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FirmhandKY -> RE: This is what made me pro-mosque (11/12/2010 2:38:50 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Politesub53
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ORIGINAL: luckydawg
So there is nothing wrong with being arrested, held in jail, and being sentanced to death, since the excecution was not carried out.
Got it Boi!!!!
Who said that brains ? certainly not me. A claim was made Christians were being killed for being Christians in Muslim countries. I have shown thats not the case. Boi then claimed people had been killed. I then explained the difference in terms simple enough for her, and now you, to understand. Steponme made an absurd claim regards Muslims killing everyone who didnt convert. It wasnt true when he made it and isnt true now.
You and boi are just miffed and cant resist being a couple of asshats, because thats how both of you debate. Neither of you actually answers a point with little more than a wild dig or changing tack. Either that or telling me I`m English, which is fine by me but I already knew.
Gee ... I didn't know this was even under discussion, or that anyone actually believed like you did.
There is plenty of information, if you really want to know, and are willing to Google it, but here is a pretty good summary.
Looks like lots of murder of Christians to me:
In the 20th century, Christians have been persecuted by radical Muslim and Hindu groups inter alia due to conversion act conducted by Evangelicals, and by (officially) atheistic states such as the USSR and North Korea. Currently (as of 2010), as estimated by Open Doors UK, an estimated 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in the Muslim world, North Korea and the hands of Hindu extremism and Islamic terrorism in India, with a rising tendency
Muslim world
Republic of Turkey
In modern Turkey, the Istanbul pogrom was a state-sponsored and state-orchestrated pogrom that compelled Greek Christians to leave Istanbul, the first Christian city in violation to the Treaty of Lausanne (see Istanbul Pogrom). The issue of Christian genocides by the Turks may become a problem, since Turkey wishes to join the European Union.[86]
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is still in a difficult position. Turkey requires by law that the Ecumenical Patriarch must be an ethnic Greek, holding Turkish citizenship by birth, although most of the Greek minority has been expelled. The state's expropriation of church property and the closing of the Orthodox Theological School of Halki are also difficulties faced by the Church of Constantinople. Despite appeals from the United States, the European Union and various governmental and non-governmental organizations, the School remains closed since 1971.
Persecution of Christians has continued in modern Turkey. On February 5, 2006, the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was murdered in Trabzon by a student influenced by the reactions following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.[87] On April 18, 2007, 3 Christians were murdered in the bible publishing firm in Malatya,[88][89] coincidentally, the hometown of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
The Turkish army controlled the territory of Northern Cyprus beginning in 1974. The United Nations has documented their systematic destruction of churches belong to the Church of Cyprus from 1974 though 2003.[90][91]
Algeria
Islamists looted, and burned to the ground, a Pentecostal church in Tizi Ouzou on January 9, 2010. The pastor was quoted as saying that worshipers fled when local police left a gang of local rioters unchecked.[92]
Indonesia
In January 1999, anti-Christian violence erupted by local Muslims.[93][94] "Tens of thousands died when Moslem gunmen terrorized Christians who had voted for independence in East Timor."[95]
Iraq
According to UNHCR, although Christians represent less than 5% of the total Iraqi population, they make up 40% of the refugees now living in nearby countries.[96] Northern Iraq remained predominantly Christian until the destructions of Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century. The Church of the East has its origin in what is now South East Turkey. By the end of the 13th century there were twelve Nestorian dioceses in a strip from Peking to Samarkand. When the 14th-century Muslim warlord of Turco-Mongol descent, Timur (Tamerlane), conquered Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria, the civilian population was decimated. Timur had 70,000 Assyrian Christians beheaded in Tikrit, and 90,000 more in Baghdad.[97][98]
In the 16th century, Christians were half the population of Iraq.[99] In 1987, the last Iraqi census counted 1.4 million Christians.[100] They were tolerated under the secular regime of Saddam Hussein, who even made one of them, Tariq Aziz, his deputy. However persecution by Saddam Hussein continued against the Christians on a cultural and racial level, as the vast majority are Ethnic Assyrians (aka Chaldo-Assyrians). The Assyrian -Aramaic language and written script was repressed, the giving of Hebraic/Aramaic Christian names or Assyrio-Babylonian names forbidden(Tariq Aziz real name is Michael Youhanna for example), and Saddam exploited religious differences between Assyrian denominations. Assyrians were ethnically cleansed from their towns and villages under the Anfal Campaign in 1988.
Recently, Chaldo-Assyrian Christians have seen their total numbers slump to about 500-000 to 800,000 today, of whom 250,000 live in Baghdad.[101] An exodus to the neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan and Turkey has left behind closed parishes, seminaries and convents. As a small minority without a militia of their own, Assyrian Christians have been persecuted by both Shi’a and Sunni Muslim militias, and also by criminal gangs.[102][103]
Many Assyrian Christians are departing for their northern heartlands in the Nineveh plains around Mosul.[citation needed] Assyrian armed militia are now being set up (in 2010) to protect Assyrian towns and villages.[citation needed] As of June 21, 2007, the UNHCR estimated that 2.2 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, and 2 million were displaced internally, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month.[104][105] A May 25, 2007 article notes that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq have been granted refugee status in the United States.[106]
Chaldean Catholic priest Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni and subdeacons Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed were killed in the ancient city of Mosul last year.[107] Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni was driving with his three deacons when they were stopped and demanded to convert to Islam, when they refused they were shot.[107] Six months later, the body of Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of Mosul, was found buried near Mosul. He was kidnapped on February 29, 2008 when his bodyguards and driver were killed.[108]
In 2004, five churches were destroyed by bombing. Tens of thousands of Christians fled the country.[109][110]
Lebanon
The war in Lebanon saw a number of massacres of both Christians and Muslims. Among the earliest was the Damour Massacre in 1976 when Palestinian militias attacked Christian civilians in retaliation for the Karantina Massacre. According to an eyewitness: The attack took place from the mountain behind "It was an apocalypse," [said Father Mansour Labaky, a Christian Maronite priest who survived the massacre at Damour:] 'They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting "Allahu Akbar! (God is great!) Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad!", And they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children.'[111][112][113] The persecution in Lebanon combined sectarian, political, ideological, and retaliation reasons. The Syrian regime was also involved in persecuting Christians as well as Muslims in Lebanon.
Sudan
In Sudan, it is estimated that over 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Janjaweed, the Arab Muslim militia, and even suspected Islamists in northern Sudan since 1984.[4] It should also be noted that Sudan's several civil wars (which often take the form of genocidal campaigns) are often not only or purely religious in nature, but also ethnic, as many black Muslims, as well as Muslim Arab tribesmen, have also been killed in the conflicts.
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[114][115]
Pakistan
In Pakistan 1.5% of the population are Christian. Pakistani law mandates that "blasphemies" of the Qur'an are to be met with punishment. Ayub Masih, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in 1998. He was accused by a neighbor of stating that he supported British writer, Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Lower appeals courts upheld the conviction. However, before the Pakistan Supreme Court, his lawyer was able to prove that the accuser had used the conviction to force Masih's family off their land and then acquired control of the property. Masih has been released.[116]
In October 2001, gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a Protestant congregation in the Punjab, killing 18 people. No one knows for sure who the gunmen were but officials think it might be a banned Islamic group.[117]
In March 2002, five people were killed in an attack on a church in Islamabad, including an American schoolgirl and her mother.[118]
In August 2002, masked gunmen stormed a Christian missionary school for foreigners in Islamabad, six people were killed and three injured. None of those killed were children of foreign missionaries.[119]
In August 2002, grenades were thrown at a church in the grounds of a Christian hospital in north-west Pakistan, near Islamabad, killing three nurses.[120]
On September 25, 2002 two terrorists entered the "Peace and Justice Institute", Karachi, where they separated Muslims from the Christians, and then murdered seven Christians by shooting them in the head.[121][122] All of the victims were Pakistani Christians. Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said the victims had their hands tied and their mouths had been covered with tape.
In December 2002, three young girls were killed when hand grenade was thrown into a church near Lahore on Christmas Day.[123]
In November 2005 3,000 militant Islamists attacked Christians in Sangla Hill in Pakistan and destroyed Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and United Presbyterian churches. The attack was over allegations of violation of blasphemy laws by a Pakistani Christian named Yousaf Masih. The attacks were widely condemned by some political parties in Pakistan.[124]
On June 5, 2006 a Pakistani Christian stonemason, Nasir Ashraf, was working near Lahore when he drank water from a public facility using a glass chained to the facility. He was assaulted by Muslims for "Polluting the glass". A mob developed, who beat Ashraf, calling him a "Christian dog". Bystanders encouraged the beating and joined in. Ashraf was eventually hospitalized.[125]
One year later, in August 2007, a Christian missionary couple, Rev. Arif and Kathleen Khan, were gunned down by militant Islamists in Islamabad. Pakistani police believed that the murders was committed by a member of Khan's parish over alleged sexual harassment by Khan. This assertion is widely doubted by Khan's family as well as by Pakistani Christians.[126] [127]
In August 2009 six Christians including 4 women and a child were burnt alive by Muslim militants and a church set ablaze in Gojra, Pakistan when violence broke out after alleged desecration of Qur'an.[128]
Egypt
While the Egyptian government does not have a policy to persecute Christians, it discriminates against them and hampers their freedom of worship. Its agencies sporadically persecute Muslim converts to Christianity.[129] The government enforces Hamayouni Decree restrictions on building or repairing churches. These same restrictions, however, do not apply to mosques.[129]
The government has effectively restricted Christians from senior government, diplomatic, military, and educational positions, and there has been increasing discrimination in the private sector.[129][130] The government subsidizes media which attack Christianity and restricts Christians access to the state-controlled media.[129]
In Egypt the government does not officially recognize conversions from Islam to Christianity; because certain interfaith marriages are not allowed either, this prevents marriages between converts to Christianity and those born in Christian communities, and also results in the children of Christian converts being classified as Muslims and given a Muslim education.[129] The government also applies religiously discriminatory laws and practices concerning clergy salaries.[129]
Foreign missionaries are allowed in the country only if they restrict their activities to social improvements and refrain from proselytizing. The Coptic Pope Shenouda III was internally exiled in 1981 by President Anwar Sadat, who then chose five Coptic bishops and asked them to choose a new pope. They refused, and in 1985 President Hosni Mubarak restored Pope Shenouda III, who had been accused of fomenting interconfessional strife. Particularly in Upper Egypt, the rise in extremist Islamist groups such as the Gama'at Islamiya during the 1980s was accompanied by attacks on Copts and on Coptic churches; these have since declined with the decline of those organizations, but still continue. The police have been accused of siding with the attackers in some of these cases.[131]
Many colleges dictate quotas for Coptic students, often around 1 or 2% despite the group making up 15% of the country's population. There is also a separate tax-funded education system called Al Azhar, catering to students from elementary to college level, which accepts no Christian Coptic students, teachers or administrators.
Hundreds of Christian Coptic girls have been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, as well as being victims of rape and forced marriage to Muslim men.[130][citation needed]
On January 2, 2000, at least 21 Christians were killed by Muslims in Al Koshh in southern Egypt. Christian properties were also burned.[132][citation needed]
In April 2006, one person was killed and twelve injured in simultaneous knife attacks on three Coptic churches in Alexandria.[133]
In November 2008, several thousand Muslims attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo on the day of its inauguration, forcing 800 Coptic Christians to barricade themselves in.[134]
In April 2009, two Christian men were shot dead and another was injured by Muslim men after an Easter vigil in the south of Egypt.[135]
On September 18, 2009, a Muslim man called Osama Araban beheaded a Coptic Christian man in the village of Bagour, and injured 2 others in 2 different villages. He was arrested the following day.[136]
On the eve of January 7, 2010, after the Eastern Christmas Mass finished (which finishes around midnight), Copts were going out of Mar-Yuhanna (St. John) church in Nag Hammadi city when three Muslim men in a car near the church opened fire killing 8 people (7 Christians and a Muslim young policeman who had been standing on guard by the church) and injuring another 10.[137][138]
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state that practices Wahhabism and restricts all other religions, including the possession of religious items such as the Bible, crucifixes, and Stars of David.[141] Christians are arrested and lashed in public for practicing their faith openly.[142] Strict sharia is enforced. Muslims are forbidden to convert to another religion. If one does so and does not recant, they may be executed.[citation needed]
Other Muslim nations
Though Iran recognizes Assyrian and Armenian Christians as a religious minority (along with Jews and Zoroastrians) and they have representatives in the Parliament, after the 1979 Revolution, Muslim converts to Christianity (typically to Protestant Christianity) have been arrested and sometimes executed.[143] See also: Christianity in Iran.
In the 11 Northern states of Nigeria that have introduced the Islamic system of law, the Sharia, sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians have resulted in many deaths, and some churches have been burned. More than 30,000 Christians were displaced from their homes Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.[144]
Muslims in India who convert to Christianity have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, and attacks by Muslims. In Jammu & Kashmir, the only Indian state with a Muslim majority, a Christian convert and missionary named Bashir Tantray was killed, allegedly by militant Islamists in 2006.[145] A Christian priest, K.K. Alavi, a 1970 convert from Islam,[146] thereby raised the ire of his former Muslim community and received many death threats. An Islamic terrorist group named "The National Development Front" actively campaigned against him.[147] In the southern state of India, Kerala, Islamic Terrorists chopped off the hand of a Professor due to allegation of blasphemy of prophet.
In the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf has attacked and killed Christians.[148]
In Indonesia, religious conflicts have typically occurred in Western New Guinea, Maluku (particularly Ambon), and Sulawesi. The presence of Muslims in these regions is in part a result of the transmigrasi program of population re-distribution. Conflicts have often occurred because of the aims of radical Islamist organizations such as Jemaah Islamiah or Laskar Jihad to impose Sharia,[149][150] with such groups attacking Christians and destroying over 600 churches.[151] In 2006 three Christian girls were beheaded as retaliation for previous Muslim deaths in Christian-Muslim rioting.[152] The men were imprisoned for the murders, including Jemaah Islamiyah's district ringleader Hasanuddin.[153] On going to jail, Hasanuddin said, "It's not a problem (if I am being sentenced to prison), because this is a part of our struggle."[154]
In Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old citizen, was charged in 2006 with rejecting Islam (apostasy), a crime punishable by death under Sharia law. He has since been released into exile in the West under intense pressure from Western governments.[155][156] In 2008, the Taliban killed a British charity worker, Gayle Williams, for being a Christian.[157]
In Kosovo, since June 1999, 156 churches and monasteries have been damaged or destroyed and several priests have been killed. During the few days of the 2004 unrest in Kosovo, 35 churches and monasteries were damaged and some destroyed by Muslim mobs.
In Malaysia, although Islam is the official religion, Christianity is mostly tolerated, however, in order to be a member of the majority race (the Malays), one is legally required to be a Muslim. Also, if a non-Muslim marries a Muslim, they are legally required to convert to Islam. There is much debate over whether Malaysia is a liberal Islamic state or a very religious secular state. Full article: Freedom of religion in Malaysia
In 2002, a currently unidentified gunman killed Bonnie Penner Witherall at a prenatal clinic in Sidon, Lebanon. She had been proselytizing and attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity.[158]
Three Christian missionaries were killed in their hospital in Jibla, Yemen in December 2002. A gunman, apprehended by the authorities, said that he did it "for his religion."[159]
India
In India, there is an increasing amount of violence being perpetrated by Hindu Nationalists against Christians.[160] The increase in anti-Christian violence in India bears a direct relationship to the ascendancy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[161] Incidents of violence against Christians have occurred in many parts of India. It is especially prevalent in the States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and New Delhi.[161] The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are the most responsible organizations for violence against Christians.[162] These organizations, which are off-shoot organizations of their umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) also known as the Sangh Parivar, and local media were involved in promoting anti-Christian propaganda in Gujarat.[162] The Sangh Parivar and related organisations have stated that the violence is an expression of "spontaneous anger" of "vanvasis" against "forcible conversion" activities undertaken by missionaries. These claims have been disputed by Christians[163] a belief described as mythical[164] and propaganda by Sangh Parivar;[165] the Parivar objects in any case to all conversions as a "threat to national unity".[166]
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in violent attacks on Christians in India. From 1964 to 1996, thirty-eight incidents of violence against Christians were reported.[161] In 1997, twenty-four such incidents were reported.[167] In 1998, it went up to ninety.[161] Between January 1998 and February 1999 alone, there were one hundred and sixteen attacks against Christians in India.[168] Between 1 January and 30 July 2000, more than fifty-seven attacks on Christians were reported.[169] The acts of violence include arson of churches, forcible conversion of Christians to Hinduism, distribution of threatening literature, burning of Bibles, murder of Christian priests and destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.[161][162] The attacks often accompanied by large amounts of anti-Christian hate literature.[169]
In some cases, anti-Christian violence has been co-ordinated, involving multiple attacks. In 2007 Orissa violence Christians were attacked in Kandhamal, Orissa, resulting in 9 deaths and destruction of houses and churches.[170][171] Nearly twelve churches were targeted in the attack by Hindu activists.[172][173][174] Human rights groups consider the violence as the failure of the state government that did not address the problem before it became violent. The authorities failed to react quickly enough to save human lives and property.[175]
Foreign Christian missionaries have also been targets of attacks. In a well-publicised case Graham Staines, an Australian missionary, was burnt to death while he was sleeping with his two sons Timothy (aged 9) and Philip (aged 7) in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa in January 1999.[162][176][177] In 2003, the Hindu nationalist activist Dara Singh was convicted of leading the gang responsible.[178]
In its annual human rights reports for 1999, the United States Department of State criticised India for "increasing societal violence against Christians."[179] The report listed over 90 incidents of anti-Christian violence, ranging from damage of religious property to violence against Christians pilgrims.[179]
According to Rudolf C Heredia, religious conversion was a critical issue even before the creation of the modern state. Whereas Nehru wanted to establish a "a secular state in a religious society"[180] Gandhi opposed the Christian missionaries calling them as the remnants of colonial Western culture.[181] He claimed that by converting into Christianity, Hindus have changed their nationality.[182]
Attacks on nuns, churches and Christian refugees across India produced fears that Hindu extremists were planning to target minority communities as the country prepared for a general election in 2008.[183] A representative of the local government in Orissa estimated that more than 500 people died as a consequence of the anti-Christian pogrom launched by Hindu fundamentalists. He said he personally authorised the cremation of at least 200 bodies.[184] In July 2, 2008 a priest was murdered by an obscure local group called Nepal Defence Army, which wanted Hinduism restored as the state religion, and has claimed responsibility for the murder of Johnson Moyalan.[185] Religious scholar Cyril Veliath of Sophia University stated that the Hindu attacks on Christians were the work of individuals motivated by "disgruntled politicians or phony religious leaders" and where religion is concerned the typical Hindu is an "exceptionally amicable and tolerant person (...) Hinduism as a religion could well be one of the most accommodating in the world. Rather than confront and destroy, it has a tendency to welcome and assimilate."[186]
In September 14, 2008, the Hindu fundamentalist organizations Bajrang Dal directed a wave of attacks against Christian churches, convents and prayer halls in the Indian city of Mangalore. The attacks started in response to the allegation by the Bajrang Dal that the New Life Fellowship Trust, a non-denominational Christian Church, was indulging in forceful religious conversion of Hindus. Another reason was that the book Satyadarshini in which New Life Trust had denigrated and defamed Hindu gods. Over 20 churches were attacked during the course of the attacks, nearly all of them belonging to the Roman Catholic community.[187][188] In the aftermath, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) gave a 3-month deadline for New Life Fellowship Trust (NLFT) to stop all conversion activities in Mangalore, in response to the alleged conversions.[189]
Recent waves of anti-conversion laws in various Indian states passed by some states is claimed to be a gradual and continuous institutionalization of Hindutva by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the US State Department.[190] Some Hindu groups argue that Christian missionaries use inducements such as schooling to lure poor people to the faith. As a result, they have launched movements to reconvert many tribal Christians back to Hinduism. A consolidation of various Anti-Conversion or "Freedom of Religion" Laws has been done by the All Indian Christian Council.[191] In the past, several Indian states passed anti-conversion bills primarily to prevent people from converting to Christianity. Arunachal Pradesh passed a bill in 1978. In 2003, Gujarat State, after religious riots in 2002 (see 2002 Gujarat violence), passed an anti-conversion bill in 2003.
In July 2006, Madhya Pradesh government passed legislation requiring people who desire to convert to a different religion to provide the government with one-month's notice, or face fines and penalties.[192]
In August 2006, the Chhattisgarh State Assembly passed similar legislation requiring anyone who desires to convert to another religion to give 30 days' notice to, and seek permission from, the district magistrate.[193] In February 2007, Himachal Pradesh became the first Congress Party ruled state to adopt legislation banning illegal religious conversions.[194]
People's Republic of China
The communist government of the People's Republic of China tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian Churches (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party of China control. Churches which are not controlled by the government are shut down, and their members are imprisoned.
In 2009, Christians must worship in registered, regulated churches. According to the Jubilee Campaign, an interdenominational lobby group, about 300 Christians caught attending unregistered churches were in jail in 2004.[195]
Gong Shengliang, head of the South China Church, was sentenced to death in 2001. Although his sentence was commuted to a jail sentence, Amnesty International reports that he has been tortured.[195]
North Korea
See also: Religion in North Korea#Christianity and Freedom of religion in North Korea
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