Few phenomena are as horrifically widespread as they are virtually unknown—at least in the West—as the Muslim persecution of Christians.
The general facts are undeniable and have been and continue to be documented in a number of reports issued by a variety of human rights organizations around the world. According to one of the most recent compilations, Open Doors’ “World Watch List, 2021”—which was published in January 2021 and which annually ranks the top 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted for their faith—13 Christians are killed for their faith every day around the world; 12 are illegally arrested or imprisoned; 5 are abducted; and 12 churches or other Christian buildings are attacked.
About 309 million of these Christians “suffer very high or extreme levels” of persecution. “That’s one in 8 worldwide, 1 in 6 in Africa, 2 out of 5 in Asia, and 1 in 12 in Latin America.” More specifically and for the reporting period covered (Oct. 2019 – Sept. 2020), “4,761 Christians were killed for their faith”; an additional 4,277 Christians were unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned; 1,710 were abducted for faith-related reasons; and 4,488 Churches or Christian buildings were attacked.
The worst category, “extreme persecution”—the harassing, beating, imprisoning, raping, and/or slaughtering of Christians on sight—occurs in 12 of the 50 nations. Nine of these top 12 worst persecutors are Muslim: Afghanistan (#2), Somalia (#3), Libya (#4), Pakistan (#5), Yemen (#7), Iran (#8), Nigeria (#9), Iraq (#11), and Syria (#12). (That these nations are racially, culturally, politically, and economically very different—Arab, Asian, Iranian, sub-Saharan African, etc.—should be indicative that something else accounts for their commonality towards Christians.)
Over all, the persecution Christians experience in 39 of the 50 nations making the list is also either from “Islamic oppression” or is occurring in Muslim majority nations. This means nearly 80 percent of the Christian persecution around the world—including of those 13 Christians killed for their faith every day—is committed by Muslims.
While the above numbers are important, including in displaying the magnitude of the problem, one should not lose sight that they represent real people; what they experience, when read in detail—girls chained and gang raped; Christians burned alive for supposedly “blaspheming” Muhammad; Muslim husbands and wives stabbing and poisoning each other whenever one apostatizes to Christ; another 30 having their heads sawn off just for the heck of it—is tragic if not bloodcurdling.
The following, for example, are among the most recent incidents to occur as of this writing (excerpted from the February, 2021 edition of the monthly “Muslim Persecution of Christians” reports):
- Uganda: A Muslim husband splashed acid onto his wifeafter suspecting she had converted.
- Malta: A Muslim man stabbeda former Muslim who converted to Christianity in an attempt to kill the apostate and please Allah.
- Iran: Four converts to Christianity that were arrested on the chargeof “acting against national security by forming a house Church,” were sentenced to a combined total of 35 years in prison.
- Pakistan: Two Christian men reading the Bible in a park were arrestedand are being charged with blasphemy—which carries the death penalty—after Muslims lied and told police that they were proselytizing.
- Somaliland: On Jan. 25, a Christian couple and their newborn baby were arrested. On the next day, police searched and seized from their home recriminating evidence of Christianity. Promoting any religion other than Islam is banned in Somaliland. Their fate remains unknown.
- Algeria: A 43-year-old married Christian father of four was sentenced to five years in prisonfor reposting a cartoon of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam on his Facebook account—three years ago, in 2018.
- Kenya: Muslims torched five separate churches. As occurred when vandals in France usedhuman excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in 2019, so these Kenyan arsonists also “committed the heinous acts of scooping human feces onto the buildings,” the source added.
- Sudan: The ninth church to be torchedin Muslim-majority Sudan in two years occurred.
- Nigeria: Suspected Muslim arsonists set Holy Family Catholic Church ablazeon Sunday.
- Algeria: Although all mosques were given permission to reopen on Feb. 15, churches were deniedthe same greenlight.
- Bangladesh: Two Muslims brutally raped their neighbor, a married Christian mother, because they thought that the family consisted of “very weak Christians, [who] would not raise our voices.”
- Pakistan: After a 23-year-old Christian girl applied for the position of math instructor in a school adjacent to a mosque in Islamabad, the Muslims around her began to harass and insult her—to the point of threatening her with rape and deathif she did not convert to Islam. An actual abduction attempt was also made.
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: On Sunday, Feb. 14—St. Valentine’s Day—Islamic terrorists killed13 civilians in the Christian majority nation, and burnt down a Catholic church during a raid.
- Nigeria: A Muslim colonel stole weapons from an armory and then blamed the 12 soldiers on duty of the theft. Six of those 12 soldiers—all Christians—were then executed. And, as they do every month, Islamic terrorists of the Fulani herdsmen variety butchered dozens of Christians.
- Indonesia: Authorities publicly flogged two Christian menfor drinking alcohol and gambling in Aceh, which enforces Islamic law, or Sharia.
- Sudan: On the day that the only Christian program on Sudanese television first aired, outraged Muslims urgedauthorities to remove it. “Christians and Jews are not only infidels, but they are cursed by Allah.”
As mentioned, this is just the latest sampling from the most recent compilation. Every month contains similar, often significantly worse, accounts, both in quantity and quality.
Why is this happening? And why do Muslims have the lions’ share of the “extreme persecution” 309 million Christians around the world experience?
Islamic doctrine sheds much light. In short, shari‘a, that body of teachings that Muslims are obligated to adhere to, teaches hate for and violence against all non-Muslims. In the words of Koran 60:4, “We [Muslims] renounce you [non-Muslims]. Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us—till you believe in Allah alone.” Such sentiments are to be applied to all non-Muslims—“even if they be their parents, children, siblings, or extended family” (58:22; see also 3:28, 4:89, 4:144, 5:54, 6:40, 9:23). Based on such verses, any number of fatwas, authoritative Islamic decrees from venerable sheikhs, call on Muslims to do things like hate their non-Muslim wives (while “physically” enjoying or benefitting from them) and to hate and be disloyal to the Western nations they reside in.
In short, and as the Islamic State once explained in an unambiguously titled article, “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You,” “We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers.” (Lest it seem that ISIS is an aberration that hardly speaks for Muslims, a Pew poll found that in just 11 nations, as many as 287 million Muslims—just those who answered honestly—sympathized and/or supported ISIS.)
Despite their much vaunted “people of the book” appellation—the significance of which apologists for Islam have strained beyond credulity—both Christians and Jews are, in the end, also classified as infidels (kuffar; singular, kafir). Thus Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and Christians as friends and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely one of them”—that is, he too becomes an infidel.
Christians are further singled out by name for condemnation: Koran 5:73 declares that “Infidels are they who say God is one of three,” a reference to the Christian Trinity; Koran 5:72 says “Infidels are they who say God is the Christ, [Jesus] son of Mary”; and Koran 9:30 complains that “the Christians say the Christ is the son of God … may Allah’s curse be upon them!”
The significance of these verses can only be understood when one understands the significance of the word translated here as “infidel”—kafir. The kafir—the nonbeliever—is the mortal enemy of Allah and his prophet; their followers—Muslims—are obligated to war on, kill, and subjugate him, whenever possible, that is. As for what Muslims should do when attacking infidels is infeasible—for example, because the non-Muslims are currently stronger—Koran 3:28 advises: “Let believers not take for friends and allies infidels rather than believers: and whoever does this shall have no relationship left with Allah—unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions.” (This is one of the verses that endorses taqiyya, the notorious doctrine that promotes deceiving non-Muslims.)
The final word on both Christians and Jews was “revealed” in Koran 9:29: “Fight those among the People of the Book who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya [monetary tribute] with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.” With that, their fate was sealed; like all other infidels, Christians and Jews were also to be hated, warred on, and subjugated.
The only difference is that, whereas conquered pagans must either convert or die, Christians and Jews are permitted to keep their religions—once, that is, they embrace their inferior status, as well laid out in the “Conditions of Omar,” a historic document purportedly agreed to by the conquered Christian population of Jerusalem around 640 AD. Muslim jurists still cite these conditions as containing the main stipulations Christians must agree to in order to exist under Islamic rule. In it, Christians agree:
Not to build a church in our city—nor a monastery, convent, or monk’s cell in the surrounding areas—and not to repair those that fall in ruins or are in Muslim quarters… Not to display a cross on them [churches], nor raise our voices during prayer or readings in our churches anywhere near Muslims; Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims… Not to display any signs of polytheism, nor make our religion appealing, nor call or proselytize anyone to it… Not to possess or bear any arms whatsoever, nor gird ourselves with swords; To honor the Muslims, show them the way, and rise up from our seats if they wish to sit down.
This pact concludes with the Christians conceding that if they break any of these stipulations, they become, once again, free game for killing or enslavement.
Rather tellingly, the majority of persecution today is connected to these conditions: churches are bombed, burned, or simply denied permits to exist or renovate; Bibles, crosses, and other symbols of “polytheism” are often confiscated, destroyed, and/or provoke violent outbursts (especially in unguarded cemeteries); Christians who openly speak of their faith are accused of proselytizing or blaspheming—both of which can lead to execution. The stipulation for Christians to “honor the Muslims”—including by offering them their seats, a scene that predates the Rosa Parks incident by nearly 14 centuries—has led to an entrenched system of contempt for and discrimination against Christians.
Here it may be objected that, just because religious doctrine teaches something—just because some musty old books and scriptures say something—does not necessarily mean that the religious follow it. To this, one responds by saying that Islamic history is a virtual manifestation of Islamic doctrine.
In 628, the Arabian founder of Islam, Muhammad, called on the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius—the symbolic head of Christendom—to recant Christianity and embrace Islam. The emperor refused, jihad was declared—Koran 9:29 was in fact “revealed” in this context—and centuries of Islamic invasions, wars, and conquests followed. As a result, “Muslim armies conquered three-quarters [or 75 percent] of the Christian world,” to quote historian Thomas Madden.
All that remained was the “West”—so called because it was literally the westernmost quarter of the pre-Islamic Christian world, namely Europe, that did not also fall, despite centuries of jihadi attempts. As late as 1683—a millennium after Muhammad’s ultimatum to Heraclius—over 200,000 Muslims marched onto, besieged, and nearly conquered Vienna in the name of jihad. Indeed, even the United States of America’s first war as a nation was against Muslims operating under jihadi logic.
In the words of eminent historian Bernard Lewis,
For almost a thousand years, from the first Moorish landing in Spain [711] to the second Turkish siege of Vienna [1683], Europe was under constant threat from Islam. All but the easternmost provinces of the Islamic realm had been taken from Christian rulers… North Africa, Egypt, Syria, even Persian-ruled Iraq, had been Christian countries, in which Christianity was older and more deeply rooted than in most of Europe. Their loss was sorely felt and heightened the fear that a similar fate was in store for Europe.
As for those Christians whose lands came under Muslim control, from Morocco to Iraq, the historical records make clear that they were indeed treated as “inferiors,” dhimmis, in keeping with the Conditions of Omar. Whether to evade the fiscal and social oppression that was their lot—or the sporadic bouts of wholesale persecution that regularly flared out—over the centuries, more and more of these Christians, who once formed the majority of the Middle East and Africa, converted to Islam. Muslim records even make this clear; in al-Maqrizi’s (d. 1442) authoritative history of Egypt, anecdote after anecdote is recorded of Muslims burning churches, slaughtering Christians, and enslaving Coptic women and children—often with the compliance if not outright cooperation of the authorities. The only escape then—as sometimes still today—was for Christians to convert to Islam.
After recording one particularly egregious bout of persecution in the eleventh century, when, along with countless massacres, some 30,000 churches, according to Maqrizi, were destroyed or turned into mosques—a staggering number that further indicates how Christian the pre-Islamic Middle East was—the Muslim historian makes an interesting observation: “Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims.” (One can almost hear the triumphant “Allahu Akbars.”)
That Christians still amount for very small minorities in the Middle East—as much as ten percent in Egypt—is, therefore, not a reflection of Muslim tolerance, as apologists claim, but intolerance. While the lives of many Christians were snuffed out over centuries of violence, the spiritual and cultural identities of exponentially more were wiped out in their pressured conversions to Islam. (Such is the sad and ironic cycle that fuels the persecution of Christians today: those Muslims who hate and attack them are themselves often distant descendants of Christians who first embraced Islam to evade their own persecution.)
Past and present, then, Muslims persecuted and persecute Christians—and for the selfsame reasons. Amazingly, however, such a perennial phenomenon is virtually unknown in the West. Why? Because, and in what should by now be a familiar theme, the guardians of information have suppressed it in an effort to serve the greater narrative, in this case, that Islam is a religion of peace.
The media are especially adept at getting around the Muslim persecution of Christians. First, only the most sensational attacks are ever reported; for example, the bombings of churches that leave dozens of Christians dead (as have occurred repeatedly in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, and many other Muslim nations). Even then, the reporting is minimal. U.S. media coverage for a gorilla that was shot and killed after a toddler fell into its zoo enclosure was six times greater than that for 21 Christians whose heads were carved off for refusing to recant their faith.
Moreover, by reporting only on sensationalist terrorist attacks—carried out by outlawed organizations which the media’s talking heads can easily present as “not representing Islam” but rather “hijacking” it—and because these high casualty attacks occur only every few months or so, as opposed to every day, concluding that Christians experience systemic and systematic persecution under Islam becomes impossible.
In reality, of course, the spectacular terrorist attacks that receive some coverage are just the tip of the iceberg for Christians. Indeed, in an effort to help remedy the media’s failures, nearly a decade ago, in July 2011, I decided to begin compiling monthly reports titled “Muslim Persecution of Christians” (published by the Gatestone Institute). I was initially concerned as to the feasibility of this project: what sort of “report” could be compiled if, say, only one or two—or even no instances—of persecution occurred on any given month? Sadly, this has never been the case. Each monthly report—there are as of this writing 115—contains a dozen or so atrocities.
The overwhelming majority of these stories do not appear on any big media but rather smaller, human rights websites. Apparently they are unworthy of coverage. On the other hand, one suspects that if the roles were switched in any one of these accounts—if it was Christians who were banning or attacking mosques; attacking or imprisoning Muslims who blaspheme or Christians who apostatize to Islam; abducting, raping, and forcibly converting Muslims girls; and enforcing a myriad forms of open discrimination against Muslims—these stories would be reported and highlighted by all the major networks.
Which leads to the media’s second strategy: relativizing, neutralizing—always trying to present what happens to Christians as generic “crimes” that have nothing to do with their—or their persecutors’—religious identity. I have read more than one report of a terrorist attack that kills dozens of “people” only to find at the very end of the report that those slain were—and targeted for being—Christians.
Similarly, unprovoked Muslim attacks on Christians are portrayed as “sectarian strife,” a phrase suggestive of two equally matched adversaries. This hardly describes reality: Christian minorities being persecuted in Muslim-majority nations. The New York Times’ headline for an Islamic terror attack on an Egyptian church that left 21 worshippers dead was “Clashes Grow as Egyptians Remain Angry after an Attack”—as if frustrated and harried Christians lashing out against their persecutors was the big news, not the unwarranted butchery they just experienced.
But of course blurring the line between victim and oppressor is a regular tactic of the mainstream media. In two brief sentences, a BBC report stated the bare-bone facts of a church attack that left three Christians, including a toddler, dead in Nigeria. Then it jumped to the apparently really important news: that “the bombing sparked a riot by Christian youths, with reports that at least two Muslims were killed in the violence. The two men were dragged off their bikes after being stopped at a roadblock set up by the rioters, police said. A row of Muslim-owned shops was also burned…. ” The report goes on and on, with a special section about “very angry” Christians, until one all but confuses victims with persecutors, forgetting what Christians are “very angry” about in the first place: unprovoked and nonstop terror attacks. In what human rights groups are referring to as a “genocide,” Muslims have slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria—as opposed to reprisal killings of two Muslims—and bombed or burned thousands of churches. Yet, the casual reader of the mainstream media will walk away with some notion of tribal/sectarian conflict.
A final and rather deplorable media strategy is to actively issue false news in an effort to suppress the specter of Muslim violence against Christians. In the days before the aforementioned 21 Egyptian Christians were videotaped being decapitated in Libya, the BBC falsely reported that the majority of those now slaughtered Copts were “released.”
Why is the media so set against objectively reporting on Christian persecution under Islam? Because, of all forms of Islamic violence, the abuse of Christian minorities where Muslims are in power has the capacity to completely undermine the Leftist narrative—and thereby undermine a cornerstone of their doctrine of moral relativism. Muslim violence against the West or Israel poses no challenge to that narrative: in both cases, Muslims are presented as underdogs; they may be screaming and rioting, firing rockets, and destroying property—all while calling for the death and destruction of the “infidel” West or Israel to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” Still, this bloodlust can be rationalized as a natural byproduct of the frustration Muslims feel as an oppressed minority, retaliating against their “colonial” oppressors.
But if Muslims get a free pass when their violence is directed against those stronger than them, how does one reason away their violence when it is directed against those weaker than them, those who have no political influence whatsoever—in this case, the millions of Christian minorities suffering under Islam? The rationalizations used to minimize Muslim violence against the West and Israel simply cannot work here, for now Muslims are the majority—and they are the ones violent and oppressive to their minorities, in ways that make Western and Israeli treatment of Muslims seem enviable.
In short, Christian persecution is perhaps the most obvious example of a phenomenon the mainstream media wants to ignore out of existence—Islamic supremacism. Vastly outnumbered and politically marginalized Christians in the Islamic world simply wish to worship in peace, and yet they still are hounded and attacked; their churches are burned and destroyed; their children are kidnapped, raped, and enslaved. These Christians are often identical to their Muslim co-citizens in race, ethnicity, national identity, culture, and language; there is no political or property dispute. The only problem is that they are Christian—they are infidels—and so they must be despised and subjugated.
If the mainstream media were to report honestly on the persecution of Christians under Islam, the obvious implications that Islam is dangerously hostile to all non-Muslims would be inescapable. Hence, journalists develop an instinct—or make a deliberate choice—to ignore or sidestep these uncomfortable facts.
Perhaps worst of all, this lack of accurate reporting is occurring at a critical time. As seen, according to the latest statistics, “more than 340 million” Christians “experience high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” This represents a 31 % increase from 2020, when only “260 million Christians experience[ed] high levels of persecution.” That represented a 6% increase from 2019, when the number was only 245 million Christians. And that represented a 14% increase from 2018, when 215 million was the number.
In other words, between just 2018 and 2021, the persecution of Christians has shot up by nearly 60% around the world and, based on current trends, will likely continue to grow and metastasize into other regions. Indeed, whereas Muslim nations have the lions’ share, hostility for Christians is rapidly spreading into non-Muslim nations as well. India has, in recent years, become a chief persecutor of Christians. Even in neighboring Mexico—once thought a bastion of conservative Catholicism—the persecution of Christians is “very high,” even if for different reasons than in China, India, or the Muslim world.
And yet, most Americans, including most self-professed Christians, are either totally unaware of this phenomenon or have no idea of its extent or significance. If the current trajectory does not change, they will likely remain in the dark until the persecution starts to hit much closer to home—by which time accurate reporting will no longer be needed; the persecution will be self-evident.
Thank you for this great article. His work is sensational and I hope to see more of his books translated into Portuguese. God bless you.
What about “Canada?” How many churches have been closed, even locked, fenced & guarded by police so congregations can’t meet for prayer. How many pastors have been arrested & thrown in prison for offering religious services to their communities? All over a virus which is flu like &a vaccine not approved by the FDA.
The first question that sprang to mind, while still reading this article is: What do Christians not understand about the Laws of countries, or their obligation to adhere to these Laws? If a Law dictates that some action is illegal or banned in a country, are Christians not also obliged to adhere to those Laws? I wonder, what in the Bible or Christian Teachings gives Christians the idea that they may think that as Christians, they do not need to adhere to the Laws in any country? And if the other citizens, be it the Government, Officers the Law or ordinary citizens of their countries then insist that a Law or Laws were broken, why is it an offense to Christians?
To Fanie: Sorry to tell you but the “like” by me was a mistake. I don’t agree with your comments.
so why is it ok for muslims to totally refuse to obey the laws of any christian country? strangely none of them want to live under sharia law but want to impose it on western democracies. be best if they stayed in their own country
Raymond has once and for all clarrified this matter: Whomever breaks the Law in any country, and more specifically any Muslim majority country, is guilty of ignorance and deliberate disobedience to the Laws of that country, and should face the consequences of their actions as bravely as they were, when breaking those Laws.
The sad part of this whole story, of “Christian Persecution,” which Raymond has so colourfully painted here, is that Christians were/are led to believe that as Christians they are above any “earthly” Law and that they would be protected by their “god” from any consequences of their actions resulting from free choice… because not in even one of these sad examples which is mentioned by Raymond, were any Christian forced to be a Christian, or to ignore the Laws of the country in which they were “persecuted”… all Christians always choose to ignore these Laws, and then when they have to bear the brunt of their own choices they cry… or the “Raymonds” of this world cry on their behalf. How arrogant!
What a ridiculous comment. Being raped and murdered because you are hated is not breaking any law. Most of these crimes against Christians break the law of their own country anyway. If Muslim countries actually imposed Islamic law, no one in their right mind would have anything to do with them.
Your comment also ignores basic human rights, and presumes that hate-filled, racist, and bigoted laws must be obeyed by Christians. In fact, it’s the reverse. Christians violate God’s law when they obey anti-human laws … which is what happened in World War 2. Just because some hate-filled and racist bigots pass a law does not make the law just.
One last point … your comment presumes the facts are as stated. No such thing is true. Wherever anti-human laws – including rules and regulations – are passed on the basis of hatred, racism, or bigotry – etc. – all of us who have reached adulthood know that the liars will lie, and their lies will be taken as fact.
Lies are the basis of Islam and Leftism – and every other Satanic system. This means – in essence – that no target (the actual victims) can defend themselves with the truth.
None of the crimes against Christians documented by Raymond – or others for that matter – can be excused by an appeal to “law.” That’s just hogwash.
*** God love ya’
Fannie, I’m amazed at your reply and in full agreement with danknight but I’ll add to Dan’s comment a few questions:
So do you not yourself Fannie, cry out against injustice of the poor or oppressed that you see in your own realm of activity?
Are you not against misogynistic laws where women and girls are subjected to forms of perpetual slavery, under the complete control of the men in their societies?
Are you a believer of Social Relativism, no culture is any better than another, so it’s just fine for the people in cultures with draconian laws to just tough it out, it’s their lot in life - not receive any help from the outside?
Re-think your position Fannie – I think you have taken the poison pill of neo-Marxism of some ideology that is blinding you.
Hi Don,
I assume Fanie was/is an apartheid supporter. They mostly held very legalistic Calvinistic ideas, and even believed the Bible condoned apartheid. Going way back and cutting a long story short, they appointed a theologian, Beyers Naude, to search scripture to prove that. He could not find any, so he was excommunicated. They also disliked English speaking South Africans. To us the biggest problem in SA was white on white, something very few people know about.
I hope you are keeping well.
Firstly Don, my name is not Fannie!
And secondly, if you are so ignorant of the correct spelling of my name, why should I then even in the slightest think that my replies to your questions and accusations, would be regarded and respected?
It is because I deeply care for indviduals that I do not address you as Donn or Donne…
Thank you for all the effort you put into reporting the true state of persecution. This article too is a good history lesson.
I think it significant that the indifference towards persecuted Christians by the MSM and and Western countries in general, goes hand in hand with the increasing rejection of God and His moral law, coupled with the swing towards communism and Marxism by Western politicians and societies.
What is disconcerting in Canada is that the covid lockdown and regulations seem to be targeting churches in particular, even though one can shop at places like Walmart and other stores.
Pastors who are continuing to hold Sunday services, including Easter services, are being harassed and intimidated by the Gestapo-like police and RCMP who insist on entering during Sunday services. Hefty fines are levied on anyone who breaks the rules. One pastor has served jail time and others are threatened
The tone has been set by our Prime Minister, who in 2018 stated that Christians are the worst part of Canadian society.
Tershia this is fascinating – once again the Christians breaking the rules! Instead of fighting an unfair rule in the Courts of Law, as is the Constitutional right of any Canadian citizen, the Pastors, who are to set the example of “obedience to the Government set over them by God,” they choose to instead show their followers how to ignore their own Bible and instead be blatantly disobedient to the Government and their own Laws. And then other Christians applaud them for their suffering of the “persecution” while they actually brought this punishment on themselves.
Tershia, after commenting on your comments, I went and checked for myself whether I remembered the Bible correctly, and I also googled… and this is what I found: an excellent explanation regarding just exactly how submissive Chritians are told to be by Paul… in contrast to the Pastors you tol about who ignored the Law and your Canadia Covid19 rules and regulations. I hope you would enjoy this article too, although the whole idea of such ignorance by those Pastors saddens me deeply!: https://learn.gcs.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=4267
Have a nice day.
To Fanie: Maybey you should read Raymond Ibrahim’s books Sword and Scimitar and also Crucified Again before commenting on his articles and on Tershia’s commemts with which I entirely agree.
PS to Fanie: And get a good translation of the Koran too and read it too.
Thank you Mary for your encouragement to read a translation of the Koran – but my knowledge of the Quran surpasses that. Thank you anyway. And I also do not see what me reading of the Quran would teach me, from your perspective, because this discussion is about this specific article of Raymond, of which the contents I do not dispute at this stage – I merely dispute Christians and Raymond’s justification in wining and sulking when Christians are punsihed for breaking the Laws of countries, no matter what those Laws are.
Mary, may I please ask you just thiese two question before you close the door on me: which Quranic Translation did Raymond use in his quotations in this specific article? …and if I may, please allow me just this too: Did you ever care to check for yourself whether the verses which he quotes from the Quran, from any Translation, is actually a good replication of that Translation? But if you do not care to answer the second question, please just help me with the first question. I ask the first question because I am unable to determine it from Google.
Mary,
I wouldn’t bother too much with Fanie, as his comments do not appear sincere but rather meant to provoke. He claims that Christians “w[h]ine” after breaking Muslim laws (for example, wanting to have a church to worship in, or posses a Bible), but he ignores that the bulk of this article deals with Muslims annihilating Christians for no other reason than that they are Christian.
You are so kind in your recommendations Mary, but again – what does me having to read his books, as you so kindly suggest, have to do with my arguments here on this article? …that Christians are not only arrogant, but very abusive of their “human rights.” No! Mary please go and read my first two comments on this article and view my comments in that regard. And, if I may, please consult the writings of Paul again (in your Bible” with regard to adhering to the requirements of any Government, before you so easily agree with Tershia. The long and the short of this is: any Christian who breaks any Law in any country is guilty and his or her actions inexcusable. Mary, please try to focus on the article under discussion.
To Fanie : I have read the Bible.more than once and I gave you some advice but if you don”t want to follow it it’s up to you – but I am letting you know very politely that I am not answering any more of your comments .
Well … as you are defending violence – as well as hatred, racism, religious bigotry, and Islamic crimes against minorities…
… I don’t see why anyone should bother being kind to you.
Seems to me that you’re just another willfully ignorant, pro-hate, and pro-violence bigot wasting everyone’s time.
*** God love ya’
To Fanny: No! You please try to focus on this because in spite of what I said I have to
answer this.
I visited SA twice. The very first day in Jo’berg I was in a shopping mall and there was a fight between a white man and a black man. They both fell in a shop window and were both seriously hurt by a lot of broken glass. An ambulance arrived took away the white guy and 20 minutes later another ambulance arrived and took
the black guy to
another hospitaI. I was shocked but I suppose these were the apartheid laws of SA which had to be obeyed according to your rules!!! Laws have been wrong from the beginning of time and it is by disobeying them that we were able to change them!
To Fanie in reply to your questions to me – Mr Ibrahim doesn’t need to read translations of the Koran because he is an expert in the Arabic language, Arab history and Muslim religion and he reads everything in the original language. As for me, unfortunately for me my Arabic is not so good so I rely on two excellent translations of the Koran and I know exactly what the Koran says. But I do not have to check Mr Ibrahim because I trust him implicitly which is more than I can say for you. Satisfied?
Your understanding of scripture is not correct. Pastors and others are choosing to obey God rather than Caesar in this situation. Canadian law does not allow anyone to disrupt a church service, but the police are the ones breaking the law. They can only enforce the health regulations.
Judging by your criticism of Raymond Ibrahim, you have shown your ignorance of history and your bias towards Christians, which leads me to assume that you you are not one.
Please don’t waste your time by arguing the merits of your ambiguous belief system.
When are your next elections Tershia?
Hi Mary, no one knows when the next election will be but rumours have it that it might be in the fall. The pundits predict Trudeau will win again, but they have been known to be wrong!
By the way, I grew up in SA and we moved here in the 70’s.
Tershia, would you kindly just shed more light on the remark the Canadian Prime Minster is said to have made, please, as you said: “‘The tone has been set by our Prime Minister, who in 2018 stated that Christians are the worst part of Canadian society.” I did find other references on Google regarding this alleged remark, but nowhere could I find an explanation on the reasons he said that. And I would just like to know, for my own information, why he would have made such a remark? I mean – what lead him as Prime Minister, who certainly has a very wide perspective on all his fellow countrymen, to make such a remark, if he in fact did. Could you shed more light on this please… or where could I go to read more about it in clarrification?
Aan Fanie: Ek stel voor dat jy eder DuckDuckGo as ‘n search engine gebruik. Onder baie anders hier is een artikel :
https://capforcanada.com/justin-trudeau-inform-minister-religious-christians-worst-part. …..
Justin Trudeau is a Marxist and therefore dislikes Christians. He is pro Muslim and communist China. He is a man-boy and totally uneducated for his position and the only perspective he has is on his own dictatorial ambitions.
Please have the courage to state what church or religion you follow instead of beating around the bush.
Your understanding of what Paul wrote in Scripture about obedience to the government is wrong and legalistic.
Maar ek glo nie jy luister nie omdat jy aanhoudent die selfde vraag vra..
Ek wens jou alles van die beste maar dis nou genoeg.
Dankie Tershia.
Dankie Tershia vir die skakel… en nee, ek luister baie mooi! Dis hoekom ek nie alles vir soetkoek opeet nie en my eie navorsing doen aan die hand van wat ek lees en wat Raymeond beweer, onder andere… daarom steek daar baie meer in die vrae wat ek vra en die kommentaar wat ek lewer as wat gewone goedgelowige Christene wil hoor.
When readers of my comments therefor immediately assume that I am ignorant and uninformed, they miss the point of my comments and questions.
Except you’re not quite as “socratic” as you think and often come off looking silly …
Ek kry nie die skakel oopgemaak nie… is jy seker dis op die internasionale net beskikbaar Tershia?
How could many of these countries name themself as demokratic countrys?
In reallities they aren’t.
Thank you, Raymond, you are among the true heroes without a cape, Thank you for writing on the sufferings and persecutions of the downtrodden and those who do not defend themselves. The least we can do is share this article with our friends, and with our brothers and sisters in faith.
Your words honest and speak truth, I am not ashamed to share your words, whoever chooses to call me whatever, the shame is on them for being two-faced.
Kan ek net ‘n laaste vraag vra – is hierdie artikels van Raymond en die kommentaar en gesprek net vir ‘n spesifieke Kerk se mense bedoel? Want ek kry die idee dat almal ken mekaar hier, en buitestaanders is nie eintlik hier welkom nie?