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WSJ: West ignores Muslim persecution of Christians
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Muslim persecution of Christians in different parts of the world has received remarkably little attention in the West, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial.
"When it comes to persecution, few groups have suffered as grievously as Christians in Muslim lands. Fewer still have suffered with such little attention paid," said the piece, titled Islamic Christianophobia.
Among "scores of atrocities", it noted the murder of seven Coptic Christians in Egypt in early January and the bombing of seven churches in Iraq within three days last July.
There is also the on-going persecution of Christians in Pakistan, and the Christian majority in Bethlehem has largely fled since the arrival in the 1990s of Islamist groups such as Hamas.
The latest Worldwatch List from Open Doors USA "shines a light on the scale of oppression."
It ranks eight Muslim countries among the 10 worst persecutors of Christians. The other two, North Korea (at the top) and Laos, are communist states.
Of the 50 countries on the list, 35 are majority Muslim. In Iran, the second-worst persecutor, 85 Christians were arrested last year, "many of whom were also mistreated in prison."
In Mauritania, as in Iran, "conversion to Christianity or any other religion is formally punishable by death."
"It might seem natural," said the WSJ, "that at least some attention would be paid in the West to the plight of these Christians.
"Instead, attention seems endlessly focused on ‘Islamophobia’, not least at the UN’s misnamed Human Rights Council."
Thus, for example "in November, much of Europe went berserk over the Swiss referendum to ban the construction of minarets (though not mosques).
"But the West’s tolerance for its large Muslim populations stands in sharp contrast to the Muslim world’s bigotry and persecution of its own religious minorities," said WSJ.
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