Raymond Ibrahim : "Our Lives Have Turned into Hell" Muslim Persecution of Christians, May 2017

"Our Lives Have Turned into Hell"

Muslim Persecution of Christians, May 2017

by Raymond Ibrahim
October 15, 2017 at 4:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11168/muslim-persecution-christians-may

• Long touted as a beacon of Muslim tolerance and moderation, Indonesia joined other repressive Muslim nations in May when it sentenced the Christian governor of Jakarta, known as "Ahok," to a two-year prison term on the charge that he committed "blasphemy" against Islam.
• The blasphemy accusation is based on a video that Ahok made, in which he told voters that they were being deceived if they believed that Koran 5:51, as his opposition said, requires Muslims not to vote for a non-Muslim when there are Muslim candidates available. The Koran passage states: "O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you -- then indeed, he is one of them."
• "Morocco's 2011 constitution allows for freedom of religion. The authorities claim to practice only a moderate form of Islam that leaves room for religious tolerance. Yet, in reality, Moroccan Christians still suffer from persecution." Mustafa said: "I was shunned at work. My children were bullied at school."

One month after Islamic militants bombed two Egyptian churches during Palm Sunday and killed nearly 50 people in April 2017!

Several SUVs, on May 26, stopped two buses transporting dozens of Christians to the ancient Coptic Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in the desert south of Cairo. According to initial reports, approximately ten Islamic militants, heavily armed and dressed in military fatigues, "demanded that the passengers recite the Muslim profession of faith" — which is tantamount to converting to Islam. When they refused, the jihadis opened fire on them, killing 29 Christians, at least ten of whom were young children. Two girls were aged 2 and 4. Also killed was Mohsen Morkous, an American citizen described as "a simple man" whom "everyone loved," his two sons, and his two grandsons.
According to eyewitness accounts, the terrorists ordered the passengers to exit the bus in groups:

"As each pilgrim came off the bus they were asked to renounce their Christian faith and profess belief in Islam, but all of them—even the children—refused. Each was killed in cold blood with a gunshot to the head or the throat.
"By the time they killed half of the people, the terrorists saw cars coming in the distance and we think that that is what saved the rest," said one source. "They did not have time to kill them all. They just shot at them randomly and then fled."

According to another report:

"The dead and dying lay in the desert sand amid Islamic leaflets left by the assailants extoling the virtues of fasting during Ramadan and forgiveness granted to those who abstain from eating during the Islamic ritual. Ramadan ... is often seen as the worst time for persecution of Christians who live in the Middle East."

A video of the immediate aftermath "showed at least four or five bodies of adult men lying on the desert sand next to the bus; women and other men screamed and cried as they stood or squatted next to the bodies." According to a man who spoke to hospitalized relatives, "authorities took somewhere from two to three hours to arrive at the scene." The man "questioned whether his uncle and others might have lived had the response been quicker."

The attack occurred in the middle of a three-month state of emergency that began 47 days earlier, on Sunday, April 9, when twin attacks on Coptic Christian churches left some 49 Christians slaughtered. The December before that, 29 other Christians were killed during another set of twin attacks on churches. Both before and after the monastery attack, dozens of Christians, mostly in Sinai, but some in Egypt proper, were killed in cold blood, often decapitated or burned alive. According to a May 9 report, "A [Christian] father and his two sons were recently kidnapped by ISIS and their bodies were finally found over the weekend."

Days before the latest attack on Middle Eastern Christians, Fox News journalist Shannon Bream announced a forthcoming television segment on the growth of Christian persecution around the world. In response, Matthew Dowd of ABC News tweeted , "Maybe you can talk about the bigger problem which is persecution of Muslims in America and around the globe. Bigger issue.... Muslims are threatened every day in America, by right wing Christian extremists."
Christians, however, are currently the world's most persecuted religion: 90,000 died for their faith in 2016. And 12 of the 14 worst nations in which Christians are persecuted are Islamic. (The two that are not are North Korea and Eritrea.)

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The rest of May's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Mexico: On May 15, a knife-wielding Muslim attacked and tried to behead a Catholic priest while he officiated at the altar of the nation's largest cathedral, the Metropolitan Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. The assailant, apparently named John Rene Rockschiil and possibly of French origin, managed to plunge the knife into the neck of Fr. Miguel Angel Machorro, 55, before being restrained by parishioners. Fr. Miguel later died of his wounds.

Germany: A Muslim man and asylum-seeker stabbed and killed a Christian woman with a kitchen knife in front of her two children near a public market. Those who knew the slain woman, an Afghan who had converted to Christianity eight years earlier, said she was a successful "example of integration". "A religious motivation is being examined" said officials— apostasy from Islam does earn death — "although we cannot confirm this yet," police spokesman Stefan Sonntag said.

Philippines: In late May, a jihadi uprising of Philippine Muslim militants, including ISIS-linked Indonesians and Malaysians, erupted in the Islamic City of Marawi. In the initial carnage, Muslim militants stopped a bus, and when they discovered that nine passengers were Christian, they were tied together and shot dead, execution style. "I am pissed by those kinds of people," said a local. "They kill defenseless people. The militants also torched a school and a church. One official called the violence an "invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of Isis to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria." It took more than three days for the military to quell the uprising; meanwhile, 15 members of the security forces and 31 militants were killed.

Kenya: On May 12, two militant Muslims shouting "Allahu Akbar" — and suspected of being connected to neighboring Somalia's Al Shabaab terrorist group — shot and killed two non-Muslims, one of whom was a member of a Pentecostal Church. According to the report, "Predominantly Christian workers from Kenya's interior have been targeted in a series of Al Shabaab attacks that have shaken Christian communities in Kenya's northeast". "These Al Shabbab militants," said a local Christian leader, "have made some of our Christians to be their scapegoats, as they see Kenya as a Christian country that is fighting to rid Al Shabaab from Somalia."

Muslim Attacks on Churches and Crosses

Sudan: On Sunday morning, May 7, as Christians were preparing to worship in the Sudanese Church of Christ in Khartoum, authorities arrived with bulldozers and demolished the church. The government, according to the report, claims the church was "built on land zoned for residential or other uses, or... on government land, but church leaders said it is part of wider crack-down on Christianity." A lawyer, Demas James, said that Sudan was in serious violation of constitutional and international conventions of human rights, and that the building being destroyed on a Sunday shows the government's lack of respect for Christian holy places: "You can see there is no place for worship left now for the believers to worship." The demolished church is one of 25 church buildings marked for demolition on the claim that the churches were illegally built. The government has yet to shut down or demolish a single mosque on the same claim.

Austria: Someone described as a "dark skinned immigrant" was videotaped by a bystander's phone camera throwing things and striking at the large cross in front of the St. Marein parish with a long pole, and causing 15,000 euros' worth of general damage. Police eventually subdued the "apparently insane man" and took him "to a hospital." There have been countess instances of Muslim refugees attacking churches and other Christian symbols -- the cross, and statues and icons as well — in every European nation that has accepted Muslim migrants.

Bangladesh: The evening of May 10, a Muslim mob vandalized and invaded the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Khagrachhari district. According to the church's pastor, Stephen Tripura:

"They stormed into the church after kicking and smashing in the door. They attempted to rape my sister and niece who live there by tearing off their clothes. After hearing their cries, local Christians rushed over to help and the attackers fled. My sister and niece moved here to get an education but now they are traumatized.... We didn't file a case for fear of angering local Muslims further and inviting more violence."

Islamic Attacks on Christian Freedom

Indonesia: Long touted as a beacon of Muslim tolerance and moderation, Indonesia joined other repressive Muslim nations in May when it sentenced the Christian governor of Jakarta, known as "Ahok," to a two year prison term on the charge that he committed blasphemy against Islam. According to one report, "The blasphemy accusation was key in Ahok's defeat in a bid to be re-elected as governor of Jakarta," and "Islamic extremist groups opposed to having a non-Muslim lead the city organized massive demonstrations against Ahok." The blasphemy accusation is based on a video that Ahok made in which he told voters that they were being deceived if they believed that Koran 5:51, as his opposition said, requires Muslims not to vote for a non-Muslim when there are Muslim candidates available. The Koran passage states:

"O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you—then indeed, he is one of them."

A five-judge panel concluded that Ahok was "convincingly proven guilty of blasphemy."

Indonesia joined other repressive Muslim nations in May when it sentenced the Christian governor of Jakarta, known as "Ahok," to a two-year prison term on the charge that he committed "blasphemy" against Islam. Pictured: Ahok on the day of his election, February 15, 2017. (Photo by Oscar Siagian/Getty Images)

Pakistan: A Christian pastor who has been "tortured every day in prison" since July, 2012 when he was first incarcerated, was sentenced to life in prison in May. Zafar Bhatti, 51, was found guilty of sending "blasphemous"[1] text messages from his mobile phone, but human rights activists contend that the charge "was fabricated to remove him from his role as a Pastor." His wife, Nawab Bibi, says:

"Many Muslim people hated how quickly his church was growing; they have taken this action to undermine his work... I wish our persecutors would see that Christians are not evil creatures. We are human beings created by God the same God that created them although they do not know this yet... There have been numerous attempts to kill my husband — he is bullied everyday and he is not safe from inmates and prison staff alike."

In 2014, he "narrowly escaped assassination after a rogue prison officer," Muhammad Yousaf, went on a shooting spree "to kill all inmates accused of blasphemy against Islam." Bhatti is one of countless Christian minorities to suffer under Pakistan's blasphemy law, which has helped make that country the fourth-worst nation in the world, after North Korea, Somalia, and Afghanistan, in which to be Christian. Asia Bibi, a Christian wife and mother has been on death row since 2010 on the accusation that she insulted Muhammad.
As Bhatti was being sentenced to life in Pakistan, all charges against Noreen Leghari — a 20-year-old Muslim medical student who was arrested in connection to a planned suicide attack on a church packed for Easter celebrations — were dropped and she was set free. During a televised public statement, Major General Asif Ghafoor, voicing public concern and compassion for her, and indicated that it would be a shame to destroy her career. As Wilson Chowdhry, a human rights activist, remarked, however:

"How many of these same Pakistani citizens would be so forgiving had Miss Legahri planned to bomb a Muslim School?.... If it were Muslims that were targeted by Legahri I am certain many of the campaigners would find her crime too offensive for granting a pardon – Christian lives are ostensibly less valuable in Pakistan.... It is hard to believe the deep-rooted hatred that Miss Leghari had towards Christians that led to her becoming a suicide recruit, has simply vanished.... I asked several Pakistani Christians whether they would trust a doctor who had previously attempted to bomb a Church on Easter Day, to administer care for them. It was no surprise to me that the unanimous response was a resounding no."

Morocco: Converts to Christianity in the 99.6% Muslim majority nation are coming out of the closets, complaining of their treatment and "demand[ing] the right to give our children Christian names, to pray in churches, to be buried in Christian cemeteries and to marry according to our religion," said Mustapha, a convert since 1994, who, along with other converts, wrote a request to the official National Council of Human Rights to end the persecution of Christians in Morocco. According to the report, "even though the state religion is Islam, Morocco's 2011 Constitution allows for freedom of religion. The authorities claim to practice only a moderate form of Islam that leaves room for religious tolerance. Yet, in reality, Moroccan Christians still suffer from persecution." Accordingly, "[f]or two decades, Mustapha kept his faith in Christ secret." When he finally came out in public about his conversion less than two years ago, all his friends and family "turned their backs on me," he said: "I was shunned at work. My children were bullied at school."

Muslim Contempt and Hate for Christians

Iraq: One of the Shia-majority nation's leading Shia clerics, Sheikh Alaa Al-Mousawi -- who heads the government body which maintains all of Iraq's Shia holy sites, including mosques and schools -- described Christians in a video as "infidels and polytheists" and stressed the need for "jihad" against them.

Pakistan: Mian Mir Hospital, which is run by the City District Government of Lahore, was exposed as forcing Christian paramedics and staffers "to either recite verses from the Holy Quran at morning assembly or be marked absent for the day," says a report. This news came to light when the Medical-Superintendent, Dr. Muhammad Sarfraz, "slapped a Christian paramedical staffer for not attending the assembly." The act led to staff protests against Dr. Muhammad and other supervisors. "Experts said extremism was creeping into public hospitals and was a massive concern for law enforcement agencies," continues the report.
Separately, when a Christian girl in the Pakistani public school system sought "to study Ethics rather than Islamic Studies because of her Christian beliefs," says a report, her Muslim teacher informed her that "if she refused to take a class in Islamic studies, she must leave.... The teacher also ordered her Muslim students to avoid eating with the Christian girl because of her faith." According to the teenage Christian girl, Muqadas Sukhraj, her problems started in early April:

"... class teacher, Zahida Parveen unnecessarily began creating problems for me and expressing her displeasure with me because I chose Ethics. First, the teacher argued over the textbook of the Ethics class. Then she sent me out of the class as punishment. Later, she told me that if I could not study Islamic education, then why do I study in a Muslim school in the first place? She even told me, that, when she comes into the class, I must leave."

Much of this is in keeping with ongoing revelations, including a 2016 report by Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace, which found that the government continues to issue textbooks that promote religious hatred for non-Muslims.
Also separately, after a fist fight broke out when a Muslim teenager snatched a Christian teenager's phone, a mob of armed Muslims responded by attacking Christians in Phul Nagar, District Kasur in Punjab Province. According to the report:

"The armed men pitilessly bashed every person who came in their sight on the streets. What is more they stormed into the houses of Christians and sta[r]ted beating the Christians. They also resorted to aerial firing, therefore, causing terrors and harassment in the entire neighborhood. The attackers did not spare Christian women, and beat them also."

Christians informed local police, who did not arrest any of the assailants, although they are known to police by name and face.

Uganda: Area Muslims continue to hound Pastor Christopher James Kalaja for having filed a court case against sword-waving, "Allahu Akbar"-screaming Muslims who earlier destroyed his farm, home, and church. "We just want to inform you that the battle is now on, and you risk losing the whole family," read one text message he received after formally filing a police case. According to his wife, who lives in hiding, he "makes a brief appearance at our current residence because the Muslims are trailing him. They can do anything to kill him, so as [to] stop the court case to proceed since he is the key witness." The couple's seven children are also "very fearful" and constantly asking "Why are we here? What have we done that we are undergoing such a great suffering?" "These are questions that I cannot answer," said the mother. "I only tell the children to pray."

Nigeria: Janet Habila, a 16-year-old Christian youth leader and daughter of "a devoted church leader with the United Mountain of Grace in Shundna village," was forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man against her will. According to the report, the Christian girl "was enrolled in the tailoring institute in 2016 by her parents ... but rather than learning the trade, the parents were shocked to receive a notification of her marriage through a Sharia court." According to sources, a Muslim man named Nasiru "craftily organized some Muslim men and women in the area to stand as the parents of Janet in court to enable the marriage to take place."

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by Muslims is growing. The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location.

Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).

Raymond Ibrahim : "Drip-Drip" Genocide: Muslim Persecution of Christians, February, 2017

"Drip-Drip" Genocide: Muslim Persecution of Christians, February, 2017

by Raymond Ibrahim
May 28, 2017 at 4:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10426/christian-genocide-muslims

• "They are burning us alive! They seek to exterminate Christians altogether! Where's the military?" -- Christian man fleeing Al-Arish, Egypt; video.
• "Historical churches in Iran being destroyed while UNESCO overlooks," is the title of one report.
• On the same day as Pakistan's government charged an elderly Christian man with blasphemy -- which carries a death penalty -- it acquitted 106 Muslims of burning down an entire Christian village.

The Islamic State is at it again. More stories of atrocities against Christians continued to surface. In one, a Christian man, Meghrik, said the bus in which he was riding in Syria was stopped at what turned out to be an ISIS checkpoint. Three men dressed in black entered and began checking all the passengers' identification papers. "Are you a Christian?" they asked him. "No," he said. He explained that he was raised by Christian parents and his family name was Christian, but that he was not. "You're lying," the fighter said. "Your name says you're a Christian. Come with me." He was taken to an ISIS judge who "concluded that he was a Christian" and said "You're sentenced to death." Thereafter Meghrik was severely whipped and tortured. At one point, he was thrown in a hole in the ground and surrounded by an execution squad prepared to fire. After 10 days of this treatment and for unknown reasons -- Meghrik cites a miracle and is now a devout Christian -- he was released.

While much of the world acknowledges that the Islamic State is engaged in acts of genocide against religious minorities such as Christians and Yazidis, in other Muslim states, such as Pakistan, Christians and other non-Muslim minorities are experiencing a "drip-drip genocide", said the noted author, journalist and Pakistani politician Farahnaz Ispahani:

"Right before the partition of India and Pakistan, we had a very healthy balance of religions other than Islam. Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians. Pakistan goes from 23 per cent [non-Muslim at the time of partition in 1947], which is almost a quarter of its population, to three per cent today. I call it a 'drip drip genocide', because it's the most dangerous kind of wiping out of religious communities.... It doesn't happen in one day. It doesn't happen over a few months. Little by little by little, laws and institutions and bureaucracies and penal codes, textbooks that malign other communities, until you come to the point of having this sort of jihadi culture that is running rampant."

Other accounts of Muslim persecution of Christians to surface in February 2017 include, but are not limited to, the following:

The Slaughter of Christians in Egypt

As in January, when five different Christians were killed in four separate hate crimes around the country, another murderous wave took non-Muslim minorities by storm, this time in al-Arish, Sinai. The murders may have resulted from a video released in February by the "Islamic State in Egypt." In the video, masked militants promise more attacks on the "worshipers of the cross" — a reference to the Coptic Christians of Egypt, of whom they also refer to as their "favorite prey" and "infidels who are empowering the West against Muslim nations." One of the militants, carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, added, "God gave orders to kill every infidel." Below is a list of Christians murdered in al-Arish:

• January 30: A 35-year-old Christian was in his small shop working with his wife and young son when three masked men walked in, opened fire and killed him. The masked men then sat around his shop table, eating chips and drinking soda, while the bodies lay in a pool of blood before the terrified wife and child.
• February 13: A 57-year-old Christian laborer was shot and killed as he tried to fight off masked men trying to kidnap his young son on a crowded street in broad daylight. The men, after murdering the father, seized his young son and took him to an unknown location (where, if precedent is accurate, he is likely being tortured or possibly killed, if a hefty ransom is not paid).
• February 16: A 45-year-old Christian schoolteacher was moonlighting at his shoe store with his wife, when masked men walked in the crowded shop and shot him dead.
• February 17: A 40-year-old medical doctor was killed by masked men who, after forcing him to stop his car, opened fire and killed him. He leaves a widow and two children.
• February 22: Islamic State affiliates killed a 65-year-old Christian man by shooting him in the head. They then abducted and tortured his 45-year-old son before burning him alive and dumping his charred remains near a schoolyard.
• February 23: A Christian plumber was shot dead in front of his wife and children at their home.

After the slayings, at least 300 Christians living in al-Arish fled their homes, with nothing but their clothes on their backs and their children in their hands. In a video of these Copts, one man can be heard saying "They are burning us alive! They seek to exterminate Christians altogether! Where's the military?" Another woman yells at the camera:

"Tell the whole world, look — we've left our homes, and why? Because they kill our children, they kill our women, they kill our innocent people! Why? Our children are terrified to go to schools. Why? Why all this injustice?! Why doesn't the president move and do something for us? We can't even answer our doors without being terrified!"

"We loved our country but our country doesn't love us," said the brother of one of the slain.

Muslim Abduction, Rape, Murder and Mutilation of Christian Women

Pakistan: 

Hours after being dropped off at the Convent of Jesus and Mary school in Punjab by her brother, Tania Mariyam, a 12-year-old Christian girl, was found dead in a canal. Despite all the evidence to the contrary — including her clothes being ripped off and signs of drugging — police investigations concluded that she had committed suicide. After three weeks of pressure from Mariyam's family and human rights groups, who insisted that the girl had been raped and murdered — as so many Christian girls (and boys) in Pakistan have been before her — police finally conceded that she had not killed herself. Even so, "the severe delays," says the British Pakistani Christian Association, "mean that much of the evidence has been lost."
"There was a disgusting police cover up," the murdered girl's father said, "and I fear that they have colluded with the murderer and know more than they are letting on. They do not care about Christians."

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West Africa: According to a report, "Muslims radicals punished the [14-year-old] daughter of a Christian missionary for her faith by subjecting her to brutal female genital mutilation. Currently, the young woman remains in a coma, struggling for her life." Lydia's father, Yoonus, formerly a Muslim scholar, had converted to Christianity. When the local Muslim community heard of this — and that he "was now leading Muslims to Christ" — they "urged him to return to Islam and promised to give him gifts if he rejected Christianity. However, Yoonus and his family refused to renounce their faith, resulting in increased persecution," including the attack on his daughter.

Egypt: Two new cases surfaced of young Christian girls being abducted with the indifference or complicity of the authorities. After Rania Eed Fawzy, 17, failed to return home, her parents and lawyer said it was "an incident of kidnapping and forced conversion to Islam." They "filed a complaint with the local police that a Muslim male named Rabee Radi Naghi had taken their daughter against her will." When the family lawyer contacted the Egyptian Attorney General, Nabil Ahmed Sadek, requesting "to remove Rania from hiding and deliver her to one of the Christian Orthodox homeless youth shelters"—as "[n]ormally in such cases the local authorities know where the kidnap victim is kept" — the Attorney General refused and said, "[T]he girl embraced Islam, what do you want?"
As the report explains, even if she did freely convert, "a child in Egypt is considered a minor until age 21. Until [one comes] of age, conversion from one religion to another is illegal."

"In such kidnapping cases, however, the authorities always settle the issue by accepting the minor Christian girl's 'conversion' to Islam ... never the other way around. In conversion from Islam to Christianity complaints, police go above and beyond their role to retrieve the girl and warn her of death from apostasy. Such cases suit the purposes of ideological jihad. By removing a non-Muslim young woman of child-bearing age from the Christian community, adding her to the Muslim girl population to bear Muslim children serves to increase the Muslim population while decreasing Christian numbers."

Separately, after an apparent ruse caused the older brother of Hanan Adly, an 18-year-old Christian girl, to step out of the house one night, she disappeared from the family farm. The family and their lawyer made a formal complaint to the police, accusing a neighbor, Mohamed Ahmed Nubi Soliman, 27, of kidnapping her. Prosecutors summoned the man and "he admitted a connection with the incident. However, he was released due to lack of physical evidence," says the report.

"A national security investigation was ordered, but ... there has been no progress with the case, despite protests outside the police station by friends and family of Hanan."

Mali: A Christian nun was kidnapped in the Muslim-majority African nation with "no claims or demands for ransom", said a local Christian leader. Sister Cecilia Narváez Argoti, of Colombian background, belonged to the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate.

"The kidnappers arrived on 7 February from a secluded location a bit far from the village where Sister Cecilia and her sisters were. They broke into the missionary center and plundered money and computer equipment. They then escaped with the ambulance of the medical center with the nun."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Central African Republic: Supporters of a Muslim rebel group destroyed two churches and killed a pastor in what are described as "revenge attacks." After the national security forces, backed by UN peacekeepers, launched a military operation to interrogate Youssouf Malinga, a local Muslim militia leader known as the "Big Man," he and his men opened fire on the security forces and killed two passersby. Security forces responded with fire and killed Malinga and one of his men; three soldiers were also injured in the shootout. Malinga's supporters responded by surrounding an apostolic church and stabbing its pastor to death. "More than two dozen people were wounded. At least two churches were destroyed, along with a school," in the "revenge attacks," the report adds. "Central African Republic was plunged into civil war in 2013 following the overthrow of former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka militia."
Congo: Churches are "being desecrated and Christian nuns terrorised by 'violent thugs' amid a wave of increased hostility on Christians," according to reports. Elsewhere the "thugs" are described as "Islamist extremists." In February alone, "the extremists" burned a major seminary and

"sow[ed] terror among the Carmelite Sisters in nearby Kananga.... The extremists also attacked the St. Dominic church in the town of Limete. They 'overturned the tabernacle, ransacked the altar, smashed some of the benches and attempted to set fire to the church,' the archbishop said."

Iran: "Historical churches in Iran being destroyed while UNESCO overlooks," is the title of one report. After explaining that "Destroying church buildings has a long record in the history of the Islamic regime of Iran," it gives several examples in recent times. Sometimes churches are attacked by "extremist Muslims" who destroy crosses, statues, and icons with sledgehammers and axes; other times the government is responsible.
In one case, "judicial authorities in Kerman issued a ruling for a historical church building in their city to be brought down, even though a few years earlier this church had been registered as a national heritage site"; in another instance, a "historical evangelical church building in Mashhad that had been registered as a national heritage site in 2005, was destroyed." There "are around five hundred registered church buildings in Iran, with many of them abandoned or on the verge of destruction."

Sudan: The government ordered the "demolition of at least 25 church buildings" in the Khartoum area, relates one report. The government claimed the churches were built on land zoned for other uses, although mosques located in the same area were spared from the demolition order. Christian leaders said this is "not an isolated act" but rather part of a wider "crack-down" on Christianity that "should be taken with wider perspective." The Sudan Council of Churches denounced the order and called on the government to reconsider the decision or provide alternative sites for the churches. But Mohamad el Sheikh Mohamad, general manager of Khartoum State's land department in the Ministry of Physical Planning, said the order should be implemented immediately. "Sudan since 2012 has bulldozed church buildings and harassed and expelled foreign Christians," the report concludes.

Nigeria: The Christian Association of Nigeria is calling on the nation's government to help rebuild destroyed churches in the Muslim majority regions of the nation's northeastern states. This comes after a report revealed that "at least 900 Christian places of worship have been destroyed by Boko Haram since the [militant Islamic] group began its violent activities." U.S. lawmakers said that Nigeria is the worst nation in which to be Christian. Christopher Smith, Chairman of US House of Representatives' Sub-committee on Africa, said that both his staff and he have "investigated the crises facing Christians in Nigeria today" and

"made several visits to Nigeria, speaking with Christians and Muslim religious leaders across the country and visiting fire-bombed churches, such as in Jos.... Unfortunately, Nigeria has been cited as the most dangerous place for Christians in the world and impunity for those responsible for the killing of Christians seem to be widespread."

What makes the African nation so hostile to Christians is Boko Haram, a militant Muslim group, which has "forced Christians to convert and forced Muslims to adhere to its extreme interpretation of Islam."

Pakistan: Catholic churches and schools in the Lahore area closed down after a Taliban splinter group, which had killed seventy Christians on Easter Day, 2016, carried out a suicide bombing at a rally and killed at least 14 people. The group had vowed a year ago that it planned on launching "more devastating attacks that will target Christians and other religious minorities as well as government installations."

Coptic Christians protest outside the church of St Peter and St Paul in Cairo, Egypt, after a bomb attack on the complex, on December 11, 2016. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Pakistani Justice

On January 28, a court acquitted 106 Muslims of burning down an entire Christian village in 2013 — including 150 homes and three churches. The attack came after one of its inhabitants, Sawan Masih, was accused of blasphemy. More than 80 prosecution witnesses, 63 of them with statements recorded about the attack, said they did not recognize any of the 106 accused. So they were all released.
Also on January 28, the government arrested an elderly Christian man on the charge of blasphemy — which carries a maximum death penalty. A mosque leader accused Mukhtar Masih, 70, of writing two letters containing derogatory remarks about the Koran and Muhammad. The report cites a source who said that "the charges against Masih were fabricated by local Muslims seeking to seize his property." Nonetheless, police raided the elderly man's home the same day and took his entire family into custody. His family was released but he was booked on charges of blasphemy, and beaten in an attempt to force him to admit to it.
Separately, the Pakistani government denied that "Christian minorities are being targeted by the country's controversial blasphemy laws," says another report — despite the well-known fact that religious minorities, chief among them Christians, are the demographic group most prone to being accused and convicted of blasphemy, to say nothing of being beaten, lynched, and burned alive in mob attacks. After alleging that, of 129 cases of blasphemy, 99 were leveled against fellow Muslims, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said "religious minorities are not being embroiled in blasphemy cases more than Muslims." However, "[s]everal different persecution watchdog groups have pointed out that Christians are often heavily targeted by blasphemy laws." Pakistani human rights activist Wilson Chowdhry said officials are "twisting statistics":

"Sadly, Mr Khan's comments... [and] contrived results have failed to recognize that Christians in recent years have become the number one target of blasphemy allegations. It is our belief that a large proportion of the 26 percent of blasphemy convictions listed against minorities will have sentenced Christians, yet we contribute only 1.6 percent of the entire national population."

Muslim Hate for and Discrimination against Christians

Egypt: Fadi, a 15-year-old Christian boy, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of what human rights activists say is a false accusation. Last summer, a Muslim neighbor accused him of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old Muslim boy. Investigations and forensic examinations were performed but revealed no evidence of sexual activity. The family was still ordered to leave the village and the charges remained. According to Fadi's mother, Hana, he was targeted only because their Muslim neighbors, whose grandfather is an influential imam at the local mosque, "don't like Christians." She adds: the "judge convicted my son to 15 years because he is a Christian. If he was a Muslim boy, the judge would acquit him when he saw the forensic report, because the forensic report absolved my son," but "because my son is Christian," the judge "believed the speech of [the Muslim boy's] father instead of the forensic report."

Turkey: The Islamic terrorist who opened fire on an Istanbul nightclub during New Year's Eve celebrations confessed that "I wanted to stage the attack on Christians in order to exact revenge on them for their acts committed all over the world. My aim was to kill Christians." But for a variety of reasons that made it difficult for him to launch a spectacular attack on Christians, Abdulkadir Masharipov, of Uzbeki origin, ended up killing 39 people and wounded 65 others at a nightclub. He laments that he did not die then and there as a "martyr": "When I was out of bullets, I threw two stun grenades. I put the third one near my face to commit suicide, but I didn't die. I survived, but I entered Reina [nightclub] to die." Apparently to hurry him on his way to what he sought on the day of attack, Islamic paradise, Abdulkadir said that "it would be good if he were given capital punishment."

Iraq: Kurdish Peshmerga forces continue to be hostile to a Christian militia group also fighting the Islamic State. After William J. Murray, chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Religious Freedom Coalition, visited the Christian town of Qaraqosh on the Nineveh Plain, he wrote that it

"has enemies other than the ruthless Islamic State, or ISIS, which left it in ruins. Currently the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga, is blocking aid to the NPU [Nineveh Protection Unit] that guards the town, because the NPU is the Assyrian Christian militia. It is the only armed Christian group in Iraq.... While for appearance and funding from Washington, the Kurds support Christian interests for now, the historical relationship between the two groups includes participation in slaughtering Christians by the tens of thousands. There is no room for a Christian enclave, particularly one that is armed, in the future of an independent state of Kurdistan..."

Kurds are Sunni Muslims.

France: A new study revealed that, in the Western European nation with the largest Muslim population, the overwhelming majority of "religious attacks" are against Christians. "Acts targeting Christian places accounted for 90% of all attacks on places of worship (Christians, Jews or Muslims)." Although the government responded to these statistics by saying that "all these acts have no religious motivation," and that out of 949 attacks on churches, "there was a possible 'satanic motivation' in 14 cases and an 'anarchist' motivation in 25," it did not reveal the source behind the other 910 attacks. Another report, however, from neighboring Germany gives a hint:

"Last year in Dülmen, following the arrival of well over a million [mostly Muslim] migrants in Germany, local media said 'not a day goes by' without attacks on Christian religious statues."

===========

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by Muslims is growing. The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location.

Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).

Follow Raymond Ibrahim on Twitter and Facebook
============= 

Raymond Ibrahim : Christians as "Target Practice" Muslim Persecution of Christians: May 2016

Christians as "Target Practice"

Muslim Persecution of Christians: May 2016

by Raymond Ibrahim
August 28, 2016 at 6:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8771/christians-target-practice

• "We will show the Armenians and the Christians who we are... We have been ordered not to leave any Armenians in the area." — Islamic rebels, Aleppo, Syria.
• Thousands of Christians are fleeing Eritrea due to extreme persecution. A report describes Eritrea as "one of the world's fastest emptying nations" and the "North Korea of Africa." The majority of the 40,000 who fled to Italy last year are Christians.
• "The government of Iran continues to engage in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused." — Report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
• A new study claims that as many as 40,000 Christians -- including Muslims who wish to convert to Christianity -- are being attacked and harassed by Muslims in migrant homes. According to the report, "Now in European asylum homes they are finding more and more that they are in as much danger from radical Muslims in Europe as they were in their home countries."

More reports of the brutal treatment that Christians and other minorities experienced at the hands of the Islamic State (SIS) emerged during May. One account told of a couple who, after their children were abducted by ISIS militants, answered their door one day to find a plastic bag on their doorstep. It contained the body parts of their daughters and a video of them being brutally tortured and raped.

Another Christian mother from Mosul answered the door to find ISIS jihadis demanding that she leave or pay the jizya (protection money demanded as a tribute by conquered Christians and Jews, according to the Koran 9:29). The woman asked for a few seconds, because her daughter was in the shower, but the jihadis refused to give her the time. They set a fire to the house; her daughter was burned alive. The girl died in her mother's arms; her last words were "Forgive them."

The Islamic State reportedly beheaded another Christian leader on February 18. No media reported it, except for one Italian paper in May: "There are reliable reports are that Father Yacob Boulos, was beheaded by the terror group' militants after he prayed on the altar of his church. He was punished for his faith."
According to another report,

"In yet another disturbing example of the genocide facing Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, on 12-13 May a group from Islamic State (IS) entered a town near the city of Hama in Syria, populated only by Christians and Alawites, killing an as yet unspecified number of men, women and children. Men were beheaded, whilst women were raped and then murdered. Many children were also killed. It is not yet clear exactly how many people have been killed."

A local Christian leader said,

"Where are the leaders of the West, Ban Ki-Moon (Secretary-General of the United Nations), the EU, WHO (World Health Organization), and other Christian organisations? How long will my nation tolerate and stay. We don't hold arms and weapons, but we are melting like a candle! Is it possible for our voice to reach to all others?"

Father Douglas Bazi, an Iraqi priest, who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2006 but later escaped, recounted his experiences as a captive:

"They destroyed my car, they blew up my church on [sic] front of me. I got shot by AK-47 in my leg. The bullet is still in my leg. And I [have] been kidnapped for nine days. They smash my nose and my teeth by hammer. And they broke one of my back discs."

He was released after his church paid for his ransom, but eventually had to flee the region after continued persecution by ISIS. "To be Christian in Iraq, it's an impossible mission," said Father Bazi, adding, "But even so, I'm not actually surprised when they attack my people. I'm surprised how my people are still existing. Please talk about our stories. Let the world know what happens to us."
The rest of May's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:

More Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Uganda: A Christian pastor was poisoned to death by a Muslim. Micah Byamukama, 61, pastor of a Baptist Church, died on May 15, after ingesting an insecticide that a Muslim, Ahmed Mupere, had put into his food. Mupere is believed to have been upset that the pastor challenged his belief in jinn, supernatural creatures attested to in Islamic literature, including the Koran. "The true God is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered the power of Satan including the Islamic Jinn... the Islamic Jinn are acts of Satan and should be denounced," the pastor had apparently said. Soon, unidentified persons believed to have been hired by Ahmed attacked and wounded the pastor with knives.
Five days after the knife attack, Mupere, pretending not to be angry, came to visit the pastor, a widower with no children. According to the report, "Feigning reconciliation as he dined with the pastor from a shared dish, Ahmed secretly put poison on the food and stopped eating as Pastor Byamukama continued." Shortly thereafter, the Christian man began having stomach pains, was rushed to the hospital and was soon declared dead.

Earlier, the pastor had told his neighbor, "Ahmed took a little food with me and then stopped. When I asked him why not continue with the food, he said he had eaten at his home, and that he wanted [to] go back home because it was getting late." A nurse said he died from ingesting a highly toxic insecticide. Once investigations began, Mupere fled. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks, including other poisonings, by Muslims against Christians in eastern Uganda.
Separately in Uganda, a Muslim man strangled his wife to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. Awali Kakaire, 34, began to suspect that his wife Mariam Nakiriya, 30, was a Christian a month earlier, when the local imam asked him why his wife and children had not been attending the mosque or madrassa (Islamic school). According to one of Kakaire's sons: "Our father questioned us why we have stopped attending the madrassa, but we told him that we were busy with school work as our mother had instructed us This made my father to cool down his tempers." Then, on May 8, Kakaire awoke at 6 a.m., and after his Islamic cleansing ritual, woke his wife to join him in morning Islamic prayers: "Our mother refused, and our father started strangling her as she cried for help," his son said. After killing her, Kakaire left the house only to return two hours later and force his five children, ages 5 to 12, into a hole he had dug in a nearby garden.

"We resisted and began screaming, and neighbors arrived immediately, but he had already dumped us into the hole that he had dug. Seeing the neighbors, he tried to flee but he was overtaken and then began to be questioned by those who surrounded him."

Kakaire was heard shouting "My family has no respect for Islam." Thanks to some Muslim accomplices, Kakaire managed to escape the murder scene.
Syria: Up to 200 Christians were reportedly killed during sustained bombardments of the city of Aleppo. Between April 22 and April 30, approximately 1,350 rockets hit the Christian region. The attack killed 132 people, half of them women and children. Another 65 were killed on May 3, and hundreds more injured. Islamic rebels had earlier, on April 22, issued a direct threat against Aleppo's large community of Armenian Christians, and warned, "We will show the Armenians and the Christians who we are... We have been ordered not to leave any Armenians in the area."

Bangladesh: "Fighters from the Islamic State assassinated a doctor who called to Christianity in Kushtia, western Bangladesh," ISIS announced in a brief statement issued in Arabic. Doctor Sanaur Rahman, 58, was riding home on his motorcycle along with his friend when they were attacked by machete-wielding terrorists. Rahman was hacked to death, while Zaman was critically wounded in the attack. The doctor was popular in his village because he used to treat and offer medicine to poor people free of charge and ran a free clinic on Fridays.

Congo: Muslim terrorists killed scores of villagers in the east of the Christian-majority nation. The attackers carried machetes and axes into a village in North Kivu province during the evening of May 3. According to the local administrator, "the enemy managed to get past army positions and kill peaceful residents in their homes, slashing their throats. The 16 bodies are in front of me, killed by machete or axe." Another source said that as many as 38 were slaughtered, including two Evangelical Christian leaders and their wives. According to the report,

The MDI [Muslim Defensive International] has repeatedly attacked the majority-Christian population in eastern DRC for years. Kidnapping and murder are common. It is alleged to have support from the Islamic government of Sudan... The MDI is known to have attracted foreign recruits and to have forced Christians to convert to Islam. The local population in the related area is overwhelmingly Christian (95.8%) and the impact on them has been immense.

In a letter released a year ago, Congolese Bishops denounced a "climate of genocide" and the passivity of the Congolese government and the international community: "Does the situation have to deteriorate even more before the international community takes measures against jihadism?" asked the Bishops in May 2015.

Philippines: Islamic jihadis attacked the "Crusaders" of the Catholic-majority nation. The recently-established ISIS branch in the Philippines claimed responsibility for a terror attack on a military position on Basilan Island. The attack killed one soldier and injured another. Basilan Island has long been a stronghold of local Muslim terror organizations that aim to topple the government and establish a Sharia-compliant government.

Muslim Rape and Humiliation of Christian Women

Bangladesh: A 26-year-old Catholic high school teacher was raped on May 12 by her Muslim principal and his friend, Shariful Islam. Afterwards, they threatened to post the video of the rape on Facebook, if she reported them. According to parish priest Fr. Domenic K. Halder, "The girl is very frightened. We pray for her, she is still in hospital." Hundreds of Christians also protested in the streets of Dhaka and demanded justice.

Egypt: On May 20, a 70-year-old Christian woman was stripped naked, savagely beaten, spat upon, and paraded in the streets of Minya to jeers, whistles, and yells of "Allahu Akbar," after a mob of some 300 Muslim men descended on her home. Her crime was that her son was accused of having a romantic relationship with a Muslim woman, an intimacy that is banned under Islamic law, Sharia. It is the same body of teachings that prescribes collective punishment to non-Muslim "infidels." Seven Christian homes were also torched during the attack. Earlier that day her husband and she had gone to local police and complained that they were being harassed and threatened by neighborhood Muslims. The police responded by also threatening and ordering them out of the station. A few hours later, the attack occurred. It took the same local police over two hours to appear, giving the mob "ample time," as one Christian clergyman put it, to riot. Minya's most senior Christian cleric, Bishop Makarios, said during a televised interview concerning 70-year-old woman's ordeal, that if a Muslim man were pursuing a Christian woman, the police response "would not have been anything like what happened.... No one did anything and the police took no preemptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks."

Uganda: After a 22-year-old Christian woman accused a mosque leader of murdering her father earlier in the year, local Muslims responded by beating and raping her. The woman, whose name was withheld, said she was beaten and raped on April 19 for telling a court what she had witnessed. She was found unconscious in a pool of blood, with cuts on her body. One of the three Muslims who assaulted her told her, "We shall kill you today because you are the one who made our sheikh to be imprisoned." According to the woman, speaking from a hospital bed,

"I was able to identify the sheikh because we are neighbors, and my father had been questioning him about the Islamic faith not leading one to salvation with God. The sheikh had said to him, 'You have no respect of our religion, and we have come for your life today.' They started strangling my father as well as hitting him on the head with a big stick. When my father fell down, I managed to escape through the window."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Tanzania: Another church was burned to the ground. The Roman Catholic church in the Kagera region is the third church in four months to be burned down in the nation. According to a local pastor, "Since 2013 we have had over 13 churches torched here in Kagera and no-one has been held accountable. This is not acceptable."
Fortunatus Bijura, a priest at the church, said: "Those who think that destroying our church means we won't pray, they are wrong ... We have a big tree near the church and will continue meeting there for prayers." Tanzania is approximately 35% Muslim.

Pakistan: The government announced its plans to demolish four historic churches in order to make way for the construction of a metro train. On May 3, Christians gathered in front of the Lahore High Court to protest the decision. "These churches were built pre-Pakistan and these all [sic] churches are located at very expensive and prime locations which politicians and Islamists are jealous of," said Nasir Saeed, director of the Center for Legal Aid. "They cannot stand that Christians have such prime property and ... so try to use any excuse to grab the land and belittle Christians." While the community is still mourning their loved ones who perished during the Easter Sunday attack on Christians that left 69 dead and more than 340 injured, Saeed said they now face a new threat to their churches: "There is no respite for them and one problem after the other seems to follow Pakistani Christians," he said.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers and Preachers

Pakistan: A fatwa, or Islamic decree, was issued against a Christian after Muslims accused him of watching an anti-Islamic video on his phone. Imran Masih was last reported on the run after a $10,000 bounty was put on his head. As a form of collective punishment, fellow Christians in his village were prevented from buying food from Muslim shopkeepers and given three options: "convert to Islam, leave the village forever, or hand over Imran so he can be burnt alive." Speaking of this incident, a Pakistani human rights activist said,

I cannot believe that such things are still happening in this world. Such treatment towards Pakistani Christians is a slap on the face of the Punjab and central government, and to all those who never tire of telling the world that minorities are protected and enjoying equal rights in the country. I don't understand how watching a video on the internet can be criminalised as an act of blasphemy.... I believe this is not an act of blasphemy and if people still think Imran has committed blasphemy then he should be punished according to the law. No one has any right to take the law into their own hands, harass local Christians, threaten them, burn Imran alive or force Christians to convert to Islam or leave the village. Such conditions from lay people make a mockery of the law. The Government of Pakistan must take this matter seriously, provide protection to the local Christians, and those who are breaking the law should be dealt according to the law.

Left: The house of Imran Masih in the village of Chak-44, Pakistan. Masih was last reported on the run after Muslims accused him of watching an anti-Islamic video on his phone and a $10,000 bounty was put on his head. Right: The Catholic Church in the village. (Images source: World Watch Monitor)

Separately in Pakistan, police arrested a Christian man in Punjab province for allegedly posting messages on his Facebook account that were considered blasphemous by Muslims. According to Liaquat Usman's wife, "My husband stopped some [Muslim] boys from teasing girl students. A couple of days ago the boys manhandled Usman. Instead of arresting the boys, police arrested Usman saying a complaint against him has been lodged for committing blasphemy." Initial investigations showed that the "blasphemous" messages were posted on Usman's Facebook account a year earlier, and that someone else living abroad tagged them on his account.

Germany: A new report claimed that as many as 40,000 Christians -- including Muslims who wish to convert to Christianity -- are being attacked and harassed by Muslims in migrant homes. According to the report,

Many converts [to Christianity] wished to do so in their homelands, but in places like Iran and Afghanistan the penalty for leaving the Islamic religion can be death and so they fled to Europe. Now in European asylum homes they are finding more and more that they are in as much danger from radical Muslims in Europe as they were in their home countries. The most prevalent form of abuse was verbal insults with 96 people saying that had received abuse or threats. Eighty-six said they had been physically assaulted and 73 said they had been subjected to death threats against themselves and family members. Three quarters of the migrants also said they had been victims of multiple attacks. The perpetrators of most of the attacks were fellow migrants who look down on converts and believe them to be apostates. Perhaps, more interestingly was the prevalence of Muslim security guards who participated in the attacks. Almost half of those surveyed said they had received abuse from security guards and in the German capital of Berlin the figure rose to two-thirds.

Azerbaijan: Christian activists called attention to the plight of a frail Christian evangelist from Azerbaijan who has spent a year behind bars in neighboring Georgia on what his supporters say are "trumped-up charges" for the possession of drugs. If convicted, the man could face 14 years imprisonment. The Azeri evangelist says he has been framed by people who are angry about his evangelism work among Muslims. Local sources said "His health is very bad and he needs urgent help -- medical, spiritual and materially." Fears also exist that the man will not be able to return safely to predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan after an eventual release from prison. According to a human rights organization,

Officially, the country is secular and religion is tolerated. However, the level of surveillance is so incredibly high that Christians in Azerbaijan do not know whom to trust anymore. Persecution of Christians has gone up markedly since last year due to ever-increasing government controls," added Open Doors. Another sign of the government pressure is the fact that Azeri Christians find it easier to evangelize in countries like Georgia and Iran than in their own country.

Muslim Hate for and Violence against Christians

Syria: The Islamic State released an online video on May 16, showing an ISIS fighter desecrating the graves of Christians and showing off the damage that was done to the Christian cemetery. The video was allegedly filmed in the city of Deir ez-Zor. The ISIS militant is shown touring the cemetery, showing shards of stone and wood, while in the background are destroyed headstones and corpses of Syrian soldiers -- some torn to pieces -- who apparently tried to stop the desecration.

Eritrea: Thousands of Christians are fleeing the nation due to extreme persecution, according to a report which describes Eritrea as "one of the world's fastest emptying nations" and the "North Korea of Africa." The majority of the 40,000 who fled to Italy last year are Christians. The report added that "all evangelical and independent churches have been closed." Dawit, who was among hundreds of Christians jailed and tortured for his faith, said:

"There is no law and no justice. When I was living in Eritrea I was arrested because of my Christian faith. That's why I left. In Eritrea almost every Christian faces imprisonment. That's why I was in prison."

Berhane, another Christian who managed to escape said:

"We believe there are over 300 Christian prisoners at the moment. Most of them have been in prison for over ten years and they are suffering for lack of food and proper hygiene and proper medical care and even some of them have lost their lives."

Turkey: United States ally and NATO member Turkey is aiding and abetting the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria that kill Christians, by providing them with aerial cover and "safe haven," said Mindy Belz, an activist and senior editor of WORLD magazine:

We have to have a new approach to our ally, Turkey. Turkey is a country that is in transition and is becoming more and more radicalized. There is strong evidence, as I interviewed people at the border who had escaped to Lebanon. I sat down with them in Beirut. They were up at the border when Turkey shot down the Syrian jet that crossed the border [in 2015]. ... The people who witnessed it said, "Turkey is providing air cover for these Islamic militant groups".... There has been strong evidence that they have provided air cover and provided safe haven at their borders for ISIS...They have aided and abetted extremist groups, not only ISIS but Al-Nusra Front and some of the others. These are groups that are killing Christians and America ought to not tolerate allies that support groups that kill Christians.

Iran: Despite the nuclear deal made with the Obama administration, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has found that religious minorities in Iran, including Christians, continue experiencing severe human rights abuses. The report, released only a couple of months shy of the one-year anniversary of the nuclear deal reached in July 2015, found that religious freedom conditions "continued to deteriorate" over the past year, with Christians, Baha'is, and the minority Sunni Muslims facing the most persecution at the form of harassment, arrests, and imprisonment.
Under President Hassan Rouhani's administration, the number of religious-based arrests has increased, despite Iran's continuous denial that it is violating people's human and religious freedom rights. The report states:

"The government of Iran continues to engage in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused."

The report notes that as many as 550 Christians have been arrested and detained since 2015, and at least 90 Christians remain in prison or detention as of February due to their religious beliefs and activities:

"During the reporting period, human rights groups inside Iran reported a significant increase in the number of physical assaults and beatings of Christians in prison. Some activists believe the assaults, which have been directed against converts who are leaders of underground house churches, are meant to intimidate others who may wish to convert to Christianity."

A report from May indicate that one Christian prisoner in Iran, Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran, who earlier underwent heart surgery, is suffering from illnesses, including nausea, ear pain, and chronic pain in her joints and spinal cord, which were diagnosed as caused by lumbar disk, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Regardless, prison officials have refused to transfer her to a hospital to receive proper medical care. Mrs. Zargaran was initially summoned to an Iranian intelligence office for interrogation in March of 2011. Interrogators constantly threatened her and her family, insulted her and questioned her Christian activities.
Pakistan: According to Sardar Mushtaq Gill and fellow attorneys who represent the family of the Christian couple burned alive by a mob for allegedly desecrating a Koran, "Witnesses and lawyers are [being] threatened.... There are many concerns about the possible impunity for the perpetrators." Because witness have refused to recognize those most responsible for the killing of the Christian couple, they have already been released on bail. "There are 106 detainees accused of this lynching and if the trial continues in this direction, it seems that everyone will be freed."

Nigeria: Gunmen shot at a car carrying Roman Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan in the country's southern Edo state. The attack on the cardinal comes amid increasing violence and kidnappings of Christian clergy by Muslims for ransom. Three other Christian leaders were kidnapped for ransom within the same year. The decomposing body of a cleric kidnapped in a Muslim-majority region was found last April.
A separate report tells of the day-to-day sufferings of Christians living alongside Muslims in Nigeria:

For Bishop Matthew Kukah, persecution is not just the history of the Church. It's a reality that he lives every day. In the diocese of Sokoto, located in northern Nigeria, ministry includes not only the normal sacramental and pastoral concerns of any other diocese. It also includes regularly responding to violence and attacks against the small Christian minority living in the majority-Muslim area. Christians living in northern Nigeria today wonder "why have they and their institutions become target practice," explained Bishop Kukah told CNA. Christian churches and businesses – as well as the people who frequent them – suffer both targeted violence at the hands of Islamist extremists... And after the attacks, Christian communities face a wall of bureaucratic challenges and lack of government support as they struggle to rebuild.... While some targets of violence find government and societal aid in rebuilding and accessing services such as schools and hospitals, the state in northern Nigeria merely "looks on" as Christian churches and institutions struggle to rebuild.

"[Y]ou live in a state that is less than you expect as a citizen," said Bishop Kukah. "You don't know what to expect tomorrow. ... Christians suffer disproportionate violence from Muslim extremists. ... Our churches are being bombed with no compensation paid for the schools or other properties of the Church."

Bangladesh: Unidentified attackers hurled crude bombs at the home of a Christian family and left two Christians injured. The attack occurred just after midnight in a mainly Christian hamlet in the western Chuadanga area. Police suspected "attempted robbery" as the motive. But the report notes:

"the attack comes amid a string of murders of Christians, Hindus and members of other religious minorities across the country by suspected militants, as Bangladesh reels from rising Islamist violence... Suspected Islamists have murdered at least 30 members of religious minorities, secular bloggers and other liberal activists, foreigners and intellectuals in Bangladesh in the past three years."

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by Muslims is growing.
The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities, and locations.

Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).