‘Girls May Be Snatched from Public Spaces at Any Time’: The Muslim Persecution of Christians, November 2024

Back of nun attacked in Italy by Nigerian migrant (Newsmondo).

The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of November 2024.

The Muslim Rape and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls

Pakistan: On Nov. 7, a Muslim man brutally raped a teenage Christian girl. The Muslim, named Ansar Shah, initially went up to Eman Khuram, 18, as she was walking home late in the evening (as the eldest daughter, and since the family’s father had abandoned them, she had been working long hours every day to try to make ends meet). He told her that he had kidnapped her younger brother, and unless she got on his motorcycle and rode with him, he would kill the youth. Terrified, she complied. He drove her around for 30 minutes, during which time he continued issuing threats, until finally stopping at a secluded brick factory. One there, “he dragged me into a room, tore my clothes and raped me,” she said in a shaky voice, with her face veiled, during a later interview. “During this time, he repeatedly slapped and beat me up.” When Eman finally returned home late in the evening—with her clothes torn off and stained with dust and mud—her shocked mother asked what had happened, and Eman disclosed the ordeal she had endured. “Her condition tore my heart,” the mother said. I couldn’t understand what had happened to my innocent daughter.” Eman’s mother and uncle, who later appeared with her in the interview, added that, despite repeated pleas to police, officers have not arrested the suspect, who “was roaming freely without fear of arrest.” Last reported, the rapist’s “relatives were using various tactics to pressure” the Christian family to drop the case.

Separately, another Muslim man raped and tried to forcibly convert a Christian pastor’s 14-year-old daughter. Pastor Aslam Masih of Muridke says that the family first learned their daughter (name withheld) was having problems when she returned from school early one day saying that Suleman, the Muslim, had tried to abduct and force her to convert: “When I confronted Suleman,” her father said, “he threatened me, saying I should do whatever I could to protect my daughter. I did not know then that he had already assaulted her once.” The family later found out from the scared schoolgirl that this was not the first time Suleman had assaulted her:

She couldn’t bear the agony and trauma any longer and broke down into tears. She told us that Suleman and his friends bundled her into a car when she was returning home from school [one day] and took her to a house where Suleman raped her.

Although her father informed police, “Their indifference helped Suleman in obtaining pre-arrest bail, and he has since been threatening us, demanding that we withdraw the case.” Due to the constant threats and harassment, the Christian family abandoned their home and moved to an undisclosed location in Lahore. On learning that they had fled, Suleman attacked their home in Muridke, damaging property and firing gunshots in the air. Soon after, and according to the report, “Pastor Masih again began visiting police, but his pleas for justice fell on deaf ears.” Discussing this case, Aslam Pervez Sahotra, chairman of a charity that aids Christian women, said

We condemn the assault on our daughter as well as the threats being employed to force her to convert to Islam and marry her rapist. The police’s refusal to act against the accused has exacerbated the family’s ordeal, and they are forced to live in hiding away from their home.

Separately, on Nov. 4, a Christian family was reunited with their 18-year-old daughter who went missing four months earlier in June. They learned that Sana Javed had visited a female Muslim friend she met on social media, who took and held the Christian teen hostage. Then, according to her father, Javid Masih,“A cleric was called, and Sana was forced to recite the Kalima [proclamation of conversion to Islam] and marry an elderly Muslim man under threats of violence.” On the same day she disappeared, Javid and other family members filed a missing person report with police; when they returned to the police station three days later, they discovered that police had “misplaced” it, prompting the family to file a new report. Even then, “police officers made no effort to find her,” the father said, and “would instead ask us to provide leads for the investigation, when in fact we neither had the information nor the resources.” They eventually turned to the Christian community, visiting churches and asking various pastors to help inquire about the missing girl, until, and thanks to the aid of a Muslim politician who was contacted by one of these Christians, the whereabouts of the girl were discovered. “When I informed the police about my daughter’s location,” said Javed, “and sought their help, they told me that they would need official permission and resources to travel to another province. I contacted a Christian paralegal group for help, and I’m grateful that they provided us with legal and financial support to help bring Sana back to Lahore.”

Finally, on Nov. 1, in its concluding observations on Pakistan, the U.N.’s Human Rights Committee expressed its concerns

about reports of the persistent practice of abducting girls who belong to religious minorities and forcing them to marry – regardless of their age and the prevailing law – and to convert to Islam under the threat of violence, which results in rape, trafficking and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence against these girls. It is also concerned about reports of the widespread impunity surrounding these cases. It is further concerned that victims are usually not returned to their families during investigations but forced to stay with their abductors, including members of organized criminal groups, or placed in unnecessary and inappropriate alternative care facilities, with little or no regard for child protection standards, exposing victims to further risk of exploitation, abuse and harmful practices (arts. 23, 24 and 26).

Egypt: According to a Nov. 14 report titled, “Egypt’s Disappearing Women,”

Coptic Christians remain a target of persecution; hundreds of young women have been kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, and coerced into marriage. While many Western feminists remain focused on domestic issues, they are often silent on the grave threats faced by women abroad…. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi professes to be an advocate of interfaith toleration, yet the Coptic community lacks confidence in the state. Several years ago, a Coptic bishop in Los Angeles said local authorities in Egypt turn a blind eye to persecution. Girls may be snatched from public spaces at any time — on their way home from school, while waiting for the bus, or running errands…. The reality is grim for many Coptic women who do not escape their captors, leaving their families in agony for months, or even years. A culture of impunity ensures that not many return home, and the authorities continue to look the other way. The State Department briefly mentioned the problem of abduction in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, yet it described the Coptic community as grateful to the Egyptian government for helping to find and return several victims. The department’s annual reports on human rights and human trafficking do not mention Coptic women in their sections on Egypt. The next editions of those reports should do better, and the secretary of state should raise the issue directly with Sisi at their next meeting. Under U.S. law, a portion of the $1.3 billion in military aid that Egypt receives each year is contingent on Cairo’s efforts to improve its record on human rights. When the next review of Cairo’s record begins, the safety of Coptic women should be front and center.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Mozambique: On Sunday, Nov. 3, fighters from Islamic State Mozambique (IS-M) captured what they described as two “infidel Christians,” and slit their throats. Four days later, on Nov. 7, they killed another Christian in a machine gun attack. A fourth Christian was captured and killed two days after that. According to the report,

IS-M has killed thousands of people in northern Mozambique [which is Christian majority] since the beginning of an insurgency in 2017. The terrorist group works closely with Islamic State Central Africa Province (based in north-eastern D.R. Congo), with the activities of both coordinated by an Islamic State command center in Somalia… According to IS, Cabo Delgado is supposed to be integrated into a caliphate to be established along the entire Swahili coast.

Uganda: Muslims murdered a family member for converting to Christianity. According to the Nov. 20 report, Wanjala Hamidu, a Muslim teacher at an Islamic school who became a Christian on Oct. 4, was beaten to death by his own brothers on Oct. 21. The same night he converted, one of his brothers who was present at the same evangelistic event, informed the rest of the family, and his other brothers began to monitor his movements and behavior. On Oct. 21, when news of his conversion became widespread and embarrassing, four of his brothers went to his place of work. Although the head-master had already planned on firing him at the end of the year, his siblings decided to punish him now. The “brothers ordered Hamidu to renounce Christ, but he refused.” So they began to slap and beat him with rods, which “they believed Islam prescribes for apostates,” said local Christians, adding:

We heard a very loud cry, wailing and alarm that required help and attention, so neighbors thronged in large numbers to the scene of the incident. When we arrived, we found Hamidu on the ground held tightly by his three brothers bleeding as the brothers were shouting, ‘Infidel, infidel, shame, shame to our family.’

Although his mother was present and shouting for help, “no one dared to defy the Muslims and their vigilante administration of sharia (Islamic law)… Soon he was dead and lying in a pool of blood. He had deep injuries in the head and chest from a sharp object that hit him.”

Nigeria: Headlines of the “pure genocide” of Christians from the month of November follow:

· Nov. 24-Dec. 1: “At Least 95 Christians Slain in Nigeria’s Benue, Taraba States”

· Nov. 8: “Herdsmen Kill Three Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria”

· Nov. 20: “Fulani Extremists Kill 1 [Christian], Abduct 3 Others in Southern Kaduna”

· Nov. 6: “Women, Children among Christians Kidnapped in Nigeria”

· Nov. 8: “Over 15 Catholic parishes close amid ongoing violence against Christians in Nigeria”

· Nov. 7: “Christians Appeal for Help amid Slaughters in Central Nigeria”

Muslim Attacks in and on Christian Churches

Italy: A Nigerian migrant man savagely beat, punched, and kicked a nun inside a church in Rome. According to the Nov. 5 report, the 27-year-old Nigerian,

had entered the sacred building with his hood up and a cautious attitude. Immediately arousing the suspicions of the nun, who was watching him closely. Worried that he might commit acts of vandalism or steal inside the place of worship [as happens frequently inside Italian churches], the nun approached him and, kindly, asked him to leave. However, the man reacted in an unexpected and violent way, hitting her in the face with a series of punches and slaps. The impact was so strong that the nun lost her balance, falling to the ground, injured and confused. Her screams attracted the attention of some passers-by, who immediately intervened to help her and alerted the police. While the attacker fled.

There were several other church related attacks in Italy, including unknown persons spraying a pungent substance mixed with pepper spray inside a church during service, causing the suffocating worshippers to quickly exit the service. Two Virgin Mary statues in separate regions were desecrated and smashed to pieces. The parish priest where one of these Marian attacks occurred responded by saying “we note and denounce the increasingly frequent acts of vandalism and contempt in our territory.” And a man was caught urinating on a Nativity Scene.

Switzerland: On Nov.16, a 17-year-old Muslim migrant from Afghanistan desecrated a more than 600-year-old and venerated statue of the Virgin Mary in a chapel in the canton of Schwyz. In the midst of worship service, he climbed atop the altar, yanked off the Virgin Mary’s clothes, seized her crown and mockingly placed it atop his head (video here). Although the priests and parishioners apprehended the man, he was not criminally prosecuted but rather sent to a psychiatric ward. The monastery eventually responded to this attack on its website, though without giving any information on the perpetrator. The statement rather talked about an “unfortunate incident” by a “confused person,” and called for “peace and reconciliation.”

A few days later, a Nov. 27 report told of how “a small Swiss town is being terrorized by a small gang of unaccompanied minors who have been causing chaos in the village since July, and due to their young age, authorities can do little to control the mayhem.” Although this “small gang” usually consists of no more than three or four migrant children, they are “sowing terror” in the small village of 433 people. Their many “misdeeds” include,

stealing purses, shooting farmers’ chickens with BB guns, setting fire to a sheep shed with stolen church candles, and desecrating graveyards by kicking over tombstones. The town’s church also reported that the gang of migrant children damaged equipment inside the church including defiling a statue of the Virgin Mary.

“They even defecated under a statue of the Holy Virgin,” added François Goudron, the president of the parish, and have “urinated under a church pew, blackened a tablecloth under the altar, stole and broke candles, and burned religious photos.” After saying that “due to their age, the youths cannot be prosecuted” and police are relatively impotent, the report continues: “Even more menacing is that these “nightmare” children, who are usually spotted wearing hoods, have been spotted in the night roaming around with knives and a “small axe.”

Indonesia: Authorities have allowed two years’ worth of putrid garbage—described as “unhygienic and foul-smelling… bagged, spilling out of broken bags or unbagged”—to pile up next to a church and adjoining Catholic university, according to a Nov. 26 report. Congregation member Susi Sasmita said,

The garbage problem has been around for a long time, since the 1980s, causing disturbing stench during the rainy season, when the garbage mixes with rainwater to become mud. This situation has worsened in the last few years and is very disturbing to the congregation…. In addition to being disturbed by the pungent smell of garbage, churchgoers also find it difficult to park their vehicles on the 75-80 meter stretch of this road.

She went on to wonder: “Imagine if this case happened at a mosque – the situation could be chaotic.”

A priest and lecturer at the nearby Catholic university, the Rev. Andalas Mutiara, staged a protest. Lying in a cross-like position atop a large pile of rubbish near the university, he appealed to authorities: “We don’t want to normalize garbage, let alone embrace a garbage culture.”

Separately, on Nov. 20, a knife-wielding Muslim woman in hijab went into a Catholic church service at 5:30 am and started “babbling incoherently,” according to the report. Before long she also started vomiting. Police later concluded that “the woman had a mental disorder.”

Uganda: On Nov. 7, a Catholic church was damaged (requiring 10 million Ugandan shillings to fix) during an arson attack. According to the report, “valuable religious items including priests’ albs, altar chalices, tablecloths and wine used during mass” were destroyed. Uganda holds a significant Muslim minority, estimated to be at least 15% of the Christian majority population.

General Abuse of and Violence against Christians

Iran: On Nov. 5, a court sentenced Tomaj Aryankia, an Iranian convert to Christianity, to 10 years’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic through promoting Christianity.” He was also accused of collaborating with “hostile governments” and having a “membership in anti-Islamic Republic groups.” According to the report,

Aryankia was first taken into custody in October 2022. During his arrest, plainclothes agents searched his house and confiscated his collection of Bibles and personal items. He was held in solitary confinement for 28 days before being transferred to the general population at Karaj Prison, where he remained for approximately 40 more days. While Iran recognizes Christians as a religious minority, authorities harshly persecute those who convert from Islam to Christianity.

Egypt: On Nov. 5, four Muslim men attacked three Christians inside of a pharmacy; they used machetes and knives, and the Christians sustained multiple stab wounds requiring immediate hospitalization. According to one report, the Christians of Ashruba village, where this attack took place,

report living in a constant state of fear as sectarian tension is high and incidents of intimidation are now a regular occurrence following similar attacks on people and properties in the last year. Following such incidents of sectarian violence, members of the Christian community are generally obliged to accept the ad-hoc outcomes of ‘customary reconciliation sessions’, which tend to deprive victims of justice, preventing them from seeking effective redress via legal means, and thereby contributing to a culture of impunity.

Turkey: Anti-Christian hate crimes against more than doubled between in recent years in the Muslim majority nation, according to Nov. 20 report:

Since 2020, Christians have experienced most of the religious hate crimes committed in Turkey, with 52 occurrences reported. The crimes include property damage, harassment, and violence. … [T]he true number of hate crimes is likely higher than what has been reported due to victims’ fear of ostracization.

The report offers examples of hate crimes from 2023:

In October 2023, a man entered a church, recited an Islamic prayer, and slapped the pastor during a service. In May 2023, two elderly men were hospitalized after being physically assaulted with sticks and stones for their faith… [There were] other incidents of violence and intimidation against Christians. Foreign missionaries have also been the target of harassment in Turkey.

In 2023, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reported that “Turkish authorities increasingly target Christian pastors, missionaries, and their relatives for deportation and permanent re-entry bans.”

Germany: On Nov. 6, police “prevented a catastrophe” from taking place in Schleswig-Holstein: they arrested a 17-year-old Turk with “an Islamist background,” who was planning “to kill people with a truck” by running them over at a local Christmas market. The region’s Interior Minister, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, responded to this latest of many thwarted attacks by saying “We must always be vigilant.”

Pakistan: On Nov. 3, after two Muslim men claimed they saw Zafar Iqbal, a Christian man, burning pages of the Koran in his courtyard, police quickly swept in and arrested the blasphemer. According to human rights activist, Napoleon Qayyum,

As news spread, many Christian families locked their homes and left for safer places, fearing a Jaranwala-type attack [when over 20 churches and dozens of Christian homes were attacked and torched following a similar blasphemy accusation in Aug. 2023]…. However, timely intervention by senior officials and arrest of the suspect helped in placating the religious activists and thwarting any violence against other Christians.

Iqbal was charged under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s penal code, which prescribes life imprisonment for desecrating the Koran:

Iqbal is now in prison on judicial remand, while his family has gone into hiding and are inaccessible. Iqbal is over 40 years old and has three children. He is also said to be suffering from some mental illness. The situation will become clearer when we make contact with his family.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in July 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

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