Her family immediately went to police, who told them not to go public, and that they would help return Irene.... In early February, however, the family finally did go public -- and hinted that the authorities were complicit in the abduction and know exactly where she is. — copticsolidarity.org, February 292, 2024 - Egypt.
Muslim terrorists launched raids on several Christian villages. They murdered 23 people—six were burned alive—wounded 10 and abducted five more, along with setting 28 homes on fire. — persecution.org, February 21, 2024 - Nigeria.
A Nigerian cleric asserted that, because Nigeria's First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, is Christian, she should be put to death. — naijanews.com, February 22, 2024 - Nigeria.
"One of the Muslims shouted that no Christian in the area should be left alive." — morningstarnews.org, February 6, 2024 - Pakistan.
"...These pernicious laws... are deeply entrenched in Islamic Sharia law, and the determination to abolish them is lacking in a radicalized nation." — Juliet Chowdhry, Trustee for the British Asian Christian Association, britishasianchristians.org, February 26, 2024 - Pakistan.
"He replied to me that he was acting in the name of Allah because it was not normal to have statues and that he had come to correct that." — charentelibre.fr, February 2, 2024 - France.
On February 9 — a Friday, when Muslims assemble at mosques and get riled against "infidels" — Islamic State militants torched several churches and Christian homes in Cabo Delgado Province.
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of February 2024.
The Abduction, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls
Egypt: On Jan. 22, Irene Ibrahim Shehata, a 21-year-old medical student at Asyut National University, disappeared between midterm exams. Her family immediately went to police, who told them not to go public, and that they would help return Irene; the family complied. In early February, however, the family finally did go public -- and hinted that the authorities were complicit in the abduction and know exactly where she is.
Their fears appeared confirmed: in late February, her family learned that the religion field on Irene's ID had been electronically changed from Christian to Muslim. Weeks before that, Irene had managed to make a desperate, tearful call to her brother, before a man seized the phone and said, "Okay, you heard her voice and know she's okay, right? Now go to hell!" and slammed down the phone. According to one source familiar with the case (name withheld for fear of reprisals),
"Her brother heard her screaming, someone was yelling at her, and then the call ended. It seems that she used his phone without his permission. This was a great piece of evidence that she was kidnapped."
The family then began its own investigation, but when they contacted police with the information they had gathered, "The police officers threatened to arrest the family if they tried to rescue her and warned them that the kidnappers are armed." As of mid-February, authorities "concluded" that Irene was never abducted but had rather run off with a Muslim man and had willingly converted to Islam.
As her father said in an interview, though: if Irene had intended to run off, why would she do it in between exams, while carrying medical supplies as opposed to travel gear? The family's experiences with the authorities, the unnamed source concluded, are "Another way to mislead families." He added:
"The Muslim Brotherhood Sharia Association in the Asyut Governorate, under security cover from Asyut and Sohaj cities, coordinated the kidnapping of Christian college student Irene Shehata."
The abduction and Islamization of Christian girls in Egypt and is well-documented in a 2020 report by Coptic Solidary, "Jihad of the Womb": Trafficking of Coptic Women & Girls in Egypt, which documents "the widespread practice of abduction and trafficking" of Coptic girls.
Pakistan: On Feb. 12, four Muslim men kidnapped a 10-year-old Christian girl. Since then, Laiba Suhail was apparently compelled to convert to Islam. The man behind the child's abduction, Shaukat Shah, "is well-known in the area for forcibly converting children to Islam under duress, coercing them to file court statements that they willfully converted and later taking them from shelter homes on the pretext of giving them religious education." According to the child's handicapped father,
"This is Shah's modus operandi. No one knows what happens to his victims after they are handed to him. We fear that he and his accomplices are involved in sex trafficking, and they sell these minor girls when they see that the families are in no position to pursue the matter further in courts."
Police, arguing that the 10-year-old "willingly" converted, have refused to help the father recover his child:
"On Feb. 15, police informed us that an application had been filed by Laiba in the court of a magistrate in which she had claimed that she had converted to Islam of her own free will 'after being impressed with Islamic teachings.' We immediately went to the court where we saw our minor daughter surrounded by several policemen.
We were not allowed to talk to her despite our repeated requests. The police later presented her before the magistrate where she reportedly repeated the contents of the application. She also sought to be sent to the Dar Ul Aman [women's shelter], which the magistrate admitted...
"It is a blatant lie that my daughter has changed her faith willingly. Whatever little religious education she has is from the church's Sunday school. She has had no interaction with Muslims, because she used to stay at home all day long to take care of me and her mother."
According to the family's attorney,
"Laiba's case is yet another example of how sharia [Islamic law] is invoked to undermine the age of a minor. In her statement before the magistrate, the girl claimed that she's an adult, but her official birth document states her age is 10 years and two months."
For the full twelve page article, please click here or click on the link below to download the article in pdf:
Or click on this link to download an addendum in pdf entitled: "Persecution of Christians - About this Series"
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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