CHRISTIANS: On the Front Lines of Muslim Violence

[SrWoodchuck]

If only they'd convert......or pay the ever changing jizya.....and allow their Christian daughters to be "wife of the hour" to jihady swell guys...........

 

[Geee]

N. Korea Tops Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan as Worst Place to Be Christian

 

CNSNews.com) – On the day former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang “happy birthday” to Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, a religious freedom advocacy group named North Korea the world’s worst country to be a Christian for the 12th consecutive year.

 

Islamic states dominated Open Doors’ 2014 world watch list, accounting for nine of the ten countries with the worst records. Of the full 50-country list released Wednesday, 36 are countries where Islamic extremism is “the main engine driving persecution of Christians,” stretching from North Africa to Brunei.

 

The top ten countries for persecuting Christians over the last year were: North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/n-korea-tops-somalia-syria-iraq-afghanistan-worst-place-be-christian

[Valin]

@Geee

 

It could very well be said North Korea is the worst place in the world to live. If it were up to me Rodman would not be let back into the country.

 

[Geee]

" If it were up to me Rodman would not be let back into the country."

This country or that country??

[Valin]

" If it were up to me Rodman would not be let back into the country."

 

This country or that country??

He can stay in DPRK for the rest of his miserable life for all I care. What kind of morally ignorant person do you have to be to sing the praises of little Un!

[Geee]

 

" If it were up to me Rodman would not be let back into the country."

 

This country or that country??

He can stay in DPRK for the rest of his miserable life for all I care. What kind of morally ignorant person do you have to be to sing the praises of little Un!

 

 

We all know that Dennis has gone to the dogs, but he may find out what it's like to really 'go to the dogs' if he doesn't watch himself.

[Valin]

N. Korea Tops Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan as Worst Place to Be Christian

 

CNSNews.com) – On the day former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang “happy birthday” to Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, a religious freedom advocacy group named North Korea the world’s worst country to be a Christian for the 12th consecutive year.

 

Islamic states dominated Open Doors’ 2014 world watch list, accounting for nine of the ten countries with the worst records. Of the full 50-country list released Wednesday, 36 are countries where Islamic extremism is “the main engine driving persecution of Christians,” stretching from North Africa to Brunei.

 

The top ten countries for persecuting Christians over the last year were: North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/n-korea-tops-somalia-syria-iraq-afghanistan-worst-place-be-christian

 

[Geee]

Syria: Armenian Christians Pressured to Convert to Islam

 

Arabic language websites reported earlier this week that the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—which, throughout the course of the war against the Assad government has committed any number of atrocities, from decapitating “infidels” to burning churches—has successfully “forced” two Armenian Christian families to convert to Islam.

 

A video accompanies some of these reports. In it, what appears to be an elderly Armenian man stands alongside an Islamic cleric who announces the Christian man’s conversion to Islam—to thunderous cries of “Allahu Akbar!” In his exultation, the cleric makes exuberant statements like “You see, we have no honor without Islam—without proclaiming aloud that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet!” (Without the religious jargon, this is simply another way of saying, “Only by joining our team can you ever escape dishonor,” the lot of all non-Muslim, subhuman “infidels.”)

 

 

The cleric also adds that, because the man is the head of his household, his Christian wife and children are all now Muslim as well—“all praise to Allah!” Naturally, if they reject their new Islamic identity, they become “apostates,” a crime punishable by death.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/syria-armenian-christians-pressured-to-convert-to-islam/

[Geee]

Coptic Christian Children Kidnapped and Killed for Cash

 

PALMSU_2_largeYet another Coptic Christian child was recently kidnapped in Egypt. Thirteen-year-old Cyril Rif‘at Fayiz was abducted in the Minya district by “unknown persons” who later called the child’s parents demanding one million Egyptian pounds, nearly the equivalent of $150,000 USD.

This phenomenon—kidnapping and holding Coptic children captive for large ransoms—has become a regular feature of the Egyptian landscape, particularly in Minya, Upper Egypt. A few examples follow:

 

August 2013: Copts held a funeral for Wahid Jacob, formerly a young church deacon. He too was kidnapped by “unknown persons” who demanded an exorbitant ransom from his family—1,200,000 Egyptian pounds (equivalent to $171,000 USD). Because his family could not raise the sum, he was executed—his body dumped in a field where it was later found. The priest who conducted his funeral service said that the youth’s body bore signs of severe torture.

 

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/coptic-christian-children-kidnapped-and-killed-for-cash/

[Geee]

Killings of Christians by Islamists Doubled in 2013

 

According to Open Doors, a non-denominational group that supports persecuted Christians worldwide, the official number of Christians killed for their faith around the world doubled in 2013, compared to 2012. According to the annual survey, the number of Christians killed in Syria in 2013 comes to more than the whole global total of 2012. Approximately 13 percent of the Syrian population is made up of Christians.

In the list of nations with the highest number of killings of Christians, Syria was followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt. In its 2014 World Watch List, Somalia comes in at the top of the list— moving from fifth to second place— followed by Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Maldives, Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Iran and Yemen.

 

The survey conducted by Open Doors only counts the numbers of Christian who are killed, reported in the media, and confirmed. Some estimates by other surveys indicate the number exceeds 10,000 deaths. Open Doors has reported that it documented 2,123 killings, compared to the 1,201 in 2012. In 2013, 1,213 of these people were killed in Syria alone. “This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm,” said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors.

 

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/killings-of-christians-by-islamists-doubled-in-2013/

[Valin]

A Six-Year High for Global Religious Hostility

1/17/14

 

 

 

Pew has released a series of new report on global religious freedom, and the results arent pretty: religious hostility shot up to a six-year high in 2012. If youve been reading the news, youll know that religious violence has spiked in the Middle East and in African countries like the Central African Republic. So the increase in countries with high or very high levels of religious tension (20 percent in 2007 to 33 percent today) might not be surprising. But Pew also uncovered some things which may hit closer to home for Westerners:

 

 

About three-in-ten countries in the world (29%) had a high or very high level of government restrictions in 2012, compared with 28% in 2011 and 20% as of mid-2007. Europe had the biggest increase in the median level of government restrictions in 2012, followed closely by the Middle East-North Africa the only other region where the median level of government restrictions on religion rose.

Given the ongoing stories of rising anti-Semitism in Europe, the influx of Muslim immigrants, and the occasional stories of restraints on public Christianity, that datum may not be unexpected. But it reminds us that religious liberty isnt a geographically isolated problem, and the next few decades may bring full-on religious ferment and conflict, even in our own backyard.

[Geee]

The U.S. and Christian Persecution

 

Prominent indicators confirm that the U.S. is the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today.

 

According to the recently released 2014 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted, Syria is the third worst nation in the world in which to be Christian, Iraq is fourth, Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four countries receive the strongest designation, “extreme persecution” (other designations are “severe,” “moderate,” and “sparse” persecution).

 

Aside from being so closely and harshly ranked, these four nations have something else in common: heavy U.S. involvement. Three — Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya — were “liberated” thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring “freedom fighters” against the regime, many of whom would be better labeled “terrorists.”

The Syrian situation alone indicts U.S. foreign policy. According to Reuters:

Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 “martyr” killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said. “This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm,” said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors. Estimates by other Christian groups put the annual figure as high as 8,000.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/368796/us-and-christian-persecution-raymond-ibrahim

[Draggingtree]

In Syrian war, evidence of carnage abuts remnants of normal life

By Jonathan S. Landay

McClatchy Foreign Staff January 17 ,2014

TARTOUS, Syria — A dirt berm blocks the turnoff to Maaloula, an ancient Christian village held by Islamist rebels. The roadside Teeba eatery in Nabak lies pancaked, destroyed after the owner allegedly fed insurgents. Army boots festooned with plastic flowers and ivy adorn median strips in Tartous, tributes to thousands of local men who’ve died fighting for the regime in Syria’s civil war.

 

These are some of the symbols of the brutal conflict encountered on a two-day drive from Damascus to the contested city of Homs and to Tartous, a Mediterranean port whose fanatical devotion to President Bashar Assad is on display at daily funerals and on neon-lit epitaphs bolted to streetlights and building-size banners blazoned with portraits of the dead and their leader.

Some rebels then retreated to the mountainside village of Maaloula, one of only three places in the world where Western Aramaic, the tongue of Jesus’ era, still is spoken. While fighting the army, the rebels reportedly brutalized the Christians, vandalized their ancient churches and kidnapped 12 Greek Orthodox nuns. Regime sentries posted by a dirt berm bulldozed across the turnoff for Maaloula show that the rebels remain in control. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/01/17/214949/in-syrian-war-evidence-of-carnage.html#storylink=promo

[Geee]

The Elephant in the ‘Christian Persecution’ Room

 

Open Doors USA recently released its widely cited 2014 World Watch List—a report that highlights and ranks the 50 worst nations around the globe persecuting Christians.

 

The one glaring fact that emerges from this report is that the overwhelming majority of Christian persecution around the world today is being committed at the hands of Muslims of all races, languages, cultures, and socio-political circumstances: Muslims from among America’s allies (Saudi Arabia) and its enemies (Iran); Muslims from economically rich nations (Qatar) and from poor nations (Somalia and Yemen); Muslims from “Islamic republic” nations (Afghanistan) and from “moderate” nations (Malaysia and Indonesia); Muslims from nations rescued by America (Kuwait) and Muslims claiming “grievances” against America (fill in the blank __).

 

 

A common denominator, a pattern, exists, one that is even more extensive than Open Doors implies. According to that organization’s communications director, Emily Fuentes, “of the 50 worst nations for persecution, 37 of them are Muslim,” or 74%.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/the-elephant-in-the-christian-persecution-room/

[Draggingtree]

Islam’s Terrorist African Caliphate

Posted on | January 21, 2014

Will America stand idle while this happens?

 

Islamist militants stormed a village in remote northeast Nigeria on Monday, torching houses and spraying them with bullets in an attack that killed 18 people, witnesses said.

The latest Boko Haram assault, on Sunday night, came hours before Nigeria’s four top military chiefs handed over to fresh commanders in a ceremony on Monday.

President Goodluck Jonathan announced the reshuffle of his entire military leadership last week in a bid to reinvigorate the fight against the insurgents. Snip

 

Boko Haram is fighting to re-establish an Islamic kingdom in northern Nigeria, breaking away from the largely Christian south. snip

http://theothermccain.com/2014/01/21/islams-terrorist-african-caliphate/

[Geee]

The Ten Worst Places to be a Christian

 

There are some common characteristics, intriguing trends and phenomena among the countries that have been specified as the top ten worst nations for Christians or religious minorities.

 

The top ten countries for persecuting Christians over the last year were ranked: North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen, according to Open Doors USA, an organization that monitors and exposes Christian persecution around the globe. Particularly, the “2014 World Watch List”, a rather nuanced report, has highlighted these nations based on deep structures of persecution.

 

 

Going through the list, the question that comes to mind is what most of these countries have in common? Nine of the top ten (aside from North Korea), seem to be Islamic states with a majority Muslim population.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/majid-rafizadeh/the-ten-worst-places-to-be-a-christian/

[Draggingtree]

Dougherty on the Destruction of Christian Communities

 

By Daniel Larison • January 23, 2014, 10:05 AM

 

 

 

Michael Brendan Dougherty has written a valuable article on the ongoing destruction of Christian communities in the Near East. Here is an excerpt:

 

And yet the Western world is largely ignorant or untroubled by programmatic violence against Christians. Ed West, citing the French philosopher Regis Debray, distils the problem thusly: “The victims are ‘too Christian’ to excite the Left, and ‘too foreign’ to excite the Right.”

 

Church leaders outside the Middle East are afraid to speak out, partly because they fear precipitating more violence. (Seven churches were fire-bombed in Iraq after Pope Benedict XVI quoted http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/dougherty-on-the-destruction-of-christian-communities/

[Geee]

Christian Community in Syria Could Cease to Exist if Civil War Continues

 

The Christian community in Syria will cease to exist if the country’s sectarian civil war does not end soon, Syrian Christian leaders said on Monday.

 

Members of the Christian leadership in Syria said at the Heritage Foundation that the burning of churches and homes, abductions, and executions has prompted more than 400,000 Christians to either leave their homes or the country. Their minority community has been a casualty of the almost three-year civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a rebel opposition increasingly dominated by al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups.

 

The leaders urged the United States and the West to help find a solution to the crisis that has claimed more than 130,000 lives and displaced millions. Negotiators—currently engaged in peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition—are attempting to open up areas blockaded by the government to humanitarian aid, but there has so far been little progress toward the removal of Assad.

 

“Today our Christian community is a broken community. It is a suffering community,” said Rev. Riad Jarjour, a Presbyterian clergyman from Homs. “If it continues in this way, there will be a time where there are no Christians in Syria.”

http://freebeacon.com/christian-community-in-syria-could-cease-to-exist-if-civil-war-continues/

[Valin]

Dougherty on the Destruction of Christian Communities

 

By Daniel Larison January 23, 2014, 10:05 AM

 

 

 

Michael Brendan Dougherty has written a valuable article on the ongoing destruction of Christian communities in the Near East. Here is an excerpt:

Wonder what Daniel and his fellow isolationists think should be done?

[Valin]

Video: Syrian Christians on the front lines of the war
Ed Morrissey
February 1, 2014

 

Fox News offered an in-depth look at the plight of Christians in the Syrian civil war, and implicitly in the region. The network’s national security analyst KT McFarland interviewed Syrian Orthodox Bishop Dionysius Jean Kawak and Prebyterian minister Riad Jarjour, who are in Washington DC in order to raise awareness of the situation as the US presses for peace talks. With those stalled, however, it’s more important than ever to hear these voices — and not just because of the plight of Syrian Christians, either:

 

 

“The Christians, they tried to be neutral,” Bishop Kawak said when asked what side the Christians take, but they were in favor of non-violent political changes in Syria. Now, though, the violence puts them between the Alawites, Shi’ites, and Sunnis, and their political neutrality is irrelevant, and makes them easy targets for all sides as supposed stooges for one of the other factions. That layers on top of the centuries-long effort to push Christians out of the region, despite Dr. Jarjour’s efforts at ecumenism and religious freedom. They are looking to the West for help, and not getting much more than lip service in return.

 

But it’s not just in the Middle East where this persecution threatens to wipe out Christianity. In Nigeria, a series of attacks from the radical-Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram have targeted and slaughtered dozens of Christians in the past week alone:(Snip)

[Geee]

Smith on Iraqi Christians: 'Life Appears to Be Worse Now' Than Under Saddam

 

(CNSNews.com) – Christian persecution is worse now in Iraq than it was before the United States military and its allies deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said in opening remarks at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations on Tuesday.

 

“As we witness the black flag of al-Qaeda again fly over cities such as Fallujah, which we had won at the cost of so much American blood, we wonder how it is that for Christians in Iraq, life appears to be worse now than it was under the vicious dictator Saddam Hussein,” Smith said.

 

Hussein was captured in 2003 then tried by the interim government and found guilty of “crimes against humanity.” He was executed by hanging in 2006.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/smith-iraqi-christians-life-appears-be-worse-now-under-saddam

[Geee]

U.S. ‘Chose to Stay Silent’ on Muslim Persecution of Christians

 

The endemic rise of Christian persecution in the Middle East was noted in November when Pope Francis declared “We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians” and stressed the importance of “the universal right to lead a dignified life and freely practice one’s own faith” after he met with patriarchs from Syria, Iran, and Iraq, all countries where Christian minorities are under attack.

 

 

On the other hand, powers best placed to do something about the plight of Mideast Christians—namely, the U.S. Obama administration—made it clear that they would do nothing, even when well leveraged to do so.

 

In November, the wife of American pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been imprisoned in Iran for over a year for practicing Christianity, said she and her family were devastated after learning that the Obama administration did not try to secure the release of her husband as part of the newly signed deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

 

“The talks over Iran’s nuclear program were seen by his [Abedini’s] family and those representing them as one of the most promising avenues yet for securing his release,” said Fox News. “But the White House confirmed over the weekend that Abedini’s status was not on the table during those talks.”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/u-s-chose-to-stay-silent-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians/

[Geee]

‘No Christian Is Exempt’: Persecution Worldwide Still Rampant, Congress Told

 

WASHINGTON – A senior Vatican official and several international experts told a House subcommittee that Christians are still enduring violence, torture, and death across the globe.

 

Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the Vatican’s envoy to the United Nations, said “flagrant and widespread” persecution of Christians rages in the Middle East.

 

“No Christian is exempt, whether or not he or she is Arab. Arab Christians, a small but significant community, find themselves the target of constant harassment for no reason other than their religious faith,” Chullikatt testified before the House subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations last week.

Before taking the post as the permanent observer of the Vatican to the UN, Chullikatt served as a Vatican representative in Iraq and Jordan.

The persecution of Christians in Iraq has increased in the wake of the country’s democratic transition. Chullikatt said that under Saddam Hussein religious minorities enjoyed more protection because law and order were “forcibly imposed.”

“[Religious] minorities felt protected because they were participants on the benefits that came about from the strict law and order that was imposed by those regimes,” Chullikatt said. “Minorities, because of the situation that prevailed, could exercise all their rights.”

http://pjmedia.com/blog/no-christian-is-exempt-persecution-worldwide-still-rampant-congress-told/

[Valin]

‘No Christian Is Exempt’: Persecution Worldwide Still Rampant, Congress Told

 

WASHINGTON – A senior Vatican official and several international experts told a House subcommittee that Christians are still enduring violence, torture, and death across the globe.

 

Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the Vatican’s envoy to the United Nations, said “flagrant and widespread” persecution of Christians rages in the Middle East.

 

“No Christian is exempt, whether or not he or she is Arab. Arab Christians, a small but significant community, find themselves the target of constant harassment for no reason other than their religious faith,” Chullikatt testified before the House subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations last week.

Before taking the post as the permanent observer of the Vatican to the UN, Chullikatt served as a Vatican representative in Iraq and Jordan.

The persecution of Christians in Iraq has increased in the wake of the country’s democratic transition. Chullikatt said that under Saddam Hussein religious minorities enjoyed more protection because law and order were “forcibly imposed.”

“[Religious] minorities felt protected because they were participants on the benefits that came about from the strict law and order that was imposed by those regimes,” Chullikatt said. “Minorities, because of the situation that prevailed, could exercise all their rights.”

http://pjmedia.com/blog/no-christian-is-exempt-persecution-worldwide-still-rampant-congress-told/

 

 

http://youtu.be/ooO13joZ4MQ

[Geee]

Syria’s Christian Sheep Among the Wolves

 

The Christian soldier extends his hand and greets me in Syriac with “shlomo” (peace) as he clutches the strap of the Kalashnikov draped over his shoulder with his other hand. His diplomatic bearing is in sharp contrast with both his combat fatigues and the austere headquarters of the Syriac Military Council, a Christian militia formed in 2013 that fights alongside the Kurds in northeastern Syria. David, a man in his early 30s, has been summoned to translate for the local military commander, to whom he defers with the humility of a natural soldier. That he is more than a mere soldier or translator is self-evident. Here is a man who has sacrificed much to stand with his fellow Christians in their hour of need — he is their khoura, or brother, as the soldiers call one another in Syriac. “We are not afraid,” he says.

 

Of the millions of diaspora Middle Eastern Christians in Europe, Australia, and the Americas, few have followed in David’s footsteps back to their ancestral homeland. However, in the two years since he returned to Syria, thousands of Sunni Muslim youths from across Europe have flocked there to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad, many of them joining the ranks of Islamist extremist groups. “We defend ourselves against Islamists and Assad,” David says. “Here we are like sheep among the wolves.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/372096/syrias-christian-sheep-among-wolves-andrew-doran