‘They Are Slaughtering Us Like Chickens’: Muslim Persecution of Christians Update

From Raymond Ibrahim at the Gatestone Institute:

About this Series: The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions. Accordingly, “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) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2) 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; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death those who “offend” Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales-from Morocco in the West, to India in the East-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. […]

December 2013

“The songs of praise to God are banned here.” — Police officers to Christians, Turkmenistan.

“Meanwhile, an increasing number of people are being incarcerated for crimes of opinion and defense of religious freedom.” — Asia News

As happens at Christmas every year throughout the Muslim world, Christians and their churches were especially targeted—from jihadi terror strikes killing worshippers, to measures by Muslim authorities restricting Christmas celebrations.

In Denmark, Christmas Eve witnessed Islamic demonstrations and cries of “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is greater,” meaning: than anything.).

In Iraq, according to the Associated Press [AP], “Militants targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday. In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said. Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21.”

In Iran, five Muslim converts to Christianity were arrested in a house-church during a Christmas celebration. Plainclothes Iranian security authorities raided a house where, according to Mohabat News, “a group of Christians had gathered to celebrate Christmas on Tuesday, December 24.” Before arresting the five apostates, authorities “insulted and searched those in attendance, and seized all Christian books, CDs, and laptops they found. They also took the Satellite TV receiver.”

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