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creepingsharia · 4 years

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“An Injustice Crying Out to Heaven”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, July 2020

by Raymond Ibrahim

A Muslim man broke into the historic Holy Cross Church in Turkey and started crying “Allahu Akbar.”

The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians throughout the month of July, 2020:

The Slaughter of Christians

Uganda: A group of Muslims beat and drowned a pastor and another Christian for sharing the Gospel with their coreligionists. Peter Kyakulaga, pastor of the Church of Christ, and church member Tuule Mumbya, had begun to sail across Lake Nakuwa, where they would meet and evangelize to Muslims. More “hard-line” Muslims disliked this: “We have discovered that your mission is not to fish but to hold Christian meetings and then convert Muslims to Christianity,” a man told them. “We are not going to take this mission of yours lightly. This is our last warning to you.” On the next day in late June, Christian villagers came knocking on the door of David Nabyoma, a local leader:

They were requesting help, saying Muslims from Lugonyola had invaded the area around the lakeside, and several Christians were reported to have been injured, including my son. Immediately we rushed to the scene of the incident with several Christians. We hired four boats and drove to the lake and found out that two of the Christians had been badly beaten and drowned in the lake and died instantly.

Pastor Peter, 25, is survived by a wife and two children, 2 and 4; congregant Tuule, 22, is survived by a wife and a 2-year-old child.

Mozambique: Islamic militants have been responsible for “escalating extremist violence” in Cabo Delgado Province, where they have been attempting to carve out an Islamic state [on August 14, ISIS captured the port], and “where multiple churches have been burnt, people beheaded, young girls kidnapped, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence,” according to a July 23 report. More than one thousand have been slaughtered since 2017, when the Islamic uprising began. In one week in June, 15 people were beheaded in the Christian-majority nation. Discussing the situation, Bishop Lisboa said: “The world has no idea yet what is happening because of indifference. We do not yet have the solidarity that there should be.” One of the worst incidents occurred on Good Friday, when the terrorists torched a church and massacred 52 people. After explaining how five or six chapels were torched in just one recent month, the bishop described what happened to the historic Sacred Heart of Jesus mission:

They attacked the church and burnt the benches and a statue of Our Lady, made of ebony. They also destroyed an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom the parish is dedicated. Fortunately, they were unable to burn the building itself, only the benches.

What is happening is “an injustice that is crying out to heaven” he concluded. Paulo Rangel, a Portuguese Member of the European Parliament, also discussed the situation in Mozabique: “The international community is nowhere to be seen in regard to the problem,” he said:

The people were already living in extreme poverty, facing grave difficulties. [The] problem is that at the present moment these people are facing the threat of death, of losing their homes, of becoming uprooted…. At present we know that there are young girls who have been abducted and enslaved, forced into sexual slavery by some of these guerrillas, these insurgents, these terrorists…We know that the recruitment of boys and adolescents, some of them very young, aged 14, 15, 16, is also happening. It is obvious that these young boys are under coercion. If they refuse to join the group, they could be killed.

Nigeria: In a 35-second video posted July 22, Islamic terrorists executed five men, three of whom were Christians. Blindfolded and on their knees, with the executors standing behind them, one of the terrorists said,

This is a message to all those being used by infidels to convert Muslims to Christianity. We want you out there to understand that those of you being used to convert Muslims to Christianity are only being used for selfish purposes. And that is the reason whenever we capture you, they don’t care to rescue you or work towards securing your release from us; and this is because they don’t need you or value your lives. We therefore, call on you to return to Allah by becoming Muslims. We shall continue to block all routes you travel. If you don’t heed our warning, the fate of these five individuals will be your fate.

Then the speaker says bismillah—meaning, “in the name of Allah”—and the executioners shoot their captives in the backs of their heads.

Additionally, at least 171 Christians were slaughtered by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in the space of roughly three weeks: Summaries of some follow:

On July 10, Muslim herdsmen massacred 22 Christians — “mostly women and children” — and torched many homes. “They killed two of my children [and husband],” recalled Bilkisu James from her hospital bed. They also “hacked another five of Bilkisu’s relatives to death with machetes including a mother and her baby daughter and a mother and her two sons.”

On July 11, a neighboring village was raided: “ten women, a baby and an elderly man were burnt to death in a house where they had taken refuge. Another seven villagers were injured and four houses burnt out.”

On July 19, people attending a wedding celebration were among at least 32 Christians massacred in Fulani attacks.

On July 23, a “horrific night attack [was launched] during a torrential rain storm … [A]t least seven Christians died… as militants brutally hacked unarmed men and women and children to death with machetes.” The report adds that “This was the second attack on the village within days, with seven murdered in an attack days earlier.”

On July 29, Muslim herdsmen murdered another 14 Christians — 13 of whom belonged to one extended family. Only one member of the family remained alive; his wife, all his children, aunt, uncle, brother, and other relatives were slaughtered.

Attacks on Christian Churches

Turkey: A Muslim man broke into Holy Cross, a historic Armenian cathedral in eastern Turkey, and proceeded to recite the adhan—the Islamic call to prayer traditionally made from mosques—while others videotaped him. He repeatedly chanted “Allahu Akbar,” and proclaimed the Islamic creed or shahada. He also wrote graffiti on the church walls: “Raising the Adhan in the church’s sanctuary has brought life back to it.” The July 2 report adds that,

Most churches and monasteries in Turkey have been left abandoned following the genocides of Christian peoples in the early 20th century and the mass emigration of Christians from the country due to decades of persecution. As a result, many churches in Turkey were left to ruin or turned into mosques or stables for animals.

In a separate incident, right before the start of Sunday worship service on July 12, a Turkish man appeared at the Antalya Bible Church and asked to speak to church leadership. He was told to return on the next day, and did so—only to issue death and arson threats to a pastor: “You and Özgür [another church leader] are dead. I broke the window of this church a few months ago, will attack again and, if necessary, burn it.” Security intervened and he was asked to leave before police were involved. Later it was revealed that police had apprehended him when he first broke the church’s windows, but released him because he had expressed “regret.”

Pakistan: A church was forced to take down its cross. Barnabas, a Christian resident of the village, explains:

We constructed three floors of minarets on a church and fixed the cross on top of that. However, it was removed after we received threats from local Muslims. The Muslims demanded we remove the cross and all three floors of the minarets, therefore, we had to obey them. Now, the building does not look like a church. It’s just a room and therefore we are sad.

“With broken hearts,” a local pastor added, the congregation agreed to take the cross down—even though “it was an illegal demand against Pakistan’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom to all citizens.”

We took this decision for the safety and protection of Christians in the village…. Muslims threatened that if we don’t remove the cross, they will ban the prayer services and take the church property.… The authorities must look into this matter and ensure freedom of religion to all the segments of society.

In a separate incident, police violently interrupted a Christian prayer service. According to a brief July 13 report,

A priest was leading a prayer before providing a free meal for the poor when police officers appeared, and without further notice, they started damaging the stuff for prayer service…. Policemen turned down the meal, thrashed the pastor and people present. They captured the small sound-system, and beat men and women.

Another report offers more details concerning the fate of Raja Walter, the event organizer, who works to “raise funds to help people who are unfortunate or who have been severely affected by the coronavirus”:

[A]rmed policemen without a badge identifying them came to the food point and attacked him. He was beaten and tortured. Agents also smashed the loudspeaker he uses to motivate people and recite prayers before handing out food. The attack began as Raja was handing out food. As they struck him, the agents threw away his heart medicines and mobile phone. When they tried to arrest him, women present at the scene began to cry and pray for Walter, who by then had lost consciousness.

“It is ridiculous to treat Mr. Raja Walter like that,” a beneficiary of the free food said: “He has never done anything wrong to anyone. He is like an angel; he supports the poor and needy.” The attack, notes the report, “was likely caused by the use of speakers for praying.”

Canada: On July 28, a 16-year-old Muslim refugee from Syria pleaded guilty to four counts of terrorism. His schemes—including “a solo operation in the next few days”—were shared with and exposed by an undercover FBI agent posing as a fellow ISIS supporter online. “Churches,” the Muslim youth had written, and other “crowded places filled with crucifix believers” were among his primary targets. “Detonators, containers filled with white powders that turned out to be explosives, and diagrams of improvised explosive devices were among the 95 exhibits they seized. It was a bomb lab,” says the report. His sentencing is set for September.

France: After fire broke out in the Cathedral of Nantes—caused by an asylum seeker—“Muslim [social media] users, mostly of Arab origin, and their leftist fanboys in Central Europe express[ed] their enthusiasm and glee online, according to a July 19 German-language report. Such expressions appeared all throughout social media, but “especially Facebook,” where “the sympathizers of Islamization bluntly celebrated their satisfaction: through laughing or smiley emoticons or ‘like’ clicks they expressed what they think of burning Christian houses of worship.” The report further observed that “this type of expression of opinion … does not lead to the deletion and blocking of the users by social media teams—whereas masses of [other types of] comments are deleted as ‘hate speech.’”

Attacks on Converts to Christianity

Kenya: A pack of seven Muslims beat Fozia, a Christian woman, aged 21, till she lost consciousness. They also broke the teeth of her sister, Asha, aged 19, and beat their 18-year-old brother. Problems began when “Muslims started questioning us why we were not attending Friday worship at the mosque,” Fozia explained. “This interrogation continued for several months.” Then one day, when the siblings went outside their home to restore its water supply, they saw a raucous group of Somalis approaching: “There were noisy shouts calling us infidels,” recalled Fozia:

They said, “We know you do not belong to us. We have got hold of you today – we have no mercy on you people. You need to return to where you came from.” They began hitting me with sticks and a blunt object, which injured my back and my right hand. There I fainted for five hours and regained consciousness at the hospital [where she remained for two days].

“The attackers injured me by hitting my head against the wall,” her sister Asha added. “My two front teeth got broken, and the attack caused the left side of my body to swell…” According to their widowed mother, the family has been “running for their lives from Muslims of Somali descent who have attacked them for nearly 10 years:

[And now we] are receiving threats that my children should withdraw the case from police if we are to remain safe. But we demand compensation for my three ailing children and medication for them. Three weeks have now gone by, and my children are constantly on pain killers.

These are not the first attacks on the apostate family; according to the report,

In 2016 Somali Muslims attacked another of her adult sons, beating him unconscious. Muslim Somalis in Nairobi had seriously injured the same son on Oct. 27, 2011, after they learned that family members had become Christian. The Somali neighbors hit him with a metal bar on his forehead and face, and he lost two teeth and sustained knife wounds to his hand. They left him for dead. Her family has suffered various attacks since embracing Christ. After she filed a police complaint about an attack by Somali Muslims in Kenya in 2014, no fewer than 10 Islamic elders visited her to warn that she was risking her life by doing so. Somalis generally believe all Somalis are Muslims by birth and that any Somali who becomes a Christian can be charged with apostasy, punishable by death.

Morocco: “Converts to Christianity in Morocco have been repeatedly arrested by police as part of a campaign clamping down on the Faith,” says a July 17 report; some have been arrested as many as three times in one week. Jawad Elhamidy, president of the Moroccan Association of Rights and Religious Liberties, elaborated:

Most are released after interrogation—but are often put under pressure to return to Islam, and face abuse when they refuse…. The penal code holds that all Moroccans are Muslims, so those who convert to Christianity face legal problems, beside threats to their security.

As one example, he gave the story of Mohamed al-Moghany, who converted to Christianity, and “whose employer had waved a gun at him and threatened to kill him.”

When Mr. Al Moghany filed a complaint with police, he was told not to speak about his conversion and threats were made against his family. Six months later, following an argument with his employer, he was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison. His wife was interrogated as well…. If a Moroccan enters a church, one of two things can happen—either a policeman sitting in front of the church arrests him or her, or the cleric in charge of the church asks the person to leave, unless the purpose is tourism….Moroccan Christians worship in secret house churches to avoid state sanctions or harassment from society.

The report elaborates:

[I]t is even more dangerous for Christian converts when allegations of blasphemy are made—Christians have been held for several days and there have been incidents of violence…. Unlike foreign Christians, converts do not enjoy freedom of worship under the law…. Foreign clergy are said to discourage Moroccan Christians from attending their churches because of fear of being criminally charged with proselytism. Under Moroccan law, proselytising or converting to another religion is a criminal offence punishable by between six months and three years in prison.

Generic Abuse of Christians

Pakistan: A group of 12 Muslim men, led by one Muhammad Irfan, broke into a Christian man’s household, “and tried to kidnap his [13-year-old] daughter, Noor, who they planned to rape and forcefully convert to Islam,” says a July 26 report. When the man and his family intervened, the Muslims thrashed them. “He often teased and disturbed my daughter in the streets, but we always ignored,” explained the girl’s mother:

Finally, Irfan forcibly entered into my house and intended to kidnap my daughter. However, we resisted. In response, he attacked and beat my entire family who got multiple injuries. My husband and others got injuries in the attack. However, police have not registered the case against Irfan and medical staff have not provided medical aid to the injured.

The report adds that “Local supporters of Irfan have issued threats against the family… [They] have threatened to burn down their house if they pursue legal action against Irfan and the other attackers.”

Yemen: “Christians living in Yemen,” a July 28 report says, “request prayer as they experience persecution amidst ongoing war, food shortages, and COVID-19.”

These challenges have created a significant burden of isolation, both spiritually and physically. The Christian population, which once numbered approximately 40,000, is reduced to only a few thousand. Most live unaware of each other’s existence and in great fear of discovery from their neighbors… [The current] environment has led to persecution that keeps the church underground.

Germany: Two knife-wielding Muslim men attacked and injured a Christian refugee from Syria in the streets of Berlin. According to the July 7 report, the victim, Kevork Almassian, who is of Armenian descent, had started receiving death threats a year ago, after “Syrian Islamist activist” Nahla Osman began accusing the Christian refugee of spreading “hate” through his work at a German magazine, which eventually capitulated to Islamist protests and fired Kevork.

Lebanon/Turkey: As a sign of growing Turkish influence, Neshan Der Haroutiounian, a Lebanese television host of Armenian descent, will stand trial in Lebanon for “insulting the Turkish president and the Turkish people,” apparently in the context of the Ottoman Empire’s genocide of Armenians. At one point during the live show he accused someone (unclear if a caller in or panelist) who was accusing him of being a dishonest troublemaker of being “A son of a million malicious people … Erdogan, the regime, the Ottomans, and the Turks.” Turkey’s authorities responded by calling on the Lebanese Foreign Ministry to take measures against the television host; the Turkish Embassy mobilized protesters in front of the television station. They “raised Turkish flags, chanted slogans in support of the Ottoman Empire and Erdogan and called on Al Jadeed TV and those in charge of the programme to ‘apologise for what happened.’” The Beirut public prosecutor responded by announcing that charges would be filed against Haroutiounian, who is scheduled to stand trial in October. The report notes:

A Lebanese journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that there were no grounds for the judicial charges against Der Haroutiounian. “This is a matter of a historical dispute that has no prospect, knowing that it is about a great crime against the Armenian people — a crime that Turkey refuses to recognise. This in itself continues to provoke Armenians wherever they are,” the journalist told The Arab Weekly…. Some Lebanese Armenians’ harsh criticism of Turkey seems to embarrass Lebanese authorities, who have tried to intimidate them into observing certain ‘red lines.’ There are numerous external forces pressuring Lebanon, starting with Iranian proxy Hezbollah. Turkey is now attempting to curb Lebanon’s hard-fought freedoms, of which its citizens are rightly proud, by also exerting pressure on Lebanese authorities.

Egypt: A Christian wife and mother who disappeared for nearly three months—supposedly because she had willingly converted to Islam and no longer wanted any connection to her “infidel” husband and three young daughters—was finally returned to her family. Ranya ‘Abd al-Masih, 39, a high school teacher of English had disappeared on April 22. A few days after her family contacted state security, she appeared in a one minute video dressed in a black niqab (female Islamic attire). In the video, and in between tears, Ranya insisted that she had finally and formally converted to Islam, which—“praise be to Allah”—she had been secretly following and concealing from her family for nine years. Accordingly, she no longer wanted anyone—her husband, children, family—to bother about her anymore. From the start, her family refused to believe the video and gave compelling reasons why. “We’ve no problem for her to go [to Islam] of her own free will—based on conviction—but not as a person who is threatened and coerced into doing so,” her brother, Remon, explained: “She was definitely kidnapped and forced to make that video, due to threats against her or her husband and children if she refused to comply.” For nearly three months, Ranya’s family and the Coptic Church pleaded with local authorities—even sending a special petition to President Sisi—until she was finally returned, on July 15. A Christian spokesman said that Ranya and her reunited family are currently staying in an undisclosed location, “until calm returns” to the region. Due to the delicate nature of the situation, the spokesman gave no other details concerning her disappearance and reemergence, other than to say that “Ranya remains a Christian who never once converted to Islam.”

Tunisia: A July 21 report sheds light on the “lack of full citizenship” rights and “societal stigmas” surrounding the Christians of arguably the world’s most tolerant Arab nation. According to its abstract:

Although Tunisia is usually presented as ethno-religiously homogenous when compared to other countries in the region, its minorities have long undergone a process of invisibilisation and/or assimilation into the dominant Arab-Muslim identity. Moving from a status of dhimmi [second class citizens] under Muslim empires … is the quest of Tunisia’s religious minorities for full citizenship still ongoing?… [T]he research shows that religious minorities, although having acquired a certain set of rights, still lack full citizenship to some extent and face societal stigma.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

#Islam #Muslim #Sharia #Jihad #Persecution #News #Politics #Media #Immigration #Legal #Law #Terror #Mosque #Religion

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mattattack64-blog · 4 years

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Hey y’all! I would really appreciate it if y’all could help! Here’s my email for e-transfers [email protected] if you’re feeling extra generous! I’ve been trying so hard to find a job, but it’s been quite tough considering that my queerness sometimes gets me in trouble. I almost got a job at a taco shop, but because I called the manager out for being frantic with customers and employees, he decided to not hire me on. It’s been a hell of a year and I wish people weren’t, so homophobic and Machistas. I’m sorry I have confidence and assertiveness without being aggressive or arrogant. I think we need to make workplaces less of a hostile and docile environment by connecting with queer people and understanding their need for an inclusive work space! Also here’s an essay I wrote for my Sacred Medicines course! It describes what my work entails and will bring to Turtle Island.

Essay about my journey:

The Journey of A Shaman

My Story of Decolonizing on Stolen Lands of the First Peoples of Canada through Accessing Aztec and AfroBlackfoot Ancestry of Indigeneity From Practicing the Art of Medicine:

The History of Turtle Island is filled of stories of genocide affecting Indigenous Peoples communities and cultures. Mine is one of many told in Central America of Conquistadors who bestowed missionaries that would change the villages that relied on local foods and medicines of Mayan, Aztecan, and Incan descent, into a colonial way of being. Instead their peoples and cultures found themselves at the foot of extinction during the 1400s-1900s on Turtle Island, due to settlers' greed for land. The lands were filled with Indigenous nations which were pushed out due to the colonial settlers from France, Spain, and the British. This forced the displacement of African Peoples on Indigenous lands which resulted in some of them escaping slavery during the settlement of Turtle Island and joining tribes such as the Blackfoot peoples. These peoples took up what is now the Rio Grande river to the flourishing valley in Zacateco; the small village my grandmother grew up in. Before the Mexican Civil War between the Indigenous Peoples and Spanish Settlers she learned how to rely on ancestral knowledge of land, food and medicine. She faced challenges that the missionaries introduced when settling establishments for the Spanish Conquistadors, in her village. It resulted in her losing her father and mother through working in horrible conditions in bean, corn, and rice fields put in place by the church's tyrant ways of controlling the Indigenous population through religion and assimilation of their way of living in a colonial society. My grandmother told me stories of soldiers dismantling their connections to Aztec medicines, foods, and Gods by destroying any traces of that civilization through mass burials and mass burnings of artifacts.

The phrase Turtle Island was first introduced to me at the Free Store and Food Bank in the Student Union Building, d where I found a black cloth. Printed on it was a green land mass depiction of the Americas as a Turtle figured island, encompassing all of what is now Settler Governments. This concept opens my mind up to Indigenous self governance and peace as one lands for the sake of protecting them for future generations. Following the ongoing interactions with organizers of the Food Bank, I managed to bring my expertise as a project and outreach coordinator. I organized discussions on where our food came from to spark the movement of individuals respecting our Food Bank as an Activist establishment against capitalism.

I had the opportunity to be part of Dr. Rennee’s course on Sacred Medicines from her INGH 452 online course at The University of Victoria. She has inspired me to look at and create a career in medicine that doesn’t involve the perspectives of Western Medicines for the sake of saving the medicines we lack in our Indigenous communities that suffer from Settler Colonizer diets implemented through legislation. The Canadian and American governments have been accused of depriving Indigenous communities of their lands, food, medicines and right to practice their rituals.

I grew up mostly living with my grandmother who taught me my morals, customs, and values she got from her father and the people from her village in Zacatecas, Mexico. She told me stories of her great grandmother showing her the ways of the lands by cultivating teas, remedies, and foods to bring nourishment. They would run through fields of corn before new crops were introduced that seemed to take away from the Native plants that were for eating and medicine. I immigrated to what is now known as Canada; this colonial power continues to settle on unceded lands of indigneous communities spread out through Turtle Island. It has been a challenge due to the traumatic similarities my people have faced on Turtle Island that resemble the treatment of the Indigenous communities in Canada.

The missionaries in Zacatecas, Mexico displaced my grandmother who was on a journey to midwifery before a soldier boy stole her hand in marriage after the death of her father. This led to Machismo in my family that I continue to navigate through for the sake of changing my family's ongoing struggles with their own health due to displacement of their original foods and ways of protecting the lands. Machismo degraded the Aztec woman by allowing Conquistador ideologies from Settler Societies to make the Aztec Man more powerful than any other member in the family, it forced him to wield his wrath on anyone who didn't follow his manliness of aggression for the sake of protecting his property and family. They colonized our men in order to create a new persona that fit the colonial ideologies of the new Colonial state, for the sake of keeping a patriarchal government that oppresses its women and Indigenous peoples.

The global displacement of brown and black people was brought about by attacking familial and community based societies that relied on tribal relations to the lands before settlement of westernized societies that encompassed our lands with racist doctrines like the Manifest Destiny. When talking about relieving the colonial way of living I have to take the stigma away from my black and brown communities I am tied to, because of my knowledge and expertise in navigating colonial systems for the sake of creating better conditions for their underrepresented communities that are controlled through Colonial Governance of the Majority, Settler European Anglo Saxon Protestant Vigilantes of Turtle Island.

In my work, the aim is to reduce the stigma of mental illness on communities that have ties to Indigenous roots who come from displaced Indigenous cultures due to their unceded lands. European settlement of Turtle Island has created gaps in our understanding of Indigeous Youths’ Mental Health Issues. If we were to destroy these barriers created by our colonial governments we'd be able to see positive change in underrepresented brown and black communities that harness the potential to spark a movement through Ancestral Healing.

Western ways of organizing data based on research for white middle class Canadian families help come up with diagnosis and treatment for anxiety or depression. This has worked for white privileged families that have in turn displaced, stolen, and compromised indigenous lands. Leaving Indigneous Peoples on Turtle Island with the lack of individualized treatment for specific cultural approaches to anxiety and depression that may arise from living in a colonial settler society based on white supremacy doctrines. The way mental health is conceptualized can depend on culture to culture based on the usage of land for healing. My work as a Shaman is to bring the tangible and visible immenseness of research that claims the benefits of Indigenous led rituals that have been hiding in plain sight. I have compiled articles that discuss the Indigenous communities that would benefit from a forum that would help decrease the rising numbers of suicide among Indigenous youth. In The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles Redvers notes that the; Increase of inuit youth suicide is higher than it has ever been for inidgneous youth,” (Redvers, 2019, Pg.142). We must create a new system that doesn't rely on westernized ways of thinking, but instead on traditional knowledge from elders teachings of the lands and their connections to the lands. The gift of healing is one to be assigned to a shaman who can help see a condition through sacred knowledge (Redvers. In The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles, 2019 Pg.144). It's a bit like when a psychologist compiles data to make a diagnosis, but instead of using evidence based data from empirical research, they instead use sacred knowledge from elders and the shamans/healers in their communities. I believe I am on my own journey to become a shaman with a doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology. I want to bring concrete evidence for holistic practices to gain respect for Traditional Indigneous medicines that live and breathe on Turtle Island. Integrating a new stream of medicine would allow for further decolonization of our healthcare system on Turtle Island. Knowledge and wisdom organized from elders, shamans, traditional healers, and story tellers could be used for customizing and improving Indigenous youths’ health. Taking the steps towards creating a stream of medicine based on using the lands for healing through elder storytelling and ceremony practices, must come from my own knowledge of Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Healing can come from storytelling scenarios, schemas, and drawings that help revitalize Indigneous peoples connections they have lost from the lands due to the colonial infrastructures in place today. I have attached an image of a side by side comparison of what I believe the lands want me to be on the right, and on the right is what I have to face when I'm aware of the lies in the colonial settler societies make-believe truths. I drew this when I was going through an intense breakup. I was having to do a lot of soul searching due to my feelings of emptiness after the break up. The love for using drawing to express depressive or anxious episodes has helped me understand my own feelings when I’m no longer able to physically display emotion, which happens a lot of the times when I'm having a depressive episode. I find that Indigenous peoples have faced a lot of hardships with health, therefore in order to ensure that they get the essential healing, we must give back something that they've felt has always been lost, their lands. (I will attach an image of the drawing if requested) description: two faces drawn with colour pencils next to one another, one is covered in leafy natural colors and the other with primary colors. My intention was to depict myself through expression of colors by using them to Demonstrate stresses in my life that I need to deal with.)

Redvers, N. (2019). Chapter 8: The Natural Psychologist. In The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CA. (p. 141-162).

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thebailtraul · 4 years

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Y’all need to come thru! Please share and help me heal some folx!

Here’s my story:

Essay about my journey:

The Journey of A Shaman

My Story of Decolonizing on Stolen Lands of the First Peoples of Canada through Accessing Aztec and AfroBlackfoot Ancestry of Indigeneity From Practicing the Art of Medicine:

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ebenpink · 5 years

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Canadian Report Calls The Deaths Of Indigenous Women And Girls A Genocide http://bit.ly/2MpNT0H

Global News: ‘This is genocide’: Final MMIWG report says all Canadians have role in ending violence The chief commissioner of the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) told survivors and families on Monday they have started to rewrite Canadian history. The tragedy, former B.C. judge Marion Buller said, is a direct result of a “persistent and deliberate pattern of systemic racial and gendered human and Indigenous-rights violations and abuses, perpetuated historically and maintained today by the Canadian state, designed to displace Indigenous people from their lands, social structures and governments, and to eradicate their existence as nations, communities, families and individuals.” Read more .... WNU Editor: Canadians do not see themselves complicit in committing genocide against Canada's indigenous people. On the contrary, in my years of being a Canadian citizen (since the 1990s), this country has always been supportive of policies and politicians who are committed to improving the lives of this country's native peoples. I live across the river from the Kahnawake First Nations Reserve, and over the years I have gotten to know many people who live there, and many of them are my friends. I play golf there. Socialize. And even pursued business and educational projects. I have seen first hand the problems on this reservation (and others in Quebec), and more importantly I have seen many who have sacrificed their time and energies to improve the situation. I have seen success stories. I have also seen disasters. The sexual violence that exists in some of these communities, especially on children, is truly horrific .... Open secret: Sexual abuse haunts children in Indigenous communities (CBC). One of my girlfriend's closest friends is an indigenous person who told her that before she fled her Ontario reserve, almost every girl (including her) experienced sexual abuse before they reached the age of 18. This has to stop. Prime Minister Trudeau refused to use the term "genocide" today .... Trudeau avoids calling the violence against Indigenous women a ‘genocide’ (National Post). In my opinion he did the right thing. The mass majority of Canadians want to support policies and initiatives that make sense. Labelling them as complicit in genocide is going to kill the conversation. It will also frankly hurt the Prime Minister's chances of getting re-elected when Canadians go to the polls this October, especially in places like the province of Quebec where the French and native communities have a long history of animosity that goes back centuries. As to the report itself. I think the severe criminal penalties and rules that it wants implemented be adopted for all Canadians instead of just for Canada's indigenous peoples. The report also calls for more police in these communities, but in my experience many of these communities have trouble recruiting people who want to be policemen or policewomen. Crime insome of these reservations is a huge problem, and according to the RCMP almost 70% of all murders of indigenous peoples occur within these communities. Who wants to work in such an environment? Especially in small communities where everyone knows everyone, and crime is an endemic problem. I also believe that we must rethink on what to do with isolated reservations with no jobs (unless you work for the government), resources, or opportunities. Other native communities have also been given land and resources that are valued in the tens of billions of dollars. I believe a strategy should be developed on how to use these resources effectively, and to encourage investment. I understand that many native groups are against development, but a compromise must be found because the status quo is not working. The report's call for a guaranteed income will also not solve the crisis. Throwing money never solves social ills, and in some cases will only perpetuate the misery by creating a dependency on these funds. I have also seen first hand on what happens when government money flows into these communities. Many act responsibly, and many do not. The full report is here.

More News On A Canadian Report That Calls The Murders Of Indigenous Women And Girls A Genocide

Trudeau declines to call deaths of Indigenous women and girls a genocide -- CTV News Canadian inquiry calls deaths of indigenous women 'genocide' -- Reuters Inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women issues final report with sweeping calls for change -- CBC Some of the MMIWG inquiry's farthest-reaching recommendations -- National Post/Canadian Press from War News Updates http://bit.ly/313BBhM via IFTTT

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myessay-xyz-blog · 7 years

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My Menno-Canadian Place

Ellaina Brown.

STDO-3680 Place and Placelessness

Sarah Ciurysek

Yi-Fu Tuan says an arbitrary “space” becomes “place” because we “get to know it better and endow it with value” (6). “Place”, he says, “is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place”. If place is made through our increased familiarity to a space, then as we choose to become acquainted with people, places, and things, those choices create places. On the other hand, place is inherited; there are parts of ourselves that are handed to us. Through the framework of our given home, ethnicity, worldview and cultural context we become familiar with space: never completely independent of that history.

I love Tuan’s explanation of space; it has stuck with me. As I place myself in history by identifying my ethnic background and the history of my physical locale, I am, in a sense, pausing in a great space to find place. Through this paper I have re-placed myself as a Mennonite person and in a culture shaped by a “Metis civilization” (John Ralston Saul).

I’ve known for most of my life that I am three-quarters Mennonite. However, until this year I never embraced this as my ethnicity. Mennonites, a distinct cultural group that came out of the Anabaptist-Christian movement following the Reformation, have a history of being on the move. Persecution scattered the Menno-sect resulting in my ancestors settling in Prussia. They withstood both persecution and assimilation. A “strong social-system” and “precise cultural identity” were understood as the necessary means for surviving as a minority in a strong Western host-society (Toews 120). They maintained a distinct language and segregated themselves for self-preservation. When they could no longer be promised freedom to practice the distinctiveness that defined their faith, particularly their commitment to non-violence and pacifism, they re-located.

After Prussian government smelled of assimilation and started to impose limits on their freedoms, they moved to Russia. This was the birthplace of many of my great-great-grandparents, and even some great-grandparents.

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After resettling the Mennonites gained momentum and had agricultural success. They were called “colonials” because they successfully took from a new land and created a place as a sovereign group. With wealth came the ability to create their own churches, systems of education, even a business school to be completely self-sufficient and free to students. Although, this would not last as the political climate invariably shifted.

In 1870, conscription was mandated. Although Mennonites established a compromise, (“for many…such Legislation reflected the increasing government intolerance”) a new migration began, this time to the Americas (Toews 128). Many stayed until World War I, and as a German and Dutch-speaking minority in a country at war with Germany, they began to feel the pains of a country at war.

Mennonites who stayed in Russia through the Bolshevik Revolution endured severe persecution. Those who remained, “were totally demoralized in the wake of the violence, disease, and caprice which characterized their everyday lives” (Toews 136).

Letters were sent back to the Mennonites of the Americas depicting the loss of identity: “without land, machinery…the farmer had no sense of direction”. Another letter, which particularly struck me, said “we hardly understand ourselves, we hardly recognize ourselves: are we this or is it a bad dream…Life appears empty” (ibid).

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I have never been in that place. It may even confuse me. But in terms of placing myself, this history shaped the lives of my grandparents, my parents, and ultimately me as well. Religiously, I was raised in a Mennonite Church. Morally, non-violence was valued. I am part evangelist as the Mennonites: I have a heart to cast vision and bring others alongside that vision. I seek community and I believe hard-work and adaptability are key to prosperity and survival. Do I locate these parts of me in this historic place? This ethnic place? What about the parts of me that have no ties with this people-group?

In an interview/conversation with my parents, we spoke about the idea of Mennonite Ethnicity. Neither of them fully identified with that statement, because both they and their parents worked, in part, to break-away from the Mennonite Brethren tradition. Specifically, they sought separation from the strictness and rigidity of rules characteristic of the Mennonite Brethren Denomination (a sectarian group that broke off in Russia in the 1800’s). My grandparents and parents took a more liberal stance then their Mennonite-Brethren Communities, most likely seen to many as conformity to the dominant Anglo-Saxon British-Western culture. Low-German ceased with my Grandparents generation along with the majority of Mennonite cuisine and other such cultural identifiers. What remained was the Anabaptist roots; peace, non-violence and voluntary baptism into a faith-based community. These were the foundations of the Anabaptist beliefs, along with values of hard work, adaptability, and a loyal community (Brown, Linda, and Brown, Darryl. Interview).

Although my ethnicity gives me a sense of the place of my personhood, my geographic location, the Prairies, (having lived in numerous cities in Saskatchewan and now Winnipeg, Manitoba) is also significant. The relationship my ancestors, the people of my ethnicity, have had with the land is a significant one in the Canadian story today.

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The agricultural skills of the Mennonites were well-known to the British empire, who sought to boost the economy of the newly-established Canadian Nation. Agriculture was a “progressive” and productive use of the land, at least so far as the British were concerned. Mennonites would help the nation prosper agriculturally, which conformed to the Western idea of proper development of civilization (Saul, Chapter 6). In this way, Mennonites were the arm of colonialism, as they were in Prussia and Russia.

Calvin Redekop's study of the Mennonites found their emigration to Canada was also a displacement of Indigenous Peoples. He notes that “it is concluded by Mennonites, by virtue of their belief system and practice, [that they] did not overtly displace natives, but rather followed another form—‘Co-existence of the groups’ with ‘symbiosis as the normal outcome” (Redekop 1). Because they kept to themselves and valued peace, Mennonites didn’t think they were violating anyone. However, even though the Canadian Government gave them the land, they were not seeing the people they displaced to gain access to this new land.

In the Southern Manitoba region, Metis farmers filed claims (ex. Charlie Grant, a well-known helpful and welcoming local settler) to keep their farms and their lands. Histories speak about “Indian/Metis resistance to give up lands” and a “block settlement” of the Mennonites which “may have interfered with the allocation of land which had been given to the native Indian and Metis settlers” (Redekop 76). There were racial stigmas toward Indigenous people groups among Mennonite. Mennonite Author Rudy Wiebe (who himself lived in a Mennonite community in rural Saskatchewan in the mid 20th century) writes with historical criticism and invites his readers to understand the racial stigmatization's present at the time through his book Peace Shall Destroy Many (set in 1944).

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The Mennonite people have rationalized their right to Canadian lands as supporting the nation to finish what it started (Redekop 83). This was, nonetheless, seen in 1948 as a violation of the UN’s declaration of Human Rights (article 7 and article 17).

The space given to the Mennonites was also a dispossession of others’ place. And those who once lived there were rationalized into invisibility. This has certainly been my experience in the communities I’ve found myself in, and was a blindness that I continue to recognize in myself. Indigenous nations were not something we talked about nor who's histories we were educated in, even though the First Nations are the foundational people of this place. My place-making was made without these Nations even on my radar. This is also part of the place I am from, a place I still need to recognize, in all its complexities.

Some Mennonites who I encountered in my twenties fought against attitudes that made Indigenous peoples invisible (the food for colonialism). Groups like the Mennonite Central Committee took peace-building and non-violence very practically in relation to the UN’s declaration of human rights and found themselves beginning to empathize with the assimilation, genocide and violence of the government’s actions. They realized the government at the time was attempting to destroy First Nations culture, perhaps because it was something they recognized in their own Mennonite history. Restorative Justice, a non-retributive model of understanding Justice that is characteristic of a more relational and kin-based worldview, became central to the Mennonite understanding of justice. In Manitoba, MCC supported the Church coalition to support the Northern Flood Committee. Peace work and non-violence started to look more like friendship.

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It seems that some Mennonites are starting to recognize their ascension to power, no longer seeing themselves as the most vulnerable group, and, at least in my experience, taking the place of a student. The Mennonites I encountered and read about who exemplified this new form of peace-making see their place differently, and I am learning to see my place along with them.

Being placed as a Mennonite Canadian gives me a greater sense of understanding. Finding connection with my history and people gives me a sense of home. However, there is another history I can’t ignore if I am to place myself as a Canadian in Manitoba; the history of this land.

In “A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada”, John Ralston Saul dedicates a quarter of his book to the idea of a Metis Civilization. He attributes the heart of Canadian identity, all that makes us a unique nation, the underpinning of our culture as a nation, as “Metis”. He says; “When I dig around in the roots of how we imagine ourselves, how we govern, how we live together in communities-how we treat one another…what I find is deeply Aboriginal”. As Canadians we pride ourselves on our ability to be inclusive, to accept immigrants, to be not a melting-pot but a Mosaic; a civilization that expands and adapts to those who come. Where did this idea come from?

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When the fur trade began, and contact with the Indigenous people was made, it was unlike any other European colony relationship from the “sixteenth to the ninetieth century” (Saul 10). The host culture welcomed newcomers, not because they were threatened by them, but because the disposition of the Indigenous cultures was that of welcome and sharing. They made friends and helped one-another. We cannot ignore the fact that this trade market was the beginnings of what turned out to be, centuries later, not only a disruption but a harmful colonial force, but from the “seventeenth century on, the Scots from the late seventeenth century…the German religious minorities from the eighteenth century on— all settled here in difficult, isolating circumstances, and made their way, thanks to the First Nations and later the Metis. Their relationships evolved over time, often for the worse. But it was a slow evolution; a matter of centuries. Ways of relating to the other and ways of doing things settled in, became habit, became culture,” (Saul 57).

On this land, before colonial power dominated, their was a relationship that made room for the other. A culture that decided to expanded the circle of ones space to include others as we became familiar with newcomers. My people stepped onto something that had already been in motion, a Metis nation. I do not want to appropriate this Metis identity or claim entitlement to it in any way. Blindspots will always be a part of my place, and I need to recognize the vastly distinct context with which we were handed. But I also want to recognize that the birth of a nation out of collaboration and shared interest that was established for centuries is the kind of place that made it possible for the Mennonites to find freedom. Because of a Metis civilization, I feel that my people have come to truly understand peace. The attitude of friendship took root in the nations fabric, even though years of colonialism and government control and blindness of power tried to erase this history from our place. It was resilient. Perhaps there are other reasons to describe our unique response to globalization, but the exchange and widening of the circle, the recognition of kinship in the other, is something I want to continue to familiarize myself with as this space, this treaty land, is where I am placed.

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Works Cited

Brown, Linda, and Brown, Darryl. Interview by Ellaina Brown. Personal interview. Winnipeg, May 12, 2017.

Hamm, Peter M. Continuity and Change Among Canadian Mennonite Brethren. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.

Redekop, Calvin. "Mennonite Displacement of Indigenous Peoples: An Historical and Sociological Analysis." Canadian Ethnic Studies = Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 14, no. 2 (1982): 71-90.

Saul, John Ralston. A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada. Penguin Canada, 2009.

Schlichtmann, Hansgeorg. “Ethnic Themes in Geographical Research on Western Canada.” Canadian Ethnic Studies = Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 9 (2): 9.

Toews, John B. 1970. "Russian Mennonites in Canada: Some Background Aspects." Canadian Ethnic Studies = Etudes Ethniques Au Canada 2 (2): 117.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press. 1977.

Wiebe, Rudy. Peace Shall Destroy Many. Vintage Canada, 2001.

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