More Slaughter in Muslim Lands; Media, Governments Silent Muslim Persecution of Christians: October, 2013

"Don't they know that the Koran orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to Allah's beloved prophet?" — Representative of Jamaat ud Dawa.

Although Christians are habitually killed in Muslim countries, as this series attests, the U.S. government rarely condemns the practice or even acknowledges it.

Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on Christians, killing several women and children, took place in the month of October, one in Syria, another in Egypt.

On October 21 in Syria, U.S.-supported Islamist rebels invaded and occupied the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad for over a week, until ousted by the Syrian army. What took place that week was "the largest massacre of Christians in Syria," in the words of Orthodox Archbishop Alnemeh. Among other things, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several were tortured to death; mass graves were discovered; all of Sadad's 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for "subhuman" Christians).

The jihadis also made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam's victory-cry, "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!," meaning "than anything"]. Another video, made after Sadad was liberated, shows more graphic atrocities.

The day before rebels invaded Sadad, on Sunday, October 20, the Church of the Virgin Mary in Warraq, near Cairo, Egypt, was attacked during a wedding ceremony. The attack left four dead and nearly two dozen wounded. According to a report issued by a forensic team, two of those murdered were young girls, each named Mary: 12-year-old Mary Nabil Fahmy, who was shot five times in the chest, and 8-year-old Mary Ashraf Masih ("Masih" meaning "Christ"), who was shot in the back.

The security forces charged with protecting the church were seen leaving their posts immediately before the massacre began, as happens frequently in Egypt and other Islamic nations. In the words of Asia News, "Eye-witnesses of the al-Warraq attack confirm that despite numerous distress calls, police and ambulances only arrived on the scene two hours after the shooting."

These massacres in Syria and Egypt received scant attention and even less condemnation from Western media and governments. Instead, people such as Mohamed Elibiary, an Obama administration Homeland Security adviser, condemned Copts who raise awareness of anti-Christian violence in Egypt as promoting "Islamophobic" bigotry.

Although Christians are habitually killed in Muslim countries, as this series attests, the U.S. government rarely condemns the practice or even acknowledges it. When five Muslims were killed in western Burma, however, the U.S. issued a formal condemnation, according to Voice of America, "urging authorities to do more to address the long-standing sectarian tension there."

The rest of October's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism

Bangladesh: "A local government official in central Bangladesh has halted the construction of a church, forced Christians to worship at a mosque and threatened them with eviction from their village unless they renounce their faith," said Morning Star News. "The Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church in Bilbathuagani village… was created Sept. 8 by a group of about 25 Christians who had been meeting secretly for three years. However, local council chairman Rafiqul Islam Faruk joined around 200 demonstrators Sept. 13 to protest against the start of the building of the church. The following day, the Christians were summoned to his office. More than 1,000 Muslims waited outside, following an announcement at all local mosques to gather at the chairman's office." There, they were ordered to embrace Islam or suffer the consequences. Said one of the Christians: "Their threats chilled me to the bone. That is why I pretended to accept Islam, but faith in Christ is the wellspring of my life." Another said: "The chairman is clipping the wings of our faith. I do not know how long we can grin and bear it. We want religious freedom. We want to practice our religion freely." Since Sept. 14, under the chairman's orders, eight Christians agreed to return to Islam. Apparently, the chairman and his associates had already beaten some of these Christians three years ago for accepting Christianity.

Iran: Mariam Naqqash, a female convert to Christianity, was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Tehran. The Christian convert was found guilty of "endangering national security by spreading religious propaganda in the country," and allegedly being a spy for Britain and Israel. According to Adnkronos News, "renouncing the Muslim faith is punishable [in Iran] with the death penalty. Over 300 Iranian converts to Christianity have been arrested over the past two years, according to opposition websites."

Kazakhstan: After Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev, a 67-year-old pastor, was released from five months' detention, based on charges his family and others insist are spurious. After being reunited with his family, he was arrested again within minutes, now accused of "propaganda of terrorism or extremism, or public calls to commit an act of terrorism or extremism, as well as the distribution of material of the content indicated." His son, Askar, told Forum 18 News Service, "These new accusations are complete rubbish. They're trying to turn my father into a terrorist." Grace Church in Astana, where Kashkumbayev served, has, according to the report, long been subject to state harassment, including accusations of being involved in espionage, fraud, money laundering, distributing extremist texts and using hallucinogenic communion drinks.

Kenya: Charles Matole, pastor of the Redeemed Gospel Church, was found shot dead while still sitting with a Bible on his lap: "We found him with blood oozing from the head," said a choir member. The pastor had been receiving threatening phone text messages. Similarly, Pastor Ebrahim Kidata of the East African Pentecostal Churches was found murdered, strangled to death, in a patch of bushes.

Pakistan:

• After a Muslim man slaughtered a Christian—in broad daylight and in front of police—accusing him of being "an infidel who blasphemed against Muhammad" (see September report), a group of armed men broke into the dead man's family home, threatening to kill its members if they did not withdraw their police complaint against the murderer, and convert to Islam. Fr. Arshad Gill, a priest in Karachi, told Asia News "about this 'sad story' in which the victim is 'an innocent man' and his family is told to convert to Islam or die. For him, the case epitomizes the situation of Pakistan's minorities, forced to live 'in conditions of profound insecurity' in which events such as this one tend to exacerbate the situation…. Found in Article 295, B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the [blasphemy] 'law' punishes with death or life in prison anyone who desecrates the Qur'an or defames the name of the Prophet Muhammad." Those few political activists who have tried to repeal the law—such as Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, a Muslim, and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian—have been murdered.
• Three other Pakistani Christians face a possible death sentence on what lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill says are "trumped up charges" of blasphemy. One of the Christians, Asif Pervaiz, is accused of sending phone text messages with "abusive language against Muslims, Islam, Prophet Mohammed and the Koran." Two other Christians, Pastor Adnan and Mushtaq Masih, were also arrested for allegedly writing "derogatory remarks" about Islam. Gill also said, "Days back we received some heart breaking information that there is one group who forced Christians to accept Islam at gun point."
• Another Christian man accused of blasphemy, 26-year-old Adnan Masih, trained as a pastor at a United Pentecostal seminary, is being hunted by police. In addition, the banned Islamic extremist group, Jamaat ud Dawa, in Lahore, issued a fatwa, or Islamic decree, calling for his death because he sought to correct misconceptions about Christianity in a Muslim book by noting biblical verses that refuted Islamic characterizations of Christianity. A source said that the hunted man had no idea that "pointing out false references in a book would land him in such big trouble." In the words of a representative of Jamaat ud Dawa: "The police better arrest the blasphemer and hand him over to us on Saturday [Oct. 19]. We will not be responsible for any law-and-order situation in the city if the police fails to keep its assurance. How dare someone use derogatory language against our beloved prophet … Don't they know that the Koran orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to Allah's beloved prophet."
• Rana Tanveer, a chief reporter for The Express Tribune, received a one-page letter in Urdu threatening him to stop covering the plight of minorities. He was further accused of being an "apostate" for allegedly sympathizing with Christians and Ahmadis, instead of with their Sunni Muslim oppressors. He was also threatened with death, "from where you cannot even imagine." Tanveer, a Muslim, insists that all his reports are objective and based on facts.

Dhimmitude

Egypt: After Muslims in al-Minya district accused a young man of having an illicit relationship with a Muslim woman, violence erupted against the village's Christians (see September report). The father of the Christian man insists that there was no relationship between his son and the Muslim woman, whose family, in his words, "actually had their daughter undergo a gynecological exam, which proved the woman is 'untouched' [a virgin]." Instead, according to the father and many Copts in the village, "the whole story was fabricated by Muslim hard-liners from neighboring village to cause sectarian strife." According to a separate Arabic report, "criminal groups and gangs managed to acquire guns and weapons and, as usual, have attacked and abused the Christians … [and] forced Copts to pay large amounts of money as tax [jizya] in order not to steal and/or plunder their lands." The report also points out that no one does anything to oppose these gangs: "they simply kill Christians and their families as happened in the village of Shameiya when two Copts refused to pay the tax: the gang killed them and this was repeated in many other villages belonging to the governorate of Asyut. It is becoming so normal now to watch as these crimes against Christians occur day by day and nothing is done."

Indonesia: Still insisting that Susan Jasmine Zulkifli, a Christian woman appointed governor of the sub-district of Lenteng Agung, in West Java, be removed solely because of her faith (see September report), Muslim protesters stepped up their threats, including carrying a coffin in a protest march of some 600 Muslims—a clear death threat —and waving flags symbolic of death. The Christian woman had been promoted in June by the Governor of Jakarta, who said in response: "I make my choices based on merits, not looking at religion."

Iran: After being arrested in a house church December 2012 and charged with consuming alcohol in violation of the Islamic theocracy's laws, four Christians were sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. "The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalize the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord's Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably," a human rights activist said.

Iraq: The nation's Christians, more than half of whom have fled since the U.S.-led invasion a decade ago, are now also being targeted in and fleeing from northern Iraq, which until recently was considered a relatively safe region for Christians fleeing violence in the south. Recently, for example, a suicide bomb went off outside the home of Christian politician Emad Youhanna in Rafigayn, part of the Kirkuk province, injuring 19 people, including three of his children. Several more bomb attacks have also taken place in the northern city of Erbil, for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. According to Christian News, "In early September, Christians in the village of Deshtakh complained that they were facing harassment from local police. A group of Christian young people said that policemen told them that they 'should not be in Iraq because it is Muslim territory.' Violence in the south of the country is also escalating. Church leaders in Baghdad say that there are attacks on Christians every two or three days."

Lebanon: Muslims in the historically Christian nation are appropriating Christian land. According to Agenzia Fides: "An urgent reminder to curb the misuse of land belonging to Christians in order to build housing for the Muslims was launched on Monday, October 14 from Talal al- Doueihy, leader of the Movement 'Lebanese Land, our Land'…. Across the Country there are outbreaks of clashes due to problem regarding land. Last week, in the Christian village of Alma (district of Zghorta) residents had complained that the Muslims of the area of al-Fuar had begun to build houses without permission. Already at the end of August, the same Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai had called Christians to limit the sale of their property to avoid jeopardizing the demographic-confessional balance."

Pakistan: After the bombs in the church of All Saints in Peshawar, where nearly 90 people, including many women and children, died, Agenzia Fides reported that, "the situation remains tense in the Pakistani society: not only tragedy but also horror. The Christians said they were 'horrified' by the rumors that link the bombs in Peshawar to the vast problem of organ trafficking: this is what some members of NGOs in civil society in Pakistan told Fides. Some of the 'jackals,' presumably local paramedics, seem to have taken advantage of the high number of deaths and injuries in order to steal the bodies of victims and exploit them for the illegal organ trade. 'If this were true, it would mean that there are criminals who are taking advantage of the suffering of Christian victims in a truly blasphemous and sacrilegious manner,' notes Fr. Mario Rodrigues, a priest of Karachi." Meanwhile, some of the Christian survivors who mourned the deaths of loved ones too openly, were attacked, beaten, and threatened with death. Finally, in a separate story, a Christian, Harrison Masih, working in a store, who used to debate religion with a Muslim customer, Maulvi Khalad, got into an argument when Khalad tried to get him to convert to Islam, "telling him that he would enter paradise that way." But, as Harrison related, because he refused to convert and apparently did not want want any trouble, "I quit my job at the medical store but Khalid, and three other men, came to my house and threatened me and my family."

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions. "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1) To document that which the mainstream media often seems to fail to report.

2) To suggest that such persecution is not "random" but systematic.

These accounts span different ethnicities, languages, and locations.

Raymond Ibrahim 

West Ignores 'Largest Massacre of Christians in Syria'

One of the worst Christian massacres—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).

The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there for sanctuary from the jihad, only to be followed by it).

In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; Sadat’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).

The jihadis even made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which John McCain equates to a Christian saying “thank God”). Another video, made after Sadad was liberated shows more graphic atrocities.

Here are the words of Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama (another detailed account, with pictures, appears here):

”What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women…. All the houses of Sadad were robbed and property looted. The churches are damaged and desecrated, deprived of old books and precious furniture… What happened in Sadad is the largest massacre of Christians in Syria and the second in the Middle East, after the one in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Iraq, in 2010.”

In the Iraqi attack of 2010, al-Qaeda linked jihadis stormed the church during service killing some 60 Christian worshippers (see here for graphic images of the aftermath).

While the archbishop is correct that this is the “largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” it is but the tip of the iceberg of the persecution the nation’s Christian minority has suffered—including beheadings, church bombings, kidnappings, rapes, and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of Christians—since the war broke out (see Syria entries in monthly persecution series).

A month before Sadad, another ancient Christian region, Ma‘loula, one of the world’s very few regions that still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, was besieged by the jihadis, its churches bombarded and plundered, its inhabitants forced to convert to Islam or die. The last words of one man who refused were: "I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for this, I do not object to it."

The archbishop concluded his statement concerning Sadad by asking: "We have shouted aid to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us.”

Serge Trifkovic—who hails from a European region especially acquainted with Islamic jihad—responds to the archbishop as follows:

_”That no “human consciousness” is to be found in the White House, or in the editorial offices of the leading Western media, is now a matter of well-established record. Just try searching for “Sadad” (or alternatively “Saddad”) on the websites of the Department of State or The New York Times. Ditto the leading European dailies, the CNN/BBC/RTF, the human-rights defending “NGOs” et al.

“The problem, of which Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh appears unaware, is no longer in the Western elite’s mere indifference to the impending demise of Christianity in the lands of its birth, but in its active, ongoing, and open contribution to that demise. Cyprus (1974) and the Balkans (1991-9) provided the test, Iraq (2003-today) the conclusive proof. In Syria the Obama administration remains committed to supporting the rebels—ah, yes, only the “moderate” ones, like the Christian-murdering “Free Syrian Army” (discretion advised again), not “even though” the result will be the same, but precisely because it will be.”_

In one of the Arabic videos documenting the aftermath of the Sadad massacre, as the mutilated bodies of one family are drawn from a well (around :30 second mark), a middle-aged male relative, in tears, says:

”The most precious in the whole universe [his family], are now gone, leaving me alone, but thank God I am still surrounded by these loving people who remain. I want to say, let people [the jihadis] return to their minds. The problems of the world can only be solved by knowledge and brains. Enough insanity, the nerves of the people are shredded. Enough, enough—return to your minds; you people, you humans—return to your humanity, enough crimes.”

As a sign of the times, here is a Syrian, an “easterner,” evoking rationalism and humanity, products of the Christian West, at a time when the post-Christian West is governed by anything and everything—propaganda, emotionalism, mindless indoctrination—but the twain.

Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians _

The BBC’s Christian Persecution Denial

While it is no secret that the so-called mainstream media habitually fails to report on the international phenomenon of Christian persecution, few are aware that they sometimes actively work to undermine the efforts of those who do expose it.

Consider a new report by the BBC titled “Are there really 100,000 new Christian martyrs every year?” by Ruth Alexander, who asks:

So how widespread is anti-Christian violence?

“Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that every year an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are killed because of some relation to their faith,” Vatican spokesman Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi announced in a radio address to the United Nations Human Rights Council in May.

On the internet, the statistic has taken on a life of its own, popping up all over the place, sometimes with an additional detail—that these 100,000 lives are taken by Muslims.

The number comes originally from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the US state of Massachusetts, which publishes such a figure each year in its Status of Global Mission (see line 28).

Its researchers started by estimating the number of Christians who died as martyrs between 2000 and 2010—about one million by their reckoning—and divided that number by 10 to get an annual number, 100,000.

But how do they reach that figure of one million?

When you dig down, you see that the majority died in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo….

If you were to take away the 90,000 deaths in DR Congo from the CSGC’s figure of 100,000, that would leave 10,000 martyrs per year.

Later, after arguing that, “while violence continues in DR Congo, it’s less extreme today than it was at its height,” Alexander quotes approximately 7,000-8,000 Christians worldwide dying for their faith (the CSGC projects 150,000 dead by 2025).

Regarding the statement—“how do they [CSGC] reach that figure of one million?  When you dig down, you see that the majority died in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo”—it is unclear where Alexander got this information.  She does provide a link to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity’s Status of Global Mission, telling readers to “see line 28,” which indeed confirms the average number of 100,000 Christians martyred per year.  However, nowhere in this CSGC report does the word “Congo” appear, prompting one to wonder where Alexander went to “dig down” for information.

If it is true that the number 100,000 is primarily based on the Congo, and that the annual number of martyred Christians around the world is 7,000-8,000, the total number of Christians killed specifically because of their faith would seem to be reduced by a whopping 93%.

Of course, many human rights activists do assert that Christians are specifically targeted in the Congo.  Moreover, as Alexander indicates, the CSGC counts only 20% of the millions of Christians killed in the Congo as martyrs, meaning some set of standards or qualifications distinguishing those killed for their faith from those killed in general was relied on.  Finally, regarding the all-important question of how many Christians around the world are killed, Alexander herself later quotes another source saying “there is no scientific number at the moment. It has not been researched and all experts in this area are very hesitant to give a figure.”

And this seems to be the real point.  Of all the questions and aspects of Christian persecution that objective researchers and reporters can explore and expose, why did the BBC pick the very one that 1) cannot be answered and 2) is ultimately irrelevant—at best academic, at worst cold and callous?

(The issue is less whether 100,000 Christians around the world are killed annually for their faith, but rather that any Christian, any human—even Alexander’s “paltry” 7,000—is being killed for their faith.)

The BBC naturally picked this “numbers” question because it best serves to minimize the specter of Christian persecution, specifically by prompting the casual reader to conclude, “Oh, well, things are certainly nowhere near as bad as I thought for Christian minorities outside the West—indeed, they’re 93% better!”

More importantly—and here we reach BBC policy—this number-crunching approach serves to exonerate the chief persecutor of Christians, the Islamic world, or, as Alexander is quick to conclude: “[t]his means we can say right away that the internet rumours of Muslims being behind the killing of 100,000 Christian martyrs are nonsense.”  (Meanwhile, there’s this ongoing monthly series to deal with.)

Incidentally, since when do numbers matter to the supposedly “humanitarian-conscious” BBC and other “liberal” media where one life (provided it’s the “right” life) often gets nonstop coverage?  Would the BBC ever write a report dedicated to trying to show that the number of Palestinians killed in the conflict with Israel is actually 93% lower than widely believed?

Of course not.  When it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, far from minimizing anything, the BBC regularly exaggerates to demonize Israel.

And therein lies the main lesson.  The BBC is not in the business of reporting facts but rather creating smokescreens, building and knocking down straw men, and chasing red herrings—all to further its narratives, in this case, that “only” 7,000-8,000 Christians are killed  annually for their faith, and that the Islamic world is largely innocent—so what’s all the fuss about?

Don’t miss Jamie Glazov’s video interview with Raymond Ibrahim about how Obama enables Islam’s new war on Christians:

 source

Protect Christians and Jews, says major Christian - Jewish conference

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A major conference between the Catholic Church and leading Jewish representatives in Madrid called Thursday for both communities to support efforts at ending anti-Christian persecution and anti-Semitism in the Middle East and Europe.

The 22nd International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee meeting, which closed Thursday, brought together the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, as it has since 1971.

The joint statement released after the meeting called on the two groups to work together to combat anti-Christian persecution, and “to support efforts to guarantee full citizenship to all citizens regardless of religious or ethnic identity in the Middle East and beyond.”

Persecution of Christians has spiked in the wake of the upheaval in the Arab world. Syrian Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. In Egypt, there has been a backlash against Christians by Islamist militants for their activism against former president Mohammed Morsi, ousted by the military on July 3 after a wave of massive protests against his rule.

“We encourage efforts to promote the well-being of minority Christian and Jewish communities throughout the Middle East,” the statement read.

The Liaison Committee, or ILC, called for restrictions to be dropped, and addressed “moves to interpret ‘secularity’ and ‘secular society’ in ways that marginalize religious groups and individuals,” biblical scholar Murray Watson said, using recent moves in Quebec to forbid public servants from wearing religious garb in government offices or public settings as an example.

Watson, an expert on Catholic-Jewish relations, told The Times of Israel that the conference saw the fates of Jews and Christians as linked.

“I think that there is a growing awareness that whatever impacts on one community will almost inevitably have an impact on other communities,” he said.

The conference, themed on “Challenges for Religion in Contemporary Society,” took place as a European survey was released in which a quarter of the respondents — Jews from nine countries — said they avoid visiting places and wearing symbols that identify them as Jews for fear of anti-Semitism.

Calling it a sin, the conference’s statement said that the upcoming 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate in 2015 is an opportune time to reaffirm its denunciation of anti-Semitism.

The key point of reference for Catholic relations with the Jewish people, the 1965 declaration — which grew out of the Vatican II conference — stressed the religious bond shared by Jews and Catholics, reaffirmed the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, and called for a halt to attempts to convert Jews.

“We urge that anti-Semitic teachings be eliminated from preaching and textbooks everywhere in the world,” read the statement Thursday.

For a variety of reasons, Catholic outreach toward Jews and changes in the Church’s attitude toward Jews since Nostra Aetate are not widely taught in Jewish schools. The conference recommended that both Jewish and Catholic seminaries educate their students about the subject.

“As a new generation of Jewish and Catholic leaders arises, we underscore the profound ways that Nostra Aetate changed the relationship between Jews and Catholics. It is imperative that the next generation embrace these teachings and ensure that they reach every corner of the world,” the statement read. “We Catholics and Jews renew our commitment to educate our own respective communities in the knowledge of and respect for each other.”

The ILC is the official forum for dialogue between the Church´s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.

The organization was formed after the first international meeting between Catholics and Jews in 1970, and met the next year in Paris. It has convened regularly since, including meetings in Jerusalem around the Vatican’s recognition of Israel in 1994.

According to Watson, a member of the Canadian Christian-Jewish Consultation, the conference provides an international forum for Jewish and Catholic leaders to discuss issues of particular concern to each side, such as anti-Jewish or anti-Christian violence.

“[It] allows both sides to better and more accurately understand the faith-perspective of the other group, to seek clarifications…and to testify to the world community about the possibilities for dialogue and collaboration between differing religious groups,” he said.

Times of Israel

Islam's Collective Punishment of Christians

As many of Israel's critics portray it as collectively punishing the Palestinians, overlooked and unsaid is the greater frequency with which Muslims collectively punish the religious minorities living under their authority, often in atrocious ways.

Consider Egypt alone. The most recent attacks on Egypt's Copts, culminating in the unprecedented besiegement of the St. Mark Cathedral, the holiest site of Coptic Orthodoxy, is the latest large-scale "collective punishment" of the nation's indigenous Christian minority. Indeed, almost all of the major attacks on Copts are carried out in the context of collective punishment, based on the idea that, if just one Christian upsets Muslims, all Christians—and their churches and their women and their children—become fair game.

Collectively punishing "upstart" religious minorities who refuse to know their place in the Islamic order actually has doctrinal backing. According to Mark Durie, author of The Third Choice: "Even a breach by a single individual dhimmi [non-Muslim living under Muslim authority] could result in jihad being enacted against the whole community. Muslim jurists have made this principle explicit, for example, the Yemeni jurist al-Murtada wrote that 'The agreement will be canceled if all or some of them break it…' and the Moroccan al-Maghili taught 'The fact that one individual (or one group) among them has broken the statute is enough to invalidate it for all of them.'"

The latest collective punishment visited upon the Copts began in Khosous, near Cairo, on April 5, when a longstanding feud between a Christian family and a Muslim family—based on male Muslims sexually harassing Christian girls—culminated in the violent deaths of six Christians, including one set on fire, and one Muslim. In retribution, Muslims went on yet another "Friday-rampage"—Friday being the day Muslims meet and pray and hate and call for jihads on Christians—resulting in the injury of at least 20 other Copts, an attack on a Coptic church, and an Evangelical church set on fire.

Then, two days later, after Copts mourned their dead in their cathedral, Muslim mobs awaiting them outside launched yet another attack, one that was actually aided by state security, firing into the cathedral compound. Eyewitnesses said as many as 40-50 tear gas canisters targeted the mourners, many of whom were women and children. Other officers stood by as the Muslim mob tried to ravage the cathedral. Two more Copts were killed and many dozens wounded. Since then, more reports have emerged of Copts being targeted and some even killed.

The fact is, collectively punishing Christian Copts for the purported crimes of individual Copts is a regular occurrence in Egypt, and perhaps the chief mode of their persecution. Other recent examples include:

July, 2012: When a Christian launderer accidently burned the shirt of a Muslim customer, a brawl ensued between the two Egyptians. The next day "the Muslim, with approximately 20 of his followers, went to the Christian's home to attack him. Expecting this, the Christian was prepared and climbed to the highest point of his roof, hurling Molotov cocktails at the Muslims." One Muslim man was injured and later died in a hospital. Before he died, between 2,000-3,000 Muslims attacked the Christians of the village, leading to an exodus of approximately 120 Coptic families. In the words of one report: "The sectarian crisis in the village of Dahshur escalated on August 1 after the burial of the Muslim man who died yesterday in hospital. Hundreds of Muslims torched and looted Coptic businesses and homes despite hundreds of security forces being deployed in the village. Eyewitnesses reported that security forces did not protect most Coptic property… As 120 families had already fled the village the day before after being terrorized, the businesses and homes were an easy game for the mob to make a complete clean-up of everything that could be looted… The security forces were at the scene of the crime while it was taking place and did nothing at all." After the violence, the family of the deceased Muslim said that destroying Coptic property is not enough and that Copts have to "pay for their son's death" with their lives.

January, 2012: A mob of over 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians in an Alexandrian village because a Muslim accused a Christian of having "intimate photos" of a Muslim woman on his phone. Terrified, the Christian, who denied having such photos, turned himself in to the police. Regardless, Coptic homes and shops were looted and set ablaze. Three Christians were injured, while "terrorized" Christian women and children, rendered homeless, stood in the streets with no place to go. As usual, it took the army an hour to drive 2 kilometers to the village: "This happens every time. They [security] wait outside the village until the Muslims have had enough violence, then they appear." None of the perpetrators were arrested. Later, in an effort to empty the village of its 62 Christian families, Muslims attacked them again, burning more Coptic property. According to police, the Muslim woman concerned has denied the whole story, and no photos were found.

November, 2011: Similar to the above incidents in Khosous and Dahshur, the inadvertent killing of a Muslim by a Christian in a fight started by the Muslim when he torched the Christian's home resulted in the "collective punishment of all Copts in the majority Christian village." Two Christians not party to the altercation were killed; others were stabbed and critically wounded. As usual, "after killing the Copts, Muslims went on a rampage, looting and burning Christian owned homes and businesses." Again, despite all this "Muslims insist they have not yet avenged" the death of their slain co-religionist; there were fears of "a wholesale massacre of Copts." Once again, many Christians had fled their homes and were in hiding.

April, 2011: When a Christian was falsely blamed for the deaths of two Muslims, an ensuing rampage left one Christian dead and 10 hospitalized; an old woman reportedly was thrown out of her second floor balcony. Christian homes and properties were plundered and torched.

November, 2010: When a teenage Christian youth was accused of dating a teenage Muslim girl, 22 Christian homes were set ablaze to Islam's war cry of "Allahu Akbar." During the attack the Muslim mob threw fireballs, gasoline, and stones at Coptic homes and detonated butane gas cylinders.

One can find similar examples in other Muslim countries where religious minorities—especially Christians—live. In short, while other societies, particularly in the context of war, may collectively punish their enemies, Islam is the only "religion" that actually mandates it—that unjustly punishes large numbers of innocent people for the purported crimes of the individual, as the aforementioned clerics from one end of the Arab world to the other maintain. This alone should raise questions about the very nature of Islam.
by Raymond Ibrahim

http://www.meforum.org/3488/islam-collective-punishment-christians

Posted with Blogsy

Islam's Collective Punishment of Christians

As many of Israel's critics portray it as collectively punishing the Palestinians, overlooked and unsaid is the greater frequency with which Muslims collectively punish the religious minorities living under their authority, often in atrocious ways.

Consider Egypt alone. The most recent attacks on Egypt's Copts, culminating in the unprecedented besiegement of the St. Mark Cathedral, the holiest site of Coptic Orthodoxy, is the latest large-scale "collective punishment" of the nation's indigenous Christian minority. Indeed, almost all of the major attacks on Copts are carried out in the context of collective punishment, based on the idea that, if just one Christian upsets Muslims, all Christians—and their churches and their women and their children—become fair game.

Collectively punishing "upstart" religious minorities who refuse to know their place in the Islamic order actually has doctrinal backing. According to Mark Durie, author of The Third Choice: "Even a breach by a single individual dhimmi [non-Muslim living under Muslim authority] could result in jihad being enacted against the whole community. Muslim jurists have made this principle explicit, for example, the Yemeni jurist al-Murtada wrote that 'The agreement will be canceled if all or some of them break it…' and the Moroccan al-Maghili taught 'The fact that one individual (or one group) among them has broken the statute is enough to invalidate it for all of them.'"

The latest collective punishment visited upon the Copts began in Khosous, near Cairo, on April 5, when a longstanding feud between a Christian family and a Muslim family—based on male Muslims sexually harassing Christian girls—culminated in the violent deaths of six Christians, including one set on fire, and one Muslim. In retribution, Muslims went on yet another "Friday-rampage"—Friday being the day Muslims meet and pray and hate and call for jihads on Christians—resulting in the injury of at least 20 other Copts, an attack on a Coptic church, and an Evangelical church set on fire.

Then, two days later, after Copts mourned their dead in their cathedral, Muslim mobs awaiting them outside launched yet another attack, one that was actually aided by state security, firing into the cathedral compound. Eyewitnesses said as many as 40-50 tear gas canisters targeted the mourners, many of whom were women and children. Other officers stood by as the Muslim mob tried to ravage the cathedral. Two more Copts were killed and many dozens wounded. Since then, more reports have emerged of Copts being targeted and some even killed.

The fact is, collectively punishing Christian Copts for the purported crimes of individual Copts is a regular occurrence in Egypt, and perhaps the chief mode of their persecution. Other recent examples include:

• July, 2012: When a Christian launderer accidently burned the shirt of a Muslim customer, a brawl ensued between the two Egyptians. The next day "the Muslim, with approximately 20 of his followers, went to the Christian's home to attack him. Expecting this, the Christian was prepared and climbed to the highest point of his roof, hurling Molotov cocktails at the Muslims." One Muslim man was injured and later died in a hospital. Before he died, between 2,000-3,000 Muslims attacked the Christians of the village, leading to an exodus of approximately 120 Coptic families. In the words of one report: "The sectarian crisis in the village of Dahshur escalated on August 1 after the burial of the Muslim man who died yesterday in hospital. Hundreds of Muslims torched and looted Coptic businesses and homes despite hundreds of security forces being deployed in the village. Eyewitnesses reported that security forces did not protect most Coptic property… As 120 families had already fled the village the day before after being terrorized, the businesses and homes were an easy game for the mob to make a complete clean-up of everything that could be looted… The security forces were at the scene of the crime while it was taking place and did nothing at all." After the violence, the family of the deceased Muslim said that destroying Coptic property is not enough and that Copts have to "pay for their son's death" with their lives.
• January, 2012: A mob of over 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians in an Alexandrian village because a Muslim accused a Christian of having "intimate photos" of a Muslim woman on his phone. Terrified, the Christian, who denied having such photos, turned himself in to the police. Regardless, Coptic homes and shops were looted and set ablaze. Three Christians were injured, while "terrorized" Christian women and children, rendered homeless, stood in the streets with no place to go. As usual, it took the army an hour to drive 2 kilometers to the village: "This happens every time. They [security] wait outside the village until the Muslims have had enough violence, then they appear." None of the perpetrators were arrested. Later, in an effort to empty the village of its 62 Christian families, Muslims attacked them again, burning more Coptic property. According to police, the Muslim woman concerned has denied the whole story, and no photos were found.
• November, 2011: Similar to the above incidents in Khosous and Dahshur, the inadvertent killing of a Muslim by a Christian in a fight started by the Muslim when he torched the Christian's home resulted in the "collective punishment of all Copts in the majority Christian village." Two Christians not party to the altercation were killed; others were stabbed and critically wounded. As usual, "after killing the Copts, Muslims went on a rampage, looting and burning Christian owned homes and businesses." Again, despite all this "Muslims insist they have not yet avenged" the death of their slain co-religionist; there were fears of "a wholesale massacre of Copts." Once again, many Christians had fled their homes and were in hiding.
• April, 2011: When a Christian was falsely blamed for the deaths of two Muslims, an ensuing rampage left one Christian dead and 10 hospitalized; an old woman reportedly was thrown out of her second floor balcony. Christian homes and properties were plundered and torched.
• November, 2010: When a teenage Christian youth was accused of dating a teenage Muslim girl, 22 Christian homes were set ablaze to Islam's war cry of "Allahu Akbar." During the attack the Muslim mob threw fireballs, gasoline, and stones at Coptic homes and detonated butane gas cylinders.

One can find similar examples in other Muslim countries where religious minorities—especially Christians—live. In short, while other societies, particularly in the context of war, may collectively punish their enemies, Islam is the only "religion" that actually mandates it—that unjustly punishes large numbers of innocent people for the purported crimes of the individual, as the aforementioned clerics from one end of the Arab world to the other maintain. This alone should raise questions about the very nature of Islam.

source

An Islamic Declaration of War on Christianity

While it is easy to confuse the recent jihadi attack on Egypt’s St. Mark Cathedral in Cairo as just more of the usual, this attack has great symbolic significance, and in many ways bodes great evil for Egypt’s millions of Christians.

Consider some facts: St. Mark Cathedral—named after the author of the Gospel of the same name who brought Christianity to Egypt some 600 years before Amr bin al-As brought Islam with the sword—is not simply “just another” Coptic church to be attacked and/or set aflame by a Muslim mob (see my forthcoming book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, for a comprehensive idea of past and present Muslim attacks on Coptic churches).  Instead, it is considered the most sacred building for millions of Christians around the world—above and beyond the many millions of Copts in and out of Egypt.  As the only apostolic see in the entire continent of Africa, its significance and evangelizing mission extends to the entire continent, including nations such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, to name just a few.  As an apostolic see—the actual seat of an apostle of Christ—the cathedral further possesses historical significance for Christianity in general.

In short, Muslim mobs—aided and abetted by the state of Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage—did not merely attack yet one more Coptic church, but rather committed an act of war against all Christianity.  Such an open attack on a Christian center which holds symbolic and historic significance for all Christians—St. Mark, whose relics are in the cathedral and who authored one of the four Gospels of the Bible, belongs to all Christians not just Copts—was an open attack on a universally acknowledged Christian shrine.  It was precisely these sorts of attacks on eastern and orthodox churches—including the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem in 1009—that presaged the way for the crusades (back when Christianity was not utterly fragmented and disunited as it is today).

Put differently, this jihadi attack on St. Mark Cathedral is no different for Copts than a jihadi attack on the Vatican would be for Catholics.  Or, to maintain the analogy, but from the other side, it would be no different than a “crusader” attack on the Grand Mosque of Mecca for Muslims.

While one can only imagine how the world’s Muslims would react to a “Christian/Western” assault on their most sacred of shrines, “post-Christian” Western leaders, as usual, stand by idly (not unlike Egyptian state security, which stood by idly as the Muslim mob opened fire on the cathedral).

As for Egypt’s Copts, they certainly did rally to the defense of Egypt’s, if not the entire continent of Africa’s, most important cathedral—hence the draconian response from Egypt’s interior ministry (one eyewitness said security intentionally fired 40-50 gas bombs into the compound, knocking out many Christians, including several women and children). Just as Egyptian forces were wroth with Copts when they demonstrated against the ongoing attacks on their churches in Maspero in 2011—slaughtering over 20 Christians, including by intentionally running them over with armored-vehicles—it appears that Egyptian forces were rather irked with “dhimmi” Copts boldly defending their holiest site.

On the other hand, that Copts rallied to the defense of their cathedral—or, as Reuters characterized them, “an angry young fringe … of Christianity may also be turning to violence—has further validated the Western mainstream media narrative that Egypt’s Christian minority is somehow equally violent and responsible for the so-called “sectarian strife”—euphemism for Muslim persecution of Christians—plaguing Egypt.

The symbolical significance of this latest Muslim attack on Christianity was confirmed by several activists.  For example, Coptic Solidarity President Adel Guindy said, “Attacking the seat of the Coptic Pope is unprecedented in the last two centuries. It was a deliberate and humiliating act demonstrating the growing Salafist-espoused culture of hate and aggressive behavior towards all non-Muslims. It amounts to a State crime.”

Even the Coptic Pope, who must always be diplomatic lest his comments exacerbate matters for his flock, did not equivocate the severity of this assault on Coptic Christianity’s most sacred spot—not to mention his primary residence. Among other things, Pope Tawadros said that President Muhammad Morsi had “promised to do everything to protect the cathedral but in reality we don’t see this….  We need action not only words… There is no action on the ground.” The Pope further confirmed that “This flagrant assault on a national symbol, the Egyptian church, has never been subjected to this in 2,000 years.”

The Pope’s comment “we need action not only words” was in response to President Morsi’s declaration that “I consider any attack on the cathedral an attack against myself”—a declaration he made even as Egyptian state security were firing tear gas into the cathedral compound and standing by idly as Muslims also opened fire on the cathedral and hurled stones and Molotov cocktails, all of which was captured by photos.  (Even so, and as usual, the only people to be arrested in connection with this latest assault on Egypt’s most important cathedral were Copts themselves.)

Instead of words—which, from Islamists, are absolutely worthless—what Morsi needs to address is the fact that the most unprecedented and symbolically lethal attack on a Christian place of worship in post “Arab Spring” Egypt took place under his and the Muslim Brotherhood’s authority (under Hosni Mubarak, “not so much as a pebble”—as one activist put it—was thrown at the St. Mark Cathedral, a national landmark).

This of course is consistent with the fact that, unlike all former Egyptian presidents, who were all Muslim, Islamist President Morsi is the first president to refuse to enter a church—whether during the ceremonious installation of the nation’s new pope or whether during Coptic Christmas ceremonies. Could this be because the pious Morsi believes that a Christian church is like “a nightclub, [or] a gambling casino” as a prominent Egyptian fatwa council declared?  Could it be that he, like other popular Muslim leaders, simply hates and is disgusted by Christians?

At any rate, here is the Muslim world’s latest, most flagrant, assault on Christianity, even as Western leadership yawns—that is, when it’s not actively enabling such anti-Christian animus through its wholesale support for the “Arab Spring.”

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