Why the silence surrounding Muslim massacres of Christians across Africa and the Middle East?
By Rolene Marks
The world is disproportionately focused on Israel's war with Hamas while ignoring ongoing atrocities committed against Christian communities around the world.
As the world focuses on the war between Israel and Hamas, a horrific genocide has escaped global attention. The ongoing genocide of Christians on the African continent – and other parts of the globe. Whenever there is a war that involves the Jewish state, the level of scrutiny is disproportionate and comes at the expense of other conflicts around the world.
Christmas Massacre. Families in Maiyanga bury in a mass grave relatives killed in deadly Christmas attacks conducted by armed groups in Nigeria's central Plateau State, on December 27, 2023. (Photo: Kim Masara /AFPTV / AFP / Getty Images)
The numbers on the African continent are staggering. According to Genocide Watch, as of 29 February 2000, 62,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed – and the numbers continue to steadily increase. Islamic Fulani militia, Boko Haram and other terror groups maraud through villages, committing wholesale slaughter. These are the ideological siblings of Hamas who committed the most horrific atrocities against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, including burning families alive, raping women and girls and kidnapping over 253.
Home Alone. Without any support from students at colleges in the US and Europe, these Nigerian Christians peacefully protest in Nigeria against violence following Fulani Militias, Islamic Groups mass killing of more than 1,000 Nigerian Christians.(Photo from Aid to the Church in Need)
These groups are also the ideological siblings of ISIS who have committed atrocities against Christians in the Middle East with a barbarism not seen since the medieval era or Middle Ages. Nigeria is one of the deadliest places to be a Christian, according to non-governmental Christian relief organization Open Doors. Since 1 January 2024, 600 Christians have been "hacked to death". Christians are often forced to change their religion to Islam. Islam continues to spread throughout the continent.
Nigeria is not the only country where Christians are routinely massacred. The world is silent in the face of the genocide of Christians on the African continent.
Global Indifference. No, this is not Gaza but the aftermath of a Boko Horam attack in Nigeria where homes and businesses were raised to the ground and at least 20,00 people fled. The yellow dots in this Amnesty International image represents damaged or destroyed structures.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is a Christian majority country, but this has not prevented Islamic extremists from attacking communities and villages. According to MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute):
"On April 2, 2024, Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) conducted an attack on the Christian village of Mangodomu in the Beni Territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Two days later, on April 4, ISCAP released a photoset documenting the atrocity.
In the photos, ISCAP fighters are pictured attacking the village, where they razed Christian homes to the ground, pulled crosses down, and captured and killed Christian civilian villagers.
Muslim's Mass Murders. Senior analyst at Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors Illia Djadi warns that Christians, 95% of the population of the DRC, are being killed in daily attacks by an Islamic insurgent group that also goes by Muslim Defence International.
Christians in the DRC have faced a surge of violent attacks from ISCAP fighters during 2024, fueled in part by the encouragement of Islamic State spokesman, Abu Hudhayfah Al-Ansari, who has incited the group's affiliates to target and kill Christians across Africa, the West, and elsewhere."
Islamic militant groups have declared war on Christians, most prominently in the eastern part of the country. Along with ISCAP, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of many extremist Islamic groups who are targeting Christians while seeking to establish Islamic law throughout the region, has perpetrated other atrocities. The International Christian Concern (ICC) reported:
"For decades, the ADF has killed, maimed, abducted, and displaced millions of people in North Kivu despite the presence of peacekeepers and local and regional troops in the troubled region."
Christians in Sudan account for approximately 5% of the population. Sudanese Christians have suffered decades of attacks, starvation and displacement, suffering under various military regimes. Sudan's civil wars temporarily ended in 1972, but resumed in 1983. The Sudanese people suffered as famine hit the region. Four million people were displaced and two million people died in the two-decade long conflict before a temporary six-year ceasefire was signed in January 2005.
In 1985, a surge of Christian persecution resulted in the murder of pastors and church leaders, destruction of Christian villages, churches, hospitals, schools and mission bases, and the bombing of Sunday church services.
Few can forget the genocide of Darfur between 2003 - 2005 where an estimated 200,000 people were killed. A recent resurgence of war in Sudan in 2023 has resulted in over 8 million needing immediate humanitarian aid as widespread starvation is rampant and millions have been displaced.
In 2022, Sudan was ranked as the 10th most dangerous country to be a Christian. Starvation and refugees, due to massive displacement and systematic slaughter, has made lives for Christians extremely dangerous.
Islamic fundamentalist groups threaten to kill many who refuse to convert to Islam.
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, welcomed Sudanese rebel leader, General Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo on the 4th of January 2024, in the days leading up to South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. South Africa has faced widespread international criticism for ignoring the arrest warrant for former Sudanese President, Omar Al Bashir, for his role in allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.
South Africa told the International Criminal Court that it believed it was under no obligation to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir during a visit several years earlier even though he was subject to an ICC arrest warrant.
The persecution of Christians has spread to Southern Africa as well. The spread of Islamic extremism endangers Christian communities in countries like Mozambique. Christians in Mozambique face threats that significantly endanger their freedom and safety. The rise of Islamic extremism in the north of the country, especially in regions like Cabo Delgado, has had a devastating impact on the lives of Christians. Mozambique was recently ranked the 32nd most dangerous country to be Christian. Neighbouring South Africa is also vulnerable as incitement and extremism grow. To date this is mostly targeted at the Jewish community who are proudly Zionist but it will not stop there. It never does.
Mass Murder in Mozambique. People flee in September 2023,following Christians massacred in the province of Cabo Delgado by terrorists loyal to ISIS. Since 2017, this area in northern Mozambique has been under regular attack from Islamic fundamentalists.
South Africa is vulnerable to Islamists. Growing poverty, coupled with the ANC's government's anti-Western, pro-Hamas and Iran stance on the Middle East, places not just the Jewish community at increasing risk – but Christians as well, especially in vulnerable rural areas. In recent weeks, British officials warned of the high possibility of a terror attack by ISIS.
According to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), the Islamic State:
"Seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey."
Many Islamic State actions of extreme criminality, terror, recruitment and other activities have been documented in the Middle East – including the systematic raping of Yazidi women and slaughter of Christians.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Naledi Pandor revealed in an online parliamentary meeting in May 2023 that South Africa and Mozambique were in discussion about possibly helping Maputo fight the insurgency. A South African private military company Dyck Advisory Group was reportedly involved on the Mozambique government's side, mostly mounting aerial attacks with light aircraft.
Islamic State published an editorial on its al-Naba online bulletin warning that if South Africa intervened militarily in Cabo Delgado this:
"may result in prompting the soldiers of the Islamic State to open a fighting front inside its borders! – by the permission of God Almighty."
Killing Christians. No concern in neighbouring South Africa when attacks by jihadist insurgents in Mozambique's northern province of Cabo Delgado are forcing priests, nuns and other church workers to flee to cities already overwhelmed by internally displaced people (IDPs). Seen here are Christians congregating at a church in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado calling for peace.
ISIS is not the only threat to South Africa. Increasing radicalization and incitement is spreading across Southern Africa – as it has in the northern part of the continent. Some of the rhetoric from members of South Africa's Parliament is alarming and while it is aimed at Jews or Zionists, history has proven that it does not stop there. South Africa's ruling ANC align with Iran whose stated goal is not only to annihilate Israel – but also to establish an Islamic caliphate. This would greenlight radicals to engage in unspeakable atrocities. The ANC and other parties openly support Hamas – an Iranian sponsored proxy whose repeated goal is the destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas thugs also routinely persecute Christians in Gaza. Christian communities in South Africa should be aware that Islamists prey on and exploit the most vulnerable, notably the poor and unemployed Christian youth in the country. South Africa certainly has an abundance of such individuals. Christian communities must be aware of the risks and the threats – and prepare accordingly.
Christians are not just persecuted in Africa – but across the Middle East as well. In 2023, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern and Muslim-majority countries all featured on the list of 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. Israel was not on the list – the Christian community has grown in number in the Jewish State.
On 7 April 2024, global leaders gathered in Kigali, Rwanda to commemorate 30 years since the genocide of the Hutus who slaughtered the Tutsi people. Over 850,000 were murdered and many more mutilated and tortured. South Africa's President, Cyril Ramaphosa, summoning as much rank hypocrisy as he could, addressed the gathering of world leaders and said, "We cannot turn a blind eye to genocide."
Ramaphosa may want to start with his own neighbourhood instead of focusing on Israel's war with Hamas. The genocide of Christians is never spoken about.
It is time to end the silence.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
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