Friday, January 30, 2015

Al Jazeera English Bans Words Like Terrorist

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Creeping Sharia




The appropriately named Carlos van Meek, editor of Al Jazeera English, has sent out a memo cautioning his writers not to use words like "terrorist", "extremist", "militant", or "jihad" when writing about militant, extremist terrorists when they are on their mission of jihad.

https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/al-jazeera-english-bans-employees-from-using-terms-jihad-islamist-radical/

 "One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter."



ISIS Freedom fighters 


Boko Haram freedom fighters with captive soldiers



Boston freedom fighters


Freedom fighter air force

At any rate, I commend Mr van Meek for sending out the memo in English so all of Al Jazeera's Western writers will adhere to the new policy.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

A Special Kind Of Hate

The latest from Pat Condell



Click here if the video fails to load.

It is only been 70 years since the Holocaust and now Europeans and liberal professors and students have gone to the streets screaming:  "Jews to the Gas!"

Major Keynote Address Was Given At The First Annual Conference of Christians For Liberty

David J. Theroux, Founder and President of the The Independent Institute gave the keynote speech at the Conference of Christians for Liberty last August 2, 2014 at St. Edwards University in San Antonio, TX.  It was an interesting talk on the works of C. S. Lewis (a noted Christian scholar of the 20th Century) and his views on liberty, natural law and statism.

Here is the video of the talk to pique your interest.


Click here if the video fails to load.


Sunday, January 25, 2015

Mark LeVine: Blame Capitalism and the West

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Mark LeVine


"Decades of the combined onslaught of extreme capitalism and extreme religion have shaped a necropolitics of the oppressed that is the mirror image of the necropolitics of local and western governments, and the oppression and violence they've imposed."


UC Irvine professor and Al Jazeera contributor Mark LeVine has put together his usual blame the West gibberish on Al Jazeera. In this piece, the attacks in Paris are all attributable to colonization, capitalism and the West.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-islam-cartoon-terr-20151106726681265.html

That's right. If you want to blame someone, blame France. Blame the US. Blame the West. Blame capitalism and colonialism. LeVine thinks he has found the Missing Connection when he brings out the fact that the Paris killers were of Algerian and Senegalese extraction-both ex-French colonies.

Of course! Why didn't we think of that before? Elementary my dear Watson.

Nonsense. Just how long does it take for a former colony to get its act together? The US was once a colony of England. It seems our Founding Fathers did a pretty good job of putting a functioning democracy together. No, it wasn't perfect because it didn't immediately abolish slavery, but it eventually did. In fact, it was the West that led the way in the 19th century in abolishing slavery.

But as to the question at hand, it is time that the blame be placed squarely on the backs of the murderers and the ideology that drives them to do it. After all, they tell us in their own words why they do what they do. Should we not take them at their word instead of engaging in self-flagellation?

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

UCLA's Call to Prayer

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Creeping Sharia


In the wake of the Duke University controversy over the Muslim call to prayer, Creeping Sharia has posted a video of a similar call to prayer at UCLA last Friday.


https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/ucla-broadcasting-muslim-call-to-prayer-declaring-allah-is-great-on-campus/


There is even more to this story. Over the past weekend the Western chapter of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) held their annual conference at UCLA. The following day of the above event, a similar public prayer was held at UCLA on the same location as part of this conference,  The person who filmed the Saturday (January 17) event was challenged by the MSA as to his right to film the prayer, which was taking place outdoors. You can see this confrontation in the video.



Just for the record, this was an outdoor display in public view on a public university campus. The right of the cameraman to videotape this is absolute.

There will be more to this story to follow. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Another Idiotic Article in the NY Times

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Jihad Watch



Jihad Watch has taken on an article written by David Kilpatrick in the New York Times to the effect that Islam is no more violent than any other religion. I don't need to add much to the discussion since JW pretty much covers it.


http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/01/new-york-times-islam-no-more-inherently-violent-than-other-religions

As JW points out, Kilpatrick opens his piece by killing any counter argument. He does this by stating that "The majority of the scholars and the faithful say that Islam is no more violent than other religions." OK. Case closed.




That reminds me of Al Gore's statement that "the debate is settled" on Global Warming (which is now called Climate Change to account for those cold spells that come around every winter).

It also reminds me of those ads that state that, "a recent study suggests that brushing your teeth every day with Colgate will prevent your teeth from falling out."

But there is more. Kilpatrick brings in a political science professor from UC Berkeley named M. Steven Fish. He did a study and wrote a book.

“Is Islam violent? I would say absolutely not,” Mr. Fish said in an interview. “There is very little empirical evidence that Islam is violent.”

I suggest Professor Fish pick up a newspaper or turn on the news. Kilpatrick might do the same. He should find one within easy reach.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Muslim Persecution Of Christians, November 2014



Both in the Islamic world and the Western world, Muslims continued to attack and slaughter Christians.
In Pakistan, "A mob accused of burning alive a Christian couple in an industrial kiln in Pakistan allegedly wrapped a pregnant mother in cotton so she would catch fire more easily, according to family members who witnessed the attack," reported NBC News:
Sajjad Maseeh, 27, and his wife Shama Bibi, 24, were set upon by at least 1,200 people after rumors circulated that they had burned verses from the Quran, family spokesman Javed Maseeh told NBC News via telephone late Thursday. Their legs were also broken so they couldn't run away.
"They picked them up by their arms and legs and held them over the brick furnace until their clothes caught fire," he said. "And then they threw them inside the furnace."
Bibi, a mother of four who was four months pregnant, was wearing an outfit that initially didn't burn, according to Javed Maseeh. The mob removed her from over the kiln and wrapped her up in cotton to make sure the garments would be set alight.
Shama Bibi (left) and Sajjad Maseeh, a Christian couple and parents of four children, were burned to death by a Muslim lynch mob in Pakistan because of a false blasphemy accusation.

Discussing this latest atrocity against Pakistan's Christian minorities, an AFP report states:
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in the majority Muslim country, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence.
Anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
A Christian woman [Asia Bibi] has been on death row since November 2010 after she was found guilty of making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed during an argument with a Muslim woman.
An elderly British man with severe mental illness, sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan in January, was shot by a prison guard last month.
Two days after the Christian couple were burned alive, a policeman in Pakistan hacked a man to death for allegedly making blasphemous remarks against Islam.
About the Christian couple, Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti, President of the Pakistan Christian Congress, wrote a letter to U.S. President Obama expressing surprise that the U.S. did not even bother to condemn this crime:
It is surprising that neither US Administration under your honor nor US State Department even bothered to condemn this horrific crime of burning live of Christian couple by a mob living in country named Islamic Republic of Pakistan which is receiving billions of aid of US taxpayers.
I would appeal your honor to put pressure on government of Pakistan to end misuse of blasphemy laws against Christian, Ahamadiyyia and other religious minorities and condition US Aid to Pakistan on human rights and repeal of blasphemy laws.
Meanwhile, in America itself, in Oklahoma, Jimmy Stepney, a Muslim, stabbed Jerome Bullock, a Christian, after Stepney had said that Muslims need to "step up" beheadings. According to Koco5 News:
The [police] report went on to say Stepney had been making comments about beheading people.
"We were watching the news," said Bullock. "He said he felt like more Muslims need to step up to the plate and do certain thing. He was talking about beheading people."
The severity of the plight of Christians in the Middle East was further underscored by Dr. Alexander Yakovenko, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, who wrote:
Russia is currently considering the possibility of initiating a draft decision of the UN Human Rights Council on the protection of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa. Russian experts are now working on this document.[…]
The scale of the problems demands the coordination of international efforts to protect Christians in the Middle East.
Further initiatives, new measures and relevant discussions aimed at finding durable solutions in this regard are strongly needed. Of course, we believe that Europe, including the UK, should make its contribution to these efforts, taking into account the Christian roots of the European civilization, which are now often forgotten for the sake of political correctness.[…]
The fate of the region's religious minorities is of the greatest concern. The mass exodus of Christians, who have been an integral part of the Middle Eastern mosaic for centuries, is particularly troubling.
The rest of November's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Bangladesh: Two Christian pastors from the Faith Bible Church of God were arrested for preaching the Gospel to Muslims. They could face two years in prison if convicted for "hurting religious sentiments" and luring Muslims to convert by offering them money. The pastors deny both charges. Police arrested the pastors and 41 other people, including Muslims, after a throng of Muslims disrupted a house meeting. According to a witness: "More than 100 Muslims headed by local Jamaat-e-Islami party members and Muslim clerics gathered at the house and started barking questions at the pastors—why did they propagate Christianity in the locality and convert some of them," and who gave them permission to preach to Muslims. "The pastors replied that it did not take any permission from any authority to propagate any religion and convert people to any religion. Suddenly the Muslims became apoplectic with rage, tried to pick a fight and started jabbing the pastors' faces."

Egypt: Father Timothy Shakar, priest of St. Mina Church in Port Said, confirmed that two homemade bombs were planted near the St. Mina Church but caused no injuries, or losses of life or property. Police searched other churches in the region for more bombs.

Germany: Nine men who had earlier broken into, vandalized, and robbed several Christian churches in the Cologne area—including by stealing money from the collection boxes and liturgical vessels—were caught during a massive raid. Apparently, all of the arrested are German by nationality, but Muslim by background and heritage. Some were also identified as "Salafis"—especially fundamentalist Muslims—connected to international terrorist organizations. Some had even raised hundreds of thousands of Euros from native Germans to support overseas "charities," the proceeds of which actually went to terrorist groups such as ISIS.

Iraq: As cries of "Allahu Akbar" emanated from surrounding mosques, Islamic State militants blew up yet another Christian church -- St. George's Church and its associated nunnery in the city of Mosul -- along with other non-Sunni sites. Separately, after breaking the cross from off the dome of the St. Ephrem Church dome (before and after pictures here) and selling its pews and other furnishings, the IS transformed the church into a mosque and council seat for the jihadis.

East Jerusalem: Despite constant and ever bolder attacks on a church, police refuse to respond to pleas for help from the Christian congregation. According to Morning Star News, "The attacks, driven by both intent to seize property and opposition to Christianity, have been mounted by young men with ties to Palestinian militants who for more than three months have been trying to force Living Bread Church from its rented building. Church pastor Karen Dunham and others have filed at least eight police reports about the assaults." The most recent incident took place on November 5, when the gas tank of a car owned by a church volunteer was filled with sugar. On November 2, a car owned by one of the pastor's relatives was stolen. And on October 16, three American Christians were injured while trying to repair a metal security door: A crowd of Palestinian men attacked them with box cutters, sticks, clubs and pepper spray. According to the church's attorney, authorities "have their [the assailants'] pictures, they have their names, they even have their national ID numbers, and still they do nothing.... The level of brute force compared to the level of lack of response of the police force there is pretty shocking.... It almost seems like if someone is going to go in and murder her [Dunham], that no one is going to lift a finger."

Malaysia: Approximately 70 local residents in Petaling Jaya protested the construction of a church. They claimed the growing number of Christian places of worship in the area is part of an attempt to evangelize and convert Muslims to Christianity. An NGO, the local branch of Pertubuhan Sahabat, supported the claims of the Muslims. They argued that there are three churches in the vicinity, although close to 70 percent of the residents in the area are Muslims. According to a spokesman, "Even before the church is built, flyers on Christianity have been distributed to our homes, and this could confuse our children and divert them from the path of Islam." The vacant plot was previously occupied by squatters, a car park and several food stalls. Another local Muslim added "None of our neighbours are Christians, we can vouch for that... it is an insult to Muslims to allow a church to be built here, but none of our representatives seem to have the time to listen to us." One demonstrator hurled large rocks at the temporary steel fence around the vacant plot.
Jihadi Slaughter of Christians
Kenya: Members of neighboring Somalia's Islamic group Al Shabaab—"the Youth"—hijacked a bus carrying 60 passengers in the town of Mandera, near Kenya's border with Somalia. They singled out and massacred 28 non-Muslims, the overwhelming majority of whom were Christian. According to an eyewitness, "When we got down, passengers were separated according to Somali and non-Somalis. The non-Somalis were ordered to read some verses of the holy Koran, and those who failed to read were ordered to lie down. One by one they were shot in the head at point blank range."

Nigeria: On November 10, a suicide bomb attack on a Christian secondary school as students gathered for morning assembly killed at least 47 people. The Islamic group Boko Haram— meaning: "Western education is forbidden"—is believed to be behind the blast. In a separate incident, Christians from the predominantly Christian city of Mubi in Adamawa state were tortured and killed after Boko Haram took control of the town. Churches and homes were torched throughout the city, which was renamed Madinat al-Islam, or "the City of Islam." In yet another separate incident, Boko Haram militants raided the mostly Christian town of Shani. According to a resident speaking to Reuters, "They rode on motorcycles and were more than 30 men. They started throwing bombs into houses... then the Boko Haram fired shots at people fleeing. They set ablaze the police station, houses and a telecom mast... I saw people fleeing, some bodies on the ground." Reuters continues: "The Sunni jihadist movement is fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in Nigeria's north."

Pakistani Persecution
A few days after the Christian couple, mentioned earlier, was burned alive, a 35-year-old Christian father of five known as "Mithu" was arrested on false charges by police and tortured to death in prison. According to the deceased's brother-in-law: "It was a fake allegation, because the raiding party failed to recover any contraband from Mithu's person and his house... On the morning of Nov. 22, we were informed by Ilyas Gill, a local councilor, that Mithu had died in police custody because of heart failure.... Young Christian men are made scapegoats to show police performance while the real culprits are carrying out their illegal activities right under the police's nose." Morning Star News adds: "Area police routinely round up young, impoverished Christians on false charges of drug peddling and bootlegging, and then force their families to pay heavy bribes in return for their release... family elders had seen signs of torture on the body..."
Christian families in a Punjabi village were forced to flee after a Christian man married a Muslim woman—an act forbidden by Islamic law. According to the Pakistani report, "The Muslims in this village became enraged when this occurred and began threatening them.... When the news of the marriage was learned, the Muslims in Sahiwal attacked Shahab's [the Christian husband's] family as well as other Christian families in the village. The Muslims demanded that Ruksana [the Muslim wife] be returned immediately, according to Sharia which prohibits Muslim women from marrying a man from another religion…. the entire Muslim community was threatening to kill Shahab's father and all of the village's Christians.... The Christians' pleas for help from the local police were all in vain."
And Qaiser Ayub, a 40-year-old professor of Christian background, was arrested and charged with insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad. The computer science professor had been a fugitive avoiding the police since 2011, when he was first accused of having written blasphemous comments on his blog.

Dhimmitude: Generic Contempt and Hostility
Denmark: In an apparent replication of the Islamic world's modus operandi, Muslim refugees in the European nation are persecuting Christian refugees. According to 10news.dk, "Christian asylum seekers are repeatedly exposed to everything from harassment to threats and physical abuse by other refugees in the asylum centers, simply because they have converted from Islam to Christianity." According to Niels Eriksen Nyman, who led the study, "There are certainly many more cases around the country than the ones we hear about in the church. I hate to say it, but I'm afraid that on some of the asylum centers there are some very unhealthy control mechanisms when the staff turns their back... I refuse to support Islamophobia, but we have a serious problem here." Two recent examples: "An eight year old Christian at the Center Sandholm was bullied and beaten by the larger Arab boys on their way to school. Now the boy nolonger [sic] dares to go to school. On the island Bornholm, somebody had tampered with a Christian asylum seeker's bike so that he crashed and broke both hands."

Egypt: The Islamic State called on its followers to take the jihad to Egypt. Abu Mus'ab al-Maqdisi, a leader in the Islamic State, said in a statement titled "Advice to Egypt's Mujahidin" that "It is necessary to take the battle to Cairo, until the Sinai is safeguarded from the apostates [reference to Egyptian government] and becomes a rear base [qaeda] from which to expand the jihad." He also called on the jihadis in Egypt to "target the Copts," the nation's indigenous, Christian minority: "For targeting them, following them, and killing them is one of the main ways to serve the cause of our virtuous male and female hostages of the tyrants."

Iraq: Christian homes in Tel Isqof were looted by Kurds who, after fighting the Islamic State, took control of the area on August 17. According to Agenzia Fides, "The city of Tel Isqof was occupied on August 7 by jihadist militias who already in June had conquered Mosul. Faced with the advancing of jihadists, the civilian population, mainly Christians, had fled to the autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan, leaving the city deserted. Ten days later [on August 17], with a counter-offensive the Kurdish Peshmerga had regained control of the city. But it is precisely since then that [Christian] residents periodically return to the city to check the status of their homes, and acknowledge that the doors of a growing number of homes and businesses have been forced and property looted: money and jewelry, technical equipment and electronic instruments." As in the Islamic State, most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.

Islamic State: IS issued a document breaking down the purchase prices of Christian and Yazidi women being sold as sex-slaves. Apparently these enslaved unfortunates are priced based on age— the youngest being the most expensive. The breakdown is as follows (with USD equivalency in brackets): 40-50 years old: 50,000 dinars [$43]; 30-40 years old: 75,000 dinars [$64]; 20-30 years old: 100,000 dinars [$86]; 10-20 years old: 150,000 dinars [$129]; 9 years old: 200,000 dinars [$172].

Spain: Real Madrid, a professional football (soccer) team, stripped the traditional Christian cross from its club crest as part of a deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. "It is believed the European champions' new crest, minus the Christian cross, was created so as not to offend Muslim sensibilities in the United Arab Emirates, where a marketing drive will take place," wrote the Telegraph. Club president Florentino Perez said, "This agreement will help the club to keep conquering the hearts of followers in the United Arab Emirates."

Syria: As of November, Raqqa, which once had approximately 1,500 Christian families, had only 23 Christian families remaining in it—the others were driven out or killed by the Islamic State. Those few remaining were unable to leave the city for lack of resources or for reasons of age and health. On November 16 they were told that they must pay $535, an exorbitant sum (human sex-slaves are being sold for as little as $43). "In all likelihood Christian families, impoverished by the war, will not be able to pay the tax and will have to leave their homes" or convert to Islam, as many elderly, debilitated Christians unable to flee have already done.

About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians is expanding. "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month.

It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.

It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Cartoons? Where is the Arab Media?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


I don't often agree with Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, but today he raised a great point on Brooke Baldwin's show on CNN. In saying that he would not have published the Mohammad cartoons before the Paris attack, he now says that the Western media should, indeed, publish them as a sign of solidarity with  the victims and with the idea of a free press.

More importantly, Bernstein asked, "What about the Arab media?" In other words, what are they doing? That's a great question. I can help, Carl.

First of all, let's assume that virtually all the Arab media outlets are controlled to one extent or another by their respective governments. Al Jazeera today is running the headline that France's Muslims fear an Islamophobic backlash. They, of course, add that they (Al Jazeera)  condemn the Paris attack and insist it has nothing to do with Islam. In another article, they state that the attack is a "windfall for the extreme right parties" (like Front National).

Duly noted.

We should also note how even mainstream Arab media treats the Jews with attacks that bring to mind Julius Streicher's Der Stuermer, cartoon caricatures and all.



This is just one of hundreds of examples. It is from Al Watan (Saudi Arabia, September 2010)

You talk about cartoons.

In addition, the Arab media still gives credence to the old Russian tsarist forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, even though it has been discredited for most of the 20th century and up to today. Somebody in the Middle East never got the memo. Palestinian media, both in the West Bank and Gaza, is full of anti-Jewish diatribes. Even Mickey Mouse wants to kill the Jews (hat tip Memri).


And today, the Investigative Project on Terrorism is running this piece about the Palestinian media celebrating the deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue last month.

So there is your answer, Carl. But you are an investigative journalist. Don't ask. Get out there and run this stuff down for yourself. Here is your start. In fact, I could be your next Deep Throat.

Strike that.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Je Suis Charlie


Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com






"I am Charlie"

Above is the logo for Charlie Hebdo, the French publication that was attacked today in Paris. At least 12 people are dead including the editor and two police officers.  I have just placed this logo on my Fousesquawk home page. I call on all like-minded blogs to do the same in honor of the victims of this barbaric attack.

Charlie's homepage has this logo in multiple languages aside from French. Choose your language. It does not matter. What matters is that we send a message that free speech did not die today in Paris.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Islam In The Workplace

The latest from Pat Condell


Click here if the video fails to load.

Why is the UK Muslim unemployment rate so high? Take a guess.

Muslims face the worst job discrimination of any minority group
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/...

Muslim worker refuses to sell ham and wine to customer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRpZ...

Woman died after Muslim nurse refused to help as he was praying
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/916...

Muslim staff escape NHS hygiene rule
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/75763...

Muslim worker refuses to sell “unclean” Bible book
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/3149...

Marks & Spencer apologises after saying Muslim staff may refuse to sell alcohol or pork
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/...

Muslim “teacher” who insists on wearing an absurd head bag makes a fool of herself on TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRpZ...

Hairdresser sued for refusing to hire Muslim woman in a headscarf
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

How I nearly lost my business for refusing to hire a Muslim woman who wouldn’t show her hair
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/art...

Monday, January 5, 2015

This Time Jonathan Gruber Puts it in Writing

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Daily Caller and Eagle Rising




MIT economic guru and Obamacare co-architect Jonathan Gruber is back, No, not on video, but this time in writing. Daily Caller has posted a policy brief by Gruber in October 2009 for the Center for Policy Research describing the Massachusetts health plan and comparing it to the idea about national health insurance-which he was working on at the time.  In this brief, he stated that when applied at the national level, it would be verrrry expensive. This is in stark contrast to what President Obama was telling everyone (that their premiums would go down).

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/30/obama-adviser-jonathan-gruber-in-2009-obamacare-will-not-be-affordable/

You don't think somebody lied to us, do you?



Saturday, January 3, 2015

CAIR Michigan Director Boasts on Twitter That He Is Quoted in Nation of Islam Paper

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Investigative Project on Terrorism


Dawud Walid-CAIR Michigan


Dawud Walid is the head of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Just recently, he went on Twitter to brag to his followers that he had been quoted in an article in the Final Call, which so happens to be the press organ of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. The article in question was one that proclaims that the real threat to America's security comes from right-wing white supremacists. Naturally, it quotes that boffo 2009 report from Janet Napolitano's DHS.

https://twitter.com/DawudWalid/status/550252160517423105

It is hardly surprising that Walid would subscribe to the notion outlined in the referenced article. He has said as much on numerous occasions when he is complaining about Islamophobia. I would have thought he was a bit smarter than to brag about being quoted by the Nation of Islam's press organ, however.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Muslim Persecution of Christians, October 2014


In just two months, from August to October, nearly 200 Christian churches were destroyed in Nigeria by the Islamic organization Boko Haram and its Muslim allies, after their capture of towns and villages in the north-eastern states of Borno and Adamawa. In the words of Reverend Gideon Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese in Borno State: "The group's seizure of territory in both states has seen 185 churches torched and over 190,000 people displaced by their insurgency."
Obasogie added that Boko Haram's "ransacking and torching" of churches was "sad, heart-aching and potentially dangerous to the territorial integrity and common good of Nigeria.... Our priests are displaced, while citizens... are counting their losses and regrets as they have been reduced to the status of Internally Displaced Persons [IDP]. Where is the freedom?... Life is really terribly difficult."
In 2011, hundreds of Christians were killed and 430 churches destroyed or damaged in Nigeria by Boko Haram. In 2012, 900 Christians were slaughtered and an unknown number of churches destroyed. In 2013, 612 Christians were slaughtered and approximately 300 churches destroyed.

This suggests that in the last four years alone, approximately 1,000 Christian churches have been destroyed by Boko Haram and its Muslim sympathizers in a nation that is approximately half Christian half Muslim.

Moreover, according to an October Human Rights Watch report, Boko Haram has so far been responsible for killing 2,053 people in 2014—a number that likely exceeds the previous four years put together.

A typical church attack in Nigeria that occurred in October was reported as follows: "Armed Muslim extremists stormed two churches in Taraba state on Sunday (Oct. 19) and killed 31 people as they worshiped... Two pastors, one pastor's son, and 28 other Christians were slain in the attacks." According to the Rev. Caleb Ahema, president of the Christian Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria, "The attack on Christians in Taraba state is a planned genocide against Christians by Islamic insurgents who have invaded the southern part of the state, inhabited mostly by Christians, since February."
The experiences of Adamu, a 28-year-old Christian man who refused to abjure Christianity for Islam, appeared in October. One day while working on his farm, a Boko Haram member came to him:
He told me to convert to Islam and join them in waging a jihad to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. I told him that I will not renounce my Christian faith in order to embrace Islam. He left me there on my farm without saying anything again. [Two days later, five other Boko Haram members showed up.] They said their member told them that I refused to renounce being a Christian and wanted to know whether it is true that I refused to become a Muslim. [Adamu repeated his decision again.] They then told me that since I refused to recant, they would kill me.... They pinned me down and told me they will make death painful and slow, as they are not prepared to waste their bullets on me. They also said they would not give me the honor of slaughtering me by cutting my neck from the front, because that is the way they slaughter their rams. They forced me down on my stomach and then proceeded to slaughter me by cutting my neck from the back. I was bleeding and went blank as the knife cut through my neck. It was pains I cannot explain to you. After cutting my neck, they left me bleeding…. It was only after I was taken to the hospital that I was told that the Boko Haram members who attacked me on the farm had gone to the village shortly after leaving me bleeding to death and had warned other Muslims that if any of them dares to rescue me, he would be killed. They sternly warned other Muslims in Musari, "We have butchered an infidel there on his farm. Be warned that if any of you Muslims dares to assist him, he is also an infidel and we shall make sure that he too is killed.'" [Days later, a fellow Christian snuck onto the farm and rescued the barely living man.]
Also in October, the Center for the Studies of Global Christianity in the United States concluded that
About 100,000 Christians die every year because of their religious beliefs, that is to say one every five minutes. In addition, in many countries, many other religious minorities suffer violence and persecution. In countries such as Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, Pakistan, Somalia and Egypt the Christian elderly, women, men and their children live in conditions of total insecurity. They are driven from their homes; put in prison for blasphemy, and brutally killed during liturgical celebrations, churches are burned. Girls are kidnapped and forced to marry.
The rest of October's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.

Muslim Attacks on Churches

Egypt: According to a terse report relayed from Arabic media, "homemade bomb exploded today [October 7] next to the Evangelical Church of God, in Sarie district in Minya [Upper Egypt]. The bomb caused great panic, but no casualties or deaths. Police were reported and the matter is still under investigation."

Germany: Just as happens regularly in Egypt, a Coptic Christian church in the European nation was attacked and torched. According to the report, "The mayor of Berlin condemned attacking and burning St. Athanasius and St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church in Berlin by extremists describing it as a crime against peaceful coexistence. On his part, Abba Demian, bishop of Germany, said that he didn't expect such attack against a church in Germany."

Iraq: Bombings by the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State hit and devastated the Church of the Resurrection near the town of Qaraqosh. The Christian place of worship was being used as a base for jihadis, who had broken off the cross from the building's roof before occupying it.

Philippines: A grenade attack on a church during worship service left two Christians—Felomina Ferolin, a 54-year-old nurse, and teacher Gina Cabilona, 39—dead, and three others injured, one critically. Two men on a motorbike fired a grenade launcher at the door of the United Church of Christ before fleeing the scene. The attack took place in the island of Mindanao, where Islamic groups have previously targeted Christians and churches. In a separate incident, an attempted bomb attack took place on October 11 in Mindanao. At that time, the improvised explosive device was defused at the scene by security forces with no reports of injuries. Another location, Zamboanga had been the location of a previous attack on a church by Islamic militants in February 2014. Members of two other militant Islamist groups in the Philippines recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Sudan: The nation's air force dropped four bombs on an Episcopal Church in complex in the Nuba Mountains. According to the Rev. Youhana Yaqoub "The bombs have completely destroyed our church compound in Tabolo. A family living at the church compound miraculously escaped the attack, although their whole house and property were destroyed."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom

Iran: In what was called a "serious blow," three Christian leaders were sentenced to six years in prison for their involvement in house churches. Pastor Benham Irani, Abdolreza Ali-Haghnejad, and Reza Rabbani, all leaders in the Church of Iran, were sentenced for "action against national security" and "creating a network to overthrow the system" -- generic terms the Islamic republic uses to suppress Christian activities. All three are being moved to remote prisons along the nation's borders. Jason Demars, president of Present Truth Ministries, an evangelical group that works in Iran, said, "Basically they want to silence them—they want to move them away to a place that is tough to get to, for their family to get to. With no one on hand to know what is going on, it's easier to mistreat them." Separately, three other converts to Christianity were arrested by intelligence officers in Foolad-Shahr, Esfahan province. Security forces also raided the home of arrested Christian actor Shahram Ghaedi. It is thought that Ghaedi and the two other believers, Heshmat Shafiei and Emad Haghi, were targeted by authorities because of their involvement in a "Jesus Film" project.
Pressure had previously been placed on the filmmakers by the security authorities, forcing some cast members to leave the country and disrupting the project.

Kazakhstan: Two Christian men, Vyacheslav Cherkasov and Zhasulan Alzhanov, were given ten-day prison terms for distributing Christian literature after authorities claimed that one of the books incites religious hatred. The book Jesus: More than a Prophet—a collection of testimonies of former Muslims—which was among 252 Christian books seized by the authorities -- was found by officials who conducted "expert analysis" to contain "elements inciting religious hatred and discord." A Christian source in Kazakhstan characterized the plight of Christians in the Muslim-majority nation as follows: "The situation in every Central Asian republic is different, but we see that persecution is increasing. The Kazakh authorities put tougher pressure on… churches. All countries have passed new regulations in administrative and criminal laws that toughen punishments for illegal religious activity. At the same time the authorities don't protect… churches from zealous local Muslims or just criminals. [Violence] happens not very often but we don't have any protection from the authorities."

Lebanon: A Syrian-born Muslim convert to Christianity who goes by the name "Tarek" is in hiding from his father and stepbrothers who are determined to slaughter him: "They are searching to cut my throat. I've been told they have hired someone to find me to get the mission accomplished.... Sometimes, I feel in danger. Especially when I go into the streets, when I come to Beirut. You never know if someone is looking for you. I'm living in a place where the majority are Muslims. So whenever I go to church on Sunday, they would know I'm Christian. So I don't say anything about my religion, and when I go to mass, I say I am going to English classes because I plan to travel."
Malaysia: Ibrahim Ali, the leader of the Muslim supremacist organization Perkasa, said during a press conference that: "Muslims must unite to protect their religion. They must seize those Bibles, including the Malay editions, which contained the term Allah and other Arabic religious terms, and burn them. This is the way to show our anger against disrespect to our sensitivity." A police investigation was launched to see if Ali was in breach of Section 298, which criminalizes saying words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings, or Section 505, which criminalizes making statements that could cause public mischief. The government concluded that Ibrahim Ali would not be charged with anything because "he only meant to defend the sanctity of Islam." But as the Christian Federation of Malaysia points out, by portraying calls to burn the Bible as acts "to defend the sanctity of Islam," the government just gave "free rein to other extremists to do likewise, not just to Christians but to any other religious community that is not Muslim."
Pakistan: A court upheld the death penalty for Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, who was accused of blasphemy, imprisoned, and sentenced to death in 2010. She is alleged to have made derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbors objected to her drinking water from their glass, because she was not Muslim and therefore "unclean." After Bibi's arrest in 2010, two top Pakistani politicians who sought to intervene on her behalf were gunned down, one by his own bodyguard.
 
Sudan: Ibrahim Ismaeil Ibrahim, a 34-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity and father of two, once worked as a human rights defender. Today he lives in a refugee camp after surviving an attempt on his life by Muslims trying to kill him for apostatizing from, and criticizing, Islam. Before leaving Islam, he worked as a writer and human rights defender in the Darfur region. As he chronicled human rights violations by Muslim militants, he became disillusioned with Islam and converted to Christianity: "I defected from Islam and started writing articles through my [pseudonymous] page on Facebook, in which I described Islam as a religion of terror and killing. Then some people discovered my identity and sent me messages of intimidation on my phone that they were looking for my head. Suddenly, I was attacked.... An unknown Islamic extremist broke into my house at midnight and opened fire on my room." Ibrahim and his family fled the nation. He later discovered that the government of Sudan was behind the Islamic assassins trying to kill him.

Uzbekistan: Artur Alpayev, a Christian man, was given a large fine—50 times the nation's minimum monthly wage—and threatened with further punishment after religious literature was seized from his home during a raid on a prayer meeting. Police also raided several other homes in the repressive country, in search of Christian materials. When sentencing Alpayev, Judge Oltinbek Mansurov said, "We will continue fining you unless you stop storing religious literature in your home." Police also raided the homes of two other Christian couples in search of religious literature; 65 Christian books and materials were seized, including children's Bibles.

Dhimmitude: Islamic Discrimination Against Christianity

Egypt: Lisa Nasim Basari, a 28-year-old Coptic Christian woman, made a video describing the advances of a Muslim man who has been pressuring her to convert to Islam and marry her. According to her account, Wa'il Hassan Abdul Mu'min began stalking her whenever she left home. He eventually asked her to convert to Islam and marry him —even offering her money—but she refused. In retaliation, he attacked and burned portions of the grocery store in which she worked; tore her clothes and sexually abused her. Lisa eventually went to local police to file a formal report against him, but, as she explained in the video, the police, far from interfering, actually incited the Muslim man—who appears to be affiliated with the police department—to keep harassing her. They also imprisoned her for a time and, as she said, "tortured" her into abandoning the complaint against the Muslim man. In the video, she pleas for help, begging some authority in Egypt to intervene and prompt Abdul Mu'min to leave her in peace. Another Coptic female was kidnapped. The 20-year-old Christian woman was on her way to St. George Church in Sohag governate in the early morning but never returned. The family later received a phone call from one "Muhammad" who said that if they wanted to see the girl again they must ransom her for 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($35,000). When her brother went to the authorities, the head captain told him, "So what, one Coptic girl missing? Look at how many millions of Muslims are dying in Palestine. Who would've thought so many millions of Muslims would die in Syria? And you're bothering us about one girl?"

Libya: The old Christian cemetery in Tripoli has been vandalized three times since the fall of the Qaddafi government in 2011. According to an eyewitness who took pictures, several crosses were destroyed or had their sides broken off: "Halfway to the ossuaries, bent steel rods that once strengthened a large concrete cross reminded me of the trouble the Islamists had to go through to destroy that symbol of Christianity… The statues of an angel clutching a cross that was pushed over and of a small boy that had its head chopped off were among other Christian relics that were damaged…. As the Islamists' grip on Libya tightens and Tripoli's Christian population dies out, it is only a matter of time before the Christian cemetery is bulldozed and erased from history.

Pakistan: In a nation where the mere accusation of offending Islam leads to incarceration and possibly death—see Asia Bibi's entry above—offending Christianity leads to nothing. A Muslim shopkeeper started selling shoes which depict the Christian cross on their sole. Christians demonstrated but police did nothing. According to the report, "In Pakistani culture, showing the sole of one's shoe or foot is offensive because placing anything on the ground is considered to be an insult to the object. Therefore, something on the sole of a shoe is going to be constantly insulted as the person walks. The designs are considered very offensive by some local Christians, who feel that they are intended to insult believers, to express hatred towards them, and to try to stir up tensions between Christians and their Muslim neighbors." This is not the first case of its kind. In 2011 a similar case was lodged against a Muslim shopkeeper in Lahore for selling shoes with crosses on the top, although the police did not investigate the incident further.
Syria: Father Hanna Jallouf, a Franciscan priest and around 20 other Christians—among them young boys and girls—were kidnapped by brigades linked to the Islamist Nusra Front from a village near the border with Turkey. Members of the Franciscan order had been present in the village for more than a century.

United Kingdom: An otherwise successful Christian school was warned that it would be downgraded by inspectors and might even face closure after failing to invite a leader from another religion, such as a Muslim imam, to lead assemblies. According to the Telegraph, "In the latest case inspectors are understood to have warned the head that the school, which was previously rated as "good" that it would be downgraded to "adequate" for failing to meet standards requiring it to "actively promote" harmony between different faiths because it had failed to bring in representatives from other religions. They warned that unless the school could demonstrate how it was going to meet the new requirements there would be a further full inspection which could ultimately lead to it being closed. A Government consultation paper published in June, explaining the new rules, makes clear that even taking children on trips to different places of worship would not be enough to be judged compliant."
About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians is expanding. "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month.

It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.

It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.