Posted on 09/21/2015 3:33:21 PM PDT by markomalley
Not only is the Islamic State (IS) persecuting Christians but so are the U.S.-supported “rebel” forces, which the Obama administration assures are “moderate.” According to a recent NPR report, “With backing from U.S. allies, like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, this [U.S. supported] rebel coalition fights both the Syrian regime and the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS. But the coalition has extremists in its own ranks who have mistreated Christians and forced them out of their homes”—just as IS has done.
In response, Mideast Christian leaders made clear that, far from expecting the West to intervene on their behalf, they merely wish that the West stops arming, supporting, or simply facilitating the Islamic terrorists making their lives a living hell—as plainly spelled out in a Christian Today article titled, “Syrian Christian leader tells West: ‘Stop arming terror groups who are massacring our people.”
According to the Patriarch of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, “If the West wants to do something about the present crisis, the most effective thing would be to support local governments, which need sufficient armies and forces to maintain security and defend respective populations against attacks. State institutions need to be strengthened and stabilized. Instead, what we see is their forced dismemberment being fueled from the outside.”
Another Christian leader had another message to the West. According to Iraqi priest Fr Douglas Bazi, once a torture victim who takes care of thousands of refugees forced to flee Mosul since the Islamic State took over the city last year, the West needs to “Wake up!” During celebrations of St Peter and St Paul, the Iraqi priest further reflected that “We cannot celebrate the feast of two martyrs without remembering the living martyrs of our time.”
Nor are these martyrs limited to the Middle East. Among the many Christians slaughtered in Nigeria in July was a young girl who was stoned to death for refusing to renounce Christ and convert to Islam. Pastor Mark lost his daughter, Monica, in the Chibok abduction which involved almost 300 predominantly Christian girls kidnapped at the hands of the Islamic organization, Boko Haram. He was told that his daughter refused to change her religion, and so was buried from the neck on down and then stoned to death.
The rest of July’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed by theme.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Nigeria: Dozens of Christian churches were attacked in the Muslim-majority northern regions of the nation, where Boko Haram is headquartered:
Iraq: The Islamic state blew up another Christian church under its authority, the Mother of Aid Church which had stood in central Mosul for thousands of years. The blast also killed four children who were near the church at the time. IS also transformed the St. Joseph Church, an ancient Chaldean church in Mosul, into a mosque. Pictures of St. Joseph show that the dome has been painted black and the church has been stripped of all crosses and Christian symbols and images.
Egypt: Three church related attacks occurred:
Niger: Approximately 70 Christian churches and an orphanage continue facing a lack of resources and difficult conditions in rebuilding six months after thousands of Muslims attacked and destroyed them in “revenge” for the offensive Muhammad cartoons published by the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo—a secular magazine based in France that also habitually mocks Christianity. “Since these incidents, it is as if life had stopped,” said Baptist pastor Jacques Kangindé. Discussing when he entered his destroyed church—his home was also destroyed during the riots—the pastor said: “I felt very bad, such an indescribable feeling when I saw my ripped-up Bible on the ground. For a pastor, it was like my entire life was torn apart. I could not stop shedding tears.”
Muslim Violence and Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria: Boko Haram jihadis shot and killed 29 people in two Christian enclaves of northeast Nigeria. Most people in Dille village ran but those who could not were gunned down and many homes were set ablaze. Separately, a woman suicide bomber blew herself up at a busy market in northeastern Damaturu town, killing 15 people and wounding 50. And in Maikadiri village, at least 14 people were killed and 500 cows were slaughtered.
Iraq: Christians kidnapped and held for ransom continue to be slaughtered even after their ransom is paid. The body of Quais Abdul Shaya was returned to his family—after they had paid the demanded ransom of $25,000 USD. Saher Hanna, who worked at the Ministry of the Interior, was also killed after his Islamic abductors received his ransom. Killing Christian hostages, including children, after receiving payment is not limited to the Islamic State and occurs in other Muslim nations such as Egypt.
Libya: Unconfirmed reports, including from the Libyan Herald, say that the Islamic State executed another Egyptian Coptic Christian they had seized. Bekhit Nageh Efrank Ebeid, a 25-year-old laborer, was kidnapped along with two other Christians, Kofi Frimpong Sekyere from Ghana and Ibrahim Adeola from Nigeria.
Egypt: An unknown man attacked a Coptic nun in the Muslim-majority nation. According to Fr. Abdel Quddus, “An unknown person stalked a sister in the diocese of Fashn, Beni Suef, and attacked her last week with a bladed weapon while she was outside her residence. He then hit her head against the wall and fled.” And Wadie Ramses, a Christian who was kidnapped and held for 92 days by Islamic militants in the Sinai desert, managed to escape. During his time in captivity he was blindfolded and handcuffed, beaten and abused. According to his account, the most terrifying moments came when he would overhear his Muslim kidnappers debating whether to behead the Christian doctor or keep him alive to ensure a ransom. The police, though given many opportunities, never put forth the effort to rescue him, said the Copt.
Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism
Uganda: Muslims once again tried to kill a Muslim convert to Christianity. Last year, Hassan Muwanguzi, a former Muslim Sheikh and now born-again Christian, survived a poisoning attempts by Muslim relatives, but lost his twelve-year old daughter in a separate attack. Most recently, Muslims broke into his house with knives and clubs in another attempt to assassinate the apostate. Muwanguzi was at a prayer meeting at the time, but the foiled assailants stole thousands of dollars’ worth of his possessions. Despite the fact that Uganda is a majority-Christian nation, Muwanguzi lives in a majority-Muslim region, and faces regular death threats (read more about his travails here).
Pakistan: Muslims again used the “blasphemy” accusation to persecute Christian minorities:
Sudan: Two imprisoned Presbyterian pastors are on trial and facing a possible death sentence. Rev. Yat Michael and the Rev. Peter Yen Reith of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church are being charged with espionage and blasphemy under the Republic of Sudan’s Islamic laws. Other church leaders say that Christians are often targeted for their faith and that the government’s accusations are pretexts: “This is not ‘something new’ for our church. Almost all pastors have gone to jail under the government of Sudan. We have been stoned and beaten. This is their habit to pull down the church. We are not surprised. This is the way they deal with the church,” said Rev. Tut Kony.
Egypt: Three young Christians were arrested in Alexandria on charges of “contempt for Islam.” The previous evening, the Christians were seen handing out bags of dates to Ramadan fasting Muslims. Some Muslims reported them to authorities, saying that the pamphlets contained “the teachings of Christ” were found in the bags of dates. They were all arrested and charged with contempt for Islam. The three Christian youth pled that the pamphlets were for their own personal use and not meant to be placed in the bags of dates. They were ordered to pay 10,000 Egyptian pounds and released.
Dhimmitude: Generic Muslim Abuse of Christians
Pakistan: Christian girls continued to be abducted and raped in the Muslim majority nation. A new report indicates that 1,000 non-Muslim girls are abducted, raped, forced to convert to Islam and/or “marry” their abductors every year. Cases reported in July include:
Usually episodes like this proceed in the following manner: the family of the victim presents a complaint. The abductor lodges a counter-complaint affirming that the woman made a voluntary decision. In most cases the victims are minors, young adolescent girls. They suffer sexual violence, forced prostitution, domestic abuse and even sold to human traffickers.
Gill concluded that it is rare for such cases to end with the return of the girls to their original families.
Indonesia: A group of Muslims attacked and disrupted a Christian scout camp that had brought together thousands of young people and was organized by a Protestant group in Yogyakarta, central Java. The Muslim assailants argued that the Christian group was not authorized to organize any public activity—especially since it was Ramadan and public activities that violate the Islamic nature of the month are forbidden. On the second day of the event, local Muslims stormed the site and brought everything to a halt. As a result of the raid, thousands of Christian participants from around the country were forced to leave the area. According to the Christian camp manager, “organizers said they had official permission [to hold the event], but suddenly scores of radical Muslims arrived ordering everyone to clear off.” Commenting on the expulsion of Christians, Muhammad Fuad, head of the local branch of the Islamic Community Forum, expressed satisfaction that the Christian event was shut down: “It is good because everyone should understand how to behave towards the Muslim community.”
Iraq: The Islamic State issued a call to its members at the University of Mosul to burn all books written by Christians—whether researchers, writers, or academics—that are found in the Central Library at the University of Mosul.
About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
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Previous Reports:
According to Asia News:
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has often been the scene of attacks or acts of intolerance towards minorities, whether Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or people of other faiths.
In Aceh, Islamic law (Sharia) is enforced, the only Indonesian province to do so. This is the result of a peace agreement between the central government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
However, more radical and extreme versions of Islam are growing in many other parts of the country, like Bekasi and Bogor, in West Java.
In addition, legal loopholes have been used to prevent Christians from building their places of worship, like the case involving the Yasmin Church in West Java.
Indonesia’s constitution recognizes religious freedom, but Christian communities, Catholics included (3 per cent of the population) have been the victims of religious violence and persecution.
The middle Eastern and northern African Christians need to understand that the US government supports their persecution. They need to pray that God will humble His enemies in the US.
Thanks for this!
American foreign policy since the breakup of Yugoslavia has consistently favored Muslims and the breakdown of bulwarks against Islamic jihad.
You’ve all come across conspiracy theorists who have a crazy idea and then try to force the facts to fit their idea. I feel like the exact reverse - I have a pattern of facts, from Bosnia to Kosovo to Iraq to Libya to Egypt to Syria to Turkey and on and on, but I have trouble believing in the conspiracy they imply. Why is the U.S. championing Islamic jihad on a global scale? Is it simply Satan’s work or is something else at work?
Welcome to the Tribulation.
taqiyyah,-- In Islam, the practice of concealing one’s belief and foregoing ordinary religious duties when under threat of death or injury.-- Lying to non-Muslims in advance for Islam is allowed till Judgment Day Quran 3:28, 16:106
-- It is fine to deceive the infidels. They are just pigs anyways. In fact, al-Taqiyyah of the Qur'an compels protection of Islam by deception.
If the insurgents win just wait and see how "moderate" they are.
“U.S.-supported “rebel” forces, which the Obama administration assures are “moderate.”
The “rebel forces” who Obama insists are “moderate”, the rest of the world knows them by their official name - ISIS, Islamic State.
The NWO elites see mohammadism as the perfect tool for control of the unwashed masses. I can think of no other reason.
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