Christian Persecution Worse Than Any Time in History

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This first article is an older one, but I'm posting it as an introduction to what's to follow. 




CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION AND GENOCIDE IS WORSE NOW THAN “ANY TIME IN HISTORY,” REPORT SAYS

BY CRISTINA MAZA ON 1/4/18 AT 11:42 AM EST


A member of the Syrian Arab-Kurdish forces places a cross in the rubble ahead of a Christmas celebration at the heavily damaged Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs in Raqqa, Syria. The persecution and genocide of Christians across the world is worse today “than at any time in history,” and Western governments are failing to stop it, a report from a Catholic organization said.



The persecution and genocide of Christians across the world is worse today “than at any time in history,” and Western governments are failing to stop it, a report from a Catholic organization said.



The study by Aid to the Church in Need said the treatment of Christians has worsened substantially in the past two years compared with the two years prior, and has grown more violent than any other period in modern times.



“Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith group, but ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of persecution,” the report said.



The report examined the plight of Christians in China, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkey over the period lasting from 2015 until 2017. The research showed that in that time, Christians suffered crimes against humanity, and some were hanged or crucified. The report found that Saudi Arabia was the only country where the situation for Christians did not get worse, and that was only because the situation couldn’t get any worse than it already was.



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A member of the Syrian Arab-Kurdish forces places a cross in the rubble ahead of a Christmas celebration at the heavily damaged Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs in Raqqa, Syria. The persecution and genocide of Christians across the world is worse today “than at any time in history,” and Western governments are failing to stop it, a report from a Catholic organization said.

GETTY IMAGES



The authors criticized the administration of President Donald Trump for not holding Saudi Arabia accountable for its human rights violations and instead focusing on the trade relationship between the two nations. In May 2017, Trump signed a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia during his first overseas trip in office.



The report put special focus on Middle Eastern countries like Iraq and Syria, where the authors argued Christians would have been entirely wiped out if it weren’t for military action and the assistance of Christian humanitarian organizations, like Aid to the Church in Need.



“The defeat of Daesh [the Islamic State militant group] and other Islamists in major strongholds of the Middle East offers the last hope of recovery for Christian groups threatened with extinction,” the report found. “Many would not survive another similar violent attack.”


The report, which was released in November 2017 but received renewed attention this week, is based on research in the countries and testimony from victims. It detailed attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt and monasteries burned in Syria.



In Africa, the report focused on countries like Sudan, where the government ordered that churches be destroyed, and Nigeria, where ISIS-affiliated groups like Boko Haram have led a surge in attacks on Christians. In Eritrea, hundreds of Christians have been rounded up and imprisoned over the past year because of their faith.



The report also documented numerous case studies in which Christians in countries such as India and Nigeria were murdered or beaten for practicing their faith.


“A Christian pastor in India was left in a coma after being beaten in a ‘planned’ attack apparently carried out by Hindutva extremists,” the report noted. “Before slipping into unconsciousness, the pastor told police that the attack was religiously motivated.”



“You must never come to our village to pray. You should never enter our village,” the men told the pastor, according to the report.



In late October, Vice President Mike Pence pledged that the Trump administration would redirect aid money formerly given to the United Nations to the U.S. Agency for International Development, a move that was meant to appease Christian organizations that say the U.N. isn’t doing enough for persecuted Christians.



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Islamic Militants Attack Christian Village in the Congo


3/19/2019 Democratic Republic of Congo (International Christian Concern) – Islamic militants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) attacked the dominantly Christian village of Kalau in the North Kivu province, killing six Christians. Over the course of four hours during the night, the villagers fled for their lives from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The civilians fled to Beni, which is seven miles away in order to seek shelter and safety. In total, an estimated 470 families evacuated their homes following the incident.



The ADF is a group that was designed to overthrow the Ugandan government in the 90’s and replace it with an Islamic regime. The group has been known for associating with other terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda. They are responsible for thousands of deaths throughout Uganda and eastern DRC.



Open Doors reports that the ADF attempted to infiltrate the village under the guise of being security agents. Some youth in the village were dubious of the claims and warned the villagers. The militants proceeded to shoot the village leader’s guard dogs and then opened fire on the locals. The ADF did not discriminate who to shoot, and three women and a child were victims of the attack.


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10 Churches in Ethiopia Targeted In Single Day


3/23/19 Ethiopia (International Christian Concern)- Christian residents of Halaba Kulito, a predominately Muslim town in southern Ethiopia, were stunned on February 9 when ten local churches and property inside were burned and destroyed. An incited Muslim crowed burned the belongings of ten churches of eight different denominations, completely destroying one church. No Christians were targeted in the attacks and only a small number sustained injuries, as the crowd focused their attention on the burning of Bibles and furniture.



Nearly 10,000 Christians gathered between the ten churches that were targeted in early February according to Morning Star News. Despite all the destruction, all of the congregations gathered the following day for worship. Police reported that there were security officers provided to each of the churches that experienced attacks. Several assailants were detained by police and are set to be tried.



Attacks like this have not been common in Ethiopia recently. In this incident there were no major injuries but the churches and their congregants continue to recover and attempt to replace what was lost.


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Over the past five weeks, Muslims have slaughtered over 140 Christians and destroyed 160 houses. Media refuses to cover this genocide.






ANOTHER 10 CHRISTIANS KILLED IN KADUNA STATE AS CARNAGE CONTINUES IN NIGERIA, SOURCES SAY

Muslim Fulani attacks on Saturday follow a month that saw 130 people slain. By Our Nigeria Correspondent

Kaduna state, Nigeria. (Wikipedia)



JOS, Nigeria, March 18, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 10 Christians in southern Kaduna state, Nigeria on Saturday (March 16), bringing the lives lost in the past five weeks to 140 with 160 houses destroyed, sources said.



“We were all asleep in our various homes when at about 4 a.m. [Saturday], we heard gunshots everywhere in my village,” Amos Samuel, 40, of Nandu Gbok village in Sanga County told Morning Star News. “Everyone ran out of their homes to escape from the Fulani herdsmen. Three hours after the herdsmen left, those of us who survived the attack returned to the village to find that our houses were destroyed and 10 of our villagers killed.”



About 30 houses were burned in the attack, Sanga chairman Charles Danladi told Morning Star News, who also said 10 people were killed.



“The attack occurred while the villagers were still sleeping,” he said. “Normalcy has now been restored in the village, and we are making efforts to assist victims.”



Shehu Nicholas Garba, a member of Nigeria’s parliament, the National Assembly, and a resident of the area, said in a press statement that “about 10” people were killed and “about 30” houses were burned.



“Our communities are helpless and are pleading that all persons of conscience should speak out,” Garba said.



The Kaduna governor’s spokesman said Saturday night (March 16) that nine people died in the attack.



“The security agencies have so far recovered nine corpses, including children,” Samuel Aruwan said in a press statement. “Violence has left an unacceptable toll of death and injury, loss of livelihoods, pain and fear. The government condemns this attack on the life and security of citizens and appeals to our communities to resist those who do not want peace.”



Security agencies have been deployed in the area, and the State Emergency Management Agency has been directed to immediately provide relief materials to the affected community, Aruwan said.



130 Killed Previously

In Kajuru County, also in southern Kaduna state, Muslim Fulani herdsmen have killed 130

Christians since Feb. 10, sources said.



Ungwan Barde village was attacked twice, resulting in the killing of 28 people, said Luke Waziri, an area attorney and national assistant secretary of the Adara Development Association, an umbrella body of the predominantly Christian Adara ethnic group. Another 102 people were killed in attacks on Karamai, Inkirimi, Dogonnma and Ungwan Gora, he said.





“Kajuru land and by extension the Adara nation has been gripped by a fully funded and supported group of terrorists that have been wreaking havoc in our lands for long, while those saddled with the responsibility of securing us deliberately looked the other way,” Waziri said in a press statement. “First, Ungwan Barde was attacked on Feb. 10, 2019, and nobody said anything, even though those in government knew. Furthermore, the government pretended that the 11 people killed didn’t matter.”





The herdsmen next attacked Karamai on Feb. 26, killing 38 people, he said. A resident of Karamai, Paulina Irimiya, confirmed to Morning Star News that Fulani herdsmen attacked while Christians were at a church service, killed at least 32 Christians and burned down 40 houses.



“While the victims were buried in a mass grave and the injured yet to recover,” Waziri said in the press statement, “Ungwan Barde village was attacked again on Sunday, March 10. Seventeen people were killed and dozens of houses burned.”



The next day, Inkirimi and Dogonnoma villages in Maro were attacked, killing 52 people and wounding dozens, he said.





“The smoke had barely settled when an attack was launched in the evening at Ungwan Gora (Labi Village), with dozens injured and 43 houses burned down,” he said.



A total of 64 Christians were killed in the villages of Inkirimi, Dogonnma and Ungwan Gora, he said.



About 100 homes were destroyed in the attacks, and thousands of people who fled are now moving from one village to the other in search of refuge, Waziri said.



“In all these, not a single person has been arrested, nor even questioned,” he said. “This is despite the fact that all the attacks took place either in the morning or in the evening – in full glare of everyone.”



Hundreds of terrorists had time to kill and leave without anyone being caught or apprehended, he said.





“However, in a strange twist of the application of justice, nine Adara elders and village chiefs were indiscriminately arrested and thrown into the Kaduna prison on allegations of complicity,” Waziri said. “The victims that have been killed and brutalized are the same ones being arrested and thrown into prison, while the real killers are being pampered, supported and allowed to freely continue their onslaught on people and our land.”



In the Inkirimi, Dogonnma and Ungwan Gora Communities, 43 houses were destroyed, Waziri said.



Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.



Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution


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NIGERIA: CHRISTIAN WOMAN FORCED TO WATCH BOKO HARAM KILL HER HUSBAND

Aldie Vanessa Offiong and John Pontifex

Mar 14th, 2019

Source: ACN



The full horror of Islamist militia violence in north-east Nigeria has been revealed in a Christian woman’s very personal account of torture, grief and survival against all the odds.



Speaking in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Catherine Ibrahim described how Boko Haram gunmen forced her to watch as they killed her husband.



As insurgents entered her village, she ran home to rescue her children – Salome, then aged seven, and five-year-old Daniel – but by the time she got there, the fighters had arrived.



Catherine said: “Then, one of the insurgents savagely dragged me, so I could witness my husband’s death. They butchered my husband mercilessly, and they made sure that I saw it all. I can’t forget the fear in his eyes. I don’t want to say more than this. I hate to remember.”



Helpless as her children were taken into captivity by Boko Haram, Catherine went on to describe how she set off in search of them – only to be seized herself.



She was thrown into a detention camp and there – to her astonishment – she was reunited with Salome and Daniel. But tears of joy turned to sadness when she was punished for trying to escape.



She was separated from her children and for two weeks her feet were tied together and her hands were bound behind her neck. Her captors tortured her until they drew blood.



During her captivity, Catherine prayed to God in her local language. She discovered that her guard also spoke this language and that they were from the same tribe. She believes the guard played a part in her being eventually released from the camp.



Following her release Catherine’s mother-in-law nursed her back to health – and three years later she was reunited with her children in a displacement camp run by the Catholic diocese of Maiduguri.



Catherine said: “Now that I am back with my children and mother-in-law, my joy knows no bounds. But my husband’s death – and having to watch it – will haunt me forever.”



Catherine has had six months of physiotherapy but has still not fully regained the use of her hands.



In north-east Nigeria, ACN has prioritised emergency aid for people caught up in Boko Haram atrocities, as well as pastoral help.


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Islamists Burn Houses, Murder Nine More Christians in Nigeria



THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.19 Mar 201921,171

4:52

Muslim Fulani militants killed nine more Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt over the weekend, the latest strike in a string of lethal, religiously motivated attacks.

The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, confirmed that the assault in the Sanga local government area had claimed at least nine lives, adding to the death toll of 120 Christians massacred in central Nigeria since February.



“The security agencies have so far recovered nine corpses, including children,” El-Rufai said. “The attackers also burnt several houses in the village. The government condemns this attack on the lives and security of citizens and appeals to our communities to resist those who do not want peace.”


A week ago, the Fulani jihadists, who have become a greater threat to Nigerian Christians than the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, raided the villages of Inkirimi, Dogonnoma, and Ungwan Gora in the Kajuru Local Government Area, destroying 143 homes, killing 52 people, and wounding dozens more.



From June 2015 to June 2018, Fulani militants “killed 8,800 Christians and other non-Muslims,” Nigeria’s Daily Post reported last year. During that same period, terrorists torched “not less than 1,000″ churches and other places of worship.



Despite the severity of these massacres, they went virtually unreported by international media.



Governor El-Rufai has vowed that the government, security agencies, and religious institutions will work towards creating “sustainable peace.”



“In this moment of grief, we must come together to defeat the machinations of those who have no notion of respect for the lives of others,” El-Rufai said.



“Violence has left an unacceptable toll of death and injury, loss of livelihoods, pain and fear. We must overcome this by respecting our common humanity, settling differences peacefully and promptly reporting threats and suspicions to the appropriate authorities. Evil will never triumph over our common humanity,” he said.



When mainstream media have reported on the slaughter of Christians in central Nigeria, they have downplayed the religious nature of the killings, preferring to attribute the violence to “ethnic tensions,” a “battle for land and resources,” or even “climate change.”



Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, who is himself of the Fulani ethnic group, has encouraged this narrative, minimizing the importance of religion in the conflict.



Two local Catholic bishops, however, along with other Christian leaders, have insisted in calling out the violence for what it is: a “clear agenda for Islamizing the Nigerian Middle Belt” by using armed Fulani jihadists.



One of the bishops, Matthew Ishaya Audu of Lafia, said last year that the ongoing attacks are not random or economically motivated, but purposefully target Christians.



“They want to strike Christians,” Bishop Audu said, “and the government does nothing to stop them, because President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group.”



Other observers agree that the attacks form part of a larger plan to eliminate Christians from the area.



“The killings are becoming no longer herder and farmer clashes” but a “deliberate attempt to conquer and occupy the land of the people’s ancestral heritage,” said Dr. Soja Bewarang, while denouncing an attack on a Bible school that trained Christian missionaries in Gana-Ropp village.



Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam, of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Jos, said that the violence is part of a pattern, an emerging agenda, which represents “another Boko Haram in disguise.”



The targeted nature of the attacks in central Nigeria is indicative, Para-Mallam said, “because Plateau state is the epicenter of Christianity.”



President Buhari condemned the most recent violence and the “ethnic and religious bigotry” in a statement Saturday. He stressed, however, that all “communities involved” must find a “lasting solution.”



“[The] lack of cooperation by those involved might frustrate government’s efforts towards finding a lasting solution, especially if those efforts are politicized,” Buhari said. “If the people resist government’s efforts to hold the perpetrators and their sponsors accountable, it would be very difficult to bring the violence to a permanent end.”



In its 2018 report, the independent United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) determined that Nigeria should be designated as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, a term for governments “that engage in or tolerate systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”



The USCIRF has designated Nigeria a CPC every year since 2009.

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Why Does The Mainstream Media Purposely Ignore Mass Killings Of Christians Across The Globe?

by Tyler Durden

Mon, 03/18/2019 - 23:00


Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,



Last week, when a deranged lunatic gunned down dozens of Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand it suddenly became the biggest news story in the world, and rightly so.



It was a major news event, and it needed to be reported. But shouldn’t mass killings of Christians be given the same sort of media coverage? Sadly, we all know that doesn’t happen. Whenever there is a mass killing of Christians, it is usually entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the United States, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this is happening. Those that control the mainstream media consider Christians to be one of the main obstacles to “progress” in this country, and so any story that would put Christians in a positive or sympathetic light simply does not fit any of the narratives that they are pushing.







As a result of the lack of media coverage, the vast majority of Americans do not know that “4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons” last year.



That number breaks down to an average of 11 per day.



In Nigeria, more than 120 Christians have been gunned down or killed with machetes over the past three weeks, but Breitbart was the only big media outlet to report on it…



As Breitbart News alone reported among major news outlets, Fulani jihadists racked up a death toll of over 120 Christians over the past three weeks in central Nigeria, employing machetes and gunfire to slaughter men, women, and children, burning down over 140 houses, destroying property, and spreading terror.



The New York Times did not place this story on the front page; in fact, they did not cover it at all. Apparently, when assessing “all the news that’s fit to print,” the massacre of African Christians did not measure up. The same can be said for the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, the LA Times, and every other major paper in the United States.



And of course Breitbart is not exactly “mainstream” media.



So why won’t anyone else report on this?



And this isn’t the first time this has happened. Last June, twelve entire Christian villages in central Nigeria were completely wiped out…



In only days, a dozen villages in Nigeria’s Plateau state were wiped out. The affected communities surround the city of Jos—known as the epicenter of Christianity in northern Nigeria’s Middle Belt.



As many as 200 Christians had been killed, however, some residents fear the death toll may be even higher, as more bodies are yet to be recovered, while others were burned beyond recognition. On Sunday, 75 of the victims were buried in a mass grave.



I’ll bet that most of you had not heard about that until now.



On the other side of the world, 20 innocent people were slaughtered when Muslim radicals bombed a Roman Catholic cathedral in January…



On January 27, Muslim extremists bombed a Roman Catholic cathedral on the Philippine island of Jolo, killing some 20 people and injuring dozens of others.



Once again, this is yet another mass killing that was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media.



Is the anti-Christian bias among the mainstream media so strong that they can’t even bring themselves to report the basic facts to us?



People deserve to know what is happening. Christian persecution is rising in almost every nation on the planet, and this huge ongoing crisis should be on our front pages on a continual basis.



But instead, we never get to hear any of these stories unless we seek out alternative sources of information.



Over in China, the persecution of Christians has reached a frightening crescendo. Recently, officials have been going house to house and replacing pictures of Jesus Christ “with pictures of dictator Mao Zedong and/or China’s current authoritarian president, Xi Jinping”…



The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to harass and persecute Christians and, in recent months, has taken to removing pictures of Jesus Christ from inside homes and replacing them with pictures of dictator Mao Zedong and/or China’s current authoritarian president, Xi Jinping.



In addition, Communist officials have removed Christian symbols and phrases on the outside of homes and replaced them with phrases praising socialist materialism.



But they aren’t stopping there. Bibles are being burned, and any churches that do not “cooperate” with Chinese officials are being either shut down or destroyed. Earlier in 2019, one of the largest megachurches in the entire country was literally blown to pieces with dynamite…



Chinese authorities blew up a well-known Christian megachurch earlier this year, inflaming long-standing tensions between religious groups and the Communist Party.



Witnesses and overseas activists said the paramilitary People’s Armed Police used dynamite and excavators to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church, which has a congregation of more than 50,000, in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province



We are talking about evil that is on a level that is difficult to comprehend.



So why won’t the mainstream media talk about any of this?



Similar things are happening on the other side of the world too. In Eritrea, Christians are being imprisoned in “small shipping containers in scorching heat”…



Since 1993, President Afwerki has overseen an authoritarian brutal regime that rests on massive human rights violations. During the 2019 World Watch List reporting period, government security forces conducted many house-to-house raids and imprisoned hundreds of Christians in inhumane conditions, including small shipping containers in scorching heat.



And in North Korea, Christians are “being hung on a cross over a fire, crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges, and trampled underfoot”…



According to charity Aid to the Church in Need, at least 200,000 Christians have gone missing in North Korea since 1953 — many of those have been summarily executed. As to the specific treatment of those persecuted, the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report discovered that the North Korean regime has been guilty of “crimes against humanity.”



According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, violent incidents against Christians include “being hung on a cross over a fire, crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges, and trampled underfoot.”



If you were to replace “Christians” with some other favored group in any of the examples that I have just shared, you would instantly have front page news all over the planet.



The mainstream media is definitely not “independent”, and they are not looking out for you.



They have their own agenda, and anything that does not fit that agenda does not get to be part of “the news”.



So far in 2019, there have been 453 Islamic terror attacks in which 1,956 people have been murdered. But you will never hear those numbers from the mainstream media.



Instead, when the mainstream media talks about Bible-believing Christians it is almost always an attack story. As a recent Breitbart article aptly observed, having “an anti-Christian bias” has become “the last acceptable prejudice”…



How much mileage can be gained from Muslims murdering Christians, when Christians in America are often seen as an obstacle to the “progress” desired by liberals? The left sees Christians in the United States as part of the problem and seeks to undermine their credibility and influence at every turn rather than emboldening them.



Anti-Christian bias has been rightly called “the last acceptable prejudice,” one that few bother condemning.



It is time to turn off the mainstream news for good.



They quit reporting “the news” a long time ago, and now it is all about promoting one left-wing narrative after another.



Today, trust in the media is at an all-time low, and it is easy to understand why so many Americans are absolutely sick and tired of being lied to by the big media companies.

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Another 10 Christians Killed in Kaduna State as Carnage Continues in Nigeria

By Morning Star News on March 18, 2019

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 10 Christians in southern Kaduna state, Nigeria on Saturday (March 16), bringing the lives lost in the past five weeks to 140 with 160 houses destroyed, sources said.



“We were all asleep in our various homes when at about 4 a.m. [Saturday], we heard gunshots everywhere in my village,” Amos Samuel, 40, of Nandu Gbok village in Sanga County told Morning Star News. “Everyone ran out of their homes to escape from the Fulani herdsmen. Three hours after the herdsmen left, those of us who survived the attack returned to the village to find that our houses were destroyed and 10 of our villagers killed.”



About 30 houses were burned in the attack, Sanga chairman Charles Danladi told Morning Star News, who also said 10 people were killed.



“The attack occurred while the villagers were still sleeping,” he said. “Normalcy has now been restored in the village, and we are making efforts to assist victims.”



Shehu Nicholas Garba, a member of Nigeria’s parliament, the National Assembly, and a resident of the area, said in a press statement that “about 10” people were killed and “about 30” houses were burned.



“Our communities are helpless and are pleading that all persons of conscience should speak out,” Garba said.



The Kaduna governor’s spokesman said Saturday night (March 16) that nine people died in the attack.



Connect with Christian News

“The security agencies have so far recovered nine corpses, including children,” Samuel Aruwan said in a press statement. “Violence has left an unacceptable toll of death and injury, loss of livelihoods, pain and fear. The government condemns this attack on the life and security of citizens and appeals to our communities to resist those who do not want peace.”



Security agencies have been deployed in the area, and the State Emergency Management Agency has been directed to immediately provide relief materials to the affected community, Aruwan said.



130 Killed Previously



In Kajuru County, also in southern Kaduna state, Muslim Fulani herdsmen have killed 130 Christians since Feb. 10, sources said.



Ungwan Barde village was attacked twice, resulting in the killing of 28 people, said Luke Waziri, an area attorney and national assistant secretary of the Adara Development Association, an umbrella body of the predominantly Christian Adara ethnic group. Another 102 people were killed in attacks on Karamai, Inkirimi, Dogonnma and Ungwan Gora, he said.



“Kajuru land and by extension the Adara nation has been gripped by a fully funded and supported group of terrorists that have been wreaking havoc in our lands for long, while those saddled with the responsibility of securing us deliberately looked the other way,” Waziri said in a press statement. “First, Ungwan Barde was attacked on Feb. 10, 2019, and nobody said anything, even though those in government knew. Furthermore, the government pretended that the 11 people killed didn’t matter.”



The herdsmen next attacked Karamai on Feb. 26, killing 38 people, he said. A resident of Karamai, Paulina Irimiya, confirmed to Morning Star News that Fulani herdsmen attacked while Christians were at a church service, killed at least 32 Christians and burned down 40 houses.



“While the victims were buried in a mass grave and the injured yet to recover,” Waziri said in the press statement, “Ungwan Barde village was attacked again on Sunday, March 10. Seventeen people were killed and dozens of houses burned.”



The next day, Inkirimi and Dogonnoma villages in Maro were attacked, killing 52 people and wounding dozens, he said.



“The smoke had barely settled when an attack was launched in the evening at Ungwan Gora (Labi Village), with dozens injured and 43 houses burned down,” he said.



A total of 64 Christians were killed in the villages of Inkirimi, Dogonnma and Ungwan Gora, he said.



About 100 homes were destroyed in the attacks, and thousands of people who fled are now moving from one village to the other in search of refuge, Waziri said.



“In all these, not a single person has been arrested, nor even questioned,” he said. “This is despite the fact that all the attacks took place either in the morning or in the evening – in full glare of everyone.”



Hundreds of terrorists had time to kill and leave without anyone being caught or apprehended, he said.



“However, in a strange twist of the application of justice, nine Adara elders and village chiefs were indiscriminately arrested and thrown into the Kaduna prison on allegations of complicity,” Waziri said. “The victims that have been killed and brutalized are the same ones being arrested and thrown into prison, while the real killers are being pampered, supported and allowed to freely continue their onslaught on people and our land.”



In the Inkirimi, Dogonnma and Ungwan Gora Communities, 43 houses were destroyed, Waziri said.



Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.



Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.


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Tennessee Imam Preaching Theft, Rape and Murder of Christians and Jews in The United States

[Shoshanna]

I'm including this since the media (and most of the world) thinks that Catholicism is synonymous with Christianity. 

Christians Under Attack: Catholic Churches Desecrated Across France (VIDEO)
© AFP 2019 / FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI


French Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe expressed his outrage about the desecration of Catholic churches in the country, which he stressed “must be unanimously condemned”.



At least 10 incidents of vandalism and desecration of Catholic churches have been reported across France since the beginning of February, according to media reports.



The actions included the desecration of altars, the defacing of Christ on the cross, arson attacks and an extreme case of human excrement being spread across the walls.



READ MORE: 800-Year-Old Crusader DECAPITATED by Vandals in Irish Church



One of the first attacks occurred on 4 February at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Houilles, where a 19th century statue of the Virgin Mary was found smashed on the ground.





Father Francois-Laurent Heart said that the statue was “completely pulverised”, adding that it was “irreparable”. Three desecration incidents took place in the church in the space of 10 days, with a cross being damaged and thrown to the ground by vandals.





Also in February, eucharistic hosts were stolen and scattered around Notre-Dame church in Dijon, 175 miles south-east of Paris. Father Emmanuel Pic slammed the attack as one which was launched against the “heart of the Catholic faith.”





“Nothing of value has been broken, but it’s the intent that’s very shocking,” he pointed out.



Also being looted was Notre-Dame church in Dijon where the vandals also reportedly drew a cross on the wall with human excrement and damaged other religious items in the church.

On his Twitter page in mid-February, French Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe wrote about “5 degraded churches in one week in France”.





“In our secular Republic, places of worship are respected. Such acts shock me and must be unanimously condemned. I will tell the bishops of France at the meeting of the forum of dialogue with the Catholic Church”, he underscored.



Last Sunday, the Church of St.Sulpice in Paris, where the Da Vinci Code movie was filmed, was set on fire just after midday mass, in what firefighters and police claimed was an arson attack.









Cleric leaders reportedly remained tight-lipped about the attacks which came two years after crackdown on Catholic churches across France and Belgium in 2016, thought to be the work of Daesh*.



*Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries

Pictures, tweets, and video at the link

[Berean]

PRAY WITH 13 CHURCHES ATTACKED BY MOB IN ETHIOPIA

March 25, 2019 by Lindy Lowry in Africa



The attacks started at 10 a.m. on Feb. 10, 2019, when a mob carrying sticks, stones and fuel targeted the first church building. The crowd then moved from church to church in the Southern Ethiopia town of Alaba, destroying buildings and belongings.



In the end, the attacks in the town (located two hours southwest of the capital city, Addis Ababa), injured 26 Christians, including four church workers, who required hospital care. The mob managed to severely damage 13 buildings, 14 motorcycles and an unknown number of bicycles belonging to different congregations, along with Bibles and furniture.



Witnesses said they could hear the crowd shouting things like, “Alahu Akubar (“Alah is greater”) and “Alaba belongs to Islam.”



WHY THE ATTACKS?

Sources said the attack was in response to the alleged call to Muslims to attack local Christians after fake reports circulated that Christians in a nearby town burned down a mosque and murdered an imam. Local Christians said they believe that although the false rumor provided an excuse for the attack, the real reason behind it is growing anger over the church’s evangelism activities in Alaba, where Muslims form the overwhelming majority. Ethiopia is No. 28 on the World Watch List.



The absence of protection from local police forces contributed to the chaos. Witnesses observed that officers stood around, watching the attacks. It was three hours before federal police intervened and restored order.



Following the incident, federal police arrested more than 100 suspects; all have been released. After the attacks, evangelical church leaders traveled to the regional capital, Awassa, to appeal for protection from authorities there.



PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH IN ALABA AND ETHIOPIA

When Open Doors teams arrived in Alaba, they found believers still in a state of shock and traumatized over the widespread violence against them. Our team gathered area church leaders who openly shared about the attacks. Many believers and leaders stood there crying.



“But it is not all without hope,” one church leader told us. ‘This incident strengthened our fellowship. I praise God. Before the attack, we didn’t have strong fellowship, but this incident has brought us together.’”



Another injured evangelist said, “I thank God for this incident. We shared the real life of Jesus and His apostles.”



Church leaders thanked the Open Doors team for their presence: “We all have been experiencing fear and discouragement. Your presence here, more than any other support, is helping us to overcome fear.’”



Open Doors is facilitating medical assistance and food support.



Pray for the Lord’s comfort and provision to everyone involved in the attacks.


Thank God for the testimonies of the Christians in Alaba, sharing how the Lord is working amid the persecution. Pray that His name will continue to be glorified and that many will come to Him in faith through these incidents.


Praise God for this visit by the Open Doors team and for the encouragement it brought. Pray for sufficient resources to be made available to assist individuals and churches affected.


The Sunday following the attack, some church services were called off because of the damage to their buildings but also out of fear for further attacks. Pray specifically for vandalized churches: Mesrete Kristos, Kale Hiwot No.2, Genet Church, Assembly of God, Emmanuel church, Meserete Kristos No.2, Full Gospel believers church, Wangle Lealem, Galato Kale Hiwot, Alem Tena Kale Hiwot, Bewangel Alafrim, Zobecham Kale Hiwot and Mekane Yesus.


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[Berean]

Jewish Author: Christians Face Danger in America

David Horowitz

By Bill Hoffmann | Monday, 18 March 2019 11:01 PM


A New York Times bestselling author is warning that Christians are in real danger of persecution — in America.



And this warning comes from a surprising source, a prominent secular Jew.



David Horowitz argues in his new book "Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America," that secularists and leftists want to turn the nation into a godless, heathen society where religion has absolutely no role.



[Get a FREE copy of Dark Agenda and save $27 — Click Here Now]



Horowitz, who heads the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles, is used to taking controversial positions. He is the New York Times best-selling author of "Radical Son and Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America."



“The war on Christianity is real, and it’s right on our doorstep,” Horowitz says.



In an exclusive interview with Newsmax magazine, Horowitz details the perils facing our nation’s religious freedoms and the efforts by conservatives of all faiths to save them.



Newsmax: Many people think of the persecution of Christians as being limited to the Mideast, Far East, and Africa, far away from the United States. But that’s not true?



David Horowitz: No, it’s very bad in the U.S. This war against Christianity is a war of the left, which is the Democratic Party, because Christian values are incompatible with the social justice delusions of the left. Everything about Christianity — the sanctity of the individual, the individual soul, individual accountability and equality — all these things are anathema to the left. Efforts to keep religion out of daily life continue to grow, such as school prayers and public displays of faith.



But you argue that’s not what our founding fathers intended.



Horowitz: That’s right. The First Amendment prevents the government from prohibiting the free exercise of religion, but the left has attacked that clause. Jefferson acknowledged a wall of church-state separation, but all that meant was the state won’t make one religion like Anglicanism the official religion and persecute the other religions. The American Civil Liberties Union stood that reassurance on its head with “wall of separation between church and state” becoming a bumper-sticker slogan for leftists and secularists who want to silence religious people and marginalize their beliefs.



You describe yourself as an atheist Jew.​ Why would a Jewish skeptic write a book coming to the defense of Christians in America?



Horowitz: It was prompted by the murder in 1974 of a friend of mine, Betty Van Patter, a dedicated leftist and mother of three who was a bookkeeper at the New Left magazine Ramparts, which I edited. I had raised money to buy a Baptist church and turn it into a school for the Black Panthers; after Betty discovered the Panthers had doctored their books, she was raped, tortured, and beaten to death. I investigated and found the Panther Party was a criminal gang engaging in extortion, arson, drug trafficking, and murder. Still, their leaders received the support of the American left which defended the killers because they were the voices of the oppressed and champions of the progressive clause.



How does President Donald Trump fit into the fabric of American Christianity today?



Horowitz: He’s terrific for America. He’s a great patriot, and I think that’s what inspired the Evangelicals to support him. He wouldn’t have been elected without them.



What is your view of the Democratic Party?



Horowitz: It no longer respects equality. It’s a racist party. White people, males, and straight males are guilty before the fact, and people of color, women, and gays are innocent, even if the facts show they’re guilty.



Will the persecution of Christians be a big issue in the upcoming 2020 presidential election?



Horowitz: Oh, totally! It’s going to be a huge issue. Once either [Supreme Court Justices] Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Clarence Thomas retire, and Trump nominates this Catholic woman [believed to be U.S. Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett] there’s going to be a battle.



Do you believe Roe v. Wade will be overturned?



Horowitz: I hope so. This is a war. The left wants to kill babies outside the womb; they’re baby killers. Their slogan “pro-choice” is completely fraudulent, because they make choices. You have to choose to have sex, you have to choose who to have sex with, you have to choose whether to use contraception or not . . . or if something goes awry you have to choose not to use the morning-after pill, or to give birth to the baby and find it an adoptive mother, or kill it. It’s not about choice or reproductive freedom B.S.



You say the catalyst for writing the book was the intolerance of the left. Can you explain?



Horowitz: Before I began writing the book and was becoming acquainted with all of the issues, I thought the persecution of Christians was a somewhat parochial issue. I [began having] sympathy for this community because the left is being so intolerant . . . Now I see it as a central battle. The country is at stake. The left wants a one-party state, you can see that. How can you have a resistance to a duly elected president? It’s sedition. It’s treason, in the normal sense of the word, to obstruct a president. Everything that’s running the Democratic Party today is obstructionism. You can’t have a democracy if you don’t accept the legitimacy of an election. I mean, that is fundamental.


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[ShofarSoGood]

Well, for one thing, the Christians are in heaven and the Muslims...aren't.  


The difference between killing 148 Christians in Kenya and 50 Muslims in New Zealand

@elentireng ESPLFRPT 3·17·2019 · 10:46 8

This Friday, in the city of Christchurch (New Zealand), two mosques were attacked by a terrorist equipped with firearms, who was shooting at everyone who was there.


A horrendous crime whose victim of younger age was only 3 years old



The terrorist killed 50 people, including a 3-year-old boy, Mucad Ibrahim. The murderer, Brenton Tarrant, broadcast the crimes live on Facebook, a video that millions of people have seen and that shows the criminal entering one of the mosques and firing their weapons against everyone who was inside. This massacre deserves the rejection of any minimally decent person. I hope that the full weight of the law falls on Tarrant, and that he is confined in a prison from which he is never allowed to leave: in New Zealand, fortunately, there is a life sentence to punish the most serious crimes.



The Guardian newspaper points to the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom



As it could not be otherwise, throughout the world there have been gestures of rejection towards this massacre, from political leaders and media, to religious leaders of different confessions. Some reflections that I have read have caught my attention. The British progressive newspaper The Guardian published an article signed by H.A. Hellyer, a Muslim author, with this title: “The Islamophobia that led to the Christchurch shooting must be confronted”, in which its author affirms the following: “every time we deny the threat of anti-Muslim bigotry, or underestimate the extent of Islamophobia – including in our party of government, the Conservative party – we give succour to those in our society who seek to whip up hate against our Muslim communities.” In the mention to the Conservative Party a link appears to a news article that talks about critics to the Islam by members of that party (for example, this opinion of a preservative politician is mentioned: “we’ll be a Muslim country under sharia law if Labour get in”). That is to say, that Hellyer relates an anti-Muslim attack in New Zealand with the criticisms of Islam that some politicians occasionally make on the other side of the world.



El País newspaper says of Islamophobia what it does not say about Christianophobia



In the same line, today the Spanish socialist newspaper El País publishes an editorial with this title: “Islamophobic attack”. The subtitle of that editorial makes this statement: “Hate speeches against the Muslim community can not have a place in a democracy.” The text ends with these words: “Combating Islamophobia is a duty and a quality test for democracies.” This statement is striking in a newspaper that has never published an editorial calling to combat Christianophobia, despite being the main reason for persecution against believers (in the world, 3 out of 4 persecuted because of their beliefs are Christians) and being, as it is today, the reason for 77% of the attacks against religious freedom in Spain. Attacks that leftist media such as El País tend to make invisible, perhaps because a large part of these expressions of hatred come from the political left. That newspaper is, in fact, a clear example of media with anti-Catholic prejudices: El País came to compare Ireland with Pakistan months ago, and also compared Asia Bibi – Christian mother condemned to death for blasphemy in Pakistan – with Willy Toledo, a Spanish communist actor who faces criminal cases for attitudes such as mocking the murders of Catholics in the Spanish Civil War.



The unequal reaction when Islamists murdered 148 Christians



The double yardstick of the progressive media in relation to Islamophobia and Christianophobia also includes reactions to terrorist attacks. On April 2, 2015, Islamist terrorists attacked Garissa University in Kenya, killing 148 Christians. The terrorists were looking for Christians to kill them by shooting and beheadings. The clear Cristianophobic mobile of that massacre was disguised by many politicians and media. In the European Parliament, leftist parties tried to erase all reference to Christians in the motion to condemn the massacre. The Guardian and El Pais then issued no appeal against Christianophobia, although it had clearly been the motivation of those terrorists when it came to cruelly selecting and killing their victims. Nor have there been political and mediatic appeals against Christianophobia, except for honorable exceptions, before the genocide of thousands of Christians in Nigeria, which is taking place before a staggering media silence in the West. Why this double standard? Are the lives of Christians worth less than those of other human beings? Where is the limit of the aversion of Western politicians and media against Christianism?


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[ShofarSoGood]

WESTERN MEDIA REFER TO THESE MASSACRES AGAINST CHRISTIANS AS 'CLASHES'

Genocide in Nigeria: Over 6,000 Massacred Christians and Media Silence in the West



Many people in Western countries are ignorant, because their media and politicians do not talk about it, that there is an anti-Christian genocide in Nigeria perpetrated by Islamists.



The majority of murdered Christians are women and children



The Christian Post published on July 3 that over 6,000 Christians, mostly women and children, have been killed since January by Islamists in Nigeria. Most of the crimes are being perpetrated in the center and in the north of the country, and take place at night and surprisingly. The murderers belong to the Nomadic ethnic group of the Fulani, with a Muslim majority, and are considered to be the fourth most dangerous terrorist group in the world, a list headed by another Islamist criminal group that has perpetrated numerous attacks on Christians in Nigeria: Boko Haram. One of the worst attacks occurred between June 22 and 24, when four militias of Fulani terrorists attacked the towns of Barkin, Ladi, Bokkos and Riyom in the Plateau state, massacring more than 200 people.



Christians denounce an ethnic cleansing they call genocide



The Christian communities of Nigeria, both Catholic and Protestant, have denounced that the attacks are aimed at carrying out an ethnic cleansing in order to expel the Christians from their lands, and they are already talking about genocide, since the Rome Statute of the the International Criminal Court thus qualifies acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. The Christians of Nigeria also criticize the inaction of the Nigerian president, the Muslim Fulani Muhammadu Buhari. On May 22, Nigerian Catholics demonstrated in Lagos demanding justice for the murdered and their families, headed by the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Monsignor Alfred Adewale Martins. At the end of June, the Catholic bishop of Gboko, William Avenya, warned that in Nigeria there is a risk of a repeat of the genocide that occurred in Rwanda against the Tutsi in 1994. Bosun Emmanuel, of the Brotherhood of Catholic Men in Lagos, has pointed out that in 25 years Christians can disappear from Nigeria if the current persecution continues.



Western media: between silence and manipulation



Most Western media is not reporting on this anti-Christian genocide in Nigeria. Some media that do give news of what happened do, in addition, disguising the massacre. On June 25, the Spanish progressive newspaper El País described the massacres in the Plateau state as “clashes”, hiding the mention of Christians in the penultimate paragraph of the news. In the rest of the text he refers to them as “farmers”, without more. More grotesque has been the Argentine digital Infobae, which has spoken of “the massacre between Muslims and Christians.” In the text of the news the headline is false: “A group of nomadic shepherds of the Fulani ethnic group, mostly Muslims, are the main suspects of traveling in groups of between 20 and 30 motorcyclists the fields of the so-called “green belt” of Nigeria, killing the peasants, mostly Christians.” The news reaches the absurdity of attributing the crimes to “climate change”, and even affirms that “the difference between Muslims and Christians has also contributed to increase violence,” as if the victims were to blame for the massacres for their religion.



In the same line, the BBC published a story with this title: “Making sense of Nigeria’s Fulani-farmer conflict.” British television bet on the equidistance between the perpetrators of the massacres and their victims, avoiding giving figures about them, talking as little as possible about the Christian religion of the victims and even justifying that the Fulanis carry weapons of war as AK-47 assault rifles “to protect their livestock.” The news even affirms that the Fulani “are also sometimes attacked and have their animals stolen by bandits, prompting brutal reprisals.” I do not want to imagine how the BBC would report today on the genocide of Armenian Christians at the hands of Turkish Muslims.


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[Midnight]

Christianity CRACKDOWN: Hindu extremists ATTACK Indian believers - 100 churches SHUT DOWN

CHRISTIANS are under threat in India, as Hindu extremists are increasingly persecuting them for their religion.

By ABBIE LLEWELYN

PUBLISHED: 06:44, Wed, Mar 27, 2019 | UPDATED: 06:52, Wed, Mar 27, 2019


A United Christian Forum (UCF) helpline recorded 29 violent incidents and threats towards Christians in the country, compared to 20 incidents per month last year. Hindu fundamentalists are also working towards a more coordinated effort to use building regulation laws to shut down churches, especially in remote areas. More than 100 churches were shut in 2018.


This happened after Hindu extremists raided them or filed complaints against the police, according to UCF helpline reports and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a US-based non-profit that helps Christians having their religious freedom threatened.



Some of these congregations had as many as 300 people.



Some pastors have claimed this is a conservative estimate, as there are too many churches and in remote places to keep accurate records, according to Newsweek.



Mange Singe, from Ruhalki Kishanpur near Haridwar, said police have closed seven churches permanently.




More than 100 churches were shut down in India last year (Image: GETTY)

He told Newsweek: “The Hindu extremists barge into the middle of the worship services and threaten and abuse the people present.



“If this does not scare the Christians away the extremists get the police along and shut down the church and the fellowship by force and chase the worshippers away.”



He said his church, Christian Revival Church, has been attacked at least 25 times by extremists since it began in 2010.



Mr Singe claims that instead of arresting the attackers, police instead usually arrest a pastor.



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Violence is also on the rise against Christians in India 

He himself has been arrested 32 times since 2011 over conducting prayers or false allegations of forcibly converting someone to christianity, he claimed.



He said: “Since 2014, persecution has increased,” calling the past few years “Persecution Anytime.”



Rajesh Kumar, a pastor from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, had his 300-strong congregation disrupted by a Hindu extremist group called the Bajrang Dal.



An elder at the church, Bhawar Pal Singh said: “They took us to the police station and a First Information Report was lodged against us for ‘disrupting peace’.”



The church has been shut ever since.

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[shalom]

Christianity crackdown: Police fine Christians for PRAYING without permission

ANTI-TERRORISM POLICE raided Baptist worship meetings and fined Christians for conducting prayers without government permission, in the latest suppression of religious freedom in Kazakhstan.

By LAURA O'CALLAGHAN

PUBLISHED: 14:00, Mon, Mar 11, 2019 | UPDATED: 14:35, Mon, Mar 11, 2019



er worshippers were issued with official fines. According to Oslo-based website Forum 18, authorities pounced on the gatherings in Taraz, a city of 351,000 people near the country’s border with Kyrgyzstan, on successive Sunday mornings in February. The congregations are members of the Council of Churches Baptists which refuses to pay fines handed down to punish those who practice religion without permission.


Local police assisted counter-terrorism officers in the latest development as part of the ongoing crackdown on Christians in the Muslim-majority country.



Balgabek Myrzayev, acting head of the social harmony committee, the body which monitors the practice of religion in Astana, said he was not aware of the raids or fines.



He defended punishing people for practicing their faith without approval from the central government but insisted "our laws don't ban praying”.



He said: "Our laws don't allow unregistered religious organisations and I don't have the right to change the law.



Kazakhstan



Christians and other religious minorities are facing obstacles in Kazakhstan (Image: GETTY)

“If a law has been adopted and comes into force, everyone must abide by it."



The first raid took place on February 10 and the second happened the following weekend on February 17.



Attendees were warned against publicly practicing their faith - or risk further punishment.



The raids come as a court in the commercial capital Almaty fined another Council of Churches Baptist two months' average wages on February 28.


Late last year, a midweek service was disrupted by police who seized religious literature and carried out “expert analysis” on it.



The Baptist intends to appeal against the fine when the court decision is issued in writing.



Christianity is not the only minority religion to be monitored closely by Kazakhstani authorities.



A group of Hare Krishna followers were last month visited by police who claimed the community, which gained state registration last October, were holding meetings at an unapproved venue.



An administrative case against the movement is likely to reach court soon.


Pictures at link

[shalom]

CHRISTIANITY CRACKDOWN: Woman loses ‘preaching licence’ for refusing to REMOVE CROSS

GOVERNMENT officials have revoked the preaching licenses of 57 priests for punishment after a woman refused to remove a crucifix in a crackdown on Christianity across China.

By CARLY READ

PUBLISHED: 21:16, Wed, Mar 27, 2019 | UPDATED: 21:22, Wed, Mar 27, 2019




Up to 57 preachers have been banned from practicing Christianity in Henan Province’s Sanmenxia City, eastern China, after a woman refused to follow police orders an remove a cross. She also refused to have a flag pole installed and remove other religious images. In the eyes of authorities increasingly included the state-backed mission to stomp out the dwindling faith, she was deemed problematic, according to persecution watchdog International Christianity Concern (ICC). After revoking the huge number of licences, authorities ordered by the Chinese government also manipulated the qualification exams of priests to oust them.


Those who “listen to the government” can pass the exam require to preach, the ICC says, while those who are deemed “disobedient” preachers will automatically fail.



The news comes after a spike in incidents where Christians are being persecuted all over the world.



Chinese officials have claimed Christianity is being used to “subvert” his country’s national security - and have vowed to root out the “stigma of foreign religion” in an indication of the increasingly fierce rhetoric which is characterising the debate.


Xu Xiaohong told the Chinese parliament’s largely ceremonial advisory body Christians needed to follow what he called a Chinese model of the religion.



He said there were many problems with Christianity in the country, including “infiltration” from abroad and “private meeting places”.



Meanwhile in India, a pastor was rushed to hospital after being severely beaten when a group of suspected Hindu radicals attacked Christians taking part in a prayer meeting.


Members of the Full Gospel Evangelical Church had gathered in a church-goer’s house at around 7am local time on March 20, in the village of Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal.



Reverend Anand Hari had been leading the prayer meeting for about 15 minutes when a mob of 20 alleged Hindu radicals broke into the house, according to Asia News.



Many people were injured, but Rev Hari took the brunt of the assault as the attackers used sticks. He is recovering in hospital.


Pictures at link

[schwartzie]

Whole Christian villages wiped out, media silent


Another week. Hundreds more dead and wounded Christians lay in villages in Nigeria while the world sleeps. Brothers and sisters in Christ were the target of yet more bloody attacks in the last seven days as Boko Haram terrorists captured the town of Michika in Nigeria’s far eastern state of Adamawa.



It was a scorched earth attack with little left standing and few people left alive.This time, however, the terrorists exchanging fire with government troops but the response was not enough to save families.



According to an op-ed in the Washington Examiner by journalist Douglas Burton, the attack continued for hours with an unknown number of casualties, although initial reports mentioned: “scores killed.” Burton is a member of the advisory board for Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC), which advocates on behalf of more than 300 million persecuted Christians around the globe.



How you can help. You can contact your House Representative or Senators by phone by calling the Capitol Switchboard. Simply call the number below, give the operator your zip code, and he/she will connect you with your elected officials’ office. Let them know that Christians being slaughtered around the world should be a priority for action. U.S. Capitol Switchboard: [phone]

Father Peter John Wumbadi is head of St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Michika. Wumbadi told Burton he “heard bomb blasts and lots of stray bullets,” which motivated him to pack six students from the parish school into his SUV and drive past burning buildings and crowds of panicked citizens who were running for cover.



Wumbadi drove to the village of Kalaa, where he and the students took refuge in the parish house of Father Lawrence Ikeh, which is just a few miles away from the Sambisa National Park. It is believed some 5,000 or more Boko Haram terrorists shelter in underground bunkers in the park.



“After that attack, I came to visit the villages in the two-mile area around my church, and it was like a cemetery,” said Father Ikeh, weeping. “More than 150 people had been murdered.”



In 2015, the Boko Haram was ranked the world’s deadliest terror group by the Institute for Economics and Peace.



Hundreds of people have been killed in a series of attacks allegedly carried out by the Fulani militia on Christian communities in the Adara chiefdom of southern Kaduna in Nigeria since February, according to the nonprofit group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).



The killing has also continued in the Congo as Open Doors USA reported earlier this month that six Christians, including three women and a nine-year-old child, were killed in an attack on the Christian village of Kalau located near the city of Beni in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



The attackers were a part of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The ADF was formed 24 years ago by Ugandan Muslim rebels after they retreated from the Ugandan army.



Hundreds of civilians have died in the Beni area of the Congo alone, according to Open Doors USA. ADF militants are thought to have killed at least 700 civilians and more than 20 UN peacekeepers.



The attack against two mosques in New Zealand has continued to dominate the headlines in the American media since a self-proclaimed racist killed 50 people. Although attacks against Muslims living in the western world are extremely rare, the situation does not compare with the killing of Christians living in the Muslim world. According to Open Doors USA, at least 4,305 Christians known by name were murdered by Muslims because of their faith in 2018.



Aid to the Church in Need, in its latest “Religious Freedom Report”, warned that 300 million Christians, overwhelmingly in the majority-Muslim countries, were subjected to violence, making it “the most persecuted religion in the world.”



The Voice of Europe reports that the odds of a Christian in a majority-Muslim country being murdered by a Muslim – simply for being what he or she is – are approximately one in 70,000. Which means that a Christian living in a majority Muslim country is 143 times more likely to be killed by a Muslim for being a Christian than a Muslim is likely to be killed by a non-Muslim in a Western country for being what he or she is.



That fact remains unreported by American secular media.


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[schwartzie]

Macron’s France: Average of Three Church Attacks Per Day


CHRIS TOMLINSON30 Mar 20191,096


French churches are coming increasingly under attack with an average of nearly three churches per day targetted for vandalism alone over the past three years.

A report from the Central Criminal Intelligence Service (SCRC) of the gendarmerie noted that from 2016 to 2018 there had been thousands of cases of church vandalism, peaking in 2017 with 1,045 cases, Le Figaro reports.



According to the French Ministry of the Interior, when cemeteries and other sites are taken into consideration, the number of acts of vandalism rose to 1,063 in 2018.



Earlier this year, in one week alone France saw twelve churches vandalised, including attackers attempting to set fire to the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.



In Nimes, an even more heinous attack occurred, with vandals smearing faeces on the wall of the church of Notre-Dame des Enfants and stealing objects from the altar.

Full story with video and tweets at link

[Midnight]

British Government Rules Christianity Is Not a Religion of Peace, Rejects Convert


JACK MONTGOMERY23 Mar 20195,395


The Home Office has rejected the asylum application of a Christian convert from Iran who said they had been drawn to the faith by its peaceful nature, due to a Government official ruling that Christianity is not peaceful.


The applicant indicated that they had converted to Christianity from Islam because of its peaceful nature, stating that “In Islam there is violence, rage and revenge. In Christianity in the contrary it is talking about peace, forgiveness and kindness.”



This earned the ire of the Home Office bureaucrat or bureaucrats charged with assessing the application, the Times reports.



The official cobbled together six passages from the King James Version and New Internation Version of the Old and New Testaments — such as Matthew 10:34, in which Christ proclaims he “came not to send peace, but a sword” — in an effort to prove that the applicant’s view of Christianity was wrong, and that Christian scripture is in fact “filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence”.



“These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a ‘peaceful’ religion, as opposed to Islam which contains violence, rage and revenge,” the rejection letter to the applicant admonishes passive-aggressively; an implicit ruling that Christianity is not peaceful — certainly not relative to Islam — and indeed is so clearly not peaceful that the Home Office does not consider perceived peacefulness a credible reason for conversion.

Breitbart London

@breitbartlondon

Dhimmitude: Britain Turns Away Pakistani Christian to Appease ‘Sections of the Community’, Islamist Terrorists www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/10/dhimmitude-britain-turns-away-pakistani-christian-appease-sections-community-islamist-terrorists/ …



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1:58 PM - Nov 10, 2018

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Dhimmitude: Britain Turns Away Pakistani Christian to Appease Islamists

Britain has turned away a Pakistani Christian who faces mob justice after a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam was overturned.



breitbart.com

235 people are talking about this

“I am extremely concerned that a Government department could determine the future of another human being based on such a profound misunderstanding of the texts and practices of faith communities,” commented Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham for the Church of England.



“To use extracts from the Book of Revelation to argue that Christianity is a violent religion is like arguing that a Government report on the impact of Climate Change is advocating drought and flooding,” he added.



The United Kingdom is, at least nominally, a Christian country, with the Queen also serving as the Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, and charged with defending the Protestant faith by her Coronation Oath.



Meanwhile the Islamic Republic of Iran is, as the name would suggest, officially Islamic, with a religious cleric acting as Supreme Leader.



Conversion from the state religion of Islam to Christianity in Iran is officially deemed as “apostasy” — a criminal offence which is punishable by death.



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[PurplePuppy]

British Government Rules Christianity Is Not a Religion of Peace, Rejects Convert

ChristianityDavid Silverman/Getty Images

JACK MONTGOMERY

The Home Office has rejected the asylum application of a Christian convert from Iran who said they had been drawn to the faith by its peaceful nature, due to a Government official ruling that Christianity is not peaceful.

The applicant indicated that they had converted to Christianity from Islam because of its peaceful nature, stating that “In Islam there is violence, rage and revenge. In Christianity in the contrary it is talking about peace, forgiveness and kindness.”



This earned the ire of the Home Office bureaucrat or bureaucrats charged with assessing the application, the Times reports.


The official cobbled together six passages from the King James Version and New Internation Version of the Old and New Testaments — such as Matthew 10:34, in which Christ proclaims he “came not to send peace, but a sword” — in an effort to prove that the applicant’s view of Christianity was wrong, and that Christian scripture is in fact “filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence”.



“These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a ‘peaceful’ religion, as opposed to Islam which contains violence, rage and revenge,” the rejection letter to the applicant admonishes passive-aggressively; an implicit ruling that Christianity is not peaceful — certainly not relative to Islam — and indeed is so clearly not peaceful that the Home Office does not consider perceived peacefulness a credible reason for conversion.





Breitbart London

@breitbartlondon

Dhimmitude: Britain Turns Away Pakistani Christian to Appease ‘Sections of the Community’, Islamist Terrorists www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/10/dhimmitude-britain-turns-away-pakistani-christian-appease-sections-community-islamist-terrorists/ …



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1:58 PM - Nov 10, 2018

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Dhimmitude: Britain Turns Away Pakistani Christian to Appease Islamists


Britain has turned away a Pakistani Christian who faces mob justice after a death sentence for blasphemy against Islam was overturned.


“I am extremely concerned that a Government department could determine the future of another human being based on such a profound misunderstanding of the texts and practices of faith communities,” commented Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham for the Church of England.



“To use extracts from the Book of Revelation to argue that Christianity is a violent religion is like arguing that a Government report on the impact of Climate Change is advocating drought and flooding,” he added.



The United Kingdom is, at least nominally, a Christian country, with the Queen also serving as the Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, and charged with defending the Protestant faith by her Coronation Oath.



Meanwhile the Islamic Republic of Iran is, as the name would suggest, officially Islamic, with a religious cleric acting as Supreme Leader.



Conversion from the state religion of Islam to Christianity in Iran is officially deemed as “apostasy” — a criminal offence which is punishable by death.

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[J.J.Gibbs]

Human Rights Activist: Islamists Murdered 70,000 Christians in Nigeria over Last 20 Years

ROBERT KRAYCHIK 24 Mar 20191,751

3:15

Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told Breitbart News that Islamists murdered 70,000 Christians in Nigeria over the last 20 years. He joined Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Dylan Gwinn.

“We don’t always get the press,” said King of many news media outlets’ disinterest in persecution of Christians. “It is absolutely the case [that Christians are the most persecuted faith].”


King added, “A lot of people don’t know that … in Nigeria, probably 70,000 Christians have been murdered in the last 20 years by Islamists, and that’s just scratching the surface. It’s going on all over. There’s a spectrum to the oppression.”



On March 16, Breitbart News reported of Nigerian Muslim militants killing 120 Christians over a three-week period, saying, “The recent death toll of Christians in Nigeria has reached 120 with this week’s slaughter of more than 50 by Fulani Muslim militants in the Kaduna state of Nigeria, the Christian Post reported.”



Breitbart News Rome Bureau Chief Thomas Williams contrasted “mainstream media” coverage of the mass murder of Christians by Islamists in Nigeria with the mass murder of Muslims at a New Zealand mosque by a white racial nationalist:



Political leaders and public figures were falling over themselves this weekend to condemn the mosque attacks in New Zealand, while dozens of Christians were slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria to the sound of crickets.



…



Without exception, the mainstream media gave top billing to the shootings, with newspapers carrying the story on their front pages and television news channels leading off their broadcasts with the story.



The bizarre aspect of the coverage was not, in fact, the attention paid to a heinous crime committed in New Zealand, but the absolute silence surrounding the simultaneous massacre of scores of Christians by Muslim militants in Africa.



Last Monday, Dede Laugesen, director of Save the Persecuted Christians, told Breitbart News that “anti-Christian bias” across America’s “mainstream media” drives news organizations to downplay the mass murder of Christians by Islamic terrorist groups.



Laugesen described a “narrative” being pushed by “mainstream media” in America:



People don’t believe that Christians can be persecuted, that they could be slaughtered. Here in the United States, we just have a different sense of who Christians are, but out in the greater world, Christians are viewed as a threat to control and power. What you have operating in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country — 200 million people living there with 50 percent Christians, 50 percent Muslims — you have two of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups operating — Fulani militants and Boko Haram, now affiliated with ISIS Islamic State in West Africa — and they are driven by radical sharia supremacist ideology, seeking to spread shariah across the entire country of Nigeria.



Islamic terrorist movements, concluded Laugesen, are pursuing an ethnic cleansing strategy against Christians in Nigeria and across Africa.



“The long-term strategy is to clear the Christians from the land and to take the resources underneath them” assessed Laugesen. “There are valuable metals and stones in northern Nigeria that can be mined for quite bit of income, and that will only further be able to fund the caliphate that both of these groups is determined to establish in the ungoverned territories of Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.”



Human Rights Activist: Islamists Murdered 70,000 Christians in Nigeria over Last 20 Years

19,273

Christians massacred NigeriaPius Utomi Ekpei / AFP / Getty Images

ROBERT KRAYCHIK24 Mar 20191,751

3:15

Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told Breitbart News that Islamists murdered 70,000 Christians in Nigeria over the last 20 years. He joined Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Dylan Gwinn.

“We don’t always get the press,” said King of many news media outlets’ disinterest in persecution of Christians. “It is absolutely the case [that Christians are the most persecuted faith].”



LISTEN:





Breitbart TV





Play Video

King added, “A lot of people don’t know that … in Nigeria, probably 70,000 Christians have been murdered in the last 20 years by Islamists, and that’s just scratching the surface. It’s going on all over. There’s a spectrum to the oppression.”



On March 16, Breitbart News reported of Nigerian Muslim militants killing 120 Christians over a three-week period, saying, “The recent death toll of Christians in Nigeria has reached 120 with this week’s slaughter of more than 50 by Fulani Muslim militants in the Kaduna state of Nigeria, the Christian Post reported.”



Breitbart News Rome Bureau Chief Thomas Williams contrasted “mainstream media” coverage of the mass murder of Christians by Islamists in Nigeria with the mass murder of Muslims at a New Zealand mosque by a white racial nationalist:



Political leaders and public figures were falling over themselves this weekend to condemn the mosque attacks in New Zealand, while dozens of Christians were slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria to the sound of crickets.



…



Without exception, the mainstream media gave top billing to the shootings, with newspapers carrying the story on their front pages and television news channels leading off their broadcasts with the story.



The bizarre aspect of the coverage was not, in fact, the attention paid to a heinous crime committed in New Zealand, but the absolute silence surrounding the simultaneous massacre of scores of Christians by Muslim militants in Africa.



Last Monday, Dede Laugesen, director of Save the Persecuted Christians, told Breitbart News that “anti-Christian bias” across America’s “mainstream media” drives news organizations to downplay the mass murder of Christians by Islamic terrorist groups.



Laugesen described a “narrative” being pushed by “mainstream media” in America:



People don’t believe that Christians can be persecuted, that they could be slaughtered. Here in the United States, we just have a different sense of who Christians are, but out in the greater world, Christians are viewed as a threat to control and power. What you have operating in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country — 200 million people living there with 50 percent Christians, 50 percent Muslims — you have two of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups operating — Fulani militants and Boko Haram, now affiliated with ISIS Islamic State in West Africa — and they are driven by radical sharia supremacist ideology, seeking to spread shariah across the entire country of Nigeria.



Islamic terrorist movements, concluded Laugesen, are pursuing an ethnic cleansing strategy against Christians in Nigeria and across Africa.



“The long-term strategy is to clear the Christians from the land and to take the resources underneath them” assessed Laugesen. “There are valuable metals and stones in northern Nigeria that can be mined for quite bit of income, and that will only further be able to fund the caliphate that both of these groups is determined to establish in the ungoverned territories of Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.”



Video at link

[Honoria]

Church Torched by Unknown Assailants in India’s Telangana State


04/12/2019 India (International Christian Concern) – A church in India’s Telangana state was torched by unknown assailants on Wednesday, April 10. In response, local Christians have staged demonstrations against police who they claim have allowed similar incidents to go uninvestigated.



On April 10, at approximately 6 a.m., Gypsy Mission Church, located in Machapuram village, was set on fire by unknown assailants. Sadanandam, a church member, reports that he noticed flames and thick smoke coming from the church as he was going for a morning walk. Sadanandam immediately reported the situation to Pastor Samuel, head pastor of Gypsy Mission Church.



When Pastor Samuel and Sadanadam arrived at the church, they discovered everything was completely burned. Speaking to International Christian Concern (ICC), Pastor Samuel said, “There is nothing left in the church. Everything became ashes including the pulpit, chairs, audio visual equipment, and more than 25 Bibles and songbooks.”



According to Pastor Samuel, Gypsy Mission Church was built in Machapuram village four years ago and is attended regularly by some 200 church members. Prior to the construction of the church, Pastor Samuel had been conducting worship in the village for 14 years.



“We Christians never harm anybody,” Pastor Samuel told ICC. “In fact, we go the extra mile to help people. What has happened is terrible.”



Local Christian leaders from the Mandal Pastor Association staged a demonstration in Machapuram condemning the incident. According to these leaders, this is the second church that has been burned down by unknown assailants in Warangal District in recent months.



A similar incident took place on February 4 when an Indian Pentecost Church in Parvathagiri village was set on fire. Pastor Samuel and other church members suspect that local Hindu radicals are involved in both incidents.



To date, the Mandal Pastor Association has filed a complaint with local police and the police have promised to investigate.


link

[Honoria]

Coptic Christians Without Church for Easter Following Mob Attack

Children Traumatized and Three Injured in Attack on Egyptian Church



04/16/2019 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on April 12, 2019, a mob of extremists attacked the Church of Society of Anba Karassof in Khalaf Allah Jaber village, located in Egypt’s Sohag Governorate. As a result, the church was damaged, three people were injured, Christian children attending Sunday School were traumatized, and the church was closed to avoid further violence.



The mob, armed with knives and sticks, attacked the church at 4:00 p.m. on April 12 as Christian children were attending Sunday School classes. According to local reports, a large iron gate delayed the mob in their assault which allowed local police to arrive and disperse the crowd.



However, the mob was still able to inflict damage on the church and injure several Christians, including two priests, Father Basil and Father Pachomius, and one Coptic man, Asaad Bakhit Rizk Allah. Following the attack, local police closed down the church in order to avoid further violence.



Though there were limited injuries, one local Christian woman said, “The hardest emotion in that incident is the kids lived the incident in the reality. They saw the extremists attacking the church and how they injured the priests. This incident will hurt them psychologically in the future.”



A day prior to the attack, the village mayor confiscated building materials from the church and attempted to close down the church. According to local reports, the mayor became frustrated with the local church because the Coptic Christians were renovating their church building in an attempt to accommodate their growing congregation of nearly 1,300 Christians.



Though the church had applied for legal status in September 2017, it has yet to receive official authorization.



Commenting on the political environment surrounding the attack, one local said, “The motivation of this incident [is] the constitution amendments. Many Christians will accept it, while other Muslim [extremists] hate the continuation of Sisi’s presidency. The Christians are always the victims of this regime.”



To date, the Church of Society of Anba Karassof remains closed to avoid additional violence. This is despite the fact that the Coptic congregation is commemorating Holy Week and preparing for Easter. With no other local church in the area, the congregation is likely to be left without a formal worship space this Easter.



ICC’s Regional Manager, Claire Evans, said, “Egypt’s Christians are often singled out during the celebration of Christian holidays, such as Easter. President al-Sisi has taken symbolic steps of support for the Coptic population. Now he must take action to protect the rights of Christians to worship in their churches. More must be done to protect Christians from both discrimination and violence.”


link

[J.J.Gibbs]

Church Burnings Are Escalating And It’s NO MISTAKE…It’s Satanic!