Persecution of the Day

Right here in the the Good Ol’ U.S. of A.

Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow:  A professional counselor has been fired for referring a homosexual patient to another counselor for relationship advice. The counselor who was dismissed is a Christian. 

Marcia Walden is a professional counselor who worked for Computer Sciences Corporation, a government contractor that provides Employee Assistance Program counselors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But Walden was suspended and subsequently fired when she referred a homosexual CDC employee to another counselor for advice on the woman’s same-sex relationship.  

Jim Campbell, litigation counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says employers are required by law to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs, when doing so would cause no hardship. “Employees should not be forced to check their religious beliefs at the door,” he argues. Campbell says Walden was motivated by her religious and ethical beliefs, and she felt she was unable to offer the employee counsel. “…[S]he did what was ethically reasonable. She referred this employee to another counselor who was able to do the job,” he explains.

Hey, at least no one’s killing us or attacking our churches … yet.

Persecution of the Day

via Compass Direct News.

Iranian authorities have detained two converts to Christianity in the southern city of Shiraz for eight weeks on suspicion of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam. In Iran, apostasy is a crime that can be punishable by death. Mahmood Matin, 52, and Arash Bandari, 44, remain imprisoned in a secret police detention center known by its address, Sepah Street 100, located in the center of Shiraz since their arrest on May 15 (previously reported as May 13). Matin and Bandari were detained with 13 other Muslim converts to Christianity while meeting together in a park in Shiraz.

More on the Theme

There has been an ongoing effort at genocide in Iraq.  It’s not what the Leftards would have you believe - that the warmongering U.S. and her Zionist puppetmasters are fomenting the destruction of Muslims.  Rather, it is at the hands of Muslims, and it is directed at Assyrians (foremost). 

Who are the Assyrians?  Answer:

A semitic peoples indigenous to North Iraq; builders of the great Mesopotamian civilizations; ethnically distinct from Arabs and Jews (the other semitic peoples of the region).   They currently speak modern Assyrian (also known as neo-Syriac), which is the oldest extant language, and was the lingua franca of the Middle East until 900 A.D., when it was supplanted by Arabic (except among Assyrians).  Assyrians are Christians. They belong to three main Assyrian churches: 1) The Assyrian Church of the East (”Nestorian”), established in 33 A.D. by Theodos, Thomas, and Bartholomew; 2) the Syriac Orthodox Church (”Jacobite”), established in 450 A.D.; 3) the Chaldean Church of Babylon (Roman Catholic), established in 1552 A.D.  The majority of Assyrians live in their ancestral homeland, which is now part of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Why are they being persecuted?  From yesterday’s New York Times (believe it or not), comes an article which, while not exclusively addressing Assyrians, will give the reader the background requisite to understanding.

MOSUL, Iraq (NYT)— As priests do everywhere, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the leader of the Chaldean Catholics in this ancient city, gathered alms at Sunday Mass. But for years the money, a crumpled pile of multicolored Iraqi dinars, went into an envelope and then into the hand of a man who had threatened to kill him and his entire congregation.

“What else could he do?” asked Ghazi Rahho, a cousin of the archbishop. “He tried to protect the Christian people.”

[...]

For more than 1,000 years, northern Iraq has been shared by people who for the most part believe and worship differently: Turkmen, Kurds, Yazidis, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Assyrian Christians — of whom the Chaldeans are the largest denomination. (The Chaldean Church, an Eastern Rite church, is part of the Roman Catholic Church, but maintains its own customs and liturgy.)

Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, Muslims in the Middle East permitted that diversity in part through a special tax on Jews and Christians. The tax was called a jizya — and that is the name with which the insurgents chose to cloak extortion, Mafia-style, from Christians.

Officials say the demands could be hundreds of dollars a month per male member of a household. In many cases, Christian families drained their life savings and went into debt to make the payments. Insurgents also raised money by kidnapping priests. The ransoms, often paid by the congregations, typically ran as high as $150,000, several priests and lay Christians said.

Jizya.  The point of the story above is that ArchBishop Rahho was killed for not paying the jizya.  If, by chance, you are unfamiliar with this term, we have available an explanation from Dr. Andrew Bostom:  THE TAX PAID IN LIEU OF BEING SLAIN.

Here is a classical formulation of the jizya—the cornerstone of the repressive system of jihad-imposed dhimmitude—from, coincidentally, a seminal Baghdadian jurist, al-Mawardi (d. 1058). In his monumental The Laws of Islamic Governance, al-Mawardi examined the regulations pertaining to the lands and infidel populations subjugated by jihad. This is the origin of the system of dhimmitude. The native infidel “dhimmi” (which derives from both the word for “pact”, and also “guilt”—guilty of religious errors) population had to recognize Islamic ownership of their land, submit to Islamic law, and accept payment of the Koranic poll tax (jizya)—the tax paid in lieu of being slain—based on Koran 9:29. Al- Mawardi notes that “The enemy makes a payment in return for peace and reconciliation… Reconciliation and security last as long as the pavment is made. If the pavment ceases, then the jihad resumes.”

The writings of the much lionized Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali (d. 1111) highlight how the institution of dhimmitude was simply a normative, and prominent feature of the Shari’a:…the dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle.. .Jews, Christians, and Majians must pay the jizya [poll tax on non-Muslims]…on offering up the jizya, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his beard and hits [the dhimmi] on the protruberant bone beneath his ear [i.e., the mandible]… They are not permitted to ostentatiously display their wine or church bells…their houses may not be higher than the Muslim’s, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride an elegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddle-work is of wood. He may not walk on the good part of the road. They [the dhimmis] have to wear [an identifying] patch [on their clothing], even women, and even in the [public] baths…[dhimmis] must hold their tongue. 

Gentle reader, you ARE able to see the impetus for the persecution against, and attempted eradication of, Christians in Iraq, right?

It’s The Religion of Peace™, Islam.  Islam, which must supplant or subjugate all other religio-political ideologies.  The same Islam that is creeping into and undermining the foundation of Western thought, politics, government and tradition.

Aside from wishing that everyone would “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and … be saved“, I don’t care who you worship.  But the ideology that espouses the humiliation or destruction of unbelievers at the hands of believers needs to be stopped.

Nod:  Dhimmi Watch

Persecution of the Day

IRAN: CONVERT COUPLE ARRESTED, TORTURED, THREATENED

Officers seize Christians from their home, leaving ill 4-year-old girl unattended.

(Compass Direct News) – Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.

 

A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended.

 

Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, with Rad “very ill” and unable to walk, said the source. Rad was released on bail of US$30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of US$20,000.

 

“The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a female security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed.

 

A draft law before the Iranian parliament would make the death penalty mandatory for “apostates” who leave Islam.

Persecution of the Day

Christian could face three years in prison for practicing faith ‘without license.’

(Compass Direct News)

 

An Algerian public prosecutor has demanded a three-year sentence for a convert to Christianity in western Algeria for practicing her faith “without license.” [...]

 

“You reinstate Islam and I will [drop the case]; if you persist in sin you will undergo the lightning of justice,” the prosecutor told her, according to French daily Le Figaro.  Algerian daily el Watan reported on Wednesday (May 21) that Kouider “refused to give up her new faith under the pressure,” prompting the prosecutor to bring charges against her. She is accused of “practicing non-Muslims religious rites without a license,” according to a copy of the written charge obtained by Compass. At the hearing, Kouider’s defense lawyer told the court that the charge against her client did not exist in the law. “There is no trace of a possible reason to try individuals for the ‘practice of non-Muslim worship without authorization,’” Khelloudja Khalfoun said, according to el Watan.

 

And this, related, also in Algeria, also from Compass Direct.

ALGERIA: PROSECUTOR DEMANDS 2-YEAR SENTENCE FOR CONVERTS FROM ISLAM

A state prosecutor in western Algeria demanded two-year jail sentences and large fines for six Muslim converts to Christianity yesterday in one of two trials against Christians that have caught the north African nation’s attention in the past week. The same court in Tiaret city yesterday delayed the verdict of a Christian woman facing three years in prison for “practicing non-Muslim religious rites without a license.” [...]

 

At the trial of the six converts yesterday, a state prosecutor raised a second charge of illegally practicing non-Muslim worship and demanded two-year jail sentences and 500,000 dinar (US$8,145) fines each. Initially the men were charged with “distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims.”

Persecution of the Day

JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BosNewsLife) — Nearly all Christian families in a village on Indonesia’s Seram island, in the religiously volatile Maluku province, were homeless Wednesday, May 21, after a Muslim mob burned their houses and other properties as well as killing four believers and injuring dozens others, investigators told BosNewsLife.

[...]

“Three of the four [murdered] victims had their throats slit, but all were attacked in other ways as well,” the group said in a statement. “Mrs. Welhelmina Pattiasina, 47, was first tortured, and her grand-daughter Yola, 6, had her stomach cut open.”

[...]

The Muslim mob also “burnt down 120 houses, three churches and the village school,” during the attack, in which also 56 people were wounded, Barnabus Fund claimed. In addition, fifteen hectares of crops were destroyed as well as 20 fishing boats and two motor-cycles, the group added.

Persecution of the Day

5/14/08 Pakistan (International Christian Concern) - Dr. Robin Sardar, 55, a Christian by faith and a medical doctor by profession, was charged with violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws (Pakistan Penal Code Section 295 B and C) in Hafizabad district on May 5, 2008.

In an interview with ICC, Dr. Shamaoun, a nephew of Dr. Robin Sardar, said that Sardar had a close friendship with a Muslim man named Muhammad Yousaf for years. They were often seen together at family gatherings and social events. However, Yousaf became resentful that Sardar, as a Christian, had such a good professional reputation, social status, and financial resources.

Shamaoun said that Yousaf’s envy at Sardar’s success boiled over when he told police that Sardar had made derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad’s beard and the Holy Quran.

Shamaoun further stated that a mob of over 200 Muslims wearing green turbans, a symbol of their Islamic orthodoxy, attacked the doctor’s house and medical clinic after the FIR had been registered against him (Sardar’s residence and clinic are in the same building). The mob was holding sticks, guns and kerosene oil, and proceeded to force their way into the house, smashing windows and furniture throughout the house and clinic. The mob then turned on Sardar and his family.

Since then, the religious extremists have organized daily demonstrations on the city’s roads demanding that Sardar be hanged publicly. Shamaoun said that all the Christians in the area, especially Dr. Sardar’s family members, are living in fear because the local Muslim clerics have been regularly using the mosque amplifier to call on people to kill the relatives of the Christian doctor.

Persecution of the Day

From Mission Network News:

Bernie Daniel with Voice of the Martyrs-Canada says the details about the April 22^nd killing have only recently emerged. “A Christian brother by the name of David Abdulwahab Mohamed Ali who was only 29 years old–an active evangelist–was killed by the same militia that avowed the attacks on the teachers, the Al Shabab militia, which is a militant Islamic organization affiliated with Al Qaeda.”

According to a report from the International Christian Concern, David converted to Christianity in 1995. He was living in Yemen but had to flee to Ethiopia because of government persecution. This April, David returned to Somalia to visit family, where Al Shabab found him.

The group is fighting to implement Sharia law in Somalia and create an Islamic state. They have vowed to eradicate Christianity. That threat causes great concern for the church body there. Less than three percent of the population is Christian, and the rest is Sunni Muslim.

Al Shabab has claimed responsibility for killing four Christians over the last six months. Daniel believes this will intensify. “The situation for our Christian brethren in Somalia is very dire. It’s a very tiny community in a militant Islamic society, so there is a kind of open season on Christians in Somalia.” 

 

Persecution of the Day

via CBN News.

If you live in London, and you want to build the largest Mosque in Western Europe, that’s great. But if you want to build the largest church, forget about it.

London’s Kingsway International Christian Church, the largest church in Europe, no longer has a permanent home. Nor is there much prospect of it finding one in London.

This congregation of as many as 10,000 was forced off its property to make room for the 2012 London Olympics.

“KICC is the largest church in Western Europe, and I think that ought to have been celebrated,” Ashimolowo said. “Rather, I believe that we were victims of the fact that it was a Christian church that has succeeded. The megachurch growth of the large church is so unknown to them. In fact, they call KICC “the American style church led by a Nigerian pastor,” he added.

Alan Craig, a Christian city councilman running for London mayor, calls it “a perfect illustration” of the City of London’s “prejudice against Christianity.”

So while London city government has literally told the largest church in the city to take a hike, it’s still pushing the construction of the largest mosque in Europe.

Not far from Kingsway’s former church property is land that has been set aside for a huge mosque complex for as many as 70,000 Muslims. The City of London wants it to be an integral part of the 2012 London Olympic site. This despite the fact that the so-called mega mosque is widely controversial, because it is being built by a secretive group called Tablighi Jamaat, which some have tied to terror [e.g. the October 2002 Portland Seven and the September 2002 Lackawanna Six cases in the United States, as well as the August 2006 plot to bomb airliners en route from London to the United States, the July 7, 2005, London Underground bombings and the July 2007 attempted bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland - GdB].

“Mayor Livingstone is actively courting the Muslim vote. That’s what he’s doing. I also think our secular authorities are actively writing Christianity out of the script,” Craig said.

Persecution of the Day

In Iraq, via Voice of the Martyrs

When “Muhammad” first converted to Christianity from Islam, he kept his new faith a secret. In fact, the first person he told outside of his wife and son was a Christian named “Joseph.” He knew the risks of sharing his faith with others in his homeland of Iraq but felt led to do so anyway. So he witnessed to his extended family. Following radical teachings of Islam, family members killed Muhammad.

Muhammad’s widow sent Muhammad’s friend “Joseph” an e-mail after the martyrdom of her husband. She wrote:

“I have bad news. Muhammad is dead. Our family killed him for sharing his new faith in Jesus Christ. I miss him dearly. Muhammad left me two important things: my son and our Bible. I’ll never forget why he died. He died for Jesus. I believe Jesus will help me. Tell the people [other Christians] to pray for me.”

Persecution of the Day

From INN.

Arabs from the area of Shechem have vandalized a local Christian cemetery and damaged several tombstones, according to a Palestinian Authority newspaper. Muslim Arabs have steadily increased attacks on Christians over the past several years.

In Gaza, where Hamas took over the area in a terrorist war with the rival Fatah faction in June 2007, terrorists last week kidnapped Fuad Nabil Ayyad, a Christian activist whose relative Rami Ayyad was executed by Hamas terrorists last year.

Persecution of the Day

From Mission Network News:

Muslim leaders are using media and informants and putting pressure on authorities to help restrict Christian evangelism. 

At least six churches have been forced to close when asked to provide their license and authorization, even though none is required at this point.

Government informants have attended church services and later reported in detail, putting pressure on Christians.      

Informants used film of a pastor and his colleague singing alongside children in his church to confirm their accusations that he was evangelizing the students in the school where he worked.  The men eventually lost their jobs at the school, and the church was closed.

There are several others standing trial. One group of three Christians is accused of insulting Islam and evangelizing Muslims. They face prison time and fines.