A group of Middle Eastern activists is speaking out about girls in Egypt being forced into marriage with Islamic men and ordered to convert from Christianity.
The group is pointing out while the world is enraged over 270 Christian girls kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, over 550 Christian girls in Egypt have been kidnapped or forced into marriages with Islamic men over the last three years.
The Association of Victims of Abduction and Forced Disappearance reported that in addition to the marriages, the girls who are Coptic Christians have crosses tattooed on their body burned off with acid.
“Before the revolution there would be five or six girls disappear each month,” AVAFD founder Ebram Louis told the Christian Post. “Now the average is 15 [each month].”
The AVAFD says that the Islamists in government and on police forces are complicit in the kidnapping, rape and forced conversions of the girls. They cite the case of Nadia Makram, kidnapped at age 14 in 2011. Her parents knew the 48-year-old Muslim man who took their daughter and went to police who said they wouldn’t do anything to rescue the kidnapped girl.
AVAFD says if police do get involved, they meet with the girls when they are surrounded by the Muslims who kidnapped her and tell her what to say to the police.
The kidnapping of three teenagers in Israel, including one that has U.S. citizenship, is becoming more evident the action of the terrorist group Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is speaking out about the incident, saying that “many indications point to Hamas’ involvement” in the kidnapping.
“The United States strongly condemns the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers and calls for their immediate release,” Kerry said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. We continue to offer our full support for Israel in its search for the missing teens, and we have encouraged full cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian security services. We understand that cooperation is ongoing.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the government has confirmed Hamas’ involvement and they are placing responsibility for the kidnapping on the new Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas because they are backed by Hamas.
Hamas, while not making a claim to responsibility, praised the kidnappings and said as a group they “pay tribute to the heroes who are behind the kidnapping.”
Israeli soldiers are searching the West Bank after three teenagers, one of them an American, went missing from nearby settlements.
Authorities believe that Palestinians abducted the teens. Military officials, while refusing to officially confirm the position of many government officials, made a terse comment about the situation.
“The main mission is to ensure their return,” Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz told reports.
The three teens reportedly were heading home from working late at their Yeshiva and have not been seen since they left. The abduction comes on the heels of a new Palestinian government that the Israelis say has been controlled by the terrorist group Hamas.
Hamas routinely conducts kidnapping of Israelis as part of their terror campaign.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has made another daring daylight kidnapping of young women from northern Nigeria.
The Islamist gunmen descended on a nomadic village just outside of Chibok, the town where the terrorists kidnapped 300 schoolgirls and young women on April 15th. The gunmen pulled a truck into the center of the village, forced women to enter the truck at gunpoint and then fled before local militia could respond to the incident.
“We tried to go after them when the news got to us about three hours later,” Alhaji Tar, leader of one of the vigilante groups, told Fox News. “The vehicles we have could not go far and the report came to us a little late.”
The attack was the only successful one by Boko Haram as Nigerian defense forces stopped raids on villages in Borno and Adamawa states. More than 50 terrorists were reported killed by the military during the raids.
The military also announced the terrorists are trapped in the area around a lake with the 272 girls kidnapped in April but there is no way to attack them without the terrorists being able to see the attack coming form a distance.
The unrest among the Nigerian people regarding the government’s inability to rescue 300 kidnapped girls from the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram is starting to have nationwide impact.
The National Union of Teachers announced their members will not show up to teach as a general strike against the government’s failure to rescue the Christian girls kidnapped from a school April 14th.
“All schools nationwide shall be closed as the day will be our day of protest against the abduction of the Chibok female students and the heartless murder of the 173 teachers,” Union President Michael Olukoya told reporters.
The teachers say that the kidnapping of the girls and the government’s apparent weakness in stopping the Islamic terror attacks on Christians puts all youth in the country in danger.
“Children’s lives are being threatened, kidnapping all over the place, stealing, maiming of life, that’s what we are saying should stop,” said teacher Ojo Veronica.
Nigerian citizens in the northern part of the country have now reportedly begin taking up arms and forming militias for the sole purpose of seeking the kidnapped girls. One group attacked a Boko Haram encampment and killed 10 terrorists.
Police in Santa Ana, California have arrested a man who kidnapped a 15-year-old girl ten years ago and then forced her to marry him and have his children.
Isidro Gracia disappeared in 2004 with his live-in girlfriend’s daughter who he had been raping for three months. He then drugged her and kept her addicted to drugs while they moved to a house in Compton, California. He obtained fake IDs for both of them and then kept her locked in a garage until her mid-20s.
He brainwashed her into thinking because she didn’t speak English, she was illegal and would be deported if she contacted police. He then forced her to marry him so she would be “legal” and then have his child so she couldn’t be deported. He said the girl’s family told him they’d given up looking for her and no longer wanted her.
Police discovered the situation when the women found her sister on Facebook and contacted her.
The 41-year-old Garcia is facing charges of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment and other charges. He is facing life without parole if convicted on all the charges against him.
The woman, who is not being named because she was a minor when taken, has been reunited with her family. She said that she plans to raise her daughter in a loving family environment and to obtain an education.
The leader of the Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram has released a new video where he declares his group is at war with Christians throughout the world.
“We know what is happening in this world,” Abubakar Shekau says, “It is a Jihad war against Christians and Christianity. It is a war against western education, democracy and constitution.”
Shekau goes on to say that even with the kidnapping of the girls and spending the last few years launching terrorist attacks on towns throughout the northern part of the country, the Jihad has not yet begun in Nigeria.
“We have not started,” he says, “next time we are going inside [Nigeria’s capital] Abuja. We are going to refinery and town of Christians.”
He goes on to say the Koran tells him that he needs to kill anyone who is Christian or associated with Christians because that is Allah’s will.
The group, whose name means “Western Education is sinful”, is the subject of a manhunt by Nigerian military officials and western air forces after their kidnapping of over 300 Christian girls from a school and village last month.
Analysts in Africa say the kidnapping of almost 300 girls by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram could be a mistake that leads to the destruction of the group.
Rev. Kristopher Keating of World Horizons USA, said the uproar in Nigeria and around the world is putting a focus on the terrorists they didn’t anticipate. The Nigerian people are also taking advantage of the sudden world stage to show the suffering the Islamists have brought to the country.
“People are hungry to know that their suffering here is not going unnoticed, that reports of this particular instance of large scale abduction are, for seemingly the first time in this country, causing people to take to demonstration and public outcry against Boko Haram,” Keating told The Christian Post on Monday evening. “This could be a catalyzing event that breaks Boko Haram in Nigeria.”
Rev. Keating said many Christian leaders from around the world are traveling to the African nation to lead worship and prayer services to ask God to bring the girls home safely and for protection over the soldiers who are trying to bring the terrorists to justice.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has released a video where they offer to release some of the girls they kidnapped in return for terrorists behind held in Nigerian prisons.
Terrorist leader Abubakar Shekau says in the 17-minute video that he will only release the girls that have not “submitted” to the terrorists, which from the video implies they have converted to Islam and are serving as slaves to the terrorists.
“The girls, these girls you occupy yourself with…we have indeed liberated them,” Shekau said. “These girls have become Muslims. We will never release them until after you release our brethren. Here I mean those girls who have not submitted.”
The international search for the kidnapped girls is now increasing in speed as teams from the United States and Great Britain arrive in Nigeria. The international effort is very diverse with countries as small as Israel sending in special forces units to help try to find and save the girls.
The United States Department of State announced they are offering to send a team into Nigeria to find the over 200 girls kidnapped by the Islamic terror group Boko Haram.
The offer comes as Boko Haram has made another brazen attack on a Nigerian village, murdering 150 people at a crowded outdoor marketplace. The terrorists laughed and yelled “Allahu Akbar” as they threw improvised bombs and fired rocket-propelled grenades into innocent civilians.
The terrorists also set fire to buildings where people tried to take shelter from the murderous rampage.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. will establish a “coordination cell” to provide intelligence, investigations and expertise in hostage negotiation. U.S. military personnel will be part of the cell and based at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said they will be sending experts to assist the American team.
