In the
highly celebrated case of Rifqa Barry in the US, a moslem girl who converted to
Christianity and moved in with Christian friends, despite her clear public
declarations that she chose to become a Christian of her own free volition, and
the well-known and fully acknowledged death sentence that hung on her head,
compelling her to run away from home, (http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Rifqa_Bary) , she was
nevertheless NOT allowed to continue
to stay with her Christian friends, but placed within the public domain. Similarly in the UK in 2009, a moslem girl
who insisted on converting to Christianity while staying at a Foster home run
by a Christian lady, got the Foster parent into deep trouble as she (the young
girl) insisted against all entreaties that she must convert to
Christianity. According to the Foster
parent, “ I offered her alternatives. I offered to find places for her to
practise her own religion. I offered to take her to friends or family…” Not only was the young convert removed from
the Foster home, for her failure to prevent the convertion, the Foster parent also
lost her licence and meal ticket! (see
CA! Vol 12 No 2).
Contrast these situations with the current
case of Charity Uzoechina in Bida, Nigeria, where the so-called Islamic
proselytizers are not only proudly announcing their “catch”, they are also
scrupulously keeping her away from the public domain - not even to appear at the
Courts for cross-examination. Rather, they keep on insisting that they have
“legal documents” (rooted in their religion), authorizing them to keep the lady
perpetually within their own enclave. They are even already making marriage
plans for the lady!
For
years, we have reported on this sad trend of forced Islamic conversions, which
is common in Islamic communities with Christian minorities. Most notably in Egypt, where innumerable
ladies are being abducted, either blackmailed or brainwashed to claim
conversion to Islam, and thereafter
married out to Moslem men. (http://christiannews.over-blog.com/article-the-disappearance-forced-conversions-and-forced-marriages-of-coptic-christian-women-in-egypt-40541012.html)
In 2012, the U.S. Congress held a
special hearing to receive testimonies about the “escalating abduction,
coerced
conversion and forced marriage of Coptic Christian women and girls
in Egypt
. Earlier in 2009, the Christian Solidarity
International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights had jointly commissioned
an investigation into the cases of Islamic forced conversions in that country. One of the attorneys interviewed during the
Investigation indicated that as many as a thousand ladies forcefully converted
to Islam in recent years, have initiated petitions to have their Christian
identities restored.
The
report of the Investigation (available here)
describes the common pattern of Islamic abductions-cum -forced conversions:
“Most cases referenced in this report began
with a trusting relationship that ultimately led to disappearance or abduction
and finally marriage to a Muslim man and conversion to Islam. These friendships may include a school friend
or peer; an older woman who fills the role of a mother figure, a Muslim
boyfriend, or a benevolent provider.
These relationships offer a sense of belonging, camaraderie and
emotional as well as financial support. In some cases, they also provide vital
services and tangible forms of assistance in the case of need. These supposed new friends exploit the vulnerability
of young Coptic women for the purposes of forced marriage and conversion…”
All
these elements are clearly visible in the current case of Charity Uzoechina.
Another
report cited by the catholic news agency contain similar details. According to the
report, “The individuals interviewed also said that the disappearances are the
result of ‘organized and systematic planning.’
They often involve attempts to befriend victims, or else use force and
fraud. Abductors target vulnerable young
….. women… They physically separate these women from their families and proceed
to abuse, threaten and brainwash them. ”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/hearing-outlines-forced-marriages-conversions-in-egypt/
Clearly
there is nothing original in all the drama scripts currently being played out
at the palace of the Etsu Nupe in Bida as regards Charity Uzoechina. It’s just
a crude copy mainly from Egypt. And on
this note, we again wish to emphatically warn the Christian community in
Nigeria that the perpetrators of this grand evil have no intention of stopping
any soon unless they are forcefully confronted and stopped. As far as they are
concerned, they have virtually no other hope of getting people to embrace Islam
other than these foul, despicable means.
In 2007, we reported the case of Victor Udo
Usen, a Christian boy who went missing in November 2006 in Sokoto; and was
later spotted in the house of a moslem neighbor several months later. Shame of a nation, rather than the abductors being
charged, they piously claimed the 13 year old boy, whom they had renamed
Abdulkarim, had chosen to convert to Islam.
He could therefore not be released back to his infidel parents! Even the police and state security, when
contacted, could only counsel that the parents appeal to the Sultan of Sokoto
that their child be kindly released to them!
(See CA! Vol 10 No 2). What then
is kidnapping?
At that
time we noted that Christian leaders were reporting that abductions “of boys
and girls by Islamists” in Northern
states of Nigeria are now becoming “increasingly common”. As the case of Charity and the several other
ladies of unknown identities currently swarming around the Etsu Nupe’s palace
indicate, these incidents are not about to stop.
Of
course if Charity or anyone else wishes to become moslems, (or pagans for that
matter) they should be free to do so.
Yes, free to move around and not be locked up in an emir’s enclave. Of course moslems who also wish to become
Christians should also be similarly free to do so and continue to move freely
in society. That’s what civility is all
about, and all religions MUST subscribe to this basic fundamental human right!
The
really sorry aspect of all these nauseating stories is the countless Christian
lives that have been wasted in Northern Nigeria on the charge that they
attempted to convert Moslems to Christianity.
Popular cases highlighted by CA! included the 20 year old Christian lady
who in the same Niger state as the case of Charity, was forcibly removed from
the Police Station at Izom where she had sought protection, and brutally
murdered in cold blood on Wednesday June 28, 2006 – all because she shared
Gospel tracts with willing moslem youths. (see CA! Vol 9 No 4). Also at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
University, Bauchi in December 2004, the President of the campus fellowship of
Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Church, Sunday Ezekiel Achi was murdered
near the University mosque for the mortal sin of leading the distribution of
some gospel tracts on the campus! (See CA! Vol 8 No 2).
Now, in the same country, so-called
respectable moslem clergy and traditional rulers are claiming that they have
not only effected the conversion of the daughter of a christian pastor to
Islam, they proudly announced that they have commissioned people to be teaching
her the basics of Islam as well as arranging a number of suitors to take her in
marriage!
This is not a case just for the Christian
Association of Nigeria – who under the
current leadership of Pastor Ayo Oritsajefor is already doing a yeoman’s
job. Unfortunately, for so many
so-called Christians in authority (politics, business, etc), the people who
should speak out for their brothers and sisters, life is all about concessions
and compromises. Until Christians in
positions of authority decide to arise, and stop making silly selfish
concessions to moslems, we are not likely to see too soon an end to these sort
of Islamic supremacist feelings.
Christian legislators, ministers, captains of industry etc should
however remember the words of Mordecai to an initially reticent Esther: “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at
this time, then shall
there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but
thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? “ - Esther 4:14
Furthermore, for a graphic demonstration of the sad
reality of sadistic Islamic forced conversions, see the video at this
link showing a Coptic Christian girl, from a wealthy family, being
kidnapped, stripped and abused by a group of Muslims in Egypt. According to the
group “Free Copts”
who provided the video, the plan was to blackmail the lady into marrying the
moslem man she had been videoed completely naked with. They also threatened her with the same fate
as had befallen another girl not far away, a girl who had been raped by 8
Muslim men, murdered, and had her body dumped in a nearby graveyard. The police
and the prosecuting authority let those eight men go free. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/02/shock-video-shows-sexual-abuse-and-forced-conversion-of-coptic-christian-girl-in-egypt/
