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Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2012
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The war on Christianity and its adherents
rages on in the Muslim world. In March alone, Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic
law authority decreed that churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis
in Nigeria said they "are going to put into action new efforts to strike
fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their
women"; American teachers in the Middle East were murdered for talking
about Christianity; churches were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by
knife-wielding Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested,
imprisoned, and killed for allegedly "blaspheming" Islam's prophet
Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and
killed for converting to Christianity.
To understand why all this persecution is
virtually unknown in the West, consider the mainstream media's
well-documented biases: also in March alone, the New
York Times ran a virulently anti-Catholic ad, but refused to publish
a near identical ad directed at Islam; the BBC
admitted it will mock Jesus but never Muhammad; and U.S.
sitcoms were exposed for bashing Christianity, but never Islam.
Is it any wonder, then, that this same
mainstream media ignores or at best whitewashes
the nonstop persecution of Christians under Islam? Exposing such ugly truths
would undermine their narrative of Islam as the "religion of
peace."
Categorized by theme, March's batch of Muslim
persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to)
the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not
severity:
Apostasy, Blasphemy, and
Proselytism: Death and Prison
Egypt: A Christian man accused of
insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad was sentenced
to six years in prison. Though "defamation of religion" is a
misdemeanor under Egyptian law, punishable by a prison sentence of one month
to three years, the judge doubled the sentence to appease Muslims, including
an angry 2,500-strong mob that terrorized the
courtroom, demanding death for the Christian. Likewise, an "anti-Christianization
course" by an organization that is "specializing in the
resistance to Christianity"—so Muslims are not "throw[n] under the
feet of the Cross"—was initiated; according to an instructor,
"Reoccurring attempts at the university in Aswan to convert Muslims to
Christianity or provoke them with misleading information was the drive behind
the course."
India: A young woman was attacked and
kicked out of her home "for daring to give thanks for healing in
Christ's name" in a predominantly Muslim village; "her
parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious."
In a village where "hard-line Muslims have threatened to kill the 25
families who initially showed interest in Christ, leaving only five
frightened Christian families," the woman was attacked when returning
from church, called "pagan, among other verbal abuse." The mob also
harassed and threatened the Christian woman who "lured" her to
convert to Christianity.
Iran: In a rare
crackdown on a concentrated area, authorities arrested 12 more converts
to Christianity living in Isfahan, the country's third largest city, in what
is seen as a tactic to discourage Muslims from attending official churches. Among
the latest known Christian converts detained in the Isfahan area is a man
who was reportedly taken into custody on March 2 while returning home from
his work: "Security authorities raided his home and seized him without
explanation."
Iraq: An American
teacher was shot to death by an 18-year-old student at a private
Christian academy. He "was a devout Christian who frequently praised
Christianity and prayed in the classroom, and his friends in Washington said
his evangelism is what motivated him to teach in Iraq." According to students,
"Mr. Jeremiah's hands were still folded in prayer when he fell";
others say a day before the shooting "a heated discussion" broke
out "during which the pupil threatened to kill the teacher because of
conflicting religious views." In an interview, the father of the pupil condemned Christian
evangelists, portraying them as "more dangerous than al-Qaeda."
Malaysia: After religious police
raided a Methodist church event due to "fears that Muslims were being
converted," Muslim officials created a seminar called
"Strengthening the faith, the dangers of liberalism and pluralism and the
threat of Christianity towards Muslims." Due to criticism of the
title, a lawmaker said the reference to Christianity would be removed, but
the seminar's content would remain unchanged: "The seminar is part of
the right of Muslims to defend the faith of its practitioners from any action
which may lead to apostasy. It is our responsibility."
Pakistan: A Muslim
mob attacked a 60-year-old Christian woman who had converted to Islam,
only to reconvert back to Christianity six months later: she "was
tortured—her head shaved—and paraded through the streets, garlanded with
shoes." Soon after, she received more threats of "dire
consequences" from Islamic clerics, fleeing the region with her family.
Likewise, a 26-year-old Christian woman, mother to a five-month-old girl, was
falsely accused
of "blaspheming" Muhammad and arrested. A few days prior, some
of her relatives who converted to Islam pressured her also to do likewise:
"She refused, telling them that she was satisfied
with Christianity and did not want to convert," and was arrested of
blasphemy soon thereafter.
Yemen: Al-Qaeda gunmen fatally
shot an American teacher. The terror network's affiliate in Yemen issued
a message saying, "This operation comes as a response to the
campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against
Muslims," calling the teacher "one of the biggest American
proselytizers." He was shot eight times on a Sunday.
Church Attacks
Bethlehem: One week after the prime
minister of the Palestinian Authority told an audience of Evangelicals that
his government respected the rights of its Christian minorities, the PA
declared a Baptist Church illegal, adding that birth, wedding, and death
certificates from the church are no longer valid. A pastor notes that
"animosity towards the Christian minority in areas controlled by the PA
continues to get increasingly worse. People are always telling [Christians],
'Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. It's the true and right religion.'"
Egypt: Some 1500 Muslims—several armed
with swords and knives and shouting Islamic slogans—terrorized the Notre Dame
Language School in Upper Egypt, in response to calls from local mosques
falsely claiming the private school was building a church: "Two
nuns were besieged in the school's guesthouse for some eight hours by a
murderous mob threatening to burn them alive"; one nun suffered a
"major nervous breakdown requiring hospitalization… The entire property
was ransacked and looted. The next day the Muslims returned and terrorized
the children. Consequently, school attendance has dropped by at least one
third."
Iran: The Armenian Evangelical Church
in Tehran is the latest church to be ordered
to cease holding Persian service on Fridays. The officers serving the
notice threatened church officials, saying that "if the order is
ignored, the church building will be bombed 'as happens in Iraq every
day.'" As another
report summarizes, "Christians and Churches in the Islamic Republic
of Iran are now banned from preaching the Gospel to non-Christians, holding
Persian language services, teaching and distributing the Bible, or holding
Christian classes."
Iraq: Though Kirkuk's church was
recently restored after an earlier bomb attack that killed a 13-year-old
Christian boy, the "reopening celebration was but a brief respite in the
ongoing suffering of Iraq's Christian community, signaled by two further
attacks": Another
church in Baghdad was bombed, killing two guards and wounding five, and
the body of a Christian was "found riddled with bullets in Mosul. He had
been shot nine times at close range. The freelance photographer had been
kidnapped four days earlier. Iraqi Christians are often targeted by
kidnappers for ransom."
Kenya: A band of Muslims launched a
grenade attack on a crowd of 150 Christians attending an outdoor church
meeting, killing two and wounding more than 30. "Human-rights groups say
that the Muslim attackers were hyped into action by a militant Muslim
preacher holding an alternate rally only 900 feet from the Christian
gathering. Further reports say that the Muslim preachers were slandering
Christianity and that members of the Christian group could hear the Muslim
speakers."
Nigeria: A Boko Haram suicide car
bomber attacked
a Catholic church, killing at least 10 people. The bomb detonated as
worshippers attended Mass at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city
where thousands of Christians have died in the last decade as a result of
Boko Haram's jihad, and where another
church was attacked, killing three, less than two weeks earlier.
Saudi Arabia: the Grand Mufti of Saudi
Arabia, one of the Islamic world's highest religious authorities, declared
that it is "necessary
to destroy all the churches of the region." He made his assertion in
response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait, where a parliament
member recently called for the "removal" of all churches: the
delegation wanted to confirm Sharia's position on churches with the Grand
Mufti, who "stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula,
and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it," basing his
verdict on a saying (or hadith) of Muhammad.
Sudan: Sudanese aerial
strikes were aimed at church buildings in various regions. Churches in
the Nuba Mountains are holding worship services very early in the morning and
late in the evening to avoid aerial bombardments intentionally targeting
their churches. The Khartoum regime is "doing everything possible to
make sure they get rid of Christianity from the Nuba Mountains—churches and
church schools are the targets of both the Sudanese Armed Forces and its
militias," said an aid worker.
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse, Debasement, and
Suppression of non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Denmark: In a Muslim ghetto in
Copenhagen, a refugee from Africa had his door kicked-in several times and
was threatened by a group of "youths" who accused him of being
"both
black and Christian," and tried to extort money from him. Police
said they could not guarantee his safety, and he was eventually found in
tears living in the streets.
Egypt: In Minya province, Christian
families are "living in terror" since Salafis
threatened to kidnap any Christian girl not wearing the hijab; parents
are keeping their daughters indoors, missing school. Likewise, a Christian boy was
abducted, his kidnappers demanding a large ransom from his family. And a
court in Edfu sentenced the pastor of a church that was torched
by Muslims to six months in prison for violating the height of the church
building, further ordering the removal of the excess height. The church had
received a license and was still under construction when it was torched
by a Muslim mob in September.
Iran: After complaints about the
display of Christmas trees and Santa Clauses in the streets of Tehran during
the Christmas season, an official warned that the municipality will begin to seize
such symbols: "Building facades in Tehran should be controlled by
the municipality and the display of such symbols should not be allowed."
Iraq: Christians
are running out of havens as rising security concerns and economic
hardship cause them to leave the places of refuge they had found in the
country's Kurdish north. The sort of attacks that initiated a mass exodus of
Christians from Baghdad and Mosul are increasingly occurring in the
autonomous region of Kurdistan, which once "welcomed Christians and was
relatively safe." A Christian who fled there from Mosul seven years ago
after retrieving his son from kidnappers said it is like history
"repeating itself."
Nigeria: The Islamist organization
Boko Haram declared "war"
on Christians, saying it aims to "annihilate the entire Christian
community living in the northern parts of the country." According to a
spokesman, "We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence
in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able
to stay." Along with constant church bombings—most recently on Easter,
killing nearly 50—one of the groups new strategies is "to strike fear
into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women."
Pakistan: Two Christian hospital
employees were abducted
by "Islamic extremists": "Such cases are on the rise, as
banned Islamist groups and other criminal gangs are turning to kidnappings for
ransom in order to survive and procure weapons and ammunition," said a
senior investigator, adding that most Islamist groups believe that Christian
NGOs are involved in evangelizing "under the guise of charity,"
giving more incentive to abuse them.
Sudan: Over half a million people,
mostly Christian and originally from South Sudan, have been stripped of citizenship
in response to the South's secession, and forced to relocate: "Sudanese
Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated
as foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that
the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic. 'We are
very concerned. Moving is not easy ... people have children in school. They
have homes ... It is almost impossible,' said a Catholic bishop."
Syria: The nation where many Iraqi
Christians fled to as a haven is slowly
becoming like Iraq, as thousands
of Syrian Christians continue to flee to nearby Lebanon. "Al-Faruq
Battalion, which is affiliated with the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), is
imposing
jizya (an extra tax imposed on non-Muslims living under Muslim rule) on
Christians in Homs Governorate" and "armed men … threaten to kidnap
or kill them or members of their families if they refuse to "pay Islamic
taxes"—precisely what has been taking place in next door Iraq.
Turkey: The U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom named Turkey—formerly hailed for its
freedoms—as "one
of the world's worst violators of religious freedom," due to its
treatment of Christian and other minority groups. The report said that
restrictions on non-Muslim communities, such as limiting their right to train
clergy and own places of worship, "have led to their decline, and in
some cases, their virtual disappearance," further noting "an increased
number of attacks, ranging from harassment and vandalism to death threats,
against Protestant churches and individuals in 2011 compared to 2010."
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the
Islamic world is on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, "Muslim
Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means
all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two
purposes:
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of
persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for
churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced
conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu
of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed
"dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and
murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span
different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to
India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it
should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict
application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond
Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center
and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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