“Nowhere to Turn for Safety”: Persecution of Christians Worldwide February 2021

“Nowhere to Turn for Safety”: The Persecution of Christians, February 2021

by Raymond IbrahimFor Gatestone

• W]hat is happening in eastern DRC, the killing of innocent civilians on an almost daily basis, is an underreported tragedy.” — Illia Djadi, human rights activist acquainted with the region, Persecution, International Christian Concern, February 16, 2021 — Democratic Republic of the Congo
• A Muslim colonel stole weapons from an armory and then blamed the 12 soldiers on duty for the theft. Six of those 12 soldiers—all Christians—were then executed on January 25. — The Christian Post, February 4, 2021 — Nigeria
• “It’s not only about these six soldiers…. Nigeria is becoming like Somalia and Rwanda. That was exactly how it started, with the government taking sides and backing the members of a particular ethnic group. That’s the situation. Even in the security forces, Christians are being targeted.” — Emeka Umeagbalasi, a lawyer, The Christian Post, February 4, 2021 — Nigeria
• “Many Nigerians now believe the Army fights for Islam, not Nigeria…. The Army’s lack of action to protect Christians comes directly from its leaders in government… When troops go into areas controlled by radical Islamists to defend Nigerian Christians, the government orders them to retreat. Then, Islamist rebels shoot them in the back.” — The Christian Post, February 4, 2021 — Nigeria
• Four converts to Christianity, arrested on the charge of “acting against national security by forming a house Church,” were sentenced to a combined total of 35 years in prison…. Apparently thinking his sentencing too lenient, the [judge] further informed the Christian prisoners… that “your actions are worthy of death.” — Uganda Christian News, February 3, 2021 — Iran
• During the court hearing, testimony was offered that “In Syria there was a practice whereby if they kill an apostate, they are assured passage to Heaven in the afterlife”…. The accused were granted bail. — Malta Today, February 12, 2021 — Malta

Sexual Assaults on and Forced Conversion of Christian Women

Bangladesh: Two Muslims brutally raped a married Christian mother. On the evening of February 5, the 43-year-old woman was at home alone (her husband worked nights and her son was studying at a distant school). Two men broke in and attacked her. According to the woman:

“With their faces covered, they looked like thieves, but instead they wanted sex and started beating me up. As I tried to disentangle myself, I recognised Mohammed Alam’s face [a neighbor]. They kept beating me; I was scared and helpless. I asked for some water and they gave me a glass mixed with a sleeping pill that made me unconscious for three days.”

When her husband returned home from work on “the next morning he found the door open and his wife on the floor, undressed and unconscious.” He proceeded to file a complaint at the local police station against his neighbor, Mohammad Alam, and his accomplice. Mohammad was arrested, though his friend remains on the run. “Alam thought that since we were very weak Christians we would not raise our voices,” his victim explained. Her husband said that, although their Muslim neighbors initially “showed their solidarity and denounced the attack,” once he filed the complaint, all these same “local Muslims sided with Alam, claiming he could not have done it… His brothers also offered me money to withdraw the complaint, but I told them that I want punishment for the attackers.”

Pakistan: After Arooj Karamat, 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 death if she did not convert to Islam. Initially Arooj’s female Muslim colleagues began to discuss religion around her; she assiduously refused to respond, even when they made comments “about Christianity [that] were hateful and derogatory.” Before long, those same teachers began to pressure her to convert to Islam. In a February 16 interview, Arooj gave her story, which culminated with an attempted violent abduction. After explaining how she did not want to take the job, as it was so close to a mosque, the 23-year-old explained (grammar slightly adjusted for readability):

“I started facing religious criticism from my co-workers who talked bad about Christianity. There were three female teachers and one male teacher; he taught Quran (religious studies) to students. One day on July 20, 2020 that man named Muhammad Abdul Basit offered me to convert to Islam and be a Muslim if I want to go to heaven and if I want to live a peaceful life; he was a kind of extremist person, he belongs to some religious group who spread Islam… I refused to accept Islam; then he started cursing me, speaking bad things about Christianity and then threatening me that he will rape me and kill me for denying Islam.”

She resigned the same day, told her family everything, and her father and younger brother always stayed near her whenever they ventured outdoors. Four days later, the family was out shopping. When Arooj and her mother stepped out of the store, as they were walking towards the waiting male members of the family, they passed by a mosque. From it, Muhammad Abdul Basit came running out; at the same time, a big pickup truck pulled up behind the Christian women. Arooj continues:

“[F]our men with black turbans on the head and white gowns with long beard came out with guns and a rope in their hands; they covered us from all sides; I started screaming for help and they pushed away my mother and one of them hit my mother with a gun and broke her arm; others were grabbing my arms and legs while Muhammad Abdul Basit was trying to tie my hands with rope and forcing me towards car; I was shouting for help and my mother was laying on road injured, screaming and shouting for help; people on the road gathered around us to see what is going on and my brother and father also came there to see what was happening; when they saw us they both fought with them to protect us; my brother and father grabbed my legs and arms out of the car; then those men beat my father and brother—they beat my father so bad and injured him badly while Muhammad Abdul Basit was hitting me with slaps on my head and face, and those four men took out big guns and loaded them; they were about to shoot me but the public had gathered by them; it was a big crowd there so they could not shoot me at that time and went away but were threatening us loudly that they will come back to kill me.”

Nigeria: Based on the diary of Naomi Adamu—one of the many schoolgirls abducted by Islamic militants of Boko Haram in 2014 to much international attention (before it was revealed that they were overwhelmingly Christian)—some of what they went through is becoming known. According to a Feb. 20 report:

“Adamu wrote on the days when it was safe, after compulsory lessons on the Qur’an and foraging for meagre rations from the forest. The small act of rebellion gave her strength. When her Boko Haram minders told her she would be killed if she did not convert, marry a fighter and bear his children, she refused and was beaten with the butt of a rifle… [She and others who refused to comply] were condemned to backbreaking labour as ‘slaves.’ …. ‘I became the leader of our girls because I was the eldest among them and I was the most stubborn. Boko Haram wanted me to convert as an example because they knew the other girls listened to me – they beat me and bullied me and threatened to kill me, but I told them even if the heaven and earth come together I will not marry.’ … Soon, some of the hostages were openly insubordinate, refusing orders and being beaten repeatedly. They began quietly singing hymns when their guards were distracted. Then the singing got louder. A small group of the most defiant students was separated. Adamu, their leader, was dubbed ‘the chief infidel’ by furious Boko Haram leaders. ‘When they realised we don’t wear hijab like the other girls they beat us and said they would cut off our heads. They made us wear hijab and pray but we decided together to fake the ceremony. We mouthed Christian prayers and told each other the story of Job,’ said Adamu. Once again the students were told they would be killed if they did not submit and convert. Again the small group of rebels refused. ‘At a certain point we had seen so many bodies, we were no longer afraid to die.'”

Slaughter of Christians

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): On Sunday, February 14—St. Valentine’s Day—Islamic terrorists of the Allied Democratic Forces killed 13 civilians in the Christian majority nation, and burned down a Catholic church during a raid. In the subsequent firefight, three soldiers and four terrorists were killed. The Allied Democratic Forces, which is connected to the Islamic State, had killed about 850 people in 2020. Discussing this and other attacks on DRC’s Christians, Illia Djadi, a human rights activist acquainted with the region, said:

“These predominantly Christian communities are attacked by an Islamic extremist group with a clear Islamic expansionist agenda. We need to pay attention to these events because what is happening in eastern DRC, the killing of innocent civilians on an almost daily basis, is an underreported tragedy.”

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