Another Martyr Sheds Blood for Jesus Christ
Islamists film horrific beheading of a Christian convert in Tunisia

An extremely horrific video has been uploaded onto the internet, which has also been aired on prime-time television in Egypt. It shows the barbaric beheading of a young man in Tunisia by men claiming to be acting in the name of ‘Muhammad’ and ‘Allah’. What had this silent and serene victim done to deserve this cruel death? The answer: He was a convert to Christianity.

I would like to thank Stuart (eChurch) for highlighting this upsetting story. But thanks is also due to Raymond Ibrahim (WARNING: this site contains the video) for having first brought this tragic death to the world’s attention, as well as to the Spectator’s Douglas Murray for his comments on this horrific act of persecution. If you decide to follow the link to Raymond Ibrahim's site, then I would encourage you NOT to watch the video. The filming of this man’s murder was in itself and act of torture and barbarity, an attempt to humiliate a dying man even further. The video will be used by Islamists to try and scare Christians. Also, the footage shows something so graphically shocking that it should not even be on the internet in the first place.

So, to avoid having to watch the video, Raymond Ibrahim has provided a summary (itself very harrowing) of what the film depicts: -

A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or "narrator," chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: "Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate"; "Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists"; "Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims"; "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."

Then, to cries of "Allahu Akbar!"—or, "God is great!"—the man holding the knife to the apostate's throat begins to slice away, even as the victim appears calmly mouthing a prayer. It takes nearly two minutes of graphic knife-carving to sever the Christian's head, which is then held aloft to more Islamic cries and slogans of victory.

Sadly, this is not a rare event in the Muslim world. In fact, a simple internet news search reveals that in the past few days there have been several such gruesome executions of Christians in Islamic dominated lands, one example being a story in the Pakistan Christian Post, which reports on the recent beheading of five Christian members of the same Pakistani family.

Compared to other stories that seem to dominate European and North American news media, though, these real and horrific crimes against Christians are hardly ever reported. The western media will go wild if a bishop stands up to defend marriage, usually accusing him of hatred towards homosexuals, with some commentators even foaming at the mouth with rage at this supposed act of 'homophobia' and 'persecution'. But hardly anything is ever mentioned concerning the hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world who are daily being truly persecuted for their faith.

The recent beheading in Tunisia and the killing of Christians in Pakistan are but the tip of the iceberg. The excellent website, Frontpagemag.com, provides a few recent examples (abridged by me) of Islamic (often state-sponsored) persecution of Christians (all dating from April this year): -

Church Attacks

Azerbaijan: A church in the Muslim-majority nation has “become the first religious community to beliquidated by a court”.

Indonesia: Gunmen opened fire on the GKI Yasmin church, causing much damage in the latest attack on the building, which has been illegally sealed off by authorities since 2008, due to Muslim demands. 

Kenya: Two separate grenade attacks on churches occurred, the first killed a woman and a boy, and wounded some 50 other Christians, the second killed a 27-year-old university student and injured 16 worshippers. The terrorist was a Somali Muslim.

Nigeria: An early morning attack on a church during the celebration of Mass left at least 16 people dead

Sudan: A Christian compound in Khartoum was stormed by a throng of Muslims “armed with clubs, iron rods, a bulldozer and fire,” the day after a Muslim leader called on Muslims to destroy “the infidels’ church.”

Tunisia: A Muslim burst into a church to deliver a letter from an Islamist party inviting the archpriest to convert to Islam or to take down the church’s crosses and pay jizya, Islamic subjugation tribute.

Apostasy and Blasphemy: Death and Prison

Algeria: A Christian was sentenced to five years in prison for “shaking the faith” of Muslims. He had discussed his faith with a Muslim man at a food court when the Muslim became angry and accused the Christian of “insulting Muhammad.” 

Bangladesh: A former Muslim prayer leader who converted to Christianity was “welcomed by threats and violence.” Members of his Muslim community “beat him almost to death,” causing him to be hospitalised for almost two months: “the same Muslims who followed him and held him in high esteem when he was their imam now cannot accept his new status.” 

Egypt: Two incidents of “blasphemy” convictions occurred in April 2012: 1) A juvenile court sentenced a Coptic Christian teenager to three years in prison for allegedly “insulting Islam,” due to claims that he posted unflattering cartoons of Muhammad on Facebook. Muslims rioted, fire-bombing his home and at least five other Christian-owned homes. 2) Another judge upheld a six-year prison sentence for a Christian convicted of “blasphemy”: after a Muslim had told the 49-year old Christian convict that Jesus had illegal sex with at least ten women, the Christian countered “by stating that Muhammad, the founder of the Islamic religion, had more than four wives—a view commonly held by Islamic scholars.” Police subsequently arrested him and, in a 10-minute mock trial with no defence attorney present, the judge sentenced him to six years in prison for “insulting the prophet.” 

Iran: A Christian convert from Islam has been sentenced to six years in prison.  

Pakistan: Two incidents of “blasphemy” charges: 1) A Christian man was arrested and charged with “blasphemy” for rescuing his 8-year-old nephew from a beating at the hands of Muslim boys who sought to force the boy to convert to Islam. 2) The mother of a newborn baby has been illegally jailed for over a month: authorities have failed to file a charge sheet within the mandatory 14-day period against the 26-year-old Christian woman accused of “blaspheming” the prophet of Islam.  

Philippines: Two pastors were slaughtered by Muslim assailants, one in front of his teenage daughter.

The above listed acts of persecution mainly involve those being carried out by the state. The list does not really cover beheadings such as the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Islamic vigilantes normally carry out those kinds of barbarous killings. Of course, these vigilante thugs never seem to get caught or prosecuted by their respective Muslim governments - many of which seem complicit in these extreme and barbarous acts of persecution, torture and murder.

Many people are now aware, even if our British and US governments seem oblivious to it, of the fact that those countries currently experiencing an ‘Arab spring’ are actually descending into an Islamic tyranny – out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak. And those who are paying the price - often with their lives - for these Islamist revolutions are the ancient Christian communities of North Africa and the Middle East.

The so-called Arab spring is fast becoming an Islamic ice age. As the regimes of various African and Middle Eastern dictators fall, the political vacuum left in their wake is being filled by a far greater evil – Islamism. Left unchecked, this new and religiously inspired form of tyranny, which derives its misconceptions of Christianity and Judaism from the Qur'an, will possibly even prove to be the most horrendous movement ever to have inflicted humanity. Thankfully, though, those lands now living under the shadow of the crescent will soon embrace the light of the cross once more - for Tertullian's prophetic words still ring true: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”