OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SUPPRESSES TALK OF MUSLIM PERSECUTIONS
Gatestone Institute
July 14 2014
Muslim Persecution of Christians, March 2014
by Raymond Ibrahim July 14, 2014 at 5:00 am
Why is the U.S. downplaying or denying attacks against Christians?
“What about the churches which were desecrated? Is this not blasphemy?
Where is justice?” — Fr. James Channan OP, Director of The Peace
Center, Lahore, Pakistan.
Members of the Islamic group al-Shabaab publicly beheaded the mother
of two girls, ages 8 and 15, and her cousin after discovering they were
Christians. The girls “were witnesses to the slaughter.” — Somalia.
“Christian teaching is extremely harmful to the mental health of the
people.” — Kazakhstan.
Five years’ imprisonment and up to $20,000 in fines for educators if
they…speak to a Muslim child of religions other than Islam. — Brunei
Along with an especially jarring list of atrocities committed against
Christian minorities throughout the Islamic world, March also saw
some callous indifference or worse from the U.S. government.
President Barack Obama was criticized by human rights activists
for not addressing the plight of Christians and other minorities
during his talks with leaders in Saudi Arabia, where Christianity is
actively banned.
According to the Washington-based International Christian Concern
[ICC] advocacy group, Obama did not “publicly broach the subject of
religious freedom” when he spoke on March 28 with Saudi King Abdullah,
despite a letter from 70 members of Congress urging him to “address
specific human rights reforms” both in public and in direct meetings
with the king and other officials.
“This visit was an excellent opportunity for the president to speak
up on an issue that affects millions of Saudi citizens and millions
more foreign workers living in Saudi Arabia,” said Todd Daniels, ICC’s
Middle East regional manager. He added that it was “remarkable that
the president could stay completely silent about religious freedom,”
despite pressure from Congress “to publicly address the issue, as
well as other human rights concerns, with King Abdullah…”
U.S. officials reportedly responded by saying that “Obama had not
had time to raise concerns about the kingdom’s human rights record.”
Separately, after the United States Institute for Peace [USIP] brought
together the governors of Nigeria’s mostly Muslim northern states for a
conference in the U.S., the State Department, citing “administrative”
problems, blocked the visa of the region’s only Christian governor,
Jonah David Jang, an ordained minister. The USIP confirmed that all
19 northern governors were invited, but the organization did not
respond to requests for comments on why it would hold talks without
the region’s only Christian governor.
According to Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer based
in Washington, the Christian governor’s “visa problems” are due
to anti-Christian bias in the U.S. government: “The U.S. insists
that Muslims are the primary victims of Boko Haram. It also claims
that Christians discriminate against Muslims in Plateau, which is
one of the few Christian majority states in the north. After [Jang,
the Christian governor] told them [U.S. authorities] that they were
ignoring the 12 Shariah states who [sic] institutionalized persecution
… he suddenly developed visa problems… The question remains–why
is the U.S. downplaying or denying the attacks against Christians?”
March’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world
includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed
by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according
to severity.
The Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: During pro-Muslim Brotherhood riots, a young Coptic woman
named Mary was murdered–simply because her cross identified her
as a Christian to Brotherhood rioters. According to an eyewitness
who discussed the entire event on the Egyptian program 90 Minutes,
Mary Sameh George was parking by the church to deliver medicine to an
elderly woman: “Once they saw that she was a Christian [because of the
cross hanging on her rear view mirror], they jumped on top of the car,
to the point that the vehicle was no longer visible. The roof of the
car collapsed in. When they realized that she was starting to die,
they pulled her out of the car and started pounding on her and pulling
her hair–to the point that portions of her hair and scalp came off.
They kept beating her, kicking her, stabbing her with any object
or weapon they could find…. Throughout [her ordeal] she tried to
protect her face, giving her back to the attackers, till one of them
came and stabbed her right in the back, near the heart, finishing her
off. Then another came and grabbed her by the hair, shaking her head,
and with the other hand slit her throat. Another pulled her pants off,
to the point that she was totally naked.”
Nigeria: A Muslim father allegedly slaughtered or had someone
else slaughter his daughter with a machete, wounding a pastor and
four others in the attack, because she had earlier converted to
Christianity. According to police reports, “the suspect allegedly
sneaked into the church premises and inflicted machete cuts on the
four persons,” which seriously wounded them and killed his daughter.
Before that, the father had threatened his daughter to return to Islam
or else, and she had taken refuge in the church. Police did not make
clear if it was the father or an accomplice who committed the assault.
Separately, Muslim Fulani herdsmen launched another night raid into a
Christian majority region. They massacred over 150 people, including
a pastor, his wife and children; around 200 homes were torched. A
surviving eyewitness said there were about 40 attackers, armed with
knives, guns and other unidentifiable equipment. They came in the
night, set fire to the homes, and burned dozens of Christians alive:
“Those that tried to escape were butchered or gun down.”
Pakistan: “A young Christian girl was killed by the Pakistani Taliban
in the northern region of Pakistan,” reported Agenzia Fide: “The girl
had spent a few months on the run and in hiding with her cousin,
a Muslim who converted to Christianity a few years ago. Since the
conversion, the man is considered an ‘apostate’ and since then he
has been the target of the Taliban. In past days, some militants
discovered where the two were hiding: the girl in the escape was
reached by a bullet and was killed, while the man managed to escape.”
Somalia: Members of the militant Islamic group, al-Shabaab, publicly
beheaded a mother of two girls and her cousin after discovering
they were Christians. According to local sources, the Islamists
“called residents to the town center to witness the executions of the
41-year-old mother, Sadia Ali Omar, and her 35-year-old cousin, Osman
Mohamoud Moge.” Before slaughtering the two women, an al-Shabaab member
announced, “We know these two people are Christians who recently came
back from Kenya–we want to wipe out any underground Christian living
inside of mujahidin [jihadi] area.” The two daughters of one of the
women, ages 8 and 15, “were witness to the slaughter, sources said,
with the younger girl screaming and shouting for someone to save
her mother. A friend helped the girls, whose names are withheld, to
relocate to another area.” She said, “We are afraid that the al-Shabaab
might continue monitoring these two children and eventually kill them
just like their mother.”
Attacks on Christian Churches
Egypt: After countless death sentences were handed out to convicted
Muslim Brotherhood members, their supporters protested and rioted
in the streets. According to Spero News, “Violence spilled over from
demonstrations in the Cairo suburb of Ain Shams when Muslim protesters
attacked a Coptic Orthodox Christian church on March 28. Four people
were killed in the attack on the church… Among the dead are a
25-year-old journalist and a Coptic Christian worshipper. When Egyptian
security forces intervened, violence spread throughout the surrounding
neighborhood. Muslim radicals are frequently whipped up into frenzy
by their religious leaders on Fridays when they gather for prayer.”
Kenya: During Sunday worship service, two heavily-armed gunmen
entered the Joy in Jesus Church in Mombasa–a region which according
to authorities has a mosque with ties to the Somali Islamic terrorist
group al-Shabaab. The gunmen “sprayed the congregation with bullets,
killing at least seven Christians and leaving several others in
critical condition,” including the assistant pastor, according to the
Morning Star News. The newspaper continues: “As the attackers fled Joy
in Jesus Church, a box holding 26 bullets dropped outside the church”
– an act indicating that they intended even more carnage. According
to one church leader, “We, as the church, feel that what happened is
a retaliation for the attack [by police] that took place in Masjid
Musa Mosque recently. When the Muslims are attacked, there is a false
generalization that the Christians are the ones doing it. We as the
church became a scapegoat for the recent attack on the mosque.” (This
logic is similar to the barrage of church attacks the Coptic Christians
of Egypt suffered after the Muslim Brotherhood and former president
Morsi were ousted during the June 30 revolution.
Pakistan: One day after Christians placed a cross on a
partially-constructed church that was being built on a fellow
Christian’s land, a Muslim mob “damaged the building and the land
by ploughing the ground with the help of a tractor” and “desecrated”
the cross according to the Express Tribune. The chairman of the Human
Liberation Commission Pakistan added that “the Christian community
was not protected in Pakistan and that they face discrimination at
every level.” Discussing this incident, Agenzia Fides reported that
“when a large group of Islamic extremists saw the Christian symbol
[the cross] they arrived unexpectedly with bulldozers and started
demolishing the building. … the perpetrators were not arrested,
thanks to the political clout they have. Christians in the neighborhood
who have asked for protection to civil authorities, on the other hand
have received threats and have to abandon the idea of the project to
build a church.”
Uganda: In the predominantly Muslim districts of the Christian-majority
nation, “Islamic extremists burned down two church buildings of the
Free Church of Christ in February and the home of a church leader”
in March, as reported by the Morning Star News. Bishop James Kinyewa,
47, said: “While I was preaching, I heard loud noise, people saying,
‘Fire! Fire!’ coming from nearby neighbors.” He went on to say that he
found “rowdy Muslim youths with clubs and machetes” who prevented him
and others from trying to put out the fire from his house. “They were
shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar’ [Allah is greater].” he said. “Now the same
militant group is hunting for my life. My family and I are now hiding
ourselves, homeless and waiting for God’s intervention.” Everything
inside the two razed church buildings, which served 240 people,
was destroyed. “My church members have no place to worship,” the
bishop said.
Attacks on Christian Freedom: Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
Brunei: A new penal code in the Muslim-majority nation threatens school
principals and schoolteachers with five years’ imprisonment and up to
$20,000 in fines if they teach or speak to a Muslim child of religions
other than Islam. (Future punishments may include amputation and
execution.) According to the new law, based on Sharia, or Islamic law,
it is a crime “to persuade, influence, incite, encourage a child with
non- Islamic teaching.” It is also a crime to “expose the child to any
ceremony or act of worship which is not Islamic or allow the child to
participate in activities for the benefit of other religions.” The
new law is of especial concern to private Christian schools, which
Muslim students also attend.
Iran: Vahid Hakkani, a Christian man who was imprisoned and sentenced
to 44 months in jail, after being found guilty of “attending a
house-church, spreading Christianity, having contact with foreign
[Christian] ministries” and “disrupting national security,” began a
hunger strike in prison to protest the rejection of his conditional
release appeal by the Revolutionary Court, despite concerns for his
health. Far from rethinking his sentence, according to his family,
“prison authorities will transfer him to solitary confinement because
he refuses to stop his hunger strike.”
Separately, eight more Christians were detained, blindfolded, and
interrogated by security forces for their “Christian activities,”
said rights activists. Some members of the group had their personal
items, including cell phones, confiscated.
Kazakhstan: Christian preaching is “extremely harmful to mental
health of the people”: such was the ruling of a law court which led
to the sentencing of a Christian pastor, Bakhytzhan Kashkumayev, to
four years in prison. According to Agenzia Fides, “the [67-year-old]
Pastor, who is responsible for the Grace Church in the Kazak capital
Astana was found guilty of ‘causing serious mental disorder’ to a
presumed victim Lyazzat Almenova. The Pastor will also have to pay a
heavy fine … for the ‘moral damage’ inflicted.” The pastor’s lawyer
said that this is one of the “strangest cases he has ever come across,
in terms of legality.”
Pakistan: Sawan Masih, accused of blaspheming, has been sentenced
to death at a hearing held in his prison cell, “out of fears that
Masih might be attacked on his way to court.” In March 2013, after
Masih, a Christian, was accused of maligning the prophet of Islam,
he was arrested by police. Even after his arrest, thousands of Muslims
attacked Christian colonies, and burned churches and homes. Christians
who protested were attacked by the police. To this day, not one of
the thousands of rampaging Muslims has been convicted.
Separately, two other Christians, a paralyzed, sickly man and his
wife, also accused of “blasphemy via sms”–that is, blaspheming via
text messaging–remained in prison. According to “World Vision in
Progress,” the “judges of the High Court were initially convinced of
what was said by the defense. But after pressure from Muslim religious
leaders and the threats of extremists in Gojra, the judges denied bail,
saying the case will be completed within two months. Radical Muslims
had already threatened defense lawyers many times.” Concerning the
aforementioned Christian man sentenced to death, Fr. James Channan OP,
Director of the Peace Center in Lahore, Pakistan, said the following:
“It was a dispute over a matter concerning property. But the Muslim
took advantage, finding a shortcut and accused Sawan of blasphemy. The
whole world knows what happened next. Over 100 Christian homes of
Joseph Colony, a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, were destroyed, 2
churches burned, Bibles desecrated and Crosses destroyed by an angry
mob of more than 3,000 fanatics. The Christians of Joseph Colony
still live in danger and fear that the mob might attack again at
any time. … After Sawan’s death sentence, I ask myself: where is
justice? Why is nothing done against these innocent Christians who
have been attacked and have lost their possessions?
What about the churches which were desecrated, Bibles burned and
crosses destroyed? Is this not blasphemy?”
Uganda: When a 23-year-old Muslim woman converted to Christianity and
a neighbor informed her father, “My father began beating me with clubs
and blows, and I started screaming in great pain,” she said. “While I
was down on the floor bleeding, my father went looking for a knife to
kill me. A neighbor named Saleem arrived and helped me escape.” She
found lodging from a nearby church and was taken to a hospital the
next day.
Dhimmitude
Bangladesh: The home of a Catholic family was torched and destroyed
during the night, and the culprits, according to residents, “could
be Islamic fundamentalists.” The family, two women and two children,
managed to escape the blaze. According to one of the women, “Three
days before the fire we saw some people unknown to us behind our
house. They asked around if we were Christians. We feel that this
attack was premeditated by them. We have lost in [sic] everything,
including our Bible and the crucifix. All we have left are the
cloth[e]s on our backs.” A local priest adds: “This is an attack
against the minority, and could be the hands of Islamic extremists.
They are very powerful in the area.”
Iraq: A Christian politician and member of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement “denounced some officials of the Nineveh province after
collecting documented evidence on the corrupt system where many
properties–land and houses–belonging to Christians change hands in
an illegal and secret manner, without any mandate on behalf of their
legitimate owners.” He also called on Iraqi Christians who fled their
homeland to check the status of the property they left in Iraq and
reaffirm their full rights to them.
Pakistan: A March report by Agenzia Fides offers a glimpse of the
endemic rape and sexual abuse of Christian girls at the hands of
Muslims: “The rape of girls belonging to religious minorities is
a very common phenomenon in Pakistan. Christian women are a prime
target, because the most vulnerable and defenseless. The majority of
cases are not even reported to the police and, when it happens, the
perpetrators of violence often go unpunished. The Christian community
is still shocked by the recent case of Sumbal, a 5-year-old Christian
girl, raped by a group of Muslim men on a street in Lahore. …
Another recent case … concerns a Muslim man from Lahore who attempted
to rape two Christian girls, sisters, aged 1 and 3. … A few months
ago another case aroused indignation: that of a 9-year-old Christian
girl who suffered a gang rape by three young Muslims.
Violence against children are [sic] committed with ease, explains
a source of Fides that assists victims, especially because the
perpetrators remain unpunished: injustice fuels the vicious cycle of
violence. In 2004, a case that caused uproar around the world was
the brutal rape of a-two-year old child Neha Munir, raped because
her father, Munir Masih, a Christian, refused to convert to Islam.”
Syria: Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic jihadis crossed into Syrian territory
over the Turkish border and launched an attack on the Christian
Armenian town of Kessab. Among other acts, “Snipers targeted the
civilian population and launched mortar attacks on the town and
the surrounding villages.” Reportedly eighty people were killed. The
jihadis later made a video touring the devastated town. No translation
is needed, as the main phrase shouted throughout is Islam’s triumphant
war cry, “Allahu Akbar.” About two-thousand Armenians were evacuated
to neighboring areas. While occupying Kessab, the jihadi terrorists
desecrated the town’s three Armenian churches.
Jihadists pose in the deserted streets of the Christian Armenian
town of Kessab, Syria, after conquering it and reportedly killing 80
people. (Image source: Salma Media Center YouTube video)
Turkey: Five men held in prison as suspects in the 2007 “Malatya
Massacre”–when three Christian missionaries were tortured to
death–were released. The five walked free from their high-security
prison because their time in detention while still on trial exceeded
new legal limits. “It is deeply disturbing to hear that the five
men responsible for these brutal murders have been freed on bail,
including three who were arrested at the crime scene,” said Christian
Solidarity Worldwide’s chief executive Mervyn Thomas. “We urge the
Turkish authorities to take every necessary measure to ensure they
remain in the country to face justice, which has been exceedingly
long in coming. This trial has been ongoing for six years with
no indication of a conclusion in the near future. Our thoughts and
prayers are with the families and friends of the victims, to whom the
release of these men has dealt yet another blow, no doubt leaving
them with a deepening sense of uncertainty as to whether they will
ever see justice for their loved ones. For their sakes, the Turkish
authorities must ensure that justice is served as a matter of urgency.”
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of
Christians is expanding. “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was
developed to collate some–by no means all–of the instances of
persecution that surface each month.
It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.
It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and
takes place in all languages ethnicities and locations.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New
War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone
Institute, April 2013).
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4400/obama-muslim-persecutions