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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Christian</title>
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		<title>Only Muslim Schoolchildren Lives Matter?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/only-muslim-schoolchildren-lives-matter/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=only-muslim-schoolchildren-lives-matter</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2014 05:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The world heard about the Peshawar school attack, but many attacks on Christian schools go unreported by MSM.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/4973928-3x2-700x467.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-248284" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/4973928-3x2-700x467-450x300.jpg" alt="4973928-3x2-700x467" width="321" height="214" /></a>Earlier we looked at “<a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">how Western mainstream media enable Islamic terrorism</span></a>,” specifically by employing an arsenal of semantic games, key phrases, convenient omissions, and moral relativism to portray such violence as a product of anything and everything—political and historical grievances, “Islamophobia,” individual insanity, poverty and ignorance, territorial disputes—not Islam.</p>
<p>Another strategy that recently came to the fore consists of highlighting Islamic terror attacks that target other Muslims.  The logic here is clear:  How “Islamic” can such Islamic groups be if they attack and kill fellow Muslims?  In other words, whatever the motivation, it surely cannot be Islam, since those being killed are themselves Muslims.  This suggests that the terrorists themselves cannot be true Muslims since Muslims are generally forbidden by Islam to kill other Muslims (caveats exist).</p>
<p>A recent example of this is the December 16 Taliban attack on an army public school in Peshawar, where 145 people were killed, the majority being schoolchildren age 18 and under.   This incident was reported all over the mainstream media, and rightfully so.</p>
<p>Yet this begs the question: why do similar attacks, when directed at non-Muslims—especially Christians—rarely if ever get the same sort of media coverage?</p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/47-youngsters-killed-at-Christian-school-in-Nigeria-while-Christians-in-Mubi-forced-to-flee-after-Boko-Haram-renames-it-City-of-Islam.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Nigeria</span></a> on November 10,</p>
<blockquote><p>A suicide bomb attack in a Christian secondary school in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, north-eastern <a href="https://barnabasfund.org/US/Our-work/Our-current-projects/BF-Project-Countries/Nigeria.html?"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Nigeria</span></a>, has killed at least 47 people on Monday as the students gathered for morning assembly. Boko Haram is thought to be behind the blast, having carried out several attacks on schools giving a Western-style education. Translated from Hausa, Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” of which this latest school attack is a stark reminder.</p></blockquote>
<p>Earlier in the year in Nigeria “Boko Haram claimed the lives of <a href="http://www.romereports.com/pg155924-nearly-60-students-at-christian-school-killed-in-boko-haram-attack-in-nigeria-en"><span style="color: #0433ff;">59 students</span></a> at a Christian school &#8230;  Some 50 men ambushed the school, then beat and shot staff and students. Once finished, they set fire to the buildings, with many students still inside. It&#8217;s the fourth attack of its kind since May of last year.”</p>
<p>On October 1 in Syria, at least 41 Alawite children—all under 12—were <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=b6wwv3c5aa80706194262ab5ce81131ace25c#bookmark=http://www.fides.org/en/news/36468-ASIA_SYRIA_Massacre_of_children_in_Homs_three_Christians_kidnapped_in_the_province_of_Hassake"><span style="color: #0433ff;">killed</span></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The massacre was one of the most severe in terms of children who died since the beginning of the conflict in Syria. According to official Syrian sources, a car bomb and a suicide bomber caused two explosions when the children came out of school, in the suburb of Akrameh inhabited mainly by Alawites, with the targeted intention to cause the highest number possible of deaths among children of the same religious community to which the Assad family belong.</p></blockquote>
<p>Here is the testimony of an eyewitness to another Islamic attack on a Christian school in Syria, where 12 people—mostly children—were <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/world/43540-god-is-here-but-i-am-getting-so-tired-syrian-christian-mother-mourns-killing-of-children-from-bombings"><span style="color: #0433ff;">killed</span></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I want to tell you about Tuesday. It was a terrible day. We cried and prayed all day. Tuesday they were bombing Bab Touma, the old city of Damascus. A lot of Christians live there. There is also a Christian school—a private one. We know a lot of people in that school. Some children from our area also go to school there. When those kids went to school on Tuesday, gathered at the square like they always do, a mortar fell in their midst. Some friends passed by the school and saw that parents and teachers were carrying their wounded children out of the school, dripping with blood. They saw them running to the hospitals in panic. For me, as a mother and a teacher, I can hardly bear to imagine what these people must be going through right now.  Twelve people lost their lives in that school, most of them children from the elementary school. Many more of them have lost arms and legs or have other injuries.</p></blockquote>
<p>As for Islamic attacks on Christian schools that do not lead to casualties, these are quite common.  Thus, on November 5 in Bangladesh, hundreds of Muslims, some armed with knives and machetes, attacked a Christian school.  <a href="https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2014/11/article_3500298.html/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">They</span></a> torched its library, burned Bibles and hymnals, and committed other wanton acts of violence.  According to a source, “A wave of panic swept through the school and traumatized everyone. Many students became sick in the following days.”  The reason for this particular attack?  <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/islamists-project-islams-worst-traits-onto-christians/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslim projection</span></a>: a rumor started that the Christian school was converting Muslim students to Christianity.</p>
<p>How many of those Western people who could not help but hear about the Peshawar attack—considering its widespread coverage—also heard about these Islamic attacks on schools some of which also took large numbers of children lives?  Not very many, I would wager.</p>
<p>The reason, again, is obvious: reporting Muslims killing Muslims does not contradict the mainstream media’s narrative but ostensibly enforces it.  For—so the simple logic goes—Muslims who kill fellow Muslims cannot be “real” Muslims to start with, and must in fact be, as Western politicians habitually characterize them, mere “criminals.”</p>
<p>Thus, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan issued a <a href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?adbid=545215646309416960&amp;adbpl=tw&amp;adbpr=66369181&amp;cid=social_20141217_37458137&amp;id=123838"><span style="color: #0433ff;">statement</span></a> condemning the Peshawar attack, adding, “The barbaric actions of the Taliban illustrate their lack of value for human life and lack of respect for the Islamic faith. These attacks only prove their selfish desire for power and willingness to murder to reach their self-serving goals.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, it is more difficult for the media to dissemble the motives of Muslims who intentionally target and kill “the other”—outnumbered and defenseless “infidel” minorities—simply because <i>they are</i> “the other.”</p>
<p>Whether small numbers or large—whether <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/islam-built-on-the-blood-of-christian-martyrs/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">four children decapitated for refusing to renounce Christ</span></a> or whether <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/largest-massacre-of-christians-in-syria-ignored/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the largest massacre of Christians in Syria</span></a>—Muslim persecution of Christians will rarely if ever get MSM coverage, for it <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/why-christian-persecution-is-islams-achilles-heel/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">throws a wrench</span></a> in the media’s narrative that Islamic violence is a product of anything and everything but <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-ultimate-source-of-islamic-hate-for-infidels/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Islamic hate for non-Muslims</span></a>.</p>
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		<title>How Western Media Enable Islamic Terrorism</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-western-media-enable-islamic-terrorism</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Dec 2014 05:45:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247768</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The same lies and distortions shielding Islam “over there” have come “over here.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/la-epa-egypt-unrest2-jpg-20130819.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247776" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/la-epa-egypt-unrest2-jpg-20130819-450x300.jpg" alt="la-epa-egypt-unrest2-jpg-20130819" width="315" height="210" /></a>If the West is experiencing a rise in the sort of terror attacks that are endemic to the Islamic world—<a href="http://www.wthr.com/story/26416131/2014/08/31/3-columbus-churches-vandalized-with-graffiti-overnight"><span style="color: #0433ff;">church attacks</span></a>, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslims-sexually-enslaving-children-a-global-phenomenon/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">sex-slavery</span></a> and <a href="http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/isis-plot-to-behead-people-on-uk-streets-disrupted-after-police-arrest-four-islamic-terrorists-in-london/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">beheadings</span></a>—it was only natural that the same mainstream media that habitually conceals such atrocities, especially against Christians and other minorities under Islam, would also conceal the reality of jihadi aspirations on Western soil.</p>
<p>As The <a href="http://www.thecommentator.com/article/5433/australia_tragicomic_west_stresses_danger_of_islamophobia"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Commentator</span></a> reports:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]he level of the [media] grovelling after the tragic and deadly saga in Sydney Australia over the last 24 hours has been astounding.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-30490696"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the lead story on the BBC website</span></a> is of course about that very tragedy, in which an Islamist fanatic took a random group hostage in a cafe, ultimately killing two of them.</p>
<p>He did this in the name of Islam. But you wouldn&#8217;t get that impression if you started to read the BBC&#8217;s lead story, which astoundingly managed to avoid mentioning the words Islam, Islamic, Islamist, Muslim, or any derivations thereof for a full 16 paragraphs. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/world/asia/sydney-australia-hostages.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">The New York Times</span></a>, which led by calling the terrorist, Man Haron Monis an &#8220;armed man&#8221;, waited until paragraph 11.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/15/sydney-siege-ends-police-storm-lindt-cafe-hostages-run-out"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Guardian&#8217;s main story</span></a> &#8211; whose lead paragraph simply referred to a &#8220;gunman&#8221; &#8212; you had to wait until paragraph 24.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d have blinked, you&#8217;d have missed it.</p>
<p>….</p>
<p>In the wider media, reports about Muslim fears of a &#8220;backlash&#8221; have been all but ubiquitous.</p></blockquote>
<p>If these are the lengths that Western mainstream media go to dissemble about the Islamic-inspired slaughter of Western peoples, it should now be clear why the ubiquitous Muslim persecution of those unfashionable Christian minorities is also practically unknown by those who follow Western mainstream media.</p>
<p>As with the Sydney attack, media headlines say it all. The 2011 New Year’s Eve Coptic church attack that left 28 dead appeared under vague headlines: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/world/middleeast/04egypt.html?_r=0"><span style="color: #0433ff;">“Clashes grow as Egyptians remain angry after attack,”</span></a> was the <i>New York Times</i>’ headline; and “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102697.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christians clash with police in Egypt after attack on churchgoers kills 21</span></a>” was the <i>Washington Post</i>’s—as if frustrated and harried Christians lashing out against their oppressors is the “big news,” not the unprovoked atrocity itself; as if their angry reaction “evens” everything up.</p>
<p>Similarly, the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> partially told the story of an Egyptian off-duty police officer who, after <a href="http://www1.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Egypt-Christian-shot-dead-and-several-others-injured-in-train-attack_311526616347.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">identifying Copts by their crosses</span></a> on a train, opened fire on them, killing one, while screaming “Allahu Akbar”—but to exonerate the persecution, as caught by the report’s headline: <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-eyewitness-claims-train-attacker-did-not-target-copts-state-media-say.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">“Eyewitness claims train attacker did not target Copts, state media say.”</span></a></p>
<p>A February 2012 NPR report titled “<a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/147370689/in-egypt-christian-muslim-tension-is-on-the-rise"><span style="color: #0433ff;">In Egypt, Christian-Muslim Tension is on the Rise</span></a>,” while meant to familiarize readers with the situation of Egypt’s Christians, prompts more questions than answers them: “In Egypt, growing tensions between Muslims and Christians have led to sporadic violence [initiated by whom?]. Many Egyptians blame the interreligious strife on hooligans [who?] taking advantage of absent or weak security forces. Others believe it’s because of a deep-seated mistrust between Muslims and the minority Christian community [what are the sources of this “mistrust”?].”</p>
<p>The photo accompanying the story is of angry Christians holding a cross aloft—not Muslims destroying crosses, which is what prompted the former to this display of Christian solidarity.</p>
<p>Blurring the line between victim and oppressor—recall the fear of “<a href="http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2014/12/new-fbi-hate-crime-stats-another-blow-to-islamist"><span style="color: #0433ff;">anti-Muslim backlashes</span></a>” whenever a Muslim terrorizes “infidels” in the West—also applies to the media’s reporting on Muslim persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>A February 2012 <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17169935"><span style="color: #0433ff;">BBC report</span></a> on a church attack in Nigeria that left three Christians dead, including a toddler, objectively states the bare bone facts in one sentence.  Then it jumps to apparently the <i>really</i> big news: that “the bombing sparked a riot by Christian youths, with reports that at least two Muslims were killed in the violence. The two men were dragged off their bikes after being stopped at a roadblock set up by the rioters, police said. A row of Muslim-owned shops was also burned…”</p>
<p>The report goes on and on, with an entire section about “very angry” Christians till one confuses victims with persecutors, forgetting what the Christians are “very angry” about in the first place: nonstop terror attacks on their churches and the slaughter of their women and children.</p>
<p>A <i>New York Times</i> report that appeared on December 25, 2011—the day after Boko Haram bombed several churches during Christmas Eve services, leaving some 40 dead—said that such church bombings threaten “to exploit the already frayed relations between Nigeria’s nearly evenly split populations of Christians and Muslims…”  Such an assertion suggests that both Christians and Muslims are equally motivated by religious hostility—even as one seeks in vain for Christian terror organizations that bomb mosques in Nigeria to screams of “Christ is Great!”</p>
<p>Indeed, Boko Haram has <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nigeria-boko-haram-torch-185-churches-captured-towns-borno-adamawa-1468763"><span style="color: #0433ff;">torched 185 churches</span></a>—to say nothing of the countless Christians beheaded—in just the last few months alone.</p>
<p>Continuing to grasp for straws, the same NYT report suggests that the Nigerian government’s “heavy-handed” response to Boko Haram is responsible for its terror, and even manages to invoke another mainstream media favorite: the poverty-causes-terrorism myth.</p>
<p>Whether Muslim mayhem is taking place in the Islamic or Western worlds, the mainstream media shows remarkable consistency in employing an arsenal of semantic games, key phrases, convenient omissions, and moral relativism to portray such violence as a product of anything and everything—political and historical grievances, “Islamophobia,” individual insanity, poverty and ignorance, territorial disputes—not Islam.</p>
<p>As such, Western mainstream media keep Western majorities in the dark about the Islamic threat, here and abroad.  Thus the “MSM” protects and enables the Islamic agenda—irrespective of whether its distortions are a product of intent, political correctness, or sheer stupidity.</p>
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		<title>Europe Should Learn Ethiopia’s ‘Islam Lesson’</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/europe-should-learn-ethiopias-islam-lesson/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=europe-should-learn-ethiopias-islam-lesson</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:40:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Another example of “Islam’s Rule of Numbers.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/burned-out-church-Indonesia.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247532" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/burned-out-church-Indonesia-450x283.jpg" alt="burned-out-church-Indonesia" width="323" height="203" /></a>Originally published by<a href="http://www.vieinter.com/europe/europe-should-learn-ethiopias-islam-lesson/"> VIE</a>.</i></p>
<p>Yet another Christian church was destroyed by Muslims in Ethiopia—this time by local authorities.</p>
<p>Heaven’s Light Church, which served some 100 evangelical Christians, was demolished last November 28.  The church had stood and functioned in the Muslim-majority city of Harar for five years.  In the days preceding the destruction, officials forcibly removed the church’s exterior sign and warned believers not to worship there, citing complaints by a local Muslim.  Officials further told church members who had previously congregated at the church “not to gather under what remains of the church building.”  Accordingly, Christians are now meeting in homes of individual believers.</p>
<p>Prior to the demolition of the church, when some Christian leaders protested, they were illegally detained, released only after community members, “outraged by the wrongful detentions,” called “for their immediate release,” reported <a href="http://www.persecution.org/2014/12/01/local-officials-destroy-evangelical-church-in-muslim-majority-area/">International Christian Concern</a>, a rights advocacy group <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/34160-ethiopia-destroys-evangelical-church-building-100-christians-forced-underground">supporting</a> the Christians:</p>
<p>These are no isolated incidents, explained ICC, adding that it had documented “numerous ongoing land rights battles between churches and their local governments across Ethiopia.”</p>
<p>In many cases, ICC said, “churches have been operating peacefully for decades on land given to them by now-deceased former congregants.”</p>
<p>However efforts by local majority Muslim populations to “eliminate the public presence” of churches resulted in the forceful closure, destruction and demolition of several church buildings in recent years, according to ICC investigators.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Cameron Thomas, accused Ethiopia of violating the rights of devoted Christians. “Corrupt officials willing to defend their religion [Islam] rather than the laws they’ve sworn to uphold, are violating Christians’ rights by forcibly closing, destroying and demolishing churches across Ethiopia,” the official said.</p>
<p>If this is the treatment Christian churches receive by Muslim officials and politicians—“sworn to uphold” the rights of every citizen, not just Muslims—one can imagine the treatment churches receive by Muslim mobs.  One example suffices:</p>
<p>In 2011, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/24/thousands-christians-displaced-ethiopia-muslim-extremists-torch-churches-homes-2057387870/#ixzz2SSF8T1xb">thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes</a> when “Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes” in a Muslim-majority region in western Ethiopia.  At least one Christian was killed, many injured, and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 displaced.  Around the same time, in another area that is 90% Muslim, “all the Christians in the city woke up to find notes on their doors warning them to convert to Islam, leave the city or face death.”</p>
<p>For those few Western observers who live beyond the moment and have an interest in the “big picture”—the world bequeathed to future generations—it is well to reflect on the question of numbers in the context of Ethiopia.  As Jonathan Racho, another official at <a href="http://www.persecution.org/">ICC</a>, earlier said, “It’s extremely disconcerting that in Ethiopia, where Christians are the majority, they are also the victims of persecution.”</p>
<p>That Muslims are an otherwise peaceable minority group in Ethiopia, but in enclaves where they represent the majority, they attack their outnumbered Christian countrymen, suggests that Muslim aggression and passivity are very much rooted in numbers.  This reflects what I call “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islams-rule-of-numbers-and-the-london-beheading/">Islam’s Rule of Numbers</a>,” which holds that,<b> </b>wherever and whenever Muslims grow in number—and thus in strength and confidence—so too does Muslim intolerance for “the other” grow (<a href="http://www.meforum.org/3757/islam-rule-of-numbers">video explanation here</a>).</p>
<p>This naturally has lessons for the West, especially European nations like Britain and France that have a significant and ever-growing Muslim population—and where <a href="http://diversitymachtfrei.blogspot.ca/2014/08/france-muslim-smashes-up-historic.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">church attacks</span></a> and <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/05/22/uk-soldier-beheaded-near-barracks-by-man-who-praised-allah-after-cleaver-attack/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">even</span></a> <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/09/uk-woman-beheaded-in-broad-daylight-by-machete-wielding-muslim-police-rule-out-terrorism"><span style="color: #0433ff;">beheadings</span></a> are now taking place.</p>
<p>By way of final illustration, the reader is left with the story of Islam’s entry into Ethiopia, one of the oldest Christian civilizations.  According to Islamic tradition, in 615, when the pagan Quraysh were persecuting Muhammad’s outnumbered followers and disciples in Arabia, some fled to Ethiopia seeking sanctuary. The Christian king, or “Negus” of Ethiopia, welcomed and protected these Muslim fugitives, ignoring Quraysh demands to return them—and thus reportedly winning Muhammad’s gratitude.</p>
<p>Today, 14 centuries later, when Islam has carved itself a solid niche in Ethiopia, accounting for 1/3 of the population, Muslim gratitude has turned into Muslim aggression—not least a warning to Western states.</p>
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		<title>Islam: Built on the Blood of (Christian Child) Martyrs</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:28:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[beheading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Convert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ISIS's gruesome crimes against Christian children who refuse to renounce Jesus. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/450667614.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246752" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/450667614-450x350.jpg" alt="IRAQ-UNREST-CHRISTIANS" width="359" height="279" /></a>In a recent interview on CBN News, Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” <a href="http://www.cbn.com/tv/3879370412001"><span style="color: #0433ff;">tried to recount</span></a> the horrific atrocities Christians in Iraq are suffering at the hands of the Islamic State.  After explaining how Christian minorities fled Baghdad to Ninevah when Islamic militants began terrorizing them and bombing their churches, White said:</p>
<blockquote><p>Then one day, ISIS, the Islamic State, the Islamic caliphate came [to Ninevah] and they hounded all of them [Christians] out.   Not some, <i>all</i> of them.  And they killed huge numbers.  They chopped their children in half; they chopped their heads off.</p></blockquote>
<p>It should be noted that the targeting of Christian children in Iraq goes back years before the creation of ISIS.  For example, in June 2008, a Canadian parliamentary committee heard about how “militant Muslims” were <a href="http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e7649576-0ebe-4b4f-b803-9a2c64449c41"><span style="color: #0433ff;">crucifying Christian children</span></a>: “Since the war began in 2003, about 12 children, many as young as 10, have been kidnapped and killed, then nailed to makeshift crosses near their homes to terrify and torment their parents.”</p>
<p>During his interview, White offered the following, likely surreal to Western sensibilities, anecdote:</p>
<blockquote><p>ISIS turned up and they said to the [Christian] children, “You say the words [<i>shehada</i>, convert to Islam], that you will follow Muhammad.”  And the children, all under 15, four of them, they said, “No, we love Jesus [Yesua].  We have always loved Jesus.  We have always followed Jesus.  Jesus has always been with us.”  They [ISIS] said, “Say the words!”  They [children] said, “No, we can’t.”  [White starts sobbing] They chopped all their heads off.  How do you respond to that?  You just cry.  They’re my children.   That is what we have been going through.  That is what we <i>are</i> going through.</p></blockquote>
<p>As callous as it is to say, perhaps these faithful children are better off.  After all, ISIS members have been known to compel Christians to convert to Islam, and <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/muslims-hack-off-christian-mans-head-after-forcing-him-to-deny-jesus-christ-and-salute-mohammed-as-messenger-of-god-124300/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">still cruelly hack their heads off</span></a>—thus damning them twice.</p>
<p>Similarly, in one of his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/apbw2/posts/10152620972646369"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Facebook postings</span></a>, White wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Today’s Pictures are too awful to show.  You know I love to show photos but the photo I was sent today was the most awful I have ever seen.  A family of 8 all shot through the face laying in a pool of blood with their Bible open on the couch. They would not convert it cost them their life.</p></blockquote>
<p>During his CBN interview, White also told of how ISIS members came to a Christian man saying, “Either you convert to Islam or we kill all your children.”  The desperate father declared the words, the <i>shehada</i>, that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,” thus becoming a Muslim.  Contrite at heart, he phoned White crying, “Abouna, abouna [father, father] I said the words! Does that mean Jesus doesn’t love me anymore?  I’ve always loved Jesus but I said those words because I couldn’t see my children being killed!”</p>
<p>White responded: “No Elias, Jesus still loves you—he will always love you.”</p>
<p>The two types of anecdotes offered by White—Christians refusing to embrace Islam and dying for it, and Christians embracing Islam under duress—are an integral part of how the “Islamic world,” the majority of which was almost entirely Christian before <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-historical-reality-of-the-muslim-conquests/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the Islamic conquests</span></a>, came into being: a historic fact Western people were once well acquainted with, before the current age of <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/surreal-and-suicidal-modern-western-histories-of-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">political correctness and alternate realities</span></a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark="><span style="color: #0433ff;">historic anecdote</span></a> that combines the twain—forced conversion to Islam followed by Christian remorse—comes from Egypt:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1389, a great procession of Copts who had accepted Muhammad under fear of death, marched through Cairo.  Repenting of their apostasy, they now wished to atone for it by the inevitable consequence of returning to Christianity. So as they marched, they announced that they believed in Christ and renounced Muhammad. They were seized and all the men were beheaded one after another in an open square before the women. But this did not terrify the women; so they, too, were all martyred. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Crucified Again</i></span></a>, pgs. 113-114)</p></blockquote>
<p>First forced to convert and then forced to remain in Islam—both on pain of death: these are two facts of Islam, past and present; facts that, according to top ranking Islamic cleric Sheikh Qaradawi are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huMu8ihDlVA"><span style="color: #0433ff;">responsible for the existence of Islam today</span></a>.  Just ask  Sudan’s <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/islam-appalling-and-abhorrent-in-the-eyes-of-a-blind-world/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Meriam Ibrahim</span></a>, Egypt’s <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christian-convert-illegally-imprisoned-and-tortured-begins-hunger-strike/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muhammad Hegazy</span></a>, or Iran’s (rather America’s forsaken) Saeed Abedini.</p>
<p>Aside from the numerous historic accounts of Christians slaughtered for refusing Islam—whether <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-importance-of-witnesses-newly-translated-georgian-christian-martyrdoms-expose-islamic-jihad-continuity/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">100,000 Georgian beheaded or burned alive</span></a>, or a <a href="http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/how-the-800-martyrs-of-otranto-saved-rome"><span style="color: #0433ff;">“mere” 813 Italians beheaded</span></a>—Christians are still being forced to convert to Islam, and not just at the hands of ISIS:</p>
<p>•Palestine, July 2012: Christians in Gaza protested over the “<a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark=http://global.christianpost.com/news/christians-say-forced-conversions-to-islam-happening-in-gaza-79011/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">kidnappings and forced conversions of some former believers to Islam</span></a>.”  The ever-dwindling Christian community banged on a church bell <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/16/christians-in-gaza-protesting-forced-conversions-to-islam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">while chanting</span></a>, “With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus.”</p>
<p>•Pakistan:  In 2004,<a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=8uo0335b22a5238f94f758d049b0b4b588290#bookmark=http://www.fides.org/en/news/35368-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Women_in_Pakistan_Christian_girls_raped_by_Muslims"><span style="color: #0433ff;"> a-two-year old child was raped because her Christian father “refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.”  Another “devoted Christian” was <a href="http://www.persecution.org/2010/03/23/muslims-murder-pakistani-christian-with-axe-blows/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">butchered by Muslim men</span></a> “with multiple axe blows [24 per autopsy] for refusing to convert to Islam.” In April 2014, A Muslim security guard <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/family-of-christian-shot-dead-in-pakistan-doubts-suicide-claim/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">murdered a Christian worker who refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.</p>
<p>•Uganda, July 2014: After a gang of Muslims brandishing machetes stormed a church during service, <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Christian-teenager-killed-by-machete-in-attack-on-church-in-Uganda.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">hacking one 18-year-old woman to death</span></a> and leaving three others, including a one-year-old baby, injured, the pastor explained that the attackers belong to a local “group of Muslims” which seeks “to transform [Christian-majority] Uganda into an Islamic nation and would kill anyone who refused to convert.”</p>
<p>•Nigeria, May 2014: A Christian teenage girl told of how Boko Haram came to her household and slaughtered her father and brother <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/christian-teen-whose-dad-brother-slain-boko-haram-was-denied-us-visa"><span style="color: #0433ff;">because they refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.  After abusing her, they tied her up and left her in a state of shock between the two corpses.</p>
<p>•Bangladesh, October 2013:  After shutting down the construction of a church, a local government official threatened Christians with eviction from their village unless they renounced their faith and <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/world/41264-bangladeshi-christians-told-to-close-church-convert-to-islam"><span style="color: #0433ff;">embraced Islam</span></a>.  Said one of the Christians: “Their threats chilled me to the bone. That is why I pretended to accept Islam, but faith in Christ is the wellspring of my life.” Another said: “The chairman is clipping the wings of our faith. I do not know how long we can grin and bear it. We want religious freedom. We want to practice our religion freely.”</p>
<p>•Russia, 2013: In Tatarstan, a Muslim-majority republic in Russia, seven churches were burned and “<a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Russia:-seven-churches-burned-in-one-year-in-Tatarstan-29713.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">increased pressure on Christians to convert to Islam</span></a>” was widespread.</p>
<p>•Uzbekistan, August 2012: A 26-year-old Christian woman, partially paralyzed from youth, and her elderly mother were violently attacked by invaders who ransacked their home, confiscating “icons, Bibles, religious calendars, and prayer books.” At the police department, the paralyzed woman was “<a href="http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&amp;cid=3&amp;nid=20659"><span style="color: #0433ff;">offered to convert to Islam</span></a>.” She refused and was accordingly fined almost two years’ worth of her wages.</p>
<p>Pakistan, Uganda, Russia, Nigeria, Palestine, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh: these are not “ISIS.”  Yet Christians there are experiencing the same intolerance and violence that Christians under ISIS are experiencing.</p>
<p>The lesson?  If all around the Muslim world Christian minorities are being forced to embrace Islam, the very least the non-Muslim world can do is embrace the fact that <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-koran-and-eternal-war/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Islam is inherently hostile</span></a>—a costly lesson that countless innocents have been paying for nearly 1,400 years.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Christian Convert Illegally Imprisoned and Tortured, Begins Hunger Strike</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2014 05:18:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bishoy Armia Boulous]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Convert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Victim of religious persecution vows to starve himself to death. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/egypt-bishoy.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246557" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/egypt-bishoy.jpg" alt="egypt-bishoy" width="319" height="255" /></a>According to attorney Karam Ghobrial (“Gabriel”), his client, Bishoy Armia Boulous, a Muslim convert to Christianity, <a href="http://www.coptstoday.com/Copts-News/Detail.php?Id=91625"><span style="color: #0433ff;">remains</span></a> illegally incarcerated and has “vowed to starve himself to death.”</p>
<p>Bishoy, more notoriously known as Mohammed Hegazy, is the first Egyptian ever to try legally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his official ID, prompting much shock and outrage in Muslim-majority Egypt.</p>
<p>Ghobrial further cited that Bishoy’s detention—in the execution room no less—is illegal, prompted solely by malicious charges against him, all of which stem from his original attempt to formally change his religious identity.</p>
<p>In the words of his lawyer: “Bishoy is imprisoned in the execution room in violation of the law.  Trumped up charges against him have not been proven and he is being treated even worse.  He has not seen the light [of day] since being released from Minya’s misdemeanor court.”</p>
<p>Bishoy was arrested in July 2014.  Then, the judge in Minya cited “disturbing the peace by broadcasting false information” as the reason for sentencing the apostate, who in the weeks before was documenting political unrest in Egypt brought on by numerous Islamic attacks on Christians.   He was eventually released, but then immediately scooped up again by State Security acting on behalf of Cairo, now under the charge of insulting the Islamic faith.</p>
<p>Bishoy’s lawyer further said that “the [current] judge is behaving in a prejudiced manner in this case because Bishoy had public announced his conversion to Christianity.”  He stressed the “need for attention to this case, and escalating it, so everyone knows what this convert is being exposed to.”</p>
<p>Bishoy has been imprisoned for nearly six months, without any action being done in his case.  He is being held on charges of “contempt to the Islamic religion” and reportedly spreading “false news” about the existence of State Security “torture chambers” where Muslim converts to Christianity are detained and tortured.  Bishoy apparently refuses to recant this claim (quite possibly because he himself is now experiencing it first hand).</p>
<p>As lawyer Karam Ghobrial maintains, it is clear that the real reason his client is being tortured in prison—where he is being held illegally under ever morphing charges—has to do with what made Bishoy Armia, formerly Mohammed Hegazy, notorious in Egypt in the first place: his audacity not only to convert to Christianity, but to try formally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his ID card, prompting much enmity for him in Egypt.</p>
<p>In short, Bishoy is just another prisoner of conscience, just another born Muslim who wishes to be Christian—but whose actions have been deemed offensive to the state.  His story occurs with great frequency all around the Islamic world.  In nearby Iran, for example, Iranian-American Christian pastor Saeed Abedini—also seen as an apostate agitator—continues to rot in prison.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Christian Extermination in the Middle East</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:25:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[attack]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[genocide]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=244874</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Chuches and communities are being terrorized into oblivion. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ISIS-Burns-Down-Church.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244875" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ISIS-Burns-Down-Church.jpg" alt="ISIS-Burns-Down-Church" width="321" height="272" /></a>The purge of ancient Christian communities throughout Iraq that started in June culminated in a show of great intolerance in July.</p>
<p>Among other things, a Christian church that had stood on the ground of Iraq for 1,800 years—a church that was erected less than 200 year after Christ—was reportedly torched by the Islamic State, according to numerous news agencies, including <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/20/ISIS-burns-1-800-year-old-church-in-Mosul.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Al Arabiya</span></a>.</p>
<p>Islamic State jihadis also stormed and took over an ancient monastery in northern Iraq and <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/jihadists-seize-iraq-monastery-005850871.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">expelled its few monks</span></a>, telling them “You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately.”  The monks plead to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s ancient relics but the jihadis refused and ordered them to walk many miles along a deserted road with nothing but their clothes.  (St. Behnam monastery had stood since the fourth century and was one of Iraq’s best-known Christian landmarks.  It was built by an Assyrian king as a penance for executing his children Behnam and Sarah for converting to Christianity.)</p>
<p>The Islamic State issued a July 19 deadline for Mosul’s remaining <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/iraqi-christians-mosul-isis-convert-islam-or-be-executed"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christians either to convert to Islam or face execution</span></a>.  Islamic State members also singled out Christian homes by placing the Arabic letter for “N”—based on the Arabic word <i>Nasara</i>, or “Nazarenes,” the Koran’s pejorative for Christians—on the sides of their homes.   The result, in the words of Patriarch Louis Sako, is that “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”</p>
<p>In response to the Islamic State’s latest atrocities against Iraq’s Christian minorities, the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Mount Lebanon and Tripoli,<span style="color: #0433ff;"> George Saliba</span>, <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=fs79p4de3b9a0916c47bc898fe0713d6d0e07#bookmark=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Jul-30/265488-syriac-orthodox-bishop-muslims-enemies-of-christ.ashx"><span style="color: #0433ff;">denounced</span></a> not just the Islamic State but Muslims in general for their long “history of violence and oppression against Christians”:</p>
<blockquote><p>What is happening in<span style="color: #0433ff;"> Iraq</span> is a strange thing, but it is normal for Muslims, because they have never treated Christians well, and they have always held an offensive and defaming stand against Christians….  We used to live and coexist with Muslims, but then they revealed their canines [teeth]….  [They don’t] have the right to storm houses, steal and attack the honor of Christians.  Most Muslims do this, the Ottomans killed us and after that the ruling nation-states understood the circumstances but always gave advantage to the Muslims.  Islam has never changed&#8230;</p></blockquote>
<p>Islamic organizations responded by denouncing the Syriac bishop’s words as “hateful” and Islamophobic, demanding an apology.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made some telling remarks concerning the plight of Christians, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/presbyterian-church-usa-criticizes-israel-ignores-christian-persecution/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">especially in those Mideast countries the U.S. is involved in</span></a>.  When asked if he was “troubled” by the Presbyterian Church USA’s decision to withdraw $21 million worth in investments from Israel on behalf of the Palestinian people, the prime minister said:</p>
<blockquote><p>You know I would suggest to these Presbyterian organizations to fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give them two pieces of advice, one is, make sure it’s an armor plated bus, and second, don’t say that you’re Christians.<i> </i></p></blockquote>
<p>The rest of July’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.</p>
<p><b>Muslim Attacks on Churches and Carnage</b></p>
<p><b>Afghanistan</b>: according to BosNewsLife, the central Asian nation’s “tiny Christian community was left in shock Friday,  July 25, after <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33389-news-alert-finish-christian-workers-killed-in-afghanistan"><span style="color: #0433ff;">two Finnish Christian aid workers were shot dead</span></a>.”  The attack “underscored the dangers faced by Christian aid workers.”  The two women were slain by motorcycle riding gunmen in the western city of Herat, “the latest in a series of attacks targeting Westerners, including Christian believers.  The Christians, who represented International Assistance Mission (IAM), had been working in Afghanistan since the 1990s…  They both spoke Dari well and knew and respected the culture of Afghanistan.”  Among those the aid workers were helping were people with mental disabilities and illiterate women.</p>
<p><b>Central African Republic</b>:  At least <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Help-Christians-affected-by-CAR-violence-27-killed-in-church-attack.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">27 Christians were slaughtered</span></a> during a July 7 attack on the St. Joseph’s Cathedral compound in Bambari, where thousands of people, mostly Christian, were receiving sanctuary.  The attackers were fighters from the Islamic Seleka rebel movement and Muslim civilians. The armed attackers entered the grounds at around 3pm and began shooting indiscriminately. Women and children were among those killed; over 20 people were injured.  The Islamic attackers burnt down 20 <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/Our-work/Our-current-projects/BF-Project-Categories/Buildings.html?"><span style="color: #0433ff;">buildings</span></a> within the church compound, set fire to three cars, and stole two others as well as a number of motorbikes.  Weeks earlier, on May 28, another attack on a church compound in Bangui, the capital, left around 20 people dead.</p>
<p><b>Kenya</b>: On July 5, Muslims attacked the Covenant Church, three kilometers north of Hindi, just as Bible study was closing.  As the Bible study participants fled, two men opted to hide inside the church building—and were <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/07/christians-killed-in-attacks-in-coastal-region-of-kenya/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">burned alive after the Islamic attackers set the building on fire</span></a>.  On the same night, a Catholic church building in the village of Gamba, in neighboring Tana River County, was also destroyed by attackers.   Two days earlier, 15-20 assailants armed with guns and knives attacked Gamba and the village of Hindi, killing at least 13 people, including a 12-year-old student and a 30-year-old man “who was found in a pool of blood with a Bible on his back,” reports Morning Star News. One survivor of the attacks said the invaders were heard “saying non-Muslims should get out, and if not they should convert to Islam.”  Another survivor said, “I was removed with my daughter from the house while the attackers tied my husband to the bedside before setting the house on fire.  The attackers, who spoke mainly in Somali, targeted non-Muslims, whom they tied with ropes before slitting their throats.” (Gamba is about 28 miles from Mpeketoni, another Christian town where gunmen killed at least 57 people in a <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/06/christians-targeted-in-massacre-by-al-shabaab-in-kenya/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">June 15 attack</span></a>.)</p>
<p><b>Lebanon</b>: A shadowy group known as the Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade, which had only recently pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State, announced on its twitter account that a “specialized group of free jihadists were tasked with cleansing the Islamic state of Bekaa in particular and in Lebanon in general <a href="http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/137260-free-sunnis-of-baalbek-brigade-vows-to-silence-church-bells-in-bekaa"><span style="color: #0433ff;">from the churches</span></a>.  We will target crusaders in the state and in Lebanon to silence the ringing of the bells.”  (According to Islamic Sharia, churches under Islamic authority are <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/western-ignorance-of-the-conditions-of-omar/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">forbidden from ringing their bells</span></a>.)  The Brigade has claimed responsibility for several rocket and bomb attacks inside Lebanon, the last of which were the suicide blasts in Dahr al-Baydar and Raouche’s Duroy Hotel.</p>
<p><b>Nigeria</b>: A <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=fs79p4de3b9a0916c47bc898fe0713d6d0e07#bookmark=http://www.smh.com.au/world/five-killed-in-bomb-attack-on-nigerian-church-20140728-zxhss.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">bomb blast inside the Saint Charles Catholic Church</span></a> left five people dead and eight injured.  The attack came shortly after Sunday mass ended, when an improvised explosive device was thrown inside the city of Kano, which has a strong presence of Boko Haram, the local Islamic terrorist organization.  On the same Sunday and also in Kano, a woman suicide bomber blew herself up outside a university after police prevented her from carrying out an attack.  Five officers were injured.  According to a police spokesman, “A female suicide bomber was isolated (by police) as she was walking towards the gate of the university.”  She had hidden the bomb under her “long black hijab” and was singled out for behaving strangely, said the spokesman.  Police were about to ask a female colleague to frisk the woman when she detonated the bomb, killing herself and injuring the police officers.  Also in July,<b> </b>Nicholas Okoh, primate of the Church of Nigeria, said in an interview that, despite Boko Haram’s nonstop attacks on Christians and their churches, for long “the United States did not come out to say anything about Boko Haram.  They kept talking about economic problems, [saying] that Boko Haram is fighting because of economic problems. That is not true &#8230; <a href="http://www.brnow.org/News/July-2014/Boko-Haram-s-Islamic-motives-ignored"><span style="color: #0433ff;">The United States deliberately ignored the fundamental issues of religious ideology</span></a>.”</p>
<p><b>Sudan</b>:  In adherence to Islamic law, the east African nation formally announced a <a href="http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/72207.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff;">ban on the construction of any new Christian churches</span></a> in the country.  This move came after several churches, some of which have been in existence for decades, were bulldozed to the ground by authorities, the most recent one, the Sudanese Christ Church at El Izba residential area in Khartoum North, on July 1. According to Pravoslavie, “The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Religious Endowments Shalil Abdullah announced that the government will henceforth not issue permits for the building of churches in the country.  Minister Shalil Abdullah told the press on Saturday [July 12] that the existing churches are enough for the Christian population remaining in Sudan after the secession of South Sudan in 2011.”  Since 1989, Sudan has been governed by a Sharia enforcing Islamic regime. Reverend Kori El Ramli, the Secretary-General of Sudan Council of Churches, criticized this move as contradicting the nation’s Constitution, adding “Yes, we are a minority, but we have freedom of worship and belief just like the rest of the Sudanese as long as we are Sudanese nationals like them.”</p>
<p><b>Turkey</b>:  A band of <a href="http://www.catholic.org/news/international/europe/story.php?id=56220"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslims attacked the Saint Stephanos Church</span></a> in Istanbul during a baptismal service held on July 15. Among other things, the Muslim intruders pushed their way into the baptismal service, yelling obscenities, with one waving a knife and threatening to stab a parishioner.  The attack occurred during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/ramadan-islams-holy-month-of-christian-oppression/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">often sees a concomitant rise of intolerance</span></a> in Muslim majority areas.   Speaking about the attack, one parishioner said on condition of anonymity that “It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last.”  In fact, two months earlier, men in their late teens and 20s entered the church building at night, ripped out most of its audio equipment and destroyed what they couldn’t carry away. They also took some of the ceremonial candles, lit them and started setting items in the rear of the building on fire. They stacked all remaining candles into a pile, lit them and left.</p>
<p><b>Uganda</b>: A gang of Muslims brandishing machetes stormed a church during service, <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Christian-teenager-killed-by-machete-in-attack-on-church-in-Uganda.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">hacking one 18-year-old woman to death</span></a> and leaving three others, including a one-year-old baby, injured.  A group of around 20 Christians had gathered at Chali Born Victory Church in Kyegegwa district for their regular Friday night prayer session when armed Muslims burst into the building around 2 am.  Pastor Jackson Turyamureba was preaching when he saw somebody peeping through a window.  According to the pastor, “I thought he was a drunkard and told him to either enter or go away. Shortly after that I heard doors being banged and men shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ (Allah is great) as they stormed the church brandishing pangas (machetes) and beating worshippers….  One of the attackers followed me and threw a panga which went over my head. I ran through a garden and the man who was pursuing me fell down and gave up the chase.”  The Muslim attackers then fled to a nearby mosque; police surrounded the mosque and one officer was killed when attackers opened fire.  Two suspects were arrested.   According to the pastor<i>, </i>the church has had problems with a group of Muslims in the area who had unsuccessfully tried to convert them to Islam. Church member Polly Tashobya added that the group said they wanted to transform Uganda into an Islamic nation and would kill anyone who refused to convert.</p>
<p><b>Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom and ‘Dhimmitude’</b></p>
<p><b>Iran</b>: <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/33301-iran-detains-evangelical-christians-bible-confiscated"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Authorities detained a pastor and two other members of the Church of Iran</span></a>, one of the country’s largest house church movements.  Pastor Matthias Haghnejad, Mohammad Roghangir, and Suroush Saraie were arrested July 5 by security forces at the pastor’s home in the city of Bandar-Anzali.  According to BosNewsLife, “Their detention comes amid an ongoing government campaign to halt the spread of Christianity in the Islamic country. Especially converts from Islam, many of whom visit the Church of Iran, have been targeted.”  Security forces reportedly confiscated the pastor’s belongings, including his Bible, and several other books.  This would be the latest setback for Pastor Matthias, who was jailed for his faith on three other occasions between 2006 and 2011.  Separately, <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=fs79p4de3b9a0916c47bc898fe0713d6d0e07#bookmark=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2702774/Christian-sentenced-Iranian-judge-lips-burnt-cigarette-eating-Ramadan.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">a judge sentenced a Christian man to have his lips burnt with a cigarette</span></a> for eating during the day in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink during daylight.  The punishment was carried out in public in a square in the city of Kermanshah.  Five other Muslim men were also flogged in public with 70 lashes for not fasting during Ramadan.  A spokesperson from The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political coalition which opposes the government, denounced the treatment as ‘savage’ and called on Western countries to respond:  “The silence of the world community, especially of western countries, vis-à-vis these medieval punishments under the excuse of having nuclear talks with Iran has intensified the brutal and systematic violation of human rights in Iran.”</p>
<p><b>Somalia</b>: Muslim converts to Christianity who fled Somalia and reside in Kenyan refugee camps remain in mortal danger.  One convert, known only as “Abubakr,” and his wife reportedly held each other under their bed in their refugee camp as suspected gunmen from the Islamic terrorist organization Al Shabaab pounded on their door. They ordered the man to come out and called him an “infidel” (in both the Arabic and Somali languages), saying, “<a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/07/stay-or-leave-somali-christians-in-kenyan-refugee-camps-face-danger/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">We need your head</span></a>.”  When the apostate refused, they opened fire through the spaces of the poles of the couple’s hut, striking their legs.  Then they heard the attackers say, “We have killed the infidels” as they shot into the air while leaving.  The Christian couple was found two days later lying in their own pool of blood.   According to Abubakr, far from providing security for the hiding apostates, Muslim guards at the refugee camp actually help Al Shabaab militants locate them.  Another Somali convert from Islam, Abdikadir, saw Muslim relatives and other Somalis burn down his home in one of the undisclosed Dadaab refugee camps in April. They took away his wife and four children in the course of destroying his home.  He fled the camp and is now living elsewhere.</p>
<p><b>United Kingdom</b>: According to the Telegraph, “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10977187/Christians-lie-and-wives-must-have-sex-or-go-to-hell-Trojan-Horse-pupils-told.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Children were taught that all Christians are liars</span></a> and attempts were made to introduce Sharia law in classrooms as part of an alleged ‘Trojan Horse’ takeover plot of Birmingham schools, an inquiry has found.”  Commissioned by Birmingham City Council, the inquiry found “evidence of religious extremism in 13 schools as school governors and teachers tried to promote and enforce radical Islamic values.”  Among other things, schools canceled Christmas, put up posters warning children that they would “go to hell” if they did not pray, and girls were taught that women who refused to have sex with their husbands would be “punished” by angels “from dusk to dawn.”  The report found that the extremism went unchecked because the council “disastrously” prioritized community cohesion over “doing what is right.”</p>
<p><b>About this Series</b></p>
<p>The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:</p>
<p>1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.</p>
<p>Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of <i>jizya</i> (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed <i>dhimmis</i>, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.</p>
<p>Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.</p>
<p><b>Previous Reports</b>:</p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/isis-snuffs-out-ancient-christianity-muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2014/">June, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2014/">May, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2014/">April, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2014/">March, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/">February, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/">January, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/">December, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/">November, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">October, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">September, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/">August, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/">July, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/">June, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/">May, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/">April, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/">March, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/">February, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/">January, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/">December, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/">November, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/">October, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/">September, 2012 </a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/">August, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">July, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012">June, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012">May, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012">April, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012">March, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012">February, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012">January, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011">December, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011">November, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011">October, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011">September, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011">August, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/">July, 2011</a></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Newest Prager University Course: Raymond Ibrahim on Christian Persecution</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/newest-prager-university-course-raymond-ibrahim-on-christian-persecution/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=newest-prager-university-course-raymond-ibrahim-on-christian-persecution</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 05:03:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Frontpagemag.com]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Shillman Journalism Fellow discusses the greatest human rights atrocity of the present day. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>The newest Prager University course is taught by Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. In the video-course, titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytdMUddGe-U">The World’s Most Persecuted Minority: Christians</a>,” Ibrahim identifies the greatest human rights atrocity of the present day, its perpetrators, and why the media won&#8217;t talk about it. View the video below.  </strong></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ytdMUddGe-U" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Christians ‘Losing Everything’ to Islam</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2014 05:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Struggles with the relentless “Hound of Jihad.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iraq-christian-afp.png"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-244877" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iraq-christian-afp-450x337.png" alt="iraq-christian-afp" width="359" height="269" /></a>Originally published by the </i></b><span style="color: #0433ff;"><b><i><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4857/christians-losing-everything">Gatestone Institute</a></i></b></span></p>
<p><i>“I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things”—</i>Philippians 3:8</p>
<p>When St. Paul wrote the above in his letter to the Christians of Philippi, he and the early church were being persecuted (Paul was eventually executed in Rome).  While today’s Western Christians still quote his words in the context of their daily struggles, an increasing number of Christians around the world, especially the Muslim world, are still literally losing absolutely everything for their faith.</p>
<p>In Uganda, matters have gone from bad to worse to murderous. The plight of Hassan Muwanguzi, for instance, a Muslim convert to Christianity—whose initial sacrifices are recorded in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Crucified Again: Exposing Islam&#8217;s New War on Christians</i></span></a> (page 131)—far from abating, has only gotten worse.</p>
<p>After earning a university degree in Islamic law and then, in 2003, when he was in his early 20s, converting to Christianity, his family immediately threw him out of their home. “Enraged Muslims” beat him. Later that same year, his wife left him and he lost his job as a teacher at Nankodo Islamic School, near Pallisa.</p>
<p>This was just the beginning.  Picking up the pieces of his life and moving on, he eventually opened a Christian school, Grace International Nursery and Primary School, near Muslim-majority Mbale.  Accordingly, “The Muslims have tried to use all kinds of threats to make me close the school—first they used witchcraft,” said Hassan. “This did not work, so then they tried to discourage Muslims from bringing their children to the school, saying that the school was converting Muslim children to Christianity by teaching Christian Religious Education.”</p>
<p>When all else failed, in 2011 an Islamic teacher, Sheikh Hassan Abdalla, filed a false charge claiming that Hassan had “defiled” the sheikh’s young daughter. Together with his fellow Muslim countrymen, the Islamic cleric filed a case at the chief magistrate’s court.  Hassan was subsequently arrested and incarcerated for three weeks.</p>
<p>But because Sheikh Abdalla, his accuser, repeatedly failed to appear in court to testify, Hassan was released.  In his words:  “The judge found out it was a false accusation, hence the case was dropped.  I had been subjected to humiliation, but I forgave them for the sake of my Christian outreach in the area.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2013/07/mulinde-other-converts-from-islam-in-uganda-struggle-to-recover/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">next Islamic attack</span></a> came a few months after Hassan was acquitted.  First, the owner of the land where Hassan had built his Christian school denied ever having sold it, leading to a court order to close down the school in May, 2012.  This incurred great losses on Hassan.   The month after, in June, the Christian convert’s home was burnt down by three Muslims:</p>
<blockquote><p>I and my family escaped from the house by grace, but if it had not been so, then by now we would be no more….  This attack was mobilized by Muslim sheikhs, imams and family members after hearing that I had converted to Christianity after studying and completing university with a degree in Islamic law.</p></blockquote>
<p>Less than a year later, on March 31, 2013, Hassan was hospitalized in Mbale after an aunt who had called a “family gathering” slipped some insecticide in his tea.  According to Hassan:</p>
<blockquote><p>After eating and taking tea, I started feeling stomachache, then I realized that she was the one responsible for it—and I believe she did not do it alone, since they have been hunting for me directly and indirectly, because when I left them and converted to Christianity it pained them so much….  The reason they want to kill me is very clear—it is because of being a convert to Christianity; above all, to them it is like I brought shame by converting, as a [former] sheikh. But to God the Almighty Father, this was His plan for me to expand His Kingdom.</p></blockquote>
<p>According to the doctor who treated him, when Hassan arrived at the hospital, he had already vomited, “looked confused with slurred speech” and his “vision was getting very poor,” so that “he could not even recognize the friend who brought him in.?</p>
<p>During the family meeting, when he first began to feel ill, he telephoned a local Christian leader who advised him to leave secretly: “I knew if he were to mention to them that he was getting sick, they would harm him more,” said Bishop Kinyewa.</p>
<p>Now, most recently, on June 16, 2014, four Muslim men barged into his home with one shouting, “Today we shall kill you—you have been a trouble-maker and are not respecting our prophet’s religion.”  The “apostate” fled into a room, thinking they would not hurt his young daughter, Grace Baruka.  But then he heard the 12-year-old girl’s cries, as the Muslim invaders were strangling her.</p>
<p>When he came out of the room they seized him:  “They hit me with a blunt object, and I fell down.  I just woke up and saw neighbors surrounding me while wailing, saying that my daughter is in critical condition.”  Neighbors took Grace to a clinic but she was declared dead upon arrival.  “I am regretting why I survived the poisoning,” said Hassan.  God could have allowed me to die. My daughter has died, and I am now mourning for her death as well [as] have pain all over my body.”</p>
<p>While Hassan’s ongoing experience with the relentless “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-hound-of-jihad/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Hound of Jihad</span></a>” speaks for itself, the reality is that countless Christians around the world—both Muslim converts and born Christians—are quietly “losing everything” at the hands of Muslims, whether family members, “local Muslims,” Islamic regimes and courts, or Islamic terrorist organizations.</p>
<p>According to a human rights activist who recently visited the Christians fleeing the Islamic State’s advance into Mosul, “People are severely traumatized: <a href="http://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/stories/iraq_141031.php"><span style="color: #0433ff;">they have lost everything</span></a>. Often they are fleeing for the second, third or even fourth time.”  One Iraqi Christian man, lamenting his ongoing struggles and sounding like Hassan, told her: “Sometimes I wish my parents had never brought me into the world.”</p>
<p>From one end of the Muslim world to the other, Christians are suffering persecution.  <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/we-need-your-head-muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2014/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Not one month goes by</span></a> without several attacks on churches, many—for example in Nigeria and Kenya—resulting in large casualties; not one month goes by without several attacks on Christians accused of apostatizing from Islam or “blaspheming.”</p>
<p>Last week a pregnant Christian mother of four and her husband, falsely accused of burning pages of the Koran, were beaten by a Muslim mob and <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/11/islamist-mob-in-pakistan-kills-christian-couple-accused-of-blasphemy/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">throw into a kiln, a fiery oven</span></a> at a brick factory, where they were roasted alive; and the world recalls the plight of Meriam Ibrahim, another Christian wife and mother who, while also pregnant, was imprisoned in Sudan and sentenced to receive 100 lashes followed by execution on the charge of apostatizing from Muhammad’s religion.  Although she has been freed, Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American, is still being held in prison in Iran for apostasy and practicing his Christian faith. His case was apparently not even raised by the Americans negotiating with Iran on its nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>As tragic as the story of Uganda’s Hassan Muwanguzi is, he is only one of countless Christians and other minorities living under, and losing everything to, Islam.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Ted Cruz&#8217;s a Badge of Honor</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/ted-cruzs-a-badge-of-honor/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=ted-cruzs-a-badge-of-honor</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 04:17:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The senator's courageous stand against virulent Jew hatred. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tedcruz_02.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-240936" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tedcruz_02.jpg" alt="tedcruz_02" width="306" height="261" /></a>As one of the 800 attendees at the In Defense of Christians (IDC) Gala Solidarity Dinner Program at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC on Wednesday, September 10, 2014, I was among those welcoming US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) as the keynote speaker. The program brought together a wide range of ancient Eastern Christian denominations from throughout the Middle East. The ostensible reason for the IDC Conference was to give notice of concern over the persecution of Christian minorities in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, Syria, and to a lesser extent, Egypt. Among those in attendance were a few pro-Hezbollah Lebanese Christians affiliated with General Michel Aouns’ faction that is part of the March 8 coalition led by Hezbollah. Seated at a table across from us was a group of Syrian nationalists.</p>
<p>The previous evening saw a great deal of solidarity and unity among the sometimes rival eastern Christian denominations. But on Tuesday night, September 9, 2014, the Ecumenical Christian Prayer Service, which included prelates and representatives of all churches and rites, was a moving experience. The religious leaders were united in prayer for the safety of their threatened Christian brethren in Northern Iraq and Syria. The prelates were dressed in colorful robes and headwear. They included His Eminence Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation of the Oriental Churches; His Most Eminent Beatitude, Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Rai, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and all of the East; Gregorios III Laham, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem, (the most vocal agitator against Senator Cruz); Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East; Aram I Keshishian, Catholicos of the Great House of Ceilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church; Archbishop Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, DC; Joseph Zahlawi, Archbishop of New York and All of North America for the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (most eloquent speaker); and Ibrahim Ibrahim, Bishop Emeritus of the Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle. These religious leaders were most careful not to malign Islam or Muslims in their presentations. Their message was strictly religious. The keynote speaker, the Honorable John Ashcroft, former US Attorney General, was less discreet in naming the persecutors of Christians in the Middle East.</p>
<p>During the conference proceedings and in the literature produced by the IDC, there was no mention of Israel. Names used for Israel included Palestine and the Holy Land, but never explicitly Israel…until Senator Ted Cruz took to the podium. Almost from the get-go Cruz declared “Tonight we are united in defense of Jews.” There was wide applause for that. He then proceeded to say,</p>
<blockquote><p>Tonight we are united in defense of people of good faith who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare to disagree with their religious teachings (applause). Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas and state sponsors like Syria and Iran (a few boos from the nearby table occupied by Hezbollah supporters and Syrian nationalists) are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East.</p></blockquote>
<p>Cruz ignored those booing and continued, “Sometimes we are told not to lump these groups together, but we have to understand their so-called nuances and differences. But we shouldn’t try to parse different manifestations of evil that are on numerous rampages through the region. Hate is hate and murder is murder. Our purpose here tonight is to highlight a terrible injustice, a humanitarian crisis. Christians are being systematically exterminated.” Cruz then offered a comparison between the plight of Jews in the recent past and that of Christians today, “In 1948, Jews throughout the Middle East faced murder and extermination and fled to the nation of Israel. And today Christians have no better ally than the Jewish state.” Mayhem erupted in the room with the anti-Semites attempting to silence Cruz with boos, and stop him. Gregorios III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch urged people to walk out.</p>
<p>Undeterred, Cruz continued to respond with: “Let me say this: those who hate Israel hate America, and those who hate Jews, hate Christians.” Boos enveloped the room, although many applauded and stood up in ovation for Cruz, including Joseph Hakim, President of the International Christian Union (ICU).</p>
<p>Cruz responded to those booing:</p>
<blockquote><p>And if this room will not recognize that, then my heart weeps that the men and women here will not stand in solidarity with Jews and Christians alike who are persecuted by radicals who seek to murder them.” Many in the ballroom applauded Cruz’s defiance of his detractors. “If you hate the Jewish people you are not reflecting the teachings of Christ…And the very same people who persecute and murder Christians right now, who crucify Christians, who behead children, are the very same people who target and murder Jews for their faith[.]</p></blockquote>
<p>At this point the shouting from the floor drowned Cruz’s words, and the President of IDC Toufic Baaklini took the microphone and said to the audience, “Respect the speaker.”</p>
<p>Cruz, folding his papers, turned to the crowd and said, “I am saddened to see some here, not everyone, consumed with hate…,” and again responding to hecklers, he stated, “<b>If you will not stand with Israel and Jews, then I will not stand with you</b>.” Cruz then left the stage and walked out. As he made his way out, Ambassador Gilbert Chagouri, who organized and funded the IDC Inaugural Summit and the IDC president Toufic Baaklini, ran after Senator Cruz to offer their apologies.</p>
<p>Asked to respond to Senator Cruz’s speech, Joseph Hakim, ICU’s president had this to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>In order for us (Middle East Christians) to break the taboo with regards to Israel and Jews, which means essentially silence on this subject, we must go forward and recognize the fact that Israel is a reality, and certainly not our enemy.  Middle Eastern Christians who seek support from America must recognize the shared values between Israel and America, and between American Christians and Jews. Moreover, I am 100% in support of Senator Cruz’s remarks regarding ‘the enemies of Israel being the enemies of America.’ I believe that the enemies of Israel are also the enemies of Christians.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hakim added,</p>
<blockquote><p>The words uttered by Senator Cruz were never addressed to, nor heard by Middle Eastern Christian audiences before, and I was never prouder as an American and as a Christian to hear his statements at the IDC Conference. I appreciate Senator Cruz’s support for Middle Eastern Christians persecuted in their homelands, and I am hopeful that Senator Cruz will continue to harbor a soft spot in his heart for our persecuted brethren in the Middle East.</p></blockquote>
<p>Cruz, a devoted Christian, did not do what politicians do best &#8212; pander to the crowd they are addressing. Instead, he admirably and courageously stood by his convictions, admonishing those with anti-Semitic sentiments who cannot bring themselves to recognize that Israel is on the front line in the war against the Islamic jihadists terror, whether it is ISIS, al Qaeda, Hezbollah or Hamas, who seek to exterminate those who will not submit to their fanatical ideology.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Raped and Slaughtered: Muslim Persecution of Christians</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution-of-christians</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2014 04:52:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Another month, another endless list of atrocities.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/pic_giant_011814_SM_The-US-and-Christian-Persecution.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-240628" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/pic_giant_011814_SM_The-US-and-Christian-Persecution.jpg" alt="pic_giant_011814_SM_The-US-and-Christian-Persecution" width="315" height="262" /></a>Originally published by the </i><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4666/raped-and-slaughtered-muslim-persecution">Gatestone Institute</a>.</i></span></p>
<p>From one end of the Islamic world to the other, the abduction and rape of Christian girls at the hands of Muslims—both terrorists and laymen—was a dominant theme in April.</p>
<p>On Easter Sunday Morning, for instance, <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Punjab:-clan-gang-rapes-seven-year-old-Christian-and-kidnaps-father-to-stop-him-reporting-them-30906.html">four Muslim men raped a 7-year-old Christian girl</a> named Sara in a Punjabi village.  Last reported, the child was in an intensive care unit in “critical.” According to Asia News, “the police, instead of arresting the culprits, helped the local clan to kidnap the girl’s father; Iqbal Masih was taken and hidden in a secret place to ‘force the family not to report the story, to reach an agreement with the criminals and to avoid a dispute of a religious background.’”</p>
<p>According to a human rights lawyer involved in the case: “Such cases are <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35620-ASIA_PAKISTAN_A_7_year_old_Christian_Girl_raped_on_Easter_Sunday">frequent</a>: abuse against women and girls by Muslim men are examples of how the minorities in Pakistan live under constant fear of persecution. We believe that many cases of violence go unreported.”  Similarly, a new report appearing in April by the Solidarity and Peace Movement—a coalition of NGOs, associations and institutions including the “Justice and Peace” Commission of the Pakistani Bishops—<a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35548-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Every_year_thousands_of_Hindu_and_Christian_girls_kidnapped_and_forced_into_Islamic_marriage_new_Report">confirmed</a> that “an estimated 700 cases per year involve Christian women, 300 Hindu girls.” Even so, “the true extent of the problem is probably much bigger, since many cases are not reported.”  (<a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/the-rape-and-murder-of-pakistans-christian-children/">Click here</a> for a better understanding of the extent of this tragedy.)</p>
<p>The biggest story, however, came from Nigeria, where the Islamic terrorist organization known as Boko Haram abducted nearly 300, <a href="https://barnabasaid.org/Over-200-schoolgirls-kidnapped-from-Christian-town-in-Nigeria.html">mostly Christian</a>, teenage schoolgirls.  The group justified its actions in Islamic terms; its leader <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/05/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/index.html">declared</a> on video that “I abducted your girls. I will sell them on the market, by Allah….There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell.”</p>
<p>The so-called mainstream media, which <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/how-the-media-whitewashes-muslim-persecution-of-christians/">generally downplays</a> or ignores Boko Haram’s terror campaign, actually reported on this particular atrocity, prompting Western authorities—who are much more accustomed to, and comfortable with, pretending these sorts of things don’t exist—to respond in awkward, hypocritical and, in a word, foolish, ways.</p>
<p>Thus, Secretary of State <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nigeria-accepts-us-help-to-rescue-girls-kidnapped-by-boko-haram-too-late/">John Kerry</a>, saying the U.S. had been in touch with Nigeria “from day one” of the crisis, asserted “I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort.  And it will begin immediately. I mean, literally, immediately.”</p>
<p>It is not clear whom Kerry was referring to when he said “convinced everybody”—unless he was referring to himself.  After all, there might not have been any need for “greater effort,” the need to act “immediately. I mean, literally, immediately” had Kerry only let the Nigerian government do its job one year ago, when they were waging a particularly strong and successful offensive against Boko Haram in the very same region that the schoolgirls were recently kidnapped.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obama-administration-calls-for-the-human-rights-of-jihadi-murderers/">Back then</a>, in May 2013, soon after Nigerian forces killed 30 Boko Haram members, Reuters reported that “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strongly worded statement [to the Nigerian president] saying: “We are … deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations, which, in turn, only escalate the violence and fuel extremism” from Boko Haram.</p>
<p>As for Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Clinton, who publicly bemoaned the lot of the kidnapped girls—<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/07/hillary-s-state-department-refused-to-brand-boko-haram-as-terrorists.html">saying</a> it’s “abominable, it’s criminal, it’s an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible”—when she was Secretary of State and in a position to help offer “the fullest response possible” she repeatedly <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/07/hillary-s-state-department-refused-to-brand-boko-haram-as-terrorists.html">refused</a> to designate Boko Haram as a “foreign terrorist organizations,” despite the countless atrocities it had already committed, despite the fact that under her tenure Boko Haram had <a href="http://www.kkms.com/11666938/">boasted</a> it would “strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women,” and despite urging from the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, and several congressmen and senators.</p>
<p>Her logic was once voiced by her husband, former U.S. president Bill Clinton.  Back in February 2012, Clinton declared that “inequality” and “poverty” are “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/clinton-blames-jihad-on-poverty/">what’s fueling all this stuff</a>”—a reference to Boko Haram’s terror—and warned the Nigerian government that “It is almost impossible to cure a problem based on violence with violence.”</p>
<p>The rest of April’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.</p>
<p><b>Muslim Slaughter of Christians</b></p>
<p><b>Afghanistan</b>: <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/32723-afghan-christians-mourn-americans-killed-at-hospital">Three Americans were shot and killed</a> at a Kabul hospital funded by an American Christian charity.  The murderer was a policeman employed as a security guard at the hospital.  The Taliban have claimed responsibility for similar attacks this year, but issued no comment.  Those killed were a doctor and a father and son visiting the hospital. “As they were walking out of the hospital, the security guard opened fire on them, killing three and wounding another one,” said the Interior Ministry.  The attack comes amid growing attacks against Christians and Westerners in the country. Three weeks earlier, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, 48, was killed and reporter Kathy Gannon, 60, wounded while they were sitting in the back of a car in the east of the country.  Also in March, a gunman shot dead Swedish journalist Nils Horner, 51, outside a restaurant in Kabul.</p>
<p><b>Central African Republic</b>: Father Labbe Christ Formane Willbona was slaughtered by Muslim herdsmen believed to be close to the Islamic rebel organization, Seleka.  Local security sources reported that <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/04/centra-african-republic-islamic-jihadists-murder-catholic-priest-mutilate-corpse">the corpse was mutilated before being buried</a>.</p>
<p><b>Egypt</b>: A Coptic Christian teacher in Marzouk prep school in Minya province <a href="http://www.copts-united.com/English/Details.php?I=1085&amp;A=13791">was shot in the head</a> by a student belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.  Eyewitnesses said that the student was caught smoking in class and was reprimanded. Apparently he decided to show his “infidel” teacher his place, and so shot him in the head while he was returning home. <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35640-AFRICA_EGYPT_Sectarian_clashes_in_Assiut_Two_Christians_killed">Two more Christian Copts were killed</a> due to, according to Agenzia Fides, “sectarian clashes” which broke out in villages near Asyut over land disputes between a Coptic family and local Muslims. On the same day of the Coptic funeral, a young Coptic entrepreneur, Mohsen Morris, was also kidnapped near Asyut. The kidnappers extracted a ransom of 250,000 Egyptian pounds from his family.</p>
<p><b>Libya</b>:  Three more Coptic Christians—all cousins—were targeted in post “Arab Spring” Libya.   One was <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/three-egyptian-cousins-go-to-libya-none-comes-back-alive/">slaughtered</a> and brought back to Egypt to be buried in a Coptic cemetery; another was carried back home in an ambulance, half dead with a bullet lodged in his skull; another cousin disappeared and is believed to have been killed by Islamic militants.  Islamic enmity for Christians has been expressing itself regularly in Libya after the U.S. supported “Arab Spring” came there: Christians—<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/three-american-teachers-slaughtered-for-christian-faith-in-muslim-world/">including Americans</a>—have been <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/mass-arrest-and-torture-of-christians-in-libya/">tortured</a> and killed (including <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2013/09/two-egyptian-christians-slain-in-libya/">for refusing to convert</a>) and <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/hatred-of-christians-unleashed-in-libya/">churches bombed</a>. It’s “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/open-season-on-christians-in-libya/">open season</a>” on Copts, as jihadis issue a reward to Muslims who find and kill Christians. This was not the case under Gaddafi.</p>
<p><b>Pakistan</b>: A Muslim security guard is accused of <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/family-of-christian-shot-dead-in-pakistan-doubts-suicide-claim/">murdering a Christian worker who refused to convert to Islam</a>.   According to Morning Star News,<b> “</b>Sunny Masih, a father of two, was working as a cleaner at a branch of Bank Islami under construction on Nisbat Road in Lahore. On Wednesday morning (April 16), the bank security guard informed police that Masih had shot himself in the forehead with a pump-action shotgun that the guard had left unattended before going to the washroom. The guard, Omar Farooq, of Khushab District in central Punjab Province, told police that Masih ‘looked depressed’ when he arrived at the bank.”  However, all close family members insist that Sunny was, far from depressed, lively and happy.  According to the father, “On April 15, my son told me that Farooq [the guard] had mocked his Christian faith and had asked him to ‘embrace’ Islam. He told my son, ‘You are a good-looking boy, and I don’t like to see you sweeping floors and cleaning the washrooms. If you embrace Islam, I’ll connect you with people who will take good care of you, provide you with a decent job and even get you married into a wealthy Muslim family.’”  Sunny told Farooq that he was satisfied with his Christian faith, and that he should stop nagging him. “My son told me that when he snubbed Farooq, the guard had threatened him that he would have to face the consequences for refusing the <i>Dawaat</i> [an invitation to accept Islam] said the grieving father. I took the matter lightly and told my son not to worry, as being Christians we have to face such people every second day. I told Sunny to avoid discussing religion with Farooq even if he brought up the matter and keep distance from him, and everything would be alright. Little did I know that my son would end up in a mortuary a day later.” According to a Christian activist involved in the case, Sunny “was hit on the forehead just above his eyes, and his skull and brain were completely blown away by the impact at point blank range.  The doctor said he found it hard to believe that Masih could have shot himself in the head with a big weapon such as a shotgun. This is what we want the police to find out, but instead they are trying to cover up the matter. We believe the police are showing bias in its probe because it involves a ‘righteous Muslim’ who was trying to convert a Christian.”</p>
<p><b>Syria</b>: Frans van der Lugt—a 76-year-old Jesuit priest from the Netherlands who had established a community center and farm near the city of Homs where he had worked for over forty years for the betterment of people with disabilities and for Christian-Muslim harmony—was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27155474">shot dead</a> in the garden of the community center.  After the Islamist-led siege of Homs, the priest continued to care for the sick and the hungry. In early 2014 he made a number of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQHg6ivGPg">YouTube videos</a>, asking the international community to help the besieged city.  Yet he chose to remain in Homs, struggling with the daily bombings and the lack of food, until he was slain.</p>
<p><b>Uganda</b>: The teenage daughter of a Muslim man managed to attend one church service after converting to Christianity before <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/muslim-in-uganda-kills-daughter-for-leaving-islam-sister-says/">her father killed her</a>. Abdul Hakim Ibanda severely beat his 17-year-old daughter and her 19-year-old sister with a blunt instrument after learning that they had attended a church service on April 6.  The surviving sister said, “On Sunday morning we arrived at the United Believers Church…  After prayers we then went to church, where the pastor introduced us to the church and that we were new members of the church. The church faithful were cheerful to receive us.”  However,</p>
<p>local Muslims who saw them enter the church immediately reported it to the father. He gathered a group of 32 “youths” to attack the church but the mob was eventually dispersed without incident.  When the girls returned home, the father, described as “furious,” began questioning and eventually beating them with a blunt object, killing the girl.  According to the pastor of the majority-Christian nation, where Muslims make some 11.5 percent, “The girl [surviving sister] is still traumatized as a result of the death of her sister and needs prayers and counseling.”<i> </i> Said the girl: “I know I cannot go back to my father because I have become a Christian.  I am grateful to the church for welcoming me and taking me as their child. I now have a new home.”</p>
<p><b>Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches</b></p>
<p><b>Austria</b>: After reportedly listening to Muslim chants, a man, known only as Ibrahim A., went on a church vandalizing spree, <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/04/vienna-muslim-vandalizes-four-churches-after-listening-to-islamic-chants">desecrating four churches</a>.  According to the Vienna Times, “the attack left Lazaristenkirche with all of its statues and side altars largely destroyed as well as statues damaged at St. Stephen’s, the Breitenfeld church in Josefstadt and the Neuottakring church in Ottakring.” The Archbishop of Vienna described the attack on churches as “so far the worst act of vandalism in my time as Archbishop….  I am shocked by the devastation in the churches.  I hope that the perpetrator or perpetrators did not know what they were doing.”  Ibrahim A., 37-years-old, was caught in the act of vandalizing St. Stephan’s but was released at the time because police did not realize it was one of many attacks that that had been carried out that day. Police have since been unable to find him.</p>
<p><b>Nigeria</b>:  According to AP, “Witnesses and an official say <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-2593552/Catholic-church-north-Nigeria-set-aflame.html">angry Muslim youths set ablaze a Catholic church</a> and tried to destroy an attached school in northern Nigeria over an alleged insult to the Prophet Muhammad.  Witness Tukur Musa says soldiers on Monday stopped the mob from setting ablaze the school in Funtua town in Katsina state, but they arrived too late to save St. Rita Catholic Church.  He says the town was in an uproar about an examination question last week which they considered an insult to the Prophet Muhammad. They reported the matter to district authorities. When no action was taken, young Muslims attacked.  Deputy Police Superintendent Aminu Abubakar Saddiq confirmed the church was burned and school damaged but said no one was injured.  Religious strife [code for “Islamic supremacism”] is common in central and northern Nigeria.”  Also, during early Easter Sunday morning, unknown gunmen, later attributed to the Islamic terrorist organization, Boko Haram, launched an attack on the Christian-majority regions of Taraba State.  <a href="http://www.spyghana.com/police-and-boko-haram-massacre-over-150-dead/">The Christian Church of Nigeria was burned down</a>, as well as many Christian homes. Some 15 corpses were seen littered on the streets.</p>
<p><b>Syria</b>:    Gregorios III Laham, Greek-Melkite Catholic patriarch of Antioch, visited some of the dozens of Christian churches hit by Islamic rebels, particularly those in the historic town of Ma‘aloula, where the Christian inhabitants still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and where some were executed for refusing to convert to Islam.   (<a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19118">Click here</a> for several pictures of the types of desecration that churches undergo if they fall into the hands of the Islamic terrorists.  In St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church alone,  icons had their faces scratched out, church pews broken, statues of the Virgin Mary and Christ smashed, and Bibles burned.)  In the prelate’s words: “An apocalyptic spectacle presented itself. Other churches have been destroyed in Syria, but I have never seen anything like this. I cried and I sought in vain a moment of solitude to pray. I am heartbroken.  Ma‘aloula's four historic churches were hit. Our parish church, dedicated to Saint George, is riddled with bullets. The convent’s dome was damaged in two places. The walls were ripped open by cannon fire. Some parts of the convent is in danger of collapsing and must be rebuilt. The icons are scattered on the floor, dirty, or stolen. It is currently completely uninhabitable.”  The patriarch further described the wanton destruction of churches as a “war crime.”</p>
<p><b>Attacks on Christian Freedom: Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism</b></p>
<p><b>Malaysia</b>: An Islamic organization known as Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia <a href="http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/now-muslim-group-complains-of-malay-language-in-easter-pageant">accused a Christian church of trying to evangelize to Muslims</a>, simply because they used Bahasa Malaysia, the national language, for an Easter pageant.  The organization’s website said that while freedom of religion for non-Muslims was guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, the open use of Bahasa Malaysia to promote the event outside the church compound was an abuse of this liberty.  The organization also called on Muslim officials “to closely monitor this Easter Musical.”  It further declared that “the notion of Easter was against Islam.”  In Malaysia—which is regularly portrayed in the West as an example of a moderate Muslim nation—any attempt to promote religions other than Islam is illegal.</p>
<p><b>Pakistan</b>: Eight days after a court in Lahore sentenced <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/03/attorneys-rights-groups-blast-death-sentence-for-christian-in-pakistan/">Sawan Masih</a>, a Christian man, to death for allegedly insulting Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, another illiterate Christian couple in Punjab Province was <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/christian-couple-in-pakistan-sentenced-to-death-for-blasphemy/">sentenced to death</a> for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages.  Along with Asia Bibi, a wife and mother incarcerated since 2010, the number of Christians on death row in Pakistan for blaspheming Islam and/or its founder is now four.  Also, a Muslim landlord <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/32729-pakistan-christian-worker-beaten-for-observing-easter">almost beat to death</a> his Christian tenant and employee, Saleem Masih, for observing Easter.  According to Mushtaq Gill, a Christian activist and lawyer, because Saleem took time off to observe Easter, “the landlord became furious and beat him severely. He was eventually rescued and saved by some other villagers, otherwise he could have been beaten to death.”  Gill added that many other Christian field workers “are forced into bonded labour, denied minimum wages and harassed and implicated in fake cases if they try to resist the oppression of their influential masters.” As for Mushtaq Gill, the Christian lawyer who is representing the aforementioned Christians, <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35508-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Threats_to_the_lawyer_who_defends_Christians_accused_of_blasphemy">he is facing death threats</a>.  In his own words: “On April 2, a stranger came to the Lahore Court and warned me that I might be attacked or involved in some fake criminal cases or even killed.” Nor are such threats limited to “extremists,” as he received information that he could also be expelled and barred from practicing law.  Said Gill: “What am I supposed to do, stop? Psalm 118 says: ‘The Lord is with me, I have no fear of anything. What can man do to me?’ My other colleagues and I have been threatened and attacked several times by strangers because of our work for human rights in Pakistan. But we are not afraid. We know that we could be killed because we support the campaign for the abolition of the blasphemy law. But this will not close our mouth and will not stop our work on human rights. The Lord tells us to have courage.”</p>
<p><b>Uganda</b>: Muslim relatives of a convert to Christianity <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/04/convert-from-islam-in-uganda-former-sheikh-says-muslim-relatives-poisoned-him/">tried to poison him to death</a>.  Hassan Muwanguzi converted to Christianity in 2003.  Soon thereafter, his wife left him and he was fired from his job as a schoolteacher.  Most recently, he was hospitalized after an aunt put insecticide in his tea.  According to Hassan: “After eating and taking tea, I started feeling stomachache, then I realized that she was the one responsible for it—and I believe she did not do it alone, since they have been hunting for me directly and indirectly, because when I left them and converted to Christianity it pained them so much.  The reason they want to kill me is very clear—it is because of being a convert to Christianity; above all, to them it is like I brought shame by converting…” During the family meeting, when he started to feel ill, he telephoned a local Christian bishop, who advised him that he should leave secretly. “I knew if he were to mention to them that he was getting sick, they would harm him more,” said Bishop Kinyewa.</p>
<p><b>Uzbekistan</b>: Christians are being prevented from burying their dead in the state cemeteries of the Muslim-majority nation.  There have been three known cases so far this year. Most recently, the family of Gayrat Buriyev, who died on 9 April, was told by officials<i>, </i>“The cemetery is state property, but is under the management of the local mosque, and if the imam is against the burial then it will not take place.”<i> </i>And the local imam said he was “acting in accordance with sharia law,” even though Uzbekistan is officially a secular state. The imam also cursed the family for being Christians, calling them “<a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Christians-blocked-from-burying-dead-in-state-cemeteries-in-Uzbekistan.html">unclean and defiled infidels</a>.”  Although they took the matter to local authorities, officials refused to intervene, siding with the imam.  (According to Islamic teaching, being buried next to an “infidel” could cause the Muslim corpse to suffer the “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/jihad-martyrdom-and-the-torments-of-the-grave/">torments of the grave</a>.”)</p>
<p><b>About this Series</b></p>
<p>The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:</p>
<p>1)    To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>2)    To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.</p>
<p>Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of <i>jizya</i> (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed <i>dhimmis</i>, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.</p>
<p>Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don't miss <strong>Raymond Ibrahim</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing</em><span id="eow-title" class="watch-title long-title " dir="ltr" title="The Glazov Gang-Raymond Ibrahim on ISIS's Islamic Inspirations."><em><strong> ISIS's Islamic Inspirations</strong>:</em> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bFkGgNsqQ_4" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Previous Reports on Muslim Persecution of Christians</b>:</p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2014/">March, 2014</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/">February, 2014</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/">January, 2014</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/">December, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/">November, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">October, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">September, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/">August, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/">July, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/">June, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/">May, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/">April, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/">March, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/">February, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/">January, 2013</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/">December, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/">November, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/">October, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/">September, 2012 </a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/">August, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">July, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012">June, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012">May, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012">April, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012">March, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012">February, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012">January, 2012</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011">December, 2011</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011">November, 2011</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011">October, 2011</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011">September, 2011</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011">August, 2011</a></p>
<p>•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/">July, 2011</a></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Christians and Yazidis in Iraq – and a World&#8217;s Indifference</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-puder/christians-and-yazidis-in-iraq-and-a-worlds-indifference/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=christians-and-yazidis-in-iraq-and-a-worlds-indifference</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2014 04:05:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=238726</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One standard for Palestinian people and refugees, and another for others.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/yazidis-3.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-238740" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/yazidis-3-450x327.jpg" alt="yazidis-3" width="223" height="162" /></a>For the United Nation’s (UN) and the international media, there is one standard for Palestinian people and refugees, and another for others. This can be deduced from the reaction to the plight of the Iraqi Christians and the Yazidis (a Kurdish ethno-religious group of people, concentrated primarily in the Nineveh Province in Northern Iraq, now occupied by the fanatical jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] now called the Islamic State – IS.)  The Yazidis practice a syncretic religion that fuses Shia and Sufi Islam along with indigenous regional folk traditions. They are considered infidels by the Sunni Muslim IS and the Gaza Palestinians.</p>
<p>There are no protest marches in European capitals or American cities on behalf of the Christians and Yazidis of Iraq like those recently held in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Nor has there been sustained media coverage of Christian and Yazidi suffering, as was seen during the Gaza war about the Palestinians.</p>
<p>At an August 12, 2014 press conference UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon bemoaned the situation of the Yazidis. “The plight of the Yazidis and others (meaning Christians) on Mount Sinjar is especially <a href="http://www.un.org/sg/spokesperson/highlights/index.asp?HighD=8/12/2014">harrowing</a>.” While devoting a few obligatory lines about the Yazidis in Iraq, Ban Ki-Moon failed to provide the “harrowing” dimensions of their tragedy, including the murder of 500 Yazidis by decapitation and live burials and the 300 Yazidi women who were kidnapped and forced into sex-slavery by the IS jihadists.</p>
<p>Ban Ki-Moon did, however, elaborate on the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. He said, “According to preliminary information, nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed –almost <a href="http://www.un.org/sg/spokesperson/highlights/index.asp?HighD=8/12/2014">75 percent</a> of them civilians, including 459 children…more than 300,000 people are still sheltering in UNRWA (United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestine) schools, government and private schools and other public facilities or with host families.  At least 100,000 people have had their homes destroyed or severely damaged. Most of Gaza’s households have little or no water supply. Hospitals meant to cope with disaster are themselves disaster zones. The new school year was scheduled to start in less than two weeks, but a great many of the buildings will not be ready or are totally unusable in their current state.”</p>
<p>The UN Secretary General failed to mention in his statement to the press that Hamas has fired its rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians from UNRWA schools, hospitals and private homes, as well as public facilities, including mosques and churches in contravention of international law. And, while it is regretful that Palestinian children might not be able to start school on time (courtesy of Hamas), Christian and Yazidi children in Iraq have no schools or hospitals to go to at all. At least 1 million Christians and 500,000 Yazidis had to abandon their homes and, with no shelter on the mountain, are completely exposed to the elements. The exact number of Christians and Yazidis killed by the Islamic State is hitherto unknown, albeit, a one day toll of murdered Christians stood at 1,700 in what amounts to a genocide. These numbers are likely to be far greater than the Palestinians killed in Gaza. Moreover, their deaths might bring to an end the existence of one of the oldest Christian (Assyrian) sects in the world.</p>
<p>The exact number of Iraqi Christians is hard to come by. The figure often mentioned is about 400,000 to 500,000 who live in the country, down from a total before the 2003 war of perhaps 1.5 million. Other observers think as few as 200,000 may be left. The majority of the remaining Christians live in the far north of the country. The IS capture of Iraq’s second largest city – Mosul, in northern Iraq, prompted thousands of Christians to flee, some to Erbil (capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government-KRG) and others to the Nineveh plains, a traditional stronghold of Christians and Yazidis. The Christians and Yazidis are safer in these areas because of the Kurdish Peshmerga protection &#8211; the only force in Iraq standing against the onslaught of the fanatical IS.</p>
<p>Unlike the Palestinians in Gaza, the Christians and Yazidis will not get the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Council) to investigate “war crimes” committed against them. Nor will they get a special refugee agency – UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine) with a budget of $1billion, to rebuild their lives. At best, the U.S. military, not the UN, will continue to deliver food and water for those stranded in the mountains.</p>
<p>The Palestinians, who enjoy a special status as “permanent refugees,” receive the highest per capita handouts from the international community and Western “Christian” states, especially the U.S. Both the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas-led Gaza regime are sustained by welfare checks received from abroad. The Gatestone Institute quoted from a recent study by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice that “The Palestinian people have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3979/unrwa-dilemma">25 times</a> more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall Plan after the Second World War.” It also qualified that “If the entire Palestinian Authority leadership lives off an international welfare check that arrives only because the conflict still exists, there isn&#8217;t much incentive for ending the conflict.”</p>
<p>Western governments including the U.S. are now clamoring to rebuild Gaza after the recent war called “Protective Edge” by Israel. Can the Christians of Iraq and Yazidis count on the same largesse from the international community or Western powers as has been showered on the Palestinians? It’s doubtful.</p>
<p>What is so tragic about the double-standard practiced by the international community is that right and wrong are no longer relevant. The Palestinians in Gaza elected the Hamas Islamic terrorist regime and most of its population supported the terror attacks against Israel, whether by suicide bombers during the Second Intifada (2000-2004) or the rockets fired at Israeli cities and its civilian population. Israel turned over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in August, 2005, along with ready-made hot-houses and orchards primed for exporting. Israel’s gesture of peace was met with the firing of more than 10,000 rockets.</p>
<p>Christians and Yazidis are true victims of Islamic intolerance, and the barbarism of the Islamic State. The Gaza Palestinians and their chosen Hamas regime cannot qualify as victims. They initiated hostilities with Israel, and now seek concessions from Israel and Egypt. In 1 <a href="http://biblehub.com/1_kings/21-19.htm">Kings 21:19</a> the question is asked: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” The Palestinians attacked Israel, and are seen as victims. They are, instead, victims of their own hateful aggression. Conversely, neither the Christians nor the Yazidi Kurds attacked their neighbors with rockets or suicide bombers. They truly are defenseless victims.</p>
<p>In a letter written by Rebecca Simon, an American of Assyrian Christian descent, to Colonel Allen West, she asked: “No doubt the kidnapping of 200 kids by Boko Haram being forced to convert to Islam was a tragedy. But equally tragic, if not more so, is the forceful conversion to Islam of at least 200,000 Assyrian Christians in Iraq. And where is the <a href="http://allenbwest.com/2014/08/freedom-choice-islamic-way-womans-anguish-fate-assyrian-christians/">outrage</a> by the Spanish bleeding hearts: Mr. and Mrs. Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz? In their delicate artistic mind, does a Palestinian child have more rights to life than an Assyrian Christian child?”</p>
<p>The Christians and Yazidis of Iraq deserve the sympathy and support of the international community. The Palestinians in Gaza, on the other hand, require scrutiny and condemnation.</p>
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		<title>Let He Who Is Without Ebola Cast the First Stone</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ann-coulter/let-he-who-is-without-ebola-cast-the-first-stone/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=let-he-who-is-without-ebola-cast-the-first-stone</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Aug 2014 04:20:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ann Coulter]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=238587</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Am I "un-Christian"? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Cast-the-first-stone.png"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-238589" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Cast-the-first-stone-384x350.png" alt="Cast-the-first-stone" width="271" height="247" /></a>There was some hubbub about my column last week, where I complained about Christians, like Dr. Kent Brantly, who abandon America to do much-praised work in Third World countries.</p>
<p>I planned to respond to my critics this week, but, unfortunately, there&#8217;s nothing to respond to. They call me names, say I&#8217;m cruel, malicious, not a Christian, compare me to Howard Stern and cite the titles of my books as if they are self-refuting. (Zippy, aren&#8217;t they?)</p>
<p>In other words, it feels like a book tour.</p>
<p>Missing from these alleged refutations is what we call a &#8220;point.&#8221; What is with these Christians? I know God didn&#8217;t distribute brains evenly, but can&#8217;t they make an argument? Christian websites should start separating columns into &#8220;Arguments&#8221; and &#8220;Anger&#8221; sections.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve decided to help out my detractors with a few pointers.</p>
<p>First, exposing error is much more hurtful than name-calling.</p>
<p>Take former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner&#8217;s digs:</p>
<p>&#8211; &#8220;The irony of Coulter accusing anyone of narcissism seems lost on her.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8211; &#8220;Let&#8217;s just say that when one thinks about what St. Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit &#8212; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control &#8212; Ann Coulter&#8217;s name doesn&#8217;t leap immediately to mind.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8211; &#8220;Near the end of her 1987 book, Ms. (Elisabeth) Elliot writes this: &#8216;If there should appear in the 20th century one who was truly holy &#8230; would we say, &#8220;Away with him! Crucify him!&#8221;?&#8217; &#8230; If Elisabeth Elliot didn&#8217;t personally know Ann Coulter, she certainly knew her type.&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve always hoped to be part of an &#8220;ilk,&#8221; but I guess &#8220;type&#8221; will do.</p>
<p>Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention &#8212; and I hope, for their sake, the brother-in-law of some important Baptist &#8212; wrote:</p>
<p>&#8211; &#8220;Ann Coulter has not suddenly pivoted to saying some outrageous, shocking thing. She&#8217;s made a living at it.&#8221;</p>
<p>(Original!)</p>
<p>&#8211; &#8220;Ann Coulter&#8217;s &#8230; comments are none of my concern. The church is to hold accountable those who are on the inside, not those on the outside&#8221; of the church.</p>
<p>Whoa, Russell! You got so wrapped up in your insults, you forgot that your whole point was to defend Christian missions to those so far &#8220;on the outside&#8221; of the church, they&#8217;re practicing voodoo! I don&#8217;t care how big a Baptist your brother-in-law is, Russ; you need a class in logic.</p>
<p>Liberals have been trying to insult me into submission for more than a decade. These guys think they can succeed where Vanity Fair failed?</p>
<p>Second, to get the upper hand on someone you disagree with, it&#8217;s crucial to know what that person said. I find that the ancient art of reading is invaluable in this regard.</p>
<p>On a website called Southern Baptist Convention Voices, Alan Cross wrote: &#8220;Conservatives like Ann Coulter, Michael Savage and Donald Trump (or whatever he actually is) have sounded off saying that the Christian missionaries who contracted the virus should NOT be brought back to this country to be treated. We must protect ourselves, they say.&#8221;</p>
<p>I said nothing of the sort.</p>
<p>My complaint was not with the bringing-back part, but with the going-over part. My rationale: 1) America is in the fight of its life and if this country dies, the world dies; and 2) the cost of Dr. Brantly&#8217;s medical care has now exceeded any good he did there.</p>
<p>I also expressly said: &#8220;There&#8217;s little danger of an Ebola plague breaking loose from the treatment of these two Americans at the Emory University Hospital.&#8221;</p>
<p>(In his defense, Cross devoted most of his column to promoting his own book, so maybe refuting me wasn&#8217;t really the point.)</p>
<p>Wehner also skipped the reading step. He falsely accused me of &#8220;mocking&#8221; Dr. Brantly (in addition to his main point that I am cruel, narcissistic, callous and malicious). &#8220;It takes an unusually callous and malicious heart,&#8221; Wehner says, to mock a &#8220;husband and father who, while serving others, is stricken with a virulent disease.&#8221;</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t think I &#8220;mocked&#8221; Dr. Brantly. I mocked &#8212; I would say &#8220;assailed&#8221; &#8212; the whole concept of American Christians fleeing their own country, which needs them, to run off to Third World hellholes. (&#8220;Mocking&#8221; would be saying something like, &#8220;Let&#8217;s just say that when one thinks about what St. Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit &#8230; Dr. Brantly&#8217;s name doesn&#8217;t leap immediately to mind.&#8221;)</p>
<p>True, Dr. Brantly&#8217;s mission was my example. I like to give examples in my writing. I find it&#8217;s more effective than abstract theorizing about how a hypothetical person might go on a Christian mission to Liberia that would end up being completely counterproductive by costing his Christian charity $2 million if he ended up catching the Ebola virus there.</p>
<p>No one has responded to that argument. It was a major strategic error for my critics to ignore one of my central points, while beating a straw man to death. (He&#8217;s a &#8220;husband and father&#8221;!)</p>
<p>Third, I strongly advise against using one-size-fits-all arguments that can be turned back against you.</p>
<p>They say: &#8220;How do you know whether God called Dr. Brantly to go to Liberia?&#8221;</p>
<p>Ah ha! But then I riposte: &#8220;How do you know whether God called me to write that column?&#8221;</p>
<p>And there we are, stuck at an impasse.</p>
<p>This is the weakest technique of my critics, and one that is sadly common among certain types of Christians. (We usually call them &#8220;atheists.&#8221;)</p>
<p>In this case, it&#8217;s even worse than the usual &#8220;who&#8217;s to say?&#8221; dodge, inasmuch as I set forth evidence for what I&#8217;m saying about there being glory-seeking and cowardice in Christian missions to Third World hellholes.</p>
<p>Among other things, I wrote: &#8220;Of course, if Brantly had evangelized in New York City or Los Angeles, The New York Times would get upset and accuse him of anti-Semitism, until he swore &#8212; as the pope did &#8212; that you don&#8217;t have to be a Christian to go to heaven. Evangelize in Liberia, and the Times&#8217; Nicholas Kristof will be totally impressed.&#8221;</p>
<p>(Hey, you know what else a Christian desperate for a pat on the head from The New York Times might do? Write a column questioning Ann Coulter&#8217;s salvation!)</p>
<p>Thus, I clearly pointed out that one path &#8212; missions to Third World hellholes &#8212; leads to worldly glory, while another &#8212; serving Christ in America &#8212; leads to abuse and ridicule.</p>
<p>The counter-argument to that point would be to say that Dr. Brantly has never been hailed as a hero or won humanitarian awards. But that would be false. Or they might tell me that Christians in Hollywood are the toast of the town &#8212; maybe Mel Gibson could write a guest column! That also would not be true.</p>
<p>My critics are left retreating into absurdity, essentially asking: &#8220;How do you know whether God calls on people to behave in ways that will get them standing ovations?&#8221;</p>
<p>I ask these similarly thought-provoking questions:</p>
<p>&#8220;How do you know whether God called the Dixie Chicks to insult George W. Bush in front of an America-hating audience, winning thunderous applause?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;How do you know whether God called Gov. O&#8217;Malley to grandstand about the poor illegal immigrants at our border &#8212; while secretly demanding that none of them be sent to his state?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;How do you know whether God called Samaritan&#8217;s Purse to fly out the affluent white Americans at a cost of millions of dollars, and give them an incredibly scarce medicine, while leaving the poor Africans to die?&#8221;?</p>
<p>Oh I don&#8217;t know. Call it a sneaking suspicion.</p>
<p>Ironically, despite the flailing anger of my critics &#8212; in fact because of it! &#8212; I&#8217;ve changed my mind. I see now that not everyone is called to be a Christian witness in an advanced nation.</p>
<p>You guys should definitely go to Africa.</p>
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		<title>World Ignores Christian Exodus from Islamic World</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/world-ignores-christian-exodus-from-islamic-world/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=world-ignores-christian-exodus-from-islamic-world</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2014 04:35:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=238075</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How Christian persecution exposes the Left's bigotry toward Israel. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/110682225.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-238076" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/110682225-450x307.jpg" alt="110682225" width="296" height="202" /></a>Originally published by the <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4572/christian-exodus-islamic-world">Gatestone Institute</a>.</em></p>
<p>While the world fixates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas—and while most mainstream media demonize Israel for trying to survive amid a sea of Arab-Islamic hostility—similar or worse tragedies continue to go virtually ignored.</p>
<p>One of the most ancient Christian communities in the world, that of Iraq—which already had been decimated over the last decade, by Islamic forces unleashed after the ousting of Saddam Hussein—has now been wiped out entirely by the new “caliphate,” the so-called Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym “ISIS.”</p>
<p>As <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/convert-pay-tax-die-islamic-state-warns-christians-181415698--business.html?soc_src=mediacontentsharebuttons"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Reuters</span></a> reported:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq’s dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul….</i></p>
<p><i>It said Christians who wanted to remain in the “caliphate” that the Islamic State declared this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a “dhimma” contract—a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as “jizya.”</i></p>
<p><i>“We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract—involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,” the announcement said.</i></p></blockquote>
<p>The amount of <i>jizya</i>-money demanded was $450 a month, an exorbitant sum for Iraq.</p>
<p>Hours after the demand for jizya was made, Islamists began <a href="http://www.qenshrin.com/details.php?id=35341"><span style="color: #0433ff;">painting the letter “n” on Christian homes in Mosul</span></a>—in Arabic, Christians are known as “Nasara,” or “Nazarenes”—signaling them out for the slaughter to come.</p>
<p>Most Christians have since fled. A one-minute video in Arabic of their exodus appears <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=868502626513196&amp;set=vb.100000604016240&amp;type=2&amp;theater"><span style="color: #0433ff;">here</span></a>—women and children weeping as they flee their homes—a video that will not be shown by any Western mainstream media outlet, busy as they are depicting instead nonstop images of Palestinian women and children.</p>
<p>The Syrian Orthodox bishop of Mosul said that what is happening to the Christians of Mosul is nothing less than “<a href="http://arabic.rt.com/prg/telecast/700106-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%82%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3-%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AD%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%84-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85-%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A8%D8%AD%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%AB-%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%88-%D8%A7%D8%BA%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%A8/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">genocide</span></a>… not to mention the slaughters and rapes not being reported… Forcing more than a thousand Christian families out of Mosul, and turning Christian churches into Muslim mosques, is equivalent to genocide.”  Of course, the word genocide means to kill or make extinct a people.</p>
<p>Others were not as lucky to flee. According to Iraqi human rights activist Hena Edward, a great many older and disabled Iraqis, unable to pay the jizya or join the exodus, have <a href="http://www.linga.org/international-news/NjY2MA"><span style="color: #0433ff;">opted to convert to Islam</span></a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the jihadis continue destroying churches and other ancient Christian holy sites in the name of their religion, and murdering any Christians they can find. Among other acts, they <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/isis-torches-1800-old-mosul-church-expelling-christians-194750912.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">torched an 1800 year old church in Mosul</span></a>, stormed a fourth century monastery—formerly one of Iraq’s best known Christian landmarks—and <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/jihadists-seize-iraq-monastery-005850871.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">expelling its resident monks</span></a>.</p>
<p>Most recently, in Syrian regions under the Islamic State’s control, <span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.vieinter.com/themiddleeast/isis-crucifies-8-christians-in-syria-for-apostasy-from-islam/">eight Christians were reportedly crucified</a>.</span></p>
<p>The Islamic State’s call for Christians to pay <i>jizya</i> is not simply about money. It is about subjugation. Most Western media reporting on this recent call for <i>jizya</i> have failed to explain the accompanying <i>dhimma</i> contract Christians must also abide by. According to the Islamic State, “We offer them [Christians] three choices: Islam; <i>the dhimma contract</i>—involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword.”</p>
<p>The “dhimma contract” is a reference to the Conditions of Omar, an Islamic text attributed to the caliph of the same name that forces Christians to live according to third class citizen status.</p>
<p>In fact, several months back, when the Islamic State was still called “ISIS,” it applied the Conditions of Omar on the Christian minorities of Raqqa, Syria. The Islamic group had <span style="color: #0433ff;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26366197">issued a directive</a></span></p>
<blockquote><p><i>citing the Islamic concept of “dhimma”, [which] requires Christians in the city to pay tax of around half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety. It says Christians must not make renovations to churches, display crosses or other religious symbols outside churches, ring church bells or pray in public. Christians must not carry arms, and must follow other rules imposed by ISIS… “If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword,” the statement said [emphasis added].</i></p></blockquote>
<p>The persecution and exodus of Christians is hardly limited to Iraq. In 2011, the <a href="http://in.christiantoday.com/articles/christians-could-disappear-from-iraq-and-afghanistan/6919.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff;">U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom</span></a> noted: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt,” all Muslim majority nations.</p>
<p>Under Saddam Hussein, and before the 2003 U.S. “liberation” of Iraq, more than a million Christians lived in Iraq; Mosul had some 60,000 Christians. Today there are reportedly none thanks to the new Muslim “caliphate.”</p>
<p>In Egypt, some <a href="http://www.christiannewstoday.com/Christian_News_Report_900171.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">100,000 Christian Copts</span></a> fled their homeland soon after the “Arab Spring.” But even before that, the Coptic Orthodox Church lamented the “<a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3761/guest-column-egypt-christians-distraught"><span style="color: #0433ff;">repeated incidents of displacement of Copts from their homes</span></a>, whether by force or threat. Displacements began in Ameriya [62 Christian families evicted], then they stretched to Dahshur [120 Christian families evicted], and today terror and threats have reached the hearts and souls of our Coptic children in Sinai.”</p>
<p>In late 2012, it was reported that the <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/32561?idnews=32561&amp;lan=eng"><span style="color: #0433ff;">last Christian in the city of Homs</span></a>, Syria—which had a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-plight-of-syrias-christians-we-left-homs-because-they-were-trying-to-kill-us-8274710.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christian population of some 80,000 before jihadis</span></a> came—was murdered. An escaped teenage Syrian girl said: “We left because they were trying to kill us… because we were Christians…. Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house.”</p>
<p>In the African nation of Mali, after a 2012 Islamic coup, as many as <a href="http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15403&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CatholicWorldNewsFeatureStories+%28Catholic+World+News+%28on+CatholicCulture.org%29%29"><span style="color: #0433ff;">200,000 Christians fled</span></a>. According to reports, “<a href="http://www.christiantoday.com/article/appeal.for.christians.in.mali/29908.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the church in Mali faces being eradicated</span></a>,” especially in the north “where rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out… there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, church and Christian property has been looted or destroyed, and people tortured into revealing any Christian relatives.” At least one pastor was beheaded.</p>
<p>One can go on and on:</p>
<p>•In Ethiopia, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/24/thousands-christians-displaced-ethiopia-muslim-extremists-torch-churches-homes-2057387870/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes</span></a> when “Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.”</p>
<p>•In the Ivory Coast—where Christians have been crucified—Islamic rebels “<a href="http://www.assistnews.net/STORIES/2012/s12080114.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff;">massacred hundreds and displaced tens of thousands</span></a>” of Christians.</p>
<p>•In Libya, Islamic rebels forced <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Islamists-chase-nuns-from-Libya,-people-pray-for-their-return-27021.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">several Christian nun orders</span></a> serving the sick and needy since 1921 to flee and killed several Coptic Christians, causing that community also to flee.</p>
<p>•In Muslim-majority northern Nigeria, where hardly a Sunday passes without a church bombing, Christians are fleeing by the thousands; one region has been emptied of <a href="http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/Archives/Islamist-violence-drives-nearly-95-per-cent-of-Christians-from-Nigerian-state.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">95% of its Christian population</span></a>.</p>
<p>•In Pakistan, after a Christian child was falsely accused of desecrating a Koran and Muslims went on an anti-Christian rampage, an entire Christian village—men, women, and children—<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/30/fearful-pakistani-christians-make-home-in-forest/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">was forced to flee into the nearby woods,</span></a> where they built a church, to permanently reside there.</p>
<p>Despite all these atrocities, exoduses, and even genocides, the mainstream media seems to spend every available moment airing images of displaced Palestinians and demonizing Israel for trying to defend itself. Yet Israel does not kill Palestinians because of their religion or any other personal aspects. It does so in the context of being rocketed and trying to defend itself from terrorism.</p>
<p>On the other hand, all the crimes being committed by Muslims against Christians are simply motivated by religious hate, because the Christians are Christian.</p>
<p>It is to the mainstream media’s great shame that those who slaughter, behead, crucify, and displace people for no other reason than because they are Christian, rarely if ever get media coverage, while a nation such as Israel, which kills only in the context of self-defense, and not out of religious bigotry, is constantly demonized.</p>
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		<title>Raymond Ibrahim Discusses Muslim Persecution of Christians with Michael Coren</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/raymond-ibrahim-discusses-muslim-persecution-of-christians-with-michael-coren/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=raymond-ibrahim-discusses-muslim-persecution-of-christians-with-michael-coren</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 2014 04:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[Coptic]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[And the Western media's silence. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In Late June, Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the Freedom Center, was interviewed by Michael Coren of Sun News inside the Capitol Building, in Washington D.C., where the annual Coptic Solidarity conference was being held (Raymond chaired a panel which included Michael Coren, Erick Stakelbeck, Ryan Mauro, and Raymond Arroyo).</p>
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		<title>Presbyterian Church Slams Israel &#8212;- Ignores Christian Persecution</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Jul 2014 04:35:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[divestment]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The warped priorities of a left-wing church. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #000000;"><em>Originally published by <a href="http://blogs.cbn.com/ibrahim/archive/2014/07/21/presbyterian-church-criticizes-israel-ignores-christian-persecution.aspx">CBN.com</a>. </em></p>
<p><iframe src="http://cbn.com/tv/embedplayernews.aspx?bcid=3689050552001" width="320" height="180" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Days before the recent Israel/Hamas conflict erupted, the Presbyterian Church in America withdrew $21 million worth in investments from Israel because, as spokesman Heath Rada put it, the Israeli government’s actions “harm the Palestinian people.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Soon after, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and was asked if he was “troubled” by the Presbyterian Church’s move.<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX0Y2mnnsvc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Netanyahu responded</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="color: #000000;"><em>It should trouble all people of conscience and morality because it’s so disgraceful. You know, you look at what’s happening in the Middle East and I think most Americans understand this, they see this enormous area riveted by religious hatred, by savagery of unimaginable proportions. Then you come to Israel and you see the one democracy that upholds basic human rights, that guards the rights of all minorities, that protects Christians—Christians are persecuted throughout the Middle East. So most Americans understand that Israel is a beacon of civilization and moderation. You know I would suggest to these Presbyterian organizations to fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give them two pieces of advice, one is, make sure it’s an armor plated bus, and second, don’t say that you’re Christians.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #000000;">It’s difficult—if not impossible—to argue with Netanyahu’s logic. Indeed, several points made in his one-minute response are deserving of some reflection.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">First, the obvious: why is it that self-professed Christians completely ignore the horrific Islamic persecution of fellow Christians in the Middle East, while grandstanding against the Jewish state for trying to defend itself against the same ideology that persecutes Christians?</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">And he is absolutely right to say that the persecution of Christians in the Mideast has reached a point of “savagery of unimaginable proportions.” Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the atrocities Mideast Christians are exposed to—the slaughters, crucifixions, beheadings, torture and rape—is the absolute silence emanating from so-called mainline Protestant churches in the U.S.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Note also the nations Netanyahu highlighted for their brutal persecution of Christian minorities: Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Indigenous Christians were markedly better off in all three nations <em>before</em> the U.S. got involved, specifically be empowering, deliberately or not, Islamist forces. Now,<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/confirmed-u-s-chief-facilitator-of-christian-persecution/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">according to recent studies</a>, Christians in all three nations are experiencing the worst form of persecution around the globe:</p>
<ul style="color: #000000;">
<li style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Libya</span>: Ever since U.S.-backed, al-Qaeda-linked terrorists overthrew Gaddafi, Christians—<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/three-american-teachers-slaughtered-for-christian-faith-in-muslim-world/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">including Americans</a>—have been <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/mass-arrest-and-torture-of-christians-in-libya/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">tortured</a> and killed (including <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://morningstarnews.org/2013/09/two-egyptian-christians-slain-in-libya/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">for refusing to convert</a>) and <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/hatred-of-christians-unleashed-in-libya/" target="_blank" rel="nofollwo">churches bombed</a>. It’s “<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/open-season-on-christians-in-libya/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">open season</a>” on Copts, as jihadis issue a reward to Muslims who find and kill Christians. This was not the case under Gaddafi.</li>
<li style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Syria</span>: Christians have been attacked in indescribable ways—<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/largest-massacre-of-christians-in-syria-ignored/" target="_Blank" rel="nofollow">wholesale massacres</a>, bombed and desecrated churches, beheadings, <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/christians-crucified-again-for-refusing-islam/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">crucifixions</a>, and rampant kidnappings—since the U.S.-sponsored “Arab Spring” reached the Levant.</li>
<li style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Iraq</span>: After the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Christian minorities were savagely attacked and slaughtered, and dozens of their churches were bombed (see here for<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/in-the-media/graphic-images-of-christian-persecution-under-islam/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">graphic images</a>). In the last decade, Christians have been<a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/the-silent-extermination-of-iraqs-christian-dogs/" target="_blank" rel="nofolow">terrorized into near-extinction</a>, with well over half of them fleeing Iraq.</li>
</ul>
<p style="color: #000000;">If the Presbyterian Church has problems with governments that persecute people—in this case, the Israeli government’s purported treatment of Palestinians, hence the Presbyterian Church’s divestment from Israel—perhaps it should begin by criticizing its own government’s <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/obamas-proxy-war-on-mideast-christians/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">proxy war on fellow Christians</a> in the Middle East.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Christians are also being targeted in the P.A. territories—by the very same elements the Presbyterian Church is trying to defend.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">In 2012, for example, a pastor <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153747#.T40QLqvY-pe" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">noted</a> that “animosity towards the Christian minority in areas controlled by the P.A. continues to get increasingly worse. People are always telling [Christians],Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam.&#8221; And in fact, the <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://global.christianpost.com/news/christians-say-forced-conversions-to-islam-happening-in-gaza-79011/#RyZs9RbyHGSZIbWX.99" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">kidnapping and forced conversions of Christians in Gaza is an ugly reality</a>.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">More recently, nuns of the Greek-Orthodox monastery in Bethany sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to respond to <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/33985-ASIA_HOLY_LAND_Greek_Orthodox_monastery_under_attack_The_nuns_are_appealing_to_President_Abbas#.U8buXfldVqU" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">the escalation of attacks on the Christian house</a>, including the throwing of stones, broken glass, theft and looting of the monastery property. “Someone wants to send us away,” wrote Sister Ibraxia in the letter, “but we will not flee.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Sadly, the hypocrisy exhibited by the Presbyterian Church is not limited to that denomination. <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.jta.org/2012/10/09/news-opinion/united-states/religious-leaders-call-on-congress-to-reevaulate-military-aid-to-israel" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Some time back</a>, fifteen leaders from various U.S. Christian denominations—mostly Protestant, including the Lutheran, Methodist, and UCC Churches—asked Congress to reevaluate U.S. military aid to Israel, again, in the context of supporting “persecuted” Palestinians.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Yet nary a word from these same church leaders concerning the rampant persecution of millions of Christians at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East—a persecution that makes the Palestinians’ situation pale in comparison.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Other “leftist” Protestants do find time to criticize Muslim persecution of Christians—but only to blame Israel for it. Thus, Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross College, wrote an article in the <em>Daily Beast</em> ostensibly addressing the plight of Mideast Christians—but <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/exploiting-christian-persecution-to-demonize-israel/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">only to argue</a> that the source of Christian persecution “ in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine.”</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">In reality, far from prompting the persecution of Christians, the Arab-Israeli conflict is itself a byproduct of the same hostility Islamic supremacism engenders for<em> </em>all non-Muslims. The reason hostility for Israel is much more viral is because the Jewish state holds a unique position of authority over Muslims unlike vulnerable Christian minorities who can be abused at will (as <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/how-dare-you-the-supremacist-nature-of-muslim-grievances/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">fully explained here</a><em>).</em></p>
<p style="color: #000000;">Little wonder, then, that more Arab Christians—double the number of each of the preceding three years—are now <a style="color: #4e82d0;" href="http://time.com/15479/israeli-army-christian-arabs/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">joining the Israel Defense Forces</a>.</p>
<p style="color: #000000;">They know they can count on basic human rights protection from Israel than from many of their fellow Christians in the West. After all, beyond the sophistry, distortions, and downright lies emanating from some of these Christian denominations, the fact remains: both Jews and Christians are under attack from the same foe and for the same reason: they are non-Muslim “infidels” who need to be subjugated.</p>
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		<title>Obama Administration Suppresses Talk of Muslim Persecution of Christians</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-3/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-administration-suppresses-talk-of-muslim-persecution-of-christians-3</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jul 2014 04:35:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nigeria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=236495</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A month of extra atrocities is met with a month of extra U.S. indifference.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Egypt-cross.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-236347" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Egypt-cross.jpg" alt="Egypt-cross" width="270" height="194" /></a>Originally published by the </i><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4400/obama-muslim-persecutions">Gatestone Institute</a>.</i></span></p>
<p>Along with an especially egregious list of atrocities committed against Christian minorities throughout the Islamic world, March also saw some callous indifference or worse from the U.S. government.</p>
<p>President Barack Hussein Obama was <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/world/43327-why-is-president-obama-silent-on-religious-freedom-in-saudi-arabia"><span style="color: #0433ff;">criticized by human rights activists </span></a>for not addressing the plight of Christians and other minorities during his talks with leaders in Saudi Arabia, where Christianity is banned.</p>
<p>According to the Washington-based International Christian Concern (ICC) advocacy group, Obama did not “publicly broach the subject of religious freedom” during talks on March 28 with Saudi King Abdullah, despite a letter from some 70 members of Congress urging him to “address specific human rights reforms” both in public and in direct meetings with Abdullah and other officials.</p>
<p>“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, adding 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&#8230;”</p>
<p>U.S. officials reportedly responded by saying that “Obama had not had time to raise concerns about the kingdom’s human rights record.”</p>
<p>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 blocked the visa of the region’s only Christian governor, Jonah David Jang, an ordained minister, citing “administrative” problems.  The USIP confirmed that all 19 northern governors were invited, but the organization did not respond to requests for comments on why they would hold talks without the region’s only Christian governor.</p>
<p>According to Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer based in Washington, the Christian governor’s “visa problems” are due to <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/u-s-blocks-christian-governor-from-nigeria-peace-talks/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">anti-Christian bias in the U.S. government</span></a>:  “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 institutionalized persecution … he suddenly developed visa problems…  The question remains—why is the U.S. downplaying or denying the attacks against Christians?”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><b>The Slaughter of Christians</b></p>
<p><b>Egypt</b>: 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, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcFmEDb19y0&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;hd=1"><span style="color: #0433ff;">90 Minutes</span></a>, 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.”</p>
<p><b>Nigeria</b>:  A <a href="http://www.osundefender.org/?p=153414"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslim father allegedly slaughtered or had someone else slaughter his daughter with a machete</span></a>, 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” seriously wounding them and killing his daughter. Prior to that, the father had threatened his daughter to return to Islam or else, and she had taken refuge in the church.  Police had not made 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, <a href="http://www.spyghana.com/massacre-over-150-christians-butchered-in-south-kaduna/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">massacring over 150 people</span></a>, including a pastor, his wife and children; some 200 homes were torched.  A surviving eyewitness said that attackers were about 40 in number and were armed with knives, guns and other unidentifiable equipment.  They came in the night and began by setting fire to the homes, burning dozens of Christians alive: “Those that tried to escape were butchered or gun down.”</p>
<p><b>Pakistan</b>:  “<a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35325-ASIA_PAKISTAN_A_young_Christian_girl_killed_by_the_Taliban_for_helping_a_Muslim_converted_to_Christianity"><span style="color: #0433ff;">A young Christian girl was killed by the Pakistani Taliban</span></a> 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.”</p>
<p><b>Somalia</b>: Members of the militant Islamic group, <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/03/islamic-extremists-in-somalia-behead-two-christians/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">al-Shabaab, publicly beheaded a mother of two girls and her cousin after discovering they were Christians</span></a>.  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 <i>mujahidin </i>[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,” saying “We are afraid that the al-Shabaab might continue monitoring these two children and eventually kill them just like their mother.”</p>
<p><b>Attacks on Christian Churches</b></p>
<p><b>Egypt</b>: After numerous 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 <a href="http://www.speroforum.com/a/XIEQYRVWSJ1/74811-Egypt-Muslims-attack-Christian-church-and-kill-worshippers?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+speroforum%2Fnroq+(Spero+News)"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslim protesters attacked a Coptic Orthodox Christian church</span></a> on March 28. Four people were killed in the attack on the church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael. 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.”</p>
<p><b>Kenya</b>: During Sunday worship service, two heavily-armed gunmen entered the Joy in Jesus Church in Monbasa—a region which according to authorities has a mosque with ties to the Somali Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab—and “<a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/03/gunmen-open-fire-on-church-in-mombasa-kenya/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">sprayed the congregation with bullets, killing at least seven Christians</span></a> and leaving several others in critical condition,” including the assistant pastor, reports Morning Star News:  “As the attackers fled Joy in Jesus Church, a box holding 26 bullets dropped outside the church,” indicating that they intended for 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 very similar to the barrage of church attacks the Coptic Christians of Egypt suffered in “retaliation” after the Muslim Brotherhood and former president Morsi were ousted during the June 30 revolution.)</p>
<p><b>Pakistan</b>:  One day <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/678809/okara-residents-allegedly-vandalise-under-construction-church/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">after Christians placed a cross</span></a> 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, reported 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 reports 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 <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35390-ASIA_PAKISTAN_A_church_building_destroyed_by_extremists_the_demolition_of_Christian_homes_in_the_capital_is_at_risk"><span style="color: #0433ff;">abandon the idea of the project to build a church</span></a>.”</p>
<p><b>Uganda</b>: In the predominantly Muslim districts of the Christian-majority African nation, “<a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/03/young-woman-in-uganda-hospitalized-after-father-beats-her-mulindes-sight-saved/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Islamic extremists burned down two church buildings</span></a> of the Free Church of Christ in February and the home of a church leader” in March, reported Morning Star News.  Bishop James Kinyewa, 47, recounted the atrocity: “While I was preaching, I heard loud noise, people saying, ‘Fire! Fire!’ coming from nearby neighbors.”  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 a total of 240 people, was destroyed, leaving the bishop to lament, “My church members have no place to worship.”</p>
<p><b>Attacks on Christian Freedom: Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism</b></p>
<p><b>Brunei</b>: 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 even execution.) According to the new law, which is based on Sharia, or Islamic law, <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35353-ASIA_BRUNEI_Christian_Faith_forbidden_in_Christian_schools_if_there_are_Muslim_children"><span style="color: #0433ff;">it is a crime “to persuade, influence, incite, encourage a child with non- Islamic teaching.”</span></a>  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, where Muslim students attend.</p>
<p><b>Iran</b>: Vahid Hakkani, a Christian man who was imprisoned and sentenced to 44 months jail-time, after being found guilty of “<a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/32503-christian-on-hunger-strike-in-iran-jail"><span style="color: #0433ff;">attending a house-church, spreading  Christianity,</span></a> 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 over 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.”</p>
<p>Separately, eight more Christians were detained, blindfolded, and interrogated by security forces over their “<a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/32197-iran-detains-eight-christians"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christian activities</span></a>,” said rights activists.  Some members of the group had their personal items, including cell phones, confiscated.</p>
<p><b>Kazakhstan</b>: <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35322-ASIA_KAZAKHSTAN_Prison_for_Christian_pastor_a_threat_to_the_mental_health_of_the_people"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Christian preaching is “extremely harmful to mental health of the people”</span></a>: 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.”</p>
<p><b>Pakistan</b>: Last March, 2013, after a Christian man was accused of maligning the prophet of Islam he was arrested by police. Nonetheless, thousands of Muslims attacked Christian colonies, burning churches and homes; protesting Christians were attacked by the police, while not one of the thousands of rampaging Muslims was convicted.  Now, one year later, the blasphemer, Sawan Masih, has been <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-christian-gets-death-blasphemy-case-170342225.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">sentenced to death at a hearing held in the prison cell of the Christian</span></a>, “out of fears that Masih might be attacked on his way to court.”  Separately, two other Christians, a paralyzed, sickly man and his wife, also accused of “blasphemy via sms”—that is, <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35342-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Threats_to_judges_and_lawyers_two_Christians_accused_of_blasphemy_remain_in_jail"><span style="color: #0433ff;">blaspheming via text messaging</span></a>—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: <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35486-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Where_is_justice_A_terrible_day_for_Christians_in_Pakistan"><span style="color: #0433ff;">where is justice? Why is nothing done against these innocent Christians who have been attacked and have lost their possessions?</span></a> What about the churches which were desecrated, Bibles burned and crosses destroyed? Is this not blasphemy?”</p>
<p><b>Uganda</b>:  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, <a href="http://morningstarnews.org/2014/03/young-woman-in-uganda-hospitalized-after-father-beats-her-mulindes-sight-saved/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">my father went looking for a knife to kill me</span></a>. 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.</p>
<p><b>Dhimmitude</b></p>
<p><b>Bangladesh</b>: <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Home-of-Catholic-family-torched-in-Bangladesh-30450.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">The home of a Catholic family was torched and destroyed</span></a> 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 [<i>sic</i>] 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.”</p>
<p><b>Iraq</b>: A Christian politician and member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement “denounced some officials of the Nineveh province after collecting documented evidence on the <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35326-ASIA_IRAQ_Political_leader_denounces_the_lands_of_Christians_who_emigrated_plundered_with_the_complicity_of_corrupt_officials"><span style="color: #0433ff;">corrupt system where many properties—land and houses—belonging to Christians change hands in an illegal and secret manner</span></a>, 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 on them.</p>
<p><b>Pakistan</b>: 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 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 <a href="http://www.fides.org/en/news/35368-ASIA_PAKISTAN_Women_in_Pakistan_Christian_girls_raped_by_Muslims"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the brutal rape of a-two-year old child Neha Munir raped because her father, Munir Masih, a Christian, refused to convert to Islam</span></a>.”</p>
<p><b>Syria</b>: Al-Qaeda linked Islamic jihadis crossed into Syrian territory from the Turkish border and <a href="http://asbarez.com/121007/reports-cite-80-dead-in-kessab-churches-desecrated/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">launched a jihad</span></a> on the Christian/Armenian town of Kessab.   Among other things, “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 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB_0HyPI-i4&amp;app=desktop"><span style="color: #0433ff;">video</span></a> touring the devastated town.  No translation is needed, as the main phrase shouted throughout is Islam’s triumphant war cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which, <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/video-al-qaeda-attacks-two-syrian-churches-to-cries-of-allahu-akbar/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">according to Sen. John McCain</span></a>, simply means “thank God”).  About two-thousand Armenians were evacuated to neighboring areas. While occupying Kessab, the jihadi terrorists desecrated the town’s three Armenian churches/</p>
<p><b>Turkey</b>:  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 on trial exceeded new legal limits.  “<a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/32191-news-alert-turkey-court-frees-alleged-killers-of-missionaries"><span style="color: #0433ff;">It is deeply disturbing to hear that the five men responsible for these brutal murders have been freed on bail</span></a>, 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.”</p>
<p><b>About this Series</b></p>
<p>The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:</p>
<p>1)    To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.</p>
<p>2)    To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.</p>
<p>Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of <i>jizya</i> (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed <i>dhimmis</i>, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.</p>
<p>Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.</p>
<p><b>Previous Reports</b>:</p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-most-persecuted-group-in-world-muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2014/">February, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/">January, 2014</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/they-are-slaughtering-us-like-chickens-muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2013/">December, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2013/">November, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">October, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2013/">September, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2013/">August, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2013/">July, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2013/">June, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2013/">May, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2013/">April, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2013/">March, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013/">February, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013/">January, 2013</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2012/">December, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2012/">November, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2012/">October, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2012/">September, 2012 </a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2012/">August, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12215/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2012">July, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12045/muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2012">June, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012">May, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11713/muslim-persecution-of-christians-april-2012">April, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11604/muslim-persecution-of-christians-march-2012">March, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11373/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012">February, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11152/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2012">January, 2012</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10989/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011">December, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10922/muslim-persecution-of-christians-november-2011">November, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10724/muslim-persecution-of-christians-october-2011">October, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10504/muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2011">September, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10247/muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2011">August, 2011</a></p>
<p style="color: #0433ff;">•<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2011/">July, 2011</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>Extremism Fuels Abuse of Christians in Mideast</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/extremism-fuels-abuse-of-christians-in-mideast/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=extremism-fuels-abuse-of-christians-in-mideast</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2014 04:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apostasy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Meriam Yehya Ibrahim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=235707</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The greatest human rights violation in the world today -- and the West's silence to it. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/x_lon_sudanwedding_140529_f96260e6df43349a14c5e50462fe901b.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-235708" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/x_lon_sudanwedding_140529_f96260e6df43349a14c5e50462fe901b-450x341.jpg" alt="x_lon_sudanwedding_140529_f96260e6df43349a14c5e50462fe901b" width="273" height="207" /></a>Originally published by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/03/opinion/ibrahim-persecution-of-christians/index.html">CNN.com</a>.</em></p>
<p>The world heard of the plight of a Sudanese Christian wife and mother who, while eight months pregnant, was arrested and sentenced to public flogging followed by execution. Her crime? An Islamic court in Khartoum found her guilty of apostasy, that is, leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. It&#8217;s a crime punishable by death, according to some interpretations of Islamic law.</p>
<p>Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, who is married to an American, was released, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/24/world/africa/sudan-christian-woman-arrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t2"><span style="color: #004276;">rearrested</span></a>, and then released again. It&#8217;s still uncertain whether her nerve-wracking ordeal is over yet.</p>
<p>But Meriam&#8217;s plight is nothing new or isolated. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, <a href="http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2013/08/28/blasphemy-in-pakistan-why-is-asia-bibi-still-in-jail"><span style="color: #004276;">has been languishing in prison since 2010</span></a>, sentenced to death in Pakistan for &#8220;blasphemy.&#8221; Her husband and children went into hiding after death threats.</p>
<p>Persecution of Christians is one of the greatest human rights violations in the world today &#8212; and certainly the one least known in the West.</p>
<p>Religious hostilities are on the rise around the world, against Muslims, Hindus, Jews, folk religion followers and more. But the situation is so bad for Christians that the normally diplomatic Pope Francis just asserted: &#8220;The persecution of Christians today is even greater than in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than in that era.&#8221;</p>
<p>To those familiar with the true history of early persecution &#8212; when Christians were habitually tortured to death, set on fire, fed to lions and dismembered to cheering audiences &#8212; his statement may seem exaggerated. But even today, as in the past, Christians are being persecuted for their faith and even tortured and executed.</p>
<p><span style="color: #004276;"><a href="http://muftah.org/at-what-price-violence-against-egypts-christians-and-the-government-response-by-shereen-zaky/#.U6mq4-3BSS0">In Egypt, while Christians were ushering in the 2011 New Year</a></span>, Islamic terrorists bombed the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, killing 23 worshipers and injuring about 100 people. Coptic Christians and Muslims alike protested the bombing.</p>
<p>Since then, dozens of Coptic churches have been attacked, some torched to the ground. In August 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world-july-dec13-coptic_09-20/"><span style="color: #004276;">attacked and destroyed dozens of churches</span></a> in retaliation for the Coptic Church&#8217;s endorsement of the anti-Brotherhood revolution, which was joined by tens of millions of moderate Muslims.</p>
<p style="color: #004276;"><span style="color: #000000;">In 2010, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/01/baghdad-church-siege-survivors-speak">Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad was attacked during Mass</a>, with 58 worshipers killed and hundreds wounded. Lesser known is that, since U.S. forces ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/17/iraq-christians-flee-baghdad-cathedral">militants have threatened and attacked Christians so often that many have fled the country in fear.</a> In Syria and Iraq alone, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/13/isis-beheadings-and-the-success-of-horrifying-violence/">Islamists like ISIS have been making life a living hell for &#8220;unbelievers.&#8221;</a></span></p>
<p>In Nigeria, the Islamist organization Boko Haram has in recent years attacked hundreds of churches, reserving the worst attacks on Christmas and Easter church services.</p>
<p>A January, 2014, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/RestrictionsV-full-report.pdf"><span style="color: #004276;">Pew Research Center study on religious discrimination across the world</span></a> found that harassment of Christians was reported in more countries, 110, than any other faith. Muslims were close behind.</p>
<p><span style="color: #004276;"><a href="http://www.worldwatchlist.us/?utm_source=opendoorsusa.org&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=wwl&amp;utm_content=homepage-banner">Open Doors, </a></span>a nondenominational Christian rights watchdog group, ranked the 50 most dangerous nations for Christians in its World Watch List. The No. 1 ranked nation is North Korea, then Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen.</p>
<p>More disturbing is that three of these countries &#8212; Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya &#8212; were &#8220;liberated&#8221; in part thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring the &#8220;rebels,&#8221; <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0310/Release-of-Syrian-nuns-belies-persecution-of-Christians-in-rebel-areas"><span style="color: #004276;">many of whom are not even Syrian and some of whom have been responsible for attacks and kidnappings of Christians.</span></a></p>
<p>It seems that when some Arab states fail, hostilities against Christians rise.</p>
<p>Of the top 50 nations documented for their persecution of Christians, 41 are Muslim majority or have sizeable Muslim populations, such as Ethiopia and Kenya. It&#8217;s important to note that Islamic extremists are the culprits within their borders.</p>
<p>Other countries, especially communist ones like North Korea, China, and Vietnam, are intolerant of Christians; churches are banned or forced underground, and in North Korea, exposed Christians can be immediately executed.</p>
<p>Nothing integral to the fabric of these societies makes them intrinsically anti-Christian. Something as simple as overthrowing the North Korean regime could possibly end persecution there &#8212; just as the fall of Communist Soviet Union saw religious persecution come to a quick close in nations like Russia, which if anything is experiencing a Christian Orthodox revival.</p>
<p>The reason Islamic radicals persecute Christians can be traced to culture and politics, but also to extreme interpretations of Islamic religious texts that are used to justify that persecution.</p>
<p>The majority of the world&#8217;s Muslims reject such intolerant readings, but a small minority of Islamists is enough to terrorize the even smaller number of Christians living in Muslim majority nations.</p>
<p>One reason Meriam Ibrahim was not flogged and executed might be that her case became a cause celebre, thanks to the media.</p>
<p>There is a familiar pattern. Back in September 2012, two other Christians under arrest and awaiting execution in the Islamic world were released. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/07/christian-pastor-nadarkhani-released-form-iranian-prison/"><span style="color: #004276;">Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani,</span></a> charged with apostasy and sentenced to death in Iran, was eventually released. A teenage Christian girl known as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/01/pakistan-girl-accused-blasphemy-canada"><span style="color: #004276;">Rimsha Masih</span></a>, charged with blasphemy in Pakistan, was freed. In each case, freedom came only after widespread international condemnation.</p>
<p>The world must condemn the persecution of all religions &#8212; all cases must be exposed to the light. It&#8217;s incumbent on nations to control religious discrimination within their borders. And if it&#8217;s the regime itself that endorses or inflames religious hostilities, the rest of the world must pay attention and denounce it.</p>
<p>Most important, Western nations must make foreign aid contingent on the rights and freedoms of minorities.</p>
<p>After all, if we are willing to give billions in foreign aid, often on humanitarian grounds, surely the very least that recipient governments can do is provide humanitarian rights, including religious freedom.</p>
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		<title>Victory for Meriam</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/victory-for-meriam/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=victory-for-meriam</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2014 04:50:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Faith J. H. McDonnell]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death sentence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Meriam Ibrahim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overturn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sudan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=234773</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Christian woman’s death sentence is overturned -- and what the U.S. must do now.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/unnamed.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-234774" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/unnamed-450x338.jpg" alt="unnamed" width="264" height="198" /></a>On Monday, June 23, 2014, the Appeals Court in Khartoum <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27979782"><span style="color: #0433ff;">overturned</span></a> the decision of the Shariah court that had condemned the 27 year-old Sudanese Christian mother to death. She has been cleared of all charges. Now she and her two children, Martin, almost two years old, who has been with Meriam throughout her time in Omdurman Women’s Prison, and baby daughter Maya, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/05/27/American-Citizen-Born-in-Sudanese-Prison-Now-the-Clock-is-Running-Down-for-Her-Mother"><span style="color: #0433ff;">born in the prison medical center</span></a> on May 27 while Meriam was in shackles, have been reunited with her South Sudanese Christian husband, Daniel Wani, who is an American citizen. They are reported to be in a safe location at present.</p>
<p>Meriam’s release is a great victory for religious freedom, but she is not out of danger yet. Her life is still threatened by the Islamists who first brought the accusations against her, including a man who claims to be her <a href="http://juicyecumenism.com/2014/06/08/meriam-sudan-brother-shows-no-brotherly-love-she-deserves-to-die/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">half-brother</span></a>.  It is now the responsibility of the U.S. government to protect the wife and children of American citizen, Wani, and to help them to return to Wani’s home in Manchester, New Hampshire.</p>
<p>In addition, the ideology of Shariah and jihad of the Islamists who threatened Meriam is the official ideology of the Sudanese government. This supremacist ideology still threatens the freedom, dignity, and very lives of all the Sudanese people. Meriam is the starfish flung back into the ocean when so many are stranded on the beach.</p>
<p>Khartoum’s Shariah court had <a href="http://juicyecumenism.com/2014/05/16/pregnant-christian-woman-married-to-u-s-citizen-sentenced-to-death-in-sudan/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">sentenced Meriam to death</span></a> by hanging for the crime of apostasy. Under Shariah she was considered a Muslim because her father was a Muslim, even though she grew up as a Christian under the care of her Ethiopian Orthodox mother. She was also sentenced to receive 100 lashes for adultery for her relationship with Daniel. Under Shariah, their marriage was not recognized because a Muslim woman cannot marry a Christian man. The death sentence had been postponed for two years, to give Meriam time to breastfeed baby Maya, but she could have been subjected to the lashes at any day now, if the appeal had not been successful.</p>
<p>Meriam’s attorneys submitted an appeal soon after the sentence was confirmed by the Shariah court on May 15 and had been waiting to hear the court’s judgment.  According to <a href="http://www.meconcern.org"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Middle East Concern</span></a> in a June 23 news release, “the Appeals Court overturned the conviction on procedural grounds, on the basis that the prosecution provided insufficient evidence to prove the claims against Meriam and that the defense had not been given adequate opportunity to cross-examine witnesses or provide their own witnesses.”</p>
<p>Meriam’s courageous attorneys, who have themselves received death threats for representing her, were described as “overjoyed” at the verdict. One attorney, Al-Sharif Ali, declared that it was Meriam’s “strong personality” that “forced the Sudanese judiciary to respect religious freedom.”  When given the opportunity to renounce her faith in Christ to save her life, Meriam refused and told the Sharia court judge that she was a Christian and would remain a Christian. When he addressed her with a Muslim name she refused to acknowledge him. During her imprisonment, Muslim clerics continually tried to persuade her to recant. But Meriam was resolute.</p>
<p>Tina Ramirez, Executive Director of <a href="http://www.hardwiredglobal.org"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Hardwired</span></a>, a non-profit organization working to end global religious repression, explained the larger significance of Meriam’s release, saying, &#8220;We are witnessing a historic moment &#8211; in the three decades of President Bashir&#8217;s brutal dictatorship millions have lost their lives, yet here stands one defenseless and innocent young pregnant woman who forced President Bashir to respect her dignity and religious freedom.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ramirez continued by saying that Meriam “called Bashir&#8217;s bluff. Her victory today is a victory for all the people of Sudan fighting against religious oppression and we cannot rest until everyone is freed from this dictatorship.”</p>
<p>Amnesty International UK’s Deputy Regional Director Sarah Jackson called the Appeal Court’s ruling, “a small step to redressing the injustice done to Meriam.”</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/sudan-meriam-ibrahims-release-welcomed"><span style="color: #0433ff;">June 23 press release</span></a>, Jackson continued, “However, she should never have been prosecuted.” She stressed that “Meriam was sentenced to death when eight months pregnant for something which should not be a crime. Furthermore, her abhorrent treatment, including being shackled, violated international human rights law against ill-treatment.”</p>
<p>One Sudanese activist says that the case of Meriam sheds a very interesting light on both Sudan’s strategy and the importance of United States and global advocacy. While very happy that Meriam has her freedom, he referred to Sudan’s reversal as “brinksmanship policy.” He warned that some in the international community may reward Sudan President Bashir for Meriam’s release, “as if he did a favor to humanity” while in reality Bashir was using the focus on Meriam as a “smoke screen to hide terrible atrocities in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile.”</p>
<p>It should not be forgotten that at the same time that the world’s attention has been fixed on Meriam, the regime in Khartoum has never ceased its jihad against its own civilians. The Sudanese government has continually bombed civilian sites in the Nuba Mountains – including the one working hospital and a medical clinic.  It has also killed and displaced thousands in Blue Nile State and Darfur. And it is perpetrating ethnic cleansing with a new hybrid militia called the Rapid Strike Force (RSF).</p>
<p>According to the Sudanese activist, the regime “has read where the danger to its survival might come from,” (i.e. it’s treatment of Meriam) “and accordingly made its move.” This demonstrates very clearly that no matter what the U.S. government might say about not having any “leverage” to change Khartoum’s behavior, “the regime in Khartoum will always stop and reverse itself when it senses that the U.S. is serious,” he explained.</p>
<p>Congress displayed its seriousness about the plight of Meriam Ibrahim with numerous bills in both the House and the Senate. On June 12, both Senator Ted Cruz and U.S. Representative Trent Franks spoke at a <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2014/06/16/human-rights-groups-call-for-release-of-condemned-sudanese-christian-meriam-ibrahim/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">demonstration</span></a> co-sponsored by 46 organizations protesting White House inaction for Meriam. And the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Sub-Committee on Africa was planning on a hearing concerning Meriam for Tuesday, June 24 that was postponed at the last minute when it was learned that the Appeals Court was going to make an announcement on Monday.</p>
<p>Members of Congress also contacted the <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/no-u-s-consular-service-for-meriam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">State Department</span></a>, concerned that <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/video/cnsnews/state-dept-wont-say-if-they-tried-verify-daniel-wani-meriam-ibrahim-marriage"><span style="color: #0433ff;">State was not doing enough</span></a>. On June 19, 38 House members (31 Republicans and 8 Democrats) sent a letter to Secretary Kerry urging that he “prioritize” Meriam’s case. Their letter really precipitated such an occurrence as has now taken place: when Meriam is released from prison, steps need to be in place to move her and the rest of the family quickly out of the country. The members of Congress wrote to Kerry that the State Department and Department of Homeland Security should “review granting Mrs. Ibrahim Significant Public Benefit Parole, asylum, or refugee status, as appropriate.” They also requested that the State Department <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/no-u-s-consular-service-for-meriam/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">expedite the process</span></a> of registering Martin and Maya as United States citizens.</p>
<p>Now that Meriam is free, the time has come for the Khartoum regime to sense that the State Department “is serious.” The U.S. government must enable Meriam and Daniel and their children to get swiftly and safely to the United States, and then they should show Khartoum they are serious about all the rest of the starfish on the beach.</p>
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		<title>I&#8217;m Make-Believe Outraged!</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/truthrevolt-org/im-make-believe-outraged/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=im-make-believe-outraged</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/truthrevolt-org/im-make-believe-outraged/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2014 04:52:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[TruthRevolt.org]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=234480</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A Truth Revolt video. ]]></description>
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<p style="color: #000000;">TRANSCRIPT:</p>
<blockquote style="font-style: italic; color: #8f8f8f;"><p>I&#8217;m Make-Believe Outraged!</p>
<p>I’m Andrew Klavan and this is the Revolting Truth.</p>
<p>I am make-believe outraged at some of the things I’ve been hearing lately.  I am pretending to be deeply offended and I demand an insincere and meaningless apology.</p>
<p>Everywhere I turn there’s a celebrity or a politician or a businessman or a teenager on YouTube or some guy somewhere saying something that forces me to play at being shocked and hurt as if I had nothing better to do than just sit around pretending to be shocked and hurt as if I had nothing better to do&#8230;  than that.</p>
<p>There are pundits calling Muslims terrorists as if Muslims were killing people all around the world through acts of terror. There are conservatives insisting on their constitutional rights to free speech and gun ownership as if the constitution protected free speech and gun ownership.  There are even broadcasters calling fat women fat as if fat women were, y’know, fat.</p>
<p>You can’t just go around speaking plainly like that!  I am pretending to be shocked and I demand an insincere apology.</p>
<p>And another thing.  I will not have people openly behaving as if they were exactly who they are. Christians publicly praying as if they were Christians!  Gays kissing people of their own sex as if they were homosexual!  Women acting feminine!  Men acting like men!</p>
<p>This sort of thing is make-believe outrageous!  I’m not going to be forced to live in the world as it is!  I demand hypocrisy or, so help me, I’ll recoil in feigned horror at the basic facts of life.</p>
<p>Before individuals thoughtlessly open their mouths and say something I disagree with — or recklessly behave in a way completely in keeping with human nature — I want them to display a trigger warning so I can prepare to pretend I’m traumatized.</p>
<p>Everyone knows the truth will set you free.  And we can’t have that.  This is America.  I am make-believe outraged and I demand an insincere apology!</p>
<p>I’m Andrew Klavan with the revolting truth.</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Western Media and Islamic Persecution</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/western-media-and-islamic-persecution/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=western-media-and-islamic-persecution</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2014 04:35:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=233716</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The MSM holds enormous sway, but rarely uses it to help persecuted Christians.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/155178449__708113b.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-233717" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/155178449__708113b-450x300.jpg" alt="155178449__708113b" width="260" height="173" /></a>Originally published by <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://blogs.cbn.com/ibrahim/archive/2014/06/06/sudan-mother-tip-of-the-iceberg-on-islamic-persecution.aspx">CBN News</a>.</em></p>
<p>Evidence has again emerged indicting that if Western mainstream media actually reported more on the sufferings of Christians throughout the Islamic world, their lot would likely improve.</p>
<p>Meriam Ibrahim, a woman who is imprisoned in Sudan and sentenced to death on the charge that she apostatized from Islam and converted to Christianity—and who recently gave birth to a baby girl in prison—was reportedly going to “<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27651483"><span style="color: #0433ff;">be freed in a few days</span></a>,” according to a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27651483"><span style="color: #0433ff;">BBC report</span></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Abdullahi Alzareg, an under-secretary at the foreign ministry, said Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting the woman.</p>
<p><i>Khartoum has been facing international condemnation over the death sentence.</i></p>
<p>In an interview with The Times newspaper, British Prime Minister David Cameron<i> described the ruling as “barbaric” and out of step with today’s world </i>(emphasis added).</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course, soon after the BBC reported that Ibrahim would be freed, other <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/confusion-over-news-meriam-ibrahim-to-be-freed-in-sudan-30321145.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">reports</span></a> appeared indicating that that is only a rumor—one that the BBC, which regularly tries to <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/bbc-minimizes-christian-persecution/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">minimize the specter of Muslim persecution of Christians</span></a>, jumped on—that Sudan was merely trying to save face before the international community.</p>
<p>According to the imprisoned Christian woman’s husband: “No Sudanese or foreign mediator contacted me. Maybe there are contacts between the Sudanese government and foreign sides that I’m not aware of.”</p>
<p>At any rate, why did Sudan say Ibrahim was going to be released?  After all and despite what that nation’s under-secretary says—that “Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting the woman”—Khartoum’s government upholds Islam’s apostasy law, which actually guarantees that born Muslims do <i>not</i> have “religious freedom.”</p>
<p>As just one example, back in June 2012 in Sudan, a Muslim woman divorced her husband after he converted to Christianity.  The court automatically granted her custody of their two sons (according to Islamic law, children of divorced parents are to remain with the father, but if the latter is an apostate, they go to the mother). When the father tried to visit his children, his ex-wife threatened to notify authorities. “They might take the case to a prosecution court, which might lead to my sentencing to death according to Islamic apostasy law—but I am ready for this,” the Christian man had said. “<a href="http://www.christianity.com/11672481/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I want the world to know this. What crime have I done?</span></a>”</p>
<p>And that’s the whole difference: “the world” did <i>not</i> “know this,” whereas the major media did report on Ibrahim’s plight, thereby exposing Sudan to international condemnation.</p>
<p>Precedents of this phenomenon—international outrage prompting Islamist governments to rethink their abuse of Christians—have occurred in other Muslim countries.</p>
<p>For example, back in September 2012, two other Christians under arrest and awaiting execution in the Islamic world—one, like Sudan’s Ibrahim, charged with apostasy in Iran, the other with blasphemy in Pakistan—were also released, but only after much widespread international condemnation, that is, only after the mainstream media exposed their plight.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/08/christian-pastor-once-sentenced-to-death-in-iran-is-released-group-says/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">CNN</span></a> had reported:</p>
<blockquote><p>A Christian pastor sentenced to death in Iran for apostasy was reunited with his family Saturday after a trial court acquitted him… <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10382/iran-apostasy"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani</span></a>, born to Muslim parents and a convert to Christianity by age 19, was released after being held in prison for almost three years under a death sentence…. <i>His case drew international attention</i> after his October 2009 arrest, and the 34-year-old pastor refused to recant his Christian beliefs (emphasis added).</p></blockquote>
<p>Right around the same time, Pakistani authorities <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/08/world/asia/pakistan-girl-blasphemy/index.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">released a teenage Christian girl</span></a> accused of blasphemy and facing the death penalty. Up till then, local Muslims had insisted that 14-year-old Rimsha Masih be put to death, warning that, if released, they would “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/30/pakistan-blasphemy-case-muslims-law"><span style="color: #0433ff;">take the law into their own hands</span></a>.”  Her case also reached the international community, sparking widespread outrage and condemnation of Pakistan.</p>
<p>Earlier, in 2006, one Abdul Rahman was exposed as an apostate to Christianity and subsequently arrested, incarcerated, and sentenced to death. Because his story also received widespread media attention and international condemnation—and even a phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Rice to Afghanistan’s president—Rahman was released under the pretext that he was mentally retarded, though most sources indicated he was quite sane.  (Muslim governments regularly portray apostates and blasphemers whom they wish to release as mentally handicapped, since, according to Islamic law, the insane are not responsible for their actions.  Even Pakistan’s Rimsha Masih, prior to her release, was <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Blasphemy,-Rimsha-Masih,-minor-with-mental-problems.-Bishop-of-Islamabad:-a-positive-outcome-25660.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">portrayed as mentally retarded</span></a>.)</p>
<p>The point here is that such prisoners of conscience are not released because their respective governments suddenly decided to act according to universal standards of human rights. If so, they would not have arrested the accused in the first place. Nor should such releases suggest that Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, or Sudan are rethinking Islam’s apostasy and blasphemy laws, which prescribe the death penalty.</p>
<p>After all, there are countless more Christian “blasphemers” and “apostates” rotting on death row in all three countries, not to mention all around the Islamic world.</p>
<p>As with Sudan, Christians in the aforementioned countries are habitually persecuted, imprisoned, and or killed.  In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=uhurnetw-20"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians</i></span></a>, Iran’s persecution of apostates to Christianity is so widespread that it warrants a special “spotlight” section; Pakistan also gets a special spotlight section for its frequent arrests and imprisonments of Christian “blasphemers.”</p>
<p>Indeed, just days ago a Christian couple in Pakistan, one illiterate the other disabled, <a href="http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/51428/20140530/illiterate-christian-couple-sentenced-to-death-in-pakistan-for-blasphemous-texts.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff;">received the death sentence</span></a> for allegedly sending “blasphemous” text messages.</p>
<p>However, unlike Sudan’s Ibrahim, Iran’s Nadarkhani, Pakistan’s Masih, and Afghanistan’s Rahman, the Western mainstream rarely if ever hears about these many unfortunates.</p>
<p>And that’s the whole difference.</p>
<p>Unlike the many faceless Christians persecuted all around the Islamic world, the Western mainstream media actually reported on these three, prompting public outrage, international condemnations, and in some instances the threat of diplomatic actions and/or sanctions.</p>
<p>For Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan such “infidels” are often too much of a liability to punish as Sharia demands—the same Sharia, incidentally, that teaches Muslims to be lax and tolerant when in their <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/7749/top-muslim-cleric-qaradawi-urges-western-muslims"><span style="color: #0433ff;">interest</span></a>, such as when the international community puts them in the spotlight.</p>
<p>Thus such freed Christians are a reminder of the important role the Western mainstream media can play in alleviating the sufferings of minorities throughout the Islamic world.  For if they were not reported on—as the overwhelming majority of persecuted Christians are not reported on—they would surely still be in prison on death row, where so many other nameless and faceless Christians remain.</p>
<p>So consider the impact the mainstream media could have if they were to report the full truth and extent of <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/becomes-chief-enabler-of-christian-persecution-muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2014/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Muslim persecution of Christians</span></a>; if they stopped portraying the few they do report on as anomalies but rather as the tips of a very big and ugly iceberg.</p>
<p>For the fact remains: the overwhelming majority of people in the West remain woefully ignorant of the sufferings of non-Muslims under Islam, thanks to <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/why-the-media-doesnt-cover-jihadist-attacks-on-middle-east-christians/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">the mainstream media’s general indifference or worse</span></a>.</p>
<p>However, as precedent suggests, when enough people in the West do hear about them, they do act, prompting their governments and human rights groups also to act, prompting Islamist governments to realize that persecuting this or that Christian is simply not worth it.</p>
<p>In the case of Sudan’s Meriam Ibrahim, time will only tell if the major media will forget about or try to dismiss her story—as the BBC may be doing—or whether they will continue exposing the truth of her plight, which, at this point, is likely the only way this wife and mother who refuses to renounce Christianity for Islam can ever hope to escape execution.</p>
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