Christian Converts in Germany Suffer More Attacks From Muslim Refugees — and Yet, Their Numbers Continue to Grow
Christian converts living in German refugee camps are reporting more cases of violent physical and verbal attacks from Muslim asylum seekers living among them.
But despite the huge personal risks involved, thousands more are converting from Islam to Christianity, Deutsche Welle reported, citing church leaders.
At the same time, the attacks on Christian converts have increased since 2015 even with fewer refugees entering Germany, according to the same German news outlet in a separate report.
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Gottfried Martens, a pastor at the Protestant Trinity independent church in Berlin, revealed that with the increasing attacks on Christian converts, refugees who come to his congregation can no longer live in their shelters without being bothered by others.
"Right now we have five people with us who have been assaulted. One has lost some of his teeth and one of the others has a wound that had to be sewn up," Martens said.
He said German authorities are not doing anything to stop the attacks and harassments in the refugee camps. Most of the time, he said the security personnel even side with the attackers.
Martens said Christian converts are forced to secretly sneak out of the refugee camps to attend church services. They also hide the cross necklaces they receive after baptism, he added.
At the refugee camps, Muslim residents reportedly harass Christian converts with insults and accusations. There have been reported cases of Christians being threatened with death and openly attacked with knives by Muslims.
The Muslims openly conduct their intimidation and persecution campaign on their fellow Christian refugees, even scrawling messages like "It's time to kill the non-believers" on the walls of the camps, reports said.
Christian converts are also discriminated against in the use of facilities like showers and bathrooms. For instance, the entrances to the facilities would have words like "The impure cannot enter," according to Deutsche Welle.
In some cases, the death threats have actually been carried out. A 38-year-old Afghan mother, for instance, was recently stabbed to death by a "very religious" Afghan man, the report said.
Last year, Open Doors provided numbers to show the extent of persecution among Christian converts in German asylum centers.
In its report, the nonprofit Christian persecution watchdog said 617 of the 743 respondents included in its survey were assaulted multiple times, with 416 of them subjected to violent attacks, 314 received death threats, and 44 sexually assaulted.
Moreover, 674 respondents said the attacks were carried out against them by Muslims who were also refugees in the asylum center. Other respondents said the Muslim guards assaulted them.
Open Doors said the interviews it conducted among the Christian converts showed that the attacks were religiously motivated.
