A Month of Horror for Christians Under Islam: September 2013

The same month that Obama tried to wage war on behalf of the jihadi rebels in Syria (citing “human rights” concerns), some of the war’s worst atrocities were committed against that nation’s Christian minority, most notably in Ma’loula, an ancient Christian region where the inhabitants spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

There, al-Qaeda-linked jihadis fired mortars and missiles into at least two ancient churches before looting them; some 80 Christians trying to defend their homes were killed. Others who could not flee were forced, on pain of death, to convert to Islam.

One man’s last words before being slaughtered by the rebels were: “I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for that, I do not object to it.” A nun involved with humanitarian relief said the man “is a Martyr in Christ in the full sense of this word, since he was murdered solely because of religious hatred!”

The Christian Post reports:

Jihadists reportedly forced one man to convert to Islam at gunpoint and slit the throat of another Christian woman’s fiancé and then [mockingly] told her, “Jesus didn’t come to save him.”…. “I saw people wearing Al-Nusra headbands who started shooting at crosses,” the Christian senior told the AFP. One of the shooters, he said, “put a pistol to the head of my neighbor and forced him to convert to Islam by obliging him to repeat ‘there is no God but God’ [Islamic shehada]…Afterwards they joked, ‘he’s one of ours now.'”

In al-Thawrah, Syria, Christians were also singled out for attack by jihadi invaders. In one incident, they stopped three residents, released two who identified themselves as Muslims, and bludgeoned to death the third after he identified himself a Christian (graphic image). They also destroyed, among other churches, the Antiochian Orthodox church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus.

In Raqqah, a city in northern Syria, the al-Qaeda linked “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” broke the crosses off the area’s two Christian churches and placed on them al-Qaeda’s Islamic flags. They also set the contents of the Church of the Annunciation and the Church of Martyrs aflame. In one video, a Muslim “freedom fighter” smashes a statue of Virgin Mary to shouts of Islam’s war-cry cry, “Allahu Akbar!” [“Allah is Greater!”]

These latest attacks come in the context of yet another fatwa that appeared in September, and issued by 36 Islamic scholars who legitimized “the right of the faithful Sunni Muslims to seize and take possession of goods, homes, property belonging to Christians, Druze and Alawite and members of other religious minorities ‘who do not profess the Sunni religion of the Prophet.'” (Earlier, before the “sex jihad” solved the problem by luring Muslim women from Tunisia and elsewhere to provide their sexual services to jihadis in Syria fighting to make Allah’s word supreme, another fatwa permitted jihadis to rape all non-Sunni women.)

Meanwhile, when publicly asked about the jihadi nature of the rebellion and that the rebels often shout Islam’s supremacist war cry, Allahu Akbar (such as when firing at Chrisitan churches), U.S. Senator John McCain insisted that shouting “Allahu Akbar!” is equivalent to a Christian saying “Thank God,” and that the rebels in Syria are “moderates and I guarantee you they are moderates.”

Similarly, when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was also asked in September about the jihadi and al-Qaeda elements of the Syrian rebels, he argued that, “The opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation . . . more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting constitution” — an assertion that prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin openly to call Kerry a liar.

The rest of September’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Pakistan Church Attack

In Peshawar, Pakistan, Islamic suicide bombers, in an attack claimed by the Taliban, entered the All Saints Church compound after Sunday mass and blew themselves up in the midst of roughly 550 congregants. They killed nearly 90 worshippers — including Sunday school children, women, and choir members — and injured at least another 120. The now-destroyed Protestant church was built in Peshawar over 130 years ago. According to Margrette, a parishioner who survived (although her sister’s status is unknown), “I heard two explosions. People started to run. Human remains were strewn all over the church.”

Coptic “Dhimmitude” [Living as “Tolerated” Citizens who Pay for “Protection”] in Egypt

• After the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi, when the Muslim Brotherhood incited its supporters to attack and destroy over 80 Christian churches, Muslim Brotherhood supporters began to extort money from Christians in Upper Egypt. In Dalga village, 15,000 Christian Copts were forced to pay this jizya — the additional tax, or tribute, that conquered non-Muslims historically have to pay to their Islamic overlords “with willing submission and while feeling themselves subdued” to safeguard their existence, in the words of Koran 9:29. In some instances, those not able to pay are attacked, their wives and children beaten and kidnapped. Some Copts were killed for refusing to pay. Authorities later identified a gang that specialized in overseeing operations to kidnap wealthy Copts in order to earn money.
• While being driven in his car, Bishop Anba Makarios of Minya came under a hail of bullets from several unidentified persons. The driver managed to get away, taking the bishop to the home of a local Copt for refuge; but the gunmen followed, surrounded the house and shot at it for over 90 minutes, until local security finally responded. The apparent reason for this assassination attempt was that local Muslims thought the bishop had come to reopen the village’s only church, St. Michael’s, which had been closed 10 years ago for security reasons.
• After Muslims in the al-Minya district accused a young man of having an illicit relationship with a Muslim woman, violence, in the context of “collective punishment,” erupted against the village’s Christians. After attacking and plundering the home of the Christians, Muslims, incited by someone with a loudspeaker calling them to further action, prowled the streets of the village, threw stones at Coptic homes, called for revenge, and demanded the burning of their churches, homes, and shops.

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Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism

Afghanistan: A member of Afghanistan’s parliament, Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, suggested that all Afghans who have converted to Christianity should be executed, according to Islamic law, to put a check to the growth of Christianity among Afghans, both within and without the country. His exact words were: “Afghani citizens continue to convert to Christianity in India. Numerous Afghanis have become Christians in India. This is an offense to Islamic Laws, and according to the Quran, they need to be executed.”

Iran: The Islamic Republic launched a public campaign dedicated to halting the spread of Christianity among Iranians. This included organizing meetings aimed at debating how and why Iranian youths are converting, often secretly, to Christianity. Mohabat News reported that the government campaign involved meetings aimed at “distorting” public opinion: “It seems great crackdowns on churches and extraordinary waves of arrest of Iranian pastors and Christian converts have not been effective.” This new public campaign comes at a time when at least 13 Christians had been detained, several beaten and threatened if they refused to recant their Christianity.

Morocco: In a courtroom hearing, Mohamed el-Baldi, a Muslim convert to Christianity, was fined and jailed for “shaking the faith of Muslims.” Preaching Christianity is prohibited under article 220 of the Moroccan penal code. Apparently to make an example of him, although the maximum sentence is six months’ imprisonment, el-Baldi was sentenced to two-and-a-half years. During the hearing, his mother “implored Allah to exact revenge on whoever tampered with her son’s mind,” causing him to convert to and preach Christianity.

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About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions. “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:

1) To document that which the mainstream media often seems to fail to report.

2) To suggest that such persecution is not “random” but systematic.

These accounts span different ethnicities, languages, and locations.