'All Churches in Egypt Should be Destroyed': The Persecution of Christians, October 2024

The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of October 2024.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Burkina Faso: On Sunday, October 6, Muslim terrorists launched a surprise attack on the town of Manni, which is home to a large Christian community. More than 200 people were massacred during the jihad. According to one report,

"[T]he terrorists first cut mobile phone networks before attacking the local market, where many people had gathered after Mass. They then opened fire indiscriminately, looted shops and set fire to several buildings, burning some victims alive... [On] the next day, the perpetrators returned to attack medical staff and kill the many wounded in the city's hospital. A new incursion took place on Tuesday, 8 October, when the terrorists again invaded the town of Manni, massacring all the men they could find."

"The situation is beyond horrific," a local said. "But even if the terrorists burned everything, they didn't burn our faith!"

On Oct. 9, Bishop Pierre Claver Malgo, of the Diocese of Fada N'Gourma, described the attack as "barbaric," and expressed his "sincere compassion for all the bereaved families" insisting that "any threat to the dignity of man and to his life must touch the very heart of the Church." After discussing this terror attack, another report notes:

"In sub-Saharan Africa, there are 16.2 million Christians who are displaced by violence and conflict, and these recent attacks are the latest example of a trend of escalating violence in the region."

Nigeria: Headlines of the "pure genocide" of Christians from the month of October follow:

• Oct. 3: "Herdsmen Kill Christians in Northern and Central Nigeria"
• Oct. 7: "Fulani Herdsmen Kill Seven Christians in Central Nigeria"
• Oct. 11: "Four Christians Killed in Benue State, Central Nigeria"
• Oct. 25: "Pastor, Family Killed in One of Two Islamist Attacks"

Uganda: On Oct. 30, a group of Muslims murdered a Christian evangelist after he refused to convert to Islam. The incident occurred following a three day evangelistic event, where 18 Muslims converted to Christianity. As Pastor Emmanuel Dikusooka, a 29-year-old married father of three children, and fellow church member, Jack Mbulante, were returning to their residences, they were stopped and surrounded by six men dressed in traditional Islamic dress and armed with long Somali swords (pangas), sticks, and iron bars. The assailants began by seizing the Christians' travel bags, which contained Bibles and other Christian literature. Then, according to Jack,

"They threw them all into the River Lumbuye, then ordered us to hold the Quran up that they had and told us to recite and swear in the name of Allah. They tried to force us to renounce Jesus Christ and our faith and then embrace the Islamic faith. We openly refused, which angered them, and they hit Dikusooka with an iron bar on the head, and he fell down."

Jack escaped by jumping in the river and swimming for his life. When he reached the other side, he found and returned with some Christians to rescue Emmanuel:

"But unfortunately, when we arrived at the scene of the incident, Dikusooka was dead in a pool of blood. He had deep head injuries, cuts at the neck and back and an injured mouth."

Pakistan: On Oct. 24, Muslim drug lords shot and killed two Christian brothers, Imran, 30, and Arslan, 24. The Christians were murdered because they refused to comply with the Muslims' orders to sell drugs in their barbershop. At one point, after the brothers continued to refuse the offer, Ali Butt, the Muslim ringleader, shouted, "Let's show these chuhras [anti-Christian slur] the consequences of crossing us." Then he several of his henchmen opened fire. Imran was executed by a bullet to the back of the head and died on the spot; his brother died from his wounds en route to the hospital. Others were also injured in the hail of bullets, including "an innocent girl passing through the bazaar," as well as two other Christian men that were in the shop. According to the report, "The family is living in fear, as the murderers remain at large, and the police have not yet apprehended anyone involved."

In a separate incident, a group of Muslim men murdered and dismembered their onetime Christian "friend," Suleiman Masih, 24. All that is known is that the Muslims arrived at Suleiman's home on the night of Sept. 30 and proceeded to "lure" him out, following which they "viciously dismembered him, and left his body parts on a railway track near Khanpur Canal." A human rights activist close to the case said:

"I am deeply traumatized by the horrific images of this brutal crime. The ritualistic killing of Suleman Masih not only exposes the depths of human depravity but also poses a significant safety threat to others in our [Christian] community. The murderer and any accomplices involved demonstrate profoundly deranged minds, yet Pakistan's notorious Qisas and Diyat laws [based on sharia] may provide them with an opportunity to evade justice. Despite the clinical dismemberment of Suleman's body ... the police have failed to officially classify this as a crime. This egregious oversight reflects a deeply flawed justice system that places vulnerable Christians at even greater risk of violence."

Muslim Abduction and Rape of Christian Girls

Pakistan: A Muslim security guard at a private school raped a 6-year-old Christian girl. He targeted that particular child "because of her family's Christian faith," said the report: "When the girl returned home from school that day in late October, her family noticed blood stains on her clothes and bruises on her body." Although the principal had earlier called to alert the parents that their girl had "fallen" and hurt "herself," when questioned, "The girl shared what had happened and identified the school's security guard, Husnain, as the attacker. She said that he had covered her mouth to silence her during the assault." When her parents went to the school and reported the matter to the principal, he grew angry and threatened them with "problems if they took any action." According to a source close to the family,

"This is foul and egregious. School is meant to be a safe place for the next generation to learn. Unfortunately, this case has revealed that Christians are still perceived as weak targets who are unlikely to seek justice."

The report adds that,

"Cases like this are not unheard of in Pakistan, where Muslim men subjugate young Christian girls to dominate religious minorities. Each year in Pakistan, nearly 1,000 girls endure forced conversions to Islam."

Egypt: On Oct. 26, a 21-year-old Christian woman Julia Atef, disappeared during a short walk from her home to her church. When her family tried to reach her they discovered her phone had been turned off. They went and reported the disappearance at the local police station. As of latest reporting, she has still to be found. Julia is just the latest of countless Christian girls and young women to "disappear" off the streets of Egypt, as documented in a 2020, Coptic Solidary report, "Jihad of the Womb: Trafficking of Coptic Women & Girls in Egypt":

"The capture and disappearance of Coptic women and minor girls is a bane of the Coptic community in Egypt, yet little has been done to address this scourge by the Egyptian or foreign governments, NGOs, or international bodies. According to a priest in the Minya Governorate, at least 15 girls go missing every year in his area alone. His own daughter was nearly kidnapped had he not been able to intervene in time.... The rampant trafficking of Coptic women and girls is a direct violation of their most basic rights to safety, freedom of movement, and freedom of conscience and belief. The crimes committed against these women must be urgently addressed by the Egyptian government, ending impunity for kidnappers, their accomplices, and police who refuse to perform their duties. Women who disappear and are never recovered must live an unimaginable nightmare. The large majority of these women are never reunited with their families or friends because police response in Egypt is dismissive and corrupt. There are countless families who report that police have either been complicit in the kidnapping or at the very least bribed into silence. If there is any hope for Coptic women in Egypt to have a merely 'primitive' level of equality, these incidents of trafficking must cease, and the perpetrators must be held accountable by the judiciary."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Italy: On Oct. 4, a Muslim man was arrested for plotting to bomb the Church of Sant'Alessandro in Bergamo. According to one report, the 22-year-old Egyptian man was arrested for

"preaching terror on the Web and planning to blow up a church in the center of the Lombardy city. The man, who has not been named, posted photos of himself armed and ready for action against the 'infidels.' He said he belonged to the terror group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP)."

In what Arabic reports described as a "sad scene," on Oct. 12, two Christian clergymen officiated over the funeral of their father, who had also been a clergyman. What made the scene particularly sad, was that the funeral service and prayers over the deceased were conducted in the middle of a public street — not in the Christians' church. Egyptian authorities had sealed it off in 2006, when Muslims rioted to prevent its existence. According to the report,

"The priests had no choice but to lie down in the street in front of their house and pray over their father's body, in the presence of more than 40 priests and hundreds of people, amid great sadness as the church had still not opened, even though they had received many promises over the past years that it would reopen, to no avail.... The two priests expressed their sadness over the death of their father, as well as the lack of response to open the church to honor him inside, instead of praying in the open street, in a scene described as not in line with the principles of citizenship and the president's [Sisi's] directives, the most important of which is the presence of a church for Copts in areas where there are no churches."

This is not the first incident of its kind. Six years ago, a 2018 report noted that "Coptic Christians in various parts of Egypt have been left with no choice but to hold funeral services in the streets because of the closure of their churches." It provided several examples. Funerals are not the only Christian rituals pushed out into the streets of Egypt. In 2015, a church congregation bereft of its church was forced to celebrate Easter in an alley.

It was also revealed in October that Egypt's Mansoura University had some years earlier quietly republished a book — with Al Azhar's complete approval — dedicated to proving that, according to Islamic law and the fatwas of learned sheikhs, all churches in Egypt should be destroyed.

Muslim Hate for, and Violence against, Christians

Somalia: On Oct. 5, Muslim relatives of a convert to Christianity attacked him. Mohammad Abdul was holding a worship service in an undisclosed location. When he emerged, he was surprised to see four of his relatives standing outside the door. They proceeded to launch an inquisition:

"Why are you worshipping differently from the Muslim way? What is so unique about your worship? Why do you close yourself in the room when you are to praying?"

Abdul replied,

"My praying is a secret between me and my Lord Isa [Jesus], and more so, why should I pray in public? This is just a way to please men, but in my time of worship I should please only God who is in the heavenly places."

They told him he must worship the Muslim way, which he refused, adding, "Leave me alone." They responded by beating him, slapping him and leaving him on the floor wounded and bloodied. One of his relatives said, "You are inviting terrible trouble to yourself and your family." According to the report, this was the third time relatives attacked him:

"Abdul had survived a May 5 knife attack by his Muslims relatives ... and his in-laws had taken his wife and five children away while he was receiving hospital treatment... Having recovered his family and relocated them to another area after the attack in May that left him with a deep cut on his head and a fractured hand, Abdul in the July 8 assault also suffered injuries that took away his ability to speak, his wife said. The relatives also broke his wife's ankle and beat his children.... Somalia's constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion.... The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence."

Pakistan: Muslim doctors are being "unprofessional and discriminatory" in their treatment of Christian patients, according to an Oct. 4 report. As one example, on Oct. 1, at the Civil Hospital of Sahiwal, in Punjab, a Muslim doctor treating an elderly Christian man told the sick man's son, Yousaf: "If I had known earlier that you are a Christian, I would not have touched your father." Later, when the son and other family members went looking for assistance and entered the doctors' office, they found all the staff engaged in a game of Parcheesi. Desperate for help, Yousaf asked for someone to come and check his seriously ill father. "We are playing," they told him." We will check on him later." When the matter reached the point that the ailing Christian was denied surgery, another of his sons, Babu, gathered dozens of people and staged a protest outside the hospital, from where he said,

"My father is struggling with death and has to endure immense pain and agony, but the doctors' behavior is rude to the patients. We come to hospitals for our medical care and we believe we can be treated without discrimination, because people of any religion or ethnicity come to hospitals for medicine, examinations or tests. We have witnessed very disappointing behavior of our doctors just because we are Christians. This is absolutely not acceptable... My father's operation is on hold, but we will continue to protest until our voices are heard and we are treated fairly."

While discussing this incident, human rights activist Ashiknaz Khokhar said that the discrimination Christians face is everywhere:

"In schools and universities, Christian students often encounter prejudice and bullying and are marginalized for their faith. And even in hospitals, the situation is no better and, as revealed in some tragic incidents in the recent past, Christians are subject to neglect and biased treatment by medical staff... [Even in governmental institutions, Christians] are often denied equal opportunities, suffering systematic discrimination in recruitment, promotion and fundamental rights. This general prejudice creates an environment of inequality that makes it difficult for Christians to prosper and live with dignity in Pakistan."

Egypt: Christians expressed concern regarding the newly appointed Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Nazir Muhammad Ayyad, formerly Secretary General of Al Azhar's Islamic Research Center (a bastion of fundamentalist currents). He is the author of a highly inflammatory book dedicated to condemning Christians in terms that would make "extremists" of ISIS's variety proud. Several Egyptian reviewers have described the book as a "catastrophe." They say it promotes, hatred towards Christians and violence against them. The book further calls Christians kuffars — enemies of the (Islamic) state.

Azerbaijan: Reports appeared concerning Muslim Azerbaijan's atrocious behavior against its weaker neighbor, Christian Armenia. One gives important background:

"Until 2023, Armenians had lived in Nagorno-Karabakh since at least the first century. Today, the territory is virtually devoid of Christians. Caucus Heritage Watch has reported for months on the Azerbaijani military destroying Armenian churches and cemeteries... The driving out of the Armenian population and destruction of ancient and medieval Christian sites has caused human rights advocates to label Azerbaijan's actions as 'ethnic cleansing.' Despite this and its reputation as a significant environmental polluter, Azerbaijan was given the honor of hosting COP29 [a climate change conference]."

Another report notes how Azerbaijani textbooks indoctrinate children to hate Armenians:

"In these textbooks, Armenians are referred to derogatorily, history is rewritten and Azerbaijani children are taught that Armenians are enemies who committed genocide against them and stole their land. This type of propaganda is dangerous, spreading fake narratives and hatred among young students. It may be one of the great issues facing the Armenian nation, hindering it from the possibility of safety and peace as its sovereignty continues to be attacked."

Mali: Muslim groups are forcing more and more Christians to pay jizya, compulsory tribute -- essentially "protection" money -- that Christian and Jewish subjects of an Islamic state are required to render to their Islamic overlords per Koran 9:29. According to the Oct. 29 report,

"[A]n Islamic extremist group that is active in the region has recently imposed a tax of 25 thousand CFA Francs (around 40 dollars) on all Christians over the age of 18 in Douna-Pen, the largest Christian village in the east of Koro, Mopti. This payment has become a condition for the free practice of religion. Extremists have made their demands clear, and recently collected money from the community with complete impunity... Those who were unable, or unwilling, to pay were warned that the alternative would be the forced closure of their places of worship. The worrying situation began in the village of Dougouténé, where residents were first called to pay the so-called jizya, a religious tax. Now, Douna-Pen has begun to face the same issue. Local residents fear that the practice could spread to other villages, further threatening religious freedom and local security.... This recent case of financial extortion is the latest chapter in a history of violence and persecution that has swept the region."

Discussing this trend, a local Christian source said

"We are supposed to be living in a secular state, where such practices should not take place, but unfortunately this is becoming our new reality. If the authorities do not act, the population will pay taxes directly into the coffers of the terrorists, who act under the flag of jihadism in the Republic of Mali.... We know that the country is large and that the same is happening in other places, but if we don't do something in this area soon, the consequences will be disastrous. Here people are butchered like rats!"

Senegal: According to an Oct. 3 report, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko is asking all schools to allow young girls to wear the Muslim veil, or hijab. This includes the nation's Catholic schools, which actually have a ban on the hijab (due to security and other considerations). Because of this ban, the prime minister also referred to the nation's Catholic schools as "foreign." The Catholic school system responded to this swipe in a statement, inviting "all the Christian faithful [...] to remain vigilant in the face of alarming signals that tend to ostracize the Catholic community... Threats are ineffective."

Indonesia: On Oct. 17, police arrested a Christian man after he said on social media that the Koran was of not of divine but human origin—and that it promoted "racism" (or discrimination). When police arrived at Rudi Simamora's home, hundreds of angry Muslims had already surrounded it. This was not the first time he had been punished for speaking against Islam. According to the report, "Rudi had been arrested in 2022 for allegedly insulting Islam ... [and] sentenced to one year in prison on Feb. 23, 2023 and released earlier this year." The report also mentions a similar case that occurred 200 miles away in Sibolga, on Sept. 3, when another Christian man was arrested "for allegedly blaspheming Muhammad and Islam on his Facebook account."

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, Sword and Scimitar, Crucified Again, and The Al Qaeda Reader, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.

Previous reports

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