In America, Christian persecution often comes in the form of a lower test grade. Sometimes people are mocked. In extreme situations, a person could lose their job because of prejudice against their faith. This is nothing compared to what Christians in the Middle East suffer through every day. The blood Jesus lost on the cross mixes with the blood shed by radical Muslim terrorists, killing off Christians in a rampant and unforgiving manner. All the while, Christians falsely reminisce on the days of persecution long ago.
According to an article from February 2011 by Amanda Marshall on FoxNews.com the persecution in Egypt is escalating. Christians are the victims of harassment daily. Tom Doyle, Middle East director for a Christian missionary organization that works in Egypt and around the region recounts the horrors they are facing. “With no police available, no one was willing to help them. Family members are taking turns keeping watch over their homes, as robberies, rape, looting, and car theft are occurring routinely now,” said Doyle in an interview with Fox News.
The Wall Street Journal outlines the terror of living as a Christian in Palestine. Even in the city of Bethlehem, Christians are in anguish. “We have never suffered as we are suffering now,” said Samir Qumsieh, the founder of the only Christian TV station, in the Hamas ruled territory. Qumsieh’s home was firebombed three years ago, the perpetrators were never caught. Only 20% of the citizens of Bethlehem are Christians, down from 80% sixty years ago.
Christians are free to practice their faith under Egypt’s laws, however persecution has been out of control, as Muslim extremists seek to obliterate those rights. Twenty-three Christians were murdered and 70 injured in a suicide bomber attack on a Christian church during mass.
In Turkey, a family of Iranian converts to Christianity is facing forced marriage, jail time, and possibly the death sentence. The family of four has packed up to leave the city, but they are worried that no other countries will welcome them. They fled Iran to hide from a strict Muslim relative of their late husband and father. He is an active member of the Basij, a volunteer militia that enforces Iran’s strict Islamic laws. He wants to carry through his marriage with his cousin, who was promised to him at birth. They are on the run to hide from him, and also to avoid jail time for owning Christian cassette tapes. In America, such tapes can be found in garbage cans or hidden away in a back room and forgotten. The entire Christian community of Turkey is still in shock over the torture and ritual slaying of three Protestants at a Christian publishing house in April by an armed Islamist gang.
In Sudan, it is estimated that the Arab Muslim militia has killed over 1.5 million Christians. In 1983 civil war broke out, as the southern rebels sought independence from the Islamic government in the north. The Muslim government declared a jihad against the people of the south, which resulted in church buildings and Christian relief agencies being specifically targeted.
In fact, in virtually every country in the Muslim world, Christians are the victims of discrimination, havoc, brutality and murder. In Saudi Arabia, a Sri Lankan Christian man barely escaped with his life in late May. He was found working in the city of Mecca, Islam’s holy city, which is officially barred to non-Muslims. In December, an Indian man was sentenced to death for accidentally entering the city. In Pakistan, a man named Younis Masih was sentenced to death under the country’s laws forbidding blasphemy against Allah. These laws were also used to get six Christian women suspended from a nursing school.
The country of Morocco was called, by The Economist, “the best Arab democracy” in 2005. However, in this great democracy, all citizens are considered Muslims from birth and face three years in prison for attempting to convert. They are forbidden from entering any of the scarce churches for foreign inhabitants of the country, and they must be married by Islamic authorities or face charges of adultery.
The law is often on the side of violent Muslims in many of these countries, but even when they try to appear impartial they fail. In Nigeria, police arrested sixteen suspects after a Muslim mob stripped, beat, stoned, and finally stabbed to death a Christian teacher after she caught a student cheating. Her body was burned beyond recognition and they falsely accused her of desecrating a Quran. The suspects were released with out any charges filed.
Christian persecution is not over. It is not a thing of the past. It exists, in full force all around the world.