Afghanistan
After 20 years and many American lives the United States is withdrawing from Afghanistan.
What is surprising is how fast this is all happening, not due to America’s time frame but due to the Taliban’s.
The stories and video coming out of Afghanistan, especially from the airport are heartbreaking.
Where does all of this fit in to what Scripture says will one day happen? Is there anything we can do?
Let’s deal with that first question.
Ezekiel 38:21-22
"I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declare the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgement with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur."
What we do know from Scripture is that these countries will form a coalition and will attack Israel and God will supernaturally intervene.
Ultimately this is good news. However, the facts of what it takes to get to this point are heartbreaking.
Those who have hardened their hearts so hard against God and against Israel, will be dealt with, not by American military forces, but by the Lord.
Here are some of the hard to read headlines coming out of Afghanistan...
According to sources in the United Kingdom, Taliban ‘marks doors of prominent Afghan women with paint’ as female anchors ‘axed from TV’ in a chilling crackdown fearing for their lives.
According to The Sun, a UK arm of News Corp, just like NY Post or WSJ:
9:55, Aug 17, 2021
TALIBAN fighters have reportedly marked the doors of prominent Afghan women with paint as several female anchors are axed from TV in a chilling crackdown.
Female journalists in Afghanistan are fearing for their lives and many have been "taken off air" as the Taliban's reign of terror begins after the jihadi army seized Kabul.
Female anchors on Afghanistan's Tolo News were taken off air after the offices were raided by the Taliban. photo credit: @TOLOnews twitter
A worker at a beauty salon paints over a photo of a woman on the wall in Kabul on Sunday. Photo Credit: Getty
Homira Rezai, who grew up in the war-torn country until she was 13 and now lives in Dudley, described how the militants were already drawing up lists of women to target for future punishments.
She told BBC Women's Hour: "Just an hour ago, I received an update from Kabul where they are going house to house searching for women who were activists, women who were bloggers, YouTubers, any women who had a role in the development of civil society in Afghanistan.
"They are going door to door targeting those women and marking the doors with bright pink or bright-colored paint to ensure 'this is the house we need to come back to and do something about them'."
Journalist Amie Ferris-Rotman said the Taliban had been going door to door on Monday hunting for female activists, journalists and government workers.
She tweeted: "Over the past hour, several Afghan female friends in Kabul told me the Taliban are in their neighborhoods, going house to house, looking for women in government and media, making lists.
"One sent me a photo from her living room showing armed Talibs outside. 'I love you,' she wrote."
Women and girls are believed to be some of the most at-risk under the new Taliban regime.
Images of women on billboards have already been covered up by local business owners with the militants insisting women should be completely covered with a burqa on the streets.
And in a haunting sign of the brutality of the regime, Afghanistan's first female mayor said she is now waiting for militants to come and kill her.
Zarifa Ghafari, 27, said on Sunday: "I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family."
"I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family."
And journalist Mustafa Kazemi said "most" television channels have now taken their female anchors off screen.
"Most television channels have moderated their broadcasting. Most channels have taken their female anchors off the screen," he said.
"No music has been played in most channels since this morning. Media is going toward Talibanization."
On Monday, Tolo News and 1TV mostly repeated programs from the day before, while State TV, which was taken over by the Taliban at the weekend, largely aired religious shows.
Shamshad TV, owned by a former presidential aide, was also broadcasting pro-Taliban content.
But Kazemi noted one private TV channel was still broadcasting a female anchor without the full Islamic veil.
And Tolo News also resumed broadcasting with female anchors this morning after its office in Kabul was raided by the Taliban on Monday.
Taliban stormed Afghanistan’s Presidential Palace after ripping through Kabul. Afghans were seen falling from departing US planes as they desperately tried to cling on and escape Kabul.
Taliban fighters are going door-to-door with kill lists to track down any Western allies.
Boris Johnson blamed the US for Afghanistan’s ‘accelerated’ collapse to the Taliban.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he fled to ‘prevent a flood of bloodshed’. UK ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow is to remain at Kabul airport to help Brits leave. But United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said "chilling reports of severe restrictions on human rights" have emerged from Afghanistan in recent days.
"I am particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan," he said.
"We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan." Afghanistan’s UN ambassador Ghulam Isaczai warned the Security Council on Monday that women and girls are "about to lose their freedom to go to school, to work and to participate in the political, economic, and social life of the country".
Women walk past a beauty parlor in Kabul in June. photo credit: AFP
Taliban thugs ‘set woman on fire for bad cooking’ as militant fighters go door-to-door torturing Afghan villagers.
Jon Rogers 16:58, Friday Aug 20, 2021 Updated: 16:58, Aug 20, 2021
The Taliban set a woman on fire for her “bad cooking” as members of the extremist group go door-to-door terrorizing villagers, it’s been claimed.
Najla Ayoubi, a former Afghan judge and head of coalition and global programs at Every Woman Treaty which campaigns to end violence against women, said she had received harrowing stories of “bad behavior and violence against women”.
Stories continue to emerge from Afghanistan about the shocking treatment of women photo credit: AFP
The Taliban has said it will impose Sharia Law in Afghanistan photo credit: AP
Ayoubi added: "They are forcing people to give them food and cook them food.
"Also there are so many young women are in the past few weeks being shipped into neighboring countries in coffins to be used as sex slaves. "They also force families to marry their young daughters to Taliban fighters. “I don't see where is the promise that they think women should be going to work, when we are seeing all of these atrocities."
Ayoubi’s claims have not been independently verified. She described life under the Taliban’s rule as a “nightmare” saying she had been in a “powerful position” the day before the terror group seized power but said she had to “flee for my life” because she had regularly spoken out about women’s rights.
As a judge she said she had to be accompanied by her neighbor’s four-year-old son to go to a grocery shop, indicating he had more value than her because she was a woman.
The human rights activist played a large part in the constitution making process of Afghanistan.
She was the Senior State Attorney at the Attorney General Office of Afghanistan, State Attorney of the Parwan province, and judge at the Parwan Provincial Court.
Ayoubi’s claims are just the latest in growing list of atrocities said to have been carried out by the Taliban against women. Just days ago, a woman was said to have been gunned down in the street for not wearing a burqa.
According to Fox News, the woman was executed in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, for not wearing an Islamic veil in public as Afghans face a new horror reality under the ruthless rule of the terror group. A photo of the alleged killing published by Fox News on Wednesday shows a woman lying in a pool of blood as relatives and members of the public crouch around her.
The Taliban are now tightening their grip on power following their lightning victory that has shocked the world. Footage obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street in Kabul and opening fire while reportedly hunting for activists and government workers.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a leader of the terror group, declared their victory a "proud moment for the nation" and vowed to impose Sharia law on Afghanistan. General Sir Nick Carter, the chief of the defense staff, said they are working with the Taliban to ensure people can leave but he warned there are "a lot of challenges on the ground".
General Sir Nick Carter said he expects seven aircraft to head to Kabul, which will allow another 1,000 people to leave on Wednesday. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today program: "There are a lot of desperate people trying to get to the airport, and subject to the situation remaining calm, which the Taliban are working hard to achieve alongside us, the system will work, we believe.
"At the moment we are collaborating with the Taliban on the ground, who are providing security.
"They are making sure that the center of Kabul is very calm at the moment and so far we have not had reports of people finding it difficult to get to the airport."
On Wednesday, Laurie Bristow, the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, said the government was working "flat out" to bring Brits and Afghan allies to safety. "We're putting everything we can into getting British nationals and Afghans who have worked for us in the past out of Afghanistan and to safety," he said. "Yesterday we got about 700 people out. We're trying to scale up the speed, the pace over the next couple of days."
"We'll put everything we can on this for the next few days, trying to get out everyone who we need to get to safety as soon as we can."
Former judge Najla Ayoubi described life under the Taliban as a 'nightmare'
Photo credit: University of Chicago
The militants have even urged women to return to school and work photo credit: EPA
Taliban 'death squads' are reportedly roaming the country as Sharia Law is imposed photo credit: AP
There is something you can do to help:
Glenn Beck announced this week that he has planes and pilots ready to fly into Afghanistan and remove Christians who will be targeted for death by the Taliban. On his radio show Beck said he is calling this rescue “The Nazarene List”.
"We have engaged twenty 757's minimum all lined up, ready to go. Because you donated to the Nazarene Fund, we can do this. By the end of the week, we will be able to move 7,000 Christians.
HUNDREDS of Afghan Christian families RESCUED by Nazarene Fund (and counting!) - Glenn Beck