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Islamic Forced Conversions - Past and Present
The lost history of Christians forced to convert
to Islam—or die—is reemerging, figuratively and literally. According to the BBC: "Pope
Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony
[last Sunday] at the Vatican—a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity
carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.They were beheaded in the southern
Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam."
The BBC adds in a sidebar: "The 'Martyrs of
Otranto' were 813 Italians beheaded for defying demands by Turkish invaders
to renounce Christianity. The Turks had been sent by Mohammed II, who had
already captured the 'second Rome' of Constantinople."
Historical texts throughout the centuries are
filled with similar anecdotes, including the "60 Martyrs of Gaza,"
Christian soldiers who were executed for refusing Islam during the 7th
century Islamic invasion of Jerusalem. Seven centuries later, during the Islamic invasion of Georgia, Christians refusing to
convert were forced into their church and set on fire. Witnesses
for Christ lists 200 anecdotes of Christians killed—including some
burned at the stake, thrown on iron spikes, dismembered, stoned, stabbed,
shot at, drowned, pummeled to death, impaled and crucified—for refusing to
embrace Islam.
If history is shocking, the fact is, today,
Christians—men, women, and children—are still being forced to convert
to Islam. Pope Francis alluded
to their sufferings during the same ceremony: "As we venerate the
martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in
these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence,
and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good."
Consider some recent anecdotes:
In Pakistan, a "devoted Christian" was
butchered
by Muslim men "with multiple axe blows [24 per autopsy] for refusing
to convert to Islam." Another two Christian men returning from church
were accosted by six Muslims who tried to force
them to convert to Islam, but "the two refused to renounce
Christianity."
Accordingly, the Muslims severely beat them, yelling they
must either convert "or be prepared to die. . . . the two Christians
fell unconscious, and the young Muslim men left assuming they had killed
them."
In Bangladesh some 300 Christian children were
abducted in 2012 and sold to Islamic schools, where "imams
force them to abjure Christianity." The children are then instructed
in Islam and beaten. After full indoctrination they are asked if they are
"ready to give their lives for Islam," presumably by becoming
jihadi suicide-bombers. (Even here the historic patterns are undeniable: for
centuries, Christian children were forcibly taken, converted to and
indoctrinated in Islam, trained to be jihadis extraordinaire, and then
unleashed on their former Christian families. Such were the Janissaries and
Mamelukes.)
In Palestine in 2012, Christians in Gaza
protested over the "kidnappings
and forced conversions of some former believers to Islam." The
ever-dwindling Christian community banged on a church bellwhile
chanting, "With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice
ourselves for you, Jesus."
Just as happened throughout history, Muslims
today regularly "invite" Christians to Islam, often presenting it
as the only cure to their sufferings—sufferings caused by Muslims in the
first place.
In Pakistan, a Christian couple was arrested on
a false charge and severely beaten by police. The pregnant wife was "punched, kicked
and beat" as her interrogators threatened to kill her unborn baby. A
policeman offered to drop the theft charge if the husband would only "renounce
Christianity and convert to Islam," but the man refused.
In Uzbekistan, a 26-year-old Christian woman,
partially paralyzed from youth, and her elderly mother were violently
attacked by invaders who ransacked their home, confiscating "icons,
Bibles, religious calendars, and prayer books." At the police
department, the paralyzed woman was "offered
to convert to Islam." She refused, and the judge "decided that
the women had resisted police and had stored the banned religious literature
at home and conducted missionary activities. He fined them 20 minimum monthly
wages each."
In Sudan, Muslims kidnapped a 15-year-old
Christian girl; they raped, beat and ordered her to convert to Islam. When
her mother went to police to open a case, the Muslim officer of the so-called
"Family and Child Protection Unit," told her: "You must convert
to Islam if you want your daughter back."
Indeed, because Christian females are the most
vulnerable segments of Islamic societies, they are especially targeted for
forced conversions. In 2012, U.S. Congress heard testimony about the
"escalating abduction, coerced
conversion and forced marriage of Coptic Christian women and girls [550
cases in the last five years alone].Those women are being terrorized and,
consequently, marginalized, in the formation of the new Egypt."
As my new book Crucified
Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians documents, wherever
there are large numbers of Muslims—whether in the Arab World, Africa, Asia,
or even in the West—Christians are being persecuted. Forced conversions are
the tip of the iceberg, and certainly not anomalies of history.
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Thursday, May 16, 2013
Islamic Forced Conversions - Past and Present :: Ibrahim in The Blaze
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