UN Silence While Extremist Persecution Of Christians Continues

"United Nations, Your Silence is Getting Worse": Extremist Persecution of Christians, September 2018

• "[T]wo young masked men entered the pharmacy and dragged my father outside. They told him to kneel in the street. They put two guns at my father's head and told him to convert to Islam. But he shook his head. Then they shot him." — Open Doors, August 23, 2018, Egypt.
  
  
• "Our father, Bashir Masih, was a sanitary worker," explained the family's son Fiaz Masih. "He built this house a few years back, when he retired from his job; however Muslims could not bear that Christians would live in such a good, big, and furnished house. We are the only Christian family in the neighborhood. They wanted to snatch our property. Therefore, they started threatening us to leave the house otherwise they will [accuse us of] committing blasphemy against Islam." — Pakistan.
  
  
• "Indonesia had a reputation for an interpretation of Islam that embraced religious tolerance. But Muslim extremists have been urging the adoption of Islamic law throughout Indonesia, creating religious divides." — Voice of America, October 1, 2018.
  
  

Central African Republic: As many as 42 people — mostly Christian women — "were hacked to death ... after suspected Islamist rebels attacked a group of civilians in the central town of Bria" between September 4-5. Some died by machete, others by gunshot. At least one of the butchered women was pregnant. "They [Seleka militants] don't want to see any Christians here," one church leader said. "Christians never go to town.... They have barricaded all roads, and if you venture out, you are at your own peril. We Christians have nothing else to do, no food to eat, no place to go. We rely only on prayers. Please pray for us!"

Democratic Republic of Congo: Armed Muslim militants slaughtered as many as 40 people in the Christian town of Beni. According to one report:

"... the assailants, in great number, attacked the city by surprise at around 5.30pm ... They fired light and heavy weapons, and targeted residential areas, causing panic among the inhabitants... Eyewitnesses said some of the victims were killed with machetes, while an undetermined number of others were injured. According to a local pastor, at least 27 victims have been identified as members of local churches."

A week earlier, on September 18, the same extremists murdered a Christian grandmother and injured four of her grandchildren. "These rebels who call themselves the Muslim Defense International also hit near our base in Ngadi three times," said an aid worker. According to the report, the group "has operated in the region since 1995, has been blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths over the past four years and of trying to uproot Christians from north-eastern DRC through attacks, rape, looting, kidnap and murder."

Kenya: Extremists murdered two Christians in the name of Islam for refusing to abjure their faith. According to one report, on September 14:

"... a group of Islamic terrorists stopped a bus that was traveling to Garissa. The militants ordered everyone off the bus and demanded identification... the terrorist group of seven men separated the Muslims from the Christians. They demanded three of the passengers recite the statement of faith [the shahada, 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger,' which instantly transforms a nonbeliever into a Muslim]. The two Christians who refused to recite the statement were tied up and executed."

One week later, on September 22, a Muslim mob stoned three Christians to death while chanting "Allahu Akbar!" ("Allah is greater!"). The attack came in response to the killing of jihadi terrorists at the hands of governmental security forces. According to an eyewitness:

"Fredrick [one of the three slain] was on top of a new house he was contracted to build. His two assistants were on the ground mixing mortar when the mob arrived in [a] hurry, chanting takbir, takbir, takbir [that is, calling on the mob to shout "Allahu Akbar"]. From a distance, I saw the men hurling construction stones towards Fredrick and his coworkers. The three managed to flee into a nearby hotel for safety, although they had been badly injured. The Muslims relentlessly followed them up and stoned them to death."

Pakistan: Resentful that a Christian was in a position over them, Muslim hospital employees attacked Faraz Masih, 26, with acid on September 5. His face highly disfigured and with several other burns around his body, he finally succumbed to death ten days later in a hospital. According to the victim's father, Badar Masih:

Philippines: On September 2, Muslim militants bombed a café in the town of Insulan. Jun Mark Luda, an 18-year-old catechist who taught Christian principles in public schools during his free time, and his 15-year-old cousin, Marialyn Luda were killed in the blast; 14 others were injured. Jun Mark Luda "was smart and talented. His jolliness was contagious. We are saddened by his death," said a church acquaintance before adding that such ongoing attacks "destroy the harmony between Muslims and Christians." Army commander Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana "blamed the attack on the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State." The same group was accused of bombing St Anthony's Catholic Cathedral on April 29, 2018.