December 28, 2023
In the aftermath of the horrific attack by Islamic terrorists on Israeli civilians, jihadists slaughtered 198 Christians in Nigeria and wounded a further 300. Videos emerged of crying toddlers clinging to their mothers’ dead bodies, whole families, gunned down while trying to flee, lay in heaps on the ground over Christmas weekend. Church pastors and their entire families were murdered, and hundreds of houses were destroyed in the massacres in some 20 villages in Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu counties extending from Christmas eve into Christmas day.
The traditional Christmas celebration was closed down entirely in Bethlehem; the Medieval Cologne Cathedral, which miraculously survived the allied bombing during WWII, was threatened by jihadist terror (luckily thwarted); Christmas markets all across Europe were subject to radically increased security and Christmas tree lightings were disrupted by deluded, pro-terrorist, anti-Israeli protests all across America, Australia, Great Britain and Europe. From South Lebanon, Hezbollah targeted a Greek Orthodox church near the Israeli border with anti-tank missiles, wounding nine Israeli soldiers who were giving medical aid to a civilian. Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel civilian areas – 100 in a single day.
“It is clear that violence against Jews and Christians is exploding,” said AMCD co-chair Tom Harb. “The world has been shocked at the precipitous rise of antisemitism, but anti-Christianity is rising just behind it. The desecration of churches has become an epidemic.”
“It breaks my heart to see anti-Christian sentiment spreading in the United States,” added AMCD co-chair John Hajjar. “We Christians with origins in the Middle East are only too aware of how persecution begins. Christians are still the most persecuted group in the world today and jihadists are driving that persecution just as they are fueling the growth of murderous antisemitism world-wide.”
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy condemns all antisemitic and anti-Christian acts and calls on all religious leaders of good faith to stand together against the alarming evil.