While those in the American media have long lamented the (alleged) post-9/11 rise in “Islamophobia,” they have ratcheted up the hysteria since the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency.
That this template is Fake News is gotten readily enough when the histrionics over “Islamophobia” are seen against the backdrop of the global reality of the anti-Christian oppression to which countless numbers of men, women, and children are routinely subjected—mostly by Muslims.
Open Doors, a ministry that serves persecuted Christians around the world, reports that 11 Christians die every single day for their commitment to Christ. And of the ten most dangerous places on Earth to be a Christian, eight are Islamic.
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In Afghanistan, neither Christianity nor any other religion other than Islam is legal. Those Muslims who dare to convert to Christianity are seen as traitors to their families, tribes, and nation. Either that, or their abandonment of Islam is viewed as proof of mental instability, in which case these converts, when found out, may be institutionalized in psychiatric facilities and their homes and property confiscated or destroyed.
More often than not, Christians and converts to Christianity are murdered.
Somalia is 99% Muslim. The Christian minority that exists in this African land consists almost exclusively of Muslim converts. According to Open Doors, the violent, murderous persecution of Christians—and it is almost entirely murderously violent—is so intense that this organization which is committed to ministering to oppressed Christians the world over couldn’t even publish specific illustrations of the violence for security purposes.
Libya is the fourth most hostile country for Christians. After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Islamic militants seized control of various parts of Libya—a turn of events that has had tragic consequences for the country’s Christian population. Open Doors: “The level of violence against Christians in Libya is very high, and Christians in Libya are subjected to violent, inhumane and degrading treatment.”
What’s worse is that those Muslims who have converted to Christianity are endangered by their family members.
Islamic-dominated Pakistan is not much more pleasant for its Christian population. Pakistan has blasphemy laws which make it a capital crime to abandon Islam and convert to Christianity. Asia Bibi is the most notable example of one such Pakistani who was convicted under these laws. Bibi, a wife and mother, spent a decade on death row after being found guilty of being a Christian. Courtesy of international pressure, she was finally acquitted of this charge and released from prison. Yet nevertheless, to this day, she remains imperiled.
However, perhaps Asia Bibi should consider herself fortunate, for there are approximately 700 Pakistani women and children who are abducted, raped, and forced to marry their Muslim captors so that they will convert to Islam.
Churches are routinely bombed and work that is regarded as demeaning is reserved for Christians, with some Christians being so unfortunate as to be locked into bonded-labor.
Sudan is the sixth most dangerous place for Christians. Christians (and other non-Muslims) are severely limited with respect to liberties, like liberties regarding the exercise of speech, of which members of the Islamic majority can readily avail themselves. Christians are arrested because of their faith, and churches have been demolished. As in the preceding countries, those who have converted to Christianity from Islam are particularly vulnerable to persecution. Such is the awfulness of the treatment to which they are subjected that Christian parents take measures to insure that their children will not be exposed as Christian.
There is a reason why Eritrea has earned the reputation of being “Africa’s North Korea.” Upon conducting house raids, government agents have arrested and imprisoned scores of Christians because of their faith. Open Doors characterizes the conditions under which these Christians have been incarcerated as “inhumane.” Indeed, for Christians have been held, in paralyzing heat, in shipping containers.
The oppression has been driving Christians out of Eritrea to other places where they are seeking asylum.
The civil war that has been transpiring in Yemen has made it life in this Islamic-dominated land that much more formidable for its Christian minority. Most of the humanitarian relief supplied to victims of the war has been distributed via Islamic institutions that discriminate in favor of Muslims. So not only are Christians being denied the aid that they need, but they are as well being detained by authorities and targeted by their neighbors and family members for having converted from Islam to Christianity.
Iran remains one of the planet’s most hostile spots for Christians. The citizens of Iran are legally prohibited from converting to and preaching Christianity. Just this past December, 100 Christians were arrested within a single week. As of this moment, there is one particular pastor, Yousef Nardarkhani, who is serving a 10-year sentence in an Iranian prison for threatening “national security” by being a Christian.
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Although it didn’t make it to Open Doors’ “World Watch” list of the ten most inhospitable places for Christians, the Congo is no safe space for the followers of Jesus. Very recently, over a four hour span of time, Islamic militants, upon pretending to be security officers, opened fire upon the residents of the predominantly Christian village of Kalau. The indiscriminate shooting forced nearly 500 Christian families to abandon their homes. Six people, however, weren’t so fortunate, as they were murdered.
The dead included three women and a nine year-old child.
Over the last five years, it is estimated that these same Islamic militants—members of the “Allied Democratic Forces” (ADF)—have murdered roughly 700 civilians and 20 United Nations peacekeepers.
Bearing these gruesome instances of anti-Christian oppression in mind, hopefully the next time the American media prattle on about the supposed “rise” of “Islamophobia” in America (and Europe), we will recognize it for the Fake News that it is.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
