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Bulletin of the Persecution of Christians

April 6- May 8, 2012

April 6, 2012
Egypt
In a show of partiality to Muslims who go unprosecuted for like offenses against Christianity, a juvenile court in Egypt on Wednesday (April 4) sentenced a Coptic Christian teenager to three years in prison for allegedly insulting Islam.

Gamal Abdou Massoud, 17, denies the charges. The court claimed that he posted cartoons on his Facebook account in December that mocked the Islamic religion and its prophet, Muhammad. The court also claimed that he distributed the pictures to other students.

After the incident came to light, Muslims in Assuit, where Massoud lives, rioted. They fire-bombed his home and burned down at least five other Christian-owned homes in several Assuit villages. Massoud's family left their village. It is uncertain if they were ordered out, left from fear or left because they had no home.

April 8, 2012
Nigeria
A car bombing in the northern Nigerian town of Kudana killed dozens of people and damaged churches during an Easter worship service Sunday, April 8, officials and Christians said. Witnesses said a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives Sunday morning on a busy road near the All Nations Christian Assembly Church and the ECWA Good News Church.

April 12, 2012
India
Christians in India's eastern West Bengal state were recovering of their injuries Thursday, April 12, after Muslim militants broke up a prayer meeting and beat up believers, including women, local police and Christians said. The March 30 attack in the village of Nutangram in Murshidabad district involved "about 100 Muslim radicals" led by Muslim leader Mohammed Aanu Shaike, local Christians explained.

April 13, 2012
The World
Raymond Ibrahim writes about how the media whitewashes Muslim persecution of Christians.

April 18,2012
Turkey
Semir Serkek, a Christian pastor, was attacked before Easter Sunday, says he's known persecution all his life. "I've been verbally abused for being a Christian many times, but this was the first time I was hit, so this was surprising and made me sad," Serkek said.

April 19, 2012
Sudan
Christians trapped in hostile northern Sudan fear violent persecution from the Islamic government and Muslim soldiers. More HERE.

April 20, 2012
Egypt
A recent "reconciliation meeting" between members of a Muslim mob that attacked a Christian-owned school in Egypt and school administrators was nothing less than an attempt at legalized extortion, the director of the school said.

In exchange for peace, members of the sword-wielding mob that stormed the school last month without provocation - and held two nuns hostage for several hours - initially demanded in the meetings that the school sign over parcels of land that include the guesthouse the Muslim extremists attacked. Magdy Melad, manager of the Notre Dame Language Schools in Aswan Province, told Compass that despite the risk of more attacks, he refused the assailants' demand. Doing so, he said, would set a precedent in Aswan of Muslims attacking and seizing Christian-owned property and then using reconciliation councils to give the appearance of legitimacy.

April 22, 2012
Sudan
A Muslim mob set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.The church in Khartoum's Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land, but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.

Mali (h/t thereligionofpeace)
Christians in Mali are in desperate need of aid after being forced to flee their homes when Islamists rampaged through the north as part of a violent rebel takeover. Ethnic Tuareg rebels, including Islamist movement Ansar Dine and a separatist group, seized control of northern Mali following a military coup that overthrew the government on 22 March. Boko Haram, the Islamist group that is waging war against Christians in Nigeria, have also been involved in the fighting.

Horrible crimes have been made against the population: massacres, rape of women, obligation to wear the veil, chasing Christians. All the churches were destroyed in Gao and Timbuktu. All the believers had to flee towards the south, leaving their homes and giving up all their goods. The heavily armed rebels ransacked and looted homes, vandalised churches and occupied a Bible school in Gao. Ansar Dine, which has links to al-Qaeda and wants to turn Mali into an Islamic state, is imposing sharia law on the region.

April 25, 2012
Nigeria
One person was killed and nine others were injured last night after suspected Islamic extremists attacked a TV viewing center in a Christian area of Jos where a crowd had gathered to watch soccer.

At about 10:15 p.m. at the viewing center, one of many such establishments popular in Nigeria for watching soccer matches, the attackers drove past the site and threw an explosive device at hundreds of Christians watching the match, eyewitnesses told Compass.

April 26, 2012
South Sudan
Christians faced increased hostilities in Sudan over the past few weeks, culminating in an attack on a Christian compound in Khartoum by a throng of Muslim extremists armed with clubs, iron rods, a bulldozer and fire.

Breaking down the compound wall with a bulldozer, the assailants on Saturday (April 21) set fire to the Gerief West Bible School and the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) building; they also damaged three other places of worship and other buildings in the same compound, sources told Compass by telephone. Also damaged were a clinic, a home for the elderly, classrooms and living quarters.

Iran
Iranian security forces have destroyed a 200-year-old Christian cemetery in southeastern Iran after they earlier used bulldozers to remove an historical church in the area, Iranian Christians said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife Thursday, April 26.

The cemetery attack, discovered this month in Kerman province, is no isolated incident. Iranian Christians said that "all the crosses have been taken out of the ground" at another historical British cemetery in the southwestern port city of Bushehr, near the site where Iran develops a controversial nuclear facility.

April 28,2012
Pakistan (h/t InfidelsAreCool)
While Pakistan's Hindu minority community is already disturbed over the rising incidents of kidnapping of young Hindu girls and their forced conversion to Islam, the conditions for the country's Christian minority are equally antagonising. They too are being forced by fanatic Muslims to convert to Islam, making them wonder if they still have a place in Pakistan.

"There is no compulsion in religion," is a well-known saying that most Pakistanis who live in the land of the pure often tend to forget. While religion encourages conversions, it in no way tolerates coercion. But that is what the Christian community in Pakistan says is happening. With 1.6 per cent of the population and some three million believers, the Christian minority in Pakistan is the second largest religious minority after Hindus. Available figures show that on average, eight to ten Christians are being forced every month by fanatic Muslims to convert to Islam, mostly in Sindh and Punjab provinces.

April 29, 2012
Nigeria
Suspected Islamic militants attacked a Christian worship service in in northern Nigeria Sunday, April 29, killing over a dozen people and injuring many others, an evangelist told BosNewsLife from the region.

April 30, 2012
Iran (h/t thereligionofpeace)
A number of plain clothes security officers raided the homes of two Christian converts in Tehran simultaneously and arrested them. The mother of one of the detained Christians asked, "Where are you taking my daughter?" But the authorities ironically replied, "Ask Jesus Christ to come and release her"!

May 2, 2012
Indonesia
Bogor's embattled GKI Yasmin church can reopen, as long as a mosque is built next door. Bogor's administration sealed the church in April of 2010, forcing the beleaguered 300-member congregation to hold mass in front of the church or, at times, in private. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the church in 2010, but the ruling was ignored, leaving the congregation without a house of worship. Now, as long as a mosque is built next door, the church may reopen.

May 8, 2012
Iran
The main defense lawyer for Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who is appealing a death sentence, may be facing imminent imprisonment for defending the rights of Iranians, according to Amnesty International.

Java (h/t thereligionofpeace)
Tensions remain high in central Java, where a crowd of a thousand Islamic extremists attacked a shrine to the Virgin Mary: For security reasons, yesterday the authorities suspended the programmed church service, while dozens of policemen and soldiers guarding the place of Christian worship, fearing further - possible - violence.

Indonesia (h/t thereligionofpeace)
The Aceh administration has shut down at least 16 Christian places of worship since May 2, alleging they were being run without permits and had been drawing complaints from locals.

roduced by politicalislam.com
Publisher: Bill Warner; Edited by Asma Marwan
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