Posted on 04/14/2009 8:57:23 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Christian woman run out of home – and beaten – while another is prohibited from leaving.
When Halima Bubkier of Sinar town converted from Islam to Christianity last year, initially her husband accepted it without qualms.
“After watching the ‘Jesus Film,’ I felt I needed a change in my hopeless and meaningless life,” the 35-year-old mother of three told Compass. “I lived a life of alcoholism and lacked self control, hence tried Christianity and it worked well for me. I shared this experience with my husband, and he was quite positive about it and allowed me to attend church services.”
News of her conversion spread quickly, she said, and last Sept. 14 she came face to face with Islamic hardliners who felt her conversion to Christianity was an act of betrayal. A few weeks later, during the daily fasts and nightly feasts of Ramadan in Sinar, near Khartoum, the Islamists blocked her husband from the communal meals because of her change in faith.
“My husband was totally rejected by his colleagues,” she said. “They even refused to eat the food that I had cooked for him, saying that Muslims could not eat food cooked by infidels.”
Bubkier said she never expected her change in faith would lead to the ordeal that followed.
“He was so angry that he threw an armchair at me and injured my back,” she said. “As if this was not enough, he took out all his belongings from the house then set the house on fire. After I lost all my belongings, he then chased me away.”
She decided to run for refuge to her older brother, Nur Bubkier – who, having been informed of her conversion, responded by thoroughly beating her and trying to knife her.
Two Christians from the Sudanese Church of Christ, Maria Mohamud and a church deacon, managed to rescue her from the violence, but Halima Bubkier was jailed for three days at a police station, she said, on the false charge of “disrespecting Islam.” During that time Mohamud took care of her 2-year-old baby.
After three days in jail, she was waiting to appear before a judge.
“Before my case was heard, a Coptic priest [identified only as Sheed] knew of my case and talked with a police officer, privately telling him that according to the law, no one is supposed to be jailed because of religion,” Bubkier told Compass. “I was then freed.”
Bubkier left her two children, ages 6 and 8, behind with her husband, who is said to have married another woman. She said that although her main concern is the safety of her children, at least she is in hiding and her husband does not know her whereabouts.
“I expected my husband to appreciate my positive change, but instead he responded negatively,” Bubkier said. “Indeed there is something wrong with Islam where good is rewarded with evil. But I feel normal. Now I have a better life to live for. I was lost and in darkness. Let God forgive all those who have wronged me. I know I cannot go back.”
Home Prison
In Sahafa, five kilometers (three miles) south of Khartoum, another woman who left Islam is under a kind of house arrest by her family members for converting to Christianity.
Senah Abdulfatah Altyab was formerly a student of laboratory science at Sudan University of Technology, but today she is out of touch with the outside world. Her education came to an end after a film about Christ led to her conversion.
A close friend of Altyab, Ebtehaj Alsanosi Altejani Mostafh, said Altyab’s family closely monitors her.
“She cannot receive calls,” Mostafh said. “Her brother forbids her from moving outside the homestead or even attending [St. Peter and Paul Catholic] church” in Amarat, Khartoum.
Last Christmas, Mostafh said, she met Altyab near a public market during an Islamic celebration day, prayed with her and advised her that she should present her case to a commission dedicated to guarding the rights of non-Muslims. The Commission for the Rights of Non-Muslims in the National Capital, created by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 following Sudan’s long civil war, was designed to advise courts on how to fairly apply sharia (Islamic law) to non-Muslims.
Made up of representatives from Muslim, Christian and traditional religious groups, the commission “made little headway in changing official government policy towards non-Muslims in Khartoum,” according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2008 International Religious Freedom Report, though it did obtain release or leniency for some non-Muslims accused of violating sharia.
Altyab said she feels the commission would do little for her case because most of its members are radical Muslims. Moreover, she said her uncle, Yusuf Alkoda, is a radical Muslim and will make her life more difficult.
“I find life very difficult,” Altyab said. “I feel lonely and isolated. How long will I have to live in this state? Life without education is miserable.”
Sudan’s 2005 Interim National Constitution provides for freedom of religion throughout the entire country, but Altyab said that stipulation is brazenly flouted. The constitution enshrines sharia as a key source of legislation in northern Sudan.
The 29-year-old Mostafh, for her part, said she converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005 and as a result was immediately fired from her job. She later obtained another job. A member of All Saints Cathedral Church in Khartoum, she told Compass that since her conversion, she has suffered total isolation from her Muslim friends. During communal celebrations, she said, she is looked down upon and seen as a lady lost and destined for hell.
“Life is very difficult for me for the last four years, since joining Christianity,” she said. “I have been living all alone in the rental house here at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church-Borri, which is something unusual for a Muslim lady who is unmarried. My former friends are saying that there must be something wrong with me.”
Her immediate family lives in Saudi Arabia. Her only chance of seeing them, she said, is to go on the Islamic pilgrimage or hajj, and that option is now closed.
“My big challenge is how I can be accepted by my family members,” she said. “For me to go to Saudi Arabia, pilgrimage is the only opportunity, but this is not relevant for me as a Christian.”
The many instances of Christians suffering in northern Sudan go largely unreported. The president of the Sudanese Church of Christ, Barnabas Maitias, told Compass of one church member, a convert from Islam identified only as Ahmed, who received Christ in April 2007 – and quickly had his wife and children taken away.
Hard-line Muslims also planned to kill the convert, Maitias said.
“The church had to take him to another location in the Nuba Mountains, Korarak area, where he is employed as driver,” Maitias noted. “Most of the churches in Khartoum are housing Muslim converts who have no place to stay or get their daily basic needs.”
By their fruits you shall know them.
So true. God bless her.
Okay, let me get it straight.... every person should join Islam, if you convert away from Islam it’s like a death sentence, women are treated worse than dogs, every male sin is excused if done for allah. Check. Muzzies want the whole world under Sharia Law, and they’ll hide quietly amongst the infidels forever until they strike. Muslims convert by the sword and teach their own children to blow up infidels while committing suicide. I think I got it.
Now, why exactly do our progressives and feminists defend Islam? Is it a Bush hatred thing?
He seems troubled. I wonder what message he was trying to convey?
ROP-MA.
Yes. The religion of peace kills anyone who leaves it. Good reason why ALL proponents of the Cult of Death should not be allowed into any civilized country.
The Left will form alliances with any group that will help them achieve power. It has been going on in Europe for quite some time. Obama's Kenyan cousin, Odinga, cut a deal with the Kenyan Muslims (he said they could have Sharia Law) to win their votes.
The Left understands alliances and coalitions. The Right just fractures.
islam produces such a lovely "civilization".
It’s a juvenile thing. They hate their parent country and its ways by default. No matter what happens in other cultures, other cultures are always precious.
Ironically, the ones most likely to defend other cultures are also the most ignorant of other cultures. While I was in college I noticed that the most liberal students spend much more of their time out of class drinking and playing beer pong. That may explain for their thoughtlessness and limited knowledge base.
That’s true of left-wing politicians and academics. However, the average far-lefter is quite a bit more simple-minded. They are basically just adult children who think very highly of their own insight and intelligence.
While the individual stories have tragedy in the present context, none of these converts have relented and returned to Islam.
These Christians have found the the Light of Christ, the Pearl of Great Price and cannot return to the darkness of Islam.
A force greater than Islam is at work: the Holy Spirit, and the world will be astounded.
No, but you 're close.
The progressives and feminists hate Christianity: they hated Bush because he is a true Christian, who lives by the Word of God.
That is also why the Europeans hated Bush: because he is a Christian. Europe is not only post-Christian, as are the "progressives" and feminists, but it is imbued with the Spirit of the anti-Christ.
By their fruits you shall know them: that is why the "progressives" and feminists (and Europeans) love 0bama: he does not bear fruit for the Kingdom, but Loves the World and is in thrall to its acclaim.
The same metaphysical forces are stirred up now, as they were in the 1930s, and we will see it played out in blood.
Remember, it is this process: hate Christ >>> hate professors of Christ (Bush and all traditional Christians).
The spirit that is in the Left is reacting to the Spirit that is in us Christians.
Now I will leave it to you to deduce why "progressives" and feminists love Islam.
It has something to do with the spirit that is within Islam.
I guess Watts and South Central weren't really behavioral aberrations.
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