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.”

Islamic hate for Christians was on display throughout the month of August. Shortly after an 80-year-old Catholic priest in France was slaughtered by Muslims who stormed his church during mass, the 16-year-old Muslim son of an Islamic cleric living in Belgium made a video and posted it on social media. In the video, he appears walking along the main street of the Belgian city of Verviers during Ramadan while making prayers to Allah, which include: “Allah, kill the despicable Christians. Allah, kill each and every last one of them….” According to Immigration Minister Theo Francken:

“It’s obvious that his father, the imam, is promoting such ideas not just to fighters to join the battle in Syria, but also to his own children. The young man who appears in the video reflects the father’s views, and I understand and empathize with the great concern that city residents have over this.”

A deportation order was last reported as pending a court appeal.

Similarly, in the August edition of Dabiq, ISIS’s propaganda magazine, the jihadi organization urged Muslims to destroy the “arrogant Christian disbelievers” and urged them to “pray for Allah’s curse to be upon the liars.” ISIS also threatened Christians to “break the cross.” Those who do and convert to Islam will “enter the Gardens of Paradise,” and those who reject Islam and cling to the cross will die in a “futile” war against ISIS.

As if the Christians of Nigeria were not persecuted enough by Muslim groups, Boko Haram’s new leader, known for killing nonconformist Muslims as well, announced that Christians are now its number one and primary target, and that Boko Haram will continue to “bomb churches and kill Christians while ending attacks on mosques and markets used by ordinary Muslims.” Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the new leader, also spoke of “booby-trapping and blowing up every church that we are able to reach, and killing all of those who we find from the citizens of the Cross.”

Abu Musab al-Barnawi (shown seated), the new leader of Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram, announced that Christians are now the terrorist group’s number one target, and that they will continue to “bomb churches and kill Christians… booby-trapping and blowing up every church that we are able to reach, and killing all of those who we find from the citizens of the Cross.”

In Egypt, after Muhammad Hegazi’s nine-year long battle with authorities, Islam’s honor was restored, although in a way apparently held suspect by many rights activists there. His battle began when he asked his religion to be changed to Christianity on his Egyptian ID card, and ended with his being arrested and tortured for years. Hegazi made a brief video announcing his return to Islam and praising Muhammad, adding “I say this out of my complete free will. I am not being held by any agency, nor am I under any pressure of any kind.”

Another Egyptian, Majed el-Shafie, also imprisoned and tortured for apostatizing years ago in Egypt, wanted the world to know that, “ISIS is not the problem.” As proof, he recounted his experiences — at the hands of Egyptian authorities:

“They shaved my head, they put my head in freezing cold water and then into boiling hot water. They burned their cigarettes on me, they electrocuted me. They cut me and put salt in my wounds. I still wake with nightmares about it, even now 20 years on.”

The remainder of August’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians — not all of which was committed by ISIS — includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: Muslim Fulani herdsmen, believed to be connected to the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, increased their raids on Christian-majority villages:

• Between August 1-3, they killed 13 Christians, burned Christian homes and churches, and displaced countless survivors during raids conducted in separate Christian-majority villages.
• On August 13, Muslim shepherds killed another seven Christians during another raid. Some of the victims were shot; others were slaughtered with machetes.
• On August 16, Muslim herdsmen attacked still another Christian-majority village and slaughtered ten people.
• On August 25, a group of at least 50 Muslim herdsmen conducted a night raid into another Christian-majority village. Among their victims was a Christian woman six months pregnant, whose stomach had been ripped open.

According to one report,

Local Christian leaders were pleading with the Nigerian government to provide appropriate security measures in light of the crisis, which the state has so far left unaddressed. Since 2001, Fulani attacks on Christian-majority farming settlements across Nigeria’s central “Middle-Belt” have grown increasingly violent; victims face their towns being wiped off the map. Fulani herdsmen have murdered tens of thousands of Christians, and have amassed a body count larger than Boko Haram has inflicted; attacks expand farther into Northwest and Southeast Nigeria, while the Nigerian government largely ignores the issue…

This indifference reportedly reaches to the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. According to a prominent Nigerian thinker and politician, Femi Fani-Kayode, despite the increasing violence against Christians, “the Muslim president has only awarded the murderers with impunity rather than justice and has staffed his government with Islamic officials, while doing essentially nothing to give the nation’s Christians, who make up half the population, due representation.”

Uganda: A group of Muslims murdered Pastor Robert Bakulubanywa, 38, as he was returning home after a Sunday evening at his church. A group of Muslims — reportedly angry with him for evangelizing to Muslims and refusing to sell them land — surrounded him, tied him up, and sliced him to death with a sword.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Muslim militants from the Allied Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Uganda gathered and tied up between 36 and 50 Christians, before hacking them to death. In recent years, the “liberation” front has targeted Christians with violence, abducting people, looting Christian villages, and destroying churches, although most Western media downplay the religious motives of the rebels.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Indonesia: A teenage Muslim sitting among Christian worshippers during a Catholic church Sunday mass service suddenly went into jihad mode: he attacked the 60-year-old priest with an axe and tried to set off explosives, which could have killed hundreds of worshipers in the packed church. The bomb failed to go off properly and the 18-year-old Islamic terrorist was apprehended.

United States: In Riverside, California, Muslims in a car, who were repeatedly screaming “Allahu akbar!” through a bullhorn, terrorized St. Andrew Orthodox Church during worship service, “as the unnerved parents drew their infants close and exchanged worried glances,” said the report. Some witnesses told police it looked as if one of the three men, in the green Honda Civic, had been taking surveillance pictures of the church.

France: During a mass held for Father Jacques Hamel — the 80-year-old priest slaughtered days earlier — at the St. George Church in Vivonne (Vienne), a small town of 4,000 inhabitants, the priest informed the congregation that the church had been vandalized: “the light of the tabernacle of the Real Presence had disappeared or had been stolen, and placed on the altar was a photo of the Nice terrorist, the Islamist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel.”

Iran: Authorities arrested 11 Christians during a raid on an house-church in the city of Isfahan. Books and other Christian literature were confiscated. According to the report, there was no further information about the status of the detainees.

Turkey: After giving previous permission, authorities banned Orthodox Christian liturgy from being held at a historic monastery. According to the report:

The doors of the Sumela Monastery reopened in June 2010, after 88 years. The Turkish government had given permission to the Ecumenical Patriarchate to have a patriarchal liturgy for the Feast of the Assumption every year. That permission has been suddenly revoked, perhaps permanently.”

Sudan: Claiming that it was built illegally, local Muslim authorities issued a demolition notice to yet another church. The congregation was given one week to clear out or else further legal procedures would be taken, including forcing the church to pay the demolishing costs. The church was built on the land in 1976, a considerable time before the National Islamic Front seized power in Sudan through a military coup in 1989 — so how could it be illegal, argue church activists. Countless churches that once stood in Sudan for decades have met the same fate in recent times.

Pakistan: Christians accused the government of Gujrat of intentionally flooding a 130-year-old church with sewage. According to the report:

“Local Christians managed to cut the flow of sewerage after hours of skirmish efforts…. Agitated Christians claimed that the flow of the sewerage was maneuvered towards the church in order to prevent it from flooding neighboring Gujrat Gymkhana. The waste water swamped the flooring and carpets of the church.”

Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers

Algeria: A Muslim convert to Christianity was sentenced to five years in prison for saying on social media that the light of Jesus will outshine Islam and its prophet Muhammad, which the court ruled was “blasphemous.” According to his son, who accompanied the apostate during his hearing:

“The court sentenced my father to the maximum sentence! …. [M]y father was expressing his ideas and spread his political views on social networks as it has always done elsewhere. It is an attack on freedom of expression because, in my opinion, everything is subject to criticism, even religions.”

Nigeria: After two university students got into a verbal argument, the Muslim student accused the Christian of insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Soon, a mob of Muslims formed and said the Christian must die; they savagely beat and nearly killed him. He only survived “because a fellow Christian intervened to rush him to the hospital with the help of a compassionate Muslim who volunteered his car to carry the victim.” On the following day, mobs of Muslims rioted and vandalized Christian campuses and churches. According to a local source:

“They went to ECWA Church, Living Church, and Anglican Church. They vandalized the Anglican Church pastorium, destroying electronics and other property. I heard they also burnt down the home of the rescue volunteer Muslim man (who assisted the attacked Christian student to the hospital), trapping and killing eight persons inside who, sadly, happened to be Muslims also.”

Separately, a Muslim man sought to divorce his wife of 24 years, after he discovered that she secretly converted to Christianity. The man stated that he cannot tolerate any other religion in his home except for Islam. The 50-year-old woman “broke down in tears while on her knees begging her estranged husband, Jamiu Adewunmi, not to divorce her.” Addressing the court, she said: “Please court; help me beg him, where will I get a man at my age to marry me if my husband divorces me?”

Pakistan: A Christian girl named Asma faces death threats if she does not return to her Muslim abductor. The man, a powerful Muslim neighbor, kidnapped the girl, raped her, forced her to convert to Islam, and then forcibly married her and renamed her “Aisha,” after the Islamic prophet’s young wife. Several months later, Asma escaped and returned to her family, who are now under threat if they refuse to hand back their daughter to her captor. Local Muslim clerics claimed that Asma has re-converted to Christianity, and so is now an apostate and should be killed unless she returns to her husband and new faith.

Uganda: Eight children, ages 9 to 16, from four families of Islamic and pagan backgrounds, took refuge with Christians after their parents and other community members beat and disowned them for leaving Islam and animism for Christianity. Through the ordeal, the church in which they were able to seek refuge has also come under threat of destruction and violence by the local Muslim population. “Your church activities will not be tolerated in this area,” one Muslim informed the pastor. “If you do not leave our village, then we shall soon come for your life.” Separately, a Christian high school student received a serious head injury by the Muslim father of a young woman whom he proselytized.

Muslim Discrimination against and Abuse of Christians

Saudi Arabia: According to an Arabic-language news report published on August 27, officials from the desert kingdom arrested 27 Christians — among them several women and children — for the crime of “conducting Christian prayers” and being “in possession of Bibles.” The group of Christians, most if not all of whom were Lebanese nationals, were celebrating a Virgin Mary feast day when authorities stormed their residence and arrested them. The dreaded “religious police” proceeded to strip them of their visas and deport them back to Lebanon. Such religious intolerance is actually better than that meted to other Christians caught engaging in “acts of Christianity” In 2012, for example, 35 Christian Ethiopians were arrested and tortured in prison for almost a year, simply for holding a private house-prayer. One of them reported after being released: “They [Saudis] are full of hatred towards non-Muslims.”

Pakistan: The son of a Muslim landlord sexually assaulted the five-year-old daughter of a Christian couple renting a room. Afterwards, “the landlord purportedly barred the Christian couple from reporting the incident to the police for seven days. Because of the harassment, parents of the victim were unable to acquire a medical report of their daughter who was sexually assaulted,” said the report.

“As a result of lack of medical report, there is no substantial proof of the assault. The influential landlord and his rapist son hurled threats at the Christian family stating that entire family of the victim will face dire consequences if action is taken against the culprit.”

Separately, a historic Christian cemetery is falling into decay due to willful neglect from local authorities. According to the report:

“Local Christians claim the graveyard is undergoing wear while the local authorities are overlooking the situation. They expressed serious concerns over the desecration of graves of their loved ones. They said that the Christian population had been residing in the area, even before the creation of Pakistan.”

Egypt: Arguing that they are being treated as second-class citizens, about three dozen Christians staged a rare protest in downtown Cairo and demanded that the government uphold their rights. Standing on the steps of a courthouse in the capital, the demonstrators defied Egypt’s draconian positions on protests. “I am an Egyptian citizen above all,” said Michael Armanious, a Christian demonstrator. “We pay taxes, we serve in the army, we are dealing with all the same economic problems in Egypt with the rest of our countrymen, why should we have fewer rights?” Police — who often take hours to appear when Muslims attack Christians — quickly dispersed the protesters.

Separately, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reported that there have been 77 cases of extreme Muslim-on-Christian violence between the years 2011 and 2016 — excluding the huge spate of attacks on Christians and dozens of churches that directly followed the ousting of former president Morsi. Coptic Pope Tawadros also confirmed that Christians are victims of a serious attack by Muslims on average once a month. At least ten incidents this year have resulted in discord, death and destruction.

Sudan: Prosecutors accused two imprisoned pastors, both members of the Sudanese Church of Christ, of crimes against the state, and called for the death penalty against them. The pastors denied the charges, and local sources say there is no evidence against them, but that the hardline Islamist prosecutors are persecuting them for their faith.

Bangladesh: Rosaline Costa, a Catholic newspaper editor, fled to the United States after receiving countless death threats, prompted by editorials published the paper about growing religious discrimination and violence in the country. Because there has been a rise in Muslim attacks on Christians in Bangladesh — including outright murder — the Catholic woman decided to leave before she was next. Christian minorities further allege that Bangladeshi authorities and the judicial system either cannot or will not do anything to stop the persecution and discrimination against them.

Germany: Christian refugees continue to face daily harassment and threats from Muslim majorities living with them in asylum centers. In one instance, 14 Iranian Christian men were threatened with death for refusing to abandon their faith. During Ramadan, Christians had to hide their Bibles and were forced to eat leftover food in the shelter after the meal times were changed to accommodate Muslims, who do not eat during daylight hours during the Islamic holy month. One pastor said many Muslims in the camp regard their fellow Christian migrants as “unclean” and “more impure than dogs.” In several asylum centers, throughout Europe, Christian minorities continue to be harassed and attacked.