Gaza Christians stage public protest against forcible conversions to Islam

It is astonishing that these Christians dared to make a public protest, since dhimmis historically know that if they complain about their lot, it just gets worse.

There Is No Compulsion in Religion Update from Gaza: "Gaza Christians protest 'forcible conversions,'" from the Associated Press, July 17 (thanks to Joseph):

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP — Dozens of Gaza Christians staged a rare public protest Monday, claiming two congregants were forcibly converted to Islam and were being held against their will.
The small but noisy demonstration showed the increasingly desperate situation facing the tiny minority.

Protesters banged on a church bell and chanted, "With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus."

They certainly sound as if they have absorbed the ethos of the surrounding culture.

Gaza police say the two are staying with a Muslim religious official at their request, because they fear retribution from their families for converting to Islam. Two mediators said the two — a 25-year-old man and a woman with three children — appeared to have embraced Islam of their free will. Forced conversions have been unheard of in Gaza before.
Since Hamas seized power five years ago, Christians have felt increasingly embattled, but have mostly kept silent.

There are growing fears among Gaza Christians that their rapidly shrinking community could disappear through emigration and conversions.

Their numbers appear to have shrunk from some 3,500 to about 1,500 in recent years, according to community estimates. They are a tiny minority among 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza, most conservative Muslims.

By "conservative," AP here means "pro-Sharia hardliner." Only when writing about Islam in the West does the mainstream media mean "anti-Sharia freedom fighter" when they say "conservative."

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ala sux | July 17, 2012 6:39 AM | Reply

Now lets see if the Public Union groups in Toronto Ontario(CUPE, OPSEU, TDSBTF) denouce Hamas instead of their years of supporting hamas with tax dollars.
Sid Ryan was the head of CUPE and spearheaded the Boycot on israel when he was well aware of hamas murdering homosexuals in public and gaza not allowing a PRIDE parade like israel does.
But, the Leftists have this sick romance with the islamic-supramacy Brown-Shirts that will slit their throats in a heartbeat once they fullfill their purpose as useful-idiots that now fall for the Taqqiyah scams that islam=peace.

The feminists and gays in canada won't even protest the gaza murders or speak-up about the islamic misogyny or the public hangings of gays in iran.
AND why?????

Because they have a shared hatred for the West and Liberties that give freedoms to individuals and not the Communistic collective good for control like Mao, Stalin,Hitler,islam,and Cuba/N.Korea .
Leftists love their mass-murderers and Dictators because the Toronto School Board posted the Honouring of Che Guevera on their calander for kids to emulate this murderous and misogynistic Dentist that called Blacks a bunch of useless and lazy **ggers.
yes folks, the Teachers Unions have become buddies with islamists and Communists as the support Hamas and vacation in Cuba with OUR tax dollars.

GMcCal | July 17, 2012 11:28 AM | Reply

"Forced conversions have been unheard of in Gaza before."

Well, not exactly. I guess the AP forgot about Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig in 2006:

"Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip... "We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told FOX News. "Don't get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on."

keeper upper | July 18, 2012 8:08 AM | Reply

I literally Laughed out loud when I read that the converts were said to be afraid of retribution from their family. You know that's a lie. Their family is probably Wailing in agony to think that their babies are now in the hands of Satan.

Stuart Parsons | July 18, 2012 6:51 PM | Reply

Oh this is just too much !!!! Surely no one would be so gullible as to believe the wonderfully enlightened followers of Allah and His 'Prophet and Messenger' would force people to change their religion. You don't believe me ? Well what about 2:256 from the Book of Taqiyya.

gravenimage replied to comment from GMcCal | July 19, 2012 3:49 PM | Reply

Gaza Christians stage public protest against forcible conversions to Islam

It is astonishing that these Christians dared to make a public protest, since dhimmis historically know that if they complain about their lot, it just gets worse.
..................................

And that is probably exactly what will happen to the remnant of Christians remaining in Gaza.

Protesters banged on a church bell and chanted, "With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus."

They certainly sound as if they have absorbed the ethos of the surrounding culture.
..................................

Well, yes—this is awfully queasy rhetoric. But even here, there is a vast difference: Muslims using this same line re "Allah" would mean that they are willing to sacrifice both themselves *and their victims* for their terrible god; Christians just mean that they themselves are willing to die.

Gaza police say the two are staying with a Muslim religious official at their request, because they fear retribution from their families for converting to Islam...
..................................

Projection. It is *Muslims* who kill apostates. Egyptian Muslims pulled the same shtick in Egypt a couple of years ago, where they claimed that Coptic Christians who had been forcibly converted to Islam were actually Muslims in danger of being forcibly converted to Christianity.

Disgusting.

Forced conversions have been unheard of in Gaza before.
...

GMcCal wrote:

Well, not exactly. I guess the AP forgot about Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig in 2006
..................................

Thanks for the link and for reminding us of that appalling case, GMcCal.

There are growing fears among Gaza Christians that their rapidly shrinking community could disappear through emigration and conversions.

Their numbers appear to have shrunk from some 3,500 to about 1,500 in recent years, according to community estimates.
..................................

It will probably happen, and within the next few years. There are any number of churches right here in town that could accommodate the entire remaining Christian population of Gaza in their pews.

In fact, I hope they do. While I respect the long, long history of Christianity in Gaza, I don't believe that anything remains for them there but crushing oppression, forced conversion, and outright murder.

I hope they all get out.

dumbledoresarmy replied to comment from gravenimage | July 20, 2012 12:37 AM | Reply

The bit about banging a church bell is very, very interesting.

Because by doing that, in public, out in the open, these Christians in Gaza were breaking the 'Rules For Dhimmis'.

The Pact of Omar expressly forbids the loud ringing of church bells.

It forces the Christians to say:

"We will not sound the bells in our churches, except discretely..".

In fact, since ringing a church bell loudly in public *is* breaking the Rules for Dhimmis, and any breach of the Dhimmi Rules brings down Jihad upon your head, I'd say that is why they were proclaiming their willingness to die for Jesus.

They knew that by ringing that bell, during the protest, they could quite easily have brought down on their heads, right then and there, a murderous mob of Muslims.

dumbledoresarmy | July 20, 2012 12:52 AM | Reply

One of the saints, martyrs and confessors of the Arabic-speaking church, in Gaza.

Rami Ayyad.

In defiance of two other of the 'Rules for Dhimmis' - the ban on presenting the faith to Muslims, and the ban on publicly displaying Christian books in a Muslim market - he engaged in evangelism and he ran a Christian bookshop.

The infamous 'Pact' again:

"[we will not] publicize practices of Shirk,
invite anyone to Shirk..."

"[we will] refrain from erecting crosses on the outside of our churches
and demonstrating them **and our books in public in Muslim fairways and markets."

Rami defied this sharia rule imposed on dhimmis - and it's clear that the Muslims viewed him as an uppity dhimmi, a dhimmi who was Breaking The Rules.

He was murdered, in 2007. And although Hamas shed one or two crocodile tears in public, and pretended to look busy (for the benefit of ever-gullible western media) **nobody** has ever been arrested or punished for the murder.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/10/palestinian-christian-activist-stabbed-to-death-in-gaza.html

"A Palestinian Christian activist who had received repeated death threats was found stabbed to death in a street in Gaza City early Sunday.

Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, was director of the Teacher's Bookshop, Gaza's only Christian bookstore, which is run by the Bible Society of Gaza Baptist church.

Ayyad had been missing since Saturday evening. Over the years he had received repeated death threats from unidentified people displeased with his missionary work."

He left a pregnant wife and two very young children.

My other sources, including the Barnabas Fund, have since informed me that his widow and children were spirited out of Gaza and are now in a safe place. And his widow gave birth to their third child some months later; again, last I heard, all well.

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