Aleteia: Christians who have given their life for Christ in 2017

Aleteia provides an overview of some recent 21st-century martyrs.

The blood of martyrs continues to be the seed of new Christians at the beginning of 2018. This is the conclusion we can draw from reviewing the testimonies of men and women who, in various countries around the world, have shed their blood for their faith in Jesus.

Below, we offer a list of present-day witnesses to the Gospel who have been faithful to the very end.

The list is necessarily incomplete. If you know other cases of Christians of any denomination who have been killed for their faith in Christ, please mention their names in the comments below this article, offering sources that will allow us to document the circumstances of their death.

1. Pakistan: Brutally killed at 15 years of age because he was a Christian [Killed by Muslims]

Mushtaq Gill, a Christian lawyer handling the case, explains that Masih’s death is a terrible example of Christian persecution in that country: “Violence begins at the desks in the schools, because even primary school textbooks incite hate against non-Muslims.”

WARNING: ISIS Islamic Terrorists Disturbing Images while UN, USA and EU are silent out of FEAR

Photo Source : CATHOLIC ONLINE

Christian Persecution Ranking Mostly from Muslim dominated Countries

Source: WorldWatch
Read FACING ISLAM

AINA: Aleppo's Christians Arm Against Islamists

Gate of the Greek Catholic Church in Aleppo

By Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand

ALEPPO, Syria and BEIRUT, Lebanon (AINA) -- As evidence mounts that foreign Islamists are fighting alongside Syria's increasingly radicalized rebels, Christians in Aleppo and elsewhere are taking up arms, often supplied by the regime.

"We saw what happened to the Christians in Iraq," Abu George, a Christian resident of Aleppo's Aziza district told GlobalPost. "What is going on in Aleppo is not a popular revolution for democracy and freedom. The fighters of the so-called Free Syrian Army are radical Sunnis who want to establish an Islamic state."

While the 30-year-old shopkeeper said he had not received any direct threats from Syria's Sunni Muslim rebels, he fears a repeat of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting.

Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the UN Human Rights Council estimates around half of Iraq's 1.4 million Christians have fled the country, driven out by nearly a decade of church bombings, kidnappings and sectarian murder.

CNA News: One thousand more Syrian Christians flee after ultimatum

Let us fervently pray for our brethren in Syria who are the latest victim of violence. (Note: No Syrian is a member of the INC founded by Felix Manalo in the Philippines in 1914 (on Christian Persecution). -CD2000

Beirut, Lebanon, (CNA).- An ultimatum from the Syrian armed opposition’s military chief caused over 1,000 Christians to flee the west Syrian town of Qusayr, adding to fears that believers may be forced out of Syria.

“The Christian communities fear being targeted, destroyed or driven out,” said Neville Kyrke-Smith, Aid to the Church in Need’s U.K. director. “We all need to stand in prayer and solidarity now.”

Kyrke-Smith, who returned from Lebanon on June 11, told CNA that the report of Christian flight echoes the concerns he heard from bishops, priests, and religious communities concerned about Christians’ fate in neighboring Syria.

“The message time and again was ‘please do not forget the Christians of the Middle East,’” he reported.

Syrian opposition military chief Abdel Salam Harba had given an ultimatum for Christians to leave Qusayr, a town near Homs, by June 8. Some mosques in the city repeated the message in announcements from their minarets, Fides news agency reports.

Only 1,000 Christians remained in the town, which was home to 10,000 Christians before the conflict began between the Syrian government and opposition forces.

Alexandria: forced eviction of 62 Coptic families by the Salafis

Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The radical Muslims are trying to empty a village near Alexandria of its Coptic population - 62 families, on the basis of unfounded allegations against a Copt. The Copts of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Amerya) were attacked on Jan. 27 by a crowd of some three thousand Muslims led by Salafi leaders who set fire to the Copts houses and shops. The violence were sparked by the allegations of a barber Muslim Toemah, who claimed that a Coptic tailor of 34, Samy Mourad Guirgis, had "illegal" photos of a Muslim woman on his cell phone. Mourad has denied the charges, and turned himself in to police in fear of his life. The Muslims set fire to his house and his shop, and his whole family was forced to leave the village. Mourad is still under police custody.

Since then there have been three "reconciliation meetings" in the police headquarters in el-Amerya, attended by representatives of the Coptic Church, the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to police, the woman concerned has denied the whole story, and no compromising photos of any kind were found Mourad’s cell phone. But radical Muslims argue that "Muslim honor has been damaged," and at the first meeting, they refused any type of compensation for the Copts who were innocent victims of their violence.

Eleven Christians recieve death threats as false charges emerge against Nadarkhani

Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide - Eleven Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against evangelical Christianity have received threats via email from ‘the unknown soldiers of the Hidden Imam’ calling on them to either repent or face extra-judicial execution. The ‘unknown soldiers’ are alleged to have links with Iranian security services.

The email, which was sent to each individual on 14 September, warned the recipients that although they may have managed to flee Iran, they are not hidden from the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers’, who claim they have been advancing to the heart of the ‘Zionist regime’ over a number of years. The email concludes by offering the eleven Christians ‘the opportunity to repent and ask forgiveness from the presence of the Hidden Imam [the 12th Imam, the Messiah-figure in Shia Twelver theology] and the Great Allah. Otherwise, according to the Fatwa given by Mehdi the Hidden Imam, they must be killed.’

Iran 'annuls death term' for Christian pastor

Christian Armenian Iranian women select a Christmas tree in Tehran in 2001. Iran's supreme court has overturned a death sentence handed down to Yusef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor accused of apostasy for having converted from Islam, his lawyer told AFP on Sunday.(AFP/File/Henghameh Fahimi)

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's supreme court has overturned a death sentence handed down to Yusef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor accused of apostasy for having converted from Islam, his lawyer told AFP on Sunday.

"The supreme court has annuled the death sentence and sent the case back to the court in Rasht (his hometown), asking the accused to repent," Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said.

Nadarkhani, now 32, converted from Islam to Christianity at the age of 19 and became a pastor of a small evangelical community called the Church of Iran.

Muslims Attack Christians in Egypt, 12 Killed, 232 Injured

By Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) -- Christians Copts in the area of Embaba were attacked Saturday evening by Muslim Salafis. The attacks lasted for 14 hours. The Muslims fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, houses and businesses. 12 Copts were killed and 232 injured.

The church of Saint Mina church was the first to be attacked. According to its pastor Fr. Abanoub the attack started at 5.30 PM on Saturday May 7, when church parishioners noticed a large number of Salafis, estimated at 3000 men, congregating near the church. Anticipating trouble, the army was called. The Salafis went to the church and asked to search it because they believed a Christian girl named called Abir, who had converted to Islam, married a Salafi and wanted to revert back to Christianity, was hiding inside the church. The Muslims circulated a rumor that the husband of Abir received a call from her asking him to save her as she was being "tortured" inside the church.

The governor of Giza said that there are no girls hiding in St. Mina Church. He falsely claimed that things were under control and a "reconciliation" meeting will be arranged for tomorrow. The army later cordoned off the entire district of Embaba.

At least 6 dead in Egyptian sectarian violence

Egyptians gather as firefighters extinguish a blaze at a church following clashes at another church between Muslims and Christians in Cairo on Sunday.

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- At least six people were killed and 120 injured in sectarian clashes outside a church in Cairo on Saturday, officials said.

A group of Muslim Salafists attacked the Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church. Gunfire rang out as people sprinted for cover.

"With my own eyes I saw three people killed and dozens injured," said Mina Adel, a Christian resident. "There's no security here. There's a big problem. People attacked us, and we have to protect ourselves."

Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman Alla Mahmoud said in a statement that six people were killed and 120 injured.

He said the clashes were sparked by reports of a Christian woman who married a Muslim man and was allegedly being held inside the church.

190 in Egypt sectarian clashes to face military trial

Egyptians watch as firefighters battle a blaze in a church after clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo. Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf called an urgent cabinet meeting Sunday and postponed a Gulf visit after the clashes which left nine people dead, state media said.(AFP)

By Jailan Zayan, AFP

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt's military rulers said on Sunday that 190 people detained overnight in connection with deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo will face a military trial.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has ruled Egypt since a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak, ordered "the transfer of all those arrested in connection with (Saturday's) events, and they number 190, to the Supreme Military Court, as a deterrent to all those who think of toying with the potential of this nation."

New Christian Convert from Islam Murdered in Somalia

When will Muslims in Muslim countries ever reciprocate tolerance as Muslims in the West are demanding? When they will ever allow Muslims to convert? When will they ever realize that killing is morally EVIL and that God who gave life, HE ALONE has the SOLE RIGHT to take back the life he has given each of us.

To Christians being persecuted by Muslims, may your blood be a seed for evangelization. May you be brought in Paradise for having the crown of martyrdom. Remember to pray for those who are still persecuted.  Thank you for witnessing to our Faith in Christ Jesus. - CD2000

Stoning (according to Sharia) in Somalia

Muslim militants shoot young man dead after learning he had begun to follow Christ.

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 20 (CDN) — Two Muslim extremists in Somalia on Monday (April 18) murdered a member of a secret Christian community in Lower Shabele region as part of a campaign to rid the country of Christianity, sources said.

An area source told Compass two al Shabaab militants shot 21-year-old Hassan Adawe Adan in Shalambod town after entering his house at 7:30 p.m.

Middle East Expert Warns Against Illusion Of 'moderate' Islamists

Photo Source: Joshua Pundit blog

WASHINGTON D.C., April 13 (EWNT/CNA) - Habib Malik, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic scholar and human rights advocate, recently warned Western countries to be on their guard against radical Islamic forces that present themselves as political "moderates" in countries such as Libya and Egypt.

"Another fallacy is rearing its head again, and we saw this prior to 9/11," said Malik in a March 31 address at Washington, D.C.'s Westminster Institute. "It's now coming back into the discourse, unfortunately, in Washington: this very wrong and dangerous idea that 'there are moderate fundamentalists and there are radical fundamentalists, and maybe we can talk to the moderate fundamentalists and wean them away from it.'"

"This is garbage, and nonsense," said Malik, author of the 2010 book "Islamism and the Future of the Christians of the Middle East," as he described the notion of "moderate" Islamic radicalism as a fantasy entertained by the West. "It doesn't exist. There is no such thing. What appears to be moderate can, in an instant, flip and change."

Arab Christians: The Forgotten Faithful - National Geographic

Followers of Jesus for nearly 2,000 years, native Christians today are disappearing from the land where their faith was born.

By Don Belt - National Geographic

Photograph by Ed Kashi

Easter in Jerusalem is not for the faint of heart. The Old City, livid and chaotic in the calmest of times, seems to come completely unhinged in the days leading up to the holiday. By the tens of thousands, Christians from all over the world pour in like a conquering horde, surging down the Via Dolorosa's narrow streets and ancient alleyways, seeking communion in the cold stones or some glimmer, perhaps, of the agonies Jesus endured in his final hours. Every face on Earth seems to float through the streets during Easter, every possible combination of eye and hair and skin color, every costume and style of dress, from blue-black African Christians in eye-popping dashikis to pale Finnish Christians dressed as Jesus with a bloody crown of thorns to American Christians in sneakers and "I [heart] Israel" caps, clearly stoked for the battle of Armageddon.

Catholic Mother Returned to Family after Refusing to Convert to Islam

Captors tried to force mother of seven to convert to Islam. Thanks to Dar Al-Masih for the link

Shaheen Bibi and her father Manna Masih.

LAHORE, Pakistan, March 11 (CDN) — A Christian mother of seven here who last August was kidnapped, raped, sold into marriage and threatened with death if she did not convert to Islam was freed this week.

After she refused to convert and accept the marriage, human traffickers had threatened to kill Shaheen Bibi, 40, and throw her body into the Sindh River if her father, Manna Masih, did not pay a ransom of 100,000 rupees (US$1,170) by Saturday (March 5), the released woman told Compass.

Drugged into unconsciousness, Shaheen Bibi said that when she awoke in Sadiqabad, her captors told her she had been sold and given in marriage.

“I asked them who they were,” she said. “They said that they were Muslims, to which I told them that I was a married Christian woman with seven children, so it was impossible for me to marry someone, especially a Muslim.”

Giving her a prayer rug (musalla), her captors – Ahmed Baksh, Muhammad Amin and Jaam Ijaz – tried to force her to convert to Islam and told her to recite a Muslim prayer, she said.

“I took the musalla but prayed to Jesus Christ for help,” she said. “They realized that I should be returned to my family.”

ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE ERUPTS AGAIN IN INDIA

Local Authorities Fail to Punish Perpetrators

Burned Church in Orissa (Photo Source: NJChristian)

BHUBANESHWAR, India, MARCH 9, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Christians in the Orissa state of India have been undergoing repeated violence since December, with a particular increase over the last month.

Fides reported more than ten episodes in which Christians, including pregnant women and children, were injured by attackers.

Evangelical Pastor Vijay Purusu reported that the Christians are being attacked and beaten in night raids.

Local sources told Fides that the perpetrators belong to the same militant fundamentalist Hindu movement, "Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh," that was responsible for a wave of attacks in 2007-2008, which resulted in the destruction of 6,600 Christian homes.

Egyptian Christians protest over a church burning

By Reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Christians protested for a second day on Monday after a church was set on fire on the outskirts of Cairo, the latest sectarian flare-up in a country already facing political turmoil.

About 5,000 people gathered outside the state television building late into Monday night, a bigger crowd than the 1,000 or so that had demonstrated late on Sunday and into Monday morning. Some Muslims joined the mostly Christian protest.

"Oh Field Marshal, why are you silent?" they chanted, a reference to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi who heads Egypt's ruling military council, which has been in power since Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11 amid widespread protests.

Tantawi has said the army would rebuild the church before Easter holidays.

Save the Christians

Source: Farid Ghadry - The minorities in the Middle East are under siege by Islamists who, finding it more difficult to terrorize the U.S. and, to a certain degree, Europe, have turned their violence against the low hanging fruit one finds in pacifist and unprotected Christian communities. Extreme Muslims simply cannot stop their terror, even against indigenous people who neither occupy nor oppress. Those extremists who use violence against the innocent represent the absolute low in human decadence and rot.

The horrific scenes in Alexandria and Baghdad is a reminder of what oppression produces. Nothing is more dangerous than a hungry Muslim youth whose voice is muffled and whose zest for life emanates from the misinterpreted words of the Quran. It was just a question of time before extremism bullied an army of foot soldiers into committing unimaginable acts.

Assassinated Christian Pakistani Gov’t Official Taped Prophetic Death Message

Comments can be read at Jihad Watch

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Assailants purportedly sent by al-Qaida and the Taliban killed the only Christian member of Pakistan’s federal Cabinet Wednesday, spraying his car with bullets outside his mother’s driveway. It was the second assassination in two months of a high-profile opponent of blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.

The killing of Shahbaz Bhatti, a 42-year-old Roman Catholic, further undermines Pakistan’s shaky image as a moderate Islamic state and could deepen the political turmoil in this nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied state where militants frequently stage suicide attacks.

The Vatican said the assassination shows that the pope’s warnings about the danger to Christians in the region are fully justified.

Bhatti, a campaigner for human rights causes, had apparently been aware of the danger he was in and left a video-taped message with the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Al-Jazeera satellite TV station to be broadcast in the event of his death.

In the farewell statement, Bhatti said he was threatened by the Taliban and al-Qaida, but that this would not deter him from speaking for “oppressed and marginalized persecuted Christians and other minorities” in Pakistan. “I will die to defend their rights,” he said on the tape. “These threats and these warnings cannot change my opinions and principles.”

Christian Pakistani minister shot dead in Islamabad

By Reuters

Shahbaz Bhati, Christian Pakistani Minister
(Photo Source: Let Us Build Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, who had called for changes in the country's controversial blasphemy law, was killed in a gun attack in Islamabad Wednesday, officials said.

Police said the shooting took place near an Islamabad market. Bhatti was the only Christian in the Pakistani cabinet.

"The initial reports are that there were three men who attacked him. He was probably shot using a Kalashnikov, but we are trying to ascertain what exactly happened," said Islamabad police chief Wajid Durrani.

A hospital spokesman said Bhatti had several bullet wounds.

The anti-blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since last November, when a court sentenced a Christian mother of four to death.