Here again, just imagine if the roles were reversed, which would not happen and should not happen. The media would never let you hear the end of it. But of this they will take no notice. Nor will Pope Francis. It might harm his pointless, fruitless, and misguided “dialogue.”
“Bangladeshi Catholics Attacked, Church Demolished,” by Fabian Gomes, ChurchMilitant.com, November 23, 2020:
MOULVIBAZAR, Bangladesh (ChurchMilitant.com) – Armed Muslim militants attacked Catholics in the village of Ichhachhara in northeastern Bangladesh earlier this month, wounding faithful and desecrating their church — smashing windows and destroying books and other religious items.
Sources tell Church Militant the assault stems from a Sept. 21 incident in which Muslim Rafiq Ali, using fake documents, illegally seized farmland from local Catholic Josper Amlorong.
Amlorong reported the land grab to authorities, and on Nov. 9, police evicted Ali from the stolen parcel.
But that evening, after law enforcement had left Ichhachhara, Ali — an influential leader from the nearby village of Tatriuli — returned, backed by dozens of Muslim supporters, and launched his attack.
Now, the district’s Christians are living in fear, worried their lives are at risk.
“Ali and his people forcibly entered my property and took possession of it,” Amlorong told Church Militant. “They threatened my life. They told me to leave the land. It is my only piece of land.”
Amlorong is a member of the mainly Christian Khasi tribe. Like most Khasis, his betel leaf garden is the sole source of income for his family.
“If I lost my land, I couldn’t live,” said Amlorong, who has been battling cancer for the past three years. “Without treatment, I will die.”
“Being I am Christian, Ali thought I am weak, but I will not leave my land until I draw my last breath,” he vowed.
Amlorong noted that Ali and his cohort damaged many betel leaf plants during their occupation. “I lost BDT 500000 (roughly $6,000) when my land was grabbed by Rafiq,” he explained….
Christians are often targets of persecution in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Just 0.3% of the country’s 166 million people are followers of Christ.
J. Morgan says
Terrible. It would certainly help if the international community would back these people who are under religious attack for their very lives. The Pope’s silence on issues like this very one is unconscionable and is why I have little regard for his basic ability to be a Christian human. He only seems to have compassion for Muslim refugees and Amazonian pagans.
Lion heart says
It reminds of Iraqi Christians after the fall of Saddam’s bloody regime
LB says
Dude… How is Saddam’s regime “bloody” if the Christians suffered MORE after he was gone?? Was Saddam a tyrant who killed anyone who opposed his rule? Yes. But was he also keeping in check the muslims from going on frenzied bloodthirsty jihad rampages? Also yes. Now you tell me which of those two is less evil? And don’t say neither because evil is the only thing you’ll find in muslim countries; the only question is which is the least evil.
Infidel says
Saddam did massacre shi’a and Kurds, that’s why! And see below: he curbed shi’a Muslims who wanted to establish a shi’a theocracy like Iran. He had nothing against Sunnis wanting to do the same
LB says
Your point being… what exactly? Did you miss the part where I said he killed those who opposed his rule? Who else would oppose his rule than other muslims who wanted to rule in his place; that’s why he was killing them. Christians on the other hand were completely peaceful (as is their nature) and were keeping as low profile as possible. I even heard that Saddam liked having Christians around himself as advisors and confidants precisely for that reason, because he knew that if he protected them they would in turn support him.
“He had nothing against Sunnis wanting to do the same”
No. You speak as if he was completely fine with someone else taking over as long as they were sunni. That’s flatly untrue; Saddam wanted all the power for himself and wasn’t planning on giving it up ever. That’s how dictators operate.
Anyway, just answer me this one question: is Iraq better off now that he’s gone?
peter says
Saddam Hussein was the best thing that happened to Christians in Iraq. He was not a fanatical muslim.He was secular . His minster Tariq Aziz was a muslim. Christians were treated very well under Saddam . Western media has propagated the myth that Sadam was an Islamic fanatic for purely political gains !
Infidel says
Yes & no: you misunderstand the platform of the Ba’athists. They were a platform for minority Muslim sects to take over a country, be it Iraq or Syria. Since as a minority, they needed other non-Muslims, they took it, and branded themselves ‘secular’
The thing to understand about any Muslim country: whenever there is a party that demands that the country be ‘islamic’, what that means is that the country follow Islam as defined by the majority sect in that country. For Iran, that would mean following the Ayatollahs. For Saudi Arabia, it would be the Wahabis. In Iraq, it would be shi’a, since they are the majority there. For Syria, it would be sunnis, for the same reason. It’s also the reason that while Tajikistan is ethnically a Farsi country like Iran, their Islamic jihadist group does not draw inspiration or support from Iran, since they are a sunni country while Iran is shi’a
The thing about Saddam is that he led a sunni regime in a shi’a country, and therefore, given the Baath template, was projected as ‘secular’. In reality, he did do things to get street cred w/ Sunni Arabs in other countries, like having inserting ‘allahu akbar’ into the Iraqi flag after he occupied Kuwait. He was a hub of jihadist activities against Israel, and supported Hamas as well as sheltered Abu Nidal. Given that he was a champion of Arab sunnis, he was well liked by the Arab fraternity until 1991, when he occupied Kuwait
Note that the Arab fraternity does not have the same attitude towards the Assads in Syria, since their Ba’athism involves subjugating sunni Arabs in favor of Alawites. Although now they’re coming around b’cos they like the idea of Syria becoming an extension of Turkey even less! Syria, otoh, is indeed more secular: it is the only Arab country that is closed not only on Christmas but Easter as well. Their only issue is their alliance w/ Iran and Hizbullah and their fanatical opposition to Israel
gravenimage says
Saddam Hussein *was* a bloody dictator. He just didn’t specifically target Christians as much as most Muslims.
Wellington says
A one-way street on display again. There is a very good possibility, at least it’s in the realm of the arguable, that Muslim atrocities, which are effectively committed on a daily basis (the 38,000+ figure of documented Islamic attacks worldwide since 9/11 works out to an average of something like 5.73 attacks per day since that terrible day in American history, September 11th, 2001) would not be as horrific in number if the loathsome, toady, willfully ignorant and often times downright stupid Western media, examples being CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, the BBC, the CBC, the ABC, The Guardian—yes, it’s a very long list of toadies—reported accurately and knowledgeably about the Islamic proclivity for violence, per “instructions” from Islam’s lurid texts, i.e., the Koran, the hadiths and the sira.
Islam is wretched (this no longer functions for me as a hypothesis but an axiom). Yet aiding this wretchedness is silence by the Western media, indeed the pathetic Western media regularly portrays Muslims aplenty as victims of prejudice, which invariably I find obscene. Might as well portray Neo-Nazi or KKK members as victims.
Compounding this tragic and unforgiveable situation is that you have fools or worse outside of the media, in positions of authority in the political realm, the religious realm and the academic realm, making excuse after excuse for the iniquity which is Islam. People like Joe Biden, Pope Francis and John Esposito serve as representative samples of those independent of the media who have engaged in their own share of harm, irrespective of it being due to willful ignorance or outright complicity, because they too give the worst religion of all time not only a pass but often times obsequious approbation.
The time is out of joint. You bet it is. Something’s rotten not just in Denmark but across a great deal of the West. Meanwhile, Muslim atrocities worldwide continue, whether against Christians, really anyone not Muslim, or even against fellow Muslims deemed not Muslim enough. And respecting all this tragic and lethal rot by Mo followers, the Western media most certainly stands guilty before the de facto courts of common sense, basic decency, honesty, and sheer self-survival.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
There is Jihad war terror by the people, as here in Bangladesh. Allahu Akbar.
And then there’s Jihad war terror by the state, as in what’s going in large chunks of Armenia just taken over by Azerbaijan. A letter was published in today’s WSJ from one Sevda Mammadaliyeva, Deputy Minister of the Azerbaijan Minisitry for Culture. In it he said the guy noted that Pope Francis praised Azerbaijan as a model for religious tolerance.
Checkmate for the Armenians, which is ironic given that they are the Christians in this transaction, and Pope Frank is putatively the leader of the Christian faith.
Infidel says
Do we pretend here that Christian denominations don’t matter, and that Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians are all willing to stand up and fight for each other, regardless of sect? How true is that, globally?
gravenimage says
Sources tell Church Militant the assault stems from a Sept. 21 incident in which Muslim Rafiq Ali, using fake documents, illegally seized farmland from local Catholic Josper Amlorong.
Amlorong reported the land grab to authorities, and on Nov. 9, police evicted Ali from the stolen parcel.
But that evening, after law enforcement had left Ichhachhara, Ali — an influential leader from the nearby village of Tatriuli — returned, backed by dozens of Muslim supporters, and launched his attack.
………………….
This is very common–first, Muslims trying to steal what little Infidels in Muslim countries have–and their stealing on the basis on Islam itself, and this being supported by much of the Muslim commumity..
Will Bangladeshi authorities go after these Muslim thugs? Grimly, I would not count on it.
Mauricio says
“…they will take no notice. Nor will Pope Francis.”
Why would he? He needs martyrs to be put on a pedestal and in that way enrich his church. Too bad it’s not him the one “laying his life for his flock” (John 10:11). His life would be at risk if he strongly opposes islam but he is just a “hired hand”:
12 The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep.…(John 10).
Mauricio says
Sorry Gravenimage, this was not supposed to be a reply to your comment but an independent comment.
Myron J. Poltroonian says
Yes, Maricio, the inability to edit or delete one’s own comments is what my kid refers to as “annoying”.
[Addendum: Two things every father learns about children early on; 1., They don’t get any cheaper; 2., Every time they say “Dad”, it still costs money.]
Mauricio says
Mr. Poltroonian: I rather omit personal family details here but your advice is quite appropriate for me now. Thanks.
gravenimage says
That’s fine, Mauricio. As for your comment, I don’t think that Francis is hoping for more Christian martyrs. Instead, he seems to be largely in denial over Islam targeting Christians at all.
Infidel says
One more data point to the reality that Bangladesh is another de-facto Pakistan. India needs to stop treating it as a friend/ally, and recognize how toxic they are. I know that’s tough, given that the entire left half of that country still has a vision of Bangladesh rooted in an idyllic fantasy
Jayell says
Well, as everyone knows, Bangladesh was originally the eastern half of Pakistan before they decided to break away with (I believe) a bit of the customary islamic blood and destruction. All the ‘Bangladeshi’ ‘British’ citizens over here in the UK seem to behave exactly like their Pakistani friends (the infamous Shamima Begum is one of them), so I can’t think why they just don’t rejoin forces – ‘in unity is strength’, so they say. No, perhaps not, just forget that last bit and the rest of the humanity might stay bit safer.
Infidel says
In fact, the main reason for Bangladesh seceding from Pakistan in 1971 was the latter’s insistence that Urdu would be the national language. As a result, for a while, it seemed that for them, language trumped religion, and therefore Bangladesh could be a potentially secular country.
That only lasted under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his daughter, the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed. It’s certainly not true about other Bangladeshis as well. But as an independent country, Bangladesh is a far better friend to Pakistan, since memories of the 60s are forgotten. Pakistan doesn’t get to impose Urdu on them, so Bangladesh, unfettered by language issues, gets to get in touch w/ their islamic selves
gravenimage says
Pakistani Muslims enthusiastically raped and slaughtered Bangladeshi Muslims, with the few Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians victimized as well.
peter says
In fact the first proponent of Pakistan including present day Bangladesh was a Bengali Muslim called Suhrawardi. He was more fanatical than Jinnah . Bangladeshi and Pakistani muslims are indistinguishable except for the colour of the skin and physical stature .
Infidel says
And language, which was the basis of the 1971 secession
Problem is that too many Indians live in a time warp of the 70s, and still think that Bangladesh is at heart a secular country. That despite Hindu and Buddhist refugees from Bangladesh (not that many Christians though, since Christians are statistically an asterisk in that country) and despite the fact that except Sheikh Hasina, nobody there really believes that Bangladesh is supposed to be secular.
As a result, Bangladesh has become an important hub for jihadists trying to infiltrate India: Pakistan doesn’t work in that regard b’cos India has an ironclad border w/ Pakistan, and allows limited traffic. Not so w/ Bangladesh. India needs to wake up and realize that the Bangladesh of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is dead, and that what they have is a pretty hostile neighbor which, left unchecked, can destablilize them to no end
sidney penny says
“Christians are often targets of persecution in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Just 0.3% of the country’s 166 million people are followers of Christ.”
They will end up like the Hindus-going to zero.
gravenimage says
Hindus make up about 10% of the population in Bangladesh, Buddhists .6%, and Christians .4%. Things are even worse in Pakistan–but clearly all non-Muslims in both nations are heading for extinction.
Jill says
It would be prudent not to take the visual identity of the Catholics in hostile areas since you can be contributing to violence perpetrated against them. Woman and girls especially are vulnerable to abuse. Just my observation of your general practice.
gravenimage says
In other words, if you don’t look Muslim then it’s your own fault if Muslims attack or murder you. *Ugh*.
OLD GUY says
Burn the Quran and muslims throw a shit fit and behead and kill anyone insight.
Islam’s plan is to wipe out all other forms of religion period.
Anywhere islam is present you find violence, racism, and murder as its main means of controlling the country. DICTATORSHIP!!!
Islamic leaders know that islam cannot stand up to be a true religion, so they want to destroy anything and anyone who questions their ideology. The only thing islam teaches its followers is violence and hate.
Myron J. Poltroonian says
Unfortunately, I see the fear of “Woke” retribution is even on these pages; ‘ … just imagine if the roles were reversed, which would not happen ‘and should not happen’ … “. Everyone who is either a Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, or almost any other non-muslim religious adherent, in one form or the other, believe in “Turn the other cheek” and the “Golden Rule”. Well, by their own actions, which have essentially not changed in nearly a millennia and a half, I’d say there has been a clear invitation to follow that second rule, so we should grant them their wish and “Do unto them as they have done unto us” for the last 1,400 years. I’m beginning to believe it’s about Damn time.
[Addendum: If you want to know what life would be like in a Caliphate and/or under Sharia, ask an Armenian.]
gravenimage says
You don’t have to act like a Muslim barbarian in order to defend against Jihad.