The bomb that killed at least 21 Egyptian Christians on New Year’s morning was packed with sharpened metal, iron balls and razor wire. Many of those that the device didn’t rip to death will never see, walk or function properly ever again. With terrorist bombs, euphemisms such as “wounded” and “traumatized” are hideously misplaced. These are not, however, the only banalities being tossed around when this latest attack is discussed. Words like “rare,” “surprise,” and “extremist” seem similarly absurd to those who know anything about the plight of Christians in large chunks of the Muslim world. Remember, more than 50 Iraqi Catholics were murdered in November; on Christmas Day in the southern Philippines on a Muslim-dominated island a church was bombed and parishioners hurt; and in Pakistan just weeks ago a 45-year-old Christian mother of five, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death for “defaming the Prophet.” Not bad for a little over a month!

It has all become so painfully routine as to appear almost predictable. In Pakistan, churches have been destroyed, Christians lynched, children forcibly converted. Catholics and Anglicans have been denied jobs, government support, housing and the most basic human rights. In Egypt, many of the eight million Christians face daily harassment in a country of 70 million Muslims, with periodic violence — often deadly — and police indifference, and even support, for mob attacks. One particularly sinister aspect to the Egyptian mass persecution is the difficulty Christians now face in obtaining exit visas, conjuring up dark echoes of previous campaign against German and Soviet Jews.

In January 2000, in El-Kosheh, Egypt, another 21 Christians were killed in rioting by local Muslims, aided by the police. When authorities eventually reacted, they arrested more than a thousand local Christians, many of whom were tortured. There are numerous cases of Christian girls being kidnapped by Muslim gangs and then being forcibly converted and married to Muslim men. If they flee these marriages and try to return to Christianity, they are killed as apostates. Church desecration is common, as are public burnings of Bibles and Christian literature. There are also documented cases of Christians being ritually crucified, the rape of Christian girls and the prolonged beating of children, some of them babies.

In Saudi Arabia, it is effectively illegal to be a follower of Christ. In Iran, Christians face obvious discrimination. In the Gaza strip, they have been attacked, a Christian bookstore bombed and Christian women threatened with acid thrown in their faces unless they cover their heads. In Indonesia in 2005, three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded by an Islamic gang and, while that nation’s government does often attempt to enforce the law, there is a long history of anti-Christian hostility. Even in traditionally tolerant Syria, Jordan and the West Bank, an increasing tendency toward Islamic fundamentalism has made life difficult for the Christian minority. In relatively moderate Turkey, seminaries have been closed down and priests and nuns murdered; and in Cyprus, the occupying Turks have destroyed numerous Christian sites and holy places.

Islamic apologists will point to certain Christians in positions of influence, deny that persecution exists at all, or, more frequently, argue that the accusations are propaganda lies told by Christians and Jews in North America and Europe. While this may sound absurd, it is almost impossible to overstate the degree of paranoia among many Muslims concerning Jews and Christians. One of the accusations made against the slaughtered Christians in Egypt this week was that they were building up arms dumps in their churches, and that they were agents of the United States and Israel. Iraqi Christians fleeing to Syria are not trusted because they are seen as being pro-Western.

Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/01/06/michael-coren-killing-christians-in-the-name-of-the-prophet/#ixzz1AXFKjqFg

Perhaps they are afraid thge whole 'war on terror' thing is catching on so they are doing their best to run it into a religious war.

However, we need to keep this in perspective. The Muslims bomb each other's Mosques far more often. Think of it as 'outreach'.

How one eyed can one be ?

abu_rashid wrote on Jan 12^th, 2011 at 12:00am:

Quote:


So you think we routinely bomb our mosques? Or are you yet again trying to equate a war with mobs dishing out 'justice' to people of the wrong religion?

Abu, did you notice that after 9/11, we went to great lengths to prevent the sort of lunatic actions that you claim 'should be expected' from Muslims?