Stop the bloodshed of Christians!

Lvov, 4 January 2012

To the United Nations administration

EU Commissioners

U.S. President and Congress

The Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate is making this appeal to You in the matter of intensifying persecution of Christians which takes place mostly in Islamic countries.

We ask You to use Your political power and international influence to protect the right to life as well as religious freedom of Christians in countries with the vast majority of Islamic population.

In these countries, systematic persecution for the Christian faith is taking place, comprised of physical torture and killing of Christians, destruction of their churches, hospitals, schools, private property… This tendency is growing more and more intense and is the cause of forced emigration and violent deaths of thousands of Christians.

Here we provide at least a few examples:

– On 8 March 2010, Muslims in Nigeria attacked a Christian village at three o’clock at night and brutally killed all Christians including the babies. The Vatican hypocritically commented on it that the matter here was not religious persecution, but social issue.

– Christians from Iran and Iraq were collectively driven away from their homes under a threat of death and had to flee abroad to save their lives.

– In October 2011, before interfaith prayers in Assisi, soldiers in Cairo shot 26 Christians who protested against the destruction of their church.

– In late November 2011, dwellings of 700 Christians were burnt or demolished in Nigeria. 150 of them were murdered cold-bloodedly right in the street because they refused to renounce the faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

– At Christmas – the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour Jesus Christ – in the capital city of Nigeria, there was a bloody massacre. In one church, Muslims started shooting at people. In six churches, bombs exploded during the worship. There were several dozen people killed.

– Up to this day, Pakistan has death penalty for faith in Jesus Christ or for possession of the Bible. This is said to be an insult to the Koran. Here, a dog has greater rights than a Christian.

– In recent days, a shocking six-minute video has flown around the world. In Somalia, public execution was performed to the accompaniment of declamation of verses from the Koran. Muslim executioners cut off the head of a Christian with a knife.

– In England, a Muslim killed his sister because she believed in Christ. Police did not punish him arguing that England respects Muslim sharia law.

– At Christmas this year, a group of Muslims in Great Britain publicly proclaimed that they will force the Britons to adopt Islam.

– Muslims in the EU build mosques without any obstacles and are not persecuted in a single country in the world. After having built a mosque, they demand that in the particular quarter no one should be allowed to sell or spread the Bibles. Subsequently, they demand that crosses be removed from public places and often they destroy crosses or statues.

– On 3 January 2012, Muslims in Nigeria gave ultimatum to the Christians living in the north of the country to leave their homes within three days or they will perpetrate their genocide. Western “human rights advocates” keep silent. Why?

Dear representatives of international organizations, the suffering and blood of murdered Christians is a reality today. You have been silent on these crimes up to this day. Therefore, within the framework of justice, we require that:

1) as long as religious freedom is not guaranteed for Christians in Muslim countries, the Muslims should not have the right for it in the EU either.

2) the spread of the Koran should be banned in the EU until the freedom to spread the Bibles in Muslim countries is guaranteed.

3) international organizations (EU, UN…) should impose just sanctions for the bloody persecution of Christians.

4) there should be a condition set for Muslim immigration into the EU, this condition being that the expelled Christians should be allowed to return to their homeland and their homes (Iran, Iraq…).

5) the U.S. President B. Obama should set as a priority of the U.S. foreign policy in 2012 the spread of moral values and protection of Christians against bloody persecution instead of immoral homosexualism.

These requirements are fair: equal rights for Christians and Muslims in the U.S., EU and Muslim countries.

+ Elijah

Patriarch

+ Timothy OSBMr                               + Methodius OSBMr

Secretary Bishops

Cc:

–         President and Parliament of Ukraine

–         Presidents of the Member States of the Council of Europe

–         World mass media