This series
was developed in order to collate some—by no means all—of the foulest instances
of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two
purposes:
- Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
- Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is ultimately rooted in a Sharia inspired worldview.
As will
become evident, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a
specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols;
sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and
blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya; overall expectations for
Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis (second-class citizens); and simple
violence. Oftentimes it is a combination of the aforementioned.
Because
these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and
locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and even throughout the
West, wherever there are Muslims—it is clear that one thing alone binds them:
Islam—whether the strict application of Sharia, or the supremacist culture borne
of it.
Categorized
by theme, August's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians includes (but is
not limited to) the following anecdotes, listed according to theme and in
alphabetical order by country, not necessarily severity of
atrocity:
Attacks on
Christian Symbols: Churches and Bibles
Indonesia: Two
churches were set
aflame; officials downplayed these atrocities by arguing that
the buildings were "only made of board" and not real churches. A mayor also
proclaimed that
churches cannot be built on streets with Muslim names, even as Muslim majority
regions reject the
building of any churches.
Iran: Officials
launched a Bible burning
campaign, confiscating and destroying some 7,000 Bibles, many
publicly burned. Likening their tiny Christian minority to the "Taliban and
parasites," the regime also "cracked down" on Christians (who
make up less than 1% of the entire population), arresting many, the whereabouts
of which remain unknown.
Iraq: Two
churches were bombed: the
first damaged the church and wounded 23; the second damaged
the church (a third church was targeted but the bomb was defused before going
off).
Nigeria: Two
churches were bombed, including
a Baptist church no longer in use due to
previous Muslim attacks; when officials arrested Islamist leaders, a third
Catholic church was torched.
Apostasy
and Forced Conversions
Eritrea: It was
revealed that at least eight Christians have
died in prisons, most under severe conditions and torture,
simply for refusing to recant Christianity.
India: A female
who was formerly stripped and
beaten by a Muslim mob for converting to Christianity,
continues to receive severe threats to return to Islam or die; likewise, Muslims
held three Christian women "threatening to beat and burn them alive if they
continued worshipping Christ."
Iran: A
Christian pastor in Iran remains behind
bars, where he is being tortured and awaits execution for
refusing to recant Christianity.
Malaysia: Religious
police raided a
church when they "found evidence of proselytisation towards
Muslims" and "receiving information that
there were Muslims who attended a breaking-of-fast event at the church"; a Facebook campaign
created to support the raid and to "prevent apostasy" has already drawn support
from 23,000 people.
Norway: A Muslim
convert to Christianity was tortured with
boiling water and told by fellow Muslim inmates "If you do not
return to Islam, we will kill you"; if deported, he risks death by stoning for
leaving Islam.
Pakistan: Muslims
openly abducted
a 14-year-old Christian girl at gunpoint saying she had to
convert to Islam; another Christian woman who was abducted,
drugged, and tortured for two years—all while being informed
she had converted to Islam—happily made her escape. In both cases, the police,
as usual, are siding with the Muslim
abductors. Most recently, two Christians returning from church were attacked by
Muslims and beaten with iron rods for refusing to convert to
Islam or pay "protection" (jizya) money.
Sudan: A 16 year old
Christian girl finally escaped from her Muslim kidnappers, who
"beat, raped and tried to force her to convert from Christianity to Islam";
whenever she tried to pray, she was beaten again and called an "infidel"; when
her mother went to the police, they told her to convert to Islam before they
returned her child.
Uganda: In
accordance to Islam's Hanafi School of law, a Muslim father locked his
14-year-old daughter in a room for several months without food or water, simply because she embraced Christianity;
when rescued, she weighed 44 pounds.
General
Oppression, Violence, and Murder of Christians
Bangladesh: Church
leaders, including an elderly pastor, were severely
beaten in a police station for protesting that Muslims had
illegally seized and occupied a Christian home. A previously tortured
Christian activist is in hiding in Honk Kong, even as his wife and children face
death threats from surrounding Muslims.
Egypt: Soon
after breaking their Ramadan fast, thousands of Muslims rampaged
a predominantly Christian village, firing automatic weapons, looting and
throwing Molotov Cocktails at several homes; they beat a priest, plundering and
torching his home; another Copt was murdered in his home, which was also
ransacked. Separately, a Copt was savagely attacked by seven Muslims in front of
a police station; he lost one
eye and required 20 stitches in his head. And girls leaving
church were sexually harassed by Muslim who hurled stones at the church
shattering five windows.
Nigeria: In what
is being called a "silent
killing," ten Christians were slain by Muslims seeking to
expunge Christianity from northern Nigeria; eyewitnesses insist that the army is assisting
and enabling the slayings.
Pakistan: A
Christian family consisting of 26 people, including women and children, lived in
slavery for over 30 years, forced to labor on a farm belonging
to a wealthy Muslim landowner; they only recently managed to regain their
freedom, through the aid of the Catholic Church. Separately, a Muslim
mob attacked a group of Christians watching a Jesus movie,
destroying the projector. A Christian man was beaten
unconscious for celebrating Independence Day, told by Muslims
"How can you celebrate when you are Christian? Convert to Islam if you want to
join the celebration."
Somalia: Al-Shabab
("the youth") is intentionally
preventing food aid from reaching the nation's miniscule
Christian minority: "Any Somali that the Islamists suspect to be a Christian, or
even a friend of Christians, does not receive any food aid."
Sudan: A "humanitarian
crisis is unfolding" in Sudan's border region where Christians
and their churches are being targeted in a systematic campaign of ethnic
cleansing by North Sudan's Islamist regime.
United
Kingdom: A Muslim
family was terrorized and
threatened with death because their daughter married a Christian, a crime according to Sharia.
Uzbekistan:
Authorities continue to pressure
churches and Christians, fabricating evidence to punish or
limit Christians' ability to practice their faith, and subjecting them to
excessive fines, false accusations, and confiscating their Christian
literature.
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These were
just some of the stories of Christian suffering under Islam that made it to a
few non mainstream media last month.
Then there
are the countless atrocities that never make it to any media—the stories of
persistent, quiet misery that only the victims know—such as the recent
revelation that a 2-year-old girl
was savagely raped in Pakistan because her Christian father
refused to convert to Islam: it took five years for this story to surface. How
many are the tales of woe that never surface?
Now, back
to your regular scheduled MSM programming on how the perpetually misunderstood
religion of Islam is really the "religion of peace"…
Raymond
Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum, where this article
originally appeared.
