The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of May 2022:
Murder and Mayhem in Nigeria
On May 12, the Islamic State in Nigeria released a video of its members slaughtering 20 Christians. The ISIS terrorists were dressed in black, which covered everything but their eyes. In the video, the Christians appear on their knees, their hands tied behind their backs. A man holding a knife stands behind them. The terrorists claim that the murder of these 20 Christians is “payback” for ISIS leaders whom the U.S. killed three months earlier in Syria. Although the scene is reminiscent of the 2015 video of another pack of Muslim terrorists slaughtering 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, it received far less media coverage. The 2015 video of the Copts had received six times less media coverage than the killing of a gorilla about the same time. The video of the Nigerian Christians also barely made a peep in the Western media — as if the ritual slaughter of Christians is now so normal that it does not merit a report.
The same day the video was released, a Muslim mob beat, stoned, and then burned the body of Deborah Emmanuel, a Christian college student who earlier had refused the sexual advances of a Muslim man. He retaliated by loudly proclaiming that she had blasphemed Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. According to Pastor David Ayuba Azzaman, a local acquainted with the incident:
“Deborah Emmanuel was complaining in a class WhatsApp group chat, kicking against how they discriminate against Christians in the school in areas of assignments and test in favor of the Muslims. This is what they used as a yardstick to say she insulted Muhammad. She didn’t insult prophet Muhammad, but it was discovered that she turned down a Muslim proposal to date her. That led to him accusing her of insulting prophet Muhammad.”
A brief video clip shows a massive fire against a wall, where she was likely driven before being stoned to death, with Muslims jumping around her burning body and crying, “Allahu Akbar” [“Allah is greatest!”]. One man, dressed in traditional Muslim attire, triumphantly keeps talking while waving a box of matches — apparently used to burn the Christian woman. After viewing other, more graphic videos of Deborah’s stoning and immolation, the Rev. Kelvin Ugwu said:
“I can’t bring myself to share the videos of how they stoned and beat this young lady to death and subsequently burned her body. It is very, very traumatizing… Why does this keep happening? What is the content of the insult she was accused of? How was it investigated? What part of our constitution allows this? Why are we silent about this evil? Why are Muslim elites silent about this? When are we going to have this conversation to put an end to this evil?”
Local media reported that Muslim anger had been further raised after Deborah said in another WhatsApp chat group that she had passed her exams thanks to Christ, “and when she was pressured to retract the statement and apologize, she declined.”
Far from being repentant, several Islamic clerics defended the actions of her murderers. In one video, Bello Yabo, a sheikh, says:
“A young person [Deborah] in Sokoto insulted Allah’s prophet yesterday. In Sokoto we kill such. We don’t tolerate such idiocy in Sokoto… Here we kill. When you touch the prophet we become mad people…. Anyone who touches the prophet, no punishment— Just kill! Even if the person repents or recants, forgiveness is God’s business. We must kill such…. Like Shehu Usman Dan Fodio [a nineteenth century Nigerian “caliph”], we are Mujahedeen (holy warriors) and Jihadists. No compromise. Allah curse whoever touches the prophet. Those of you who displayed your wrath, Allah bless you. Kill and disperse!”
Separately, on May 20, rioting Muslims searching for another Christian woman rumored to have blasphemed against Muhammad set numerous Christian homes and shops ablaze and injured approximately 20 people. “A Muslim claimed he saw a comment written by one Rhoda Jatau, 40, a Christian woman, insulting Muhammad,” an area resident said. “This information the Muslim man passed to Muslims in the town made them set fire on houses and shops belonging to Christians.” But the Rev. Joseph John Hayab said that Muslims were using blasphemy as a pretext to attack and abuse Christians:
“We know and have evidence of how some of these allegations of blasphemy are false and just for blackmail or settling scores with perceived enemies or well-mannered young girls who have refused sexual advances by the opposite sex from another religion. We are also aware of how fanatics have in the past raised lies in the name of blasphemy. We wonder if the recent sermons we are getting from some Islamic clerics on what the Holy Koran says about what should be done if anyone is accused of blasphemy is unpopular among followers?”
Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers
Uganda: Knife-wielding Muslims crying the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar!” [“Allah is greatest!”] intercepted a church leader and sliced him up after he left an open-air evangelistic event where for four days he had debated with Muslims. Several Muslims had converted to Christianity during the debates. In the attack, Bishop Amon Sadiiki received serious wounds to his head, torso, and legs, and might have died if others had not intervened and driven away the assailants.
Iran: Anooshavan Avedian, a 60-year-old Iranian-Armenian Christian, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for teaching other Christians in his house church what Judge Imam Afshari called “educational and propaganda activities contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam.”
Click here to keep reading the full May report.
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