"You Have a Beautiful Daughter...": The Persecution of Christians, March 2024

Russia: On March 22, Muslim terrorists armed with automatic weapons launched an attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow, massacring at least 139 people and wounding more. Boasting of "killing Christians," ISIS quickly claimed the attack in a statement that said the assault was intentionally designed to target "thousands of Christians." Two months earlier, ISIS issued a communique to the "Lions of Islam" — presumably Muslim "avengers" around the world — to terrorize and slaughter Christians and Jews, including by targeting churches and synagogues. An excerpt follows:

"Chase your preys whether Jewish, Christian or their allies, on the streets and roads of America, Europe, and the world. Break into their homes, kill them and steal their peace of mind by any means you can lay hands on..... [S]hoot them with bullets, cut their throats with sharp knives, and run them over with vehicles. A sincere person will not lack the means to draw blood from the hearts of the Jews, the Christians, and their allies, and thus ease the suffering in the hearts of the believers. Come at them from every door, kill them by the worst of means, turn their gatherings and celebrations into bloody massacres, do not distinguish between a civilian kaffir, and a military one, for they are all kuffar and the ruling against them is one.... Intentionally seek easy targets before hard ones, civilian targets before military one, religious targets like synagogues and churches before others, for this will satisfy the soul."

Uganda

On March 30, Muslims hacked a Christian man to death for leading Muslims—all of whom immediately went into hiding—to Christ. Ronald Twinomugisha was 32. According to his neighbor, an eyewitness, men dressed in Islamic attire entered into Ronald's home around 7 p.m.:

"At around 8 p.m. I heard an alarm and a call for help then followed by a loud bang like that of splitting firewood. It was a loud wailing saying, 'Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I am working for Jesus Christ! Please, Jesus is the one who sent me!' I feared to come out of my house, but shortly the voice stopped."

Ronald's body was later found in a pool of his own blood: "The attackers left a note saying, 'We learned what you have been teaching, and misleading Muslims and leading them to a wrong religion from the course and path of Allah.'"

Separately, on March 8, Muslims murdered another Christian man for similarly leading other Muslims to Christ. Earlier that day, Kiisa Masolo, 45, had been preaching in the streets, and returned home around 7 p.m., at which point seven masked men dressed in Islamic attire broke into his house and abducted him. According to his mother, Norah, "after whisking him away, three men remained behind and told me that, 'Allah is very displeased with your son, and we're out to punish him.' Then the three men left."

Her son's slain body was later found with deep cuts to the head and neck, and a note in Arabic pinned to it.

"A person fluent in Arabic was called to read the script which stated, 'We had warned you not to convert our Muslim brothers and sisters to Christianity, but you failed to heed to our warning. This has finally cost your life.'... I tried to advise my son to be very cautious with his life, but he used to tell me that his life was in the hands of God and that he was called to carry out the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Since then, I knew that the life of my son was in danger, and he might not live for long due to the many threatening messages of Allah who was out to kill him."

Finally, on March 29, a Muslim man murdered his 19-year-old sister after he discovered that she had become Christian. Earlier that day, Namukuve's father had called her and her six siblings to a family meeting devoted to inquiring why she was not attending Muslim prayers. According to a relative,

"Namukuve kept quiet for a while and later replied that she had converted to Prophet Issa [Jesus Christ]. This angered her elder brother, Abdul Rahim Munaabi, and he got hold of a wooden chair and hit her on the head. She cried out once, saying, 'Oh Mum,' [who was away] and then stopped breathing.... Namukuve's body was removed from the house and dumped in a swamp near the River Naigombwa."

Somalia and Kenya

Somalia: On Good Friday, March 29, Muslims connected to the Islamic terror group Al Shabaab slaughtered six Christians from bordering Kenya for spreading Christianity.

Kenya: On March 8, Muslims ambushed and slaughtered an evangelist and seriously wounded three other Christians. On first trapping the four men, the large group of Muslims complained "that they were not happy about the conversion of their fellow Muslims, especially their relatives during their door-to door mission outreach," Masaba, one of the injured, said:

"This led the discussion getting more tense, and there and then one of the Muslims got hold of Ismail Wafula and pierced him with a sharp knife on the neck, chest and in the stomach, and he sustained terrible wounds on the head. He then fell down bleeding."

The other Muslims began assaulting the three remaining men and tearing their Bibles: "We started screaming, wailing and calling for help. Thank God there came an approaching vehicle that arrived as well as some people living close by."

Nigeria

Some March headlines from the ongoing Muslim genocide of Christians in the African nation follow:

Pakistan: The Abduction, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls

A 13-year-old Christian girl, Mariyam Masih, disappeared while shopping for groceries. Her family immediately searched the region but discovered no leads as to her whereabouts of the girl. According to Yunish Masih, her father, an impoverished rickshaw driver,

"I am tirelessly scouring the streets from dawn till dusk on my rickshaw in search of Mariyam. There are no leads to her whereabouts, but we live in a very busy neighbourhood and someone must know something. My family and I are caught up in such deep despair, our grief knows no end, we believe our daughter is still alive but every day she is missing our fear grows. I don't know what local police are doing but they have not even put up missing posters, how can they find Mariyam without reaching out to the community? I pray daily that God will return our beautiful daughter home."

The family's fears are heightened by another Christian girl also having disappeared—on Christmas Eve, no less—only to be later discovered slain in a field. As documented here, many Christian girls—and boys—have similarly disappeared in Pakistan only to be later found raped and murdered. Discussing this latest incident, Juliet Chowdhry, Trustee for British Asian Christian Association, said:

"[Mariyam's] parents are enduring unimaginable anguish. It's a heartbreaking reality that Christian girls in Pakistan are often targeted by sexual predators or traffickers, leaving them vulnerable to unspeakable fates such as murder, forced marriage, or exploitation in the sex trade. The family's desperation grows with each passing moment, clinging to hope for any information that might reveal Mariyam's whereabouts. Yet, as time elapses, the window of opportunity narrows."

Separately, on March 25, the Lahore High Court in Pakistan awarded custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to her Muslim kidnapper. Two months earlier, the girl, Roshni Shakeel, had in no uncertain terms spurned the advances of her future kidnapper, Muazzam Mazhar, 28. But then Muazzam's father, Abbas, began calling (from Saudi Arabia) and pressuring Roshni's father to relent and surrender the girl to his unemployed son, saying in one call:

"You have a beautiful daughter and it would be better for you to give her to my son yourself—there's nothing you Chuhras [pejorative term for Christians] can do to stop us from taking her."

According to the kidnapped girl's father, Shakeel, who is only five years older than his daughter's would-be suitor: "I stopped taking Abbas's phone calls after that, and this offended him to the extent that he encouraged his son to abduct Roshni and forcibly marry her."

Accordingly, on March 13, the girl disappeared while her parents were away from home. They immediately went to local authorities who eventually informed them that the 13-year-old girl had married and converted to Islam of her own "free will," and that there was nothing they could do. The parents' took the case to court, but the judge ruled in favor of the kidnapper. Discussing the ruling, her father said: "My wife and I were hoping that the judge would consider it a clear case of child marriage and order action against the accused, but we were utterly disappointed when he completely ignored our pleas for justice."

The judge also ignored all the case documents and birth certificate and posed only one question to the 13-year-old girl—whether she had married of her own free will. When she replied in the affirmative, "the judge congratulated her on the marriage and said she was free to live with her husband," Shakeel said.

"My wife and I pleaded the judge to at least consider her age and the fact that the child was under the influence of the accused for over two weeks, and she could have been easily coerced into giving that statement. Instead of listening to us and our lawyer, the judge hushed us with a hand gesture and announced his decision."

Her parents were not even allowed to meet with and ask Roshni about her wellbeing:

"In fact, the police and family members of the accused blocked her view during the entire time she was in the courtroom. They then took her away in front of our eyes, and there was nothing I could do to stop them."

Although he sold many of his meagre possessions to hire a lawyer and take the case to court, last reported, her father remained adamant to recover her: "Roshni is just a child, how can I let that criminal exploit her and then God forbid, sell her into slavery? I will not stop till I rescue my daughter."

In another Pakistani case, according to a March 8 report: "Police in Pakistan are pressuring a young Christian woman to withdraw charges against two Muslims who raped, blackmailed, and tried to forcibly convert her to Islam."

The 26-year-old woman, a resident of Islamabad, whose name is withheld as a rape victim, said one of the men, Hussain, had originally borrowed a large sum of money from her mother. A month later, he told the Christian woman to follow him to a colleague's house, who would pay her back. "When we reached the house," the woman said, "Hussain left me in a room on the pretext of making a phone call." Soon thereafter, his friend, Waleed barged into the room brandishing an AK-47 rifle:

"He fired a bullet on the wall to scare me and then sexually assaulted me, disregarding my cries for mercy. I cannot express the horror I suffered in those moments as my mind and body went completely numb. After assaulting me, Waleed made videos of me with his cell phone and threatened that he would share them on social media if I reported the incident to the police and did not surrender to his demands."

"The nightmare was only beginning," the report adds, "as Waleed continued to blackmail her with videos, compelling her to repeatedly meet with him repeatedly." She eventually confessed everything to her widowed mother: "My mother broke down when she heard about my suffering, but she told me not to worry. She then took me to the police station where I narrated my story, showed evidence of the blackmailing and filed a rape case against Waleed and Hussain. I also appealed to the police to recover the blackmail content from their phones."

Charges were filed, "but instead of arresting the two suspects, police tipped them off, and they obtained pre-arrest bails.... Since that time, they have been threatening me and my mother to withdraw the case or face the consequences."

Muslim Attacks on Apostates and Blasphemers

Uganda: On March 25, a Muslim man beat his wife and 10-year-old daughter and scorched them with boiling water after he returned home early and discovered them praying in Jesus's name. "I had put water on for preparing millet bread that was at the boiling point," said the wife, Zafara Nagudi, 32: "Suddenly I saw my husband at the door of the kitchen, and immediately we stopped praying." He repeatedly questioned her as to what they were doing:

"I eventually told him the truth, that we were praying to Jesus Christ to help our family. He became very furious and said, 'I heard everything but am surprised! Are you a Christian or Muslim?'... From there he slapped me and kicked me while boxing me. Since he was in the doorway, we couldn't run away. He grabbed the saucepan of hot water and poured it on me and the child."

He then stormed out of the house "thinking he had killed them." She managed to call her nearby sister who rushed them to a hospital. It took a week before they were discharged.

Pakistan

On March 6, police arrested Ashbeel Ghauri, an 18-year-old Christian youth, on the accusation that he had blasphemed against Islam. His accusers, a group of Muslim classmates had long been pressuring him to convert to Islam, but Ashbeel, described as a "devout Christian," refused "to renounce his faith in Christ," his father, Babar, said, adding:

"Ashbeel has categorically denied making any derogatory remarks about Islam. He always asked academic questions about the Islamic faith whenever he was forcibly dragged into such [a] conversation. As Christians living in Pakistan, we are all well aware of the sensitivities involving religious discussion, and our children are taught from day one to avoid getting into such arguments."

According to lawyer Nadeem Hassan, Ashbeel's accusers claim that "the Christian had allegedly said that Islam was a false religion, and its teachings were also false. [In fact] Ashbeel merely stated that he believed in the God of the Bible and said his Christian faith did not allow four marriages contrary to Islamic teachings. The complainant's allegation that Ashbeel called Islam a false religion during a phone call has not been substantiated with any evidence."

As the eldest of three children, Ashbeel's impoverished family had long placed their hopes for a better future on him. Now he is facing up to ten years' imprisonment:

"It's a crucial time for my family, especially for Ashbeel, but we know God will walk us through this test, and he will emerge victorious in faith. His mother and I met him in prison on March 8, and though he is concerned about his condition, Ashbeel told us not to worry because he knows Christ will not forsake him."

Yemen

The plight of Christians has worsened due to the rise of Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and their attacks on infrastructure, according to a March 8 report with quotes from Open Doors USA CEO Ryan Brown:

"The Christians in this area are folks that were formerly Muslim–Muslim background believers that have converted to Christianity. Christians are obviously a despised minority... Christians are often last in line as it relates to being able to receive the care and attention there as war and as these things continue to escalate. That has a ripple effect ... It can disrupt supply chains, and so, while Christians were already last [in] line, that line becomes even further elongated. And so Christians are very much impacted by what's going on currently."

Because most Christians in Yemen come from Muslim backgrounds, "they keep their new faith secret to avoid severe persecution and possibly death at the hands of their clan or family members. And if they are not killed for their faith, they are often blamed for their connections to the West.... They become easy targets... Christians are seen as enemies on all fronts there."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Pakistan: After a local Muslim vowed to prevent Christians from celebrating Easter in their church, the building went up in flames hours before Resurrection Day. According to one report,

"On the morning of March 30th, 2024, the Presbyterian Church in Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi, became a scene of devastation as flames engulfed its sacred halls. What should have been a place of solace and prayer was instead reduced to ashes, leaving behind a community reeling in shock and fear. Reports indicate that the blaze, ignited by unknown individuals around 3:00 am, tore through the church with merciless intensity. By the time the fire brigade arrived, the damage was extensive, with the roof, furniture, and cherished Biblical literature, including Bibles and hymn books, all consumed by the inferno."

The church's pastor, Rev. Adeem Alphonse, said, "The huge fire burned everything inside the church, including holy books, the sound system, furniture and curtains, etc. We strongly suspect that it's a case of arson, but the police and administration are trying to hush up the matter by terming it an outcome of a short-circuit in the electricity wiring."

Egypt

On Sunday, March 24, a fire broke out in the Church of St. George in Akhmim. With the help of church youth and locals, civil authorities managed to extinguish the blaze. Mass had been held in the church earlier that day, but when the conflagration, began the building was empty, so no one was hurt. The fire did, however, destroy much of the second floor. Initial reporting said the cause of fire was "unknown." That said, arson attacks on churches in Egypt are commonplace. According to Egyptian researcher Magdi Khalil, "close to one thousand churches have been attacked or torched by mobs in the last five decades [since the 1970s] in Egypt." In recent years, however, virtually all church fires—including those in 11 separate churches that were torched in just one month alone (Aug. 2022) — are nowadays presented as an "accident." Meanwhile, truly accidental fires in mosques in Egypt — which outnumber churches by a ratio of 40 to 1 — are almost unheard of.

Indonesia

On Sunday, March 8, local Muslims surrounded the home of a Christian because she was using it to hold a worship service. Police arrived before violence ensued and made the pastor sign an agreement promising never again to use her home for worship. Discussing this incident, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, said holding worship at a house is explicitly permitted in Indonesia's Join Ministerial Decree of 2006, which requires a permit only for a venue constructed as a permanent worship site:

"The problem is that those who are intolerant always think that when Christians gather to worship, it is something that violates the rules – that worshiping together must be in a house of worship or church."

Germany

On March 15, two churches were defiled with excrement. In one of them, the feces were found near the altar. (As documented here, "fecal attacks" on churches are growing in Western European regions with large Muslim populations.) Another church was set on fire, another pelted with eggs, and another had its altar desecrated.

Italy

On March 5, a church in Brindisi was smeared with red paint, including the word "Palestine." Even so, according to the report, "police excluded a political motive." At least two other churches were desecrated and robbed.

France: Attacks on Churches and Christian Symbols

Although anti-Christian activities are very common in France, the month of March was more dramatic than usual. Some incidents follow:

On March 5, police foiled an Islamic plot to bomb Notre Dame Cathedral (much of which "inexplicably" went up in flames in 2019). A Muslim man of Egyptian origin, 62, was arrested. The report notes that this was just the latest terror attack to be foiled in the previous three weeks. Discussing it, France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said:

"We have never foiled so many attacks in France. The Islamic State is the author of the last eight foiled attacks in France. We foil a lot of [such terror] attacks, one every two months."

On March 5, another 62-year-old man "clearly committed to jihadist ideology," was arrested and indicted on March 8 for terrorist conspiracy as well as for planning "violent action in a Catholic religious building," to quote from court documents.

On Easter Eve, March 30, an illegal Muslim migrant from Senegal with a previous crime record was "arrested for advocating terrorism and for threatening to burn down the Notre Dame de la Voie church, in Athis Mons, in Essonne." According to a report: "Shortly before 7 p.m., he entered the church, addressed a parishioner by calling himself a Muslim, telling her he had visions and warning her that the religious building would burn within three months, before leaving." On being arrested near another church, the Muslim man said he was only "kidding."

On March 28, a Muslim man of Albanian origin entered a church while mass was in progress and began shouting "Allahu akbar" ["Allah is greatest">.

On Sunday, March 10, the Notre Dame de Partout chapel in Saint-Mesin was discovered spray painted with several Islamic slogans, including "convert," "Last warning," and "the cross will be broken." The cross opposite the chapel was also vandalized. On the following day, more acts of desecration against churches, crosses, and a cemetery were discovered in the nearby commune of Clermont d'Excideuil, home to just a few hundred people. According to one report;

"Inscriptions with Islamic references were found on graves, the war memorial, the church door, a calvary memorial, and a fountain. Some of the tags read 'France is already Allah's,' 'Isa [Jesus] will break the cross,' and 'Submit to Islam.' Altogether, more than 50 graves were smeared. On two tombs the letters 'GWER' were written with a paint spray. The term 'gwer' refers to a white person, a Westerner, or a non-Muslim. Another grave was marked with the term 'Kouffar,' which designates disbelievers. The desecration occurred on the eve of Ramadan."

A local resident said the threatening messages "make me cold in the back... When I read this, it freezes me. It's a trauma for the municipality."

At least five other large, public crosses (or calvaries) were tagged with similar Islamic warnings and threats since the start of the year in France. "It's weird in a small town like that," said the mayor of Clermont d'Excideuil, the most recent region to be attacked: "I thought it only happened elsewhere."

On March 1, about 40 tombstones in another cemetery in Fresselines were desecrated and vandalized.

On March 26, an important public cross which had stood for many generations in the village of Lias—of which the mayor said "was more than a religious symbol, was the soul of our village"—was found broken up into four pieces.

"Leila, 21," begins a March 15 report, "was planning to attack the faithful of a church in Béziers on Easter Day with a sword when she was arrested. She is on trial in Paris for conspiracy to commit terrorist crimes." The report adds that police discovered photos of decapitated bodies and videos of beheadings and how to make acid bombs in her home. In her spiral notebook, she writes of:

"[my] increasingly intense desire to go out into the street to slit the throat of the first passer-by, drag his corpse into the forest and smash his skull with an iron bar or a hammer then return to look for someone else... I have learned to cut throats so there will probably be no problem."

On March 12, another unidentified woman, aged 39, barged into a church during morning mass, where she made threats while waving a knife around. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic and hospitalized. The church has already suffered an arson attack, and stands near an area where three teenagers once violently attacked two other teens with tear gas while calling them "dirty Christians," a term regularly employed by Muslims. There were many other attacks on churches—two of which were suspected arson—in France.

Generic Muslim Abuse of Christians

Pakistan: On March 23, Muslim employers beat and shot Waqas Masih, a 42-year-old Christian laborer for requesting the wages owed him to buy clothes for his two children for Easter celebrations. According to his brother, Akash:

"The two men [the employers] first brutally tortured Waqas with the iron rods, and then Luqman pulled out a pistol and opened fire on him, resulting in a bullet injury on his right thigh. We were able to take him to the Allied Hospital in Faisalabad on time, otherwise he could have died due to excessive bleeding.... We are very poor, and a majority of the nearly 300 Christian families living in the village work as laborers for Muslim landowners. We are often subjected to cruelty and torture because we are weak and helpless."

In fact, Akash said, this is the second such attack: "In December, my father, brother, Waqas, and his wife were attacked in our home when he requested his employers to pay his wages for Christmas."

In a separate incident, Muslims savagely beat their Christian coworker for receiving a promotion. According to the March 18 report:

"Noel is a father of four and has been working as a driver for the last five years. Because of his hard work, honesty, and punctuality, he was promoted to supervisor. However, his Muslim co-workers refused to work under a Christian supervisor... When he left the workplace, about half a dozen Muslim coworkers stopped him on the road and they dragged him and thrashed him with clubs and iron rods. They left Noel unconscious on the road where he was found by Good Samaritans and sent him to the local hospital. The mob broke two ribs and two bones in his legs. His face was badly scratched as well."

© Gatestone Institute.