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Bulletin of Christian Persecution

March 1, 2012 - April 8, 2012

March 1, 2012
Iraq (h/t to Doug)
Jeremish Small, of Cosmopolis, Washington, was shot to death Thursday at the Classical School of the Medes, a private Christian academy in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's most peaceful region. The [Muslim] gunman, an 18-year-old, then shot himself in the head as other students scattered from the room.

Libya (Video via MEMRI)
Armed Libyans Desecrate Christian and Jewish Graves in War Cemetery in Benghazi. More HERE.

March 2, 2012
Pakistan
A Christian woman was brutally tortured and paraded in the streets of a village in Pakistan's Punjab province by a mob for her alleged "anti-Islam views", local residents and police officials said today.

March 4, 2012
Nigeria (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a "war" on Christians in the next few weeks.

March 6, 2012
Egypt (h/t to JihadWatch)
A court in Edfu has sentenced Reverend Makarios Bolous, pastor of St. George's Church in the village of Elmarinab, Edfu, in the Aswan province, to six months prison and a fine of 300 pounds for violations in the height of the church building. The court also ordered the removal of the excess height.

March 8, 2012
Nigeria
A Nigeria spokesman for the Islamist militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday afternoon that the group has plans to begin kidnapping Christian women in a push to "liquidate" the religious group from the country. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the spokesman said that "we are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women."

Pakistan (h/t to JihadWatch)
The National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church releases a report on the tragic conditions faced by minority women. One factor in discrimination is forced conversion. One non-Muslim woman in two experiences pressures to convert to Islam, which often come with violence and coercion. Looming in the background is the blasphemy law, seen by many as the most serious obstacle to social and cultural equality. More HERE.

March 11, 2012
Nigeria (h/t to JihadWatch)
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Catholic church in the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, killing at least three people attending mass, the emergency services said. The man drove his car towards St Finbar's Catholic church in the city before setting off a large explosion, killing himself and at least three churchgoers. Update HERE.

March 12, 2012
Iran (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
The Armenian Evangelical Church in Tehran has been ordered to cease its Persian Language Service on Fridays. The church is one of the few established churches in Iran which was still allowed to have Persian Language services for Persian speaking Christians.

Serving the notice, officers of the Islamic Court informed the Church officials that they are being ordered to cease Persian language services, and threatened that if this order is ignored and they continue to have Christian services on Fridays which is a sacred day for Muslims, church building will be bombed “as happens in Iraq every day”.

Iran (h/t to JihadWatch)
Vice president of Tehran's city hall announced, "There are some freemasonry and Christian symbols installed on personal buildings around the city. We should control these symbols and ban their display."

Pakistan
A young mother has been falsely accused of "blaspheming" Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, because she rebuffed attempts by relatives who had converted to Islam to force her to renounce her Christian faith, family members said.

March 13, 2012
Iran (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
For the first time since his arrest in 2009, Iran has admitted publicly that Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been convicted of religious crimes. During a United Nation Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Monday, Iran said Nadarkhani, who has been sentenced to death, was found guilty of three charges: building a church in his home without government permission, preaching to minors without parental consent and offending Islam, according to a meeting transcript.

March 14, 2012
Saudi Arabia (h/t to MiddleEastForum )
According to several Arabic news sources, last Monday, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region." The Grand Mufti made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait: a Kuwaiti parliament member recently called for the "removal" of churches (he later "clarified" by saying he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait), and the delegation wanted to confirm Sharia's position on churches.

Bethlem (Palestinian Authority) (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
The Palestinian Authority declared a Baptist Church in Bethlehem to be unlawful and said that it will no longer receive rights as a religious institution. This decision comes a week after Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told an audience of Evangelical Protestants that his government respected the rights of its Christian minorities.

"They said that our legitimacy as a church from a governmental point of view is not approved," said an assistant pastor at the First Baptist Church. "They said they will not recognize any legal paper work from our church. That includes birth certificates, wedding certificates and death certificates.

March 16, 2012
Egypt (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
More than 300 Muslim lawyers inside and outside a courthouse in the southern Egyptian province of Assuit today prevented defense lawyer Ahmad Sayed Gabali, who is representing the Christian Makarem Diab, from going into court. Mr. Diab was found guilty of 'Insulting the Muslim Prophet' and was scheduled today a hearing on his appeal.

Egypt
Two nuns in Upper Egypt faced "unimaginable fear" - with one later hospitalized over the emotional trauma - when 1,500 Muslim villagers brandishing swords and knives trapped them inside a guesthouse last week and threatened to burn them out.

Iran
In a rare crackdown on a concentrated area, Iranian authorities have arrested Christians living in the country's third largest city in what is seen as a tactic to discourage Muslims and converts to Christianity from attending official churches. Since last month officials have arrested about 12 Christian converts in Isfahan

March 17, 2012
Egypt
Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt's Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, died Saturday. He was 88. His death comes as the country's estimated 10 million Christians are feeling more vulnerable than ever amid the rise of Islamic movements to political power after the toppling a year ago of President Hosni Mubarak. The months since have seen a string of attacks on the community, heightened anti-Christian rhetoric by ultraconservatives known as Salafis and fears that coming goverments will try to impose strict versions of Islamic law. More HERE.

Indonesia (h/t to GatesofVienna)
The two alleged perpetrators of the attack on a Protestant church in Indramayu were arrested within a few hours of the attack in Bandung. So far the police have not released the identities of two men known only by their initials who are in their 30s.

March 18, 2012
Yemen (h/t to therligionofpeace)
Gunmen linked to al Qaeda shot dead an American teacher in Yemen on Sunday, accusing him of Christian "proselytizing", and officials said government forces had killed a dozen militants in clashes and attacks on their strongholds.

March 20, 2012
India
A young woman was thrown out of her home this month for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ's name in a predominantly Muslim village in India's West Bengal state, and then her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious.

Sudan
The "ethnic cleansing" that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has undertaken against black Africans in the Nuba Mountains is also aimed at ridding the area of Christianity, according to humanitarian workers.

By targeting Christians among people who are also adherents of Islam and other faiths in the Nuba Mountains, military force helps the regime in Khartoum to portray the violence as "jihad" to Muslims abroad and thus raise support from Islamic nations, said one humanitarian worker on condition of anonymity.

March 21, 2012
Pakistan
Nearly 62 per cent of Hindu and Christian women fear that a majority of Muslims would not come to their aid if they were being discriminated against. This was one of the findings of the study "Life on the Margins," which was released by the National Commission for Justice and Peace at the Pakistan Medical Association House.

March 22, 2012
Kurdistan
Although economic situation in Kurdistan is better than in Iraq, Christians and other religious minorities have found that the Muslim majority is not that tolerant of them and will use oppression against them.

March 30, 2012
Sudan
After Khartoum denied that it had bombed civilians earlier this month, Sudanese aerial strikes last week were aimed at church buildings and schools in Kauda, South Kordofan state, a humanitarian aid worker said. Antonov airplanes dropped bombs on Thursday and Friday (March 22 and 23), destroying some houses and cattle near the church buildings and schools but causing no casualties, he said.

March 31, 2012
Kenya
Islamic radicals bombed an open-air worship service and killed two Christians and wounded more than 30 in the town of Mtwapa.

April 1, 2012
Turkey (h/t to JihadWatch)
Turkey's Greek Orthodox citizens living on the island of Gökçeada (Imbros) in the north Aegean cannot buy property on the island, the Taraf daily claimed on Sunday. The issue emerged when lawyer Erhan Gökçe complained in court about officials who put up difficulties before non-Muslims on the island who want to obtain property.

April 2, 2012
Egypt (h/t to Jihadwatch)
Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has announced it is withdrawing from talks on a new constitution, saying Islamist domination of the drafting body has made its participation "pointless," Egypt's state news agency said.

April 4, 2012
Egypt
An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad, actions that sparked sectarian violence.

April 5, 2012
Tunsia (h/t to Raymond Ibrahim, translator)
The Christian Orthodox Church in Tunis, one of very few churches in the country of Tunisia, is being "abused" and receiving "threatening messages" from "Salafis." Church members are described as "living in a state of terror," so much so that the Russian ambassador in Tunis specifically requested the nation's Ministry of Interior to "protect the church."

The abuse has gotten to the point where "Salafis covered the cross of the church with garbage bags, telling the church members that they do not wish to see the vision of the Cross anywhere in the Islamic state of Tunisia."

April 6, 2012
Iran
Twelve Christians are to stand trial in Iran on Easter Sunday on charges including "crimes against the order", an activist assisting them with advocacy told BosNewsLife.

Sudan
Christians from South Sudan who have until Easter Sunday (April 8) to try to become citizens of Sudan or be deported fear authorities will use the occasion to rid the country of Christianity, church leaders said.

Christian leaders expressed concern that local media such as the daily Al Intibaha newspaper have been stoking hatred against predominantly Christian southern Sudanese, describing them as "cancer cells in the body of Sudan, the land of the Arab and Islam," and calling on the government to deport them.

April 7, 2012
Iran (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
According to Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, a two hundred year old historical graveyard in the Ghal'e-dokhtar area in Kerman province "has completely demolished".

Tunisia (h/t to JihadWatch)
Non-Muslim places of worship are being targeted by still-unidentified individuals. After the attacks perpetrated against the Orthodox church on Avenue Mohamed V, the Russian school located behind the church as well as the Christian cemetery of Montplasir in Tunis have been vandalized.

The walls of the school were smeared with fecal matter, as also a fresco of Saint Siberian [sic] located in the back courtyard of the Orthodox church, while the cemetery's crosses were destroyed.

April 8, 2012
Nigeria (h/t to thereligionofpeace)
At least 50 people were killed when explosives concealed in two cars went off near a church during Easter Sunday services in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, eye-witnesses said. Shehu Sani, the President of Civil Rights Congress based in Kaduna, said two explosions took place at the Assemblies of God's Church near the centre of the city with a large Christian population and known as a major cultural and economic centre in Nigeria's north.


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