Hi Renna2
 
I am very glad you like how I have set up the site.  
 
I have heard of Safari, but know little about it.   I believe it is a browser, but I am only very familiar with Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, and Google Chrome.   Please fill me in on Safari – how easy is it to use, where do you download it from, etc.

Be sure to check out thread on rare fruit trees and plants, I am sure you will find it most interesting.   Also, check out the thread with the 18 part Bible study, and the scripture of the day thread.
 
Your Friend in Christ Iris89

Proof That Muslims Do Not Believe In Freedom Of Conscience
 
Read the facts for yourself and see the unpleasant truth.
 
Muslim Persecution of Christians: January, 2013by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
March 27, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3482/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january-2013
The 2013 year began with reports indicating that wherever Christians live side by side with large numbers of Muslims, they are under attack. One report said that "Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest." This is certainly true: whether in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, or Tanzania, attacks on Christians in those countries are as frequent as they are graphic.
As for the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, a new study by the Pew Forum finds that "just 0.6 percent of the world's 2.2 billion Christians now live in the Middle East and North Africa. Christians make up only 4% of the region's inhabitants, drastically down from 20% a century ago and marking the smallest regional Christian minority in the world. Fully 93% of the region is Muslim, and 1.6% is Jewish."
How Christianity became all but eradicated from the region where it was born is made clear by yet another report concerning Egypt's Christian Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian minority. Due to a "climate of fear and uncertainty," Christian families are leaving Egypt in large numbers. Along with regular church attacks, the situation has gotten to the point that, according to one Coptic priest, "Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair. Sometimes they hit them when they refuse." Another congregation leader said "With the new [Sharia-heavy] constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don't believe we can be treated on an equal basis."
Elsewhere, Christians are not allowed to flee. In eastern Syria, for example, 25,000 Christians, including Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Chaldeans and Armenians, were prevented from fleeing due to a number of roadblocks set up by armed Islamic militia groups, who deliberately target Christians for robbery and kidnapping for ransoming, often slaughtering their victims.
Categorized by theme, January's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: Reminiscent of the 2011 New Year's Eve church bombing in Alexandria, which left over 23 Christians dead, a car packed with explosives was discovered by a Coptic church celebrating Christmas [which is in January] and neutralized before detonating. A car with masked men was seen speeding away as patrols seized the explosives-packed car. Separately, hundreds of Muslims in the village of Fanous destroyed a social services building belonging to a Coptic Church while chanting Islamic slogans. Security forces arrived only after the building was completely destroyed. According to the report, the social services building "had all the necessary government permits; it had a reception hall on the first floor and a kindergarten on the second. But the Muslims insisted that it would become a church." Mosques in surrounding areas had earlier called on Muslims through their megaphones to go and help their Muslim brethren in Fanous, because Christians were "building a church." Hundreds of other Muslim protesters rioted outside yet another church in Upper Egypt, throwing stones at the building, on claims that a Christian man had sexually assaulted a 6-year-old Muslim girl. Four stores owned by Copts were also torched. Police are investigating the accusations.
Nigeria: A total of 30 Christians were slaughtered in two separate attacks carried out by armed men ahead of the New Year in the Muslim-majority north: on Sunday December 30, 15 people were killed when armed jihadis stormed a church and opened fire on worshippers. The night before, Muslim terrorists broke into selected homes and slaughtered 15 other Christians in their sleep. "The victims were selected because they were all Christians, some of whom had moved into the neighbourhood from other parts of the city hit by Boko Haram attacks," said a relief worker. Meanwhile, Nigerian president Jonathan revealed that Boko Haram has enablers even within his own government: "the saboteurs in government condoning terrorism by Boko Haram, you do not love this nation. Those of you who leak secrets to Boko Haram do not love this nation."
Pakistan: On Christmas day, "when Christian worshipers were coming out of different Churches after performing Christmas prayers, more than one hundred Muslim extremists equipped with automatic rifles, pistols and sticks attacked the Christian women, children and men," according to a report. Several were shot or beaten relentlessly. Much of this appears to have been exacerbated by a fatwa, or an Islamic edict, that came out right before Christmas, saying that, "Christmas cannot be celebrated by Muslims because it is against the concept of monotheism in Islam." Due to the subsequent chaos, Christians "were under siege from Christmas day and running out of food supplies and milk for children on fear of safety and security of life from further attacks of [the] Muslim mob…. The news of this attack on Christians on Christmas Day was intentionally blocked by media and administration of capital city Islamabad."
Russia: Security forces in a North Caucasus province on Sunday killed three Islamic militants suspected of planning attacks on church services during the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday, which comes in January. Security forces tried to stop a van in a Muslim-majority province but its occupants opened fire and were killed in the ensuing battle. Guns and ammunition were subsequently discovered in the van indicating that the men were planning attacks on churches during services marking Russian Orthodox Christmas. "Deadly exchanges of gunfire between police and suspected militants at road checkpoints are common in Russia's North Caucasus, a string of provinces hit by an Islamist insurgency rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya," adds the report.
Murders and Plots of Murder
Algeria: According to a local man who escaped an Islamic raid in the Sahara, the Islamic gunmen who seized hundreds of gas plant workers told staff they would not harm Muslims but would kill Western hostages whom they referred to as "Christians and infidels": "The terrorists told us at the very start that they would not hurt Muslims but were only interested in the Christians and infidels. 'We will kill them,' they said."
Egypt: Two bearded men, apparently Salafis —those Muslims who most try to pattern themselves after Islam's prophet—in what appears to have been a random act of violence, stabbed a Christian woman in Alexandria. The two men were riding a motorcycle when they intercepted Mary and stabbed her in her abdomen as she was crossing the street, causing a serious wound in her peritoneal membrane. The Coptic woman was transported to the hospital where she underwent surgery. Although Mary's family filed a complaint with the police, as usual, the head detective refused to go out and inspect the assault scene. An activist confirmed that this is not the first attack on Coptic women in Alexandria. Indeed there have been several such cases reported in January without any response from authorities.
Iraq: The nation's ever dwindling Christian minority continues to suffer untold atrocities. A Christian university medical student was killed by a car bomb a day after the body of a 54-year-old female Christian teacher was found with her throat cut. The slain Christian woman was discovered in the same area where attacks have been perpetrated in the past against members of the city's Christian minority, some abducted and murdered.
Turkey: An assassination plot against a Protestant pastor was thwarted when police arrested 14 suspects, two of whom had been part of his congregation for more than a year, pretending to be interested in Christianity; one went so far as to be baptized. "These people had infiltrated our church and collected information about me, my family and the church and were preparing an attack against us," said the pastor, a native Turk and convert to Christianity. "Two of them attended our church for over a year and they were like family." Also, an 85-year-old Christian Armenian woman was repeatedly stabbed to death in her apartment. A crucifix was carved onto her naked corpse. Another elderly Christian Armenian woman was punched in the head and, after collapsing to the floor, repeatedly kicked by a masked man. According to the report, "the attack marks the fifth in the past two months against elderly Armenian women (one has lost an eye)…. Opinion remains divided as to whether these are organised hate crimes targeting non-Muslims or just random theft." Yet according to Turkey's Human Rights Association, "The attacks were carried out with racist motives," that is, the victims were intentionally targeted for being Christian Armenians.
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
Egypt: A court sentenced an entire family—Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven children—to fifteen years in prison for converting to Christianity. Seven other people were sentenced to five years in prison, primarily for facilitating the formal conversion of the family. A born Christian, Nadia had earlier converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man; reconverting back to Christianity after the death of her husband, she attempted to reflect this change formally on her identity card and her children's, which created suspicions among security, who arrested the family, followed by the subsequent fifteen year prison sentence.
Iran: Saeed Abedini, an American-Iranian Christian pastor was arrested and, in a sham trial, sentenced "to eight years in prison for threatening the national security of Iran through his leadership in Christian house churches. He will serve the time in Iran's notorious Evin Prison, known as one of the most brutal." "This is a real travesty—a mockery of justice," said the American pastor's attorney. "From the very beginning, Iranian authorities have lied about all aspects of this case, even releasing rumors of his expected release. Iran has not only abused its own laws, it has trampled on the fundamentals of human rights." This would certainly not be the first time Tehran behaves in such a manner.
Malaysia: Threats to burn Bibles in the Malay language were the latest in a series of attacks on Christianity in a nation regularly touted in the Western press as an example of a "moderate" Muslim nation. A note, written in Malay, was sent to a Christian priest saying a Bible-burning festival would soon take place; it ended with a warning in English: "Let's teach 'em a lesson." This latest threat "has had the desired effect of adding to the despair of Malaysian Christians. A fortnight ago the Sultan of the State of Selangor forbade Christians from using the word 'Allah', defying practice and convention in the country. The Arabic term for God, in usage in religious and cultural contexts before the dawn of Islam, has been used in Bibles in the Malay language and litany for more than 400 years." Attacks on Christianity in the nation are often framed in fear that Christianity will spread if not kept in check.
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Egypt: A Muslim preacher, Hisham al-Ashri, appeared on primetime television saying that women not wearing the hijab, or veil, in public, are asking to get raped. He framed his discussion around Christians, who in Egypt are obviously most likely not to wear veils.
"I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can," said the Muslim preacher. He further said that, "In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered," a remark that clearly does not take Egypt's large Christian minority—whose own religious beliefs do not mandate veils or ban alcohol—into consideration.
Indonesia: After being threatened with closure, six Catholic schools in the nation which has the largest Muslim population in the world, finally agreed to hire Islamic teachers and offer Islamic lessons to Muslim students. While this seems equitable, in reality, Muslim schools habitually refuse to offer Christian lessons to Christian students in public schools, which teach Islam to all students. As one Indonesian commentator put it, "If the regulation is upheld, will Islamic schools, which are more exclusive than Catholic schools when it comes to accepting students of different faiths, also be required to provide Buddhist, Christian or Hindu lessons for their non-Muslim students?" Separately, the Indonesia Ulema Council's East Java chapter urged other regions in the province to issue similar decrees so that all schools, be they state-run or managed by Christian foundations, provide Islamic lessons for their Muslim students.
Pakistan: A powerful government official's aide running a prostitution ring abducted a 15-year-old Christian girl from her home, forcing her to convert to Islam and marry him. A tenant of the Christian family, the Muslim man was evicted after police exposed his prostitution ring. After he left, the girl disappeared; he called the girl's family, and according to the mother, "He also claimed that Asma [the girl] had converted to Islam and asked us not to look for her, as she won't be returning home. I could not believe my ears, because Asma is hardly 15 and Ghaji [the Muslim man] is thrice her age," she said. "I told him that I wanted to speak to Asma for the last time, so he handed over the phone to her. 'What have you done my child, my child?' I asked as Asma burst into tears. (She said), 'They are not going to let me return home, mother—do something.'" Police, as usual, refused to register a case, telling the devastated parents, "Do you know Ghaji works for Siraj Durrani [a governmental official]? I'd suggest that you forget your daughter and stop creating problems for your other children."
Tanzania: During a Friday mosque sermon, a cleric called on Muslims "not to cooperate with Christians because they were infidels. He insisted that Muslims should not take part in Christian festivals like Christmas, Easter and other celebrations, including baptism and confirmation." He also called on Muslims not to go to Christian funeral services, because infidel Christians are to be buried as dogs: "Let me tell you if you came from a Christian father or mother, but you got assimilated [converted to Islam], consider yourself you are lucky. But if one of your parents is deceased, you shouldn't burry [sic] him or her, but just put him/her in the grave as if you [were] doing it to a dead dog." The report further adds that, "Since the founding of the Saad bin Mwazi mosque in Makorora half a decade ago [where the above sermon took place], most residents of the area, including Christians and Muslims have been listening to hate sermons uttered in the mosque."
Uzbekistan: Police detained 80 church leaders in a raid on a ministry training gathering. In the process they insulted the Christians and confiscated their Bibles and Christian books, which were later destroyed by a court order. According to the report, "Four leaders were charged with offences under the country's harsh laws regarding religious practice, including violating the procedure for holding religious meetings, carrying out unauthorised religious activity and teaching religious beliefs without permission. They were each fined more than a year's salary in Uzbekistan and are appealing against the ruling. On 24 December, a court ordered that Bibles confiscated during the raid must be destroyed, despite the fact that the Committee on the Religious Affairs of Uzbekistan officially recognises the Bible as a legitimate text."
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, increasingly chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Your Friend in Christ Iris89
 
Francis David said it long ago, "Neither the sword of popes...nor the image of death will halt the march of truth. "Francis David, 1579, written on the wall of his prison cell." Read the book, "What Does The Bible Really Teach" and the Bible today, and go to www.jw.org!
 

This News Article Says It All – Muslims Do Not Believe In Freedom Of Religion
 
Muslim Persecution of Christians: February, 2013by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
April 18, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3490/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2013
Reports of Christian persecution by Muslims around the world during the month of February include (but are not limited to) the following accounts. They are listed by form of persecution, and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: Once again, soon after Friday prayers, a throng of Muslims in Fayoum province, destroyed a Coptic church. The reason cited this time was that the church is "an unlawful neighbor to the Muslims who live adjacent to it and must therefore be moved." According to AINA, "The mob climbed to the church dome and started demolishing it and setting it on fire. The dome collapsed into the burning church and caused great damage. Muslims used bricks from the dome and the holy cross and hurled it at the altar inside the church, causing part of it to be demolished; all the icons of saints were destroyed. Muslims tried to assault Father Domadios and threw stones at him, but he was saved by a Muslim family who brought him away from the village in their car." Local Christian families were reported as staying indoors for fear of being assaulted by the Muslims. And, once again, although state security was present throughout this entire proceeding, it did nothing to prevent it. None of the perpetrators was arrested. Two days later, hundreds of Copts demonstrated demanding a halt to the ongoing attacks on their churches. In response, the church was attacked again by Muslims hurling more Molotov cocktails and stones while shouting "We do not want the church." Some Muslims climbed atop the church again to completely destroy the remains of the wooden dome.
Indonesia: Four churches were firebombed with Molotov cocktails in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Two were attacked on a Sunday morning in South Sulawesi. Another two churches were also attacked a few days later. All the churches suffered various degrees of fire damage. According to Barnabas Fund, the same region was earlier "ravaged in a bloody anti-Christian campaign by Islamic extremists between 1997 and 2001. Hundreds of churches and thousands of homes were destroyed; according to some estimates 30,000 Christians were killed and about half a million driven out in what amounted to ethnic cleansing…. The beheading of three girls as they made their way [to] their Christian school in Central Sulawesi in 2005 was among the most egregious." Elsewhere, in the village of Mekargalih, some 50 members of the Islamic Defenders Front descended upon a Pentecostal church, scaling its gates, vandalizing the building, and assaulting the church's minister, including by strangling him with his own necktie. The reason cited for this particular assault was that the church was operating without a permit. Two days later, the only person arrested and currently serving a three month prison sentence, was the minister, for defiantly continuing to hold services without a valid permit. The church, which has been running for 26 years, has made repeated attempts, at significant financial cost, to obtain the required permit but has been obstructed by local authorities. This was the third violent attack against the church by the Islamic party in the last two years. According to the minister's wife, who has also been threatened and harassed, this latest attack has "traumatized" the 400-strong congregation; many Christians are now too afraid to attend services.
Libya: A Coptic Christian church located in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by armed Muslim militants. Initial reports indicate that at least one priest, Fr. Paul Isaac, was injured, as well as his assistant. This would be the second church to be attacked in two months. Earlier, on Sunday, December 30, an explosion rocked a Coptic Christian church near the western city of Misrata, where a group of U.S. backed rebels hold a major checkpoint. The explosion killed two people and wounded two others, all Egyptians.
Zanzibar: Arsonists set the Evangelical Church of Siloam aflame on the island 99% populated by Muslims. The church was under construction following a previous attack in January 2012. This attack follows a string of other attacks on church leaders and Christian property across the country. Two days earlier, a Catholic priest was shot dead on his way to church for Sunday worship. Two Muslim youth at the church entrance shot him in the head. A message signed by "Muslim Renewal" later appeared saying, "We thank our young men, trained in Somalia, for killing an infidel. Many more will die. We will burn homes and churches. We have not finished: at Easter, be prepared for disaster." A few days before the slaying of the Catholic priest an Assemblies of God pastor was beheaded by Muslims on the Tanzanian mainland. And on Christmas Day, gunmen shot and seriously wounded another Catholic priest as he was returning home from church.
Apostates, Evangelists, Murder and Slaughter
Cameroon: Two Muslim converts to Christianity were shot dead and two others wounded, in the Christian-majority African nation where Muslims make approximately 20% of the population. One of them was previously threatened by the Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram ("Western Education is a Sin") to return to Islam or "face Allah's wrath." The attack occurred when these four Muslim converts to Christianity were travelling together around Lake Chad. Their vehicle was stopped by armed men who got the four Christians out of the vehicle and opened fire on them. The slain Christians leave behind wives and several children.
Iran: Fox News reported that American pastor Saeed Abedini, who is jailed in the notoriously brutal Evin prison for his Christian faith, was "facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors demanding he renounce his beliefs." The 32-year-old married father of two, who left his home in Boise, Idaho, to help start an orphanage in his latest country, detailed "horrific pressures" and "death threats," in a letter to family members: "My eyes get blurry, my body does not have the strength to walk, and my steps become very weak and shaky… They are only waiting for one thing…for me to deny Christ. But they will never get this from me." Similarly, according to Mohabet News, since four Muslim converts to Christianity were arrested soon after Christmas, "they have been taken to the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz several times in a pitiful condition with their hands and feet chained, where their charges were officially announced as participating in house-church services, evangelizing and promoting Christianity, having contact with foreign Christian ministries, distributing propaganda against the regime and disturbing national security. These four Christian converts were arrested as they gathered for worship in a house church on February 8, 2012." The report goes on to explain the "obvious mental and physical torture" Iran's converts to Christianity are routinely subjected to in prison.
Kenya: One church leader was killed another wounded during an ambush by the Somali-based Islamic terrorist group, Al Shabaab ("The Youth"). Abdi Welli, a Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1990, becoming a minister, died at the scene. His colleague and former mentor, Pastor Ibrahim Makunyi , another convert to Christianity, survived after sustaining gunshot wounds. Abdi's last words were, "It's good to be in the hands of Al Shaddai," an ancient name for the Judeo-Christian God. He leaves behind a wife and three children. In response to these latest Muslim murders of Christians, Somalia's much oppressed underground church defiantly declared "The Somali Church is the Lord's and he will protect it from the evil one. No degree of Muslim persecution will destroy the Somali Church."
Libya: Christians from all walks of life were arrested, some tortured, on the accusation that they were trying to evangelize Muslims. On February 10, four foreign Christians were arrested in Benghazi, including one with American citizenship, on the claim that they were "missionaries." Three days later, two more Christians from Egypt were arrested. Three days after that, a seventh Christian, also from Egypt, was arrested. Then, on February 27, Benghazi forces raided another Coptic church,rounding up some 100 Coptic Christians and accusing them of being missionaries—simply because they had Bibles and other Christian "paraphernalia" such as icons of Jesus. Many of these Christians were detained and tortured, including by having their heads shaved and cross tattoos removed with acid. Under such torture, one Copt died.
Nigeria: In yet another barbarous attack in the Plateau State, Muslim herdsmen used machetes and guns to murder 10 members of the same Christian family; half of the victims were under the age of six, as confirmed by the military and government. According to one official, "Five little children including a two-month-old child were slaughtered." As happensall throughout the Islamic world, the area's Christians accused the military of involvement in violence on behalf of the Muslim tribesmen—some of the attackers were apparently dressed in military uniform—though a military spokesman denied it, saying, "Somehow, some hoodlums and criminals gained access to our old uniforms."
Pakistan: Younas Masih, a 55-year-old Christian, died shortly after being shot five times in an attack that involved his resistance to convert to Islam. According to sources, "Younas' Muslim colleagues had been pressuring him to convert to Islam. Repeated threats and blackmail attempts had been made against him but he had remained firm in his faith. On the day of the shooting, Younas' co-workers made another attempt to persuade him to convert. A heated discussion ensued, with insults and threats issued." This is not the first time a Christian is slaughtered in Pakistan for refusing to convert to Islam. Younas' son tried to register the attack on his father with the police, but, as usual, they refused to launch a criminal investigation. Also, after local Muslims accused a 19-year-old Christian of being in relationship with a Muslim girl (Islamic Sharia law bans Christian men from marrying Muslim women), he was "barbarically assassinated": three Muslim men broke into his home in the early hours while the family was asleep, and smote the teenager on the head with an axe while stabbing him with a dagger. When his father awoke from the screaming, the Muslim assassins fled the scene. And Roshan Masih, a 45-year-old Christian, was shot dead after an argument over religion in Lahore. According to Agenzia Fides, "it was an act of murder in cold blood: Roshan's defence of his Christian beliefs compared to Muslim beliefs, may have been considered 'blasphemous'… Days before the murder he had a heated argument over religion with a local Muslim, Sohail Akhtar. The latter waited for his opportunity, and, on 16 February, seeing Roshan sitting outside a shop run by Sadiq Masih, another Christian, Sohail Akhtar, armed with a rifle, shot him dead there and then."
United States: A Muslim man slaughtered two Coptic Christians in New Jersey. Although authorities believe that "the defendant was ruthless and calculating in the manner in which he carried out the killings and attempted to prevent identification of the victims by cutting off their heads and hands before burying their bodies," it is significant to note that Koran 8:12 records Allah saying, "I will cast terror into the hearts of infidels, so strike [them] upon the necks [behead them] and strike from them every fingertip." Moreover, as one report puts it, "Privately some wonder if it had something to do with the victims' [Christian] religion."
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Egypt: Fourteen-year-old Sarah Abdelmalek was recently abducted on her way to school. Unlike the many similar cases, Sarah's received much media attention in Egypt due to the loud protests from Copts. In February it was reported that "Sarah was smuggled across the borders to Libya [where Coptic Christians are being brutalized] with the help of the Interior Ministry." The new Coptic pope said the kidnapping and forced conversion of Sarah is a "disgrace for the whole of Egypt," adding "Can any family accept the kidnapping of their daughter and her forced conversion?" Yet in a statement, the Salafi Front made clear that under no circumstances would they ever hand Sarah back to her grieving family. More recently, another Christian minor girl, 13-year-old Agape Essam Girgis, went to school accompanied by a Muslim social worker and two teachers, one of whom was a Salafi, and never returned. After protests, she was "handed over to her family and the church priest where she stayed with his family for some time due to the terrible ordeal she experienced during her abduction." According to a Coptic bishop involved in the case, what happened to Agape—whose name is based on the biblical word for "brotherly love"—is "heart-breaking." She was drugged and awakened to find herself in a secluded place with an elderly woman and later Salafis who tried to convert her to Islam, forced her to wear the full hijab, and beat her. In the last few years, some 550 cases of abduction, entrapment, rape, and forced conversion of Christian women have been documented in Egypt. Their rate has only increased after the "Arab Spring" and the empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ironically, when President Morsi was in Germany in February, he was asked to address this issue, only to respond by saying the abduction of Christian girls was only a rumor. Meanwhile, in Safaga, an Egyptian town near the Red Sea, yet another new jihadi group in Egypt calling itself jihad al-kufr ["jihad on all that is non-Islamic"] sent "invitations" to local priests to convert to Islam or die.
Libya: Islamic rebels threatened Christian nuns into fleeing the nation. Among those Christian communities to leave are the convent of the Holy Family of Spoleto in Derna, the Franciscan Sisters of the Infant Jesus of Barce and the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Beida. The presence of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Spoleto in Libya dates back to 1921; under Colonel Gaddafi, all these Christian orders were left in peace. Until their departure, the mission of the religious and the Church in Libya was focused primarily on health care and care for the elderly.
Saudi Arabia: According to Fox News, "Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith. Saudi authorities further charged three Christian leaders with 'seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity.' The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians."
Sudan: Authorities cracked down on Christian activity with a renewed upsurge of arrests and closures of Christian-run schools. One Christian school is to be shut down for not offering Islamic courses—needless to say, Islamic schools never offer courses on any other religions—and because it was not separating male and female students. Another school was targeted on suspicions that it was evangelizing to Muslims. Additionally, three Christians of South Sudanese origin—since South Sudan ceded, the Islamic government of Khartoum has been avenging itself on Christians under its authority—were ordered last week to leave the country within 24 hours, following their detention. Another four members of a non-profit organization that produces Christian songs and films were arrested and interrogated and then released. A Christian source in Khartoum said that the "atmosphere in Sudan is alarming and frightening."
Syria: U.S.-supported "freedom fighters" abducted an Armenian priest on Sunday and an Orthodox clergyman. Both were working in Aleppo. Sources, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews that the city's Christian community is very concerned about the attack. "Extremist violence is getting worse day by day. Muslim militias are killing anyone suspected of ties with the regime, including women and children. People in the neighbourhoods are comparing these days to the Ottoman conquest five centuries ago." Islamic rebels also stormed the Christian neighbourhood of Jadida where the city's main Evangelical church was destroyed two month earlier. "These fighters live for killing and violence. They act without pity and make distinctions among people," sources said. "When they kill, they turn to God as if they were making a sacrifice." Similarly, an AFP report also tells of the aftermath of the Obama-supported freedom fighters jihad: "The Bibles lie untouched on the carved wooden stands but the chandeliers have been dumped upside down on the altar; the Christian village of Al-Yakubiye may have escaped the full ravages of Syria's civil war but it could not avoid the plundering of the fighters. Along the main road of this agricultural village in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, an old cemetery with stone crosses adjoins an Apostolic Orthodox Armenian church whose door lies open, buffeted by the winds. Those who swept through here seized anything of value, plundering even the chancel and the sacristy. Under a portrait of a benevolent Virgin Mary, a thief stole the chalice from the tabernacle."
Turkey: Parliament is considering reconverting the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque. Originally a church that was transformed into a mosque after the Ottoman-led jihad of 1453, Hagia Sophia was Christendom's grandest cathedral. It was turned into a museum in 1935, back when the Islamic world was largely Western-looking. "We want Santa Sofia to remain a museum," said Patriarch Bartholomew. The Orthodox prelate said that if the museum is converted to any religious use, it should become a Christian church, since it was built for that purpose.
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, increasingly chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
 
ate some�b Я��_�all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, increasingly chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Islam Is A Hypocrite, They Want Freedom Of Religion For Themselves, But Do Not Want To Give It To Others – READ THE PROOF:
 
Death to Churches Under Islam
A Study of the Coptic Churchby Raymond Ibrahim
The Inquisitr
April 25, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3492/churches-under-islam
 
Christians throughout the Islamic world are under attack. Unlike Muslim attacks on Christians, which are regularly confused with a myriad of social factors, the ongoing attacks on Christian churches in the Muslim world are perhaps the most visible expression of Christian persecution under Islam. In churches, Christians throughout the Islamic world are simply being Christians—peacefully and apolitically worshipping their God. And yet modern day Muslim governments try to prevent them, Muslim mobs attack them, and Muslim jihadis massacre them.
To understand the nature of this perennial hostility, one must first examine Muslim doctrines concerning Christian churches; then look at how these teachings have manifested themselves in reality over the course of centuries; and finally look at how modern day attacks on Christian churches mirror the attacks of history, often in identical patterns. The continuity is undeniable.
Because tracing and documenting the treatment of churches across the thousands of miles of formerly Christian lands conquered by Islam is well beyond the purview of this study, a paradigm is needed. Accordingly, an examination of the treatment of Christian churches in Egypt suffices as a model for understanding the fate churches under Islamic dominion. Indeed, as one of the oldest and largest Muslim nations, with one of the oldest and largest Christian populations, Egypt is the ultimate paragon for understanding all aspects of Christianity under Islam, both past and present. [For a complete survey of the fate of Christians and their churches throughout the entire Muslim world, both past and present, see author's new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians.]
Muslim Doctrine Concerning ChurchesSharia law is draconian if not hostile to Christian worship. Consider the words of some of Islam's most authoritative and classic jurists, the same ones revered today by Egypt's Salafis. According to Ibn Qayyim author of the multivolume Rules for the Dhimmis, it is "obligatory" to destroy or convert into a mosque "every church" both old and new that exists on lands that were taken by Muslims through force, for they "breed corruption." Even if Muslims are not sure whether one of "these things [churches] is old [pre-conquest] or new, it is better to err on the side of caution, treat it as new, and demolition it."
Likewise, Ibn Taymiyya confirms that "the ulema of the Muslims from all four schools of law—Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali, and others, including al-Thawri, al-Layth, all the way back to the companions and the followers—are all agreed that if the imam destroys every church in lands taken by force, such as Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Syria … this would not be deemed unjust of him," adding that, if Christians resist, "they forfeit their covenant, their lives, and their possessions." Elsewhere he writes, "Wherever Muslims live and have mosques, it is impermissible for any sign of infidelity to be present, churches or otherwise."
Echoing the words of the jurists that the church is "worse than bars and brothels" and "houses of torment and fire," in August 2009, Dar al-Ifta, an Al Azhar affiliate, issued a fatwa likening the building of a church to "a nightclub, a gambling casino, or building a barn for rearing pigs, cats or dogs." In July 2012, Dr. Yassir al-Burhami, a prominent figure in Egypt's Salafi movement, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslim taxi-drivers and bus-drivers from transporting Coptic Christian priests to their churches, which he depicted as "more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar."
Regardless, one need only examine the Conditions of Omar—an influential document Muslims attribute to 7th century Caliph Omar, purportedly ratified with a conquered Christian community—to appreciate the plight of the church under Islam. Among other things, conquered Christians had to agree:
Not to build a church in our city… and not to repair those that fall in ruins or are in Muslim quarters;…. Not to clang our cymbals except lightly and from the innermost recesses of our churches; Not to display a cross on them [churches], nor raise our voices during prayer or readings in our churches anywhere near Muslims; Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims;…. [i]f we change or contradict these conditions imposed upon ourselves . . . we forfeit our dhimma [covenant], and we become liable to the same treatment you inflict upon the people who resist and cause sedition.
HistoryWhen it comes to churches, Islamic history is a testimony to Islamic doctrine: under Muslim rule, from the 7th century to the present, tens of thousands of churches that were once spread across thousands of miles of formerly Christian lands, were attacked, plundered, ransacked, destroyed and/or converted into mosques. Such a large number is consistent with the fact that, at the time of the Muslim conquests, half of the world's entire Christian population lived in those lands invaded and subjugated by Islam.
According to one medieval Muslim historian, over the two-year-course of a particularly ruthless Christian persecution campaign, some 30,000 churches were burned or pillaged in Egypt and Syria alone. Major church attacks during Abbasid rule include when "the Muslims in Jerusalem made a rising [in 936] and burnt down the Church of the Resurrection [believed to be built atop the tomb of Christ] which they plundered, and destroyed all they could of it." Nearly a century later, Caliph Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996-1021) ordered that the already ravaged Church of the Resurrection be torn down "to its very foundations, apart from what could not be destroyed or pulled up, and they also destroyed the Golgotha and the Church of Saint Constantine and all that they contained, as well as all the sacred gravestones. They even tried to dig up the graves and wipe out all traces of their existence."
A Coptic ParadigmThe history, or plight, of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church is well preserved. The History of the Patriarchate of the Egyptian Church, for instance, a multivolume chronicle begun under Coptic Bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa in the 10thcentury, records innumerable massacres and persecutions over the centuries, from destroyed churches, to crucified Christians, to raped and murdered nuns.
However, to bypass the objection that Christian writers may have been biased against their persecutors, let us content ourselves with the famous history of Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (1364 – 1442), the most authoritative Muslim scholar of Egyptian history in the Middle Ages. His account appears especially objective when one considers that the pious Muslim Maqriz was no friend to the Christians. For example, after recounting centuries of persecution and church destruction at the hands of Muslims, Maqrizi concludes by sounding like a modern-day Salafi, blaming Christians for their own persecution: "For from the traces they left, will then be seen how shamefully they intrigued against Islamism and the followers of it, as any one may know who looks into the lowness of their origin, and the old hated of their ancestors towards our religion and the doings thereof."
In Maqrizi's account, things appear relatively quiet during the first century of Islam's occupation of Egypt (circa 641-741), no doubt due to the fact that Christians still numerically overwhelmed their Muslim conquerors. By 767, however, after decades of Coptic uprisings in face of abuses, "heavier hardships than ever fell upon the Christians, who were obliged to eat the[ir] dead; while their new churches in Egypt were destroyed. The church of Mary anent [alongside] that of Abu Senuda in Egypt was also pulled down, as well as that in the ward of Constantine, which the Christians entreated Suliman bin Ali, Emir of Egypt, to spare for fifty thousand dinars; but he would not." By 845, al-Mutawakal ordered Christian churches to be pulled down. In 912, "the great church in Alexandria, known as that of the Resurrection, was burnt down." In 939, "the Muslims made another rising in the city of Askalon, where they demolished the Greek Church of Mary, and plundered what was in it."
Then comes the era of the aforementioned Caliph Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who decimated the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. In the words of al-Maqrizi:
And in his [al-Hakim's] time, hardships such as one never saw befell the Christians…. He then laid his hands on all endowments of the churches and of the monasteries, which he confiscated to the public treasury, and wrote to that effect to all his provinces. He then burnt the wood of a great many crosses, and forbade the Christians to buy men or maid servants [which were often set free]; he pulled down the churches that were in the street Rashida, outside the city of Misr [Old Cairo]. He then laid in ruins the churches of al-Maqs outside Cairo, and made over their contents to the people, who plundered them of more goods than can be told. He threw down the convent of al-Qosseir, and gave it to the people to sack….He then set about demolishing all churches, and made over to the people, as prey and forfeit, all that was in them, and all that was settled on them. They were then all demolished, all their furniture and chattels were plundered, their endowments were forfeited to others, and mosques were built in their place. He allowed the call to prayer from the church of Senuda in Misr; and built a wall around the church of Mo'allaqa [the Hanging Church], in Qasr esh-Sema. Then many people [Muslims] sent up letters to request to be allowed to search the churches and monasteries in provinces of Egypt. But their request was hardly delivered [at headquarters], when a favourable answer was returned to the request; so they took the vessels and chattel of the churches and of the monasteries, and sold them in the market places of Egypt, together with what they found in those churches of gold and silver vessels, and things of the kind; and bartered their endowments. The emir also wrote to the intendants of the provinces to support the Muslims in their destruction of the churches and of monasteries. And the work of demolition in Egypt was so general in the year 1012, that according to statements on which one can rely, as to what was demolished at the end of the year 1014, both in Egypt and in Syria and the provinces thereof, of temples built by the Greeks—it amounted to more than 3,000 churches [the original Arabic says 30,000]. All the gold and silver vessels in them were plundered, their endowments were forfeited; and those endowments were splendid and bestowed on wonderful edifices.
Finally, after describing different forms of persecutions against Christians during Hakim's reign, Maqrizi, the Muslim historian, makes an interesting observation: "Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims." In another place, after recounting how "the greater number of the churches of the Sa'id [Upper Egypt] had been pulled down, and mosques built in their stead," the historian notes again the typical consequence: "more than four hundred and fifty Christians became Muslims in one day."
It bears repeating that the Muslim Maqrizi had no great love for Egypt's Christians, and made disparaging observations concerning them in his volumes—thereby making his account of persecution all the more trustworthy.
Because Hakim's persecution was so terrible and far-reaching, most modern Western historians acknowledge it, even as they portray it as an aberration of a madman, implying that Christians suffered only under his rule. Yet there is no dearth of Muslim leaders throughout the whole of Islamic history that did not at one time or another persecute Christians and their churches.
If Hakim is remembered as a terrible and insane tyrant, consider Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who in the West is depicted as a colorful and fun-loving prankster in the Arabian Nights. Though renowned for his secular pursuits—including riotous living, strong drink and harems of concubines, to the point that a modern day female Kuwaiti activist referred to him as a model to justify 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." Similarly, Saladin (Salah ad-Din)—another Muslim ruler who is habitually portrayed in the West as magnanimous and tolerant—commanded that all crucifixes on Coptic church domes be destroyed, and that "whoever saw that the outside of a church was white, to cover it with black dirt," as a sign of degradation.
Indeed, in 1354, well after the "mad caliph" Hakim was gone, churches were still under attack, including by Muslim mobs, who, according to Maqrizi, "demolished a church anent 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…"
Such was the state of affairs of churches under Islam, explaining how, over the course of nearly 14 centuries, former centers of Christianity like Egypt, were reduced to sporadic enclaves that came to resemble dilapidated strongholds of Christianity surrounded by a sea of Muslim hostility.
And such is the state of affairs of Christian churches throughout much of the Muslim world at this very moment as the past returns to the present.
The Modern EraThe sort of Muslim attacks on Christian churches described by the historian Maqrizi and conforming to the Conditions of Omar are reoccurring with increased frequency. Again, while the patterns described above are occurring all around the Muslim world—sometimes even in the West—modern day Egypt alone, with its significant Christian population, offers an abundance of recent examples.
After some 14 centuries of persecution and church attacks, Egypt's Copts ushered in the 2011 new year by having one of their largest churches attacked: during midnight mass in the early hours of January 1, 2011, the Two Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria, crowded with hundreds of Christian worshippers praying for the new year, was bombed, leaving at least 23 dead and approximately 100 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!" Islam's victory cry since the days of Muhammad. Eyewitnesses further attest that "security forces withdrew one hour before the church blast." One year earlier, "drive-by Muslims shot to death six Christians as they were leaving church after celebrating Christmas mass in 2010" in Nag Hammadi.
No Church Bells, Crosses, or RenovationsThe story of St. George Coptic Church in Edfu is especially instructive of the plight of churches in Egypt. Built nearly a century ago, during the Christian "Golden Age," St. George was so dilapidated that the local council and governor approved its renovation and signed off on the design. Soon local Muslims began complaining, making various demands, including that the church be devoid of crosses and bells—as stipulated by the Conditions of Omar—because they were "irritating Muslims and their children." Leaders later insisted that the very dome of the church be removed. Arguing that removal of the dome would likely collapse the church, the bishop refused. The foreboding cries of "Allahu Akbar!" began; Muslims threatened to raze the church and build a mosque in its place; Copts were "forbidden to leave their homes or buy food until they remove the dome of St. George's Church"; many starved for weeks.
Then, after Friday prayers on September 30, 2011, some 3,000 Muslims rampaged the church, torched it, and demolished the dome; flames from the wreckage burned nearby Christian homes, which were further ransacked by rioting Muslims. Security, which was present, just "stood there watching," according to Christian eyewitnesses. Edfu's Intelligence Unit chief was seen directing the mob destroying the church. Even the governor of Aswan appeared on State TV and "denied any church being torched," calling it a "guest home." He even justified the incident by arguing that the church contractor made the building three meters higher than he had permitted: "Copts made a mistake and had to be punished, and Muslims did nothing but set things right, end of story," he proclaimed on TV.
It was this incident which caused Egypt's Christians to protest in October 2011, leading to the Maspero Massacre, when the Egyptian military intentionally targeted and killed dozens of Christian protesters, including by running them over with armored vehicles—even as state media lied by portraying the Christians as the aggressors and the military as the victim, a narrative which the Western mainstream media gullibly disseminated.
In July 2011, a Muslim mob went on a violent spree, attacking, among others a 5-month pregnant Christian woman and other Christians who were "beaten with iron rods and pipes." According to Fr. Estephanos of the region, "The real reason behind this assault was the church bell, which has greatly angered the Muslims in the village. This is the first time such an incident has taken place in this village which is 60-75% Christian, and the reason is definitely the presence of the church bell." As seen in the Conditions of Omar, church bells are forbidden in Islam.
Similarly, in October 2011, in the Upper Egyptian village of Elmadmar which only has two churches to serve 15,000 Christians, Muslim mobs surrounded one of these two churches, St. Mary's Church, hurling bricks at it and trying to demolish it, while chanting "No to the church." Although it has had state security approval to operate, its license was still pending. According to the priest, "Muslims claim that we hold a mass every day at 4 PM, and we ring the church bell, which the church does not have, besides singing hymns, which they claim disturbs them."
Collective PunishmentMany attacks on Coptic churches occur in the context of "collective punishment," which also has echoes tracing back to the Conditions of Omar. After naming any number of other conditions—including not displaying crosses, not ringing bells, not singing loudly—the Conditions of Omar concludes by having Christians agree that "if we change or contradict these conditions imposed upon ourselves . . . we forfeit our dhimma [covenant], and we become liable to the same treatment you inflict upon the people who resist and cause sedition."
Accordingly, throughout Islamic history to the present moment, anytime any Christian anywhere has been accused of breaking Sharia's dhimmi laws, churches—at once the most obvious and vulnerable representation of Christianity—are first to be attacked in retribution by the Muslim mob, often in the context of collective punishment.
This has centuries of historical precedents. While discussing the status of churches in the Middle East after the Islamic invasions, Bat Ye'or writes "they were often burned or demolished in the course of reprisals against infidels found guilty of overstepping their rights." Collective punishment is even doctrinally approved: the Yemeni jurist al-Murtada wrote, "The agreement will be canceled if all or some of them break it." At the other end of the Arab world, the Moroccan jurist al-Maghili taught that "the fact that one individual (or one group) among them has broken the statute is enough to invalidate it for all of them."
Thus, for some 14 centuries churches have been treated as hostages to guarantee good (that is, submissive) Christian behavior. For example, in March 2011, a Muslim mob attacked the local Church of the Two Martyrs in Sool, south of Cairo, burning it down, even as a Muslim prayer leader called on Muslims to "kill all the Christians." Adding insult to injury, the attackers played "soccer" with the ancient relic-remains of the church's saints and martyrs. Afterwards, throngs of Muslims gathered around the scorched building where they spent some 20 hours pounding its walls down with sledgehammers to cries of "Allahu Akbar."
Even minor details like desecrating the relics of Coptic saints have immense continuity. Discussing the Muslim attack on the Church of Shubra, Maqriz writes: "after it had been demolished, the fingers of a [Christian] martyr which were kept in a casket…. Were then burnt in presence of the Sultan…"
Neither the military nor state security appeared—and this was happening near Cairo, Egypt's capital, not some inaccessible village. After demolishing it, a group of Muslims held prayers at the site and began making plans to build a mosque atop the destroyed church—a live example of history, almost identical to the examples recorded a millennium earlier by the Egyptian historian Maqrizi and others. Because of the attack, Copts in Sool fled to adjacent villages. Women who remained in the village were sexually assaulted.
Less violently, in January, 2012, before a bishop was going to celebrate Epiphany Mass in the Abu Makka church, several Muslims, mostly Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood members, entered the building, saying that the church had no permit and no Christian can pray in it. One Muslim was heard to remark that the building would be suitable for a Muslim mosque.
In May 2011, throngs of Muslims, estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo: twelve Christians were killed—some shot by snipers atop rooftops—232 injured; three churches were set aflame to cries of "Allahu Akbar," while Coptic homes were looted and torched. As usual, Egyptian leadership did little to stop this rampage, showing up nearly five hours after it began, providing ample time to terrorize the Copts. One priest said "I called everyone, but no one bothered to come. I mourn all those young people who died." The pretext for this particular attack was that a Christian girl had converted to Islam and the Coptic Church had supposedly responded by abducting and torturing her into renouncing Islam. Muslims found this argument persuasive, of course, because that is precisely what Islam requires Muslims to do to female apostates who convert to Christianity.
In February 2012, thousands of Muslims attacked a Coptic church, demanding the death of its pastor, who, along with "nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building." They did this because a Christian girl who, according to Islamic law, automatically became a Muslim when her father converted to Islam, fled her father and was rumored to be hiding in the church. Again, one is reminded that the Conditions of Omar stipulate that Christians shall not prevent any of their family members from converting to Islam—or in this case, aid a hapless Christian who, because of Sharia law, found herself Muslim one day.
No to Churches, PeriodIn June 2011, hundreds of Muslims surrounded another St. George Church, south of Minya, vowing to kill its priest—who was locked inside serving morning mass to several parishioners. The Muslims cried "We will kill the priest, we will kill him and no one will prevent us," adding that they would "cut him to pieces." As usual, police and security forces gave the terrorists ample time to terrorize—appearing a full five hours after the incident began; and when they escorted the priest out, it "looked as if he was the criminal, leaving his church in a police car." Several reasons were given for this attack, from claims that the priest had earlier tried to make renovations to the 100-year old church, to claims that the priest refused demands from local Muslims that the Christians in the region must pay jizya.
In May 2011, hundreds of Muslims, angered by the prospect of a government-closed church re-opening in their neighborhood, protested and rioted in front of the church, causing the provisional military authority to back away from its promise to reopen it. Before its scheduled reopening, the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam in Ain Shams, a poor section of northeastern Cairo, was surrounded by Muslims preventing anyone from getting in and trapping the priests who were inside. Fights ensued between Copts and Muslims, leading to the injury and arrest of the former. Muslims besieged the church and threatened to kill the head priest of the congregation, trapping those inside.
Other times, the mere rumor of a church being built or renovated prompts Muslim violence and chaos. On January 16, 2013, hundreds of Muslims in the village of Fanous destroyed a social services building belonging to a Coptic Church while chanting Islamic slogans. Security forces arrived only after the building was completely destroyed. "The social services building had all the necessary government permits; it had a reception hall on the first floor and a kindergarten on the second. But the Muslims insisted that it would become a church." Even so, surrounding mosques began called on Muslims through their megaphones to go and help their Muslim brethren in Fanous, because Christians were "building a church."
Earlier, in March 2012, some 1,500 Muslims—several armed with swords and knives and shouting Islamic slogans—terrorized the Notre Dame Language School in Upper Egypt, in response to calls from local mosques which falsely claimed that the private school was building a church: "Two nuns were besieged in the school's guesthouse for some eight hours by a murderous mob threatening to burn them alive"; one nun suffered a "major nervous breakdown requiring hospitalization… The entire property was ransacked and looted. The next day the Muslims returned and terrorized the children. Consequently, school attendance has dropped by at least one third."
In fact, attacks on convents in Egypt—often followed by mass rapes—have a long history. Maqrizi recounts several, including one at the hands of a caliph, Marwan II (r.744–50). During one of his raids ordered on churches and monasteries, Marwan "made captive a number of women from among the nuns of several convents. And he tried to seduce one of them." The account describes how the enslaved nun deceived him into killing him, by telling him she had a magic oil that make skin impenetrable: "She then took some oil and anointed herself with it; then stretched out her neck, which he smote with the sword, and made her head fly. He then understood that she preferred death to defilement."
Islamic SupremacismOther attacks are simple byproducts of the culture of Islamic supremacism, and the hate and contempt it engenders for Christians and their "houses of infidelity." On Friday, February 15, Muslims in the village of Sarsena attacked and set fire to the church of St. George and hurled stones at it. This latest assault was prompted by Salafi Muslims instigating the villagers to attack the church because it is "an unlawful neighbor to the Muslims who live adjacent to it and must therefore be moved." According to the report, "The mob climbed to the church dome and started demolishing it and setting it on fire. The dome collapsed into the burning church and caused great damage. Muslims used bricks from the dome and the holy cross and hurled it at the altar inside the church, causing part of it to be demolished; all the icons of saints were destroyed." Security was present throughout this entire attack but did nothing.
In October 2012, another group of Muslims, led by Mostafa Kamel, a prosecutor at the Alexandria Criminal Court, broke into the Church of St. Mary in Rashid near Alexandria and proceeded to destroy its altar, under claims that he bought the 9thcentury church, which, in fact, was earlier sold to the Copts by the Greeks due to the latter's dwindling numbers in Egypt. Two priests, Fr. Maximos and Fr. Luke, rushed to the police station for aid. Kamel and his two sons also came to the police station where they openly threatened to kill the two priests and their lawyer. Said Fr. Maximos: "We stayed at the police station for over six hours with the police begging prosecutor Kamel and his two sons not to demolish the church"; Fr. Luke said that the prosecutor had earlier lost all the cases he brought against the church, "So when this route failed, he tried taking the matter into his own hands."
In June 2012, because many visiting Christians came to attend service, Muslims surrounded St. Lyons Coptic Church during Divine Liturgy "demanding that the visiting Copts leave the church before the completion of prayers, and threatening to burn down the church if their demand was not met." The priest contacted police asking for aid only to be told to comply with Muslim demands, "and do not let buses with visitors to come to the church anymore." Christian worshippers exited halfway through Mass to jeers outside. As they drove away, Muslims hurled stones at the buses.
The same story repeated itself in October 2012, when a Muslim mob consisting mostly of Salafis surrounded the St. George Church in the Beni Suef Governorate. Armed with batons, they assaulted Christians as they exited the church after Sunday mass, leaving five hospitalized with broken limbs. The Salafi grievance was that Christians from neighboring villages—who have no churches to serve them—were traveling and attending St. George. The priest could not go out of church for hours after mass, even though he contacted police, who only came after a prominent Coptic lawyer complained to the Ministry of Interior concerning the lack of response from police, saying "I want the whole world to know that a priest and his congregation are presently held captives in their church, afraid of the Salafi Muslims surrounding the church."
This desire to make things complicated for Christians by not allowing them to enter churches out of their jurisdiction is echoed by Muslim prophet Muhammad's command to Muslims: "Do not initiate the Salam [peace greeting] to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley," which has always been interpreted to mean that Muslims should make things hard on dhimmis.
Outside EgyptAmazingly, even when Copts quit their homeland in hopes to practice their Christian faith in peace, Muslim persecution follows them. Most recently, in New Jersey, two Coptic Christian youth were found buried, decapitated and with their hands cut off. Police say they have not been able to unearth the motive of their murderer, a Muslim. Yet one cannot but remember the haunting words of the Koran: "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, so strike [them] upon the necks [decapitate them] and strike from them every fingertip." [Koran 8:12]
Coptic churches are under attack outside Egypt. In Libya, for example, where, thanks to U.S. support, "freedom fighters" took over the nation, on Sunday, December 30, 2012, an explosion rocked a Coptic Christian church near the western city of Misrata, where a group of U.S. backed rebels hold a major checkpoint, killing two. Two months later, on February 28, another Coptic Christian church located in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by armed Muslim militants, resulting in serious injuries for the priest and an assistant. This is to say nothing of the approximately 100 Coptic Christians who were arrested and tortured—including with acid and by having their heads shaven, concentration camp style—on the accusation that they were trying to "proselytize" to Libyans. One Christian man, Ezzat Atallah, died under torture.
The attacks on Christian churches have now even reached North America. In Canada in late October 2012, just as happens regularly in Egypt, a Molotov cocktail was hurled through the window of a newly opened Coptic church near Toronto. Unlike in Egypt, however, firefighters came quickly, even as "Police have no suspects or motive in the incident." Needless to say, for centuries, Copts have only been all too familiar with the suspects and motives. Thus as Egypt's Christians flee their indigenous homeland searching to worship in peace, the jihad of hate follows.
ConclusionWhile the above anecdotes, both past and present, have almost exclusively dealt with Egypt, the fact is that churches throughout the entire Islamic world have experienced, and continue to experience, a similar pattern of abuse at the hands of Muslims. The key to understanding why Egypt is especially paradigmatic has to do with numbers. How many Christians and Muslims there are in any given country—especially their ratio to one another—is the primary factor behind which countries see the most and least attacks on Christian churches. For example, Saudi Arabia, which is vehemently more anti-Christian than Egypt, also sees much less accounts of persecution of Christians. The reason for this conundrum is simple: Saudi Arabia has nipped the problem in the bud by banning Christianity altogether; there are no churches to bomb or burn. Similarly, the ravages of the historic jihad have seen the decimation of Christianity in Muslim lands not traditionally deemed "radical." For instance, the whole of north Africa—which, prior to the Islamic conquests, was Christian, giving the world giants like St. Augustine who played a major role in articulating Western Christianity—sees much less Christian persecution than Egypt, simply because there are virtually no Christians left to persecute (less than 1% of the entire population, from Morocco to Libya).
On the other hand, the very large numbers of Christians in Egypt—according to the baptismal records of the Coptic Orthodox Church, there are some 16 million Christian Copts in Egypt—prompt regular attacks on Christian churches. Thus, due to the large number of Christians in modern day Egypt, that nation offers a live glimpse of history—a live glimpse of the fate of Christians and their churches under centuries of Islam, and the true reason millions of Christians ended up converting to Islam: to evade oppression as Christians.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the forthcoming book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians. He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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