by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
www.raymondibrahim.com<\/p>\n
The Blaze<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The lost history of Christians forced to convert to Islam\u2014or die\u2014is reemerging, figuratively and literally. According to the\u00a0BBC<\/a>: \u201cPope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony [last Sunday] at the Vatican\u2014a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n The BBC adds in a sidebar: \u201cThe \u2018Martyrs of Otranto\u2019 were 813 Italians beheaded for defying demands by Turkish invaders to renounce Christianity.\u00a0 The Turks had been sent by Mohammed II, who had already captured the \u2018second Rome\u2019 of Constantinople.\u201d<\/p>\n Historical texts throughout the centuries are filled with similar anecdotes, including the \u201c60 Martyrs of Gaza,\u201d Christian soldiers who were executed for refusing Islam during the 7th\u00a0century Islamic invasion of Jerusalem. Seven centuries later, during the\u00a0Islamic invasion of Georgia<\/a>, Christians refusing to convert were forced into their church and set on fire.\u00a0Witnesses for Christ<\/em><\/a>\u00a0lists 200 anecdotes of Christians killed\u2014including some burned at the stake, thrown on iron spikes, dismembered, stoned, stabbed, shot at, drowned, pummeled to death, impaled and crucified\u2014for refusing to embrace Islam.<\/p>\n If history is shocking, the fact is, today, Christians\u2014men, women, and children\u2014are\u00a0still<\/em>\u00a0being forced to convert to Islam.\u00a0 Pope Francis\u00a0alluded to their sufferings<\/a>\u00a0during the same ceremony: \u201cAs we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.\u201d<\/p>\n Consider some recent anecdotes:<\/p>\n In Pakistan, a \u201cdevoted Christian\u201d was\u00a0butchered by Muslim men<\/a>\u00a0\u201cwith multiple axe blows [24 per autopsy] for refusing to convert to Islam.\u201d Another two Christian men returning from church were accosted by six Muslims who tried to\u00a0force them to convert to Islam<\/a>, but \u201cthe two refused to renounce Christianity.\u201d\u00a0 Accordingly, the Muslims severely beat them, yelling they must either convert \u201cor be prepared to die. . . . the two Christians fell unconscious, and the young Muslim men left assuming they had killed them.\u201d<\/p>\n In Bangladesh some 300 Christian children were abducted in 2012 and sold to Islamic schools, where \u201cimams force them to abjure Christianity<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0The children are then instructed in Islam and beaten. After full indoctrination they are asked if they are \u201cready to give their lives for Islam,\u201d presumably by becoming jihadi suicide-bombers.\u00a0 (Even here the historic patterns are undeniable: for centuries, Christian children were forcibly taken, converted to and indoctrinated in Islam, trained to be jihadis extraordinaire, and then unleashed on their former Christian families.\u00a0 Such were the Janissaries and Mamelukes.)<\/p>\n In Palestine in 2012, Christians in Gaza protested over the \u201ckidnappings and forced conversions of some former believers to Islam<\/a>.\u201d The ever-dwindling Christian community banged on a church bellwhile chanting<\/a>, \u201cWith our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n Just as happened throughout history, Muslims today regularly \u201cinvite\u201d Christians to Islam, often presenting it as the only cure to their sufferings\u2014sufferings caused by Muslims in the first place.<\/p>\n In Pakistan, a Christian couple was arrested on a false charge and severely beaten by police. The pregnant wife was \u201cpunched, kicked and beat<\/a>\u201d as her interrogators threatened to kill her unborn baby. A policeman offered to drop the theft charge if the husband would only \u201crenounce Christianity and convert to Islam<\/a>,\u201d but the man refused.<\/p>\n In Uzbekistan, a 26-year-old Christian woman, partially paralyzed from youth, and her elderly mother were violently attacked by invaders who ransacked their home, confiscating \u201cicons, Bibles, religious calendars, and prayer books.\u201d At the police department, the paralyzed woman was \u201coffered to convert to Islam<\/a>.\u201d She refused, and the judge \u201cdecided that the women had resisted police and had stored the banned religious literature at home and conducted missionary activities. He fined them 20 minimum monthly wages each.\u201d<\/p>\n In Sudan, Muslims kidnapped a 15-year-old Christian girl; they raped, beat and ordered her to convert to Islam. When her mother went to police to open a case, the Muslim officer of the so-called \u201cFamily and Child Protection Unit,\u201d told her: \u201cYou must\u00a0convert to Islam<\/a>\u00a0if you want your daughter back.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, because Christian females are the most vulnerable segments of Islamic societies, they are especially targeted for forced conversions. In 2012, U.S. Congress heard testimony about the \u201cescalating abduction,\u00a0coerced conversion<\/a>\u00a0and forced marriage of Coptic Christian women and girls [550 cases in the last five years alone].Those women are being terrorized and, consequently, marginalized, in the formation of the new Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n