Bangladesh: Many Muslim children ‘grow up
with a nasty mentality to hate other faiths’
Where do they get this “nasty mentality”?
“Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.” (Qur’an 98:6)
“Indeed, the worst of animals in Allah’s sight are the ungrateful who will not believe.” (Qur’an 8:55)
“Already we have created many of the jinn and mankind for Gehenna, having hearts with which they do not understand, and having eyes with which they do not see, and having ears with which they do not hear. They are like cat- tle, no, they are worse. These are the neglectful.” (Qur’an 7:179)
‘Ever-Present’ Persecution in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
International Christian Concern, November 30, 2023:
11/30/2023 Washington (International Christian Concern) — In countries like Myanmar and Nigeria, acts of persecution against Christians are more likely to make news reports because of their extreme violence. But in many other locations, persecution typically takes on a more subtle form. It likely won’t make any media outlet and might not have any documentation at all. But it’s still an ever-present issue that diminishes the quality of life for many Christians.
One place where such persecution occurs is Bangladesh, a South Asian nation with an overall population of 170 million, where over 90% of the people are Muslim and most of the remaining portion are Hindu.
Thomas (real name withheld to protect identity), a Christian in Bangladesh, says that many people “express their desire for conversion” to Christianity, but they don’t follow through with it due to “threats of killing and persecution.”
Many children in Bangladesh “grow up with a nasty mentality to hate other faiths,” says Thomas. In the villages, these children often target the Christian families “to steal and destroy farms and gardens.” He adds that when Christians protest such behavior, then things become more aggressive.
In the cities, says Thomas, anti-Christian sentiment can surface through harassment from non-Christian employees or having non-Christian employees refuse to cooperate with the Christian employee. The Christian employee might also get stuck with job duties on a Sunday, so that they might have to choose between attending church or keeping their job.
Thomas isn’t sure exactly what percent of Bangladeshi Muslims support acts of persecution against Christians. He says, though, that it doesn’t take much to spoil the “full bucket of milk.”
He gives the example in which you might have “just one person doing anti-Christian activities in a large Muslim family.” Maybe the other family members “silently support it,” or maybe they themselves “are also afraid” of their hostile family member. It can be very difficult for an outsider to determine which case is the reality. But either way, nobody discourages the person from acting on his hostility.
Thomas says that “anti-Christian mentality is present throughout” the country among Muslims who are either uneducated or who study in fundamentalist madrassas which teach that Bengali is not a Muslim language, and that Islam is the only legitimate religion. “It’s enough to make a soft brain child into a violent fanatic,” says Thomas….
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, with its overwhelming Muslim majority, some Christians are compelled to “depend on Muslim lawyers to fight against [other] Muslims” who have taken their land by coercion or with fake documents, says Thomas. These lawyers “are very clever,” he adds. They “take away money from the Christians” and then work on behalf of the Muslims.
Thomas feels that Christians are powerless to solve this problem either legally or illegally. “So, it stays as is.”
Making their way to Christian households are the next round of itinerant laborers. As Thomas describes, “They come as a humble cat and then become a tiger.”
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Bangladesh: Convert from Islam to Christianity
arrested after reporting attack on Christian family
This young man is in serious danger. The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)
A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”
Arrested after reporting attack on young family in Bangladesh
Open Doors, December 4, 2023:
Akram and his family are Christians who’ve converted from Islam. They were recently victims of a violent attack – and, when Akram reported it, he was arrested himself.
When Akram* went to the police, it was to file a complaint against the neighbours who had violently attacked his wife and his young children – including his daughter Sephali*, who is only four years old. Instead, he ended up in prison himself.
Like many of Bangladesh’s small number of Christians, Akram and his family converted from a Muslim background. This enraged Akram’s extended family and his community, and they have faced continued persecution and pressure to renounce their faith. But they have remained strong in their faith, determinedly following Jesus.
Young children assaultedA few weeks ago, his wife and young family were physically assaulted by Muslim neighbours in their community, a remote part of northern Bangladesh. They ended up being hospitalised, so severe was the beating. It’s shocking to see a child as young as Sephali caught up in this sort of violence. On the same day as the attack, Akram went to the police – he knew who the attackers were, since they all live in the same community. Some were even his relatives. But the police didn’t take any action against the persecutors.These same persecutors then retaliated: they filed two false accusations against Akram. He was accused of being involved with opposition political parties and undertaking anti-government activities, and he was also accused of forcibly converting Muslims to Christianity and slandering the prophet Muhammad. These are extremely serious crimes in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. False accusations are often used as a way of intimidating Christian communities, and getting police on the case of believers – though imprisonment is relatively rare.
A week after the violent attack, Akram was arrested at around 4pm from a local market. In the early hours of the next morning, he was sent to jail. He remains there at present….
*Names changed for security reasons
There are no liars in Heaven, or Paradise.
And, there are no virgins waiting for those liars and murderers to come and take their virginity.
Christians have an obligation to tell the truth; Muslims have no such compulsion.
Jesus said, "I am the Truth"! Mohammed never did!
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