The plight of persecuted Christian’s worldwide, who still too often suffer martyrdom, seldom makes the headlines of the major news organizations. But the July 23, 2007 issue of Newsweek highlights the escalating flight of Christians from the Middle East as radical Islamists increasingly are issuing life-or-death ultimatums:
‘He refused to leave Baghdad, even after the day last year when masked Sunni gunmen forced him and eight co-workers to line up against a wall and said, “Say your prayers.” An Assyrian Christian, Rayid Albert closed his eyes and prayed to Jesus as the killers opened fire. He alone survived, shot seven times. But a month ago a note was left at his front door, warning, “You have three choices: change your religion, leave or pay the jeziya“— a tax on Christians levied by ancient Islamic rulers. It was signed “The Islamic Emirate of Iraq,” a Qaeda pseudonym.’
The ultimatums aren’t new even if they are news worthy today. The jihadists were practicing the same doctrines for hundreds of years prior to the Crusades. Our Jewish friend Debbie Schlussel, albeit with a very sharp tongue, calls Islam the “Religion of Eradicating Christianity” while she is valiantly trying to educate the western world as to the dangers of the modern, militant variant of Islamic jihad. Thanks Debbie.
For more news about Christians who are suffering persecution and martyrdom see Christian Persecution Information.
