"Be Cursed Forever": Extremist Persecution of Christians, January 2018

by Raymond Ibrahim • August 5, 2018 at 5:00 am

"Nigeria security has declared war against Christians in this country." — Pastor Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa, executive director of Voice of Northern Christian Movement, Nigeria.
While uncritically taking in and conferring refugee status on countless Muslim migrants, European authorities continued singling out those most in need of sanctuary for deportation.
"Afghanistan is not a safe place for a Christian convert. The Court should ask Switzerland to stop turning a blind eye to the situation of religious minorities in Afghanistan... Sending a refugee back to a country where they face persecution because of their faith is incompatible with the Convention." — AFD International.

The Christian legal group ADF International filed an expert brief with the European Court of Human Rights in support of a Muslim man from Afghanistan who converted to Christianity and who risked being deported from Switzerland. Afghanistan is not a safe place for a Christian convert," it said. "The Court should ask Switzerland to stop turning a blind eye to the situation of religious minorities in Afghanistan..." (Image source: Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons)

The Slaughter of Christians in Egypt

Three masked gunmen targeted and killed Bassem Attallah, a Christian man, 27, after identifying him as a Christian by the cross tattoo on his wrist. According to his older brother, Osama, 38, the siblings and a Muslim colleague, Muhammad, were walking home after work when three armed men, aged between 23 and 25 stopped them. "We thought they were policemen because they weren't masked... They were wearing black jackets," Osama recalled. "They approached us and asked Bassem to show them the wrist of his right hand, and when they saw the tattoo of the cross, they asked him: 'Are you Christian?' Bassem answered 'Yes, I am Christian,' and repeated that again in a loud voice."

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Hijab Chronicles

by Majid Rafizadeh • August 5, 2018 at 4:00 am

"Will Allah hang me from my hair? The religious and Quran teacher at our school told us in class that if we show our hair in public, God will hang us from our hair in the afterlife and torture us for infinity."
Many Muslim women, including members of my own family, are afraid to take off their hijab, even though they are adults and who may not be religious anymore, and may even live in a place where they are allowed to take off their hijab. The fear of displaying their hair, and the consequences they could face physically and spiritually still haunt them and influence the choices they make in their every day life.
My sister is still afraid to take off her hijab because of those horrifying stories that the radical Islamic teachers taught her when she was tiny....I still hope for a day when my sister will have a good night's sleep, when the little girls who are sitting in those same classrooms, their minds filled with horrifying scenes, will one day feel safe to uncover their hair, and safe to lay down their heads at night. Until then, I will not rest, either.

Pictured: A woman (right) who was beaten up by "morality police" in Iran for not wearing a hijab, lies on the ground, cradled by another woman. (Image source: WhiteWednesdays video screenshot via Masih Alinejad/YouTube)

Last month, an Iranian court ordered Shaparak Shajarizadeh, 43, to prison for two years, with 18 years' probation, for removing her headscarf in public.

In our childhood in Iran, my sister's screams would cut through the silence of our home at night. Nightmares would wake her and leave her too terrified to go back to sleep. We all encouraged her to share her fears; she would always refuse. On the night she finally opened up, her entire body was shaking with fear.

Afraid to ask the question out loud, my sister, then nine years old, whispered: "Will Allah hang me from my hair? The religious and Quran teacher at our school told us in class that if we show our hair in public, God will hang us from our hair in the afterlife and torture us for infinity. He will resurrect us if we die and then torture us again," she was sobbing. "I went to the grocery store and forgot to wear my hijab. Will He torture me for infinity?"

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