'Silent Night': Persecuted Palestinian Christians Kept Out of Sight

The Middle East’s forgotten Christians

Raymond Ibrahim, Front Page

This article was first published by the Gatestone Institute.  Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

“The moment they [Hamas] took control [of the Gaza Strip], they started persecuting us, ruining our churches and forcing Christians to convert to Islam.”

Such are the recent recollections of Kamal Tarazi, a 60-year-old Christian man from Gaza, now living in the streets of Nazareth.  Before fleeing, he tried to resist the Islamist takeover, including by calling on Muslims and Christians to unite against Hamas.  As a result, “I was jailed several times. Do you know what a Hamas prison is? It is pure torture.” 

The report adds that “the Islamic group decided to keep him alive to avoid depicting themselves as persecutors of the local Christian population, something that could potentially anger the international community.”  He was eventually released, fled the region, returned, got imprisoned again, and fled again, permanently. “I am sure there are no more than 500 Christians left in Gaza,” he offers, “and it is just part of the general trend.”

His account is a reminder that, while reports on the persecution of Christians emerge regularly from other Muslim majority regions around the world, little is often mentioned of those Christians living under the Palestinian Authority.

This is not because they experience significantly less persecution than their coreligionists.  Open Doors, a human rights group that follows the persecution of Christians, notes in its most recent report that Palestinian Christians suffer from a “high” level of persecution, the source of which is, in its words, “Islamic Oppression”:

Those who convert to Christianity from Islam, however, face the worst Christian persecution and it is difficult for them to safely participate in existing churches. In the West Bank they are threatened and put under great pressure, in Gaza their situation is so dangerous that they live their Christian faith in utmost secrecy….The influence of radical Islamic ideology is rising, and historical churches have to be diplomatic in their approach towards Muslims.

It seems that the unique situation of Palestinian Christians—living in a hotly contested arena with much political and media wrangling in the balance—best explains the lack of news from that area.

“The Persecution of Christians in the Palestinian Authority,” a report by Dr. Edy Cohen, published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies earlier this year, goes a long way in validating this supposition.

First, it documents three anecdotes of persecution of Christians, all of which were back-to-back, and none of which were reported by so-called “mainstream media.”  Summaries follow:

April 25: “[T]he terrified residents of the Christian village of Jifna near Ramallah … were attacked by Muslim gunmen … after a woman from the village submitted a complaint to the police that the son of a prominent, Fatah-affiliated leader had attacked her family. In response, dozens of Fatah gunmen came to the village, fired hundreds of bullets in the air, threw petrol bombs while shouting curses, and caused severe damage to public property. It was a miracle that there were no dead or wounded.”

May 13: “Vandals broke into a church of the Maronite community in the center of Bethlehem, desecrated it, and stole expensive equipment belonging to the church, including the security cameras…. [T]his is the sixth time the Maronite church in Bethlehem has been subjected to acts of vandalism and theft, including an arson attack in 2015 that caused considerable damage and forced the church to close for a lengthy period.” 

May 16: “[I]t was the turn of the Anglican church in the village of Aboud, west of Ramallah. Vandals cut through the fence, broke the windows of the church, and broke in. They desecrated it, looked for valuable items, and stole a great deal of equipment.”

These three attacks, which occurred over the course of three weeks, fit the same pattern of abuse that Christians in other Muslim majority regions habitually experience.  While the desecration and plundering of churches is prevalent, so too are Muslim mob risings against Christian minorities—who tend to be perceived as dhimmis, or second-class “citizens,” who should be grateful to receive any toleration at all—whenever they dare speak up for their rights, as occurred in the village of Jifna on April 25:  “[T]he rioters” in Jifna, the report relates, “called on the [Christian] residents to pay jizya—a head tax that was levied throughout history on non-Muslim minorities under Islamic rule. The most recent victims of the jizya were the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria under ISIS rule.”

Moreover, as often happens whenever Christian minorities are attacked in Muslim majority nations, “Despite the [Christian] residents’ cries for help” in Jifna, “the PA police did not intervene during the hours of mayhem. They have not arrested any suspects.”  Similarly, “no suspects were arrested” in the two church attacks.

In short, Palestinian Christians are suffering from the same patterns of persecution—including church attacks, kidnappings and forced conversion—that their coreligionists suffer in other Muslim nations.  The difference, however, is that the persecution of Palestinian Christians has “received no coverage in the Palestinian media. In fact,” Cohan explains, “a full gag order was imposed in many cases”:

The only thing that interests the PA is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media. Fatah regularly exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the acts of violence and vandalism from which they frequently suffer, as such publicity could damage the PA’s image as an actor capable of protecting the lives and property of the Christian minority under its rule. Even less does the PA want to be depicted as a radical entity that persecutes religious minorities. That image could have negative repercussions for the massive international, and particularly European, aid the PA receives.

Considered another way, the bread and butter of the PA and its supporters, particularly in the media, is to portray the Palestinians as victims of unjust aggression and discrimination from Israel.  This narrative would be jeopardized if the international community learned that Palestinians are themselves persecuting fellow Palestinians—solely on account of religion.  It might be hard to muster sympathy for a supposedly oppressed people when one realizes that they themselves are doing the oppressing of the minorities in their midst, and for no other reason that religious bigotry.  

Because they are so sensitive to this potential difficulty, “PA officials exert pressure on local Christian[s] to not report such incidents, which threaten to unmask the Palestinian Authority as yet another Middle East regime beholden to a radical Islamic ideology,” Cohen states elsewhere:

Far more important to the Palestinian Authority than arresting those who assault Christian sites is keeping such incidents out of the mainstream media.  And they are very successful in this regard. Indeed, only a handful of smaller local outlets bothered to report on these latest break-ins. The mainstream international media ignored them altogether.

Notably, a similar dynamic exists concerning Muslim refugees.  Although West European politicians and media present them as persecuted and oppressed, in need of a welcoming hand, Muslim migrants themselves persecute and oppress Christian minorities among them—including by terrorizing them in refugee camps and drowning them in the Mediterranean.

Even mere numbers—which are inherently objective—confirm that Christians living under the PA are experiencing some unpleasantry that Muslims are not: although there were approximately 3,500 Christians in the Gaza Strip in 2007, there are now reportedly no more than 500-1,300.

As Justus Reid Weiner, a lawyer acquainted with the region, explains, “The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs…  In a society where Arab Christians have no voice and no protection it is no surprise that they are leaving.”

Indeed, Christianity is, by all counts, on the verge of disappearing in the place of its birth—literally, as this includes Bethlehem, scene of the Nativity—thereby giving the otherwise seasonally relevant words, “Silent Night,” a more tragic significance. 

Perhaps God is removing His people from these areas before their destruction. Is that possible?

Christian Refugees Persecuted by Muslim Asylum Seekers in German Shelters – Survey

© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Christian asylum seekers as well as members of other religious minority groups living in refugee shelters across Germany face systematic persecution from both Muslim refugees and Muslim staff, a recently published survey shows.

As many as 743 Christian refugees and 10 Yazidis living in refugee centers in various German states have reported religiously motivated attacks between February and September 2016, a survey conducted by several charitable NGOs says, stressing that collected data should be “considered … as the tip of the iceberg,” as “there are a high number of unreported cases.”

Fifty-six percent of the affected refugees said that they were subjected to violent assaults and were beaten up while 42 percent of them said that they or their family members received death threats both from fellow refugees and Muslim staff, including volunteers and security personnel working at the centers.

Forty-four Christian asylum seekers also reported sexual attacks, the survey presented during a press conference in Berlin on October 17 said, adding that all reported attacks were motivated by the Christian or other non-Muslim faith of the victims.

At the same time, an absolute majority (83 percent) of the refugees who participated in the survey said that they faced persecution “several times,” while only 8 percent said that it happened to them only once.

The survey was conducted by Christian charity Open Doors, Action on behalf of Persecuted Christians and the Needy (AVC), European Mission Society Fellowship (EMC) and the Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany (ZOCD).

The survey also said that most Christian refugees who were subjected to persecution in German asylum centers came from Syria and Iran, with half of all Christian asylum seekers surveyed being converts from Islam. Most of those surveyed were men (75 percent) and half of the respondents were under 35 years old.

The survey particularly stressed that converts living in the shelters are facing the highest risk of persecution as, “according to the Quran their change of faith is considered as a crime worthy of the death penalty, therefore they are explicitly in danger.”

“More than a few asylum seekers are likely to uphold the concept they are familiar with from their home countries even after having fled to Germany, that anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity has committed a major offence. What is more, converts sometimes experience harsh rejection by Muslim security guards and interpreters,” the report claims.

Most victims of persecution are afraid of reporting their cases to police as they fear that the situation would get worse. As a result, only 17 percent of affected refugees contacted police officers. Some of the victims also complained to the charities that interpreters working at the shelters deliberately twist their words while other said that security staff at the shelters takes no measures to prevent the attacks.

Some Christian refugees even had to return to their countries of origin because of persecution they face in German refugee centers, Paulus Kurt from the ZOCD told German Die Welt daily.

The survey provoked an outrage among some German politicians. Martin Neumeyer, the Bavarian government’s commissioner on integration, said that those guilty of persecution should face harsh consequences.

“Those who terrorize Christians or atheists in the refugee shelters should have no right to apply for asylum,” Neumeyer said at a press conference after the presentation of the survey.

A member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, Kai Wegner, told die Welt daily that he was embarrassed by the allegations presented in the Open Doors report.

“Those who spread religious hate in Germany are not welcome here,” he said, adding that the offenders should “feel… the consequences” that would particularly affect their right to stay in Germany.

At the same time, some German states are apparently trying to downplay the issue. Ralf Jaeger, the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where more than 120 cases of attacks on Christian asylum seekers were recorded, said that his ministry has “no evidence of religiously motivated attacks on Christian refugees or other religious minorities.”

The Bavarian Interior Ministry said it is aware of the problem but still expects that “all asylum seekers will live peacefully together irrespective of their religion, origin or sexual orientation.”

The charities that conducted the survey said that urgent measures should be taken to protect religious minorities in the refugee centers. They said that there should be at least equal number of Christians and Muslims in those centers where they live together. At the same time, the relief organizations stress that they “have long called for” separate accommodation of Muslim and non-Muslim refugees.

This would seem intuitive! Mixing small numbers of Christians or even smaller numbers of Yazidis among Muslim migrants is not only ill-thought-out, it's borderline insane. Is there a panel, discussion-group, inquiry, investigation going on assessing the entire process of handling migrants? Are these issues being constantly examined and addressed? Germany went into this madness completely unprepared and seems to still lack a fully-coordinated approach a year and a half later.

They also said that more non-Muslim staff members should work in the centers in order to properly tackle religious conflicts.

According to the German authorities, Muslims account for three quarters of the total number of asylum seekers that came to Germany during the refugee crisis. According to revised statistics, 890,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany last year, while previous estimations put the number at 1.1 million.

Between January and June 2016, more than 200,000 newcomers were officially registered in Germany, according to Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble called for the creation of “German Islam” that would be based on the principles of tolerance and European liberalism and will eventually help integrate refugees into German society.

Good luck with that Minister Schauble - you are going to try and change a 1400 year old system of brain-washing to accommodate a post WWII culture?  

Pastor Starting His 3rd Year in Iranian Jail Needs Prayer

Light in the darkness: Pastor Saeed is suffering in an Iranian prison, but he’s also leading inmates to Christ. Here’s the latest. (My conversation with his wife, Naghmeh Abedini)

by joelcrosenberg

Pastor Saeed (Washington, D.C.) -- “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.” Hebrews 13:3 (NKJV)

On Tuesday evening, I had the opportunity to talk by phone with Mrs. Naghmeh Abedini. She is the wife of Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been in prison in Iran for converting to Christianity, preaching the Gospel, and helping the underground house church network inside Iran.

This Saturday will mark the third year since Pastor Saeed was arrested in Iran and sentenced to death. A prayer vigil for his protection and release will be held in churches all over the world this weekend. I ask you and your family and church to commit this weekend to praying for this dear brother in Christ and his precious family. I have been invited to speak that day at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. and will address Pastor Saeed's remarkable story.

Saeed's story
Saeed was born in Iran in 1980 and raised as a Shia Muslim. In his teens, he was recruited by a Radical Muslim group to become a suicide bomber and thus a martyr for the cause of jihad. But in 2000, God had mercy on Saeed and opened his eyes to the truth of the Gospel. At the age of 20, he renounced Islam and become follower and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As he grew in his faith, Saeed became active in sharing the Gospel with other Iranians, leading them to Christ, discipling them, and setting up and supporting a network of underground churches throughout Iran. Fox News has reported that "his home church movement had about 100 churches in 30 Iranian cities with more than 2,000 members."

In time, Saeed had the opportunity to travel to the United States. There, he met and married Nagmeh, became a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, and the couple had two children, Rebekka and Jacob. As a family, they were committed to reaching the Iranian people with the love of Christ. Several times, Saeed traveled to Iran to encourage the underground church and care for the poor and needy. But in 2012, he was arrested by the Iranian government, beaten, and sentenced to death under Sharia law for converting to Islam -- thus becoming an apostate, in the eyes of Islam -- and leading others to faith in Christ.

"It [the underground church movement] was just growing so fast," Nagmeh told Fox News. "They [Iran's government] see the underground churches as a threat and they see Christianity as a tool from the West to undermine them. They think if the country becomes more Christian, they are no longer under Islamic authority. That's why it's a threat."

It has a been a long, painful, brutal journey for this family. They have suffered immensely because they have been so bold and so brave for the sake of the Gospel. Saeed has been attacked and severely beaten by fellow inmates. This week, he was tasered by prison officials. Yet through it all, God has shown great mercy, and even performed miracles.

Unstoppable Evangelist
"Saeed has shared the Gospel with many of the prisoners he is with," Nagmeh told me. "Some of them are political prisoners, former high ranking officials in the government. Others are hardened criminals. But many of them have given their lives to Christ -- dozens of them."

Prison officials became so infuriated with Saeed for leading prisoners to Christ that they moved him to a different cell. But then more prisoners came to Christ. So they moved him to a different prison. But still more prisoners accepted Christ. Then they put him in a cell with the worst murderers on death row and warned Saeed not to speak of Christ or the inmates would kill him. But Saeed prayed that God would protect him and that God would soften the hearts of these murderers.

That's when he saw more miracles. Several of the inmates in his cell had dreams and visions of the Lord Jesus Christ appearing to them personally. They became followers of Christ. Now they are protecting Saeed and he is able to encourage them in their faith.

A senior U.S. government official told Naghmeh that the Iranian government has told the U.S. that they are angry that Muslim prisoners are converting to Christ.

Saeed believes that one of the reasons the Lord has put him in prison is to reach Iranians with the Gospel. Otherwise, they would have had absolutely no way to hear the good news that God loves us and wants to forgive us and give us eternal life through faith in Christ.

Naghmeh -- who lives in Boise, Idaho, and attends a Calvary Chapel congregation there -- believes that as well. She knows God is using her husband in a powerful way, amidst the persecution and suffering. And she told me she trusts the Lord, and that He is giving grace beyond measure to sustain them all. Still, she and her children still desperately want Saeed home. They miss him terribly, and he needs medical care for the wounds he has suffered in prison that the Iranian government refuses to provide.

So she continues to mobilize people to pray for her husband and for all persecuted Christians in Iran. She is trying to educate the nation and the world as to the plight of her husband and to what the Iranian government is doing. She is also trying to persuade world leaders to take up the cause of her husband and press Tehran for his release. She has met with President Obama and other U.S. leaders. Today, she has been invited to attend the Pope's address to a Joint Session of Congress and is praying the Lord will give her an audience with the Pope. Next week, she will be in New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly. She is praying and fasting the Lord will open the door for her to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and to be able to personally request his release.

"If the Iranian government doesn't want him sharing the Gospel with the prisoners, there is a simple solution," she told me. "They can release him, send him back to America, and tell him to never come back again."

Please join me in praying daily for this family, and please share this story with others and get them to pray as well.

As the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples, "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

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Here's the latest news on Pastor Saeed.....

By Tiffany Barrans, ACLJ

After a short family visitation today at Rajaei Shahr prison in Iran, Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of American Pastor Saeed Abedini, heard disturbing news about possible new charges being brought against Pastor Saeed.  Over the years, the Iranian government continually promised that Pastor Saeed’s eight-year-prison sentence could be arbitrarily extended, and yesterday they took their first steps to fulfill that promise.

Yesterday in Iran, Iranian intelligence officers summoned Pastor Saeed for an intense round of interrogation. Pastor Saeed reported to his family that the interrogators were abusive both verbally and physically.  During the course of interrogation, the officers repeatedly used a taser gun on Pastor Saeed. This new assault  is concerning as Pastor Saeed is still being denied needed medical care for injuries sustained as a result of beatings in the past.

The interrogators threatened that Pastor Saeed will face new criminal charges.  They claimed Pastor Saeed has connections with anti-government groups and has made statements and taken actions against the government of Iran.  Pastor Saeed denied all of these allegations, and once again asserted that he is apolitical and that he has never threatened the security of, made any statements against, or taken any action against the Government of Iran.

This troubling development comes as Iranian President Rouhani prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York.  It also coincides with new efforts by the ACLJ in the international arena as a growing number of global leaders urge Iran to release Pastor Saeed.

Pastor Saeed has repeatedly expressed to the Iranian Government, both during his interrogations and at trial, that he poses no threat to the Government and was only present in Iran to assist Iran’s most vulnerable children by building a government-approved orphanage. Still, the Iranian Government continues to look for ways to keep this innocent U.S. citizen  imprisoned.

In reaction to this news Naghmeh Abedini had this to say:

When will this nightmare end? Saeed is not a criminal.  Being a Christian and motivated by Christian values to help the poorest and most needy children in Iran should be seen as good for the Iranian society.  Hearing that yet again the hardliners in Iran are trying to fabricate evidence against my husband and that he was abused and tasered is almost too much to bear.

It is time for governments all over the world shift their focus to the injustices of the Iranian Government and call on the Government of Iran to free my husband.  It is time for businesses seeking to do business in Iran to look beyond their bottom dollar and see the instability of a government known to imprison innocent men and women who have exercised their fundamental freedoms.  Whether we operate in the field of business, government, or simply are members of human society, we must expect and demand more of our leaders.

I pray that as President Rouhani plans his travel to the United States next week, he will hear relentless voices crying out for Saeed’s freedom.

Saturday marks the third year of Pastor Saeed’s imprisonment. And there will be hundreds of prayer vigils that day around the globe – prayers for Pastor Saeed and his family.

The ACLJ joins Naghmeh in calling for world leaders to do more to free Pastor Saeed.  We have heard from more than 265,000 people urging  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intervene directly with the Iranian Government on Pastor Saeed’s behalf. We renew that call today.

Please pray for Saeed, and if you can, ask your church to pray for him this weekend.