Feed: Surviving Christmas in an anti-Christian society - AggScore: 12.5

Surviving Christmas in an anti-Christian society

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caption id alignalignleft width210 caption The scene of a Christian church bombing in Pakistan. Photo Global Security img srchttpcdn2b.examiner.comsitesdefaultfilesstyleslargehash8a708a708c8fabd728b192e88f27eba61141.jpg alt The scene of a Christian church bombing in Pakistan. Photo Global Security width210 height170 captionAs Americans prepare to celebrate the Christmas holiday, many are unaware that religious observances are practically a luxury when compared with nations that continue to oppress, persecute and even kill followers of Jesus Christ.divChristians in several countries find it difficult to practice even the fundamentals of their faith.To openly celebrate the birth of the man they believeis their Savior couldbe nothing short ofa death sentence.divdivFor example, officialsin the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea continuesee Christianity as a threat to their philosophy of state control. While North Korean authorities deny imprisoning, torturing and killing Christians in the same way they denied working on a nuclear weapon Christians living North Korea have suffered governmentsanctioned persecution since the brutal communist regime came to power.divdivA Christian humanrights group Open Doors reports that North Korea is number one on its annual World Watch List WWL, which ranks countries by the intensity of persecution that Christians face for actively pursuing their faith. However, North Koreais not the only countryin which theChristian population are mistreated, abused and killed on a daily basis.divdivSyriacChristians have lived in the Muslimdominated regionfor centuries andare buta small minority in countriessuch as Lebanon,Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Turkey. Theprotest marchwasorganized in the wake of several violent attacks against the Christian community in Iraq, a segment of the populationthatfell from about1.5 million toonly 400,000 over the past decade.divAs previously reported in NewswithViews.com, at least 52 Iraqi Christians were killed and over 60 injured in a terrorist inspired bloodbath at Baghdads Our Lady of Deliverance Catholic Church. U.S. special forcestroops, together with Iraqi security forces, launched arescueoperation to free as many ofthe Christians being heldhostage by their terrorist captors as possible.The Al Qaedalinked Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility and threatened to exterminate Iraqi Christians. This shadowy jihad terror network justified the savagery on religious grounds, claiming that the church was an obscene nest of the polytheists infidels and a base for their struggle against the religion of Islam.Since the collapse of Saddam Husseins regime, more than halfof IraqsChristian population has been forced by targeted violence to seek refuge abroad or to live away from their homes as internally displaced people.While President Barack Obama is visited India, he wascareful not to mention the ongoing persecution of Christians in that predominately Hindu nation. Few Americansknow aboutthe growing violence against Christians in places like India today and U.S. political leaders fail to addressthe brutality and persecution Indian Christians are enduring.Believers are cut off, out of sight, and forgotten, according to Christian human rights groupOpen Doors.According to James S. Robbins in a Washington Times editorial on December 22, U.S. President Barack Obamahas refused to highlight Christian suffering, even while being widely outspoken about much less compelling cases of purported discrimination against Muslims.Among the cases noted in the State Department report is that of Maher elGohary, an Egyptian Christian convert from Islam who is being persecuted for his beliefs. More than a year ago, his then15yearold daughter, Dina, wrote an emotional appeal to Mr. Obama asking him to use his influence to save her father. There was no response. emWashington Timesem editorial, 122210Its time for Christians in the United States to help in protecting their brothers and sisters overseas, says political strategist and Christian Mike Baker.