Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (12 page)
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Authors: Raymond Ibrahim
BOOK: Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians
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In August 2011, two churches were set aflame and burned to the ground. Officials downplayed these attacks, saying that the churches were “only made of board.”
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Around the same time, Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto proclaimed that churches cannot be built on streets with Muslim names.
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Around the same time, Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto proclaimed that churches cannot be built on streets with Muslim names.
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In March 2011, as Christians were celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Salvation Army church in Hyderabad, a group of Muslim youths gathered outside the building and started playing loud music and harassing Christian women as they arrived. Four Christian men came out of the church building to stop the Muslims from harassing the women. The Muslims left for a short time and returned with handguns. They murdered two of the Christian men and seriously wounded the other two.
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Tunisia121
In May 2012 in Tunisia, the country where the “Arab Spring” began—a country traditionally seen as one of the most moderate Arab nations—it was revealed that the Christian Orthodox Church in Tunis, one of very few churches in the nation, was being “abused” and receiving “threatening messages.” Church members were described as “living in a state of terror,” so that the Russian ambassador in Tunis specifically requested the nation’s Ministry of Interior to “protect the church.” The abuse got to the point where “Salafis covered the cross of the church with garbage bags, telling the church members that they do not wish to see the vision of the Cross anywhere in the Islamic state of Tunisia.”
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In a separate incident, a Muslim burst into another church to present a message from an Islamist party “inviting the archpriest to convert to Islam or to take down the church’s crosses and pay ‘jizya’, the tribute that Islamic law requires subjugated non-Muslims to pay.”
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And in September 2011, around twenty Muslims attempted to transform a Christian basilica into a mosque “in an ominous sign of the growing threat to the country’s small Church in the wake of the revolution.” The police dispersed them, but “they have been invited to make an official request to the faith ministry” to transform the church into a mosque.
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Tanzania122
In a separate incident, a Muslim burst into another church to present a message from an Islamist party “inviting the archpriest to convert to Islam or to take down the church’s crosses and pay ‘jizya’, the tribute that Islamic law requires subjugated non-Muslims to pay.”
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And in September 2011, around twenty Muslims attempted to transform a Christian basilica into a mosque “in an ominous sign of the growing threat to the country’s small Church in the wake of the revolution.” The police dispersed them, but “they have been invited to make an official request to the faith ministry” to transform the church into a mosque.
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On the 99-percent-Muslim island of Zanzibar, part of the United Republic of Tanzania, the very few churches serving the Christians who make up only 1 percent of the population are under attack. In late 2011 Muslims destroyed two churches—one was torched and the other torn down—all to yells of “Allahu Akbar.” The first church, the Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa, was “reduced to ashes” by the fire. As the Muslim assailants fled the scene, they could be heard saying “We do not want a church in this area!” No arrests were made. The church’s bishop said, “The Muslims are burning our church buildings quite frequently here in Zanzibar, but the government is not speaking against this kind of destruction of our church premises.”
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The other church, Siloam Church, was demolished by a throng of Muslims numbering more than one hundred. They entered the church building with clubs, hammers, torches, and swords, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” and demolished it in about three hours. Earlier a Muslim was heard saying, “We are not comfortable with the existence of the Siloam Church—this church is growing. . . .”
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The other church, Siloam Church, was demolished by a throng of Muslims numbering more than one hundred. They entered the church building with clubs, hammers, torches, and swords, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” and demolished it in about three hours. Earlier a Muslim was heard saying, “We are not comfortable with the existence of the Siloam Church—this church is growing. . . .”
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According to Reuters, in May 2012 hundreds of Muslims set two more churches on fire during protests after members of an Islamist movement known as the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation were arrested.
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In July 2012, Muslims burned down yet another two churches, to cries of “away with the church—we do not want infidels to spoil our community” and vows not to befriend “infidels.” The pastor of one of the churches, Evangelical Assemblies of God, said, “Tomorrow is Sunday, and my members numbering forty will not have any place to worship.” With “fear in his voice,” the pastor added, “We have reported the case to the police station. I hope justice will be done.” Likewise, the pastor of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa—where forty-five seats were destroyed by fire—said, “I have thirty-six members, and it will be very difficult for them to congregate tomorrow. The members are afraid, not knowing what other plans the Muslims are out to do. We request prayers at this trying moment. ”
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In July 2012, Muslims burned down yet another two churches, to cries of “away with the church—we do not want infidels to spoil our community” and vows not to befriend “infidels.” The pastor of one of the churches, Evangelical Assemblies of God, said, “Tomorrow is Sunday, and my members numbering forty will not have any place to worship.” With “fear in his voice,” the pastor added, “We have reported the case to the police station. I hope justice will be done.” Likewise, the pastor of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa—where forty-five seats were destroyed by fire—said, “I have thirty-six members, and it will be very difficult for them to congregate tomorrow. The members are afraid, not knowing what other plans the Muslims are out to do. We request prayers at this trying moment. ”
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In October 2012 Muslim mobs burned several church buildings in different parts of Tanzania after an argument between two children about the supernatural powers of the Koran allegedly led a Christian boy to desecrate Islam’s holy book. Two church buildings in Kigoma were set on fire and another’s roof was destroyed. On Zanzibar, Muslim rioters completely destroyed a building under the management of the Evangelical Assemblies of God. And in Dar es Salaam, three more church buildings were set on fire and another was ruined beyond repair. “We shall continue attacking the churches until they are no more in Tanzania’” was the slogan repeated in Tanzanian mosques.
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On Christmas Day 2012 the Reverend Ambrose Mkenda, a Roman Catholic priest, was shot “through his cheeks” by two motorcyclists and grievously injured. Members of the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, also known as the “Awakening,” who had previously threatened local Christians because of the alleged Koran desecration, are believed to be responsible. As of December 27, the priest’s health had further deteriorated and he was in intensive care.
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THE VIOLENT JIHAD ON CHRISTIAN CHURCHES BY MUSLIM TERRORISTS130
Church attacks by jihadi organizations are more systematic and deadly than church attacks by angry Muslim mobs. While church attacks by Muslim mobs are generally spontaneous—they often erupt on Fridays after anti-Christian mosque sermons and rely on whatever weapons are at hand, such as fire and Molotov cocktails—jihadis intentionally target churches during Sunday services or, as in the Christmas holiday examples discussed above, when churches are packed with worshippers celebrating their holy days. For maximum casualties, jihadis make use of more advanced weaponry, including explosive devices and machine guns.
Such jihadi attacks on churches are taking place around much of the Islamic world, wherever there are churches. Along with the especially deadly assaults already mentioned—including the Egyptian New Year attack in 2011, which left twenty-three worshippers dead—one of the most dramatic assaults occurred on October 31, 2010, in Baghdad, Iraq, when the Our Lady of Salvation Church was attacked during Sunday Mass. At least fifty-eight Christians, including two priests, were slaughtered, and nearly a hundred were wounded (many losing their arms or legs) by al-Qaeda affiliated suicide-bombers whose vests were “filled with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible,” reported the
New York Times
.
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The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgents, later boasted of the attack in an Internet posting, calling the church the “‘dirty den of idolatry.’”
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This late 2010 attack was hardly the first or last Iraqi church attack. In fact, the Our Lady of Salvation church was one of six churches that had already been bombed earlier, in August 2004, soon after Saddam Hussein was ousted and the jihad was set loose.
New York Times
.
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The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgents, later boasted of the attack in an Internet posting, calling the church the “‘dirty den of idolatry.’”
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This late 2010 attack was hardly the first or last Iraqi church attack. In fact, the Our Lady of Salvation church was one of six churches that had already been bombed earlier, in August 2004, soon after Saddam Hussein was ousted and the jihad was set loose.
Today, Christians are an all-but-extinct species in Iraq—more than half of them have fled—and what few churches remain are still under attack. On August 2, 2011, a car bomb exploded outside the Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church in the city of Kirkuk, inflicting injuries on almost two dozen people and damaging the church and nearby homes, according to the
Voice of America
.
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On the same day another bomb placed in a car parked near a Presbyterian church was defused before it went off. Less than two weeks later, yet another bomb exploded near the St. Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk. No one was killed, but the church was severely damaged.
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And in March 2012 it was reported that, though another Kirkuk church had recently been restored after a 2006 bomb attack that killed a thirteen-year-old Christian boy, the “reopening celebration was but a brief respite in the ongoing suffering of Iraq’s Christian community, signaled by two further attacks”—including one on another church in Baghdad that was bombed, killing two guards and injuring five others.
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Voice of America
.
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On the same day another bomb placed in a car parked near a Presbyterian church was defused before it went off. Less than two weeks later, yet another bomb exploded near the St. Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk. No one was killed, but the church was severely damaged.
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And in March 2012 it was reported that, though another Kirkuk church had recently been restored after a 2006 bomb attack that killed a thirteen-year-old Christian boy, the “reopening celebration was but a brief respite in the ongoing suffering of Iraq’s Christian community, signaled by two further attacks”—including one on another church in Baghdad that was bombed, killing two guards and injuring five others.
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The same kind of persecution has recently come to Syria. In October 2012, two churches were attacked. One bomb was detonated near the historical gate of Bab Touma (“Thomas’s Doorway”) in an area largely populated by the nation’s Christian minority. The bomb exploded as people were going to their churches for Sunday Mass; as many as ten people were killed. “‘Terrorists are doing this,’” said George, a Christian resident.
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Also in October a car bomb exploded “in front of the only Syriac Orthodox Church in the town of Deir Ezzor. . . .” Five people near the church were killed. In September, the same church was defiled and robbed by armed intruders.
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Also in October a car bomb exploded “in front of the only Syriac Orthodox Church in the town of Deir Ezzor. . . .” Five people near the church were killed. In September, the same church was defiled and robbed by armed intruders.
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In November 2012, the historic Arabic Evangelical Church of Aleppo was mined and blown up “by armed men, for pure sectarian hatred,” according to its pastor, Ibrahim Nasir, who expressed “bitterness and sadness of all Syrian citizens” for an act that makes Christians “inconsolable.... Today is the day when we cry out to Christ to say: my God, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
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Later in the same month, another bomb exploded near the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo: “Scores of people were injured and killed. Estimates put the number killed between 20 and 80. The bomb damaged the al-Kalima school and the Syrian French Hospital, as well as a nursing home. This is the third attack in four weeks in the New Assyrian Quarter in Aleppo.”
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Later in the same month, another bomb exploded near the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo: “Scores of people were injured and killed. Estimates put the number killed between 20 and 80. The bomb damaged the al-Kalima school and the Syrian French Hospital, as well as a nursing home. This is the third attack in four weeks in the New Assyrian Quarter in Aleppo.”
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In Libya, where rebels recently took over, thanks to U.S. support, an explosion caused extensive damage to a Coptic Christian church near the city of Misrata—where former rebels hold a major checkpoint—on Saturday, December 30, killing two people and wounding two others. Two months later, armed Muslims assaulted another Coptic church in Benghazi, injuring the priest and his assistant.
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The jihad has even returned to the only Christian-majority nation in the Middle East: Lebanon. In July 2012, before the Maronite Patriarch visited Akkar, flyers signed by the “Soldiers of the Great Prophet” made anti-Christian threats in what was once the safest Middle East country for Christians, calling “on the infidels to stop their blasphemy.... We will start from the infidel’s church in Akkar and we won’t stop . . . this is not the end but the beginning.”
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Two months later, in September 2012, two “unknown assailants” opened fire on the St. Joseph Church in the town of Bqosta near Sidon, damaging the building’s windows.
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Two months later, in September 2012, two “unknown assailants” opened fire on the St. Joseph Church in the town of Bqosta near Sidon, damaging the building’s windows.
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Even in the easternmost fringes of the Islamic world, jihadis are targeting churches. In September 2011 in Indonesia, a Muslim suicide-bomber attacked Bethel Bible Church when it was packed during a service, killing himself and two others and wounding at least twenty worshippers—some critically.
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Security received advance warning but, as is typical in Muslim-majority nations, simply left their posts at the time of the attack.
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A jihadi involved in the planning of this attack later confessed that he was operating under his jihad leader’s orders, “based on the Koran and Sunnah of the Prophet, in the effort to achieve the implementation of Sharia.”
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Spotlight on Nigeria143
Security received advance warning but, as is typical in Muslim-majority nations, simply left their posts at the time of the attack.
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A jihadi involved in the planning of this attack later confessed that he was operating under his jihad leader’s orders, “based on the Koran and Sunnah of the Prophet, in the effort to achieve the implementation of Sharia.”
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But no region is more representative of the jihad on churches than sub-Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria—roughly half Christian and half Muslim—where Christians are under severe attack in the Muslim-majority north.
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Several thousand have died at the hands of the jihadi group “People of Sunnah for Islamic Propagation and Jihad”—better known as Boko Haram, which means, “Western education is forbidden.”
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Boko Haram’s hatred for Christianity and Christians is such that it seeks to cleanse the Muslim-majority regions of Nigeria of all Christians. In March 2012, a spokesman said, “We are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women.”
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Other plans for wiping Christians out have included poisoning their food.
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Several thousand have died at the hands of the jihadi group “People of Sunnah for Islamic Propagation and Jihad”—better known as Boko Haram, which means, “Western education is forbidden.”
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Boko Haram’s hatred for Christianity and Christians is such that it seeks to cleanse the Muslim-majority regions of Nigeria of all Christians. In March 2012, a spokesman said, “We are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women.”
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Other plans for wiping Christians out have included poisoning their food.
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Boko Haram’s sheer hatred for Christians manifests itself in frequent murderous attacks. In October 2012, as many as thirty Christian university students were slaughtered when Boko Haram gunmen stormed the college and “separated the Christian students from the Muslim students, addressed each victim by name, questioned them, and then proceeded to shoot them or slit their throat.”
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Before being massacred they were likely asked if they were Muslim, and, if not, if they were willing to convert. That is what happened in September 2011, when Muslim militants “went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran.” If they were unable to do so, the gunmen shot and killed them. Nor does Boko Haram have any compunction for women, children, and the elderly. Many children and pregnant women have been among the thousands of Christians hacked to death, as was a seventy-nine-year-old Christian woman choir member who had her throat slit in her home.
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Before being massacred they were likely asked if they were Muslim, and, if not, if they were willing to convert. That is what happened in September 2011, when Muslim militants “went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran.” If they were unable to do so, the gunmen shot and killed them. Nor does Boko Haram have any compunction for women, children, and the elderly. Many children and pregnant women have been among the thousands of Christians hacked to death, as was a seventy-nine-year-old Christian woman choir member who had her throat slit in her home.
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It is difficult even to keep track of how many churches have been destroyed in Nigeria. Not one Sunday passed in the month of June 2012 without churches being bombed and Christians killed. On June 17, Muslim militants bombed three separate churches, killing dozens of worshippers and critically wounding hundreds, including many children.
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Reports of growing numbers of Christians who “dare not” attend church services anymore are on the increase, even as other reports suggest that some police are complicit in the attacks, often abandoning their watch in advance of the violence.
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Reports of growing numbers of Christians who “dare not” attend church services anymore are on the increase, even as other reports suggest that some police are complicit in the attacks, often abandoning their watch in advance of the violence.
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