by Raymond Ibrahim
- "This is an administration
which never seems to find a good enough excuse to help Christians, but
always finds an excuse to apologize for terrorists ... I hope that as it
gets attention that Secretary Kerry will reverse it. If he doesn't,
Congress has to investigate, and the person who made this decision ought
to be fired" — Newt Gingrich, former Speaker, U.S. House of
Representatives.
- "The U.S. insists that Muslims are the primary victims of Boko
Haram... The question remains -- why is the U.S. downplaying or denying
the attacks against Christians?" — Emmanuel Ogebe, Nigerian human rights
lawyer, Washington D.C.
- "Stop building churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true
religion. Otherwise we will make a horrible example of you." — Javed
David, head of Hope for the Light Ministries, quoting a biker.
- The Free Front of Algeria demands that all Christian churches
remaining in the North African nation must be closed and reopened as
mosques.
- A Muslim mob in Deder, Ethiopia attacked a Christian man and
forced him out of his home on pain of death in an effort to appropriate
his land and build a mosque on it -- despite recent court rulings
confirming the Christian man's property rights.
- Accounts of Muslim immigrants taunting and even assaulting Christians in Italy are increasing.
- "We are a poor nation. These people [Christian captives] have not
done anything wrong and won't harm anyone. We as Assyrians do not have
this amount of [ransom] money you are asking for" — Bishop Mar Mellis,
Syria.
During the height of one of the most brutal months of Muslim persecution of Christians, the U.S. State Department exposed its double standards against persecuted Christian minorities.
Sister Diana, an influential Iraqi Christian leader, who was
scheduled to visit the U.S. to advocate for persecuted Christians in the
Mideast, was denied a visa by the U.S. State Department even though she had visited the U.S. before, most recently in 2012.
She was to be one of a delegation of religious leaders from Iraq --
including Sunni, Shia and Yazidi, among others -- to visit Washington,
D.C., to describe the situation of their people. Every religious leader
from this delegation to Washington D.C. was granted a visa -- except for
the only Christian representative, Sister Diana.
After this refusal became public, many Americans protested, some
writing to their congressmen. Discussing the nun's visa denial, former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich said:
This is an administration which never seems to find a
good enough excuse to help Christians, but always finds an excuse to
apologize for terrorists ... I hope that as it gets attention that
Secretary Kerry will reverse it. If he doesn't, Congress has to
investigate, and the person who made this decision ought to be fired.
The State Department eventually granted Sister Diana a visa.
This is not the first time the U.S. State Department has not granted a
visa to a Christian leader coming from a Muslim region. Last year,
after the United States Institute for Peace brought together the
governors of Nigeria's mostly Muslim northern states for a conference in
the U.S., the State Department blocked the visa of the region's only
Christian governor, Jonah David Jang.
According to a Nigerian human rights lawyer based in Washington D.C.,
Emmanuel Ogebe, the Christian governor's "visa problems" were due to anti-Christian bias in the U.S. government:
The U.S. insists that Muslims are the primary victims of
Boko Haram. It also claims that Christians discriminate against Muslims
in Plateau, which is one of the few Christian majority states in the
north. After the [Christian governor] told them [U.S. authorities] that
they were ignoring the 12 Shariah states who institutionalized
persecution ... he suddenly developed visa problems.... The question
remains -- why is the U.S. downplaying or denying the attacks against
Christians?
The testimony of another nun, Sister Hatune Dogan, also made in May,
indicates why the State Department may not want to hear such
testimonials: they go against the paradigm that "Islam is peace."
According to Sister Hatune:
What is going on there [Islamic State territories], what I
was hearing, is the highest barbarism on earth in the history until
today... The mission of Baghdadi, of ISIS, is to convert the world
completely to the Islamic religion and bring them to Dar Al Salaam, as
they call it. And Islam is not peace, please. Whoever says ISIS has no
connection to Islam or something like this is, he's a liar. ISIS is
Islam; Islam is ISIS... We know that in Islam, there is no democracy.
Islam and democracy are opposite, like black and white. And I hope
America will understand. America today has the power that they can stop
this disaster on the earth, with other Western countries.
The rest of May's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around
the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts,
listed by theme.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Pakistan: Three separate incidents involved attacks on churches:
1) On May 28, in the city of Chakwal, south of Lahore, Muslim men destroyed a Protestant church
and beat six Christians, including the pastor. Some of those wounded
had to be hospitalized. A few days earlier, Pastor Suhail Masih and his
companions had been accused by local Muslims of carrying out
"proselytism and conversions of Muslims," according to a preliminary
report.
2) Javed David, head of Hope for the Light Ministries in Lahore, and his associates, have been receiving
death threats since February. The latest incident occurred in April,
but became public knowledge only in May. According to David:
I had been to church in Sheikhupura to attend a meeting
with colleagues. It was 8 o'clock in the evening when we left to return
to Lahore. We were about to reach the main road when a motorbike drove
up and blocked the way. Maybe they were following us. The two bikers
were wearing a helmet (sic). One of them came up to my window and
spoke to me. "We know what you are doing here," he said. "Stop building
churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true religion. Otherwise we
will make a horrible example of you."... [On another] occasion too, I
was going home when a motorcycle stopped in front of me. The driver
knocked on the window and threw in a piece of paper. I did not open it
before I got home. It said, "This is an Islamic nation. We cannot allow
church building. Either you convert to Islam or you leave this country!
Stop building churches or you'll pay the consequences!"
3) On May 29 in Faisalabad, around 2 a.m., a gang of Muslims on motorcycles attacked
a church near the Sadar police station. They opened fire on the church
and set its main gate on fire, damaging its windows. According to church
cleric Dilawar Masih, "Though no human loss was reported in this
incident, attackers gave a clear-cut message that Christians and their
places of worship are not safe and they may be attacked any time by the
terrorists."
Egypt: Two churches were attacked:
1) On May 16, a homemade explosive device planted
next to a Coptic Christian church was detonated around sunset. As the
St. George Church in Tamiya (Fayum governorate) was mostly empty at the
time, there were no casualties. However, the church's administrative
offices and second floor windows were shattered, creating chaos and
panic in the area. Church security cameras captured the two men on a
motorcycle, who stopped at the church. One of the men dismounted and
placed a bag containing the bomb next to the church, and they then sped
off.
2) On Sunday morning, May 31 in Senoras city, Fayum, masked men on motorcycles opened fire
on an Evangelical church. Security forces guarding the church briefly
exchanged fire with the masked men before they fled on their
motorcycles. No one was reported hurt.
Canada: On May 26, a 22-year-old man of Muslim background was charged with alleged hate crimes
committed against the St. Catherine of Siena Church and its neighboring
elementary school in Mississauga, Ontario. Iqbal Hessan faces five
counts of mischief, and over $5,000 in fines. On May 20, the Sacred
Heart of Jesus statue that stands in front of the church was covered in
black paint and the fingers of its outstretched arms were broken off.
Behind the church, graffiti with the words "There is no Jew God" was
scrawled across the brick wall along with a drawing of a face labelled
"Jewsus." That vandalism was the fourth time the church was targeted. On
April 9, surveillance cameras caught a young man breaking into the
church, ripping pages of the Sacramentary book on the altar, throwing
them at the tabernacle, and then stealing one of the church's
sound-system speakers. On May 17, a drawing of a hand gesturing with the
middle finger was found spray-painted on the front steps of the church.
And on May 25, graffiti was sprayed on the school walls.
The
St. Catherine of Siena Church and its neighboring elementary school in
Mississauga, Ontario were vandalized this year by Iqbal Hessan, a
22-year-old Muslim man.
|
Algeria: According
to Abdel Fattah Zarawi, the Muslim leader of the Salafi party, also
known as the Free Front of Algeria, any and all Christian churches
remaining in the North African nation must be closed and reopened as
mosques. Although the transformation of Christian churches into Muslim
mosques is nearly as old as Islam itself -- Algeria was
Christian-majority and even gave the world St. Augustine before Islam
invaded and conquered it in the seventh century -- the Salafi leader
tried to portray his proposal as a "grievance" against rising
anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, especially France. Launched on social
media and networks, the Salafi campaign against Algerian churches even
calls for the transformation of the nation's most important churches
into mosques -- including the Church of Notre Dame d'Afrique in Algiers,
the Church of St. Augustine in Annaba, and the Church of Santa Cruz in
Oran -- since "they have no relation whatsoever to the religion of
Algerian Muslims," in the words of the Free Front.
Saudi Arabia: Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and current prayer leader of Muhaisin Mosque in Riyadh, issued
a tweet from his personal Twitter account, saying, "My beloved nation:
It suffices me that you shelter me from hearing church bells ringing in
you." Due to his importance, the New York Times
once issued an entire spread about al-Kalbani. The "hopeful" theme is
how al-Kalbani managed to rise to the top in Saudi Arabia by becoming
the first black Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. No word in any
English language media, however, about his abhorrence for Christian
churches and their bells.
Turkey: A 900-year-old Christian church in Turkey is to be renovated
into a functioning mosque -- despite previous governmental assurances
that it would be renovated into a museum. Enez's Hagia Sophia, the name
of the ancient church, is located inside the city of Ainos, along the
border with Greece and stationed atop a hill, visible to all. Another
centuries-old church, Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, along the Black Sea, was
reopened in 2013 as a mosque, although it was a museum for many years.
Meanwhile, a majority of Turks await the re-transformation of the greatest Hagia Sophia (Constantinople's) into a mosque.
Yemen: A Catholic church was seriously damaged
during a Saudi bombing raid around mid-May. The church of the
Immaculate Conception in Aden had earlier been occupied by Houthi rebels
who had vandalized
its interior. The airstrike by Saudi bombers -- in support of the
Yemeni government in its struggle with the rebels -- did further damage
to the structure. Only one Catholic priest remains in Yemen. Two priests
fled the country to escape the violence, while another, who was out of
the country when the fighting began, has been unable to return. Twenty
members of the Missionaries of Charities have chosen to remain in the
war-torn country, tending to the sick and the poor.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom
Pakistan: On Sunday, May 24, a Christian man in the Sanda neighborhood of Lahore was
accused of blasphemy
when some Muslims saw him burning newspapers that reportedly contained
Arabic verses from the Koran. After the accusation, a Muslim mob caught
the Christian, severely beat him, and even attempted to set him on fire.
A few months earlier, another Muslim mob burned a Christian couple
alive inside a kiln after they, too, were accused of insulting Islam.
The Christian youth -- named Humayun Masih, said to be "mentally
unstable" -- was imprisoned and charged under section 295-B of
Pakistan's penal code, which prohibits the desecration of the Koran.
After the attack on the Christian youth, the Muslim mob, reportedly
thousands, rampaged through the neighborhood and set fire to Christian
homes and a church. Christians in the region were attacked, and most
fled the region; some of the mob was armed and gunshots were heard.
Egypt: On May 5, another Coptic Christian was convicted of
blaspheming against Islam: "ridiculing or insulting a heavenly religion"
in violation of Article 98 (f) of the Egyptian Penal Code. A judge in
Daqahliya sentenced Michael Munir Beshay to one year's imprisonment and a
fine of one thousand Egyptian pounds. As International Christian
Concern puts it:
"Despite steps taken by the Sisi-led government to bring about greater
tolerance and reforms, the conviction of Beshay is just another of many
recent incidents highlighting the continued persecution of the country's
Christian minority."[1] And Bishoy Armia Boulous -- formerly known as Mohammed Hegazy, an apostate from Islam to Christianity -- has remained imprisoned
now for approximately a year, well past the legal six-month
investigation period. All this time, he has been subject to physical and
verbal abuse, from both prison guards and fellow inmates, on account of
his "apostasy" from, and "blasphemy" against, Islam. He has been denied
a Bible and has not had eyeglasses since they were intentionally broken
some time ago. [2]
Iran: Ibrahim Firouzi, a Muslim convert to Christianity, was sentenced
to the maximum five years in prison for "action against national
security through collusion and gathering." After Firouzi converted to
Christianity, he was arrested on August 25, 2013 and convicted of
evangelizing, colluding with "anti-regime" foreign networks, launching a
Christian website, and working against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Although his prison term was supposed to end on January 13, 2015,
authorities continued to hold him illegally, and on March 8 they
sentenced him to serve another five years "in very difficult
conditions."
Dhimmitude
Syria: After failed negotiations, the Islamic State (IS) refused
to release 242 Christian hostages captured during a late February raid
along the Khabur River. On May 1, the IS demanded $242 million USD for
the release of 93 women, 51 children, and 98 men taken captive. The
Assyrian church, family and friends, unable to raise such a large sum,
made a lesser, undisclosed offer, which IS rejected, saying it would no
longer negotiate concerning the fate of the captive Christians. Based on
Islamic law, their fate will now likely be slavery (especially women
and children) or execution (especially men).[3]
Ethiopia: A Muslim mob in Deder attacked a Christian man and forced him out of his home on pain of death, in an effort to appropriate his land and build a mosque on it
-- despite recent court rulings confirming the Christian man's property
rights. "Their first plan was to kill my husband," said Fikere
Mengistu's wife. "Now, he has escaped from the area. We are fasting and
praying for God to rescue us from this forceful action." She remains
with her five children, elderly mother-in-law and 30 other Christians,
praying on the property. "We did our best try to defend our faith based
on the law of the country... Muslims are out of the control of the
government and the law. What can we do?" said Mengistu.[4]
Iraq: Juliana George, a 16-year-old Christian girl living in Baghdad, was abducted
from her home. According to her family, a person knocked on the door of
their home and when she answered, she was seized by four men who forced
her into a waiting taxi and sped away. Her grandfather, Joseph, a
priest, chased the taxi on foot and grabbed its door, but eventually
fell to the side as the vehicle sped away. She was eventually released
after her family paid a $55,000 ransom
to the abductors for her return. Juliana's father, George, said that
she has been traumatized by the experience: "I fear for her and my two
other daughters.... There is no reason to believe that we will not be
targeted again. I don't see how we can stay in Baghdad after this."
Turkey: On the same year that millions around the world
commemorated the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish
authorities started the demolition of Kamp Armen, an Armenian orphanage
in the metropolitan district of Tuzla, despite the attempts by some
political representatives to intervene. The orphanage was built in 1962
on the initiative of the Armenian Protestant community. A brief
historical recap of the orphanage follows:
Thanks to its activities, the institution has helped
1,500 children to grow up in an environment based on the spirituality
and culture of Armenian Christianity. There was also Hrant Dink among
its students, the Armenian Turkish journalist, founder of the bilingual
magazine Agos, killed in 2007 after being repeatedly threatened
with death for his positions on the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish State
had expropriated the orphanage in 1987, and all legal attempt (sic) by the Armenian Protestant communities to regain control of the building fell on deaf ears.
Italian Dhimmitude
Accounts of Muslim immigrants taunting and even assaulting Christians
in Italy are increasing. Earlier this year, a crucifix was violently destroyed in close proximity to a populated mosque, and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed and urinated on by a group of North Africans in Italy. In addition:
- A Muslim schoolboy of African origin beat a 12-year-old girl
at a school because she was wearing a crucifix around her neck. The boy,
who had only started to attend the school a few weeks earlier, began to
bully the Christian girl -- "insulting her and picking on her in other
ways all because she was wearing the crucifix" -- before he finally
assaulted her. Italian police did not charge the boy with any offense;
they said he was a minor.
- On Sunday, May 10, after church mass, a group of young Muslim immigrants from the Islamic Center interrupted
a Catholic procession in honor of the Virgin Mary. They shouted verbal
insults and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural
Center in Conselice,
a small town in lower Romagna. Approximately 100 Catholic Christians,
including several small children, were preparing to receive their first
Holy Communion. They were reportedly stunned and confused and halted the
procession before regrouping and hurrying past the Center.
Egyptian Dhimmitude
On Sunday, May 24, in the village of Kafr Darwish, just south of Cairo, a Muslim mob attacked
Coptic Christian homes by throwing stones and Molotov explosives at
them. More than 10 homes were torched and damaged. This attack was
apparently prompted by a familiar narrative: one of the Coptic
villagers, Ayman Youssef, was accused of posting cartoons offensive to
Muhammad on his Facebook account. Youssef is illiterate and says he lost
his mobile phone a few days before the alleged Facebook posting.
Village elders and security representatives held a "conciliation
session" and decreed that Youssef's entire family -- including the
80-year-old father and 75-year-old mother -- must leave the village if
angry Muslims were to calm down. The Christian family was told by the
village mayor Ahmed Maher that police "cannot guarantee their safety if
they remained in the village."
Dr. Khaled Montaser, an Egyptian intellectual and frequent critic of the Islamization of the country, discussed how discrimination
against Coptic Christians is widespread in certain medical professions.
He said during a televised program that, although the pioneer of
Obstetrics and Gynecology in Egypt was a Coptic Christian (Dr. Naguib
Mahfouz), his grandson is banned from entering these professions because
he is a Christian. Montaser confirmed that this policy, even if not a
formal law, has caused Christian students increasingly to continue their
studies abroad. He pointed out that this "policy" has become a norm --
one of many that discriminates against Copts.
In a 25-minute interview
on Arabic satellite TV with Dr. Mona Roman, Coptic Christian Bishop
Agathon fully exposed the plight of his Christian flock in Minya, Egypt
-- a region that has a large Coptic minority that is steadily under
attack. It was pointed out that the Egyptian state itself is often
behind the persecution of and discrimination against Christians.
According to the bishop, local governmental authorities -- including the
State Security apparatus -- do not just ignore the attacks on Copts,
but are often the very ones behind them.[5]
During a recent interview
on Egyptian television, Dr. Yunis Makioun, head of the Al-Nour Party,
the political wing of the Salafis, insisted that Islam commands Muslims
to "protect" the nation's Christian minority -- a reference to their
"dhimmi" status -- and treat them properly. Even so, said the Salafi
spokesman, Muslims, according to Islam, are forbidden to offer greetings
or congratulations to Copts on any Christian holiday.
Coptic Kidnappings
Since the "Arab Spring" came to Egypt, the kidnapping of Coptic
Christians has been on the rise. In Nag Hammadi alone, 77 persons have
been abducted, and two killed.
Makram Nazir , a 55-year-old Coptic Christian man was kidnapped
and killed. Nazir was returning home from his second job in the middle
of the night on April 26, when he was seized. His abductors called his
brother and demanded a million Egyptian pounds (equivalent of $131,000
USD). As it was an impossible amount to raise, the Coptic man's family
negotiated a significantly reduced price by phone with the abductors.
The brother went to the local police station, provided them with all the
information, including recordings of the phone calls, but, according to
Watan News, "no one made a single move or took the matter seriously."
After paying the ransom, three days passed before Nazir's family found
the Coptic man's corpse in a canal. Killing Christian hostages even
after being paid the ransom is not uncommon in Egypt. The same happened
to 6-year-old Cyril Joseph: on May 2013, it was reported
that his "family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds [about $4000
USD] to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his
body in the sewer system, where the body, swollen and moldy, was
exhumed."
Armed gunmen seized
an 8-year-old Coptic Christian child, Antonious Zaki Hani, who was
walking with his mother to school in Nag Hammadi. Four armed gunmen
appeared, forced the child from his mother on the threat of death, and
fled in a car. The kidnappers demanded two million Egyptian pounds
($262,000 USD) in ransom. Police eventually released the boy 17 days
after he was kidnapped, although some activists say police knew earlier
where the boy was being held.
On May 2, another Coptic Christian girl, Marina Magdi Fahim, 17, vanished
after leaving her home around midday in the Hanofil region of
Alexandria. Her family reported her disappearance to the authorities.
Human rights activists say the girl was not reported injured at any
hospital -- a sign that she was kidnapped. She has not been seen since.
A few days earlier, another 17-year old Coptic Christian was kidnapped
in the village of al-Kom al-Qibliyya in Samalout. An eyewitness said he
saw a Muslim neighbor named Ahmed Khalifa seize the girl. Although the
family planned to organize a protest, the village elders counseled
against it, lest it backfire by provoking more of the area's Muslims to
retaliate against the Christian minority of the region, as often happens
whenever Copts ask for their human rights.
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.
[1]
Beshay's case is only one of several concerning Christians accused of,
and punished for, insulting Islam. In April, Gad Yunan, a Coptic
Christian teacher, and some of his Coptic students, were arrested on the
charge of insulting Islam. Their crime was to have made a 30-second video
on Yunan's iPhone mocking the Islamic State -- which Egypt's Muslims
and authorities apparently equate with mocking Islam, even as Muslims in
the West insist ISIS has "nothing to do with Islam. Last year, Kerolos
Shouky Attallah, a young Coptic Christian man accused of blaspheming
Islam for simply "liking" an Arabic-language Facebook page administered
by an anonymous group of Christian converts, was sentenced to six years in prison.
The Copt did not make any comments on the site, share any of the
postings or upload anything to it, and removed his name from the page
once he realized that it might offend Muslims. In the hours preceding
the sentencing, a rioting mob burned down several Christian-owned shops. He remains in hiding.
[2]
According to lawyer Karam Ghobrial, the reason his client is being held
and tortured in prison has to do with what made Bishoy notorious some
years back in the first place: his audacity not only to convert to
Christianity, but to try formally to change his religious identity from
Muslim to Christian on his ID card -- prompting much public animosity
and death threats against him at the time.
[3] According to Bishop Mar Mellis:
We tried many times to negotiate with the people that captured them and for their release.
We offered them an amount of money in accordance with the law of jizya
but sadly after a week the negotiator between us returned and told us
that ISIS wanted $100,000 for each person. They were asking for over $23
million.
We are a poor nation. These people [Christian captives] have not done
anything wrong and won't harm anyone. We as Assyrians do not have this
amount of money you are asking for. We offered an amount of money that
we cannot disclose at this time. With the amount we offered, we thought
it was acceptable, to have the return of the 230 people.
After two days, they [Islamic State] told us: "The amount the church
offered was not acceptable. From now on, we will no longer negotiate
with you." We then thought we would wait, hoping they would come back to
talk. Sadly, we received word that the 230 kidnapped people will be
sent to the Court of Sharia in Raqqa, where a Muslim judge from Mosul
will deliver their fate.
In the context of these ongoing attacks that the ancient Assyrian
Christian community has been exposed to, particularly at the hands of
IS, Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East
declared before a European parliament on human rights that "Assyrian
Christians are facing a danger that threatens their existence in their
historical regions."
[4] According to International Christian Concern:
Fikere Mengistu's family has owned their land for more
than 90 years, but a mob of more than 20 Muslims in Kufanzik village
remain intent on forcibly building a mosque on the Mengistu farm in
defiance of the law. Muslims make up the religious majority in the area.
They have destroyed his fence and have looted his possessions. In
addition, the local police are complicit in these attempts to steal his
land.... The authorities are letting it happen. In the past, he has
faced threats from local police officers, has been forced to pay bribes,
and has been imprisoned simply because he is a Christian.
[5]
For example, when the Copts were having a serious council meeting with
government officials about the possibility of building a church, one of
the authorities actually contacted the Islamic sheikhs of the village
asking whether they "stand with the Coptic church or with the State?" If
the latter, each Muslim household was instructed to send one family
member to protest against the proposed building of a church -- so that
security can then point to the mob and, as usual, just tell the Copts,
"Sorry, no can do."
Other times, State Security is complicit: Male and female Christian
minors -- currently 21 from just Minya alone, said the Coptic leader --
are habitually abducted by surrounding Muslims. At the moment, the
youngest Christian girl abducted had just started elementary school.
Whenever any of these attacks occur, Copts, working with the church,
prepare bundles of documents, including photos and other verifications,
incriminating the culprits. These then are placed into the hands of top
officials, to make sure they don't get "lost" or "misplaced" by
underlings. The bishop named many of these top people -- at no small
risk to himself -- and said he even put such proofs and documents into
the hands of the Director of Intelligence himself. "Absolutely nothing
was done," said the despondent Christian.
He discussed the difficulties that Copts encounter whenever they want
to build a church -- due to their dearth, some of the current churches
serve tens of thousands of Christians -- or even make simple repairs. By
way of example, he explained how the Virgin Mary Church in Safaniya
village has no bathrooms or running water. Christians "tried time and
time again to get approval to build bathrooms, to no avail." The bishop
lamented how elderly and sick people sometimes urinate on themselves
during service, while mothers must change their crying babies' diapers
right on the pews.
In response, authorities told the bishop to "Go and ask the Muslims
of your region if they will approve the building of a church, or
bathroom, or anything -- and if they do, so will we."
It should be noted that Islamic law specifically bans the construction or repair of churches.
Clearly frustrated, the bishop added: "We as Copts are human beings.
And envy takes us when we see our Muslim brothers build mosques where
they will, how they will, at any place and at any time. And the State
helps them! But as for us, we cannot build anything and that which is
already open is being closed.... We, the Copts, are citizens with
rights; and we see Muslims get whatever they want, while we are always
prevented."
The Coptic bishop also said that sometimes Christians are punished
whenever they go and "bother" authorities about their treatment. For
example, when a Coptic delegation went to make a formal complaint, one
of them was immediately kidnapped. His kidnappers demanded and received
120,000 Egyptian pounds for his release. Police were notified -- even
told where the exchange of money for hostage was to take place -- but
did absolutely nothing. The bishop referred to this incident as a
"punishment" while Dr. Roman, the Coptic hostess, called Minya, Egypt a
"State of Retribution" against those Copts who dare refuse to suffer
quietly," adding, "Al-Minya is apparently not an Egyptian province; it
is governed by ISIS."
Finally, Bishop Agathon made clear the despondency he and the average
Christian in Egypt feel, repeatedly saying that, no matter which
official they talk to, "nothing will change." If anything, the plight of
Egypt's Christians has gone "from bad to worse," said the bishop: "We
hear beautiful words but no solution."
Dr. Roman concluded by imploring Egyptian President Sisi, saying:
"I've said it before: President Sisi is very meticulous and aware of the
nation's issues. Why, then, is it that the Coptic plight in Minya is
being ignored? Why is he turning a blind eye toward it?"
Bishop Agathon concluded by saying that "Copts are between a state
anvil and aggressor hammers," meaning that, the state serves only to
keep its Christian citizens in place while Islamic radicals pound away
at them.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).
Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6141/state-dept-bars-christian-testimony
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
