‘Widespread Death And Destruction’: Why Is The World Silent As Christians Are Persecuted?

Acts 14:22, “… continue in the faith … we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

Mark 13:13, “… you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

By David Harris, The Algemeiner – “On September 22, dozens of Christian worshipers were killed at a church in Pakistan. Many more were wounded. The assailants were jihadist suicide bombers. This was not the first attack on the small Christian community in Pakistan.

In Egypt, repeated deadly assaults have targeted Coptic Christian churches. Some members of this ancient faith group, convinced they have no future in the Arab world’s most populous nation, have emigrated.

In Iraq, the Chaldean Christian population has dwindled in recent years. Persecution at the hands of Islamist groups has been a key factor driving people out.

In Nigeria, periodic attacks by radical Muslim groups on Christian worshipers and their churches have brought widespread death and destruction.

In Turkey, the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate has had to face one bureaucratic roadblock after another.

In Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, many Greek Orthodox churches have been destroyed or otherwise desecrated since the Turkish army first invaded in 1974.

And in Sudan, until the break-up of the country in 2011 that brought the nation of South Sudan into existence, millions of Christians in the south were targeted by the Muslim north, resulting in an unimaginably high death toll.

This is an incomplete list, but it should be more than enough to alarm the world, and especially, I would have thought, the Christian world. But, alas, with a few notable exceptions, there has been silence.

As a Jew, I find this silence unfathomable.

We Jews know quite well that the sin of silence is not a solution to acts of oppression.

And that applies not only to the obvious example of the Holocaust, but also to the postwar plight of Jews in several Muslim-majority countries.

There were once nearly a million Jews in these lands, but today there are fewer than 50,000.

Jewish communities from Iraq to Libya, from Egypt to Yemen, were driven out, while those in Turkey and Iran are but a shadow of their former selves.

As this was taking place, the world was largely indifferent.

The UN never met in emergency session. The media barely devoted any attention. Diplomats in Brussels and elsewhere hardly gave it a second thought. And, by the way, the churches were not heard from, either.

As the surviving Jews left North Africa and the Muslim Middle East, the world averted its eyes. But now the Jews aren’t available for their ‘convenient’ role as scapegoats, so the dubious honor falls to the Christians (and, in Iran, to the Baha’i). Could it be possible that the world once again remains asleep in the face of murderous attacks, widespread fear, and declining numbers?

I asked a well-placed Christian prelate why the muted reaction, why the failure to take to the streets, demand action of Western governments, and demonstrate solidarity with co-religionists.

His answer was revealing.

He said that

Demented: Muslim Father From Canada Beheads His Four Children

Islam. Beheading. You can’t think of one without thinking about the other …

Calgary Herald – “The mother of four young boys who were allegedly beheaded by their Somali-Canadian father says she doesn’t know of any motive for the killings.

Police in Somalia arrested Omar Hassan, 60, after the children, aged 11, 9, 7 and 6, were killed Monday, Qadro Addawe told The Canadian Press.

The alleged slayings happened in the central town of Beledweyne, about 330 kilometres north of the capital Mogadishu.

Speaking from Mogadishu, Addawe said Hassan was a taxi driver in Calgary and had returned home a few months ago.

She said the children had never been to Canada, but had Canadian citizenship through her estranged husband, who had migrated to Canada 30 years ago.

‘They were born in Kenya, but they were Canadian because the father was Canadian,’ she said.

A regional police commissioner told Agence France-Presse Wednesday that the children’s bodies were found near a village and have been buried.

The news service quoted Col. Isak Ali Abdulle as saying: ‘The man handed himself in and is in custody now. I think he is not mentally fit but we are questioning him.’

Addawe, 29, said she does not know of any motive for the killings.

She insisted Hassan was mentally stable.

‘He had some health problems, but he had no mental problems.'” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Muslims Gather To Watch Convert To Christianity Beheaded By Al-Shabaab Islamists – “Islamic extremists from Somalia’s rebel Al-Shabaab militants on Friday (Nov. 16) killed a Christian in Somalia’s coastal city of Barawa, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said. The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months … A crowd assembled in the coastal city on Friday morning to watch the slaughter …” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Muslim Extremists from Al Shabaab Behead Another Christian for Leaving Islam – “Islamic extremists from the rebel al Shabaab militia in Somalia beheaded a Christian on the outskirts of Mogadishu last month, sources said. The militants fighting the transitional government in Mogadishu murdered Zakaria Hussein Omar, 26, on Jan. 2 in Cee-carfiid village, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) outside of the Somali capital, they said. Omar had worked for a Christian humanitarian organization that al Shabaab banned last year.” Read more.

Flashback: Somalia: Islamic Extremists Vowing to Rid Country of Christianity Behead 17-Year-Old Christian – “Militants from the Islamic extremist al Shabaab beheaded a 17-year-old Somali Christian near Mogadishu last month, a journalist in the Somali capital told Compass. The militants, who have vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity, killed Guled Jama Muktar on Sept. 25 in his home near Deynile, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mogadishu. The Islamic extremist group had been monitoring his family since the Christians arrived in Somalia from Kenya in 2008 …” Read more.