As opposed to their Western counterparts, Christian leaders who live in the Middle East continued expressing their frustration at the West’s indifference and worse. Jean-Clément Jeanbart, the Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo, during an interview, asked “Why are your bishops silent on a threat that is yours today as well? Because the bishops are, like you, raised in political correctness. But Jesus was never politically correct, he was politically just! The responsibility of a bishop is to teach, to use his influence to transmit truth. Why are your bishops afraid of speaking? Of course they would be criticized, but that would give them a chance to defend themselves, and to defend this truth. You must remember that silence often means consent.”

The archbishop also criticized the migration policies of Western countries: “The egoism and the interests slavishly defended by your governments will in the end kill you as well. Open your eyes, didn’t you see what happened recently in Paris?”

Similarly, in Iraq, Christian representatives invited to participate in the “Conference on the Protection of Peaceful Coexistence” — the sort of conference that would be heavily attended, praised, and cited by Christians in the West — boycotted the event on the grounds that such government-sponsored events are purely for show and nothing comes of them. “What need is there in participating in meetings like this and repeating the formulas that give the title to the conference if then one does not see initiatives and changes in concrete terms?” said Chaldean Patriarch Raphael Louis I. Other non-Muslim religious minorities, including the Yazidis and Mandaeans, also boycotted the conference.

The Chaldean Patriarch went on to launch an appeal to government authorities and political and religious leaders to denounce the continuing legal discrimination and sectarian bullying suffered by Christians: “We met with government officials, and paid a visit to some of the Islamic religious authorities to talk about what we have in common, with regards to our faiths and the life we share in this land. During these meetings, we assured our loyalty to Iraq, which is our country, and we do not seek revenge, we want to live in peace with all Iraqis. Unfortunately, none of their promises has become reality.”

January’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Persecution of Christian Churches

USA: Federal authorities arrested a Michigan man believed to be an ISIS supporter who had planned to carry out an attack on a 6,000-member Detroit church. Khalil Abu-Rayyan, 21, of Dearborn Heights, allegedly had guns and a large knife, and told an undercover FBI agent that he “tried to shoot up a church one day.” “I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced reloading and unloading,” he said in an online conversation. Investigators did not specify which church Abu-Rayyan was eyeing, but said it has a capacity of 6,000 members. In conversations with an undercover agent, he said, “If I can’t do jihad in the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.” He also had armed himself with a knife and told the undercover agent, “It is my dream to behead someone.”

Bangladesh: Catholic nuns were attacked on two separate occasions. In the early morning hours of February 7, around 15 masked, armed men broke into the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and its adjacent Catechist Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent, in Chuadanga. They vandalized the convent’s chapel, desecrated the Eucharist, slapped a nun around, and looted over $8,000 as well as other valuables. A few days later in Tumilia, 12 men broke into St. Mary’s Catholic Mother Care Center, a hospital clinic founded in 1933, and stole some items. “They broke down the door of my room,” said Sister Mary, “and were armed. They threatened me and asked where I held the money. I had no other choice, I gave them all the cash we had.” According to Theophil Nokrek, secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace, the two recent attacks “are not isolated incidents. Some groups are trying to harm our Christian community. They are doing so with premeditated actions. The government should protect us adequately.” He added that a few days earlier in the same district a Christian micro-credit bank was also robbed.

Kosovo: Four ethnic Albanians were arrested near the Serbian Orthodox monastery, Visoki Decani, a UNESCO world heritage site. Two of the suspects wore beards and were dressed in Salafi garb. A Kalashnikov rifle with ammunition and a pistol, as well as some extremist jihadi books, were found in their car. One of the suspects was later found to have an ISIS flag in his house. More than a year earlier, in October 2014, ISIS graffiti was sprayed on buildings belonging to the monastery. Even so, Kosovo police said the four men had no intention to attack the monastery and had no links to terrorism; Albanian media accused the monastery of exaggerating the threat. One month earlier, Muslims had urinated in an Orthodox Christian church in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

Turkey: On February 18, authorities ordered four Christian congregations to vacate the church building they shared. The Christians were given until February 26 to comply—eight days. Built in the 1880s, the building, which accommodated as many as 200 people, had, since 2004, been shared by four different Christian denominations for their Sunday worship. Due to protests against the decision, on February 23 authorities withdrew the order. Discussing this incident, Turkish academic Aykan Erdemir said, “Christians do not have any legal entitlement to the building. They only have usage rights for the time being, which I think is a very precarious situation …. Members of non-majority religions have to depend on the goodwill of bureaucrats and the majority population.”

Muslim Violence Against and Slaughter of Christians

United States: Police shot and killed a Muslim man of Somali background after he attacked several people with a machete at Nazareth Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. The restaurant is owned by a pro-Israel Arab Christian. Thirty-year-old Mohamed Barry walked into the restaurant, had a conversation with an employee and then left. He returned a half hour later, went up to a man and a woman who were sitting at a booth just inside the door, and started slashing. Four people were injured. Law enforcement said the man had traveled to the Middle East in 2012 and that the incident appears to be the type of “lone wolf terrorist attacks they’re trying to stop.” Even so, Columbus police Sgt. Rich Weiner said, “right now there’s nothing that leads us to believe that this is anything but a random attack.”

Recalling the incident, a waitress said, “He looked straight at me, but he went over to the booths and just started going down the booths. It all seemed to happen in slow motion.”

Karen Bass, another eyewitness, said, “He came to each table and just started hitting them. There were tables and chairs overturned there was a man on the floor bleeding there was blood on the floor. I fell like five times. My legs felt like jelly. I just thought he was going to come behind me and slash me up.” After the attacks, Barry fled in his car but was chased by police and cornered. With a knife in one hand and a machete in the other, Barry got out of his car and lunged across the hood at the officers before he was shot dead.

In Columbus, Ohio, Mohamed Barry, a Muslim man of Somali background, attacked several people with a machete at Nazareth Restaurant — a business owned by a pro-Israel Arab Christian. Police later shot and killed Barry when he lunged at them with a machete and knife.

Kenya: In a pre-dawn raid on a predominantly Christian area, the Somalia-based Islamic jihadi group, Al Shabaab, killed at least four Christians, one of whom was beheaded. According to a Christian who was shot in his hand but survived, there were five or six heavily-armed assailants speaking Somali and dressed in military uniforms. They shot two Christians dead, hacked and beheaded another and killed yet another by setting his house on fire. “I could not understand them, so they shot me in my hand, but I managed to escape while a neighbor who was with me was beheaded by the other attackers…. As I fled for my life, bleeding, I could see two houses burning. Those who were attacked are Christians. I am very sure that the attackers were looking for Christians… This is the third time the area has been attacked, and we have lost several Christians.”

Egypt: Another young Coptic Christian conscript allegedly committed suicide in his unit in Menufia. According to Maj. Gen. Muhammad Mas’ud, the 20-year-old, known only as Michael, “shot a bullet from his firearm into his chest, dying instantly.” He supposedly killed himself “after receiving a phone call from his home,” said Mas’ud. Lawyer Hani Ramses remarked that “It’s new for us constantly to hear about Coptic recruits killing themselves in the military and police stations. It’s especially strange that it’s happening now, and not previously, when Egypt was often in a state of war and under constant threat… The killing of Coptic conscripts in the military has become a [new] phenomenon.” (Read here for several more accounts of Coptic Christians being killed in their military units under “mysterious circumstances,” such as supposed suicide.) The lawyer also wondered if these deaths indicate that “extremist groups” have infiltrated the Egyptian military.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom: No to Apostasy and Blasphemy

Italy: A report said that more than one thousand Muslim converts to Christianity currently living in Italy are hiding their conversions for fear of violent retaliation from the Muslim community.

One of them, a 55-year-old Egyptian chemical engineer who now works a waiter, said he had been a fervent Muslim who was converted to Christianity and baptized in Italy after the death of his mother three years ago. The man, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retribution from Muslims, stated that the decisive element in his conversion came from seeing Christians with “a humanity more complete than mine.” He openly expressed his frustration about having to hide his newfound faith. “I cannot openly practice my Christian faith. I am afraid that some fanatical Muslim may do harm not only to me, but especially to relatives who remained in Egypt…. How is it that Italians who convert to Islam can go on TV and talk about it, and instead I have to hide to avoid retaliation?”

Uganda: A Muslim imam known as “the malaria of Christianity” was arrested in connection with the killing of a 28-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity. Laurence Maiso’s body was found on January 27 at his own house, his head in a pool of blood. Four days earlier, Imam Kamulali Hussein had met his wife and him on a local road. According to Maiso’s wife, the imam told him, “You have refused to join us. Do you know that Allah does not want us to have a kafir [infidel] neighbor? And you should know that Allah is about to send to you the Angel of Death in your house. Please prepare to meet him at any time.” Four days after this warning, Maiso’s wife went out of the home and returned to find her husband dead on the floor. A neighbor said that on the day of the murder she saw eight men—including Imam Hussein—coming out of Maiso’s house. On several earlier occasions other Muslims had confronted Maiso and demanded that he recant his Christian faith. The killing is the latest in a series of attacks on Christians. On December 23, 2015, a pastor was hacked to death as he and other church members resisted an effort by Muslims to take over their land. And less than a week earlier, five underground Christians, including a pregnant mother, in a predominantly Muslim village, died from a pesticide put into their food after a Bible study.

Pakistan: A disabled Christian man sentenced to death for blasphemy said that he was forced into admitting to the charges in order to stop his wife from being tortured: “There is no man who can stand to see his wife being tortured by police, so to save my wife, I confessed,” Shafqat Emmanuel said in his appeal. Emmanuel and his wife were found guilty of insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad in text messages to a local imam in 2013, and sentenced to death. The conviction came despite the fact that the poor Christian couple are illiterate, witnesses are offering contradicting testimonies against them, and evidence that the blasphemous text messages could not have been sent by from the phone of the Christians.

Kenya: A Christian of Somali descent was last reported unable to see or eat after Muslim relatives beat him unconscious on his way to church service, Sunday, February 7, outside Nairobi. Relatives told 26-year-old Hassan that they ambushed him because they had learned that he and others were holding mid-week Christian devotional times in their home. “They hit me with a blunt object, and I fell down bleeding. Then they stepped on my stomach, and while I was struggling, another hit me on my head [with the blunt object]. I was not able to know what happened after that point. I just woke up to find my mother screaming for help.”

One of the assailants had told Hassan, “You have been deceiving us that you have been having a ‘family meeting’ – we have found out that you have been conducting Christian activities, which is against our family tradition of being a Muslim family.” Hassan declined to name the relatives, saying he feared they would kill him. Somalis generally believe all Somalis are Muslims by birth and that consequently any Somali who becomes a Christian can be charged with apostasy, but Hassan was raised Christian from childhood.

Dhimmitude

United States: The Principal of the Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota, Scott Masini, banned the celebration of Valentine’s Day, a move that accords with Islamic teaching. As St. Valentine’s Day has its origins in the Christian religion, it is banned throughout the Muslim world. In a letter to parents, Masini said that, “my personal feeling is we need to find a way to honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.” He went on to explain that the holiday was cancelled as it violates some students’ religious beliefs: “I have come to the difficult decision to discontinue the celebration of the dominant holidays until we can come to a better understanding of how the dominant view will suppress someone else’s view.” He added that the school would also no longer celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, as celebrating those holidays “is encroaching on the educational opportunities of others and threatening the culture of tolerance and respect for all.” Several parents were unhappy with the decision. One parent on the school’s Facebook page wrote, “Very sad. All the fun is gone.” Another wrote, “Tired of the PC. Totally ridiculous.”

Germany: All throughout asylum centers, Muslim migrants are tearing up Bibles, assaulting Christians, sexually abusing women and children, and beating up homosexuals, reported the German newspaper, Die Welt. Yazidi girls who were formerly used as sex slaves by the Islamic State are housed in secret locations in Germany, in order not to attract unwanted attention from migrants sympathetic to the Islamic State or Muslims who view them as nothing more than sexual objects. More than a thousand of these women live in various special shelters across Germany.

Malaysia: Catholic school pupils are being pressured to convert to Islam, according to Sister Rita Chew, president of the Educational Commission of the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu. She partially attributed this new pressure to increasingly aggressive Muslims in schools run by the Church: “Some people seem very interested in bringing forward Muslim programs in our elementary schools.” Local sources said that Islamic proselytism activities take place in all schools of the country—including Catholic and Christian institutions. Several episodes also show a widespread prejudice against non-Muslim students, noted the sister, adding “Our fear comes from the fact that conversions take place, but the government denies this fact. Some Christian parents have found that their children are taught Islamic prayers.”

Egypt: For the second time, Mervat Seifein, a Christian school teacher, was rejected by students in her school in Minya, Upper Egypt, simply for being Christian. On February 8, Seifein was promoted to school director of Beni Mazar Secondary Girls’ School. It was a routine promotion in which she replaced the previous school director, a Muslim. But students—joined by some teachers—protested and held a sit-in in the school courtyard demanding her removal. “We don’t want a Copt,” they shouted. Police were not able to disband the boys’ demonstration in the school courtyard. Seifein said “The girls who demonstrated against me don’t know me, so why the antagonism? Simply because I am Coptic [Christian]? The only explanation I can fathom is there has been fanatic incitement going on against my promotion, possibly by persons who are purely extremist or who have an interest in keeping me out of that post.” This is not the first such incident. According to Ezzat Ibrahim, a Minya activist who demanded that a prompt official investigation be conducted,

“This is flagrant religious discrimination. It brings to mind the incident in the southern province of Qena when the Islamists rose against the appointment of a Coptic governor in the past-Arab Spring weeks in 2011, and the State gave in and went back on the appointment. It is catastrophic that some 50 or 100 teenage girls or boys should impose their will on the State. And it is equally disastrous that these students were pushed to do so by a group of fanatic Islamists. The positive official response to their preposterous demands amounts to an invitation for religious discrimination. The deputy minister who did that must be dismissed.”

Separately, more than 150 Coptic Christians staged a sit-in protest at the provincial administration office in Minya, to spread awareness for the continued kidnappings of Christians across the country. The protest specifically highlighted the case of an 18-year-old Christian girl who was kidnapped a few days earlier. “Kidnappings that target Christians remain a scourge for the Coptic community in many areas of Egypt. Already several appeals have been launched by Christian organizations to Egyptian authorities, including President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to take so that adequate measures are taken to combat this phenomenon,” added the report. Several kidnappings have ended in the murder of the hostages.

Pakistan: Tahira, 21, and Reema Bibi, 20, two Christian women, were abducted last December from near their home in Sargodha (Punjab) while walking together from work. Two Muslim men apparently seized the two women, raped them and then forcibly married them. Afterwards, they kept them segregated in their Islamabad home. On February 11, Tahira managed to escape. Her Muslim “husband,” however, filed a complaint with police, who immediately arrested six members of her Christian family. The relatives were released thanks to pressure from human rights groups, but the authorities have ordered the family to return Tahira to her kidnapper-rapist-husband. According to human rights activists, these are common experiences for Christian girls and their families in Pakistan. Even if a case goes to court, the victims are always threatened and pressured by their “husbands” to declare that their conversion was voluntary. Victims are often sexually abused, forced into prostitution, and suffer domestic abuse or even wind up as victims of human trafficking. Those who try to rebel are told that they “are now Muslims and that the punishment for apostasy is death,” noted the report.

Separately, a man refused to renounce Christ, despite being tortured by Muslim co-workers who tried to convert him to Islam. Patras Hanif, a construction worker and father of five, said he was targeted because of his Christian faith. His co-workers tried to pressure him into converting, even threatening false blasphemy charges. “They very often called me ‘kafir,’ which means unfaithful [“infidel”], and they threatened me that they would resort to false accusations of blasphemy if I refused to convert to Islam. A blasphemy charge in Pakistan is very serious and usually results in the death penalty,” noted Hanif.

According to Hanif’s lawyer, “This is the suffering Christians in Pakistan go through. Islamic extremist groups would like to eliminate Christianity and other religions.”

Jordan: Official school curricula intentionally omit and distort Christian history in the region. This came out in Amman, during a conference entitled, “Toward a Complete Strategy to Combat Extremism,” hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Political Studies. Dr. Hena al-Kaldani, a Christian, said that “there is a complete cancelation of Arab Christian history in the pre-Islamic era” and “many historical mistakes” in the school curriculums of Jordan. Al-Kaldani asserted that “there are unjustifiable historic leaps in our Jordanian curriculum,” meaning that centuries’ worth of Christian history is bypassed or suppressed. He said that, for example, “10th grade textbooks omit any mention of any Christian or church history in the region.”

Textbooks completely ignore historic Christian figures of importance and make no mention of Jerusalem’s Christian sites, while giving detailed accounts about Islamic sites, he added. That the original inhabitants of Petra, the Nabateans, were once pagans who converted to Christianity is also omitted. Wherever Christianity is mentioned, omissions and mischaracterizations proliferate. One Arabic language textbook uses the phrase, “Man shall not live by bread alone” without attributing it to Christ or the Bible. Christianity is primarily mentioned as a Western (that is, “foreign”) source of colonization, said al-Kaldani.

At the height of one of the worst months for Christians under Islam, June, 2016, both the U.S. government and “mainstream” media continued to ignore the plight of Christians.

Despite the U.S. government acknowledging that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians in Iraq and Syria, statistics showed the number of refugees the Obama administration has welcomed since the start of 2015:

• From Syria: 5,435 Muslims; 28 Christians
• From Iraq: 11,086 Muslims; 433 Christians

As for the mainstream media, the death of a gorilla was covered six times more than the Muslim slaughter of Christians for their faith, according to a report.

June’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Egypt: A Coptic Christian priest, Fr. Raphael Moussa, 46, was shot dead in “a hail of bullets” by an unidentified gunman outside the Church of the Martyr of St George, in Arish (Sinai). No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic terrorists affiliated with ISIS have targeted Christians in Arish before. In 2013, another Coptic Christian priest, Mina Cheroubim, was also shot dead as he left his church in Arish.

Syria: Non-ISIS rebel fighters considered “moderate” by establishment counterterror analysts slit the throat of a Christian man in front of his wife. The murderer told her: “Your Jesus did not come to save him from us.” The murder took place in the ancient Christian town of Maalula, where Jesus’ language Aramaic was still spoken. The town had been invaded by militants few days earlier.

According to a resident: “They arrived in our town at dawn and shouted ‘We are from the Al-Nusra Front and have come to make lives miserable for the Crusaders.'”

Separately, a suicide bomber disguised as a priest attempted to enter an event commemorating the genocide of Christian Assyrians, but was stopped by Assyrian forces. The bomber detonated his bomb outside the hall, killing himself and three members of the Christian Assyrian Sutoro security forces, and wounding five. It is believed the bomber was targeting Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem of the Syriac Orthodox Church, who led the commemoration.

Pakistan: Three Muslim men slaughtered a 15-year-old Christian student, Wajaesh Shono, on June 14. One of the murderers was the boy’s schoolteacher. According to local sources,

“Because of Shono’s success in school, a local group of Muslims often pressured Shono to convert to Islam…. Shono’s Muslim classmates never allowed him to use their study table or chairs. They always avoided playing with him because of his Christianity, and hated when he drank water from the school tap.”

When the boy continued to insist on rejecting Islam, two men grabbed him while the third, possibly his teacher, stabbed him 15 times.

Bangladesh: On Sunday, June 5, Muslims associated with ISIS slaughtered Sunil Gomez, a 65-year-old Christian shopkeeper in his store. According to local priest Father Rebeiro, the victim “attended Sunday prayers at my church and then went to his grocery store. The next thing we know he was hacked to death. I can’t imagine how anyone can kill such an innocent man.” That same afternoon, local Christians held a protest rally demanding the immediate arrest of the murderers and accusing police of being indifferent to such attacks on Christian minorities. They cited the previous murder of Christian resident Gabriel Costa, whose killer is still at large, as evidence of police complicity.

Lebanon: Eight suicide bombers launched two separate attacks on the Christian town of Al Qaa on June 27. At least five people were killed. One of the attacks was near a church, and witnesses heard the attacker shouting, “Allahu Akbar” before blowing himself up. According to the town’s priest: “People are stuck in their houses, not daring to go out and fearing more suicide bombers… We’re living in terror in this town.” No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, although both al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and the Islamic State are active on the Syrian side of the border. Lebanon has also taken in approximately 1.5 million refugees from Syria, an act that has raised fears that militants are hiding among them.

Muslim Slaughter of Christians in Nigeria

On June 2, a Muslim mob murdered and beheaded a Christian pastor’s wife, based on a false accusation of “blasphemy.” Bridget Agbahime, a kitchen utensil vendor, had politely asked Alhaji Dauda, a Muslim engaged in Islamic ritual cleaning, to move away from her shopfront because customers were still coming and going. He left angrily. According to the report:

Agbahime and her husband, pastor Mike Agbahime of Deeper Life Bible Church in Kano, were later meeting with the market landlord about the persistent problem when Dauda and other Muslims returned and began chanting that she must die for blasphemy. The landlord pleaded for them to return later to talk about it, but they began stoning him, and he fled. Shouting the jihadist chant “Allahu Akbar,” Dauda and the mob accused Agbahime of blasphemy against Muhammad, the prophet of Islam… Pastor Agbahime tried in vain to protect her. The assailants overpowered the few policemen present, and Agbahime knelt and began to pray before she was beaten and clubbed to death….

On June 22, the partially decayed corpse of Rev. John Adeyi was found in some bushes. The Catholic priest was kidnapped at gunpoint while traveling for pastoral duties two months earlier. His abductors later contacted church officials and demanded 25 million naira (USD $121,224) as ransom. According to one unconfirmed press report, some two million naira (USD $9,700) had been paid.

It was reported on June 1 that, after hearing that a Christian had committed “blasphemy” against Muhammad, a Muslim mob in Niger State rampaged and killed the accused, Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel, age 24. According to a Baptist pastor:

“The incident began with Facebook chats between a Muslim and Christian youth in the town. The Muslim youth mobilized other Muslims in the town on claims that the Christian youth had blasphemed the prophet Muhammad. The Muslims went to Fellowship Baptist Church along Alllawa Road, Pandogari, and burned down the church.”

He said that two Christians were shot and injured on Sunday, May 29 in one area of town, and that there could be others wounded.

It was reported on June 2 that Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed three Christians on May 31, while they slept in their homes in the early hours and burned a pastor’s home. Days earlier in the same area, Muslim herdsmen attacked another Christian with machetes.

Muslim Slaughter of Christians in Uganda

On June 17, the Muslim in-laws of a 24-year-old Christian mother, Angel Nabirye, poisoned and killed her infant daughter, sources said. Nabirye’s in-laws did this because they were angry to see the young woman eating during the daytime fast of Ramadan. “My mother-in-law questioned me for eating food with my baby during Ramadan, and I told her that the baby was unwell and needs breast-feeding.” The following day, “She [mother-in-law] brought some herbs for my baby, Saidha Namwase, which I gave her. After three hours, the condition of the baby worsened, and I rushed her to Iganga Hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival at 4 p.m.” Hospital tests reveal the baby was poisoned. Her husband and Muslim family were eager to bury the body immediately, according to Islamic custom, and when the mother protested because she wanted her family to be present for a funeral, they started abusing her, and calling her an infidel and pagan. Her family came and were also clandestinely drugged by the Muslim in laws and beaten; when they regained consciousness the baby’s corpse had disappeared.

On June 23, Muslims murdered a Christian woman because she refused to donate part of her land to a mosque. A number of Muslims had been pressuring Efranse Kadondo, a 50-year-old Catholic. At one point she told a Muslim relative, among those pressuring her, that “if I have to surrender part of my land, then I will give it to the Catholic Church.” This angered the Muslim relative, who, with some imams who had accompanied him, forcibly chased her off her property. Kadondo took refuge at a relative’s home in a nearby village, and reported the Muslim seizure of her land to police. Six days later, after returning from an all-night prayer meeting, the Christian woman was found lying dead in a pool of blood; her hands were broken and there were bruises around her neck. The autopsy confirmed that she was murdered during a struggle. Neighbors saw local Muslims lingering around her house that night, some of whom were subsequently arrested. Her Muslim relative had fled earlier.

On June 4, a Christian widower and father of two daughters was murdered by Muslims, who were apparently angered by his evangelistic work. According to the report,

The body of Yokannah Zirinkuma … was found in a pool of blood in nearby Kadama village, near the home of the primary suspect… Well known in the area for evangelistic preaching in a marketplace by which several Muslims came to faith in Christ, Zirinkuma two weeks prior had engaged Muslims in Kasasira village in open debate that became heated. He later received a threatening letter from unknown Muslims. “You should stop misleading Muslims, and if you fail to adhere to this, then you will face the judgment sword from Allah,” a letter in Arabic warned him.

Soon thereafter, the pastor was led to a house through a ruse and murdered.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers

Uganda: A Muslim man burned his 9-year-old son for accepting Christ. On June 5, after attending church with a Christian friend, Nassif Malagara “requested that he wanted to receive Jesus as his personal savior,” said that church’s pastor: “I was a bit hesitant, but after his continuous press, I then prayed with him, and he left.” Afterwards, the boy refused to engage in Islamic activities. His father, Abubakar Malagara, and his stepmother became furious when they learned of the boy’s conversion. They began abusing him, including by starving him, in keeping with Islamic law recommendations for apostate women and children. Two days later, his father caught him eating food the boy had smuggled from a neighbor. According to the boy:

“He started beating me up with sticks, but I managed to escape to a nearby bush. My father then followed me and got hold of me back to the homestead, where he tied me up to a banana tree. He went into the house and came back with a hot piece of wood. The banana tree had dry leaves, which caught fire and caused serious burns on my body.”

Neighbors heard the child screaming for help. They rescued and took him to a nearby hospital. The neighbor who introduced the boy to church fears for his life, especially after receiving a text message: “We know that you are behind the conversion of Nassif to Christianity. You will soon reap what you have sown, which will be a lesson to others. Islam is against such conversion.”

Unknown Middle East nation: Three Christians (pastor Stephan, pastor Samuel and evangelist James) who worked for a missionary organization that delivers Bibles to several nations of the Middle East, suffered from “a brutal attack by Islamic extremists” on the evening of June 12, said Paul Ciniraj, the organization’s spokesman: Shouting “Allahu Akbar!” the Muslims “jumped out on the pastors from a dark corner and brutally [beat] them with iron pipes.” While hospitalized, the three men suspected they were being stalked inside the health-care facility and, despite their serious injuries, asked to be discharged early. Upon their release from the hospital, they disappeared. Their organization suspects “terrorists” abducted them.

Nigeria: An Islamic cleric beat his wife with a blunt instrument after their 6-year-old daughter told him how she was healed at a church service, where the woman and their seven children all became Christian. According to a neighbor: “There was loud screaming, and we rushed to Siraji’s house and found his wife bleeding. Her husband left for a nearby mosque.” The neighbor took the woman and her children to the church site before her irate husband returned, but the sheikh and five other angry Muslims arrived looking for them, the pastor said.

“I saw them outside the church gate and sensed danger for the new converts. I told the church guard not to open the gate, and after two hours they left. Early the next day, I sent her and her children to some church members.”

The mother and children are now hiding in another village, living in a tattered house with a thatched roof that leaks. The children are unable to return to school.

Pakistan: A Christian man who converted to Islam two years ago taught his Christian relatives a “good lesson“:

Sonu tried to persuade his [Christian] cousins to convert to Islam as well, but when they refused, their discussion quickly turned into a dispute. Sonu threatened Salamat and the others, saying that he was going to “give them a good lesson.” On June 10, Sonu went to the nearest mosque and claimed that Salamat and his friends had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. Without waiting to verify Sonu’s report, more than a dozen men from a nearby Islamic seminary came and attacked Masih’s house. The men beat the three teenagers and knocked over household items. As the men carried out the attack, they chanted abusive slogans at the Christians. After the attack, the men went to the police to register a complaint [blasphemy accusation] against the three boys. Since the attack, the teenagers have been forced into hiding.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Sweden: On June 27, around 3 a.m., a man broke into St. Paul’s Church in central Malmö and vandalized it, starting with breaking the window panes. When police arrived, the man attacked them. Officers, according to the report, used pepper spray to overpower the “aggressive” man, who is being charged with a hate crime: “Police suspect that the man went to the attack on the church because it is a symbol of the Christian faith.” Witnesses heard him shouting, “Allahu Akbar” during the attack.

Nigeria: It was reported on June 1 that, after a Christian was accused of making a blasphemous remark (see below) on his Facebook page, Muslims rose in violence. As a result, “One of our churches, Fellowship Baptist Church, has been burnt by the Muslims. Another church too was vandalized and destroyed, and the Christian accused of blasphemy was killed,” said a local pastor.

Egypt: Hundreds of angry, rioting Muslims burned down 80 Christian homes on June 17, on the rumor that Christians were trying to build a church. When the neighboring village’s priest heard what was happening, he rushed to the scene — only to be attacked in his car; Muslims climbed, stomped on, and damaged it. Among the hundreds of rioting Muslims were many women and children shouting chanting “Allahu Akbar!” and “We’ll burn the church, we’ll burn the church.” As usual, Egyptian TV reported the one-sided attacks from the Muslim majority on the Christian minority as “clashes.” After arriving, the police stood back and allowed the mob to continue rioting, plundering and setting more Christian homes and vehicles on fire. The Muslims then performed their afternoon prayers outside those Christians’ homes they had not destroyed — with loudspeakers pointed at their doors. “No one did anything and the police took no pre-emptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks,” said Anba Makarios, a representative of the normally diplomatic Coptic Christian church.

On June 17, 2016, rioting Muslims in Egypt attacked Christians and their property, and burned down 80 Christian homes. (Image source: “Behind the Scenes” video screenshot)

Pakistan: On June 4, around 4:00 a.m., a group of unknown armed men opened fire on the St. Joseph Catholic Church near Lahore. Five bullets penetrated the church premises. The assailants escaped. Local Christians “expressed exasperation” concerning this latest in a long line of attacks on churches in Pakistan. They also complained that “none of the Muslims of the area has expressed solidarity with them, nor have voiced condemnation.” Separately, police stormed the United Church in Lahore’s Fazlia Colony. They hurled abusive language at the worshipers; when the pastor asked the officers to show respect for the house of worship, a policeman started cursing the church leader and slapping him around. The reason police had invaded the church is that someone complained that the church was using loudspeakers (which is banned under Islam), an allegation that was later dismissed.

Dhimmitude: Muslim Hate for, and Violence against, Christians

Nigeria: A Muslim gang stabbed a Christian carpenter, on June 7, for eating during the Ramadan fast. Francis Emmanuel, 41, sustained multiple wounds from the attack. From his hospital bed he explained:

“As I was eating, about six Muslims came to ask me if I am a Muslim or a Christian, but I did not answer them. They asked why I was not fasting, then I told them that I am not a Muslim. Before I know it, one of them slapped me. As I stood up, the rest came and surrounded me and started attacking me with knives.”

Iraq: A Christian woman who escaped ISIS said the militants “married and divorced” her as many as nine times every night to justify the act of raping her. In the words of the woman, whose name is withheld: “They had me whenever they would desire it. Especially this one, Farouk, who was obsessed with me and he would [sarcastically] say, ‘I like the people of Jesus.'” She was enslaved in 2014 when she went looking for her husband who had disappeared soon after ISIS’ takeover of Mosul. Militants saw the crucifix tattoo on her arm, identifying her as a Christian, abducted and enslaved her. According to the report,

“The woman, who sobbed and shook during the interview, said she is not the only one who experienced these things. She said she wants to tell the world to know what happened to her in the hopes that her story will prompt the world to do something to protect Christians, Yazidis, and others.”

Pakistan: According to a Christian man, “I was attacked, beaten, and abused for selling ice-cream to Muslim children and women.” Khaleel Masih, 42, supports his wife and six children by selling ice-cream from an ice chest on the back of his bicycle, which he rides everyday through several villages in order to find enough customers for his business. One day two Muslim brothers, both named Muhammad, came up to Masih and began insulting, beating, and torturing him for being an “unclean” Christian selling “unclean merchandise” to Muslim children. When they understood the context of the beating, approximately twenty other men joined in the attack, while Muslim women yelled slogans in the street, saying: “Christians are untouchables! They are not followers of our holy prophet. They are meant for cleaning our houses and therefore should not be allowed to sell anything edible to Muslims.” When Masih reported the attack at the local police station, the police refused to listen to his statement. Koran 9:28 refers to non-Muslims as “unclean.”

Separately, police seized and publicly beat and humiliated a young Christian woman in the middle of a park because her brother had eloped with a Muslim woman. Police then threatened the entire Christian community. They said if the Muslim woman was not returned to her husband, they would gun down the entire family in a fake encounter.

Germany: Accounts of Muslim migrants abusing Christians in refugee shelters continue to grow. A report found that 88% of the 231 Christian refugees interviewed in Germany have suffered religiously motivated persecution in the form of insults, death threats, and sexual assaults. Some were pressured to convert to Islam. “I really didn’t know that after coming to Germany I would be harassed because of my faith in the very same way as back in Iran,” one Christian refugee was quoted as saying.

Paulus Kurt, of the Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany, said: “These are not isolated cases. I don’t know of any refugee shelter from Garmisch to Hamburg where we have not found such cases.”

Italy: Christians reciting the rosary inside St. Anthony Church in Ventimiglia were told by refugee-volunteers to keep their prayers down as they were bothering newly arrived Muslim migrants apparently living on the church premise. One of the female parishioners asked if the migrants couldn’t be taken to another church so she could continue to pray in peace in her own church. In response, Don Rito, the parish priest, appeared and proceeded to escort her and other parishioners to another church. “We have now entered an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ world where everything is upside down,” Fr. Ben Kiely said regarding this incident. “Europe is committing cultural suicide. It has lost its heart and its soul. As Pope Benedict so wisely reminded us, the foundation of Europe is Christianity. When you destroy a building’s foundation, it collapses. This is what we are watching.”