While Christians, worldwide, celebrate their High Holiday, birth of the “Christ.”
Christians in American may rest easy while Christians in other parts of the world strive to stay alive with their belief in the “Christ God.”

Should American Christians feel so secure in their safety?
I pray so.

A drunken mob of Muslims attacked a Christian congregation in Lahore Pakistan on November 12 with guns and clubs. While no one was seriously injured, it highlights the constant hatred and persecution that Christians live under in Pakistan.

ICC records that this is the eighth known attack on a Pakistani church in 2006 alone.

Security boosted at churches in Indonesia over Christmas

2006/12/18
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)
Tens of thousands of police officers will guard churches across the world's most populous Muslim country over the Christmas period, amid concerns that al-Qaida-linked militants could carry out attacks, police said Monday.

The regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for annual strikes in Indonesia since 2000, when a series of coordinated bombings killed 19 people on Christmas Eve. An attack on a Christian market last New Year's Eve killed seven.

More than 18,000 police will be posted at thousands of churches and religious sites in the capital, Jakarta, said police spokesman Col. Ketut Untung Yoga.

NEW DELHI, December 18 (Compass Direct News)
A caller identifying himself as an Islamic terrorist has threatened to kill a Christian convert from Islam in the southern state of Kerala.

Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohammed, head of Salem Voice Ministries (SVM) in Kottayam district, has already survived one suspected murder attempt.
The extremist phoned Ciniraj on Thursday (December 14) and told him to “start counting your days, as we will kill you in a few days’ time.”

“He spoke to me in a very loud voice and said he was from an Islamist terrorist group,” Ciniraj told Compass.

Textbook warning signs present for holiday attack
By Douglas J. Hagmann, Northeast Intelligence Network,
Monday, December 18, 2006

Intelligence analysts fromĘ various agencies are quietly concerned, talking within their own circles about the higher-than-normal probability of a terror attack occurring this holiday season.

This will be the fourth Christmas the U.S. analyst will have under his belt, while the man who monitors European activity has an additional year at his position. Both admitted that they are always concerned around this time of year, but they both expressed a heightened level of concern of terrorist attacks for this year.

One could correctly argue that this anticipatory sentiment has been present since 2001, but events throughout 2006 have the analysts a bit more concerned. Some of the events referenced include the following, in no specific order:

1. The large-scale plot to crash airliners originating in the UK into US cities (or exploding them in mid-flight, if one is to believe major media sources), was exposed in August and stopped before its planned execution. There are concerns that despite the sweeping arrests, an unknown but perhaps significant number of operatives remain engaged in advancing these objectives. If successful, their status as Islamic martyrs will rival, if not eclipse, those of the 9/11 attacks.

2. The very public admission by the head of MI5 of the terrorist cells and known Islamic terrorist operatives under surveillance in Great Britain. Well over 1500 Islamic terrorists continue to plot attacks in that country following the July, 7, 2005 attacks on their transit system, which remains a very enviable target as crowds increase with holiday traffic.

3. The ire of the Islamists over the academic discussion of Islam by Pope Benedict XVI has yet to fully abate, despite his attempts to defuse the situation through his public back-peddling.

4. In the United States, the despicable and ever-bloated Islamic icon, Omar Abdel-Rahman, is having health problems and reports are that his short-term prognosis is poor. Abdel-Rahman, known as Ňthe blind Sheikh,Ó has been held in a federal prison since his conviction in the New York City landmark plot.
As we previously reported, his Islamic followers continue their vigil and could attempt to avenge his death at his own request.

5. The case of Ahmed Ressam, who was part of a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on or about January 1, 2000 was discussed on its merits of both target and effect.

Today, U.S. analysts forecasting potential terrorist attacks are very uneasy for many of the reasons referenced above. Lacking specifics, however, their "best guess" scenario seems to be targets associated with retail and mass transit. Other variables, especially involving what the U.S. does with troop levels and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, only murky the intelligence waters. One thing appears certain, however: our government analysts and agents are on a higher state of alert this year than in all previous years, and their concern is global.