Bulletin of Christian Persecution
May 2 - May 25, 2011
May 2, 2011
Pakistan
Hundreds of Muslims in Gujranwala attacked Christians' homes, a school and a
Presbyterian church building after learning that police had released two Christians
accused of "blasphemy" - amid reports of another alleged desecration
of the Quran.
May 3, 2011
Pakistan
In the aftermath of the April 30th Muslim attacks on a Presbyterian seminary
after a false accusation that Christians desecrated the Koran, at least 3,000
Christians have fled for their lives.
May 6, 2011
Nigeria
Muslim attackers killed seventeen Christians and burned down several Christian
homes in the village of Karum. Since the introduction of Sharia law in northern
Nigeria in 1999, thousands of Christians have been killed by Muslims, and local
officials have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Update HERE
on the killing of Christian Nigerians.
May 7, 2011
Pakistan
Police have charged a mentally ill Christian with "injuring religious feelings"
under Pakistan's widely condemned blasphemy laws.
Syria
Christian communities across Syria have been attacked by anti-government protesters
in recent weeks who are being led by hard-line Islamists. Also Christians have
come under pressure to either join in protests demanding the resignation of
President Bashir Assad, or else leave the country. Eye witnesses report seeing
around 20 masked men on motorcycles open fire on a home in a Christian village
outside Dara'a, in southern Syria. Another source said that churches had received
threatening letters over Easter, telling them either to join the protests or
leave. In Karak, Muslim Salafists forced villagers to join the protests and
remove pictures of the president from their home. One man who refused was reportedly
found hanged on his front porch the next morning.
Egypt
Update of this story:
Thousands of Christians flocked to Saint Mark's Cathedral in Cairo Friday in
response to a protest organized by Salafi Muslims last week in front of the
church. The conservative Islamist group had gathered its members to protest
for the release of the wives of two Coptic priests, who some believe have been
detained by the church after allegedly converting to Islam. There was a strong
military presence at the cathedral Friday ahead of the protest. Mina Salib,
one of the protesters, said that "Christians all over Egypt were deeply
disturbed by last Friday's protest and came to express their anger and assert
their defense of the Cathedral against any attacks." Mina added that people
immediately responded to the call to protect the church as result of the attack
directed against Pope Shenouda.
May 8, 2011
Egypt
Christians Copts in the area of Embaba were attacked Saturday evening by Muslim
Salafis. The attacks lasted for 14 hours. The Muslims fired guns and rifles
and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, houses and businesses. 12 Copts
were killed and 232 injured.
The church of Saint Mina was the first to be attacked. According to its pastor
Fr. Abanoub the attack started at 5.30 PM on Saturday May 7, when church parishioners
noticed a large number of Salafis, estimated at 3000 men, congregating near
the church. Anticipating trouble, the army was called. The Salafis went to the
church and asked to search it because they believed a Christian girl named who
had converted to Islam, married a Salafi and wanted to revert back to Christianity,
was hiding inside the church.
The second church attacked by Salafis was St. Mary and St Abanob, also in Embaba.
Muslims prevented the fire brigade from reaching it. The third church attacked
was St. Mary Church in Wehda Street in Embaba, the ground floor of which was
completely torched. More HERE.
May 9, 2011
Malaysia
(Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Islam is under siege in Malaysia because aggressive Christians are determined
to convert Muslims who are nonchalant about their faith, several Islamist groups
alleged. The Muslim Organisations in Defence of Islam accused Christians of
strategising an elaborate plan to ensure that more and more Muslims leave the
faith, which is illegal in Malaysia. The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship,
together with partners Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors
Fellowship, said the claims against their community were lies.
May 12, 2011
Pakistan
(Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Once more, Pakistan's 'black law' strikes again. A Muslim businessman has used
the infamous blasphemy law against a rival and former associate, who happens
to be Christian. More and more, the law is being used to persecute the country's
Christian minority or settle personal scores. The victim is Gulzar Masih, from
Sialkot, who owns a bookstore. Yesterday, he and his son had to flee town, fearing
reprisals by local Muslims who tried to set fire to his shop. Only the intervention
of police stopped the attackers.
May 15, 2011
Egypt
(Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Violence erupted in a Cairo neighborhood when pro-Coptic protesters clashed
with unidentified men, leaving at least two people dead and 60 injured. The
demonstrators initially staged a sit-in in front of the state TV building to
demand greater rights for the religious minority. Problems between Egypt's Muslim
majority and its Coptic Christian minority have been on the rise in recent months,
with a number of violent clashes reported between the two groups. More HERE.
May 16, 2011
Iraq
(Hat tip to JihadWatch)
An Iraqi Chaldean Christian man was abducted, tortured and then beheaded by
Al Qaeda jihadis. The victim was from Kirkuk, northern Iraq. He had been kidnapped
three days ago and the family had received a ransom request. However, negotiations
for his release did not work out and so he was brutally murdered. A pastor in
Kirkuk said that kidnappers had pressured his employer to fire him because he
was a Christian. More HERE.
Nigeria
Christians from a local Evangelical Church congregation in this Plateau state
town have been displaced after Muslim extremists set their church building and
some homes on fire last month. The Rev. Ishaku Danyok of the church said that
the April 29 incident occurred after Muslims approached Christian music shop
owner Gabriel Kiwase and told him that his music was disturbing them as they
said their prayers.
The young Christian man "quietly switched off the music set, and then
the Muslims left, only to return about 20 minutes later to burn down the music
shop and then go on rampage, burning down houses belonging to some Christians
in the town," Danyok said. Update HERE.
May 17, 2011
EU
(Hat tip to Persecutin.org)
A religious liberty campaigner has been heckled at an EU meeting for saying
Christians should not be sent to prison for peacefully expressing their opinions.
A room full of feminist and homosexual activists jeered at Dr Gudrun Kugler
when she spoke about the intolerance faced by Christians in Europe. Some of
the crowd said that Christians ought to be thrown in jail if they make a "negative
comment" against a "minority group".
May 18, 2011
Pakistan
Two more shocking cases have surfaced in Pakistan where Christians were badly
treated by Muslims. The first concerned two Christian women working at a Lahore,
Pakistan, hospital, who were allegedly "manhandled" by a leader at
the Fatima Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, April 19, 2011. A source close to the
situation said that Nusrat Bibi and Muneeran Bibi, who are both married female
sanitary workers at the hospital were "brutally thrashed" and "unlawfully
detained for several hours," after being assaulted by a Muslim officer
at the medical facility.
In another disturbing case, this one in a town located in the Punjab, the Christian
Communication Network Pakistan (CCNP) told ANS that "a gang of Muslim men,
on the behest of a former member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, "invaded
two Christian houses" in the city. Adnan Sher, an activist of CCNP, said
that a Christian man, Sharif Gull, was abducted at gunpoint by the Muslim "hoodlums."
Adnan Sher then alleged that the Muslim mob also attacked at the house of another
Christian man, Idrees Asif. He added that the alleged culprits, armed with clubs,
thrashed the men and women of Asif's family and ripped off the cloths of the
Christian women and made publicly nude.
Azerbaijan (Hat
tip to Persecution.org)
Within the space of three days in mid-May, three Protestant communities in the
town of Sumgait (Sumqayit) north of the Azerbaijani capital Baku were raided
by police and officials of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations.
Syria
Syria's minority Christians are watching the protests sweeping their country
with trepidation, fearing their religious freedom could be threatened if President
Bashar Assad's autocratic but secular rule is overthrown. For many Syrian Christians,
the flight of their brethren from sectarian conflict in neighboring Iraq and
recent attacks on Christians in Egypt have highlighted the dangers they fear
they will face if Assad succumbs to the wave of uprisings sweeping the Arab
world.
Iraq
The body of Chaldean Christian Ashur Issa Yaqub was found on Monday (May 16)
with marks of severe torture and mutilation. He had worked as a construction
worker from the northeastern city of Kirkuk, and al Qaeda members had demanded
$100,000 for his release, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Sources close
to a Christian reportedly kidnapped, tortured and murdered by al Qaeda over
the weekend said the kidnappers had pressured his employer to fire him because
he was a Christian.
May 19, 2011
Pakistan
An influential Muslim family in a village near Sheikhupura is holding a 17-year-old
Christian girl hostage because one of her brothers allegedly eloped with a woman
from the Muslim family. The Muslim parents have threatened further retaliation
against the Christian family if they do not produce their daughter, whom they
have also threatened to publicly shoot dead as an "honor killing."
An area clergyman identified only as Father Emmanuel called the situation "critical,"
saying it has pitted the area's 1,800 Muslim families against its 70-to-100
Christian families and could lead to violence. More HERE.
Indonesia
Islamic extremist groups disrupted two post-Easter services in Cirebon as police
failed to stop the violence, this according to Hendardi, chairman of the Setara
Institute, an NGO fighting for human rights and religious freedom in Indonesia.
The activist slammed police for its "powerlessness" vis-à-vis
"hostile" acts perpetrated by radical movements, which interrupted
religious services.
Pakistan
The situation in Abbotabad is "critical" for religious minorities,
who are "fasting and praying for peace in the region", Fr Javed Akram
Gill, a parish priest in the town where Osama Bin Laden was killed tells AsiaNews.
The priest confirms that the death of the Al Qaeda "has raised fears within
the Christian community" because "every time the Americans say or
do something, Christians [in Pakistan] become the number one target." Together
with the Catholics, the faithful of other Christian denominations "prefer
to stay inside" and their leaders refrain from making pastoral visits.
Egypt
On the morning of May 19 two Coptic priests went to St. Mary and St. Abraham
Church and opened it together with some of the Coptic residents, but later in
the day thousands of Muslims surrounded the church to protest its opening, hurled
stones at the church building and the Copts, who responded by throwing stones.
The army and the police stood there watching and did not intervene.
Unable to secure the church, the army and police closed it and arranged for
a "reconciliation" meeting between the Coptic priest and the Salafi
sheikhs. "The atmosphere of the meeting was belligerent," said attorney
Ashraf Edward, "and one of the sheikhs threatened us by saying that should
the church be opened without their permission it would end up like the church
in Soul which was demolished by Muslims."
May 20, 2011
Pakistan
Two nurses at the Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, were attacked and abducted
for several hours by a fellow Muslim. The man also charged them with theft after
stealing their mobile phone and a sum of money. In a second incident, a group
of Muslims - at the behest of a former MP of the area - attacked the houses
of two Christians, to force the owners to abandon them and transfer the land
ownership over to him.
Turkey
Turkey's Christians are under siege.
May 23, 2011
Germany
A Coptic Christian bishop warns the native Germans about the threat of Islamic
dhimmitude and where it leads.
Pakistan
(Hat tip to Persecution.org)
Pakistani Christians have expressed concerns about renewed kidnappings and abuse
of women and girls by Muslims in a country still reeling from the recent assassination
of a Christian government minister.
Among those targeted was Sehar Naz, a 24-year-old employee with Pakistan's
State Life Insurance Corporation in Punjab province, who was recovering of her
injuries Monday, May 23, after she was allegedly kidnapped and raped by a Pakistan
Army officer.
May 24, 2011
Sudan
Sudanese National Security Intelligence and Security Service agents have arrested
a Christian woman in a Darfur camp for displaced people, accusing her of converting
Muslims to Christianity, said sources who fear she is being tortured.
At the same time, in Khartoum a Christian mother of a 2-month-old baby is wounded
and destitute because she and her husband left Islam for Christianity. More
HERE.
Pakistan
Christians in Pakistan remained concerned Monday, May 23, over the situation
of Pastor Paul Ashraf and his family after they reportedly narrowly survived
a drive by shooting by suspected Islamic militants in Punjab province, seriously
injuring their eldest son. "Pastor Ashraf was in a van with his wife, Rubina
Ashraf, and eldest son Sarfraz Ashraf, on April 27 when two unidentified men
on a motorbike opened fire" on their car, said the Centre for Legal Aid,
Assistance and Settlement. . . . Pastor Ashraf and Rubina were unharmed but
Sarfraz" who drove the vechicle, "was shot in the side and face. The
masked gunmen fled from the scene when they saw that Sarfraz had been seriously
injured," CLAAS explained.
May 25, 2011
Algeria
Algerian authorities have ordered the immediate closure of seven Protestant
churches and demanded that the Algerian Protestant Church Association close
all churches under their authority.
Produced by Political Islam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner; Edited by Asma Marwan
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