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Showing posts with label Christian martyrs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian martyrs. Show all posts
Muslim wholesale slaughter of Christians struck again on April 2 in Kenya. Gunmen from the Somali Islamic group, Al Shabaab - "the youth" - stormed Garissa University, singled out Christian students, and murdered them, some beheaded. A total of 147 people were killed in the attack - making this jihad more spectacular than the 2013 Al Shabaab attack on a Nairobi mall, which left 67 people dead (then, Islamic gunmen also singled out Christians for slaughter).
According to eyewitnesses present at Garissa University, the Islamic gunmen were careful to separate Christians from Muslims before they began the carnage of the former. After all, although Kenya is 83% Christian, it is approximately 11% Muslim. Joel Ayora, who survived the attack, said gunmen burst into a Christian service, seized worshippers, and then "proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims."
Collins Wetangula, vice chairman of the student union, said he could hear from inside his room where he was hiding the gunmen opening doors and inquiring if the people inside were Muslims or Christians: "If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot. With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die."
In fact, Al Shabaab has a long history of singling Christians out from among Muslims for slaughter. The following are just a few examples from Kenya that took place in the last few months, most never reported on any mainstream media:
December 2, 2014: Al Shabaab gunmen launched an early morning raid on quarry workers sleeping in their worksite tents near the city of Mandera, along the Somali border. Christians and Muslims were separated before the Christians, thirty-six of them, were beheaded or shot dead.
August 24, 2014: Al Shabaab abducted a group of traders near the island of Lamu. The militants eventually released three of them, because they were Muslims, but beheaded the fourth, a Christian.
June 15, 2014: Approximately 50 militants from Al Shabaab went on a killing spree in Mpeketoni, a predominantly Christian town on Kenya's coast. They chanted "Allahu Akbar,"killed whoever could not recite verses from the Koran, and went door-to-door asking residents their religion, killing those who answered "Christian." More than 57 people were killed, including six children of church pastors.
As the New York Times reports, Al Shabaab was happy to take credit for the gruesome attack and explain its purpose:
In a statement early on Thursday, the Shabab said that its fighters had attacked the university early in the morning, separating Muslims from non-Muslims in an "operation against the infidels."
In an audio message soon after, a Shabab spokesman, Ali Mohamoud Raghe, said the attack had been carried out because "the Christian government of Kenya has invaded our country," a reference to the Kenyan military's 2011 incursion into Somalia to oust the Shabab from its strongholds.
He said the university had been targeted because it was educating many Christian students in "a Muslim land under colony," a reference to the large Somali population in a part of Kenya that Somalia once tried to claim. He called the university part of Kenya's "plan to spread their Christianity and infidelity."
There is speculation that Al Shabaab is trying to spark a civil war between Kenya's Christian population and it's Muslim minority:
Like ISIS, Al Shabaab wants to force civilians into political extremism, delegitimize civil governance, destabilize society, and thus increase its own base of support. While Kenya won't fall for the terrorists' plot, its Christian population clearly faces a growing threat.
There will not be a hashtag for the pregnant Christian facing execution in Islamic Sudan, set to die for apostasy. The Obama Administration will not take up her cause, or in feigned outrage, protest her execution with a little shout out on social media.
She will die, unless divine intervention comes from another source. Leftists progressives have used the Boko Haram outrage for the own devices, to divert attention to any perceived "social injustice" committed against Muslims in Nigeria. This is appeasement in action.
If the Obama Administration cared anything about Islamic atrocities they would refocus attention to the certain execution of pregnant Christian Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag. She will not convert to Islam, and her punishment will be 100 lashings and a hanging. This is Islamic punishment for apostasy and adultery, both for the same reason, in not marrying a Muslim and abandoning Christianity.
But there will be no uproar from the Obama Administration about this incident, no hashtag, and mention from Leftists on social media. It's selective attention, and the execution of a Christian woman is of no matter to Obama and company.
Last week came the horrible news that a Roman Catholic priest, Father Francois Murad, was killed in Syria while attempting to protect nuns in their convent. Now this: "The Vatican is confirming the death by beheading of Franciscan Father, Francois Murad, who was martyred by Syrian jihadists on June 23."
On Sunday, June 23 the Syrian priest François Murad was killed in Gassanieh, in northern Syria, in the convent of the Custody of the Holy Land where he had taken refuge. This is confirmed by a statement of the Custos of the Holy Land sent to Fides Agency. The circumstances of the death are not fully understood. According to local sources, the monastery where Fr. Murad was staying was attacked by militants linked to the jihadi group Jabhat al-Nusra.
Father François, 49, had taken the first steps in the religious life with the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, and with them he continued to share close bonds of spiritual friendship. After being ordained a priest he had started the construction of a coenobitic monastery dedicated to St. Simon Stylites in the village of Gassanieh. After the start of the Civil War, the monastery of St. Simon had been bombed and Fr. Murad had moved to the convent of the Custody for safety reasons and to give support to the remaining few, along with another religious and nuns of the Rosary.
This horrific war crime was committed by members of the Syrian "rebel" alliance - the same people for whom Barack Obama and John McCain are using taxpayer money to arm and equip. They are allies of the United States and they all have innocent blood on their hands. At the same time that Dear Leader is declaring an end to the War on Terror, he enters an alliance with monsters like this. He is is not attempting to stop genocide, he is facilitating it!
This should make it clear to Christians around the world what jihadists are about. Make no mistake. Catholics and Christians around the globe are under dire threat, particularly from the spread of militant Islam. Until the threat is recognized and taken seriously, martyrdoms like this will continue.
We have a link to video provided via LiveLeak. We must warn you, the video is extremely graphic. We believe the first victim is Father Francois, and the second victim that is depicted is another person said to be a collaborator with the Assad regime.
The video CLEARLY depicts the beheadings of these victims. DO NOT follow the link unless you are over the age of 18, and are prepared to view content of this nature.
Catholic Online believes it is very important the world knows that Christians are being murdered for their faith, and that martyrdom isn't an ancient phenomenon.
More than 60,000 of the faithful packed into St. Peter's Square on Sunday to witness Pope Francis canonize 815 new saints. All but two of them were martyred in the 15th Century by Ottoman Turks for refusing to renounce Christianity and convert to Islam.
The first pontiff from South America also gave Colombia its first saint: a nun who toiled as a teacher and spiritual guide to indigenous people in the 20th century.
With Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos among the VIPS, the Argentine pope held out Laura of St. Catherine of Siena Montoya y Upegui as a potential source of inspiration to the country's peace process, attempted after decades-long conflict between rebels and government forces.
Francis prayed that "Colombia's beloved children continue to work for peace and just development of the country."
He also canonized another Latin American woman. Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, a Mexican who dedicated herself to nursing the sick, helped Catholics avoid persecution during a government crackdown of the faith in the 1920s.
Also known as Mother Lupita, she hid the Guadalajara archbishop in an eye clinic for more than a year after fearful local Catholic families refused to shelter him.
Francis prayed that the new Mexican saint's intercession could help the nation "eradicate all the violence and insecurity," an apparent reference to years of bloodshed and other crime largely linked to powerful drug trafficking clans.
Francis told the crowd that the martyrs are a source of inspiration, especially for "so many Christians, who, right in these times and in so many parts of the world, still suffer violence." He prayed that they receive "the courage of loyalty and to respond to evil with good."
On August 14, 1480, a massacre was carried out on a hill just outside the city of Otranto, in southern Italy. More than 800 of the city's male inhabitants were taken to a place called the Hill of the Minerva, and, one by one, beheaded in full view of their fellow prisoners. The spot forever after became known as the Hill of the Martyrs.
The victims on the Hill of the Minerva were put to death not because they were political enemies of a conquering army, nor even because they refused to surrender their city. They died because they refused to convert to Islam. The men of Otranto were martyrs, the first victims of what was intended to be the conquest of Italy by the armies of Sultan Mehmed II el-Fatih ("the Conqueror"). Because of their sacrifice, however, the Ottoman invasion was slowed and Rome was ultimately spared the same fate that had befallen most of the Balkans in the 27 years since Constantinople had fallen to Mehmed II's forces in 1453.
The skulls and other relics of the martyrs currently adorn the walls around the altar of Otranto Cathedral as a memorial to their sacrifice. Popular tradition holds that when the soldiers beheaded Blessed Antonio Primaldo, a tailor and spokesman for the men of Otranto, his body remained standing even as the Muslim executioners tried to push him over. Legend has it that the decapitated man stood until the very last prisoner was killed, at which point Primaldo’s body collapsed next to his dead comrades.
In 1771, the Church recognized the validity of the local veneration of Primaldo and his companions and allowed them to be called Blessed. In 2007, retired Pope Benedict XVI formally recognized their martyrdom and, in 2012, he recognized a miracle attributed to their intercession. Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession in order to be beatified. However, miracles must be recognized by the Vatican in order for them to become saints.
The miracle involved the late-Poor Clare Sister Francesca Levote. She was suffering from a serious form of cancer but was healed after a pilgrimage to pray before the martyrs’ relics in Otranto in 1980, a few months before Pope John Paul’s visit in October. She died in February 2012 at the age of 85.
Centuries later, Christians in Asia and Africa are still being slaughtered by Muslims simply because they are Christian. The canonization of the Martyrs of Otranto won't change that. In fact, it's entirely likely that Christians somewhere in the world will suffer the same fate because of this. However, the recognition of what happened in 1480 will help shine a light on today's persecutions of Christian minorities in Muslim countries. Raising awareness of the most extreme human rights violations is a necessary step in the long journey towards ending them once and for all.
