Persecuted Church

From this week's reading, I chose to write analysis and synthesis of the story by Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and loathing in America. The author narrates in the story about the event surrounding the 9/11 and made some predictions about the possible consequences of war that are going to start to happen due to the attack on the American soil. To state one of the author's predictions that he said for sure will happen and what really we experienced and witness today that his predicts are for real happening. " it will be a religious war, a sort of Christian jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides"(Thompson, 2001, p.7). As the author stated in the story, media and political figures played a major role in decorating the attack as if it was a religious war carried out by religious extremists, who want to start a new crusade war of the 21st century. It was never mentioned as politically motivated attack, but of rootless extremists who want to get rid of Christianity. As a result hatred between Muslim and Christianity increased more than ever. Since the 9/11 attack there has been an increasing

Religious terrorism is regularly portrayed as demonstrations of unreasonable, silly and indiscriminate violence, along these lines offering few, if any what really spur religious terrorism measures. This presumption about religious terrorism comes from different nations, groups and individual’s. Unbalanced regard for prophetically catastrophic terrorism, and an absence of qualification between religious terrorism and its mainstream partner. This article, in this manner, expects to do four things: characterize and separate religiously inspired terrorism, confidence, and activism along the lines of faith and violence. Furthermore, prescribe a scope of religion, confidence, and terrorism systems in view of these perceptions.

I began this paper with a question that seemed almost too ludicrous to be even remotely true; is Christianity on its way towards extinction in Iraq? After presenting the research I found regarding precisely what Christians are going through in Iraq, who is inflicting this pain on them, and the effect ISIS’ revival of persecution is having on other extremists, it is almost ludicrous to argue Christianity is not headed for extinction in Iraq. Jihadist groups with no toleration are determined to put an end to this peaceful religion simply because it differs from

Many Christians were displaced when Islamic forces invaded large Christian cities in Iraq. People from different social and religious backgrounds are at the camps. One thing the people all have in common is the loss of their homes. A priest, Father Douglas Bazi, stated that, “During the first week, the only thing I could hear was crying” (qtd. In “Inside The Refugee Camps Of Northern Iraq”). The refugees were devastated that their homes, and that even some peoples lives were taken away. The refugees do get medical attention for psychological conditions they may have. Experiencing the trauma they had experienced having their home taken away can cause psychological problems. The refugee camps in Iraq house people who have had their homes taken from them.

Part I – Intro: “An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.” (James A. Michener, Space) I am here today arguing a denied, avoided, and controversial topic [Christian Persecution]; and, I am doing this so that I can make the increasing amount of attacks on our first amendment rights known. The injustice here is not only the attacks on Christians’ rights to religious freedom, but also because it is ignored. The rights of everyone are compromised because no matter what religion you identify with or even one at all, there is a precedent being set that denying someone’s right is okay. “1,400 documented attacks on religious freedom, at a 15% increase over the past year and a 133% increase over the past five years.”

("Persecution of Christians in the contemporary world.") Young children are being kidnapped from Christian families in the Middle Eastern countries to be raised as Muslims. Children that have well enough memories to still believe their faith are put with their families and most likely killed. ( "Persecution of Christians in the contemporary world.") A recent story tells of two dozen Iraqi Christian refugees who escaped from the Middle East and across the U.S. borders. After coming into the U.S., they were refused any shelter or food; debates are being held if the refugees should be removed or not. The debate is held for the reason that there is not enough room for twenty-four people, but there is for ten-thousand Syrian

For most of the 20th Century, America’s Faith Community enjoyed the luxury of reposeful sanctuary within their Houses of Worship. Such places were considered “off limits” for acts of crime and mayhem by most Americans. Reality often mirrored this anticipation. Even the criminal element looked with great disdain upon those victimizing churches and synagogues. However, immunity to the problems slowly began to deteriorate. The lawless began to view holy and sacred locations as merely wealthy soft targets overseen by the forgiving and the naive. The general respect that was once accustomed from American culture started to erode as well; only exasperating the situation. By 2001, the reality that world level terrorism could also

Logan, Lara, Jeff Newton, and Richard Butler. "Iraq's Christians Persecuted by ISIS." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 22 Mar. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The main point in this article is to show how far ISIS has gone to eradicate Christians in Iraq; they are causing deleterious effects on Christian towns. Christians have been living in this area for almost 2,000 years and more than 125,000 have been forced out of their homes. The author is trying to spread awareness of things going on in the Middle East. Monasteries that have been there for almost 2,000 years and have perpetuated several empires, invasions and conquests are now feeling threatened by ISIS. They are using Nazi techniques

“What is remarkable about persecuted Christians is their resilience,” said Philpott. “They are not just victims. Understanding this is the key to being in solidarity with them.”

They have suffered from cruelties that need psychological and moral support in order to live with dignity and have hope for the future. To get a true understanding of what it is like living in the Middle East as a Christian, I recently contacted Sara Touchan, a Christian who used to live in Syria. She escaped the war and ISIS and joined Ponte Vedra High School as a junior. She said that living in Syria before the war was simple and really nice. She did not have a chance to meet a lot of Muslims because she attended a private Catholic high school. However, her parent and brothers had Muslim friends through jobs or public universities. Before the war, Syria was one of the better countries for Christians in the Middle East. However, when the Syrian civil war began, it just kept getting more violent and dangerous. She said “We really were not sure if we were going to survive the next day or not. The bombs, voices, and gunshots became a daily routine. Some days were worse than others of course, and a day that was consistent of only hearing bombs without seeing any fight was considered a good day.” Their electricity, water, and Internet used to go off. They had to take showers with cold water from small bottles in the winter. Christians felt unsafe because of ISIS, who wanted to kill Christians solely based on their religion.

In the recent past terrorism has been the greatest challenge to many countries in the world. To be precise religious terrorism has taken its route. Such heinous acts are spearheaded through violent motives. This motive renders the whole nation into a somber mood. It is as a result of tragedies caused by heinous acts of terror. For instance, the USA was subjected to such a mourning scenario. It was that moment when the shooting in Unitarian Universalists Church was under way. It was flabbergasting because American citizens least expected it at that time. Such heinous acts experienced by the United States left families deprived and children orphaned. It was a big blow to the nation’s security.

Christians have been persecuted around the world for their faith during varying periods of time since the birth of the religion. Even today there are stories of Christians being killed or beaten severely at the hands of Hindu extremists in India or in places like China and North Korea. Yet Christianity thrives as the world’s largest religion. Persecution of Christians was especially brutal and widespread during the fourth century in the Roman Empire. Christians were tortured until they denied Christ or killed if they refused, their possessions, houses and buildings were confiscated and they were forced to observe pagan sacrificial traditions. Constantine the Great’s rise to power brought about tremendous change in Roman attitudes and laws from absolutely destroying Christians to accepting, protecting and even supporting the furthering of Christianity.

Attention getter- Have you ever been forced to leave your hometown without committing any crimes or doing something wrong? Imagine yourself waking up one day, seeing that you are in the middle of the war with people running around and screaming for their lives. Such incident may seem very unlikely to happen to you however, the people of Syria have been experiencing it for almost everyday of their lives. .

Different religious groups who thought highly of their own “Ultimate Being” have been persecuted or assaulted. The Pew Research Center says that Christians are the most persecuted faith of all the world’s major religions. In 2007, Christians were harassed in 107 countries. In some countries, those who tried to promote their religion to the public were harassed because of their faith. Pew says that “there has been a marked increase in the number of countries where Jews were harassed, a recent peak.” Another example of violence from theistic beliefs are Islamic extremists who use acts of violence and terror towards people. These Muslims professed that they had support from Allah himself when in fact Islam teaches peace. Such strong misinterpretations of a religion and a deity can be dangerous to religious groups who do not share their

Religion teaches goodness and violence is rarely found, if ever, within the teachings (Winchester, 1). Terrorists, though, need a justification for their actions and so they must dig through scriptures to find a reason (Gibson, 2). Religion and terrorism is a major controversy because of all the different opinions and facts.