From the Gatestone Institute – Persecution of Christians in January 2013

Amended from the source. Not a word in the MSM.

The 2013 year began with reports indicating that wherever Christians live side by side with large numbers of Muslims, they are under attack.  One report said that “Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest.”  This is certainly true: whether in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, or Tanzania, attacks on Christians in those countries are as frequent as they are graphic.

As for the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, a new study by the Pew Forum finds that “just 0.6 percent of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians now live in the Middle East and North Africa. Christians make up only 4% of the region’s inhabitants, drastically down from 20% a century ago and marking the smallest regional Christian minority in the world.  Fully 93% of the region is Muslim, and 1.6% is Jewish.”

How Christianity became all but eradicated from the region where it was born is made clear by yet another report concerning Egypt’s Christian Copts, the Middle East’s largest Christian minority.  Due to a “climate of fear and uncertainty,” Christian families are leaving Egypt in large numbers.  Along with regular church attacks, the situation has gotten to the point that, according to one Coptic priest, “Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair.  Sometimes they hit them when they refuse.”  Another congregation leader said “With the new [Sharia-heavy] constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don’t believe we can be treated on an equal basis.”

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Church Attacks

Nigeria: A total of 30 Christians were slaughtered in two separate attacks carried out by armed men ahead of the New Year in the Muslim-majority north: on Sunday December 30, 15 people were killed when armed jihadis stormed a church and opened fire on worshippers....

Pakistan:  On Christmas day, “when Christian worshipers were coming out of different Churches after performing Christmas prayers, more than one hundred Muslim extremists equipped with automatic rifles, pistols and sticks attacked the Christian women, children and men,” according to a report. Several were shot or beaten relentlessly.  Much of this appears to have been exacerbated by a fatwa, or an Islamic edict, that came out right before Christmas, saying that, “Christmas cannot be celebrated by Muslims because it is against the concept of monotheism in Islam.”  Due to the subsequent chaos, Christians “were under siege from Christmas day and running out of food supplies and milk for children on fear of safety and security of life from further attacks of [the] Muslim mob….  The news of this attack on Christians on Christmas Day was intentionally blocked by media and administration of capital city Islamabad.”

Russia: Security forces in a North Caucasus province on Sunday killed three Islamic militants suspected of planning attacks on church services during the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday, which comes in January. 

Murders and Plots of Murder

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Iraq: The nation’s ever dwindling Christian minority continues to suffer untold atrocities.  A Christian university medical student was killed by a car bomb a day after the body of a 54-year-old female Christian teacher was found with her throat cut.  The slain Christian woman was discovered in the same area where attacks have been perpetrated in the past against members of the city’s Christian minority, some abducted and murdered.

Turkey: An assassination plot against a Protestant pastor was thwarted when police arrested 14 suspects, two of whom had been part of his congregation for more than a year, pretending to be interested in Christianity; one went so far as to be baptized. ...“The attacks were carried out with racist motives,” that is, the victims were intentionally targeted for being Christian Armenians.

Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism

Egypt: A court sentenced an entire family—Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven children—to fifteen years in prison for converting to Christianity. Seven other people were sentenced to five years in prison, primarily for facilitating the formal conversion of the family...

Iran: Saeed Abedini, an American-Iranian Christian pastor was arrested and, in a sham trial, sentenced “to eight years in prison for threatening the national security of Iran through his leadership in Christian house churches. ...

Malaysia: Threats to burn Bibles in the Malay language were the latest in a series of attacks on Christianity in a nation regularly touted in the Western press as an example of a “moderate” Muslim nation.  ... the Sultan of the State of Selangor forbade Christians from using the word ‘Allah’, defying practice and convention in the country. The Arabic term for God, in usage in religious and cultural contexts before the dawn of Islam, has been used in Bibles in the Malay language and litany for more than 400 years.”  Attacks on Christianity in the nation are often framed in fear that Christianity will spread if not kept in check.

Dhimmitude

[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as “Tolerated” Citizens]

Egypt: A Muslim preacher, Hisham al-Ashri, appeared on primetime television saying that women not wearing the hijab, or veil, in public, are asking to get raped.  He framed his discussion around Christians, who in Egypt are obviously most likely not to wear veils.

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Indonesia: After being threatened with closure, six Catholic schools in the nation which has the largest Muslim population in the world, finally agreed to hire Islamic teachers and offer Islamic lessons to Muslim students.  While this seems equitable, in reality, Muslim schools habitually refuse to offer Christian lessons to Christian students in public schools, which teach Islam to all students...

Pakistan: A powerful government official’s aide running a prostitution ring abducted a 15-year-old Christian girl from her home, forcing her to convert to Islam and marry him. 

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Tanzania: During a Friday mosque sermon, a cleric called on Muslims “not to cooperate with Christians because they were infidels. He insisted that Muslims should not take part in Christian festivals like Christmas, Easter and other celebrations, including baptism and confirmation.”  He also called on Muslims not to go to Christian funeral services, because infidel Christians are to be buried as dogs: “Let me tell you if you came from a Christian father or mother, but you got assimilated [converted to Islam], consider yourself you are lucky. But if one of your parents is deceased, you shouldn’t burry [sic] him or her, but just put him/her in the grave as if you [were] doing it to a dead dog.” 

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Uzbekistan: Police detained 80 church leaders in a raid on a ministry training gathering.  In the process they insulted the Christians and confiscated their Bibles and Christian books, which were later destroyed by a court order.  According to the report, “Four leaders were charged with offences under the country’s harsh laws regarding religious practice, including violating the procedure for holding religious meetings, carrying out unauthorised religious activity and teaching religious beliefs without permission. They were each fined more than a year’s salary in Uzbekistan and are appealing against the ruling.