Christian Persecution Worse Than Any Time in History

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Christians Who ‘Audibly Pray’, ‘Recite Scripture’, or ‘Cross Themselves’ in Abortion ‘Safe Zone’ Face Prison


PETER CADDLE
16 Oct 2022

Christians who are caught “praying”, “reciting scripture”, or “crossing themselves” near an abortion centre could be sentenced to up to six months in jail in the United Kingdom.



British officials are pushing to have Christians who practice their faith too close to abortion centres jailed under revamped crackdown rules aimed at curbing protests against the practice.



Under current legislation, it can already be an offence to “audibly pray” within so-called “Safe Zones” established around some abortion centres, with those running afoul of the rules liable for a fine of up to £1,000 (~$1,100).



Those who “recite scripture, genuflect, sprinkle holy water on the ground or cross themselves if they perceive a service-users is [sic] passing by” are also liable for fines under the existing regime in one “Safe Zone” administered by Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council (BCP Council), for example.



However, according to a report by The Telegraph, government bigwigs are looking to greatly expand the severity of penalties for those who fall foul of their rules, with new plans aimed at cracking down on such protests including provisions to jail offenders for up to six months should they be perceived as protesting within a buffer zone.



While the Home Secretary has reportedly yet to common on the proposed measure — which comes as part of an amendment to the Truss Government’s Public Order Bill — the crackdown rules have received support from a number of Conservative Party MPs, including former Cabinet Office minister Andrew Mitchell and former Home Office minister Caroline Nokes.



Left-wing Labour MPs have also voiced support for the crackdown, with one party official describing the move as being needed “to protect a woman’s right to abortion”.

While establishment politicians in Britain are voicing concern for women’s access to abortion within the United Kingdom, recent statistics appear to indicate that many within the country are having no difficulty disposing of unborn children in increasing numbers.



Quite the contrary, in fact, with official statistics revealing that England and Wales saw 214,256 abortions take place in 2021 alone — the highest number to take place since records began, beating a previous record of 209,917 which was only set in 2020.



According to experts in the abortion industry, record-breaking years for terminations could be put down to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Britain’s regime of on-and-off lockdowns.



Nevertheless, even these numbers do not appear to be enough for many in the industry, with doctors declaring in August that they wanted to see abortion up until birth “decriminalised” across the country.



Doctors at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists deemed such a measure necessary to prevent “cruel” investigations into women whom authorities suspect could have had late-term abortions, which are technically illegal.



“It is our belief that prosecuting a woman for ending their pregnancy will never be in the public interest,” the President of the organisation, Dr Edward Morris, claimed, describing such deregulation as necessary to protect women’s access to abortion.

link

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The West Turns Back on Persecuted Christians, Embraces Radical Muslims

by Raymond Ibrahim

October 23, 2022 at 5:00 am


Although the U.S. government had acknowledged that ISIS was committing genocide against Christians in Syria due solely to their religious identity, it took in only those who by definition were not in any way being targeted by ISIS — Sunni Muslims, with whom ISIS, a Sunni organization, identifies and does not attack.



"You have this absurd situation where the scheme is set up to help Syrian refugees and the people most in need, Christians who have been 'genocided,' they can't even get into the U.N. camps to get the food. If you enter and say I am a Christian or convert, the Muslim U.N. guards will block you [from] getting in and laugh at you and mock you and even threaten you.... [saying] 'You shouldn't have converted. You're an idiot for converting. You get what you get,' words to that effect." — Paul Diamond, British human rights lawyer, CBN News, December 4, 2019.



[The UK Home Office] ridiculed an Iranian female asylum seeker in her rejection letter by writing, "You affirmed in your AIR [Asylum Interview Record] that Jesus is your saviour, but then claimed that he would not be able to save you from the Iranian regime. It is therefore considered that you have no conviction in your faith and your belief in Jesus is half-hearted."



She later said... her Home Office interviewer, "was either chuckling or maybe just kind of mocking when he was talking to me.... [H]e asked me why Jesus didn't help you from the Iranian regime or Iranian authorities."



Meanwhile, as the few Christians who seek asylum are highly scrutinized and presented with obstacles, millions of Muslim asylum seekers are taken into the West without any difficulties, and most without even being vetted.



Once Pakistanis in Britain learned that the UK was going to offer asylum to Asia Bibi, they rioted en masse. As a result, then-Prime Minister Theresa May personally blocked Bibi's asylum application, "despite UK playing host to [Muslim] hijackers, extremists and rapists," to quote from one headline.



Meanwhile, as usual, the Home Office allowed a Pakistani cleric who celebrated the slaughter of a politician because he had defended Bibi — a cleric deemed so extreme as to be banned from his native Pakistan — to enter and lecture in British mosques.



"It's unbelievable that these persecuted Christians who come from the cradle of Christianity are being told there is no room at the inn, when the UK is offering a welcome to Islamists who persecute Christians." — Dr. Martin Parsons, human rights activist, The Express, December 4, 2016.

Continued at link

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"You Think You Can Run Away?": The Persecution of Christians, September 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

November 6, 2022 at 5:00 am



[In the video, the 36-year-old mother of three] appears naked, with both of her arms and legs cut off. One of her eyes is clearly gouged out. A severed finger appears sticking out of her mouth, and another appears to be sticking out of her private parts. The Muslim soldiers videotaping their handiwork... can be heard laughing and joking in the background. Video footage similarly showed Azerbaijani soldiers overpowering and forcing down an elderly Armenian man, who cries and implores them for mercy, as they casually carve at his throat with a knife. — Video, September 13, 2022, Azerbaijan/Armenia.



Bashir threatened the Christians: "If you continue insisting that Jesus is the Son of God, then Allah will kill all of you." — "Bashir," before drowning five Christians, Morningstar News, September 8, 2022, Uganda.



"There is still no breathing space for Christian communities in southern Kaduna, as terrorists, jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreck Christian communities in the southern part of Kaduna state." — Statement from the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union on extensive murders, saharareporters.com, September 19, 2022.

link

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"The Kafirs [Unbelievers] Should Be Killed, All of Them": The Persecution of Christians, October 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

November 27, 2022 at 5:00 am



"I heard them. They were shouting in Arabic and Swahili, saying that the kafirs [unbelievers] should be killed, all of them, and make Congo an Islamic state. Shoot all of them. Kill all of them, and burn their houses, these notorious Christians." — International Christian Concern, October 10, 2022, Democratic Republic of Congo.



"The ADF rebels attacked the village, and more precisely the hospital. They looted everything they could find, taking medicines, and at the end they set fire to the building. A nun, who is also a doctor and was on night duty, was burned alive, along with a patient.... [Once the hospital was destroyed] the rebels continued on their way and set fire to another hospital nearby." — Father Marcelo Oliveira, Aid to the Church in Need, October 22, 2022, Democratic Republic of Congo.



"When they were all gathered, they started asking who is Muslim and who is Christian. Those who identified as Christian, they started tying their hands behind their back and they cut their throats." — Bishop Alberto Vera Aréjula of Nacala, Aid to the Church in Need, October 5, 2022, Mozambique.



Before long, the video went viral on social media, and was even broadcast as "breaking news" by TV9, which referred to James [falsely accused of blasphemy] as a "sanitary worker" — code in Pakistan for both Christians and the lowest of the low. In James' own words, "I knew the sensitivity of this news; it was a death warrant against me." — Voice of the Martyrs, October 12, 2022, Pakistan.



"[It is] an easy way to settle personal scores against someone. People don't even think twice before using this law against someone, as victims of this law have to spend 8-11 years in prison to prove themselves innocent...." — Nasir Saeed, Director of Centre for Legal Aid & Assistance, Voice of the Martyrs, October 22, 2022, Pakistan.



The president of Cairo University, Muhammad Uthman al-Khosht, assigned 31 new directors, deputy directors, managers, and researchers to head a number of departments, including those of agriculture, medicine, engineering, nursing, dentistry, statistical research, and African Studies. Although the Copts—Egypt's indigenous, Christian, people—make up anywhere from 10-20% of its population, notable among these new Cairo University hires is that not a single one of them is Christian. All are Muslim.



Earlier this year, 98 female judges took the legal oath in preparation for assuming judicial roles in Egypt's State Council.... ince its inception 75 years earlier, not a single woman had sat on the podium of the State Council court—and now 98 are. Yet, not one of them is a Christian... at the very least 10 of the 98 should have, for proper representation, been Christian.





Earlier this year, 98 female judges were appointed to judicial roles in Egypt's State Council. Since its inception 75 years earlier, no woman had sat on the podium of the State Council court — and now 98 are. Yet, not one of them is a Christian, despite the fact that the Christian Copts account for between 10-20% of the nation's population. Pictured: Judge Radwa Helmi Ahmad, the first woman on the bench of Egypt's State Council, sits on her first hearing in Cairo, on March 5, 2022. (Photo by Samer Abdallah/AFP via Getty Images)

The following are among the murders and abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of October 2022:



The Muslim Slaughter of Christians



Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): On Oct. 1, machete-wielding militants of the so-called "Allied Democratic Forces" (ADF), a wing of the Islamic State, slaughtered 14 men and women in a surprise attack on a village in the Christian nation (96% Christian, 1% Muslim). According to another report, the bodies of those hacked to death "were found bearing signs of torture." Before leaving, the militants had torched the village, destroying the survivors' livelihoods, and had abducted two children.



Again, on Oct. 5, the jihadists slaughtered between 10 and 20 Christians, including a pastor, during a raid on another village, which they also torched before leaving. An additional 20 villagers were also reported missing. According to a survivor:



"I heard them. They were shouting in Arabic and Swahili, saying that the kafirs [unbelievers] should be killed, all of them, and make Congo an Islamic state. Shoot all of them. Kill all of them, and burn their houses, these notorious Christians."



On Oct. 19, during a raid on another village, the jihadists burned two people alive, one of whom was a nun, Sister Marie-Sylvie Kavuke Vakatsuraki, of the Little Sisters of the Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple, from Butembo. Discussing the "terror" of that midnight assault, Father Marcelo Oliveira, the Portuguese-born head of the Comboni Missionaries in the DR Congo, said,



"The ADF rebels attacked the village, and more precisely the hospital. They looted everything they could find, taking medicines, and at the end they set fire to the building. A nun, who is also a doctor and was on night duty, was burned alive, along with a patient..... [Once the hospital was destroyed] the rebels continued on their way and set fire to another hospital nearby."



The report adds:



"As soon as she realized that they were under attack, Sister Marie-Sylvie called the local parish so that the priests and religious could flee. Otherwise, the situation could have been even more tragic. Besides the two victims, there are many people still unaccounted for and who were likely taken by the jihadists to carry the looted goods."



"The terror continues," Father Marcelo concluded. "The people are afraid, everybody tries to escape. This is a hidden war, silent—or silenced—so that nobody does anything, and the population continues to suffer."



Discussing the ongoing terrorization of the DRC, one human rights group said:



"These predominantly Christian communities are attacked by an Islamic extremist group with a clear Islamic expansionist agenda.... It is a reminder of what is happening in other parts of the central Sahel region – groups like Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, for example. The ideology, the agenda of establishing a 'caliphate' in the region, and the way they operate is the same, and we can see how they afflict terrible suffering on innocent people."



An Oct. 5 report offers still more details on the current situation:



"The ADF—which the Islamic State group claims as its Central African offshoot—is among the most violent of more than 120 armed groups active in eastern volatile DRC. It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in neighbouring Uganda. The DRC and Uganda launched a joint offensive against the ADF in November 2021, but the militia continues to wreak havoc across swathes of territory."



Nigeria: Some of the genocidal assaults on the West African nation's Christian population throughout the month of October 2022, follow:



On October 4, Muslims connected to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) raided a village where they killed three Christians and wounded dozens of others. One resident related that "ISWAP terrorists also set fire to six houses and looted five shops belonging to Christians in the village, and afterward burned down the shops."



After an Oct. 8 night raid on his village, Peter Ahemba said:



"Ten corpses of Christians killed during the attack on Gidan Sule community were recovered on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 9, by survivors in the community. The attackers, who we strongly believe are herdsmen and terrorists, shot sporadically on Christians who were sleeping in their houses."



Most of the Christians killed were women, children and the elderly, unable to escape.



On Sunday, Oct. 16: two gunmen stormed and opened fire on Celestial Church during worship service. A Christian woman and her young daughter were killed and several others hospitalized. According to a survivor:



"when they entered, they started shooting at every one outside the church. I now went and hid inside a cassava farm. What I saw yesterday was like an action film in a movie. Kogi is no longer safe."



"It looked like it was organized against that particular church, because their altar was burned with petrol they went with," said Jerry Omodara, a security official.



On Oct 18, Muslim Fulani herdsmen raided three Christian villages in central Nigeria, where they slaughtered more than 70 Christians.



During an Oct. 21 late night raid on a Christian village, Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered two Christians. A resident recalled:



"A Christian woman ... was injured when the herdsmen cut off one of her breasts. The herdsmen during the invasion of our village shot randomly at our people who were sleeping in their houses."



Mozambique: More details were revealed concerning a fatal terror attack on a Catholic mission where one of the nuns, Maria De Coppi, 83, was shot in the head and killed as she ran towards a burning dormitory to assist the few remaining students hiding there. Bishop Alberto Vera Aréjula of Nacala reported:



"This was told to us by one of the brothers of one of the victims. He said the terrorists were dressed in military uniform, they gathered the population, and they said it was because they were here to save them. When they were all gathered, they started asking who is Muslim and who is Christian. Those who identified as Christian, they started tying their hands behind their back and they cut their throats. One Christian managed to flee and he is the one who told the story. This is what happened on the night of Sept. 6 and the following day—11 people were murdered in total and they left a trail of destruction and a lot of fear."



Of the 83-year-old nun, Sister Maria, Bishop Alberto said:



"I knew her, and she was the image of a mother, she was really helping everyone with simple love and humility.... Sister Maria de Coppi was a nurse who would help malnourished children in a little room where there was milk and flour, and they destroyed that room as well. The Sister they murdered worked with malnourished babies and children, [and] they are telling us very clearly that they don't want us there. For now, we won't return there, but we will work with the mission in another way."



Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches



West Bank: On Friday night, Oct. 28—Friday being the one day of the week Muslims meet in mosques and can often get riled up against infidels—dozens of Muslim men surrounded and hurled stones at a church in Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem, that is affiliated with the patriarchate of Jerusalem. Several people were injured. The attack came after a "quarrel between some young men," a statement from church leadership said, adding, "We condemn this attack and demand that the Palestinian Authority bring the attackers to trial as soon as possible."



Indonesia: On Friday, Oct. 7, an unknown person in the world's most populous Muslim nation attacked the Jesus Shepherd Congregation, a Pentecostal church. Described as a "terror act," the perpetrator arrived at the church by motorbike, barged through the gate and into the courtyard "while shouting." The police noted:



"After that, the perpetrator broke the glass and the headlight of the pastor's car. The perpetrator also kicked the trash can and broke the window glass of the pastor's residence before fleeing."



Bongga Lasarus, the head of Kendari city, where the incident occurred, urged Christians to be calm, "Because whether it is violence, attack, radicalism, or other acts of intolerance that interfere with the life of our nation, we must fight and persevere together."



Pakistan: A group of Muslims forcibly appropriated a Christian community center and savagely beat Christians who dared to protest. The Oct. 31 report relates:



"A Christian Community Hall was locked by the son of Muslim man who later claimed ownership without authority. Christians were kept out of their own building for 24 hours after police refused to take action."



A few days after they eventually got the police to respond and return their property, the Muslim father, Shehzad Goga, came and defaced the Christian property by splattering graffiti on the pillars of the main gate, including the phrases "Oh Allah, Oh Muhammad," and similar words claiming the property for Islam. According to eyewitness, George Choudhary:



"He was hurling abuses at the Christian community while spraying this message in broad daylight. He threatened Christians of dire consequences, if someone tried to remove it. It felt as if Muslims were planning to ensnare us under false blasphemy charges, or would burn our houses like they have done to other Christians before. The community was terrified [and] many fled their homes again fearing an attack."



The report continued that soon thereafter,



" gang of Muslim youth ... attacked the church building. They pulled down the fence and main gate of the community hall and stamped over the cross emblem on the gate in an act of defiance and hate. When Ashraf Masih a local Christian asked them not damage the property, the men attacked Ashraf Masih who ran into his home for safety. The gang broke into and entered his house where they beat him with clubs and kicks and also slapped and intimidated his wife Shaheen Bibi (45 yrs) and his sister-in-law married to his brother who was present in the shared home. They tore their clothes during the violence which the whole street witnessed. The frightened Christian community neither retaliated nor helped the beleaguered family that was attacked before them. They were all fearful that they would become the next targets and froze on the spot."



Muslim Attacks on Christian Blasphemers and Evangelists



Pakistan: Since Oct. 5, when he was falsely accused of blasphemy, the life of James Masih, a 42-year-old Christian husband and father, has been in constant jeopardy. On that day, a Muslim woman named Nazia arrived at the hospital where James for a medical checkup. She inexplicably began yelling at and accusing James of committing blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad. James, knowing the danger of this, rushed to his supervisor, who intervened, and, after talking with Nazia on the side, determined that James had not, in fact, blasphemed. Despite Nazia's confession to the supervisor, someone attending her had secretly recorded her berating James for his supposed blasphemy. Before long, the video went viral on social media, and was even broadcast as "breaking news" by TV9, which referred to James as a "sanitary worker"—code in Pakistan for both Christians and the lowest of the low. In James' own words:



"I knew the sensitivity of this news; it was a death warrant against me. That same night, we decided to move somewhere safe for myself and my family. Since then, I have been hiding at an unknown place. I am very concerned about my safety and that of my family, and don't know how we can continue living here. [Blasphemy] is a very sensitive matter, and in such cases, people become very emotional. They could kill me on the spot, as normally happens in such cases. There are a number of examples where innocent people have been killed based on one person's accusations."



According to James' wife, Shumaila, who is acquainted with Nazia, this is simply the Muslim woman's way of avenging herself on the Christian family a few days after a monetary dispute that had nothing to do with religion:



"Nazia accused my husband of committing blasphemy. The matter was brought to the attention of the hospital's medical superintendent who involved the police superintendent and assistant superintendent. James was found not guilty, and the matter was resolved. But this didn't satisfy Nazia, and she wanted to teach us a lesson. This time, she has involved the media. Her false accusations have endangered our whole family's lives, and if this matter is not resolved we have no future. My children have already stopped going to school, and we have no permanent place to live but are moving from one place to another to stay safe."



Discussing Pakistan's blasphemy laws in the context of this case, Nasir Saeed, Director of CLAAS-UK (Centre for Legal Aid & Assistance) said:



"[It is] an easy way to settle personal scores against someone. People don't even think twice before using this law against someone, as victims of this law have to spend 8-11 years in prison to prove themselves innocent.... It is a hanging sword over the head of Christians and other religious minorities, because when someone is accused of committing blasphemy it is not against a single person, but the whole community comes under threat. Nearly 100 people, including women, have been extra-judicially killed, and hundreds more languish in jail for years for their fate to be decided. False accusers are never brought to justice, and this continues to encourage people to take the law into their own hands and make false accusations against other persons to settle their personal scores."



Uganda: On Oct. 7, Muslims attached, beat, and slashed with knives two Christian evangelists. According to Wilberforce Mutenga, 38, a father of two, he and Robert Okia, a 43-year-old father of six children, "were beaten because of taking the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the purely Muslim community of Ikule village. We didn't know that Muslims in this place had heard about our successful mission in Busakira village." Before long, a Muslim mob had surrounded them:



"One shouted the Islamic slogan of 'Allah Akbar [Allah is the greatest]' three times, and everyone began to get hold of sticks and started beating us badly....After beating us, they carried and threw us near the swamp that separates Busakira and Kigandaalo, where a herdsman saw both of us bleeding and screaming for help. The man rushed and called local authorities, who took us to a nearby clinic for treatment."



Wilberforce suffered a knife wound to his head, a dislocated knee, and other injuries to his legs. Robert suffered knife stabs to the knee and ribs, as well as hand injuries, swelling to his mouth and face and body pain throughout, all of which required he be transferred to a separate hospital for more specialized treatment.



In a separate but similar incident reported on Oct. 7, two other evangelists, Andrew Dikusooka, 35, and Ronald Musasizi, 26 "sustained deep knife wounds after leading several Muslims to Christ at debates on Islam and Christianity." During one particularly fiery debate, more than usual numbers of Muslims embraced Christ. "The conversion of these people angered Muslims who began shouting to disrupt the occasion," Andrew said from a hospital bed. Afterwards, on their way home, a group of Muslims blocked them near a railroad crossing. "They are the ones—beat them, beat them," the Christians heard. "They then started beating us with blunt objects," Andrew continued. One of the Muslims "hit me with a sharp knife right on my head," while another knife-wielding Muslim "struck my friend in the belly and hands." Both Muslim assailants were among the Muslims the Christians had just debated.



"Both of us fell down as a bright light flashed from a coming vehicle that appeared from the opposite direction. From that time onwards, we did not know what happened. We only found ourselves in the hospital in Iganga town with deep wounds."



General Hostility for and Discrimination against Christians



Iran: In the Islamic Republic, "Simply being a Christian is enough to get you arrested," was one of the findings of a UK governmental report detailing the horrific persecution Iran's Christian minorities experience. It states, among other thngs:



"In general, a person who is found to have converted to Christianity and who seeks to openly practice their faith in Iran, are [sic] likely to be subject to treatment or discrimination by the state that is sufficiently serious, by its nature or repetition, to amount to persecution..... We do not however find it safe to assume that 'ordinary' Christians [as opposed to Muslim converts], that is to say individuals with no role beyond attending collective worship at house churches, escape the attention of the authorities. On a general level the language used by the sources indicates that to the contrary, simply being a Christian is enough to get you arrested: 'authorities continued to arrest members of unrecognized churches', 'many arrests reportedly took place during police raids on religious gatherings', 'Christians, particularly evangelicals and converts from Islam, continued to experience disproportionate levels of arrests and detention.'"



Egypt: The president of Cairo University, Muhammad Uthman al-Khosht, assigned 31 new directors, deputy directors, managers, and researchers to head a number of departments, including those of agriculture, medicine, engineering, nursing, dentistry, statistical research, and African Studies. Although the Copts — Egypt's indigenous, Christian, people — make up anywhere from 10-20% of its population, notable among these new Cairo University hires is that not a single one of them is Christian. All are Muslim.



This is just the latest instance of overt discrimination. Earlier this year, 98 female judges took the legal oath in preparation for assuming judicial roles in Egypt's State Council. This was considered a major and unprecedented development; since its inception 75 years earlier, not a single woman had sat on the podium of the State Council court—and now 98 are. Yet, not one of them is a Christian — again, despite the fact that the Copts account for between 10-20% of the nation's population, suggesting that at the very least 10 of the 98 should have, for proper representation, been Christian. (More examples of Egyptian discrimination are available here.)



Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.



About this Series



While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.



Previous reports at link

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"We Are Going to Kill You and Destroy Your Church": The Persecution of Christians, November 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

December 21, 2022 at 5:30 am



Without any prior notice, government authorities bulldozed the church and homes of 200 Christians in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, leaving them homeless. "The timing is particularly concerning, coming so soon after costly and devastating floods, and with winter already here and temperatures plummeting." — The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, November 26, 2022.



108 Medieval and early modern Armenian monasteries, churches and cemeteries, between 1997 and 2011, have already experienced "complete destruction," according to Caucasus Heritage Watch. "[N]ew satellite imagery....showed how a monastery, more than 700 years old , was destroyed, then re-erected as a mosque. — theartnewspaper.com, November 25, 2022, Azerbaijan.



"There has been a marked uptick in religiously motivated attacks by Palestinian Muslims on Christians in Bethlehem..... The Palestinian Authority, responsible for security in the area, did nothing." — Israel365.com, November 21, 2022.



"I want to burn Christianity ... we have incinerators and holocausts like Hitler, a lesson from history.... I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers.... Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don't want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia." — Tarek Namouz, 42, a barber shop owner in London who, on seven separate occasions, sent £25,000 to ISIS fighters in Syria, Daily Mail, December 15, 2022.



"We will escalate the war against you until you submit to Islam... Our desire is to kill you or be killed, for we are martyrs before Allah, so submit or run from us." -- Message on social media addressed to "the Mozambican crusader army," it also targeted Christians and Jews, whom it offered "three choices: submit to Islam, pay tax [jizya], or accept endless war." — Zitamar News; November, 18, 2022, Mozambique



"Even when an abducted girl is found by police she will not be returned to her family. Instead she is sent to a Women's refuge centre that is meant to be impartial but is corruptible. Muslim rapists or their friends gain access to these protective centres and threaten to kill the girl and her family unless she states she willingly married the Muslim man.... Christian children are bullied in school and even killed for their faith. This prevents Christian families sending them to school which perpetuates levels of illiteracy. .... Provincial Curriculum text books caricature and demonize Christians and other minorities." — British Asian Christian Association, November 27, 2022, Pakistan.





Throughout the month of October 2022, at least 21 Christians were slaughtered by "Islamist extremists" in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique. Pictured: Burned and damaged huts in the village of Aldeia da Paz, Cabo Delgado Province, following an August 1, 2019 attack on the village by an Islamist group. (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)

The following are among the murders and abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of November 2022:



The Muslim Slaughter of Christians



Nigeria: Muslim terrorists slaughtered "at least" 40 Christians in Plateau and Kaduna states alone, according to an end of month report published on Nov. 30. They also wounded at least 20 Christians, burned down a village church and many Christian homes. One of the Christians murdered was originally abducted and held for ransom. His brother shared the treacherous outcome:



"My brother, a father of two children, was kidnapped in early October ... The bandits contacted us and demanded that we pay a ransom of the amount of 200 million naira (US$450,418), but after a long process of negotiations, they reduced the ransom to 10 million naira (US$22,520). We were able to raise 3 million naira, but unfortunately after collecting the money from us, they still killed my brother on Nov. 17."



After breaking their part of the deal by slaughtering their ransomed victim, the Muslim terrorists demanded another ransom merely to return the man's corpse to his family. The brother continued:



"The bandits said that if we pay them [an additional] 10 million naira [US$22,520], they'll release my brother's corpse to us. This is a very sad and depressing situation for us as my brother was tortured to death."



Mozambique: Throughout the month of October 2022, at least 21 Christians were slaughtered by "Islamist extremists," a Nov. 9 report revealed:



"The Islamists ... announced the killing of 20 Christians [and another in a church-burning incident below] and the displacement of hundreds more in Cabo Delgado between October 3 and 20. The attacks were carried out by an Islamic State (IS)-affiliated organisation Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama, known locally as Al Shabaab (not the Somali-based group of the same name). They were announced in al-Naba, the weekly magazine of IS (also known as ISIS, ISIL, Daesh)."



Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches



Mozambique: According to a Nov. 9 report, "Jihadists set fire to a church building and several houses in the Chiure district of Cabo Delgado Province on October 26, killing one person." Along with the church they torched, the Muslim terrorists said in a communique that they had also destroyed "other church property in Cabo Delgado," although no details were given.



Uganda: Muslims demolished a Christian church and beat its pastor for reportedly "leading 23 Muslims to Christ in August," which "angered Muslims," said Pastor Agaba Ezera. On Nov. 8, during evening prayers:



"From out of nowhere, people came shouting and chanting Islamic words as if they were going to attend Eid prayers. They started beating us and pushing the church building down, as well as pulling off the iron sheets."



"'You brought kafiri [infidels] here and converted our elderly woman by giving her salt and soup," one of his assailants said, "you must die today."



The pastor said from his hospital bed:



"I was beaten badly with blunt objects, but glory be to the Lord Jesus because I survived though they thought that they had killed me. This incident happened because of our evangelistic activities in the Muslim community of Katantala and Kapapali villages."



Separately, in Uganda, Muslims barged into a church meeting, and attacked and stabbed a Christian pastor and his wife, and seriously wounded them. Earlier, in August, five Muslim men between the ages of 19 and 27 had converted to Christianity. Soon after, Pastor Jude Sitaalo, 56, began to receive threatening messages, in person and by phone. "Pastor, let our children come back to Islam, and if not we are going to kill you and destroy your church," one text read. Then, on the evening of Nov. 18, while holding a Bible study in his church with his wife and 10 other church members, he saw a mosque leader followed by a band of Muslims approach the building: "They got hold of me and started beating me with sticks while one of them cut me with a long knife," he said. "One member of the church and my wife tried to rescue me, but they were seriously beaten up with sticks." The rest of the congregation fled for their lives. The pastor sustained knife wounds on his head, hand, and back; his wife was also slashed on the forehead and back. "We are suffering for pastoring converts from Islam," the pastor concluded.



Pakistan: Without any prior notice, government authorities bulldozed the church and homes of 200 Christians in Islamabad, leaving them homeless. Because they were not given any warning or time to remove their belongings before the demolition, "These Christians have lost everything—their homes and all of their worldly possessions," said the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS-UK), a human rights group, in a Nov. 26 statement:



"Many of them have lived in the colony for years, raising their families here and investing their life savings into building and maintaining their homes. It is a travesty of justice that their homes have been wiped out without any alternative provision of accommodation. The timing is particularly concerning, coming so soon after costly and devastating floods, and with winter already here and temperatures plummeting."



In August, monsoon floods killed more than 1,700 people in Pakistan, and left hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed or damaged, prompting the government, which estimated losses to be worth $40 billion, to declare a state of emergency. Sabra Saeed Athwal, whose home was among those bulldozed, called the demolition a "criminal act" and expressed fears that two other Christian neighborhoods could be demolished next. She also indicated that "hardline Muslims" had pressured the authorities:



"This injustice has happened as Christians in Pakistan and around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas in just a few weeks.... The Pakistani government must either rebuild the homes or provide suitable shelter before Christmas as many of the colony's residents are now living under the open sky or in tents and this is simply unacceptable. It is the state's responsibility to treat its citizens equally and protect their lives without any distinction of race, religion and colour. The lack of care in this instance simply beggars belief.... Although we are Christian, we are Pakistani citizens too."



Indonesia: Local officials on Java Island formally added their names to calls by Islamist organizations to block construction of a Christian church, leading to complaints of governmental interference with religious freedom. One Christian leader responded:



"This incident harms the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees equality of every citizen to adhere to a certain religion and to worship freely in accordance to their own religions."



As is the case for churches in other Muslim nations, according to the Nov. 2 report,



"[R]equirements for obtaining permission to build houses of worship in Indonesia are onerous and hamper the establishment of such buildings for Christians and other faiths.... Such processes typically have to pass through four levels of bureaucracy before reaching the municipal level. Besides the opposition that the church faces, most applications for church construction permits in Indonesia take decades to process without support from high-ranking officials."



United States (Pennsylvania): On Nov. 12, a 24-year-old Syrian refugee who had plotted to bomb a Pittsburgh church was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment. Citing court documents, the report says,



"[Mustafa Mousab] Alowemer plotted to bomb a church located on the north side of Pittsburgh using an explosive device. His stated motivation to conduct such an attack was to support the cause of ISIS and to inspire other ISIS supporters in the United States to join together and commit similar acts.... Alowemer was aware that numerous people in the proximity of the church could be killed by the explosion."



Azerbaijan: A form of "cultural erasure" progresses as many ancient and medieval churches and monasteries continue to be demolished in the Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhchivan regions, historically Armenian regions now under Azerbaijani control. According to Caucasus Heritage Watch, 108 Medieval and early modern Armenian monasteries, churches and cemeteries, between 1997 and 2011, had already experienced "complete destruction." More recently, however, according to a Nov. 25 report, "new satellite imagery shows ongoing destruction of Armenian heritage sites. Images show disappearance of churches and cemeteries." As one example, images showed how a monastery, more than 700 years old, was destroyed, then re-erected as a mosque.



Turkey: On Nov. 15, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkey had violated the human rights of a Greek Orthodox church, which it had prevented from registering in Istanbul. According to the report:



"The ECHR said that Turkey's refusal to the Greek Orthodox Church to declare its property constitutes discrimination and ordered the country [Turkey] to pay 5,000 euros in costs and expenses."



Before the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, Greeks (or "Rum," Romans of the "Byzantine" Empire) formed the majority of the population. Since then, they have been dwindling in numbers. According to the report, there were still "nearly 1.8 million [Greeks in Constantinople] in 1910 but the population was devastated following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I."



"Subsequent Turko-Greek wars, a population exchange agreed upon between Turkey and Greece in 1923, and continuous political pressure on the community have reduced their numbers to several thousand. Their foundations, churches, and their properties have also become a major political topic in Turkey as governments seized, closed or denied them registration."



Generic Muslim Hostility for Christians



Palestinian Authority: According to a Nov. 21 report,



"There has been a marked uptick in religiously motivated attacks by Palestinian Muslims on Christians in Bethlehem. Just over two weeks ago, a Muslim man was accused of harassing young Christian women at a Forefathers Orthodox Church in Beit Sahour near the city of Bethlehem. Soon after, the church was attacked by a large mob of Palestinian men who hurled rocks at the building while congregants cowered inside. Several of the congregants were injured in the attack. The Palestinian Authority, responsible for security in the area, did nothing."



United Kingdom: On Nov. 24, a court heard how Tarek Namouz, 42, a Muslim barber shop owner in London and recipient of thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded Covid grants, had on seven separate occasions sent £25,000 to ISIS fighters in Syria. The court also heard how he had said:



"I want to burn Christianity ... we have incinerators and holocausts like Hitler, a lesson from history.... I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers.... Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don't want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia.



Iraq: During a G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia, that was attended by more than 300 religious leaders around the world, a Christian archbishop from Iraq made several important remarks, including by warning that Christianity is "on the verge of extinction" in Iraq, where it had been for nearly two thousand years. According to Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil:



"[W]e Christians of Iraq now find ourselves on the very edge of extinction.... Now we face the end in Iraq, the same end faced by the Iraqi Jews before us, and the same end now being faced by the Yazidis, with whom we have suffered so much pain, alongside us."



Concerning the source of all this suffering and pain, he said that there is "a fundamental crisis of violence within Islam" that "can no longer be ignored" and which "continues to affect the entire Middle East, Africa, Asia and beyond..."



"And if this crisis is not acknowledged, addressed, and fixed, then there can be no future for Christians or any other form of religious pluralism in the Middle East.



"Indeed, there is little reason to see a future for anyone in the Middle East, including within the Islamic world itself, other than in the context of continued violence, revenge, and hatred.... [Iraqi Christians are] not forgetting, but still forgiving. Can our Muslim brothers and sisters follow us in this, or will their own story of violence continue, destroying themselves eventually?.... Fundamentally, this change in direction can only come about as the conscious work of the Islamic world itself."



After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the number of Christians was decimated, going from about 1.5 million to under 200,000 now. Even though the Islamic State's stronghold in the Nineveh Plains was overthrow in 2017, the rapidly dwindling Christian population continues to be harried. According to a fact sheet:



"In June 2020, Christian villages were bombed in Turkey's largest operation in the area since 2015, forcing many Christians to flee. In May 2021, Christian villages were evacuated following Turkish bombing in the region. Christians were not protected by the local government. Many Christians are also seriously affected by intolerance and persecution. This is perpetuated mostly by militant Islamic groups and non-Christian leaders. They also face discrimination from government authorities. In central and southern Iraq, Christians often do not publicly display Christian symbols (such as crosses) as this can lead to harassment or discrimination at checkpoints, universities, workplaces and government buildings. Outspoken believers in the region have frequently become targets. Blasphemy laws can be used against Christians suspected of carrying out outreach among Muslims."



Mozambique: On Nov. 10, images of a handwritten announcement from the Islamic State in Mozambique (ISM) appeared on social media. Addressing the army, ISM asserts:



"We will escalate the war against you until you submit to Islam... Our desire is to kill you or be killed, for we are martyrs before Allah, so submit or run from us."



As the message was addressed to "the Mozambican crusader army," it also targeted Christians and Jews, whom it offered "three choices: submit to Islam, pay tax [jizya], or accept endless war," said a Nov. 18 report:



"The three choices have appeared across Islamic State propaganda. In August, IS Central African Province released a video addressed to 'Congolese Christian rulers' declaring that they would wage war 'until Allah establishes one of these three for you: Islam, jizya, or [continuous] fighting.' Jizya refers to a tax levied on non-Muslims in many Islamic societies across history. The previous issue of the IS weekly newsletter Al Naba, published 10 November, also carried the demand that Jews and Christians convert or pay jizya.... [T]he message represents an attempt to adopt the trappings of a 'caliphate' in line with the stated objectives of the Islamic State leadership...."



Italy: On Sunday, Nov. 27, as locals were putting up Christmas lights in the city of Sora, a Muslim man "terrorized everyone" by suddenly hollering Islamic slogans, including the jihadist cry, "Allahu akbar!" [Allah is the greatest!" ] According to the report:



"In the historic district of Canceglie, ... real 'moments of fear' have been experienced. Once he was gone, having literally terrorized everyone present with the equally classic exclamation associated with terrorism, a[nother] young man continued to rail against the lights that are about to grace Sora."



Sudan: On Nov. 21, Muslim authorities arrested and jailed a church leader on the charge of "witchcraft," after Muslims began coming to his church for healing. Earlier, Pastor Abdalla Haron Sulieman led a prayer meeting for his ailing mother, and she recovered. On learning of what was deemed a miracle, local Muslims began crowding the church in search of healing, which, according to the report, "angered Muslim extremists who persuaded police to arrest the pastor on charges of claiming to be a witchdoctor (Case No. 6737/2022 under the Sudan Criminal Code of 1991.)"



"Sudanese Christians took to social media, some demanding the pastor's immediate release, and others terming the jailing more evidence of ongoing and systematic persecution of Christians in Sudan. 'We need to continue to pray for our brother because he is jail for the sake of the gospel,' said one Sudanese Christian on his Facebook page."



Indonesia: After an earthquake that killed at least 321 people, damaged 62,000 homes, and displaced more than 73,000 people, several human rights groups rushed with aid. Native Muslim groups, however, had other concerns. According to a Nov. 29 report, "a conservative Islamist group tore off labels from tents that were donated by a church for survivors of the Cianjur earthquake." In a Twitter video that went viral, a group of people, who were later identified as members of the Islamic Reformist Movement—which has links to the banned extremist group Islamic Defenders Front, and even ISIS—were seen tearing off labels emblazoned with the words "The Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia" from the blue tents donated by the church to support survivors of the disaster. "Let's destroy it," one man can be heard saying in reference to the tents. Another man, wearing a long robe and white cap, can be seen recording while smiling.



"Cianjur police chief Doni Hermawan said the men dismantled the tents donated by the church in four villages, although they were not from the areas. Doni said the police questioned the men in the video, adding that they had been reprimanded. 'Those who removed it were not the refugees. The refugees accept what is given from any group, regardless of religion,' Doni said, as cited by CNN Indonesia. 'So I warned them, I made sure they would not do that again. Every [donation is given out of] humanity.'"



Pakistan: On Nov. 27, the British Asian Christian Association, which tracks the persecution of Christians in Pakistan, published a comprehensive, well documented report. It showed how attacks on Christians are disproportionate compared to attacks on other minorities. For instance, 30 percent of all extrajudicial killings for blasphemy were committed against Christians—though they only form 1.27 percent of the population. Other findings follow:



"Despite [being] a larger demographic than Christians in Pakistan, Hindus seem to have a lot less attacks on their communities... There are rare cases, of course, of Hindu's being accused of blasphemy. This may be based on the fact that Hindu's live in large enclaves and would seem more daunting to attack; they are more established as a community and less vulnerable... Christians are more likely to interact with the majority Muslim population and this contributes to their persecution. Hindu and Muslim communities are more likely to segregate themselves from other faiths, something which is mirrored in India... Christians have also faced a large number of terrorist attacks and the twin bomb attack in Peshawar 2012, Lahore Twin Church attack 2013, Easter day attack at Gulshan park 2015, and Quetta church bomb attack 2017 are some of the major ones in recent times. Though Hindus were killed in a bomb attack at Orazaki market in 2018, they were not the main target.... The reason Christians are targeted by Islamist groups on more occasions, is believed to be linked to a perception that they are spies for the west and in retaliation for the war against terror. So you see Innocent Christians in Pakistan are more likely to be persecuted during times when the US, Britain and other Western nations are at war with Islamic nations...Even more galling is the estimated 700 Christians girls abducted, raped and forced into Islamic Marriage. ... Even when an abducted girl is found by police she will not be returned to her family. Instead she is sent to a Women's refuge centre that is meant to be impartial but is corruptible. Muslim rapists or their friends gain access to these protective centres and threaten to kill the girl and her family unless she states she willingly married the Muslim man.... Christian children are bullied in school and even killed for their faith. This prevents Christian families sending them to school which perpetuates levels of illiteracy. .... Provincial Curriculum text books caricature and demonize Christians and other minorities."



Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.



About this Series



While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.



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Genocide in Nigeria, Armenia and Syria: The Persecution of Christians, December 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim

January 22, 2023 at 6:00 am



"These military attacks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime are part of a wider Turkish policy of annihilation of the Kurdish and Assyrian [Christian] people in northern Syria and Iraq. Turkey has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including bombing, shelling, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The attacks are part of Turkey's genocidal policies towards Kurds, Christians, and Ezidis." — Genocide Watch, December 7, 2022, Turkey.



"As scholars who study the process of genocide, we believe that the actions of the Azerbaijani government constitute a risk of genocide for the Armenians of the region. We urge international agencies and governments to ensure the free access of people and goods to Nagorno-Karabakh." — genocideprevention.am, December 13, 2022, Azerbaijan.



"Let it be put on record that in the hundreds of attacks [on Christians] that have...killed thousands since 2014, we have not seen anyone arrested and brought to book over these heinous crimes against humanity. Instead, it is southern Kaduna traditional leaders, clergy and human right activists that do get arrested and put in prison over trumped-up allegations of 'incitement.'" — Luka Biniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna People's Union, Morning Star News, December 23, 2022, Nigeria.



On Dec. 17, a high-level Muslim official promulgated a new law saying that Christians could not celebrate Christmas without first obtaining a governmental permit. — Morning Star News, December 23, 2022, Indonesia.



Until 2017, when a new government came to power, churches had few problems. Since then, the authorities have capriciously shut down 20 churches, so that only 11 now remain open in the entire nation, with ongoing threats that they too might be shut down. — mnonline.org, December 1, 2022, Algeria.



"The persecution of Egypt's Christian Copts is the longest ongoing persecution in the history of mankind, from 642, to today, 2022. Through all this time, maybe 70 years under British occupation were peaceful and good—the 'golden era' for Copts in all this duration.... I know of no group that has been persecuted for nearly 1400 years—with still no light at the end of the tunnel." — Magdi Khalil, author who specializes in the situation of minorities in the Middle East, copticsolidarity.org, December 12, 2022, Egypt.



"After converting to Christianity... five days later, I started receiving threatening messages on my phone of risking being killed for leaving Islam. Please pray for us, for God to heal us quickly to enable us look for where to go." — Abdu Muyinga, Morning Star News, December 18, 2022, Uganda.

Continued at link

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The Never-Ending 'Pandemic': 360 Million Christians Persecuted Worldwide

by Raymond Ibrahim

February 2, 2023 at 5:00 am



Overall, the global persecution of Christians remains higher than ever, with 360 million believers suffering high levels of discrimination and violence.



These are among some of the findings of the World Watch List 2023, recently published by the international humanitarian organization, Open Doors.



The worst nations and their rankings are: 1) North Korea, 2) Somalia, 3) Yemen, 4) Eritrea, 5) Libya, 6) Nigeria, 7) Pakistan, 8) Iran, 9) Afghanistan, 10) Sudan, 11) India.



" pproximately 80% of the worst persecution around the globe takes place in the name of Islam...



Although the persecution in North Korea is worse, there is at least hope for the Christians there: their ill treatment is entirely connected to the regime of Kim Jong-un. Once he is gone, North Korea may well become like South Korea, where Christianity is flourishing. Conversely, the Muslim persecution of Christians is perennial, existential, and far transcends this or that regime or ruler. It is part of the history, doctrines and socio-political makeup of Islam -- hence its tenacity and ubiquity.



In Somalia, "Christians from Muslim backgrounds are regarded as high-value targets and may be killed on the spot if discovered."



In most Muslim nations on the list, all three sectors of society -- Muslim authorities, Muslim mobs and Muslim terrorists -- persecute Christians to varying degrees.



In Afghanistan, "More than a year after the Taliban's takeover, any promises they made about recognising freedoms have proved to be false. Following Jesus remains a death sentence, if discovered."



In Pakistan, "roughly a quarter of all blasphemy accusations target Christians, who only make up 1.8% of the population."



In Egypt, "President al-Sisi regularly speaks positively about Egypt's Christian community. However, the lack of serious law enforcement and the unwillingness of local authorities to protect Christians leave them vulnerable to all kinds of attacks...."



In the worst of these Sub-Saharan nations, Nigeria, "Christians are experiencing a genocide."



"China's model of oppression is spreading.... The apparent success of China, especially in economic terms, is appealing to many leaders around the world. The promise of growth and prosperity, while being able to control all groups and individuals perceived as deviant, has triggered the interest of leaders from all over the world, no matter their ideological background."



Perhaps the most disturbing trend is that, since 1993, the persecution of Christians has nearly doubled... and has already increased by nearly 70% over the last six years, with no signs of abating.



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

Continued at link

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'Innocent People... Indicted and Sentenced to Death': The Persecution of Christians, January 2023

by Raymond Ibrahim

February 19, 2023 at 5:00 am



"[In Pakistan,] blasphemy is misused to settle personal disputes... to claim that religion has been defamed.... [T]hose who use spurious motives to accuse and stir hatred are not prosecuted, while innocent people who comment on social media end up being indicted and sentenced to death. In Pakistan, blasphemy has become a pretext for lynchings and extrajudicial killings. Islamic extremists have weaponised the... legislation [on blasphemy] to strike against religious minorities without legal due process Blasphemy accusations have become a quick way to exact appalling revenge and settling scores." — asianews.it., January 14, 2023, Pakistan.



"I want to burn Christianity .... I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers.... Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don't want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia." — Tarek Namouz, 42, barbershop owner and recipient of COVID money, accused of sending £25,000 to Islamic State fighters in Syria, Express, January 5, 2023 and Daily Mail, November 22, 2022, United Kingdom.



The highest court of appeals [in Egypt] closed the door on the possibility of justice for Soad Thabet, a now 76-year-old Christian grandmother who was stripped naked and publicly abused by a group of Muslim men nearly seven years ago. According to one report: "Not only will the men who assaulted Thabet not be held accountable, but Thabet is facing litigation that could see her have to compensate the three men who assaulted her." Earlier... some 300 Muslim men... stripped her naked, and then beat and spat on her and dragged her through the streets by her hair—to jeers, whistles, and triumphant shouts of "Allahu Akbar." Her "crime" was that her son had been accused of being romantically involved with a Muslim woman. Several Christian homes in the village were also looted and torched, in keeping with Islamic law, or sharia, which prescribes the collective punishment of non-Muslim "infidels." — Mada34.appspot.com, January 16, 2023, Egypt.

Continued at link

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"Soft" persecution, but persecution just the same...


School Board Terminates Contract with Christian Teachers, Claims It Makes District Unsafe



By Warner Todd Huston

March 3, 2023 at 1:51pm


An Arizona school board not only formally cut ties with a local Christian university, but during its debate on the issue, one of its members claimed Christian teachers make students feel unsafe.



The outrageous proclamation came during a vote taken by the ultra-woke board of the Washington Elementary School District — which serves north central Phoenix and east Glendale — in which it decided to cut ties with Arizona Christian University.



Until last week, the district had a policy that allowed the university’s student teachers to gain experience by helping teach in the district’s public schools. The contract with the college also allowed graduates to apply for teaching positions in the district.



According to The Christian Post, the district and the Christian college worked together for 11 years “without incident.” Indeed, the district forced the student teachers from ACU to sign agreements not to proselytize in the classroom.



But when the partnership was discussed during a Feb. 23 meeting of the Washington Elementary School District board, members voted to end that relationship.



Trending: Dem Blurts Out Painful Truth About Biden During Interview: 'Hundreds in Congress...Would Say the Same Thing'

And during the debate, Tamillia Valenzuela, who was elected to the board just last year, blasted teachers who are professed Christians, saying they make students feel unsafe.



The radical school board member describes herself in her biography on the district’s website as “a bilingual, disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina” who “loves a good hot wing (but only with the right ranch) and things that sparkle.”



Valenzuela, who attended the meeting wearing furry cat ears, said she was “disheartened” to find out that the board had any relationship at all with Arizona Christian University.



After piously proclaiming that she “full-heartedly” believes in religious freedom, she said, “I had some … concerns regarding looking at this particular institution. And I think it’s a really good time for us to take a moment and really pause about where our values lie.”


Valenzuela went on to indicate she has a real problem with Christians who embrace traditional biblical principles.



She said she had “concerns” after looking at Arizona Christian University’s website. She read aloud the first “core commitment” on ACU’s “Mission” page: “Before all else, be committed to Jesus Christ — accomplishing His will and advancing His kingdom on earth as in heaven.”



“Part of their values is ‘Influence, engage and transform the culture with truth by promoting the biblically-informed values that are foundational to Western civilization, including the centrality of family, traditional sexual morality, and lifelong marriage between one man and one woman,'” Valenzuela said.



“I want to know how bringing people from an institution that is ingrained in their values that will very directly … impact three of your board members who are a part of the LGBTQ community.”



Valenzuela made it clear that the board has pushed its own religious ideals when she noted it had added members’ “pronouns” to their dais ID cards to signal support for the LGBT agenda.



Related: Drag Queen Targets Student After He Stands Firm on 2 Genders, Then Parents Intervene: Report

She said the board’s values are incompatible with those of ACU.



“Because if we’re bringing people in whose mission, who have been told with their institution of education that very, very plainly on their website … that above all else, it is to influence people to biblically minded,” she said, “how does that hold space for people of other faiths? How does that hold space for our members of the LGBT community? How does that hold space for people who think differently and do not have the same beliefs?”



The comment showed Valenzuela was blissfully ignorant that she was proposing setting up “spaces” where intolerance of Christians was acceptable.



“At some point, we need to get real with ourselves and take a look at who we’re making legal contracts with and the message that that is sending to our community. Because that makes me feel like I could not be safe in this school district,” she said accusingly.



“That makes other queer kids … [feel] that they could not be safe in this community,” Valenzuela said.

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'Remove Your Church': The Persecution of Christians, March 2023

by Raymond Ibrahim

April 16, 2023 at 5:00 am



"You should remove your church, because we cannot watch our members turning to Christianity and keep quiet." — Sheikh Shafi Mukama "ordering the father and son to leave [their church] in 2022, while other from the mob kept watch outside," morningstarnews.org, March 22, 2023, Uganda.



"Requirements for obtaining permission to build houses of worship in Indonesia are onerous and hamper the establishment of such buildings for Christians and other faiths.... [T]hey are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." — morningstarnews.org, March 24, 2023, Indonesia.



"According to the UN, ongoing insecurity in eastern DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] has displaced 300,000 from their homes in February alone." — opendoors.ph, March 22, 2023, Democratic Republic of Congo.



"It is a massacre like...killing animals." — A key church minister, persecution.org, International Christian Concern March 20, 2023, Democratic Republic of Congo.



"For leaving Islam to accept Christ," say a Mar. 19 report, "a young mother... was chained in her home, subjected to electrical shocks at a psychiatric hospital and has lost her children." .... [H]er problems began, chiefly from her Muslim husband, who "tried to force her to renounce her faith by chaining her legs and tightening the chains.... [H]er parents and siblings are all Muslims , who believe she is suffering mental illness for believing in Christ." — morningstarnews, March 19, 2023, Sudan.



"ince the start of the war, the Christian population has reportedly diminished by more than 80 per cent, from an estimated 1.5 million to 250,000... More than 350 churches have been destroyed in attacks carried out by terrorists during this period.... On the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war, therefore, I want to raise awareness about the country's Christians, in the hope that the international community acts to prevent their tragedy from continuing before it is too late." — Report by Natasha Dado, thenationalnews.com, April 16, 2023.



"The rampant trafficking of Coptic women and girls is a direct violation of their most basic rights.... The crimes committed against these women must be urgently addressed by the Egyptian government, ending impunity for kidnappers, their accomplices, and police who refuse to perform their duties.... 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 at the very least bribed into silence." — copticsolidarity.org, March 16, 2023 and September 10, 2020, Egypt.



"For Christians in the Middle East, the Christmas season is not 'the most beautiful time of the year' as in the popular Andy Williams song. On the contrary, after two millennia of Christian presence, the Middle East is slowly but surely being cleansed of Christians.... It is striking that the Western powers, which have a majority Christian population, are not concerned at all by such a disaster." — Matija Šerić, "Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People," eurasiareview.com, April 15,2023.



"The only country in the region with a growing Christian community is Israel, where the Christian population grew by 1.4% in 2020.... Christians in Israel benefit from the only functioning democracy in the Middle East... According to the Israel Bureau of Statistics from December 2021, 84% of Christians surveyed said they were satisfied with life in Israel." — Matija Šerić, "Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People."



The report further makes clear that Christians suffer, not just from "terrorists," but Muslim state and society: "The legal political and social order in many Arab countries is a source of discrimination....[T]he system is hostile towards all non-Muslims, especially Christians. Christians are often not second or third but tenth class citizens, they suffer discrimination in the educational system, in the workplace, the community tries to ostracize them." — Matija Šerić, "Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People."

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

'Murdered Like Animals': The Genocide of Christians in Nigeria Reaches New Heights

by Raymond Ibrahim

May 19, 2023 at 5:00 am



ince the Islamic uprising began in 2009, 52,250 Christians "have been butchered or hacked to death" in Nigeria. — Report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law ("Intersociety"), April 10, 2023.



In just the first 100 days of this year [Jan.1-April 10], "no fewer than 1,041 defenseless Christians were hacked to death by Nigeria's Jihadists ..." — Report by Intersociety, April 10, 2023.



[R]oughly 15-20% of the slaughters were attributed to "Nigerian security forces, particularly the Nigerian Army."



By far, however, the worst killers are the "Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen who specifically target and massacre Christians and wantonly destroy or burn down their sacred places of worship and learning; homes and farmlands." — Report by Intersociety, April 10, 2023.



The Intersociety report makes clear that the jihadists are fervently trying to cleanse Nigeria of any Christian presence....



"This Jihad is based on the Doctrine of Hate taught in Mosques and Islamic Madrasas in northern Nigeria as well as the supremacist ideology of the Fulani. Using both conventional (violent) Jihad, and stealth (civilization) Jihad, the Islamists of northern Nigeria seem determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic Sultanate and replace Liberal Democracy with Sharia as the National Ideology. ... We want a Nigeria, where citizens are treated equally before the law at all levels...." – Christian Association of Nigeria, May 4, 2018.



Turkey..., once a bastion of ancient Christianity with churches everywhere, has, after the Turkish conquest, become so thoroughly Islamized, that its ancient basilicas, such as Hagia Sophia, now serve as mosques.



Although the report appeared on April 10, the massacres and atrocities have continued relentlessly since.



Sunday, Apr. 16.... One 5-year-old boy was beheaded.



[N]ews outlets—including the Catholic News Agency—fail to identify the religions of either the murdered or their murderers. This video, which otherwise captures the tragic aftermath, refers to the Muslim terrorists as "bandits" and their Christian victims as "villagers."



Esther Duniya, a 14-year-old Christian girl, was abducted from school and forcibly converted to Islam. Instead of helping her father and aunt recover her, police handed the girl "to Daawa, the Islamic group in charge - of converting and indoctrinating Muslims converts...." — The Guardian, May 10, 2023.



[T]he government of Muhammadu Buhari, the Muslim president of Nigeria, has only "protected" the "Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen" to "the extent that the Jihadists now invade any Christian Community of their target at will and slaughter its natives and takeover their lands and properties at will." — Report by Intersociety, April 10, 2023.



According to several Christian leaders in Nigeria (see below), the reason formerly simple Fulani herdsmen have, since Buhari became president in 2015, managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the "professional" terrorists (Boko Haram, ISWA, etc.), is "because President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group." — Breitbart, June 27, 2018.



"Under President Buhari, the murderous Fulani herdsmen enjoyed unprecedented protection and favoritism... Rather than arrest and prosecute the Fulani herdsmen, security forces usually manned by Muslims from the North offer them protection as they unleash terror with impunity on the Nigerian people." — Rev. Musa Asake, the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, January 16, 2018.



"What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting [current president Muhammadu] Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands." — Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's former Minister of Culture and Tourism, churchmilitant.com, February 21, 2020.



Despite all this, the American "mainstream" remains committed to describing the jihad in Nigeria as a byproduct of "inequality" and "poverty," to quote former US President Bill Clinton, who once explained what was "fueling all this stuff" (the "stuff" being a reference to the genocide of Christians in Nigeria).



In their quest to blame anything and everything but Islamic, specifically jihadist, ideology, even climate change has been added to the mainstream arsenal of reasons fueling the genocide of Christians.



Worst of all has been the Biden administration's response. In 2020, Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern—that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Under Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria—this nation where one Christian is butchered every two hours—from the list.



For mainstream media and politicians, black lives—52,250 now and counting—do not matter -- at least not when those lives are Christians' being slaughtered by Muslims.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

Christianity 'Must be Eliminated': The Persecution of Christians, April 2023

by Raymond Ibrahim

May 21, 2023 at 5:00 am



"The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians." — mnnonline, April 3, 2023, Afghanistan.

olice raided a large group of Christians, mostly college students, as they "gathered to sing and record video clips for social media." One-hundred-and three of them, "mainly students," were arrested and sent to prison. "This latest arrest puts the number of Christian prisoners detained indefinitely without trial in Eritrea to more than 500.... Mai Serwa [prison]...is ... known for its use of torture and other forms of mistreatment, including beatings, starvation, and denial of medical care. The Eritrean government detains individuals without charge or trial and has held many in detention for years without access to legal representation or the due process of law." — International Christian Concern, persecution.org, April 24, 2023, Eritrea.



n one night of unfathomable horror ... men, women, and children were slaughtered like chicken...." -- persecution.org, April 28, 2023 — Democratic Republic of Congo.



The "pure genocide" of Christians, as it has been characterized by several international observers, reached new levels, according to an Apr. 10 report, which found that since 2009, 52,250 Christians in Nigeria "have been butchered or hacked to death." – Nigeria.



"Political Islam replaces the laws or interprets them differently so that they restrict the practice of other religions. It also works to change the culture of society — which puts it under great pressure — so that it becomes more radical and extreme, not only toward other religions but also toward other Islamic sects." — catholicnewsagency.com, 2023, Libya.

olice arrested two illiterate cleaners—a Christian widow and a Muslim gardener—on the accusation that they had intentionally burned pages from the Koran, thereby committing "blasphemy." — morningstarnews.org, April 24, 2023, Pakistan.



"Don't tell me that if you entered a church your faith would waver. Every other person of a different religion here hears the [Islamic] call to prayer five times a day [and their faith doesn't waver]." — Syed Saddiq, Malaysian politician, christiantoday.com, April 7, 2023, Malaysia.



"Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." — morningstarnews.org, April 6, 2023, Indonesia.

Continued at link

[Shoshanna]

Teen Reportedly Arrested After Handing Out Bibles - His Response Proves He Isn't Backing Down on the Gospel



By Ole Braatelien

May 21, 2023 at 5:22pm


An arsonist, a cross-dresser and a Christian walk into a bar. Which one gets arrested?



Oh, you know that one?



Well, Josh Alexander, a 16-year-old follower of Christ, wasn’t at a bar when he was arrested on Wednesday: He was handing out Bibles at a protest in Canada.



But despite his apparent peaceful protest against aggressive counter-demonstrators, Alexander was the one who ended up in handcuffs.



“Today I was handcuffed and put in a paddy wagon for offering students bibles on a public sidewalk in Calgary,” Alexander wrote.



He continued, “I was released and told if I returned I would be arrested and charged. I continued handing out bibles. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.”



WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.

Alexander was attending an event that day which Liberty Coalition Canada had announced and named after him.



The “I Stand with Josh Alexander” International Walkout Protest took place outside of Western Canada High School in Calgary, Alberta.



The Christian youth protest group “Save Canada” and other organizations were also in attendance.



“Liberty Coalition is organizing this peaceful event to stand in solidarity with Josh Alexander. Josh and fellow protesters are demanding that all schools ban biological males using female restrooms and change rooms,” LCC said in a press release.



If you’re reading this, you probably weren’t aware that Wednesday was also the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.



Related: LA Dodgers Pull a Bud Light, But This Is Even Worse Than What Woke Beer Company Did

Now you know.



The protest called for students nationwide to walk out of schools and “stand with Josh.” It also called for parents and other citizens to join the students.



Days before, Alexander had posted a poll on Twitter, asking which school he should attend.

According to the Calgary Herald, dozens of students walked out of the high school that day.



Pro-trans people flocked to the scene as well, however.



At some point, a fight broke out between a number of protesters and counter-protesters in a crowd of about 80, the Calgary Herald reported.



Alexander wrote in a tweet that the police said his views were too “inflammatory” to express near the school.



His tweet also featured a clip of a woman aggressively shoving him.

If his name sounds familiar, that’s because it is.



Alexander was arrested in February for his biblical-based views.



According to New York Post, he was suspended from his Catholic high school for rejecting transgender bathrooms and saying there are only two sexes.



After trying to attend school despite his suspension, he was arrested.



What a different country America would be if there were more Josh Alexanders defending the faith.


link

[schwartzie]

The Jihad on Christians in Mozambique

by Raymond Ibrahim

May 26, 2023 at 5:00 am



A savage jihad — replete with massacres, beheadings, and sexual enslavement — has been raging in the Christian-majority nation of Mozambique since 2017.



Few in the West are aware of this, not least as the situation has been garbed in Marxist language that seeks to depict radical terrorists as "victims" and those resisting them, including the Mozambican government, as "oppressors."



By May 2020, the massacres had reached the point that a "Genocide Warning" was issued. As of December 2021, the terrorists had slaughtered 3,340 people and displaced nearly a million more. The numbers of those killed and displaced has grown in the last year-and-a-half, though there appear to be no official statistics.



As in other African nations, the Muslim terrorists of ISM are deliberately targeting Christians.



"They say their goal is to set up a caliphate similar to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And they are in some cases, literally going door to door. They ask, 'Are you a Christian? Or are you a Muslim?' If you're a Christian, you're killed [including by crucifixion]. If you're a Muslim, then you get the opportunity to quote some Quranic verses. And if you can quote them sufficiently, you save your life. Otherwise, you also get killed [for being insufficiently Islamic]." — Todd Nettleton, The Voice of the Martyrs USA, June 28, 2021.



"Islamic militants turned a village soccer field in northern Mozambique into an execution ground when they beheaded more than 50 people during three days of savage violence between Friday, November 6, and Sunday, November 8...." — Barnabas Aid, November 10, 2020.



After decapitating a Christian pastor, ISM terrorists handed the pastor's severed head to his widow and ordered her to deliver it to police.



Three years and countless more slaughters later, the world still has no idea what is happening, and the international community is nowhere to be seen.



Why? One reason is the media. They are committed to presenting the situation in purely economic terms, rarely if ever indicating that the terrorists are fueled by an expansionist, jihadist agenda to create an Islamic caliphate and subjugate if not slaughter Christians.



This situation is a duplicate of the situation in Nigeria: there, Muslims are committing genocide against Christians for purely ideological (Islamic) reasons, while here, in the West, the media and establishment are insisting that "religion is not driving extremist violence [in Nigeria]," to quote Johnnie Carson, then-President Barack Obama's Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.



report, "How poverty and corruption fuel terrorism across Africa," argues that such attacks, which "are on the rise across the African continent," are "a consequence of poverty, [and] domestic grievances new and old..." — Channel 4, April 16, 2021.



A genocidal jihad is being waged against Christians in virtually every corner of sub-Saharan Africa — from Nigeria in the northwest, to Mozambique in the southeast — but, for some reason, these black lives apparently do not matter.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

The Horror of Being Christian in Muslim Pakistan: Just One Month

by Raymond Ibrahim

June 25, 2023 at 5:30 am



"[T]here was absolutely no case. There was no proof against Noman, and none of the witnesses produced by police could corroborate the blasphemy allegation against him.... This is murder of justice." — Lazar Allah Rakha, lawyer for Norman Masih, a 22-year-old Christian man, sentenced to death for "blasphemy", Morning Star News, May 31, 2023,



"Several people have been lynched over false accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan. At least 57 cases of alleged blasphemy were reported in Pakistan between Jan. 1 and May 10 [2023], while four blasphemy suspects were lynched or extrajudicially killed during the same period..." — Morning Star News, May 22, 2023



"The blasphemy laws have been consistently misused to settle personal disputes, persecute minority groups, and incite mob violence and hatred. We demand prompt action and a collective effort by the government to address these human rights violations." — Retired Justice Nasira Javaid Iqbal, Morning Star News, May 22, 2023.



Muslim policeman, hired to protect a Catholic school run by the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, instead attacked the school and murdered two young girls. — British Asian Christian Association, May 16, 2023.



"[T]he incident [murder] has been officially blamed on the 'mental health' of the man, without investigating his possible relations with Muslim extremist groups." — bitterwinter.org, June 1, 2023.



"[W]hy this horrific terrorist event occurred at the missionary school is due to a hatred of education for women, in radicalised Pakistan." — British Asian Christian Association, May 16, 2023.



In yet another incident... a Muslim family — with the aid of police — beat, tortured, and illegally confined a Christian house-cleaner, soon after she tried to resign due to pregnancy.... When her husband, rickshaw driver Gulfam Masih, went to police to report her missing, officers arrested him instead.... Asma [the cleaner] reported her illegal confinement and beating to police, but officers dismissed her complaint without even bothering to question her. Angered that she had the temerity to report them, the Muslim family registered a theft charge against Asma and her husband, which police did take very seriously. — Morning Star News, May 26, 2023.



"Many poor Christians are victimized through false allegations, including blasphemy, if they choose to discontinue working for their Muslim employers. The pattern is quite similar when you examine such cases.... The Muslim family used its influence to discharge Asma's complaint against her torture and then registered a false [report] against the couple to 'teach them a lesson.'" — Imran Sahotra, the Christian Awakening Movement, Morning Star News, May 26, 2023.



"Eventually the mob disappeared... shouting threats of death and the rape of Christian boys and girls if they continued to pursue the police...." — British Asian Christian Association, May 26, 2023.



"It must be terrifying... to have suffered such a brazen attack, knowing the next one is days away and the authorities meant to protect you have no desire to help...." — Juliet Chowdhry, Trustee for British Asian Christian Association, May 26, 2023.



"The mindset of a whole nation must be changed—empowered Muslims must be taught to respect the minorities living amongst them." — Juliet Chowdhry, Trustee for British Asian Christian Association, May 26, 2023.


Continued at link

[schwartzie]

'What Is the Sin Committed by Christians?': The Persecution of Christians, May 2023

by Raymond Ibrahim

July 2, 2023 at 5:00 am



"Is it because we're Christians that we're being attacked, and the Muslim-controlled state and federal governments do not care to protect us?" — A Christian, reported by Morning Star News, June 1, 2023, Nigeria.



Muslim bulldozer driver at a construction site, killed his supervisor, a Christian, by crushing him to death. — copticsolidarity.org, May 18, 2023, Egypt.



Both sides [in the civil war in Sudan] are led by Islamists, "trying to portray themselves to the international community as pro-democracy advocates of religious freedom...." — Morning Star News, May 24, 2023, Sudan.



"Sudan has been governed by sharia (Islamic law) since 1983, and is one of only a few countries in modern times where the death penalty for apostasy has been carried out." In one such case from 1994, "two Christians from a tribal group that had converted from Islam in the early 1970s were executed by crucifixion." — barnabasaid.org, May 23, 2023, Sudan.



"I answered him that [the Bible] is a holy book. He... beat me that night and told me that he was punishing me for leaving Islam, and that he will automatically be rewarded in Jannah [paradise] by Allah.... He took me on his vehicle and dumped me inside Queen Elizabeth National Park to be eaten by wild animals." — Morning Star News, May 30, 2023, Uganda.



"When I was little, Muslim children would spit on the Christian cross and kiss the Islamic crescent moon in front of us. We, the Christian children in the village, were called slaves and cockroaches.... The hatred towards our [Christian] communities may be less visible now, but it is still there. This is because Muslims know that the authorities are behind them.... [O]ne boy taught other Muslim children to say 'kill the infidels.'" — palnws.be, June 28 2023, Turkey.



A Baby Jesus in a 400-year-old painting had his throat slit with a knife. — Journalistenwatch.com, June 2, 2023, Germany.



"[T]he extent of attacks on Christian symbols in Central Europe [is significant but suppressed]." — Journalistenwatch.com, June 2, 2023, Germany.



The heads of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus were decapitated from a statue standing in Ajaccio, the capital of the French island which in recent years has taken in Muslim migrants. — corsematin.com, May 23, 2023, Corsica.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

'Christians Here Really Need Help': The Persecution of Christians, June 2023

by Raymond Ibrahim

July 16, 2023 at 5:00 am



The genocide of Christians at the hands of Muslims continued to rage throughout the month. Muslim "Fulani jihadists" slaughtered 2,500 Christians and "burned down or wantonly destroyed" 18,200 churches in just the first six months of 2023. Fifty million Christians have further been "forced out of their ancestral homes and lands into displacement and homelessness." — news.band, June 3, 2023 - Nigeria.



"All I can say is that war has been declared on Christians in Mangu [Plateau State, Nigeria]. The terrorists are just attacking and killing Christians in most of the communities around Mangu... Christians here really need help." — Markus Artu, a member of the Mangu Local Government Council, after 150 Christians were killed in the first three weeks of June; Morning Star News, June 27, 2023 - Nigeria.



On June 7, the mutilated body of Shazia Imran Masih, a 40-year-old Christian widow, was found. Earlier, four Muslims had "abducted, gang-raped and killed" her "for refusing to convert to Islam and marry the primary suspect." — Morning Star News, July 7, 2023 - Pakistan.



"The accused are very influential, and they have been persistently threatening us...." — Zafar Masih, a member of a local evangelical church, Moring Star News, July 3, 2023 - Pakistan.



"Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." — Morning Star News, June 23, 2023 - Indonesia.



"We.... are not building a church. So what's the problem? When we pray, where is the problem?" — Elysson Lase, Christian woman, Morning Star News, June 23, 2023 - Indonesia.



Egypt's "contempt of religion" law -- supposedly meant to protect the sanctity not just of Islam, but of Christianity and Judaism as well, is a farce.... [T]his law exists solely for the benefit of Islam...." — Report, wataninet.com, June 19, 2023 - Egypt.



"Some of the more enlightened [Muslims] and Copts responded by asking why the alleged response by Abanoub Imad were to be considered as a reason to arrest him and put him under trial [even if he did indeed post them], when it was simply a reaction to insults against Christianity? Why are those who insulted Christianity in the first place not to be tried as well? And why are Christians always the only ones to be held accountable for contempt of religions, even though there are countless pages/sites that insult Christianity non-stop?" — Report, wataninet.com, June 19, 2023 - Egypt.





On June 12, a "group of young people" beat Fr. Joseph Eid of Notre-Dame-du-Liban parish in Lyon, France (pictured), and called him a "dirty Christian." (Photo by Getty Images)

The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of June 2023.



The Muslim Slaughter of Christians



Uganda: On the evening of June 16, Islamic terrorists crying "Allahu akbar!" ("Allah is the greatest!") stormed a private high school, where students were closing the night by singing Christian hymns. Over the next 90 minutes, the attackers committed unimaginable horrors against the Christians — murdering, in the end, at least 42 people, 37 of them teenagers. Locked in their dormitory, most of the boys were burned alive after the Muslim terrorists poured fuel on the building and set fire to it.



Some of the boys were so "charred beyond recognition" that investigators had to use DNA samples from relatives to identify them. Most of the girls had been hacked and stabbed to death with machetes and knives. "It was a devastating and upsetting scene," an investigative team visiting the site reported. "Lots of dried blood is still on the ground outside the girls' dormitory."



As for the incinerated boys' dormitory, "the smell of death is unmistakeable—beds have been reduced to wire mesh with pieces of flesh still stuck to them."



"The rebels asked for Muslims among the students, but there were none," a survivor recounted, further positioning the massacre along religious lines. "The rebels said they do not kill fellow [Muslim] believers. [Then] they slaughtered every student in their sight using pangas [machetes], axes, and sharp objects."



As detailed here, separating Muslims from Christians during a jihadist raid, and then murdering only the Christians, is a common practice—with examples from many nations (such as here and here), including the U.S. — but underscores that the attack was entirely about religion: killing Christians.



Four days later, on June 20, machete-wielding Muslims stormed a church in Uganda, where they "hacked one member to death." A Christian official said of the incident, "It is an evil from the pits of hell to shed blood of innocent people inside a church." According to the report, the murders occurred around 1 am, following an all-night prayer vigil. Once inside the church, the invaders "started hacking people who had dozed off during overnight prayers." In the words of an official:



"After the night prayers, they [Christians] decided to sleep in the church. However, shortly after sleeping, people armed with pangas [machetes] raided the church and started randomly hacking members of the congregation. One died on [the] spot while others are nursing grave injuries. Others fled the church to save their lives."



After pointing out that the Muslim murderers consisted of three men, a later report quotes the pastor of the church:



"The police cannot quickly ascertain the nature of the attack since the three assailants have not been arrested. But we know that there has been increasing friction between Christians here and the Muslims. Some of them claim that the churches are making a lot of noise—as if we do not have Mosques here that have prayers five times a day."



The pastor added that this cannot be categorized as a generic crime: "if they were just thieves, they would have stolen something. The three stormed in, attacked [and murdered] worshipers, and left."



Nigeria: The genocide of Christians at the hands of Muslims continued to rage. According to a June 3 report, Muslim "Fulani jihadists" slaughtered 2,500 Christians and "burned down or wantonly destroyed" 18,200 churches in just the first six months of 2023. Fifty million Christians have further been "forced out of their ancestral homes and lands into displacement and homelessness."



Between mid-May and the first few days of June, Muslim Fulani slaughtered over 300 Christians and destroyed 28 churches in Plateau State alone, according to a June 7 report.



Thereafter, during the first three weeks of June, the Muslims slaughtered an additional 150 Christians in Plateau. Discussing one of these raids, which claimed 15 Christian lives, an area resident said:



"The attackers of our villages are Muslims who are Fulani herdsmen. They attacked our villages of Bwoi and Chisu while we were sleeping at about 11 p.m. The herdsmen burnt down our houses, including a church worship building... Some of the Christian victims were burnt alive in their houses as the herdsmen set fire on their houses."



After 150 Christians were killed in the first three weeks of June, Markus Artu, a member of the Mangu Local Government Council, said:



"All I can say is that war has been declared on Christians in Mangu. The terrorists are just attacking and killing Christians in most of the communities around Mangu... Christians here really need help."



In Benue state, between June 3-4, Muslims butchered 46 more Christians in a number of villages. According to a statement from local officials,



"Altogether, 46 Christians were killed by the terrorists in the two days of attacks on our communities. Most disturbing also is the fact that the identity of the perpetrators is known to security agencies and the Nigerian government, and yet nothing has been done to end this carnage."



Democratic Republic of Congo: On June 8, members of the Allied Democratic Forces (an Islamic terror group affiliated with ISIS), hacked 12 people to death — four children, four women, and four men — in the Christian nation. According to officials, the Muslims "were opening doors and decapitating people with hatchets and machetes."



Pakistan: On June 7, the mutilated body of Shazia Imran Masih, a 40-year-old Christian widow, was found. Earlier, four Muslims had "abducted, gang-raped and killed" her "for refusing to convert to Islam and marry the primary suspect," according to the report.



"[T]he assailants slashed her neck and doused her with acid ... though it was not known if the acid burns came before or after her death. The primary suspect has confessed to the killing... Shazia Masih's husband also was killed a year and a half ago, and the family has seen no justice in that case either as police cast it as an accident..."



According to her brother, a Muslim man named Noman Gujjar:



"a notorious area criminal ... had been pressuring her to convert to Islam along with her children and marry him... Shazia did not share this with us due to fears for our security, but three days before her abduction, she told [another relative] that Gujjar had threatened to kill her if she did not surrender to his demand."



She then disappeared on June 7, and her family alerted police.



"Later in the day we received a call from the Hyer police station that they had found a body from a plot that matched Shazia's description. We immediately went to the police station, but when we saw the body, we could not believe our eyes. Shazia's jugular vein had been slit with a sharp object, and her body had been badly burnt by acid."



The report adds:



"A forensic examination revealed that she had been gang-raped before being killed.... Police arrested Gujjar, and though he confessed to the murder, officers seemed uninterested in arresting three suspected accomplices, Gujjar's brother and two cousins."



The murdered woman's brother continues:



"The accused are very influential, and they have been persistently threatening us to reconcile and withdraw the case. Due to these threats, we have been forced to go into hiding and are not even free to pursue the case. Gujjar is still in police custody, but we doubt that we'll get justice for our sister, as the police's bias is evident by its inaction against the remaining accused... We have lost all hope for justice and appeal to our church leaders and government officials to provide justice and security to us."



Muslim Attacks on Christians and Churches in France:



Note: Only one of the following five incidents (the beating of an 80-year-old priest) occurred after the nation-wide protests linked to the June 27 police killing of Nahel Merzouk.



On June 20, a "gang of college students" entered the St. Roch Church in Nice, doused themselves with holy water, and began shouting "Allahu akbar!" ["Allah is the greatest!"] which the report notes is "regularly heard during Islamist attacks." The first deputy mayor of Nice, Anthony Borré, responded by assuring the city that he takes such incidents "very seriously." He further urged his superiors also to take such matters seriously. In a letter to the president of the Alpes-Maritimes, Charles-Ange Ginesy, Borré wrote:



"Since October 29, 2020 and the Islamist attack on the Notre-Dame Basilica in our city [when another "Allahu akbar" yelling Muslim slaughtered two French women—one by beheading—and a man inside a church], you are not unaware of how traumatic it can be for our fellow citizens to hear such remarks within a church and the painful memories that they can revive. Faced with these attempts to destabilize society and with the attacks on our secular Republic, we must provide a strong and collective response."



Police sources, however, said that the teenagers did "not fall under any Islamist movement," but had rather pulled a "joke" — one admittedly in "bad taste."



On Friday, June 23, three young Muslims, aged between 12 and 13, broke into the St. Joseph Church in Nice, during an afternoon mass, and also began hollering "Allahu akbar." Although they quickly ran away, police managed to track them down. "It still looks like a child's joke in very bad taste," insisted a French officer. Nice, of course, is where other Muslims, shouting "Allahu akbar!" murdered 84 people in 2016.



On June 3, invaders vandalized the Church of Mailhac. According to the report:



"Many candles lay broken on the floor, and there are clear signs that someone had tried to open the trunk. The sacristan had already filed a complaint for the destruction of candles in the past. As a consequence of this act, the church has been closed for an indefinite time."



On June 12, a "group of young people" beat Fr. Joseph Eid of Notre-Dame-du-Liban parish, and called him a "dirty Christian." Sometime after 8 pm, a dozen Muslims made a hole in the church fence and invaded the presbytery. When the priest confronted them, they claimed they were looking for their soccer ball. According to one report:



"The situation seems to have escalated and the priest was violently thrown to the ground, then grabbed by the back of the neck before being helped by witnesses. The assailants then fled, hurling anti-Christian insults."



Responding to this latest incident of Muslims attacking Christians, several heads of mosques in France expressed their "indignation and anger," adding that such behavior is "contrary to the values of Islam and the teachings of the Koran, which call for respect and protection of the 'People of the Book,' meaning Jews and Christians."



Finally, on Friday, June 30, Muslims savagely beat an 80-year-old Catholic priest of Saint Vincent de Paul in Saint-Étienne. After knocking Fr. Francis Palle to the ground, they continued beating and kicking him until he fell unconscious, at which point they also stole his wallet and phone. In the words of one report,



"According to eyewitnesses, a group of rioters suddenly attacked Father Palle, surrounding and targeting him for no apparent reason. They hit him with extreme force, causing him to fall violently to the ground. Worse still, these individuals continued to beat him when he was already on the ground, leaving the priest in critical condition."



Last reported, the elderly cleric had been hospitalized in the intensive care unit in serious condition.



Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom and Worship



Uganda: On June 3, Muslim relatives of two brothers who converted to Christianity beat them after a funeral service for their sister. On the night before, one of their Muslim brothers found them offering Christian prayers for her. He quickly informed the rest of the family who hurried into the Christians' room to see for themselves. The family then asked why they were "praying in the name of Christ rather than Muhammad." The brothers remained silent. At that point, according to Kakembo, one of the brothers,



"They accused us that we are no longer Muslims. Our elder brother, Shaban, a teacher by profession at Ibun Bazi Islamic Center, got angry with us and started beating us with a blunt object which he had with him as the rest of the members also joined in and started beating us badly."



Their father then came in and began shouting:



"Stop, don't kill them in my house, just send them away from my home—from today on, I am no longer their father, and they are no longer my children."



Kakembo continues:



"My brothers obeyed our dad and sent us away in the night. I was bleeding from a deep cut near the right eye and the forehead, while my brother suffered a deep cut on his forehead, an eye injury and a swollen neck.... We are ostracized and disowned—we need prayers so that God may comfort us as we feel rejected."



Indonesia: Muslims forcibly prevented Christians from worshipping on several occasions:



On June 18 in Central Java, a group of Muslims hollering jihadist slogans, including "Allahu akbar," blocked entry into a church building by sealing off the door with a banner saying the church had no right to exist. One report gives background on Indonesia's harsh laws concerning non-Muslim places of worship:



"Requirements for obtaining permission to build houses of worship in Indonesia are onerous and hamper the establishment of such buildings for Christians and other faiths, rights advocates say. Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths."



In a separate incident on June 18, nearly 500 miles away near Jakarta, other Muslims forcibly stopped Christian worship inside a private home. The Muslim group was led by a local official, and the house church was mostly attended by women. Video footage of the incident showed the official "using harsh language against a woman trying to defend the fellowship." While trying to pacify the Muslim intruders, the Christian woman, Elysson Lase, insisted that they were not trying to turn the home into a formal church, but rather were privately and quietly trying to worship in a home:



"We want to hold a worship service—should I ask permission to worship from you when we want to hold worship?... The important thing has been conveyed to the village office, that we are not building a church. So what's the problem? When we pray, where is the problem?"



While Indonesian law is severe concerning the building of churches, private home worship is (at least for the moment) still legal, though growing numbers of Muslims are resisting even this small concession. Responding to this incident, the Rev. Henrek Lokra of the Communion of Christian Churches said the disruption was "illegal, and that the government should take tough action and enforce the constitution against such vigilante acts":



"The Christians don't build churches. They only want to hold their routine Sunday worship. If it is not allowed, then where is this country heading?"



In yet another incident, more than a thousand miles from Jakarta, in Medan, another group of Muslims prevented Christians from using mall space they had earlier rented in which to worship. Due to the angry protests, organized by the influential Muslim Alliance (AUI), the property administrator of the city's large Plaza Suzuya Marelan mall rescinded the rental agreement. According to a June 18 report, a Christian entrepreneur said that "the Muslim protests are part of broader opposition towards devoted Christians and Christian worship in her area."



Egypt: Abanoub Emad, a Christian student of dentistry is, according to a June 22 report, "being accused of 'contempt of religion,' after publishing some social media posts, which were considered to be insulting to Islam. A campaign has been launched demanding to arrest and punish him."



Even though the young man had "published evidence" showing that his own page had been stolen and manipulated, "certain extremists launched a hashtag against him, and went as far as publishing the phone numbers and addresses of his family, which is normally illegal as it puts them in high risk."



The entire fiasco is a reminder that Egypt's "contempt of religion" law -- supposedly meant to protect the sanctity not just of Islam, but of Christianity and Judaism as well, is a farce. As the report explains, this law exists solely for the benefit of Islam:



"Investigating the matter, it turns out that certain [Muslim] individuals had published social media posts that mock the Bible. This prompted some Copts to respond with their own posts, including some in the alleged page of the young Abanoub... Some of the more enlightened [Muslims] and Copts responded by asking why the alleged response by Abanoub Imad were to be considered as a reason to arrest him and put him under trial [even if he did indeed post them], when it was simply a reaction to insults against Christianity? Why are those who insulted Christianity in the first place not to be tried as well? And why are Christians always the only ones to be held accountable for contempt of religions, even though there are countless pages/sites that insult Christianity non-stop? Furthermore, how can his family's personal data be illegally leaked, thus endangering their lives, without any reaction by the authorities? And where does the law stand regarding these sites/pages that lure and provoke Coptic youth in order to trap them as they respond to insults to Christianity? Certain extremist individuals and organizations clearly stand behind such widespread activities, but sadly the security authorities appear to be quick to appease them by arresting Copts and prosecuting them, often without conclusive evidence. A case to remember is that of the Coptic young man, Sherif, who was sentenced to a year in prison, after he responded to comments by a woman named Nada Mahmoud who was mocking Christianity. Both were initially arrested and interrogated but, quite shockingly, Nada Mahmoud was released without charges while Sherif was sentenced. An obvious case of the policy of double standards.


link

[shalom]

My Brother’s Keeper: Persecution of Christians in Sudan

[Berean]

I believe we're going to be seeing more and more persecution in America. Stand strong, saints! 


Teen Arrested While Preaching on Public Sidewalk as Drag Queens Do Sex Dances in Front of Children

August 2, 2023


Anyone who argues that drag shows are “just entertainment” and not sexualized is by definition what God calls those who “justify the wicked” in Proverbs 17:15. The drag cult is a sex cult. The cult of Dionysus was a Greek mystery religion centered around the worship of the god of wine, fertility, and ecstasy. This cult involved frenzied dancing, music, and sexual rituals, particularly including homosexual practices among male worshippers. Same-sex relationships and acts were considered a natural part of the cult’s worship, and it was believed that they helped to bring the worshippers closer to their god.



Male followers of the cult were known as “maenads” and “satyrs” and would often dress in women’s clothing, wear makeup, and engage in effeminate behavior as a part of their worship. These perverted acts, even back then, were seen as a way to transcend traditional gender roles and connect with the gods more profoundly. The cult of Dionysus was so grotesque that it was even viewed as subversive and dangerous by the mainstream “tolerant” culture of ancient Greece, but it remained popular throughout the Hellenistic period and beyond.



This cult is the best depiction I can give for the drag queen cult that is taking over our nation as we speak and sadly, governments, schools, and even places that call themselves “churches” have been given over completely to the ideology of this cult. But what’s worse is that the cult today has become overwhelmingly militant and is using the nation’s legal system to enforce the rules of acceptance set forth by its religious mission. We’re now seeing these drag queens co-opt the government to squelch any opposition to their movement.



This week in Watertown, WI, one scene of a young teen, Marcus Schroeder, arrested for preaching the gospel near a drag show has taken social media by storm. A teen was preaching on a public sidewalk outside of a drag event where men dressed as scantily clad caricatures of women danced in a sexualized manner in front of young children—something that is illegal according to Wisconsin law. Yet, instead of arresting these men who are subjecting young children to their sexual perversions, the cops decided to forcefully arrest the teen on the sidewalk and charge him with unlawfully using amplification and resisting arrest.



While the ordinance in Wisconsin does state that one needs a permit to use amplification, one can generally not be arrested for the offense. The penalty is a citation and a fine, at most. Yet, the officers decided to forcefully snatch and seize the sound equipment and place the student under arrest. Clearly an unlawful and unconstitutional act of violence against a Christian voice who was clearly targeted for his faith.



So why was Christian teen targeted? According to the Republic Sentinel, Jason Storms—who filmed the viral video and also serves as the minister of evangelism at Mercy Seat Christian Church—said that over 200 protesters, including youth from Mercy Seat Christian Church in Wisconsin, gathered to protest this drag show. The police, directed by city leaders, arrested several young people. Three were detained and later released with warnings for praying and talking in the park and Schroeder was charged with unlawful use of sound amplification and resisting arrest for preaching outside the venue.


Video at link

[schwartzie]

Paraded Naked and Gang-Raped: The Persecution of Christians in India

by Raymond Ibrahim

August 10, 2023 at 5:00 am




"The viral video captures the harrowing ordeal endured by two Christian women.... [They] were paraded naked while a mob of men molested and beat them mercilessly.... [T]he younger woman, aged only 19, was brutally gang-raped by the enraged mob...." — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.



"To add to the horror, four police officers reportedly stood by and watched as the frenzied attack unfolded, making no attempt to intervene." — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.



In the video, the [Hindu] Meitei tribal group can be heard shouting: "If you don't take off your clothes, we'll kill you." — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.



"In a disturbing twist, the survivors have alleged that the police officers may have actively participated in or facilitated the heinous attack. There are claims that the officers led the women directly to the mob of 800 to 1000 men" — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.



Several Christians—including a young child—were burned alive by the Hindu tribesmen, according to Morning Star News.



Notably, both the Hindu government and the international press totally sideline the religious identity of both the attackers and the victims, and speak only of "sectarian clashes" between the Meitei (Hindu) and Kuki (Christian).



This is a familiar tactic—as when the Western media talk of Fulani herdsmen clashing with farmers in Nigeria. In reality, the Fulani are Muslims who are engaged in a genocidal jihad on the "farmers," who are Christian.



It would appear that religion — specifically the rise of Hindu nationalism, which views ethnic Indians who are Christians as traitors — is, once again, the ultimate factor fueling clashes....



"Local police throughout India allow Hindu extremist mobs to attack hapless Christians without consequences." — Archbishop Joseph D'Souza of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India and President of the All India Christian Council, stream.org, July 21, 2023.



"At this point it is obvious to state that Kuki Christians are under full scale attack by radicalized Hindu groups, and that the police are ignoring this injustice." — thewire.in, July 20, 2023.



The growing persecution of Christians in India has even propelled that nation into being ranked the eleventh-worst country in the world to persecute Christians, according to the World Watch List.



Stripping Christian women naked, and publicly parading and gang raping them is just the start.

Continued at link

[schwartzie]

'Killing Christians Takes Us to Paradise': The Persecution of Christians, July 2023

by Raymond Ibrahim

August 20, 2023 at 5:00 am


"The Taliban are working to completely erase Christianity or any religious minority from the country, even stating that there are no Christians in Afghanistan, an obviously false claim. Many Christians have gone underground to avoid being kidnapped by the Taliban 'courts.' The rising starvation rates and increasing poverty in Afghanistan create an even higher security threat to these believers since now the Taliban are offering financial compensation to anyone who reports on Christians... and Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to Christians.] Unless ransomed by their families, Christians captured by the 'courts' face brutal torture and even death. If redeemed, the survivors and their families, often bankrupt from the exorbitant ransom demands, must flee their homes to avoid repeated kidnappings from the various Taliban gangs. Because of the persecution, many Christians escape to Pakistan and risk capture and death by the Taliban. Even if they make it to Pakistan, they must conceal their faith for fear of receiving worse treatment in already poor conditions. Some Christian refugees decide to return to Afghanistan, deciding they have a better chance of survival under the Taliban than in Pakistan." — Report by International Christian Concern, July 13, 2023, Afghanistan.



Arguing that churches should never exist in Muslim-majority regions, on Sunday, July 2, Muslims broke up a Christian worship service even as police stood by looking on. — Morning Star News, July 17, 2023, Indonesia.



She was heard yelling, "You the minorities should not always ask to be respected!" — Morning Star News, July 17, 2023, Indonesia.



This video captures some of the most recent damage of beheadings and desecrations. The report concludes by saying the motivation of the "unknown vandals" remains "a mystery to police." — Kronen Zeitung, Austria.



"Blasphemy laws are often used as a weapon of revenge against both Muslims and non-Muslims to settle personal scores or to resolve disputes over money, property or business. A mere allegation is enough to provoke a mob to riot and lynch falsely accused suspects in Pakistan. At least 1,949 persons were accused under the blasphemy laws between 1987 and 2021, according to the Center for Social Justice. A large number of these blasphemy cases are still awaiting justice." — Morning Star News, July 12, 2023, Pakistan.



These laws are, moreover, becoming more, not less, severe....



"The... situation became tense after the Friday prayers when announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers asking people to gather for a protest." — Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, a Christian and former lawmaker, Morning Star News, July 4, 2023, Pakistan.



"The blasphemy charge against Shahzad stems from personal grudges against him by the complainant, Ullah ... [who] had engaged in legal battles with Shahzad over a piece of land allotted by the government for constructing a church building." If found guilty, [he] faces up to ten years in prison. — Morning Star News, July 4, 2023, Pakistan.





"Blasphemy laws are often used as a weapon of revenge against both Muslims and non-Muslims to settle personal scores or to resolve disputes over money, property or business. A mere allegation is enough to provoke a mob to riot and lynch falsely accused suspects in Pakistan," according to Morning Star News. Pictured: Thousands of people in Karachi, Pakistan, demand the execution of Asia Bibi, on November 21, 2018. Bibi, a Christian woman, spent 8 years on death row in Pakistan because of a false accusation of blasphemy, before being released and exiled. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images)

The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of July 2023.



The Muslim Slaughter of Christians



Uganda: On July 9, a Muslim man murdered his wife, a mother of three, hours after she became Christian. Ten days earlier, Amina Nanfuka, 31, while being treated for medical complications, had gone to stay with a relative. During her stay, a pastor visited and prayed for her recovery. According to the relative (name withheld), who had become Christian prior to Amina's visit:



"I shared the saving power of Jesus, and she showed a desire to accept and to believe in Jesus but requested waiting for the day that the doctor in Kampala had given her for a check-up and thereafter attend the church."



On the morning of July 9, they attended church, where she converted and was given a Bible. As they were leaving the church, a Muslim business partner of Amina's husband saw her. "You mean nowadays you go to church?" he asked, but she just smiled and left. The two women returned to Amina's home around 5pm, and by 8pm, her husband was back from work and knocked loudly on the door. According to the relative:



"Without greeting us, he started shouting at his wife saying, 'Why did you lie to me that you were going for a medical check-up and instead decided to go to church?' Amina was tongue-tied."



He then yanked his wife into their bedroom, locked the door, and began demanding that she surrender the Bible.



"Immediately I heard a loud bang inside with kicks and slaps. She started screaming and calling for help. I feared for my life and rushed outside the room shouting and wailing for help."



Neighbors approached, at which point they saw the husband storm out of the house:



"We then went inside the bedroom and found her unconscious with blood coming out of her mouth. She was rushed to a nearby clinic in Bugiri, but soon the doctor pronounced her dead upon arrival. She was strangled and hit with an object around her mouth."



In a separate incident, on July 8, Muslims murdered a former Muslim for converting to Christianity. According to a church pastor who knew the victim, 22-year-old Abudu Amisi:



"Immediately after his conversion [on June 22], Amisi was very fearful of his life from the Muslims in his village ... The church then housed him in a rental house, and he remained indoors for two weeks."



On July 8, the church sent two young Christians to accompany Amisi to the local market to buy food. One of the youths said Abudu was met by a Muslim who seemed to know him, and who "greeted them cheerfully," chatting for ten minutes before leaving them to shop.



"After buying the food items, we then began our journey back to the church. About 50 meters from the market area, people began shouting and mentioning the name of Amisi, saying, 'Here comes the betrayer of Islam. He should not see the light of the day.' There and then they surrounded him and then began cutting him with long knives on his head, face and neck, and fractured his legs and hand."



The two young Christians fled and contacted their pastor, who immediately called police. The pastor continued:



"They hurriedly tried to rescue him, but it was too late, they had already cut Amisi, and he had lost a lot of blood and died on the way to Mbale Regional Referral Hospital."



Amisi is survived by his wife and 3-year-old son.



Mozambique: On July 9, jihadists beheaded a Christian fisherman in Cabo Delgado Province. According to the report:



"[T]he terrorists abducted two men, both fishermen. The other man was allowed to go free because he was a Muslim. Pray for the grieving family and friends of our brother, and ask the Lord to bring an end to the Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique."



Nigeria: As part of the jihadist genocide being waged on the West African nation's Christians, on July 1, militants raided the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Ogun State. They murdered the pastor and abducted seven other Christians who were eventually released. In a statement, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria said it mourned "the loss of the Pastor and condemn the kidnapping of worshippers who were simply exercising their religious freedom to worship."



Separately, 35 Christians were butchered in a series of raids by Fulani herdsmen between July 4 and July 11. According to the report:



"The attacks are attributed to Islamic terrorists, members of the Fulani ethnicity. The violence has been ongoing in the region since May 16, taking the lives of over 350 residents... A radicalized faction of the Fulani people has been accused of killing three times more Christians than the insurgency known as Boko Haram in recent years. According to Intersociety, this year alone [between Jan-Jun, 2023], Fulani militants have jointly killed more than 2,500 Nigerian Christians, including at least 500 in Plateau State."



Democratic Republic of Congo: Jihadists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic terror group, massacred 17 Christians and torched two churches in separate attacks throughout July. A survivor of a church attack said these terror raids are getting "worse," because they are "targeting the church leaders," adding:



"We are overwhelmed. What can we do? Because of this massacre in which we are [living], which is one too many and we don't know what to do... So keep praying for us; whatever difficulties become harder and harder, may God sustain us to stand firm."



General Muslim Persecution of Christians



Egypt: According to a July 31 report:



"Two Christian women in Egypt have been reported missing from an area of Cairo known for persecution incidents. Both women disappeared while traveling to or from church. Neither family has received adequate help from the police in locating them."



The husband of one of these missing women, Neveen Lamei, 24, said:



"On Sunday morning, Neveen followed her usual routine. She got up early, prayed, and read the Bible. She left her son Tadros sleeping and went to attend her regular Sunday morning church service. After she didn't return, I tried to call her mobile phone many times, but it was switched off. I searched for her everywhere, but I couldn't find her. I found out that she never arrived at church."



After her husband filed a formal report with police, one of them suggested that maybe she "ran away" to become Muslim. Her husband said that would be completely out of character:



"Neveen loves her faith very much.... She was constantly praying and reading the Bible every day. She was constantly going to church to attend prayer meetings and masses. I believe my wife was kidnapped while she was on her way to the church."



The other missing Christian is a teenage girl, Mariam Nasser Kamal, 17. Also a regular church-goer, she too disappeared while returning home from a prayer meeting. According to the report, the region in which both these Christian women "disappeared" has a history:



"The El Marg district in Northern Cairo has historically been a dangerous place for Egyptian Christians, with overt attacks and incidents of sectarian violence. In 2017, two Coptic Orthodox priests were brutally assaulted, resulting in one death and another with severe injury. Another Christian man was killed in the same neighborhood two years later. Many Christians in this area feel that the police and government are not on their side since they are of a minority faith."



Iran: More than 50 converts to Christianity were arrested in a "rash of new incidents across five Iranian cities over the past seven days," a July 18 article reports, "with fears the number could rise much higher as fresh reports keep coming." Most of those arrested were plucked out of their homes or church-homes and "remain in detention on unknown charges." According to Mansour Borji, Article18's advocacy director:



"The reason for this sudden surge in nationwide arrests of Christians is not clear at this stage. What is obvious is that Iran has begun a fresh crackdown on civil liberties, and the traditionally vulnerable groups, like Christians, are on the front line of those targeted."



Iraq: According to a July 13 report:



"Under mounting pressure from a pro-Iran militia group, the Iraqi president earlier this month revoked a decade-old decree that formally recognized Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako and granted him powers over Christian endowment affairs."



Christians believe this move is meant to facilitate the further confiscation of their property, which begun under ISIS. In the words of Diya Butrus Slewa, a human rights activist from Ainkawa,



"This is a political maneuver to seize the remainder of what Christians have left in Iraq and Baghdad and to expel them. Unfortunately, this is a blatant targeting of the Christians and a threat to their rights."



Other Christians gathered in peaceful protests, holding up "placards telling the Iraqi government that they had committed 'enough injustice' against the long-suffering Christian community." Another sign read:



"Mr. President, the protector of the constitution should not violate the constitution. The Iraqi president orders the displacement of Christians, and opens the way for violating the property of the Chaldean Church which represents nearly 80 percent of Christians in Iraq and Kurdistan."



Afghanistan: A July 13 report sheds light on the horrific condition of Christians under Taliban rule:



"The Taliban are working to completely erase Christianity or any religious minority from the country, even stating that there are no Christians in Afghanistan, an obviously false claim. Many Christians have gone underground to avoid being kidnapped by the Taliban 'courts.' The rising starvation rates and increasing poverty in Afghanistan create an even higher security threat to these believers since now the Taliban are offering financial compensation to anyone who reports on Christians... and Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to Christians.] Unless ransomed by their families, Christians captured by the 'courts' face brutal torture and even death. If redeemed, the survivors and their families, often bankrupt from the exorbitant ransom demands, must flee their homes to avoid repeated kidnappings from the various Taliban gangs. Because of the persecution, many Christians escape to Pakistan and risk capture and death by the Taliban. Even if they make it to Pakistan, they must conceal their faith for fear of receiving worse treatment in already poor conditions. Some Christian refugees decide to return to Afghanistan, deciding they have a better chance of survival under the Taliban than in Pakistan."



Austria: Two young Muslims living in Austria recently confessed that they would like to "kill Christians" and "restore the caliphate." The boys, aged 15 and 16, were put on trial at the Leoben Regional Court on July 16, 2023. They had made plans to massacre as many people as possible during an attack on the middle school attended by the 15-year-old, in Bruck an der Mur, where they both lived. When confronted in court, the boys — who both have a history of violence and criminality— admitted that "We wanted to shoot all the Christians in the class!" Asked how they would have responded if police had intervened, they said, "We would have surrendered" — adding that "Allah would have forgiven" them in prison, since "Killing Christians takes us to paradise." According to one report:



"The boys also made it clear via platforms that they didn't believe in 'boring knife attacks.' They wanted to use explosives much more because they could 'kill' many more people at the same time.... and they repeatedly expressed their hatred of the West, which oppresses Muslims."



Based on their monitored chats, authorities also discovered that another friend had "offered them a submachine gun from his father's collection. Unfortunately, he later posted, he couldn't get into the safe. The youngsters then decided to save up for a gun." The court sentenced them to two years' imprisonment—though they only need to serve eight months. (The maximum penalty for juveniles is five years.) The court also ordered that they undergo "anti-aggression training and a de-radicalization program."



Muslim Attacks on Churches and Christian Symbols



Indonesia: Arguing that churches should never exist in Muslim-majority regions, on Sunday, July 2, Muslims broke up a Christian worship service even as police stood by looking on.



According to the report:



"After demonstrations against the church, a hijab-clad Muslim woman led the disruption of the service, a video on social media shows. Standing next to a police officer, she is seen loudly refusing to allow Christians to worship."



She was heard yelling, "You the minorities should not always ask to be respected!" A human rights activist responded by saying:



"Suddenly they come screaming in protest, 'Why are they worshiping in Muslim-majority areas?' Since when are non-Muslim not allowed to worship in a Muslim area?"



This is the second disruption experienced by the Mawar Sharon Church congregation in two months:



"The church's worship was previously disrupted on May 19, when at least 40 Muslims stopped the midday service at the café."



Austria: On July 3, in Vienna—a city which has more Muslim than Catholic students—several statues of Jesus and Mary in a prayer garden long known for being a "spiritual oasis" were found desecrated and beheaded, leaving visitors who had come to meditate and pray shocked and terrorized. The garden has been attacked before. In one instance, a Mary statue had hard -to-remove lipstick smeared on it; in another, police caught but released the vandals, described in the report only as "young people." This video captures some of the most recent damage of beheadings and desecrations. The report concludes by saying the motivation of the "unknown vandals" remains "a mystery to police."



Italy: On July 14, the altar of Saint Lucia Church in northern Italy—where most of the nation's large Muslim migrant population reside—was vandalized and a beloved statue of the saint "thrown to the ground and completely destroyed." Responding to this incident, Denis Paoli, the provincial councilor of Trento, said:



"What happened constitutes an intolerable outrage not only for the religious community, but for the entire civil society. The damages, both material and moral, are of an unprecedented gravity and what arouses greater indignation is the treatment reserved for the statue of the Saint."



France: On July 5, the Saint-Martin Church in Avallon was found vandalized and robbed of valuable items. According to the report, the historic tabernacle, where the consecrated hosts are kept—and "in particular to bring communion to the sick"—was "smashed in broad daylight." A gold adorned monstrance and two ciboria (religious vases which also keep the hosts) were also stolen. The report adds that a few days earlier, on June 26, the nearby Saint-Lazare church was also vandalized and robbed.



Blasphemy in Pakistan



On July 8, police arrested Zaki Masih, a 35-year-old Christian man, on the accusation that he shared a Facebook post (dealing with food) deemed offensive to Islam. According to the accused's brother, Wasim Masih, Zaki was framed by the complainant, a Muslim man named Awais, with whose friends the brothers had earlier been engaged in a property dispute:



"We reconciled with the other party due to the intervention of the village elders, but it seems they nurtured a grudge and trapped my brother in the fake case."



On Friday, July 7, when Awais first tried to incite local Muslims against the Christians, "Even the imam of the village mosque told them that the post contained nothing derogatory against Islam," said the brother, "and that they should desist from stoking religious tension. However, the complainant filed a case against my brother, and the police raided his shop and took him into custody."



He is charged under Section 295-A of Pakistan's Penal Code concerning "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs." If convicted, he faces up to ten years' imprisonment. According to the report:



"Blasphemy laws are often used as a weapon of revenge against both Muslims and non-Muslims to settle personal scores or to resolve disputes over money, property or business. A mere allegation is enough to provoke a mob to riot and lynch falsely accused suspects in Pakistan. At least 1,949 persons were accused under the blasphemy laws between 1987 and 2021, according to the Center for Social Justice. A large number of these blasphemy cases are still awaiting justice."



These laws are, moreover, becoming more, not less, severe:



"In January, the National Assembly passed the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, increasing punishment for insulting the companions, wives and family members of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, from three years to 10 years and a fine of 1 million rupees."



In a separate incident, on Friday, July 30, police arrested a Christian man for posting biblical verses on Facebook that "infuriated Muslims" and caused them to rise up in violence. Without adding any personal commentary, Haroon Shahzad posted 1 Corinthians 10:18-21, which condemns food sacrificed to idols as food sacrificed to demons that should be refrained from eating. Unfortunately for him, he made this post right around when Muslims were celebrating Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), which involves slaughtering and eating an animal. A Muslim villager took a screenshot of the biblical post and shared it with other Muslims, accusing Haroon of insulting Islam. According to Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, a Christian and former lawmaker,



"The post began circulating in Muslim circles on Thursday, but the situation became tense after the Friday prayers when announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers asking people to gather for a protest."



Before long, large Muslim mobs, including from other villages, had formed around the mosque, preparing to dish out some retribution. Chaudhry continued:



"Fearing that the situation could get out of hand, a majority of the Christian families fled their homes, leaving everything behind.... The police registered a case against Haroon on Friday under Sections 295-A and 298, under the pressure of the mobs backed by the extremist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan [TLP]. The FIR [First Information Report] is unwarranted, because Haroon had only shared a biblical verse and had made no personal comment that could be deemed blasphemous or inflammatory."



Before police even arrived, Haroon and his wife and six children—and several other family members and siblings—went into hiding. Speaking from an undisclosed location, Irfan Shahzad, Haroon's younger brother, said that, in an effort to prompt Haroon to come out of hiding and surrender himself, police seized two of his sisters-in-law:



"When we learned that [Muslim] people from at least two or three villages had started gathering, we ran to save our lives. We couldn't take our parents along because of their medical condition, so my two sisters-in-law volunteered to stay back and look after their needs. It's a shame that the police detained them despite knowing that they have infant children."



The women were finally released after another of Haroon's brothers and two other youths presented themselves for detention in their stead. Soon thereafter, Haroon gave himself up. The report concludes:



"The blasphemy charge against Shahzad stems from personal grudges against him by the complainant, Ullah ... [who] had engaged in legal battles with Shahzad over a piece of land allotted by the government for constructing a church building."



If found guilty, Haroon faces up to ten years in prison.



Finally, in yet another incident in July, more Christian families were forced to flee Islamic fury from an accusation of blasphemy. On July 16, Muslim masses protested, partly by blocking a major highway for hours, after mosques urged them to protest the alleged appearance of posters carrying unflattering caricatures of Muhammad and his child-bride, Aisha, on the walls of a mosque. As a result, based on precedent, the 3,500 Christian families of Maryam Town, near to the mosque in question, "panicked." Discussing this situation, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, a former lawmaker (the same quoted above in the case concerning Haroon) said:



"The mosque announcements accused Christians of being involved in the incident because the posters were purportedly written by 'an unknown soldier of Maryam Town.'"



Both Chaudhry and other human rights activists expressed suspicions that the Christians are being framed. Chaudhry said:



"This third incident points to a deliberate attempt to spark religious unrest and target Christians... We told police and Islamic leaders that Christians already live in fear due to the abuse of blasphemy accusations. It's highly unlikely that anyone would commit such a heinous crime and put the entire community at risk, so we have no objection to a fair investigation."



Even more telling, the mosque that called for protests is the same mosque that had incited mobs against Haroon, in the incident above. As Chaudhry observed:



"There are two other mosques near the mosque where the blasphemous posters were found, but they did not initiate the call for protests. The police must investigate this aspect."



link

[shalom]

My Brother’s Keeper: Persecution of Christians in France

[schwartzie]

Pakistan: Muslim Mobs Hunt Christians

by Uzay Bulut

September 1, 2023 at 5:00 am




Hundreds of Christians fled their homes on August 16 when, in the eastern Pakistani district capital of Jaranwala, Muslim mobs started an anti-Christian riot, vandalizing churches and setting churches and Christians' homes on fire -- all based just on an accusation that a Quran had been desecrated.



At least 20 churches throughout the city were set on fire and more than 400 homes belonging to Christians damaged.



"Two Christian individuals are accused of desecrating the Quran. People are demanding life imprisonment, but the accusation is false. They have done nothing. The accusation was fabricated by an Islamist group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik." — Faraz Pervaiz, a Christian Pakistani asylum-seeker who fled to Thailand after being accused in Pakistan of blasphemy for criticizing political Islam, reporting through his sources on the ground, August 2023.



"On August 16, 2023 a woman carrying these documents with torn pages of Quran knocked the door of Raja and Rocky, later be accused of blasphemy. When they opened the door, the woman started shouting at the family and accusing them that you have desecrated the Quran. The family was shocked. Meanwhile this woman started making loud noises to wake the people up. 'Raja and Rocky has committed blasphemy,' she was shouting, 'and you Muslims are sleeping!'" — Faraz Pervaiz, August 2023.



The Muslim mobs then started attacking Christian homes and churches; the Christians fled and slept outside to avoid being burned alive, Pervaiz said.



"Christians are sleeping under open sky now. They are helpless. They get no support from any organization or the Government. They get no food support, and no new shelter is provided. They are starving. They are too scared to go back to their homes. They fear being killed... The police were helping the perpetrators and the vigilantes. There was no military intervention to stop the attacks. ...The newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan has condemned the incidents, but Christians need help, which he could have provided. But he did not because he knew that entire Muslim community would stand against him." — Faraz Pervaiz, August 2023.



To urge Muslims to hunt down Pervaiz, mullahs in Pakistan have led demonstrations where the crowds were encouraged to chant: "There is only one punishment for insulting the Prophet. Sever the head from the body! Sever the head from the body!"



In 2019, Pervaiz's home address in Bangkok, Thailand, was revealed in a video released on social media, with calls to every Muslim to find and kill him and his family. Several mullahs also attached fatwas to the video calling on Muslims to kill him. Posters with his photograph were plastered across many cities, including outside mosques and government offices in Lahore and Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.



Meanwhile, Pakistani Islamists have placed a bounty on Pervaiz. The Tahreek-e-Labbaik political party announced the first bounty of $62,000 in 2015. The next year, a cleric doubled it to $124,000. Pervaiz told Gatestone that many Islamist parties in Pakistan have placed a bounty on him; the amount now totals $400,000.

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The UN and other members of the international community seriously need to reconsider their relations with the government of Pakistan. It is a systematic violator of human rights and a major supporter of Islamist terrorism. A government that treats its minorities so unjustly and inhumanely needs to be held to account.