Christian persecution by Muslims on the rise?

[Sol Invictus]

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 17:29 Acharya S
http://freethoughtnation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=257:rising-christian-persecution-reporting-&catid=45:general

It seems as if a dam has burst with the amount of reports coming out from a variety of sources worldwide regarding persecution of Christians, largely at the hands of Muslims. Last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article called "Islamic Christianophobia" that highlights the persecution of Christians in Muslim-dominant nations and how the world is ignoring it. Are the incidents increasing, or is there just more reportage?

In the wake of the ruling in Malaysia wherein Christians are now allowed to use the word "Allah" for God there have been several reports of attacks on Christians and churches in that nation. As concerns continued governmental oppression of non-Muslims, a Malay Christian woman had a series of CDs seized because they used the word "Allah" for God but were about Christianity.

In Algeria, the New York Times relates, a Protestant church was burned and looted by Muslims, based on increasing hostility and "religious intolerance in the Arab and Muslim world." From their comments, the Algerian authorities are too afraid to intervene: "Authorities don't want to get involved because they're worried of getting in trouble with the Islamists..."

As I've related a number of times, the ancient community of Coptic Christians in Egypt is said to be on the brink of extinction, with constant assaults from Muslims there. The Coptic population is very important, because they are human beings first of all, and secondly because they represent the only living link to the glorious Egyptian past! They must not be allowed to be genocided to extinction, which is where they are headed.

The "Islamists," as these Muslims are often styled in the media, are rattling their sabers everywhere. Ever since 9/11, these fanatics have tasted blood. In this regard, it does not matter who really orchestrated 9/11 - to the rabid would-be world conquerors, civilized society is frightened enough now of Islamic violence that it is capitulating left and right to whatever demands the most criminal, violent and hateful segment of humanity makes. The entire world, it seems, is being held hostage by pirates and brigands who would enjoy seeing all of humankind enslaved in black and white garb, with all color and creativity removed, with severity, brutality and abuse the norm, rather than the sorry exception.

[Osweo]

the ancient community of Coptic Christians in Egypt is said to be on the brink of extinction,
That's not true.

with constant assaults from Muslims there.
But this is.

The community's dwindling, and has been ever since the Arabs invaded, but there's a few generations in it yet. I've been in their churches myself, and there's families and kids hanging around still. I'd like to see some numbers before I commit myself on this.

Intermarriage is probably the worst problem, where the Christian invariably adopts Islam. My sister told me that the famous Omar Sharif is an example of this phenomenon. There is also a considerable emigration to the West. Ironically, the children of these emigres can often find common cause with other outsiders, typically of a Muslim background. :rolleyes:

Wiki is ambiguous;

While the number of Copts continues to increase, their percentage within Egypt may be very slowly declining due to lower birth rates and higher emigration rates, in comparison with Egyptian Muslims.[citation needed]

estimations range between 4,600,000 to 12,000,000

In 2008, Pope Shenouda III and Bishop Morkos, bishop of Shubra, declared that the number of Copts in Egypt is more than 12 million, though this figure has not been independently verified.

Following the 1952 coup d'état by the Free Officers, the conditions of the Copts have been slowly deteriorating and their human rights are often violated.

Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are also negatively affected. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles and restrictions in building new churches. These restrictions do not apply for building mosques.[39][40]

Coptic community has been targeted by hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks, in which Muslims and Christians were involved in bloody inter-religious clashes following a dispute between a Muslim and a Christian. "Twenty Christians and one Muslim were killed after violence broke out in the town of el-Kosheh, 440 kilometres (275 miles) south of Cairo".[41] In 2006, one person who was claimed to be both drunk and mad, attacked three churches in Alexandria, left one dead and from 5 to 16 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation.[42][43]

Boutros Boutros-Ghali is a Copt who served as Egypt's acting foreign minister twice under President Anwar Sadat (1977 and 1978–1979). Although Boutros Boutros-Ghali later became the United Nations Secretary-General, his appointment as an only acting foreign minister depicted Egypt's systematic elimination of Copts from all governmental influential positions. Today, only two Copts are on Egypt's governmental cabinet: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Environment Minister Magued George. There is also currently one Coptic governor out of 25, that of the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena, and the first Coptic governor in a few decades. In addition, Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's 100 wealthiest people, is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January the 7th) was recognized as an official holiday.[44] However, many Copts continue to complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion.[45][46] Most Copts do not support independence or separation movement from other Egyptians.[47]

While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents.[48] The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim.[49] Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening.[50] In 2007, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam.[51] However, in February 2008 the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the decision, allowing 12 citizens who had reverted back to Christianity to re-list their religion on identity cards,[52][53] but they will specify that they had adopted Islam for a brief period of time.[54]