Terrorist attacks against Christians

Christian terrorism is religious terrorism by Christian sects or individuals; the motivation for which is typically rooted in an idiosyncratic interpretation of the Bible and other tenets of faith. They often draw upon Old Testament scripture to justify violent political activities. But there are also non-Christian terrorists who also kill, maim and destroy anyone or anything they believe is connected with Christianity.

The 2010/2011 New Year’s Eve attack on the Egyptian Coptic church in Alexandria, killing 21, and wounding 80 or more others, should not be directly attributed to Westernized policy in the region. Acknowledging Islamist brutality must be discretely handled, because the Religious Left in no way wants to disrupt interfaith dialogue or publicly admit to any intrinsic problems with any form of Islam.

Egyptian President Mubarak and religious leaders in the region have been urged to act swiftly and boldly to safeguard the fundamental religious rights of worshippers of all faiths. Christians, Jews and Muslims around the world are united by their outrage and condemnation of this soul-less act.

The perpetrators of this outrage are apparently so blinded by hatred that they have lost touch with the tenets of any known faith including their own. Although many people around the world may mistake this horror as the attack of one religious community on another, they should recognize the fact that the acts are brought about by terrorists who are a small faction of fanatics who are the same people who plant bombs in schools and market places. They simply treat these places as soft targets.

It also should be noted that many Religious Left groups are so preoccupied with social justice; they have up until recently said nothing publicly about the anti-Coptic killings. In some Religious Left eyes, perhaps the inadvertent death of a Palestinian protester is more significant than the murder of 21 Christian worshippers outside their church. The members of the Religious Left are people who promote Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice. Their traditional silence or muted tones about Islamist attacks on Christians globally was becoming increasingly difficult to continue. However, attacks on Iraq’s diminishing Christian community have prompted left-leaning U.S. and Western church groups to finally speak out against the attacks.

Almost none of the large Mainline Protestant member denominations seem to have said anything about the Coptic murders, although these churches have social justice and communications agencies that routinely commentate on global events. And former National Association of Evangelicals lobbyist Richard Cizik’s New Evangelical Partnership, founded ostensibly to tout a new progressive vision of social justice focused on Global Warming and fighting U.S. ‘torture,’ seems to have no comment about the Coptic murders so far.

Is the real reason why these organizations have become so mute is that they are afraid that they will become targets of bombings and assassinations if they speak out against the atrocities committed by religious fanatics? Perhaps they are adhering in the strictest sense, the edict of Jesus who said if you are struck on one side of the face; turn the other side of the face so that it too can be struck. Perhaps, maybe they are simply relying on others to condemn terrorism against Christians. Are these the same people who concentrate their efforts in condemning Mark Twain’s novel, Huckleberry Finn because the author chose to use the word nigger in the text (which is a word that is frowned upon in modern society) rather than condemning terrorist attacks on Christians?

For example, the attacks on Indian Christians minorities have not been restricted only to a single state but nationally across at least seven states since last Christmas, where it first erupted in Orissa. Other states affected include - Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala and even New Delhi. The attacks are premeditated, carried out as a military-type operation, with clinical precision.

The victims are thousands of low caste (Dalit) or tribal Christians in the rural areas and helpless clergy and laity in the urban areas of India who are soft-targets. The Blessed Sacrament has been vandalized, cloistered nun-sisters attacked, crucifix & statues of saints desecrated, bibles burnt. Further, over 50 Christians have been killed and 4,000 houses destroyed, dozens of nuns raped and priests brutalized, church workers burned to death or buried alive. Over 300 churches, cathedral, presbyteries, schools and shops burned to the ground.

The State of India has abdicated its responsibility and duty to protect Indian Christians, by not taking the state governments to task and failing to protect the life and personal liberty of Indian citizens. The Government of India has failed to ensure freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion – the very rights enshrined in the Constitution of the country (Articles 21 & 25) and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR Articles 18 & 27) to which the Government of India is a party.

Two Christian women, mother and daughter, who recently suffered violence and humiliation, are now in a safe place. Previously, an angry mob turned against them in Lahore, Pakistan beating them after they were accused of blasphemy. The incident began with a dispute between the two women and a Muslim woman, who is married to their son and brother, over the religious education of the mixed couple’s daughter. The mob beat Saira Chand and her mother so badly that both lost consciousness. At some point during the attack, some of the abusers put necklaces made of old shoes around their necks, smeared their faces and put them on the back of donkeys to parade around their east Lahore neighbourhood. After regaining consciousness, the two women vehemently rejected the accusations of blasphemy, touching their feet repeatedly, to demand pity from their tormentors. A local Muslim leader, Mian Muhammad Sameer, said he did everything to get the two women to “confess” their crime of blasphemy. Monsignor Rufin Anthony reacted to the attacks, slamming

Pakistani society’s increasing intolerance against Christians claiming that it is a sociological problem that the government must deal with the utmost urgency.

An old man named Wang was fast asleep in his bed when the mob arrived in his town of Linfen, China. What he witnessed on the grounds of the Gospel Shoes Factory – a rural Christian community where he lived and worked with 60 others near there – was complete chaos: a raging mob of more than 200 men were pushing their way through the darkness with flashlights, wooden clubs, bricks, hoes and pieces of metal, smashing everything and anyone in their path. To his amazement, and the amazement of other eyewitnesses, the mob was led by a local Communist Party official backed up by uniformed police.

But not all terrorist acts in China are led by religious fanatics. The growth of Christianity in China has stoked concern and even alarm among some government officials, who see the spread of Christianity as a threat to their authority. China’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but it comes with a catch: every church must register with the government and submit to control by the Communist Party of China. The Gospel Shoes church was not registered: it was what is known in China as a ‘house church’. The government maintains the same registration requirements for China’s four other ‘officially approved’ religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Islam and Catholicism. Each is assigned a government-appointed body that oversees the group’s activities throughout the country. But Gospel Shoes was operating without such oversight. As a consequence it was deemed illegal. So over the course of the next few hours, under the direction of the Communist Party and local police, the mob bulldozed the factory and church into the ground. In the process they killed livestock, looted appliances and wounded 30 members of the community, seven seriously.

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Islamic Fundamentalism has become the subject of scrutiny, controversy and debate. On one hand, Islamic terrorists (Islamists) are perceived as a threat to world security - protagonists in a new holy war. Alternatively, it appears that the vast millions of mainstream Muslims reject the views of extremists, while other reports suggest that popular support for Islamic Fundamentalism is far deeper than one might expect.

The persecution of Christians has been taking place since Jesus Christ walked this earth some 2000 years ago. He knew his disciples and those that follow his teachings would suffer for their beliefs.

For many Christians world-wide, the year 2011 dawned bleakly leaving many Christians in backward countries feeling more vulnerable; wondering that the future holds for them and their families. They know that deadly groups of religious zealots can attack their communities for one purpose only; kill and destroy.

Religious violence isn’t new in the Middle East where some of the most serious forms of repression and attacks on Christians have taken place. Could it be because Christians in the Middle East are traditionally more educated and mobile than Muslims? If this abuse by Islamic fanatics continues, the Middle Eastern Christians will leave the Middle East nations and the currently 12 Middle Eastern Christians can dwindle down to fewer than 6 million by the year 2025.

Christians aren’t always targeted because of their religious beliefs. They are targeted because they are seen by the fanatics as surrogates of the Western countries and their way of thinking. It is also a way for extremists to remain in the limelight. In Iraq, the militants have become frustrated because they haven’t brought about the civil war they wanted and instead they have chosen soft targets such as Christian communities in which to vent their anger caused by their failure to achieve their original goal.

We must make sure that we don’t treat these attacks against Christians as overall Islamic or Hindu conspiracies to destroy Christianity because that is not the goal of Muslims and Hindus per se. We must treat these fanatics, (no matter what their beliefs are) as the terrorists that they are and send them to prison for long periods of time and in cases where they have been convicted of murder, they should be executed as soon as possible.

Everyone should be able to practice their religion peaceably without fear of being maimed, murdered and their property destroyed. As for those countries that interfere with those rights, they should be treated as the pariahs that they are and that includes China. Governments may very well want to suck up to China since it has become a huge economic success but even smooth skin can have lesions and pimples somewhere on its surface. If China wants to look good in the eyes of the global community, it has to remove those lesions and pimples. Some people may marry an ugly woman because she is rich but everyone will marry a woman if she is pretty. China may be rich but she certainly isn’t pretty.