When I read stories like the one below, I often wonder if I would have the same faith as this young girl. By accepting Christ, she KNEW she would most likely be beaten, rejected by all including mother and father, ridiculed, maybe tortured and face probable death. It’s not exactly a secret in “peace loving” Muslim countries that conversion to Christ never goes unpunished in varying degrees, often including imprisonment, poverty and death.
It does us (Western/American Christians) good to read and contemplate this kind of faith and sacrifice. I often hear back “oh, that’s too gory and awful. I can’t read something like that. You’re glorifying violence.” How naive. How insulting to both Christ and this young martyr. Christians should REGULARLY read the accounts of martyrdom in books like “Foxes Book of Martyrs” or on websites like Voice of the Martyrs. You will find your faith strengthened, your hope increased and very importantly, it will sweep away the foolish mentality we have that “I’m American!” means we will never face the same kind of choice for Christ. News flash: Muslim theocracies, Communist dictatorships, Buddhist enforcers, atheistic regimes and countries governed by despots don’t give a royal red hiney that you are American and “have rights”.
As I watched “The Third Reich” documentary on the History Channel this week, so MANY parallels can be drawn from what happened as the Nazi’s came to power and leading to the eventual persecution of millions compared to EXACTLY what is happening in America today (political unrest, polarization of cultural groups, class warfare, the loss of heritage, the rejection of genuine Christianity, an entitlement mentality, hope in humanism, etc). I’ve been saying for a decade that the storm clouds of Christian persecution are boiling on the horizon. For those with their head up, the signs are ever clearer today. Head up, or head in the sand. Frankly, it’s easier to bury your head. After all, most of us my age will probably be dead and gone when the real persecution starts. But who is warning the young generation of Christians of what they will face? Anyone?
I wish I could believe that my children and grandchildren will enjoy the same freedom to love Jesus Christ as I do now… but that would be the willing acceptance of a comfortable lie. Coming to a country near you:
Somali Teenage Girl Shot to Death for Embracing Christ
Sat, Dec. 04, 2010 Posted: 05:23 PM EDT
NAIROBI, Kenya (CDN) – A 17-year-old girl in Somalia who converted to Christianity from Islam was shot to death last week in an apparent “honor killing,” area sources said.
Nurta Mohamed Farah, who had fled her village of Bardher, Gedo Region to Galgadud Region to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam, died on Nov. 25. Area sources said they strongly suspected that the two unidentified men in Galgadud Region who shot her in the chest and head with a pistol were relatives or acting on their behest.
“Reports reached the relatives in Galgadud that Nurta Farah had converted to Christianity,” one source said. “The suspicion that the family is responsible is a solid one. The sister was killed in Abudwaq, a district in Galgadud Region, and the place where the incident took place is about 200 meters from where the sister was staying with relatives.”
Relatives buried Farah, sources said. Her parents had severely beaten her for leaving Islam and regularly shackled her to a tree at their home, Christian sources said. She had been confined to her home in Gedo region in southern Somalia since May 10, when her family found out that she had embraced Christianity, said a Christian leader who visited the area.
Her parents also took her to a doctor who prescribed medication for a “mental illness,” he said. Alarmed by her determination to keep her faith, her father, Hassan Kafi Ilmi, and mother, Hawo Godane Haf, decided she had gone crazy and forced her to take the prescribed medication, but it had no effect in swaying her from her faith, the source said.
Traditionally, he added, many Somalis believe the Quran cures the sick, especially the mentally ill, so the Islamic scripture was recited to her twice a week.
She had declined her family’s offer of forgiveness in exchange for renouncing Christianity, the source said. The confinement began after the medication and punishments failed.
Area Christians had reported that Farah was shackled to a tree by day and put in a small, dark room at night.
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government generally did not enforce protection of religious freedom found in the Transitional Federal Charter, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2010 International Religious Freedom Report.
“Non-Muslims who practiced their religion openly faced occasional societal harassment,” the report stated. “Conversion from Islam to another religion was considered socially unacceptable. Those suspected of conversion faced harassment or even death from members of their community.”
Compass Direct News
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