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by Raymond Ibrahim
• January 2, 2015 at 5:00 am
A court
in Pakistan upheld the death penalty for Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of
four. She is accused of having made derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbors
objected to her drinking water from their glass, because she was not a Muslim
and therefore "unclean."
A
successful Christian school in the United Kingdom was warned that it would be
downgraded by inspectors and might even face closure after failing to invite
a leader from another religion, such as a Muslim imam, to lead assemblies.
"A Government consultation paper... makes clear that even taking
children on trips to different places of worship would not be enough to be
judged compliant."
"They
then told me that since I refused to [convert to Islam] they would kill
me.... They pinned me down and told me they will make death painful and slow,
as they are not prepared to waste bullets on me. They said, 'Be warned that
if any of you Muslims dares to assist him, he is also an infidel and we shall
make sure that he too is killed.'" — Adamu, a Christian; Nigeria.
They are
searching [for me] to cut my throat. When I go to mass, I say I am going to
English classes because I plan to travel." — "Tarek," a
convert to Christianity in Lebanon.
The
police, far from interfering, actually incited the Muslim man.
"With
no one on hand to know what is going on, it's easier to mistreat them."
— Jason Demars, President, Present Truth Ministries.
About
100,000 Christians die every year because of their religious beliefs. — The
Center for the Studies of Global Christianity in the United States.
In just two months, from August to October, nearly 200 Christian
churches were destroyed in Nigeria by the Islamic organization Boko Haram and
its Muslim allies, after their capture of towns and villages in the
north-eastern states of Borno and Adamawa. In the words of Reverend Gideon
Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese
in Borno State: "The group's seizure of territory in both states has
seen 185 churches torched and over 190,000 people displaced by their
insurgency."
Obasogie added that Boko Haram's "ransacking and torching" of
churches was "sad, heart-aching and potentially dangerous to the
territorial integrity and common good of Nigeria.... Our priests are
displaced, while citizens... are counting their losses and regrets as they
have been reduced to the status of Internally Displaced Persons [IDP]. Where
is the freedom?... Life is really terribly difficult."
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