By Raymond Ibrahim ~

The following was adapted from remarks made by Raymond Ibrahim at a Conference on Christian Minorities in Muslim Majority countries sponsored by CAMERA in Framingham, MA on Jan. 21 and a piece he just wrote for the Middle East Forum on Jan. 23.

Christian Solidarity International calls on the President of the United States to speak up about the plight of religious minorities living in Muslim majority nations. This would not only be the right thing to do, but would rightly project American values and principles into the fast falling  darkness in the Muslim world.
Religious cleansing is currently underway in nations like Nigeria, where Boko Haram (literal translation”Western Education is Forbidden”) and other Islamic groups have declared jihad on the Christian minorities and in the doing killing and displacing thousands of people while burning and bombing hundreds of churches.  Over forty people were killed a few weeks ago while celebrating Christmas mass.  So too in Iraq.  Since Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, about half of that country’s one million Christians have seen fit to flee their historic homeland due to the oppression and violence visited on them. 60 worshippers were recently killed in a church in Iraq.
Church attacks are rapidly becoming a norm in majority Muslim populations. They are attacked and burned, or they are forced to close under the threat of violence. This happens not only in Nigeria and Iraq, but is becoming a regular occurrence in Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia. In Egypt, after several churches were burned, thousands of Christian Copts gathered to protest and were wantonly slaughtered by the military.
The President should speak out because Muslim converts to Christianity are regularly ostracized, beaten, killed, or imprisoned throughout the Muslim world. In Iran Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, is one of many imprisoned and tortured for following their conscience and Christian faith.
The President should speak up because Christian girls from all over the Muslim world are being abducted, raped, and forced to convert to Islam. This is not being done at the hands of “outraged Muslim mobs,” but is a practice being institutionalized by many Muslim governments and that includes  those “U.S. friends and allies”—such as Afghanistan, where the last church standing was recently razed; Egypt, where an ascendent Muslim  Brotherhood openly speaks of returning Copts to Second-class dhimmi citizenship which is a relic of previous more discriminatory time. It is happening in Saudi Arabia, where churches are not permitted, and Bibles and crucifixes are confiscated and destroyed.
Most importantly, the President of the United States should speak because we live in a day and age where religious persecution under Islam is so well documented, that to ignore it is tantamount to tacitly abetting it. Absent the President’s attention,  history will not only  record the great sufferings of non-Muslims under Islam, but will also reflect the complacency and/or complicity of those in position to speak out against it.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.