Today happens to be the Feast of Stephen, immortalized in "Good King Wenceslas."
Stephen was the first martyr, and it seems appropriate for us to remember the persecuted church today. It's all the more appropriate as I haven't put up anything about Islam here on W4 for a while. Especially on my mind today are the members of a Christian family who are victims of Islamic persecution in Egypt. According to the story, they have been stopped from leaving the country and are all in prison, including the two little boys, ages 2 and 4, who are being starved (partially starved?) to pressure their Christian mother, Martha Samuel, to re-convert to Islam. The story states that she has also been raped and tortured to try to secure the same result. The father is in prison, too. Their crimes are simply that Martha converted to Christianity five years ago and that the family recently tried to leave the country to escape persecution. I never knew Egypt was a Soviet-style prison country. Perhaps only to people who have had the temerity to leave Islam.
We should pray for them.
Comments (2)
The story of the Egyptian Copts is both fascinating and tragic. Here are some good background articles on their plight:
1) http://www.meforum.org/article/23
2) http://www.merip.org/mero/mero042806.html
These are millions of Christians forced to live as second-class citizens thanks to jihad. What's wrong with the world indeed.
Posted by Jeff Singer | December 27, 2008 10:37 AM
Thanks for those links, Jeff. What must be realized, as you imply, is that all of this flows from the nature of Islam--death to apostates is intrinsic to sharia. Egypt is just becoming more and more authentically Islamic.
Posted by Lydia | December 27, 2008 2:55 PM