They Cry in Silence Mar/Apr 2011
Somali Girl Shot to Death for Embracing Christ. A 17-year-old girl in Somalia who converted to Christianity from Islam has been shot to death in an apparent “honor killing.” Nurta Mohamed Farah, who fled her village to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam, died November 25 after two men believed to be relatives shot her in the chest and head with a pistol.
Sources said her parents beat her severely for leaving Islam. They shackled her to a tree by day and kept her in a small, dark room at night since May 2010 when they learned she had embraced Christ. They also forced her to take medication for mental illness, thinking she had gone crazy. But the drugs could not sway her from her faith. Nor could the twice-weekly recitations of the Qur’an, which many Somalis believe cure the sick, especially the mentally ill.
Muslims in Pakistan Burn, Beat Evangelist Unconscious. Rev. Wilson Augustine, 26, is still recovering from burns after six Muslim men beat him with clubs and belts and set him on fire in November for distributing pamphlets and proclaiming Christ door-to-door among Christian families.
Augustine said the Muslim men “kept pursuing me everywhere I went, as they harbored a grudge against me for imparting the good news of the Holy Bible.” At about 10 P.M. Augustine walked to a bus stop, singing hymns and reciting psalms in the cold night air, when riders on three motorcycles blinded him with their headlights; but he recognized their voices. They beat him with clubs and belts, threw a cold liquid on him, lit a match box, and set him ablaze.
“After setting me on fire, they started thrashing me again,” he said. “Because they were beating me with clubs the fire was extinguished, and they dragged me to some nearby shrubs.” Augustine passed out. Several Christians later found him and brought him to a hospital. Augustine’s father told Compass the police would not file a case against the Muslims because they were sons of a wealthy, powerful landowner.
Muslim Mob in Egypt Firebombs Christian Homes, Businesses. Hundreds of Muslims in November rampaged through a Christian community, firebombing houses and businesses over rumors of a romantic relationship between a Christian and a Muslim. At least 23 homes and many businesses, all Christian-owned, were damaged or destroyed. Five people were injured, two seriously.
The attack devastated the Christians, said Badier Magdy Demetry, 22. “It has affected us in every way, financially, physically, spiritually—everything….Everybody is living in sadness and desperation.”
The Muslims poured into the streets chanting “God is great!” while brandishing swords, knives, meat cleavers and shooting rifles in the air. “People started to run away from their houses, from the top of their roofs to the house next door, so they could escape with their wives and children,” Demetry said. The mob pelted the homes and businesses with rocks, looted them, then torched them with Molotov cocktails and bombs made out of propane tanks.
Afterward, it was the Christians who were rounded up and taken to a police station. Police did not let the victims report the names of their assailants, nor did they take any information about the men who were injured.
Compiled from reports filed by Compass Direct News.
