muslim hate of Christians

WEDNESDAY, 11 APRIL 2012 05:17 RAYMOND IBRAHIM

While the mainstream media, government officials and so on try to portray these attacks as products of poverty, the fact is, wherever there are significant numbers of Muslims, churches are under siege.

Last Sunday, many Christians around the world celebrated Easter, taking for granted that they can congregate and worship in peace. Not so in the Islamic world, where top religious officials call for the destruction of churches, Christian holidays celebrated in church are increasingly a time of death and destruction, and a time of terror.

Nigeria, for example, saw some 50 Christians killed "when explosives concealed in two cars went off near a church during Easter Sunday services in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna….the casualty figure may go up because some injuries were really critical." The church targeted was "the Assemblies of God's Church near the centre of the city with a large Christian population and known as a major cultural and economic centre in Nigeria's north." According to the pastor holding Easter services at the time, "We were in the Holy Communion service and I was exhorting my people and all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise that shattered all our windows and doors, destroyed our fans and some of our equipment in the church."

There is little doubt that the Islamist group Boko Haram ["Western Education is a Sin"] is behind the terror strike. Boko Haram has long been targeting churches—most glaringly, last December 25, when several churches were bombed in the Muslim majority areas of Nigeria, in what was described as "Nigeria's blackest Christmas ever: then, over 40 Christians were slain, "the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla, near the capital of Abuja] after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion." As usual, the charred and dismembered remains of Christian worshippers were seen scattered in and around the destroyed church.

While the Christmas -- and now Easter -- church attacks may be Nigeria's most known, they are certainly not the only ones. The last six weeks alone reveal:

        Sunday, March 11: A Boko Haram suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church during Mass, killing at least 10 people. The bomb detonated as worshippers attended Mass at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands of Christians have died in the last decade as a result of Boko Haram's jihad.
       Sunday, February 26: A Boko Haram suicide-car bomber killed at least three people, including a toddler, at another church in Jos. Witnesses said the jihadist drove his car into the prominent Church of Christ during morning prayers.
         Sunday, February 19: A Boko Haram bomb attack outside a church in Abuja left at least five people seriously injured and many more hurt, when a parked car filled with explosives detonated outside the Christ Embassy Church.

While the mainstream media, analysts, government officials, and so on, try to portray these attacks as products of Nigerian poverty, the fact is, wherever in the world there are significant numbers of Muslims (Nigeria's population is half Christian, half Muslim), churches are under siege
Some of the more spectacular ones include the Baghdad church attack where 58 Christians were killed; similarly, the New Year's Eve church bombing in Egypt that saw over 20 Christians killed (when several more churches were bombed and attacked, and thousands of Egyptian Christians demonstrated, they were slaughtered by their own military); earlier, in 2010, eight Egyptian Christians were shot dead by drive-by Muslims as they were leaving church on Christmas Eve.

Further, Muslim attacks on churches during the holiest of Christian holidays are not limited to Nigeria and Egypt, but occur throughout the Muslim world—for instance, in distant, "moderate" Philippines, where another church was bombed during Christmas.

Of course, there are some Muslim nations—Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and soon possibly Kuwait—where one rarely hears of church attacks; but only because they have nipped the "church problem" in the bud by not allowing them to exist in the first place. The hatred for churches is still there, but in an unseen form.

What an efficient way church attacks are, with worshippers tightly gathered in one spot, to ensure the deaths of maximum numbers of Christians.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

MOSCOW — The Rev. Daniil Sysoyev, a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church who was known for promoting missionary work among Muslims, was shot and killed in his parish church late Thursday night, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Father Sysoyev, 35, died at a Moscow hospital of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, RIA Novosti said. The Web site of the Moscow patriarchate confirmed his death. The parish’s choir director was wounded in the shootings at the Church of St. Thomas by the unidentified assailant.

A Moscow Patriarchate official called Father Sysoyev a “talented missionary” whose work among Muslims, including Tatars, might have been the motive for the shooting.

“I don’t exclude that the murder is connected to the fact that he preached among and baptized those who belong to Muslim culture,” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the news media, said in a telephone interview.

Father Sysoyev had spoken out in opposition to Islam and had warned Russian women against marrying Muslim men.

Anatoly Bagmet, an official of the prosecutor’s office, said there was reason to believe that the shooting took place “on religious grounds,” the news agency reported.

Kirill Frolov, a prominent Orthodox missionary activist, said that Father Sysoyev had said that he had been receiving threats for several years.

“Over the course of two, three years Father Daniil, who was famous for his active missionary work, periodically received e-mails stating that if he didn’t stop his theological polemics with Islam, then he will be dealt with like an infidel,” Mr. Frolov told the Interfax news agency.

Missionary work and outreach to young people and non-churchgoers has become a keystone of the Moscow Patriarchate since Patriarch Kirill I became its leader 10 months ago. The church has been organizing rock concerts and trying to reach out to people through blogs.

Officials of the Russian Orthodox Church have complained in recent years about violence directed against churches and priests.

FAITH UNDER FIRE
'Jesus' film screeners murdered
Men in Muslim Bangladesh had received threats

Lipial Marandi, 21, and Tapan Kumar Roy, 27, were employed with Christian Life Bangladesh, a partner agency of Campus Crusade for Christ, the American-based evangelistic group.

Amid strong outrage voiced at their July 29 murders, Bengali Christians are planning a rally in support of their families.

The two men had spent the last eight months providing health awareness programs to locals and showing the "Jesus" film.

The two-hour docudrama about the life of Christ, based on the Gospel of Luke, has been seen in every country of the world and translated into hundreds of languages.

The men had received threats that they would be killed if they continued their work, and local police say they were sleeping when intruders entered their rented house at 2 a.m. and stabbed them to death. Police have arrested two men in connection with the killings.

"We express our deepest sympathies to the families of Lipial and Tapan," said Thomas Abraham, vice president of Asia Campus Crusade for Christ. "We are saddened by the hatred of those who would commit such acts of violence."

It was the second murder of Christian Life Bangladesh workers. In April, 2003, Hridoy Roy was killed in a similar incident. The perpetrators of Hridoy's murder were never convicted.

"We are seeing an increased trend towards persecution of Christians in Bangladesh, and the Christian community in America is concerned," said Abraham. "We urge the Bengali government to bring the murderers to justice and uphold the Bangladesh constitution which protects religious freedom."

The Bengali Christian community and several newspapers have expressed outrage toward the murders.

Bengali Christians plan to hold a rally to voice their sympathy toward the families of the victims and to show of unity. A memorandum from the Christian community will be sent to the Bangladesh Prime Minister urging immediate action.

Muslim Palestinian Arabs plundered a town of Christian Palestinian Arabs in southern Samaria Sunday, setting houses and cars ablaze in an apparent “revenge” attack after a Christian man dared to date a Muslim woman.

Christian families in the town of Taibe were forced into the streets, had their homes firebombed, and had to flee to neighboring villages for protection as the violence raged into the night.

No one was injured in the attack, despite the fact that the PA police took hours to respond to calls for help, according to reports.

The crowd of Muslims descended on the town a few days after a Muslim woman was allegedly killed by her family for having become involved in a relationship with a Christian from Taibe. The offending woman was forced to drink poison and then quickly buried earlier this week.

Islamic law forbids cross-religion relationships and imposes the strictest penalties on Muslims who transgress. So-called honor killings – where families kill members (usually women) accused of such “crimes” are widespread in Arab countries.

In the Kingdom of Jordan, the law states that family members who carry out honor killings are “totally exempt from sentence.” Between 28 and 60 such murders are estimated to take place annually in that country.

The Palestinian Authority also permits these killings, with up to 22 a year reportedly taking place.

If the history of Muslim-Christian relations in Judea and Samaria is an indication, the danger exists that Sunday’s violence could trigger a Christian exodus from yet another Christian-majority urban area in the land slated for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The once Christian town of Bethlehem is today 95 percent Muslim, many Christians having moved out after the Palestinian Authority took over the ancient birthplace of Jesus just before Christmas in 1995.

Christian “Palestinians” form a tiny minority against the overwhelmingly Muslim majority and under Islamic law and tradition, would have little recourse to protection if accused of any crime by Muslims in a future Palestinian state.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt Riot police forces armed with shotguns guarded a Coptic Christian church here over the weekend after Muslim protesters tried to storm the building in a demonstration that was broken up when security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.

Three people were killed and many more wounded Friday in what officials called the worst case of sectarian violence to strike this Mediterranean city in recent memory.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Friday, apparently angry over a play that was performed two years ago in the church and that was recently distributed on videodisc.

Although few people interviewed Saturday said they actually had seen the play or the DVD, the word on the street was it was anti-Islamic.

The streets remained tense Saturday, and many people warned that foreigners were not welcome. The mood in the city was sour and explosive.

"People are very, very provoked," said Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, 25, a pharmacist whose shop is opposite St. George's Coptic Church. "They are boiling."

While relations between faiths are often tolerant, if tense, in Egypt, there have been signs recently of growing strain between Egypt's Coptic Christians and Muslims.

It was unclear who was giving out the DVD, and church officials, as well as local residents, speculated that its distribution might somehow be connected to the coming parliamentary elections, where aggravated sectarian tensions could help certain candidates.

"We believe that this problem was raised in light of the coming parliamentary elections," a church statement said.

Alexandria, an ancient city founded by Alexander the Great, two hours north of Cairo, is home to one of the country's larger Coptic communities.

Of Egypt's 74 million people, more than 90 percent are Muslim, mostly Sunnis, and about 8 percent to 10 percent are Christian, mostly Copts.

Islam is the official state religion, and all legislation is supposed to be based on the Islamic code.

SANGLA HILL, Pakistan - The people gathered inside Holy Spirit Church were quiet and somber. The altar was covered in debris. Pictures of Jesus and Mary lay in a heap nearby. Torn copies of the Bible were scattered about.

"We have wailed and we have cried," he said, of his fellow Christians in Sangla Hill, a dusty market town 140 miles south of the capital, Islamabad, after the church was ransacked.

A mob of about 1,500 Muslims - urged on by local clerics who announced over their mosque's public address system that a Christian had desecrated a Koran - not only attacked the church here, but also gutted a Presbyterian Church and one belonging to the Salvation Army. A convent school, a nun's hostel and half a dozen houses were set on fire.

The Nov. 12 attacks sent shockwaves through the country's Christian minority, leaving them with a sense of insecurity. And once again, blasphemy laws were blamed for worsening sectarian relations in this country, where Christians, Hindus and other minorities make up 3 percent of the population, while an overwhelming 97 percent is Muslim.

Under the penal code, desecration of the Koran is punishable by life imprisonment. Any insult to the Prophet Muhammad is punishable by death.

Many Christians say the laws are simply used to justify attacks on them, out of religious or personal animosity.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, visiting Pakistan in December, asked Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to review the law.

"My response is one of great shock, great dismay that this can still go on," Archbishop Williams said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation. "It is part of the history of the abuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, which I think is widely recognized in this country as a major problem, which this country has to tackle."

"The problem is not so much about the idea of a law against blasphemy," he said, "as about a law whose penalty is so severe and whose practice gives so much scope for allowing people to settle private scores."

That, some residents of Sangla Hill say, is what happened in November; 88 people have been charged with ransacking and burning churches and property, and 3 police officials were suspended for negligence.

A local Christian man, Yousaf Masih, 45, was identified as the desecrator, but in sometimes conflicting accounts, his relatives said the allegations were invented by a man who owed Mr. Masih a gambling debt. "My brother is totally innocent," said one of Mr. Masih's brothers, Zulfiqar Humayun, 35. Mr. Masih is now under arrest at an undisclosed location.

But local Muslims say that on the day before the violence - a Friday, Islam's holy day - Mr. Masih set on fire a room used for storing old copies of the Koran after a shouting match with the man who owed him money. The next day, a local politician spread the account in a speech, and soon, the mob began its work.

The town's main Muslim cleric, Mufti Muhammad Zulfiqar Rizvi, a soft-spoken 63-year-old with a flowing dark-red beard and a curling moustache, said the mob was made up of "people from outside."

"Our religion, Islam, teaches us to protect the lives and property of minorities," he said.

Whoever they were, the attackers were methodical and precise. It took them just four hours to sweep through the town, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

Mr. Masih's house was gutted; the houses of two of his brothers were also set on fire. "They used a special chemical," said one brother, Tariq, 27, describing a reddish-orange flammable substance that was splattered on the walls of his house.

Similar stains could be seen on the walls of St. Anthony's high school, where fire had blackened ceilings.

"I am broken," said the headmistress, Sister Anthony Edward, 68, a frail woman with a quivering voice. "Ninety percent of the pupils of the school were Muslims. I don't know what is behind this."

At the Presbyterian church, in a nearby neighborhood, the Rev. Tajammal Pervez was bitter. Several calls to police officials seeking security for his church and residence were unheeded, he said.

"It is the incompetence of police," said Reverend Pervez, 54. He was standing in the rubble of what used to be his bedroom. The charred roof had fallen in. Trunks and cupboards, their locks broken, had been set on fire; nothing remained except for the wreckage of burned furniture. "A friend bought these clothes for me that I am wearing," he said.

Christians have been living for generations alongside Muslims in Sangla Hill, according to Reverend Pervez, and relations were cordial. But the violence changed everything, he said.

ISLAM REMAINS NUMBER ONE DANGER TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Exclusive Interview
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
12/19/2005

The Rev. Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo is the international director of the Barnabas Fund based in England. The Fund is a ministry which assists Christian minorities in the Islamic world and in other areas where Christians undergo persecution. Dr. Sookhdeo was recently in the United States where he spoke with David W. Virtue of VirtueOnline. Dr. Sookhdeo is a leading world authority on Islam, author of several books on Islam including "Understanding Islamic Terrorism" and "A Christian's Pocket Guide to Islam". Born in Pakistan of Islamic parentage he converted to Christianity while a student in London in the early 60s.

VirtueOnline: What does the Barnabas Fund (BF) do?

Sookhdeo: It calls attention to the plight of Christian minorities particularly within the Islamic world. It looks at the persecution they are experiencing and seeks to make this known to the wider world. It calls upon the church to pray for, to identify with, and to be advocate for and support practically their suffering brothers and sisters.

VirtueOnline: I gather you are the leading organization in the world involved in this kind of work, and that you inform a number of worldwide government institutions of the difficulties and challenges which Islam poses.

Sookhdeo: The distinctive of the BF is that we have a strong research component that is keyed into a number of national contacts around the world. It is essentially a non-western organization based in the West. It has also developed a range of expertise on Islamic societies.

VirtueOnline: How are you viewed by leaders in the Anglican Church? I gather there has been some correspondence between you and Colin Chapman in which Colin Chapman is critical of an article on Islam which you wrote for the British magazine "The Spectator".

Sookhdeo: Not only the hierarchy of the Anglican Church but also other Christian leaders are divided because some are deeply unhappy with the work of Barnabas Fund. This is due to their interfaith agenda. As a result some are seeking to discredit what we are doing. Furthermore, I myself have personally experienced considerable racial harassment from white missionaries who are opposed to the work of the Fund.

VirtueOnline: In the interfaith dialogue of the Abrahamic faiths, it is often suggested that as there is One God for all these faiths, that we should be more understanding and accommodationist in our thinking and less exclusive in our demands as Christians. Do you agree with this?

Sookhdeo: Much of contemporary interfaith dialogue assumes that we all have the same understanding as to the nature of God. So when we speak of the Abrahamic covenant, we assume that the Jewish, the Christian and the Muslim understanding of God are the same. I would argue they are not. Whilst Jews and Christians have a common understanding of God, I would argue that Muslims do not. This naturally has repercussions in other areas - in the field of justice, in the understanding of our common humanity in the areas of human rights and religious tolerance. Much interfaith dialogue has to do with the lowest common denominator. Discussions often negate that which is essential to each religion. The result is it focuses on the lowest common denominator and what I call "cocktail dialogue" or "dialogical syncretism."

VirtueOnline: Can you give examples?

Sookhdeo: Some illustrations of this would be the understanding of how Jesus Christ is understood. This is deliberately underplayed because it is deemed offensive to speak of his deity and his uniqueness to followers of Islam. Furthermore, issues of the persecution of Christians by Muslims are deliberately left out. The discriminatory nature of Islamic law is not discussed and the death penalty for apostates which is still central to Islamic Shari'a is a 'no go' subject.

VirtueOnline: Does this mean that Christians and Muslims can never talk to each other about peace?

Sookhdeo: I believe that conversations between and amongst both religions are vital. We live in societies where religious and ethnic tensions are increasingly common. Sometimes this spills over into armed conflict. As such I passionately believe that there is no place in the modern world for wars of religion. Therefore we should strive for peace. The difficulty I have is with the word 'dialogue'. There are a number of meanings for this word dialogue. In New Testament Greek when St. Paul uses the word "dialogue" it is dialogomai which means to argue with a purpose of persuading a person. As such it is not a neutral term; it does not have to do with the sharing of experiences of other religions. When the Apostle Paul was on Mars Hill he did not call for a meeting of the different religions to engage in an interfaith dialogical process. He preached the gospel and engaged in dialogue. It was a form of evangelism. This is why I use the word "conversation" in respect to different faiths meeting with each other. In this conversation there must be honesty, integrity, transparency and truth. It must deal with society as it is and to [delete to] seek ways of developing understanding, living together and address the treatment of minorities. If it fails to do this, then this process has failed.

VirtueOnline: The Archbishop of Canterbury seems to hold the view that Islam can coexist peacefully with Christianity.

Sookhdeo: I would suggest that he listen to the voices of Christians within the Muslim world and in particular the voices coming from southern Sudan, Northern Nigeria, Pakistan and other countries. In these situations Christians experience discrimination, outright persecution and increasingly violence, being directed against them. If Islam is going to be a religion of peace and to coexist alongside Christianity then it must relinquish its theology of violence based on the revelations in the Koran. It must change its Shari'a Law and allow for full equality of Christians. It must allow Muslims the freedom to choose that is, to reject Islam if they so choose or embrace another religion if they so desire. It must give full freedom to women. Unless it can do these things how can there be co-existence? While the intention of the archbishop in seeking co-existence is good, whether Islam the religion will ever embrace his vision of society is another matter.

VirtueOnline: Are there any other difficulties?

Sookhdeo: There is a further difficulty. Many Christians in the Islamic world believe that some Christians in the West have betrayed them, that they have been sacrificed on the altar of interfaith, race and community relations. In their desire to make peace with Islam at any cost, they have sacrificed their brothers and sisters in this process. They also feel that it is patronizing and racist for white people to dialogue with Muslims on their behalf, as if non-Westerners were not capable of doing dialogue should they so desire.

VirtueOnline: A Communique for the Anglican/al-Azhar dialogue committee met recently. The thrust of the meeting was for religious minorities, both Christian and Muslim, to be able to live in peace and security, and as full participants in the political and social life of the country of which they were citizens.

Sookhdeo: The majority religious community has the duty to facilitate this, both as a religious obligation and for the well-being of society. It is equally important that religious minorities should seek to abide by the law of the country where they are resident, or of which they are citizens.

VirtueOnline: We noted specifically that Islam calls for Muslims to abide by and respect the laws and regulations of the non-Islamic countries where they live. There was also a particular concern for freedom of religion and the right to worship. From this communiqu� it would appear that you are both on the same side?

Sookhdeo: Statements are easy to write and make; but what of the reality on the ground. Al-Azhar is the foremost Islamic institution in the Islamic world based in Cairo. In October in Alexandria churches were attacked by mass demonstrations. Muslim radicals have declared that it is halal (permissible) to kill the Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Shenouda has had a fatwa put on him calling for him to be killed. The persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt by government and security forces abetted by religious institutions is a reality. Numerous Christian girls are being kidnapped and raped and forcibly converted to Islam. Again religions institutions and security services were involved in this process. Why was this not addressed? Last week in Washington the Coptic community called on the Egyptian government to stop the persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt. A Coptic bishop in Australia, Bishop Daniel has written to the Egyptian Ambassador in Australia again calling for the cessation of violence against the Coptic Church in Egypt. Why is Lambeth and this group silent when the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt is experiencing such severe persecution? Furthermore converts from Islam to Christianity in Egypt currently experience abduction, imprisonment, torture and even death. Why has Al-Azhar not stopped this process? There are those who argue that it has even assisted this process. The Coptic Orthodox Church leaders are questioning the role of the Anglican Church in this whole process. They are asking for justice and for freedom.

VirtueOnline: I understand from my sources that the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church is very unhappy with the role which the Anglican Church is playing in this process. Is this true?

Sookhdeo: Yes, they are unhappy. What unfortunately is not often understood is that the senior leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church is very closely monitored by the government. What they say in private cannot be said in public and they will only say in private what they think to those whom they fully trust. This applies to Christian persecution within Egypt (which some Anglican leaders deny) as well as to their opinion on Anglican involvement in dialogue. Most of the dialogue taking place involves westerners whom they mistrust. They also say that large sums of money enter into the country.

VirtueOnline: Is this true?

Sookhdeo: A lot of money is coming from the west to assist this process of dialogue. A further difficulty arises in relation to some of the participants. Dr. Zaki Badawi is perhaps the most prominent Islamic cleric in the UK and the most widely respected and a moderate voice in Islam. He wrote a paper recently on the Apostasy law in Islam and violence in the Islamic tradition. This paper was presented at Clarence House where Prince Charles chaired a meeting that brought together senior Christian and Muslim leaders to discuss the issue of Christian minorities under Islam. Dr Badawi confirmed in his paper the violence and persecution being directed against Christian minorities in the Muslim world; the danger of killing converts from Islam to Christianity and the discriminatory and oppressive nature of Shari'a Law when applied to Christian minorities. This position was acknowledged and confirmed by the other Muslim participants. When asked by the senior Anglican bishops present when the persecution would end, the Muslim scholar stated that they could not see this occurring in the foreseeable future. They argued that Shari'a can't be changed although Christians present disputed that. When Prince Charles suggested making a public statement about this, the Muslims said he was not to do this, but should confine himself to statements and speeches on civilization. When the bishops stated that this whole issue should be made public, the Muslim leaders said it should not, "it has to remain quiet." Unfortunately this story was leaked and no one knows who did the leaking. It surfaced in The Daily Telegraph at the end of last year. I can address the issue as I addressed it then, that I did not leak the story and because it is in the public domain I can now address it.

VirtueOnline: Were you at the meeting?

Sookhdeo: Yes. The Barnabas Fund throughout last year ran a campaign against the Apostasy Law of Islam. It called on the British Government, Muslim authorities and Prince Charles to intervene in this matter. The Apostasy Law calls for the killing of any Muslim who converts to Christianity. Many Christians wrote to Prince Charles urging him to intervene in this process. He very graciously and generously agreed to convene a small meeting at Clarence House where senior Muslim leaders would meet senior Christian leaders to discuss this issue. I, as international director of the Barnabas Fund and the one who was instrumental in bringing the matter to his attention was involved in this process. The prince had asked that something practical be done to address the persecution of Christian minorities in Muslim countries. He has also stated he did not see the need for more statements on the subject. In this he is to be commended.

VirtueOnline: Do you see any parallels between the gay issue in the Church and the interfaith issue, and in particular the way in which Islam is being approached?

Sookhdeo: Yes, very much. Good theology leads to good ethics, bad theology leads to bad ethics. Those in pursuit of an interfaith and pro-Islam policy are seeking to shape the agenda and to neutralize anyone who does not agree with them. When you have a church leader who is patron of a mosque, and others who embrace Islam as if it did not deny the heart of the Christian faith, and encourage their churches to support Islamic charities, you have to ask what kind of theology they have. On the other hand, many ordinary church members are deeply conservative in theology and support organizations like Barnabas Fund.

VirtueOnline: What form is contemporary persecution taking?

Sookhdeo: In the Islamic world we have a variety of situations. Since 9/11 the US and the UK with other countries have been involved in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the "war on terror". These all involve Islam. There are those in the Muslim world who believe that the West, in particular Christianity is launching a new crusade against them. Unable to strike effectively against the West they direct their attacks against vulnerable Christian targets. For example in Iraq we see the bombing of churches and the kidnapping and murder of Christians who are caught in the middle. Over the past 25 years we have seen the rise of radical Islamic groups. These are essentially terrorist organizations determined to attack Christians and to rid their counties of the Christian presence. Attacks such as these occur in countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan. Increasingly Islamic law is being called for and in some countries being applied with adverse affects on Christian minorities. For example in the south of Sudan (which thankfully now has a peace accord) and northern Nigeria. The Shari'a Law debate is a pertinent one because of its discriminatory nature. The position of evangelists and Muslim converts is acute. During the past year there has been a growing number of national evangelists and converts martyred through beheading. Beheading as a method of execution goes back to the Koran where it speaks of striking the neck. This is much in vogue. The kidnapping and rape of Christian girls is on the increase in Pakistan, Egypt, the Holy Land, and in other places where this is occurring.

VirtueOnline: What else do you see?

Sookhdeo: Finally the increasing marginalization of Christian minorities in the Christian world makes them vulnerable to the pressures of Islam either to convert to Islam or to live with oppression. Sadly those Christians that have the ability to do so are fleeing to the safety of the West.

VirtueOnline: Where else do you see persecution taking place?

Sookhdeo: In Western countries, for example. In England we have cases of growing persecution. In south London Muslim gangs armed with guns have targeted Christians saying if they do not convert they will be killed. In Bradford, a Christian a family converted from Islam have had their lives threatened. Their car has been arsoned and they have been threatened with violence. When a meeting was arranged the response of Christians to such persecution has not always been helpful. The Bishop of Bradford met this family with his interfaith advisor. At this meeting he stated that the Diocese of the Anglican Church would not welcome such converts into it. That story has now gone public. He did not want Muslim converts into the Anglican Church. The convert was extremely disappointed and deeply saddened by the stance of the bishop. He felt that the bishop was more concerned with his relationship with the Muslim leaders in Bradford than with his plight with him [delete with him] as a convert. He felt deeply betrayed.

VirtueOnline: I gather that Islam is gaining ground rapidly in the UK and Europe. What is the story on this?

Sookhdeo: Islam has developed a process of major Islamization, which includes the re-writing of history and the shaping of the agenda at every level.

VirtueOnline: What should Anglicans do in their approach to Muslims?

Sookhdeo: We need to recognize that there is not a single approach but a number of strands which need to be addressed. These strands include the spiritual, the missiological, the theological, the social and political, because Islam is a system which does not separate the sacred from the secular, the spiritual from the social. It must be approached from an integrated basis. Spiritually, we must recognize that there is a spiritual conflict between Islam and Christianity. Missiologically it is appropriate to find common ground as a way of presenting the Gospel, as the Apostle Paul did in his Areopagus speech. Theologically we must focus on that which separates us, because unless we can recognize that wherever Christianity is distinctive and unique we face the real difficulty of confusion leading to syncretism. On the social level Islam has an agenda for how society is to be constructed. On the political level Islam has an agenda for the control of its own community and ultimately for society itself. Unless we recognize these different lines we will not be able to develop a coherent approach or for that matter strategy. For me the approach to Islam is founded on some basic principles.

First there must be the compassion of Christ, we are dealing with Muslims as human beings who have emotions and feelings and who must be loved with the total love of Christ.

Secondly, we must be scholarly accurate in our approach to Islam. We must recognize Islam - the ideological - in what it teaches. To impute our Christian understanding on to Islam and to Christianize it is to do it a disservice. We must understand it and accept in its own terms for what it is. That means having the scholastic ability to comprehend it.

Thirdly, we must be faithful to Christ. No matter how much we love the Muslims or analyze Islam the religion, we must ensure that we do not lose sight of Jesus Christ, his deity, his death and resurrection and his coming again as supreme judge. Jesus Christ is the only Savior.

Ramallah (AsiaNews) – Burned school rooms, church window panes destroyed, bible study halls set on fire and Catholic youth threatened by Muslims: thus runs a list of escalating violent attacks against Christians in Ramallah since Hamas won the election.

The parish priest, Fr Ibrahim Hijazin, 55 years, reported the violence to AsiaNews. Fr Ibrahim has been the parish priest in Ramallah for nine years and for 13 he has been running the Al Ahliyya school that educates poor Christian and Muslim children. The college was set up in 1856, in the time of the Ottoman Empire, and it had never been the target of violence before.

Once upon a time, Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian presidency, was considered to a Christian city with at least 40-50,000 Christians. Now at least 30,000 have emigrated to America and countries in the Gulf. Now, as a result of the emigration, out of an overall population of around 40,000 people, Christians number around 10,000, sub-divided into Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Melkites and Catholics, who are around 2,000.

The parish priest said the thugs were people coming from outside who were determined to discredit the government of Hamas and its capacity to maintain law and order.

“On 10 February, while I was in Jericho for a meeting of the Legion of Mary, with the patriarch of Jerusalem, a youth called to warn me that a classroom had been burned,” Fr Ibrahim said. “When I arrived, I found the remains of two Molotov cocktails, thrown at the windows that had the glass panes broken. We called the police and they started an inquiry but we have not any result.”

Once again, “on 5 March, a Sunday, after Mass, one of my parishioners came to let me know there had been another fire started in the basketball ground of the school. All the equipment was destroyed and the hall was completely ruined. Then too we called the police, but they have not yet managed to find out who was behind it. This time, however, around two dozen people from Hamas came. They proposed putting Hamas men to guard the building and the church, even inside, but I declined the offer, accepting only to have one guard outside.”

“All these incidents took place at night. Once, when Cardinal Theodore Mc Carrick of Washington was here with the patriarch, we made the matter known to the President Abu Mazen, and he also promised to rectify the situation. But so far, we have seen no results at all. We continue to face problems even with the community: our youth meeting in the evening for activities are often threatened and beaten by Muslim youth, who come and force their way into the parish building. We have reported this too to the police.”

The parish priest does not think anyone has anything against him: “I am very well known because the school welcomes Christian and Muslim youth, very poor ones, and there is a beautiful friendship among them. Before the Intifada, we also had Judaism courses and Israeli youth used to participate.”

As for who could be behind the incidents, “we think they are coming from outside Ramallah. Suspicion is falling on Palestinians who are against the Hamas government and who want to ignite inter-faith conflict” to discredit them. The parish priest swore there were never any problems with Hamas.

Other Christian communities have also been targeted. On 20 March, the Lutheran Church had all its windows and panes of glass broken. The headquarters of the Protestant bible association of Birzeit “Living stones” was burned down. On the doors, someone had written: “Oh Prophet of God, [we are] at your service!”

Gazan Muslims Form Group to Attack Christian Targets
Sep 19, 2006
by Ezra HaLevi

The group, which calls itself the “Army of guidance,” sent an announcement to news agencies based in Gaza saying that “every place relevant to Christians will be a target until the cursed infidel – the Vatican – apologizes to Muslims.”

Hardline Islamic groups were offended by the Pope’s citing of a Byzantine emperor who criticized Islam’s founder Mohammad’s command to spread Islamic faith by the sword.

Last Friday, the 1,400 year old St. Perfidious Greek Orthodox church in Gaza was among seven Christian targets burned or vandalized throughout PA-controlled areas.

Pope Benedict XVI has refused to apologize for merely citing quotations, but said he was “deeply sorry” for the Muslim reaction to the words – which he stressed do not constitute his own opinion.

Though touted as an apology by the Vatican’s own public relations team, Islamic leaders continue to demand submission from the leader of Catholicism.

The chief Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein called the Pope’s statement of sorrow insufficient and demanded a “clear apology” Tuesday. He condemned attacks on churches but insisted the Pope himself is responsible for the Muslim violence.

Muhammad Ikram kidnapped the woman who used to clean his house together with her 13-year-old daughter. He tortured them for months in a bid to force them to convert to Islam. They were released thanks to the intervention of the Lahore court and the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance.

Sialkot (AsiaNews) – The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has managed to secure the release of two Christian women who were kidnapped and tortured for three months by a Muslim couple of Sialkot who wanted to convert them to Islam. The APMA director, Shabhaz Batti, told AsiaNews about the women and called on the government to “punish those guilty of this atrocious incident as severely as possible.”

Bhatti told how Nasreen Pervez, 40, and her daughter, Razia, 13, “went to the home of Muhammad Ikram, a Muslim of Sialkot, after the death of Nasreen’s husband, Pervaiz, in September.” Pervaiz “ran a poultry breeding farm in Punjab, but his business was struck by bird flu and he got ill and died. After his death, mother and daughter started to work as servants in the residence of Muhammad, their neighbour.”

However, after they had been working there for one month, Muhammad “refused to pay their salary and together with his wife, kidnapped the two women. They tore the crosses from their necks and forbade them to pray. They demanded that the women change their faith and convert to Islam and when they refused, they tortured them.”

At night, “they were chained to prevent them from escaping. Razia’s right foot was injured with the shards of a broken bottle and both had burns on their bodies. One day, Muhammad threatened to kill their relatives if they continued to be hard headed and to refuse to change religion or if they tried to escape.”

He even brought a bottle of acid and a syringe: “You will die with this in your body”. Nasreen responded: “You may kill us but we will not convert.”

After three months, Nasreen’s eldest daughter, Sheeba, went to visit her mother and little sister but Muhammad and his wife chased her away and threatened her: “Don’t come back unless you want to see them dead.” Worried, Sheeba turned to the village elders who contacted APMA.

The association “immediately went to the Lahore High Court and denounced what was going on. The judge ordered the intervention of a court bailiff who, together with our team, freed the two women.”

Bhatti said: “The growing victimization of Christians and minorities in general is alarming. We try to help the families of victims and at the same time, to find legal and practical channels to help those submitted to such violence, but the government must intervene forcefully to stop them.”

He said Christians around the world “can help us with prayer: ask the Lord for protection and justice for those who suffer for their faith.”

ISTANBUL, (Compass Direct News) – A Christian child has been sentenced to five years in juvenile detention in Northern Iraq for fatally stabbing her Muslim uncle while he beat her for converting to Christianity, her lawyer said.

Judge Satar Sofe convicted 14-year-old Asya Ahmad Muhammad of murder at the trial’s first hearing on February 7 in Dohuk’s juvenile court.

Muhammad’s defense lawyer appealed the ruling on February 17, questioning Sofe’s conclusion that the killing had been intentional.

“The court should consider Maria’s [Muhammad’s Christian name] case unintentional killing because she didn’t intend to kill her uncle,” Akram Mikhael Al-Najar told Compass.

The lawyer said Muhammad’s five-year sentence was light, considering that Iraq’s penal code invokes the death penalty for committing murder.

“Since her uncle provoked her and kicked and abused her, the court appreciated these situations and decreased her punishment,” Al-Najar said. The lawyer expects the Kurdish regional Court of Cassation, northern Iraq’s highest court, to rule on the appeal within three months.

Even if the appeal is turned down, Al-Najar told Compass that Muhammad could be released after serving only three quarters of her five-year sentence.

Muhammad stabbed her paternal uncle with a kitchen knife last July when he came to her family’s kitchen utensil store on the outskirts of Dohuk and began beating her, her mother and younger brother.

Sayeed Muhammad’s Muslim family claimed that he attacked his relatives in order to restore “honor” supposedly lost because his female in-laws were working in public. But Asya Muhammad’s father and lawyer said that the real motive for the attack was religious.

Asya Muhammad’s father, Ahmad, told Compass that his brother had previously tried to murder him five times, angered by his conversion to Christianity.

In the wake of Sayeed Muhammad’s death, Asya Muhammad’s grandparents called for her father to be killed. External mediators later convinced the grandparents that Asya Muhammad’s father had nothing to do with his brother’s death, leading the elderly couple to demand their granddaughter’s death and a large sum instead.

Upon hearing these threats, Asya Muhammad’s parents and siblings went into hiding. Her mother and three younger brother’s have now returned home, though her father continues to reside at an undisclosed location.

“But if Maria was released from jail, she would be in danger, of course, and she would have to live far from those terrorists [her grandparents],” Al-Najar told Compass.

A Muslim cleric in Mosul, Asya Muhammad’s grandfather attended the February 7 hearing with his wife to testify against his granddaughter. The elderly cleric was present last year when his granddaughter grabbed a store knife and plunged it into her uncle’s chest while he was tearing at her hair.

Asya Muhammad’s lawyer said that if her appeal is rejected, she will finish out her sentence in Dohuk’s juvenile prison. Al-Najar described her situation in jail as “good,” saying that she has the opportunity to study and take computer courses.

But one Christian in Dohuk told Compass that Asya Muhammad’s situation is far from ideal. As the only female minor in the prison, the source said it was uncertain whether jail officials would allow her to attend classes at the all-male school.