Somalia's embattled Christians: Almost Expunged

[NASSIR]

 

WHERE is the hardest place in the world to be a Christian citizen? North Korea, perhaps? Saudi Arabia? Try Somalia. There are thought to be no more than a thousand Christians in a resident population of 8m people, with perhaps a few thousand more in the diaspora. The Islamist Shabab militia, which controls most of southern Somalia, is dedicated to hunting them down.

 

Christian men attend mosques on Fridays, so as not to arouse suspicion. Bibles are kept hidden. There are no public meetings, let alone a church. Catholic churches and cemeteries have been destroyed. The last nuns in the smashed capital, Mogadishu, were chased out in 2007. The year before, an elderly nun working in a hospital there was murdered. The only Christian believers left are local Somalis.

 

Catching and killing them is useful propaganda for the Shabab, not least for indoctrinating its young fighters and suicide-bombers in the belief that America, Britain, Italy, the Vatican, along with Ethiopia and Kenya, are all “crusaders” trying to convert Somalis to Christianity. The UN lurks nefariously behind. Israel, of course, is also doing its bit to undermine Islam.

 

The shaky transitional government led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, whose writ runs weakly across the territory the Shabab does not yet run, is unlikely to speak up for any of its citizens caught with a bible. Though professing moderation, he promotes a version of sharia law whereby every citizen of Somalia is born a Muslim and anyone who converts to another religion is guilty of apostasy, which is punishable by death.

 

Every month several Somalis are killed for being Christian. Sometimes that is just a label that the jihadists stick on people they suspect of working for Ethiopian intelligence. But many are simple believers. According to Somali sources and Christian groups monitoring Somalia from abroad, at least 13 members of underground churches have been killed in the past few months. Most were Mennonites, evangelised by missionaries on the Juba river in southern Somalia. They include a 46-year-old woman shot dead near the town of Jilib after a Swahili-language bible was found in her shack; a 69-year-old man killed near a port south of Mogadishu after Shabab fighters found 25 Somali bibles in a bag he was carrying; and two boys, aged 11 and 12, who were beheaded by the Shabab after their father refused to divulge information about an underground church. Hundreds of Somalis may have been killed for being Christian since the Shabab arose in 2005.

 

Such atrocities—and reports that the Koran has been read over the victims even at the point of their beheading—are upsetting evangelical Christians in America. Mr Ahmed’s government sorely needs money to shore itself up. But if he fails even to hint that Christians should be tolerated, he may find America’s Congress increasingly loth to help bail him out.

 

Source: The Economist

October 25, 2009

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Kutiri kuteen. Can't believe the Economist, a reputed newsmagazine as one can get, writes crap like this and then audaciously presents it as facts. The article portrays as a though Soomaali "Christians" are a significant minority that is persecuted daily, which is a pure bogus, especially this quoted part:

 

"Every month several Somalis are killed for being Christian."

 

And this:

 

"Most were Mennonites, evangelised by missionaries on the Juba river in southern Somalia."

 

What the... Goormee diinta ka saareen dadkaas oo tageen. Who are those 'missionaries' on the Jubba river?

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar:

Kutiri kuteen. Can't believe the Economist, a reputed newsmagazine as one can get, writes crap like this and then audaciously presents it as facts. The article portrays as a though Soomaali "Christians" are a significant minority that is persecuted daily, which is a pure bogus, especially this quoted part:

 

"Every month several Somalis are killed for being Christian."

 

MMA, saxib, you misunderstood the quoted part. Ma ilowdey sheekada murtadka ee dadka siyaasada al-shabaab kaga soo horjeedo lagu laayo.

 

"Every month several Somalis are killed for being Christian. Sometimes that is just a label that the jihadists stick on people they suspect of working for Ethiopian intelligence."

 

 

MMA, meelaan dowlad jirin haka sugin dulqaad la tuso dadka minoritiga ama xag diimeed ama xag jinsi.

[General Duke]

^^^ The Economist always gets it wrong when it comes to Somalia they can make up what ever they think will please thier western readers.

[NASSIR]

That is a wrong assumption of you. Let's not do the Red Herring.

The Economist has covered an important issue which is hardly talked about because of its sensitivity.

Doesn't al-Shabaab daily persecute people based on trumped up charges that they are Christians or gaal for political reasons?

 

I'm not here to vouch for the content of the article but what I can personally verify is the level of contempt and hatred we show towards religious and ethnic minorities.

[Maaddeey]

Originally posted by NASSIR:

I'm not here to vouch for the content of the article but what I can personally verify is the level of contempt and

hatred

we show towards religious and ethnic minorities.

Thou canst not find people who [truly] believe in God and the Last Day and [at the same time] love anyone who contends against God and His Apostle - even though they be their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or [others of] their kindred. [29] [As for the true believers,] it is they in whose hearts He has inscribed faith, and whom He has strength­ened with inspiration from Himself, [30] and whom [in time] He will admit into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide. Well-pleased is God with them, and well-pleased are they with Him. They are God’s partisans: oh, verily, it is they, the partisans of God, who shall attain to a happy 58:22 (Asad)