A staggering 100,000 Christians are killed annually because of
their faith, according to the Vatican -- and several human rights groups claim
such anti-Christian violence is on the rise in countries like Pakistan, Nigeria
and Egypt.
"Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that
an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of
some relation to their faith every year," Vatican spokesman Monsieur
Silvano Maria Tomassi said Tuesday in a radio address to the United Nations
Human Rights Council.
"Other Christians and other believers are subjected to forced
displacement, to the destruction of their places of worship, to rape and to the
abduction of their leaders, as it recently happened in the case of Bishops
Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, in Aleppo [Syria]," Tomassi said.
While several human rights groups could not comment specifically
on the Vatican's number, organizations, like Persecution.Org, said the
persecutions of Christians have been on the rise in places like Africa and the
Middle East over the last decade.
"Two-hundred million Christians currently live under
persecution. It’s absolutely on the rise," Jeff King, the group's
president said.
Did anyone throw acid in your face on the way to church last Sunday? |
"It’s easing in the old Communist world and it's rising in
the Islamic world," King said, noting in particular countries like Egypt,
Pakistan and Nigeria. King said that the first major killing spree in recent
years happened between 1998 and 2003, when he claims 10,000 Christians were murdered
in Indonesia alone during those years.
Last March, a Nigerian Christian leader was killed when suspected
Muslim militants burst into his home and shot him. Two members of Islamic
militant group Boko Haram shot Faye Pama Mysa, a Pentecostal pastor and secretary
of the Christian Association of Nigeria, in his home Wednesday, according to
multiple reports. The killing happened just after President Goodluck Jonathan
declared a state of emergency because of ongoing attacks in Africa's most
populous nation.
King spoke of another example in which young Christian girls were
forced into sex slavery in Bangladesh. More than 140 children were rescued from
Islamic training centers over the last year -- with the majority of girls being
targeted because of their religion, according to King.
We are sissy Christians compared to our persecuted Brothers and Sisters |
"Two-hundred million Christians currently live under
persecution. It’s absolutely on the rise."
- Jeff King, president of Persecution.Org
John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International, has raised
grave concerns over what he calls "religious cleansing" in Syria.
Friends, our time is coming |
"Religious minorities are under constant threat in
Syria," Eibner told FoxNews.com. "If things continue as they have
been for the past two years in Syria, with an increase in religious cleansing,
it's reasonable to think that there will be no more Christian communities or
other religious minorities in the near future."
Yeshus, please rapture us out today! |
Dinah Pokempner, general counsel for Human Rights Watch, was not
able to independently verify the Vatican's figure, but said, "I think
there’s little doubt that every week, every day, someone in the world is being
persecuted – even to the point of losing their life – based on their
religion."
"Persecution is a daily event on the basis of religion,"
Pokempner said. "This persecution affects Christians just as it does
Muslims, Jews, Bahá'ís and people of other faiths."
A spokesman with the Vatican could not be immediately reached for
comment.
Jane Zimmerman, the U.S. State Department's Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State, said in a statement that: "While I’m unfamiliar with
the methodology that was used to reach that number, we have certainly followed
numerous cases in recent years in which Christians and others of many faiths
have been attacked or killed on account of their religious beliefs."
The U.S. Government has ordered 30,000 of these |
"Whatever the numbers, no one should die for professing or
practicing their faith, whatever that faith is," Zimmerman said. "The United States firmly supports the freedom to profess and
practice one’s faith, to believe or not to believe, and to change one’s
beliefs. As Secretary Kerry said on May 20, religious freedom 'is a birthright
of every human being.'"
No comments:
Post a Comment