Post 44 of this blog talks
about whether Muslims want peace or terrorism. I quoted Canadian Muslims who
are fiercely opposed to violence and terrorism. I also wrote about some who want
both! Yes, as strange as it seems,
terrorists who claim to be Muslims resort to violence as the only way to
peace. They base their definition of
peace on a very literal, unhistorical and fundamentalist interpretation of
the Qur’an.
Most Muslims reject that
interpretation as well as the attitudes and actions that result from it. One of
its results is the death of thousands of Muslims at the hands of those militant
“Muslims” throughout the regions where militancy has a hold, especially those
claimed by ISIS in the “Middle East” and Boko Haram in the north-east of
Nigeria and neighbouring countries. Probably more Muslims are killed than
Christians and others. Most of the global Muslim community strongly resist and
resent any suggestions that Islam and the Muslim community are violent or
approve of terrorism. They wonder why Westerners associate Muslims with violence
and terrorism. Why, Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, they will argue
up and down. Those militants do not represent Islam.
Well, that may be true, but that
does not take Muslims off the hook. There is another form of violence that may
not be described as “terrorist” but is violent none the less. I am talking
about persecution. Persecution of other religions is rife within the Muslim
community, even within the most liberal or secular Muslim countries.
There are various Christian
organizations that monitor situations of such persecution. One of them has been
introduced to you in the past and I’m going to resort to them again: Barnabas
Aid. Their international headquarters is
in the UK, while they have regional offices in Australia, New Zealand, Germany,
Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland, Singapore and the USA. They publish both a bi-monthly magazine and a
prayer bulletin. I am going to simply
quote a few random reports of theirs from the May/June 2016 prayer bulletin.
My stories will zero in on ordinary Muslims, their governments and their agencies in
Muslim-majority countries. There are many other fronts where there is serious
persecution, but I hope to address them sometime in the near future. These
could include reports of ISIS atrocities that will be addressed one day under
the rubric of “genocide.” There is also persecution of Christians at the hands
of Muslim minority communities in the West. Then there are Hindu persecution of
Christians, Chinese persecution, Buddhist persecution,Secular persecution in
the West, etc., etc. One of the most
puzzling forms of persecution is that of Christians by Muslims in
Christian-majority countries, mostly in Africa! I reserve all of that for future
blogs. In all of this, I am aware that there are also situations where Muslims
are persecuted. Perhaps that subject will be treated as well in due time.
But for today, persecution
of Christians by ordinary Muslims in Muslim-majority countries:
May
1—“Iraqi Christians in Baghdad have
recently lost their homes, businesses, cultural sites and church buildings when
they were seized by Iranian-backed militias, forcing the owners to leave.” “They
are being targeted in a type of ethnic cleansing designed to rid the Iraqi
capital of all Christians.”
May
16—“A
Pakistani Christian was beaten to
death by police in January 2016, after having been stripped naked and hung up
until his shoulders were dislocated. Liaquat Masih had worked as a driver for
18 years for a Muslim politician when he was accused by his employer’s wife of
stealing jewelry. The police also beat Gull Khatab, a former employee of the
politician, to try to pressure him into accusing Liaqat, but Gull refused. When
local Christians staged a peaceful protest the following day outside the police
station at which it all happened, police used batons against them, injuring six
women and four men.”
May
18—“Tahira
(21) and her sister Reema (20), both Christians, were kidnapped by Muslims
towards the end of last year, forcibly converted to Islam and forced to marry
their kidnappers in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Tahira has managed to
escape but dares not return to her family, who are now in grave danger because
the kidnappers have filed a police complaint against them. The police typically
take the side of the Muslim husbands in such cases. Pray that Reema may also
find a way to escape and that both sisters may find a hope and future in a
culture where their reputations are now ruined and they and their relatives
are in danger of physical attack by the Muslim family or arrest by the police.”
May
19—“There
are estimated to be around 700 cases like Tahira and Reema (see above) every
year in Pakistan. Pray for the
courageous Christian lawyers…who put their own lives at risk to give legal
assistance to the victims and their families. As the Lord to grant them favour
as they argue their cases before the authorities and to protect them from the
many enemies they make as they speak up in defense of poor and vulnerable
believers.”
June
6—A
fifth-century underground cave church has been discovered in Turkey’s Cappadocia region, a place
where some of the earliest Christians lived (Acts 2:9; 1 Peter 1:1 in New
Testament). As Christians in Turkey
today face pressures of many kinds, particularly with regard to their
buildings, and are made to feel unwanted in their own country, pray that this
tangible reminder of their historic roots may bring them encouragement and
hope. Pray that the Muslim population (99% according to government figures) will recognize that Christians are not
foreigners or traitors, but have a rightful place in society.
June
7—A
church building in Bursa, Turkey, dating from the 1880s, is currently used by
four different denominations. When the Christians made a routine application to
renew their permission to use the building, they were refused and ordered to
leave the premises by February 26. When
this became known, local residents and the Turkish media reacted in support of
the Christians—a very unusual occurrence in Turkey, where the Muslim majority
and media are generally negative towards Christians. Perhaps even more
surprising was the response of the Turkish authorities on February 23
withdrawing the eviction order.
In closing this post, I
think it only fair to tell you that this very day my wife and I were brunch
guests at the home of a Turkish Muslim family who are our friends and who are
the most cultured, gentle and kind people you can imagine. It almost seems
ungrateful to publish this report today. I apologize to them, but the truth
must be told. By no means all Turkish Muslims fit that description when it
comes to Christians, but the percentage is too high, high enough to dub such
events as “common place,” while resistance to them is considered “unusual” and “surprising.” The end result after centuries of Muslim
domination of these early Christian regions is a greatly reduced Christian
community.
