Muslim Persecution of Christians:
March, 2012
by
Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
April 25, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3222/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012
The war on Christianity and its
adherents rages on in the Muslim world. In March alone,
Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic law authority decreed that
churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis in Nigeria
said they "are going to put into action new efforts to
strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by
kidnapping their women"; American teachers in the Middle
East were murdered for talking about Christianity; churches
were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by knife-wielding
Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested,
imprisoned, and killed for allegedly "blaspheming" Islam's
prophet Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked,
arrested, imprisoned, and killed for converting to
Christianity.
To understand why all this
persecution is virtually unknown in the West, consider the
mainstream media's well-documented biases: also in March
alone, the New
York Times ran a virulently anti-Catholic ad,
but refused to publish a near identical ad directed at
Islam; the BBC
admitted it will mock Jesus but never Muhammad; and U.S.
sitcoms were exposed for bashing Christianity, but
never Islam.
Is it any wonder, then, that
this same mainstream media ignores or at best whitewashes
the nonstop persecution of Christians under Islam? Exposing
such ugly truths would undermine their narrative of Islam as
the "religion of peace."
Categorized by theme, March's
batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world
includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts,
listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity:
Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism:
Death and Prison
Egypt: A Christian man
accused of insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad was sentenced
to six years in prison. Though "defamation of
religion" is a misdemeanor under Egyptian law, punishable by
a prison sentence of one month to three years, the judge
doubled the sentence to appease Muslims, including an angry
2,500-strong mob that terrorized
the courtroom, demanding death for the Christian.
Likewise, an "anti-Christianization
course" by an organization that is "specializing in
the resistance to Christianity"—so Muslims are not "throw[n]
under the feet of the Cross"—was initiated; according to an
instructor, "Reoccurring attempts at the university in Aswan
to convert Muslims to Christianity or provoke them with
misleading information was the drive behind the course."
India: A young woman was
attacked and kicked out of her home "for daring to give
thanks for healing in Christ's name" in a predominantly
Muslim village; "her
parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly
unconscious." In a village where "hard-line Muslims
have threatened to kill the 25 families who initially showed
interest in Christ, leaving only five frightened Christian
families," the woman was attacked when returning from
church, called "pagan, among other verbal abuse." The mob
also harassed and threatened the Christian woman who "lured"
her to convert to Christianity.
Iran: In a rare
crackdown on a concentrated area, authorities arrested
12 more converts to Christianity living in Isfahan, the
country's third largest city, in what is seen as a tactic to
discourage Muslims from attending official churches. Among
the latest known Christian converts detained in the
Isfahan area is a man who was reportedly taken into custody
on March 2 while returning home from his work: "Security
authorities raided his home and seized him without
explanation."
Iraq: An American
teacher was shot to death by an 18-year-old student at
a private Christian academy. He "was a devout Christian who
frequently praised Christianity and prayed in the classroom,
and his friends in Washington said his evangelism is what
motivated him to teach in Iraq." According to
students, "Mr. Jeremiah's hands were still folded in
prayer when he fell"; others say a day before the shooting
"a heated discussion" broke out "during which the pupil
threatened to kill the teacher because of conflicting
religious views." In an interview, the father of the pupil condemned
Christian evangelists, portraying them as "more
dangerous than al-Qaeda."
Malaysia: After religious
police raided a Methodist church event due to "fears that
Muslims were being converted," Muslim officials created a
seminar called "Strengthening the faith, the dangers of
liberalism and pluralism and the
threat of Christianity towards Muslims." Due to
criticism of the title, a lawmaker said the reference to
Christianity would be removed, but the seminar's content
would remain unchanged: "The seminar is part of the right of
Muslims to defend the faith of its practitioners from any
action which may lead to apostasy. It is our
responsibility."
Pakistan: A Muslim
mob attacked a 60-year-old Christian woman who had
converted to Islam, only to reconvert back to Christianity
six months later: she "was tortured—her head
shaved—and paraded through the streets, garlanded with
shoes." Soon after, she received more threats of "dire
consequences" from Islamic clerics, fleeing the region with
her family. Likewise, a 26-year-old Christian woman, mother
to a five-month-old girl, was falsely accused
of "blaspheming" Muhammad and arrested. A few days
prior, some of her relatives who converted to Islam
pressured her also to do likewise: "She refused, telling
them that she was satisfied
with Christianity and did not want to convert," and
was arrested of blasphemy soon thereafter.
Yemen: Al-Qaeda gunmen fatally
shot an American teacher. The terror network's
affiliate in Yemen issued
a message saying, "This operation comes as a response
to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has
launched against Muslims," calling the teacher "one of the
biggest American proselytizers." He was shot eight times on
a Sunday.
Church Attacks
Bethlehem: One week after
the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority told an
audience of Evangelicals that his government respected the
rights of its Christian minorities, the PA
declared a Baptist Church illegal, adding that birth,
wedding, and death certificates from the church are no
longer valid. A pastor notes that "animosity towards the
Christian minority in areas controlled by the PA continues
to get increasingly worse. People are always telling
[Christians], 'Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. It's the
true and right religion.'"
Egypt: Some 1500
Muslims—several armed with swords and knives and shouting
Islamic slogans—terrorized the Notre Dame Language School in
Upper Egypt, in response to calls from local mosques falsely
claiming the private school was building a church: "Two
nuns were besieged in the school's guesthouse for some
eight hours by a murderous mob threatening to burn them
alive"; one nun suffered a "major nervous breakdown
requiring hospitalization… The entire property was ransacked
and looted. The next day the Muslims returned and terrorized
the children. Consequently, school attendance has dropped by
at least one third."
Iran: The Armenian
Evangelical Church in Tehran is the latest church to be ordered
to cease holding Persian service on Fridays. The
officers serving the notice threatened church officials,
saying that "if the order is ignored, the church building
will be bombed 'as happens in Iraq every day.'" As another
report summarizes, "Christians and Churches in the
Islamic Republic of Iran are now banned from preaching the
Gospel to non-Christians, holding Persian language services,
teaching and distributing the Bible, or holding Christian
classes."
Iraq: Though Kirkuk's
church was recently restored after an earlier bomb attack
that killed a 13-year-old Christian boy, the "reopening
celebration was but a brief respite in the ongoing suffering
of Iraq's Christian community, signaled by two further
attacks": Another
church in Baghdad was bombed, killing two guards and
wounding five, and the body of a Christian was "found
riddled with bullets in Mosul. He had been shot nine times
at close range. The freelance photographer had been
kidnapped four days earlier. Iraqi Christians are often
targeted by kidnappers for ransom."
Kenya: A band of Muslims
launched a grenade attack on a crowd of 150 Christians
attending an outdoor church meeting, killing two and
wounding more than 30. "Human-rights groups say that the
Muslim attackers were hyped into action by a militant Muslim
preacher holding an alternate rally only 900 feet from the
Christian gathering. Further reports say that the Muslim
preachers were slandering Christianity and that members of
the Christian group could hear the Muslim speakers."
Nigeria: A Boko Haram
suicide car bomber attacked
a Catholic church, killing at least 10 people. The
bomb detonated as worshippers attended Mass at St. Finbar's
Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands of Christians
have died in the last decade as a result of Boko Haram's
jihad, and where another
church was attacked, killing three, less than two
weeks earlier.
Saudi Arabia: the Grand
Mufti of Saudi Arabia, one of the Islamic world's highest
religious authorities, declared that it is "necessary
to destroy all the churches of the region." He made
his assertion in response to a question posed by a
delegation from Kuwait, where a parliament member recently
called for the "removal" of all churches: the delegation
wanted to confirm Sharia's position on churches with the
Grand Mufti, who "stressed that Kuwait was a part of the
Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy
all churches in it," basing his verdict on a saying (or
hadith) of Muhammad.
Sudan: Sudanese aerial
strikes were aimed at church buildings in various
regions. Churches in the Nuba Mountains are holding worship
services very early in the morning and late in the evening
to avoid aerial bombardments intentionally targeting their
churches. The Khartoum regime is "doing everything possible
to make sure they get rid of Christianity from the Nuba
Mountains—churches and church schools are the targets of
both the Sudanese Armed Forces and its militias," said an
aid worker.
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression
of non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Denmark: In a Muslim
ghetto in Copenhagen, a refugee from Africa had his door
kicked-in several times and was threatened by a group of
"youths" who accused him of being "both
black and Christian," and tried to extort money from
him. Police said they could not guarantee his safety, and he
was eventually found in tears living in the streets.
Egypt: In Minya province,
Christian families are "living in terror" since Salafis
threatened to kidnap any Christian girl not wearing the
hijab; parents are keeping their daughters indoors,
missing school. Likewise, a Christian
boy was abducted, his kidnappers demanding a large
ransom from his family. And a court in Edfu sentenced the
pastor of a church
that was torched by Muslims to six months in prison
for violating the height of the church building, further
ordering the removal of the excess height. The church had
received a license and was still under construction when it
was torched
by a Muslim mob in September.
Iran: After complaints
about the display of Christmas trees and Santa Clauses in
the streets of Tehran during the Christmas season, an
official warned that the municipality will begin to seize
such symbols: "Building facades in Tehran should be
controlled by the municipality and the display of such
symbols should not be allowed."
Iraq: Christians
are running out of havens as rising security concerns
and economic hardship cause them to leave the places of
refuge they had found in the country's Kurdish north. The
sort of attacks that initiated a mass exodus of Christians
from Baghdad and Mosul are increasingly occurring in the
autonomous region of Kurdistan, which once "welcomed
Christians and was relatively safe." A Christian who fled
there from Mosul seven years ago after retrieving his son
from kidnappers said it is like history "repeating itself."
Nigeria: The Islamist
organization Boko Haram declared "war"
on Christians, saying it aims to "annihilate the
entire Christian community living in the northern parts of
the country." According to a spokesman, "We will create so
much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to
have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be
able to stay." Along with constant church bombings—most
recently on Easter, killing nearly 50—one of the groups new
strategies is "to strike fear into the Christians of the
power of Islam by kidnapping their women."
Pakistan: Two Christian
hospital employees were abducted
by "Islamic extremists": "Such cases are on the rise,
as banned Islamist groups and other criminal gangs are
turning to kidnappings for ransom in order to survive and
procure weapons and ammunition," said a senior investigator,
adding that most Islamist groups believe that Christian NGOs
are involved in evangelizing "under the guise of charity,"
giving more incentive to abuse them.
Sudan: Over half a
million people, mostly Christian and originally from South
Sudan, have been stripped
of citizenship in response to the South's secession,
and forced to relocate: "Sudanese Christians who have barely
a month to leave the north or risk being treated as
foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are
concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority
Sudan is unrealistic. 'We are very concerned. Moving is not
easy ... people have children in school. They have homes ...
It is almost impossible,' said a Catholic bishop."
Syria: The nation where
many Iraqi Christians fled to as a haven is slowly
becoming like Iraq, as thousands
of Syrian Christians continue to flee to nearby Lebanon.
"Al-Faruq Battalion, which is affiliated with the opposition
Free Syrian Army (FSA), is imposing
jizya (an extra tax imposed on non-Muslims living
under Muslim rule) on Christians in Homs Governorate" and
"armed men … threaten to kidnap or kill them or members of
their families if they refuse to "pay Islamic
taxes"—precisely what has been taking place in next door
Iraq.
Turkey: The U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom named
Turkey—formerly hailed for its freedoms—as "one
of the world's worst violators of religious freedom,"
due to its treatment of Christian and other minority groups.
The report said that restrictions on non-Muslim communities,
such as limiting their right to train clergy and own places
of worship, "have led to their decline, and in some cases,
their virtual disappearance," further noting "an increased
number of attacks, ranging from harassment and vandalism to
death threats, against Protestant churches and individuals
in 2011 compared to 2010."
About this Series
Because the persecution of
Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching
epidemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was
developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances
of persecution that surface each month. It serves two
purposes:
- Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream
media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim
persecution of Christians.
- Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not
"random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is
rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, 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 (tribute); overall expectations for Christians
to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens);
and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a
combination thereof.
Because these accounts of
persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and
locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and
throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be
clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the
strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist
culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim
is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
