Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (8 page)

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Authors: Raymond Ibrahim

BOOK: Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians
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Finally, after describing other forms of persecutions against Christians during Hakim’s reign, Maqrizi makes an interesting observation: “Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims.”
24
Maqrizi, a pious Muslim, had no great love for Egypt’s Christians, and often made disparaging observations about them in his volumes. His account of their persecution is thus all the more trustworthy.
Because Hakim’s persecution was so terrible and far-reaching, most modern Western historians are forced to acknowledge it. But all too often they portray it as an aberration, the action of a madman, implying that Christians suffered primarily only under his rule. Yet there is no dearth of Muslim leaders throughout the whole of Islamic history that have persecuted Christians and their churches. If Hakim is remembered as an insane tyrant, consider Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who is known in the West as a colorful, fun-loving prankster from the
Arabian Nights
. Though renowned for decidedly secular pursuits—riotous living, strong drink, and harems of concubines (to the point that a modern-day Kuwaiti women’s rights activist has referred to him as a model justifying the institution of sex-slavery)—Harun al-Rashid was still pious enough “to force Christians to distinguish themselves by dress, to expel them from their positions, and to destroy their churches through the use of fatwas by the imams.”
25
Similarly, Saladin (Salah ad-Din), another Muslim ruler who is habitually portrayed in the West as magnanimous and tolerant, commanded “whoever saw that the outside of a church was white, to cover it with black dirt,” as a sign of degradation.
26
Indeed, in 1354, well after the “mad caliph” Hakim was gone, churches were still under attack—and not just by rulers, but by average Muslims, who, according to Maqrizi, “demolished a church anent [next to] the Bridge of Lions, and a church in the street el-Asra in Misr, and the Church of Fahhadin within the precincts of Cairo; also the Convent of Nehya in Djizah, and a church in the neighborhood of Bataq al-Tokruni; they plundered the wealth of the churches they demolished, which was great; and carried away even the woodwork and slabs of alabaster. They rushed upon the churches of Misr and Cairo. . . .”
27
Such was the state of affairs for Christian churches under the rule of many caliphs. Thus over the course of nearly fourteen centuries, former centers of Christianity such as Egypt became Muslim countries with only Christian enclaves, a few dilapidated outposts of Christianity in a sea of Muslim hostility.
And today, as Muslims reclaim their Islamic identity and heritage, to Western approval and praise, such is the state of affairs for Christian churches throughout much of the Muslim world at this very moment.
CHRISTIAN HOLIDAY, ISLAMIC HORROR
 
Christians in the Islamic world today are suffering attacks motivated by the very same diabolical animus as a thousand years ago under Hakim. Proof of this is that some of the most terrible assaults occur precisely on Christian holidays—Christmas, Easter, and New Year’s Eve (which is a major church day in the Middle East). And no wonder, considering that some Muslim clerics insist that “saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication... or killing someone.”
28
After some fourteen centuries of church attacks and other persecution—punctuated by a brief Christian Golden Age—Egypt’s Copts began the new year in 2011 once again under assault, at one of their largest churches: during midnight Mass in the early hours of January 1, 2011, the Two Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria, crowded with hundreds of Christian worshippers, was bombed, leaving at least twenty-three dead and approximately a hundred injured. According to eyewitnesses, “body parts were strewn all over the street outside the church. The body parts were covered with newspapers until they were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants,” including “Allahu Akbar! ”
29
Witnesses further attest that “security forces withdrew one hour before the church blast.”
30
And a year earlier, Muslims shot and killed six Christians as they were leaving church after celebrating the Coptic Christmas Eve midnight Mass in Nag Hammadi.
31
December 25, 2011, was called Nigeria’s “blackest Christmas ever.”
32
In a number of coordinated jihadi operations, Reuters reported, Islamic terrorists bombed several churches during Christmas liturgies, killing at least thirty-eight people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.”
33
Charred bodies and dismembered limbs lay scattered around the destroyed church. This attack was simply a reenactment of Christmas Eve one year earlier, in 2010, when several other churches were set ablaze and Christians were attacked, also leaving nearly thirty-eight dead.
34
There was no reprieve for Nigeria’s Christians when the next religious holiday came; some fifty Christians were killed “when explosives concealed in two cars went off near the Assemblies of God’s Church during Easter Sunday services” in April 2012 in a predominantly Muslim region.
35
According to the pastor, “We were in the Holy Communion service and I was exhorting my people and all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise that shattered all our windows and doors.”
36
December 25, 2012, saw a repeat of the last few Christmases: in two separate attacks, Islamic gunmen shot and killed twelve Christian worshippers who had gathered for Christmas Eve church services, including one church’s pastor.
37
The violence in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, was not so bloody, but Muslims’ hostility was equally clear. In December 2012, more than two hundred Muslims threw rotten eggs at nearly one hundred Christians desiring to hold a Christmas Mass in empty land outside Jakarta, since their church, the Philadelphia Batak Protestant Church, had been illegally closed. A photographer saw angered Muslims—men, women wearing the hijab (the Muslim headscarf), and children—blocking the road and hurling rotten eggs at those attempting to worship. According to the Reverend Palti Panjaitan, the incident followed a Christmas Eve attack when “intolerant people” threw not only rotten eggs but also “plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung” at the Christians. “Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us.”
38
The attack was a repeat of what had happened several months earlier, during an Ascension Day church service in May 2012. Then some six hundred Muslims threw bags of urine, stones, and rotten eggs at the same congregation. The mob also threatened to kill the pastor. No arrests were made. The church had applied for a permit to construct its house of worship five years ago. But pressured by local Muslims, the local administration ordered the church to shut down in December 2009—though the Supreme Court recently overruled its decision, saying the church was eligible for the permit. Regardless, local Muslims and officials demand the church cease to exist.
39
In the Philippines, during Mass on Christmas Day 2010, a bomb exploded inside a packed Catholic church in the “Muslim-dominated” island of Jolo, injuring six worshippers including the priest. The bomb was planted by the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which according to the
Daily Mail
“has been blamed for several bomb attacks on the Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo since the early 2000s and for kidnapping priests and nuns. ”
40
While many more examples of church attacks on Christian holidays could be given, the four examples above demonstrate an important point. Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Philippines have very little in common. These countries do not share the same language, race, or culture. What, then, do they have in common that explains this similar pattern of church attacks during Christian holy days? The answer is Islam. All four countries have large Muslim populations.
If Islamic jihadis target churches during Christian holidays, Islamic governments exploit the law to oppress Christian worship during those same holidays. For example, in December 2011 in Iran, several reports appeared indicating “a sharp increase of activities against Christians prior to Christmas by the State Security centers of the Islamic Republic.” Local churches were “ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year’s celebrations as a show of their compliance and support” for “the two-month-long mourning activities of the Shia’ Moslems” (activities which culminate with a bloody exhibition of self-mutilation and flagellation during Ashura). Two days before Christmas 2011, state security raided an Assemblies of God’s church. Most of those present, including Sunday school children, were arrested and interrogated. Hundreds of Christian books were seized. As one reporter put it, “Raids and detentions during the Christmas season are not uncommon in Iran, a Shi’a-majority country that is seen as one of the worst persecutors of religious minorities.”
41
Indeed, such oppression of Christians during Christmas is not uncommon throughout much of the Islamic world. In Iraq, some Muslim school teachers in Mosul’s elementary and high schools scheduled exams on December 25, 2012, forcing Christian students to attend school on Christmas Day and miss Christmas Mass, “even though authorities had identified the 25th of December as an official holiday for Christians.”
42
In December 2011 in supposedly moderate Malaysia, priests and church youth leaders were required to obtain “caroling permits” by submitting their full names and identity card numbers at police stations—always a harrowing experience—simply to visit their fellow church members and sing carols like “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night.” In Pakistan in 2011, Christians lamented that “extreme power outages have become routine during Christmas and Easter seasons.”
43
In Indonesia, December 2011, after “vandals” decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto days before Christmas, the “embattled” church of GKI Bogor, another Christian church that local Muslims want eliminated, was forced to move its Christmas prayers to a member’s house after Islamic groups warned Christians not to meet at the site of the church.
44
Most Muslim attacks on churches today can be classified into three general categories, which sometimes intersect:
1.
Churches harassed by Muslim governments
, often by denying them the necessary permits to exist and function as churches—the sort of permits that are routinely issued to build mosques. This “red-tape” jihad works to uphold Omar’s conditions for churches, specifically that new churches may not be built and old churches may not be renovated. Even churches that have existed for decades are sometimes shut down through the refusal to renew their permits, while others are fined and penalized for merely repairing their toilets without permission.
45
2.
Churches attacked by the Muslim mob
. These account for the majority of church attacks. Muslim mobs attack churches for many and varied reasons, including the perception that churches somehow transgress
The Conditions of Omar
—by, for instance, installing offensive bells or crosses—and “retaliation” for the perceived crimes of individual Christians. Such attacks are often prompted by local Muslim preachers who regularly whip their followers into anti-Christian frenzies. Muslim mobs also use the permit pretext to attack churches and harass their congregations.
3.
Churches attacked by Muslim jihadis
, whose hyper-Islam simply cannot abide the presence of Christianity and its houses of worship, and who actively seek to express their deep-seated hatred—as typified, for instance, in the above Christian holiday terrorist attacks. Because of their premeditated nature, these attacks are usually more deadly than Muslim mob attacks, which are often impromptu.
THE LEGAL JIHAD ON CHRISTIAN CHURCHES BY MUSLIM GOVERNMENTS
 
Because Islamic law is clear about the status of churches—new ones are not to be built and old ones are not to be repaired—Muslim governments, do, in fact, make it next to impossible for Christian churches to be built or repaired, usually by denying them permits on any number of pretexts. This phenomenon is especially prominent in Iran and Central Asia, where Evangelical Protestantism has taken root and is seen as a threat to the Islamic order.
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