Julio Severo, a pro-family activist and blogger, told WND he’s concerned about a speaking tour in Brazil that features Bethlehem Bible College President Emeritus Bishara Awad in support of Open Doors, International.

Severo told WND that at an event in Brazil, Awad spoke of “the Palestinian plight provoked by Israel.”

“He did not mention anything about Muslim violence against Christians,” Severo said.

Severo worries that the tour will gain credibility because of the sponsorship.

“I am only a very small Christian, and to expose Open Doors for opening doors to such anti-Israel, Christian Palestinianism is a big challenge,” Severo said.

He said his concerns are both political and theological.

“In the speech, he repeatedly mentioned that he and his people are under occupation,” Severo said. “As a Christian, he didn’t give the Israeli point of view.”

Bethlehem Bible College is the host of the controversial Christ at the Checkpoint Conference. The Jerusalem Post quoted Awad as being critical of American evangelicals’ support of Israel.

“Many Christians support Israel whether it is right or wrong, but don’t look into the issues of peace and justice,” Awad said. “If that’s being political then fine, but unfortunately, some people, instead of coming and listening and participating, just attack us. We want to have serious engagement with Zionist groups, and have open forum for ongoing dialogue.”

Awad told WND in an interview that his ethnic background is an important factor in how he sees the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

“I am an Arab and my people are under occupation. But I am also a Christian and love the Lord Jesus,” Awad said. “My people are suffering greatly under the occupation. The economy is terrible and my people are under great economic stress.

“We aren’t suffering at the hands of the Muslims in Palestine,” Awad said. “Some people don’t want to believe this and that is their right.”

Severo is skeptical and he points to a report by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. In that report, Awad is quoted as saying an Israeli-built wall completely encircles Bethlehem.

“We have many problems in this land. We are under military occupation. The Israelis built a wall around us and this wall goes around Bethlehem,” Awad said.

But the committee report points out that a map shows that the wall doesn’t completely encircle Bethlehem.

However, Awad added that he knows the situation would only be more severe for his people if Bethlehem and the Palestinian Authority territory were under the control of the surrounding nations.

“Looking at the countries around us, like in Syria and in Lebanon, there certainly is persecution of Christians, and Christians are leaving. The people here are leaving because they don’t like to be under occupation,” Awad said.

“However, if the tables were turned (and an Arab neighbor controlled the territory), I would be very scared because of what I see around those countries,” Awad said. “I see how the Muslims are treating people and how they’re ever treating their own people. They’re killing their own people. There’s no mercy; there’s no love.

“It’s becoming more and more extreme with extreme Muslims. Even some moderate Muslims are happy about what’s going on in Syria with Muslims killing Muslims,” Awad said.

“The Middle East is in an uproar altogether, and I’m afraid the table will be turned around one of these days and the Palestinians will be under a worse regime than right now under Israel,” Awad said.

But Awad emphasized, “I don’t want my people to be under anyone’s control, under anyone else’s guns.”

Open Doors spokesman Paul Estabrooks said neither Open Doors nor Bethlehem Bible College is anti-Israel.

“Bishara thoroughly enjoyed his trip to Brazil celebrating OD-Brazil’s 30th anniversary. He was there to promote OD, not to promote his school or Palestinian causes.

“I spent one week at BBC and heard not one word of negativity toward Israel,” Estabrooks said.

Estabrooks explained that there is a significant theological debate surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict and even whether Israel has a right to the land the modern state of Israel occupies.

Awad said he and Bethlehem Bible College reject what is termed by critics as “replacement theology,” the belief that the Christian church has taken Israel’s place as the inheritor of God’s covenant blessings and promises.

“I do not believe in replacement theology, and I believe in the right of Israel to exist,” Awad said.

Estabrooks confirmed Awad’s claim.

“He expressed that he does accept Israel as a nation and he does not personally, nor does the Bible college, hold to replacement theology. In recall, he thought that his emphasis at the meeting was just on the New Covenant, not on anti-Israel propaganda as charged,” Estabrooks said.

In a search of the Bethlehem Bible College website, the college’s “FAQ” page has this comment about the relationship between the college and Israel: “Due to Israeli occupation, Bethlehem residents have lost thousands of dunums of land for the purposes of Israeli settlement construction and the building of the separation wall.”

The site says, “Political violence during the 2nd Intifada and the continual loss of land have created a desperate economic situation in the city of Bethlehem, which has an unemployment rate of 22.4 percent, the highest in the West Bank.”

The college has not responded to WND’s requests for comment.

Estabrooks said: “Let me assure you that Open Doors also does not endorse or propagate replacement theology nor are we in any way anti-Israel as a nation of God’s chosen people. Neither have I heard this expressed or taught in my many experiences at Bethlehem Bible College over a 20-year period.’

Estabrooks explained Palestinian Christians have a different view of Israel, because they are both Palestinian and Christian.

“Furthermore, Christians I have met in Palestinian Israel are far more aggrieved at the mistreatment they receive from Israelis than the minimal challenges presented by Palestinian Muslims against them. Is it not understandable then that Palestinian Christians might express publicly the frustrations under which they live each day?” Estabrooks asked.

Estabrooks said that Open Doors subscribes to Christian author and pastor John Piper’s views of Israel. Piper’s seven points are as follows:

1. God chose Israel from all the peoples of the world to be his own possession.
2. The land was part of the inheritance he promised to Abraham and his descendants forever.
3. The promises made to Abraham, including the promise of the land, will be inherited as an everlasting gift only by true, spiritual Israel, not disobedient, unbelieving Israel.
4. Jesus Christ has come into the world as the Jewish Messiah, and his own people rejected him and broke covenant with their God.
5. Therefore, the secular state of Israel today may not claim a present divine right to the land, but they and we should seek a peaceful settlement not based on present divine rights, but on international principles of justice, mercy, and practical feasibility.
6. By faith in Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, Gentiles become heirs of the promise of Abraham, including the promise of the land.
7. Finally, this inheritance of Christ’s people will happen fully at the Second Coming of Christ to establish His kingdom, not before; and till then, we Christians must not take up arms to claim our inheritance; but rather lay down our lives to share our inheritance with as many as we can.

Will they get them?

Not if an alleged conspiracy of intimidation and enforced silence wins.

Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association President Noble Hathaway said it angers Arizonans that it looks like the federal officials involved with Fast and Furious “got away with it.”

“To Arizonan’s it looks like they all got promotions and were commended for executing this scheme. I hope I am wrong but that is the appearance it had,” Hathaway said.

“By having the top people in management saying they did not know about it, this is worse than just saying they made a mistake and moving on. Not many in this administration preach personal responsibility though so it’s par for the course,” he said.

A former U. S. intelligence and State Department security officer who still has connections in the State Department says he knows why “they got away with it.”

The operative, who asked not to be named, said silence is part of the deal.

“It is highly likely that gun shops in Arizona were forced to assist the U. S. government [in] getting the Fast and Furious guns and ammunition out of the country into Mexico,” he said. “As a result, the gun shops don’t dare elucidate in public on this issue.”

He said many of Arizona’s gun shops were intimidated into cooperating with the federal government and now are being intimidated into silence.

“The government intimidation process included a threat to restrict gun shops’ acquisition of these products through stiffer regulations of the products. This was done by executive action,” he said.

There is evidence that the former intelligence operative and security officer’s claims are on target.

A gun shop owner who declined to allow WND to use his name said he believes that the reason the issue has faded from public and that no gun shops will talk to the media is political pressure.

One gun shop owner refused to speak on the record and referred WND to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform spokeswoman Becca Watkins.

WND contacted several gun shops in the Phoenix and Tucson areas, and all but one declined to be interviewed about the Fast and Furious investigation. Their response was, “We’re not interested.”

Hathaway said he’s aware that other issues have taken center stage in the country, but because Arizonans want answers, he wants the Fast and Furious investigation to remain alive.

“I hope that after all the other government scandals have been resolved that some focus will again be turned to this issue. It’s just one more reason that the U.S. citizen is becoming very distrustful of their government,” Hathaway said.

“In this instance (it’s the government) wanting to keep the honest citizen from owning a certain firearm but giving 2,000 of them to the drug cartels and bandits south of the border. Go figure,” Hathaway said.

One gun shop owner was willing to go on the record. Black Weapons Armory spokesman Tommy Rompel said he believes some firearms dealers refused to talk to the media because they fear the media more than the government.

“My sense is that they’re paranoid about talking to the press. They’re afraid the media will take their words out of context,” Rompel said.

Hathaway said even though Fast and Furious it not in the headlines every night, “I believe we Arizonans are still concerned with this.

“I would say we are still vigilant on this matter and have not forgotten this misguided venture by the Justice Department,” Hathaway said.

Hathaway said the people of his state have a practical reason to be concerned.

“We are the ones most likely to be killed by this bad element south of our borders which had so many guns put in their hands by the U.S.,” Hathaway said.

He said he doesn’t believe the sales to Mexican crime rings are continuing.

“Every dealer I knew and do know was and is very conscious of not putting firearms in the hands of drug dealers and other vermin,” he said. But the drug dealers now already have the guns.

He said, “We want good citizens to be armed and our families protected from these violent people operating in and out of our state.”

He said when he attended the groundbreaking of the 15-acre, $100 million mega-mosque  that the Turkish-American Cultural Center likely will become “the largest and most striking examples of Islamic architecture in the Western hemisphere when finished in 2014.”

But those seemingly innocuous words are alarming to a number of analysts, including former Palestinian operative Walid Shoebat, who says the West doesn’t realize the significance of what Erdogan was saying.

Shoebat said Erdogan’s true mission is to claim the land for Islam, and the evidence is in his words.

“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers,” Shoebat said, quoting Erdogan.

“The West is unaware that in Islam, a mosque is an embassy and Turkey is acting stealthily, which is why the project is not arousing much alarm,” Shoebat said.

Islam analyst and Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller agrees. Most Americans don’t know that the plans showcase Turkey’s long-held territorial dream, she said.

“The Turks are trying to restore the glory of the Ottoman period. They may be staking a claim to be the leaders of Sunni Islam worldwide, as they were in the days of the last caliphate,” Geller said.

Clarion Project intelligence analyst Ryan Mauro noted that Turkey’s influence is largely under the radar.

He said Turkey is quietly spreading its influence in the U.S.

Shoebat said the Turkish plan coincides with a plan by Fethullah Gulen, reported by Der Spiegel. Gulen is an operative who has been establishing charter schools around the U.S.

Shoebat cited a statement from Gulen: “Move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers. Until the conditions are ripe, they (the followers) must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere.

“You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power. Until that time, any step taken would be too early – like breaking an egg without waiting the full 40 days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside.”

WND reported in February 2011 that Gulen was the leader of a 27-state, 100-charter school network that subtly teaches the students to hold a favorable view of Islam.

Koinonia Institute President Steven Elwart believes the indoctrination is subdued but intentional.

“There is a certain amount of an Islamic-centered slant to their teaching. One place they really start bringing in the slant is through their after-school programs and what they call their outside programs,” Elwart observed.

“For example, they’ll have Turkish festivals and the kids can compete in making costumes, writings and the like. Many times the prize for these in these competitions is a cultural trip to Turkey,” Elwart said.

Elwart believes that the Gulen charter schools are going largely unnoticed by the American public.

Mauro wrote in an analysis of the event that it’s significant that two members of Muslim Brotherhood front groups were also in attendance, Naeem Baig, president of the Islamic Circle of North America, or ICNA, and Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America, ISNA.

A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo lists ICNA as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” The memo says its “work” in America is “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

Mauro noted the memo even refers to meetings with ICNA in which there was talk about a merger.

ISNA was also an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, the largest Islamic terror-funding trial in the history of the U.S.

Shoebat saidt Erdogan’s ambitions clearly extend past Maryland.

“But this is not only in Maryland that Erdogan’s narcissism and fascination with mega mosques is manifested. It appears to be moving toward allowing Hagia Sophia, now a museum, to be opened as a mosque, which only demonstrates his desire to present himself as Muhammad II who defeated Christianity,” Shoebat said.

“While the quietness of Erdogan’s stealth activities in Christendom’s arteries is understood; the deafening silence of the Western Christians is not, unless … the callousness and the falling away of Christians worldwide has reached it’s fullness and the sick man of Europe is about to rise from the dead and take Christendom’s historic glory,” Shoebat said.

“Erdogan through much deception is fulfilling one of his spiritual mentor’s dreams, Sheik Maulana Nazeem Kibrisi. While Turkey paints its version of Islam to be Sufi, which the West deceitfully believes is moderate, the Sufi scholar was found in Turkish speaking with the fervor of Adolf Hitler,” Shoebat said.

Kibrisi was no small-time Sufi. In a speech given in Germany more than a decade ago to Turkish students, with tens of thousands gathered – including Erdogan present, Kibrisi said:

Glory and blessing to the Lord of the two worlds who is the cause of these days. Definitely, the victory belongs to Islam. This flood of people here is a sign of the rise of the glorious Islam. Do they not think that this a great sign? When the great sign appears [Mahdi] the world will shake.

Our forefathers made the earth tremble. This gathering is a memento from our forefathers. … You are the grandsons of the Ottomans who will make the world tremble again. If the Ottomans do not come back the unbelievers will never be brought down to their knees … history is made of recurrences, certainly our glorious era has come, the day being born belongs to Islam … as long as we have Allah we do not need America, nor do we need the unbelievers in Europe, nor do we need the unbelievers nor will we go their path.

Shoebat said that while the West is putting its attention on Iran’s president, Turkish leadership is filling in the gaps.

“While the West over-focused on Iran’s Ahmadinejad and his aspiration to usher in the Twelfth Imam, the West believed the myth, that Mahdism with it’s messianic aspiration was only restricted to Shia, yet, our two-decade old prediction that Turkey desired to take the realm of Islamdom has now become reality with Mahdism to soon follow,” Shoebat said.

“Erdogan’s desire to fulfill Kibrisi’s dream of the ‘rise of the glorious Islam’ is not only some rhetoric by an imam who has gone mad, it is the metamorphosis of Erdogan’s Ottoman dream, which reflects Kibrisi’s Sufi spirit expressed during his victory speech,” Shoebat said.

“Today, no serious historian or political analyst can deny it, even the cooperation of the United States to help create such an empire is confessed by historians who are beginning to see that the powers, which held this Ottoman Humpty Dumpty were taken out of the way,” Shoebat said.

“Erdogan tells the more than 50 Muslim states O.I.C (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) a remarkable statement, it was not that Jerusalem is the apple of God’s eye, but that Jerusalem is the apple of the eye of every Muslim,” Shoebat said, referring to Erdogan’s statement.

“This was no rhetoric. Erdogan plans to visit Gaza to bolster Hamas to take power. But how will he do this without being detected by Israel’s radar that will cry out ‘foul’? What is coming soon I predict will be headline news that Erdogan will arm-twist Hamas to recognize Israel and even bring Israel and Egypt for a peace party in Cairo in which by peace he will deceive many,” Shoebat said.

“After all, who could say no to peace?” Shoebat said.

And Christians say Sri Lankan authorities have done little or nothing to protect them.

Barnabas Aid USA Executive Director Julian Dobbs says the attacks have prompted fear among Sri Lanka’s Christian minority.

“The Christians in Sri Lanka are under considerable threat and quite naturally with this many attacks there is considerable concern for safety among the Christians,” Dobbs said.

Dobbs says the threats are wide ranging.

“The monks have threatened the communities; they’ve threatened to kill church leaders if they don’t shut down the churches,” Dobbs said.

Dobbs adds that since Christians make up only seven percent of the population, the Christians, both Anglican and Catholic, are keeping a low profile.

“The threats aren’t directed specifically at Anglicans or Catholics, or the evangelicals. The threats are being made against the Christian community as a whole,” Dobbs said.

One report from Sri Lanka says that the Sri Lankan government hasn’t completely ignored the violence.

The Hambanthota district secretary reportedly had two meetings in May in an attempt to reconcile Buddhists and Christians.

An attorney who only identifies herself as Rebecca for security reasons attended both of the sessions and she told Open Doors USA that the Buddhist clerics used the meeting to accuse the Christians.

“There were questions raised as to the legality of the churches led by pastors. During the tense meeting, Buddhist clergy set forth various accusations against the pastors, but the latter were not given much opportunity to speak,” Rebecca said.

Rebecca adds that the Buddhists have successfully closed a number of churches.

“One Buddhist monk said that they had already closed down 17 churches,” Rebecca said.

A report by Christian human rights organization International Christian Concern puts the number at 18.

Rebecca adds that Christians in the meeting cited the country’s constitution.

“The pastors and their leaders explained that the law of the land gives them a right to practice their religion anywhere in Sri Lanka and that the law does not require registration with the Ministry of Religious Affairs,” Rebecca said.

“They also explained that some of the larger denominations were in fact incorporated under the Act of Parliament and have a long history of presence in this country,” Rebecca said.

Even with those two sessions, Dobbs says the Christians are angry at the delayed reaction.

“The Christians are frustrated because of the authorities’ inaction. It’s taken over three months to investigate the various attacks,” Dobbs said.

A statement from the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka attributes the violence to a strong sense of Sri Lankan nationalism.

“There is an open hate campaign directed against the religious minorities in this country,” the NCCSL statement said.

Dobbs agrees that nationalism may play a part in the violence, but he adds that the monks sense a direct threat to their Buddhist religion.

“The attacks are mostly reprisals for people converting from Buddhism to Christianity. One monk did the unthinkable and engaged in self-immolation in response to the conversions to Christianity,” Dobbs said.

Open Doors USA spokesman Jerry Dykstra says the Buddhist anti-Christian campaign is likely a rebirth of violence reminiscent of the lengthy civil war.

“When the three-decade civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government army ended in 2009, incidents of religious persecution in Sri Lanka went down,” Dykstra said.

“But the tide of persecution seems to be rising once again, and a number of pastors expressed their anxiety over the evolving nature of religious persecution in the country, led mainly by Buddhist militancy,” Dykstra said.

Dykstra adds that Sri Lanka barely missed being on the Open Doors World Watch List for 2013.

“Sri Lanka was only a few points short to make it to Open Doors’ 2013 World Watch List, which ranked the 50 countries where practice of the Christian faith was most difficult,” Dykstra said.

“It may be a different story this year, if the trends persist and the Sri Lankan government continues to turn a blind eye at the plight of the religious minorities in the country. Pray for the Christians there and pray that they can practice their faith in their churches without threats or attacks.”

The NCCSL agrees and asks for Christians to intercede for their Sri Lankan brothers and sisters.

“We call upon the Christian community to be engaged in continuous prayer, especially upholding those directly affected and those who live and worship in vulnerable areas. We also need to pray for the perpetrators in a spirit of forgiveness and love,” the NCCSL said.

Middle East Forum terror analyst Hillel Zaremba said one reason is that the city’s mosques – one website lists 24 in the metropolitan area – are tied to a larger network.

“Many of them have ties to Islamist organizations. They have had, I use had, because they’ve gotten smarter and have scrubbed a lot of their websites of the references,” Zaremba said. “But there are very troubling indications of the kinds of things they believe in and the causes they support – that would lead one to believe that they are from a hardline, Islamic worldview.”

Zaremba points out that what goes on in the mosque has a lot to do with the radicalization process.

“You can say a lot of things about the training. You can say a lot of things about infidels, you can say a lot of things about the whole Israel-Palestine, the Palestinian nexus,” Zaremba said.

“You can have ‘Reliance of the Traveler.’ You can have a copy of that in your mosque and it’s certainly helping to develop an atmosphere, in my mind, an attitude that contributes to someone going over and becoming violent,” Zaremba said.

John Guandolo is a former FBI counterterrorism specialist and terrorism analyst. He’s also president of Guandolo and Associates, and has said, “‘Reliance of the Traveler’ is the single most authoritative book on Islamic law.”

Dave Gaubatz, co-author of “Muslim Mafia,” said that he’s researched Philadelphia mosques and confirms that the city’s locations present a very real danger.

“They rated very high for the likelihood for future terrorist attacks,” Gaubatz said.

Zaremba adds that recent events provides further evidence for the direction the city’s Muslim community is taking.

“We know that from time to time there have been arrests of troubling individuals, of people who have been deported. There have been arrests of people who were involved in terror plots that didn’t quite get off the ground,” Zaremba said.

Zaremba lists one specific.

“The so-called Fort Dix group did pray at a local mosque (in Philadelphia),” Zaremba said of the Islamists who were convicted of conspiracy after being caught allegedly planning an attack at Fort Dix, N.J.

Zaremba said when an arrest is announced, the local imams swing into damage control.

“They go around and say they could never have gotten that from us. They say they don’t know who radicalized them,” Zaremba said. “I guess it was just by osmosis that these people picked that up.”

An indication of how radical some of Philadelphia’s mosques may be is the existence of an Islamic youth program that has been described as a Muslim version of the Boy Scouts.

Zaremba says the mosques call them “Jawala Scouts.” The group was incorporated in 2005 by the United Muslim Movement. The UMM recruits young boys as young as the age of seven.

Zaremba says the boys have been photographed doing military drills and wearing camouflage.

“If you just type in Jawala Scouts Philadelphia, you can find pictures of kids going out camping with paintball guns,” Zaremba said. “What does that mean? My brother belonged to the Boy Scouts. They went out camping. Did they take guns with them? I don’t think so.

“Why are you drilling kids in camouflage and training them to use guns?”

Zaremba emphasizes that paintball alone may not be that significant. However, it’s the picture that emerges when you put together the pieces.

“People can ask why we’re making a big deal out of this. Why, because they’re training with guns and because they’re Muslim?” Zaremba said. “Yes, as a matter of fact.”

Zaremba’s assessment also involves the preaching and teaching in the mosques. He cited one website in particular.

“One of the websites had an FAQ section and it asked about jihad. The site said they reject the use of violence except in cases where holy sites and places are threatened,” Zaremba said.

He explains that the statement is important because the uniformity in Islamic teaching and how Islam defines the word “holy place” and “threatened” whether it’s overseas or in the United States.

“Those are code words. What do they mean? If you’re in Israel, that could mean the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and that is a provocation to Muslims because they’re not in Muslim hands,” Zaremba said. “Forget about Jerusalem. As far as Hamas is concerned, the entire nation of Israel needs to be eliminated and restored to Muslim control.

“This mosque in Philadelphia was giving a kind of a ‘carve out’ for violence because they believe that any Muslim site they believe is threatened qualifies,” Zaremba said.

The website Muslim Philly Ads lists a mosque that is affiliated with the United Muslim Movement, the group that sponsors the Jawala Scouts.

The list on the site also says one of Philadelphia’s mosques is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and another is a Salafist mosque.

International Christian Concern’s Middle East Specialist Aidan Clay says the Salafists are pro-jihad and among the most radical of the Islamic sects. He says that if you want to see Salafists in action, simply follow what’s taking place in Egypt.

“Salafis are very militant. They pledged to stay out of Egyptian politics prior to the revolution, but since [then they have] won one-fourth of the seats in Egypt’s November 28, 2011 parliamentary elections,” Clay said.

” Salafis have been responsible for at least two major attacks against Christians in Egypt since the revolution. They take Islamic texts very literally and would prefer to bring the Muslim world back to the dark ages, living as Muhammad did,” Clay said.

“Many Salafis justify the murder of non-Muslims that do not offer complete submission, including the payment of a special tax called jizya,” Clay said.

That’s the assessment of Open Doors spokesman Jerry Dykstra, who says there were multiple attacks.

“Dozens of rockets, shells, and mortars exploded near places set aside for a day of prayer in Syria. Unsecured roads made it difficult for Christians to travel to the sites set aside for public prayer services,” Dykstra said.

Dykstra adds that weather conditions also created a challenge.

“Also, unusual rain, lightening, and a sudden drop in temperature further hampered the events,” Dykstra said. “However, our sources in Syria tell us that prayer services went forward anyway.”

The prayer time was promoted by Open Doors – at church sites both in Syria as well as the United States. The focus was the disasters that have been inflicted on Christians in Syria because of the civil war, where essentially a radical al-Qaida-type faction is rebelling against a different Muslim power structure, catching Christians in the middle.

Open Doors reported that there was a huge participation among the churches remaining in Syria.

Because of the civil war, some stories also are slow in being reported in the free world.

One such story comes from Alliance Church of Damascus pastor Edward Awabdeh. Awabdeh says he and his wife have decided that they will stay in Syria, no matter the risk.

“Fighting gets closer and closer to where we live. It’s now at some hundreds of meters of a distance,” he said. “Back in March, mortar grenades exploded next to our other church building in Jaramana around 17:00 hours. There were people in the church but no people hurt of the congregation. Every day we have several explosions around that church.

“On the 14th of March we returned to Damascus. My wife Rana said to me it was not a good idea, so close to the second anniversary of the revolution on 15 March. She wanted to stay till 16 March,” Awabdeh said. “But we went back. We got out of our car at our church building in Damascus, a bullet fell on Rana’s jacket.”

“You see, we had to stay,” Rana said.

“You see how God is protecting you,” Awabdeh added.

The pastor said that even in the middle of a civil war, they are still able to have peace in their heart and mind. The pastor says that in spite of the constant danger and shelling, his church is strong.

“The church is doing very well. Many are involved in the ministry, and we are getting together, there is a big commitment,” Awabdeh said. “It is very obvious that God is doing something. We hear people that come to our church now saying: Although we lost everything, we won Christ. This is the time for the church, we feel this strongly as our time.”

He said now it is time for the church to work – to give hope, spread peace and support refugees.

“Humanly speaking it is not easy to find peace. Last night the whole building was shaking because of the bombings. Honestly, it is amazing the peace me and my wife feel, there is no explanation for that, besides the Lord,” Awabdeh said.

“We also have a big sense of pastorship, of pastoring the people, stay side by side with them, to encourage them. Our presence is also a message: we have to stay, we have to trust in His protection. We’re not living by anxiety; the Lord is giving us a wonderful time,” Awabdeh said.

However, Awabdeh says there is the heartbreaking side.

“On the other hand many of the church had to leave because of the risks and their safety. We lost some real core people. That makes us sad; that breaks our hearts,” Awabdeh said.

“They are flesh of our flesh, they were very effective people. Right now some 30 percent of the people have left; two out of five elders, three out of seven worship leaders, three out of five youth leaders,” Awabdeh said.

“It is risky, yes. There are explosions, all is very unpredictable. When you need to drive through the city you run a high risk. Roads are closed. Twenty-four hours a day there is shooting and shelling,” Awabdeh said. “But for us Christians it is not the same, we have a different ‘GPS’ leading us. Thank God for his presence in our lives, for his hand, for his peace. God really laid his hands on us.”

He said he believes many of those who left will return if and when the situation stabilizes, although some have emigrated to other points and won’t be back.

A Syrian-born American citizen who is using the name Zak to protect his family still in Syria told WND his family is concerned about the retaliation that will take place against Christians if the rebels take power.

Zak says his family believes that the U. S. is mistaken to believe the rebels are preferable to Assad.

“If at the deepest levels of our intelligence operations there has been an understanding or belief that these radicalized elements could be neutralized when need be (after Assad falling), no one is buying it,” Zak’s family said.

“They will turn on us, they will harm innocent people as well as our interests as a nation. Events counter to our values and principles as a nation would be minimalized so as not to appear to be a direct result of our policies and strategic efforts in supporting it,” Zak’s family said in a statement.

“It would become not about what is happening, it would be about what is being reported as truth that matters,” they said.

Zak also agrees with reports that American news outlets have largely ignored the plight of Syrian Christians. Zak adds that his family is also upset with the U. S. government for supporting the rebels.

“The West has essentially made a deal with the devil. They’ve put immediate political interests ahead of human interests and our nation’s principles. We’ve altogether ignored the reality of what our policies will ultimately mean to the Syrian people and Christians there,” Zak said.

“To my family and friends, there is absolute and unquestioned agreement that if the Assad regime falls there will be extended chaos. Those with an extremist ideology will take control because no one in the West will take the massive necessary steps to prevent it,” Zak said.

“If this happens, what really takes place and human rights issues will become hidden behind a push to report on efforts to stabilize the country through political discourse. It will not be reported but in passing,” Zak said.

The strike was in retaliation for the SRF’s successful campaign to capture the North Kordofan village of Um Buwaba. One report says the Sudanese army lost over 400 soldiers in the counterattack.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, USA President John Eibner says the victory is big: “The SPLA-N scored a significant military success on the ground.”

International Christian Concern’s Africa specialist William Stark told WND that despite efforts by Sudan President Omar al-Bahir to paint the rebels as Christian troublemakers, the SPLA-N and the SRF aren’t completely Christian.

“In Sudan, the SPLA-N situation is primarily a political conflict that has some religious elements,” Stark said.

Yet Open Doors-USA spokesman Jerry Dykstra says the Sudanese government is calling for a holy war against the rebels and increasingly turning the teeth of its attacks on Christians.

“Since the Sudan Revolutionary Front’s successful take of Um Rawaba in North Kordofan, the government of Sudan has embarked on the mobilization of people and have called for support to jihad,” Dykstra said in a statement to the press.

Dykstra adds that the successful military operation only intensified an existing anti-Christian campaign.

“Sudanese Christians have seen a drastic increase in pressure, with the closing down of churches and expulsion of foreign workers,” Dykstra said in a statement for the press.

Dykstra adds that the regime is turning its anger on the Orthodox Church in Sudan.

“It seems that the Church in Khartoum may expect renewed scrutiny and accompanying pressure,” Dykstra said.

“The Sudan Tribune reported on Tuesday that the chairman of the Islamic Centre for Preaching and Comparative Studies, Ammar Saleh, slammed his government for not taking decisive action against missionaries operating boldly in the country,” Dykstra said.

“According to Saleh, cases of apostasy and atheism are on the rise in Sudan, while authorities are negligent in addressing the issue. According to the independent media agency, Saleh appealed to the official bodies and the community to take a stand against Christianization,” Dykstra also said through a press statement.

A report issued by Open Doors, USA says that Islamic authorities in Sudan claim that 109 people have converted to Christianity.

Stark says the government counteroffensive was expected. The Christians can expect retaliation even more.

“Ever since Sudan and South Sudan split, the Khartoum government has been seeking to become more Islamic. Shortly after the separation of the two countries, President Al-Bashir told his supporters that he would make sure that Sharia was an influential part of the new government,” Stark said. “This was not just rhetoric. Churches have been closed down, foreign Christians have been deported and Christian literature has been hunted down and destroyed by government employees.”

Stark says the combined SPLA-N and SRF offensive is part of larger strategy to potentially win separation from Sudan for the Nuba Mountain and Kordofan regions.

“The SPLA is active in the Nuba Mountains, which feel that the Nuba Mountains region should have been part of South Sudan,” Stark said. “This sentiment is probably true because ethnically and religiously, the Nuba Mountains are more similar to South Sudan as opposed to Sudan.”

Stark adds that there is one major reason Khartoum wouldn’t let the Nuba Mountains go.

“The reason the Nuba Mountains were included in Sudan instead of South Sudan is because of the oil fields located there,” Stark said.

Stark says the government’s counteroffensive will attempt to punish the Nuba people.

“Because this group is active in the Nuba Mountains, the Khartoum government is bombing the region, indiscriminately. This obviously affects the civilian population,” Stark said.

Eibner agrees – the people can expect more bombing.

“Knowing the political culture of Khartoum, they will want to retaliate in a big way as soon as possible and to do so with a lot of rhetoric against the infidel enemy,” Eibner said.

Reports coming from Sudan indicate that retaliation has been swift and brutal.

Nuba Reports says that Sudanese Air Force bombers have launched air strikes against civilian targets.

One of the attacks was on the village of Kumu, killing one person. A second attack was on an elementary school.

“Two people were wounded when four bombs struck a primary school for orphans in Kauda,” the Nuba Reports story said. “The bombs – dropped from a Sudanese Air Force Antonov – struck the Father Cliff Primary School for Orphans around 1:45 p.m., while students were taking their lunch break.”

Authorities say the relief worker, Julia Juincy, of the U. S. Agency for International Development, was taken when her car broke down while she was traveling from Garissa to Habesein in northern Kenya.

Police spokesman Emmanuel Chiluma reported that Juincy called to say she was leaving Garissa, but never arrived at her destination. Her car was found along the highway.

Detectives say her cell phone has been traced to the Kenyan village of Nkubu.

International Christian Concern’s Africa analyst William Stark says the incident bears the marks of the Islamist group.

“Al-Shabaab has been known to kidnap Western aid workers and did so in October of 2011,” Stark said. “That’s one of the factors which prompted Kenya to make a military incursion into Somalia.”

“It seems that al-Shabaab took this woman because they want to hold her hostage and make some money,” Stark said.

This is not new to al-Shabaab.

The BBC reported in June 2012 that al-Shabaab carried out a raid and kidnapping in a Kenyan border town.

Reported at the time was that a Kenyan driver was killed and four foreign aid workers kidnapped near a refugee camp in Kenya close to the border with Somalia.

The foreigners are from Canada, Norway, Pakistan and the Philippines, and worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council. They were traveling in a convoy when they were ambushed by gunmen in Dadaab.

The report followed a 2011 “Daily Motion” report of the kidnapping of two Spanish doctors with Doctors Without Borders.

The kidnappings are taking place at the same time as a developing pattern of anti-Christian violence in Kenya.

WND reported in April 2012 about an attack in the coastal city of Mtwapa, about 100 miles from the Kenya-Somalia border.

A band of Muslims launched a grenade attack against a crowd of 150 Christians attending an open-air meeting near the Kenyan town of Mtwapa, killing two and wounding more than 30, authorities report.

Human-rights groups say that the Muslim attackers were hyped into action by a militant Muslim preacher holding an alternate rally only 900 feet from the Christian gathering.

The proposed resolution cited Gosnell for the “untrained and uncertified personnel performing abortions, nonmedical personnel administering medications, grossly unsanitary and dangerous conditions, violations of law regarding storage of human remains, and above all, willful murder of infants born alive by severing their spinal cords.”

Instead, a substitute resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that “abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices should be … prevented.”

The original cited Gosnell by name; the substitute only references “a physician at the Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia.”

It was Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Barbera Boxer, D-Calif., who stopped consideration of the resolution by dismissing the reports of infanticides that took place at Gosnell’s business.

The senators successfully substituted SR 133 with SR 134, a resolution that all medical facilities that commit abusive activities be investigated and prosecuted. The Blumenthal-Boxer resolution cites several cases of apparent malpractice and says “incidents of abusive, unsanitary, or illegal health care practices should be condemned and prevented and the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

The original resolution, authored by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and co-sponsored by 20 other senators, would have encouraged Congress and all 50 states to “gather information about and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices and the interstate referral of women and girls to facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal second- and third-trimester procedures.”

It cited the nation’s belief “that every human life is precious from its very beginning” and also said:

• “No women should ever be abandoned, by policy or practice, to the depredations of an unlicensed, unregulated, or uninspected clinic operating outside of the law.”
• ‘The report of the grand jury … of the policies and practices of Dr. Kermit Gosnell … found multiple violations of law and public policy.”
• “The report … documented a pattern, over a period of two decades, at the Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia of untrained and uncertified personnel performing abortions.”

The resolution also noted that “Planned Parenthood facilities in Delaware have been described by former employees as resembling a ‘meat market.’”

The nation, the resolution said, must prevent such situations.

Catholic Association President Maureen Ferguson, in cooperation with other pro-life groups, denounced the Democratic senators’ actions and said the resolution properly exposes the reality of what went on in Gosnell’s clinic.

“The Gosnell trial has given us a rare window into both the legal and illegal abortion practices in the United States,” Ferguson said. “It’s horrifying, looking on the inside at what we know. It’s heartbreaking. It (the Gosnell trial) sheds great light on the practices that have been hidden from the eyes of Americans for so long.”

Lee’s press secretary, Brian Phillips, said the purpose of Lee’s resolution was to draw attention to the unregulated abortion facilities that operate like Gosnell’s Philadelphia business, which reportedly brought him millions of dollars.

“The first step is to highlight these atrocities and let the American people know that they’re not rare and that it does go on in a number of places around the country,” Phillips said. “Many of the states have laws against these practices. So, we need to alert the people that the laws governing these places are not the same as the laws governing other health care facilities.

“It’s possible that people have a misconception about that (that abortion clinics are regulated like other health care facilities), so you need to educate the people as to what’s really going on in their state,” Phillips said.

Lee is also the sponsor of S886, the Pain Capable Abortion Ban for the District of Columbia. Senate Bill 886 has 32 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

The bill would make it illegal to perform abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of gestation.

Gosnell allegedly performed abortions on babies that were past 24 weeks in violation of Pennsylvania law. Phillips says Lee is aware that passing a law does not automatically ensure compliance.

However, Phillips says Lee’s bill would provide necessary regulation of abortion clinics in the District of Columbia, which he believes is the first step towards ending late-term abortions.

“You can have a law saying that abortion should not be performed past 20 or 24 weeks, but if those clinics are able to get around the law, because no one is checking up on them, and there are no regulations requiring the states to do so, then the law is effectively meaningless,” Phillips said.

“So the first thing we need to do is to educate people as to what the laws really are and that just having a law saying you can’t do an abortion after 24 weeks isn’t enough. There needs to be more regulation on these clinics,” Phillips said.

Ferguson says that even though Lee’s bill S886 will only cover Washington, it’s a solid first step.

“Congress has jurisdiction over D.C. because it’s a federal enclave, so it’s appropriate for them to regulate abortion in that instance,” Ferguson said. “Congress does have an oversight role. We know that from the testimony, Gosnell is not an outlier, and is not alone in these practices. Sadly, this is the reality of abortion in the United States.

“Congress should be commended. Just today, the House Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to all 50 states’ attorneys general and health departments seeking information on the enforcement of the various regulations,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson says it’s been medically proven that babies can feel pain at 20 weeks.

“Protection is a basic human right, and these women, too, they need to be better protected than the protection they’re getting at these abortion clinics,” Ferguson said.

Phillips said Lee would like the states to follow the 20-week ban.

“The senator very much believes this is an issue that should be handled at the state level. It is not his position at the moment to write some federal legislation that would require all 50 states to follow,” Phillips said.

“All abortion doctors talk about stopping the beating heart of the unborn child. In every abortion, there’s a beating heart. There’s a living and developing human being and we need to educate our fellow citizens about that fact,” Ferguson said.

PHILADELPHIA – As the nation awaits a verdict in the abortion murder case against Kermit Gosnell, new revelations of his 40-year career continue to surface. And what they reveal about the abortion industry isn’t a pretty picture.

Found in Gosnell’s background is the “Mother’s Day Massacre.” The event was given the name because Gosnell and his partner, Harvey Karman, bused 15 poor women from Chicago to Gosnell’s Philadelphia clinic to do the abortions on Mother’s Day in 1972.

Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger told WND in an interview that Gosnell and his partner not only did the abortions before Roe v. Wade, they were using an experimental method.

“It was called the super coil, a plastic ball with razor blades on it. They would insert the coil into the woman’s uterus to induce an abortion,” Sullenger said. “I don’t think any of the women knew they were guinea pigs, that they were being used as an experiment.”

The blades were gel-coated and laid down. The device was designed so that when the woman’s body temperature melted the gel, the blades sprang up to cut the baby, thus inducing the abortion.

“Most of the women experienced complications and needed additional medical treatment,” Sullenger said. “One women ended up needing a radical hysterectomy.

“That’s why they call it the Mother’s Day Massacre,” Sullenger said.

That, she said, was the beginning of Gosnell’s long career in the abortion industry.

Most of the attention in the Gosnell trial has focused on the four babies that are the subject of the four first-degree murder charges, Babies “A,” “C,” “D” and “E.”

However, Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” apparently was the location of other gruesome activity. Among the more macabre discoveries was Gosnell’s collection of baby body parts and how they were kept.

Philadelphia Medical Examiner Dr. Sam Gulino told a Washington Post reporter that he had to deal with frozen baby body parts.

“It was really an unprecedented situation. It was the first time I had to deal with fetal remains that had been frozen. All I could do was allow the remains to thaw so that I could examine them,” Gulino told the paper.

Altogether, Gulino told the Post, he had received all or part of 47 fetuses, most of them aborted well into the second trimester. At least a couple, he determined, likely would have been viable outside the mother’s womb.

Kermit Gosnell

That’s just the beginning of the list of bizarre discoveries.

The Blaze compiled a list of abuses Gosnell and his staff are alleged to have committed:

1. Gosnell allegedly treated his minority clients with much less respect than his white patients. Considering that he was named, according to the AP, in more than 40 malpractice suits, the clinic head would purportedly perform abortions for Caucasian women in cleaner locations (he assumed whites were more likely to complain about him).
2. In addition to the murderous allegations being waged against Gosnell, eight former employees of the clinic have pleaded guilty (some to third-degree murder) and have spoken in great lengths about the terrifying conditions at the clinic.
3. A 15-year-old girl allegedly helped facilitate abortions – including on potentially live babies – at the clinic. Ashley Baldwin, now 22, claims she worked nearly 50 hours per week. Even more shocking, she allegedly helped give women the drugs needed for the procedure – and apparently assisted throughout. Baldwin said that she saw aborted babies move on at least two occasions following abortions (in one instance, she said “the chest was moving”).
4. Gosnell purportedly used untrained and low-paid staff to conduct nearly 1,000 abortions each year. The charge for a procedure in the horrific conditions mentioned? Between $350 and several thousand, depending on how far along the pregnancy was. Prosecutors believe he made millions from the practice. Authorities claim the clinic brought in about $15,000 per day.
5. Speaking of “untrained,” prosecutors claim, according to the Gospel Coalition, that Gosnell is not certified to work in either gynecology or obstetrics.
6. In the grand jury report, the clinic was said to smell of animal urine and blood stains were on blankets and furniture inside of the office. Not surprisingly, sterilized instruments were unheard of inside the establishment. And somehow the state had failed to inspect – or even visit – the clinic since 1993.
7. In March, Adrienne Moton, a medical assistant at the clinic, provided sickening details about her alleged actions at the clinic, claiming that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies; she said that another worker – and Gosnell himself – did the same. But that’s not the worst part. Moton also claimed that she once killed a baby after it was delivered in a toilet by cutting its neck with scissors. Moton plead guilty and has been in prison since 2011.
8. Another former employee, Sherry West, shared yet another horrifying story. She claims that she was once called to the back room at the clinic, where aborted babies’ bodies were apparently kept on a shelf. Once there, West heard a live baby among the bodies cry out. The screaming child “really freaked” her out, she told the court. “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” she said, noting that she previously referred to the babies as “specimens,” because it was easier to mentally handle what was going on at the clinic.
9. Then theres Robyn Reid’s story. She was only an 87-pound teen when she went to the clinic in 1998. Accompanied by her grandmother, she was looking for an abortion. But once she made it to the office, Reid changed her mind. But Salem-News.com writes that the doctor allegedly forced an abortion on her. “Gosnell ripped off her clothes and restrained the girl. When she regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt’s home, she discovered that an abortion had been performed against her will,” the website reports.

Sketch of courtroom drama by Operation Rescue.

The jury is also deliberating on a third-degree murder charge for the death of 41-year-old Bhutanese immigrant Karnamaya Mongar.

In his closing arguments, Prosecutor Ed Cameron reminded the jury of the woman’s past.

“She survived 20-years in a refugee camp after fleeing her country (Bhutan). She was privileged to come to the land of the free. She found a new life here, but that came to an end when she met Dr. Gosnell,” Cameron said.

“The defense says she died of a respiratory infection, but we have testimony that says she was very healthy. She died because she kept getting more drugs,” Cameron said. “We had a toxicologist testify that the levels of the drug meperidine (Demarol) exceeded safe levels. In his view the drugs killed her.”

Crime Library reported that University of Pittsburgh Medical School Anesthesiology Department Chairman Dr. Andrew Herlich testified that in Mongar’s case, drug doses were “outrageous.”

“Mr. Herlich opined that if average-sized adults, with no particular sensitivities to the drugs, were given two custom doses within four hours, most would stop breathing,” Crime Library reported.

Further evidence that Mongar was murdered came from the autopsy, LifeNews.com reported in March.

“Assistant Medical Examiner Gary Collins confirmed that the woman, 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar … died from the abortion due to Gosnell and his staff’s medical incompetence in terms of administering a proper amount of anesthesia rather than her dying of some other cause.”

However, Mongar wasn’t the only Gosnell patients to die as the result of a botched abortion.

LifeNews.com reported in April the death of Semika Shirelle Shaw.

Filthy Gosnell waiting room, recorded by LifeNews.com.

“Semika Shirelle Shaw was killed in March, 2000; two days after Gosnell perforated her uterus during an abortion. She developed sepsis and died, leaving two children motherless. A lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount two years later.

“Marie Smith is lucky to be alive after having had a botched abortion by Gosnell in 1999. She developed a high fever and slipped into unconsciousness a week after her abortion. She was rushed to the hospital where the source of her condition was confirmed,” the report said.

Said Smith: “They showed me X-rays and said he [Gosnell] left an arm and a leg inside me. I almost died. I thought he knew what he was doing, but I guess I was wrong.”

Gosnell has been named in over 40 lawsuits in the past 20 years.

One was filed by Dana Haynes, who had an abortion by Gosnell in November 2006. Haynes alleges that Gosnell lacerated her uterus, cervix and her small bowel during the abortion, LifeNews.com reported.

Trial testimony also focused on clinic staff and their lack of qualifications to perform the duties Gosnell assigned. Prosecution witness Kareema Cross, who worked at the clinic from 2005 through 2009, said she went to school to become a medical assistant and that she was not certified to give medication.

Cross testified: “No, I didn’t learn how to give medication. I was never certified to give medication.”

The lack of training and certification is reported to have been one of the major causes of problems at Gosnell’s clinic. As a result of the lack of training and experience, Cross testified that patients were frequently overmedicated.

“Most of the staff gave medication, but we weren’t certified. We would give the medication and frequently the patients complained about their arms swelling from too much medication,” Cross testified.

Some of the clinic staff left their jobs because of fears caused by medication errors. LifeNews.com reported that clinic worker Latosha Lewis said that she left the clinic because she overdosed a patient.

“She stopped doing so in 2007 because she overdosed a woman and was worried about whether she would ever come out of anesthesia. She also said she stopped administering Cytotec, a drug that caused powerful and often unpredictable contractions around the same time,” LifeNews said.

It said Lewis also testified that the equipment was outdated and that Gosnell often reused disposable medical instruments.

“Lewis indicated that Gosnell’s equipment was outdated and never inspected, and that he often reused disposable curettes, which is the sharp-ended tube that enters the womb in abortion procedures and applies suction for the removal of the pre-born baby and other tissues and fluids,” LifeNews said.

Cross testified she was also not certified to do ultrasounds. However, Cross said her lack of experience and training didn’t stop Gosnell from giving her that job as well.

“I wasn’t trained on how to do ultrasounds. At the clinic, Dr. Gosnell trained me on how to use the ultrasound device, for about ten minutes. Then he turned me loose to do them,” Cross testified.

Cross testified that she couldn’t give the exact number of ultrasounds she performed.

WND reported that trial testimony frequently revealed how often Gosnell was absent from the clinic, especially during the late-term abortions.

“We did a lot of second trimester abortions. I can’t say exactly how many. He was almost never there during a second trimester abortion,” Cross testified.

The issue of medication was again raised during the portion of the testimony on second trimester abortions.

Cross said workers would simply give medications based on a chart hanging on the wall.

“There was no monitoring equipment to know how much medication [was] giving intravenously. The medication we would give was Lorazepam,” Cross said.

Lorazepam is classified by the National Institutes of Health as an anti-anxiety drug.

“There was no monitoring equipment in the room. There were no monitors, no blood pressure monitors,” Cross said. “We had a defibrillator but I don’t know that we ever used it.”

Throughout the trial, questions were raised concerning how many people and organizations knew about Gosnell’s operation.

In February 2010, Pennsylvania’s Planned Parenthood CEO Dayle Steinberg told Philadelphia’s WHYY that she wasn’t aware of the clinic’s conditions.

“We do anticipate that women who might have scheduled appointments for abortion procedures at the Women’s Medical Society will be calling Planned Parenthood,” Steinberg said during the WHYY interview.

WHYY reported Steinberg confirmed knowing Gosnell had provided abortions in Philadelphia for many years, that she hadn’t heard of problems.

Baby Boy B, image at Operation Rescue.

However, after Gosnell’s clinic was raided, Steinberg’s story changed. Phllly.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY website reported Steinberg saying, “The Gosnell trial has shifted the focus off the high-quality services we provide. These are criminal, horrendous . . . acts and should be appropriately punished.”

Revelations about the clinic condition also prompted Steinberg to admit that staff at her clinics were frequently treated to Gosnell clinic horror stories. Steinberg told Philly.com, “We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health.”

WND also reported that Dr. Martln Luther King, Jr.’s niece, Alveda King, believes that the prosecution did its duty.

King believes that Gosnell should be found guilty because of his recklessness in dealing with the patients.

“The prosecution has demonstrated that there was always consciously a disregard for the women and the babies,” King said. “The prosecution has shown that there are at least seven babies who died as a result.

“I believe there were many more who were injured, harmed, and killed by Dr. Gosnell and his staff’s conscious disregard of all the women and those babies.”

Prosecutor Ed Cameron clearly believes the case against Gosnell has been proven, and that reckless disregard for the patients has been shown.

WND reported that Cameron illustrated his point by contrasting how his dog was treated when he was put down, Gosnell’s treatment of his patients – mothers and babies.

“My dog got better treatment than these babies and these women,” Cameron said. “First they gave him a shot to help him sleep. Then they took him to a room, and once he was asleep, they gave him the shot so that he would not wake up.

“They treated my dog with dignity,” Cameron said. “My dog was cremated. [Gosnell] took these babies and put their parts in Lime-Aid jars.

“Those babies didn’t stand a chance,” Cameron told the jury.

In his closing statement, Cameron also said the ultimate issue is human dignity.

“Pennsylvania law requires that once a baby leaves the mother, he be treated with dignity and respect like a human being,” Cameron said. “But the question we need to ask that man sitting over at the table: Are you human? To med these women up and to cut these babies’ necks is not human.”

Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, is calling the case a “watershed moment.”

“The discovery of his horrific practices helped shed light on an abortion industry that has run amok without oversight or accountability for decades, and has prompted significant changes in abortion laws and attitudes toward enforcement in several states,” he told LifeNews.

Clinic worker Ashley Baldwin testified about watching Massof slit the necks of babies that moved or breathed “five or 10″ times. Massof, repeating what he had been taught by Gosnell, told her that that it was standard procedure to cut the spine in all cases.

Baldwin’s testimony:

Q: These larger babies, when Dr. Steve was there, did he ever – was he ever there when any of the larger babies precipitated?

A: Yes.

Q: Babies that would move?

A: Yes.

Q: So, Dr. Steve – what would Dr. Steve do with babies that moved?

A: The same thing.

Q. The same thing. And how many time did you see Dr. Steve?

A: A lot. He told me that – don’t worry about it. They are not living. It is just a reaction.

At one point, Cross testified, staff member Lynda Williams placed a baby on the counter, and it was breathing and moving its arms when Williams pulled on them.

After playing with the baby, Williams slit its neck, Cross said.

Gosnell’s clinic isn’t the exception, Priests for Life National Director Father Frank Pavone told WND in an interview that Gosnell’s clinic is the “rule.”

“This trial simply exposes the abortion industry for what it is. Gosnell’s clinic isn’t unique. I’m afraid it’s the norm,” Pavone said.

King would agree.

“So because Dr. Gosnell is the most visible tip of the iceberg today – he’s the rule not the exception to the rule. He’s visible evidence of the rule – that abortion kills babies, sometimes kills women, it hurts human beings,” King said.

Pavone believes that there’s more at stake than the fate of Gosnell. Abortion itself is on trial.

“When we hear the things that are coming out of the testimony, nothing is shocking us because we’ve heard it all before,” Pavone said. “The fact that Roe v. Wade made abortion legal did not make it safe. We see all sorts of corruption in unregulated facilities. Sadly this is only more of the same.”

Newsbusters noted that the local tax-funded National Public Radio station WHYY described Gosnell as “a physician who had worked in our community for 30 years, cared for women in all of that time.”

But the NPR station also noted that the jury “didn’t hear from one character witness or one person who was put on the stand to say that he was a competent physician.”

Actress Patricia Heaton took to Twitter to give her opinion: “Gosnell is just the less sanitary version of what goes on every day … the cheapening of human life. Lord have mercy.”

WND also reported earlier that the discoveries at Gosnell’s clinic were startling. A partial list reported by WND includes:

• Rusty and filthy abortion equipment has been brought into the courtroom to document unsanitary conditions.
• Medical records appear to have blood and other stains on them.
• Gosnell’s staff acted as though they were doctors, even though some had little or no medical training.
• Medications, including anesthetics, found in the office had expired years earlier.
• A defense attorney blamed a woman, Bhutan immigrant Karnamaya Mongar, for her own death, since she left several blanks on her medical form. Prosecutors said she spoke little English and likely was unaware she needed to provide information.
• Patients appeared to repeatedly get overdoses of drugs for their abortion procedures, including Mongar.
• Photographs of the bodies of babies, revealed gaping wounds in the back of their necks. According to testimony, Gosnell or staff members routinely snipped their spinal cords to make sure they were dead. Operation Rescue said: “The babies were all intact and had the appearance of being partially mummified or dried. The brownish-black skin had shrunk as it dried, revealing the upper spinal column that authorities say was pierced with scissors in order to snip the spinal cords of newborn babies born alive during abortions by Gosnell.”
• Photographs were introduced of babies’ feet, or even whole legs, Gosnell had preserved in jars.

Prolife activist Lila Rose, whose LiveAction.org has released undercover videos revealing how abortion businesses say they would not help an infant born alive during an abortion, said the government needs to investigate the procedures.

“We believe in human rights for everyone – human rights for the child in the womb, the child outside the womb, and true protection and medical care for women. Not the brutality that goes on during these procedures,” she said during a rally Wednesday in Washington.

Congress also is beginning to consider further restrictions on abortions in the District of Columbia as a result of the controversy over the born-alive babies.

And Pavone wrote in the Washington Times that the procedure of abortion not only kills the unborn, but also the abortionist.

Pavone wrote:

“David Brewer, a former abortionist, tells his story: ‘I can remember that day watching the first abortion . I saw a little tiny head, and I saw a piece of a leg, and I saw a tiny hand, and I saw an arm. You know, it was like somebody put a hot poker into me . I had a conscience and that hurt. That was a very hard experience for me to go through, emotionally. So I did what a lot of us do throughout our life, we don’t do anything. I didn’t talk with anybody about it. and do you know what happened? I got to see another abortion. You know what? That one hurt, too. But I kept seeing abortions, and it hurt a little bit less every time I saw one. Do you know what happened next? I got to sit down and do one . The first one that I did was kind of hard. It was like hurting again like a hot poker. But after a while, it got to where it didn’t hurt’ (Testimony at ‘Meet the Abortion Providers’ conference in Chicago).

“So yes, I am not at all surprised that Dr. Gosnell is cool, calm and collected, smiling even as he listens to those accusing him of murder. Abortion destroys the abortionists themselves.”