Christian Heritage News

 By John Stonestreet and Glenn Sunshine What has happened to Nigerian Christians meets the established international standards for genocide. Back in May, 20 Nigerian Christians were brutally martyred by the Islamic militant group ISIS. In June, 40 more Christians died in Owo, Nigeria, in a terrorist attack against a church. Though it is not clear who is responsible for that attack, what is clear is that Christians continue to be severely persecuted in this West African nation. The persecution, which has been ongoing for years, is part of a long history of conflict with Islam. In 1953, Christians made up only 21.4% of the population in Nigeria. Today, about half of the country’s population, about 96 million people , are Christians. To put that number in perspective, Germany, the largest country in Europe, has a total population of less than 84 million . Much of the Christian growth in Nigeria has resulted from education efforts by Western missionaries, though the country has long h

By Tré Goins-Phillips - Posted at Faithwire: You have to wade three or four pages deep into a Google search for “Nigerian genocide” before you see anything from the mainstream press — and when you do, it’s a New York Times story from 1968 , following the country’s civil war. Legacy media outlets have been largely mum on the slaughter of Christians currently plaguing the West African country. The numbers are terrifying and should serve as a wakeup call to believers living in the Western world: Christian persecution is alive and well around the globe. Because of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which is literally translated , “Western education is a sin,” the roughly 91 million Christians living in Nigeria fear for their lives, and for good reason. In 2018 alone, some 3,731 Christians living in the country were killed for their faith. In fact, a staggering 10 believers are estimated to be killed every day as a result of their religious convictions. Continue reading

Goodluck Jonathan, former president of Nigeria Posted at Voice of the Persecuted : By Raymond Ibrahim for Gatestone Institute “On March 23, 2015, President Obama himself took the unusual step of releasing a video message directly to Nigerians all but telling them how to vote. In that video, Obama urged Nigerians to open the ‘next chapter’ by their votes.” — Goodluck Jonathan, former president of Nigeria, in his new book, My Transition Hours . “Christianity is on the brink of extinction in Nigeria.” — Bosun Emmanuel, the secretary of the National Christian Elders Forum,June 23, 2018. “Hundreds of indigenous Numan Christians in Adamawa state were attacked and killed by jihadist Fulani herdsmen. When they tried to defend themselves the Buhari govt. sent in the Airforce to bomb hundreds of them and protect the Fulani aggressors.” — Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigerian lawyer, author and former Minister of Aviation, Daily Post, December 6, 2017. In March 2014, after the United States I

Posted at Voice of the Persecuted: VOP Note: For the past 5 years, Nigerian Christian leaders and rights activists have been trying warn the world that a genocide was taking place against the Christians in the North. The barbaric acts of jihadist groups, Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen, still continue unabated as more than 6000 Christians have been killed since the start of 2018. Where is the international concern and outcry? ( Raymond Ibrahim ) —In what the Christian Association of Nigeria is calling a “pure genocide,” 238 more Christians were killed and churches desecrated by Muslims last week in the west African nation. According to a joint statement by the Christian Association, an umbrella group of various Christian denominations, “There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage.” The statement condemned the recent attacks, “where over 20

By Tom Strode - Posted at Baptist Press: WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom made some ground-breaking recommendations in its latest annual report, but the bipartisan watchdog made clear one reality is not new -- the ability to exercise one's faith continues to deteriorate. In its 2017 report issued Wednesday (April 26), the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) set a precedent by calling for Russia to be classified as one of the world's worst violators of religious liberty. The commission also urged the designation of three Muslim terrorist groups -- the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Shabaab in Somalia -- as "entities of particular concern" (EPCs), a new category for non-state organizations that use violence against people of faith. Meanwhile, USCIRF reported the status of religious liberty globally "is worsening in both the depth and breadth of violation

By Raymond Ibrahim A study from the Europe-based Center for Studies on New Religions recently confirmed that “Christians continue to be the most persecuted believers in the world, with over 90,000 followers of Christ being killed in the last year [2016],” which computes to one death every six minutes. The study also found that as many as 600 million Christians around the world were prevented from practicing their faith. Which group is most prone to persecute Christians around the world? The answer to this was made clear by another recent study ; it found that, of the ten nations around the world where Christians suffer the worst forms of persecution, nine are Islamic, though the absolute worst—North Korea—is not. Read more here.

Posted at Voice of the Persecuted : FIERCE FIGHTING HAS ERUPTED IN SOUTH SUDAN’S CAPITAL. PICTURE: AFP ( World Watch Monitor ) Five years ago today (11 July, 2011), South Sudan became the world’s newest country after seceding from the North. Following a lengthy dispute over where a border should be drawn, it was decided that Sudan’s predominantly Christian South Kordofan and Blue Nile states would remain in the mainly Sunni Muslim North. In the five years since, the Sudanese government has waged a bombing campaign against this restive, resource-rich region. Sudan’s Christians are among the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by the violence, and whose homes, crops, churches, schools and hospitals have been destroyed. In the latest incident, in June, the sole secondary school in South Kordofan’s Umdorain Country was destroyed . In April, the US State Department designated Sudan a “Country of Particular Concern” for the tenth consecutive year under the In

Posted at Voice of the Persecuted : Originally published by the Gatestone Institute The Obama administration has been escalating a policy that both abandons Mideast Christians and exposes Americans to the jihad. Late last year it was revealed that 97% of Syrian refugees accepted into the U.S. were Sunni Muslims—the same Islamic sect to which the Islamic State belongs—while fewer than half-a-percent were Christians. This disparity has since gotten worse. From May 1 to May 23, 499 Syrian refugees —a number that exceeds the total number of refugees admitted during the last three years—were received into the U.S. Zero Christians were among them; 99 percent were Sunni (the remaining one percent was simply listed as “Muslim”). These numbers are troubling: First, from a strictly humanitarian point of view—and humanitarianism is the chief reason being cited in accepting refugees— Christians should receive priority simply because currently they are among the most persecuted groups in th

By Raymond Ibrahim: While Christianity continues to be physically erased from the Middle East, lesser known is that its historical role and presence is also being expunged from memory. Last month a video emerged showing Islamic State members tossing hundreds of Christian textbooks, many of them emblazoned with crosses, into a large bonfire. As one report put  it, ISIS was “burning Christian textbooks in an attempt to erase all traces of” Christianity from the ancient region of Mosul, where Christianity once thrived for centuries before the rise of Islam. As usual, ISIS is ultimately an extreme example of Islam’s normative approach. This was confirmed during a recent conference in Amman, Jordan hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Political Studies. While presenting, Dr. Hena al-Kaldani, a Christian, said that “there is a complete cancelation of Arab Christian history in the pre-Islamic era,” “many historical mistakes,” and “unjustifiable historic leaps in our Jordanian curricu

Posted at RaymondIbrahim.com: Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamic extremist group, has killed more people in the name of jihad than the Islamic State (ISIS), according to the findings of a new report . Since 2000, when twelve Northern Nigerian states began implementing or more fully enforcing Islamic law, or Sharia, “between 9,000 to 11,500 Christians” have been killed. This is “a conservative estimate.” In addition, “1.3 million Christians have become internally displaced or forced to relocate elsewhere,” and “13,000 churches have been closed or destroyed altogether.” Countless “thousands of Christian businesses, houses and other property have been destroyed.” The report alludes to a number of other factors that connect the growth of the Nigerian jihad to the growth of the global jihad. The rise of anti-Christian, Islamic supremacism “did not emerge in Northern Nigeria until the 1980s, when Nigerian scholars and students returned from Arabic countries influenced by Wahhabi and Salaf

Posted at Voice of the Persecuted : ( Voice of the Persecuted ) On Monday night, the House voted to pass a resolution declaring the Islamic State to be committing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. The resolution passed 383-0, which many are calling a miracle! To all who have prayed, Thank you. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) issued the following statement on House passage of H. Con. Res. 121 and H. Con. Res. 75, which condemn the atrocities committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIS: “What is happening in Iraq and Syria is a deliberate, systematic targeting of religious and ethnic minorities. Today, the House unanimously voted to call ISIS’s atrocities what they are: a genocide. We also will continue to offer our prayers for the persecuted.” Christians are also severely persecuted by ISIS and other Islamic radicals globally. They have been on a religious cleansing mission to eradicate Christianity in their quest for a pu

Christian Headlines By Veronica Neffinger  - Posted at Christian Headlines : The Council of Europe has officially recognized the Islamic State’s persecution of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East as genocide. Christian Today reports that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution entitled “Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq.” The report states that ISIS has “perpetrated acts of genocide and other serious crimes punishable under international law.” The resolution passed 117 votes to one. Under international law, genocide is considered the severest crime. The designation of genocide also has actual implications for Christians and other minorities being persecuted by ISIS as it will put pressure on the United Nations Security Council to also issue a genocide resolution which will encourage countries to take action to stop the genocide. Read more...

Posted at Voice of the Persecuted : The Western Church has been silent way too long on Christian Persecution. Christian Leaders in Iraq say the silence of the West has condemned Christians to death. I couldn’t agree more, the silence has been deafening. Since our leader claimed it shameful to consider Christians for migration to the US, some in the church have jumped on the bandwagon totally ignoring the genocide in the blindness and refusal to admit this from our President. They now call for America to open it’s arms to Syrian Refugees regardless of their backgrounds. All feeling quite guilty to follow Christ’s commands to care for each other and care for the widows and children. I am not going to debate this, but will say the ludicrous accusations from our President that we want a test for religion is just that, Ludicrous . …an age old manipulation technique to turn the tables on truth to shame others. After two pages of personal information on the application for asylum in the

Posted at Voice of the Persecuted : Nigeria : ( Voice of the Persecuted ) For the past year, the world’s focus has been on the terror group ISIS, but many have overlooked the 6 year Nigerian nightmare called Boko Haram. For years, Voice of the Persecuted  has warned about the insatiable bloodlust of this notorious Islamic group and compared their deadly campaign equal to, if not worse than, the Islamic State’s (ISIS). But news coming out of Nigeria garners little interest, even our own Nigerian reports barely get a glance. This has led our team to often call persecuted North Nigerian Christians, the invisibles . It isn’t hard to see why God has called our hearts and hands for our Nigerian brothers and sisters. The lack of interest has caused greater hardship and suffering for Christians in the north of the country. Attacks and military clashes have forced a staggering number of North Nigerians from their homes. 2.2 million people have been labeled as IDP’s, internally displaced peop

By Bill Bumpas - Posted at OneNewsNow : A human-rights organization that tracks Christian persecution worldwide says the Paris terrorist attack shows the threat that Islamic State poses around the world. Todd Daniels of International Christian Concern  says the deadly attacks demonstrated that ISIS can operate beyond the Middle East region. "Unfortunately an event like this," he says, "is often what it takes for the broader world to realize the reality that Christians and other minorities in the Middle East Face on a daily basis." Read more here...

Posted at Wintery Knight: Let’s start with the Washington Times . They write: Less than 3 percent of the Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far are Christian and 96 percent are Muslim, the result of a referral system that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton says “unintentionally discriminates” against Christians.  [...]Figures from the State Department Refugee Processing Center updated Monday showed that 96 percent of the Syrian refugees accepted so far are Muslim, while less than 3 percent are Christian. The other 33 identified as belonging to smaller religious faiths or said they had no religion.   [...]The current system relies on referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Syria’s population in 2011 was 90 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian, CNS said. So, the population as a whole is 90% Muslim, 10% Christian, but the refugees we've accepted are 96% and 3% Christian. And this is despite the facts that Chistians are being treated

Allah in Arabic ( Wikipedia ) Editor's Note: Originally posted at Morning Star News 1 day before the terror attacks in France. AW (Morning Star News) – Two remarkable pieces about Islamist violence were published last week in mainstream media – one answering the ambivalence thoughtful people feel on what to do about the Islamic State, and the other answering perplexity on what to do about Islam. They are remarkable first because, unconcerned about political correctness, they strongly assert that anyone should do anything about either. They are also remarkable in that they fly in the face of the inertia of the majority. Few in the United States are eager to go back to war in Iraq, and few in the postmodern era are apt to critique a religion, much less have the stomach to suggest reforming one that includes widespread elements threatening to kill its critics. But there they go again: Advocating Islamic reform by recognizing the roots of Islamic extremism in Islamic scrip

By Stoyan Zaimov - Posted at Christian Post: Image from Sermon Audio The United States Department of State has detailed in its International Religious Freedom report what one group described as "unimaginable horrors" Christians are facing at the hands of the Islamic State terror group, including beheadings and kidnappings. The American Center for Law and Justice , which has been speaking out about Christian persecution across Iraq and Syria, described accounts in the IRF report as "truly gut-wrenching," and said the report only offers "a small glimpse at the unimaginable horrors" Christians are facing. David Saperstein, ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, said: "There is an absolute and unequivocal need to give voice to the religiously oppressed in every land afraid to speak of what they believe in; who face death and live in fear, who worship in underground churches, mosques or temples, who feel so desperate that the

From Frontline Fellowship : Remember the Persecuted for you to share and show your friends, family, congregation and school. Sunday, 8 November is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. See www.idop-africa.org website for articles, news and resources to mobilise your church or school, to pray for the persecuted. "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them - those who are mistreated - since you yourselves are in the Body also." Hebrews 13:3 Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/136492640

By Heather Clark - Posted at Christian News Network: Christians worldwide will be observing the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church today by joining together to intercede for those who daily suffer for their faith in Jesus Christ. “Religious freedom is a fundamental human right,” states a video produced by the World Evangelical Alliance. “In spite of this, religious freedom is fast declining around the world.” Statistics show that 80 percent of global persecution is directed against Christians as over 100 million believers face persecution each day. “In countries like Eritrea, Iran and Sudan, countless Christians languish in prison for their faith,” the organization outlines. “In Pakistan, India and Nepal, Christian face discrimination and marginalization because of their faith. In Sri Lanka, pastors are beaten and harassed for their faith. In places like Iraq, Syria and Nigeria, Christian families live in constant fear of violence and death.” Read more here...