Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”
By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “The Islamic jihad against Christians in Nigeria is proving to be the most barbaric. A new report states that 70% of Christians killed around the world in 2012 were killed in that African nation. Among some of the atrocities committed in March alone, at least 41 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a bus station in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, these attacks ‘were a signpost of the intended extermination of Christians and Christianity from northern Nigeria.’
According to the Rev. Jerome Ituah, ‘Out of the 52 Catholic churches in Maiduguri diocese, 50 of them have been destroyed by [terrorist group] Boko Haram. When two Christian brothers were returning home after Sunday church service, jihadis opened fire on them with machine guns, killing the brothers, as well as three others, and injuring several more Christians.’
Another 13 Christian factory workers in Kano were ‘gruesomely’ slain. According to the local bishop, ‘Reports of the attack reaching us disclosed that on that fateful Saturday at about 7 p.m, Muslim faithful were conducting their prayer close to the affected compound occupied by Christian families, when two taxi cabs stopped in front of the compound and the occupants, who all concealed their arms, dashed into the complex and demanded to know why the residents were not part of the 7 p.m. Muslim prayer. They responded by telling the visitors they were Christians and so could not be part of the Muslim gathering. At that point, they separated the men from their wives and children and shot them dead on the spot after ordering the women and children into their homes’ to be enslaved.
The bishop added that, ‘government should show more concern, like it has always done when Muslims are affected; I have not seen that in the case of Christians—that 13 Christians were killed in one straight attack and nothing is heard from the government reflects selective justice because we are aware of compensation paid to Muslim families in situations of this nature.’
However, the Nigerian government recently did go on the offensive to try to contain the jihadis in northern Nigeria—only to be chastised, according to Reuters, by the Obama administration, in the person of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, ‘in a strongly worded statement, saying: ‘We are… deeply concerned by credible allegations that the Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations…..’ against the jihadi mass murderers.
Categorized by theme, the rest of March’s Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: According to El Watan News, three Christian brothers were shot dead at their home by automatic weapons a few weeks before two of them were set to have their weddings. The victims’ family was earlier accused of trying to build a church on land they owned after purchasing building material to build a house on that land. The rumors about the building of a church spread during the Friday sermon at the mosque, following which, 2,000 Muslims stormed the land and tried to destroy the house, a car and a tractor, resulting in the murder of the three Christian brothers.
Indonesia: Authorities demolished a church building with a bulldozer in West Java, even as Muslim bystanders cheered and denounced Christians as ‘infidels.’ According to Pastor Leonard Nababan, the government is ‘criminalising our religion.’ The congregation had gathered around the church in an effort to save it; so did Muslims, shouting, ‘They’re infidels and they’ve built their church without permission;’ ‘Knock the church down now,’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’ [‘Allah is Greater’].
Iraq: According to Fox News, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, there were more than 300 Christian churches. Today, a decade after a jihad was unleashed on Christians and their churches, only Read more…
Recent Comments