Eritrean Christians fleeing persecution in homeland face imprisonment, torture, beatings and sexual assault in Egypt

Why aren't they fleeing to Ethiopia, South Sudan, or another non-Muslim polity?

Islam is swell, ain't it?

Greetings:

I live in the San Francisco Bay area, a couple of soviets south of "The City" as some of the locals perceive it. Several months ago, one of the local Progressive (neé Public) Broadcasting System stations aired a program about the restoration of the architectural remnants of Il Duce Mussolini's occupation of Eritrea. The program was replete with the now ubiquitous assertions about how the Muslims and Christian were all moderates and got along famously.
Oh well, I guess it was nice while it lasted.

11B40-

If you think that is amazing, look at old photographs of Italian Mogadishu - even in the present day ruins you can imagine the blazing white washed walls, the graceful Mediterranean style and the beautifully laid out city and port that is now, thanks to Islam, a byword for dysfunctional Hell.

This article is mis-leading in one respect. Christians are not, in general, persecuted in Eritrea. The population of Eritrea is roughly evenly split between Christians, mostly in the highlands, and Muslims, mostly in the lowlands (near the ocean). The government is if anything dominated by secular people of Christian background and Christians. Persecution of Christians by Muslims is not a significant issue in Eritrea because the Muslims are not in power.

That said, the government is a fairly nasty dictatorship, from which many people have fled either due to political persecution or due simply to having fallen afoul of the wrong government official. It is also a government that persecutes certain religious groups that it considers troublesome, most prominently, evangelical Christians. The majority of Eritrean Christians are Eritrean Orthodox, a church that split off recently from the Ethiopian Orthodox church, itself a church of the Coptic variety. The government tolerates the Eritrean Orthodox church, Islam, and the Roman Catholic church, but persecutes the evangelical churches which have come to the country only recently. The refugees who are being abused in Egypt are a mixture of political refugees and evangelical Christians. Few if any of them are refugees from persecution by Muslims.

This is not to defend the persecution of the evangelicals or to deny that Muslims frequently persecute those of other religions. The point is that in Eritrea such religious persecution as takes place is due to other causes and that Muslims do not engage in significant persecution in Eritrea for the simple reason that they are not in power. What we have here is refugees fleeing persecution by non-Muslims who are then persecuted by Muslims in Egypt.

The reason that Eritreans do not flee to Ethiopia is that: (a) Ethiopia is itself rather a basket case, not a nice, stable, welcoming, well off country that will be nice to them and take good care of them; (b) Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia only recently in an extremely vicious war of independence and relations are still very poor. For Eritreans, Ethiopia is not a friendly country. (c) the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia is highly militarized. The odds of getting across safely are not high.

Christians, mostly in the highlands, and Muslims, mostly in the lowlands...

Why does this arranagement resonate so with me?

*** 33:21 ***

I must be an Islamophobe. I certainly aspire to be one, so my reaction to the phrase quoted above proves it to me. I've made it: I am an Islamophobe.

After years of hard work, I have finally arrived in a safe place. At least in my own mind.

Why can't the Churches fight to bring such Christian refugees into Europe; instead of fighting for more Muslim refugees incluidng form the sacry exodus of 30,000 of mostly Libyan/Tunisian Muslim refugees invading Italy, into Europe? Europe is facing explosive population growth from Arabic-Turkish led Muslim refugees, as strategic part of conquest strategy of Europe due to increasingly child-less non-Muslim natives. And that's a fact!

My advice to Israel, re. the black African refugees who (usually after having been fleeced, enslaved, beaten, tormented and raped by Beduin Muslims in the Sinai, and similarly mistreated before that by Egyptian Muslims) manage to make it into Israel.

Send the Muslims back to Africa. Not to majority Muslim lands like North Sudan or Egypt where they will be despised for being black; send them to those parts of west Africa that are already entirely Muslim, such as Senegal. But before sending them, they must be required to watch (suitably translated) a grimly factual presentation by Tidiane N'Diaye, on what Islam has done to black Africa: the estimated 120 million deaths, the depopulations, the enslavements, the mass murder, the contempt, the tormenting and pillaging, the castrating of black boys to serve as eunuchs. Tell them about the revolt of the black slaves that happened in Iraq in the middle ages. Tell them the story of blessed Sister Josephina Bakhita of Darfur, who was enslaved by Muslims but rescued and ultimately freed by Christians, and died a Christian, the much-beloved 'little brown mother' in an Italian convent. And make them watch episodes of Fr Botros' no-punches-pulled critical TV programs, suitably translated. Ayaan Hirsi Ali might also be called in, to recount how she was beaten by a Saudi Arabian Muslim schoolteacher, and called 'black slave'. That might put seeds of doubt in their minds.

The black Christians, on the other hand: well, they have to be told, equally grimly, that they have merely jumped from the frying pan (the African front of the global Jihad) into the fire (Israel, assailed by Muslim jihad on all sides).

Whether they decide to stay or leave, so long as they remain in Israel they must - if they desire asylum - help their place of refuge defend itself. They must all undertake to do productive work of some kind, even if it's just picking up rubbish in the streets or helping build bomb shelters; and if aged 18-40, and physically fit, they must do a stint in the IDF. The IDF could create a Foreign Legion, and name it after Orde Wingate. (Part of their induction training would involve their learning the story of the aid that Israel once gave to many African countries - before the Arab Muslim deceivers managed to trick those countries into rejecting it, most foolishly - and the recognition that Israel gave to the embattled Biafrans.)

The young African Christians, male and female, would go to boot camp (give them Falasha and Mizrachi Jews as trainers). They would learn to FIGHT: to fight hard and clean, as the IDF does. They would learn to read and write, Hebrew and English. Groups like the Christian Friends of Israel, or the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, could encourage them in the practice of a Christianity free of antisemitism. They would learn basic first aid (perhaps some, identified as having a vocation in that area, could choose to pursue medical training, on condition that after graduation they must do a stint of service in Israel to repay the cost of their training; after that, they would be encouraged to go to Christian Africa, to use their skills there).

And then they would have a further choice. They either stay in Israel, on condition they actively work to help it fend off the neverending Jihad (why not settle them right next to the Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria, or in places like Nazareth, or the Negev, to counterbalance the aggression of the encroaching Arab Muslims? ) ; or they can go to South Sudan, to use their new skills to help a black African Christian nation resist the Jihad there. Send them to South Sudan with nice new Uzis slung over their backs and a Bible (courtesy of the Bible Society in Israel) in their hands.

That's how to turn a liability into an asset.

Many of these newer African Christians are strongly Evangelical, and inclined toward what might be called Christian Zionism; I say to Israel, pick that up and run with it.

Hi All,

check out the founder of the Barnabas Trust, Patrick Sookdeo. He is an Islam expert who advises governments around the world and has written the standard work on jihad: Global Jihad. Especially his grading of how cultural Muslims turn into jihadis by going through an inverted pyramid with 8 layers is the most concise analysis I have ever read.

Also visit the Barnabas Fund's website and use the search engine to support them financially.

A "Christian Zion" in South Sudan might be problematic. There is a large gap between the fundamentally Middle Eastern Culture of Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia and the sub-Saharan/East African culture dominant in South Sudan, to say nothing of great linguistic gaps.

As a Christian myself, I am leery of Christian political separatism, unless in a truly extreme situation such as those faced by South Sudan (which was compounded by large ethnic differences) or, in a more primitive time, those Christian Iberians who remained unconquered in the 8th century. The Lord himself commanded us to be "salt and light" in those places where we are which need preservation and knowledge of grace. Hence, I can't approve the ideas of those brothers in South Carolina who are talking about a new separatism. As for the Eritrean refugees, there are plenty of places that could resettle them.

BTW, my hat's off to Israel for its humane treatment of these refugees. Even the Muslims Darfuri author of _The Translator_ noted it.

And, while we're at it, refugee situations are always grim. I worked on such things in Thailand when I was with the US State Department. For a long time, even the peaceful, pleasant Buddhists of southern Thailand (and I speak as someone whose general view of the Thai people is positive) could be just as bad as the Sinai Bedouin when they got their hands on young girls among the Viet "boat people". Really, it wasn't just Pattani Muslims who were guilty of that kind of nastiness.

As participants in the general life of all countries where we live, and people commanded to seek peace with all men as far as it is up to us, to live quietly by our own labor, etc. (go read the practical exhortations of the New Testament), we Christians want to live peacefully and comfortably in the countries where we are, and call on the governments of those countries to respect our civil and property rights equally with those of the non-believers.

I live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and my maid is an Eritrean Christian. She is always telling me about atrocities that are happening in her country against believers. She told me about a Christian girl who went to a boarding school in Eritrea with her Bible and was locked up and starved to death for that reason. She also told me about a boat that was recently fleeing Libya filled with Eritrean refugees that was fired upon and sunk, killing most of those on board. But we never hear about this in the news.