You can stay in touch with the Brays and our CIS Missionary members by signing up for the daily “Fetch A Prayer” or by following us on our personal blogs and Face Book pages. For information, please call Bill Bray personally at 434-227-0811 or send an email to bray.william@gmail.com.

If you live in Charlottesville, join us on Tuesday nights at the Downtown Prayer Room (DPR) to Pray for All Nations from 7:30 to 9 PM. (The DPR is located opposite the police headquarters on Market Street.)

By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service

AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- As noted in the January 2006 WEA RLC News & Analysis posting" Religious Liberty from 2005-2006" the great global trend of this ageis the trend toward openness. This unstoppable, irreversible globaltrend, brought on by advancements in information and communications technologies, brings with it a global demand for liberty - people with information inevitably will demand the right to make choices. Dictators and religious ideologies that are threatened by liberty are resisting openness and rejecting liberty.

For a brief summary of this struggle for openness and liberty, please see the Global Overview on WEA's International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for the Persecuted Church 2006 website.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (RL) TRENDS 2006-2007: INTRODUCTION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This annual Religious Liberty Trends posting will focus on three trends that emerged in 2006 which threaten to deeply and painfully impact Christians through 2007:

• the dramatic escalation in persecution of the Church across India;
• the Shiite ascendancy;
• two front-lines opening up for Islamic imperialists.

Regarding the first trend - escalating persecution in India - while the present situation is serious enough, even more serious is the fact that India's Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) forces are advancing, virtual ly unchallenged, towards the successful implementation of their strategy to turn India into a fascist Hindu State where religious repression and persecution levels will be equal to the world's worst.

The second trend - the Shiite ascendancy - has triggered a Sunni backlash whereby the Sunnis are seeking to counter the Shiite/Iranian threat to their regional hegemony by escalating their virulently anti-Shiite Wahhabist doctrine, which also happens to be virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. In an effort to combat the Sunni backlash, Shiites are seeking to unite Muslims in a collective struggle against their common foes: Jews, Israel, Christians, the West, secularists, and all other infidels and apostates. A universal Sunni vs Shiite war would be the beginning of the end of Islam, but it would also consequentially be devastating in the short and medium term for Jews and Christians everywhere, but in particular those living in the Middle East.

Regarding the third trend, religious rhetoric and tension escalated dram atically during 2006 in two regions that are ripe for Islamic imperialist conflict: the Horn of Africa (HOA) and the Balkans. Islamic imperialist rhetoric erupted into conflict in the HOA during 2006 and, while the Islamists were eventually routed, al Qaeda is calling for an Iraq-style insurgency. Already a terrorism insurgency is commencing in Mogadishu. Muslim unrest and persecution of Christians are destined to escalate in southern Somalia and in the Muslim dominated regions of Ethiopia (particularly Ogaden) and Kenya. Eritrea supports the Islamists in order to fight a proxy war against historic rival Ethiopia, and during 2006 Eritrea began persecuting Orthodox believers along with Protestants. As tensions with Ethiopia increase so too may Eritrea's persecution of its Orthodox Church. Meanwhile the Islamic imperialist rhetoric and sentiment emanating from Bosnia through 2006, as well as the imminent United Nations Security Council debate on the status of Kosovo, make the Balkans extremely vulnerable to a return to conflict shoul d the threatening Islamic imperialist rhetoric erupt into action (jihad) or provoke a pre-emptive response.

----------------------------------------
Each of these trends will be covered in separate consecutive postings.
The series will be as follows:
1. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (RL) TRENDS 2006-2007 (Introduction)
2. RL TREND - INDIA: HINDUTVA'S ADVANCE
3. RL TREND - SHIITE ASCENDANCY
4. RL TREND - ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM: SOMALIA, BOSNIA, KOSOVO
The times are tumultuous, but the promises of God stand firm.

"Behold, the days are coming", declares the Lord, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it." Amos 9:13 (ESV)

"And behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Jesus: Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

Welcome to 2007
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
"I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else - not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself." Ephesians 1:19-23 (NLT)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) www.worldevangelical.org/rlc.html. This article was initially written for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis mailing list.

Elizabeth can be contacted by e-mail at rl-research@crossnet.org.au.