Seventy No More

A little more than two weeks ago in the early morning of February 12, members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia, entered the village of Mayba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and forced a number of villagers to march to a Protestant church in nearby Kasanga. The militants then tied up the villagers and held them in the church for several days before hacking them to death with machetes. There were seventy victims in all, including the elderly, women, and children.

Tragically, violence against Christians in Africa has risen dramatically in recent years, often involving radical groups such as Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and Islamic State. According to Aljazeera, the ADF is the worst of the more than 120 militia groups in the DRC, having murdered hundreds if not thousands of people in the eastern part of the country alone.

This recent massacre, where 70 Christians lost their lives, is not an isolated incident but part of a grim tapestry of violence that has claimed over 6 million lives in the DRC over two decades of on-and-off war. The vast majority of the DRC’s residents are Christian, so this is a religious genocide carried out by radical Islamic terrorists (the ADF),”

Jeff King, President of International Christian Concern, in Christianity Today.

But just how “radical” are these terrorists? Some Christian apologists like James White, Nabeel Qureshi, and David Wood argue not only for a forthright assessment of Islamic jihad but also for an examination of the effects of sharia on communities and countries that have invited mass migration from the Muslim world. They point to the sayings of Muhammad in the hadith as well as parts of the Quran that call for fighting, killing, or subjugating the kafir or unbeliever in advancing the “Cause” of Allah (9:5, 9:29, 9:111, 2:216, 5:33). By answering this call, the true believer enters paradise (9:111). Such jihad, apologists claim, is not an extremist view on the part of radical groups but a tenet of Islamic faith applicable to all believers.

One thinks of the twenty Egyptian construction workers and their Ghanian coworker executed in 2015 by Islamic State simply for being Christian. Their feast day is celebrated in both the Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic liturgical calendars on February 15. The Coptic Church canonized these workers as saints, and Pope Francis has included them in the Roman Martyrology.

The killing continues, including the execution of Muhsin Hendricks, an openly gay Islamic scholar and LGBTQ+ rights activist from South Africa, who declared, “The need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die.” He died on February 15. Meanwhile, attacks take place routinely on Christians in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, and elsewhere (see Are You a Christian?). Such violence is justified, presumably, in pursuit of a caliphate in which truth and peace will reign everlasting.

The historical reality of the DRC plays a role. Things have not gone well for the country. It underwent a brutal crisis after gaining independence from Belgium in 1960 in which a hundred thousand people died. Helen Roseveare, a British medical doctor and Christian missionary, recounted how hundreds of priests and nuns were tortured and murdered at the hands of rebel forces. She was taken prisoner and endured beatings and rape during the crisis. The nonprofit organization, World Without Genocide, estimates that approximately six million people have died as a result of civil war, starvation, and disease in the DRC since independence.

Today, civil war continues to ravage the country, particularly in the eastern territories. The M23 rebels, a Tutsi-led militia supported by neighboring Rwanda, have emerged as the primary violators of human rights. Although not affiliated with Islamic terrorists, their attacks on civilians and infrastructure have left many Congolese in a state of despair.

As the continent’s population continues to grow, political, religious, and cultural clashes are likely to become even more prevalent in the years ahead. It will be crucial for those without an ax to grind or an inflamed sense of faith to lead the way. Extremism can be countered only through reason, dialogue, and shared experience. That may require a new Age of Reason–one characteristically African. But that begins with a frank recognition of the blood being spilled today and the ideologies driving those who live by the sword. Our aim should be seventy no more.

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