{"id":549,"date":"2011-05-03T23:31:53","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T03:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/?p=549"},"modified":"2011-05-04T06:59:46","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T10:59:46","slug":"christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing.html","title":{"rendered":"Christians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As the world reacts to the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces, Christians minorities in Muslim countries are fearful that they will be the targets of reprisal attacks for the killing, reports International Christian Concern.<\/p>\n

In Pakistan, the Christian community has been apprehensive after an Islamic radical group, Tehreek-Taliban Pakistan, issued a statement threatening attacks to retaliate for the killing of bin Laden.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to read related story: Pakistani Christian schools closed, shop owner killed in reprisal shooting<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Anglican Bishop of Gojra, John Samuel, described the anxiety of the Christians when he told ICC that \u201cdue to the perception that U.S. is a Christian country, the Christians in Pakistan have been under a major threat and have even been attacked. Due to this, Christians have been very apprehensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is similar climate of fear among Christians in the northern Nigeria. On May 2, hundreds of Muslims in the northern Nigeria city of Kaduna staged a protest denouncing the killing of bin Laden. Many Christians fled to military barracks and police stations seeking protection.<\/p>\n

Reverend Murpala Bambora, pastor of an evangelical church in Kanu, explained to ICC that many Christians were fleeing “because Muslims in the past have reacted with the killing of Christians and the destruction of their properties when there is problem affecting Muslims somewhere else. When there is a problem against the Muslim community elsewhere, they want to retaliate on Christians” in Nigeria, he said.<\/p>\n

The majority of the Christians who ran to the military barracks and police stations have returned to their homes after the military was deployed to prevent an eruption of violence. But there are still several Christians remaining in the barracks, choosing not to take any chance until the situation calms down.<\/p>\n

“Christian minorities living in Muslim countries are seen as soft targets,” said the ICC. “Muslim radicals use every available opportunity to incite violence against Christians. It is high time for the international community to recognize the precarious situation of the Christian minorities in Islamic countries and ensure their protection.”<\/p>\n

To watch the video of the President\u2019s statement, CLICK HERE<\/a>
\nREAD HERE as Beliefnet\u2019s Jim Fletcher asks if all Muslims are\u00a0evil<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/span>To read\u00a0consider\u00a0the heart-felt thoughts\u00a0of <\/strong><\/a>Debbie Lee, mom of the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq, CLICK HERE<\/a>
\n<\/strong>CLICK HERE to read bestselling author Linda Howard\u2019s reaction<\/span><\/a>
\nTo consider the thoughts of Beliefnet\u2019s Kirsten Jackson, CLICK HERE
\nCLICK HERE to watch the reaction of New Yorkers at Ground Zer<\/span><\/a><\/strong>o<\/span>
\nTo see photos and to read the President\u2019s announcement, CLICK HERE<\/a>
\n<\/strong>CLICK HERE for photos and the text of the President\u2019s statement<\/span><\/a>
\nTo read the reaction of Beliefnet\u2019s Ryan Gaffney CLICK HERE<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world reacts to the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces, Christians minorities in Muslim countries are fearful that they will be the targets of reprisal attacks for the killing, reports International Christian Concern. In Pakistan, the Christian community has been apprehensive after an Islamic radical group, Tehreek-Taliban…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,16,30,37,10,4],"tags":[124,128,62,117,122,121,115],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-asia","category-islam","category-muslim","category-nigeria","category-pakistan","category-persecution","tag-africa","tag-asia","tag-countries","tag-islam","tag-news","tag-nigeria","tag-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\nChristians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing - Pray for the Persecuted Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden\u2019s-killing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing - Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the world reacts to the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces, Christians minorities in Muslim countries are fearful that they will be the targets of reprisal attacks for the killing, reports International Christian Concern. In Pakistan, the Christian community has been apprehensive after an Islamic radical group, Tehreek-Taliban…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden\u2019s-killing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-04T03:31:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-04T10:59:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing - Pray for the Persecuted Church","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden\u2019s-killing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing - Pray for the Persecuted Church","og_description":"As the world reacts to the news of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces, Christians minorities in Muslim countries are fearful that they will be the targets of reprisal attacks for the killing, reports International Christian Concern. In Pakistan, the Christian community has been apprehensive after an Islamic radical group, Tehreek-Taliban…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden\u2019s-killing.html","og_site_name":"Pray for the Persecuted Church","article_published_time":"2011-05-04T03:31:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-04T10:59:46+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing.html","name":"Christians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing - Pray for the Persecuted Church","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-04T03:31:53+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-04T10:59:46+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/05\/christians-in-pakistan-and-nigeria-fear-backlash-following-bin-laden%e2%80%99s-killing.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christians In Pakistan and Nigeria Fear Backlash Following bin Laden\u2019s Killing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/","name":"Pray for the Persecuted Church","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Rob Kerby","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}