30 Christians Beheaded by ISIS in Mozambique
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
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Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Could God use Joe Biden for Good? Divine Punishment and Julian the Apostate
Dennis Edwards
Marshall makes some good comparisons. If Biden does in fact go on to be President, he could help move things down the path of Biblical Prophecy by his globalistic stand, his pro-abortion beliefs, etc. Marshall believes Biden could be used to persecute the true believers, enforce mandatory vaccines, embrace the New World Order financial system etc. True believers will need to be ready to face persecution or penalization from an increasingly antichrist secular system. Don't let his overly Catholic jargon disturb you. He makes a lot of good points.
Monday, February 10, 2020
Top Most Dangerous Countries for Christians!
List of Top 10 Most Dangerous Countries to be a Christian
https://backtojerusalem.com/btj-2020-list-of-top-10-most-dangerous-countries-to-be-a-christian/
Back to Jerusalem has been working together with the underground house church of China in different nations between China and Jerusalem to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Most of the nations where BTJ missionaries serve are between the Great Wall of China and the Western Wall of Jerusalem. These nations are home to about 2/3rds of the world’s population.
The area between China and Jerusalem is considered to be the final frontier of missions. The majority of the world’s unreached people groups, those that have not heard the good news of Jesus Christ, are located here.
This area is also high on the misery index. Many of the nations between China and Jerusalem are full of violence, poverty, disease and military conflict. It is where the enemy is creating most resistance against the Gospel message.
Most nations between China and Jerusalem are intolerant of Christianity and show extreme aggression towards anyone who tries to share about the love of Jesus. The persecution against Christians in this region is growing.
In 2019, the British government grew concerned about increasing level of persecution against Christians and sponsored a study. When the study was released in July 2019, it revealed shocking evidence that the persecution against Christians is ‘near genocide’ levels.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said, “The sense of misguided political correctness that has stopped us standing up for Christians overseas must end. At home we all benefit from living in a tolerant, diverse society and we should not be afraid of promoting those values abroad. It is a sad fact that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in modern times.”
According to the study, an estimated one-third of the world’s population suffers from religious persecution in some form, with 80% of them being Christians. “Across the globe, in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, Christians are being bullied, arrested, jailed, expelled, and executed. Christianity is by most calculations the most persecuted religion of modern times.”
According to recent data, one Christian is killed for his or her faith every 180 minutes.
This report is not meant to spark fear or anger into the hearts of Christians, but instead to shed light on the suffering of fellow believers around the world and to better understand those that are living in darkness.
True followers of Jesus Christ must launch a rescue mission to make the salvation of Christ known among the most unreached people groups no matter the cost. As Christians we have all been charged with completing the Great Commission and we cannot shy away from the areas that require sacrifice. We cannot ignore our brothers and sisters who need us to stand in solidarity with them. Christians can no longer remain silent about the human rights abuses that are taking place in closed countries.
To highlight the need, Back to Jerusalem is publishing a simple list of the ten most dangerous countries to be a Christian in the world today.
The following list is based on personal experience as well as reports of missionaries in the field.
China went off the rails in 2019. The Chinese Communist Party seems more determined than ever to stop the radical growth of Christianity at all costs. In the last year China has implemented new laws and new strategies specifically aimed at persecuting Christians. They have imprisoned thousands of Christians, torn down tens of thousands of crosses, and closed the doors of hundreds of churches.
Not only are Chinese Christian pastors being targeted, but their children are being persecuted as well.
China has implemented an electronic monitoring and commerce system that is not unlike the ‘Mark of the Beast’ mentioned in Revelation 13. They help other countries implement similar systems as well.
China has also undertaken the audacious project of working on a new Bible translation that will provide a new ‘socialist-friendly’ version of the Gospel writings. China believes that if they can succeed in changing the Word of God, they can succeed at controlling the Christian growth in China.
China ranks in the top ten for BTJ this year because of their aggressive activities on so many fronts against so many believers in such a short amount of time.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, comes as no surprise. Islam started on the Arabic peninsula by killing and enslaving Christians and Jews. That tradition continues to this day. Saudi Arabia can no more remove itself from Islamic extremism than the Vatican can remove itself from the practice of Catholicism.
Sadly, when it comes to violence against Christians, Islamic nations continue to be the worst violators.
Rape and sexual harassment of expatriate Christian women is a huge problem. Christian women from poor countries are especially vulnerable.
Secret Saudi Christians risk imprisonment, physical abuse and even death if they are discovered. Islam is the only recognized religion in Saudi Arabia. It is a capital offense for any Muslim to convert to Christianity, so Christians are forced to meet in secret. Non-Muslim meeting places are not allowed. According to the Hadith (traditional record of Muhammad’s life and teachings) on his death bed Muhammad declared, “There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula.”
The Royal family of Saudi Arabia consider themselves to be the caretakers of Mecca and have diligently enforced Sharia Law to honor the final request of Muhammad.
Sudan is a notorious abuser of Christians and has been for the last 30 years. Convicted war criminal Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir was deposed a few months ago in a coup d’état, but it is not yet known if things will be better under the new leadership.
Sudanese Christians face constant persecution. Multiple church buildings were demolished in 2017 and 2018, leaving many Christians without a place to worship.
Few can forget the tragic story of Mariam Ibrahim Ishag who was thrown in prison for apostasy. Mariam was a pregnant mother who had been arrested and thrown into prison along with her young child because she refused to deny the name of Christ. Her one-year-old son was chained to her and forced to live in the squalor of a Sudanese prison.
Miriam was convicted of apostasy for not following the religion of her Muslim father even though she had been raised as a Christian by her Ethiopian mother. The court ruled that, while pregnant, she was to receive 100 lashes and publicly hanged.
Miriam’s tragic story unfortunately is repeated again and again for so many Christians in Sudan.
Uzbekistan? Huh?
Welcome to Uzbekistan where Christian persecution has been on the rise for several years. Uzbekistan is the central Asian country with the most severe restrictions on Christians. Simply owning a Bible has become a high crime. Reports of Christians being imprisoned for owning religious books have been on the rise.
Uzbekistan was under Russian control for many years and when they won their independence there was a hope in the Christian community that things would be better for them. Those hopes have been slowly fading. Believers can now even be fined for having Christians songs on their phone.
Christians make up almost ten percent of the population, but as of late they find themselves living under a harsh dictatorship of an Islamic majority. Religious authorities have launched a secret police force to raid underground house churches and disrupt all illegal Christian activity in the country. The secret police have very few rules restricting rabid abuse, so when they discover Christian activity, their procedures can be cruel and barbaric.
Azon.uz is a radical website that often acts as the voice of even moderate Muslims in Uzbekistan. One of the leaders, Said Islam wrote, “We have one choice in front of us – either we will abandon our religion, or we will live by Allah’s rules.”
Sharia Law is the legislation that is being used to oppress Christians. Muslim converts to Christianity are receiving a treatment even worse than what cultural Christians get to endure.
Uzbekistan has a long history of respecting other religious groups. Our prayer is that Uzbekistan will find their way back to these traditional cultural values that allow for religious freedom.
There is a disease in Iran right now called A.B.I syndrome – ‘Anything But Islam’. It is not just the Christians who have suffered in Iran. People of all religious backgrounds have been held captive by the suffocating power of Islam for four decades and are clearly fed up with it.
The opposition against the Ayatollah’s regime is rising to dangerous levels and today they can only rule the nation with constant threats of violence. In the face of these threats and the resulting fear in which people live, Christians are bringing hope. But it is not without cost.
The Islamic clerics of Iran view Christians as their top enemy. Christians are regularly attacked, beaten, and thrown in prison.
“The government is so afraid of Christians,” one sister shared with BTJ in Sweden, “that they employed teachers like me to find them. I was a teacher in Iran for many years and my job was to play games with the children to find out which of them had parents that were secret Christian believers. Once I learned which children came from Christian homes, I would inform the government and they would send in the secret police to raid the home.”
Christians are regularly placed in maximum security prisons and tortured for their Christian beliefs.
Bibles, Christian teaching materials, and Christian music are illegal in Iran. Currently there are no Persian speaking churches allowed in Iran, but our prayer is to see that change soon.
One word can be used to describe the situation for Christians in Yemen – EXTREME!
Yemen was the first nation on the Arab peninsula to receive Back to Jerusalem missionaries almost twenty years ago, so it is special to us. However, sharing the Gospel in Yemen is risky business. If you are caught spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, it could mean a death sentence.
As if things were not hard enough for Christians in Yemen, now the nation is also torn apart by civil war. The chaos of war has helped radical Sharia Law become the law of the land. Nowhere is safe for Christians in Yemen.
The original Christian minority in Yemen is tiny. Most of the Christians in Yemen are Muslim Background Believers (MBBs). Illegal underground house-church services are the only way in which Christians are able to meet together and worship Jesus.
If Yemeni MBBs are discovered, they face extreme danger on many different fronts. They face persecution from the government, their families, and their neighborhood. If a family member murders a known Christian convert, they would most likely not be punished, but rewarded.
If a convert is married, then they risk losing their marriage and their children. Sharia Law in Yemen dictates that apostasy is a reason for divorce and Christians are not fit to raise children.
Welcome to the land of 48,000 mosques and not even one church.
In Afghanistan, even moderate Muslims can experience persecution if they are not extreme enough in the public displays of their faith. Public displays of religious piety are encouraged by the Islamic social structure. Islam is knit into the fabric of everyday life and Christians need not apply.
Afghanistan is a nation that was run by the Taliban for many years and many would argue that it is still run by the Taliban. After the war (which is still on-going) the United States poured billions of dollars into the nation to build up the infrastructure. Money was given for roads, schools, and public buildings. Funding was injected to jump-start the economy, but to no avail.
In the end, the religious leaders rejected it all and regained their grip on the people.
Afghanistan can barely go a week without a bombing or killing of some kind. Killing fellow Muslims over disagreements is routine, so people do not think twice about dealing harshly with Christians.
The basic freedoms that Christians in the west take for granted are not enjoyed in Afghanistan, but BTJ missionaries are focused on bringing the Good News to this nation and seeing the people set free by the love of Jesus Christ.
Yes, number three. Are you surprised?
So many Christians have seen North Korea at the top of the list for so many years that they just assume that it will always be the worst country to be a Christian.
In case you are wondering, North Korea did not drop to the number three spot because life has gotten better. It has dropped the third spot because life in other places has grown worse for Christians.
Let’s face it, there is no other nation on earth like North Korea. Visiting North Korea is like leaving planet earth. Nothing about the society is based on reality. It is all based on fear. Traffic cops direct traffic in the capital city of Pyongyang – even when there are no cars on the road. Immigration agents type on computers – that are not plugged in. North Korea is officially an atheist state, but the deification and required worship of Kim Il Song, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un is undeniable.
Pastors have been executed in stadiums full of forced spectators, Bible study attendees have had their heads crushed by steam rollers, and new believers have been shot in the back of the head for owning a Bible.
Several thousand known Christians are currently imprisoned in gulags where they are forced to work in coal mines.
There are truly few places on earth that are as close to a living hell as is North Korea.
Somalia is the land that has been forgotten. They are a nation without a lot of natural resources, so the west shows no interest in helping with the humanitarian crisis that has plagued the land for several generations.
About half of Somalia’s population lives in extreme poverty and needs aid to survive. There is a never-ending conflict between Islamic warlords fighting for control of the nation. Unfortunately, any group that attempts to provide relief is a target for attack or kidnapping.
Somalia is a breeding ground for terrorist training camps and Islamic extremist teachings.
Suicide bombs and kidnappings are weekly events and Christians are an unwilling part of this chaos. With more than 99% of the population being Muslim – Christians are considered “high-value” targets. One does not even have to actually convert to Christianity. Merely being suspected of converting can end one’s life.
This can create a culture of suspicion where everyone suspects everyone of being capable of being a Christian. As a result, Muslims are known to exaggerate their hate for Christianity so that they will not be accused of apostasy.
Somalia has no single government in control of the entire country. Police are controlled by whichever dominant war lord is in charge for the day. If Christians are arrested or detained, they do not have a justice system to turn to.
Because of the lack of structure and the lack of concern among churches, Somalia tops our BTJ list. In North Korea the main enemy for Christians is the government. The government has absolute control and hunts Christians like animals, but in Somalia the enemy is … well…everyone. Everyone is capable of hunting down Christians and killing them.
As BTJ we work in both North Korea and Somalia and are currently on the ground in both nations. In our opinion, the lack of government structure makes it even more dangerous for Christians in Somalia than it is in North Korea.
Wait! Social media is NOT a country!
Wrong.
First, let’s looks at the size:
The country that poses the greatest threat to Christianity in the world
has more citizens than any nation in the world
has more Christians than any nation in the world
has more power than any other nation on earth in terms of influence – they can sway entire elections one way or the other
Google alone is the 19th richest nation with higher GDP than Switzerland and controls 20% of world’s media
Second, let’s look at the power and influence:
Social Media is connected in some way with every part of daily life, but the citizens do not get to vote. They do not get to appoint their ruler. They do not get equity from the profits that are made.
Think of this, Google either owns or are in contractual agreements with every major sector in the world including General Electric (energy), Proctor and Gamble (food and medicine), JP Morgan chase (money, banking, commerce). They are involved in oil, gas, insurance, military, communication, education, health care, real estate, TV and movies, aerospace – the Google founders are the only two people with their own runway at NASA.
Google has purchased one company a week since 2010.
Google is the top spender for lobbyists in the US and spends a lot of money in both Washington and Brussels to impose their will.
75% of lobbyists for Google are former government employees.
Under President Obama’s administration there were 250 employees that kept changing jobs – working for the White House – then Google – then back.
An anti-trust think tank in Washington that helps write anti-trust laws is funded by….yes…. Google.
Third, let’s evaluate the persecution:
It is true that the executives of Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc have not nailed Christians to crosses and crucified them.
So, then why are they are the top of the list?
Because when it comes to persecution against Christians, social media is the most powerful nation in the world capable of wielding more pain on Christians than any single nation on earth.
And they have already shown signs of aggression against Christians.
For Christmas 2017, BTJ did a podcast with a newly purchased Google Home. Google Home sold more units for Christmas 2017 than at any other time – yet when asked for information about the holiday for Christmas – Google Home did not know. In addition to that, when asked for information about Jesus Christ – again – nothing.
BUT! When we asked Google Home about Muhammad – there was a lot of great and positive information given regarding the “Prophet of Peace.” When we asked Google Home about Buddha – yes – again information came flowing out like a river.
During the same year, on June 24, 2017, Rowaida Abdelaziz, the Muslim social media editor of Huffpost and formerly with Al Jazeera Arabic, published a pro-Muslim propaganda piece titled, “Google Search Is Doing Irreparable Harm To Muslims” in which she claimed BillionBibles.org is harming Muslims by discussing Sharia Law and Taqiyya.
Two days later, Google stopped serving advertisements for BillionBibles.org. Google then suddenly labelled BillionBibles.org information “dangerous or derogatory content,” which it in turn defined as content that “threatens or advocates for harm” or “harasses, intimidates or bullies” or “incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group of individuals.”
BillionBibles.org simply shared information to their readers to encourage supporters to help provide Bibles in Muslim nations. They were blocked anyway.
China’s Christians are the ‘canary in the coal mine’ right now, because of the digital threat that we are seeing from WeChat and search engine Baidu.com.
In China, social media is increasingly being used against Christians.
Two years ago, in the mega-city of Nansha District, a large municipality of Guangzhou, China issued their first government ID by using WeChat, a social media app used in China like Facebook. This was a test of the digital ID system. It was successful and now China is requiring all citizens to have a digital ID that is connected to WeChat.
WeChat is the world’s first mega-app. According to security analysts, this trend highlights the increasing reliance of the Chinese government on government controlled social media.
China sees social media as a way to monitor their citizens and follow their activities. Christians have been one of their top targets. So far it has been successful. The government now knows that they can effectively use technology companies and these technology companies know that there are large profits for those that play along with the Chinese government.
GOOGLE, Apple, and Facebook are lining up to be next to profit from this breakthrough technology in China.
Never before in the history of man has a government ID been implemented by a social media company to promote public policy.
This might seem confusing for so many Christians because for the past 20 years, online media has greatly helped Christians who have been long locked out of mainstream TV networks, big magazines, academia, and government.
In the past ten years, social media has let Christians find each other and champion causes and speak up for persecuted Christians. It has been a wonderful way to share messages and ideas. Back to Jerusalem has over 35k followers on Facebook and other ministries and mission organizations can say the same. As a result, many Christians have gladly and enthusiastically signed up for accounts on Facebook, Google, and YouTube. Many of the people reading this article hold an iPhone or Android powered device.
Unfortunately, things are changing. There is a new boss in town.
Once China had most of their population using the social media giant WeChat, they then began using it for control. Once Christians got used to using WeChat, China was able to use it to track them down, monitor their conversation, and map their activities.
Social media outlets in the west seem to be doing the same. Now that most Christians are all rounded up in one place online, what they have to say is being greatly censored and what they are able to see is fed to them.
“Chillingly, a growing censorship of Christian and politically conservative viewpoints on the internet is happening,” said the National Religious Broadcasters, a group set up in 1944 to combat corporate censorship of evangelical radio ministries.
Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube are now routinely monitoring and censoring Christian messages online and increasingly finding themselves taking the side of those who persecute Christians.
These are private companies, so there should be an easy fix, right? Well, if Google is helping write the anti-trust laws – that is not certain.
Yes, but Christians could just easily switch to a service that is pro-Christian right?
Wrong.
Apple and Google have partnered together to prevent their platforms from being used to facilitate applications that allow free speech. That means that if you have an Android or Apple product, as are most devices around the world, then you would not be able to use a free speech application that would rival Twitter or Facebook.
They are able to do this by claiming that free speech is equal to hate speech. In fact, Christian teachings equal hate speech.
What is hate speech?
Anything that would go against Islam could be labelled Islamophobic. Anything that would be pro-family values as characterized by the Bible could be labelled as hate speech against homosexuals. Anything that promotes the sanctity of life could be viewed as hate speech against women’s rights.
When social media app GAB was launched as a Christian answer to the increasing censorship of Twitter and Facebook, Apple and Google immediately blocked access to their platforms stating that GAB was a pro-Nazi program used for racism and hate.
Christians, not wanting to be identified with hate and racism, have naturally distanced themselves from any program like GAB and have stayed with Facebook and Twitter.
However, GAB does not seem to be making any deals with the Chinese government at the moment, whereas Facebook, Google, and Apple are standing at the door, appearing ready to sign a deal with the Communist government.
Almost EVERY DAY there is a new Christian group being censored, blocked, or persecuted by Facebook, YouTube, Google, or Apple.
Sometimes it feels like the US government or the UN should step in and do something to limit the power of these giants – but that is the LAST thing that we would want to happen. Mark Zuckerberg is practically begging for the government to step in – why? Because if the government steps in and creates rules, Mr. Zuckerberg knows that his company, Facebook (as well as many like-minded companies and CEOs), would help write those rules. Those new government regulations would not give more free speech, instead they would hand more power to the social media giants to continue running their monopoly.
Exactly 70 years ago George Orwell wrote the bestselling dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” The 1949 Orwellian classic has somehow clawed its way to multiple bestseller lists in 2019.
The sudden up-tick of sales of this book is no coincidence. Without a crystal ball or Mayan Calendar, George Orwell wrote an eerily accurate account of a government known as Big Brother that closely monitored its citizens and controlled what they think and everything that they did.
Big Brother used telescreens, fearmongering, media control, and corruption to control the masses.
What is happening to Christians in China today is very similar and large social media giants in the West are following.
Now that people are dependent on social media in China, China has now introduced a social credit score. The social credit score is based on the activities that the Chinese government can see on your account. They look at where you have been, who your friends are, how you spend your free time, how you do at your job and determine a “trust-worthy” score.
This “trust-worthy” score is directly targeting Christians.
If you do things that the government does not like – like go to church or hang out with known Christians – then your score is lowered.
In China, a low score prohibits you from buying plane tickets, train tickets, a passport, restricts your job opportunities, restricts access to medical care, and even keeps your children from getting into school.
Many Chinese Christians today are being evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, and unfriended on social media because they have low social credit scores.
Like “1984,” China is attempting to social engineer a society that does exactly as the Communist regime desires.
China is not alone. Large social media corporations have been watching China and adopting some of their ideas.
Social media giant Facebook for instance, has admitted to developing their own “trust-worthy” score that is similar to China’s. It is not yet as extreme as China’s, but like China, users that have a pattern of supporting traditional Christian values in terms of the value of life or the nuclear family are finding themselves blocked, removed, or ‘shadow-banned.’
Other nations Between the Walls have been watching and they like how China has been able to use social media to persecute Christians.
Now China is working with the United Nations to implement new facial recognition and surveillance standards connected to social media accounts. This is according to leaked documents obtained by Financial Times.
Chinese companies that have military connections are creating UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) infrastructure for facial recognition, video monitoring, city and vehicle surveillance.
The ITU initiatives in the UN, which comprises nearly 200 member states, are commonly adopted as policy by developing nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where the Chinese government has agreed to supply infrastructure and surveillance tech under its “Belt and Road Initiative.”
Poor nations that want resources from China are more than willing to allow Beijing to take the lead to develop the very technology that has allowed the Communist Party to monitor the movement and activity of underground churches in China.
The Chinese companies that are involved in the UN communications program are obligated by law to submit their plans and data to the government upon request.
This means that it will soon be possible for China and other nations to observe, monitor, and track BTJ missionaries working in other nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This also means that China and other nations will be able to observe, monitor, and track missionaries of other nationalities (like America, Canada, Brazil, UK, etc) as well.
This is what puts social media in the number one spot. All Christians will be affected by this.
It gets worse.
China is also turning every phone into a monitoring device.
Last September, China issued a requirement to all telecom operators to collect face scans when registering new phone users.
So, when you buy a new phone in China, you will be required to scan your face so that it can be attached to your phone in order to have more accurate monitoring by the Chinese government.
China is already using the monitoring devices to track down and persecute anyone that says things that they do not like.
On December 2nd, a video was posted online by www.infowars.com that showed a man strapped in a metal chair where he was interrogated and disciplined for an unknown amount of time for simply posting unfavorable content about the police.
He posted the comments anonymously, but because of the increased sophistication of China’s monitoring system, the man was quickly identified and arrested. He was then placed in a chair that looked like a mid-evil torture device and interrogated.
Christians who have shared unfavorable information on social media have been blocked from using the Internet, renting apartments, getting jobs, flying on airplanes, obtaining passports, sending their children to university or traveling on public trains.
Now China is helping to write the standards, make the law, and build the infrastructure for the United Nations to do the same?
This does not seem like the best idea.
On December 28, 2019, things took a really bad turn when the United Nations moved to approve a Russian-sponsored and China-backed resolution that aims to create a new convention on cybercrime. These are two nations that restrict web access and use the Internet to identify, track, and persecute Christians.
The resolution was approved by the general assembly by a vote of 79-60, with 33 abstentions.
The resolution establishes an expert committee representing all regions of the world “to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes.”
The list of sponsors for this UN resolution is a who’s who of the most repressive governments in the world that persecute Christians.
Conclusion
2020 might be a year when Christians start to push back and change the direction for social media, but it will not take place without prayer and action.
Because of the power that social media has in their hand, BTJ is hosting an annual hacker’s conference. At the hacker’s conference BTJ is looking for ways to expand the social media site www.dingdash.com and develop new ways for e-commerce.
https://backtojerusalem.com/btj-2020-list-of-top-10-most-dangerous-countries-to-be-a-christian/
Back to Jerusalem has been working together with the underground house church of China in different nations between China and Jerusalem to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Most of the nations where BTJ missionaries serve are between the Great Wall of China and the Western Wall of Jerusalem. These nations are home to about 2/3rds of the world’s population.
The area between China and Jerusalem is considered to be the final frontier of missions. The majority of the world’s unreached people groups, those that have not heard the good news of Jesus Christ, are located here.
This area is also high on the misery index. Many of the nations between China and Jerusalem are full of violence, poverty, disease and military conflict. It is where the enemy is creating most resistance against the Gospel message.
Most nations between China and Jerusalem are intolerant of Christianity and show extreme aggression towards anyone who tries to share about the love of Jesus. The persecution against Christians in this region is growing.
In 2019, the British government grew concerned about increasing level of persecution against Christians and sponsored a study. When the study was released in July 2019, it revealed shocking evidence that the persecution against Christians is ‘near genocide’ levels.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said, “The sense of misguided political correctness that has stopped us standing up for Christians overseas must end. At home we all benefit from living in a tolerant, diverse society and we should not be afraid of promoting those values abroad. It is a sad fact that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in modern times.”
According to the study, an estimated one-third of the world’s population suffers from religious persecution in some form, with 80% of them being Christians. “Across the globe, in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, Christians are being bullied, arrested, jailed, expelled, and executed. Christianity is by most calculations the most persecuted religion of modern times.”
According to recent data, one Christian is killed for his or her faith every 180 minutes.
This report is not meant to spark fear or anger into the hearts of Christians, but instead to shed light on the suffering of fellow believers around the world and to better understand those that are living in darkness.
True followers of Jesus Christ must launch a rescue mission to make the salvation of Christ known among the most unreached people groups no matter the cost. As Christians we have all been charged with completing the Great Commission and we cannot shy away from the areas that require sacrifice. We cannot ignore our brothers and sisters who need us to stand in solidarity with them. Christians can no longer remain silent about the human rights abuses that are taking place in closed countries.
To highlight the need, Back to Jerusalem is publishing a simple list of the ten most dangerous countries to be a Christian in the world today.
The following list is based on personal experience as well as reports of missionaries in the field.
China went off the rails in 2019. The Chinese Communist Party seems more determined than ever to stop the radical growth of Christianity at all costs. In the last year China has implemented new laws and new strategies specifically aimed at persecuting Christians. They have imprisoned thousands of Christians, torn down tens of thousands of crosses, and closed the doors of hundreds of churches.
Not only are Chinese Christian pastors being targeted, but their children are being persecuted as well.
China has implemented an electronic monitoring and commerce system that is not unlike the ‘Mark of the Beast’ mentioned in Revelation 13. They help other countries implement similar systems as well.
China has also undertaken the audacious project of working on a new Bible translation that will provide a new ‘socialist-friendly’ version of the Gospel writings. China believes that if they can succeed in changing the Word of God, they can succeed at controlling the Christian growth in China.
China ranks in the top ten for BTJ this year because of their aggressive activities on so many fronts against so many believers in such a short amount of time.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, comes as no surprise. Islam started on the Arabic peninsula by killing and enslaving Christians and Jews. That tradition continues to this day. Saudi Arabia can no more remove itself from Islamic extremism than the Vatican can remove itself from the practice of Catholicism.
Sadly, when it comes to violence against Christians, Islamic nations continue to be the worst violators.
Rape and sexual harassment of expatriate Christian women is a huge problem. Christian women from poor countries are especially vulnerable.
Secret Saudi Christians risk imprisonment, physical abuse and even death if they are discovered. Islam is the only recognized religion in Saudi Arabia. It is a capital offense for any Muslim to convert to Christianity, so Christians are forced to meet in secret. Non-Muslim meeting places are not allowed. According to the Hadith (traditional record of Muhammad’s life and teachings) on his death bed Muhammad declared, “There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula.”
The Royal family of Saudi Arabia consider themselves to be the caretakers of Mecca and have diligently enforced Sharia Law to honor the final request of Muhammad.
Sudan is a notorious abuser of Christians and has been for the last 30 years. Convicted war criminal Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir was deposed a few months ago in a coup d’état, but it is not yet known if things will be better under the new leadership.
Sudanese Christians face constant persecution. Multiple church buildings were demolished in 2017 and 2018, leaving many Christians without a place to worship.
Few can forget the tragic story of Mariam Ibrahim Ishag who was thrown in prison for apostasy. Mariam was a pregnant mother who had been arrested and thrown into prison along with her young child because she refused to deny the name of Christ. Her one-year-old son was chained to her and forced to live in the squalor of a Sudanese prison.
Miriam was convicted of apostasy for not following the religion of her Muslim father even though she had been raised as a Christian by her Ethiopian mother. The court ruled that, while pregnant, she was to receive 100 lashes and publicly hanged.
Miriam’s tragic story unfortunately is repeated again and again for so many Christians in Sudan.
Uzbekistan? Huh?
Welcome to Uzbekistan where Christian persecution has been on the rise for several years. Uzbekistan is the central Asian country with the most severe restrictions on Christians. Simply owning a Bible has become a high crime. Reports of Christians being imprisoned for owning religious books have been on the rise.
Uzbekistan was under Russian control for many years and when they won their independence there was a hope in the Christian community that things would be better for them. Those hopes have been slowly fading. Believers can now even be fined for having Christians songs on their phone.
Christians make up almost ten percent of the population, but as of late they find themselves living under a harsh dictatorship of an Islamic majority. Religious authorities have launched a secret police force to raid underground house churches and disrupt all illegal Christian activity in the country. The secret police have very few rules restricting rabid abuse, so when they discover Christian activity, their procedures can be cruel and barbaric.
Azon.uz is a radical website that often acts as the voice of even moderate Muslims in Uzbekistan. One of the leaders, Said Islam wrote, “We have one choice in front of us – either we will abandon our religion, or we will live by Allah’s rules.”
Sharia Law is the legislation that is being used to oppress Christians. Muslim converts to Christianity are receiving a treatment even worse than what cultural Christians get to endure.
Uzbekistan has a long history of respecting other religious groups. Our prayer is that Uzbekistan will find their way back to these traditional cultural values that allow for religious freedom.
There is a disease in Iran right now called A.B.I syndrome – ‘Anything But Islam’. It is not just the Christians who have suffered in Iran. People of all religious backgrounds have been held captive by the suffocating power of Islam for four decades and are clearly fed up with it.
The opposition against the Ayatollah’s regime is rising to dangerous levels and today they can only rule the nation with constant threats of violence. In the face of these threats and the resulting fear in which people live, Christians are bringing hope. But it is not without cost.
The Islamic clerics of Iran view Christians as their top enemy. Christians are regularly attacked, beaten, and thrown in prison.
“The government is so afraid of Christians,” one sister shared with BTJ in Sweden, “that they employed teachers like me to find them. I was a teacher in Iran for many years and my job was to play games with the children to find out which of them had parents that were secret Christian believers. Once I learned which children came from Christian homes, I would inform the government and they would send in the secret police to raid the home.”
Christians are regularly placed in maximum security prisons and tortured for their Christian beliefs.
Bibles, Christian teaching materials, and Christian music are illegal in Iran. Currently there are no Persian speaking churches allowed in Iran, but our prayer is to see that change soon.
One word can be used to describe the situation for Christians in Yemen – EXTREME!
Yemen was the first nation on the Arab peninsula to receive Back to Jerusalem missionaries almost twenty years ago, so it is special to us. However, sharing the Gospel in Yemen is risky business. If you are caught spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, it could mean a death sentence.
As if things were not hard enough for Christians in Yemen, now the nation is also torn apart by civil war. The chaos of war has helped radical Sharia Law become the law of the land. Nowhere is safe for Christians in Yemen.
The original Christian minority in Yemen is tiny. Most of the Christians in Yemen are Muslim Background Believers (MBBs). Illegal underground house-church services are the only way in which Christians are able to meet together and worship Jesus.
If Yemeni MBBs are discovered, they face extreme danger on many different fronts. They face persecution from the government, their families, and their neighborhood. If a family member murders a known Christian convert, they would most likely not be punished, but rewarded.
If a convert is married, then they risk losing their marriage and their children. Sharia Law in Yemen dictates that apostasy is a reason for divorce and Christians are not fit to raise children.
Welcome to the land of 48,000 mosques and not even one church.
In Afghanistan, even moderate Muslims can experience persecution if they are not extreme enough in the public displays of their faith. Public displays of religious piety are encouraged by the Islamic social structure. Islam is knit into the fabric of everyday life and Christians need not apply.
Afghanistan is a nation that was run by the Taliban for many years and many would argue that it is still run by the Taliban. After the war (which is still on-going) the United States poured billions of dollars into the nation to build up the infrastructure. Money was given for roads, schools, and public buildings. Funding was injected to jump-start the economy, but to no avail.
In the end, the religious leaders rejected it all and regained their grip on the people.
Afghanistan can barely go a week without a bombing or killing of some kind. Killing fellow Muslims over disagreements is routine, so people do not think twice about dealing harshly with Christians.
The basic freedoms that Christians in the west take for granted are not enjoyed in Afghanistan, but BTJ missionaries are focused on bringing the Good News to this nation and seeing the people set free by the love of Jesus Christ.
Yes, number three. Are you surprised?
So many Christians have seen North Korea at the top of the list for so many years that they just assume that it will always be the worst country to be a Christian.
In case you are wondering, North Korea did not drop to the number three spot because life has gotten better. It has dropped the third spot because life in other places has grown worse for Christians.
Let’s face it, there is no other nation on earth like North Korea. Visiting North Korea is like leaving planet earth. Nothing about the society is based on reality. It is all based on fear. Traffic cops direct traffic in the capital city of Pyongyang – even when there are no cars on the road. Immigration agents type on computers – that are not plugged in. North Korea is officially an atheist state, but the deification and required worship of Kim Il Song, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un is undeniable.
Pastors have been executed in stadiums full of forced spectators, Bible study attendees have had their heads crushed by steam rollers, and new believers have been shot in the back of the head for owning a Bible.
Several thousand known Christians are currently imprisoned in gulags where they are forced to work in coal mines.
There are truly few places on earth that are as close to a living hell as is North Korea.
Somalia is the land that has been forgotten. They are a nation without a lot of natural resources, so the west shows no interest in helping with the humanitarian crisis that has plagued the land for several generations.
About half of Somalia’s population lives in extreme poverty and needs aid to survive. There is a never-ending conflict between Islamic warlords fighting for control of the nation. Unfortunately, any group that attempts to provide relief is a target for attack or kidnapping.
Somalia is a breeding ground for terrorist training camps and Islamic extremist teachings.
Suicide bombs and kidnappings are weekly events and Christians are an unwilling part of this chaos. With more than 99% of the population being Muslim – Christians are considered “high-value” targets. One does not even have to actually convert to Christianity. Merely being suspected of converting can end one’s life.
This can create a culture of suspicion where everyone suspects everyone of being capable of being a Christian. As a result, Muslims are known to exaggerate their hate for Christianity so that they will not be accused of apostasy.
Somalia has no single government in control of the entire country. Police are controlled by whichever dominant war lord is in charge for the day. If Christians are arrested or detained, they do not have a justice system to turn to.
Because of the lack of structure and the lack of concern among churches, Somalia tops our BTJ list. In North Korea the main enemy for Christians is the government. The government has absolute control and hunts Christians like animals, but in Somalia the enemy is … well…everyone. Everyone is capable of hunting down Christians and killing them.
As BTJ we work in both North Korea and Somalia and are currently on the ground in both nations. In our opinion, the lack of government structure makes it even more dangerous for Christians in Somalia than it is in North Korea.
Wait! Social media is NOT a country!
Wrong.
First, let’s looks at the size:
The country that poses the greatest threat to Christianity in the world
has more citizens than any nation in the world
has more Christians than any nation in the world
has more power than any other nation on earth in terms of influence – they can sway entire elections one way or the other
Google alone is the 19th richest nation with higher GDP than Switzerland and controls 20% of world’s media
Second, let’s look at the power and influence:
Social Media is connected in some way with every part of daily life, but the citizens do not get to vote. They do not get to appoint their ruler. They do not get equity from the profits that are made.
Think of this, Google either owns or are in contractual agreements with every major sector in the world including General Electric (energy), Proctor and Gamble (food and medicine), JP Morgan chase (money, banking, commerce). They are involved in oil, gas, insurance, military, communication, education, health care, real estate, TV and movies, aerospace – the Google founders are the only two people with their own runway at NASA.
Google has purchased one company a week since 2010.
Google is the top spender for lobbyists in the US and spends a lot of money in both Washington and Brussels to impose their will.
75% of lobbyists for Google are former government employees.
Under President Obama’s administration there were 250 employees that kept changing jobs – working for the White House – then Google – then back.
An anti-trust think tank in Washington that helps write anti-trust laws is funded by….yes…. Google.
Third, let’s evaluate the persecution:
It is true that the executives of Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc have not nailed Christians to crosses and crucified them.
So, then why are they are the top of the list?
Because when it comes to persecution against Christians, social media is the most powerful nation in the world capable of wielding more pain on Christians than any single nation on earth.
And they have already shown signs of aggression against Christians.
For Christmas 2017, BTJ did a podcast with a newly purchased Google Home. Google Home sold more units for Christmas 2017 than at any other time – yet when asked for information about the holiday for Christmas – Google Home did not know. In addition to that, when asked for information about Jesus Christ – again – nothing.
BUT! When we asked Google Home about Muhammad – there was a lot of great and positive information given regarding the “Prophet of Peace.” When we asked Google Home about Buddha – yes – again information came flowing out like a river.
During the same year, on June 24, 2017, Rowaida Abdelaziz, the Muslim social media editor of Huffpost and formerly with Al Jazeera Arabic, published a pro-Muslim propaganda piece titled, “Google Search Is Doing Irreparable Harm To Muslims” in which she claimed BillionBibles.org is harming Muslims by discussing Sharia Law and Taqiyya.
Two days later, Google stopped serving advertisements for BillionBibles.org. Google then suddenly labelled BillionBibles.org information “dangerous or derogatory content,” which it in turn defined as content that “threatens or advocates for harm” or “harasses, intimidates or bullies” or “incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group of individuals.”
BillionBibles.org simply shared information to their readers to encourage supporters to help provide Bibles in Muslim nations. They were blocked anyway.
China’s Christians are the ‘canary in the coal mine’ right now, because of the digital threat that we are seeing from WeChat and search engine Baidu.com.
In China, social media is increasingly being used against Christians.
Two years ago, in the mega-city of Nansha District, a large municipality of Guangzhou, China issued their first government ID by using WeChat, a social media app used in China like Facebook. This was a test of the digital ID system. It was successful and now China is requiring all citizens to have a digital ID that is connected to WeChat.
WeChat is the world’s first mega-app. According to security analysts, this trend highlights the increasing reliance of the Chinese government on government controlled social media.
China sees social media as a way to monitor their citizens and follow their activities. Christians have been one of their top targets. So far it has been successful. The government now knows that they can effectively use technology companies and these technology companies know that there are large profits for those that play along with the Chinese government.
GOOGLE, Apple, and Facebook are lining up to be next to profit from this breakthrough technology in China.
Never before in the history of man has a government ID been implemented by a social media company to promote public policy.
This might seem confusing for so many Christians because for the past 20 years, online media has greatly helped Christians who have been long locked out of mainstream TV networks, big magazines, academia, and government.
In the past ten years, social media has let Christians find each other and champion causes and speak up for persecuted Christians. It has been a wonderful way to share messages and ideas. Back to Jerusalem has over 35k followers on Facebook and other ministries and mission organizations can say the same. As a result, many Christians have gladly and enthusiastically signed up for accounts on Facebook, Google, and YouTube. Many of the people reading this article hold an iPhone or Android powered device.
Unfortunately, things are changing. There is a new boss in town.
Once China had most of their population using the social media giant WeChat, they then began using it for control. Once Christians got used to using WeChat, China was able to use it to track them down, monitor their conversation, and map their activities.
Social media outlets in the west seem to be doing the same. Now that most Christians are all rounded up in one place online, what they have to say is being greatly censored and what they are able to see is fed to them.
“Chillingly, a growing censorship of Christian and politically conservative viewpoints on the internet is happening,” said the National Religious Broadcasters, a group set up in 1944 to combat corporate censorship of evangelical radio ministries.
Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube are now routinely monitoring and censoring Christian messages online and increasingly finding themselves taking the side of those who persecute Christians.
These are private companies, so there should be an easy fix, right? Well, if Google is helping write the anti-trust laws – that is not certain.
Yes, but Christians could just easily switch to a service that is pro-Christian right?
Wrong.
Apple and Google have partnered together to prevent their platforms from being used to facilitate applications that allow free speech. That means that if you have an Android or Apple product, as are most devices around the world, then you would not be able to use a free speech application that would rival Twitter or Facebook.
They are able to do this by claiming that free speech is equal to hate speech. In fact, Christian teachings equal hate speech.
What is hate speech?
Anything that would go against Islam could be labelled Islamophobic. Anything that would be pro-family values as characterized by the Bible could be labelled as hate speech against homosexuals. Anything that promotes the sanctity of life could be viewed as hate speech against women’s rights.
When social media app GAB was launched as a Christian answer to the increasing censorship of Twitter and Facebook, Apple and Google immediately blocked access to their platforms stating that GAB was a pro-Nazi program used for racism and hate.
Christians, not wanting to be identified with hate and racism, have naturally distanced themselves from any program like GAB and have stayed with Facebook and Twitter.
However, GAB does not seem to be making any deals with the Chinese government at the moment, whereas Facebook, Google, and Apple are standing at the door, appearing ready to sign a deal with the Communist government.
Almost EVERY DAY there is a new Christian group being censored, blocked, or persecuted by Facebook, YouTube, Google, or Apple.
Sometimes it feels like the US government or the UN should step in and do something to limit the power of these giants – but that is the LAST thing that we would want to happen. Mark Zuckerberg is practically begging for the government to step in – why? Because if the government steps in and creates rules, Mr. Zuckerberg knows that his company, Facebook (as well as many like-minded companies and CEOs), would help write those rules. Those new government regulations would not give more free speech, instead they would hand more power to the social media giants to continue running their monopoly.
Exactly 70 years ago George Orwell wrote the bestselling dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” The 1949 Orwellian classic has somehow clawed its way to multiple bestseller lists in 2019.
The sudden up-tick of sales of this book is no coincidence. Without a crystal ball or Mayan Calendar, George Orwell wrote an eerily accurate account of a government known as Big Brother that closely monitored its citizens and controlled what they think and everything that they did.
Big Brother used telescreens, fearmongering, media control, and corruption to control the masses.
What is happening to Christians in China today is very similar and large social media giants in the West are following.
Now that people are dependent on social media in China, China has now introduced a social credit score. The social credit score is based on the activities that the Chinese government can see on your account. They look at where you have been, who your friends are, how you spend your free time, how you do at your job and determine a “trust-worthy” score.
This “trust-worthy” score is directly targeting Christians.
If you do things that the government does not like – like go to church or hang out with known Christians – then your score is lowered.
In China, a low score prohibits you from buying plane tickets, train tickets, a passport, restricts your job opportunities, restricts access to medical care, and even keeps your children from getting into school.
Many Chinese Christians today are being evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, and unfriended on social media because they have low social credit scores.
Like “1984,” China is attempting to social engineer a society that does exactly as the Communist regime desires.
China is not alone. Large social media corporations have been watching China and adopting some of their ideas.
Social media giant Facebook for instance, has admitted to developing their own “trust-worthy” score that is similar to China’s. It is not yet as extreme as China’s, but like China, users that have a pattern of supporting traditional Christian values in terms of the value of life or the nuclear family are finding themselves blocked, removed, or ‘shadow-banned.’
Other nations Between the Walls have been watching and they like how China has been able to use social media to persecute Christians.
Now China is working with the United Nations to implement new facial recognition and surveillance standards connected to social media accounts. This is according to leaked documents obtained by Financial Times.
Chinese companies that have military connections are creating UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) infrastructure for facial recognition, video monitoring, city and vehicle surveillance.
The ITU initiatives in the UN, which comprises nearly 200 member states, are commonly adopted as policy by developing nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where the Chinese government has agreed to supply infrastructure and surveillance tech under its “Belt and Road Initiative.”
Poor nations that want resources from China are more than willing to allow Beijing to take the lead to develop the very technology that has allowed the Communist Party to monitor the movement and activity of underground churches in China.
The Chinese companies that are involved in the UN communications program are obligated by law to submit their plans and data to the government upon request.
This means that it will soon be possible for China and other nations to observe, monitor, and track BTJ missionaries working in other nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This also means that China and other nations will be able to observe, monitor, and track missionaries of other nationalities (like America, Canada, Brazil, UK, etc) as well.
This is what puts social media in the number one spot. All Christians will be affected by this.
It gets worse.
China is also turning every phone into a monitoring device.
Last September, China issued a requirement to all telecom operators to collect face scans when registering new phone users.
So, when you buy a new phone in China, you will be required to scan your face so that it can be attached to your phone in order to have more accurate monitoring by the Chinese government.
China is already using the monitoring devices to track down and persecute anyone that says things that they do not like.
On December 2nd, a video was posted online by www.infowars.com that showed a man strapped in a metal chair where he was interrogated and disciplined for an unknown amount of time for simply posting unfavorable content about the police.
He posted the comments anonymously, but because of the increased sophistication of China’s monitoring system, the man was quickly identified and arrested. He was then placed in a chair that looked like a mid-evil torture device and interrogated.
Christians who have shared unfavorable information on social media have been blocked from using the Internet, renting apartments, getting jobs, flying on airplanes, obtaining passports, sending their children to university or traveling on public trains.
Now China is helping to write the standards, make the law, and build the infrastructure for the United Nations to do the same?
This does not seem like the best idea.
On December 28, 2019, things took a really bad turn when the United Nations moved to approve a Russian-sponsored and China-backed resolution that aims to create a new convention on cybercrime. These are two nations that restrict web access and use the Internet to identify, track, and persecute Christians.
The resolution was approved by the general assembly by a vote of 79-60, with 33 abstentions.
The resolution establishes an expert committee representing all regions of the world “to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes.”
The list of sponsors for this UN resolution is a who’s who of the most repressive governments in the world that persecute Christians.
Conclusion
2020 might be a year when Christians start to push back and change the direction for social media, but it will not take place without prayer and action.
Because of the power that social media has in their hand, BTJ is hosting an annual hacker’s conference. At the hacker’s conference BTJ is looking for ways to expand the social media site www.dingdash.com and develop new ways for e-commerce.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Five Sentenced To Life For Torture And Murder Of Christians In Turkey
Men carry the coffin of Tilmann Geske at a cemetery in Malatya, April 20 2007.Reuters
By Carey Lodge - Christian Today Journalist - 29 September 2016
The torture and killing of three Christians in Turkey in 2007 has seen five men sentenced to prison after being found guilty of premeditated murder.
Tilmann Geske, a 45-year-old German missionary, Uğur Yüksel, 32, and Necati Aydın, 36 – the latter both Turks who had converted from Islam to Christianity – were bound together, tortured and then had their throats slit in the office of the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, southeastern Turkey, on Easter Sunday in 2007.
The defendants were found and arrested at the publishing house – which printed Bibles – immediately after the crime. A number of other people were arrested later in connection with the incident.
In total, 21 defendants stood trial on Wednesday in the 115th hearing of the case. The five men found guilty of premeditated murder – Emre Günaydın, Cuma Özdemir, Hamit Çeker, Salih Gürler and Abuzer Yıldırım – received three consecutive life sentences each.
Two military officers were sentenced to 14 years in prison for "violating secret communications and forging official documents" and 16 people were acquitted.
Necati Aydin, one of the three victims killed in the attack.Reuters
According to Christianity Today, some local Christians say Gunaydin pretended to be interested in Christianity in order to get close to the three men killed.
Rev Ihsan Ozbek of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey said Gunaydin's last words in court on Wednesday showed no sign of remorse. "I am thankful that I did not shame my country or cause any embarrassment," Gunaydin said.
Though the perpetrators were yesterday found guilty, they were allowed to walk free from court because they have already served five years in detention – the legal limit for detention pending trial in Turkey – and their case now moves to the Court of Appeals.
This has caused outrage among campaigners, as the suspects were already released from prison in March 2007 on condition they wore electronic bracelets.
"Of course the legal process will continue as the case proceeds to the regional administrative court, and then will go to the Supreme Court. This process can take years, and the killers of our brothers brutally murdered can move around freely for years to come. The repeated postponement of the punishment they deserve severely wounds confidence in justice," Ozbek said in a statement.
"As the Protestant community we want the procedure for the case to be performed quickly in order that the trial will be brought to a just conclusion with the punishment of the perpetrators. We hope that the dark powers... will be brought to light soon."
Turkey has a strong Christian heritage – the apostle Paul and Timothy were both born there, and the city of Antioch, now Antakya, was known as "the cradle of Christianity" – but a series of genocides in the early 20th century killed much of the Christian population. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 also forced many Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Georgians to leave the country, and the population of Turkey is now more than 97 per cent Muslim.
The torture and killing of three Christians in Turkey in 2007 has seen five men sentenced to prison after being found guilty of premeditated murder.
Tilmann Geske, a 45-year-old German missionary, Uğur Yüksel, 32, and Necati Aydın, 36 – the latter both Turks who had converted from Islam to Christianity – were bound together, tortured and then had their throats slit in the office of the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, southeastern Turkey, on Easter Sunday in 2007.
The defendants were found and arrested at the publishing house – which printed Bibles – immediately after the crime. A number of other people were arrested later in connection with the incident.
In total, 21 defendants stood trial on Wednesday in the 115th hearing of the case. The five men found guilty of premeditated murder – Emre Günaydın, Cuma Özdemir, Hamit Çeker, Salih Gürler and Abuzer Yıldırım – received three consecutive life sentences each.
Two military officers were sentenced to 14 years in prison for "violating secret communications and forging official documents" and 16 people were acquitted.
Necati Aydin, one of the three victims killed in the attack.ReutersAccording to Christianity Today, some local Christians say Gunaydin pretended to be interested in Christianity in order to get close to the three men killed.
Rev Ihsan Ozbek of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey said Gunaydin's last words in court on Wednesday showed no sign of remorse. "I am thankful that I did not shame my country or cause any embarrassment," Gunaydin said.
Though the perpetrators were yesterday found guilty, they were allowed to walk free from court because they have already served five years in detention – the legal limit for detention pending trial in Turkey – and their case now moves to the Court of Appeals.
This has caused outrage among campaigners, as the suspects were already released from prison in March 2007 on condition they wore electronic bracelets.
"Of course the legal process will continue as the case proceeds to the regional administrative court, and then will go to the Supreme Court. This process can take years, and the killers of our brothers brutally murdered can move around freely for years to come. The repeated postponement of the punishment they deserve severely wounds confidence in justice," Ozbek said in a statement.
"As the Protestant community we want the procedure for the case to be performed quickly in order that the trial will be brought to a just conclusion with the punishment of the perpetrators. We hope that the dark powers... will be brought to light soon."
Turkey has a strong Christian heritage – the apostle Paul and Timothy were both born there, and the city of Antioch, now Antakya, was known as "the cradle of Christianity" – but a series of genocides in the early 20th century killed much of the Christian population. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 also forced many Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Georgians to leave the country, and the population of Turkey is now more than 97 per cent Muslim.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Is This the End of Christianity in the Middle East?
By Eliza Griswold, NY Times, Magazine, July 22, 2015
There was something about Diyaa that his wife’s brothers didn’t like. He was a tyrant, they said, who, after 14 years of marriage, wouldn’t let their sister, Rana, 31, have her own mobile phone. He isolated her from friends and family, guarding her jealously. Although Diyaa and Rana were both from Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq, they didn’t know each other before their families arranged their marriage. It hadn’t gone especially well. Rana was childless, and according to the brothers, Diyaa was cheap. The house he rented was dilapidated, not fit for their sister to live in.
Qaraqosh is on the Nineveh Plain, a 1,500-square-mile plot of contested land that lies between Iraq’s Kurdish north and its Arab south. Until last summer, this was a flourishing city of 50,000, in Iraq’s breadbasket. Wheat fields and chicken and cattle farms surrounded a town filled with coffee shops, bars, barbers, gyms and other trappings of modern life.
Then, last June, ISIS took Mosul, less than 20 miles west. The militants painted a red Arabic “n,” for Nasrane, a slur, on Christian homes. They took over the municipal water supply, which feeds much of the Nineveh Plain. Many residents who managed to escape fled to Qaraqosh, bringing with them tales of summary executions and mass beheadings. The people of Qaraqosh feared that ISIS would continue to extend the group’s self-styled caliphate, which now stretches from Turkey’s border with Syria to south of Fallujah in Iraq, an area roughly the size of Indiana.
In the weeks before advancing on Qaraqosh, ISIS cut the city’s water. As the wells dried up, some left and others talked about where they might go. In July, reports that ISIS was about to take Qaraqosh sent thousands fleeing, but ISIS didn’t arrive, and within a couple of days, most people returned. Diyaa refused to leave. He was sure ISIS wouldn’t take the town.
A week later, the Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, whom the Iraqi government had charged with defending Qaraqosh, retreated. (“We didn’t have the weapons to stop them,” Jabbar Yawar, the secretary general of the peshmerga, said later.) The city was defenseless; the Kurds had not allowed the people of the Nineveh Plain to arm themselves and had rounded up their weapons months earlier. Tens of thousands jammed into cars and fled along the narrow highway leading to the relative safety of Erbil, the Kurdish capital of Northern Iraq, 50 miles away.
Piling 10 family members into a Toyota pickup, Rana’s brothers ran, too. From the road, they called Diyaa repeatedly, pleading with him to escape with Rana. “She can’t go,” Diyaa told one of Rana’s brothers, as the brother later recounted to me. “ISIS isn’t coming. This is all a lie.”
The next morning Diyaa and Rana woke to a nearly empty town. Only 100 or so people remained in Qaraqosh, mostly those too poor, old or ill to travel. A few, like Diyaa, hadn’t taken the threat seriously. One man passed out drunk in his backyard and woke the next morning to ISIS taking the town.
As Diyaa and Rana hid in their basement, ISIS broke into stores and looted them. Over the next two weeks, militants rooted out most of the residents cowering in their homes, searching house to house. The armed men roamed Qaraqosh on foot and in pickups. They marked the walls of farms and businesses “Property of the Islamic State.” ISIS now held not just Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, but also Ramadi and Fallujah. (During the Iraq War, the fighting in these three places accounted for 30 percent of U.S. casualties.) In Qaraqosh, as in Mosul, ISIS offered residents a choice: They could either convert or pay the jizya, the head tax levied against all “People of the Book”: Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews. If they refused, they would be killed, raped or enslaved, their wealth taken as spoils of war.
No one came for Diyaa and Rana. ISIS hadn’t bothered to search inside their ramshackle house. Then, on the evening of Aug. 21, word spread that ISIS was willing to offer what they call “exile and hardship” to the last people in Qaraqosh. They would be cast out of their homes with nothing, but at least they would survive. A kindly local mullah was going door to door with the good news. Hoping to save Diyaa and Rana, their neighbors told him where they were hiding.
Diyaa and Rana readied themselves to leave. The last residents of Qaraqosh were to report the next morning to the local medical center, to receive “checkups” before being deported from the Islamic State. Everyone knew the checkups were really body searches to prevent residents from taking valuables out of Qaraqosh. Before ISIS let residents go–if they let them go–it was very likely they would steal everything they had, as residents heard they had done elsewhere.
Diyaa and Rana called their families to let them know what was happening. “Take nothing with you,” her brothers told Diyaa. But Diyaa, as usual, didn’t listen. He stuffed Rana’s clothes with money, gold, passports and their identity papers. Although she was terrified of being caught–she could be beheaded for taking goods from the Islamic State–Rana didn’t protest; she didn’t dare. According to her brothers, Diyaa could be violent. (Diyaa’s brother Nimrod disputed this, just as he does Diyaa’s alleged cheapness.)
At 7 the next morning, Diyaa and Rana made the five-minute walk from their home to Qaraqosh Medical Center Branch No. 2, a yellow building with red-and-green trim next to the city’s only mosque. As the crowd gathered, Diyaa phoned both his family and hers. “We’re standing in front of the medical center right now,” he said, as his brother-in-law recalled it. “There are buses and cars here. Thank God, they’re going to let us go.”
It was a searing day. Temperatures reach as high as 110 degrees on the Nineveh Plain in summer. By 9 a.m., ISIS had separated men from women. Seated in the crowd, the local ISIS emir, Saeed Abbas, surveyed the female prisoners. His eyes lit on Aida Hana Noah, 43, who was holding her 3-year-old daughter, Christina. Noah said she felt his gaze and gripped Christina closer. For two weeks, she’d been at home with her daughter and her husband, Khadr Azzou Abada, 65. He was blind, and Aida decided that the journey north would be too hard for him. So she sent her 25-year-old son with her three other children, who ranged in age from 10 to 13, to safety. She thought Christina too young to be without her mother.
ISIS scanned the separate groups of men and women. “You” and “you,” they pointed. Some of the captives realized what ISIS was doing, survivors told me later, dividing the young and healthy from the older and weak. One, Talal Abdul Ghani, placed a final call to his family before the fighters confiscated his phone. He had been publicly whipped for refusing to convert to Islam, as his sisters, who fled from other towns, later recounted. “Let me talk to everybody,” he wept. “I don’t think they’re letting me go.” It was the last time they heard from him.
No one was sure where either bus was going. As the jihadists directed the weaker and older to the first of two buses, one 49-year-old woman, Sahar, protested that she’d been separated from her husband, Adel. Although he was 61, he was healthy and strong and had been held back. One fighter reassured her, saying, “These others will follow.” Sahar, Aida and her blind husband, Khadr, boarded the first bus. The driver, a man they didn’t know, walked down the aisle. Without a word, he took Christina from her mother’s arms. “Please, in the name of God, give her back,” Aida pleaded. The driver carried Christina into the medical center. Then he returned without the child. As the people in the bus prayed to leave town, Aida kept begging for Christina. Finally, the driver went inside again. He came back empty-handed.
Aida has told this story before with slight variations. As she, her husband and another witness recounted it to me, she was pleading for her daughter when the emir himself appeared, flanked by two fighters. He was holding Christina against his chest. Aida fought her way off the bus.
“Please give me my daughter,” she said.
The emir cocked his head at his bodyguards.
“Get on the bus before we kill you,” one said.
Christina reached for her mother.
“Get on the bus before we slaughter your family,” he repeated.
As the bus rumbled north out of town, Aida sat crumpled in a seat next to her husband. Many of the 40-odd people on it began to weep. “We cried for Christina and ourselves,” Sahar said. The bus took a sharp right toward the Khazir River that marked an edge of the land ISIS had seized. Several minutes later, the driver stopped and ordered everyone off.
Led by a shepherd who had traveled this path with his flock, the sick and elderly descended and began to walk to the Khazir River. The journey took 12 hours.
The second bus–the one filled with the young and healthy–headed north, too. But instead of turning east, it turned west, toward Mosul. Among its captives was Diyaa. Rana wasn’t with him. She had been bundled into a third vehicle, a new four-wheel drive, along with an 18-year-old girl named Rita, who’d come to Qaraqosh to help her elderly father flee.
The women were driven to Mosul, where, the next day, Rana’s captor called her brothers. “If you come near her, I’ll blow the house up. I’m wearing a suicide vest,” he said. Then he passed the phone to Rana, who whispered, in Syriac, the story of what happened to her. Her brothers were afraid to ask any questions lest her answers make trouble for her. She said, “I’m taking care of a 3-year-old named Christina.”
For more than a decade, extremists have targeted Christians and other minorities, who often serve as stand-ins for the West. This was especially true in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, which caused hundreds of thousands to flee. “Since 2003, we’ve lost priests, bishops and more than 60 churches were bombed,” Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Erbil, said. With the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians began to leave Iraq in large numbers, and the population shrank to less than 500,000 today from as many as 1.5 million in 2003.
The Arab Spring only made things worse. As dictators like Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya were toppled, their longstanding protection of minorities also ended. Now, ISIS is looking to eradicate Christians and other minorities altogether. The group twists the early history of Christians in the region–their subjugation by the sword–to legitimize its millenarian enterprise. Recently, ISIS posted videos delineating the second-class status of Christians in the caliphate. Those unwilling to pay the jizya tax or to convert would be destroyed, the narrator warned, as the videos culminated in the now-infamous scenes of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians in Libya being marched onto the beach and beheaded, their blood running into the surf.
The future of Christianity in the region of its birth is now uncertain. “How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?” says Nuri Kino, a journalist and founder of the advocacy group Demand for Action. According to a Pew study, more Christians are now faced with religious persecution than at any time since their early history. “ISIL has put a spotlight on the issue,” says Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose parents are from the region and who advocates on behalf of Eastern Christians. “Christianity is under an existential threat.”
One of the main pipelines for Christians fleeing the Middle East runs through Lebanon. This spring, thousands of Christians from villages in northeastern Syria along the Khabur River found shelter in Lebanon as they fled an ISIS assault in which 230 people were seized for ransom. This wasn’t the first time that members of this tight-knit community had been driven from their homes. Many of these villagers were descendants of those who, in 1933, fled Iraq after a massacre of Assyrian Christians left 3,000 dead in one day.
On a recent Saturday, 50 of these refugees gathered for a funeral at the Assyrian Church of the East in Beirut, which sits on the steep slope of Mount Lebanon, not far from a BMW-Mini Cooper dealership and a Miss Virgin Jeans shop. The priest, the Rev. Sargon Zoumaya, buttoned his black cassock over a blue clerical shirt as he prepared to officiate over the burial of Benjamin Ishaya, who arrived just months before, displaced from one of the villages ISIS attacked. (He had died of complications following a head wound inflicted by a jihadist.)
“We’re afraid our whole society will vanish,” said Zoumaya, who left his Khabur River village more than a decade ago to study in Lebanon. He picked up his prayer book and headed downstairs to the parish house. The church was helping to care for 1,500 Syrian families. “It’s too much pressure on us, more than we can handle,” he said. The families didn’t want to live in the notoriously overcrowded Lebanese refugee camps that had filled with one-and-a-half million Syrians fleeing the civil war. They no longer wanted to live among Muslims. Instead they crammed into apartments with exorbitant rents that the church subsidized as best it could.
Inside the church, men and women sat in two separate circles. A young woman passed out Turkish coffee in paper cups. Waves of keening rose from the ring of women, led by Ishaya’s widow. Wearing an olive green suit, she sat at the head of the open coffin, weeping, as women touched her husband’s body. Nearby, her son, Bassam Ishaya, nursed two broken feet. He’d been trying to support his family by repairing couches until one dropped on him. The Ishaya family left Syria with nothing. ISIS, Bassam said, told them they “either had to pay the jizya, convert or be killed.” He pointed to a blue crucifix tattoo on his right arm. “Because of this, I had to wear long sleeves,” he said.
To escape, the Ishayas were airlifted from Al-Hasakah, a town in northeastern Syria, which had been under the joint control of the Assad government and the Kurds but has since largely fallen to ISIS, and flown 400 miles to Damascus. From there, they drove to the Lebanese border. Syrian Air charged $180 for the flights; Assad’s government charged $50 a person, the refugees at the funeral said.
Since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Assad has allowed Christians to leave the country. Nearly a third of Syria’s Christians, about 600,000, have found themselves with no choice but to flee the country, driven out by extremist groups like the Nusra Front and now ISIS. “As president, he made the sheep and the wolf walk together,” Bassam said. “We don’t care if he stays or goes, we just want security.” Assad has used the rise of ISIS to solidify his own support among those who remain, saying that he is the only thing standing in the way of an ISIS takeover.
Like most of the refugees in the parish house, Bassam wasn’t planning on returning to Syria. He was searching for a way to the West. His brother Yussef moved to Chicago two years earlier. He didn’t have a job yet, but his wife worked at Walmart. Maybe they would help. He wanted to leave like everyone else, although it would hasten the end of Christianity in Syria. No one would go home after what ISIS had done. “Christians will all leave,” he said. “What can I do? I have four kids, I can’t leave them here to die.”
After his father’s coffin was sealed, Bassam and the rest of the male mourners filed out. As the women looked on, the men filled waiting cars and drove, past a cement factory, to a nearby graveyard. The mourners lifted the coffin into a wall of doors, which resembled the shelving units in a morgue. This was a pauper’s grave. Since the family couldn’t afford the fee, the church paid $500 to place the coffin here. In a few months, the body would be quietly burned, although cremation is anathema to Eastern Christian doctrine. The ashes would take up less space in this overcrowded city of the dead.
Later, Zoumaya talked of his family members, who were among the 230 captured by ISIS. At noon, on the day ISIS arrived in his wife’s village, Zoumaya called his father-in-law to check in.
“This is ISIS,” said the man who answered.
“Please let my family go,” the priest begged. “They’ve done nothing to you. They’re not fighting.”
“These people belong to us now,” the man said. “Who is this calling?”
Zoumaya hung up. He feared what ISIS might do if they knew who he was. But this was not the end of his communication with them; they sent him photographs via WhatsApp. He pulled out his phone to show them. Here was a jihadi on a motorcycle, grinning in front of the charred grocery store that belonged to his father. Here was a photo, before ISIS arrived, of a 3-month-old’s baptism. Here was a snapshot of the family dressed up for Somikka, Assyrian Halloween.
“All these people are missing,” he said.
ISIS wants $23 million for these captives, $100,000 each, a sum no one can pay.
This spring the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the plight of Iraq’s religious minorities. “If we attend to minority rights only after slaughter has begun, then we have already failed,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for Human Rights, said. After the conference ended, there was mounting anger at American inaction. Although the airstrikes were effective, since October 2013, the United States has given just $416 million in humanitarian aid, which falls far short of what is needed. “Americans and the West were telling us they came to bring democracy, freedom and prosperity,” Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon who addressed the Security Council, wrote to me in a recent email. “What we are living is anarchy, war, death and the plight of three million refugees.”
Of the 3.1 million displaced Iraqis, 85 percent are Sunnis. No one has suffered more at the hands of ISIS than fellow Muslims. Other religious minorities have been affected as well and in large numbers: the Yazidis, who were trapped on Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq last summer, as ISIS threatened them with genocide; as well as Shia Turkmen; Shabak; Kaka’i; and the Mandeans, who follow John the Baptist. “Everyone has seen the forced conversions, crucifixions and beheadings,” David Saperstein, the United States ambassador at large for religious freedom, said. “To see these communities, primarily Christians, but also the Yazidis and others, persecuted in such large numbers is deeply alarming.”
It has been nearly impossible for two U.S. presidents–Bush, a conservative evangelical; and Obama, a progressive liberal–to address the plight of Christians explicitly for fear of appearing to play into the crusader and “clash of civilizations” narratives the West is accused of embracing. In 2007, when Al Qaeda was kidnapping and killing priests in Mosul, Nina Shea, who was then a U.S. commissioner for religious freedom, says she approached the secretary of state at the time, Condoleezza Rice, who told her the United States didn’t intervene in “sectarian” issues. Rice now says that protecting religious freedom in Iraq was a priority both for her and for the Bush administration. But the targeted violence and mass Christian exodus remained unaddressed. “One of the blind spots of the Bush administration was the inability to grapple with this as a direct byproduct of the invasion,” says Timothy Shah, the associate director of Georgetown University’s Religious Freedom Project.
More recently, the White House has been criticized for eschewing the term “Christian” altogether. When ISIS massacred Egyptian Copts in Libya this winter, the State Department came under fire for referring to the victims merely as “Egyptian citizens.” Daniel Philpott, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, says, “When ISIS is no longer said to have religious motivations nor the minorities it attacks to have religious identities, the Obama administration’s caution about religion becomes excessive.”
Last fall, Obama did refer to Christians and other religious minorities by name in a speech, saying, “we cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.” When ISIS threatened to eradicate the Yazidis, “it was the United States that stepped in to beat back the militants,” Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the National Security Council, says. In northeastern Syria, where ISIS is still launching attacks against Assyrian Christian villages, the U.S. military recently come to their aid, Baskey added. Refugees are a thornier issue. Of the more than 122,000 Iraqi refugees admitted to the United States, nearly 40 percent already belong to oppressed minorities. Admitting more would be difficult. “There are limits to what the international community can do,” Saperstein said.
Eshoo, the Democratic congresswoman, is working to establish priority refugee status for minorities who want to leave Iraq. “It’s a hair ball,” she says. “The average time for admittance to the United States is more than 16 months, and that’s too long. Many will die.” But it can be difficult to rally widespread support. The Middle East’s Christians often favor Palestine over Israel. And because support of Israel is central to the Christian Right–Israel must be occupied by the Jews before Jesus can return–this stance distances Eastern Christians from a powerful lobby that might otherwise champion their cause. Recently, Ted Cruz admonished an audience of Middle Eastern Christians at an In Defense of Christians event in Washington, telling them that Christians “have no better ally than the Jewish state.” Cruz was booed.
Earlier this year, Lebanon closed its borders to almost everyone escaping the war in Syria but made an exception for Christians fleeing ISIS. When the extremists attacked the villages along the Khabur River, the interior minister, Nouhad Machnouk, ordered the official in charge of the border to allow Christians to enter the country. “I can’t put this in writing,” the border official said. Machnouk replied, “O.K., say it aloud, word by word.”
Machnouk told me this story on a recent evening. “They’re paying much, much, much more than others,” in both Syria and Iraq, he said. “They’re not Sunni and not Shia, but they’re paying more than both.”
The front line against ISIS in Northern Iraq is marked by an earthen berm that runs for hundreds of miles over the Nineveh Plain. A string of Christian towns now stands empty, and the Kurdish forces occupy what, for thousands of years, was Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac land. In one, Telskuf, seized by ISIS last year, the main square is overgrown with brambles and thistles. It was once a thriving market town. Every Thursday, hundreds came to buy clothes, honey and vegetables. Telskuf was home to 7,000 people; now only three remain.
The Nineveh Plain Forces, a 500-member Assyrian Christian militia, patrols the town. The N.P.F. is one of five Assyrian militias formed during the past year after the rout of ISIS. It shares a double aim with two other militias, Dwekh Nawsha, an all-volunteer force of around 100, and the Nineveh Plains Protection Units, a battalion of more than 300: to help liberate Christian lands from ISIS and to protect their people, possibly as part of a nascent national guard, when they return home. The two other militias are the Syriac Military Council, which is fighting alongside the Kurds in northeastern Syria, and the Babylonian Brigades, which operate under Iraq’s Shia-dominated militias.
A few of these militias are aided by a handful of American, Canadian and British citizens, who, frustrated with their governments’ lack of response to ISIS, have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight on their own. Some come in the name of fellow Christians. Some come to relive their roles in the United States invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan–or to make amends for them. One American named Matthew VanDyke, the founder of Sons of Liberty International, a security company, has provided free training for the N.P.U. and is now about to work with a second militia, Dwekh Nawsha. VanDyke, who is 36, traveled to Libya in 2011 to fight against Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces; he was captured and spent 166 days in solitary confinement before escaping and returning to combat. He has no formal military training, but since last fall, he has brought American veterans to Iraq to help the N.P.U., including James Halterman, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, who found the group on the Internet after watching a segment about Westerners fighting ISIS on Fox News. The United States government does not support groups like VanDyke’s. “Americans who have traveled to Iraq to fight are not part of U.S. efforts in the region,” Joseph Pennington, the consul general in Erbil, says. “We wish they would not come here.”
In Iraq, the militias operate at the front only with the approval of the Kurdish peshmerga, who are using the fight against ISIS to expand their territory into the Nineveh Plain, long a disputed territory between Arabs and Kurds. Even to travel 1,000 yards between bases and forward posts, the Christian militias must ask the Kurds for permission. The Kurds are looking to integrate all the Christian militias into their force; they have succeeded with the N.P.F. and two others. But the N.P.U. remains wary. They fear that the Kurds are using the Christian cause to seize territory for a greater Kurdistan. And because the Kurdish forces abandoned them as ISIS approached, the militias want the right to protect their own people. For now, they make do with the help they can find. Romeo Hakari, the head of the N.P.F., said, “We want U.S. trainers, but we can’t even afford to buy weapons.” After his militia purchased 20 AK-47s in an open market in Erbil, the Kurds gave them 100 more.
Other than a daily mortar or two launched by ISIS from a village a mile and a half away, the area the N.P.U. patrolled was a sleepy target. After coalition airstrikes pushed ISIS out of Telskuf last summer, the group retreated about a mile and a half to the southwest. Beyond a bulldozed trench and a line of burlap sandbags littered with sunflower-seed shells, 12 black flags fluttered over a village. Three weeks earlier, at 4:20 a.m., two suicide bombers carrying a ladder to place over the trench attacked this forward post. The suicide attack was foiled after the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS launched airstrikes, which killed 13 ISIS fighters, Manaf Yussef, a Kurdish security official in charge of this front, said. “Without airstrikes, we’d lose,” he said.
Even if ISIS is defeated, the fate of religious minorities in Syria and Iraq remains bleak. Unless minorities are given some measure of security, those who can leave are likely to do so. Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute, a conservative policy center, says that the situation has grown so dire that Iraqi Christians must either be allowed full residency in Kurdistan, including the right to work, or helped to leave. Others argue that it is essential that minorities have their own autonomous region. Exile is a death knell for these communities, activists say. “We’ve been here as an ethnicity for 6,000 years and as Christians for 1,700 years,” says Dr. Srood Maqdasy, a member of the Kurdish Parliament. “We have our own culture, language and tradition. If we live within other communities, all of this will be dissolved within two generations.”
The practical solution, according to many Assyrian Christians, is to establish a safe haven on the Nineveh Plain. “If the West could take in so many refugees and the U.N.H.C.R. handle an operation like that, then we wouldn’t ask for a permanent solution,” says Nuri Kino, of A Demand for Action. “But the most realistic option is returning home.”
“We don’t have time to wait for solutions,” said the Rev. Emanuel Youkhana, the head of Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq. “For the first time in 2,000 years, there are no church services in Mosul. The West comes up with one solution by granting visas to a few hundred people. What about a few hundred thousand?” If Iraq devolves into three regions–Sunnis, Shia and Kurds–there could be a fourth for minorities. “Iraq is a forced marriage between Sunni, Shia, Kurds and Christians, and it failed,” Youkhana said. “Even I, as a priest, favor divorce.”
Tarek Mitri, a former Lebanese minister and a former special representative to the U.N. secretary general for Libya, says that his impression in speaking to officials in the White House “is that Obama is in a withdrawal mood. He thinks that he was elected to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq and to make a deal with Iran. If this is the mood, then we shouldn’t expect much or ask much from the Americans.” Baskey, of the National Security Council, counters that “rather than withdrawing, the president and this administration have, in fact, remained deeply engaged, building and leading a coalition of some 60 nations to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.”
The last time Rana, one of the women taken by ISIS from Qaraqosh, was able to speak to her family by phone was in September. She told them what had befallen Rita and Christina. Rita had been given as a slave to a powerful member of ISIS; Christina was given to a family to be raised as a Muslim.
Rana said little about her own circumstances, and her family didn’t ask. To be honest, they weren’t sure they wanted to know what ISIS had done to her.
For months now, the phone Rana used has been switched off. “There’s word they’re still alive,” Rabee Mano, 36, a refugee from Qaraqosh who runs an underground railroad out of the Islamic State, told me one recent evening over beer and kebabs. “She’s been ‘married’ to a powerful guy in ISIS,” he added.
There was something about Diyaa that his wife’s brothers didn’t like. He was a tyrant, they said, who, after 14 years of marriage, wouldn’t let their sister, Rana, 31, have her own mobile phone. He isolated her from friends and family, guarding her jealously. Although Diyaa and Rana were both from Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq, they didn’t know each other before their families arranged their marriage. It hadn’t gone especially well. Rana was childless, and according to the brothers, Diyaa was cheap. The house he rented was dilapidated, not fit for their sister to live in.
Qaraqosh is on the Nineveh Plain, a 1,500-square-mile plot of contested land that lies between Iraq’s Kurdish north and its Arab south. Until last summer, this was a flourishing city of 50,000, in Iraq’s breadbasket. Wheat fields and chicken and cattle farms surrounded a town filled with coffee shops, bars, barbers, gyms and other trappings of modern life.
Then, last June, ISIS took Mosul, less than 20 miles west. The militants painted a red Arabic “n,” for Nasrane, a slur, on Christian homes. They took over the municipal water supply, which feeds much of the Nineveh Plain. Many residents who managed to escape fled to Qaraqosh, bringing with them tales of summary executions and mass beheadings. The people of Qaraqosh feared that ISIS would continue to extend the group’s self-styled caliphate, which now stretches from Turkey’s border with Syria to south of Fallujah in Iraq, an area roughly the size of Indiana.
In the weeks before advancing on Qaraqosh, ISIS cut the city’s water. As the wells dried up, some left and others talked about where they might go. In July, reports that ISIS was about to take Qaraqosh sent thousands fleeing, but ISIS didn’t arrive, and within a couple of days, most people returned. Diyaa refused to leave. He was sure ISIS wouldn’t take the town.
A week later, the Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, whom the Iraqi government had charged with defending Qaraqosh, retreated. (“We didn’t have the weapons to stop them,” Jabbar Yawar, the secretary general of the peshmerga, said later.) The city was defenseless; the Kurds had not allowed the people of the Nineveh Plain to arm themselves and had rounded up their weapons months earlier. Tens of thousands jammed into cars and fled along the narrow highway leading to the relative safety of Erbil, the Kurdish capital of Northern Iraq, 50 miles away.
Piling 10 family members into a Toyota pickup, Rana’s brothers ran, too. From the road, they called Diyaa repeatedly, pleading with him to escape with Rana. “She can’t go,” Diyaa told one of Rana’s brothers, as the brother later recounted to me. “ISIS isn’t coming. This is all a lie.”
The next morning Diyaa and Rana woke to a nearly empty town. Only 100 or so people remained in Qaraqosh, mostly those too poor, old or ill to travel. A few, like Diyaa, hadn’t taken the threat seriously. One man passed out drunk in his backyard and woke the next morning to ISIS taking the town.
As Diyaa and Rana hid in their basement, ISIS broke into stores and looted them. Over the next two weeks, militants rooted out most of the residents cowering in their homes, searching house to house. The armed men roamed Qaraqosh on foot and in pickups. They marked the walls of farms and businesses “Property of the Islamic State.” ISIS now held not just Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, but also Ramadi and Fallujah. (During the Iraq War, the fighting in these three places accounted for 30 percent of U.S. casualties.) In Qaraqosh, as in Mosul, ISIS offered residents a choice: They could either convert or pay the jizya, the head tax levied against all “People of the Book”: Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews. If they refused, they would be killed, raped or enslaved, their wealth taken as spoils of war.
No one came for Diyaa and Rana. ISIS hadn’t bothered to search inside their ramshackle house. Then, on the evening of Aug. 21, word spread that ISIS was willing to offer what they call “exile and hardship” to the last people in Qaraqosh. They would be cast out of their homes with nothing, but at least they would survive. A kindly local mullah was going door to door with the good news. Hoping to save Diyaa and Rana, their neighbors told him where they were hiding.
Diyaa and Rana readied themselves to leave. The last residents of Qaraqosh were to report the next morning to the local medical center, to receive “checkups” before being deported from the Islamic State. Everyone knew the checkups were really body searches to prevent residents from taking valuables out of Qaraqosh. Before ISIS let residents go–if they let them go–it was very likely they would steal everything they had, as residents heard they had done elsewhere.
Diyaa and Rana called their families to let them know what was happening. “Take nothing with you,” her brothers told Diyaa. But Diyaa, as usual, didn’t listen. He stuffed Rana’s clothes with money, gold, passports and their identity papers. Although she was terrified of being caught–she could be beheaded for taking goods from the Islamic State–Rana didn’t protest; she didn’t dare. According to her brothers, Diyaa could be violent. (Diyaa’s brother Nimrod disputed this, just as he does Diyaa’s alleged cheapness.)
At 7 the next morning, Diyaa and Rana made the five-minute walk from their home to Qaraqosh Medical Center Branch No. 2, a yellow building with red-and-green trim next to the city’s only mosque. As the crowd gathered, Diyaa phoned both his family and hers. “We’re standing in front of the medical center right now,” he said, as his brother-in-law recalled it. “There are buses and cars here. Thank God, they’re going to let us go.”
It was a searing day. Temperatures reach as high as 110 degrees on the Nineveh Plain in summer. By 9 a.m., ISIS had separated men from women. Seated in the crowd, the local ISIS emir, Saeed Abbas, surveyed the female prisoners. His eyes lit on Aida Hana Noah, 43, who was holding her 3-year-old daughter, Christina. Noah said she felt his gaze and gripped Christina closer. For two weeks, she’d been at home with her daughter and her husband, Khadr Azzou Abada, 65. He was blind, and Aida decided that the journey north would be too hard for him. So she sent her 25-year-old son with her three other children, who ranged in age from 10 to 13, to safety. She thought Christina too young to be without her mother.
ISIS scanned the separate groups of men and women. “You” and “you,” they pointed. Some of the captives realized what ISIS was doing, survivors told me later, dividing the young and healthy from the older and weak. One, Talal Abdul Ghani, placed a final call to his family before the fighters confiscated his phone. He had been publicly whipped for refusing to convert to Islam, as his sisters, who fled from other towns, later recounted. “Let me talk to everybody,” he wept. “I don’t think they’re letting me go.” It was the last time they heard from him.
No one was sure where either bus was going. As the jihadists directed the weaker and older to the first of two buses, one 49-year-old woman, Sahar, protested that she’d been separated from her husband, Adel. Although he was 61, he was healthy and strong and had been held back. One fighter reassured her, saying, “These others will follow.” Sahar, Aida and her blind husband, Khadr, boarded the first bus. The driver, a man they didn’t know, walked down the aisle. Without a word, he took Christina from her mother’s arms. “Please, in the name of God, give her back,” Aida pleaded. The driver carried Christina into the medical center. Then he returned without the child. As the people in the bus prayed to leave town, Aida kept begging for Christina. Finally, the driver went inside again. He came back empty-handed.
Aida has told this story before with slight variations. As she, her husband and another witness recounted it to me, she was pleading for her daughter when the emir himself appeared, flanked by two fighters. He was holding Christina against his chest. Aida fought her way off the bus.
“Please give me my daughter,” she said.
The emir cocked his head at his bodyguards.
“Get on the bus before we kill you,” one said.
Christina reached for her mother.
“Get on the bus before we slaughter your family,” he repeated.
As the bus rumbled north out of town, Aida sat crumpled in a seat next to her husband. Many of the 40-odd people on it began to weep. “We cried for Christina and ourselves,” Sahar said. The bus took a sharp right toward the Khazir River that marked an edge of the land ISIS had seized. Several minutes later, the driver stopped and ordered everyone off.
Led by a shepherd who had traveled this path with his flock, the sick and elderly descended and began to walk to the Khazir River. The journey took 12 hours.
The second bus–the one filled with the young and healthy–headed north, too. But instead of turning east, it turned west, toward Mosul. Among its captives was Diyaa. Rana wasn’t with him. She had been bundled into a third vehicle, a new four-wheel drive, along with an 18-year-old girl named Rita, who’d come to Qaraqosh to help her elderly father flee.
The women were driven to Mosul, where, the next day, Rana’s captor called her brothers. “If you come near her, I’ll blow the house up. I’m wearing a suicide vest,” he said. Then he passed the phone to Rana, who whispered, in Syriac, the story of what happened to her. Her brothers were afraid to ask any questions lest her answers make trouble for her. She said, “I’m taking care of a 3-year-old named Christina.”
For more than a decade, extremists have targeted Christians and other minorities, who often serve as stand-ins for the West. This was especially true in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, which caused hundreds of thousands to flee. “Since 2003, we’ve lost priests, bishops and more than 60 churches were bombed,” Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Erbil, said. With the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians began to leave Iraq in large numbers, and the population shrank to less than 500,000 today from as many as 1.5 million in 2003.
The Arab Spring only made things worse. As dictators like Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya were toppled, their longstanding protection of minorities also ended. Now, ISIS is looking to eradicate Christians and other minorities altogether. The group twists the early history of Christians in the region–their subjugation by the sword–to legitimize its millenarian enterprise. Recently, ISIS posted videos delineating the second-class status of Christians in the caliphate. Those unwilling to pay the jizya tax or to convert would be destroyed, the narrator warned, as the videos culminated in the now-infamous scenes of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians in Libya being marched onto the beach and beheaded, their blood running into the surf.
The future of Christianity in the region of its birth is now uncertain. “How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?” says Nuri Kino, a journalist and founder of the advocacy group Demand for Action. According to a Pew study, more Christians are now faced with religious persecution than at any time since their early history. “ISIL has put a spotlight on the issue,” says Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose parents are from the region and who advocates on behalf of Eastern Christians. “Christianity is under an existential threat.”
One of the main pipelines for Christians fleeing the Middle East runs through Lebanon. This spring, thousands of Christians from villages in northeastern Syria along the Khabur River found shelter in Lebanon as they fled an ISIS assault in which 230 people were seized for ransom. This wasn’t the first time that members of this tight-knit community had been driven from their homes. Many of these villagers were descendants of those who, in 1933, fled Iraq after a massacre of Assyrian Christians left 3,000 dead in one day.
On a recent Saturday, 50 of these refugees gathered for a funeral at the Assyrian Church of the East in Beirut, which sits on the steep slope of Mount Lebanon, not far from a BMW-Mini Cooper dealership and a Miss Virgin Jeans shop. The priest, the Rev. Sargon Zoumaya, buttoned his black cassock over a blue clerical shirt as he prepared to officiate over the burial of Benjamin Ishaya, who arrived just months before, displaced from one of the villages ISIS attacked. (He had died of complications following a head wound inflicted by a jihadist.)
“We’re afraid our whole society will vanish,” said Zoumaya, who left his Khabur River village more than a decade ago to study in Lebanon. He picked up his prayer book and headed downstairs to the parish house. The church was helping to care for 1,500 Syrian families. “It’s too much pressure on us, more than we can handle,” he said. The families didn’t want to live in the notoriously overcrowded Lebanese refugee camps that had filled with one-and-a-half million Syrians fleeing the civil war. They no longer wanted to live among Muslims. Instead they crammed into apartments with exorbitant rents that the church subsidized as best it could.
Inside the church, men and women sat in two separate circles. A young woman passed out Turkish coffee in paper cups. Waves of keening rose from the ring of women, led by Ishaya’s widow. Wearing an olive green suit, she sat at the head of the open coffin, weeping, as women touched her husband’s body. Nearby, her son, Bassam Ishaya, nursed two broken feet. He’d been trying to support his family by repairing couches until one dropped on him. The Ishaya family left Syria with nothing. ISIS, Bassam said, told them they “either had to pay the jizya, convert or be killed.” He pointed to a blue crucifix tattoo on his right arm. “Because of this, I had to wear long sleeves,” he said.
To escape, the Ishayas were airlifted from Al-Hasakah, a town in northeastern Syria, which had been under the joint control of the Assad government and the Kurds but has since largely fallen to ISIS, and flown 400 miles to Damascus. From there, they drove to the Lebanese border. Syrian Air charged $180 for the flights; Assad’s government charged $50 a person, the refugees at the funeral said.
Since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Assad has allowed Christians to leave the country. Nearly a third of Syria’s Christians, about 600,000, have found themselves with no choice but to flee the country, driven out by extremist groups like the Nusra Front and now ISIS. “As president, he made the sheep and the wolf walk together,” Bassam said. “We don’t care if he stays or goes, we just want security.” Assad has used the rise of ISIS to solidify his own support among those who remain, saying that he is the only thing standing in the way of an ISIS takeover.
Like most of the refugees in the parish house, Bassam wasn’t planning on returning to Syria. He was searching for a way to the West. His brother Yussef moved to Chicago two years earlier. He didn’t have a job yet, but his wife worked at Walmart. Maybe they would help. He wanted to leave like everyone else, although it would hasten the end of Christianity in Syria. No one would go home after what ISIS had done. “Christians will all leave,” he said. “What can I do? I have four kids, I can’t leave them here to die.”
After his father’s coffin was sealed, Bassam and the rest of the male mourners filed out. As the women looked on, the men filled waiting cars and drove, past a cement factory, to a nearby graveyard. The mourners lifted the coffin into a wall of doors, which resembled the shelving units in a morgue. This was a pauper’s grave. Since the family couldn’t afford the fee, the church paid $500 to place the coffin here. In a few months, the body would be quietly burned, although cremation is anathema to Eastern Christian doctrine. The ashes would take up less space in this overcrowded city of the dead.
Later, Zoumaya talked of his family members, who were among the 230 captured by ISIS. At noon, on the day ISIS arrived in his wife’s village, Zoumaya called his father-in-law to check in.
“This is ISIS,” said the man who answered.
“Please let my family go,” the priest begged. “They’ve done nothing to you. They’re not fighting.”
“These people belong to us now,” the man said. “Who is this calling?”
Zoumaya hung up. He feared what ISIS might do if they knew who he was. But this was not the end of his communication with them; they sent him photographs via WhatsApp. He pulled out his phone to show them. Here was a jihadi on a motorcycle, grinning in front of the charred grocery store that belonged to his father. Here was a photo, before ISIS arrived, of a 3-month-old’s baptism. Here was a snapshot of the family dressed up for Somikka, Assyrian Halloween.
“All these people are missing,” he said.
ISIS wants $23 million for these captives, $100,000 each, a sum no one can pay.
This spring the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the plight of Iraq’s religious minorities. “If we attend to minority rights only after slaughter has begun, then we have already failed,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for Human Rights, said. After the conference ended, there was mounting anger at American inaction. Although the airstrikes were effective, since October 2013, the United States has given just $416 million in humanitarian aid, which falls far short of what is needed. “Americans and the West were telling us they came to bring democracy, freedom and prosperity,” Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon who addressed the Security Council, wrote to me in a recent email. “What we are living is anarchy, war, death and the plight of three million refugees.”
Of the 3.1 million displaced Iraqis, 85 percent are Sunnis. No one has suffered more at the hands of ISIS than fellow Muslims. Other religious minorities have been affected as well and in large numbers: the Yazidis, who were trapped on Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq last summer, as ISIS threatened them with genocide; as well as Shia Turkmen; Shabak; Kaka’i; and the Mandeans, who follow John the Baptist. “Everyone has seen the forced conversions, crucifixions and beheadings,” David Saperstein, the United States ambassador at large for religious freedom, said. “To see these communities, primarily Christians, but also the Yazidis and others, persecuted in such large numbers is deeply alarming.”
It has been nearly impossible for two U.S. presidents–Bush, a conservative evangelical; and Obama, a progressive liberal–to address the plight of Christians explicitly for fear of appearing to play into the crusader and “clash of civilizations” narratives the West is accused of embracing. In 2007, when Al Qaeda was kidnapping and killing priests in Mosul, Nina Shea, who was then a U.S. commissioner for religious freedom, says she approached the secretary of state at the time, Condoleezza Rice, who told her the United States didn’t intervene in “sectarian” issues. Rice now says that protecting religious freedom in Iraq was a priority both for her and for the Bush administration. But the targeted violence and mass Christian exodus remained unaddressed. “One of the blind spots of the Bush administration was the inability to grapple with this as a direct byproduct of the invasion,” says Timothy Shah, the associate director of Georgetown University’s Religious Freedom Project.
More recently, the White House has been criticized for eschewing the term “Christian” altogether. When ISIS massacred Egyptian Copts in Libya this winter, the State Department came under fire for referring to the victims merely as “Egyptian citizens.” Daniel Philpott, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, says, “When ISIS is no longer said to have religious motivations nor the minorities it attacks to have religious identities, the Obama administration’s caution about religion becomes excessive.”
Last fall, Obama did refer to Christians and other religious minorities by name in a speech, saying, “we cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.” When ISIS threatened to eradicate the Yazidis, “it was the United States that stepped in to beat back the militants,” Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the National Security Council, says. In northeastern Syria, where ISIS is still launching attacks against Assyrian Christian villages, the U.S. military recently come to their aid, Baskey added. Refugees are a thornier issue. Of the more than 122,000 Iraqi refugees admitted to the United States, nearly 40 percent already belong to oppressed minorities. Admitting more would be difficult. “There are limits to what the international community can do,” Saperstein said.
Eshoo, the Democratic congresswoman, is working to establish priority refugee status for minorities who want to leave Iraq. “It’s a hair ball,” she says. “The average time for admittance to the United States is more than 16 months, and that’s too long. Many will die.” But it can be difficult to rally widespread support. The Middle East’s Christians often favor Palestine over Israel. And because support of Israel is central to the Christian Right–Israel must be occupied by the Jews before Jesus can return–this stance distances Eastern Christians from a powerful lobby that might otherwise champion their cause. Recently, Ted Cruz admonished an audience of Middle Eastern Christians at an In Defense of Christians event in Washington, telling them that Christians “have no better ally than the Jewish state.” Cruz was booed.
Earlier this year, Lebanon closed its borders to almost everyone escaping the war in Syria but made an exception for Christians fleeing ISIS. When the extremists attacked the villages along the Khabur River, the interior minister, Nouhad Machnouk, ordered the official in charge of the border to allow Christians to enter the country. “I can’t put this in writing,” the border official said. Machnouk replied, “O.K., say it aloud, word by word.”
Machnouk told me this story on a recent evening. “They’re paying much, much, much more than others,” in both Syria and Iraq, he said. “They’re not Sunni and not Shia, but they’re paying more than both.”
The front line against ISIS in Northern Iraq is marked by an earthen berm that runs for hundreds of miles over the Nineveh Plain. A string of Christian towns now stands empty, and the Kurdish forces occupy what, for thousands of years, was Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac land. In one, Telskuf, seized by ISIS last year, the main square is overgrown with brambles and thistles. It was once a thriving market town. Every Thursday, hundreds came to buy clothes, honey and vegetables. Telskuf was home to 7,000 people; now only three remain.
The Nineveh Plain Forces, a 500-member Assyrian Christian militia, patrols the town. The N.P.F. is one of five Assyrian militias formed during the past year after the rout of ISIS. It shares a double aim with two other militias, Dwekh Nawsha, an all-volunteer force of around 100, and the Nineveh Plains Protection Units, a battalion of more than 300: to help liberate Christian lands from ISIS and to protect their people, possibly as part of a nascent national guard, when they return home. The two other militias are the Syriac Military Council, which is fighting alongside the Kurds in northeastern Syria, and the Babylonian Brigades, which operate under Iraq’s Shia-dominated militias.
A few of these militias are aided by a handful of American, Canadian and British citizens, who, frustrated with their governments’ lack of response to ISIS, have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight on their own. Some come in the name of fellow Christians. Some come to relive their roles in the United States invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan–or to make amends for them. One American named Matthew VanDyke, the founder of Sons of Liberty International, a security company, has provided free training for the N.P.U. and is now about to work with a second militia, Dwekh Nawsha. VanDyke, who is 36, traveled to Libya in 2011 to fight against Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces; he was captured and spent 166 days in solitary confinement before escaping and returning to combat. He has no formal military training, but since last fall, he has brought American veterans to Iraq to help the N.P.U., including James Halterman, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, who found the group on the Internet after watching a segment about Westerners fighting ISIS on Fox News. The United States government does not support groups like VanDyke’s. “Americans who have traveled to Iraq to fight are not part of U.S. efforts in the region,” Joseph Pennington, the consul general in Erbil, says. “We wish they would not come here.”
In Iraq, the militias operate at the front only with the approval of the Kurdish peshmerga, who are using the fight against ISIS to expand their territory into the Nineveh Plain, long a disputed territory between Arabs and Kurds. Even to travel 1,000 yards between bases and forward posts, the Christian militias must ask the Kurds for permission. The Kurds are looking to integrate all the Christian militias into their force; they have succeeded with the N.P.F. and two others. But the N.P.U. remains wary. They fear that the Kurds are using the Christian cause to seize territory for a greater Kurdistan. And because the Kurdish forces abandoned them as ISIS approached, the militias want the right to protect their own people. For now, they make do with the help they can find. Romeo Hakari, the head of the N.P.F., said, “We want U.S. trainers, but we can’t even afford to buy weapons.” After his militia purchased 20 AK-47s in an open market in Erbil, the Kurds gave them 100 more.
Other than a daily mortar or two launched by ISIS from a village a mile and a half away, the area the N.P.U. patrolled was a sleepy target. After coalition airstrikes pushed ISIS out of Telskuf last summer, the group retreated about a mile and a half to the southwest. Beyond a bulldozed trench and a line of burlap sandbags littered with sunflower-seed shells, 12 black flags fluttered over a village. Three weeks earlier, at 4:20 a.m., two suicide bombers carrying a ladder to place over the trench attacked this forward post. The suicide attack was foiled after the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS launched airstrikes, which killed 13 ISIS fighters, Manaf Yussef, a Kurdish security official in charge of this front, said. “Without airstrikes, we’d lose,” he said.
Even if ISIS is defeated, the fate of religious minorities in Syria and Iraq remains bleak. Unless minorities are given some measure of security, those who can leave are likely to do so. Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute, a conservative policy center, says that the situation has grown so dire that Iraqi Christians must either be allowed full residency in Kurdistan, including the right to work, or helped to leave. Others argue that it is essential that minorities have their own autonomous region. Exile is a death knell for these communities, activists say. “We’ve been here as an ethnicity for 6,000 years and as Christians for 1,700 years,” says Dr. Srood Maqdasy, a member of the Kurdish Parliament. “We have our own culture, language and tradition. If we live within other communities, all of this will be dissolved within two generations.”
The practical solution, according to many Assyrian Christians, is to establish a safe haven on the Nineveh Plain. “If the West could take in so many refugees and the U.N.H.C.R. handle an operation like that, then we wouldn’t ask for a permanent solution,” says Nuri Kino, of A Demand for Action. “But the most realistic option is returning home.”
“We don’t have time to wait for solutions,” said the Rev. Emanuel Youkhana, the head of Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq. “For the first time in 2,000 years, there are no church services in Mosul. The West comes up with one solution by granting visas to a few hundred people. What about a few hundred thousand?” If Iraq devolves into three regions–Sunnis, Shia and Kurds–there could be a fourth for minorities. “Iraq is a forced marriage between Sunni, Shia, Kurds and Christians, and it failed,” Youkhana said. “Even I, as a priest, favor divorce.”
Tarek Mitri, a former Lebanese minister and a former special representative to the U.N. secretary general for Libya, says that his impression in speaking to officials in the White House “is that Obama is in a withdrawal mood. He thinks that he was elected to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq and to make a deal with Iran. If this is the mood, then we shouldn’t expect much or ask much from the Americans.” Baskey, of the National Security Council, counters that “rather than withdrawing, the president and this administration have, in fact, remained deeply engaged, building and leading a coalition of some 60 nations to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.”
The last time Rana, one of the women taken by ISIS from Qaraqosh, was able to speak to her family by phone was in September. She told them what had befallen Rita and Christina. Rita had been given as a slave to a powerful member of ISIS; Christina was given to a family to be raised as a Muslim.
Rana said little about her own circumstances, and her family didn’t ask. To be honest, they weren’t sure they wanted to know what ISIS had done to her.
For months now, the phone Rana used has been switched off. “There’s word they’re still alive,” Rabee Mano, 36, a refugee from Qaraqosh who runs an underground railroad out of the Islamic State, told me one recent evening over beer and kebabs. “She’s been ‘married’ to a powerful guy in ISIS,” he added.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Faith of Christians in Niger Grows Stronger in Face of Unprecedented Violence
Morning Star News, Jan. 23, 2015
Christians in Niger are joyfully meeting in homes under police protection as they plan to rebuild church buildings and houses after attacks last weekend (Jan. 16-18) that were unprecedented in scale.
“Nothing of this magnitude has ever happened in this nation,” wrote one missionary couple in the capital, Niamey. “Nearly every church in the capital city of Niamey was burned or looted, along with some schools and orphanages and several other churches and Christian homes throughout the nation.”
Muslims protesting the depiction of the prophet of Islam in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo destroyed 72 church buildings and killed at least 10 people in attacks that began in Zinder on Jan. 16 and hit Niamey the next day, according to Christian support organization Open Doors. A church leader today put the total of ruined church structures at 68, and a final count remained uncertain.
Analysts suspect a growing amount of Islamic extremist preaching, coupled with political rivals fanning flames of furor over Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou participating in a unity march in Paris against the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo offices, contributed to the scale of the attacks. More than 170 people were reported to have been injured.
“Last night the church members met for prayer as the pastor, who lost everything, encouraged them by flashlight to not only stand strong, but to move forward and to know that this attack will grow the church,” wrote the missionary couple to concerned partners. “The room was dark on the outside but illuminated by the fire in the hearts of His people, even as stones were being thrown on the roof.”
In spite of the violence, so many present at the church meeting were eager to share testimonies of God’s faithfulness during the attacks that they were asked to wait until Sunday, they added.
The Rev. Mai’aki Kadaidai, president of the Evangelical Church in the Niger Republic (EERN), told Morning Star News by phone that attacks on Christians and churches were spread across five regions and the capital.
“This is the first time we are witnessing violence of this magnitude against the church and Christians,” Kadaidai said. “In all, 68 churches were destroyed across five regions of Agadez, Damagaram, Diffa, Maradi, Zinder, and in our country’s capital city of Niamey. The Muslim rioters destroyed five of our [EERN] churches, destroyed four homes of our pastors and many of our members were adversely affected.”
Attacks began on Jan. 16 in Zinder with the destruction of several church buildings and Christian-owned homes. Several other towns suffered damages as the violence spread to the capital by the next day, with angry Muslims also looting shops, attacking police stations, bars and hotels, and ransacking businesses that were either of French origin or owned by non-Muslims.
Charlie Hebdo had published a cover cartoon of Muhammad carrying a sign with the slogan (“I am Charlie”) that signified solidarity with free speech and the 12 victims of the shooting deaths by two Islamic terrorists at the magazine’s offices on Jan. 7. Depictions of Muhammad are forbidden in most branches of Islam, and prominent schools of Islamic jurisprudence prescribe death for defaming him.
Muslims make up about 98 percent of Niger’s population and have lived in relative peace with the country’s miniscule (0.3 percent) Christian minority. In spite of growing Islamic extremist elements within the country, few in Niger expected to hear the chants of “Kill the infidels, kill the Christians,” as protesters ransacked the nation. Niger was unranked on Open Doors’ 2015 World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians.
Christians in Niger are joyfully meeting in homes under police protection as they plan to rebuild church buildings and houses after attacks last weekend (Jan. 16-18) that were unprecedented in scale.
“Nothing of this magnitude has ever happened in this nation,” wrote one missionary couple in the capital, Niamey. “Nearly every church in the capital city of Niamey was burned or looted, along with some schools and orphanages and several other churches and Christian homes throughout the nation.”
Muslims protesting the depiction of the prophet of Islam in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo destroyed 72 church buildings and killed at least 10 people in attacks that began in Zinder on Jan. 16 and hit Niamey the next day, according to Christian support organization Open Doors. A church leader today put the total of ruined church structures at 68, and a final count remained uncertain.
Analysts suspect a growing amount of Islamic extremist preaching, coupled with political rivals fanning flames of furor over Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou participating in a unity march in Paris against the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo offices, contributed to the scale of the attacks. More than 170 people were reported to have been injured.
“Last night the church members met for prayer as the pastor, who lost everything, encouraged them by flashlight to not only stand strong, but to move forward and to know that this attack will grow the church,” wrote the missionary couple to concerned partners. “The room was dark on the outside but illuminated by the fire in the hearts of His people, even as stones were being thrown on the roof.”
In spite of the violence, so many present at the church meeting were eager to share testimonies of God’s faithfulness during the attacks that they were asked to wait until Sunday, they added.
The Rev. Mai’aki Kadaidai, president of the Evangelical Church in the Niger Republic (EERN), told Morning Star News by phone that attacks on Christians and churches were spread across five regions and the capital.
“This is the first time we are witnessing violence of this magnitude against the church and Christians,” Kadaidai said. “In all, 68 churches were destroyed across five regions of Agadez, Damagaram, Diffa, Maradi, Zinder, and in our country’s capital city of Niamey. The Muslim rioters destroyed five of our [EERN] churches, destroyed four homes of our pastors and many of our members were adversely affected.”
Attacks began on Jan. 16 in Zinder with the destruction of several church buildings and Christian-owned homes. Several other towns suffered damages as the violence spread to the capital by the next day, with angry Muslims also looting shops, attacking police stations, bars and hotels, and ransacking businesses that were either of French origin or owned by non-Muslims.
Charlie Hebdo had published a cover cartoon of Muhammad carrying a sign with the slogan (“I am Charlie”) that signified solidarity with free speech and the 12 victims of the shooting deaths by two Islamic terrorists at the magazine’s offices on Jan. 7. Depictions of Muhammad are forbidden in most branches of Islam, and prominent schools of Islamic jurisprudence prescribe death for defaming him.
Muslims make up about 98 percent of Niger’s population and have lived in relative peace with the country’s miniscule (0.3 percent) Christian minority. In spite of growing Islamic extremist elements within the country, few in Niger expected to hear the chants of “Kill the infidels, kill the Christians,” as protesters ransacked the nation. Niger was unranked on Open Doors’ 2015 World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
‘There is no future in Iraq.’ Christian refugees escape to France
By John Irish and Antony Paone, Reuters, September 20, 2014
ARBIL, IRAQ—On a warm evening at Arbil International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan some 150 mostly Christian refugees anxiously waited to flee their homeland aboard a French government plane.
The refugees, of all ages and from 25 different families, had one message as they prepared to fly to Paris to escape the threat of Islamic State militants: Christians and Muslims can no longer live together in Iraq.
Shakeep, a 46-year-old lawyer who worked at Mosul’s main law court, was taking his wife, mother, daughter and nephew to Tours in western France, where his uncle lives. One bag each was all they had left of their belongings.
“There is no future in Iraq. There can be no future between Muslims and Christians here. I leave my life. I’m between sadness and happiness. But with Daech, we can’t come back,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
The family left Mosul six weeks ago after being given an ultimatum to convert or be killed by the Islamic State militants, who have seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
France has led European efforts to bring humanitarian aid to refugees. The government plane, an Airbus A310, delivered 10 more tonnes of blankets, tents, jerry cans and hygiene kits before transporting the refugees back to Paris.
“There are people sleeping outdoors at the moment, but the focus of this delivery is to prepare for the thousands who will still be here in the winter,” a French diplomat said. “It’s a veritable ethnic cleansing that we’ve witnessed here.”
French fighter jets on Friday launched strikes inside Iraq for the first time as part of an international coalition that will initially focus on pushing Islamic State back from Iraq to its power base in Syria. It has also delivered weapons, mostly machine guns and ammunition, to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
France, under pressure from public opinion to admit more Christians from the Middle East, has already taken in around 100 people since Islamic State launched its military offensive in Iraq in June.
About 40 Christians arrived from northern Iraq at the end of August, based on strict criteria that they had family ties in France and sufficient resources to survive there. Another 60 have also come by their own means.
For most of the refugees, coming to France brings fear of the unknown. Few speak French and most have never before even taken a plane, let alone traveled to a Western country.
Michel, 56, an electrical engineer from the Christian town of Qaraqosh, held no hope of getting work in France at his age with no French. But he was heading with his two daughters, son and wife to the city of Lyon, where his wife’s brother lives.
“The situation there (in Qaraqosh) was impossible when Daech came,” he said. “They wanted Shariah. They wanted to impose their Islam and they want no Christians.
“We escaped to Arbil from Qaraqosh at the start of August. There were bombs and fighting between Daech and the Peshmerga. Daech took everything: food, televisions, refrigerator, everything. It’s difficult to stay here as a Christian.”
Iraq’s ancient Christian population has more than halved over the past decade or so, from about 1 million before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to barely 400,000 by July this year.
Sami, a 28-year old IT technician, is a Sunni Muslim but said he had to leave because his wife is Christian and such mixed marriages are no longer tolerated in Iraq.
“I see this as a chance to start a new life. We are in a Muslim country here and they will always say Christians can’t marry Muslims. My family doesn’t accept this,” he said.
“I was lucky to get on this plane,” Sami added, referring to the fact that unlike many waiting to board the government plane he had no ties to France. “I don’t think I will come back.”
The United Nations says there are now about 1.2 million displaced Iraqis, including 850,000 in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq where many live in dire conditions.
An estimated 200,000 Christians have fled their homes in the Nineveh region of northern Iraq since Islamic State swept through their villages this summer, demanding they convert to Islam, pay taxes for being Christians or face death.
More than 10,000 Iraqi Christians have already applied for asylum, according to AEMO, a French association that helps minorities in the Middle East, since Paris said in July it would be ready to take hundreds if not thousands.
Among the passengers flying to Paris on Saturday were also a number of Yazidis. Followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, they fled their homeland in the Sinjar mountains as Islamic State militants, who see them as devil worshippers, seized towns and carried out mass killings in August.
Welcoming the refugees personally at Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that taking too many refugees would hand a symbolic victory to Islamic State, which has the ultimate objective of ridding the country of all those who oppose its austere version of Islam.
Many of the refugees, traumatized by their experiences of the last three months, clearly could not envisage ever returning to a country so deeply split along ethnic and sectarian lines.
“France offers us a better life than Iraq for our health and safety. We hope to stay here,” said 28-year-old Jade.
ARBIL, IRAQ—On a warm evening at Arbil International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan some 150 mostly Christian refugees anxiously waited to flee their homeland aboard a French government plane.
The refugees, of all ages and from 25 different families, had one message as they prepared to fly to Paris to escape the threat of Islamic State militants: Christians and Muslims can no longer live together in Iraq.
Shakeep, a 46-year-old lawyer who worked at Mosul’s main law court, was taking his wife, mother, daughter and nephew to Tours in western France, where his uncle lives. One bag each was all they had left of their belongings.
“There is no future in Iraq. There can be no future between Muslims and Christians here. I leave my life. I’m between sadness and happiness. But with Daech, we can’t come back,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
The family left Mosul six weeks ago after being given an ultimatum to convert or be killed by the Islamic State militants, who have seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
France has led European efforts to bring humanitarian aid to refugees. The government plane, an Airbus A310, delivered 10 more tonnes of blankets, tents, jerry cans and hygiene kits before transporting the refugees back to Paris.
“There are people sleeping outdoors at the moment, but the focus of this delivery is to prepare for the thousands who will still be here in the winter,” a French diplomat said. “It’s a veritable ethnic cleansing that we’ve witnessed here.”
French fighter jets on Friday launched strikes inside Iraq for the first time as part of an international coalition that will initially focus on pushing Islamic State back from Iraq to its power base in Syria. It has also delivered weapons, mostly machine guns and ammunition, to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
France, under pressure from public opinion to admit more Christians from the Middle East, has already taken in around 100 people since Islamic State launched its military offensive in Iraq in June.
About 40 Christians arrived from northern Iraq at the end of August, based on strict criteria that they had family ties in France and sufficient resources to survive there. Another 60 have also come by their own means.
For most of the refugees, coming to France brings fear of the unknown. Few speak French and most have never before even taken a plane, let alone traveled to a Western country.
Michel, 56, an electrical engineer from the Christian town of Qaraqosh, held no hope of getting work in France at his age with no French. But he was heading with his two daughters, son and wife to the city of Lyon, where his wife’s brother lives.
“The situation there (in Qaraqosh) was impossible when Daech came,” he said. “They wanted Shariah. They wanted to impose their Islam and they want no Christians.
“We escaped to Arbil from Qaraqosh at the start of August. There were bombs and fighting between Daech and the Peshmerga. Daech took everything: food, televisions, refrigerator, everything. It’s difficult to stay here as a Christian.”
Iraq’s ancient Christian population has more than halved over the past decade or so, from about 1 million before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to barely 400,000 by July this year.
Sami, a 28-year old IT technician, is a Sunni Muslim but said he had to leave because his wife is Christian and such mixed marriages are no longer tolerated in Iraq.
“I see this as a chance to start a new life. We are in a Muslim country here and they will always say Christians can’t marry Muslims. My family doesn’t accept this,” he said.
“I was lucky to get on this plane,” Sami added, referring to the fact that unlike many waiting to board the government plane he had no ties to France. “I don’t think I will come back.”
The United Nations says there are now about 1.2 million displaced Iraqis, including 850,000 in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq where many live in dire conditions.
An estimated 200,000 Christians have fled their homes in the Nineveh region of northern Iraq since Islamic State swept through their villages this summer, demanding they convert to Islam, pay taxes for being Christians or face death.
More than 10,000 Iraqi Christians have already applied for asylum, according to AEMO, a French association that helps minorities in the Middle East, since Paris said in July it would be ready to take hundreds if not thousands.
Among the passengers flying to Paris on Saturday were also a number of Yazidis. Followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, they fled their homeland in the Sinjar mountains as Islamic State militants, who see them as devil worshippers, seized towns and carried out mass killings in August.
Welcoming the refugees personally at Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that taking too many refugees would hand a symbolic victory to Islamic State, which has the ultimate objective of ridding the country of all those who oppose its austere version of Islam.
Many of the refugees, traumatized by their experiences of the last three months, clearly could not envisage ever returning to a country so deeply split along ethnic and sectarian lines.
“France offers us a better life than Iraq for our health and safety. We hope to stay here,” said 28-year-old Jade.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Riot leaves an Egyptian village without Christians
By Sarah El Deeb, AP, Aug 4, 2012
DAHSHOUR, Egypt (AP)—When the angry mob was rampaging through town, storming her home and those of other Christians, the 70-year-old woman hid in her cow pen, pushing a rock against the door. There she cowered for hours, at one point passing out from tear gas being fired by police that seeped in.
When Sameeha Wehba emerged just before dawn, she found she was the only Christian left in this small Egyptian village just south of Cairo.
Dahshour’s entire Christian community—as many as 100 families some estimate—fled to nearby towns in the violence earlier this week. The flock’s priest, cloaked in a white sheet to hide him, was taken out in a police van. At least 16 homes and properties of Christians were pillaged and some torched and a church damaged.
The violence was ultimately rooted in a dispute over a badly ironed shirt that escalated into a fight in which a Christian burned a Muslim to death, in turn sparking the rampage by angry Muslims.
“It was a devil’s moment,” Wehba said Thursday at the home of her Muslim neighbors, who have taken her in. “Whoever caused this was the devil’s son.”
The unprecedented exodus underscores how sectarian divisions that festered under decades of Hosni Mubarak’s rule are taking a turn to the worse, complicated by the problems of post-revolution Egypt, a country where 10 percent of the population are Christian.
Police forces have been weakened and often don’t carry out their duties. Islamists have been emboldened, with rhetoric fanning hatreds. In an atmosphere of lawlessness, Muslims and Christians alike feel freer in unleashing prejudices that in the past were kept barely under the surface.
Most notably in Dahshour, police did nothing as tensions spiraled following the burning of the Muslim man late last month.
While the man clung to life for several days, Muslim residents openly threatened to retaliate against all Christians. When the Muslim died Tuesday, the only solution from police was to encourage or assist in removing the Christian population before the violence erupted that night, Christians say. During the rampage, security forces acted to stop the crowd from storming the church, firing tear gas.
“What is grave this time is that violence was not only expected but preventable, and security forces failed to prevent it even though they had prior knowledge,” said Hossam Bahgat, head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which monitors sectarian violence.
In the past, incidents of sectarian violence in Egyptian towns often took a routine course. A local spat between a Muslim and Christian would escalate, and if a death occurred, violence would be sparked. Police would often see a bit of unrest as a way to let off steam but then negotiate a compromise solution over the death. Officials would deny any sectarian nature to the conflict.
In recent years, there have been cases where a whole Christian family was ordered by authorities to leave their hometown to prevent retaliation. At the same time, Christians have become more ready to use violence as a preventive measure when they fear they will be attacked, Bahgat said.
But uniquely in Dahshour, angry Muslims treated the entire Christian community as the family of the accused killer and subject to retaliation.
Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, didn’t comment on the violence for several days. On Friday, he appealed to Dahshour’s Christians to return home, promising justice against perpetrators of the violence. But, echoing the line that Mubarak’s government always took for Muslim-Christian violence, he denied the incident was sectarian.
“This was an individual incident and its origin is not about Muslims and Christians, and it happens every day. It was blown out of proportion,” he said. Morsi’s spokesman denied the eviction was forced.
The village of 15,000 is tucked between several of Egypt’s most stunning ancient pyramids and surrounded by picturesque palm groves. Security trucks are now deployed on its winding, unpaved narrow roads to guard the church and empty Christian properties.
Many in the village say the Christians should not be allowed to return until the Christian laundry worker who set fire to the Muslim is killed. Some residents take an even harder line and say they shouldn’t be let back at all.
The sentiments were on display even in the neighboring Muslim family that took in Wehba to protect her in case of further reprisals.
Um Mohammed, the 65-year old matron of the household whose son was a friend of the slain man, says Christians can come back, but only if justice is served against the killer. “He burned my heart. He must also be burned. It is retribution,” she said.
“No Christian will return to this village again!” someone shouted from behind Umm Mohammed. It came from a little girl wearing a strict version of the Islamic headscarf, covering her head and much of her torso. The girl—apparently the child of a neighbor—was quickly shushed and hustled out of the room by the family.
“We didn’t kick them out for nothing,” said Ali el-Gizawy, a 47-year old government employee. “They betrayed our trust, and they will not be allowed to return.”
The Christians feel a mix of frustration at the incompetence of authorities, a sense of injustice and a fear their fate may be irreversible.
Kirollos Shehata, a 22-year old Coptic Christian resident, said he hadn’t wanted to leave but finally did as his Muslim neighbors and his own departing family members urged him to go with the others to avoid more violence.
“Now I can’t imagine going back,” he said. For him, it’s not fear of violence but a sense that the Christians humiliated themselves by leaving. “How would we look to the rest of the community and how will people treat us?” He spoke on condition his current location is not revealed.
The dispute began when the laundry man, Sameh, burned the shirt of his Muslim client, setting off an argument first with the client’s wife and then with the client himself, according to several residents. The argument turned violent. On July 26, an angry crowd gathered outside Sameh’s home, and he and his family lobbed firebombs down on them from his roof.
One man in the crowd, 27-year-old Moez Mohammed, was set aflame and was hospitalized with severe burns.
The next two days, Mohammed’s brothers and friends went down the village’s main Christian street, waving firebombs and threatening violence, Shehata said. When one Christian countered that the whole community was not to blame, a fight broke out, until it was broken up by neighbors.
“They said if you don’t leave the village, you will all die,” Shehata recalled. Aside from the anger over the young man’s death, there was economic jealousy because local Christians are seen as better off, he said. Moreover, some Islamists used the occasion to ignite deep-seated biases against Christians and their local priest and settle scores.
Among the Muslims, stories of Mohammed’s death circulated and grew more gruesome in the retelling.
“His eyes were on fire,” said a young boy in the house where Wehba was a guest. “He ran like a ball of fire,” said the boy’s grandmother. Another described his skin melting. Some said Mohammed had tried to break up the fight between Sameh and his client over the shirt; other said saved a little girl from the fire before he caught flame himself.
Meanwhile, Christian families began sending women and children out of the village, Shehata said.
When Mohammed died on Tuesday, those still there left and police escorted the priest out. After Mohammed’s burial in the evening, hundreds of Muslims began attacking the homes Christians left behind and tried to storm the church, located inside the priest’s house.
Wehba, the elderly woman who lives alone in her family home, was forgotten in the confusion.
“She is like one of us,” said Umm Mohammed, her host, adding that she sleeps next to Wehba to reassure her. “She has no one. And she has nothing to do with it.”
