THE KORAN
BIBLE OF THE MUSLIM TERRORIST:
“The Wahhabis finance
thousands of madrassahs throughout the world where young boys are brainwashed
into becoming fanatical foot-soldiers for the petrodollar-flush Saudis and
other emirs of the Persian Gulf.” AMIL IMANI
Koran 2:191 "slay the unbelievers wherever
you find them"
“The tentacles of the Islamist hydra have
deeply penetrated the world. The Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood poses a
clear threat in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood also wages its deadly campaign
through its dozens of well-established and functioning branches all over the
world.”
*
“The
Wahhabis finance thousands of madrassahs throughout the world where young boys
are brainwashed into becoming fanatical foot-soldiers for the petrodollar-flush
Saudis and other emirs of the Persian Gulf.” AMIL IMANI
* We
will take advantage of their immigration policy to infiltrate them.
* We
will use their own welfare system to provide us with food, housing, schooling,
and health care, while we out breed them and plot against them. We will Caliphate
on their dime.
* We
will use political correctness as a weapon. Anyone who criticizes us, we will
take the opportunity to grandstand and curry favor from the media and Democrats
and loudly accuse our critics of being an Islamophobe.
* We
will use their own discrimination laws against them and slowly introduce Sharia
Law into their culture..
Report: Boko Haram Jihadists Behead Catholic Bride and Bridal Party
Video Image/AP Photo
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.
'Urinated On and Cursed For Being Christian'
September’s Muslim persecution of Christians.
November 25, 2019
Raymond
Ibrahim
This report was first published by the 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 September, 2019, thematically categorized:
The Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria : On September 22, the jihadi group,
Boko Haram, released a video depicting the execution of
two Christian aid workers. Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali
Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations, appeared on their
knees, with three armed men behind them, who proceeded to shoot
them. Both Christians had gone to Maiduguri—near where they were
captured—to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist
violence. In the same video and “ speaking in
the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says … that they
have vowed to kill every Christian they capture…” Responding to the
executions, Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, said ,
“Lawrence and Godfrey left Abuja for Maiduguri in search of opportunities to
utilize their skills for the betterment of humanity and paid with their
lives. We will never get their corpses to bury. The community will have
to make do with a makeshift memorial to these young lives cut short so
horrifically.”
Separately,
a Christian pastor and the wife of another pastor were killed in
two separate raids by Muslim Fulani herdsmen. “After they had killed her
[Esther Ishaku Katung], they were still demanding the ransom without telling
her family that they had killed her,” a local Christian said . “It
was only after the ransom was paid that it was found by her family that she had
been killed by her abductors.” Her mutilated body was found dumped in the
bushes.
Pakistan : Police in Lahore tortured Amir
Masih, a 28-year-old Christian man, to death .
After the employer that Amir worked for as a gardener reported an incident of
theft, police contacted and told Amir and the other employees to come in for
questioning. “My brother went to the police station of his own will,” Sunny
Masih, Amir’s sibling, explained . “When
he reached there [n August 28] the cops seized his phone, bundled him into a
vehicle and spirited him to some unknown place.” Four days later, police
contacted his distraught family to say Amir was ill and that they should take
him to a hospital. “We rushed to the police station, where we were handed
a semi-conscious Amir,” his brother continues: “He was beaten up mercilessly,
and his body was full of bruises.” While en route to the hospital, Amir told
Sunny that six officials, two inspectors and four constables, had tortured him
for four days. “He told us that the police officials had urinated on him
while cursing him for being a Christian and tried to force him to confess to
the crime.” Sunny also noted that
all other employees who were questioned regarding the theft were released
“without a scratch,” and that his brother “was subjected to severe torture
because he was a poor Christian whom police believed could be coerced into a
false confession…. But my brother was innocent, and he refused to
admit to something that he had not done, which further infuriated his
interrogators. They increased the intensity of the violence, also subjecting
him to electric shocks.” Two hours after arriving in the hospital Amir
succumbed to his injuries and died. A post-mortem report indicated
broken ribs and visible torture marks on the hands, arms, back, and
feet. The murdered Christian is survived by a wife and two sons,
aged 7 and 2-weeks-old.
In
a separate incident, also in Pakistan, three Muslim men—Muhammad Naveed,
Muhammad Amjad, and Abdul Majeed—participated in the slaughter of
two Christian brothers, Javaid and Suleman Masih. According to
Javaid’s widow, “For over a year, we have been experiencing and smelling hatred
against us by our Muslim neighbors. Often their women discussed and passed
insulting remarks against Christians. However, keeping our safety in view, we
always kept quite [sic] and never replied…. The Muslim neighbors did not
like our van, which carries a holy cross inside, to be parked next to their
door. They often criticized it.” Javaid’s 17-year-old son continues :
“Naveed, one of the Muslim family members, was trying to put some scratches on
the wind-screen of my uncle’s van on the incident day. When I tried to stop
him, he reacted in anger stating ‘whenever I step out of my house, I see this
hanging stuff (holy cross) in the van – which I don’t want to see.’ He pointed
out the cross in an insulting way. ‘Therefore, you must remove it,’ he ordered .”
Soon thereafter, both brothers “left their house to visit a relative in the
neighborhood,” Javaid’s widow resumes; “they were suddenly attacked in front of
their house by the two Muslims with knives. Each received 5 – 8 attacks, which
resulted into their deaths. The father of the two Muslims was provoking his
sons and chanting loudly, ‘don’t spare, kill all of these Chooras!’” (Chooras
is a derogatory word used for Christians in Pakistan.) Javaid is survived
by his wife and four children (aged 10 to 17). Suleman was recently
married; he and his wife were expecting their first child weeks after his
murder.
Violence against and Abuse of
Christians
Philippines : In the early hours of
September 6, an explosion occurred
in the marketplace of a predominantly Christian area; several people were
injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. According to
one report ,
The
group issued a statement late on Saturday saying the motorcycle bombing had
wounded seven Filipino Christians at a public market. It was the fourth
blast in the area in 13 months, according to the Philippine military, which
said a militant group operating in the mostly Christian city of Isulan in the
province of Sultan Kudarat was among the suspects…. [T]hree incidents in
the past year authorities said were suicide bombings by militants linked to the
Islamic State.
Burkina Faso : “Christians … are currently
being exterminated or expelled from their villages by Muslim extremists,” notes
a September 18 report .
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a local source said that the militants
sometimes give Christians a chance to convert to Islam; he referred to
it as “part of a program by the jihadists who are deliberately sowing terror,
assassinating members of the Christian communities and forcing the remaining
Christians to flee after warning them that they will return in three days’
time—and that they do not wish to find any Christians or catechumens still
there.” He elaborated on
the recent experiences of the village of Hitté: “At the beginning of
September, 16 men arrived in the village, intercepting the villagers who were
returning from the fields. Some of the men forced the people to enter the
church where they threatened the Christians and ordered them to leave their
homes in the next three days, while others set fire to whatever they found in
their path. Now Hitté no longer has any Christians and any
catechumens.” He also made an
observation that has been made of militants in Nigeria: “Weapons like these
[those used by the Muslim invaders] are not made in Burkina Faso. We know that
the arms are supplied by international organizations. We are calling for the
removal of these weapons, so that peace can return to Burkina Faso…. The
situation is critical.”
Egypt : Unknown persons hurled bricks at Marina
Sami Rageb, a Christian woman, as she exited
her church . The 21-year-old medical student’s skull was
fractured and she suffered hemorrhage from the assault. Little else is
known about the incident or assailant(s). According to the report , “This
type of incident, unfortunately, is common place in Egypt. Christian women are
not religiously compelled to cover their hair, but are constantly pressured to
do so by their Muslim peers. Uncovered women are frequently targeted for
harassment, and even attacks. This underlying threat greatly impacts their
ability to walk freely in Egypt and to choose their clothing preference.”
One woman comments that
“In Egypt, there are a lot of security threats in the streets. But I always
avoid walking in the radical Muslim districts or areas, just preferring the
main streets.” “I always wear long clothes,” explained another
Christian woman. “In the streets, I always avoided dealing with the extremists
or the radical Muslims.”
Pakistan : On September 16, Muhammad Ramiz and four
other Muslim men, kidnapped a 14-year-old Christian girl, Samra Bibi, from her
home while her family was away, “in what is but the latest in a long series of
kidnappings and forced conversions of underaged minority girls, often obtained
under threat and after sexual violence,” the report adds.
Samra was subsequently forced into Islam and forced to marry her
abductor. Her family rushed to the local police station on learning what
happened. Police refused to open a case and instead mocked and insulted
the distraught family. After two days of continued pleadings from the
family and local Christian leaders, police arrested Muhammad—only to release
him an hour later, in part due to pressure from Islamic clerics. According to
Samra’s father, “Muhammad Ramiz had long set his sights on Christian girls and
teased them. When they told him to stop, he used abusive language against them.
When we were not at home, he abducted our underage girl. About ten days have
passed and no one has been arrested.” Discussing this and other like
incidents, a human rights activist said ,
“According to the law, no minor girl can be converted to any other religion but
here no one has courage to challenge the radicals who are committing such
crimes.” “Sometimes courts seem to be more supportive of perpetrators,”
another family representative said . “For
example, in Samra’s case, the girl is 14, a juvenile who cannot be married; yet
police deliberately wrote in their report that she is between 15 and 16 years.
We will also challenge this aspect during the trial.”
Attacks on and Hostility for
Muslim Converts to Christianity
United Kingdom : Around mid-September,
police announced that
they would be taking no action against a Muslim man who had earlier threatened
to sodomize any Muslim who dares convert to Christianity. Zaheer Hussain,
41, made a video , which
subsequently went viral, while chatting with a laughing companion.
Speaking to the camera, Hussain said:
Bro,
listen… any motherf**er wants to convert to f**king Christianity, we’re both
gonna f**k you up the a**, you under-f**king-stand? … We’re gonna f**ck you up
the a** [moves his pelvis in a sexual act]…. Why you f**king converting
for, you motherf**kers? Huh? Why you f**cking — why would you want to become
Christian? You f**king baptizing sh*t motherf**kers. Ah [mocking sound]
“in the Lord of Jesus”…
The
above was spoken in English, of a sort, though extended portions of his tirade
were in a foreign (likely Pakistani) language. “It frightens me now to identify
myself as a Christian to someone that I don’t know,” said the
Christian woman from Preston who reported Hussain to police; “[it’s] sad that I
have to hide my religion… His threats to sexually assault those who
convert to Christianity is the heart of hate speech…. I’m genuinely
concerned for the welfare of the public who may not be aware of his extreme
views.” Regardless, and despite the UK’s anti-hate-speech laws,
police took
no action , even though, as one report notes:
Hussain’s
generous treatment by the authorities contrasts sharply with that meted out to
Scottish comedian Markus Meechan … who was arrested, charged, and
convicted in a trial without a jury for causing gross offence with a viral
video in which he trained his girlfriend’s pug dog to imitate the “least cute
thing that I could think of, which is a Nazi.”
Uganda : After the Muslim-in-laws of a widowed
mother learned that she had converted to Christianity, they attacked her
and her children, and drove them away from their home. 54-year-old Lezia
Nakayiza’s problems began when her 8-year-old “told one of the relatives of the
wonderful choir at church, and that we have been attending the church since
March. This was the beginning of our persecution,” she said .
It was not long before a “Christian neighbor informed me that the family was
planning to attack us.” Soon thereafter, and “by the light from
moonlight, I peeped through the window and saw many people approaching our
house with sticks and other weapons with loud noise from the animals’
shed.” She heard them shouting , “Away
with this infidel!” Nakayiza and her children managed to escape from the
backdoor. Afterwards, “We walked on foot for two hours and arrived at the
church compound around 11 p.m., and we were received by the pastor.” On
the following day, the pastor learned of the “ huge
destruction ” her deceased husband’s brothers visited on her home, including
“five cows and six sheep killed, iron sheets pulled down, windows and doors
destroyed…. The family has to be relocated to another place,” the
pastor added . “Life
for them is so hard. The children are out of school. They are very fearful of
their lives. Even the church is at risk from the relatives who are radical
Muslims. Our church is still too small to support the family.” Last
reported, Nakayiza was offering to wash people’s clothes and/or work their land
to earn enough for the basic necessities of her children, four of which are
aged 15, 13, 11, and 8. “What we are going through at the moment is
almost unbearable,” she said .
Iran : The Islamic republic denied two
sons (17 and 15) of an imprisoned Christian pastor their high school diplomas,
until such time that they complete Islamic education first. Their father,
Yousef Nadarkhani, made headlines in 2009, when he was first arrested for
protesting Iran’s educational requirement that all students study the
Koran. The government responded by arresting him, a convert to
Christianity, and charging him with the death penalty for apostasy. Due
to international pressure, he was released in 2012—only to be arrested again in
2016. He is currently serving
a 10 year sentence.
Contempt for Churches and
Crosses
Turkey : “A local municipality in Trabzon
(northern Turkey) has ruled that architectural elements of houses which resemble
crosses will not be tolerated,” says a report :
This
decision follows an investigation which opened last December following
complaints that the balconies of certain villas in the village resembled
crosses. Photos show that houses had two levels and a cross shape divided the
houses into four quadrants. Multiple complaints from primarily local Arab
families led the houses to be destroyed on the basis of their architecture
incorporating the cross…. [T]he situation is not unusual. In other
locations, such as Gaziantep and Ankara, buildings have been renovated so that
the cross shaped architecture is no longer visible.
Separately,
on September 18, a hooded man approached and threatened the
Church of St. Paul in Antalya, Turkey. The incident occurred as
representatives from three churches were meeting together, in part to prepare
for celebrations of the 20th anniversary of their cultural center’s founding.
According to the report,
The
man became verbally abusive, and made threats of physical attacks. The
identity of the man is unknown, and he was careful to keep his face hidden from
security cameras. … The man was shouting that he would take great pleasure in
destroying the Christians, as he viewed them as a type of parasitism on Turkey.
Police are investigating the incident. Hate speech is one of the primary
challenges facing Turkish Christians, who are often viewed as traitors to their
country since they have left Islam. While violent persecution attacks are rare,
the increase of hate speech throughout Turkey does cause alarm of what it may
foreshadow in the future.
A
separate study published
in Armenian in
September found that there were a total of 6,517 incidents of hate speech in
Turkish media in 2018. The two peoples most targeted were Jews and
Armenians, followed by Syrians, Greeks, and other Christian groups.
Iran : The government removed tax exemption
status from all non-Muslim institutions. According to one report ,
The
Tehran City Council will no longer consider churches and synagogues as eligible
for tax exemption… Before this decision, these non-Islamic institutions were
eligible for tax exemption so long as they were purely religious in nature. The
city’s decision has been heavily criticized by Assyrian [Christian]
parliamentarians… Iran’s constitution recognizes the freedom of religious
practice only for those who can prove that their families belonged to certain
non-Muslim faiths prior to the 1979 revolution. These [sic] means that,
technically, Assyrian and Armenian Christians should have some (albeit limited)
freedom of religious expression. The reality, however, is that Iran does not
follow its own laws. All Christian groups, as well as other religious
minorities, face heavy persecution from the authorities.
Algeria : Authorities shut down two
more church buildings . On September 24, eight police officers arrived at the
Church of Boghni, and sealed off the Protestant church’s doors and
windows. “I was surprised when one of the police officers contacted me to
meet them at the site where our church is,” Pastor Chergui explained . “I had
not received any notice; they went straight to proceed with the closure by
sealing. They could have warned us before; why didn’t they?” The building
had served two separate churches—Pastor Chergui’s congregation of 190 members,
and another Protestant church of nearly 200 members from a neighboring
village. Police left a note explaining
that they closed down the building because it was being “illegally used … to
celebrate non-Muslim worship.” A separate report discussing
this same closure elaborates on the law being cited:
Since
November 2017, the government has been engaged in a systematic campaign against
Christians. EPA-affiliated churches [the Protestant Church of Algeria] have
been challenged to prove that they have licenses according to the requirement
of a 2006 ordinance regulating non-Muslim worship. These regulations stipulate
that all places of non-Muslim worship must be licenced. However, the government
has yet to issue any licence for a church buildings under this ordinance,
ignoring applications from churches to regularise their status in accordance
with the ordinance.
This
closure raises the number of sealed church buildings affiliated with the EPA,
to eight. Another four church groups have been ordered to cease all activities.
In at least two cases, authorities have pressured the landlords renting to
churches to deny Christians access to the premises.
Separately,
on September 26—just two days after the closure of the Church of
Boghni—authorities sealed off another
church which had served 70, mostly elderly, people; it also
functioned as a Bible school. “They told us that they are giving us time to
clear useful objects out before they come back to seal it,” church leader Ali
Zerdoud said the
day before. “I can only say one thing: This is an injustice.”
General Discrimination against
Christians
Egypt : Coptic Solidarity, a human rights
group, took several initiatives in
September—particularly by contacting the
Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as “FIFA”—to
draw attention to the fact that Christian soccer players in Egypt are regularly
discriminated against. Although Christians are about 10 percent of
Egypt’s population, not a single player on the national and reserves teams is a
Christian, Coptic Solidarity noted in
a September 17 letter sent to the Normalization Committee of the Egyptian
Football Association, a portion of which follows:
CS
has received dozens of reports of discrimination from Coptic footballers in
Egypt, indicating systematic discrimination against them based solely on faith,
which prevents them from reaching the highest levels of competition. In
response, CS published a report titled Discrimination
Against Copts in Egyptian Sport Clubs , which we also submitted
to FIFA by email and via the online complaints mechanism.
The
report contains an overview of the widespread discrimination against Copts in
football including ample sources and testimonies by moderate Muslims
corroborating reality of the ongoing discrimination. It also includes a
sampling of 25 of the cases reported to Coptic Solidarity by Coptic
footballers.
The
Egyptian Olympic Mission to Brazil in 2016 was completely devoid of Copts, and
the same applies to the Egyptian national team at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Not a single Copt can be found on either the main team or the reserve. There
are currently 540 players in the top-flight soccer clubs in Egypt, and that number
includes only one Coptic footballer.
Canada : The government’s immigration department
sought to deport a
refugee family—a mother and three children—that had fled their native country
of Nigeria after they were attacked and threatened with death for leaving Islam
and converting to Christianity. “They ran because her mother wrote her
[daughter] a letter saying that she is very disappointed that she is a
Christian, but she must run because her father wants to kill [her] to become
higher in the organization,” a family spokesperson said .
“They face a ‘fatwa’ (a pronouncement of death) against them for converting to
Christianity from Islam. They believe they face certain death if they are
returned to Nigeria. They are quite fearful.” According to the report,
“Ironically, both Hephzibah and Rejoice [two of the children, 14 and 10
respectively] were featured in a CBC News photograph with Canada’s Prime
Minister Trudeau, with an accompanying caption saying they were his supporters.
In reality, they and a spokesperson for the family had delivered a plea to Trudeau
in person when he appeared in Niagara-on-the-Lake last month.”
Supporters
of the family said the
government was not taking the time to establish the family’s humanitarian
status or perform a proper risk assessment. “They’re trying to boot
[them] out of the country before then.” The family’s current status
is unclear.
Note: Click
here for previous monthly reports of Muslim Persecution of
Christians, going back to July 2011.
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