Rashida Tlaib and Rasha Mubarak, American Muslims for Hamas
Rashida Tlaib and Rasha Mubarak, American Muslims for Hamas
Why are Democrats ignoring the Islamist fifth column infiltrating their party?
Joe Kaufman, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative (www.kaufmansecurity.org) and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
Following the founding of Hamas in 1987, the Muslim Brotherhood set up worldwide committees to assist the newly formed terrorist group. In the US, it was called the Palestine Committee, and by the end of 1994, it would consist of four organizations, all falling under the leadership of then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. Of the four, only one remains, CAIR. However, remnants of the others came together in the form of a more recent group, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Given AMP’s connection to a terrorist organization, why would Democrat officials, including US Representative Rashida Tlaib, go out of their way to aid and abet the group, and why isn’t the Democratic Party doing anything to stop this?
AMP was established, in 2006, with the goal of vilifying and delegitimizing Israel. True to its Hamas roots, AMP’s message is laced with support for violence. The Executive Director of AMP is Osama Abu-Irshaid. Prior to AMP, he served as editor of Al Zaytounah, the official newsletter of the Palestine Committee’s Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP). This month, Abu-Irshaid stated at an AMP event, “Palestinians, if they don’t take what they want willingly, they will take it forcefully. We promise you this, we’re going to liberate our land and we’re going to liberate our people, whether they like it or they don’t like it. Well, they have picked the wrong enemy!”
Last month, AMP celebrated, on its Facebook page, the 32nd anniversary of the First Intifada, the violent uprising against Israel from which Hamas was created. During its January 2018 ‘JERUSALEM IS A RED LINE’ rally, AMP repeatedly led chants of “Long live Intifada.” AMP’s Chairman, Hatem Bazian, who is also the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), at an April 2004 rally held in San Francisco, called for an intifada in America. He stated, “Well, we’ve been watching intifada in Palestine, we’ve been watching an uprising in Iraq. And the question is what are we doing? How come we don't have an intifada in this country?”
One AMP board member, Salah Sarsour, allegedly has had involvement with Hamas, itself. According to a December 1998 Israeli Police memo, Salah’s brother Jamil Sarsour, in the course of an interview, claimed that Salah had involvement with Hamas and did fundraising for Hamas via the Palestine Committee’s Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Jamil also claimed that Salah had plotted an attack on Israel, as revenge for the September 1998 killing of Salah’s friends, Hamas military wing Qassam Brigades leaders and brothers, Imad and Adel Awadallah, by Israeli soldiers. Previously, Salah had spent eight months in a Ramallah prison.
AMP is a part of the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). Representing AMP on USCMO’s Board of Directors is Osama Abu-Irshaid. Another board member is Mazen Mokhtar, a US-based admin for qoqaz.net, a now-defunct al-Qaeda recruitment/financing site. Mokhtar, who has spoken at AMP events, has called Hamas acts “heroic” and suicide bombings “an effective method of attacking the enemy.” One more board member, Siraj Wahhaj, was cited by the US government as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj has been linked to the bomb maker of the attack, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and has praised the spiritual leader of the attack, Omar Abdel Rahman.
The Facebook Manager for AMP is Leena al-Arian. Besides AMP, al-Arian is the Associate Director of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF), a group founded by her father, former Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami al-Arian, that provides legal advocacy for and which seeks to whitewash the cases of high profile convicted terrorists. Last October, Leena was accompanied by two of her father’s past PIJ co-conspirators, Hatem Fariz, who was convicted of PIJ support, and Ghassan Ballut, to lobby the government. In November 2018, Leena referred to all of the convicted HLF Hamas financiers as “pillars of their communities.”
Taher Herzallah is AMP Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing. Originally from Gaza, Herzallah uses Twitter to post material from and correspond with the Palestinian Information Center, the media arm of Hamas, which publishes Hamas communiques, anti-Semitic cartoons, and praise for murders of Israelis. In May 2012, when Israel handed over the remains of 91 deceased terrorists, including several suicide bombers, to Palestinian authorities, Herzallah tweeted a photo of a procession of cars with Palestinian flags and armed men, calling the dead terrorists “martyrs.” In November 2012, Herzallah tweeted, “[O]ur martyrs are in paradise...”
With AMP’s leadership involved in such sinister activity and with the group’s links to extremists and violence, how could anyone look to promote this group, especially a member of US Congress? Well, one US Representative has, and that is Rashida Tlaib.
Last month, while visiting the US-Mexico border with fellow Democrat, Rasha Mubarak, the two held up signs produced by AMP and containing the AMP logo. The signs read, “FROM PALESTINE TO MEXICO, ALL THE WALLS HAVE TO GO.” Consider, both women have lengthy histories of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activism and incitement, and Tlaib has a history of participating at AMP events. In fact, this coming February, she will be the Guest of Honor at AMP-Missouri’s 1st Annual Banquet Dinner.
Tlaib has called for a ‘one-state solution’ regarding Israel and the Palestinians, which would spell an end to Israel. She happily allowed herself to be photographed with a map featuring a Post-it note renaming Israel “Palestine.” She brought up the anti-Semitic canard of ‘dual loyalty,’ questioning the loyalty of US Senators after they came out against the BDS movement. As a result, Tlaib was condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and barred from entry into Israel. Tlaib has also cavorted with Abbas Hamideh, who told Jews, in October 2015, “Rest assured, Zionism will be eradicated and if you’re lucky you’ll be sent back to Europe where you belong...”
Mubarak, who serves as National Committeewoman for the Florida Young Democrats (FYD), is offended at the very notion that Israel has a right to self-defense. In November 2012, Mubarak tweeted, “Lies I’m tired of hearing, Israel has the right to defend herself.” Just this past May, when Hamas launched more than 600 rockets into Israel, leading to the deaths of four civilians, Mubarak tweeted against anyone who would dare defend Israeli retaliation, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the producer of The Ellen Show, Andy Lassner. She has posted pictures of Hamas celebrations, and she has been involved in Hamas-related groups, herself.
Israel bashing, anti-Semitism and incitement all seem to be condoned by the Democratic Party, whose abject failure to combat it within Democratic ranks has led to its acceptance as part of legitimate political discourse. It has been suggested that the huge spike in violence against Jews can be attributed to this phenomenon.
Unless Democrats take decisive action to purge their party of its Islamist fifth column – to which Rashida Tlaib and Rasha Mubarak are a part of – the Democratic Party will continue to be seen as promoting this dangerous trend and providing aid and comfort, as well as a safe haven, for the enemies of America and America’s friends and allies overseas.
Though it may already be a reality, Democrats must fight to stop their party from becoming/remaining the party of radical Islam.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
Watch List: 260 Million Christians Experience ‘High Levels of Persecution’
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Christian persecution around the globe reached an unprecedented level at the end of 2019, with over 260 million Christians facing “high levels of persecution,” Open Doors revealed Wednesday.
In its World Watch List 2020, Open Doors notes that one in 8 believers around the world suffers serious levels of persecution, while providing an in-depth look at the 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.
In a nutshell, the new report reveals, every day, eight Christians are killed because of their faith and 23 Christians are raped or sexually harassed; every week, 182 Christian churches or buildings are attacked and 102 Christian homes, shops or businesses are attacked, burned, or destroyed; every month, 309 Christians are imprisoned unjustly.
The most acute persecution of Christians occurs in North Korea, the report found, but Afghanistan is close behind in the number two slot.
In the case of North Korea, persecution is driven by a virulent atheistic Communist ideology which views the estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Christians as traitors of the state because their allegiance is to God, not supreme leader Kim Jong Un. Moreover, they also form part of the lowest “hostile class” in the country’s social stratification system called Songbun.
North Korean defector Kwak Jeong-ae, 65, shows a drawing about North Korea during an interview in Uijeongbu, South Korea. Experts and defectors say most of North Korea’s underground Christians do not engage in the extremely dangerous work of proselytizing. Instead, they largely keep their beliefs to themselves or within their immediate families. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The mere possession of a Christian Bible in North Korea is grounds for arrest, torture, and life imprisonment in a labor camp, which means to a death sentence. Currently, some 50,000 to 75,000 Christians live inside North Korea’s massive prison system, where starvation and physical and mental abuse are part and parcel of their sentence.
Open Doors has monitored global Christian persecution since 1992 and launched its Watch List in 2002, which has been topped by North Korea every year.
In the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, on the other hand, Christians are also seen as traitors, but traitors to Islam rather than to an atheist state. The country is 99 percent Muslim, with some 90 percent Sunni and the other 9.7 percent Shia. Open Doors reports the radical Islamic Taliban continues to increase in strength, rendering the lives of the few thousands of secret Christians forfeit.
According to Afghan law, citizens may not become Christians and conversion is seen as apostasy as well as treason, and converts are often killed by their family, clan, or tribe.
Following North Korea and Afghanistan, the 2020 Watch List is similar to recent years. Somalia ranks number three, followed by Libya (no. four), Pakistan (no. five), Eritrea (no. six), Sudan (no. seven), Yemen (no. eight), Iran (no. nine), and India (no. ten).
It is worth noting that in eight of the top ten countries where Christian persecution is highest, Islamist ideology is the prime driver of the hostility.
Report:
Boko Haram Jihadists Behead Catholic Bride and Bridal Party
“They Asked Him to Deny
Christ”
Report:
Boko Haram Jihadists Behead Catholic Bride and Bridal Party
4 Jan 2020153
3:19
The communications director of the
Catholic diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria has confirmed that a bride-to-be and
her bridal party were beheaded December 26 while en route to the December 31
wedding.
“They were
beheaded by suspected Boko Haram insurgents at Gwoza on their way to her
country home,” Father Francis Arinse told Catholic News Service
(CNS), regarding the alleged murders of Martha Bulus and her bridal party.
CNS reported
further the alleged murders of Bulus and her bridal party occurred on the same
day that 11 Christian aid workers had been murdered:
Several
international media outlets reported Dec. 26 that the Islamic State group
released a video showing it had beheaded 10 Christians and shot an 11th Dec.
26. The news agencies said they were unable to confirm the contents of the
video but described the victims as men. IS said the beheadings were payback for
the late-October killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghadi.
According to
the Christian Post,
the Islamic State in West Africa Province, a Boko Haram “breakaway group”
associated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the
beheadings of the Christians shown in the video.
“This message
is to the Christians in the world,” said a man’s voice in Arabic and the native
Nigerian language over the video footage, SITE
Intelligence Group told the New York Times.
The voice
continued:
Those who you
see in front of us are Christians, and we will shed their blood as revenge for
the two dignified sheikhs, the caliph of the Muslims, and the spokesman for the
Islamic State, Sheikh Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, may Allah accept them.
The video,
which reportedly showed one Christian aid worker being shot and ten others
beheaded, was published by the Islamic States’ propaganda media outlet, Amaq
News Agency.
Arinse said
Bulus had been his parishioner at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Maiduguri
when he first became a priest.
According to
Arinse’s report, the area has seen a number of abductions recently and government
security has not been sufficient.
CNS noted
that Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff in Nigeria, has said he is
ordering greater security in the area and has urged his troops to “stand firm
against all the criminals.”
In December,
the U.S. State Department said it had added Nigeria,
along with Cuba and Nicaragua, to the Special Watch List of governments “that
have engaged in or tolerated ‘severe violations of religious freedom.’”
According to
the Post, U.S.
Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said:
We are
designating [Nigeria] special watch list for the first time because of all of
the increasing violence and communal activity and the lack of effective
government response and the lack of judicial cases being brought forward in
that country.
It is a
dangerous situation in too many parts of Nigeria. The government has either not
been willing to or have been ineffective in their response and the violence
continues to grow.
The Post noted that Nigeria “ranks
as the 12th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution,
according to Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List.”
“They Asked Him to Deny
Christ”
Muslim persecution of
Christians during August, 2019, alone.
November 1, 2019
Raymond Ibrahim
This report
was first published by Gatestone Institute. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz
Freedom Center.
The following are some of the
abuses that Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of August,
2019, thematically categorized:
Hate for and Violence against Christians
Cameroon: Militant Muslims reportedly connected with the Nigerian based
Islamic terror group, Boko Haram, “reached new heights” of
depravity, according to a report: after devastating the Christian village of
Kalagari in a raid, they kidnapped and fled with eight women. Some of the
women were later released—but only after having their ears cut off (image here). The report adds that Boko Haram
“has terrorised Christian communities in Nigeria for the last decade and has
now splintered and spread its violent ideology into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.”
Nigeria: On August 29, Chuck Holton, a CBN News reporter, aired a segment on his visit with
Christian refugees who had fled Boko Haram’s incursions into their
villages. Among the stories of death and devastation, the
following, spoken by a young man, stood
out:
“On 29 September 2014 was the
day that they attacked my village. Around ten I had a call that they have
killed my dad. They asked him to deny Christ and when he refused they cut off
his right hand. Then he refused [again], they cut to the elbow. In which he
refused, before they shot him in the forehead, the neck, and chest.” “Many of
the 1,500 Christians living in this camp have similar stories,” adds Holton.
Indonesia: A Muslim preacher in a Christian majority region referred to the
Christian cross as “an element of the devil,” prompting
outrage among Christians and some moderates. Sheikh Abdul Somad
made the comment during a videotaped sermon when he was asked why Muslims “felt
a chill whenever they saw a crucifix.” “Because of Satan! Was
his response: “There’s an evil jinn in
every crucifix that wants to convert people into Christianity.”
Christians and moderates condemned his words. Even so, “I can’t imagine
the reaction if it had been another preacher of a different religion insulting
an Islamic symbol,” observed one moderate. “There would have been a tsunami of
protests, with the perpetrator severely punished.” Sheikh Somad responded by releasing another
video; his excuse was that he was unaware that non-Muslims might hear his
words: “The Quran reciting session was held in a closed mosque, not at a
stadium, a football field, nor aired on television,” he explained. “It was for Muslims
internally. I was answering a question about statues and the position of the
Prophet Isa (Jesus) relative to Muslims.”
Burkina Faso: Although most mainstream media downplay the religious element in
Muslim on Christian violence in Africa, attacks on the Christians of Burkina
Faso have become so flagrantly based on religion that the Washington Post published
a report on August 21 titled, “Islamist militants are targeting Christians in Burkina Faso.” Its author, Danielle Paquette, explained that “A spreading
Islamist insurgency has transformed Burkina Faso from a peaceful country known
for farming, a celebrated film festival and religious tolerance into a hotbed
of extremism.” She noted that the jihadis have been checking people’s
necks for Christian symbols, killing anyone wearing a crucifix or carrying any
other Christian image. In a separate report discussing several deadly
attacks on Christians and their churches, Bishop Dabiré said, “If this continues without
anyone intervening, the result will be the elimination of the Christian
presence in this area and — perhaps in the future —in the entire country.
Egypt: Authorities reinstated Sheikh Yasser
Burhami, a notoriously “radical” cleric and hate preacher, to the pulpit (minbar) despite strong
opposition. Burhami had previously issued numerous fatwas—edicts based on
Islamic scriptures—that demand hate and hostility for non-Muslims, most
specifically the nation’s largest and most visible minority, the Christian
Copts, whom Burhami has referred to as “a criminal and infidel minority,” and has invoked “Allah’s curse” on
them. He once went so far as to say that, although a Muslim man is
permitted to marry Christian or Jewish women (ahl al-kitab), he must make sure he
still hates them in his heart—and show them this
hate—because they are infidels; otherwise he risks compromising his
Islam. Burhami has also stated that churches—which he
refers to as “places of polytheism (shirk)
and houses of infidelity (kufr)”—must
never be built in Egypt. He issued a separate fatwa forbidding Muslim taxi
and bus drivers from transporting Christian clergymen to their churches, an act
he depicted as being “more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor
bar.” Burhami’s fatwas also include calling for the persecution of apostates, permitting
Muslim husbands to abandon their wives to rape,
permitting “marriage” to 12-year-old
girls, and banning Mother’s Day.
In a video, Dr. Naguib Ghobrial, a
Coptic activist, politician, and head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights
Organization—which over the years has lodged 22 separate complaints against
Burhami—repeatedly questioned Egypt’s leading religious authorities’ decision
to reinstate the hate preaching sheikh:
“Is what Burhami teaches truly
what Islam teaches—is that why no one has done anything to him [in regards to
the 22 complaints lodged against him]? Truly I’m shocked! Please
answer Sheikh of Al Azhar; please answer Grand Mufti: are the things Burhami
teaches what Islam teaches? Is this why none of you oppose him or joined
us when we lodged complaints against him?… Why are you so silent? Amazing!”
The Slaughter of Christians
Pakistan: “A ten year old Christian child who chose to work in a dangerous
scrap factory so he could support his mother who had to fend for a family of
two boys and a drug-addict husband, was raped and tortured before being killed
by his Muslim employers,” according to a report (with photos).
Badil, 10, worked at the men’s factory in order to support his impoverished
mother, Sharifa Bibi:
“I worked hard for many hours
just for the sake of my two sons so that they would not have to suffer as I
have suffered without education. My son Badil couldn’t bear to see the
struggle of his mother and insisted on working to help the family—despite my insistence
that he avoid work till he was older. Badil was such a responsible
son. Daily before leaving for work he asked me what should bring in the
evening from his wages. I insisted that he kept his money for himself,
but he brought groceries like sugar, rice, flour, ghee daily.”
Badil had to walk long
distances and work for many hours a day to earn the equivalent of one dollar a
day. Soon his employer began to cheat him on his wages. His mother
insisted that he quit, but the boy persevered; at one point he took his younger
brother, 9, with him to help. When the employers refused to pay his
brother anything for his contribution, Badil finally decided to quit—which
angered his Muslim employer. His younger brother recalls:
“As Mr Akram heard this he ran
to hit Badil but Badil ran from the shop and Akram gave chase. However, A
friend of Akram was standing nearby on his motorcycle and told Akram to sit
behind him, then both men chased Badil till they caught up with him. Akram then
got off the motorcycle and dragged Badil back to the store. They took
Badil inside the store which is full of scrap. For half an hour I was
completely unaware of what was happening with Badil inside. Eventually
both men came outside and pretended as if nothing had happened inside. I
thought my brother had also left the store from another exit so I went to look
for him. I searched vigorously for 15 minutes and then saw my mother
[approaching to walk the boys home], so I rushed to her to tell her what had
happened.”
Sharifa and her younger son
searched frantically for Badil and finally found him collapsed on the ground
near their home. They rushed to him, thinking he was exhausted from the
day’s work and subsequent thrashing, but quickly realized that he was barely
breathing: “At this point the whole situation was too much to bear for Sharifa
who began to scream and wail hysterically,” the report notes. Badil was
taken to a hospital where, seven hours later, the boy was pronounced dead. His
brother “has been traumatised following his brother’s death and hasn’t left his
house since and often screams in terror thinking the men responsible will take
him too.”
Cameroon: A Bible translator “was butchered to death on Sunday morning [August
25] during an overnight attack while his wife’s arm was cut off,” according to
a report: “Bible translator Angus
Abraham Fung was among seven people said to have been killed during an attack
carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen sometime during the early hours of
Sunday morning in the town of Wum, according to Efi Tembon, who leads a
ministry called Oasis Network for Community Transformation.” Fulani
herdsmen are Muslim and the chief persecutors of Christian farmers in
Nigeria. “They went into houses and pulled out the people,” Tembon explained: “They attacked in the
night and nobody was expecting. They just went into the home, pulled them out
and slaughtered them.” Fung’s wife, Eveline Fung, who had her arm hacked
off was last reported as receiving a blood transfusion at a local hospital.
Attacks against Apostates and Evangelists
Iran: Authorities sentenced a 65-year-old woman,
a Muslim convert to Christianity, to one year in prison, on the charge that she
was “acting against national security” and engaging in “propaganda against the
system.” According to the report, “The hearing was owing to her
arrest shortly before Christmas when three agents from Iranian intelligence
raided her home and took Mahrokh to intelligence offices where she endured ten
days of intensive interrogation before she was released after submitting bail
of 30 million Toman (US$2,500).” Friends of the woman said that “the judge was very
rude and tried to humiliate Mahrokh after she disagreed with him.”
Separately, a Kurdish
bookseller in Bokan, Western Azarbaijan province, was arrested for selling
Bibles. According to the August 27 report, “Mostafa Rahimi was arrested
on 11 June on charge of selling bible[s] in his bookstore, and he was released
later on bail until the court issued his sentence. Hengaw Organization for
Human Rights has learned that Rahimi is sentenced to 3 months and 1 day
imprisonment. Later in mid-August he was arrested again, and he is
currently at the central prison of Bokan.” Another report elaborates: “Iran’s government is
officially Islamic, and authorities actively restrict access to Bibles and
other Christian literature. Sharing one’s faith is categorized as a criminal
offense, usually of the national security nature. The authorities often pressure
Christians so extensively, routinely violating their human rights, that they
are given no choice but to escape their country.”
Somaliland: An August 16 report shares the experiences a
married Muslim woman, 32, underwent after her husband discovered a Bible in her
possession.
“I told my husband that I found
the Bible in Nairobi and wanted to read it,” the woman responded. “He just
pronounced the word talaq [Arabic for divorce] to me. I knew that our marriage
had just been rendered null and void because I joined Christianity, so without
wasting time I left the homestead…. There and then he took our two
daughters [ages 4 and 7] away from me and divorced me. He gave me a stern
warning that I should not come close to the children, and that if I do, he will
take the Bible to the Islamic court and I will be killed by stoning for
becoming an apostate.”
Her former husband proceeded to
expose the clandestine Christian to her Muslim family. “My brothers beat me
mercilessly with sticks as well as denying me food,” she said. “I feared to report the case
to the police or the local administration, because they will charge me with a
criminal offense of apostasy in accordance with the sharia.” She has
since relocated to an undisclosed location: “God has spared my life, and my
fellow underground Christians in other regions of Somalia have received me and
shared the little they have, but I am very traumatized.” According to
the report,
“Somalia’s constitution
establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any
other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that
laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in
application for non-Muslims. Somalia is ranked 3rd on Christian support
group Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most
difficult to be a Christian.”
Pakistan: After opening a summer education program for the youth, a
Christian family was “terrorized” and forced to shut down
on the accusation that they were clandestinely trying to convert Muslim
children to Christianity. According to a family member:
“We started a project for interfaith harmony and education teaching
marginalized children from different faiths about a year ago. In June, we
started a summer camp that provided a free program for children that have
dropped out of school. The design of this program was to provide guidance for
these children to become civilized and tolerant.” Two weeks into the
summer program, a group of men, two of whom were armed, stormed into the
academy, did violence to the property and harassed the children, and beat one
of the instructors: “They threatened us with consequences if the academy was
not shut down. They alleged that we were promoting Christianity and were
doing Christian evangelism. For safety and security, we had no other
choice but to obey the extremists and shutdown the academy…. I don’t want
to lose my son or any family member. This terrorizing incident has already put
us into trauma.”
In a separate incident in
Pakistan, around 4 a.m. of August 2, seven Muslim men stormed into a parish house, where they tied up and savagely beat
two young priests, Fr. Anthony Abraz and Fr. Shahid Boota, all while
they “humiliated and abused them for preaching the Gospel in a
Muslim-majority neighborhood.” The invaders also vandalized the building—including
by breaking windows, bookshelves, and cupboards—and desecrated Christian
objects, including Bibles, Christian literature, and icons. Afterwards, “We
were told we will have to face consequences if this house is not vacated,” Fr.
Abraz reported. “They said, ‘We don’t
want a Christian center near the mosque.’”
Finally, increasing numbers of
Christian girls continue to be targeted for kidnapping, rape, and/or forced
conversion in Pakistan. According to one report,
“In August, Yasmeen Ashraf, age
15, and Muqadas Tufail, age 14, were kidnapped and raped by three men in Kasur.
The pair of Christian girls were taken when they were on their way to work as
domestic workers. Also in August, another young Christian girl, named
Kanwal, was kidnapped, raped, and forcefully converted to Islam by a group of
Muslim men and a cleric in Lala Musa, located in the Gujart District. After
reuniting her family, Kanwal shared that she had been beaten, sexually
assaulted, and threatened with the deaths of her brothers if she refused to
convert to Islam.”
In the previous month of July,
at least three similar cases occurred.
“Oppression exists in different layers for Christian girls in Pakistan. They
are suffering on the bases of gender, religion, and class. It has been
documented that young Christian girls face higher levels of sexual harassment
and are persecuted for their Christian faith,” Nabila Feroz Bhatti, a human
rights defender in Lahore, said in response to the
aforementioned incidents. Similarly, the Pontifical charity, Aid to the
Church in Need, announced in August that it
“is sounding the alarm on the plight of young Christian women, and even
teenagers, in Pakistan who are forced to convert to Islam.” “Every year
at least a thousand girls are kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert to Islam,
even forced to marry their tormentors,” elaborated Tabassum Yousaf, a
local Catholic lawyer.
Meanwhile, those who try to
protect Christian girls are punished. On August 16, Maskeen Khan and two
other Muslim men attacked the home of Bahadur
Masih, a Christian. While holding a knife, Khan and his partners tried to
rape Masih’s daughter, Rachel, but were prevented by the rudely awoken family
that immediately and desperately responded. “Since the Christian family
was defending themselves, Khan also got some injuries,” Ahsan Masih Sindhu, a
local Christian political leader, reported. “The family handed Khan
over to police and he got medical treatment. However, he later died in police
custody.” Police arrested and charged four members of the family with
murder, even though they were in their own home protecting their daughter from
violent intruders. Other members of the family have gone into hiding due
to threats from the dead would-be rapist’s relatives. “We are sad about
the death of Khan, however, the Christian family did have the right to defend,”
Sindhu explained. “The police must conduct
a fair investigation into this incident.” Instead, police are denying the
family the “right to defend” itself.
Attacks on Churches
Algeria: On August 6, police barged into a church during
worship service, evacuated reluctant worshippers, and sealed the church
building off. “I am deeply saddened by so much injustice – it breaks my
heart,” Messaoud Takilt, the pastor said. “This is not surprising
since other Christian places of worship have been closed and sealed as was the
case today. But anyway, we will continue to celebrate our services outside
while the Lord gives us grace for a final solution.” When police denied,
with a veiled threat, his request to at least let the worship service conclude,
“The assembly finally yielded and agreed to leave the premises, but with much
pain. Some went out with eyes full of tears. ” Police proceeded to
empty the premises of all furniture and sealed off every door before the
distressed pastor (picture here). Responding to this
latest church closure the World Evangelical Alliance issued a statement on August 12 calling
on Algeria to cease closing and instead reopen churches. A portion follows:
“We deeply regret that two
additional churches were forcibly closed by administrative decisions, in May
and in August 2019 in the city of Boudjima, northeast of Tizi-Ouzou in Kabylie
Region. This brings the number of forcibly closed churches to 6,
including one house church…. Many more churches are threatened with closure,
amid denial of formal registration and recognition by authorities.”
Indonesia: Muslim protestors compelled local authorities to
revoke a permit for and cease construction of a Baptist church in Central
Java. On August 1, residents went to the partially constructed church and
padlocked its fence. A meeting was later held between the church, local
residents, authorities, and others. Although the pastor displayed the
governmentally issued permit to build a church, Muslim residents insisted that
it was wrongly given, leading to a standstill in negotiations.
In the previous month, July, two other churches were shut
down in Indonesia following local protests.
Turkey: St. Theodoros Trion, an abandoned, historic church—the original
Greek congregation of which was purged by the Ottoman Empire—was vandalized,
including with genocidal slogans. According to the report,
“The vandals sprayed hate
speech across the church’s walls. The vandalism was largely a reference to the
secularism that Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founder, had forced into the
governmental structure…. Just a few years ago, the same church was
targeted by Islamist vandals who wrote slogans such as ‘the priest is gone, he
went to the mosque’ — a reference to the country’s genocide and the forced
conversions which occurred during this time. There are no Christians attending
this church. All of the congregants were victims of the genocide. They faced
death, deportation, and forced conversions. Those few who survived have since
fled the country. The church currently stands as a historic monument to the
Christianity that once was commonplace in the region.”
Egypt: A Christian toddler was the latest, if inadvertent, victim of Egypt’s
draconian restrictions on churches. According to an August
21 report, Youssed Ebid, a 4-year-old
Christian boy (photo), was struck by a tractor
while waiting outdoors for a bus to take him to church in another
village. His own village is currently denied one, forcing its Christian
residents to travel long distances to attend church. Many Christians in
Egypt are in the same situation, and accidents during their long treks are not
uncommon.
Note: Click here for
previous monthly reports of Muslim Persecution of Christians, going back to
July 2011.
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