Bombed, Burned, and Urinated On: Churches Under Islam
Muslim Persecution of Christians, January 2015

by Raymond Ibrahim • March 2, 2016 at 6:00 am

When Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for U.S. military efforts against ISIS, was asked about the status of Christians in Iraq soon after the monastery's destruction, he replied "We've seen no specific evidence of a specific targeting toward Christians."
Kuwait lawmaker Ahmad Al-Azemi said that he and other MPs will reject an initially approved request to build churches because it "contradicts Islamic sharia laws." He added that Islamic scholars are unanimous in banning the building of non-Muslim places of worship in the Arabian Peninsula.
"We have little hope left that there can be a future for us, Aramean Christians, to stay in the land of our forefathers." -- Fr. Yusuf, head the last Christian family to flee Diyarbakir, Turkey.
Yet another Christian girl in Pakistan was abducted by a group of Muslim men, forced to convert to Islam, and, at the age of 15, marry one of her kidnappers.

Left: The Assemblies of God Assyrian church in Tehran, Iran. The church was illegally confiscated two years ago by the regime, which now wants to convert it into a mosque. Right: On January 7, vandals damaged, robbed, and wrote jihadi slogans on the Light Church in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Iraq: The Islamic State blew up the country's oldest Christian monastery, St. Elijah's. The 27,000-square-foot building had stood near Mosul for 14 centuries. For several years, prior to 2009, U.S. soldiers protected and sometimes used the monastery as a chapel. "Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled," reported a Roman Catholic priest in Irbil. "We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, [and] eliminating and finishing our existence in this land." Yet, when Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for America's military efforts against ISIS, was asked about the status of Christians in Iraq soon after the monastery's destruction, he replied, "We've seen no specific evidence of a specific targeting toward Christians."