Post 122--Muslim Persecution of Christians

   

Post 118 of this blog talks about whether Muslims want peace or terrorism. I quoted Canadian Muslims who are fiercely opposed to violence and terrorism. I also wrote about some who want both!  Yes, as strange as it seems, terrorists who claim to be Muslims resort to violence as the only way to peace.  They base their definition of peace on a very literal, unhistorical and fundamentalist interpretation of the Qur’an.

Most Muslims reject that interpretation as well as the attitudes and actions that result from it. One of its results is the death of thousands of Muslims at the hands of those militant “Muslims” throughout the regions where militancy has a hold, especially those claimed by ISIS in the “Middle East” and Boko Haram in the north-east of Nigeria and neighbouring countries. Probably more Muslims are killed than Christians and others. Most of the global Muslim community strongly resist and resent any suggestions that Islam and the Muslim community are violent or approve of terrorism. They wonder why Westerners associate Muslims with violence and terrorism. Why, Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, they will argue up and down. Those militants do not represent Islam.

Well, that may be true, but that does not take Muslims off the hook. There is another form of violence that may not be described as “terrorist” but is violent none the less. I am talking about persecution. Persecution of other religions is rife within the Muslim community, even within the most liberal or secular Muslim countries. Back in Post 76 I promised that I would devote an occasional post to Muslim persecution of Christians. It’s high time I act once again on that promise.

There are various Christian organizations that monitor situations of such persecution. One of them has been introduced to you in the past and I’m going to resort to them again: Barnabas Aid.  Their international headquarters is in the UK, while they have regional offices in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland, Singapore and the USA.  They publish both a bi-monthly magazine and a prayer bulletin.  I am going to simply quote a few random reports of theirs from the May/June 2016 prayer bulletin.

My stories will zero in on mostly ordinary Muslims, their governments and their agencies in Muslim-majority countries. There are many other fronts where there is serious persecution, but I hope to address them sometime in the near future. These could include reports of ISIS atrocities that will be addressed one day under the rubric of “genocide.” There is also persecution of Christians at the hands of Muslim minority communities in the West. Then there are Hindu persecution of Christians, Chinese persecution, Buddhist persecution,Secular persecution in the West, etc., etc.  One of the most puzzling forms of persecution is that of Christians by Muslims in Christian-majority countries, mostly in Africa! I reserve all of that for future blogs. In all of this, I am aware that there are also situations where Muslims are persecuted. Perhaps that subject will be treated as well in due time.

But for this post and the next, persecution of Christians by ordinary Muslims in Muslim-majority countries:

May 1—“Iraqi Christians in Baghdad have recently lost their homes, businesses, cultural sites and church buildings when they were seized by Iranian-backed militias, forcing the owners to leave.” “They are being targeted in a type of ethnic cleansing designed to rid the Iraqi capital of all Christians.”

May 16—“A Pakistani Christian was beaten to death by police in January 2016, after having been stripped naked and hung up until his shoulders were dislocated. Liaquat Masih had worked as a driver for 18 years for a Muslim politician when he was accused by his employer’s wife of stealing jewelry. The police also beat Gull Khatab, a former employee of the politician, to try to pressure him into accusing Liaqat, but Gull refused. When local Christians staged a peaceful protest the following day outside the police station at which it all happened, police used batons against them, injuring six women and four men.”

May 18—“Tahira (21) and her sister Reema (20), both Christians, were kidnapped by Muslims towards the end of last year, forcibly converted to Islam and forced to marry their kidnappers in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Tahira has managed to escape but dares not return to her family, who are now in grave danger because the kidnappers have filed a police complaint against them. The police typically take the side of the Muslim husbands in such cases. Pray that Reema may also find a way to escape and that both sisters may find a hope and future in a culture where their reputations are now ruined and they and their relatives are in danger of physical attack by the Muslim family or arrest by the police.”

May 19—“There are estimated to be around 700 cases like Tahira and Reema (see above) every year in Pakistan. Pray for the courageous Christian lawyers…who put their own lives at risk to give legal assistance to the victims and their families. Ask the Lord to grant them favour as they argue their cases before the authorities and to protect them from the many enemies they make as they speak up in defense of poor and vulnerable believers.”    

June 6—A fifth-century underground cave church has been discovered in Turkey’s Cappadocia region, a place where some of the earliest Christians lived (Acts 2:9; 1 Peter 1:1 in New Testament).  As Christians in Turkey today face pressures of many kinds, particularly with regard to their buildings, and are made to feel unwanted in their own country, pray that this tangible reminder of their historic roots may bring them encouragement and hope. Pray that the Muslim population (99% according to government figures) will recognize that Christians are not foreigners or traitors, but have a rightful place in society.  

June 7—A church building in Bursa, Turkey, dating from the 1880s, is currently used by four different denominations. When the Christians made a routine application to renew their permission to use the building, they were refused and ordered to leave the premises by February 26.  When this became known, local residents and the Turkish media reacted in support of the Christians—a very unusual occurrence in Turkey, where the Muslim majority and media are generally negative towards Christians. Perhaps even more surprising was the response of the Turkish authorities on February 23 withdrawing the eviction order.            

In closing this post, I think it only fair to tell you that this very day my wife and I were brunch guests at the home of a Turkish Muslim family who are our friends and who are the most cultured, gentle and kind people you can imagine. It almost seems ungrateful to publish this report today. I apologize to them, but the truth must be told. By no means all Turkish Muslims fit that description when it comes to Christians, but the percentage is too high, high enough to dub such events as “common place,” while resistance to them is considered “unusual” and “surprising.”  The end result after centuries of Muslim domination of these early Christian regions is a greatly reduced Christian community. 

Post 73—Refugees—Surprising, Interesting and Important Facts

Since the current world situation imposes that very difficult issue of refugees on all countries and, yes, all individuals—and that means you and me--, I devoted Post 72 to the subject. Today, more of the same, because it is such a critical issue that refuses to go away out of our consciousness and because it is such an interesting subject.

Did I say “interesting”? Yes, I did, but is that an appropriate way of reacting to this immense human tragedy? I doubt you’ll find even one genuine refugee who thinks of her situation as “interesting.”  Perhaps the terrorists hiding among them and using the tragedy for their own purposes will think of it as an interesting adventure. That there are those, I have no doubt, though I would not venture a guess as to their number.

The Vancouver Sun (VS) featured an extensive sidebar under the title “Eight things to know about the Syrian refugee crisis” by Ali Dharssi (26/10/2015, p. A10). Yes, these “eight things” are interesting as well as vital for us to develop a realistic perspective.  “Interesting” does not have to be trivial or emotionally distant.  Here are the “eight things:”

1           “More than half of Syria’s prewar population of 22 million has been displaced.”  Imagine that: over 50% of a nation!

2           “Tens of thousands of Syrian babies have been born as refugees.” Estimates range from 60,000 to 150,000 born just to refugees in Turkey!  All these are at risk of becoming stateless.

3           “More than half of the Syrian refugees are children.”  Over 1.6 million are under 12 years old, all in danger of losing out on education.

4           “More than three-quarters are women and children.”  A very high percentage of these women are widows struggling to feed their children. The fathers and men are absent and in many cases killed. 

5           “Terrorism does not have deep roots in Syria” according to experts. Terrorism source groups have been effectively suppressed by King Assad.

6           “Religious strife in Syria was not as bad as you might think.” Religious relationships were marked by “relative harmony,” though under an oppressive regime.

7           Syrian refugees are relatively well-educated. Prewar Syria had a literacy rate of 96%. 

8           “Syrians from all socio-economic backgrounds are fleeing.”

If your church or other organization is considering sponsoring a refugee, these facts are important to remember not only, but they might just be interesting enough to convince the members to act.

Another interesting cluster of refugee facts is that the West is not the only continent to house Syrians, though we would like to think we are. It strokes our moral pride. But, according to Frank Elbers, “the Saudis and Qataris may be playing a more constructive role than their critics give them credit for.”  

Though Saudi has allowed few to enter as refugees, it “has allowed hundreds of thousands to enter as migrant workers”—nearly 2.5 million since 2011.  They also have issued 100,000 residence permits and provided $700 million (US) in aid.  An estimated 400,000 well educated and skilled Syrians are in Saudi on temporary visas for foreign workers. “The United Arab Emirates have welcomed more than 100,000 Syrians, who have joined another 140,000 already living in the country.”  True, few classified formally as refugees will be found in those countries, but the Syrians are there in large numbers (“A Gulf in Compassion?” VS, 26 Oct/2015, p. A10).  Honour to whom honour is due.

One final point related to Saudi, though not about refugees. The Western press often berates Arab countries for not pulling their weight in helping poor countries. However, I just read that the Saudi king has signed a contract with the UN to help war-ravaged Yemen with $244 worth of aid. Though only in a side column as a filler, at least the VS reports this. It is something we do not often hear about. I have no particular need to defend Saudi, but it does not help us if we hear only negative news about Muslim countries. Again, honour to whom it is due.