Christian Persecution Worse Than Any Time in History

[Berean]

China Blocks Keywords like ‘Christ,’ ‘Bible,’ and ‘Gospel’ from Social Media Giant

16 hours ago Staff Writer



China has gifted its citizens with a new round of crushing censorship, placing further restrictions on Christian content on the social media megacorp WeChat. As directed by the Communist Party of China, WeChat has blocked Christian search terms and has purged thousands of overtly Christian accounts, according to an organization that provides hope and aid for the persecuted Church.



WeChat is the world’s largest social media site – a one-stop-shop that handles sharing video, text messages, photo sharing, and video games, along with being linked to one’s bank account and used to pay for food, groceries, bills, and even rent and mortgage.



It differs from a similar site like Facebook, not just on account of the monetary integration, but because users are openly and actively tracked, surveilled, and their posts analyzed by the government as part of mass surveillance network in China.



The Barnabas Fund reports that “key words such as ‘Christ,’ ‘Bible,’ and ‘Gospel’ appear to have been blocked, with searches for these terms bringing up no results on WeChat,” and that “attempts to access these pages prompt a notification that the accounts have been ‘removed from use’ due to ‘complaints’ that they violate China’s Internet User Public Account Information Services Management Provisions.”



This follows the country instituting the Measures for the Administration of Religious Personnel, which came into effect May 1, 2021, and contains a database of all Christian leaders authorized to preach in the country. Anyone not registered will be denied the ability to engage in ministry. The Barnabas Fund reports that:



In order to be registered church leaders must, according to Article 3, be those who ‘love the motherland, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system, abide by the constitution, laws, regulations and rules, [and] practice the core values ​​of socialism.’



Pray for the persecuted church in China.

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[Berean]

Nearly 80 Police Swarm Church Service, Choke Congregant In Violent Takedown

Staff Writer



A congregation that was swarmed by nearly 80 police officers on Sunday, breaking up the service and even slamming one member on the ground for no discernable reason, are crying foul at the goverment’s harsh tactics that saw them raided and forcibly dispersed under threat of arrest and jail.



Mere days before this incident occurred, law enforcement came for their Pastor, Paul Furlong, who heads up Revival Church in Melbourne, Australia. He was arrested and remanded into police custody, eventually being charged with incitement.



His crime? Releasing a video on social media threatening to have a church service on the weekend – an act prohibited by the state of Victoria. They are in the throes of a stringent statewide lockdown after a handful of people tested positive for COVID, throwing nearly 6 million people into an emergency closure. (Reports vary from between 4-11 cases that sparked the emergency procedures.) In the video, Furlong tells his audience:



My church is open. I’ve said I would not shut the church again. This Sunday at 10 a.m., my church the Revival Church in Narre Warren…we are open for worship. Many of you may hear me declare that I have chosen to obey God over man. This comes down to a freedom of religion, movement, association.”



There is no word on when he will be released from prison.

Full story with video and pictures at link

[schwartzie]

Rights Group: Afghan Christians Risk ‘Being Hunted Down and Killed’


THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.8 Sep 202191

2:50

A Christian persecution watchdog group warned Tuesday that Afghanistan’s new Taliban government considers the country’s remaining Christians to be apostates, punishable by the death penalty.



“Christians who remain in Afghanistan are at risk of being hunted down and killed by the Taliban now that the Islamist group has regained control of the country and, on 7 September, announced the formation of a new government,” the Barnabas Fund declared.



The new government has made it clear that it intends to rule according to a strict interpretation and application of Islamic law.



“In the future, all matters of governance and life in Afghanistan will be regulated by the laws of the Holy Sharia,” said Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada in a statement Tuesday, a stipulation that renders Christians’ lives forfeit.



Since Afghan Christians are first-generation converts, they, together with their children, “will be considered apostates (murtadd) from Islam” and are liable to the death penalty according to sharia law, the Barnabas Fund noted.



Earlier this month, Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, warned that the situation for Christians in Afghanistan has become a matter of life and death.





Afghans pray at the Puli Kheshti mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan man who had faced a death sentence after he converted from Islam to Christianity has left Afghanistan, says foreign legal expert connected to the case. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)



In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Brownback noted that under Taliban rule, Christians are “extraordinarily vulnerable,” and since they were given no way to exit, “they’re getting desperate to flee.”



“I’ve got lists myself of hundreds of individuals trying to get out — mostly it’s a combination of Christian converts and NGO (nongovernmental organization) workers, local NGO workers that were associated with Western NGOs,” Brownback said.



The Taliban’s understanding of apostasy and its consequence is inimical to the Western mindset, notes Patrick Sookhdeo, international director of the UK-based Barnabas Fund.



“Islam stands alone among world religions in officially prescribing a range of severe punishments for any of its adherents who choose to leave their faith – punishments that include the death sentence,” Sookhdeo said in his 2009 book Freedom to Believe: Challenging Islam’s Apostasy Law.



There are a number of Islamic hadith used to support the execution of apostates, the Barnabas Fund observed, the most commonly cited being Bukhari, Vol. 9, Book 84, No. 57, which chronicles “the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changed his [Islamic] religion, then kill him.’”



Another cites Muhammad as prescribing death for “the one who reverts from Islam and leaves the Muslims.”

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[schwartzie]

Buried Alive: Persecution of Christians, August 2021

by Raymond Ibrahim

September 26, 2021 at 5:00 am



After sexually harassing a Christian sanitation worker, a Muslim supervisor threatened to file blasphemy charges — which carry a maximum death penalty — against her unless she withdraws her complaints against him." — Morning Star News, August 31, 2021, Pakistan.



"Most sanitation workers in Pakistan are Christian.... Christian sanitation workers are routinely called derogatory terms... and face sexual harassment, discrimination, nonpayment of salaries, irregular work contracts and extortion by senior officers...." — Morning Star News, August 31, 2021, Pakistan.



"[T]he Taliban are going door-to-door in Afghanistan, executing Christians on the spot.... Taliban militants are even pulling people off public transport and killing them on the spot if they're Christians.... The Taliban have spies and informants everywhere." — Religion News Service, August 17, 2021, Afghanistan.



"Women who disappear and are never recovered must live an unimaginable nightmare. The large majority of these women are never reunited with their families or friends because police response in Egypt is dismissive and corrupt. There are countless families who report that police have either been complicit in the kidnapping or... bribed into silence." — Coptic Solidarity, 2020, Egypt.



Muslims murdered a man for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity by burying him alive. — Morning Star News, August 26, 2021, Uganda.



"What you have witnessed happening to your husband today is for the disobedience of your husband not heeding the advice given by the family that he should return to Islam, since Islam cannot tolerate infidels." According to report, "Police have taken no action regarding the killing." — Morning Star News, August 26, 2021, Uganda.



"Islam is now invading South Sudan. They're saying South Sudan is a strategic place and... the gate[way] to Africa [so that] Islam can go to all of Africa." — Local
Christian, Vatican News, August 19, 2021, South Sudan.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

The Jihadist Genocide of Christians in Nigeria Intensifies

by Raymond Ibrahim

October 10, 2021 at 5:00 am



What several international observers have for years characterized as a "pure genocide" of Christians in Nigeria has reached new levels.



"We have never seen an evil government in this country like the one of today. The government is fully in support of the bloodshed in Nigeria. We are being killed just because we are not Muslims. These evil Fulani jihadists are enjoying the backing of the government to go about killing people, destroying their houses and farmlands, yet when we try to defend ourselves, the government will go about arresting our people. What kind of justice is this?" — Rev. Jacob Kwashi, Anglican bishop, during a funeral for 17 murdered Christians, Morning Star News, August 30, 2021.



"[T]here is an ongoing genocide in Southern Kaduna targeted at the indigenous Christians population.... Not a single church or school is left standing. Not a single herdsman has been apprehended all these years. It is unfortunate that... the western media do not believe that our lives are worth any news." — Jonathan Asake, a former member of Nigeria's House of Representatives, The Epoch Times, August 4, 2021.



"Since the government and its apologists are claiming the killings have no religious undertones, why are the terrorists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?" — The Christian Association of Nigeria, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, January 21, 2020.



"It's tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn't a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting 'Allahu Akbar!' and screaming 'Death to Christians.'" — Sister Monica Chikwe, Crux, August 4, 2019.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

The Basic Message Is Hatred": The Persecution of Christians, September 2021

by Raymond Ibrahim

October 24, 2021 at 5:00 am



"[T]he humanitarian crisis that is developing as the Taliban returns to power is likely to become a genocide against Christians if the Biden Administration does not act...." — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, American Center for Law and Justice, August 27, 2021.



"[T]he possibility of there being a genocide against Christians in the wake of this withdrawal is extremely high. Already, the Taliban is compiling lists of known Christians and their communities. They are going door to door searching Afghan homes for Bibles, even searching smartphones for Bible apps." — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, American Center for Law and Justice, August 27, 2021.



"We allowed the Fulani Muslims who are migrants to settle among us on our lands for free. Now, Christians who welcomed and accommodated them have become targets of their attacks." — Dominic Gambo Yahaya, local leader, Morning Star News, September 29, 2021, Nigeria.



"A human rights activist [Patrick George Zaki, a 30-year-old Christian graduate student] who wrote about his experiences as a Coptic Christian in Egypt has gone on trial on the charge of spreading false news." — BBC, September 28, 2021, Egypt.



Anas Khalifa—for 20 years one of the most influential Salafist preachers in the nation—now calls Salafist Islam (fundamentalist Islam) "a cancer" and "a worldview that is spreading rapidly among young people."...Anas also said that "They [Salafists] spread hatred against Christians and Jews, strong prejudices about other groups. The basic message is hatred." — Anas Khalifa, influential Salafist preacher, svt.se, September 22, 2021, Sweden.

Continued at link

[shalom]

The Rise of Global Christian Persecution with Erick Stakelbeck | TBN Special

[schwartzie]

"Christians Enjoy No Rights in This Country": The Persecution of Christians, October 2021

by Raymond Ibrahim

November 28, 2021 at 5:00 am



Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old Muslim man of Somali descent, lunged at and repeatedly stabbed British MP Sir David Amess with a knife. Amess, 69, died soon after.... It is worth noting that, when it comes to severely persecuting and slaughtering Christians, Somalia is the world's third-worst ranked nation, after Afghanistan (#2) and North Korea (#1) . — United Kingdom.



"The Christians are treated as slaves bounded to Muslims... Christians enjoy no rights, no dignity, and no protection in this country. The overall system of society is based on religious hatred against Christians and other minorities." — Asif Muniwar, local human rights defender; International Christian Concern, October 12, 2021, Pakistan



[T]hree Christian workers died after Muslim emergency staff refused to rescue them because Christians are supposedly "ritually unclean." Problems began when the Muslim employers of sewage worker Michael Masih, aged 33, threatened to fire him unless he entered a highly toxic sewer without any personal protective equipment or masks.... "An emergency team got to the sewer within 10 minutes but on arrival they looked down the pipe and could see the men but refused to save them. This was on account that they were choorah [dirty cleaners] and would cause the Muslims to become ritually impure." — British Asian Christian Association, October 8, 2021, Pakistan.



"Many shops were looted after they set them on fire. Church of Christ in All Nation (COCIN) was also burned down.... "[M]any houses were set ablaze. Bulls used for farming were also killed." A local eyewitness said the murderers were dressed in Nigerian army uniforms and traveling in two vans owned by the Nigerian army. — International Christian Concern, October 17, 2021, Nigeria, which U.S. Secretary of Antony Blinken just removed from its 2021 List of "Countries of Particular Concern".



"[T]he herdsmen returned and shot [Dr. Habila Solomon, a medical doctor who also served as a Christian pastor] in his chest, killing him instantly. He was the reason why many people saw hope.... In the course of doing missions, God used him to provide drinking water, shelter, free education and feed the poor.... [and] also provided the [Muslim] herdsmen and their families with free medical care." — Morning Star News, October 25, 2021, Nigeria.



"Nigeria's government seems unable or unwilling to stop the growing carnage.... More Christians have been killed for their faith in Nigeria in the last year than in the entire Middle East. Unless we find our voice, what is happening in Nigeria will move relentlessly toward a Christian genocide." — Former U.S. Under Secretary of Education, Gary L. Bauer, calling Nigeria a "killing field" of Christians;" The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 2021 annual report; Nigeria.



Although the abduction, rape, and forced conversion to Islam of Christian girls and other religious minorities is rampant in Pakistan—with Muslim police, judges, and authorities often siding with the kidnappers and rapists—the nation is now witnessing record breaking numbers.... a nearly 300% increase from 2020.... This report comes on the heels of the Pakistani government's rejection of an anti-forced conversion bill, which would have helped protect such minor girls. — Union of Catholic Asian News, October 14 and 18, 2021, Pakistan.



"My cross has been with me for 40 years. It is part of me, and my faith, and it has never caused anyone any harm.... At this hospital there are members of staff who go to a mosque four times a day and no one says anything to them. Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists and female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet my small cross around my neck was deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job." — NHS nurse Mary Onuoha, who had fled from Uganda to the UK for religious freedom; Daily Mail, October 5, 2021, United Kingdom.



"Why do some NHS employers feel that the cross is less worthy of protection or display than other religious attire?" — Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre; Daily Mail, October 5, 2021, United Kingdom.

Continued at link

[Honoria]

Anti-Christian hate crimes in Germany increased by nearly 150% in 2020

Government data shows anti-Christian attacks rose from 57 to 141 in 2020

It included seven physical assaults, three thefts and a grave desecration

Overall hate crime in Germany rose by 19 per cent last year

By JACK NEWMAN FOR MAILONLINE



PUBLISHED: 07:21 EST, 10 December 2021 | UPDATED: 07:59 EST, 10 December 2021


Hate crimes targeting Christians in Germany have nearly trebled in a year amid a wave of religious discrimination across Europe.



From 2019 to 2020, the majority Christian nation saw a rise in attacks from 57 to 141.



This included seven physical assaults against Christians for their beliefs, three thefts or robberies, one desecration of a grave and 24 verbal threats.


Overall, hate crime in Germany rose by 19 per cent last year.



The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance against Christians in Europe (OIDAC), which has compiled a report on anti-Christian hate crime in the continent, says the two main threats come from 'secular intolerance' and 'Islamic oppression'.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

"Crimes in the Name of Religion": The Persecution of Christians, November 2021

by Raymond Ibrahim

January 9, 2022 at 5:00 am



"The servants of Allah entered my house in order to remove the clothes which they were wearing, because they were soaked in blood, and said that they had killed an infidel, hence Allah will reward them...." — Morning Star News; November 14, 2021; Uganda.



"The United Nations has estimated that since 2011, Boko Haram has killed more than 15,200 Nigerians and forced 1.7 million others from their homes as it has sought to turn Nigeria into an Islamic nation ruled by Sharia law." — Catholicherald.co.uk, November 5, 2021; Nigeria.



On November 17, the U.S. removed Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern, meaning nations that engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Nigeria was the country with the most Christians killed (3,530) for their faith in 2020..... "If the U.S. CPC list means anything at all – an open question at this point – Nigeria belongs on it." — Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, quoting Christian Solidarity, Nigeria.



"n recent weeks there have been cases in which the terrorists have first been asking whether the owner [of cattle] is a Christian or a Muslim.... 'If the owners were Christians the attackers didn't consider it necessary to count their animals, because they said that they didn't just want to take their animals, but also to kill the owners....'" — churchinneed.org, November 5, 2021; Nigeria.



"They also tried to force my wife and our four children to convert to Islam, but when they refused to convert, they shot my wife in the head while our four children were cut into pieces with a Somali sword... the rebel militants intend to establish an Islamist state ruled by sharia [Islamic law]." — Morning Star News, December 1, 2021, for November 20-25, 2021; Democratic Republic of Congo.



According to a separate, November 19 report, in just the first half of 2021, in Pakistan's Punjab Province alone, 6,754 women were abducted. Out of those, 1,890 were raped, 3,721 were tortured and 752 children were raped. The same report notes that "over 1,000 girls belonging to Hindu and Christian communities are forcefully converted to Islam every year in Pakistan."



"Mareeb is only 12 years old, and she cannot marry. The perpetrators commit these crimes in the name of religion." — Pastor Zahid Augustine, asianews.it; Pakistan.



Ramy Kamel, a Christian activist arrested two years earlier for reporting on the persecution of the nation's indigenous Christian minority, the Copts, remained under arrest—mostly in solitary confinement, and sometimes under torture—beyond the maximum amount of time permitted by law. "Furthermore, Ramy Kamel's case is not unique. There are many other Egyptian activists, journalists, politicians, and regular citizens who are suffering under Egypt's sham of a judicial system." — copticsolidarity.org, November 29, 2021; Egypt.



Based on a new law that came into effect on November 1, converting out of Islam has become illegal in Malaysia's Kelantan State. Apostates now face prison, fines, and/or caning. Other sharia-compliant mandates that also came into effect in November include laws against disrespecting Ramadan, misrepresenting Islam, getting tattoos or plastic surgery, engaging in sexual intercourse with corpses and non-humans, and witchcraft. — thestar.com.my, November 2, 2021; Malaysia.

Continued at link

[Pink Rose]

Stampede at Christian rally leaves at least 29 dead including 11 children and a pregnant woman after 'gangsters started attacking worshippers with machetes' in Liberia


At least 29 killed, including 11 children and a pregnant woman, at Christian event

Gangsters allegedly attacked worshippers with machetes, leading to stampede

The disaster occurred overnight on Wednesday in the Liberian capital, Monrovia

By LAUREN LEWIS FOR MAILONLINE and WIRES



PUBLISHED: 06:30 EST, 20 January 2022 | UPDATED: 06:49 EST, 20 January 2022




A stampede at a Christian rally in Liberia has left at least 29 people dead including 11 children and a pregnant woman after gangsters allegedly started attacking worshippers with machetes.



The disaster occurred around 9pm on Wednesday night when a gang of thugs armed with knives attacked some of the hundreds attending the ceremony in the Liberian capital Monrovia.



Police spokesman Moses Carter said the death toll was provisional and 'may increase', adding that one person, who was carrying a knife, was arrested.





Pictures posted online appeared to be the aftermath of the stampede with dozens of shoes and other belongings piled up against a wall.



The bodies have been taken to the morgue of Redemption Hospital, close to where the incident occurred in a beach area called New Kru Town.


Continued at the link

[schwartzie]

The Severed Head of Santa Claus: The Persecution of Christians, December 2021

by Raymond Ibrahim

January 30, 2022 at 5:00 am



Days before Christmas, on December 17, a Muslim cleric told his congregation, following mosque prayers, that wishing non-Muslims a Merry Christmas is "like congratulating murderers and pedophiles" — Breitbart.com, December 23, 2021, Canada.



The imam concluded by calling on Allah to "give strength to Islam and Muslims, to humiliate infidels and polytheists, to destroy the enemies of (our) religion and to annihilate heretics and atheists." — Breitbart.com, December 23, 2021, Canada.



"Get lost, this [France] is not your country...." — Muslims confronting a Catholic procession, Medforth.biz, December 11, 2021, Nanterre, France.



After decapitating a Christian pastor, Islamic State-linked Muslims handed the pastor's severed head to his widow and ordered her to deliver it to the police. — Daily Mail, December 17, Mozambique.



"The [ISIS-linked] group... forced younger, healthy-looking, and lighter-skinned women and girls in their custody to 'marry' their fighters, who enslave and sexually abuse them." — Human Rights Watch, December 7, 2021, Mozambique.



"Quranic texts are not the only way to teach Arabic in schools. There are other methods such as literature, poetry and rhetoric.... The government always backs down from any removal of Quranic texts in school curricula or the subject of religion, fearing attacks and criticism by extremist groups." — Isaac Hanna, journalist and head of the Egyptian Association for Enlightenment, Al Monitor,
December 15, 2021, Egypt.
 
Continued at link

[schwartzie]

The Ignored Pandemic: 360 Million Christians Persecuted Worldwide

by Raymond Ibrahim

February 13, 2022 at 5:00 am



]"When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, they tried to appear moderate—but there's no sign that Christianity will be anything other than a death sentence." — World Watch List-2022.



"The persecution of Christians in India has intensified, as Hindu extremists aim to cleanse the country of their presence and influence. The extremists disregard Indian Christians and other religious minorities as true Indians, and think the country should be purified of non-Hindus....." — World Watch List-2022.



"The COVID-19 pandemic has offered a new weapon to persecutors. In some areas, Christians have been deliberately overlooked in the local distribution of government aid and have even been accused of spreading the virus." — World Watch List-2022.



In Qatar, "Violence against Christians rose sharply ...." — World Watch List-2022.



In Bangladesh (#29), local authorities told Muslim converts to Christianity who, like their Muslim counterparts, sought governmental aid, "to return to Islam or receive nothing."



In the Central African Republic, which was "hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic ... Christians were denied government aid and told to convert to Islam if they wanted to eat."



Another notable trend concerns the growing number of internally or externally displaced people — 84 million: "a significant number [of whom] are Christians fleeing religious persecution."



t least a quarter, though arguably much more, of all hate crimes registered in Europe in 2020 were anti-Christian — representing a 70% increase compared to 2019.



t is telling that the European nations suffering the most also happen to have Europe's largest Muslim populations — namely, Germany (where anti-Christian hate crimes have more than doubled since 2019) and France (where two churches are reportedly attacked every single day, some, as in the Muslim world, with human feces).



In short, the persecution of Christians, which was already horrific, has increased by nearly 70% over the last five years, with no signs of abating.



How long will it be before this seemingly irreversible trend metastasizes into those nations currently celebrated for their religious freedom?

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

Migrants Desecrate More Than 2,000 Churches Just in Greece

by Raymond Ibrahim

February 27, 2022 at 5:00 am



"As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to the norms and values of their new countries." — Greek City Times, May 16, 2020.



While the report most likely has the 1453 sack of Constantinople (today Istanbul) in mind — when countless Greek churches, including Hagia Sophia, were desecrated, destroyed, or turned into mosques — that pattern is a century older.



Before Christmas, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, where more than a million Muslim migrants reside, some 50 public statues of Jesus and other Christian figures were beheaded and crucifixes broken.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

"Why Are His Killers Still Out?": Persecution of Christians, January 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

March 13, 2022 at 5:00 am



On Jan. 3, Muslims, including some from neighboring Somalia, murdered six Christians; most were burned alive in their homes. — Morning Star News, January 7, 2022, Kenya.



An elderly great-grandmother, locally known as Mama Fide, was burned alive during the raid: "Grandma was unable to escape when the attack took place because she was very old and blind." — Morning Star News, January 30, 2022, Nigeria.



Because Nigerian and Western mainstream media insist that Fulani herdsmen raids on Christians are not ideologically driven, but are rather for resources and land, one Twitter user wrote, "After [Joel's experiences, including being asked if he's Christian or Muslim], some people will come and say there's no jihad agenda," to which Joel replied, "Well, they clearly have an agenda and it's clearly working and they are so proud of it, telling me no one can stop them." — International Christian Concern, persecution.org, January 16, 2022, Nigeria.



On Jan. 3, a Muslim judge changed the life sentence that a Christian man convicted of "blasphemy" had been carrying out in prison, to a death sentence. Zafar Bhatti, 56, who had been languishing in jail since 2012 after being accused of sending blasphemous text messages, was sentenced to life in prison in 2017, under Section 295-C of Pakistan's blasphemy laws against defaming Islam's prophet, Muhammad. The change in sentencing came after one of his lawyers sought bail. — Morning Star News, January 10, 2022, Pakistan.



On Jan. 10, a Christian politician was arrested for a tweet that was deemed offensive to Islam. He is facing up to 10 years imprisonment. — ucanews.com, January 11, 2022, Indonesia.



[T]he church walls collapsed even as, ironically, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi was visiting the Coptic Pope during Christmas Mass to congratulate the Christians of his nation and speak of Christian/Muslim solidarity. — copticsolidarity.org, January 15, 2022, Egypt.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

"Oh Allah... Destroy the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the Russians, and the Shiites!": The Persecution of Christians, February 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

March 27, 2022 at 5:00 am



Authorities called on ten other Muslim converts to Christianity, who were earlier cleared of all charges, to take "re-education" classes led by Islamic clerics... Earlier, the prosecutor in the case against these Christians had said that "apostasy" from Islam was punishable under Islamic law, or sharia, "and in the hereafter," even though it was "not criminalised in the laws of Iran." — articleeighteen.com, February1, 2022, Iran.



"It's not clear why or how he came to be arrested. Other charges, relating to violations of Egypt's cyber-crime law and using religion to promote extremist thought, were added later without offering Gerges or his defence team an opportunity to respond.... A law banning 'insulting the heavenly religions', criminalising blasphemy, has been repeatedly used to silence Egypt's religious minorities...." — World Watch Monitor, February 9, 2022, Egypt.



"He accused me of being an infidel by converting to Christianity, and that Allah will reward them in Jannah [garden paradise] if they kill me. He said to me that it is now the right time for me to receive punishment from Allah, whereby I was going to be burned alive and the birds of the air will enjoy me as their meat.... They started beating me up as others gathered firewood, while another was sent to go for petrol because they wanted to use it to burn me alive.... They found me behind the house about 100 meters away, tied and with firewood around me." — Morningstar News, February 16, 2022, Uganda.



"Jihadists came by motorbike.... The invaders told the Christians that "they don't want to see crosses." — Catholic News Agency, February 11, 2022, Burkina Faso.



"The man, Mohammed Derrab, remains in detention for anti-conversion charges brought against him." — International Christian Concern, February 28, 2022, Algeria.



"The threats come as a result of failure to comply with the 2006 ordnance that requires non-Muslim worship to operate only in licensed buildings. However, the licensing commission has yet to issue a single permit." — International Christian Concern, February 28, 2022, Algeria.





Turkish authorities in February gave permission to turn the historic and much venerated Panagia Soumela Monastery (pictured) into a discotheque for the filming of an advertisement, which included people dancing to loud electronic music in the monastery's courtyard. Orthodox Christians responded with outrage at what they deemed the intentional desecration of a cherished site. The Monastery was founded in 386 AD and operated until the Turkish genocide of Christians, when it was abandoned, vandalized, used by smugglers, and eventually burned. After a lengthy rehabilitation in 2015-2017, the monastery was reopened for tourists — only to be immediately vandalized again, and now mocked in the context of filming an advertisement. (Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikimedia Commons)



The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of February, 2022:



The Muslim Slaughter of Christians



Nigeria: On February 25, members of the Islamic State West Africa Province murdered three Christians during an attack on Chibok, in the nation's northeast. The terrorists also destroyed a worship building belonging to the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria.



Pakistan: As many as 200 Muslims slaughtered Pervez Masih, a 25-year-old Christian video game store owner. On the evening of Feb. 13, he refused to gamble with some young Muslims who had entered his store. On the next day, Feb. 14, a mob "of 150 to 200 Muslims came to the Christian area of Lahore, some with guns, and started insulting and beating people, including Pervez," says the report.



"Despite his uncle's attempts to stop the beating, the attackers dragged Pervez away to torture him with sticks and bricks, threatening that they would not leave him alive. Eventually one of the Muslims, named Sohni, son of Allah Ditta, hit the young Christian in the head. When the latter fell to the ground everyone fled the scene, firing into the air."



Democratic Republic of Congo: On Feb. 24, Islamic terrorists, linked to the Allied Democratic Forces, murdered four Christians. One of those killed was Sylvia Kombi of the Anglican Church of Congo, long hailed for her service in providing trauma counseling to the terror-stricken region. "She was coming from our diocese in Kasindi where she had gone to give counseling to Christian refugees living in Lubhiriha," a local source recalled. While eulogizing Sylvia, the head of the missions arm of the South Rwenzori Diocese of Uganda, said:



"She would spend days with the Muslim background believers here to pray with them and guide them on how to face persecution and become bold servants of the Lord. She was a humble and loving sister who put the gospel needs of the church first and she never hesitated whenever we needed her to come all the way from DR Congo to train our evangelists."



Muslim Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Evangelists



Iran: Authorities called on ten Muslim converts to Christianity, who were earlier cleared of all charges, to take "re-education" classes led by Islamic clerics. Because the former Muslims had been "misled" to Christianity, authorities explained, these classes were meant to "guide them back onto the right path." Earlier, the prosecutor in the case against these Christians had said that "apostasy" from Islam was punishable under Islamic law, or sharia, "and in the hereafter," even though it was "not criminalised in the laws of Iran." According to the Feb. 1 report,



"Despite this, the Christians must now endure 10 compulsory sessions with Islamic clerics, who will attempt to revert them to Islam in what is a clear breach of their rights under the international covenants to which Iran is a signatory. Such so-called 're-education' sessions have become much more common in recent years, even appearing in the list of 'corrective punishments' on official court papers..."



In a separate incident, three people who converted from Islam to Christianity — a married couple and a separate woman — were, according to a Feb. 9 report, "summoned to begin serving prison sentences of between two and five years for 'acting against national security' by attending a house-church and 'spreading Zionist Christianity.'" The man, Ramin Hassanpour, is to serve five years in prison; his wife, Saeede, and the other woman, Sakine Behjati, are each to serve two years. A fourth member of the group, Hadi Rahimi, is already serving a four year sentence.



Egypt: A Christian man was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to five years imprisonment. On Jan. 29, Marco Gerges was pronounced guilty of "contempt for Islam" and "exploiting religion in promoting extremist ideas." According to the Feb. 9 report:



"Gerges, reported to be a 'private citizen', was arrested in June 2021 on suspicion of having 'sexual images' on his mobile phone that, the prosecutor said, were in 'contempt of the Islamic religion'. It's not clear why or how he came to be arrested. Other charges, relating to violations of Egypt's cyber-crime law and using religion to promote extremist thought, were added later without offering Gerges or his defence team an opportunity to respond.... A law banning 'insulting the heavenly religions', criminalising blasphemy, has been repeatedly used to silence Egypt's religious minorities... Since the beginning of 2021, there have been at least three similar cases to Gerges', in which the courts have resorted to 'unconstitutional and overbroad laws such as blasphemy...'"



Uganda: Muslims beat unconscious a Christian evangelist on his way to participate in an open air debate on Islam and Christianity. When Charles Kamya, 43, was about 300 yards away from the site of the debate, two men approached and stopped his car, Kamya later related from his hospital bed.



"I stopped my car only to be ambushed by six other Muslims in Islamic attire who resurfaced from the bush at around midday... Some beat me badly while others cut me with some objects, and I lost a lot of blood as they pulled me out of my car and threw me out."



While thrashing him, one of his attackers said, "You have been terrorizing our religion. Today Allah has called you, and you are going to meet him." Two hours later, a passerby found Charles lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood. About a week earlier, Charles was involved in another debate; then, he held and cited from a Koran problematic passages that he said were resolved through the Christian message:



"I used the Koran to show Muslims that from the beginning of the Earth to date, God wants all people to be saved including Muslims. I also discussed Surah 72 about the powers of evil jinn, and that they can be defeated by Issa [Jesus], and many Muslims converted to Christ. One sheikh wanted to grab the Koran from me, but I refused and left immediately. It [the second debate to which he was traveling but never reached] was well publicized, with my photo displayed as the main debater of the day in Christian-Muslim dialogue."



Also in Uganda, on Feb. 6, Muslim family members beat, tied, and tried to burn alive a former Muslim turned Christian evangelist. Malingumu Bruhan, 34, had long since left his village, but returned for his grandfather's funeral, and then accepted his uncles' request to stay and visit. It was not long, however, before one of Bruhan's uncles, Musa, began to accost him, as Bruhan later recounted:



"My uncle accused me of embarrassing them by holding Christian evangelistic, open-air meetings and debates with Muslims. He accused me of being an infidel by converting to Christianity, and that Allah will reward them in Jannah [garden paradise] if they kill me. He said to me that it is now the right time for me to receive punishment from Allah, whereby I was going to be burned alive and the birds of the air will enjoy me as their meat."



Bruhan remained silent, which provoked his uncles to even greater fits of rage: "They started beating me up as others gathered firewood, while another was sent to go for petrol because they wanted to use it to burn me alive." During this time, a friend of Bruhan came looking for him, only to discover his shoe, "which had come off as his uncles dragged him off for slaughter."


Continued at link

[schwartzie]

Christians in Lands of Persecution Fear Attacks on Easter


GABRIELLE REYES
17 Apr 2022

Christians living in countries hostile to Christianity often face increased fears for their personal safety in the run-up to the Easter holiday, Mike Gore, the CEO of Open Doors Australia and New Zealand (an organization that aids persecuted Christians) wrote in an op-ed for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.



“[F]or many Christians around the world, the anticipation of Easter is accompanied by the fear of an attack. As many Christians gather on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, the risk of violence intensifies. As Christians gather to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, they themselves become targets for violent extremism,” Gore wrote on April 14.



The Christian holiday of Easter falls on April 17 this year.



Gore on Thursday cited Open Doors statistics which found that “526 Christians have lost their lives while celebrating Easter over the past seven years, with hundreds more injured. Just a year ago, on 28 March 2021, twenty people were injured in a bombing on Palm Sunday in a church in Makassar, south Sulawesi [Indonesia].”



Gore referred to a suicide bombing perpetrated by two Muslim terrorists outside a Catholic church in Makassar that wounded at least 20 people and killed only the attackers.





Police stand guard outside a church as Christians gather for Easter mass on April 4, 2021, in Surabaya amid tight police security following the March 28 a bombing at the Makassar cathedral on Palm Sunday. (JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP via Getty Images)



“Both suspects were killed instantly after they rode a motorbike into the church compound and, when challenged by security, detonated a bomb packed with nails,” the Jakarta Post reported on March 29, 2021, citing local police.



The March 2021 bombing took place “on Sunday at a time the congregation was inside the church on the island of Sulawesi, just as the mass was ending,” Al Jazeera observed.



Indonesian National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo told reporters at the time the two attackers were members of the Islamic terror group Jemaah Anshorut Daulah (JAD), which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2015.



JAD was responsible for a series of prior attacks on Indonesian Christians in 2018, including “suicide bombings at churches in Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya, which killed a dozen congregants,” the Jakarta Post recalled at the time.



“JAD was also implicated in a 2019 cathedral suicide bombing in the Philippines committed by a married Indonesian couple. That attack killed worshippers and security forces,” according to the newspaper.



Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. The nation’s latest census data (taken in 2010) demonstrates that 87.2 percent of Indonesia’s nearly 240 million inhabitants follow Islam.



“Violent Islamic radicalism is present in 7 out of the top 10 countries” in which it is most dangerous to be a Christian, Open Doors reported as part of its 2022 World Watch List, published in January.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

"This Is Not the Country We Were Enjoying Before": The Persecution of Christians, March 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

April 24, 2022 at 5:00 am




"For the entirety of March 8, social media comment columns were awash with people who, as always, condoned the murder.... Old pictures of Maria were passed around, in which she was still wearing a hijab, and people commented, 'see, this is what happens when you leave your faith,'.... Lies and slander were spread about her, and men and women threw themselves into a contest to see who could blame her most for her murder." — medyanews.net, March 10, 2022 - Iraq.



"[M]y father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, 'Allah Akbar [Allah is the greatest], you deserve death'"... The following day, while all three family members were still hspitalized, Muslim relatives set their home ablaze. — Morning Star News, March 22, 2022 - Uganda.



A few days after a Christian man and a Muslim woman got married—and photos of their wedding in a Catholic church went viral—...the Indonesian Ulema Council the nation's leading Islamic clerical body, declared that "the marriage of this couple is invalid and cannot be allowed." According to Islamic law, or sharia, interfaith marriages are permissible only when the man (seen as the head of the woman and future children) is Muslim. The married couple responded by ignoring the clerics. — Union of Catholic Asian News, March 9, 2022 - Indonesia.



"Egyptian authorities have failed not only to protect Coptic Christians from repeated sectarian attacks against their communities, but also to bring those responsible for such violence to justice." — Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, Amnesty.org, March 30, 2022 - Egypt.

Continued at link

[ShofarSoGood]

CAPITAL CITY BIKERS' CHURCH IN OTTAWA VANDALIZED PRIOR TO SUNDAY SERVICE – DON’T EXPECT AN OUTCRY



www.bitchute.com/video/miwX8Q672Bs/

[schwartzie]

"They Consider Us Inferior and Want to Rule Us": The Persecution of Christians, April 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim • May 22, 2022 at 5:00 am



On Good Friday, Fulani [Muslim tribe] kidnapped eight Christians. Four were released after paying a hefty ransom. One of the women released said that she was "raped several times by two leaders of the Fulani Militants." A "militant told us, after receiving the ransom money, that they got money to kill more Christians." — International Christian Concern, April 18, 2022, Nigeria



"It is not the first time that we ourselves have been attacked in Italy because we are Christians... It makes me angry to think that this discrimination also exists here." — Daughter of a Coptic Christian man who was attacked for smoking during Ramadan, medforth.biz, April 23, 2022, Turin, Italy.



"They want to apply Sharia law because they consider us inferior and want to rule us." — Coptic Christian man who was attacked for smoking during Ramadan, medforth.biz, April 23, 2022, Turin, Italy.



"They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are "They seized Sister Suellen from her bed in her nightclothes, with "no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc." She has not been heard from since. — Marianite Sister Ann Lacour, congregational leader, Clarion Herald, April 5, 2022, Burkina Faso.



"Inside the police station, I was surprised by attempts and pressure to conciliate. The perpetrator's lawyer steered the writing of the report [in a manner] that contradicted reality, and they forced me to sign the report which contained statements from the pharmacist's lawyer without taking my statements. .... We were especially shocked to see the report said that 'the pharmacist is a friend of the family, who was just bantering and joking around with Mrs. Nevin, because he is close to the family.'" — Christian woman who was violently slapped by a pharmacist for entering his store without a head covering during Ramadan; Coptic Solidarity, April 27, 2022, Egypt.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

The Black Lives that Don't Matter: 50 Christians Murdered in Their Church

by Raymond Ibrahim

June 12, 2022 at 5:00 am



Where is the outcry? When an Australian, Brenton Tarrant, attacked two mosques and killed 51 Muslims in 2019 in New Zealand, the world stood in condemnation; the hand-wringing has not stopped since. The United Nations responded to that lone and aberrant attack by inaugurating a "combat Islamophobia" initiative. Where, after years and decades of being attacked, are the UN initiatives to "combat anti-Semitism" and to "combat Christian genocide"?



Ignoring the murder of Christians is, of course, only one piece of the puzzle; covering up the religious identity of their murderers is the other. In describing last Sunday's massacre of more than 50 Christians, the words "Muslim," "Islam," or even "Islamist" never appeared in the AP report. Rather, we are told that "It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church."



To maintain this ambiguity, the AP failed to point out that Islamic terrorists have routinely stormed churches and slaughtered many Christians over the years in Nigeria -- a fact that might just offer a hint as to "who was behind the attack."



All the UN seems interested in doing is sitting by and watching its members violate its regulations... The UN ignores unspeakable crimes against humanity such as slavery or China's lies about the human-to-human transmissibility of COVID-19, while instead wrongfully persecuting Israel, a democracy that actually upholds human rights for all its citizens — whether Muslim, Jewish or Christian.



So, what will the UN and other large governmental bodies do now in response to the shooting up of yet another church and murder of more than 50 Christians? Probably nothing — apart from trying to silence whoever tries to expose the ideology that many of the murderers say drives them. We know this because the UN and many members of the clergy have done absolutely nothing in response to the countless other Muslim attacks on churches that have claimed thousands of Christian lives over the years — except for trying to cover up the motivation of the murderers, as in "high on cannabis" or the "mental illness defense."



Worse, the Biden administration's response to the jihadist onslaught against Christians in Nigeria — where 13 Christians are slaughtered every day — has been to remove Nigeria from the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern: nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom.

Continued at link


Where is the outrage? Where are the "hashtags" in support of Christian Nigerians? Why don't these black lives matter?

[schwartzie]

"We Are Your Death": The Persecution of Christians, May 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

June 26, 2022 at 5:00 am



In the video, the Christians appear on their knees, their hands tied behind their backs. A man holding a knife stands behind them. The terrorists claim that the murder of these 20 Christians is "payback" for ISIS leaders killed three months earlier in Syria by the U.S.... 2015 video [Muslim terrorists slaughtering 21 Christians in Libya] received six times less media coverage than the killing of a gorilla about the same time. The video of the Nigerian Christian also barely made a peep in the Western media -- as if the ritual slaughter of Christians is now so normal, it does not merit a report. — saharareporters.com, May 12, 2022, Nigeria.



The same day the video was released, a Muslim mob beat, stoned and then burned the body of Deborah Emmanuel, a Christian college student who earlier had refused the sexual advances of a Muslim man. — Ganzi Magwi, Twitter, May 12, 2022, Nigeria.



"We know and have evidence of how some of these allegations of blasphemy are false and just for blackmail or settling scores with perceived enemies or well-mannered young girls who have refused sexual advances by the opposite sex from another religion. We are also aware of how fanatics have in the past raised lies in the name of blasphemy." — The Rev. Joseph John Hayab, Morning Star News, May 23, 2022, Nigeria.



Anooshavan Avedian, a 60-year-old Iranian-Armenian Christian, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for teaching other Christians in his house church what Judge Imam Afshari called "educational and propaganda activities contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam." — articeeighteen.com, May 5, 2022, Iran.



A married Muslim couple who converted to Christianity face a 100-lashes punishment on the bizarre charge of "adultery." — Morning Star News, May 3, 2022, Sudan.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

'Where Is the Media?': Persecution of Christians, June 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

August 14, 2022 at 5:00 am



The Christians of Nigeria are, in fact, being purged in a genocide, according to several NGOs. Every two hours, one Christian there is killed.



"Heavily armed bandits, many of whom are said to be ethnic Fulanis, are waging their own form of Jihad; killing, abducting and terrorizing worship centers and educational institutions owned by churches as well as impoverished communities in the North and Middle Belt regions." — Vanguardngr.com. June 19, 2022, Nigeria.



The Biden administration's response to the jihadist onslaught against Christians in Nigeria...has been to remove Nigeria from the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern: nations that engage in, or tolerate, violations of religious freedom.



"The landlocked Sahel state [Burkina Faso], one of the world's poorest countries, is in the grip of a nearly seven-year-old jihadist insurgency. Thousands of people have died and nearly two million have been driven from their homes." — Guardian.ng, June 28, 2022, Burkina Faso.



"Amoti came to our home very early in the morning and needed to know more of Issa [Jesus], whom she had seen in a dream.... she willingly accepted Jesus for the salvation of her soul..... then together we went to church in Nansana." When she arrived home, her father "...ordered his sons to seize and beat her, then took a sharp knife and pierced her eyes," one of her brothers who had tried to defend her later said. "I want to remove these eyes so that you stop seeing churches forever—even if you die, we are not going to bury you," her Muslim father said. — Morning Star News, June 14, 2022, Uganda.



"After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government... outlawed the labeling of any religious group "infidels" and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death. With the Oct. 25 [2021] coup, Christians in Sudan fear the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law." — Morning Star News, June 20 2022, Sudan.



On June 6, a 15-year-old Christian girl told a court how she was kidnapped and raped by a Muslim accused of abducting and forcibly converting her to Islam and marrying her. — Morning Star News, June 7, 2022, Pakistan.



June 14 report tells the story of Rehmat Masih, a Christian man who, despite there being no evidence, "has been in prison for five months in a new fabricated blasphemy case. He is accused of profaning and desecrating the pages of the Koran, but in reality he allegedly simply refused an offer to change religion.... on January 3, "police arrested Rehmat Masih, accusing him of committing blasphemy and tortured him severely" in an effort to make him admit to desecrating the Koran, an offence punishable by life imprisonment under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. On January 19, 2022, a bail application was filed for the defendant, but the judge rejected it. Rehmat has been in prison since, awaiting his trial. — asanews.it, June 14, 2022, Pakistan.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

'These Attacks Have Racist, Religious Motives': The Persecution of Christians, July 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

September 11, 2022 at 5:00 am



After raping a Christian woman, her Muslim employer told her and her family—both still not over the shock—to get back to work. — Pakistan.



"The scale of killings, displacement and wanton destruction of property by these Fulani jihadist militia only buttresses the now revealed agenda to depopulate Christian communities in Nigeria and take over lands. Tellingly, the government in power in Nigeria at the moment continues to do nothing about these persistent attacks, save to give laughable reasons like 'climate change' or that some Muslims too are sometimes killed in attacks by so-called bandits." — Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, Independent Catholic News, July 19, 2022, Nigeria.



On July 4, a Christian mechanic [Ashfaq Masih, 34] who had been imprisoned for the last five years while awaiting trial under a false accusation of allegedly insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, was sentenced to death by hanging in a Pakistani court. — churchinchains.ie, July 19 2022, Pakistan.



"I told the real story to a police officer but he did not record my version but conducted investigation ex-parte." — Ashfaq Masih, churchinchains.ie, July 7, 2022, Pakistan.



"The judges are aware that such cases are made to punish and settle personal grudges with the opponents, especially against the Christians.... Masih's case was very clear—the shop owner wanted him out and Naveed was a business rival who implicated him in a false blasphemy case. He is innocent and has already spent five years in prison for a crime he never committed." — Nasir Saeed, Director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, claas.org.uk, July 7, 2022, Pakistan.





On July 4, Ashfaq Masih, a Christian mechanic who had been imprisoned for the last five years while awaiting trial under a false accusation of allegedly insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, was sentenced to death by hanging in a Pakistani court. (Image source: iStock)

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of July 2022:



The Muslim Abuse and Rape of Christian Women in Pakistan



After raping a Christian woman, her Muslim employer told her and her family—both still not over the shock—to get back to work. Rimsha Riaz, 18, and several others of her Christian household worked at a glass crushing company, where they were described as "hard-working loyal employees for Haji Ali Akbar, a successful Muslim businessman." On July 6, after a tiring shift, as the family was preparing to go home, a supervisor told Rimsha to go to Akbar's office for some extra paid work. Her mother and brothers returned home; Rimsha arrived an hour later, visibly distressed. When her mother pressed her as to what was wrong, the 18-year-old broke into tears and said she was raped by Akbar at gunpoint. In her own words:



"In his office, Mr. Akbar pulled out his pistol [and] threatened to kill me if I did not do what he wanted. He then started raping me. I cried out as loud as I could but no-one came to help. After he finished with me, Mr. Akbar put the pistol to my ear and threatened to kill my brothers and other family members, if I dared to tell anyone."



The mother instructed the rest of the family never to go back to work for Akbar, but also "did not go to police, because Christian families are generally frightened of them, and expect little justice." Less than two days later, however, Akbar, accompanied by four armed men, came pounding on the Christian household's door with the butt of his gun and shouting for them to "open the door or face dire consequences." Fearful of the threats, one of Rimsha's brothers opened the door, at which point Akbar began to revile the family, including by yelling:



"How dare you leave my factory without my permission? You filthy Chooras [dirty Christians]. I will kill you if you remain absent tomorrow—and make sure you bring the girl."



According to the report:



"The whole family was left terrified and when he left the family began discussing what they should do. While they were planning what to do, Rimsha, who was very distressed, fainted and collapsed on the floor. Her brother Arslan took her to District Headquarters Hospital, Gujranwala where she received treatment and a diagnosis confirmed she had been raped."



The family eventually reported the rape to police, who arrested Akbar. However, because the family is sure that he will eventually be released and that the arrest was only for show, they have since relocated.



"Unfortunately for Rimsha who was engaged to be married, her fiancé has now broken the engagement on discovering the rape incident. Rimsha is visibly traumatized and depressed."



Discussing this incident, Juliet Chowdhry of the British Asian Christian Association, said:



"Rimsha is a Christian women in a country where her status makes her vulnerable. The fact that the rapist employer felt he could force Rimsha and her family to return to work after such an ordeal, is an illustration of the weak standing of Christians."



In another incident, according to a July 6 report, yet another Christian girl was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and "married" to a Muslim man. Problems began for Meerab Palous, 15, when Gulnaz, a female Muslim neighbor and friend of the family, "gave Meerab a glass of water mixed with drugs and sleeping pills. When the Christian girl fell asleep, she called her half-brother Muhammad Asif and they took her away." Around midnight, the girl's parents awoke and began frantically searching for their daughter. Neighbors informed them that "they had seen Gulnaz, Muhammad and another person loading her into a car unconscious." Before long, Gulnaz's Muslim family contacted the Christians and informed them that "Meerab must convert to Islam and marry Muhammad Asif." Shocked by this betrayal, the parents ran to local police, but they "refused to register their complaint."



Meanwhile, the Muslim family went to a Faisalabad court where they presented two fake documents, a conversion certificate and a marriage certificate, which claimed that the girl had voluntarily converted to Islam and married Muhammad. The documents further falsified Meerab's age, saying she was 18.



The Muslim Slaughter of Christians



Burkina Faso: On Sunday, July 3, Muslim terrorists entered a Christian village and surrounded a church, where they murdered at least 22 people. Discussing it and others attacks on Christians in recent months, Dr. Caroline Hull, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need (UK), said:



"Across all of Africa—particularly the Sahel region where Burkina Faso is—jihadism is growing and, with that, Christian persecution. Christians are murdered, people are abducted, women are raped and treated terribly.... "It is heart-breaking .... The international community needs to keep a close eye on this new epicentre of terrorism because left unchecked it could become incredibly disruptive, not just to Africa but to the rest of the world too."



According to a July 22 report, Catholic churches and parishes are especially under assault:



"An explosion of Islamist terrorism in Burkina Faso has left one diocese in a dire situation, with parishes directly attacked and forced to close down, and priests unable to minister to 95 percent of their flock.... Terrorists in the West African country have attacked five of the diocese's 16 parishes, which then had to close, while in seven other parishes, ministry is restricted to the main church because terrorists control land routes and have destroyed telephone communication networks."



More moderate Muslim elements, while allowing for Christian worship, have taken it upon themselves to "correct" Christian teaching and conduct. As one report explains:



"In many parts of [the diocese of] Fada N'Gourma, Islamist sermons have become common and other religious practices are forbidden, while in other areas, Catholic services are permitted, but jihadists enter the chapels to ensure that men and women are seated separately."



Nigeria: Among other atrocities Muslims committed against Christians are the following:



According to a July 19 report, "At least 68 Christians have been killed—with many more abducted or displaced—in the last two months," in just one Nigerian region, Benue State. Discussing this situation, Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, of Makurdi diocese, Benue State, said:



"The scale of killings, displacement and wanton destruction of property by these Fulani jihadist militia only buttresses the now revealed agenda to depopulate Christian communities in Nigeria and take over lands. Tellingly, the government in power in Nigeria at the moment continues to do nothing about these persistent attacks, save to give laughable reasons like 'climate change' or that some Muslims too are sometimes killed in attacks by so-called bandits."



Ten days before the report appeared, Muslims had killed five Christians in a separate region, Plateau State. Also in Plateau, after the report appeared, on July 31, Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed seven Christians, including four children.



According to another report on July 7, "gunmen" shot a Christian pastor and his two sons; the sons died. The terrorists also abducted the pastor's 13-year-old daughter.



The Muslim Slaughter of Apostates & Preachers in Uganda



On Sunday, July 3, three Muslim men slaughtered a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, apparently in part because he was leading other Muslims to Christ. Simolya Latifu, 47, had just left a Christian worship center building in the evening when other Christian witnesses heard wailing and cries for help coming from near a swamp: "The killers were condemning him for converting Muslims to Christianity," said one witness. "We hid ourselves in a thick bush."



"'We saw Buyinza cut him on the head with a sword, and thereafter they left,' said the witness, unidentified for security reasons. 'We remained there for about 30 minutes, and then we took courage and slowly went to see the slain man and discovered that he worshipped with us at Christ Discipleship Worship Center.'"



After converting to Christianity in 2019, Simolya publicly spoke about his experiences as a Muslim in churches, angering many Muslims. After police arrested, Ali Buyinza, the man responsible for striking him on the head with a sword, he told police:



"We warned him to come back to our religion and gave him several opportunities, but he turned a deaf ear—we're proud of killing him."



In another incident, on July 29, Muslims murdered an evangelist in his home. A week earlier, Sozi Odongo, 45, an open air preacher, who often compared and contrasted the Koran and the Bible, received a message from Nasuru Ongom, a Muslim cleric: "Please stop preaching to our people using the holy Koran, or else you risk your life." On the evening of his murder, Odongo, his wife, Stella, and their four children were having dinner when they heard what sounding like a large mob approaching their home. "We heard them talk in the Arabic language and wondered what could be the matter," Kilo said. "They then arrived and knocked at the door." The wife and children fled to another room, as Odongo opened the door, at which point the assailants lunged at him and began beating him:



"He screamed while mentioning the name of Nasuru, saying, 'Leave me Nasuru, Nasuru, Nasuru, please don't kill me, just tell your colleagues to leave me.' Then I heard a loud hit, and thereafter no more screaming."



After the mob had left, when the wife and children emerged from hiding, they found Odongu lying in a pool of blood, with deep gashes to his neck and head.



Finally on July 10, a Christian man died of wounds he had received from Muslims. Earlier, on July 6, Robert Bwenje had accompanied Assistant Pastor Ambrose Mugisha of Elim Pentecostal Church to an open-air debate about Christianity and Islam. After the debates, eight Muslims converted to Christianity. "This angered the Muslims, but they could not attack us because we had tight security from the police," Ambrose later said. As Ambrose and Robert were returning home, Muslims ambushed them: "We saw men dressed in Islamic attire coming from the bush in different directions and shouting 'Allah akbar, Allah akbar [Allah is the greatest].'"



The Muslims began by seizing the two Christians' books. "They removed the Koran and then burned the rest of the books, including the Bibles, and then beat us with sticks," said the assistant pastor. One of the men struck and cut him on the head but Ambrose "jumped into the water and managed to swim and cross to the other side." Passersby found him bleeding and rescued him. His companion, Robert, was found in worse condition. Both men were brought to a hospital, where, days later, Robert succumbed to his wounds.



Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches and Cemeteries



Syria: During an inauguration celebration on Sunday, July 24, an Islamic terror group fired rockets at a newly constructed church, known as the Little Hagia Sophia, in the predominantly-Greek Orthodox city of al-Suqaylabiyah. Of the many Christians who gathered to celebrate the opening of the new church, two were killed and about a dozen seriously wounded. This newly constructed church was supposed to be a defiant response to the Erdoğan regime's slap in the face of millions of especially Orthodox Christians, when he transformed the Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul—which was originally built, and for a thousand years functioned, as a Christian cathedral—into a trophy mosque again. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the Muslim terrorist group behind the Sunday church bombing, is believed to be backed by Turkey. According to one report:



"Although designated a terrorist organization by the Turkish government in 2018, in recent years the relationship between Turkey and HTS [Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham] has dramatically shifted. HTS has fought alongside the Turkish-backed and funded Syrian National Army (SNA) and several Turkish military outposts have been constructed inside HTS-controlled Edleb."



Turkey: An ancient Christian cemetery and its human remains were found desecrated. In the words of one report:



"Assyrian tombs over a thousand years old destroyed and desecrated, bones of the dead and other sacred objects thrown outside. This [is the] latest, worrying episode of intolerance against a Christian place in Turkey."



The report adds that the location of the cemetery, in Mardin, where the "Christians made the bitter discovery," is itself "the scene of intolerance episodes in the recent past," a reference to the Ottoman genocide of Christians in the region. June 29, the date of this desecration, also appears to have been deliberately chosen by the desecrators to affront Christians:



"Eyewitnesses recount that the cemetery chapel, dedicated to the two apostles [Peter and Paul] that the Church celebrates on 29 June, the day of the attack, was built in 1967 within a burial ground that contains tombs dating back even to the first millennium. Every year, the local community—made up of Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac Christians—visits the tombs on the feast day to pray and perform votive rites in front of the saints and the tombs of their ancestors. The discovery of the desecrated tombs aroused sorrow and despair within the Christian community...."



About two weeks later, on July 15, a Jewish cemetery in Istanbul was also desecrated. According to one report:



"The vandals desecrated 81 graves, some excavated and opened, strewing the area with bones and broken stones. Those responsible for the attack were under 18, acting on orders of a gang of adults."



Discussing this incident, Garo Paylan, an Armenian lawmaker tweeted,



"The fact that the attack on the Jewish cemetery was carried out by children aged between 11 and 13 does not alleviate the situation; it aggravates it. Who and what mentality have filled those children with hatred towards Jews?"



Similarly, David Vergili, a Syriac-Assyrian journalist, said:



"In the past two months, the graves of Syriac and Jewish communities in Turkey have been attacked and destroyed. The graves and holy places of the Armenian community have also experienced similar attacks before. These incidents and especially the attacks on the sacred places, graves and values of non-Muslim communities are not new and they constitute hate crimes. These attacks have racist, religious motives and mostly target groups that are not part of the Turkish-Islamic ideology. These attacks have been happening for years and there has been no improvement in the way the government responds to them. Given the past trauma of and attacks against the Christian and Jewish communities as well as the Turkish government's denial of its own crimes, it is obvious that even the dead are affected by these violations. The hatred and humiliating discourse towards minority groups in Turkey manifest themselves as direct attacks on minority groups. Not only the living non-Muslim minority communities, but also their sacred places and their dead are not fully recognized and respected by large segments of the society and the government/state of Turkey."



Spain: On July 21, a Muslim migrant from Morocco barged into a Catholic cathedral and began shouting Islamic slogans, including: "Allahu akbar [Allah is the greatest]! He is the only true god! Yours is false and you are a bunch of infidels!" The invader then hurled a copy of the Koran toward the assembled congregation, before abruptly leaving. When police arrived at the scene, the migrant insulted them as well, and tried to flee, but was apprehended and placed into custody.



France: On Sunday, July 24, a Muslim man interrupted evening mass at the Saint-Germain church. He began shouting, hurling insults, and, as some later described, acted as if he was "possessed." A parishioner recalls:



"He called us hypocrites. He said we were f**king Christians. He said we were fooling him..... He was shouting a lot of abuse. He accused the church of being racist when he had come to pray like a Muslim. He shouted: Satan has entered me! We have to sacrifice some of them... I don't want to hear the priest's words. He also said that he was the second son of God because his blood was the blood of Jesus. All this was done by lashing out and spitting."



In response, and because many Christians were terrified and the children crying, another Christian present walked to and asked the Muslim to leave, at which point the invader head-butted him in the face, knocking out two of his teeth. Others then acted fast and subdued the Muslim until police arrived.



Uganda: On Sunday, June 26, Muslims attacked and demolished a church building and severely beat its pastor. Three days earlier, Pastor Baingana James, 48, had received a phone call from a Muslim sheikh ordering him to leave the region and "to return to Islam seven Muslims who had converted to Christianity .... We therefore want to warn you to leave the place within two days, if not we are coming to destroy your home and church." Then, on the morning of the attack, while Pastor James was conducting Sunday service, a Muslim mob, led by the sheikh in question, barged into the church. According to James:



"They started beating us, including mothers who were breastfeeding and youths, while shouting in four languages—English, Luganda, Swahili and Arabic—and ordering us to stop the service and leave immediately. As we were struggling to go out in serious panic and tension while others were with serious injuries, they started breaking and pulling down the building."



General Muslim Abuse of Christians



Egypt: A Muslim man stabbed an elderly Christian man "multiple times" and his son. According to the report,



"Joseph Israel, 70, was sitting outside his shop in the Omrania district (near Giza pyramids area) in the early morning of 28 July when a man approached him and stabbed him multiple times. When Israel's son, Emil, rushed to help him, he was stabbed too. Both men were rushed to hospital with critical injuries. Ahmad Mohamed Salah, 43, was detained in connection with the attacks pending police investigations."



Israel received "at least 30 stitches where he was stabbed in his neck," said his son after being released from the hospital. Emil also said that the attacker had attended a nearby mosque earlier that day, and then "walked up to my father who was sitting outside the shop and started stabbing him with a knife, shouting "Allah Akbar. When I ran outside to try and stop the attack on my father, Ahmad started stabbing me with the knife as well." The Christians were apparently targeted for running a shop that sells liquor. Six years earlier, "Some armed masked men broke in after midnight, took money and destroyed the bottles of alcohol," Emil said. The report continues:



"Alcohol is regarded as 'haram' [illegal, or forbidden] by Muslims, and those selling or consuming it are looked down upon or sometimes even threatened. In January 2017 a Copt was killed in Alexandria as he sat in front of his liquor store.... Emil and his father had never met Ahmad before, Emil said. However, Christians who live in the nearby area of El Plastic told a local source he is a supporter of the outlawed Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement and refuses to buy from Christian-owned shops. Ahmad's family, meanwhile, have told the police and prosecutors that he is suffering from a mental illness. Such a defense often is used, and when successful, results in the minimum possible sentence."



Pakistan: On July 4, a Christian mechanic who had been imprisoned for the last five years while awaiting trial under a false accusation of allegedly insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, was sentenced to death by hanging in a Pakistani court. Five years earlier, on June 5, 2017, Ashfaq Masih, 34, had gotten into a quarrel with Muhammad Naveen, a rival who had established a mechanics' workshop near Masih's. According to Masih's not guilty plea, Muhammad "was jealous because my business was running better," and, after their altercation, "threatened me with dire consequences." On the following day, June 6, according to Masih:



"Muhammad Irfan came to my shop for wheel balancing for his motorbike. I balanced the wheel and demanded my amount of labour as settled between us. Muhammad Irfan refused to give me money and said, 'I am a follower of Peer Fakhir and don't ask for money from me.' I told him that I am a believer in Jesus Christ and I don't believe in Peer Fakhir and please give me my labour."



At that point, Muhammad Irfan went—or perhaps returned—to the rival shop of Muhammad Naveed, and, moments later, a Muslim mob had formed around the Christian's shop. As Masih explained:



"They both made conspiracy against me and lodged a false FIR [First Incident Report] against me. I told the real story to a police officer but he did not record my version but conducted investigation ex-parte. I neither uttered any derogatory word against Prophet Muhammad nor can think about it."



Along with rival shop owner Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Irfan, the complainant, also got two other Muslims — Muhammad Nawaz and Muhammad Tahir — to lie and tell police that they "heard Masih say derogatory words against the Muslim prophet," even though none of them was present during the altercation between Irfan and Masih. Masih was charged under Section 295-C of Pakistan's penal code, which states:



"Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."



Discussing this ruling, Nasir Saeed, the director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, a charity that supports persecuted Christians in Pakistan, said the judgement was "very sad but expected." He added:



"The judges are aware that such cases are made to punish and settle personal grudges with the opponents, especially against the Christians.... Masih's case was very clear—the shop owner wanted him out and Naveed was a business rival who implicated him in a false blasphemy case. He is innocent and has already spent five years in prison for a crime he never committed."

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[schwartzie]

How Victims of Rape Are Viewed: The Persecution of Christians, August 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

October 2, 2022 at 5:00 am



When the 12-year-old girl was produced at court and said that she had converted of her free will and married her Muslim kidnapper, the judge—ignoring the girl's young age and distraught demeanor—ordered the accused released and the girl returned to him, even though there was massive contrary evidence to indicate that the girl was being coerced to lie under duress. The evidence included a voice recording of her Muslim husband threatening to butcher the girl's two brothers if she failed to support him in court. — Morningstar News, August 23, 2022, Pakistan.



"Police and judiciary tend to support those who commit crimes such as forced conversions, child marriages and sexual violence because they believe they will receive a heavenly reward for helping convert someone to Islam, regardless of how intentional or coercive the conversion is." — Sherkan Malik, human rights activist, Morningstar News, August 23, 2022, Pakistan.



"In the rare cases where a girl is returned to her family, the culprits are never held accountable. In other words, the supposedly law-preserving authorities act as implicit, if not explicit, partner in such heinous crimes." — Report, copticsolidarity.org, August 9, 2022, Egypt.



"I am writing to you out of deep concern for the safety and well-being of the indigenous Coptic women and minor girls in Egypt who have been increasingly targeted for trafficking, forced marriage, and forced conversion." — Petition, copticsolidarity.org, August 9, 2022, Egypt.



[T]hroughout the month of August... a total of eleven Coptic churches in Egypt supposedly "caught fire," none of which was reported in the Western press.... In every one of those eleven fires, Egyptian authorities denied arson as a possible cause, citing instead "natural" or accidental causes such as faulty wiring, electric overloads, and so on, even though there was obvious foul play in at least one case.... — copticsolidarity.org, August 31, 2022, Egypt.



"Constant killings and maiming of innocent Christians by terrorists and herdsmen bandits [Muslim Fulani] have become very common here in Taraba state," said Ayuba Matthew, a local. "So also, kidnappings of Christians has become a problem." — Morningstar News, August 17, 2022, Nigeria.



"Incitement against the Copts is daily in Egypt! Accusing the Copts of being infidels [kuffar] is daily in Egypt! Mockery of Christianity and the sacred things of Christianity and the accusation that the Bible is distorted [moharraf] occurs daily in Egypt!" — Magdi Khalil, noted author, YouTube, August 15, 2022, Egypt.



"They forced me to sing Christian songs as they began chopping off my husband's hand." .... Apparently fearful of worse repercussions, the "family has yet to file a police report." — Morningstar News, August 16, 2022, Egypt.



A recent video report found that, although Christians make up only 1.6% of the Muslim nation's population, they account for 90% of Islamabad's sanitation workers.... [M]any sanitation job listings in Pakistan often advertise "for non-Muslims only": working in garbage all day is for "infidels," not ritually clean Muslims. — dw.com and Morningstar News, August 11, 2022, Pakistan.



Although deemed by some Westerners as a relatively progressive Arab nation, Qatar continues to indoctrinate its children with hate for and violence against "infidels," including Christians and Jews.... — impact-se.org, July 2022, Qatar.

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