Theology in the News

Another day, another bomb:

A bomb exploded last night near the St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk, which is just a few hundreds of metres from the Chaldean cathedral, in central part of the city. The device blew up at 1.30 am and there were no victims. The damages to the church were however huge.

Today’s incident is the latest in a string of attacks against Christians and their places of worship. On 2 August, a car bomb exploded in front of the Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church, wounding 15 people. The bomb had been placed inside a car, parked near the building.

On the same day, another bomb also placed in a car parked near a Presbyterian church was defused before it went off.

Islamic fundamentalists, who remain very active, as well as groups involved in local feuds, have targeted Iraqi Christians.

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A pastor in Iran found guilty of leaving Islam awaits the outcome of a judicial investigation into his spiritual background to see if he will be executed or, if possible, forced to become a Muslim, according to Christian groups with ties in Iran.

The court-ordered investigation will take place sometime this fall to determine whether Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, 34, was a Muslim as a teenager before he became a Christian at 19.

On Sept. 22, 2010, a regional court sentenced Nadarkhani, who leads a 400-strong house church movement in Rasht, to death by hanging for “convert(ing) to Christianity” and “encourag(ing) other Muslims to convert to Christianity.” Nadarkhani’s lawyer appealed the verdict to the Iranian Supreme Court, in part because the pastor said he had never actually been a Muslim and therefore could not be found guilty of abandoning the religion.

The court issued a written response to the appeal on June 12, upholding the death penalty but ordering the investigation.

The response to the appeal, which took a month to reach Christian and human rights groups outside of Iran, reads in part, “According to Part 2 of Article 265 of the Islamic Republic Criminal Law, this case was received by and must be returned to the state court of Gilan Section 11, and further investigated to prove that from puberty (15 years) to 19 he was not Muslim by his acquaintances, relatives, local elders, and Muslims he frequented. He must repent [of] his Christian faith if this is the case. No research has been done to prove this; if it can be proved that he was a practicing Muslim as an adult and has not repented, the execution will be carried out.”

Even if the investigation releases him from the charge of apostasy, it is likely the charge of evangelizing Muslims will still carry a lengthy prison sentence, sources said.

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The year 2010 was the worst year to date for the Christian community in Iraq, it has been revealed by the organization for human rights in Iraq, Hammurabi. Many Christians were forced to leave the country in fear of killings and violence of all kinds. The death toll among Christians over the past seven years, according to Hammurabi exceeds 822 people. 629 of them were murdered for being part of the Christian minority. Others were involved in 126 attacks of various kinds and many others have been victims of military operations undertaken by U.S. and Iraqi forces. 13% of victims are women. Among the Christian victims of 2010 there are 33 children, 25 elderly and 14 religious. In 2010 Hammurabi recorded 92 cases of Christians killed and 47 wounded, 68 in Baghdad, 23 in Mosul and one in Erbil.

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A sociologist representing a European security organization says that the number of Christians killed each year for their faith is so high that it calculates to one martyr’s life being taken every five minutes.

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Introvigne reported that Christians killed every year for their faith number 105,000, and that number includes only those put to death simply because they are Christians. It does not count the victims of civil or international wars.

“If these numbers are not cried out to the world, if this slaughter is not stopped, if it is not acknowledged that the persecution of Christians is the first worldwide emergency in the matter of violence and religious discrimination, the dialogue between religions will only produce beautiful conferences but no concrete results,” he stated.

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Who’d of thought we’d see this in the US of all places!

Details here.

Further analysis here and here.

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If this statistic doesn’t shock you then frankly I don’t know what would:

The report estimates that there were, on average, 270 new Christian martyrs every 24 hours over the past decade, such that “the number of martyrs [in the period 2000-2010] was approximately 1 million.” Compare this to an estimated 34,000 Christian martyrs in 1900.

Other interesting stats from the same source:

$545 billion is given to Christian causes annually, which comes out to $1.5 billion per day. There are some 600 million computers in Christian use, up from 1,000 in 1970. There will be 71,425,000 Bibles distributed this year, and some 2 billion people will tune in at least once a month to Christian radio or television. Seven point one million books about Christianity will be published this year, compared to 1.8 million in 1970.

And I came across this interesting website today which may be of interest:

Human Rights Maps (118): World Giving Index, a Map of Charity

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This sentence comes at a time of high tension within Egypt following the recent atrocities perpetrated on the Copts.

The Egyptian government is desperate to foster the image of stability, security, and non-extremism, and have gone as far as to deny Christian persecution exists in their country.

If you are desirous of background information on this particular drive-by shooting, outside the church in Naj Hammadi (Southern Egypt), in which six Copts were killed last Christmas Eve – 6th January 2010 as per Julian calendar – then click here.

LA Times

An Egyptian state security court sentenced a Muslim man to death Sunday for killing six Coptic Christians in a drive-by shooting outside a church in southern Egypt last year that jolted the nation and touched off a spate of sectarian violence.

The verdict against Hamam Kamouny, 39, who was also charged with killing a Muslim security guard at the church, was handed down two weeks after 25 Christian worshippers were killed in a New Year’s Day bombing of a church in the coastal city of Alexandria.

The Egyptian government has been under immense pressure from Copts, who feel targeted by local militants and a burgeoning Islamic extremism, much of it emanating from an Al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq. Egypt has attempted to play down the recent violence, which to many Christians, who make up 10% of the population, points up the nation’s widening sectarian divide.

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On an aside, I have been reading today of Iraqi Christians fleeing their country to neighbouring Turkey, prompted by fear caused by incidents such as the recent massacre inside a church located in central Baghdad.

As always, please do remember our vulnerable and frightened brothers and sisters in your prayers….

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I concur with the US State Department as they are right to be deeply concerned about the rise in Christian persecution worldwide.

Just today we had an off-duty Muslim policeman board a train in Egypt and open fire killing a 71-year-old man and wounding his wife and four others.

All of these victims were Christian Copts and in case you’re wondering if it was a deliberate targeting of Christians, please bear in mind that the Copts are easily identifiable in Egypt as they do not wear the same garb as Muslims.

This all comes hot on the heals of the atrocity at the Egyptian Coptic al-Qiddissian church, in which a bomb – complete with metal fragments, glass and ball bearings – ripped through a crowd of Christian Copt worshippers as they emerged from their New Year’s mass.

Here’s a picture of the blood-splattered banner of Jesus taken from the church after the bombing, which speaks a thousand words.

Please remember the beleaguered Egyptian Copts in your prayers, who only make up 10% of the population, as there are some bent on exacerbating the already deadly tension.

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