Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (13 page)
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Authors: Raymond Ibrahim
BOOK: Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians
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In April 2011, Muslims set fire to the Evangelical Winning All Church and some nearby Christian homes, displacing hundreds of local Christians. This “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 20 minutes later to burn down the music shop and then go on a rampage,’” then set fire to the pastor’s house and the property of five other Christians. According to the pastor, whose family was rendered homeless by the destruction, most members of his church have fled the town, reducing attendance at services to fifty: “We currently worship in the destroyed church building with no roof to shield us from the sun and the rains.”
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Several more churches were bombed in July 2011, including another Winning All church in an attack that damaged only the building. The day before, during a Sunday service, another church in the same area had been bombed and at least three worshippers killed and many more injured.
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Later in the month, two more churches were bombed, including a Church of Christ and a Baptist church no longer in use because of previous Muslim attacks.
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A few days later, when officials arrested Islamist leaders, a Catholic church was torched.
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On November 4, 2011, Muslims shouting “Allahu Akbar” carried out coordinated attacks on churches and police stations, in one case opening fire on a congregation of “mostly women and children,” killing 150 people.
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Later in the month, two more churches were bombed, including a Church of Christ and a Baptist church no longer in use because of previous Muslim attacks.
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A few days later, when officials arrested Islamist leaders, a Catholic church was torched.
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On November 4, 2011, Muslims shouting “Allahu Akbar” carried out coordinated attacks on churches and police stations, in one case opening fire on a congregation of “mostly women and children,” killing 150 people.
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The blame for these attacks does not rest entirely on Boko Haram. Sometimes local Muslims—who may have lived in neighborly peace with Christians in the same village for years—suddenly give violent expression to their anti-Christian sentiments. Weeks before the Christmas Day church bombings of 2011, another jihadi attack, enabled by “local Muslims,” left five churches destroyed and several Christians killed. According to eyewitnesses, “The Muslims in this town were going round town pointing out church buildings and shops owned by Christians to members of Boko Haram, and they in turn bombed these churches and shops.”
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The situation in Nigeria became even more dramatic at the start of 2012. In January, Boko Haram issued an ultimatum giving Christians three days to evacuate the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria—or die. Soon thereafter, armed Muslims stormed the Deeper Life Christian Ministry Church and “opened fire on worshippers as their eyes were closed in prayer,” killing six, including the pastor’s wife.
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On the following day, as friends and relatives gathered to mourn the deaths of those slain, Muslims screaming “Allahu Akbar” appeared and opened fire again—killing another twenty Christians, according to the
Telegraph
.
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Several other churches were bombed in January, and at least seven more Christians were killed at worship.
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On the following day, as friends and relatives gathered to mourn the deaths of those slain, Muslims screaming “Allahu Akbar” appeared and opened fire again—killing another twenty Christians, according to the
Telegraph
.
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Several other churches were bombed in January, and at least seven more Christians were killed at worship.
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During a Sunday morning service on February 28, 2012, a Muslim suicide bomber forced his way into the grounds of a Church of Christ, killing two women and an eighteen-month-old child; some fifty people were injured in the blast.
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On the previous Sunday, Muslim terrorists had detonated a bomb outside the Christ Embassy Church, injuring five, one critically.
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On the previous Sunday, Muslim terrorists had detonated a bomb outside the Christ Embassy Church, injuring five, one critically.
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On March 11, 2012, another Boko Haram suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church, killing at least ten people. The bomb detonated as worshippers were attending Sunday Mass at St. Finbar’s Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands of Christians have died in the last decade as a result of Boko Haram’s jihad.
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The next month, “an attack on a Christian church service in northern Nigeria left at least 16 people dead”: armed jihadis on motorcycles stormed Bayero University in the city of Kano on a Sunday morning during a Catholic Mass held in the school’s theater hall, throwing explosives and opening fire as people attempted to flee.
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On August 7, 2012, Muslim gunmen stormed the Deeper Life Bible Church, where Christian worshippers were gathered in prayer, “and surrounded the church in the middle of a worship service and opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles on the worshippers.”
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At least nineteen people, including the pastor, were murdered. The following day, an unexploded bomb was discovered at Revival Church. A World Watch Monitor report of this particular attack describes the typical aftermath of church attacks in Nigeria:
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At least nineteen people, including the pastor, were murdered. The following day, an unexploded bomb was discovered at Revival Church. A World Watch Monitor report of this particular attack describes the typical aftermath of church attacks in Nigeria:
One month after gunmen opened fire inside Deeper Life Bible Church... members of the church have yet to resume worship services and other activities. “All of us are traumatized by this attack. [There is] no family in this church that is not affected by this incident,” said Stephen Imagejor, an assistant pastor whose wife, Ruth, was killed, and whose two daughters, Amen, 12, and Juliet, 9, suffered from gunshot wounds and were hospitalized. “In all, 19 died.” Church members say they were attacked specifically because of their Christian faith. They may have been a target, they say, because some of the dead include former Muslims who had converted to Christianity. And in the aftermath, “Many are now saying that they can no longer come to the church,” Imagejor said. “But we will eventually try to see how we can get those of us that have survived the attack to return to the church for worship services. But, I do visit them to encourage them to remain steadfast in the faith in spite of the persecution.”
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And the jihad only rages on. In September 2012 a suicide bomb attack on St. John’s Catholic Church claimed three lives, including those of a woman and a child; forty-four others were seriously injured.
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The following month, a renewed spate of church attacks caused thousands more people to flee. An Islamic suicide bomber rammed an SUV loaded with explosives into St. Rita Catholic Church during Sunday Mass, killing eight people and wounding more than a hundred. One reporter “saw the bodies of four worshippers lying on the floor of the church after the blast, surrounded by broken glass. The body of the suicide bomber had been blasted into nearby rubble.” The church building was wrecked and charred black.
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Also in October, the Church of Brethren was raided by Islamic gunmen, who killed at least two people and set the church aflame.
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Understandably, many Nigerian churches are shutting down in fear of further attacks.
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The following month, a renewed spate of church attacks caused thousands more people to flee. An Islamic suicide bomber rammed an SUV loaded with explosives into St. Rita Catholic Church during Sunday Mass, killing eight people and wounding more than a hundred. One reporter “saw the bodies of four worshippers lying on the floor of the church after the blast, surrounded by broken glass. The body of the suicide bomber had been blasted into nearby rubble.” The church building was wrecked and charred black.
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Also in October, the Church of Brethren was raided by Islamic gunmen, who killed at least two people and set the church aflame.
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Understandably, many Nigerian churches are shutting down in fear of further attacks.
November 25, 2012, was another bloody Sunday for churchgoers in the Muslim-majority north of Nigeria. The Protestant church of St. Andrew near Kaduna was attacked by two consecutive suicide bombings. Shortly after the service, one suicide bomber drove a minibus loaded with explosives into the church. Then, after soldiers and civilians had gathered on the spot, another jihadi detonated a car bomb, leaving a total of eleven dead and some thirty injured. Most of the victims were members of the church choir. Separately, three more Christians were ambushed and killed as they were going to Mass in Kano .
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The next month at least four more churches were torched and ten Christians murdered “when the Islamic group members went on rampage and burned 20 houses and a church in the area,” as well as three more churches, all to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” After the Islamic invaders torched the churches, they used guns and machetes to slaughter their victims.
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Spotlight on Kenya173
Primarily a Christian country, Kenya is only about 12 percent Muslim. However, it borders Somalia, where the Islamic terror organization al-Shabaab (“the Youth”) has essentially wiped out Christianity and is now targeting the churches of neighboring Kenya, with the aid of Kenya’s own Muslims. Kenya further demonstrates how the line differentiating the Muslim mob from the jihadis can become extremely fuzzy.
During just the four months between April 2012 and August 2012, at least fourteen churches in Kenya were attacked.
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Then in October a grenade was thrown into the Sunday School building of St. Polycarp Anglican Church. It blew off the roof, killed one boy, and injured eight other children attending Sunday school—some requiring surgery. According to the mother of one of the children, “‘We are in Eastleigh,’ the area of Nairobi well-known for its largely Somali population.... ‘Many Christians, including myself, thought that something might happen. Every week we’d wonder “What if it’s this Sunday?” But we’d still go to church.’” Likewise, a parliament member said, “The life of an innocent child has been taken and others have been cruelly injured and traumatized in what should be the safest of places.... The sanctity of life has been heartlessly breached in a sanctified place. Such acts seem to be designed to spark civil unrest and intimidate the Christian church. In the face of such an outrage we ask, with the prophet Habakkuk, ‘O Lord, how long?’ and let us trust that God in his mercy will bring justice and relief as we cry out to him.”
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Then in October a grenade was thrown into the Sunday School building of St. Polycarp Anglican Church. It blew off the roof, killed one boy, and injured eight other children attending Sunday school—some requiring surgery. According to the mother of one of the children, “‘We are in Eastleigh,’ the area of Nairobi well-known for its largely Somali population.... ‘Many Christians, including myself, thought that something might happen. Every week we’d wonder “What if it’s this Sunday?” But we’d still go to church.’” Likewise, a parliament member said, “The life of an innocent child has been taken and others have been cruelly injured and traumatized in what should be the safest of places.... The sanctity of life has been heartlessly breached in a sanctified place. Such acts seem to be designed to spark civil unrest and intimidate the Christian church. In the face of such an outrage we ask, with the prophet Habakkuk, ‘O Lord, how long?’ and let us trust that God in his mercy will bring justice and relief as we cry out to him.”
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In November of the previous year, Muslims, apparently angered at the use of wine for communion (Islam forbids alcohol) had thrown a grenade near a church compound—killing two, including an eight-year-old girl, and critically wounding three others. The pastor of another congregation received a message telling him to flee the region “within 48 hours or you [will] see bomb blast taking your life and we know your house, Christians will see war. Don’t take it so lightly. We are for your neck.”
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In March 2012 a band of Muslims launched a grenade attack on a crowd of 150 Christians attending an outdoor church meeting, killing a woman and a child and wounding about fifty Christians. The Muslim attackers were inspired to action by a preacher holding an alternate rally only 900 feet from the Christian gathering, where the Christians could hear the preacher and the mob slandering Christianity.
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In April 2012, a Muslim man pretending to be a worshipper at God’s House of Miracles International Church threw three grenades during the service, killing a twenty-seven-year-old university student and injuring over a dozen others. The Muslim terrorist, whom eyewitnesses conjectured was a Somali, “looked uncomfortable and always looked down.... He threw three hand grenades and only one exploded. He took off, and he fired in the air three gunshots.”
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In July 2012, several Islamic jihadis launched simultaneous grenade and gunfire attacks on two churches while the congregations were at prayer. “Five militants attacked the Africa Inland Church, killing 17 people and wounding some 60, including many women and children. The other two militants attacked the Catholic church just 3 km away, leaving three believers wounded.”
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In August, Muslims attacked two churches, setting one on fire. Another church was attacked and looted “by an armed mob believed to be sympathizers of the al-Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist network.” In the words of the pastor who witnessed the pillage, “attackers armed with guns stormed the compound and immediately began pulling down one iron sheet after another and soon 60 iron sheets were gone.... It was a terrible sight to watch the walls of the church come down, [but] I could not shout for help because the attackers could gun me down.... Shocked and dismayed, the church’s 60 congregants arrived for worship the next day to find their church building in ruins.”
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Local police were told that there were threats of an attack and that Muslims were saying things such as “we do not want infidels in this area,” but they did nothing.
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Local police were told that there were threats of an attack and that Muslims were saying things such as “we do not want infidels in this area,” but they did nothing.
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Even well-guarded churches are vulnerable to the jihad. In November 2012 an explosion at a church housed inside a police compound in Garissa killed a police officer, who also served as church pastor, and injured at least two dozen others.
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Spotlight on Sudan182
Ever since South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in June 2011—after suffering decades of genocide by the Islamist government in Khartoum, which had declared a jihad on the Christians and other non-Muslims of the south—the Khartoum government has made it even more unbearable for the Christians who remain under its authority in Sudan proper, especially those in the Nuba Mountains. Sudan represents the case of government-supported jihad, an Islamist state waging a war on Christian churches within its own borders. In fact in 1992 the Islamist government of Khartoum declared a formal jihad on all those in the South and the Nuba who rejected Sharia law. This declaration was justified by a fatwa issued by Sudan’s Islamic authorities, decreeing, “An insurgent who was previously a Muslim is now an apostate; and a non-Muslim is a non-believer standing as a bulwark against the spread of Islam, and Islam has granted the freedom of killing both of them.”
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In late 2011 President Bashir confirmed plans to adopt an entirely Islamic constitution to “strengthen Sharia law.” Soon thereafter, “emboldened” Muslims began attacking Christians trying to construct a church, “claiming that Christianity was no longer an accepted religion in the country,”
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and authorities began threatening to demolish church buildings “as part of a long-standing bid to rid Sudan of Christianity,” according to World Watch Monitor.
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Around the same time, at least ten church leaders in Khartoum received text messages saying things such as, “We want this country to be purely an Islamic state, so we must kill the infidels and destroy their churches all over Sudan.”
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and authorities began threatening to demolish church buildings “as part of a long-standing bid to rid Sudan of Christianity,” according to World Watch Monitor.
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Around the same time, at least ten church leaders in Khartoum received text messages saying things such as, “We want this country to be purely an Islamic state, so we must kill the infidels and destroy their churches all over Sudan.”
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