ICC's November E-Newsletter, Persecution

International Christian Concern

PERSECUTION n o v e m b e r 2011

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Save our Sisters:

Special Report on the Trafficking and Abduction of Christian Girls

INSIDE THIS ISSUE November 2011

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Desperation: The Untold Story of Iraq’s War Christians who have been forced to flee Iraq due to intensified persecution are living in desperation. Christian girls in and outside of Iraq have been abducted and sold into sexual slavery.

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Abductions, Forced Marriages and Conversions of Christian Girls in Egypt In Egypt, it is common for Christian girls to be abducted from their parents and sold into slavery or raped and given to a Muslim in marriage if their parents do not pay an exorbitant ransom.

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A Law of Slavery: Sharia Law Justifies Rape of Christian Girls In Pakistan, Muslims use Sharia law to hide and justify the rape of Christian girls by forcing their victims to convert and marry into Islam.

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The Barbary Pirates and the Shores of Tripoli: Forgotten History of the Muslim Slave Trade Did you know that while European immigrants in the New World were enslaving and trading Africans into the Americas, they were actually fighting against becoming slaves themselves?

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Testimonies of Rescue and Deliverance God is faithful to hear the cries of the desperate and deliver them from their oppressors. Learn the story of Hiba in Sudan and a young girl in Bangladesh who escaped from their slavery by the help of God!

desperation: the untold story of iraq’s war In a dingy nightclub on the outskirts of Syria’s capital, Damascus, two dozen teenage girls move half-heartedly to Arabic music and flashing disco lights.

The girls are dressed in snug, revealing clothes while male customers, mainly from the Gulf region, leisurely gaze at the dance floor or bid with the club owner for a cheap price. Prostitution is an unfamiliar sight in conservative Muslim countries, but the sex business is thriving as a result of the war waging in Iraq.

Christian Exodus Iraqi Christians escaped to Syria and other neighboring countries to flee the chaos ensuing in their homeland. With their churches being attacked, their children being abducted for ransom, and their relatives being murdered in their own homes, many Christians felt they had no other choice but to start a new life to protect those they love. An attack on a church in Baghdad on October 31, 2010, in which more than fifty worshippers were massacred by an Al Qaeda affiliate, further pushed Baghdad’s already dwindling Christian community to flee the city. Before the attack, only a quarter of Baghdad’s 400,000 Christians remained. This was the last straw for some.

“We've had enough. Leaving Iraq has become a must,” Jamal Habo Korges, a Christian mechanic and father of three, told IRIN. “We've been suffering since 2003 and we can't take it anymore. The latest carnage is the final warning.”

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Young girls suffer in an Iraqi refugee camp

These Iraqi Christians either become internally displaced persons (IDPs) – most moving to the less violent Kurdish north – or flee the country altogether. There are more than two million Iraqi refugees worldwide, nearly half of whom have fled to neighboring Syria. Of those, church leaders estimate that around 25 – 30 percent are Christians, even though Christians made up only four percent of Iraq’s population before the war erupted in 2003.

these Christian refugees are among the war’s greatest living casualities.

These Christians refugees are among the war’s greatest living casualties, the defenseless targets of religiousbased violence, driven from their homeland to flee terrorism and protect their families.

Upon their arrival in Syria, many of the 350,000 Iraqi Christians have nothing more than the shirts on their backs. “Most of these families arrived with their hand bags and nothing else in their hands. It is a pitiful situation,” a Syrian church leader told World Magazine. The Syrian government does not allow refugees to hold jobs or apply for residency, and does not offer public assistance for health care, schooling, or other legal services needed to file for refugee status.

Few aid organizations are helping the situation, and local churches are limited in their efforts due to insufficient funding and manpower. The UNHCR, whose budget puts them in the best position to help, has assisted only a tenth of the refugee community. The rest of the community suffers in such dire poverty that many young Iraqi women and girls are turning to the most demeaning profession imaginable – prostitution.

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“During the war we lost everything, we even lost our honor ... Do you think we’re happy that these men are seeing our daughters’ naked bodies?”

“In this culture, to allow your daughter to become a prostitute means you've hit dirt bottom,” Joshua Landis, a professor living in Syria, told Salon.com.

“None of your sisters can get married if it's known that one of them is a prostitute. If there's any public knowledge of this, it's a shame on the whole family.”

“We Iraqis used to be a proud people,” Umm Hiba told The New York Times. She nodded toward her daughter, dancing on the stage and wearing a pink silk dress with spaghetti straps. “During the war we lost everything. We even lost our honor… Do you think we’re happy that these men are seeing our daughters’ naked bodies?”

Some refugee girls are tricked or forced into prostitution, but many enter the profession because they have no other means of supporting their families.

“It's a serious problem because there are young girls doing this - 11, 12, 13 years old,” Abdelhamid El Ouali, a Damascus-based Once under the control representative for the of traffickers, the UNHCR, told Salon.com. “It's amazing at first. But when victims are often raped, you fight for your life, what beaten, and tortured are you going to do?”

Iraq’s Sex Trafficking

until they submit ...

The girls are then sold into prostitution.

The sex trade of Iraqi girls, many of whom are Christians, does not happen among refugees alone, but has also occurred within Iraq’s borders. Unlike many refugees, girls still living in Iraq do not prostitute themselves to provide an income for their families, but are trafficked by the use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, and deception.

Once under the control of traffickers, the victims are often raped, beaten, and tortured until they submit to the trafficker’s authority. The girls are then sold into prostitution and taken to a neighboring country or sold within Iraq’s borders.

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“Since the 2003 invasion and subsequent civil war, Iraq has increasingly been a source of trafficking victims who are transported to neighboring countries,” Heartland Alliance wrote in a report titled ‘Human Trafficking in Iraq’ and released in May 2007. “Furthermore, internal conflict and breakdown in law and order has resulted in a rise in kidnapping and trafficking from one location to another within Iraq.”

No one knows how many girls have been kidnapped and sold since the fall of Saddam Hussein, but the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq estimates 2,000 between 2003 and 2006. However, the number could be much higher. Iraqi security forces do not monitor human trafficking and most girls who have been abducted do not speak openly about their experience out of fear that they will shame their families. The collapse of law and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs to go unchecked. Meanwhile, aid workers have complained that government officials freeze the assets of charities that may have provided refuge for trafficked girls. As a result, the sex trade has flourished.

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They were purchased for $3000

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In one case, thirteen girls and young women were found being transported from Kirkuk to the Syrian border. They were purchased for $3,000 each and were unaware they had been sold to a Syrian man. Their traffickers were arrested and charged with facilitating prostitution.

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In another case, a thirteen-year-old girl was sold by her father into prostitution to support his gambling addiction. The girl’s mother died when she was nine, and soon after her father began forcing her to have sex with men, including men to whom he owed money. Police eventually took the girl to a women’s shelter for safety after hearing of her case.

Moreover, girls are not always protected by Iraqi law - especially not Christian girls. There are provisions in the Penal Code that allow a man to escape punishment if he marries the victim. Additionally, those who have committed honor killings and rape often receive only mild sentences. For these reasons, many victimized girls are reluctant to file a complaint.

Lost Dreams Back in Syria’s nightclubs, a young refugee may take home $50 to $70 on a good night for prostituting herself. Girls trafficked from Iraq will earn even less, sometimes nothing more than a hot meal and a roof to sleep under after their shift has ended. So why, after all these years, has child prostitution in Syria not demanded more attention?

The Syrian government is embarrassed by the sex trade, but refuses to crack down on the practice, preferring more to profit from the increased tourism than to end the fostering of moral depravity within its borders. Governmentrun media censors the word “prostitution” by replacing it with the euphemistic “acts against decency.”

Prostitution and sex trafficking in Syria reflect the dire conditions of the Iraqi refugee community and the helplessness that many Christian families face after fleeing their turbulent homeland.

Before hundreds of licentious middleaged men at an expensive nightclub near Damascus, young Maria sang in genuine desperation. Though staged, the ballad epitomized the hopeless dreams shared by many Iraqi refugees. “After Iraq I have no homeland,” she sang in lamentation. “I’m ready to go crawling on my knees back to Iraq.”

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Abductions, Forced Marriages and Conversion of Christian Girls in Egypt Nancy Magdi, 14, and her cousin Christine Azat, 16, disappeared on their way to church on Sunday, June 12. Their parents accused two Muslim brothers from a neighboring village of kidnapping them. The abductors soon demanded $200,000 for the girls’ ransom. The village reportedly raised the money, but not in time; the girls had already been sold to another group for a higher price. “[We] have been living in hell since [the] abduction,” Nancy’s father lamented.

“My daughter has not even outgrown childhood; she is only 14 years old, the youngest in the family, our baby….Since her disappearance we have been living in continuous depression, misery, and weeping.”

Two weeks later, the girls were found wearing burkas by a police officer in Cairo. The officer had noticed one of the girls by the cross tattooed on her wrist, a traditional marking of the Coptic Church. Following their rescue, some Egyptians were convinced the girls had converted to Islam by force, yet others believed they had willingly chosen to become Muslims. The debates, like those of so many other girls who disappear, will likely never be solved. Most girls fortunate enough to escape refuse to speak of their experience – especially if they were raped – afraid that they will shame their families or give reason for their abductors to return for them.

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“My daughter has not even outgrown childhood; she is only 14 years old, the youngest in our family, our baby... Since her disapparance, we have been living in continous depression, misery, and weeping.”

Nancy and Christine’s story is merely one among hundreds involving the disappearances of Christian girls following Egypt’s revolution. The lawlessness ruling Egypt’s streets and the lack of justice applied in her courts has emboldened radical Islamists to target Egypt’s most vulnerable and defenseless minority – Christians.

“More than two to three girls disappear everyday in Giza alone,” said Father Filopateer Gamil of St. Mary's Church near the Giza pyramids outside of Cairo. “The cases that are brought to public attention are few compared to what the numbers actually are.”

The abduction of Christian girls is nothing new in Egypt.

Coptic Pope Shenouda III had issued a warning in 1976, saying, “There is a practice to convert Coptic girls to embrace Islam and marry them under terror to Muslim husbands.”

Nancy and Christine

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In April of 2010, U.S. officials recognized for the first time the disappearances of Christian girls in Egypt as a form of human trafficking.

Eighteen members of Congress wrote to the State

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Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) office concerning “reports of abductions, forced marriages, and exploitation of Coptic women and girls in Egypt.” They also stated that human trafficking in Egypt is often accompanied by acts of violence, including rape, beatings, and other forms of physical and mental abuse.

Few cases epitomize the harsh reality of human trafficking in Egypt than that of 12-year-old Engy Adel who was fortunate enough to escape and tell about the barbarity she experienced. Engy was abducted while on her way home from school in Alexandria. Interviewed on Al-Hayat television, she explained what happened: “I was coming out of school on a normal day going home. Then there was a van and some guys who came out of the van and began following me. Then two of them grabbed me and tied my arms and pushed me into the van. I woke up and found myself in an apartment… A man called Sultan took me into the room and tied my hands behind my back and raped me. Another four entered in and, one after the other, they raped me. Each raped me and was brutally hurting my body as if I was their enemy. They beat me so heavily… that I could neither eat, drink nor sleep. All they cared for was that I took the drugs [so they could] rape me.

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“Another group of men came and took me away from them. I stayed with them two days and I don’t know how these two days passed by. There were five of them. They were all in the room with me at the same time. I couldn’t tell the difference between day and night – I was raped 24/7. No less than 50 men raped me. After that my father found me and brought me back home.”

Engy’s captivity lasted for months until her father, Adel Wassily, found her after being notified of her location by an anonymous caller.

Like Engy, victimized girls are often underage Christians from poor, uneducated families. Muslim men use societal prejudices to their advantage, knowing that police officers and court officials will not give a poor Coptic family the time of day, much less conduct an investigation into the girl’s disappearance. Additionally, the targeted families often earn no more than two dollars a day, making it impossible to afford the legal fees demanded of each case. Once Muslim kidnappers force their victim to sign documents claiming she married and converted to Islam, the hope of her return is all but lost.

There are few organizations able or allowed to undertake the vast effort needed to defend, rehabilitate, and minister to these girls. By discreet and various methods, ICC is forming partnerships with Egyptian Christian ministries who are courageously struggling to reclaim the dignity of trafficked Christian girls.

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A Law of Slavery:

Sharia Law Justifies Rape of Christian Girls “The incidents of rape and enforced conversion of Christian women to Islam is rising every year. 99.9% of rape cases go unreported in Pakistan… If a Muslim man rapes a Christian girl, then he easily forces her to convert to Islam, marries her and covers up his heinous crime under Islamic law. Some cases of rape of Christian women are reported, but the majority are never reported.”

— Dr. Nazir Bhati, President of the Pakistan Christian Congress Christian girls and women are easy targets for rape and abuse in Pakistan, where predators can utilize Islamic law to justify abduction, rape, and forced marriage. Local Muslim authorities turn a blind eye to violence perpetrated against Christians by Muslims. Most women who have been victimized are forced to suffer in silence for the rest of their lives. Their stories go untold, their wounds are not healed, and they never see justice. We want to do our part to bring a few of their stories before you this month and ask for your prayers and support of these women.

Gulshan Gulshan was only twelve years old when her father died. His sudden death left her and her five siblings devastated and destitute. Her mother was mentally handicapped and her grandmother was 12 | You can help today! www.persecution.org

Gulshan was given shelter in ICC’s Hope House after she was gang raped by Muslims.

blind — leaving Gulshan to find some way to carry the responsibility of the large family on her own shoulders. While struggling with health issues and the emotional strain of her father’s death and her family’s desperation, Gulshan found the only work she could at a spinning mill.

Later, the young girl’s life took another turn for the worse when Muslim men captured and gang raped her. The experience was devastating for Gulshan and her family. In Pakistan, rape is such a taboo that most victims will not report it to the authorities. In Gulshan’s case, her family actually pleaded with her not to report the rape, though Gulshan was determined to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In an effort to seek help, Gulshan bravely turned to an ICC-supported ministry that assists rape victims in Pakistan. Gulshan and her family came under threats after she started a legal proceeding against the rapists.

The threats became so severe that she took shelter at Hope House, an ICCsupported shelter for Christian victims of rape and other forms of persecution.

Despite the uphill battle, Gulshan continued fighting for justice. Finally, her persistence paid off when she achieved a rare victory against the Muslim perpetrators. This September, a Pakistani court sentenced the man accused, Amman Ullah, to life imprisonment. Another accused, Ramzan, was sentenced to five years in prison. ICC is working to help Gulshan start a small business of her own to help her rebuild her life and support her family.

Rifkha Girls working for Muslim employers are in a particularly dangerous position when it comes to being targeted for rape. Rifkha (name changed for security), for instance, is an 18-year-old Christian who worked on a rice farm owned by a Muslim man in her village. On September 16, she stayed late at work in an effort to earn more hours and income. Left working alone on the farm, she was approached by three relatives of her Muslim employer. The men grabbed Rifkha, covered her mouth with their hands, and forcefully took her to a nearby field where they repeatedly raped her under the cover of the tall grass.

Rifkha told us that she has not reported the case to the police because the men threatened to kill her and her brothers if she did.

“If a Muslim man rapes a Christian girl, then he easily forces her to convert to Islam, marries her and covers up his heinous crime under Islamic law.”

Traumatized by her experience, Rifkha has left her job out of fear that she may be attacked again.

ICC is helping Rifkha start her own business after she was raped by three relatives of her Muslim employer.

ICC is providing funds for Rifkha to open her own independent business so that she will be able to work again without fear of being abused by a Muslim employer.

A Christian Mother of Five The rape of Christian women is not limited to targeting single Christian girls. Married women and mothers have also been targets. One Christian mother of five reported to police that she had been raped at gunpoint by two Muslim men while she was returning home from work. Narrating her story to Compass Direct News, the 32-year-old mother described her tragic experience: “I tried screaming, but they hit me…not for a minute did they acknowledge that I was a mother to five children. Then they raped me, one after the other.

Their third accomplice stood guard as they tore in on me like animals. They had torn my clothes, and I could barely step outside the house. I don’t know how I managed to reach my home … Words fail me even now.”

While facing threats for bringing charges against the perpetrators and discouraged by the authorities deliberately slow efforts to investigate her case, the woman learned at the end of September that police had found and arrested one of the primary suspects in the case.

“I tried screaming, but they hit me...not for a minute did they acknowledge that I was a mother to five children. Then they raped me, one after the other. ...They tore in on me like animals.”

Tragically, on September 30th, she decided to finally share her ordeal with her siblings and her 70-year-old father. Her husband, Mushtaq, reported that as soon as his wife had shared about the rape with her family, her father collapsed and died on the spot. Mushtaq explained, “He could not take the pain. My wife is in a state of shock. She lost her honor, and now she has lost her father. We have suffered a lot in the last 15 days.”

Despite her tragic loss, the woman shared that her faith has been strengthened, saying, “I used to weep in my heart all the time, ever since the incident took place. I didn’t have any hope, but my Lord has not forsaken me.”

“I didn’t have any hope, but my Lord has not forsaken me.”

Narsi There are different reasons for the prevalence of rape of Christian girls in Muslim countries. When Christians refuse to embrace Islam, rape and forceful marriage are viewed as acceptable means to convert them. Once a Christian girl has been raped and forcefully married and converted, Pakistani authorities will tell their parents that they no longer have authority or rights to their daughter because she has “voluntarily” converted to Islam and is now the wife of her abductor. If the girl manages to escape, she can be charged with “apostasy” for leaving Islam and thus be targeted for killing.

Narsi (name changed for security) was targeted after refusing to convert to Islam. Muslims in her community used methods ranging from bribery to threats to try to convert her, but she refused to recant her faith in Christ.

Narsi was raped after refusing demands by Muslims in her community to convert to Islam.

On February 15, Narsi went out into her field at night to use the restroom because she did not have one in her house. Unknown to her, two Muslim men were hiding in the field, lying in wait for their Christian victim. As soon as Narsi came near, one of the men grabbed her and forced his hand over her mouth — muffling her screams while the other man raped her. The men took turns raping Narsi.

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Narsi’s story highlights why Christian women are specifically vulnerable to and targeted for rape in Muslimdominated regions. Narsi told us that during the rape, her attackers asked her, “You Christian dogs — why do you live here?”

Narsi holds the blood-stained pants she was wearing when she was raped by Muslims for refusing to convert to Islam.

In a recent interview with an ICC representative, a Muslim convert to Christianity recounted how he abducted and married the daughter of a Christian leader and forcefully converted her to Islam. He said, “We believe in advancing our religion through violence.”

Speaking up for and Helping our Sisters in Christ Our Christian sisters in Pakistan and many other Islamic countries are enduring the untold miseries of rape and other forms of humiliation. We must do everything we can to be a voice for these women. Silence costs women their lives. When a Muslim man, Muhammad Aftab, raped five Christian girls in Pakistan, there were some believers who didn’t want to bring charges against him because they feared that doing so “might worsen the relationship between Christian and Muslim villagers.” Aftab was finally arrested after he raped his sixth victim, a 10-year-old Christian girl.

We don’t want to just highlight this heinous crime without helping the victims. Their stories are part of why we’ve started a new fund specifically to help women who have been victimized in this way. Please join us in giving to support these women as they struggle to rebuild their lives following such horrible experiences. See the gift to “Save our Sisters” in our enclosed Gifts for the Persecuted catalog to learn more and give.

Silence costs women their lives. When a Muslim man raped five Christian girls in Pakistan, there were some believers who didn’t want to bring charges against him... [He] was finally arrested after he raped his sixth victim, a 10-year-old Christian girl.”

The Barbary Pirates and the Shores of Tripoli: Forgotten History of the Slave Trade Nancy and Christine were kidnapped in Egypt; Gulshan, Rifkha, and Narsi were violently raped in Pakistan; Hiba was kidnapped and raped in Sudan. These girls’ experiences are what parents dread for their girls– they are a parent’s worst nightmare. No daughter ought to ever have to live through this, but unfortunately it is a harsh and common reality in our world. Kidnapping, gang rape, forced prostitution, and forced conversion are all evils that are considered to be a part of the worldwide epidemic of human trafficking and slavery which steals the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children each year.

Despite the current outcry against this kind of sexual violence, most people miss that 11 of the 23 countries identified by the State Department as countries where people are the least protected from being trafficked and where officials do the least to improve conditions are predominantly Muslim nations. The reality is that Christian females are often specifically targeted to be trafficked and enslaved in these nations since they are 3rd class citizens and the police will not protect them. Today, our young sisters in Christ are in more danger than ever of being kidnapped and forced into a lifetime of enslavement at the hands of those who seek to hurt them because of their faith in Christ.

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While European immigrants in the New World were benefiting greatly from the economic gains of owning slaves, they were actually fighting against becoming slaves themselves.

The Forgotten History of the Slave Trade Unfortunately, this is not a modern phenomenon, nor is it an issue that will pass away with time. Since its inception, Islam has held to a belief that nonMuslims are inferior to Muslims, and therefore their lives hold less intrinsic value. Those that are deemed less valuable are free to be exploited, attacked, enslaved, and killed.

This belief within Islam is based on a Muhammad’s teaching that all people must come under submission to Allah (Islam means submission), and therefore Muslims are called by Allah to conquer the world through whatever means necessary. For centuries, Islam has used this belief to legitimize its violent endeavors, especially its widespread practice of human trafficking and slavery.

For many of us, slavery conjures up images of cotton or sugar plantations in the Americas filled with men and women abducted from the western shores of Africa, but it does not bring to mind images of Muslim slave owners in faraway desert lands. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade lasted for four centuries and trafficked an estimated 12 million Africans to the Americas.

While European immigrants in the New World were benefiting greatly from the economic gains of owning slaves, they were actually fighting against becoming slaves themselves. Ironically, as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was happening, slave trade in northern Africa was also commonplace. But in northern Africa, Europeans and Americans were the captured slaves, rather than the slave owners.

In 1492, Spain captured Granada and drove the Muslim Moors into exile, subsequently fueling the boom of piracy and the slave trade by Muslims in northern Africa (the Barbary States). Seeking revenge for their exile, the Moors aligned themselves with fellow Muslims in modern-day Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco, and began attacks on Mediterranean ports that eventually grew to control the entire Mediterranean. These “Barbary pirates,” as they become known, violently attacked any unfortunate ship that crossed their path, and enslaved those aboard. Those who were captured were sold PERSECU ION

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throughout northern Africa and the Middle East – women often became concubines, young men were mutilated to become eunuchs, and men were enslaved to life-long hard labor. The most unfortunate of men were those enslaved as galley workers to row the pirate ships across the Mediterranean Sea. They were forced to row, sleep, eat, and even defecate in a cramped sitting position for years at a time. In the 17th century, the pirates acquired the technology of sails and were able to sail outside the calm waters of the Mediterranean.

From their beginnings in the 15th century to their final end in the 19th century, the Barbary pirates captured and enslaved an estimated 1.25 million people. Their pirating activities spanned the entire Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of all of Europe, and no ship or port was safe from their attacks – unless hefty bribes and ransoms were paid to secure their safety.

The United States Engage the Barbary Pirates When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776, American merchant ships lost protection from the Hayreddin Barbarossa, an Ottoman admiral who British Royal Navy, and soon acted as one of the Barbary pirates who enslaved more American sailors were countless Americans in the name of Islam. being enslaved. As America lost much of its commerce to the Barbary pirates, the newly-formed Continental Congress determined in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the Barbary States, and sent three representatives to oversee the negotiations: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.

Seeing that they would be unable to protect their merchant ships in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic coasts through military might, the representatives relented and agreed to pay tributes to the pirates and their Muslim rulers in order to retrieve seized ships and buy the freedom of enslaved Americans. Two years later, Jefferson and Adams met with the Algerian ambassador to Britain to once again negotiate a peace treaty.

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During the meeting, Jefferson and Adams asked the ambassador why the Muslims held so much animosity towards America, a nation that they had no previous contacts with. The ambassador explained that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who [did not] acknowledged [Islam’s] authority were sinners, that it was [Islam’s] right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise.”

“The Shores of Tripoli” Jefferson and Adams returned home without a peace treaty, and America was forced to continue paying tribute to the Barbary States. For the next fifteen years, the American government paid millions for the safe passage of ships or the return of hostages. The ransoms and tributes paid in 1800 amounted to 20 percent of the government’s revenue for that year. The American Navy was actually formed by Congress in 1794 largely due to this threat of piracy and slavery. In 1801, the newly-elected President Jefferson dispatched warships to defend American merchants. For several years, American Marines fought the Muslim pirates across northern Africa, eventually defeating Tripoli (Libya) and freeing all slaves held there. During the Jefferson administration, the American attacks on the Barbary States led to their demise, ending piracy and the enslavement of Americans in 1815.

Jefferson’s victory over the Muslim pirates and slave traders lives on today in the Marine hymn, which proclaims “from the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.” Many believe that Jefferson had a clear understanding that peace treaties and even monetary bribes would never appease the Muslims’ attacks, as their actions were not ultimately fueled by revenge, economic gains, or even political power – but rather by religious dogma and worldview that legitimized the brutality, enslavement, and even murder of non-Muslims for the sake of spreading Islam’s influence and prestige across the globe.

“...from the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.”

The Barbary pirates were defeated and the Muslim slave trade eventually faded away. Although Islam’s ideology of the inferiority of non-Muslims and the need to violently conquer the world in the name of Allah lives on, the horrors of slavery and human trafficking are still a reality within the Muslim world. Today Christians and non-Muslims throughout the Middle East continue to suffer abuse, abduction, sexual slavery, forced marriage and forced conversion all in the name of Allah. The longer we look the other way and refuse to address the issue at its root — the teaching of the Quran — the longer we allow countless women and children to suffer.

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“It was Islam’s right to make war upon [all who had not acknowledged its authority] wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise.”

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The burning frigate Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli (1804) after marines set the American ship on fire to deny its use to the pirates who had captured it. A year later, the marines captured the Tripolitan city of Derna freed the slaves held there on the “shores of Tripoli.”

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Testimonies of Rescue and Deliverance Hiba: An Answered Prayer and a Testimony to the Love of Christ “They did many bad things to me…Apart from abusing me sexually, he (one of Hiba’s abductors) tried to force me to change my faith and kept reminding me to prepare for Ramadan. I cannot forget this bad incident, and whenever I try to pray, I find it difficult to forget.”

Hiba (above) was only fifteen years old when a gang of Muslims kidnapped her in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in June of 2010. Remarkably, after one year of abuse, she escaped from her abductors in July of this year and told ICC when we met with her in September that she is praying “to Jesus that He reveals Himself to my assailants and forgives them for what they did to me.”

When we asked how she was recovering from the abuse, Hiba said, “I am feeling good now because I am reunited with my family after spending one year in the custody of my Muslim kidnappers. I escaped from them by the help of God who did not want me to suffer more in their hands. I have faith that one day God will change my situation for good and be a blessing to my mum and the family.”

Hiba is aware of the power of prayer. She appreciates all that prayed for her release, saying, “I want to thank God who saved me from the hands of the abductors. I also thank God for all believers all over the world for their prayers for me and my family. It was because of your prayers that my situation changed.”

Hiba, who missed one year of school due to the abduction, is now starting her studies again, but under financial constraints. Her widowed mother lost her job because she had taken time off work to search for her daughter.

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Hiba told ICC, “All that I want now is to pursue my education. Even though my mum does not have money for that, I believe in the power of prayer of the believers.”

ICC is providing financial assistance to help pay for Hiba’s education and help rebuild the life of her family by helping her mother to start a business. If you would like to give to support girls like Hiba who have been abducted and abused, please give to “Save Our Sisters,” the second gift in our enclosed Gifts for the Persecuted catalog.

Rescue of a 15-year-old Bangladeshi Girl Raped and Left to Die In the summer of 2010 the family of a Muslim teacher discovered that he had developed a sexual relationship with one of his students, a 15 year old Christian girl. The family members decided that the blame for this lay with the 15 year old girl. They subsequently found her, beat her, and then demanded that her father provide food for their entire village or be cast out of their homes. Fearing for their safety, the girl and her family fled into hiding only to be contacted by the Muslim teacher and offered a deal: if the parents gave their daughter to the Muslim in marriage, then they would be allowed out of their hopeless predicament.

The parents agreed and sent their daughter to the Muslim teacher. When the girl arrived she was locked up, forced to drink alcohol, then raped and beaten for six straight days until her Muslim captors threw her out into the streets to die. The authorities, who had been aware of the situation before this point, had refused to act until pressure from human rights organizations in Bangladesh forced them to prosecute the Muslim teacher and his accomplices. The family of the Muslim man then attempted to hire men to kidnap the Christian girl, only to have their plot fail and the main perpetrator arrested. Eventually the Muslim teacher was brought to justice and the Christian girl was allowed to return home with her family.

ICC is currently looking into ways that we can assist countless other Christian Bangladeshi girls who find themselves in such unthinkable circumstances. If you would like to help with these efforts, please give to our “Save Our Sisters” fund today.

23 | You can help today! www.persecution.org

“She was locked up, forced to drink alochol, then raped and beaten for six straight days until her Muslim captors threw her out into the streets to die.”

PAID

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