Religious Genocide

A Parliamentary report commissioned by the British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has just been released (3rd May, 2019). (1) It documents the religious genocide of Christians that has been occurring in Muslim countries around the world over the last few decades – a genocide that has gone largely unreported by Western media. The report states that since 2017, “millions of Christians” – yes that’s correct, millions not thousands – have been rounded up and arrested, with many of them never heard from again. Untold millions have been murdered. The report names the Muslim countries where this ongoing genocide is escalating; countries such as Iran, Algeria, Qatar, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Nigeria, Afghanistan, North Korea and some parts of the Philippines. As well as the possibility of arrest, torture and murder, Christians living in these countries also face state sanctioned intimidation and “discrimination in education, employment and social life.” The report states that “the rise of hate speech against Christians in state media and by religious leaders has compromised the safety of Christians and created social intolerance.” The Muslim governments in many of these countries “incite hate and publish propaganda against Christians.”  Churches are regularly burned down, and congregations and clergy are arrested and murdered. In recent years, Christmas and Easter services have been particularly targeted, with services being raided by Muslim government police and the Christian congregations being arrested or simply murdered.

The result is that there has been a mass exodus of Christians leaving their homelands and fleeing for their lives over the last few decades. The report indicates that the Christian population of the Middle East and North Africa has dropped from 20% to just 4%.

And just in case you may be thinking that this persecution of Christians is a recent thing, at the end of WWI the Muslim government of Turkey murdered over 2.5 million Christians in an attempt to wipe out Christianity from their country (1.5 million Armenian Christians, 750,000 Greek Christians and 300,000 Assyrian Christians). Hundreds of thousands of Christian girls and women were stripped naked, raped and then murdered, with some of them crucified on crosses. Christians were beheaded or burned to death.

The Christian human rights organisation, Open Doors, releases a World Watch List every year, which highlights the persecution of Christians. During the 2018 -2019 World Watch List reporting period they recorded an average EVERY MONTH of 345 Christians murdered, and 105 churches burned down. That’s right – every month! (2) Open Doors reports that, in North Korea, it is illegal to be a Christian and those who are discovered are arrested and sent to labour camps. Afghanistan is close behind North Korea for abductions, arrests, torture, rape and murder of Christians.

If all this doesn’t convince you, look up “Persecution of Christians” on Wikipedia and read the shocking statistics of Christians being murdered for their beliefs around the world.

Let’s be clear about what is happening here. We are currently witnessing a world-wide genocide of Christians that has surpassed the Nazi genocide of Jews in WWII.

We were all rightly shocked and appalled at the 51 people who were murdered in the Christchurch massacre. But don’t you dare suggest that was an example of Christians killing Muslims.  Brenton Tarrant was not a Christian. He didn’t even come from a Christian country – because Australia is not a Christian country, it is a secular country. Brenton Tarrant is a white supremacist who is as far from being a Bible-believing Christian as it is possible to be. The Christchurch massacre was perpetrated by someone who was NOT a Christian and was NOT following the teachings of the Bible.

On the other hand, the world-wide, ongoing persecution and genocide of millions of Christians, is being conducted by Muslim governments and individuals who ARE following the teachings of their sacred text, the Koran. I am not saying that all Muslims subscribe to this violent extremism – there are many peace-loving moderate Muslims who abhor this kind of violence, and I welcome their presence in our multi-cultural nation. But, on the other hand, we can’t put our heads in the sand and simply pretend that this persecution of Christians isn’t happening.

In an article in the Guardian newspaper (3), Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt is quoted as saying, “We’ve all been asleep on the watch when it comes to the persecution of Christians.” He’s right. The Christchurch murder of 51 Muslims was screamed aloud by the world’s media, but the ongoing persecution and murder of millions of Christians goes largely unreported. Sadly, many people who read this post will think I am making this stuff up, or exaggerating the issue, or that I am being racist or religiously biased. I am not. This is really happening in our world.

The recent Easter attacks by Muslims on Christian churches in Sri Lanka were reported as reprisals in response to the Christchurch killings, and the attitude of many in the Western world seems to have been, “Oh well, you can’t really blame them for retaliating.” But the claim, made by Muslim extremists and echoed by the Western press, that these latest attacks were reprisals, is not completely true. It is a massive over-simplification. The Christchurch massacre simply provided Muslim extremists with a CURRENT excuse to legitimise their ONGOING crusade to exterminate Christianity – an attempted extermination that has been in process now for decades and even centuries. This year’s massacre of Christians attending Easter Services was simply a repeat of attacks on Christian church services at Easter and Christmas that have occurred EVERY year since 2012 in Muslim countries around the world, where many hundreds have been murdered. (4)

We need to wake up. We need to stand against ALL forms of persecution and violence based upon religion, race or any other extraneous factors. We also need our media to report what is actually happening in our world and not just the stuff that conforms to our current definition of political correctness. In speaking to the British press, at the release of the recent report, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said, “I think it is because of political correctness that we have avoided confronting this issue.” (4) He’s right! How have we reached this point where the Western press is very comfortable denigrating Christianity but they bend over backwards to avoid airing any negative reports about Islam? The press is meant to report the truth, even if it is inconvenient or may offend some people.

Footnotes:

1. See BBC website, “Christian Persecution At Near genocide levels”
2. See “Christian-persecution” article on opendoorsusa website.
3. You can check out the Guardian’s article on this issue by going to their website and typing “Persecution of Christians ‘coming close to genocide’ in Middle East – report.”
4. See “Holiday Massacres of Christians” on the Gatestone Institute website.
5. See the ITV website article, “Jeremy Hunt Issues Warning on Persecution of Christians.”