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Posts Tagged ‘Christian persecution’

Eritrea: Christian Persecution Is Now ‘At Its Highest Level Ever And Getting Worse’

06/02/2013 2 comments

By Timothy Fowler, EN – “A Christian leader in Eritrea says that religious persecution in the northeast African country ‘is at its highest level ever and getting worse,’ World Watch Monitor (WWM), the news outlet of Open Doors, a Christian charity reports.

WWM reports the stories of Christians around the world under pressure for their faith.

It indicated that the leader’s name would not be used because of security reasons.

The total number of Christians arrested in Eritrea this year has risen to 191 after the detention of 37 students from the College of Arts and Sciences Adi Kihe and five men from the Church of the Living God in Asmara, according to WWM.

Up to 3,000 Christians are imprisoned because of their faith in Eritrea.

Open Doors ranks the country 10th on its World Watch List and gives it the designation of ‘extreme persecution’ on its scale.

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) say many prisoners are held in metal shipping containers without ventilation or toilet facilities.

Eritrea allowed religious freedom until 2002, when the government announced it would only recognize religious groups: Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church of Eritrea, and the Lutheran-affiliated Evangelical Church of Eritrea, said VOM.

Since then, it says the Eritrean government has jailed, tortured and jailed numerous Eritreans for political and religious reasons.

As a result, Eritrea has been called ‘the North Korea of Africa’.” Read more.

Flashback: Eritrea: Government Beats, Detains 125 Christians For ‘Illegal’ Worship, ‘Christians Are Treated Like Enemy No. 1′ – “Over the past week, 125 Christians have been beaten and detained in Eritrea. ‘Police arrested these church members from homes and workplaces during broad daylight and then marched them through town to the police station while beating them,’ an investigator for Open Doors reported to Worthy News. Among the 125 Christians, 45 men and women were arrested on Feb. 27 for worshiping outside highly regulated government-approved churches in Eritrea.” Read more.

Flashback: Eritrean Christian in Saudi Arabia Faces Death Penalty for Sharing His Faith – “An Eritrean Christian is facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia after being arrested for sharing his faith with Muslims. Mussie Eyob was detained by the authorities at a mosque in Saudi’s second largest city, Jeddah, on 12 February. He had gone there to meet and talk with local Muslims after speaking about Christianity at the Eritrean Embassy for three days. Eyob was arrested for preaching to Muslims, an offence that carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.”  Read more.

Flashback: Eritrean Christians In Cairo Abducted By Islamists, Told To Convert To Islam – “Christian Solidarity Worldwide has received alarming reports of the abductions of six Eritrean women in Cairo. The women were reportedly abducted in the Egyptian capital by men purporting to be police officers. The women, aged between 20 and 32, claim to have travelled in a white taxi that was stopped by men in police uniforms, who opened the vehicle and sprayed an unknown substance into their faces that caused them to lose consciousness. When they awoke, they were in an unfamiliar location.” Read more.

Central African Republic: Islamic Militants Armed With ‘Hit List’ Of Pastors And Churches Launch ‘Reign Of Terror’ Against Christians

06/01/2013 Leave a comment

By BosNewsLife – “Islamic militants have launched a ‘reign of terror’ against Christians in Central African Republic after Seleka rebels took control of the country in a March 24 coup, rights activists said.

Armed with a ‘hit list’ of pastors and places of worship, Seleka rebels systematically looted church property, even seizing money from collection plates, according to Barnabas Fund, a Christian aid and advocacy group working in the region.

The reports, monitored by BosNewsLife Saturday, June 1, come after last month’s report released by the Human Rights Watch group cited ‘severe violations’ committed by Seleka rebels against civilians including rape, pillage and execution.

Among those killed was a church leader after the rebels fired upon a funeral procession on the Ngaragba Bridge in the capital Bangui on April 13, rights investigators said…

‘As a result, many Christians have fled into the countryside: more than 200,000 people were displaced while nearly 50,000 others crossed CAR’s borders into neighboring nations,’ Barnabas Fund explained.

In a sign of further tensions, the new Seleka-backed government of Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant Friday, March 31, against deposed former president Francois Bozize, accusing him of ‘crimes against humanity and incitement to genocide’, the state prosecutor said.

Thousands of fighters from the Seleka rebel coalition, angered by what they claimed was Bozize’s ‘refusal’ to honor an earlier peace deal, marched into the capital Bangui on March 24, forcing him to flee to neighboring Cameroon.” Read more.

Flashback: Islam In Africa: ‘An Invisible Genocide Where Sadistic Killers Slaughter And Execute Thousands Of Christians’ – “The UN does nothing, the world is silent, and most Western citizens, who know little about Africa, do not know it is happening. The goal is creating a big African-Islamic continent. Christians must be killed or expelled. Fom Nigeria to Sudan, it is raging, the ‘Odium Fidei’, the war of religion. A genocide epitomized not by the images of Sydney Pollack’s ‘Out of Africa’, which presents a continent that is rich and attractive, but by the Nigerian village of Dogo Nahawa, where Islamists, armed with machetes, killed 300 Christians, mostly women and children.” Read more.

Evil: Six-Year Old Christian Boy In Egypt Murdered And Dumped In Sewer By Muslim Kidnapper

06/01/2013 3 comments

When disobedient or less-than-perfect Muslim children are tortured and killed in a heartbeat by their own “peace-loving” teachers and parents, killing the children of infidel pagan Christians will be given no second thought. And the fact that the infallible prophet of Islam shrugged off the killing of enemy children means that we can likely expect little more than a slap on the wrist from Egypt’s Islamic authorities …

Hadith, Bukhari 52:256, “The Prophet [Mohammed] … was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, ‘They [the women and children] are from them (i.e. pagans).'”

By Raymond Ibrahim, Jihad Watch – “A six-year-old Coptic Christian boy was abducted in Egypt earlier this week, held for ransom, and then, after his family paid his ransom, was still murdered by his Muslim abductor—apparently because he feared being exposed. Cyril Yusuf Sa’d, the boy, was kidnapped by Ahmed Abdel Moneim Abdel-Salam, who demanded 30,000 pounds. But after receiving the money from the Christian boy’s family, instead of releasing his captive he killed him, and threw his body in the sewer system of his home.

According to the report, the boy’s ‘family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body into the toilet of his home, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed.’

Abducting and holding for ransom Christian children is on the rise on Egypt. In previous weeks two other Coptic boys—including an altar boy—were seized from right in front of their churches, as the war of attrition on the nation’s indigenous Christians continues.” Source – Jihad Watch.

Flashback Egypt:

‘Religious Cleansing’: More Than 100,000 Christians Are Violently Killed Every Year, And The Numbers Are Increasing

05/30/2013 1 comment

Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

By Cristina Corbin, Fox News – “A staggering 100,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith, according to the Vatican — and several human rights groups claim such anti-Christian violence is on the rise in countries like Pakistan, Nigeria and Egypt.

‘Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of some relation to their faith every year,’ Vatican spokesman Monsieur Silvano Maria Tomassi said Tuesday in a radio address to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

‘Other Christians and other believers are subjected to forced displacement, to the destruction of their places of worship, to rape and to the abduction of their leaders, as it recently happened in the case of Bishops Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, in Aleppo [Syria],’ Tomassi said.

While several human rights groups could not comment specifically on the Vatican’s number, organizations, like Persecution.Org, said the persecutions of Christians have been on the rise in places like Africa and the Middle East over the last decade.

‘Two-hundred million Christians currently live under persecution. It’s absolutely on the rise,’ Jeff King, the group’s president, told FoxNews.com.

‘It’s easing in the old Communist world and it’s rising in the Islamic world,’ King said, noting in particular countries like Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria. King said that the first major killing spree in recent years happened between 1998 and 2003, when he claims 10,000 Christians were murdered in Indonesia alone during those years.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Group: ‘Christianity Should Be Destroyed And Wiped From The Face Of The Earth’, It Is ‘Evil’ and ‘Demonic’ – “A Muslim group has released its plan to ‘wipe Christianity from the face of the earth,’ Islamize the West and establish an Islamic system of world government – placing those who resist ‘under a police state.’… ‘Islamic Power has returned upon the face of the earth and the Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity and there is nothing you can do about it,’ al-Mohammedi said. He makes his objective clear.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Bloody’: Christian Persecution is ‘Coursing Through Muslim-Majority Nations from One End of the Globe to the Other’ – “We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm…” Read more.

Unemployed And Christian In Egypt: ‘When I Apply To Any Job And They Know That I’m Christian, They Refuse Me’

05/30/2013 3 comments

Revelation 13:17, “… no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

WorldWatch Monitor – “It’s harder than ever to find a job in Egypt, where the unemployment rate has risen to a record 13 percent. For young Egyptians, the jobless rate is much higher.

For out-of-work Christians, finding a job can be especially tough. They are 10 to 12 percent of a country where Islam is the state religion. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party holds the highest offices in the government. When quarreling citizens arrive at legal loggerheads, the new constitution turns to Islamic law to resolve the impasse. In the streets, kidnappings for ransom are increasing and churches are often attacked and burned

At ground level, Egyptian Christians use a more personal language to describe their place in the economy. World Watch Monitor spoke with three Cairo Christians who are looking for work, and their comments are below. Each of them asked not to be photographed or identified in full. Publicly criticizing a system they view as favoring Muslims, they said, would only make the long odds against finding a job even longer.

  • Name: Not provided
  • Age: 37
  • Qualifications: Bachelor of Agriculture, Cairo University, 1998. Finished military service in 2000.
  • Personal: Married, one child

It was difficult to find work even before the 2011 popular uprising that forced President Hosni Mubarek out of office, he said…

‘I read the daily jobs advertising in the Egyptian newspapers to look for a job in my field. I applied for many governmental jobs but really I couldn’t get any one.

‘For example, one day I read a job advertising ‘Job contest’ in a newspaper related to my field. The Ministry of Agriculture was seeking agricultural engineers, and all the required qualifications like the age, degree, were very suitable for me to get this job. Really I was very qualified to get this job.

‘So I immediately went to the Ministry of Agriculture and filled in its job application and presented a copy of all my papers — qualification, birth, military service, identity card.

‘And they asked all the applicants to come after one month to see the result of the job contest. After one month I went to the Ministry and I looked at the paper of names, which was hung on the wall of the ministry building, but I didn’t find my name among them. All the names were Muslims names. There wasn’t any Christian name among them.‘” Read more.

Iran Hauls Off Christian Pastor, Shuts Down One Of The Nation’s Largest Churches In New Anti-Christian Sweep

05/29/2013 1 comment

Revelation 2:10, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer … Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Fox News – “Government agents shut down Iran’s largest Persian-language Pentecostal church Monday, just one week after one of its pastors was arrested and hauled away midway through a worship service.

The closing of Central Assemblies of God church in Tehran is the latest case of the Islamic Republic’s leadership cracking down on Christians ahead of the June 14 presidential election to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Leaders appear especially wary of groups deemed dangerous to their power base, including growing Christian churches, according to Iranian Christians and rights groups who spoke to BosNewsLife, a news agency that specializes in the plight of Christians in Middle Eastern nations.

‘These incidents appear to be an attempt to stop worship services from being conducted in Farsi, the language of the majority of Iranians,’ George Wood, general superintendent of the AoG in the U.S., told the service. ‘Services are allowed in Armenian, a minority language that most Iranians do not speak or even understand.’

On May 21, authorities grabbed Pastor Robert Asserian while services were under way. They have not told parishioners where he is being held.

‘Before going to the church, authorities raided Pastor Asserian’s home, where they confiscated a computer and several books,’ Wood said. ‘Then, they found Pastor Asserian at the church leading the prayer service, immediately arrested him and announced the church’s imminent closure.’

Christian groups fear a further erosion of what little tolerance of religious diversity has existed in Iran.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran Intensifies Violent Crackdown On Christians, Even Imprisoning Nursing Mothers For Being Non-Muslim – “Iran’s hard-line regime has intensified its violent crackdown on Christians and other religious minorities, even imprisoning nursing mothers for practicing their faith, according to a new UN report. The March report provides a rare, detailed view into the shocking treatment of Christians in Iran, where American Pastor Saeed Abedini is serving an eight-year sentence for his alleged work with Christians. ‘The persecution of Christians has increased,’ said Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s expert on human rights in Iran.” Read more.

Flashback: Unable To Buy Or Sell: Iran Refusing Business License For Convert To Christianity, Orders Businesses Not To Employ Christians – “Iranian authorities refuse to allow a young man to start his own company because he converted to Christianity and was previously detained on charges of ‘apostasy’, or ‘abandoning Islam’, Iranian Christians said Saturday, July 14. The Iranian Christian, who was not identified, had reportedly been trying to obtain a business license for ‘a technical company’ in northern Iran… Outside prison, government offices are reportedly ordered not to employ Christians and Christians have been deprived from high school or university education, or running their own schools, according to Iranians with close knowledge about the situation.” Read more.

Islam’s Rule Of Numbers: Islamic Beheadings Are Not Uncommon In The West, Including The U.S.

05/28/2013 2 comments

By Raymond Ibrahim, Fox News – “In London last week, two Muslim men shouting jihad’s ancient war-cry, ‘Allahu Akbar’ beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight.  They boasted of their crime in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped.

As surreal as this event may seem, Islamic beheadings are not uncommon in the West, including the U.S.

In 2011, a Pakistani-American who helped develop ‘Bridges TV’—a station ‘designed to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims’—beheaded his wife.

In Germany in 2012, another Muslim man beheaded his wife in front of their six children—again while hollering ‘Allahu Akbar.’

Beheading non-Muslim ‘infidels’ in the Islamic world is especially commonplace:

In Yemen a ‘sorceress’ was beheaded by the ‘Supporters of Sharia’;

In Indonesia, three Christian girls on their way to school were beheaded; in Syria last Christmas, U.S.-supported rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to the dogs;

In Africa—Somalia, Tanzania, Mali—Christians are regularly decapitated.  (For a comprehensive picture of Christian suffering under Islam, see my new book, ‘Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.’)

Most recently, a disturbing video surfaced from ‘liberated’ Libya of a machete-wielding masked man hacking at the head of a captive—again, to cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’

But the greater lesson of the London beheading concerns its audacity—done in broad daylight with the attackers boasting in front of cameras, as often happens in the Islamic world.

It reflects what I call ‘Islam’s Rule of Numbers,’ a rule that expresses itself with remarkable consistency:  The more Muslims grow in numbers, the more Islamic phenomena intrinsic to the Muslim world—in this case, brazen violence against ‘infidels’—appear.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Butchery Manifests In America With Muslim Immigrants, Muslim Man Beheads Two Christians In New Jersey – “Americans must ask themselves if Muslim-style ‘multiculturalism’ fits into the United States of America.  Can our country tolerate beheadings, be-handings, female genital mutilation, arranged marriages of 12 year old girls and murders of gays?  Before 1990, no American ever experienced the barbaric ritual of beheading a person… This week, the New York Daily News reported Islamic violence in Buena Vista, New Jersey: ‘Cops arrested Muslim Yusuf Ibrahim, 28, of Jersey City on Sunday after detectives found the bodies of the two men, aged 25 and 27, behind a home in Buena Vista Township. Their severed heads and hands were discovered at a separate burial site.” Read more.

Flashback: Obama Administration Paves The Way For Sharia Law In America – “The most terrifying danger Americans face from a second Barack Obama term isn’t the economy, which is scary enough. The most harrowing prospect is the Obama Administration’s passivity in the face of attempts to introduce aspects of sharia law into our legal system. Now there is strong and open evidence of the Obama administration collaborating with Islamist activists to ensure the path toward sharia law is accelerated.” Read more.

US-Backed Syrian Rebels Reportedly Massacre Christian Village, Including Women And Children

05/28/2013 9 comments

This is reported to have happened just one day before learning that Senator John McCain slipped across the Turkish border to meet with the very same rebel force in Syria. Yes, the same rebel fighters that Barack Obama is now preparing to arm with more lethal weapons …

By Ryan Keller, Examiner – “Members of the Free Syrian Army reportedly attacked the Christian-dominated al-Duvair village in Reef on the outskirts of Homs on Monday, where they massacred its citizens, including women and children, before the Syrian Army interfered.

This reported attack comes shortly after intense fighting in the city of al-Qusseir over the weekend, in which Bashar Al-Assad’s forces inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels.

Assad’s forces launched an offensive in April in an effort to cut off supply lines to the rebels by taking the city and its surrounding areas from the rebel groups that had been entrenched there since last year. Two weeks ago, the Syrian forces reached the center of the city

While the sources describing Monday’s massacre are supportive of Assad, it’s possible that it occurred since the rebel groups fighting the Assad regime are composed mainly of members of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda affiliated groups and have committed war crimes and atrocities in the past.

Jabhat al-Nusra, the branch of al-Qaeda that fought and killed American and allied troops in Iraq, have positioned themselves in Syria and control the rebel movement.

The U.S. and other Western governments that are backing the FSA have acknowledged the presence of jihadists but insist that they’re only a small part of the rebel movement. However, al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups have been at the front of the rebel movement since day one of the Syrian war that began two years ago. According to German intelligence, 95 percent of the rebels aren’t even Syrian.” Read more.

Flashback: Horror In Syria: ‘Free Syrian Army’ Rebels Executing Soldiers Were Reportedly Executing Christians – “Reports from Syria indicate members of the Free Syrian Army have started executing Christians while claiming they’re shooting Syrian soldiers. A video of a Nov. 1 attack in which black-clad Syrian rebels reportedly killed 28 men has been posted on Youtube.com. An Agence France-Presse story on the attack identified the victims as Syrian soldiers. But Religious Freedom Coalition President William Murray said two of the victims were associated with his cooperating organization in Syria, which distributes aid. The victims were not soldiers, he said, but civilians from the same neighborhood, ‘so they were all probably Christians.’” Read more.

Flashback: Syrian Rebels Pledge Their Allegiance To Al-Qaeda – “The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group’s behaviour in Syria would not change as a result. Al-Nusra claims to have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets… Debates among Western leaders over whether to arm Syria’s rebels have often raised the concern of weapons ending up in the hands of groups such as al-Nusra.” Read more.

Flashback: Syria: Obama Moving Toward Sending Lethal Weapons To Rebels While ‘Nowhere In Rebel-Controlled Syria Is There A Secular Fighting Force To Speak Of’ – “In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce. Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” Read more.

‘A Tragedy Beyond Description’: Syrian Christians ‘Exhausted’ From Islamic Persecution, Desperate Plight ‘Getting Bigger Day By Day’

05/27/2013 2 comments

Daniel 7:25a, “And he shall speak [great] words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws …”

Christian Today – “A Syrian Christian leader has spoken of the desperate plight of the church in the war-torn country.

Dr Mary Mikhael, of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria, said churches were being targeted in the conflict and that many Christians were being displaced.

As refugees, they lack adequate shelter, medicine, food supplies and ‘their human dignity’, she said.

Dr Mikhael was addressing commissioners at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland meeting in Edinburgh this week.

She said there was no Arab Spring for the people of Syria but ‘only a stormy dark winter’.

In particular, she expressed concern that there would soon be no Christian presence in the country. ‘The tragedy is getting bigger day by day … Now the big question is about our future.’

Syrian churches are stepping in to help meet the needs of displaced people but she warned that they are ‘exhausted’.

‘Pray with us, be in solidarity with our church, help us bring hope to Syria,’ she said.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Reverend Lorna Hood paused proceedings to give commissioners a moment to pray about the situation.

She prayed: ‘Help us to stand beside them, to offer not only our prayers but all we can do as a Church to support them, to be with them and somehow through the power of your Spirit, the power of your love and your peace, bring once again peace and an end of strife and hardship to that land through Christ our Lord, Amen.’

Former Moderator, the Very Reverend Professor Iain Torrance said the situation in Syria was a ‘tragedy that is beyond description’.” Read more.

California: Muslim Man Attempts Kidnapping Of 17-Year-Old Girl To Force Her Into Marriage

05/26/2013 6 comments

Kidnap a girl. Convert her to Islam. Rape her. Force her to marry you. If it was perfectly ok in the 7th century according to Islam’s own prophet, then it must be ok in the 21st, right? As Islam gains in power and influence, more and more Muslim men are beginning to view non-Muslim women, even in Western nations, as conquered and therefore “spoils of war” in accordance to the god of Islam …

Sura 33:50a, “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war…”

Al Rod Al Anf, Volume 2, Page 182: “You see [Allah] will soon make you inherit their land, their treasures and make you sleep with their women.” (The Words of Mohammed as Recorded by Ibn Hisham)

CBS Los Angeles – “SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A 29-year-old Orange County man is accused of trying to abduct a teenage girl out of an Aliso Viejo bookstore, authorities said Monday.

KNX 1070′s Mike Landa reports Saif Mohamed Moussa was arrested after the incident in a Barnes & Noble store at 26751 Aliso Creek Road around 2 p.m. Saturday.

A 17-year-old girl was shopping in the bookstore when Moussa wrapped her up in a bear hug and started walking her to the front door, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

‘He said he intended to marry her,’ Amormino said.

Before Moussa was able to exit the store with the victim, the girl broke free and located her father – an off-duty Orange County Sheriff’s deputy – at another location inside the store, said Amormino.” Read more.

Flashback: Pakistan: Increasing Number Of Christian Girls Kidnapped By Muslims, Raped, Forced To Convert To Islam – “In the recent months there have several reports about the ongoing persecution, kidnapping and abduction of the Christian women and girls in Pakistan. According to the news, a daughter of Morris Masih from Rawalpindi was kidnapped by Mohammad Abid and Tariq Ali. Morris Masih has asked the police to register a case against Abid and Ali and recover his daughter, but they have refused to register the case. In another case, in Faisalabad Christian Waris Masih’s wife was kidnapped, he has also reported it to the police, but they failed to give him any information about his wife.” Read more.

Flashback: Egypt: Thousands Of Christian Girls Being Kidnapped By Muslims, Forced Into Servitude, Marriage – “A new report from George Washington University professor Michele Clark and Coptic rights activist Nada Ghaly has argued that thousands of young Coptic Christian girls in Egypt are the victim of kidnapping and forced servitude by Muslims in the North African country… ‘Many are beaten; others are forced into domestic servitude. They are not allowed to leave where they are held without a member of their captor’s family keeping watch. They eventually are brainwashed into thinking the only way to be safe is to convert… While some conversions could be legitimate, overwhelming evidence points to abduction, forced marriage and coerced conversion persecuting the Coptic population.'” Read more.

Pakistan: More Than 250 Christian Families Driven From Homes By Angry Muslim Mobs Threatening To Set Fire To Entire Christian Village

05/23/2013 Leave a comment

By Fides via ICN – “More than 250 Christian families have been threatened and thrown out from their homes in the village Chak 31 in Khanewal district, in southern Punjab.

A report drawn up by two human rights groups said: ‘What happened in South Punjab reflects the increase of violence and abuses against religious minorities in Pakistan’ and ‘recalls the serious episode of the attack on Joseph Colony, a Christian area of Lahore, which happened two months ago’.

In the aftermath of the recent elections, the ‘Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’ and ‘Organization for Development and Peace’ have launched an urgent appeal ‘to all parties: politics, political parties, civil society, religious organizations, in order to operate actively to mitigate religious intolerance and promote social cohesion.’

The appeal was launched ‘in the interests of the country and not only for the protection of the rights of minorities.’ Each of the families put to flight by Islamic extremists had about six people, therefore at the moment the faithful without a home are more than 1,500. The escape was the solution chosen to avoid a massacre.

The episode started with a ‘provocation’. About 15 days ago, some Muslims accused a Christian businessman, Asher Yaqoob, owner of a small grocery store, and his Christian customers of having disrespectful attitudes towards Islam, inciting the faithful of the nearby village, ‘Chak 30’ , all Muslims.

Christians called the police, but a police officer, instead of protecting them, became the leader of a crowd of 60 Muslims who began to beat anyone they encountered and started destroying homes and shops. Clashes followed and one man was shot and killed. At the news of the death, the crowd threatened a mass attack and set fire to the entire village. The Christian families had no choice but to flee immediately. In the clashes 20 Christians were arrested by the police. The two organizations – the HRCP and ODP reported everything to the police in Multan and have asked the intervention of the civil and religious authorities to restore peace between the two villages.” Source – ICN.

Flashback: Pakistan Islamists: ‘You Christians Have Offended Our Prophet, We Will Kill You All!’ – “Christians in Pakistan are the target of violence on behalf of Islamic extremists who pour out on them feelings of anger and revenge… Protestant Bishop Naeem Samuel, of the ‘Trinity Evangelical Church Prayer’, was attacked yesterday, as he was leaving the church in Youhanaabad, a suburb of Lahore (Punjab province), where about 10 thousand Christian families live. Three men stopped him and started insulting him with phrases like: ‘You Christians have offended our Prophet, we will kill you all!’” Read more.

‘Burn Their Homes To The Ground!’: Pakistani Cleric Calls Upon Muslims To Violently Attack Christians Over Mosque Loudspeakers

05/21/2013 Leave a comment

For peaceful purposes …

Christian Today – “A Muslim political candidate suspected of murdering a Christian has instigated calls from mosque loudspeakers for attacks on Christians, whom he blames for his May 11 election loss.

Tensions were high in Punjab Province’s Okara district after provincial assembly seat candidate Mehr Abdul Sattar, sought by police in connection with a 2008 murder, on May 13 arranged for mosque calls for violence against Christian villages.

‘Burn their homes to the ground … Punish them such that they forget Gojra and Joseph Colony,’ blared village mosques in the district, according to Younas Iqbal, chairman of the Anjuman-e-Mazareen Punjab, a peasant movement fighting for land rights.

Iqbal told Morning Star News by phone that that when unofficial election results were announced on May 12, Sattar’s supporters ambushed a convoy of about 100 Christians on their way to congratulate his opponent on his victory.

‘They destroyed two motorcycles and threw them in the canal, besides damaging a tractor,’ Iqbal said. ‘We went to the Okara Saddar Police Station to register a case, but the police officials refused to move against Mehr.’

Recent religious furor has been easily stoked in Pakistan. In Lahore on March 9, about 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians in Joseph Colony, destroying 175 homes, after rumors spread of an alleged remark against Islam by a Christian. In Gojra in 2009, eight Christians were burned alive, 100 houses looted and 50 homes set ablaze after a blasphemy accusation.” Read more.

Flashback: Christians In Pakistan Told To Convert To Islam Or Leave, ‘Otherwise They Will Face Consequences’ – “Last Sunday when Church service was over, more than dozen Muslim criminals gathered in front of Church and started harassing Christian girls who were leaving after services. Ahmed Bhatti and Muslim home owners of area ordered their Christians tenants to convert to Islam otherwise vacate their properties. They have vacated some shops that were run by Christians. One Christian man had his Gospel music on in the shop; they beat him up and kicked him out from that shop on gunpoint. Ahmed Bhatti on his microphone was shouting, ‘I am giving Christians this invitation to convert to Islam otherwise they will face consequences’ while announcement was made gathering of Muslims were raising Islamic Slogans.” Read more.

Flashback: Pakistan: Christians Forced To Flee Into The Wilderness To Escape Islamic Persecution – “In the middle of a forest in the Pakistani capital, a group of Christians has cut down trees to clear land and has begun to build a church out of branches after leaving their neighborhood in fear when one of their own was accused of violating Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws. The roughly 100 men, women and children who slept overnight on the ground in a clearing just a few miles (kilometers) from the seat of the Pakistani government are fallout from the case of a young Christian girl accused by a neighbor of burning pages from Islam’s holy book, the Quran.” Read more.