Christianity 'Must be Eliminated': The Persecution of Christians, April 2023

In this mailing: - Raymond Ibrahim: Christianity 'Must be Eliminated': The Persecution of Christians, April 2023 - Amir Taheri: Mariupol: A Year Later [] [Christianity 'Must be Eliminated': The Persecution of Christians, April 2023]( by Raymond Ibrahim • May 21, 2023 at 5:00 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [WhatsApp]( [Telegram]( [Send]( [Print]( - "The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians." — mnnonline, April 3, 2023, Afghanistan. - [P]olice raided a large group of Christians, mostly college students, as they "gathered to sing and record video clips for social media." One-hundred-and three of them, "mainly students," were arrested and sent to prison. "This latest arrest puts the number of Christian prisoners detained indefinitely without trial in Eritrea to more than 500.... Mai Serwa [prison]...is ... known for its use of torture and other forms of mistreatment, including beatings, starvation, and denial of medical care. The Eritrean government detains individuals without charge or trial and has held many in detention for years without access to legal representation or the due process of law." — International Christian Concern, persecution.org, April 24, 2023, Eritrea. - [I]n one night of unfathomable horror ... men, women, and children were slaughtered like chicken...." -- persecution.org, April 28, 2023 — Democratic Republic of Congo. - The "pure genocide" of Christians, as it has been characterized by several international observers, reached new levels, according to an Apr. 10 report, which found that since 2009, 52,250 Christians in Nigeria "have been butchered or hacked to death." – Nigeria. - "Political Islam replaces the laws or interprets them differently so that they restrict the practice of other religions. It also works to change the culture of society — which puts it under great pressure — so that it becomes more radical and extreme, not only toward other religions but also toward other Islamic sects." — catholicnewsagency.com, 2023, Libya. - [P]olice arrested two illiterate cleaners—a Christian widow and a Muslim gardener—on the accusation that they had intentionally burned pages from the Koran, thereby committing "blasphemy." — morningstarnews.org, April 24, 2023, Pakistan. - "Don't tell me that if you entered a church your faith would waver. Every other person of a different religion here hears the [Islamic] call to prayer five times a day [and their faith doesn't waver]." — Syed Saddiq, Malaysian politician, christiantoday.com, April 7, 2023, Malaysia. - "Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." — morningstarnews.org, April 6, 2023, Indonesia. Official intelligence reports concerning two separate terrorist attacks that occurred on Jan. 25, 2023, when a Muslim man from Morocco wounded a priest and slaughtered a Christian sacristan in Algeciras, Spain, were released in April and shed more light on the nature of the crime. Pictured: The scene of the murder of Diego Valencia, the sacristan, in Algeciras. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images) The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of April, 2023: Generic Muslim Abuses against Christians Afghanistan: According to a brief Apr. 3 report, "Taliban puts bounty on Afghan Christians": "The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians." Eritrea: Sometime in April, police raided a large group of Christians, mostly college students, as they "gathered to sing and record video clips for social media." One-hundred-and three of them, "mainly students," were arrested and sent to prison. According to the Apr. 24 report: [Continue Reading Article]( [] [Mariupol: A Year Later]( by Amir Taheri • May 21, 2023 at 4:00 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [WhatsApp]( [Telegram]( [Send]( [Print]( - [E]ven before you start a war, you must try to form a vision of how it might end, preferably at a point at which you can claim victory or, if that isn't possible, get out with a minimum of losses. - Right now neither side in this war seems to have any idea of how it might end, while both sides dream of total victory. And that is bad news for the whole world. Almost exactly a year ago, when the last Ukrainian defenders left the shattered city of Mariupol, many analysts believed that the war triggered by Vladimir Putin would be heading towards an end with a Russian victory. That belief was based on a number of assumptions that have since proven wrong. Pictured: A view of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, photographed on April 8, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images) Almost exactly a year ago, when the last Ukrainian defenders left the shattered city of Mariupol, many analysts believed that the war triggered by Vladimir Putin would be heading towards an end with a Russian victory. That belief was based on a number of assumptions that have since proven wrong. The first was that the 80-day battle for Mariupol could not be repeated in other Ukrainian towns and villages under Russian attack. In Mariupol, resistance was led by a hard-core of Ukrainian nationalists ready, if not eager, to fight to the very end. Most were workers in the country's largest steel mill and had developed an esprit de corps worthy of military gradation. That combination of reasons for resistance could not be repeated elsewhere in Ukraine. The second belief was that Russia, having sustained losses in both men and materiel, would be in no position to prolong a war that consumed both in proportions beyond imagination. 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