Prayer for Swat, Pakistan

Today’s New York Times has a report on the situation in Swat.  There the
Taliban have taken over control and are intimidating, beating, gunning
down, even beheading all those who in any way differ from their policy of
instituting strict rules that they call “Islam.”  The article says “they
are enforcing a strict interpretation of Islam with cruelty, bringing
public beheadings, assassinations, social and cultural repression and
persecution of women to what was once an independent, relatively secular
region.”  In the mean time the Pakistani government seems paralyzed,
unable even to decide what ought to be done about the spread of the
repressive version of Islam promoted by the Taliban.

Pray that God will give relief to the Pakistani people; that the promise
of the love and forgiveness of God will become known; that those who
suffer and are terrified will find hope in the promises of Jesus and be
delivered from fear by the confidence that God will establish a new world
in which righteousness dwells.

Robert L. Canfield
See my concerns for the world:
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~canfrobt/Concerns.html
My website:  http://artsci.wustl.edu/~canfrobt/home.html
Blog:  http://rcanfield.blogspot.com/