On Easter Sunday in Pakistan, March 27, a suicide bombing took place near the children’s rides of a public park, where Christians were known to be celebrating the resurrection of their Lord. At least 74 people — mostly women and children — were killed and nearly 400 injured. “There was human flesh on the walls of our house,” a witness recalled.

“We claim responsibility for the attack on Christians as they were celebrating Easter,” said a group affiliated with the Taliban. In a media statement, the group’s spokesman said it had “deliberately targeted the Christian community.” “We had been waiting for this occasion,” he said.

Click here, here, here, here, and here, for more examples of lethal attacks, worldwide, on Christians celebrating their holidays who also “had been waiting for this occasion.” Even “the terror cell that struck in Brussels in March, killing 34 was planning to massacre worshippers at Easter church services across Europe, including Britain, intelligence chiefs believe, according to a report.

In Scotland, a Muslim man stabbed another Muslim man to death for wishing Christians a Happy Easter. Asad Shah had posted messages on Facebook that said “Good Friday and very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation” and “Let’s follow the real footstep of beloved holy Jesus Christ and get the real success in both worlds.” Police said a 32-year-old Muslim man was arrested in connection with Shah’s death, and confirmed that the attack was “religiously prejudiced.” Islamic law (Qur’an 5:52) forbids Muslims from participating in or congratulating non-Muslims for their religious holidays as doing so implicitly validates other religions.

A Muslim nanny in Russia beheaded a 4-year-old girl, Anastasia, whom she had been taking care of for the last three years. Gulchehra Bobokulova, a Chechen, went to a Moscow metro station and, for 20 minutes, waved the child’s severed head while screaming “Allahu Akbar” [“Allah is Greatest”]. After her arrest, she said the murder “was what Allah ordered.” In the months before the slaughter, Bobokulova was said to have become “more religious.” She began wearing a hijab, and telling her son to pray five times a day and live in accord with Sharia [Islamic law]. Authorities concluded that, as she is “insane,” she will not face a murder trial.

“ISIS carries out Good Friday crucifixion of Indian Catholic priest in Yemen after he was kidnapped three weeks ago in attack on old people’s home where four nuns were shot,” the Daily Mail reported. Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, a 56-year-old Indian Catholic priest, was seized by Muslim gunmen who attacked an old people’s home in Aden. According to the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Uzhunnalil had been crucified. Most recently, a report appeared indicating that Fr. Thomas was likely still alive and “that talks between the Indian government and Yemeni rebels to ensure his release were continuing.”

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

Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Unknown Middle Eastern Nation: Islamic radicals killed four workers of a Christian organization that translates and publishes Bibles. Wycliffe Associates issued a statement saying that the attackers shot and destroyed all the equipment in the Bible translators’ office, but failed to note the name of the country where the attack occurred. Two workers were apparently killed by gunshots, while two others lay over the head translator and died while “deflecting bludgeoning blows from the radicals’ spent weapons,” They saved his life. Several other people were also injured in the raid. The organization explained that the remaining team has vowed to redouble their efforts to translate, publish and print the Gospel.

Bangladesh: Two attackers with sharp weapons killed 68-year-old Hossain Ali, who converted to Christianity from Islam in 1999. ISIS claimed responsibility for the murder of the apostate from Islam in a tweet:

“A security detachment from the soldiers of the Caliphate was able, by the grace of Allah the Almighty, to kill the apostate (Ali), who changed his religion and became a preacher for the polytheist Christianity.”

The statement added that the murder was “a lesson to others.” In recent months ISIS has claimed being behind a series of attacks on religious converts and minorities in Bangladesh.

Yemen: Four Muslim gunmen attacked an old people’s home in the port of Aden, killing at least 15 people, including four nuns who were Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa. Two of the nuns were from Rwanda, one from India, and one from Kenya. Another nun survived by hiding inside a refrigerator in a storeroom. The gunmen, who initially told the guard they were at the old people’s home to visit their mother, stormed into the home with rifles and opened fire. The dead included two Yemeni women working at the facility, eight elderly residents, and a guard. The motive of the gunmen was not known. After the attack, they fled.

Ivory Coast: A squad of boatmen shouting “Allahu Akbar!” — “Allah is Greatest!” — leapt onto a beach in the resort town of Grand Bassam and proceeded to round up and kill Christian tourists. By the time security forces killed the terrorists, 14 tourists and two special forces personnel were dead, “all of them presumably Christians,” noted the report. At some point, witnesses said the gunmen captured a pair of children, one five-years old. A gunman “with a long beard” threatened them. Both boys fell to their knees in prayer, and begged for their lives. The first boy knew an Islamic prayer by heart, so he was spared, but the five-year-old, a Christian, had no hope, and was shot dead. Images of the aftermath showed bodies strewn across the beach, several of them believed to be French tourists. Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, via social media, claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the report, “Ivory Coast is becoming a target for Islamic extremists who want to spread Islam around the globe. Previously confined to the desert regions of the Sahara, Muslims have recently started a campaign of aggressive, militant expansion into West and Central Africa. “

Nigeria: According to a March report, since 2000, some 12,000 Christians have been slaughtered for their faith and 13,000 churches destroyed, and not just by the Muslim terrorist organization, Boko Haram: “Northern Muslim political and religious elite are also major actors of targeted violence towards the Christian minority.” From mid-February to mid-March alone, 500 Christian farmers were butchered by Muslim herdsmen.

Pakistan: A Muslim man shot dead a Christian boy and threatened to rape his sisters, after their mother rejected his advances in the town of Qayum. The Muslim suspect, 57-year-old Tahir Jutt, who had a “known long-term infatuation” with 42-year-old Shazia Tahir, tried to intervene in a family argument. Tahir rebuffed his offer to help. Later that day, he returned to the Tahir family home and started shooting at family members, killing 17-year-old Noel Tahir, and wounding several others, including the husband and wife. Although initially detained by police, Jutt was eventually set free, only to continue threatening and terrorizing the Christian family. According to a rights activist:

“This family are in desperate need for [sic] help, the perpetrator of violence has shown no remorse for the violence he meted out on this poor family and has increased their tension by stating he will repeat the violence if they dare to challenge him through the courts. Local police are being extremely slow and sluggish with this case, allowing Mr Jutt to exhort [sic] great pressure on the family who have already had to suffer the surprising ignominy of the murderer of their son being set free on bail.”

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

United States: Three Christian statues at St. Margaret Parish, a Catholic church in Massachusetts, were vandalized. Two statues had their hands severed and multiple sets of rosary beads removed and scattered on the ground. The third statue, located near the rectory and depicting the Virgin Mary, had its head severed and both hands removed. Although the identity of the vandals is unknown, Robert Spencer, an expert on Islam, correctly observes that

in light of the curious fact that the head and hands were severed, the perpetrators could have been Muslims acting upon this Qur’an verse: “When your Lord inspired to the angels, ‘I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.'” (Qur’an 8:12).

Turkey: Late one night, four Muslim men went to the Agape Church in the Black Sea region and began banging and kicking at the front door. The church caretaker and a few members of the congregation were inside but refused to open the door. After they noticed they were being videotaped by a security camera, the assailants destroyed it and fled. (Image of the men kicking the door appears here.) According to the church’s pastor, Pıçaklar,

“They attacked us knowing that they would get caught – they even looked at the security camera and smiled. Later they went to the police and turned themselves in, and today they were set free. So what should I do [in response] to these guys who drink until they get drunk, and when they get caught [attacking the church building], instead of fear and sadness, yell, ‘Allahuu Akbar!’? [“Allah is Greatest”]

Pastor Pıçaklar said the incident was not just a “kick the door and go. These guys wanted the door open and to go inside and hit someone or attack in some other way.”

Greece: The Church of All Saints in Kallithea, Athens region, was set on fire. The kitchen was completely destroyed, but thanks to the fire department’s quick response, the fire was contained. According to witnesses, “Arabic speakers” were behind the arson attack.

Dhimmitude (Non-Muslims’ Status of Inferiority in Islam)

Uganda: After several threats and attacks — including the rape of her 13-year-old daughter — a mother with her five children, who had left Islam for Christianity, fled their village. Amina Napiya, a 42-year-old widow, converted to Christianity in 2014, after her husband, Mohammed Dongo, died. She and her family remained secret believers until the beginning of 2016, when relatives discovered they were followers of Christ. Attacks started soon after: two motorcycles that had belonged to her late husband were stolen in January, apparently by Muslim relatives. They left an unsigned note:

“We have taken the motorcycles, and soon we are coming for your life if you continue embarrassing the religion of the family. You have become an embarrassment to the family as well as the Muslim family.”

A month later, Napiya’s daughter was raped while fetching firewood near their home. The rapist told the girl, “This is the second warning to your mother for disgracing the faith of the Muslims.”

Finally, Napiya received an anonymous text, saying, “We have warned you several times, and our warnings are falling on deaf ears. We are on the way coming for you and your children.” The Christian woman and her children fled and were last reported living in dire straits.

Separately in Uganda, a Muslim youth who converted to Christianity was attacked and ostracized by his family. After Mohammed Nsera graduated from high school last year, his Muslim family built a small house for him on their homestead. A week after he converted to Christianity, his Muslim family burned it down. According to the convert,

“I could not deny Christ when my father asked me whether I had joined Christianity. With a lot of joy I answered him affirmatively, with a yes. My uncle, who had a walking stick, hit me on my back, and my father tried to get hold of my shirt, but I managed to escape with a tattered shirt and a bleeding back.”

While recovering at the home of a Christian 13 miles away, he learned that his family had burned his house down. “I received reports that my parents, uncle and some other Muslims were looking for me. I have lost my entire valuables, especially my academic certificates.” He has since taken refuge in an undisclosed village more than 60 miles from his home.

Pakistan: A 30-year-old Christian mother of three who was kidnapped and forced into an Islamic marriage. When she escaped months later, she was returned to her abductor by her own family, in hopes that it will spare other family members from persecution and arrest. Fouzia Sadiq, whose entire family works as bonded laborers in Pattoki, was abducted last July by her Muslim landlord, Muhammed Nazir. He told her family to forget about her as she “was now his property.” With her family’s aid, the women eventually escaped back to them. Her abductor-husband sent the police after her. They threatened her family, and suggesting that they might seize and deliver her younger sister to Muhammad as a “consolation” gift. According to a human rights activist:

“This family has gone through a torturous decision making process. They have not wanted to deliver their daughter back but the threats on their family were so extreme, including potential blasphemy law allegations and kidnap charges against Paris the brother of Fouzia, that they felt there was no other way out.”

Fouzia is one of approximately 700 Christian girls who are kidnapped and forced into Islamic marriages every year in Pakistan.

Belgium: The council of Belgian imams rejected an initiative to pray for the souls of the victims of the Brussels terror attacks on the grounds that it is forbidden to pray for the souls of non-Muslims — “infidels.” The Koran states:

“It is not for the Prophet and those who have believed to ask forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they were relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are companions of Hellfire.” (9:113)

Instead, the Muslim scholars recommended the use of tawriya — using words that mean one thing to listeners and another thing from the speaker. One Muslim cleric said: We cannot pray over the souls of non-Muslims, but if we do this, we don’t have to call it a prayer. We can call it something else: ‘solidarity with the families of the victims.’ We can stand by them and support them.”

Another Muslim cleric suggested: “Since this was a general event, in which Muslims as well as non-Muslims [were hurt], we address all of the victims, and wish them peace, mercy, and health.”

Italy: According to Archbishop Matteo Maria Zuppi, recently appointed to head the archdiocese,

“I really think it’s time for a mosque in Bologna. Some people think otherwise but they are wrong. … I also wish Islamic celebrations to be welcomed in schools… We shouldn’t be carried away by hateful generalizations, like the comparison between Muslims and terrorists.”

However, according to the report,

“Zuppi’s reflections are far distant from those of his predecessors. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, once warned the faithful to be wary of the West’s current integration project of Middle-Eastern, largely Muslim migrants. The late Cdl. Giacomo Biffi, archbishop of Bologna before Caffarra, was a respected theologian known for being ‘extremely politically incorrect,’ and some note that his prophecies about Europe either returning to Christianity or surrendering to Islam were prescient for Italy today….”

Zuppi also seems to overlook the historic fact that, whenever a region was conquered by Islam, one of the first signs of consolidation was the erection of a mosque on top of the sacred sites of the vanquished: the pagan Ka’ba temple in Saudi Arabia was converted into Islam’s holiest site, the mosque of Mecca; the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, was built on top of the ruins of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem; the Umayyad mosque in Damascus was built on top of the Church of St. John the Baptist; and the Hagia Sophia in Turkey was converted into a mosque upon the conquest of Constantinople.

Sudan: Pastor Ayoub Tilian, moderator of the Sudanese Church of Christ in the Khartoum area, was arrested at his office and taken to an unknown location. He was later released, but ordered to report daily for interrogation to the security officials of Sudan’s National Security and Intelligence Services, which is staffed by hardline Islamists. They are reportedly upset that he may have spoken about the Sudanese government’s persecution of Christians. Discussing this incident, an area source said, “Things are very difficult here in Sudan as time after time we hear that a church leader is arrested.”

Iran: A pastor and three other Christians, all of whom appear to be converts from Islam, were sentenced to serve one year in prison, and banned from holding or attending any church services for two years. They were arrested earlier during a picnic in Daniel-e Shoosh, in southern Iran. The plainclothes secret police came to them with guns drawn, threatening and beating some in the group. The report does not mention what the alleged crime is. Most likely, if this case is like other allegations against non-Muslims, they were sentenced under the pretense that they are a “security threat to the nation.”

US and UK: Despite all the widespread attention and international condemnation given to the kidnapping by Boko Haram of nearly 300 (mostly Christian) Nigerian girls — recall First Lady Michelle Obama holding a sign saying “bring back our girls” — the US and British governments knew exactly where many of the girls were, but failed to launch a rescue mission. According to Dr. Andrew Pocock, the former British high commissioner to Nigeria: “A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment.” He said the girls were there for at least four weeks but authorities were “powerless” to act.

Pictured in a Boko Haram video, some of the hundreds of Christian Nigerian schoolgirls who were abducted in 2014 by Boko Haram. The U.S. and British governments knew the exact location of many of the captured girls, but failed to launch a rescue mission, according to Andrew Pocock, the former British high commissioner to Nigeria. (Image source:)

More reports of the brutal treatment that Christians and other minorities experienced at the hands of the Islamic State (SIS) emerged during May. One account told of a couple who, after their children were abducted by ISIS militants, answered their door one day to find a plastic bag on their doorstep. It contained the body parts of their daughters and a video of them being brutally tortured and raped.

Another Christian mother from Mosul answered the door to find ISIS jihadis demanding that she leave or pay the jizya (protection money demanded as a tribute by conquered Christians and Jews, according to the Koran 9:29). The woman asked for a few seconds, because her daughter was in the shower, but the jihadis refused to give her the time. They set a fire to the house; her daughter was burned alive. The girl died in her mother’s arms; her last words were “Forgive them.”

The Islamic State reportedly beheaded another Christian leader on February 18. No media reported it, except for one Italian paper in May: “There are reliable reports are that Father Yacob Boulos, was beheaded by the terror group’ militants after he prayed on the altar of his church. He was punished for his faith.”

According to another report,

“In yet another disturbing example of the genocide facing Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, on 12-13 May a group from Islamic State (IS) entered a town near the city of Hama in Syria, populated only by Christians and Alawites, killing an as yet unspecified number of men, women and children. Men were beheaded, whilst women were raped and then murdered. Many children were also killed. It is not yet clear exactly how many people have been killed.”

A local Christian leader said,

“Where are the leaders of the West, Ban Ki-Moon (Secretary-General of the United Nations), the EU, WHO (World Health Organization), and other Christian organisations? How long will my nation tolerate and stay. We don’t hold arms and weapons, but we are melting like a candle! Is it possible for our voice to reach to all others?”

Father Douglas Bazi, an Iraqi priest, who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2006 but later escaped, recounted his experiences as a captive:

“They destroyed my car, they blew up my church on [sic] front of me. I got shot by AK-47 in my leg. The bullet is still in my leg. And I [have] been kidnapped for nine days. They smash my nose and my teeth by hammer. And they broke one of my back discs.”

He was released after his church paid for his ransom, but eventually had to flee the region after continued persecution by ISIS. “To be Christian in Iraq, it’s an impossible mission,” said Father Bazi, adding, “But even so, I’m not actually surprised when they attack my people. I’m surprised how my people are still existing. Please talk about our stories. Let the world know what happens to us.”

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

More Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Uganda: A Christian pastor was poisoned to death by a Muslim. Micah Byamukama, 61, pastor of a Baptist Church, died on May 15, after ingesting an insecticide that a Muslim, Ahmed Mupere, had put into his food. Mupere is believed to have been upset that the pastor challenged his belief in jinn, supernatural creatures attested to in Islamic literature, including the Koran. “The true God is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered the power of Satan including the Islamic Jinn… the Islamic Jinn are acts of Satan and should be denounced,” the pastor had apparently said. Soon, unidentified persons believed to have been hired by Ahmed attacked and wounded the pastor with knives.

Five days after the knife attack, Mupere, pretending not to be angry, came to visit the pastor, a widower with no children. According to the report, “Feigning reconciliation as he dined with the pastor from a shared dish, Ahmed secretly put poison on the food and stopped eating as Pastor Byamukama continued.” Shortly thereafter, the Christian man began having stomach pains, was rushed to the hospital and was soon declared dead.

Earlier, the pastor had told his neighbor, “Ahmed took a little food with me and then stopped. When I asked him why not continue with the food, he said he had eaten at his home, and that he wanted [to] go back home because it was getting late.” A nurse said he died from ingesting a highly toxic insecticide. Once investigations began, Mupere fled. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks, including other poisonings, by Muslims against Christians in eastern Uganda.

Separately in Uganda, a Muslim man strangled his wife to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. Awali Kakaire, 34, began to suspect that his wife Mariam Nakiriya, 30, was a Christian a month earlier, when the local imam asked him why his wife and children had not been attending the mosque or madrassa (Islamic school). According to one of Kakaire’s sons: “Our father questioned us why we have stopped attending the madrassa, but we told him that we were busy with school work as our mother had instructed us This made my father to cool down his tempers.” Then, on May 8, Kakaire awoke at 6 a.m., and after his Islamic cleansing ritual, woke his wife to join him in morning Islamic prayers: “Our mother refused, and our father started strangling her as she cried for help,” his son said. After killing her, Kakaire left the house only to return two hours later and force his five children, ages 5 to 12, into a hole he had dug in a nearby garden.

“We resisted and began screaming, and neighbors arrived immediately, but he had already dumped us into the hole that he had dug. Seeing the neighbors, he tried to flee but he was overtaken and then began to be questioned by those who surrounded him.”

Kakaire was heard shouting “My family has no respect for Islam.” Thanks to some Muslim accomplices, Kakaire managed to escape the murder scene.

Syria: Up to 200 Christians were reportedly killed during sustained bombardments of the city of Aleppo. Between April 22 and April 30, approximately 1,350 rockets hit the Christian region. The attack killed 132 people, half of them women and children. Another 65 were killed on May 3, and hundreds more injured. Islamic rebels had earlier, on April 22, issued a direct threat against Aleppo’s large community of Armenian Christians, and warned, “We will show the Armenians and the Christians who we are… We have been ordered not to leave any Armenians in the area.”

Bangladesh: “Fighters from the Islamic State assassinated a doctor who called to Christianity in Kushtia, western Bangladesh,” ISIS announced in a brief statement issued in Arabic. Doctor Sanaur Rahman, 58, was riding home on his motorcycle along with his friend when they were attacked by machete-wielding terrorists. Rahman was hacked to death, while Zaman was critically wounded in the attack. The doctor was popular in his village because he used to treat and offer medicine to poor people free of charge and ran a free clinic on Fridays.

Congo: Muslim terrorists killed scores of villagers in the east of the Christian-majority nation. The attackers carried machetes and axes into a village in North Kivu province during the evening of May 3. According to the local administrator, “the enemy managed to get past army positions and kill peaceful residents in their homes, slashing their throats. The 16 bodies are in front of me, killed by machete or axe.” Another source said that as many as 38 were slaughtered, including two Evangelical Christian leaders and their wives. According to the report,

The MDI [Muslim Defensive International] has repeatedly attacked the majority-Christian population in eastern DRC for years. Kidnapping and murder are common. It is alleged to have support from the Islamic government of Sudan… The MDI is known to have attracted foreign recruits and to have forced Christians to convert to Islam. The local population in the related area is overwhelmingly Christian (95.8%) and the impact on them has been immense.

In a letter released a year ago, Congolese Bishops denounced a “climate of genocide” and the passivity of the Congolese government and the international community: “Does the situation have to deteriorate even more before the international community takes measures against jihadism?” asked the Bishops in May 2015.

Philippines: Islamic jihadis attacked the “Crusaders” of the Catholic-majority nation. The recently-established ISIS branch in the Philippines claimed responsibility for a terror attack on a military position on Basilan Island. The attack killed one soldier and injured another. Basilan Island has long been a stronghold of local Muslim terror organizations that aim to topple the government and establish a Sharia-compliant government.

Muslim Rape and Humiliation of Christian Women

Bangladesh: A 26-year-old Catholic high school teacher was raped on May 12 by her Muslim principal and his friend, Shariful Islam. Afterwards, they threatened to post the video of the rape on Facebook, if she reported them. According to parish priest Fr. Domenic K. Halder, “The girl is very frightened. We pray for her, she is still in hospital.” Hundreds of Christians also protested in the streets of Dhaka and demanded justice.

Egypt: On May 20, a 70-year-old Christian woman was stripped naked, savagely beaten, spat upon, and paraded in the streets of Minya to jeers, whistles, and yells of “Allahu Akbar,” after a mob of some 300 Muslim men descended on her home. Her crime was that her son was accused of having a romantic relationship with a Muslim woman, an intimacy that is banned under Islamic law, Sharia. It is the same body of teachings that prescribes collective punishment to non-Muslim “infidels.” Seven Christian homes were also torched during the attack. Earlier that day her husband and she had gone to local police and complained that they were being harassed and threatened by neighborhood Muslims. The police responded by also threatening and ordering them out of the station. A few hours later, the attack occurred. It took the same local police over two hours to appear, giving the mob “ample time,” as one Christian clergyman put it, to riot. Minya’s most senior Christian cleric, Bishop Makarios, said during a televised interview concerning 70-year-old woman’s ordeal, that if a Muslim man were pursuing a Christian woman, the police response “would not have been anything like what happened…. No one did anything and the police took no preemptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks.”

Uganda: After a 22-year-old Christian woman accused a mosque leader of murdering her father earlier in the year, local Muslims responded by beating and raping her. The woman, whose name was withheld, said she was beaten and raped on April 19 for telling a court what she had witnessed. She was found unconscious in a pool of blood, with cuts on her body. One of the three Muslims who assaulted her told her, “We shall kill you today because you are the one who made our sheikh to be imprisoned.” According to the woman, speaking from a hospital bed,

“I was able to identify the sheikh because we are neighbors, and my father had been questioning him about the Islamic faith not leading one to salvation with God. The sheikh had said to him, ‘You have no respect of our religion, and we have come for your life today.’ They started strangling my father as well as hitting him on the head with a big stick. When my father fell down, I managed to escape through the window.”

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Tanzania: Another church was burned to the ground. The Roman Catholic church in the Kagera region is the third church in four months to be burned down in the nation. According to a local pastor, “Since 2013 we have had over 13 churches torched here in Kagera and no-one has been held accountable. This is not acceptable.”

Fortunatus Bijura, a priest at the church, said: “Those who think that destroying our church means we won’t pray, they are wrong … We have a big tree near the church and will continue meeting there for prayers.” Tanzania is approximately 35% Muslim.

Pakistan: The government announced its plans to demolish four historic churches in order to make way for the construction of a metro train. On May 3, Christians gathered in front of the Lahore High Court to protest the decision. “These churches were built pre-Pakistan and these all [sic] churches are located at very expensive and prime locations which politicians and Islamists are jealous of,” said Nasir Saeed, director of the Center for Legal Aid. “They cannot stand that Christians have such prime property and … so try to use any excuse to grab the land and belittle Christians.” While the community is still mourning their loved ones who perished during the Easter Sunday attack on Christians that left 69 dead and more than 340 injured, Saeed said they now face a new threat to their churches: “There is no respite for them and one problem after the other seems to follow Pakistani Christians,” he said.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers and Preachers

Pakistan: A fatwa, or Islamic decree, was issued against a Christian after Muslims accused him of watching an anti-Islamic video on his phone. Imran Masih was last reported on the run after a $10,000 bounty was put on his head. As a form of collective punishment, fellow Christians in his village were prevented from buying food from Muslim shopkeepers and given three options: “convert to Islam, leave the village forever, or hand over Imran so he can be burnt alive.” Speaking of this incident, a Pakistani human rights activist said,

I cannot believe that such things are still happening in this world. Such treatment towards Pakistani Christians is a slap on the face of the Punjab and central government, and to all those who never tire of telling the world that minorities are protected and enjoying equal rights in the country. I don’t understand how watching a video on the internet can be criminalised as an act of blasphemy…. I believe this is not an act of blasphemy and if people still think Imran has committed blasphemy then he should be punished according to the law. No one has any right to take the law into their own hands, harass local Christians, threaten them, burn Imran alive or force Christians to convert to Islam or leave the village. Such conditions from lay people make a mockery of the law. The Government of Pakistan must take this matter seriously, provide protection to the local Christians, and those who are breaking the law should be dealt according to the law.

Left: The house of Imran Masih in the village of Chak-44, Pakistan. Masih was last reported on the run after Muslims accused him of watching an anti-Islamic video on his phone and a $10,000 bounty was put on his head. Right: The Catholic Church in the village. (Images source: World Watch Monitor)

Separately in Pakistan, police arrested a Christian man in Punjab province for allegedly posting messages on his Facebook account that were considered blasphemous by Muslims. According to Liaquat Usman’s wife, “My husband stopped some [Muslim] boys from teasing girl students. A couple of days ago the boys manhandled Usman. Instead of arresting the boys, police arrested Usman saying a complaint against him has been lodged for committing blasphemy.” Initial investigations showed that the “blasphemous” messages were posted on Usman’s Facebook account a year earlier, and that someone else living abroad tagged them on his account.

Germany: A new report claimed that as many as 40,000 Christians — including Muslims who wish to convert to Christianity — are being attacked and harassed by Muslims in migrant homes. According to the report,

Many converts [to Christianity] wished to do so in their homelands, but in places like Iran and Afghanistan the penalty for leaving the Islamic religion can be death and so they fled to Europe. Now in European asylum homes they are finding more and more that they are in as much danger from radical Muslims in Europe as they were in their home countries. The most prevalent form of abuse was verbal insults with 96 people saying that had received abuse or threats. Eighty-six said they had been physically assaulted and 73 said they had been subjected to death threats against themselves and family members. Three quarters of the migrants also said they had been victims of multiple attacks. The perpetrators of most of the attacks were fellow migrants who look down on converts and believe them to be apostates. Perhaps, more interestingly was the prevalence of Muslim security guards who participated in the attacks. Almost half of those surveyed said they had received abuse from security guards and in the German capital of Berlin the figure rose to two-thirds.

Azerbaijan: Christian activists called attention to the plight of a frail Christian evangelist from Azerbaijan who has spent a year behind bars in neighboring Georgia on what his supporters say are “trumped-up charges” for the possession of drugs. If convicted, the man could face 14 years imprisonment. The Azeri evangelist says he has been framed by people who are angry about his evangelism work among Muslims. Local sources said “His health is very bad and he needs urgent help — medical, spiritual and materially.” Fears also exist that the man will not be able to return safely to predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan after an eventual release from prison. According to a human rights organization,

Officially, the country is secular and religion is tolerated. However, the level of surveillance is so incredibly high that Christians in Azerbaijan do not know whom to trust anymore. Persecution of Christians has gone up markedly since last year due to ever-increasing government controls,” added Open Doors. Another sign of the government pressure is the fact that Azeri Christians find it easier to evangelize in countries like Georgia and Iran than in their own country.

Muslim Hate for and Violence against Christians

Syria: The Islamic State released an online video on May 16, showing an ISIS fighter desecrating the graves of Christians and showing off the damage that was done to the Christian cemetery. The video was allegedly filmed in the city of Deir ez-Zor. The ISIS militant is shown touring the cemetery, showing shards of stone and wood, while in the background are destroyed headstones and corpses of Syrian soldiers — some torn to pieces — who apparently tried to stop the desecration.

Eritrea: Thousands of Christians are fleeing the nation due to extreme persecution, according to a report which describes Eritrea as “one of the world’s fastest emptying nations” and the “North Korea of Africa.” The majority of the 40,000 who fled to Italy last year are Christians. The report added that “all evangelical and independent churches have been closed.” Dawit, who was among hundreds of Christians jailed and tortured for his faith, said:

“There is no law and no justice. When I was living in Eritrea I was arrested because of my Christian faith. That’s why I left. In Eritrea almost every Christian faces imprisonment. That’s why I was in prison.”

Berhane, another Christian who managed to escape said:

“We believe there are over 300 Christian prisoners at the moment. Most of them have been in prison for over ten years and they are suffering for lack of food and proper hygiene and proper medical care and even some of them have lost their lives.”

Turkey: United States ally and NATO member Turkey is aiding and abetting the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria that kill Christians, by providing them with aerial cover and “safe haven,” said Mindy Belz, an activist and senior editor of WORLD magazine:

We have to have a new approach to our ally, Turkey. Turkey is a country that is in transition and is becoming more and more radicalized. There is strong evidence, as I interviewed people at the border who had escaped to Lebanon. I sat down with them in Beirut. They were up at the border when Turkey shot down the Syrian jet that crossed the border [in 2015]. … The people who witnessed it said, “Turkey is providing air cover for these Islamic militant groups”…. There has been strong evidence that they have provided air cover and provided safe haven at their borders for ISIS…They have aided and abetted extremist groups, not only ISIS but Al-Nusra Front and some of the others. These are groups that are killing Christians and America ought to not tolerate allies that support groups that kill Christians.

Iran: Despite the nuclear deal made with the Obama administration, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has found that religious minorities in Iran, including Christians, continue experiencing severe human rights abuses. The report, released only a couple of months shy of the one-year anniversary of the nuclear deal reached in July 2015, found that religious freedom conditions “continued to deteriorate” over the past year, with Christians, Baha’is, and the minority Sunni Muslims facing the most persecution at the form of harassment, arrests, and imprisonment.

Under President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, the number of religious-based arrests has increased, despite Iran’s continuous denial that it is violating people’s human and religious freedom rights. The report states:

“The government of Iran continues to engage in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused.”

The report notes that as many as 550 Christians have been arrested and detained since 2015, and at least 90 Christians remain in prison or detention as of February due to their religious beliefs and activities:

“During the reporting period, human rights groups inside Iran reported a significant increase in the number of physical assaults and beatings of Christians in prison. Some activists believe the assaults, which have been directed against converts who are leaders of underground house churches, are meant to intimidate others who may wish to convert to Christianity.”

A report from May indicate that one Christian prisoner in Iran, Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran, who earlier underwent heart surgery, is suffering from illnesses, including nausea, ear pain, and chronic pain in her joints and spinal cord, which were diagnosed as caused by lumbar disk, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Regardless, prison officials have refused to transfer her to a hospital to receive proper medical care. Mrs. Zargaran was initially summoned to an Iranian intelligence office for interrogation in March of 2011. Interrogators constantly threatened her and her family, insulted her and questioned her Christian activities.

Pakistan: According to Sardar Mushtaq Gill and fellow attorneys who represent the family of the Christian couple burned alive by a mob for allegedly desecrating a Koran, “Witnesses and lawyers are [being] threatened…. There are many concerns about the possible impunity for the perpetrators.” Because witness have refused to recognize those most responsible for the killing of the Christian couple, they have already been released on bail. “There are 106 detainees accused of this lynching and if the trial continues in this direction, it seems that everyone will be freed.”

Nigeria: Gunmen shot at a car carrying Roman Catholic Cardinal John Onaiyekan in the country’s southern Edo state. The attack on the cardinal comes amid increasing violence and kidnappings of Christian clergy by Muslims for ransom. Three other Christian leaders were kidnapped for ransom within the same year. The decomposing body of a cleric kidnapped in a Muslim-majority region was found last April.

A separate report tells of the day-to-day sufferings of Christians living alongside Muslims in Nigeria:

For Bishop Matthew Kukah, persecution is not just the history of the Church. It’s a reality that he lives every day. In the diocese of Sokoto, located in northern Nigeria, ministry includes not only the normal sacramental and pastoral concerns of any other diocese. It also includes regularly responding to violence and attacks against the small Christian minority living in the majority-Muslim area. Christians living in northern Nigeria today wonder “why have they and their institutions become target practice,” explained Bishop Kukah told CNA. Christian churches and businesses – as well as the people who frequent them – suffer both targeted violence at the hands of Islamist extremists… And after the attacks, Christian communities face a wall of bureaucratic challenges and lack of government support as they struggle to rebuild…. While some targets of violence find government and societal aid in rebuilding and accessing services such as schools and hospitals, the state in northern Nigeria merely “looks on” as Christian churches and institutions struggle to rebuild.

“[Y]ou live in a state that is less than you expect as a citizen,” said Bishop Kukah. “You don’t know what to expect tomorrow. … Christians suffer disproportionate violence from Muslim extremists. … Our churches are being bombed with no compensation paid for the schools or other properties of the Church.”

Bangladesh: Unidentified attackers hurled crude bombs at the home of a Christian family and left two Christians injured. The attack occurred just after midnight in a mainly Christian hamlet in the western Chuadanga area. Police suspected “attempted robbery” as the motive. But the report notes:

“the attack comes amid a string of murders of Christians, Hindus and members of other religious minorities across the country by suspected militants, as Bangladesh reels from rising Islamist violence… Suspected Islamists have murdered at least 30 members of religious minorities, secular bloggers and other liberal activists, foreigners and intellectuals in Bangladesh in the past three years.”

The Assyrian human rights activist Sawo Oshana Ide, accused of “being a member of an armed organization,” has been jailed in Turkey since February 18. The indictment does not mention which “armed organization” Sawo belongs to. According to Ide’s lawyer, Erkan Metin, “He is abstractly accused of doing research in accordance with the objectives of an organization and forming lists about ammunition.”

According to the Turkish penal code, it is a charge that can bring imprisonment for five to ten years.

According to Assyria TV, “the Turkish security forces stormed the apartment of Sawo Oshana Ide in Midyat, Turkey. The police took his computer and other notes. Thereafter, Sawo and his wife were taken into interrogation. Today in the afternoon, the police released Sawo’s wife but he was arrested on charges of collaborating with a terrorist organization.”

The accusations are based on some photos and notes in his computer, Metin said.

“Some of the photos were taken at the election campaigns of the Assyrian MP, Erol Dora, and the photos of the members of the Kurdish YPG members as well as the photos of the commemoration of the death of Sakine Cansiz, a Kurdish politician murdered in Paris.

“His notes include his report on the immigrant smuggling, his writings about the Yazidis and Assyrians in Iraq, his research on Syria, his writings about his visit with the Chaldean metropolitan bishop to the Kocanis Church in the city of Hakkari, an outline drawing of a ruined church in Hakkari, as well as his notes about the weapons stockpile of the Assyrian forces he received during his visit in Iraq.”

“Sawo was born and grew up in the village of Gorumlu, in the predominantly Kurdish city of Sirnak,” said his lawyer. “After members of his family, Hamdin and Hikmet Simsek, were murdered, and after the pressures of the state intensified in the region, his family fled. Sawo lived in France for about 30 years.

“The extrajudicial murder is now known to have been committed by the Turkish colonel, Cemal Temizoz. The slain Kurdish lawyer, Tahir Elci, was the lawyer of that trial.”

“Sawo loves his people,” added Metin, “and researched their problems…His detention might aim to intimidate Assyrian rights advocates in Turkey.”

He said that since the clashes in the southeastern region intensified after June 7, 2015, the pressures of the state’s forces on Assyrians have been on the rise.

“There are about 25,000 Assyrians in Turkey. The fears and concerns of Assyrians have skyrocketed in the face of the jihadist terror attacks against Assyrians in the Middle East, the rise of the anti-secular policies across the country and the policies of the AKP government that have paved the way for that.”

The future seems grim for Assyrians in Turkey. But their past was never that bright either. Assyrians in Turkey, like other minorities, have never been allowed to live as equal, free citizens of the Turkish republic. They have systematically been discriminated against due to their language, ethnicity and religion. The 1915 genocide marked the peak of the Assyrian persecution in the region.

“In the 1915 genocide,” according to Tuma Celik, a historian and chief editor of the newspaper Sabro (The Hope), “two thirds of Assyrians were exterminated. We think that the decision of genocide included [all] Christians…. If the aim had been to massacre the Armenians only, they [the assailants] would not have attacked the places where Assyrians lived. For instance, there was not a single Armenian in the town of Midyat. But Assyrians there were also slaughtered in an organized manner.”

Even after 101 years after the genocide, discrimination and pressures against Assyrians, an ancient people of the region, continues unremittingly.

On April 1, for instance, Erol Dora, an Assyrian MP of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), tried to deliver a speech at the Turkish parliament to mark the Assyrian Akitu day.

But the word “Akitu’ used by Dora was censored in the registry of the parliament and recorded as “X” — another demonstration of the Turkish regime’s ongoing policy, ever since the establishment of the Turkish state in 1923, of the denial of non-Turkish languages and cultures in Turkey, and even the use of non-Turkish names. [1]

Assyrian human rights activist Sawo Oshana Ide (left) has been jailed in Turkey since February, accused of “being a member of an armed organization.” Erol Dora (right), an Assyrian MP of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was censored when he tried to deliver a speech at the Turkish parliament to mark the Assyrian Akitu day.

Kurdish leaders have been trying so hard to change the situation for the better — but only to end up in jail.

Abdullah Demirbas, the former mayor of the Sur district of the city of Diyarbakir, introduced what he defined as “multi-linguistic municipality” to Turkey, a state that does not very much tolerate the use of non-Turkish languages.

He encouraged the use of Kurdish, Armenian, Zazaki, Arabic and Assyrian languages in the municipal works. He added Kurdish, Armenian and Assyrian languages first to the signboards at the entrance of the town, and then at the entrance of the municipality. Due to these activities, he was not only arrested and brought to court, but was also removed from his mayoral post in 2007 by the Turkish state council.

Given the systematic mistreatment of Assyrians at the hands of Turkey, the detention of Sawo Oshana Ide appears an extension of the anti-minority policies of the Turkish government.

If you are a minority in Turkey, then you are most probably the target of the Turkish regime. You are easy to oppress and exterminate. This has been the case for at least the last hundred years under the Turkish republic.

The second trial of Sawo Oshana Ide will be held on June 16. “He has been put in three prisons in 1.5 month until his first trial took place,” said his lawyer. “And he was not even brought to his first trial even though we had demanded it. He attended the trial through videoconferencing. We really do not know what will happen to Sawo from now on. ”

The international community must not abandon him.

Robert Jones, an expert on Turkey, is currently based in the UK.

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[1] “Soon after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey,” reported Human Rights Watch (HRW), “its government embarked upon a radical program of nation-building. Ethnic diversity was perceived as a danger to the integrity of the state…. Those who refused often met with severe repression.”

In 2011, for instance, Favlus Ay, an Assyrian citizen of Turkey, applied to a local court in Midyat, which used to be an important center for Assyrians before the 1915 genocide, to change his name to “Paulus Bartuma”, which is an Assyrian name. His application was rejected by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, which cited the importance of the “national” and “constitutional unity” of Turkish citizens through their last names.

“In various areas of public life,” writes the scholar Derya Bayir, “the use of languages other than Turkish is still effectively prohibited in Turkey. “The restrictions on party political literature, political campaigns and speeches, local government activities including sponsorship of events and provision of services, and controls on languages used by associations have not become flexible.” (Source: Bayir, D. Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law: Routledge, 2013.)

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