Persecution

The above video highlights the persecution of Christians in India.

The Church Times reports how Peers were told of attacks and discrimination suffered by Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan.  

The Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, said that fewer than 2% of the population of Pakistan were Christian but Christians accounted for more than 80 % of the sewerage and street-cleaning workforce, "where hazardous conditions and a lack of workplace health and safety regulations and protective equipment cause untold preventable accidents, illnesses, and deaths. The accounts of their working conditions are truly repugnant, made even more shocking by the fact that the government agencies advertise cleaning positions for Christians and other religious minorities only."

Lord Alton who introduced the topic said that 3.72 % of the 230 million people in Pakistan were from religious-minority backgrounds. He referred to evidence, found by the APPG for Pakistani Minorities, of "discrimination and persecution against minorities, entrenched in school textbooks; stigmatisation in schools and colleges; and primitive and dismal conditions in the so-called colonies where Christians live, which are often devoid of running water, sanitation and electricity."

According to the Christian Non Government Organisation Open Doors "one in seven Christians worldwide face persecution and discrimination for their faith."

Meanwhile, Letters to the Editor in the Church Times contain a response to the continuing persecution of fellow Anglicans in their own Church by Women And The Church (WATCH) who, devoid of any integrity, think it their Church alone.

Atheist First Minister Encourages Spread of Islam with £300K of Tax Payers Money

New mosque and community centre opened by First Minister, Mark Drakeford        Source: Wales Online (Image: John Myers)

From Wales Online: 

 "A new mosque and community centre has opened in Swansea. On Friday, Sketty Mosque and Community Centre held its official inauguration ceremony. First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford presided over the event with guests such as the Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Mayor and other civil and uniformed dignitaries.

"The historic Bethel United Reformed Church has been transformed into the Sketty Mosque and Community Centre. The revitalisation project was funded by £400k raised with the Swansea Muslim community in just three weeks and supplemented by a £300k Community Cohesion matching fund from the Welsh Government."

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford, an atheist, opened the Centre with representatives of Church and State present. 

The Lord Lieutenant and other civil and uniformed dignitaries.                           Source: Wales Online (Image: John Myers)

A far cry from Islamic countries which forbid the building of Christian churches and those countries Where Christianity Is Illegal 2023.

It does not appear to occur to some people that their presence is sharing in a political ideology that is responsible for the persecution of Christians and many atrocities around the world in the name of Islam.

In April 2023 Release International reported on Nigeria's Growing Christian Genocide:

"Since 2009, 52,250 Christians have been killed by jihadists, including Boko Haram and Fulani militants. According to Intersociety, militants have attacked:

18,000 churches

2,200 Christian schools

800 Christian communities

[The report] claims: ‘The number of Christians killed in the country… between July 2009 and April 2023 has risen to 52,250 [and] 14m Christians have been uprooted and forced to flee their homes.

[It] adds, ‘No fewer than 800 Christian communities have been seized or taken over; with many of them renamed and Islamised by the Jihadists since 2009’."

For a first hand account of the misery people face in Nigeria simply for being a Christian read how Mary Finds Peace After Escaping Kidnappers. 

In Pakistan blasphemy laws carry a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. "Critics say they have been used to persecute minority faiths and unfairly target minorities." 

Read Christian nurse Tabitha Nazir Gill's account after escaping 'perilous danger' in Pakistan over blasphemy charges. "She was accused of insulting the prophet of Islam, breaking 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death sentence."

Much more is reported almost daily. See here and here.

While Christianity wanes in Great Britain cultural jihad is allowed to spread Islamic culture, often with the aid of the Anglican Church whose bishops are preoccupied in feminist diversity.

Satisfied clerics?                          Source: Wales Online (Image: John Myers)

This alien political ideology has just cost hard pressed British tax payers £300K!

Postscripts

[20.07.2023]

Western Telegraph: "No more Welsh Government holiday meal money for struggling families."

Wales Online: "Second Welsh council agrees to fund free school meals during the summer holidays

Powys Council has agreed to spend £280,000 to help prevent "holiday hunger" among children during the six week break."

[21.07.2023]

The 'Religion of Peace' - At least 51 Christian converts arrested in Iran in state security clampdown

[25.07.2023]

Being a Christian in a Muslim majority country: 

"Thousands of Christians in the Sargodha district of Punjab in Pakistan have fled their homes after mosque calls for Muslims to protest over an alleged blasphemy." - Release International

It's not cricket (3)

'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me'. 

That was a familiar proverb, particularly for people of my generation, used to shrug off unwarranted taunts back in our school days. 

Children can be cruel. They can also be quite adept at working the system. 

Listening to stories from my own grandchildren I find it astonishing how many schoolchildren are able to use woke culture to manipulate their teachers, often to the detriment of other pupils, by following the latest fads such as the (ab)use of pronouns, bullying others into submission. 

The Yorkshire cricket racism scandal made news headlines about name calling for some time, unabated by revelations that the prime accuser had skeletons in his cupboard as did some of the accused who had their social media accounts scoured for incriminating evidence against them.

By contrast there has been almost no coverage of a report by International Christian Concern that "The United States has once again designated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its egregious violations of religious freedom.

"The designation was vehemently criticized by Pakistani officials. The Spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, said that the CPC designation was completely against the reality on the ground. Despite his claims, though, most NGOs on the ground—as well as several governments—report that Pakistan is trending downward for religious freedom in recent years. Pakistan has historically lied about the country’s treatment of religious minorities while continuing to claim internationally that the country is in doing well on the religious freedom front."

A report of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for Pakistani Minorities draws attention to the appalling "Abductions, Forced Conversions, and Forced Marriages of Religious Minority Women and Girls in Pakistan ."

One commentator who has referred to this scandal is Adrian Hilton who tweeted: "Christian or Hindu girls between the ages of 12-25, abducted, converted to Islam and immediately married to their abductors have been increasing steadily in recent years in Pakistan." We don't hear enough about this.

Precisely.

Back in 2014 it was reported that an estimated one thousand Christian and Hindu women are forced to convert and marry Muslim men in Pakistan every year but hardly a murmur. It is not cricket.

Postscript [10.12.2021]

From ACN: All of Pakistan’s Catholic bishops have denounced the lynching of a Christian Sri Lankan man by a mob who accused him of blasphemy, tortured him to death and set his body on fire.

It's not cricket (2)

Oxford graduate Imran Khan was an international cricketer before he entered politics. Now as Pakistan's prime minister he has a plan which is definitely not cricket.

According to a report in MailOnline Imran Khan has a plan for Muslim-majority countries to force Western governments to criminalise insulting the Prophet Mohammed which he claims will work .

He said "lobbying Western nations, the EU and UN to adopt blasphemy laws with a warning of a trade boycott if they do not do so will be 'effective' in achieving their goal.

"He said leaders of Muslim-majority countries should call on the West to 'stop hurting the feelings' of Muslims across the world with their current freedom of speech laws, reports Pakistani newspaper Dawn." 

Britain's former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told MailOnline that trying to force Western countries to bring in such a ban would be 'a pretty foolish decision. It is not countries that insult the Prophet Mohammed, it's individual citizens'.

Meanwhile, International Christian Concern highlights the case of "a Christian accused of blasphemy in Pakistan [who] was tortured into making a false confession while spending more than two months in police custody." 

Such reports are not uncommon.

In As Good as Dead, the impact of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, Amnesty International concluded:

    "Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are routinely used to target vulnerable people on the basis of false accusations. There is broad scope for their abuse which means that anyone can level an accusation of blasphemy, which can lead to criminal charges. Inadequate safeguards then mean the accused have few means to defend themselves. In a perversion of the justice system, the accused are often presumed to be guilty, on the basis of little or no evidence.

    "As the accused struggle to establish their innocence, they often face serious threats to their lives. Many people have been threatened and killed in revenge attacks after accusations of blasphemy were made against them. As Pakistan’s Supreme Court has acknowledged, the majority of blasphemy accusations are false. However, this does not prevent angry crowds, aroused by clerics and their supporters, from taking the law into their own hands while the authorities routinely fail to prevent these abuses and, by doing so, enable a culture of impunity.

    "This report documents cases which illustrate the broad scope for human rights violations and abuses, in order to highlight the need for urgent repeal of the laws and – until their repeal – the need for effective procedural safeguards to be put in place."

Need one say more!

Lamb to the slaughter

Halal lamb curry - BBC Countryfile style                                                                                                                                                        Source: BBC

I was not alone in being shocked at the BBC's Countryfile coverage of the plight of sheep farmers last Sunday.

"Roast lamb is getting rarer" it was claimed, not because of a shortage but "because there is no money in it when no-one buys it." Exports had doubled over the last 30 years. The legs go to the supermarkets but the rest goes abroad, it was stated.

Perhaps Wales Online had the answer when they reported:  "There are millions of sheep in Wales... so why is Welsh Lamb such a luxury ?" Grassland consultant Gareth Davies called for an investigation into the pricing process as the meat had come to be regarded as “a luxury” by consumers. He tweeted "In Tesco today and I didn't see any British lamb below £10 per kg. I sold lambs at £1.60. Would like to see breakdown of the other £8.40."

Rick Pendrous, editor at Food Manufacture magazine, said: “Welsh Lamb products are at a much higher premium than New Zealand lamb. From The Telegraph: "It has emerged a majority of New Zealand lamb sold in UK supermarkets comes from halal abattoirs in order to ensure it can be sold to both Muslim and non-Muslim nations. Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have all confirmed selling the imported meat."

This had led to growing pressure on supermarkets and restaurants to inform consumers how animals in their meat products are killed after it emerged some were selling halal meat without clear labelling.

Reacting to Countryfile 'promoting halal slaughter' the Express reported anger over the BBC's coverage: "The BBC has come under fire for broadcasting a segment on Halal meat on Sunday night’s Countryfile with viewers accusing the Corporation of hitting a “new low” and “justifying vile Halal slaughter practices on our soil”. This is a video clip from the programme

Discussing the practice the Imam featured in the video said: “There are certain practices where you want to fulfil a commandment of God and you’re basically invoking God’s name upon that. You are making the sacrifice in the name of God and now it’s made Halal. Halal means permissible and it’s been made permissible by God for you.”

He is not the loving God recognised by Christians. When the Apostle Peter said “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean, "The voice spoke to him a second time: 'Do not call anything impure' that God has made clean".

But the promotion of Islam goes beyond ritual slaughter of lamb. There have been many reports of our inability to confront the most dangerous aspects of Islam. ‘Rebel Priest’, Rev Jules Gomes graphically illustrated the problem when he wrote "Our most vulnerable girls pay sorely for our surrender to the Islamists".

The criminals, he says are often referenced as “Asians” rather than as “Muslims”. Although the predators hail from many ethnicities, many happen to be Pakistani.

"Rape in Pakistan is ‘often institutionalised and has the tacit and at times the explicit approval of the state.’ A Human Rights Watch study reports a rape every two hours and a gang rape every eight hours. What is particularly significant is the high percentage of Christian, Hindu, Sikh and other women from minorities raped by Muslim men in Pakistan. The British incidents reflect a perilous import from Pakistan."

God's name is invoked by Muslims in their cry Allahu Akbar (God is greater) when they slaughter the lamb and innocent victims of their intolerant ideology. Writing under the headline Danger, discrimination and dhimmitude the Barnabas Fund recently reported:

"Pakistan’s Christians are a suffering, vulnerable minority. They face violence at the hands of Islamist terrorists, discrimination in work and at school, and live with the ever-present threat of “blasphemy” allegations, which have led to Christian communities being ransacked by Muslim mobs. Authorities often turn a blind eye and are sometimes even complicit in crimes against Christians, including the abduction and forced marriage of women and girls.

There are too many 'blind eyes' turned in Great Britain but that the BBC should use licence payers' money to promote such an ideology is truly outrageous.

You looking at me?

Photo: Global Research

The 'wise' can make compelling cases for just about everything. There is a reasoned defence by a distinguished professor who teaches law, philosophy, and divinity here of women choosing to wear the veil. There are many other opinions with highlights from the New York Times archives here. In Great Britain the general attitude is 'live and let live'.

Whether it is freedom of choice or freedom of religious expression, save for specific security or health care reasons, people in the UK are allowed to wear what they like provided they wear something. Whilst not a religious requirement, claims that wearing the veil is a religious requirement have become commonplace because Muslim scholars disagree on the subject, but claiming religious rather than cultural reasons has the effect of putting the subject off limits as Islamophobia.

In Egypt where Christians have been under constant attack there is a TV channel featuring only fully face-veiled women. But it is not all women. To quote: "There is also a big role for men at the channel. Maria TV’s owner, Ahmed Abdallah, is a prominent Salafist preacher, well known in Egypt for his anti-Christian rhetoric. Abdallah and his son Islam, the channel’s chief executive, were arrested last month for burning a Bible during a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11."

Logic suggests that the modesty of these veiled women would be better protected using a radio show instead but then the visual effect of making the veil commonplace would be lost. In areas of Britain where Islamic influence dominates the sight of the niqab no longer raises an eyebrow - see 'Londonistan' here. Meanwhile in areas where Islamisation is in its infancy the veil actually draws attention. There is an element of cultural jihad here. In some instances the veil has become a means of Muslims thumbing their noses to the very people who have welcomed them choosing segregation in preference to integration. The gullible will see no problem with this until they become victims of exclusion in the land of their birth. In many of British cities in Britain, traditional tolerance has resulted in large areas being converted into ethnic ghettos.

'Live and let live' is not an idiom that appeals to Muslims, rather, it is do it our way, or else! While Muslims insist on their rights in this country, Christians abroad are not so fortunate, see here and here. They are not even allowed to practice their religion openly in some countries. Where it is permitted persecution prevails. In Pakistan on Sunday men, women and children not only had their clothes ripped from them but their bodies were ripped apart. This appalling act of barbarism, perhaps because it is only one of many in Muslin countries, has been almost neglected by the media. - Read Cranmer here for a full account - but beware if you are at all squeamish - and VOL here.

There are occasional protests from the Muslim community in response to acts of terror, usually when they feel vulnerable after another Muslim outrage but otherwise attacks by Muslims on non-Muslims around the world are simply brushed aside as the actions of Islamists who do not represent Muslims in general. They may not represent all Muslims but they all subscribe to the same faith which Islamists claim permits atrocities against fellow human beings, indeed, even against fellow Muslims for holding a contrary view to theirs. 

As a gesture of solidarity against Muslim terrorism women tempted to wear the veil could, if only temporarily, demonstrate their solidarity by rejecting it until Muslims eradicate the violence that shames them. Only then they will stop wondering: You looking at me?

Postscript: Veils, segregated schools and why we risk sowing the seeds of Islamic terror in Britain

From an article by Manzoor Moghal  in the Mail Online:

The aim of true multi-racialism should be to promote tolerance, understanding and integration. These are vital qualities if our increasingly diverse society is to function successfully. But while the vast majority of Muslims are tolerant people, the extremists are pushing in precisely the opposite direction. Their eagerness to impose their fundamentalist, alien values is undermining harmony, with suspicion and division rising in their place...

It’s claimed that, in defiance of all British traditions of tolerance, girls and boys are segregated at the school; that even non-Muslim staff are required to wear the hijab, the Muslim headscarf; and that stringed instruments, singing, the telling of fairy tales and even the use of the word ‘pig’ have all been banned. I am a proud Muslim — but I find this appalling. Such superstitious, divisive nonsense should have no place in a British school. We are not living in rural Pakistan or a Taliban-run region in Afghanistan. Apart from anything else, the pupils are being deprived of a proper, rounded education and therefore will not have the same life chances in adulthood.

Under the great English tradition of justice, we are all meant to be equal before the law, regardless of status, wealth or religion. Indeed, it is exactly that genuine equality under the law that has long attracted many migrants to Britain. ... Nothing imposes that sense of alienation more powerfully than the full veil, which is at the centre of a furore over whether it should be tolerated at educational colleges, or worn by hospital staff and defendants in court.

Read full article: here

Our 'multi-cultural' society

I missed the Channel 4 programme, Make Bradford British, but since it has been referred to so many times and debated on the BBC's Question Time I caught up with it on 4OD. There is a Telegraph review here. Reading the review, I see I was not alone in thinking that Rashid, a Muslim former Rugby League player made the biggest impact. The reason being that out of eight people from various backgrounds brought together in an integration experiment he was the least co-operative, not out of malice, but because his religion came first which was clearly disappointing for the others in the house. What put a different complexion on the proceedings was not that Rashid insisted on praying five times a day but that he had to go to the mosque to pray, delaying the dinner he had offered to cook (he eventually went to a take-away) and disrupting the experiment in the process. The reason? In his own words because he would get a lot more blessings and rewards, the reward being '27 to 25 times more' if he prayed in a congregation rather than at home.

For most Christians, buying one's way to paradise is an alien concept, a concept explained here in 'Gather Blessings in the Mosques'. This article stresses that 'praying in the mosque and being attached to the mosque is a very pious and rewardable action gathering rewards and good deeds for the hereafter. God loves and rewards those who find repose and comfort in the mosques. Whoever builds a mosque seeking the pleasure of God, God builds a similar one for him in paradise'.The following paragraph helps to explain the thinking of Muslims and to understand the pressure for more mosques to be built: 'There are six places in which a person is guaranteed the safekeeping of God, the Most High, as long as he is in one of them. In a congregational mosque, with a sick person, at a funeral, in his house, with a just ruler whom he supports and treats with respect, or at a place where people are fighting jihad! [my emphasis - Ed]. 


With almost daily stories of Christian churches being burned to the ground in Islamic states and worshippers murdered or driven out of their homeland it is illuminating to read "Britain is among the safest places for people to worship freely and in peace, an Islamic leader has said at the opening of a new £900,000 mosque in Feltham, west London" despite the constant reports of supposed Islamophobia. There is an interesting juxtaposition between the 'Gather Blessings in the Mosques' article referred to above and an article in the Left Foot Forward Blog  under the headline 'Warsi’s call for the dominance of Christianity ignores that it’s Islam under threat'. In defence of mosque building, towards the end of the article there is a complaint about a statement in the Telegraph back in 2006: 
   "the most prominent religious building in the camera shot will not be one of the city’s iconic churches that have shaped the nation’s history, such as St Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, but the mega mosque. Its arrival in London will be a significant coup for Islam and a major event for the country as a whole’. However, there was no complaint or even a mention about the introduction to the article where 'Abu Izzadeen, the firebrand Islamist militant, berated John Reid last week for "daring" to visit a Muslim area." This a concept that is spreading, a problem which was referred to in the CH4 programme where Bradford City centre was said to be now 95% Asian.


But these double standards are something to which we have become so accustomed that we hardly turn a hair. It was no surprise then that the head of the BBC, Mark Thompson, admitted that 'We’ll mock Jesus but not Mohammed'. Of course if anyone dared to offend Muslims there would be demonstrations and death threats from those who say they are British but Muslim first. They believe that 'Mosques are special places filled with blessings and rewards, however, God has conferred a special blessing upon the nation of Muslims, the whole earth has been declared a mosque, so when the time for prayer comes and a believer is unable to pray in congregation in a building he may pray wherever he may be.' Hence the use of surrounding streets to justify more and bigger buildings. 


We are surrounded by Islamic symbols be it mosque or Islamic dress and threatened with retribution against perceived threats while Christians are denied the opportunity to express their religion other than in their churches. The authorities pussyfoot around making endless excuses about unrepresentative extremists in apparent ignorance of fundamental Islamic teaching which regards non-Muslims as underdogs in a world that belongs to Allah. In the Question Time programme I referred to above, most speakers uttered the usual bland platitudes about living together apparently unconcerned about David Starkey's complaint that he was the one who would be arrested if he criticised the Quran because it prescribed the death sentence for his homosexuality, one of many Islamic 'sins' attracting the death penalty such as apostasy and blasphemy, often used to oppress Christians, particularly in Pakistan. 


Unusual for the BBC, today's Breakfast News reported on the 'divided loyalties' of one million Pakistanis living in Great Britain out of 3.7 million expatriates who are to be given the vote in Pakistan in recognition that 5% of Pakistan's GDP had been sent back by overseas Pakistanis showing “solidarity and integrity of our motherland” despite their country's failure to protect minorities, something they insist on in Great Britain. On top of this comes the revelation that British war graves on the outskirts of Benghazi have been desecrated by Islamist militants and the symbol of Christ's redeeming love, the Cross, attacked with sledge hammers. This after Libyans had pleaded with the West to assist them in their struggle for freedom and the outrage expressed after burning some copies of the Quran. 


No doubt the CH4 experiment will show that multiculturalism can work in a house of eight people designed for the purpose but in the real world, Christianity is suppressed and only Islam is shown any respect, something that our children now pick up in school adding to the impression that in our multi-cultural society, Islam is holy when all the evidence is to the contrary. Apologists for a political ideology that seeks our demise should get their heads out of the sand, look around them and listen to someone with experience.

Sick

The cost of two minutes chanting during the Remembrance Day silence followed by burning the poppy, the symbol of remembrance, calculated to insult our dead and those who mourn or remember them - fine £50.  


Emdadur Choudhury, 26, of Spitalfields, east London, receives £792 a month in benefits from the state he despises on top of his wages. Sorry or regret? Not a bit of it.  


Is it Islamophobia to question why we tolerate this behaviour which the perpetrator himself regards as trivial, justified by the meagre punishment? In Pakistan and other Islamic countries just a word out of place results in death. Surely there is something more deserving in between. 

A religion of peace?

As the 7/7 inquest drew to a close following five months of hearing evidence, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's Minister for Minorities was being laid to rest, after being assassinated, the latest but probably not the last Christian victim of the so called religion of peace. What possible excuse can there be for atrocities carried out in the name of religion?

"Islam is a religion of peace." I don't think so!