Pakistan: Muslims torture Christians and force them
to recite the Islamic profession of faith
The Qur’an says “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). However, what constitutes “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder. The institutionalized subjugation of the dhimma, with its regular humiliation and harassment, from which one can be freed for the simple price of converting to Islam, is not considered compulsion. Remember Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the journalists who were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam — even though their conversions were obviously coerced, their captors made them say that they were converting freely, and the captors probably believed that themselves. After all, the journos could have chosen to be killed instead.
Christians Tortured, Forced to Recite Islamic Creed in Pakistan
Morning Star News, February 1, 2024:
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – An Islamist cleric presided over the forced conversion of two Christians in Sialkot District, Pakistan after they were tortured into reciting the Islamic conversion creed, sources said.
Azam Masih, 28, and his brother, Nadeem Masih, were abducted, beaten with iron rods and pressured to convert to Islam on Jan. 22 in the Kotli Loharan area, said Adil Ghauri, chairman of the Masihi Baidari Tehreek or Movement for Christian Awakening.
Azam Masih was working at his tailoring shop in the Kharota Syedan market when Naseem Shah and accomplices held him at gunpoint and forcibly took him to the house of another suspect, Sunny Shah, Ghauri said.
“The assailants accused Azam of patronizing ‘wrongdoings’ in the area and started beating him with iron rods,” Ghauri told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, adding that the suspects later abducted his younger brother, brought him to the house and subjected him to the same torture. “The accused then forced the two Christians to recite the Kalima [proclamation of Islamic conversion] if they wanted to save their lives, threatening to kill them if they refused. The tortured brothers had no choice but to surrender to this demand.”
The suspects also recorded a video statement of the two brothers in which they were forced to say that they were converting to Islam of their own free will, Ghauri said. He added that the assailants also snatched mobile phones and other belongings from the two brothers before releasing them.
The rights activist said the brothers and their impoverished Christian family chose to keep silent about the ordeal, as the suspects had warned them against contacting police.
“We came to know about this incident on Jan. 24 and immediately contacted the family,” Ghauri said. “After much persuasion, we were able to convince the family to file a First Information Report [FIR] with the police, as keeping silent would have only encouraged the perpetrators to target more Christians living in the village.”
More than 300 Christian families are settled there, he added.
Kotli Loharan police arrested a Muslim cleric alleged to have conducted the conversion and registered charges against the suspects of kidnapping, punishable by death or life imprisonment; theft with intention to cause injury or death, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; threatening death or grievous injury, punishable by up to seven years in prison; causing injury to extort a confession, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and acts committed by several persons in furtherance of common intention.
The suspects, Naseem Shah and Sunny Shah, have criminal backgrounds and have been involved in inciting hatred against Christians, Ghauri said.
“This is not the first time Christians have been targeted in that area,” Ghauri said. “In fact, after the Aug. 16, 2023 attacks in Jaranwala, at least two-three attempts were made to stir religious tension by throwing torn pages of the Quran near Christian homes. Had the police and district administration taken timely action against the perpetrators of those incidents, this incident could have been prevented.”…
Photo By Shahzad Ali, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57538225
The recent conversion of the greatest church in Christian history, The Hagia Sophia, to a mosque, and the preaching of Tayyip Erdogan in that mosque strikes me as the manifestation of the prophecy, "When you see the Abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy Place..." Daniel 12:11,12.
While credit for this is usually given to Greek King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 2nd Century BC, I suspect there was another fulfillment of this prophecy last year.
Turkey Revives Plan to Convert Another
Historic Church Into a Triumphal Mosque
New in PJ Media:
“If you look at history books, you will see that Turk equals Muslim,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday. He added that “a definition of Turkishness without the inclusion of Islam’s holy war spirit is merely an attempt to turn the Turkish nation into a folklore tale.” On Feb. 23, Turkey plans to reinforce its Islamic identity and “holy war spirit” by converting one of the most celebrated and important Byzantine churches in the world, the Chora Church in Istanbul, into a triumphal mosque.
Plans to transform Chora Church, or Church of the Holy Savior, which contains some of the most exquisite surviving examples of Medieval Byzantine iconography, have been in the works for four years. Ekathimerini reported Tuesday that “the plan to convert the church, which had been operating as a museum for nearly 80 years, dates from 2020,” when Erdogan included it in his much-criticized decree to turn the most important Byzantine church in the world, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, into a mosque.
Yet while Hagia Sophia was duly made into a mosque in July 2020, “the Chora Church scheme was put on hold so that restoration work could be carried out.” A church was first built on the site of the present Chora Church early in the fourth century. “The present structure dates mostly from the 14th century,” according to UNESCO, and “its mosaics and frescoes, commissioned by the Byzantine humanist and poet Theodore Metochites (14th century) form one of the most complete ensembles of late Byzantine art to survive in Istanbul.”
Like Hagia Sophia, Chora Church first became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest and looting of Constantinople in 1453, although Hagia Sophia was converted immediately, and Chora Church remained a church until early in the sixteenth century. In 1945, Chora Church became a museum, but Erdogan is at war with Turkish secularism, and so it could not remain a museum any more than Hagia Sophia could.
In order to understand this, one must understand the idea of triumphal mosques in Islam. All over the world, there are mosques that have been built on the holy sites of conquered peoples, and sacred structures of non-Muslims that have been converted into mosques. This is done on purpose, so as to declare the victory of Islam over the other religion that once had a holy place on that spot and the superiority of Islam over that religion. That’s why there is a mosque — in fact, two mosques — on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and why Hagia Sophia, which was for nearly a millennium the grandest and most important cathedral in the Christian world, had to become a mosque. There are also thousands of mosques in India that are built over Hindu temples that jihadis destroyed.
When will this movement begin in Europe? For it surely will.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Christian exodus from Iraq ‘alarming
by Susan Korah, Catholic Register, February 1, 2024:
A multitude of problems — corruption, discrimination and unemployment at home, exacerbated by the fallout from the Gaza war — are driving an alarming number of Iraqi Christians from their homeland, seeking emigration as a last resort, say Church leaders and advocacy organizations.
At least two prominent Church leaders have raised red flags, appealing to the international community to help their people.
“People in Iraq are really afraid that the violence will spread beyond Gaza,” said Archbishop Bashar Warda, Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, in a recent interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the pontifical charity that helps persecuted Christians around the world.
“Speaking on behalf of all the people — especially the minorities, who tend to suffer more than others, especially in conflict situations — please God, no more war,” he pleaded.
Sorry, Bishop, we are on the verge of the Great Tribulation. Things will get much worse before they get better. Christians abandoning Iraq and other Muslim countries may well be a good thing.
Describing this renewed impetus towards emigration as “alarming,” Warda told The Catholic Register the threat of the Christian community’s disappearance from its ancient homeland is looming larger than ever.
“We do not want to disappear, but we will, without a strong, determined and ceaseless voice from the international community,” he said.
Fewer than 150,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from the 1.5 million prior to 2003. Approximately 67 per cent are Chaldean Catholics (an eastern rite of the Roman Catholic Church), and nearly 20 per cent are members of the Assyrian Church of the East. The remainder are Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Anglican and other Protestants and evangelicals.
Unemployment is a major factor in the desire to emigrate, with people still struggling to make ends meet after the destruction of livelihoods by ISIS, Warda explained. Seven years after the military defeat of ISIS, the struggle to make a living goes on.
“Since the right to return was granted in 2017, there have been no livelihood programs for minorities in their own country,” he said. “How can one have dignity without work?”…
The archbishop’s concerns were echoed in a recent statement by Cardinal Louis Sako, whose official position as the patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq was revoked by the Iraqi government in July 2023. Since then, he has left Baghdad, the capital city, and lives in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north of the country.
“More than a million Christians have emigrated. Most of them were with qualified scientific, economic and skilled backgrounds, but who cares?” he asked in the statement dated Jan. 10….
“Attacks on Christians are still continuing — on their skills, their jobs, the seizure of their properties, we have documented examples,” he wrote. “Cases of forced conversion by ISIS or others, the Islamization of minors, failure to preserve their rights, an attempt to deliberately erase their heritage, history, religious legacy, expressions of hatred in some religious discourses as well as in education books.”
A recent tragedy, a fire that broke out last September during a Christian wedding reception, killing more than 100 in the northern town of Qaraqosh, was another major setback for the community.
A Human Rights Watch researcher reported that government investigations found local authorities were negligent in their failure to enforce safety regulations. Contractors had used cheap, highly flammable construction materials. The report further noted that corruption allowed violators of building codes to act with impunity, reinforcing the Christian community’s suspicions….
Warda said the disappearance of the Christian presence in Iraq would be an irreparable loss to the country.
“Of course, we don’t want our people to leave, and they don’t want to leave either, but feel they must, out of necessity,” he said. “We carry the name of Christ and His light in this country. It is our duty to uphold the flame of faith and bestow blessings through our presence. If we were to migrate entirely who would proclaim His name to the people?”
He will Himself, just before His Judgement comes down.
Iran: Man’s fingers amputated for stealing sheep
from Islamic Republican Guards Corps member
“As for the thief, both male and female, cut off their hands. It is the reward of their own deeds, an exemplary punishment from Allah. Allah is mighty, wise.” (Qur’an 5:38)
Yet Shi’a Iran only amputates the fingers. See, they’re moderates.
Iranian Finger Amputations Continue Against International Law
Iran International, February 8, 2024 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Iran’s judiciary has amputated the fingers of a 35-year-old man for allegedly stealing five sheep from a farm belonging to an IRGC member as the medieval practice gains pace.
According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO), the amputation was carried out last July in the central prison of Iran’s religious city of Qom, the revelation showing a parallel rise in both executions and amputations over the last year.
“The amputation of a man’s fingers for stealing a few sheep by a corrupt system whose officials compete with each other in stealing and embezzling billions of dollars shows the extent of the Islamic Republic’s cruelty and immorality,” said IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
According to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, since January 2000, the Iranian authorities have amputated the fingers of at least 131 men, Amnesty International reported in 2022….
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