- by Raymond Ibrahim for The Gatestone Institute - 01.10.23.
Muslims surrounded and murdered a Christian man. — newsintervention.com, August 22, 2023, Pakistan.
Around 2 a.m., Muslim Fulani herdsmen launched a raid—the third of its kind on the same Christian majority village where people were sleeping after a long day's work. They slaughtered 21 villagers. — International Christian Concern, August 10, Nigeria.
"Nigeria's Middle Belt region that has been rocked by violence with tens of thousands of Christians killed over the past 20 years." — International Christian Concern, August 10, Nigeria.
Muslims began yelling "Away with him!" Others grabbed the microphone from the pastor and "started tearing off pages of the Bible and Christian literature." Now, gathered together, the Muslims began stoning him. — Morning Star News, August 1, 2023, Uganda.
"Others were saying that Allah has granted to them authority to kill all infidels. Another Muslim sprayed what looked like acid on Pastor Robert, while another hit him with a thorny object and stepped on the evangelist's back and the stomach." — Eyewitness, Morning Star News, August 23, 2023, Uganda.
"Infidels" cannot "preach in this town or come and mislead our people here... We are going to fight in the cause of Allah to kill all of you." — Sheikh Hiisa Mubaraka, Morning Star News, August 23, 2023, Uganda.
"There is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh.
The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention:
'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.'" — Luis Moreno Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, concerning Artsakh, an ancient Christian region under Azerbaijani control, August 4, 2023, Azerbaijan.
"Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks." — Luis Moreno Ocampo, August 4, 2023, Azerbaijan.
"The neighbors told her that they should let her [teenage] daughter marry their son so that she could convert to Islam and be led from the 'delusion of their faith to the true religion,' but if she refuses to convert, they have the right to do whatever they wish to her daughter." — International Christian Concern, August 11, 2023, Egypt.
During a Muslim demonstration against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday, Aug. 27, in Vienna, Austria, a man, armed with two hammers, smashed and destroyed the new glass door of Saint Stephan's Cathedral.
The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of August 2023.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Pakistan: All hell broke loose on Aug. 18, after some Christians were accused—falsely, it was quickly revealed—of desecrating a Koran in Jaranwala. Thousands of enraged Muslims rampaged against the region's Christians, prompting hundreds to flee their homes. Among other damage, the rioting Muslims set 25 churches aflame, destroyed or damaged 400 Christian homes, and desecrated at least one Christian cemetery. According to the Rev. Deacon Daud Irshad:
"I saw with tears in my eyes how the mob desecrated crosses on the roofs of the churches and in graveyards and ruined church buildings. They burnt so many Bibles and altars... The condition in Pakistan is very bad... So much hatred, jealousy, envy and enmity from the Muslims towards Christians. It seems that we Christians are like animals to them. Whenever they want to kill, they kill, and whenever they want to spare, they give free hand."
Separately, on Aug. 3—nearly two weeks before the above false blasphemy pretext had arisen, several armed Muslims raided Lala Zarr Church in Peshawar during worship service. They opened fire inside the church, causing damage, although no fatalities. They also dragged Pastor Zulfiqar Gill across the floor and beat him with the butts of their rifles.
Kenya: On Aug. 22, a gang of Muslims connected to the Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab ("the youth") torched a church and eight homes in Salama Village. Discussing the destruction caused to his church, Pastor Peter Muthengi of Salama Redeemed Gospel Church said:
"I had speakers, chairs and many other items inside my church, all of which have been reduced to ashes. I lost property worth Sh300,000. I appeal to the government to find a permanent solution to the insecurity incidents in this place. We're tired of these recurrent attacks."
Later that day, the same terrorists killed two truck drivers by slitting their throats.
Indonesia: In the first of three incidents of Muslim hostility to churches, on Aug. 2, a Christian congregation -- after getting all the necessary, and exhausting-to-obtain, permits to build a church, and after raising the necessary funds, and, finally, after building the church -- "suddenly faced a new problem":
"The road to their church building was unexpectedly closed off by a wall, making access to their new building nearly impossible.... This has made it very difficult for church members to reach the church building since the alternative roads are impassable due to large holes and other obstructions."
Then, on Aug. 9, in a separate incident, about 30 Muslims "used hammers and clubs to break huge holes in the walls" of a Pentecostal church under construction in Kabil village. The attackers claimed the church did not have a permit to exist, which the report characterizes as "a common tactic by hard-line Muslims in Indonesia where applications for permits are ignored or denied and carry onerous requirements."
In fact, "the church had a letter allowing the construction from the Batam Free Zone Authority," said its pastor. Even so, apparently to appease the Muslim rioters, authorities reached an agreement "stipulating that construction of the church building would be halted until a permit is issued"—although the chance of that ever happening has now enormously diminished.
Finally, on Sunday, Aug. 6, Muslims protested against a group of Christians for holding a church service in a warehouse, and further told them to forget about constructing a church building nearby. The Muslims held signs saying that they "sternly refuse worship activities that are in violation of government regulations."
For the full ten page article, please click here or click on the link below for the article in pdf:
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, andThe Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
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