West Bank Christians face persecution

UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum




RAMALLAH, April 27 (UPI) — A Roman Catholic parish school and a Bible-study center in the West Bank have been fire-bombed twice since January.

That was the month that the Islamist Hamas movement won a legislative election in January, Spero News reported Thursday.

A priest at the Roman Catholic Al-Ahliyya College in the West Bank city of Ramallah said several fire-bombs were thrown into a school sports room early last month destroying or damaging equipment. A few weeks later, several gasoline bombs were thrown into an Al-Ahliyya classroom.

In addition, a Protestant Bible-study center in the town of Bir-Zeit near Ramallah was attacked, with phrases from the Muslim Koran were daubed on its doors, and windows in a Lutheran church in Ramallah were shattered.

Also, a Christian humanitarian worker in the Gaza Strip said a Baptist Bible-study center that serves as a charity arm for the local Christian community was threatened with fire-bombing if it didn't close.

"Fliers handed out in downtown Gaza City ordered them to shut down their work in Gaza," an aid worker said, "and if they didn't do it, then their building would be burned down. They continued to work there. Some people received threats from an unknown group."

Some observers blame Hamas for the attacks, others blame a rival Fatah faction seeking to embarrass Hamas.

http://www.religionandspiritualityforum.com/view.php?StoryID=20060427-051921-3539r
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.