Egypt: Christians Under the Gun in Egypt

The end of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt meant big changes. But just not for the country's beleaguered Christians.

Sadly, news about the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is nothing new. In parts of Iraq and Syria the situation has gotten so bad that the Obama administration declared ISIS' actions to be "genocide."

But a recent story about the persecution of Christians in the region didn't come out of the Levant, but instead, out of Egypt.

Now if this story sounds familiar, that's because, sadly, it is. For years we've been talking on BreakPoint about the plight of Egypt's native Christians, known as the Copts.

As I said back in 2013, "Egypt [is] central to the birth of Christianity." It's right there in Scripture: it was to Egypt that the Holy Family fled from Herod. And Egypt produced some of Christianity's greatest minds such as Origen and the great defender of orthodoxy, Athanasius. The father of monasticism, Anthony, was also Egyptian, and for much of the Church's early history, Alexandria was the mind and soul of the faith.

"Egypt was Christian for six centuries before the coming of Islam," and the people we call "Copts" are the descendants of those who kept the faith in the face of enormous pressure to abandon it.

Those pressures continue to this day. Even under non-Islamist governments, Copts are, at best, second-class citizens. They're harassed at every turn. For instance, repairing their churches, never mind building a new one, requires overcoming huge obstacles.

And that's under relatively "friendly" regimes. When the Muslim Brotherhood took power following the "Arab Spring," they faced what Nina Shea called "jihad" in which it was "open season" on them and their institutions.

Read more: Christians Under the Gun in Egypt

Middle East Christian woman testifies God's plan is working perfectly despite increasing persecution - by Lorraine Caballero

Christian Church in Mosul Iraq

On a recent Sunday, a Christian woman from the Middle East visited the MeadowBrook Baptist Church in Gadsden, Alabama to talk about her family's story of persecution and the unwavering faith of the believers in the region.

The woman, who is only referred to by the name "Maryam" for security purposes, told the churchgoers not to pray for the persecution to stop, because all the atrocities are part of God's plan.

Maryam recalled how her father was imprisoned because a Muslim who assaulted him and threatened their lives had wrongfully accused him. She also described how Muslim men physically assaulted her while she was on her way to the airport just because she did not cover her hair.

For Maryam and other Christians in the Middle East, persecution is necessary for the Church to continue growing in the region. She explained that while radical Muslims are committing crimes against Christians and other religious groups, there are also others who are starting to question their own religion. Now, there are more than a million converts in her country who come from Muslim backgrounds.

"So, I want to encourage you that, of course, you need to pray for your brothers and sisters in the Middle East who are suffering for being Christians and for their faith, but I am asking you to pray a different prayer," Maryam told the American congregants. "Don't pray for the persecution to be stopped. ... But pray for the Christians there, for their boldness, their encouragement, for their faith and that they can all be witnesses for God's work and for God."

In an exclusive interview with the Express, a priest who endured torture at the hands of his jailers in Egypt said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not the real threat to believers. Rev. Majed El Shafie said the problem lies in the Muslim extremists' ideology.

In light of the current situation, Rev. Shafie highlighted the need to focus more on education. He also urged the moderate Muslims to end their silence and finally speak up about the persecution of Christians by the extremists.

EU-Digest

Christianity: China Is Tearing Down Crosses

Christians in China sometimes paint their crosses red to remind them of the blood shed by the faithful when Chairman Mao Zedong's shock troops tried to obliterate their faith almost 50 years ago.

Now, many of China's Christians fear that the current government in Beijing—which just won the 2022 Olympics by showing its friendlier face to the world—is mounting a more subtle campaign against them and their beliefs. In the name of “safety and beauty” and zoning regulations, it is bulldozing churches and tearing down crosses.

In the process, the Chinese Communist Party may be helping to create just the sort of opposition movement it hopes to eliminate.

Christianity has had a presence in China for over a millennium. The first missionaries arrived in the Middle Kingdom in the 7th century. The Taiping Rebellion of the mid-1800s, one of the bloodiest conflicts in recorded history, was led by a man who believed that Jesus was his older brother, and that it was his divine duty to carve out a Heavenly Kingdom on earth.

Three and a half decades later, the Boxer Rebellion, backed by the Chinese Empress, was a movement that opposed foreign imperialist forces, and targeted Christian missionaries within the Chinese Empire. It was a tumultuous time, when American troops scaled the walls of Beijing, and Imperial China was in its final moments.

A couple of momentous changes in government later, religion and the freedom to practice it still remain touchy subjects, at times leading to violence. There are, of course, the cults led by figures of questionable sanity, like Eastern Lightning, which doesn’t bother employing a fig leaf in its mission to “overthrow the Great Red Dragon.”

But most Christians in China don’t have a political agenda. And with it or without it, they face creeping persecution
.
Read more: China Is Tearing Down Crosses - The Daily Beast

British Labour Leader Ed Miliband's Easter message highlights persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq - by Ruth Gledhill

Ed Miliband

British Labour leader Ed Miliband has used his Easter message to express his concerns for the fate of persecuted Christians around the world.

The brief and to-the-point seasonal message of Miliband, an atheist, contrasts with the overtly Christian offerings from Conservative politicians such as David Cameron and Michael Gove.

Miliband says he is looking forward to sharing the weekend with his family in Doncaster, where he was MP for Doncaster North until Parliament was dissolved at the end of March.

"In the midst of the Easter celebrations our hearts goes out to those who face difficult times both overseas and closer to home. My thoughts are particularly with Christians in Syria, Iraq and other countries where the church suffers terrible persecution," he wrote.

Miliband cites statistics from the International Society for Human Rights which state that Christians are the victims of 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today.

"We must all do everything we can to speak out against this evil and work to alleviate the suffering of those who are persecuted simply for their creed," he says.

"But we don't need to travel far to find families facing fear and uncertainty. Over two million children are now living in poverty in the UK. I have admiration for those church members and Christian charities that provide support and hope to those in need."

Noting that over the Easter weekend millions of Christians will attend Easter services and events up and down the country, he acknowledges that through such gatherings, the church shares the story of the resurrection, and spreads the good news of Easter.

"In the months to come I hope that we will all stand up for justice, serve the most vulnerable and work to positively transform our communities together."
 
Read more: Ed Miliband's Easter message highlights persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq | Christian News on Christian Today

Disappearing Christians in the Middle East - by Daniel Pipes

The transfer of power of Bethlehem from Israel to the Palestinian Authority just before Christmas 1995 inspired a spate of articles[1] on Bethlehem's diminishing Christian presence. They noted that a place not long ago 80 percent Christian is now but one-third Christian. For the first time in nearly two millennia, the most identifiably Christian town on earth has lost its Christian majority. The same changes have taken place in two other famously Christian towns, Nazareth and Jerusalem. In Nazareth, Christians went from 60 percent of the population in 1946 to 40 percent in 1983. Jerusalem Christians in 1922 slightly outnumbered Muslims (15,000 versus 13,000);[2] today, they number under 2 percent of the city's population.

The same applies in other parts of Israel. A report from the Galilee village of Turan quotes a Christian store owner: "Most Christians will leave as soon as we can sell our houses and shops. We can't live among these people [Muslims] anymore."[3] One journalist concludes that "The Christian community in the West Bank is close to extinction."[4]

Nor are Israeli-held territories unusual in this regard; Christians are fleeing from all over the Middle East. Emigration began in the aftermath of World War I and has greatly picked up in the last decade. In Turkey, Christians constituted a population of 2 million in 1920 but now only some thousands remain. So severe is the problem that the Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul is in danger of collapsing for lack of large enough pool of candidates. Christians earlier in this century represented about one-third of the Syrian population; now they account for less than 10 percent. In 1932, they composed 55 percent of the Lebanese population, now less than 30 percent. More than half the Christians of Iraq have left. Copts began leaving Egypt in significant numbers after the 1952 revolution.

The Christian population decline has two main causes: emigration and declining birth rates.
Emigration represents the end of a long process of exclusion and persecution. On the West Bank, a nearly-permanent Muslim boycott of Christian businesses is the problem. In Egypt, fundamentalist Muslims constantly target Christians. The Lebanese civil war of 1975-90, when reduced to its essentials, represented a successful effort by Muslims to reduce Christian power in the country. But by far the worst situation is in the Sudan, where the civil war that has been raging most of the time since 1956 has led to wholesale atrocities.
Declining birth rates can also be seen throughout the region. In Israel, for example, live births per thousand among Muslims comes to 37; among Christians, a mere 22 per thousand.[5] In addition, the small number of Christians leads some to marry Muslims, which effectively means they are lost to their community.
At the present rate, the Middle East's 12 million Christians will likely drop to 6 million in the year 2020. With time, Christians will effectively disappear from the region as a cultural and political force.
Read more: Disappearing Christians in the Middle East :: Daniel Pipes

Christian News Bulletin: The Inside story on the war against Christianity

For the complete report from the Christian News Bulletin click on this link

The Inside story on the war against Christianity

When Jordanian Khalid Saad abandoned Islam and became a Christian, his family set out to kill him. But he escaped repeated attempts on his life, held up in prayer by thousands of Christians around the world who learned of his needs through the newsletter of Voice of the Martyrs. Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., USA and it has 30 affiliated international offices. It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant.

To receive your free copy of Voice of the Martyrs click on this link