Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2012

"It is necessary to destroy all the churches of the region." Saudi Grand Mufti

by Raymond Ibrahim
April 25, 2012 at 5:00 am

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, one of the Islamic world's highest religious authorities, declared that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region."

The war on Christianity and its adherents in the Muslim world rages on. In March alone, Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic legal authority decreed that churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis [holy warriors] in Nigeria said they "are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women"; American teachers in the Middle East were murdered for being Christian or talking about Christianity; churches were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by knife-wielding Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for allegedly "blaspheming" Islam's prophet Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for converting to Christianity.
The extent of this persecution is virtually unknown in the West, due to the mainstream media's well-documented biases: the mainstream media knows that if they do not ignore or at best whitewash the nonstop persecution of Christians under Islam, their narrative of Islam as the "religion of peace" would be quickly undermined. Last month alone, the New York Times ran an anti-Catholic ad, but refused to publish a nearly identical ad directed at Islam; the BBC admitted it mocks Jesus but will never mock Muhammad; and U.S. sitcoms have been exposed as bashing Christianity, but never Islam.
Categorized by theme, March's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity:

Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism: Death and Prison

Egypt: A Christian man accused of insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad was sentenced to six years in prison. Although under Egyptian law "defamation of religion" is a misdemeanor, punishable by a prison sentence of one month to three years, the judge doubled the sentence to appease Muslims, including an angry 2,500-strong mob that terrorized the courtroom, and demanding death for the Christian. Similarly, an "anti-Christianization course" was initiated by an organization "specializing in the resistance to Christianity," so that Muslims will not be "throw[n] under the feet of the Cross." According to an instructor, "Recurring attempts at the university in Aswan to convert Muslims to Christianity or provoke them with misleading information was the impetus behind the course."
India: A young woman was attacked and thrown out of her home "for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ's name" in a predominantly Muslim village; "her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious": In a village where "hard-line Muslims have threatened to kill the 25 families who initially showed interest in Christ, leaving only five frightened Christian families," the woman was attacked when returning from church, and called "pagan, among other verbal abuses." The mob also harassed and threatened the Christian woman who had allegedly "lured" her to convert to Christianity. Read the rest on: