“Lord, forgive our persecutors” say Rohingyas
Barnabas Fund, 28 January 2020
There have been multiple attacks by Rohingya Muslim mobs on the Rohingya Christian community in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, Bangladesh, thought to be a backlash in the wake of a UN rapporteur’s raising of specific concerns over anti-Christian persecution in the camp.
An extremist mob, in gangs of at least 100, swarmed into the vulnerable Christian community on 27 January, four days after the expert’s report was released.
One individual went missing in the onslaught and is presumed dead at the time of writing.
The Muslim mobs ransacked the community’s church and looted and destroyed the Christians’ houses.
Camp security forces reportedly turned on the Christians, rather than protecting them, and confiscated mobile phones containing evidence of the attacks.
A Rohingya Christian leader posted a prayer for the attackers on Facebook. “O Lord please forgive our persecutors,” he said, recalling the stoning of Stephen.
This now doubly-persecuted group of a few hundred Rohingya Christians live among 750,000 mainly-Muslim Rohingya who fled their homeland to escape genocide at the hands of the Myanmar Army. The formerly persecuted Rohingya Muslim refugees have now turned persecutors.