you have 3 days to leave....or you will be killed

[JoeCanada]

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14430/christians-africa-persecution

Persecution of Christians in the Middle East is now close to "genocide", a UK-commissioned report just revealed. The same threat has also become critical for Christian communities in Africa.

Some say it began in Algeria in the 1990s, when 19 monks, bishops, nuns and other Catholics were killed during the civil war. Since then, in Nigeria, Christian faithful have been massacred in their churches; in Kenya, Christians have been killed in universities; in Libya, Christians have been beheaded on beaches; in Yemen, nuns have been assassinated and in Egypt, massive anti-Christian violence is prompting an exodus. It is the new African archipelago of persecution.

Distressingly, these Christians have been finding themselves in the blind spot of the West: they are "too Christian" to get the Left's attention, but too far away for the Right. Africa's Christians are orphans. They have no "allies", John O'Sullivan writes.

Christian families recently fled the city of Diffa, in Niger, after Boko Haram delivered the message: "You have three days to go or you will be killed!". "There is no Christian anymore in this town", someone reported to the non-governmental organization, the Barnabas Fund. The town, Arbinda, is in Burkina Faso. Numbers are telling: 82 pastors, 1,145 Christians and 151 households have fled from violence in the Muslim-majority nation. Just in the last few weeks, several of the Christian faithful and clergy have been murdered. Jihadists killed six Christians in a Catholic church in the town of Dablo. A pastor was murdered in an attack in Silgadji, Catholic parades have been targeted.

Jihadists apparently want to "cleanse" these areas of Christians -- and they are succeeding. "There is an atmosphere of panic in the town," the mayor of Dablo, Ousmane Zongo, said. "People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It's practically a ghost town".

In Nigeria, attacks on Christians never stop. The country has become a "war zone for Christians".

"The attacks on Christians are growing more flagrant and more aggressive," Father John Bakeni from the Maiduguri Diocese, northern Nigeria, said. "We consider each day we live in safety a blessing because we do not know what will happen the next day".

"We Christians are at risk of extinction and an attempt is being made to Islamize the whole country because controlling Nigeria means expelling Christians from all of West Africa", said Father Joseph Fidelis Bature, a Catholic priest in the Nigerian diocese of Maiduguri, in the Italian monthly Tempi.

Unfortunately, we Westerners have a short memory. Al Qaeda's first attacks took place in Africa: the bombings against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Africa matters for the West. That is why we should take this monstrous new anti-Christian persecution more seriously. "Christianity originated in the Middle East", the Egyptian Coptic Pope Tawadros II said in Germany, where he was inaugurating a new Coptic church in May for his exiled community. "Thus, the displacement or evacuation of Christians from the Middle East is very dangerous for the safety of the region, not only in the Middle East but also in the Mediterranean Sea region. Europe is affected by this, and the Arab countries as well". The West should take much more seriously these appeals from the Eastern Christian leaders.

With a secularized Europe and a Middle East close to becoming emptied of Christians, those jihadists who are obsessed with eradicating Christianity understand that their current ideological battlefield is in Africa. "By 2025, 50 percent of the (world's) Christian population will be in Africa and Latin America", wrote the scholar Philip Jenkins. The share of the world's Christians in sub-Saharan Africa is expected grow from 24% in 2010 to 38% by 2050. That is why jihadists there are pursuing a horrific project of religious cleansing.

"Christianity has literally 'gone south', exploding demographically in the developing world and augmenting ongoing sociopolitical turmoil in places such as West Africa", the Pew Forum reports. Radical Islam wants to stop this demographic movement, which Professor Philip Jenkins called "the largest religious change of any kind that has ever occurred".

According to another report, in one century the number of Muslims living in sub-Saharan Africa has increased more than 20-fold, rising from 11 million in 1900 to 234 million in 2010. At the same time, the number of Christians has grown 70-fold, rising from 7 million to 470 million. Sub-Saharan Africa now is home to 21% of all the Christians in the world and 15% of the world's Muslims. "Islamic extremism has two global centers of gravity, one in the Arab Middle East, but the other is in sub-Saharan Africa", researcher Ron Boyd-MacMillan noted in a report for Open Doors.

Every year, Open Doors lists the world's 50 worst persecutors of Christians. The list include 14 African countries, called home to "extreme" or "very high" levels of persecution: Algeria, the Central African Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia. Mali, for instance, went from no listing to seventh place in just two years. In Kenya last year, Islamists forced passengers of a bus to present their identification cards. Then they separated Muslims and killed the two Christians.

Regrettably, the tragedy of these massacres of Christians is directly proportional to the neglect with which they are reported in the West. "One of the basic facts of contemporary religious history is that Christians around the world are persecuted on an extraordinary scale", Ross Douthat recently wrote in The New York Times.

"Yet as an era-defining reality rather than an episodic phenomenon this reality is barely visible in the Western media, and rarely called by name and addressed head-on by Western governments and humanitarian institutions. ('Islamophobia' looms large; talk of 'Christophobia' is almost nonexistent.)"

Jihadists know a secret: persecution works. Algeria -- the country of origin of some of the Christian fathers such as Augustine of Hippo -- has become a country that is 99.9% Muslim and where officially there are "no native Christians". How many other countries will meet the same fate? And will the West ever come to the help of their Christian brethren?

[ayin jade]

Bumping

This is too important to get lost down the forum page.

We should all pray

[other one]

Joe, I don't think the west has the intestinal fortitude to do what it takes to defeat  Islam.   I think Afghanistan is an example of what I mean....   How many countries have tried to change things there....  The people who have had the will to keep those people in line we have declared as evil tyrants...   Saddam and Assad are two examples....   when they were both in full power Christians were safe in their respective countries....   but it takes really draconian actions to keep radical Islam in check.

Most of us are not willing to do what is necessary to keep them even civil..

 

 

[BeauJangles]

This sounds really distressing, but I can't say that it comes as any surprise. 

[frienduff thaylorde]

We pray for the brethren .   OH and let their faith spread like wild fire everywhere they are and run too.

Let the furtherance of the true gospel continue .

Blessed are you , when you are persecuted , hated , killed for His name sake .   Let us really pray for these .   

[Dennis1209]

With the exception of Fox news infrequently, no major media outlet brings this to our attention. If it were not for alternate independent trustworthy sources at my disposal, I wouldn't even be aware of it. 

All of my Christian and non-liberal independent news sources state the exact same thing; Christian persecution is the worst it has ever been all throughout history; including the Catholic inquisitions, where it's estimated millions died for their faith. Think about that for a moment and let it really sink in...

Fortunately for us here in the United States, God blessed US and placed each of us here at this particular time and place. We feel so very safe from persecution here in the United States and most people here don't overly concern themselves with the plight of their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ outside of the US. Those with Christian discernment can see the approaching Christian persecution right here on US soil. 

But I take heart; God is in control, and He told us about the coming persecution of His children and it's now here and gaining speed and intensity. We as individual Christians and as collective churches should be screaming out on this martyrdom and genocide. Collectively the church has become passive and not taken a firm and active stand on so many abominations taking place in these last days. 

I keep in mind what the Apostle to the Gentiles stated:

Philippians 1:21 (KJV) For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

As ayin jade rightly observed, we need to keep this thread bumped up for a time so others that are not aware can become informed.

[just_abc]

um.... I am not really sure why "the West" is singled out in article?

What I mean is that.. there are many many different countries in Africa and elsewhere around the world..   Each country or area might have different issues or situation..ie it is not all exactly the same..  For those countries facing groups such as ISIS.. or similar type groups.. of course all countries need to try to stop them..  But this is something all countries both East and West need to try to do.. not just the responsibility of "the West"?

Forgive me if my post sounds harsh.  But I guess I don't understand the possible western-centric view of the article?  Or maybe i have misunderstood?  If so please forgive.  

 

Christians both in the East and West depend on the Lord first and foremost.  Of course countries (both from the East and West) should help people in other countries.  And Christians and Christian organisations should help. 

But that is the responsibilty of those both in the East and West.. not just the West alone..

Just my opinion thats all.  No offence intended.  And if I have misunderstood please please forgive.

Thanks.

Edited July 6, 2019 by just_abc

[shortangel]

yep I agree we should be praying for our Christian brothers & sisters in the Middle East,  it looks like perscuation is getting very severe over there,  even though the church here in America has only suffered mild perscuation that could change,