How the Islamic World was Forged: An Exercise in Common Sense

"That there are still millions of Christians in Egypt (approximately 10% of the population)�is not proof of Islam�s tolerance but rather its intolerance." 

by Raymond Ibrahim, FrontPage Magazine � August 31, 2015

What made non-Muslims convert to Islam, leading to the creation of the Islamic world?

Early historical sources�both Muslim and non-Muslim�make clear that the Islamic empire was forged by the sword; that people embraced Islam, not so much out of sincere faith, but for a myriad of reasons�from converting in order to enjoy the boons of being on the �winning team� to converting in order to evade the dooms of being on the �losing team.�

Modern day Muslims and other apologists�primarily in academia, government, and mainstream media�reject this idea.  They argue that the non-Muslims who embraced Islam did so from sheer conviction; that the ancestors of today�s 1.5 billion Muslims all converted to Islam due to its intrinsic appeal; that the modern day coercion and persecution committed by the Islamic State and other organizations is an aberration.

Of course, as mentioned, the primary texts of history are full of anecdotes demonstrating the opposite.  However, because ours is an increasingly ahistorical society, in this essay I endeavor to show that sheer common sense alone validates what history records, namely, that the Islamic world and its populace was forged through violent coercion.

To do so, I will use Egypt�one of the most important Muslim majority nations and my ancestral homeland�as a paradigm.  I will show how a historic fact that Islam�s apologists habitually boast of�that there are still millions of Christians in Egypt (approximately 10% of the population)�is not proof of Islam�s tolerance but rather its intolerance.

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In the 7th century, when Islam was being formulated, Egypt had been Christian for centuries,[1] before most of Europe had converted.  Alexandria was one of the most important ecclesiastical centers of ancient Christian learning and, along with Rome and Antioch, one of the original three sees.[2]  Much literary and ongoing archaeological evidence attest to the fact that Christianity permeated the whole of Egypt.

Writing around the year 400�roughly two-and-a-half centuries before the Arab invasion�John Cassian, a Christian monk from the region of modern day Romania, observed that

the traveler from Alexandria in the north to Luxor in the south would have in his ears along the whole journey, the sounds of prayers and hymns of the monks, scattered in the desert, from the monasteries and from the caves, from monks, hermits, and anchorites.[3]

And in recent times, both the oldest parchment to contain words from the Gospel (dating to the 1st century) and the oldest image of Christ were discovered in separate regions of Egypt.

Possibly oldest known image of Christ, found in Egypt and dating to the 1st century

The question now becomes: what made such an ancient and heavily Christian nation become Islamic?  More specifically, what made the ancestors of today�s Egyptian Muslims�most of who were Coptic Christians�convert to Islam?

For an objective answer to this question, a completely overlooked factor must be considered.

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In the 7th century, when Muslim Arabs overran Egypt, and on into the medieval era, religion was not something to be casually adhered to or changed as it is today in the West.  People of that era were true believers; there was no alternative narrative�no so-called �science vs God� claims.

Whatever religion a person was born into was accepted with absolute conviction�despite the many movies that project modernity onto Medieval Christians. (Thus the focal character of Kingdom of Heaven, Balian, and all other Christian protagonists reject the �fanatical Christians� and exhibit a more open, tolerant, and �nuanced� view on religion, including Islam.  Such depictions are anachronisms with little grounding in history.)

In Medieval Europe, the truths of Christianity were etched into the minds of all, from youth on up.  There was no doubt�because there was no alternative.  As historian of Medieval Europe and the Crusades Thomas Madden puts it:

[T]he medieval world was not the modern world. For medieval people, religion was not something one just did at church. It was their science, their philosophy, their politics, their identity, and their hope for salvation. It was not a personal preference but an abiding and universal truth.

In this context, to apostatize, to leave the Christian faith, especially for another creed, was the most unthinkable of all transgressions against one�s own soul�a sin that would lead to eternal damnation.

�God wills it!� Typical depictions of �hypocritical�

crusaders in Kingdom of Heaven

It was of course the same with Muslims.  The point here is that pre-modern man took the religion of his people, his tribe, his world, very seriously�especially when such religions taught that failure to do so, or worse, to willingly apostatize, would lead to eternal hell.

Put differently, even if Islam offered intrinsic appeal, the idea that pre-modern Christians were �free� to choose to convert�free of guilt, free of fear, free of existential trauma�is anachronistic and thus implausible.

Again, Western man, who lives in an era when people change religions as often as they change shoes, may have great difficulty in fully appreciating this idea.   But it is true nonetheless.

After writing that �Christians saw crusades to the east as acts of love and charity, waged against Muslim conquerors in defense of Christian people and their lands,� Madden correctly observes:

It is easy enough for modern people to dismiss the crusades as morally repugnant or cynically evil.  Such judgements, however, tell us more about the observer than the observed.  They are based on uniquely modern (and, therefore, Western) values.  If, from the safety of our modern world, we are quick to condemn the medieval crusader, we should be mindful that he would be just as quick to condemn us [regarding our values and priorities]�.  In both societies, the medieval and the modern, people fight for what is most dear to them.[4]

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If Europeans were this dedicated to Christianity in the medieval era, what of the Copts of Egypt who were Christian many centuries earlier?  Indeed, according to some historical sources, Egypt�s ancient Christians may have been especially tenacious in their zeal.

What, then, made them convert to Islam in mass is the question before us?

Is it plausible to believe that the primitive Muslim conquerors of Egypt did not discriminate against its indigenous Christians or pressure them to convert to Islam (even as Muslims do so now in the �enlightened� modern era)?

Is it true, to quote Georgetown University professor John Esposito, that Christians �were free to practice their faith to worship and be governed by their religious leaders and laws in such areas as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In exchange, they were required to pay tribute, a poll tax (jizya) that entitled them to Muslim protection from outside aggression and exempted them from military service.� (Rebuttal to this assertion here.)

A "subdued and humiliated" dhimmi pays the jizya. Note all the Muslims are armed,
with an axe right in front of the pasha. The threat is clear.

And yet, though left in peace and unpressured, Egypt�s original Christians found the new creed of sword-swinging, camel-riding  Arabs so intrinsically appealing that they willingly apostatized in mass from the religion of their forefathers�a religion that was so fundamental to their being, albeit in a way modern man cannot comprehend?

In fact, common sense suggests that nothing less than extremely severe circumstances and hardships�persecution�prompted the Copts to convert to Islam.

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Of course, for the historian who reads the primary sources�as opposed to the mainstream works of fiction being peddled as �history� by the likes of Karen Armstrong and others�the above exercise in common sense is superfluous.

For the primary sources make clear that, while Egypt�s Copts acquiesced to dhimmi status�constantly paying large sums of extortion money and accepting life as third class subjects with few rights simply to remain Christian�bouts of extreme persecution regularly flared up.  And with each one, more and more Christians converted to Islam in order to find relief.[5]

One telling example: in Muslim historian Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi�s (d. 1442) authoritative history of Egypt, anecdote after anecdote is recorded of Muslims burning churches, slaughtering Christians, and enslaving their women and children.  The only escape then�as it is increasingly today�was for Christians to convert to Islam.

After recording one particularly egregious bout of persecution, where countless Christians were slaughtered, enslaved, and raped, and where reportedly some 30,000 churches in Egypt and Syria were destroyed�a staggering number that further indicates how Christian the Near East was before Islam�the pious Muslim historian makes clear why Christians converted: �Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims� (emphasis added).[6]

Alongside these times of extreme persecution, the entrenched dhimmi system saw the increasingly impoverished Egyptian people slowly convert to Islam over the centuries, so that today only 10% remain Christian.

Consider the words of Alfred Butler, a 19th century historian writing before political correctness came to dominate academia.  In The Arab Conquest of Egypt, he highlights the �vicious system of bribing the Christians into conversion�:

[A]lthough religious freedom was in theory secured for the Copts under the capitulation, it soon proved in fact to be shadowy and illusory. For a religious freedom which became identified with social bondage and with financial bondage could have neither substance nor vitality.  As Islam spread, the social pressure upon the Copts became enormous, while the financial pressure at least seemed harder to resist, as the number of Christians or Jews who were liable for the poll-tax [jizya] diminished year by year, and their isolation became more conspicuous. . . . [T]he burdens of the Christians grew heavier in proportion as their numbers lessened [that is, the more Christians converted to Islam, the more the burdens on the remaining few grew]. The wonder, therefore, is not that so many Copts yielded to the current which bore them with sweeping force over to Islam, but that so great a multitude of Christians stood firmly against the stream, nor have all the storms of thirteen centuries moved their faith from the rock of its foundation.[7]

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The reader will bear in mind that although the above exposition concerns Egypt, the same paradigm applies to the rest of conquered Christian lands.  Today the whole of North Africa is reportedly 99% Muslim�yet few are aware that it was Christian majority in the 7th century when Islam invaded.  St. Augustine�arguably the father of Western Christian theology�hailed from modern day Algeria.

Thus it is not an exaggeration to say that �the Islamic world� would be a fraction of its size, or might not exist at all, were it not for the fact that non-Muslims converted to Islam simply to evade oppression and persecution.  Once all these Christians converted to Islam, all their progeny became Muslim in perpetuity, thanks to Islam�s apostasy law, which bans Muslims from leaving Islam on pain of death.  Indeed, according to Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading cleric in the Muslim world, �If the [death] penalty for apostasy was ignored, there would not be an Islam today; Islam would have ended on the death of the prophet.�

Bloodied gate of Coptic Christian church in Egypt,

one of many dozens to be attacked in recent years.

Which leads to one of Islam�s most bitterest of ironies: a great many of today�s Christians, especially those in the Arab world, are being persecuted by Muslims whose own ancestors were persecuted Christians who converted to Islam to end their own suffering. In other words, Muslim descendants of persecuted Christians are today persecuting their Christian cousins�and thus perpetuating the cycle that made them Muslim in the first the place.

The long and short of all this is simple: Past and present, Islam has been a religion of coercion.[8]   More than half of the territory that once made up Christendom�including Egypt, Syria, Turkey, North Africa�converted to Islam due to bouts of extreme violence and ongoing financial bleeding.  The Islamic State and like organizations and Muslims around the world are not aberrations but continuations.  The violence, intolerance and coercion they exhibit�pressuring Christians to convert to Islam, compelling Muslims to remain in Islam�created and sustains what is today called the Islamic world.

Not only do we have a plethora of original source material proving these conclusions, but sheer common sense demonstrates as much.

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NOTES:

[1] St. Mark began evangelizing Egypt in the middle of the 1st century.

[2] That two of the three original sees of Christianity originated in what are now two Muslim nations�Egypt and Turkey�further speaks to the Christian nature of the Middle East before the Islamic invasions.

[3] Abba Anthony, Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, Saint Anthony Monastery, March 2014, issue #3, p.6).

[4] Thomas Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades (NY: Barnes and Noble, 2007), 223.

[5] As Muslims grew in numbers over the centuries in Egypt, so did persecution (according to Islam�s Rule of Numbers), culminating in the immensely oppressive Mameluke era (1250-1517), when Coptic conversion to Islam grew exponentially.

[6] Taqi Ed-Din El-Maqrizi, A Short History of the Copts and Their Church, trans. S. C. Malan (London: D. Nutt, 1873), 88-91.

[7] Alfred Butler, The Arab Invasion of Egypt and the Last 30 Years of Roman Dominion (Brooklyn: A & B Publishers, 1992), 464. One of the major themes throughout Butler�s book�which, first published in 1902, is heavily based on primary sources, Arabic and Coptic, unlike more modern secondary works that promote the Islamic �liberator� thesis�is that �there is not a word to show that any section of the Egyptian nation viewed the advent of the Muslims with any other feeling than terror� (p. 236):

Even in the most recent historians it will be found that the outline of the story [of the 7th century conquest of Egypt] is something as follows: �. that the Copts generally hailed them [Muslims] as deliverers and rendered them every assistance; and that Alexandria after a long siege, full of romantic episodes, was captured by storm.  Such is the received account.  It may seem presumptuous to say that it is untrue from beginning to end, but to me no other conclusion is possible. [pgs. iv-v]

Butler and other politically incorrect historians were and are aware of the savage and atrocity-laden nature of the Islamic conquests.  The Coptic chronicler, John of Nikiu, a contemporary of the Arab conquest of Egypt and possibly an eyewitness, wrote:

Then the Muslims arrived in Nikiu [along the Nile]� seized the town and slaughtered everyone they met in the street and in the churches�men, women, and children, sparing nobody.  Then they went to other places, pillaged and killed all the inhabitants they found�.  But let us say no more, for it is impossible to describe the horrors the Muslims committed�

Not, of course, that the average Muslim is aware of this fact. Indeed, in 2011 the Egyptian Muslim scholar Fadel Soliman published a book that was well received and widely promoted in the Islamic world, including by Al Jazeera, entitled Copts: Muslims Before Muhammad.  The book makes the ahistorical and anachronistic�in a word, the absurd�argument that Egypt�s 7th century Christians were really prototypical Muslims and that that is why Arabia�s Muslims came to �liberate� them from �oppressive� Christian rule.

[8] If not in theory, certainly in practice.   See �Islamic Jihad and the Doctrine of Abrogation.�

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RAYMOND IBRAHIM is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam specialist.  His books include Crucified Again: Exposing Islam�s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, CNN, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, New York Times Syndicate, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jane�s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites... continue reading...

Report: Muslim Persecution of Christians, May 2015

Raymond Ibrahim's monthly report highlights anti-Christian/pro-Muslim bias in the U.S. government; documents how the U.S. State Department repeatedly bars Christians from testifying about persecution.

by Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute �July 24, 2015

The St Catherine of Siena Church and its statue of
Christ in Mississauga, Ontario were vandalized by
Iqbal Hessan, a 22-year-old Muslim man.

During the height of one of the most brutal months of Muslim persecution of Christians, the U.S. State Department exposed its double standards against persecuted Christian minorities.

Sister Diana, an influential Iraqi Christian leader, who was scheduled to visit the U.S. to advocate for persecuted Christians in the Mideast, was denied a visa by the U.S. State Department even though she had visited the U.S. before, most recently in 2012.

She was to be one of a delegation of religious leaders from Iraq � including Sunni, Shia and Yazidi, among others � to visit Washington, D.C., to describe the situation of their people. Every religious leader from this delegation to Washington D.C. was granted a visa � except for the only Christian representative, Sister Diana.

After this refusal became public, many Americans protested, some writing to their congressmen. Discussing the nun�s visa denial, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said:

This is an administration which never seems to find a good enough excuse to help Christians, but always finds an excuse to apologize for terrorists � I hope that as it gets attention that Secretary Kerry will reverse it. If he doesn�t, Congress has to investigate, and the person who made this decision ought to be fired.

The State Department eventually granted Sister Diana a visa.

This is not the first time the U.S. State Department has not granted a visa to a Christian leader coming from a Muslim region. Last year, after the United States Institute for Peace brought together the governors of Nigeria�s mostly Muslim northern states for a conference in the U.S., the State Department blocked the visa of the region�s only Christian governor, Jonah David Jang.

According to a Nigerian human rights lawyer based in Washington D.C., Emmanuel Ogebe, the Christian governor�s �visa problems� were due to anti-Christian bias in the U.S. government:

The U.S. insists that Muslims are the primary victims of Boko Haram. It also claims that Christians discriminate against Muslims in Plateau, which is one of the few Christian majority states in the north. After the [Christian governor] told them [U.S. authorities] that they were ignoring the 12 Shariah states who institutionalized persecution � he suddenly developed visa problems�. The question remains � why is the U.S. downplaying or denying the attacks against Christians?

The testimony of another nun, Sister Hatune Dogan, also made in May, indicates why the State Department may not want to hear such testimonials: they go against the paradigm that �Islam is peace.� According to Sister Hatune:

What is going on there [Islamic State territories], what I was hearing, is the highest barbarism on earth in the history until today� The mission of Baghdadi, of ISIS, is to convert the world completely to the Islamic religion and bring them to Dar Al Salaam, as they call it. And Islam is not peace, please. Whoever says ISIS has no connection to Islam or something like this is, he�s a liar. ISIS is Islam; Islam is ISIS� We know that in Islam, there is no democracy. Islam and democracy are opposite, like black and white. And I hope America will understand. America today has the power that they can stop this disaster on the earth, with other Western countries.

The rest of May�s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed by theme.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Pakistan: Three separate incidents involved attacks on churches:

1) On May 28, in the city of Chakwal, south of Lahore, Muslim men destroyed a Protestant church and beat six Christians, including the pastor. Some of those wounded had to be hospitalized. A few days earlier, Pastor Suhail Masih and his companions had been accused by local Muslims of carrying out �proselytism and conversions of Muslims,� according to a preliminary report.

2) Javed David, head of Hope for the Light Ministries in Lahore, and his associates, have been receiving death threats since February. The latest incident occurred in April, but became public knowledge only in May. According to David:

I had been to church in Sheikhupura to attend a meeting with colleagues. It was 8 o�clock in the evening when we left to return to Lahore. We were about to reach the main road when a motorbike drove up and blocked the way. Maybe they were following us. The two bikers were wearing a helmet (sic). One of them came up to my window and spoke to me. �We know what you are doing here,� he said. �Stop building churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true religion. Otherwise we will make a horrible example of you.�� [On another] occasion too, I was going home when a motorcycle stopped in front of me. The driver knocked on the window and threw in a piece of paper. I did not open it before I got home. It said, �This is an Islamic nation. We cannot allow church building. Either you convert to Islam or you leave this country! Stop building churches or you�ll pay the consequences!�

3) On May 29 in Faisalabad, around 2 a.m., a gang of Muslims on motorcycles attacked a church near the Sadar police station. They opened fire on the church and set its main gate on fire, damaging its windows. According to church cleric Dilawar Masih, �Though no human loss was reported in this incident, attackers gave a clear-cut message that Christians and their places of worship are not safe and they may be attacked any time by the terrorists.�

Egypt: Two churches were attacked:

1) On May 16, a homemade explosive device planted next to a Coptic Christian church was detonated around sunset. As the St. George Church in Tamiya (Fayum governorate) was mostly empty at the time, there were no casualties. However, the church�s administrative offices and second floor windows were shattered, creating chaos and panic in the area. Church security cameras captured the two men on a motorcycle, who stopped at the church. One of the men dismounted and placed a bag containing the bomb next to the church, and they then sped off.

2) On Sunday morning, May 31 in Senoras city, Fayum, masked men on motorcycles opened fire on an Evangelical church. Security forces guarding the church briefly exchanged fire with the masked men before they fled on their motorcycles. No one was reported hurt.

Canada: On May 26, a 22-year-old man of Muslim background was charged with alleged hate crimes committed against the St. Catherine of Siena Church and its neighboring elementary school in Mississauga, Ontario. Iqbal Hessan faces five counts of mischief, and over $5,000 in fines. On May 20, the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue that stands in front of the church was covered in black paint and the fingers of its outstretched arms were broken off. Behind the church, graffiti with the words �There is no Jew God� was scrawled across the brick wall along with a drawing of a face labelled �Jewsus.� That vandalism was the fourth time the church was targeted. On April 9, surveillance cameras caught a young man breaking into the church, ripping pages of the Sacramentary book on the altar, throwing them at the tabernacle, and then stealing one of the church�s sound-system speakers. On May 17, a drawing of a hand gesturing with the middle finger was found spray-painted on the front steps of the church. And on May 25, graffiti was sprayed on the school walls.

Algeria: According to Abdel Fattah Zarawi, the Muslim leader of the Salafi party, also known as the Free Front of Algeria, any and all Christian churches remaining in the North African nation must be closed and reopened as mosques. Although the transformation of Christian churches into Muslim mosques is nearly as old as Islam itself � Algeria was Christian-majority and even gave the world St. Augustine before Islam invaded and conquered it in the seventh century � the Salafi leader tried to portray his proposal as a �grievance� against rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, especially France. Launched on social media and networks, the Salafi campaign against Algerian churches even calls for the transformation of the nation�s most important churches into mosques � including the Church of Notre Dame d�Afrique in Algiers, the Church of St. Augustine in Annaba, and the Church of Santa Cruz in Oran � since �they have no relation whatsoever to the religion of Algerian Muslims,� in the words of the Free Front.

Saudi Arabia: Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and current prayer leader of Muhaisin Mosque in Riyadh, issued a tweet from his personal Twitter account, saying, �My beloved nation: It suffices me that you shelter me from hearing church bells ringing in you.� Due to his importance, the New York Times once issued an entire spread about al-Kalbani. The �hopeful� theme is how al-Kalbani managed to rise to the top in Saudi Arabia by becoming the first black Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. No word in any English language media, however, about his abhorrence for Christian churches and their bells.

Turkey: A 900-year-old Christian church in Turkey is to be renovated into a functioning mosque � despite previous governmental assurances that it would be renovated into a museum. Enez�s Hagia Sophia, the name of the ancient church, is located inside the city of Ainos, along the border with Greece and stationed atop a hill, visible to all. Another centuries-old church, Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, along the Black Sea, was reopened in 2013 as a mosque, although it was a museum for many years. Meanwhile, a majority of Turks await the re-transformation of the greatest Hagia Sophia (Constantinople�s) into a mosque.

Yemen: A Catholic church was seriously damaged during a Saudi bombing raid around mid-May. The church of the Immaculate Conception in Aden had earlier been occupied by Houthi rebels who had vandalized its interior. The airstrike by Saudi bombers � in support of the Yemeni government in its struggle with the rebels � did further damage to the structure. Only one Catholic priest remains in Yemen. Two priests fled the country to escape the violence, while another, who was out of the country when the fighting began, has been unable to return. Twenty members of the Missionaries of Charities have chosen to remain in the war-torn country, tending to the sick and the poor.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom

Pakistan: On Sunday, May 24, a Christian man in the Sanda neighborhood of Lahore was accused of blasphemy when some Muslims saw him burning newspapers that reportedly contained Arabic verses from the Koran. After the accusation, a Muslim mob caught the Christian, severely beat him, and even attempted to set him on fire. A few months earlier, another Muslim mob burned a Christian couple alive inside a kiln after they, too, were accused of insulting Islam. The Christian youth � named Humayun Masih, said to be �mentally unstable� � was imprisoned and charged under section 295-B of Pakistan�s penal code, which prohibits the desecration of the Koran. After the attack on the Christian youth, the Muslim mob, reportedly thousands, rampaged through the neighborhood and set fire to Christian homes and a church. Christians in the region were attacked, and most fled the region; some of the mob was armed and gunshots were heard.

Egypt: On May 5, another Coptic Christian was convicted of blaspheming against Islam: �ridiculing or insulting a heavenly religion� in violation of Article 98 (f) of the Egyptian Penal Code. A judge in Daqahliya sentenced Michael Munir Beshay to one year�s imprisonment and a fine of one thousand Egyptian pounds. As International Christian Concern puts it: �Despite steps taken by the Sisi-led government to bring about greater tolerance and reforms, the conviction of Beshay is just another of many recent incidents highlighting the continued persecution of the country�s Christian minority.�[1] And Bishoy Armia Boulous � formerly known as Mohammed Hegazy, an apostate from Islam to Christianity � has remained imprisoned now for approximately a year, well past the legal six-month investigation period. All this time, he has been subject to physical and verbal abuse, from both prison guards and fellow inmates, on account of his �apostasy� from, and �blasphemy� against, Islam. He has been denied a Bible and has not had eyeglasses since they were intentionally broken some time ago. [2]

Iran: Ibrahim Firouzi, a Muslim convert to Christianity, was sentenced to the maximum five years in prison for �action against national security through collusion and gathering.� After Firouzi converted to Christianity, he was arrested on August 25, 2013 and convicted of evangelizing, colluding with �anti-regime� foreign networks, launching a Christian website, and working against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although his prison term was supposed to end on January 13, 2015, authorities continued to hold him illegally, and on March 8 they sentenced him to serve another five years �in very difficult conditions.�

Dhimmitude

Syria: After failed negotiations, the Islamic State (IS) refused to release 242 Christian hostages captured during a late February raid along the Khabur River. On May 1, the IS demanded $242 million USD for the release of 93 women, 51 children, and 98 men taken captive. The Assyrian church, family and friends, unable to raise such a large sum, made a lesser, undisclosed offer, which IS rejected, saying it would no longer negotiate concerning the fate of the captive Christians. Based on Islamic law, their fate will now likely be slavery (especially women and children) or execution (especially men).[3]

Ethiopia: A Muslim mob in Deder attacked a Christian man and forced him out of his home on pain of death, in an effort to appropriate his land and build a mosque on it � despite recent court rulings confirming the Christian man�s property rights. �Their first plan was to kill my husband,� said Fikere Mengistu�s wife. �Now, he has escaped from the area. We are fasting and praying for God to rescue us from this forceful action.� She remains with her five children, elderly mother-in-law and 30 other Christians, praying on the property. �We did our best try to defend our faith based on the law of the country� Muslims are out of the control of the government and the law. What can we do?� said Mengistu.[4]

Iraq: Juliana George, a 16-year-old Christian girl living in Baghdad, was abducted from her home. According to her family, a person knocked on the door of their home and when she answered, she was seized by four men who forced her into a waiting taxi and sped away. Her grandfather, Joseph, a priest, chased the taxi on foot and grabbed its door, but eventually fell to the side as the vehicle sped away. She was eventually released after her family paid a $55,000 ransom to the abductors for her return. Juliana�s father, George, said that she has been traumatized by the experience: �I fear for her and my two other daughters�. There is no reason to believe that we will not be targeted again. I don�t see how we can stay in Baghdad after this.�

Turkey: On the same year that millions around the world commemorated the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish authorities started the demolition of Kamp Armen, an Armenian orphanage in the metropolitan district of Tuzla, despite the attempts by some political representatives to intervene. The orphanage was built in 1962 on the initiative of the Armenian Protestant community. A brief historical recap of the orphanage follows:

Thanks to its activities, the institution has helped 1,500 children to grow up in an environment based on the spirituality and culture of Armenian Christianity. There was also Hrant Dink among its students, the Armenian Turkish journalist, founder of the bilingual magazine Agos, killed in 2007 after being repeatedly threatened with death for his positions on the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish State had expropriated the orphanage in 1987, and all legal attempt (sic) by the Armenian Protestant communities to regain control of the building fell on deaf ears.

Italian Dhimmitude

Accounts of Muslim immigrants taunting and even assaulting Christians in Italy are increasing. Earlier this year, a crucifix was violently destroyed in close proximity to a populated mosque, and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed and urinated on by a group of North Africans in Italy. In addition:

• A Muslim schoolboy of African origin beat a 12-year-old girl at a school because she was wearing a crucifix around her neck. The boy, who had only started to attend the school a few weeks earlier, began to bully the Christian girl � �insulting her and picking on her in other ways all because she was wearing the crucifix� � before he finally assaulted her. Italian police did not charge the boy with any offense; they said he was a minor.

• On Sunday, May 10, after church mass, a group of young Muslim immigrants from the Islamic Center interrupted a Catholic procession in honor of the Virgin Mary. They shouted verbal insults and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in Conselice, a small town in lower Romagna. Approximately 100 Catholic Christians, including several small children, were preparing to receive their first Holy Communion. They were reportedly stunned and confused and halted the procession before regrouping and hurrying past the Center.

Egyptian Dhimmitude

On Sunday, May 24, in the village of Kafr Darwish, just south of Cairo, a Muslim mob attacked Coptic Christian homes by throwing stones and Molotov explosives at them. More than 10 homes were torched and damaged. This attack was apparently prompted by a familiar narrative: one of the Coptic villagers, Ayman Youssef, was accused of posting cartoons offensive to Muhammad on his Facebook account. Youssef is illiterate and says he lost his mobile phone a few days before the alleged Facebook posting. Village elders and security representatives held a �conciliation session� and decreed that Youssef�s entire family � including the 80-year-old father and 75-year-old mother � must leave the village if angry Muslims were to calm down. The Christian family was told by the village mayor Ahmed Maher that police �cannot guarantee their safety if they remained in the village.�

Dr. Khaled Montaser, an Egyptian intellectual and frequent critic of the Islamization of the country, discussed how discrimination against Coptic Christians is widespread in certain medical professions. He said during a televised program that, although the pioneer of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Egypt was a Coptic Christian (Dr. Naguib Mahfouz), his grandson is banned from entering these professions because he is a Christian. Montaser confirmed that this policy, even if not a formal law, has caused Christian students increasingly to continue their studies abroad. He pointed out that this �policy� has become a norm � one of many that discriminates against Copts.

In a 25-minute interview on Arabic satellite TV with Dr. Mona Roman, Coptic Christian Bishop Agathon fully exposed the plight of his Christian flock in Minya, Egypt � a region that has a large Coptic minority that is steadily under attack. It was pointed out that the Egyptian state itself is often behind the persecution of and discrimination against Christians. According to the bishop, local governmental authorities � including the State Security apparatus � do not just ignore the attacks on Copts, but are often the very ones behind them.[5]

During a recent interview on Egyptian television, Dr. Yunis Makioun, head of the Al-Nour Party, the political wing of the Salafis, insisted that Islam commands Muslims to �protect� the nation�s Christian minority � a reference to their �dhimmi� status � and treat them properly. Even so, said the Salafi spokesman, Muslims, according to Islam, are forbidden to offer greetings or congratulations to Copts on any Christian holiday.

Coptic Kidnappings

Since the �Arab Spring� came to Egypt, the kidnapping of Coptic Christians has been on the rise. In Nag Hammadi alone, 77 persons have been abducted, and two killed.

Makram Nazir , a 55-year-old Coptic Christian man was kidnapped and killed. Nazir was returning home from his second job in the middle of the night on April 26, when he was seized. His abductors called his brother and demanded a million Egyptian pounds (equivalent of $131,000 USD). As it was an impossible amount to raise, the Coptic man�s family negotiated a significantly reduced price by phone with the abductors. The brother went to the local police station, provided them with all the information, including recordings of the phone calls, but, according to Watan News, �no one made a single move or took the matter seriously.� After paying the ransom, three days passed before Nazir�s family found the Coptic man�s corpse in a canal. Killing Christian hostages even after being paid the ransom is not uncommon in Egypt. The same happened to 6-year-old Cyril Joseph: on May 2013, it was reported that his �family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds [about $4000 USD] to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body in the sewer system, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed.�

Armed gunmen seized an 8-year-old Coptic Christian child, Antonious Zaki Hani, who was walking with his mother to school in Nag Hammadi. Four armed gunmen appeared, forced the child from his mother on the threat of death, and fled in a car. The kidnappers demanded two million Egyptian pounds ($262,000 USD) in ransom. Police eventually released the boy 17 days after he was kidnapped, although some activists say police knew earlier where the boy was being held.

On May 2, another Coptic Christian girl, Marina Magdi Fahim, 17, vanished after leaving her home around midday in the Hanofil region of Alexandria. Her family reported her disappearance to the authorities. Human rights activists say the girl was not reported injured at any hospital � a sign that she was kidnapped. She has not been seen since.

A few days earlier, another 17-year old Coptic Christian was kidnapped in the village of al-Kom al-Qibliyya in Samalout. An eyewitness said he saw a Muslim neighbor named Ahmed Khalifa seize the girl. Although the family planned to organize a protest, the village elders counseled against it, lest it backfire by provoking more of the area�s Muslims to retaliate against the Christian minority of the region, as often happens whenever Copts ask for their human rights.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, �Muslim Persecution of Christians� was developed to collate some�by no means all�of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not �random,� but systematic and interrelated�that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who �offend� Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or third-class, �tolerated� citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales�from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East�it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam�whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Previous Reports:

• April, 2015
• March, 2015
• February, 2015
• January, 2015
• more...

Islamic Jizya: Fact and Fiction

"Jizya is yet another ugly fact of Islam�add to offensive jihad, imperialism, misogyny, slavery, etc.�one that cannot be whitewashed away, even as the world stands idly by watching its resumption in the twenty-first century."

by Raymond Ibrahim � May 28, 2015

The Return of Jizya

Muslim demands for non-Muslim �infidels� to pay jizya on pain of death are growing, even as the West fluctuates between having no clue what jizya is and thinking that jizya is an example of �tolerance� in Islam.

In the video where the Islamic State slaughters some 30 Christian Ethiopians in Libya last April, the spokesman repeatedly pointed out that payment of jizya (which the impoverished Ethiopian migrant workers could not render, nor the 21 Copts before them) is the only way for Christians around the world to safeguard their lives:

But whoever refuses [to pay jizya] will see nothing from us but the edge of a spear. The men will be killed and the children will be enslaved, and their wealth will be taken as booty. This is the judgment of Allah and His Messenger.

When the Islamic State invaded ancient Christian regions around the Ninevah Plain last June,  it again declared: �We offer them [Assyrian Christians] three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract�involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword.�

The Islamic State�which most Western politicians ludicrously insist �has nothing to do with Islam��is not alone in calling for jizya from Christian �infidels.�  In 2002, Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman, discussing the Muslim prophet�s prediction that Islam will eventually conquer Rome, said, �We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians . . . will yet pay us the jizya, in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam.�

And in a video recently posted, Sheik �Issam Amira appears giving a sermon in Al Aqsa Mosque where he laments that too many Muslims think jihad is only for defense against aggressors, when in fact Muslims are also obligated to wage offensive jihad against non-Muslims:

When you face your pagan enemy, call them�either to Islam, jizya, or seek Allah�s help and fight them.  Even if they do not fight [or initiate hostilities], fight them!� Fight them!  When?  When they fight you?  No, when they refuse to convert to Islam or refuse to pay jizya�.  Whether they like it or not, we will subjugate them to Allah�s authority.

In short, if the Islamic State is enforcing jizya on �infidels,� demands for its return are on the increase all around the Muslim world.  Put differently, if Abu Shadi, an Egyptian Salfi leader, once declared that Egypt�s Christians �must either convert to Islam, pay jizya, or prepare for war,� Dr. Amani Tawfiq, a female professor at Egypt�s Mansoura University, once said that �If Egypt wants to slowly but surely get out of its economic situation and address poverty in the country, the jizya has to be imposed on the Copts.�

The Doctrine and History of Jizya

A dhimmi paying the jizya. Note the weapons arrayed
against him, should he not fulfill his payment.

So what exactly is jizya?

The word jizya appears in Koran 9:29, in an injunction that should be familiar by now: �Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and his Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued (emphasis added).�

In the hadith, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad, regularly calls on Muslims to demand jizya of non-Muslims:  �If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay jizya, seek Allah�s help and fight them.�

The second �righteous caliph,� Omar al-Khattab, reportedly said that any conquered �infidel� who refuses to convert to Islam �must pay the jizya out of humiliation and lowliness. If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency.�

This theme of non-Muslim degradation appears regularly in the commentaries of Islam�s authorities.  According to the Medieval Islamic Civilization Encyclopedia, Muslim �jurists came to view certain repressive and humiliating aspects of dhimma as de rigueur. Dhimmis [subjugated non-Muslim Christians and Jews] were required to pay the jizya publicly, in broad daylight, with hands turned palm upward, and to receive a smart smack on the forehead or the nape of the neck from the collection officer.�

Some of Islam�s jurists mandated a number of other humiliating rituals at the time of jizya payment, including that the presiding Muslim official slap, choke, and in some cases pull the beard of the paying dhimmi, who might even be required to approach the official on all fours, in bestial fashion.

The root meaning of the Arabic word �jizya� is simply to �repay� or �recompense,� basically to �compensate� for something.  According to the Hans Wehr Dictionary, the standard Arabic-English dictionary, jizya is something that �takes the place� of something else, or �serves instead.�

Simply put, conquered non-Muslims were to purchase their lives, which were otherwise forfeit to their Muslim conquerors, with money. Instead of taking their lives, they took their money.  As one medieval jurist succinctly put it, �their lives and their possessions are only protected by reason of payment of jizya.�

Past and increasingly present, Muslims profited immensely by exacting jizya from conquered peoples.

For instance, Amr bin al-As, the companion of Muhammad who conquered Christian Egypt in the early 640s, tortured and killed any Christian Copt who tried to conceal his wealth. When a Copt inquired of him, �How much jizya are we to pay?� the Islamic hero replied, �If you give me all that you own�from the ground to the ceiling�I will not tell you how much you owe. Instead, you [the Christian Copts] are our treasure chest, so that, if we are in need, you will be in need, and if things are easy for us, they will be easy for you.�

Yet even that was not enough. Caliph Uthman later chided Amr bin al-As because another governor of Egypt had managed to increase the caliphate�s treasury double what Amr had. In the words of Uthman, the �milk camels [Egypt�s Christians, that is] . . . yielded more milk.�  Years later, yet another caliph, Suliman Abdul Malik, wrote to the governor of Egypt advising him �to milk the camel until it gives no more milk, and until it milks blood.�

Little wonder Egypt went from being almost entirely Christian in the seventh century to today having a mere 10%�and steadily dwindling, thanks to ongoing persecution�Christian minority.

Related to the idea of institutionalized jizya is the notion that non-Muslims are fair game to plunder whenever possible.  The jizya entry in the Encyclopaedia of Islam states that �with or without doctrinal justification, arbitrary demands [for money] appeared at times.� Even that medieval traveler, Marco Polo, whose chronicles appear impartial, made an interesting observation concerning the Muslims in Tauris (modern day Iraq) in the thirteenth century:

According to their doctrine [Islam], whatever is stolen or plundered from others of a different faith, is properly taken, and the theft is no crime; whilst those who suffer death or injury by the hands of Christians [during the course of a plunder-driven raid], are considered as martyrs�.  These principles are common to all Saracens [Muslims].

All this is echoed in recent times by the words of  Sheikh Abu Ishaq al-Huwaini, spoken a few years ago, concerning what the Muslim world should do to overcome its economic problems:

If only we can conduct a jihadist invasion at least once a year or if possible twice or three times, then many people on earth would become Muslims. And if anyone prevents our dawa [invitation to conversion] or stands in our way, then we must kill or take them as hostage and confiscate their wealth, women and children. Such battles will fill the pockets of the Mujahid [holy warrior] who can return home with 3 or 4 slaves, 3 or 4 women and 3 or 4 children. This can be a profitable business if you multiply each head by 300 or 400 dirham. This can be like financial shelter whereby a jihadist, in time of financial need, can always sell one of these heads.

So it was for well over a millennium: Muslim rulers and mobs extorted money from �infidels� under their sway as a legitimate way to profit.

Much of this financial fleecing came to an end thanks to direct European intervention. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, one Muslim region after another abolished the jizya and gave non-Muslims unprecedented rights�originally to appease Western powers, later in emulation of Western governance. The Ottoman Empire�s Hatt-i Humayun decree of 1856 abolished the jizya in many Ottoman-ruled territories. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, the jizya was gradually abolished wherever Western powers were present.

Today, however, as Muslims reclaim their Islamic heritage�often to the approval and encouragement of a West, now under the spell of �multiculturalism��jizya, whether institutionalized as under the Islamic State, or as a rationale to plunder infidels, is back.

Even in the West, in 2013, a UK Muslim preacher who was receiving more than 25,000 pounds annually in welfare benefits referred to British taxpayers as �slaves,� and explained:  �We take the jizya, which is our haq [Arabic for �right�], anyway. The normal situation by the way is to take money from the kafir [infidel], isn�t it? So this is the normal situation. They give us the money�you work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar [�Allah is Great�]. We take the money.�

Academic Lies about Jizya

Yet if Muslims�from Islamic State jihadis to Egyptian university professors�know the truth about jizya, the West is today oblivious, thanks to its leading authorities on Islam: Western academics and other �experts� and talking heads.

Consider the following excerpt from John Esposito, director of the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and a widely acknowledged go-to source for anything Islamic:

In many ways, local populations [Christians, Jews, and others] found Muslim rule more flexible and tolerant than that of Byzantium and Persia. Religious communities were free to practice their faith to worship and be governed by their religious leaders and laws in such areas as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In exchange, they were required to pay tribute, a poll tax (jizya) that entitled them to Muslim protection from outside aggression and exempted them from military service. Thus, they were called the �protected ones� (dhimmi). In effect, this often meant lower taxes, greater local autonomy (emphasis added) �

Despite the almost gushing tone related to Muslim rule, the idea that jizya was extracted in order to buy �Muslim protection from outside aggression� is an outright lie.  Equally false is Esposito�s assertion that jizya was paid to �exempt them [non-Muslims] from military service��as if conquering Muslims would even want or allow their conquered �infidel� subjects to fight alongside them in the name of jihad (holy war against infidels) without first converting to Islam.

Yet these two myths�that jizya was for �Muslim protection from outside aggression� and exemption from military service�are now widely accepted.  In �Nothing �Islamic� About ISIS, Part Two: What the �Jizya� Really Means,� one Hesham A. Hassaballa recycles these fabrications on BeliefNet by quoting Sohaib Sultan, Princeton University�s Muslim chaplain, who concludes: �Thus, jizyah is no more and no less than an exemption tax in lieu of military service and in compensation for the �covenant of protection� (dhimmah) accorded to such citizens by the Islamic state.�

In reality and as demonstrated above via the words of a variety of authoritative Muslims, past and present,  jizya was, and is indeed, protection money�though protection, not from outsiders, as Esposito and others claim, but from surrounding Muslims themselves.  Whether it is the first caliphate from over a millennium ago or whether it is the newest caliphate, the Islamic State, Muslim overlords continue to deem the lives of their �infidel� subjects forfeit unless they purchase it, ransom it with money.  Put differently, the subjugated infidel is a beast to be milked �until it gives no more milk and until it milks blood,� to quote the memorable words of an early caliph.

There is nothing humane, reasonable, or admirable about demands for jizya from conquered non-Muslim minorities, as the academics claim. Jizya is simply extortion money. Its purpose has always been to provide non-Muslims with protection from Muslims: pay up, or else convert to Islam, or else die.

And it is commanded in both the Koran and Hadith, the twin pillars of Islam.  In short, jizya is yet another ugly fact of Islam�add to offensive jihad, imperialism, misogyny, slavery, etc.�one that, distort as they may, the academics cannot whitewash away, even as the world stands idly by watching its resumption in the twenty-first century.

Note: Most quotations not hyperlinked are sourced from Crucified Again: Exposing Islam�s New War on Christians.  Full references can be found there.

Neo-Martyr St. Argyri: 'She Regarded Her Hardships as Comforts'

For Christian women and even young girls in Islamic lands, persecution often takes the form of unwanted advances from Muslim men, abductions and rape, and attempts at forced conversion to the false religion of Muhammad.

In Neo-Martyr Argyri we see a powerful witness � martyria (Greek) � who suffered 17 years of prison and torture, and ultimately death, for rejecting a Muslim man's advances and refusing to deny Jesus Christ.

Notice in her 'Life' how we are told that even though in prison, "she humbled her body through fasting. Her heart was filled with such love for Christ that she regarded her hardships as comforts."

Neo-Martyr Argyri gave her life for Christ three centuries ago, yet the same barbaric Muslim persecutions against Christians are occurring today throughout the Islamic world. Let us pray for our Christian brothers and sisters as they climb their Golgotha and bear witness to our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ!

OCA via Lessons from a Monastery � April 30, 2015

Icon of St. Argyri at a monastery
near Giannitsa in Greece

The holy New Martyr Argyri (or Argyra, commemorated April 30) lived in Proussa, Bithynia, and came from a pious family. She was a beautiful and virtuous woman. When she was eighteen, she married a pious Christian, and they moved into a neighborhood inhabited by many Moslems.

After only a few days, she was approached by a Turkish neighbor, the son of the Cadi (magistrate). He boldly declared his love for her, and tried to convert her to his religion. She rejected his advances, saying that she would rather die than be married to a Moslem. She did not tell her husband, fearing that he would go after the Turk and then be punished for it.

The Moslem brought her to trial and testified that she had assented to his advances, but then had laughed and said she was only joking. His lies were corroborated by false witnesses, and Argyri was sent to prison.

The saint�s husband, hoping to get her a fair trial, appealed to Constantinople. There the accuser repeated his lies before the judge. St Argyri said that she was a Christian, and that she would never deny Christ. The judge ordered her to be flogged, then sentenced her to life in prison.

She was often taken from her cell, interrogated, beaten, then returned to prison. This continued for seventeen years. The saint was also insulted and tormented by the Moslem women who were incarcerated for their evil deeds. The Evil One incited them to annoy St Argyri with these torments and afflictions, but she endured all these things with great courage and patience.

According to the testimony of many Christian women who were in prison with her, she humbled her body through fasting. Her heart was filled with such love for Christ that she regarded her hardships as comforts.

A pious Christian named Manolis Kiourtzibasis sent her word that he would try to have her released, but St Argyri would not consent to this. She completed her earthly pilgrimage in the prison, receiving the crown of martyrdom on April 5, 1721.

After a few years her body was exhumed, and was found to be whole and incorrupt, emitting an ineffable fragrance. Pious priests and laymen took her body to the church of St Paraskeve on April 30, 1735 with the permission of Patriarch Paisius II.

Her relics remain there to this day, where they are venerated by Orthodox Christians from all walks of life, to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

*St Argyra�s name comes from the Greek word for silver (argyre). The New Martyr Argyra (1688-1721) by P. Philippidou (which also contains a Service to the saint) was published in Constantinople in 1912.

Exposed: Egypt�s Institutionalized Persecution of Coptic Christians

Bishop Agathon concludes that �Copts are between a state anvil and aggressor hammers,� meaning that, the state serves only to keep its Christian citizens in place while Islamic radicals pound away at them.

by Raymond Ibrahim � May 4, 2015

In a 25-minute interview on Arabic satellite TV with Dr. Mona Roman, Coptic Christian Bishop Agathon fully exposed the plight of his Christian flock in Minya, Egypt�a region that has a large Coptic minority that is steadily under attack.

While several important points were made, most notable was that the Egyptian State itself is often behind the persecution of and discrimination against Christians.

According to the frustrated-sounding bishop, local governmental authorities�including the State Security apparatus�are not just ignoring the attacks on Copts, but are often the very ones behind them.   For example, when the Copts were having a serious council meeting with government officials about the possibility of building a church, one of the authorities actually contacted the Islamic sheikhs of the village asking whether they �stand with the Coptic church or with the State?�  If the latter, each Muslim household was instructed to send one family member to protest against the proposed building of a church�so that security can then point to the mob and, as usual, just tell the Copts, �Sorry, no can do.�

Other times, State Security is complicit: Male and female Christian minors�currently 21 from just Minya alone said the Coptic leader�are habitually abducted by surrounding Muslims.  At the moment, the youngest Christian girl abducted had just started elementary school.  Whenever any of these attacks occur, Copts, working with the church, prepare bundles of documents, including photos and other verifications, incriminating the culprits.  These then are placed into the hands of top officials, to make sure they don�t get �lost� or �misplaced� by underlings.  The bishop named many of these top people�at no small risk to himself�and said he even put such proofs and documents into the hands of the Director of Intelligence himself.  �Absolutely nothing was done,� said the despondent Christian.

He discussed the difficulties that Copts encounter whenever they want to build a church�due to their dearth, some of the current churches serve tens of thousands of Christians�or even make simple repairs.  By way of example, he explained how the Virgin Mary Church in Safaniya village has no bathrooms or running water.  Christians �tried time and time again to get approval to build bathrooms, to no avail.�  The bishop lamented how elderly and sick people sometimes urinate on themselves during service, while mothers must change their crying babies� diapers right on the pews.

In response, authorities told the bishop to �Go and ask the Muslims of your region if they will approve the building of a church, or bathroom, or anything�and if they do, so will we.�

It should be noted that Islamic law specifically bans the construction or repair of churches.

Clearly frustrated, the bishop added: �We as Copts are human beings.   And envy takes us when we see our Muslim brothers build mosques where they will, how they will, at any place and at any time.  And the State helps them!   But as for us, we cannot build anything and that which is already open is being closed�.  We, the Copts, are citizens with rights; and we see Muslims get whatever they want, while we are always prevented.�

The Coptic bishop also said that sometimes Christians are punished whenever they go and �bother� authorities about their treatment.  For example, when a Coptic delegation went to make a formal complaint, one of them was immediately kidnapped.  His kidnappers demanded and received 120,000 Egyptian pounds for his release.  Police were notified�even told where the exchange of money for hostage was to take place�but did absolutely nothing.  The bishop referred to this incident as a �punishment� while Dr. Roman, the Coptic hostess, called Minya, Egypt a �State of Retribution� against those Copts who dare refuse to suffer quietly,� adding, �Al-Minya is apparently not an Egyptian province; it is governed by ISIS.�

Finally, Bishop Agathon made clear the despondency he and the average Christian in Egypt feel, repeatedly saying that, no matter which official they talk to, �nothing will change.�  If anything, the plight of Egypt�s Christians has gone �from bad to worse,� said the bishop: �We hear beautiful words but no solution.�

Dr. Roman concluded by imploring Egyptian President Sisi, saying: �I�ve said it before: President Sisi is very meticulous and aware of the nation�s issues.  Why, then, is it that the Coptic plight in Minya is being ignored? Why is he turning a blind eye toward it?�

Bishop Agathon concluded by saying that �Copts are between a state anvil and aggressor hammers,� meaning that, the state serves only to keep its Christian citizens in place while Islamic radicals pound away at them.

Turkey: Historic 12th-century Hagia Sophia church to be reopened as a mosque

According to my count, this makes the tenth Hagia Sophia Orthodox church to be converted into a mosque in rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey in the past several years.

Related: 

• Qur'an read inside Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years
• Ninth Hagia Sophia Church converted into mosque in Turkey
• Muslim Prayers at Hagia Sophia: A Sign Calling Us to Repent
• More posts on 'Hagia Sophia'...

Historic Hagia Sophia in a Turkish province to be re-opened as mosque

by Serdar Korucu, H�rriyet Daily News, May 1, 2015

h/t Jihad Watch

A ruined Hagia Sophia dating back to the 12th century in the western border province of Edirne will be renovated as a mosque, despite former statements made about the possibility of restoring it as a museum.

Following the conversion of two Hagia Sophia into museums, which were initially built as churches and then turned into mosques and, subsequently, museums, the third Hagia Sophia in Edirne�s Enez district will be reconverted into a mosque, according to Foundations General Director Adnan Ertem, despite previous debates on turning it into a museum after reconstruction.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Ertem said the Edirne Culture Assets Protection Regional Board approved the reconstruction project of the structure, which he called a �mosque� during the interview.

Ertem said the project would start as soon as possible, adding that the Hagia Sophia has been taken into the Foundations General Directorate�s investment program.

Explaining why it should be re-opened as a mosque, Erdem said the building was a �sanctuary that was consecrated as a mosque.�

�It is a foundation that can be put into service in line with its foundational charter. Thus its function will be preserved,� said Ertem.

Enez�s Hagia Sophia is located inside the ancient city of Ainos and although there are no records, it is thought to date back to the 12th century. It is located along the border with Greece and stationed on top of a hill seen from all around.

The district governor of Enez, Fatih Baysal, said in 2012 the usage of the structure as a mosque or not was a matter to be decided after the renovation.

�But even if it is used as a museum or a mosque, this place really needs to be [opened],� said Baysal.

Enez Mayor Abdullah Bostanci said the structure would have similar properties to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The main Hagia Sophia, which has been a museum since 1935, was built in the fourth century and converted into a mosque, when Mehmet the Conqueror took Istanbul in 1453.

The Hagia Sophia in Turkey�s western district of Iznik, which was initially constructed as a church in the eighth century and turned into a mosque when the city was conquered by the Ottomans in the 14th century, became a museum in the Turkish Republic. The building was later converted into a mosque in November 2011.

Another Hagia Sophia church, located in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, had been a mosque for many years after the conquest of the city and registered as a mosque in its land title. It was then turned into a museum and transferred to the Culture and Tourism Ministry. It was retransferred to the Trabzon Regional Directorate of Foundations through a court decision and reopened for Muslim worship in July 2013.

After the conversion from museum to mosque, 33 historic artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman eras in the garden of Trabzon�s Hagia Sophia were moved to the Trabzon Museum in January 2014.