By Jeremy Reynalds
Sister Agnes-Miriam de la Croix
Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists.
The nun, Sister Agnes-Miriam de la Croix, said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits, according to the Daily Mail.
Filed under persecution
By Elizabeth Kendal
Gaza Christians
In Gaza, local Christians are claiming that two members of their community, Ramez al-Amash (24) and Hiba Abu Dawoud (32), were kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam.
According to Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexious, when Ramez al-Amash disappeared his parents filed a police complaint, but the police ignored it after learning that the mastermind behind the alleged kidnapping was a senior cleric identified with Hamas. Christians are blaming Salem Salama, chairman of the Palestine Scholars Association.
Filed under missions, Muslim conversions, persecution
By Jonathan Racho
Umar Mulinde
A Ugandan pastor, who was the victim of an acid attack by Muslims, told International Christian Concern (ICC) that he doesn’t hate his Muslim attackers and wants them to believe in Jesus Christ.
“My message to my attackers is simple; I hold no grudge against them. They wished me death but I wish them life today and forever in Christ Jesus our Lord,” said Pastor Umar Mulinde in his statement to ICC.
Filed under Muslim conversions, persecution
By Jeremy Reynalds
Sir Magdi Yacoub
A charitable medical center that performs free heart operations on children in Egypt is under threat from radical Muslims, who want it closed down because it was founded by a Christian surgeon.
According to a news release from Barnabas Aid, the center in Aswan city was established by the world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, an Egyptian Christian who emigrated to Britain in 1962. His charitable organization covers all the center’s costs, and operations are performed free of charge on both Christian and Muslim children alike.
Filed under persecution
‘Who killed my daughter?’
Gelerah Bagherzadeh
By Michael Ireland
Gelareh Bagherzadeh was an Iranian-born woman, newly converted to Christianity. She volunteered as a Persian-language translator at church and was about to graduate from university and had already found a job.
For five months, ever since Bagherzadeh, 30, was found in mid-January slumped over the steering wheel of her Nissan Altima steps from her home with a single gunshot wound to the head, family, friends and police have been asking why someone would want to kill her, according to www.mohabatnews.com .
Filed under Muslim conversions, persecution
By Michael Ireland
Bishop Umar Mulinde
Islamic extremists threw acid on a church leader on Christmas Eve shortly after a seven-day revival at his church, leaving him with severe burns that have blinded one eye and threaten sight in the other.
Bishop Umar Mulinde, 37, a sheikh (Islamic teacher) before his conversion to Christianity, was attacked on Saturday night (Dec. 24) outside his Gospel Life Church International building in Namasuba, about 10 kilometers (six miles) outside of Kampala, according to Compass Direct News (CDN).
Filed under persecution
By Peter Wooding
Nohad Halawi (Photo: The Telegraph/Paul Grover)
A Christian worker at London’s Heathrow Airport was dismissed after she stood up for a colleague who was bullied and harassed by Islamic fundamentalists.
Despite working at “World Duty Free” in Terminal 3 for 13 years, Nohad Halawi was fired following un-substantiated complaints by five Muslims about her conduct. Mrs Halawi had persistently complained to management over personal religious abuse and harassment from Islamic staff, who even mocked her about “shitty Jesus,” according to the Christian Legal Centre.
Filed under persecution
By Sarah Page
On Feb. 6 in Indonesia, Muslim hardliners armed with machetes brutally murdered three members of a “blasphemous” Muslim sect in the village of Cikeusik, West Java. Five other members escaped with severe injuries; police were present but did not intervene.
Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak in a hospital after she was struck with a wooden plank by suspected Islamic extremists
The attack followed two years of violence sparked by a June 2008 Joint Ministerial Decree banning public worship for the Ahmadiyah, whose members believe that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the last prophet of Islam, rather than Muhammad.
On Feb. 8, a large mob gathered outside a courthouse in Temanggung, Central Java, chanting “Kill, kill!” after judges awarded Antonius Richmond Bawengan, a Roman Catholic, the maximum five-year sentence for blasphemy. By nightfall some 1,000 people had rampaged through the town burning vehicles, two churches and a church-run school, injuring nine people in the process. (See www.compassdirect.org, “After Attacks, Christian Leaders in Indonesia Decry Lax Security,” Feb. 11.)
Three days later, prosecutors in Jakarta sentenced Murhali Barda, a regional leader of the hardline Front Pembela Islam (FPI or Islamic Defenders Front) to only five-and-a-half months in prison and fined him the equivalent of 10 US cents for orchestrating an attack on a Protestant church in which two Christians were seriously injured. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Light Sentences for Attack on Christians in Indonesia Condemned,” March 10.)
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