Compass Direct News’ Top 10 Stories of 2010

4. Somali Girl Killed for Embracing Christ
In a year in which Islamic militants from the al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group killed more underground Christian leaders, civilian Muslims also claimed at least one victim. A 17-year-old girl in Somalia who converted to Christianity from Islam was shot to death on Nov. 25 in an apparent “honor killing,” area sources said. Nurta Mohamed Farah had fled her village of Bardher, Gedo Region to Galgadud Region to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam. Area sources said they strongly suspected that the two unidentified men who shot her in the chest and head with a pistol were relatives or acting on their behest. She was killed in Abudwaq district about 200 meters from where she had taken refuge.

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 since May 10, when her family found out that she had embraced Christianity, said a Christian leader who visited the area. Area Christians had reported that while living in her home village, Farah was put in a small, dark room at night. Her parents had taken her to a doctor who prescribed medication for a “mental illness.” 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, a 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.

5. Mass Attacks on Christians in Nigeria
Large-scale attacks on Christians — interspersed with smaller, isolated assaults that were often more motivated by property disputes than anti-Christian sentiment — hit Nigeria in 2010. On March 7, hundreds of Christians were killed in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims. The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned. State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed that about 500 persons were killed in the attacks, which took place mainly in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages. The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state; security forces had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand. Bishop Andersen Bok, national coordinator of the Plateau State Elders Christian Fellowship, along with group Secretary General Musa Pam, described the attacks as yet another “jihad and provocation on Christians.” The Christian leaders said in a statement, “Eyewitnesses say the Hausa Fulani Muslim militants were chanting ‘Allah Akbar,’ broke into houses, cutting human beings, including children and women, with their knives and cutlasses.”

Muslim Fulani herdsmen unleashed more horrific violence on two Christian villages in Plateau state on March 17, killing 13 persons, including a pregnant woman and children. In attacks presumably over disputed property but with a level of violence characteristic of jihadist method and motive, men in military camouflage and others in customary clothing also burned 20 houses in Byei and Baten villages, in the Riyom Local Government Area of the state, about 45 kilometers (29 miles) from the state capital, Jos. The ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, have long faced off with Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land. Because the style of killing was typical of jihadist radicals, Christian leaders suspected Islamic extremists are encouraging the attacks, throwing religious gas on low-burning land and ethnic conflicts. Dalyop Nyango Mandung, a survivor of the attack whose 90-year-old mother, Ngo Hwo Dongo, was killed in her room, told newsmen that the villagers were awakened by gunshots from the Muslim herdsmen who were barricading their houses. Mandung, however, said the assailants were wearing military fatigues rather than the customary clothing of Fulani herders.

Attacks from another quarter came late in the year, when the Islamic sect Boko Haram exploded several bombs in Christian areas of Jos on Dec. 24, including one at a Catholic church, that killed scores of people. At the same time, the group killed a Baptist pastor and five other Christians on Christmas Eve in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in northern Nigeria. The Rev. Bulus Marwa and the other Christians were killed in the Dec. 24 attacks on Victory Baptist Church in Alemderi and a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in Sinimari. Another 25 persons were said to have been injured during the serial attacks by the Islamic group.

The Boko Haram members reportedly first stormed the COCIN church in two vehicles and detonated bombs that shattered the gate of the worship center and killed the security guard. Danjuma Akawu, who survived the attack on the Baptist church, said “they hacked the two choir members using knives and a petrol bomb before heading to the pastor’s residence, where he was killed.” Speaking during a visit to the Baptist church on Saturday (Dec. 25), Borno Gov. Ali Modu Sheriff noted that the attack on the Christian community was an attempt by Boko Haram to create conflict between Christians and Muslims in the state.

6. Hostilities toward Christians in Egypt Hit Boiling Point
In a year that began with a drive-by shooting after a Coptic Christmas Eve service on Jan. 6 that killed six Christians, hostilities from Egypt’s Muslim majority toward the Coptic Christian minority reached a fever pitch as the year wore on, with weeks of protests against Christians. Tensions grew after the wife of a Coptic priest, Camilia Zakher, disappeared in July. According to government sources and published media reports, Zakher left her home after a heated argument with her husband. But Coptic demonstrators, who started gathering to protest at churches after Zakher disappeared, claimed she had been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.

The next month, Egyptian media reported in error that Egypt’s State Security Intelligence had seized a ship from Israel laden with explosives headed for the son of an official of the Coptic Orthodox church, and rumors began that Copts were stockpiling weapons in the basements of their churches with plans to overthrow the Muslim majority. The Front of Religious Scholars then called for a complete boycott of Christians in Egypt. The group called Christians “immoral,” labeled them “terrorists” and said Muslims should not patronize their businesses or even say “hello” to them. When a group of Islamic extremists on Oct. 31 burst into Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, Iraq during evening mass and began spraying the sanctuary with gunfire, the militant organization that took responsibility said Christians in Egypt also would be targeted if its demands were not met. The threats against Christians caused a flurry of activity at churches in Egypt, and security increased throughout the country.

In the Jan. 6 shooting, three men suspected to be Muslims, including one with a criminal record sought by police, were in a moving car from which automatic gunfire hit Coptic Christians who had attended services at St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi, 455 kilometers (282 miles) south of Cairo. A Muslim security guard was also killed, and nine other Coptic Christians were wounded, with three of them in critical condition. Copts, along with many Orthodox communities, celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.