Showing posts with label persecution of Christians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label persecution of Christians. Show all posts
Sunday, January 02, 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Dozens of grieving Egyptian Christians attended Sunday Mass at the Saints Church in Alexandria guard where 21 worshippers were killed in an apparent suicide bombing.
Riot police in armoured vehicles were deployed outside the blood-spattered church as Egyptian newspapers warned that "civil war" could break out unless Christians and Muslims close ranks after a deadly attack on a Coptic church that triggered angry protests.
The authorities said that a suicide bomber blew himself up outside Al-Qiddissin church in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria early on New Year's Day, killing 21 people and wounding 79 others.
The service was marked by the grief and anger felt by a congregation devastated by the attack, which took place Saturday outside the church's door about 30 minutes into the New Year.
Many sobbed while others cried hysterically, screamed in anger or slapped themselves. "They died, they died," a woman kept saying.
Some lamented that attacks on Christians and churches often happen during usually happy occasions like Christmas and New Year. Others complained that the government was not doing enough to protect churches. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Sunday, January 02, 2011
Related >>>
LE TEMPS: Solitude et douleur des Coptes, après l’attentat : Les Coptes pleurent les 21 victimes de l’attentat de la nuit du Réveillon à Alexandrie, alors que les condamnations continuent d’affluer >>> AFP | Dimanche 02 Janvier 2011
Friday, December 31, 2010
LE MONDE: Au moins deux chrétiens ont péri et 16 personnes ont été blessées jeudi 30 décembre dans dix attentats commis en moins de deux heures contre des maisons appartenant à des chrétiens de Bagdad, a annoncé un responsable du ministère de l'intérieur. "Au total, 14 bombes avaient été posées près de maisons appartenant à des chrétiens. Dix engins ont explosé", a-t-il indiqué.
Ces attaques ont été perpétrées à partir de 19 h 30, heure locale, dans plusieurs quartiers de la capitale irakienne contre une communauté visée à de nombreuses reprises ces deux derniers mois. L'attaque la plus sanglante a eu lieu dans le quartier d'Al-Ghadir, dans le centre de Bagdad, où une bombe artisanale a explosé vers 20 heures, tuant deux chrétiens et faisant trois blessés. Les autres explosions, toutes dues à des engins artisanaux, n'ont fait aucun mort, mais blessé treize autres chrétiens. >>> LEMONDE.FR avec AFP | Jeudi 30 Décembre 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Churches empty and Christmas decorations are put away after al-Qaida renews deadly threat
Their cathedrals stand silent and their neighbourhoods are rapidly emptying. Now Iraq's Christians face two further unthinkable realities: that Christmas this year is all but cancelled, and that few among them will stay around to celebrate future holy days.
It has been the worst of years for the country's Christians, with thousands fleeing in the past month and more leaving the country during 2010 than at any time since the invasion nearly eight years ago. Christian leaders say there have been few more defining years in their 2,000-year history in central Arabia.
The latest exodus follows a massacre led by al-Qaida at a Chaldean Catholic church in central Baghdad on 31 October, which left about 60 people dead, almost 100 maimed and an already apprehensive community terrified. Since then, the terrorist group has targeted Christians in their homes, including family members of those who survived the attack.
…
What Saudi Arabia lacks in violent persecution it makes up for in outright intolerance. There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, which counts a million Catholics in its population. The country allows Christians to enter for work purposes but severely restricts the practise of their faith.
Christians worship in private homes and there are bans on religious articles including Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings and items bearing religious symbols. The religious police bar the practice of any religion other than Islam. Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy and carries a death sentence if the accused does not recant. Still, Christians in Saudi Arabia are positively blessed compared with those of Iraq. Read the whole article >>> Martin Chulov in Baghdad | Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Only one Baghdad church is celebrating Christmas fully this year, as Iraq's Christians fear a recurrence of the recent murders of their fellow parishioners and are forced to mark the occasion in the absence of over 1,000 families that have fled.
Five Islamist extremists burst into the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad in October, murdering two priests, holding the congregation hostage and eventually killing more than 50 people. Now Amnesty International has warned of a spike in violence in the run-up to Christmas and has urged the Iraqi government to do more to protect Christians, who are now believed to number less than 500,000, about half its level of seven years ago.
Only 40 people turned up for mass at Our Lady last Sunday. They sang and chanted, a forlorn gathering of survivors, the walls around them spattered with blood and cratered by bullet-holes. The bloodied hand prints of those who failed to escape marked the door in an ante-room.
In front of the altar stood photographs of the dead, including a light-haired smiling four year old boy, Adam Eashoue, and his 33 year old father, Uday. Adam's grandparents, Zuher and Amal, cannot bear to return to the church.
"I've lost my world," said Amal at her home, who watched as her son and grandson were murdered. "I don't want to leave Baghdad - I was born and married here. But I have to think of my children."
Her 16 year old daughter, Mirna, dressed in black, described how she played dead to avoid being killed. The house is full of painful reminders: Uday and his wife's empty room, Adam's toys, the baby cot for their 11-month-old granddaughter who is now in Italy with her mother and being treated for gunshot wounds. >>> Lindsey Hilsum in Baghdad | Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Survivors of today's attacks have been contacting foreign embassies, saying that they will be killed if they remain in Iraq
The martyr in their midst was known all around the area. But in case anyone had missed it, a mourning sign had been posted outside Saad Adwar's house in the Baghdad suburb of Kampsar, revealing exactly where he lived.
It said simply that Adwar had been killed "by the hand of a spiteful and hateful enemy while he prayed to his holy God in Our Lady of Salvation church" nine days ago.
This morning, the terrorists who had killed 44 of Baghdad's Christians at their place of worship, came hunting them once more – this time in their homes.
They struck 10 times just after 7am in six different places in Baghdad, almost all of them Christian houses.
Mortars damaged two homes in the south. Improvised bombs damaged four in the north of the city and four in the east. A total of four people were killed and 25 injured. Worse was the effect on the city's already traumatised Christian minority, which now seems more fearful than ever – and potentially poised for another mass exodus.
"We are shocked these days about our situation," said Raad Yacoub Khuanum as he repaired his kitchen, damaged by a bomb outside his house in the central suburb of al-Sana'a. "Now I am terrified."
The family car was a burned-out hulk, destroyed by a bomb that had been placed by men who briefly stepped from a passing car just after dawn. A distinctive Jerusalem cross had hung from the rear vision mirror. No other car in the neighbourhood was damaged.
"The church attack had a psychological effect on us," he said. "Now we know al-Qaida will kill us all." >>> Martin Chulov in Baghdad | Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Saturday, July 03, 2010
THE CANADIAN PRESS: BEKASI, Indonesia — A banner with a picture of a young, bespectacled Christian man is draped in front of a mosque, a fiery noose around his neck and the words, "This man deserves the death penalty!"
Churches are shut down. And an Islamic youth militia holds its first day of training.
Though the events all occurred less than nine miles (15 kilometres) from Indonesia's bustling capital, making headlines in local papers and dominating chats on social networking sites such as Facebook, they've sparked little public debate in the halls of power.
"I really see this as a threat to democracy," said Arbi Sanit, a political analyst, noting leaders never like to say anything that can be perceived as "un-Islamic," because they depend heavily on the support of Muslim parties in parliament.
"Being popular is more important to them than punishing those who are clearly breaking the law," Sanit said.
Indonesia, a secular nation with more Muslims than any other in the world, has a long history of religious tolerance, though a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, have been known to smash bars, attack transvestites and go after minority sects with bamboo clubs and stones.
Now, they are targeting Christians in the fast-growing industrial city of Bekasi. >>> Niniek Karmini (CP) | Saturday, July 03, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
THE NEW YORK SUN: The leaders of Coptic Christians, whose community is facing growing persecution in Egypt, say they have been unsuccessful in efforts to gain a hearing from the White House or other parts of the Obama administration.
Heightened persecution of Egypt’s 12 million Christians coupled with growing power and prestige of their Coptic Diaspora in America and Australia is leading to new political efforts here. Educated and skilled Egyptian Copts who migrated in large numbers in recent decades are talking to Congress, organizing lobbies, and making other efforts to be heard.
They say they are frustrated by the current administration in Washington, particularly after President Obama’s overture to the Muslim world via a speech at Cairo. In the speech Mr. Obama President apologized for America’s misdeeds to Muslims, stating that he came “to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” Coptic leaders say that even while reaching out to Muslims the administration has turned a deaf ear to the pleas Arab Christian minority in the very country where he delivered his apology to Muslims.
“The Obama administration’s benign neglect of Arab Christians, is putting freedoms and human rights in the whole Middle East at risk,” is the way it was put in an interview with the Sun by the president of the U.S. Copts Association, Michael Meunier, who is headquartered in Washington “Friendships with Muslims has been the Obama Administration’s opening theme from his first day in office and in that famed Cairo speech in which he extended a hand to all Muslims in partnership.”
Mr. Meunier added that that the president’s failure to speak as extensively about the persecution of Arab Christians was a departure from American policy and a grave error. “We have no problems with American friendships with Islam and Muslims, but it cannot be accomplished at the expense of our rights as Egyptian Christians and Arab Christians, and as the very lives of our people there are endangered,” Mr. Meunier told the Sun.
One area of complaint by the Copt community is a law banning the repair or construction of churches without a “presidential decree.” The measure, known as the Hamayuni Law, is based on an 1856 Ottoman decree but was rarely enforced in Egypt under the monarchial dynasty overthrown by army officers in 1952.
Indeed, until the coup that put Gamal Abdel Nasser in power in 1952, Christian communities in Egypt — including Catholics, Protestants, Armenians, Greeks and Italians in addition to the Copts — enjoyed a climate of moderate Islam as the country westernized itself. Because Christianity in Egypt is so ancient, preceding Islam by seven centuries, … >>> Yousseff Ibrahim, Special to the Sun | Saturday, May 22, 2010
Monday, April 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOG: It’s Easter and Christians have come out of hiding. In fact, they are very much in the limelight: the Archbishop of Canterbury was on Start the Week, Richard Harries is in The Times, Nicky Campbell presented a BBC documentary on the persecution of Christians in this country. In what is a startling departure, the claim by Christians that they are discriminated against, and often attacked, by virtue of their religion, has been investigated – and legitimised.
No one has been killed or tortured, Rowan Williams and Richard Harries remind us; no one could seriously claim that their lot compares with that of Christians in Iran or Nigeria. But finally even the clergy and the BBC acknowledge that Christians are a target of abuse from a relativist culture that thinks to distinguish between wicked and good is to be judgemental, and to believe in the One True Faith is to be smugly superior. Unless, that is, you are a Muslim and maybe a Jew. Read on and comment >>> Cristina Odone | Easter Monday, April 05, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: The Archbishop of Canterbury used his Easter sermon to launch an extraordinary pre-election attack on a 'sustained effort' to discriminate against Christians.
Dr Rowan Williams, who has faced criticism for his reluctance to defend traditional values, blamed ' wooden-headed bureaucratic silliness' for Christians being barred from wearing religious symbols at work.
He said there was now a 'strange mixture of contempt and fear' towards Christianity in Britain.
The Anglican leader's remarks came as senior churchmen mount a campaign to put Christian values at the heart of the election campaign.
Thirty-five religious leaders have unveiled a U.S.-style 'declaration of conscience' setting out policies that unite British churches, including opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia.
They also appear to back Conservative proposals to support marriage in the tax system, which David Cameron is expected to give further details of this week.
While colleagues have been increasingly vocal in their protests, Dr Williams has up to now said little about discrimination against Christians.
But yesterday he highlighted the case of nurse Shirley Chaplin, who took the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust to an employment tribunal claiming discrimination.
She refused to remove a necklace bearing a crucifix, saying it would undermine her faith. The trust claimed there were health and safety issues and a ruling is expected this week.
Addressing a congregation at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Williams referred to 'yet another legal wrangle over the right to wear a cross in public while engaged in professional duties'.
He said: '[This is] one more small but significant mark of what many Christians feel is a sustained effort to discriminate against them and render their faith invisible and impotent in the public sphere.
'One more mark of the curious contemporary belief that Christians are both too unimportant for their convictions to be worth bothering with and too dangerous for them to be allowed to manifest those convictions. >>> James Chapman | Easter Monday, April 05, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Christians in Britain are being persecuted and "treated with disrespect", senior bishops have said.
Six prominent bishops and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, describe the "discrimination" against churchgoers as "unacceptable in a civilised society".
In a thinly-veiled attack on Labour, they claim that traditional beliefs on issues such as marriage are no longer being upheld and call on the major parties to address the issue in the run-up to the general election.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, the bishops express their deep disquiet at the double standards of public sector employers, claiming that Christians are punished while followers of other faiths are treated far more sensitively.
Their intervention follows a series of cases in which Christians have been dismissed after seeking to express their faith. They highlight the plight of Shirley Chaplin, a nurse who was banned from working on hospital wards for wearing a cross around her neck. This week she will begin a legal battle against the decision.
Christians are also increasingly concerned that the Government is ignoring their views on issues such as sex education and homosexuality when introducing new legislation.
A group of 640 head teachers, school governors and faith leaders have signed a separate letter to this newspaper warning that compulsory sex education in primary schools will erode moral standards and encourage sexual experimentation.
They call for the dropping of legislation that will see children as young as seven taught about sex and relationships.
In their letter, the bishops urge the Government to stop the persecution of Christians. >>> Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs correspondent | Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
*Be advised that many of these images are disturbing, and will not be appropriate for minors. Viewer discretion is therefore advised.
Friday, July 10, 2009
PERSECUTED CHURCH WEBLOG: Two Iranian Christian women, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30), continue to be held in Evin prison in Iran because of their Christian faith, unfairly labelled as ‘anti-government activists’, because of the hostility of the government towards practising Christians.
In the aftermath of the political turmoil in Iran, they are now in danger of being forgotten. One church leader from Iran said, “With so many hundreds of protestors now in the prison system, Maryam and Marzieh are likely to be forgotten.”
Arrested on March 5 , 2009, the two young women have now been in prison for four months. After being in solitary confinement for three weeks in May and early June, they were then put one small cell together for about two weeks. Then, following the arrests of thousands of protestors after the disputed presidential elections, Marzieh and Maryam were moved to a larger cell to make room for new prisoners. About 600 women were brought Evin prison during the days of the protests. There is still no clarity regarding their case. In one court session in June a judge told them that he would make sure they were both executed as ‘apostates’. Maryam and Marzieh have responded with courage, however, telling the judge to “expedite his sentence.” >>> Glenn Penner | Thursday, July 09, 2009
Hat tip: JihadWatch >>>
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
CHRISTIAN TODAY: Reclusive North Korea has yet again topped Open Doors’ list of the worst persecutors of Christians in the world.
North Korea ranked number one on the persecution watchdog’s 2008 World Watch List, the seventh year in a row that the communist country has come out on top.
Open Doors and other Christian rights groups say North Korea denies its citizens the right to freedom of worship and report imprisonment and torture of people caught practising the Christian faith.
"It is certainly not a shock that North Korea is No 1 on the list of countries where Christians face the worst persecution," says Carl Moeller, President and CEO of Open Doors USA.
"There is no other country in the world where Christians are persecuted in such a horrible and systematic manner.”
No 2 on the list was the Wahhabi kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while Iran came in at No 3. Both countries are ruled by a strict interpretation of Shariah law under which apostasy is punishable by death.
In the last five months, Compass News Direct reported that a daughter of a member of Saudi Arabia’s religious police was murdered after she wrote online about her faith in Christ, while a 28-year-old Christian man was allegedly arrested by Saudi authorities for telling of his conversion and criticising the kingdom’s judiciary on his website.
Open Doors said 2008 had been one of the toughest years for Christians in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 with a major crackdown on house churches and a large number of Christians arrested. >>> By Jenna Lyle | Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Monday, June 09, 2008
American Congress for Truth >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)