Correctional Institution in central Florida for six months before being terminated for not finishing the academy and acquiring his state certification.Brown, who is still a Port St. Lucie officer, declined to comment for this story.“He informed me that he did not wish to speak to or give any interviews on the matter,” said Master Sgt. Frank Sabol, a spokesman for the Port St. Lucie Police Department.Authorities say Mateen, who was born in New York to Afghan parents, pledged his allegiance to radical Islamic terrorists during the Orlando rampage.Sources briefed on the FBI’s investigation have said Mateen watched Islamic State terrorist videos — including some showing brutal beheadings — and talked to co-workers about them.A sad paradox for a young man who, records show, signed a commitment to public safety and took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution when he started his prison job.(This story has been updated since it was originally published.)-Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).
Gay Muslims: Now is the time to speak out-[Caitlin Dickson]-June 17, 2016-YAHOONEWS
The Orlando shooting has once again shone a spotlight on the LGBT community as the target of a terrible act of violence, and also prompted an intense level of scrutiny over what role the Muslim faith of the gunman, Omar Mateen, played in his attack.In the aftermath of the shootings, some close to Mateen, including his ex-wife, have suggested that he may have questioned his own sexuality in the months and years before the attack.In general, mainstream Muslim teachings forbid homosexuality, although how this is interpreted varies. According to the Human Rights Campaign, “Depending on nationality, generation, family upbringing and cultural influences, Islamic individuals and institutions fall along a wide spectrum, from welcoming and inclusive to a level of rejection that can be marked by a range of actions ranging from social sequestration to physical violence.”Yahoo News spoke to three members of this small, relatively unseen community about the often painful paradox of being an LGBT Muslim in the United States.****MAZIN K.-Mazin K. was born and raised in Jordan by Palestinian parents. He says he started having feelings for men at a young age, but it wasn’t until he was about 12, and gained access to the Internet, that he first learned the word “gay.”It would take another four years for Mazin to accept that he was homosexual, but even then, coming out to his Muslim family wasn’t really an option. So Mazin kept his sexuality a secret until 2013, when, at 24, he was exposed.Someone found pictures of him on the gay dating app Grindr and posted them to Facebook. “My life just stopped,” Mazin says, describing the response from his father and brothers as “very aggressive.”“I had no family, no job,” he says. “I couldn’t stay.”So Mazin contacted a friend who knew people in the United States and asked him where he should go. His friend put him in touch with someone who had an open room in San Francisco, and he left Jordan on a six-month visitor’s visa. He hasn’t been back since. His family still doesn’t even know where he is.Once in San Francisco, Mazin learned that the United States offers asylum to gay people who face persecution in their home country. After a couple of months, he decided to apply for asylum and was approved. He’s now in the process of getting his green card.Mazin identifies more as “culturally Muslim” than practicing. He doesn’t always fast during Ramadan, but when he’s around other Muslims who are fasting, he won’t eat or drink water in front of them.“Islam is not the most tolerant religion, but I still find it’s not a bad religion,” he says. “It’s not what people think.”Ever since the shooting in Orlando on Sunday, however, Mazin says he’s become very hesitant to say anything in defense of Islam, for fear of being associated with the gunman because of his religion.As a result, he says, he hasn’t gone out all week, has avoided discussing the shooting with friends, and refrained from weighing in on Facebook debates, where, he says, he’s read hateful comments about Islam from people who know him personally.“It’s not cool to be called ‘faggot’ and ‘terrorist’ at the same time,” he said, referring to the deluge of hateful comments he has encountered on Facebook. “It’s very confusing. I can’t get it out of my head.”Mazin also can’t help but think about the fact that it was pure chance that landed him in one of the most liberal areas of the country.“If, three years ago, my friend had found me a room in Orlando instead of San Francisco, I could’ve been there that night,” he says. “I could’ve been killed at Pulse.”The night of the shooting, Mazin says, “I was out with my friends. We were drinking and having fun and dancing all night. This could happen anywhere.”Mazin still plans to go out and celebrate Pride in San Francisco this weekend, but “now I’m terrified.”“It’s not going to be the same anymore,” he says. “People will be going out to support each other, but they will still be worried and keeping an eye open. It could happen anywhere, anytime.”While as a gay man, Mazin feels like a victim of the attack, he’s also starting to feel alienated from the rest of the LGBT community because of his religion.In Jordan, “I felt guilty for being gay,” he says. “Now I feel guilty for being Muslim — and I didn’t choose any of those.”Even before the shooting in Orlando, Mazin says the political rhetoric of the presidential election over the last year has made him feel increasingly anxious.“Last year, I was so happy to be gay in a country that legalized gay marriage.” But now, almost a year after the landmark Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, Mazin says, “I feel this country doesn’t want me anymore.”“Now what?” he wonders. “Where should I go? It’s very confusing.”-NAMIR NASSIR-As a kid in Pakistan, Namir Nassir “was kind of flamboyant.” He loved music and dancing, and whether he was at home with his family in Karachi, or with his Muslim relatives in Los Angeles, where he moved at age 15 to attend high school, Nassir says, “I was always the odd one out.”“I spent the first 19 years of my life being in the closet, feeling ashamed of who I was,” says Nassir, now 35 and an actor.Then, during the summer after his sophomore year at University of California at Santa Barbara, he finally decided to come out.Nassir was visiting his family in Karachi, and his father was making fun of his newly dyed red hair. “He said, ‘Only fags do that. Are you a fag?’” Nassir recalls. On the spur of the moment, he decided to tell the truth.Nassir says his family disowned him for three months — until his older sister’s wedding.But although they agreed to make amends for the occasion, for the next 12 or 13 years, his relationship with his family remained strained. Every couple of years, under pressure from his sisters, Nassir says he would “take it back” to his father, insisting his homosexuality was just a phase.His father suggested electroshock therapy, sex with prostitutes, anything he could think of, Nassir says.Meanwhile, back in California after coming out, Nassir dropped out of college and moved to L.A.“I wanted to experience what it was like to be gay,” he says. After 19 years of repression, diving into gay life in Los Angeles was a shock to his senses — and to his Muslim sensibilities.“Do you know how hard it was for me to go to clubs and see white, gay culture? Men with their shirts off, beautiful bodies, drinking, smoking, doing drugs.”Nassir says he was compelled to assimilate in order to be accepted by the community, but at the same time felt fetishized by other gay men because he was different.“You don’t understand the self-loathing,” that comes with being gay and Muslim, he said. Or, he added, “how deeply, deeply affected a Muslim man is by his religion from the day we are born. And how wrong it is to be gay, how completely and totally against the code of God it is to be gay.“It messes with your mind,” he says. “It’s really, really hard.”It was a painful journey toward finding his identity as a Muslim gay man, one that he says he would not have been able to endure without his faith.“Even though I’ve been alone and lost friends and made friends and have family members I barely talk to anymore, throughout it all I have my faith,” he says. “I pray to God every day.”Nassir believes that even though he’s gay and has had sex — sins in the eyes of Islam — the fact that he’s never drank alcohol or tried drugs, prays five times a day and fasts during Ramadan, has “kept my soul pure.”Nassir also credits his religion with allowing him to escape the fate of so many gay Muslim men who spend their lives in the closet, often with a wife and children.“I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones,” he says. “You live your life as a straight man, but all you want to do is be gay and be held by a man, and you see men holding hands and kissing and going to clubs and being happy.”“It’s a terrible thing, because it eats away at your soul,” he added. “And the biggest problem is there is no one to talk to.”In the wake of the recent tragedy in Orlando, Nassir says, “now is the time for people who are gay and Muslims to speak up.”“I like that Anderson Cooper is getting teared up on TV,” he says, but “I want people to see that you can be someone like me and be gay and go to clubs and have sex and have fun, but I also don’t drink or do drugs.”There were a few years where Nassir and his sisters did not speak. Now, he says, “We have an amazing relationship.”As for his father, “He acknowledges I am the way I am, but he’s still really religious. He’s not going to be joining the Pride Parade anytime soon.”-RAFIQ-Rafiq (not his real name) is a 35-year-old gay man who works in finance in New York. He’s also a practicing Muslim.Though most of his family and friends know he’s gay, Rafiq asked that his real name be withheld, because he is not “out” at work.Rafiq was born and raised in the United States, the third of six children born to a Pakistani father and an American mother who converted to Islam.Rafiq said that marrying an American woman made his father seem rebellious by comparison to the rest of his family, but he still sought to impart Pakistani traditions and religious beliefs to his American children.Rafiq and his siblings were raised Muslim; they were taught to pray, learned Arabic, read the Quran, and went to the mosque. As a family, they didn’t eat pork or drink alcohol, and they fasted during Ramadan. When his older brother and sister started dating in high school, Rafiq says, it caused a “huge drama” with his father, who did not believe in dating before marriage.His dad’s attitude toward homosexuality was just as traditional.“I was closeted for a very long time, and didn’t come out to my father for a very long time for fear of being kicked out of the house,” he says.Rafiq made the deliberate decision to move out on his own as soon as he graduated from college, but knows how much harder things could have been if he had continued to live with his parents, as most Muslim kids are encouraged to do until they’re married.“I’ve met gay Muslim men who are married and have kids, and I totally get it it, because of the culture,” Rafiq says. “If everyone in your circle is strict Muslim, they’ll never approve of it. They see it as a lifestyle.”Based on the information that continues to emerge about Mateen — including reports that the gunman had used gay dating apps, regularly visited Pulse nightclub and, according to his father, had recently become enraged at the sight of two men kissing in Miami — Rafiq says, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Orlando gunman was struggling with something similar.“He may have had an inkling, he may have been questioning his sexuality, he may have been curious. You don’t really know,” Rafiq says. “He may have actually been gay and just afraid of himself.”“When I first was curious, experimenting with being gay, the last thing I wanted was for someone to find out,” he continued. “When you are so close with your family and live with them, you lead these dual, secretive lives.”In the case of Mateen, Rafiq says, “I could totally see if he was living a double life and hiding this from them, if his family was superreligious and if they found out, they might have shunned him or made him feel like a bad person.”Whatever Mateen’s sexuality, Rafiq said this tragedy highlights the need for “more support for LGBT people who are having this conflict of religion.”Rafiq has accumulated a number of gay Muslim friends over the years, but for most people, “who are struggling with being Muslim and being gay, there aren’t a lot of outlets for you. You can’t talk about it in the mosque. It’s hard to find each other.” If Mateen was in fact gay, Rafiq says, “had he maybe had other gay Muslim friends to talk to about what he was going through, or if he had those resources, maybe that could’ve helped him. That’s one thing I wonder, how that would’ve changed things if he had those outlets.”Now Rafiq says his mother is “totally cool with me being gay,” and his siblings are fine with it, too — though he still gets pressure from his older brother, who has recently become more devout, to conform and marry a woman.Before his father’s death from cancer this year, Rafiq said their relationship came a long way, but he never reached complete acceptance. “He always accepted me as his son, but he wasn’t going to accept the gay thing,” he said.One of the most common misconceptions Rafiq encounters from non-Muslims is that he can’t possibly be both gay and Muslim. In fact, Rafiq says he has many gay friends who were raised Muslim but no longer practice because, “there are so many things in the religion that are contradictory to who we are — especially if you’re gay.”He struggles with it himself, he says, “Like, why am I bothering fasting right now for a religion that believes my people should be killed?”Even today, he says, “I would never go into a mosque and profess my sexuality, because it’s not something they would accept. I would not feel safe.”But for Rafiq, being a Muslim is as much a part of his identity as being a gay man. So he’s found a way to balance the two.“We’re taught that Allah is all-giving and all-merciful,” and on the Day of Judgment, “all sins can be forgiven,” he says.Like Nassir, Rafiq figures that if “I don’t drink, I don’t commit other sins, I don’t kill others, I pray, I fast during Ramadan. … If I follow everything right and do things properly, the only sin left would be the fact that I’m gay.”He realizes this rationale may not be accepted by other Muslims, but says, “I don’t know how I could embrace my religion any other way.“That’s the only way that I’ve been able to really justify it.”
Belgian authorities arrest 12 in major anti-terror raid-Associated Press]-June 18, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian authorities have raided dozens of homes and arrested 12 suspects in a major anti-terror investigation which they said required "immediate intervention," fearing an attack could have been close.The federal prosecutor's office said Saturday that homes and car ports were searched in 16 municipalities, mostly in and around Brussels. The statement said there were no major incidents during the raids and that no arms or explosives were found.It said 40 people were taken for interrogation, of which 12 were arrested, and a judge will rule on their continued detention later Saturday.Across Belgium parties were being planned to watch live broadcasts of the country's soccer team playing Ireland at the European Championships in neighboring France and some media said such events could have been the targets.The federal prosecutor's office or ministers refused to elaborate on that possibility."I'm very happy our services are trying to anticipate things as much as possible," said Justice Minister Koen Geens.The operation came as Belgium remains under the second highest terror alert in wake of the March 22 attacks on the Brussels subway and airport which left 32 people dead."It is not over. We remain under terror alert 3, it means that something is still up," Interior Minister Jan Jambon told the VRT network. "Last night, we had a very successful action."The prosecutor's statement said that "the results of the investigation necessitated an immediate intervention," indicating a violent attack was likely planned in the near future.The federal prosecutor's office did not link the raids to the March 22 attacks, even though an eighth suspect was arrested as part of the investigation of those attacks late Friday. The Belgian man, identified as Youssef E.A., was charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to terrorist murders."At the same time, four top ministers, including Prime Minister Charles Michel, Geens and Jambon, received special protection following unspecified threats. "We learned about that late yesterday that this close protection would happen. They say there are good reasons for that," Geens said.
Death to traitors' says UK MP murder suspect-[AFP]-Dario Thuburn-June 18, 2016-YAHOONEWS
London (AFP) - British lawmaker Jo Cox's alleged killer ranted against "traitors" during a brief court appearance on Saturday, as EU referendum campaigning was suspended for a third day in tribute to her."Death to traitors, freedom for Britain," 52-year-old Thomas Mair said when asked to give his name at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after being charged with murder, the Press Association reported.Both sides in the deeply divisive campaign ahead of a referendum on EU membership on next Thursday have cancelled events amid calls for a less acrimonious political debate.A member of the opposition Labour Party and former aid worker, Cox was an advocate for refugee rights and immigration and wanted Britain to remain in the European Union.She was shot and stabbed in the street in a daylight attack on Thursday in her constituency in northern England as she was heading for a meeting with local residents.Although the motive is undetermined, some politicians and commentators have pointed to the heated referendum debate, where sensitive issues like national identity and immigration have featured prominently.Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday brought bouquets to a floral tribute near the scene of the attack in Birstall in Yorkshire.Cameron spoke out for "tolerance" and against "hatred" in British politics, saying the country was "rightly shocked" at the killing of the 41-year-old mother of two.- Flowers on the river -The murder, the first of a British member of parliament since 1990, has sent shockwaves around the world.US President Barack Obama on Friday phoned Cox's husband Brendan to offer condolences."The president noted that the world is a better place because of her selfless service to others, and that there can be no justification for this heinous crime," the White House said in a statement.Eyewitness Hichem Ben Abdallah, 56, told AFP on Friday that he heard two shots and saw her on the ground."Her face was full of blood," said Ben Abdallah, who campaigned alongside the Labour politician before she was elected to parliament for the first time last year."She stood for peace and transparency, fighting corruption, wanted justice for all. I think her flame will carry on," he said."I hope we learn lessons from this," he added.A 77-year-old man remains in hospital after being injured trying to help Cox during the attack.A fund created in Cox's memory by her friends and family has raised more than £250,000 (318,000 euros, $359,000) so far for charities close to her heart.The money will support the Royal Voluntary Service which helps combat loneliness in her constituency; the Hope Not Hate anti-extremism group and the White Helmets volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria.At a vigil in London's Parliament Square on Friday evening, hundreds of people gathered to lay flowers and pay their respects, holding a minute's silence.Cox lived with her husband Brendan and their two children, aged three and five, on a houseboat moored on the River Thames in London, close to the city's iconic Tower Bridge.Mourners laid flowers on the roof of the converted barge along with pictures of the slain MP.
via EVENTS IN TIME (BIBLE PROPHECY LITERALLY FULFILLED)(BY GOD) http://ift.tt/1Y0MBI8
No comments:
Post a Comment