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Authors: Raymond Ibrahim
Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (35 page)
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In March 2012, Muslims abducted “two Christian hospital employees in Karachi.” A senior investigator said, “‘Such cases are on the rise, as banned Islamist groups and other criminal gangs are turning to kidnappings for ransom in order to survive and procure weapons and ammunition.’”
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Pakistan’s despised Christians have also been robbed of land with impunity. In October 2011 one man was killed and “two dozen Christians including children, men and women were seriously injured” when an influential Muslim hired Muslims who attacked the Christians “to grab a piece of land bought for a social project”—land that the church had purchased to build an orphanage.
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Two months later, in December 2011, during another attempted landgrab, Muslim police and the associates of a retired military official beat two Christian women with “batons and punches,” inflicting a serious wound on one of the women’s eyes, and opened fire on Christians who came to the aid of the attacked women, all because the women had dared to speak up in defense of their land. “In the last few years Muslims have made several attempts to seize the land from the Christians, usually succeeding because Christians are a marginalized minority,” reported World Watch Monitor.
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Elsewhere around the Islamic world Christians are being forced to ransom their lives with money. For example, in Islamist Sudan in January 2012, “after a large truck smashed through the gates of the St. Josephine Bakhita’s Catholic Church compound,” Muslims affiliated with Sudan’s Islamic government kidnapped two Catholic priests, “severely beat” them, and “looted their living quarters, stealing two vehicles, two laptops and a safe.” Later the kidnappers forced the priests to call their bishop with a ransom demand of 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US $185,530).
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The jizya-jihad has even reached the West. In March 2012, in a Muslim ghetto in Copenhagen, an African refugee was threatened by a group of “youths” who repeatedly kicked his door in, accused him of being “both black and Christian,” and tried to extort money from him. Police said they could not guarantee his safety, and he was eventually found “in tears” living in the streets.
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Likewise, in December 2012, another gang of “youths” attacked the Holy Cross Church in the heart of the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen, demanding money because it was “in their territory.” Nørrebro has a significant Muslim population.
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Likewise, in December 2012, another gang of “youths” attacked the Holy Cross Church in the heart of the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen, demanding money because it was “in their territory.” Nørrebro has a significant Muslim population.
167
Islamic attempts to collect jizya are no longer limited to the Christian minorities under Islam. In 2002, Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman, discussing the prophet’s prediction that Islam will one day conquer Rome, said, “We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians . . . will yet pay us the Jiziya [
sic
], in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam.”
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sic
], in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam.”
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According to other Muslim leaders, the West is already paying jizya, by way of welfare benefits. For example, in February 2013, Anjem Choudary, an Islamic cleric and popular preacher in the United Kingdom, was secretly taped telling a Muslim audience to follow his example and get “Jihad Seeker’s Allowance” from the government—a pun on “Job Seeker’s Allowance.” The father of four, who receives more than 25,000 pounds annually in welfare benefits, referred to British taxpayers as “slaves,” adding, “We take the jizya, which is our
haq
[Arabic for “right”], anyway. The normal situation by the way is to take money from the
kafir
[infidel], isn’t it? So this is the normal situation. They give us the money—you work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar. We take the money. Hopefully there’s no one from the DSS [Department of Social Security] listening to this.”
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PIOUS MUSLIMS, PERSECUTED CHRISTIANShaq
[Arabic for “right”], anyway. The normal situation by the way is to take money from the
kafir
[infidel], isn’t it? So this is the normal situation. They give us the money—you work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar. We take the money. Hopefully there’s no one from the DSS [Department of Social Security] listening to this.”
169
Muslim hostility toward non-Muslims often occurs in connection with Muslim piety. For instance, a great many of the above anecdotes, particularly the mob attacks on churches, occurred on Friday—the Muslim equivalent of Sunday for Christians. Friday is the one day of the week that Muslims go to mosque, engage in communal prayers, and listen to a sermon. It is also the one day that Christians and others are most likely to be attacked, thanks to sermons which habitually incite Muslims against religious minorities. The significance of these Friday attacks can be best understood by analogy: What if Christians were especially violent and intolerant toward non-Christians on Sundays, right after leaving church service? What would that say about Christianity? What does it say about Islam?
Consider the fact that Ramadan—Islam’s holiest month, when Muslims are expected to fast during daylight hours and pay special attention to their religious duties—typically sees some of the worst attacks on religious minorities, usually in revenge for their not “knowing their place.”
On August 8, 2011, after breaking their Ramadan fast in the evening, thousands of Muslims rampaged through a predominantly Christian village in Egypt, firing automatic weapons and throwing Molotov cocktails at Coptic homes. They intentionally targeted and beat the village priest, plundering and torching his home. Another Copt was murdered in his home, which was also ransacked.
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Separately, seven Muslims savagely attacked yet another Christian in front of a police station; he lost one eye and required twenty stitches in his head. Muslims sexually harassed girls leaving church and also hurled stones at the church, shattering five windows.
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This particular attack, like the Maspero Massacre, was prompted by the fact that the Christians had had the audacity to stage a protest—in this case, against the fact that Muslims were targeting Christian girls for abuse.
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Separately, seven Muslims savagely attacked yet another Christian in front of a police station; he lost one eye and required twenty stitches in his head. Muslims sexually harassed girls leaving church and also hurled stones at the church, shattering five windows.
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This particular attack, like the Maspero Massacre, was prompted by the fact that the Christians had had the audacity to stage a protest—in this case, against the fact that Muslims were targeting Christian girls for abuse.
On July 27, 2012, a diabetic man in Egypt was driving his car when he was struck with great thirst, “which he could not bear” (a side-effect of diabetes, further exacerbated by Egypt’s July weather). He pulled over by a public water source and started drinking water. Soon three passersby approached him, inquiring why he was drinking water (which is forbidden to Muslims during daylight in Ramadan). The diabetic replied, “Because I am a Christian, and sick,” to which they exclaimed, “You’re a Christian, too!” and begun beating him mercilessly. Other passersby began to congregate to see what was happening, but no one intervened on behalf of the diabetic Christian until he managed to make a dash for his parked car and fled the scene.
Also in Egypt, on July 30, 2012, a young Christian doctor, Maher Rizkalla Ghali, was shot by neighboring Muslims, including easily-identifiable Salafis, resulting in the loss of an eye, because he had had the temerity to ask them to keep the noise down for the sake of “children and the elderly”—the Muslims had been rioting and shooting guns in the air to celebrate after sundown in Ramadan. Their response was to “insult his religion” and open fire at him, partially blinding him and severely disfiguring his face. Then they went into full mob mode and tried to break through the door of his home to plunder it. Although the family filed a police report, “security forces have not taken any action towards the perpetrators.” In addition, this gravely wounded Christian doctor was denied admission to several hospitals.
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It is the same for Christians during Ramadan from one end of the Muslim world to the other. Far to the east, in Pakistan, on July 29, 2012, eleven Christian student nurses were “allegedly poisoned with mercury in their tea,” likely as “punishment” for drinking a beverage during the month of Ramadan while their Muslim colleagues were fasting.
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Far to the west, in Algeria in August 2012, a Christian Lebanese singer was arrested for smoking in public and “failing to show due respect to Muslims.” She was released after police warned her that “she was not allowed to smoke in public during Ramadan in Muslim Algeria, even though she was a Christian.”
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Far to the west, in Algeria in August 2012, a Christian Lebanese singer was arrested for smoking in public and “failing to show due respect to Muslims.” She was released after police warned her that “she was not allowed to smoke in public during Ramadan in Muslim Algeria, even though she was a Christian.”
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Ironically, almost every year, stories appear in the Western news about Christmas decorations on public property being suppressed, at least in part to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.
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But in the Muslim world, during the major Muslim holy season of the year, Christians themselves are being suppressed to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.
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But in the Muslim world, during the major Muslim holy season of the year, Christians themselves are being suppressed to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.
PART FIVE
SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL
W
e have now surveyed hundredreds of documented stories of Christian persecution under Islam-the overwhelming majority of which have taken place in just the last few years. To cover and document the amount of persecution Christians have experienced across the Muslim world in only the last few decades would require volumes.
e have now surveyed hundredreds of documented stories of Christian persecution under Islam-the overwhelming majority of which have taken place in just the last few years. To cover and document the amount of persecution Christians have experienced across the Muslim world in only the last few decades would require volumes.
We have also seen the distinctly Islamic nature of these attacks—whether they are literally rooted in Islam’s teachings, such as the attacks on churches that follow from Islamic rules forbidding them to be built; or whether they are cultural byproducts of Islamic supremacism and contempt for Christians, such as the double standards in the courtroom, and even widespread rape and murder. The same exact patterns of persecution are evident from one end of the Islamic world to the other—in lands that do not share the same language, race, or culture—
that share only Islam
. This fact alone leaves no doubt concerning the root source of such persecution. Whether they arise out of doctrine or culture, all the forms of persecution we have surveyed are rooted in the Sharia—the “Islamic way.”
that share only Islam
. This fact alone leaves no doubt concerning the root source of such persecution. Whether they arise out of doctrine or culture, all the forms of persecution we have surveyed are rooted in the Sharia—the “Islamic way.”
And yet the question remains: Why is this humanitarian crisis so little known, and even less acted upon, by the West—the West, which not only champions humanitarianism, but reportedly has a large Christian population, especially in America? Why do Americans persist in believing that each new atrocity against Christians in the Muslim world is somehow an anomaly—an exception to the rule of tolerance that is presumed to prevail in Islam?
At the beginning of this book we briefly touched on some reasons for the modern West’s ignorance about Muslim persecution of Christians. It is understandable that memories of the colonial period and its immediate aftermath—which, after all, are really not that long ago—would lull Americans and other Westerners into assuming that the natural state of affairs for Muslims is to coexist peacefully with Christians. Or at least it would be understandable—if not for the enormous weight of recent evidence demonstrating Muslim abuse of Christians wherever Islam holds sway, and even wherever Muslims are a majority of the population. Surely anyone who pays attention to recent events in Muslim nations must quickly clue in to the fact that the “Golden Age” of Christianity in the Islamic world is long gone.
Apparently not.
What is keeping our ideas about the status of Christians in the Muslim world from catching up to the reality on the ground?
A large part of the explanation is that three enormously influential institutions in the West have skewed the story. Western academia, Western media, and Western governments—in different ways, to different degrees, and at different times—have all refused to acknowledge what Christians are suffering at the hands of Muslims. This is in keeping with their reluctance to recognize that Islam itself is the cause of this persecution.
ACADEMIA: WHITEWASHING ISLAM, BLAMING THE WESTIslam has been whitewashed by Western professors in Western universities. The picture of Muslims and of Islam that trickles down from the scholarly establishment to textbooks and lesson plans across America is flattering but false. Objective history and primary texts have been jettisoned and replaced with a revisionist history that has little grounding in reality. In the politically correct narrative that holds sway in Western institutions of learning, the Christian West is always the oppressor—from the Crusades through colonialism to the present—and the Islamic world is the noble victim.
BOOK: Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians
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