Video - TV Libertés : la christianophobie en France; 90 000 chrétiens tués par haine de la Foi dans le monde !

Dans le dernier épisode de Terre de Missions, diffusé sur TV Libertés dimanche 22 janvier dernier, Guillaume de Thieulloy, qui dirige cette émission alternativement avec Jean-Pierre Maugendre, m’a invité à venir parler notamment de la christianophobie en France. Les lecteurs de L’Observatoire de la Christianophobie y apprendront pas mal de choses d’intérêt sur la christianophobie dans notre pays… C’est à partir de 9’ 05” mais les autres sujets traités sont aussi à découvrir en particulier le dernier sujet qui suit le mien, et dans lequel Charlotte d’Ornellas traite de la situation en Syrie où elle était récemment au titre de SOS Chrétiens d’Orient. HT: christianophobie

'The war on Christianity' - 743 Christians Attacked by Muslims in German Refugee Camps in 2016.

'The war on Christianity' - 743 Christians Attacked by Muslims in German Refugee Camps. (Voiceofthepercecuted).

As Voice of the Persecuted has reported in the past, Christians fleeing violence are persecuted in Europe’s refugee centers.

(CBN) A new report from a coalition of Christians groups in Germany has found that 743 Christians and 10 Yezidis were victims of religiously motivated attacks in refugee camps so far this year.

The report comes from Open Doors Germany, AVC (Action on Behalf of Persecuted Christians and the Needy), IGFM (International Society for Human Rights), Aid to the Church in Need, and ZOCD (Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany).

“The situation of Christian refugees in German refugee shelters is still unbearable. As a minority they are discriminated against, beaten up by and receive death threats from Muslim refugees and partly by the Muslim staff (security, interpreters, volunteers) on grounds of their religion,” the report says.

The Christian groups believe attacks on Christians are even more widespread than the number of reported incidents.

They call the survey, “the tip of the iceberg in regard to the number of religiously motivated attacks on Christian refugees and other religious minorities.”

“It must be assumed that there is a high number of unreported cases,” they conclude. “Effective measures for the protection of religious minorities (in refugee camps have) yet to be implemented.”

'Moderate Islam Myth' 101 - Muslim family are driven from their home... after they converted to Christianity.

'Moderate Islam Myth' 101 - Muslim family are driven from their home... after they converted to Christianity. (DM).

An Asian family who converted to Christianity claim they are being driven out of their home for the second time by Muslim persecutors.

Nissar Hussain, his wife Kubra and their six children said they have suffered an appalling ordeal at the hands of neighbours who regard them as blasphemers.

They claim they are effectively prisoners in their own home after being attacked in the street, having their car windscreens repeatedly smashed and eggs thrown at their windows.

Mr Hussain, 49, has even given up his career as a nurse due to the effect on his health.

Police have been called numerous times to deal with the trouble but are said to be reluctant to treat the problem as a religious hate crime.

Only one successful prosecution has been made, and Mr Hussain said he feels so let down by police he has lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

He also criticised the Anglican Church for failing to provide any meaningful support.

Now the family are likely to move from their home city of Bradford to a 'white English' area to escape the hate campaign.

'Our lives have been sabotaged and this shouldn't happen in the United Kingdom,' said Mr Hussain.

'We live in a free democratic society and what they are doing to us is abhorrent.'

The Daily Mail first reported the family's ordeal in 2005 when they accused Muslims of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against them.

A year later they moved to a different part of Bradford to start again.

Neighbours welcomed them into the community and all was well until Mr Hussain took part in a Channel 4 Dispatches TV documentary about the mistreatment of Muslim converts, which was screened in 2008.

They were recognised by a large Muslim family of seven brothers and four sisters living on the same street and were immediately ostracised.

The younger children from both families attended the local Church of England primary school, where a majority of pupils were Muslims of Pakistani heritage, but car sharing trips were soon stopped by the other family.

Mr Hussain said 'word was spread around the playground' about them being Christian converts and their youngest daughter was bullied.

Youngest daughter Leena, now 14, was told by her friends 'our parents say we mustn't mix with you because you are a convert.' Mr Hussain said: 'She was heartbroken and made to feel like a second class citizen.'

Mr Hussain said his wife, 45, and children Issar, 23, Anniesa, 21, Sarah, 19, Miriam, 17, Leena and Isaaq, seven, have faced harassment and abuse on almost a daily basis.

The family were denounced as 'apostates' – a term used for those who renounce a religion for another – which in some hardline Islamic countries is punishable with death.

Flashpoints include an incident in March this year when Mr Hussain ended up grappling with a man who 'threatened and confronted' his wife.

Police were called and Mr Hussain was arrested and spent 12 hours in police cells before being released without charge.

Over the last year, Mr Hussain has had his car windscreen smashed six times at a cost of £5,000. His eldest son, a final year medical student, has also had his windscreen smashed.

Although their faith remains strong, Mr and Mrs Hussain no longer attend church. 'We have given up on the Church of England, they have done nothing for us,' said Mr Hussain.

A meeting, arranged by a friend, with a local imam – who 'listened and promised to help' – also led to nothing, said Mr Hussain. Hmmm.....'Moderate' Islam, many talk about it, but rarely seen. Read and see the full story here.

Russia, Jewish Torah texts with "extremist content" confiscated from a school.

Source picture.

Russia, Jewish Torah texts with "extremist content" confiscated from a school. (AN).

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Yekaterinburg prosecutor's office, has confiscated a number of Jewish sacred texts (Tanakh), from a Jewish high school including the Torah, because deemed to contain extremist content.

Meduza news website reported the news, quoting a Jewish community activist who spoke with Kursor newspaper. The activist points out that the books were confiscated at the end of Mays and results of the investigation have yet to be released.

A year ago, the same school - linked to the Jewish 'Ohr Avner' center - had been under threat of closure, after an inspection launched by the local prosecutor together with Rosobrnadzor, the federal agency that monitors education.

The authorities then had registered a number of violations, including failure to comply with national education standards. Earlier, a court in Yekaterinburg had decided that the school had to pay for many years of rent arrears. The school maintains that they have the right to use the property for free because they had undertaken renovations of the building.

According to the Newsru website, the authorities have decided "turn from administrative violations to ideological issues", with the accusations of extremism.

"None of the books confiscated are on the federal list of books banned for extremism", denounced a school administrator to the site Politsovet, who believes the sacred texts are not under inspection rather some study manuals.

So far the Prosecutor of the Sverdlovsk region, which includes Ekaterinburg, has declined to comment on the reports.

In 2013, the Commission for Inter-Ethnic Relations and Freedom of Conscience at the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation discussed a proposal to be sent to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to improve controls on extremist religious literature.

The same proposal also suggested "protecting" the sacred texts of traditional religions from such controls. Experts are concerned that, during inspections, there are no consultations with religious scholars and religious communities. As a result it is impossible to adequately assess, on the basis of language and of modern legal thought, texts written many years ago and with specific religious significance.

The prosecution’s investigation of the Jewish community has also focused on the 'Hesed' center in Novgorod, where every Sunday members of the Jewish community of the city meet to study Hebrew.

On June 1, the participants in the meeting were forced to present their ID  to representatives of the public prosecutor, who arrived unannounced on-site and without explanations for an inspection. Hmmm....Next they'll say 9/11 was carried out by people shouting 'Mazzle Tov'?

Christians are the 21th Century lepers.

Christians are the 21th Century lepers. HT: Archbishopcranmer.

Speaking at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Virginia last week, the next Republican nominee (if they have any sense) for President of the United States spoke of the increasing intolerance being expressed toward Christians by the erstwhile liberal democratic states, simply for believers’ adherence to centuries-old moral orthodoxy and theological wisdom in an age of relativism and aggressive assertions of equality and human rights.

Yes, he was courting the ‘Evangelical vote’ (aka ‘Religious Right’), but quite why an appeal to that constituency should be deemed cynical when a presidential candidate must impress across a broad church (quite literally) is perplexing. The fact that much of the media, however, deemed his speech to be a depthless flash of detested pretence rather goes to prove Bush’s point: Christians are the new lepers.

He didn’t quite point it like that, but the inference is clear:

How strange, in our own time, to hear Christianity spoken of as some sort of backward and oppressive force. Outside these seven thousand acres of shared conviction, it’s a depressing fact that when some people think of Christianity and of Judeo-Christian values, they think of something static, narrow, and outdated. We can take this as unfair criticism, as it typically is, or we can take it as further challenge to show in our lives the most dynamic, inclusive, and joyful message that ever came into the world.

His zeal is for religious freedom, which, under President Obama, has been made a little lower than Gomorrah: “What should be easy calls, in favor of religious freedom, have instead become an aggressive stance against it.”

It strikes me that most of the criticism directed at believers in our day is drawn from hostile caricature. That’s just the easy way of avoiding honest discussion. It is a posture that only deepens distrust, instead of inviting understanding.

The truth, of course, is that the censorious liberals and intolerant democrats don’t want an honest discussion.

By deepening distrust of Christians, they stifle debate in order to suppress truth. Leviticus introduced us to the scapegoat; the Athenians gave us ostracism; Matthew and Luke tell us about lepers. Now, of course, we send people to Coventry.

Every age and culture has its heretics, untouchables and outcasts. Christians aren’t quite criminals, but if ‘hate speech’ continues to suck in Scripture, it won’t be too long before the priestly persona non grata is thrown into prison by the enlightened establishment simply for refusing to join two men in holy matrimony.

And yet that conscience has become warped, dangerous and damaging. Christianity has become a perverted practice and phobic offence.

Christians who were called to a revolutionary mission of love have become the haters, bigots and social deviants. Our words are deemed destructive; our beliefs archaic; our opinions obsolete.

We cling to free speech but know that our mere thoughts are scorned by the illiberal anti-democrats who demand unqualified subjection to what we are told is the new mainstream of reason and factual authority. To criticise is social suicide. To utter a word in defence of the Faith is shrill and shallow.

To tweet truth is to invite Stephen Fry’s horde of devotees to screech ‘homophobe’ and heckle until an apology is extracted – with threats, if necessary.

There can be no opposition, no resistance and no petition for appeal. Every jarring dissonance must be muzzled before it is uttered. Those who demur are stamped upon and snuffed out. The land must be purged of ugly scars and cleansed of infectious scabs. Christians were once scapegoats and sacrificial lambs, and then we became heretics and outcasts. Now we are the lepers of omniscient secular enlightenment. Blessed are those who conform. Read the full story here.


Hmmm.....Luke 6:22 - Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

Cardinal Koch: Christians more persecuted today, than during the first centuries.

Cardinal Koch: Christians more persecuted today, than during the first centuries.(TA).[GoogleTranslate].

President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity , the Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch gave an interview in Zurich daily Tages Anzeiger who has published in its issue of Easter Sunday April 5th. Here is an authorized Cardinal judgment on the persecution of Christians these days ...

"Christianity in the world today, is the most persecuted religion. 80% of those who are persecuted for reasons of faith are Christians. Today Christians are more persecuted than during the first centuries."

You are at the Vatican as "ecumenical minister" responsible for relations with Judaism. How good is the relationship? 

The dialogue with Many Jews is at the Catholic Church's heart. I did already know this myself , when I took my new job in Rome July 1, 2010. The first people who visited me, have been Jews. Many Jews view the Catholic Church as a reliable partner in the fight against anti-Semitism, which shows growing market again.

How much are you concerned that?

The reappearance of anti-Semitism shows that people do not learn from history often. We have just in Europe a gruesome history in dealing with the Jews. That on this continent anti-Semitism returns is a tragic situation that causes me great concern.

Israel's policy matter in these aversions?

The Promise of the Land belongs to the Jewish faith. On the other hand,  not everything that should happen in the state and in the policies of Israel, be regarded as fulfilling this promise. The policy of Israel must be open to criticism. And one should not judge any criticism of Israeli policies as anti-Semitism. If this difference is not done, instead of anti-Semitism is promoted fights. Read the full interview here.

"First they came for the Jews" - "Persecution Of Christians Reaches Historic Levels, Worst Is Yet To Come"

"First they came for the Jews" - "Persecution Of Christians Reaches Historic Levels, Conditions Suggest Worst Is Yet To Come" HT: OpenDoors.


According to the 2015 Open Doors World Watch List, the Middle East Remains Most Violent While Africa Sees Largest Increase in Persecution of Christians

SANTA ANA, Calif., Jan. 7, 2015—While the year 2014 will go down in history for having the highest level of global persecution of Christians in the modern era, current conditions suggest the worst is yet to come.

Today, Open Doors released its annual World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries where it is most dangerous and difficult to be a Christian. This year, the threshold was higher for a country to make the list, indicating that worldwide levels of persecution have increased. Topping the 2015 list for the 13th consecutive year is North Korea. Africa saw the most rapid growth of persecution, while the Middle East saw targeted attacks, resulting in a mass exodus of Christians.

Approximately 100 million Christians are persecuted worldwide, making them one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world. Islamic extremism is the main source of persecution in 40 of the 50 countries on the 2015 World Watch List. While persecution can take many forms, Christians throughout the world risk imprisonment, torture, rape and even death as result of their faith.

“Even Christian-majority states are experiencing unprecedented levels of exclusion, discrimination and violence,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA. “The 2015 World Watch List reveals that a staggering number of Christians are becoming victims of intolerance and violence because of their faith. They are being forced to be more secretive about their faith.”

Middle East

The Middle East remains one of the most violent areas of the world for Christians. Violence against Christians by the Islamic State and other Islamic terrorist groups increased in countries like Iraq (3) and Syria (4). More than 70 percent of Christians have fled Iraq since 2003, and more than 700,000 Christians have left Syria since the civil war began in 2011. Afghanistan (5) and Pakistan (8) have both increased in persecution.

Africa

For the third year in a row, the majority of African nations on the World Watch List have increased in rank due to Islamic extremism. Kenya made the largest jump, moving up from number 43 to number 19. With no functioning government, Christian persecution remains severe in Somalia, which retained the No. 2 spot on the list. Both Sudan (6) and Eritrea (9) reentered the top 10 and Nigeria (10) appeared in the top 10 for the first time.

Asia

North Korea remains the most dangerous and difficult place to be a Christian. An estimated 70,000 Christians remain in prison for their faith. The conditions are also worsening for Christians throughout Asia. Countries such as Uzbekistan (15), Vietnam (16) and India (21) have all seen increases in persecution. Of particular note is India (21), where persecution is driven by Islamic extremism and Hindu fundamentalism.

Persecution at a Glance

Christian persecution is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christ. Recent examples include imprisonment, torture, beheadings, rape, and loss of home and assets.

While violent persecution is most often reported by media, nonviolent persecution is also on the rise. Violence has increased dramatically in Iraq, Syria and Nigeria, but Christians in other countries are experiencing persecution in their personal lives through family, community and national spheres of life. Christians are often ostracized by family exclusion, the loss of a job or even rejection from a community.

“The goal of the World Watch List is to keep Christian persecution on the radar of those enjoying the privileges of freedom,” said Curry. “The perpetrators of persecution need to know that the world is watching and stands in opposition to persecution. And for the persecuted, we want them to know that they are not forgotten.”

View the Complete 2015 World Watch List

Methodology

The Open Doors World Watch List is the only annual survey of religious liberty conditions for Christians around the world. From Nov. 1, 2013, to Oct. 31, 2014, researchers measured the degree of freedom a Christian has to live out his or her faith in five spheres of life—private, family, community, national and church life, plus a sixth category measuring the degree of violence. For more information on the methodology of the World Watch List, please visit OpenDoorsUSA.org.

About Open Doors USA

For 60 years, Open Doors USA has worked in the world's most oppressive and restrictive countries for Christians. Open Doors works to equip and encourage Christians living in dangerous circumstances with the threat of persecution and equips the Western church to advocate for the persecuted. Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world and are oppressed in at least 60 countries. For more information, visit OpenDoorsUSA.org .

Source and more info

Bethlehem to Host Church Conference Which Demonizes Israel

Picture: Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.A Palestinian resident of Bethlehem looks over the wrinkled sleeping accomodations of the besieged civilians and Palestinian terrorists.


Theologians who are breathing new life into a kind of demonology which criminalizes all Israelis will meet in Bethlehem in March.(INN).Next March, the Bible College in Bethlehem will host dozens of US theologians, activists and ministries for the “Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 Conference”.
It is to be a major religious and political event meant to demonize Israel and to support the Palestinian Intifada against the “ethnocentric” Jewish State.
The impressive range of Christian theologians and pastors from many churches located in the United States make the gravity of the upcoming conference clear.Samuel Rodriguez, President of the US National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, is a speaker.
Also attending are popular US preacher and “spiritual adviser” to Bill Clinton, Tony Campolo, and President of the World Evangelical Alliance and Asia Evangelical Alliance, Sang-Bok David Kim.
Two of the conference organisers, Stephen Sizer and Sami Awad, adamantly defended the Gaza flotilla sent in May 2010 by the Turkish terror group IHH.
Another speaker, Ben White, has shared a political platform with Azzam Tamimi, who has endorsed suicide bombings against Jewish civilians in the past.
In the last few months we have seen an increase of attacks on Israel by many Christian denominations. While the United States is home to millions of Christian supporters of Israel, these are anti-Jewish Churches which are more closely attached to global public opinion, European bureaucracy, the media industry, the United Nations and various legal forums.
In fact, the “Bethlehem Call” manifesto, which serves as platform for the Bethlehem 2012 Conference, has just been published on the websites of the Would Council of Churches, the Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ.
The Bethlehem Call defines Israel as an “illegal regime” and a “crime against humanity”, it promotes “international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns” against Israel, labels the more neutral Churches as “accomplices in crimes against humanity” and attacks Christian Zionism as “a crime and sin as defying the core of the Gospel”.
The Bethlehem Call also updates the “Kairos Palestine”, the major document used as global tool for the Christian struggle against Israel speaking in the behalf of “us Christian Palestinians”. Even the name of the Catholic Custodian of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, prominently appears among the most important signatures in this website:
http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf
In 2007, the World Council of Churches, the umbrella organization of liberal Protestants claiming a membership of 580 million worshippers, also produced the “Amman Call”, which denies Israel’s right to continue to exist as a Jewish State by insisting that millions of Palestinians have the “right of return” to Israel.
In 2008, the World Council of Churches convened a group of Protestant and Catholic theologians to review the underpinnings of Christian attitudes about Israel. The group published the “Bern Perspective”, which, among other things, instructed Christians to understand all biblical references to Israel only “metaphorically”.
The theological meeting also marked a return to “replacement theology”, the medieval view that the Church has replaced the people of Israel in God’s plan and that all biblical references to Israel refer to the “new Israel”—that is, to Christians.Replacement calumny has changed its language, yet still is basically a death sentence for the Jewish people. Now it is Israelis, like Lucifer, who were God’s chosen but were cast out for their rebellious and evil ways, and deserve to be obliterated from the “Holy Land”, according to this macabre theology.
Taken together, it seems these Churches are now breathing new life into a kind of demonology which criminalizes all the Jews living between the Jordan River and the Meditarranean.Hmmmm.........Not in my Bible!Read the full story here.