In the West African country Mali, the Islamist terrorists have given an ‘ultimatum’ to the Christian inhabitants to either support their terror activities against the military power or leave their homes. The situation has worsened to the extent that there is a threat to the Christian community’s existence in the landlocked country. As per the “Open Doors” organisation that monitors Christian persecution, the Islamist terrorists had threatened the Christians residing in Central Mali to either support their terror activities through money and manpower, convert to Islam and shut down their churches or leave their houses.
The Islamist terrorists said to belong to Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) summoned pastors in the Mopti region and gave them three options if they intended to continue staying in the region. The options are to provide men to fight against the army, Give the jihadists money to hire mercenaries, or convert to Islam and close their churches.
Notably, the Islamic terrorists in this region are collecting “Zakat” from Christians, Muslims and tribals. Speaking to Open Door, Pastor Yabaga Diarra said: “Because the jihadists conquered the land, they feel it belongs to them, so they are telling the Christians to pay them a Zakat tax which is an Islamic tithe. Muslims and non-Christian practitioners of tribal faiths are already paying it.”
The Islamist attack in Mali commenced in April 2012, when terrorists attacked government forces and seized control of northern Mali. They established an authoritative Sharia regime in the north, demolishing churches, other Christian properties, schools, and health facilities. According to the International Rescue Committee, over 7.1 million people in Mali currently require humanitarian aid, with nearly 400,000 of them being internally displaced. The Islamist terror groups have been killing civilians, government officials and UN peacekeeping forces as well. So far, the Mali military has failed to regain control of the region taken over by Islamic terrorists.
In 2023, the US State Department named domestic and transnational terrorist groups that attacked Mali. These Islamic terrorist groups included Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates Ansar al-Dine, Macina Liberation Front, and al-Mourabitoune, which were united under the umbrella group JNIM (Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin/ “Support Group for Islam and Muslims”), as well as the Islamic State in the Sahel. These terrorists target individuals they “perceive as not adhering to their interpretation of Islam” and control large areas in the north and centre.
The Open Doors report says that the Islamic jihadists have been relentlessly destroying evidence of Christian presence in the territories they control. Christian foreign missionaries, particularly women, are the main targets of Islamic terrorists. Béatrice Stöckli, a Swiss Christian missionary in Timbuktu, was abducted by terrorists in 2016 and killed in 2020.
Among the many atrocities faced by the non-Muslim communities in the Jihadist-controlled region of Mali includes on-the-spot killing of Christian converts if their conversion is discovered or merely suspected, Christians are denied resources and prevented from accessing water and land to grow crops. In addition, the Islamic dress code, and Quranic and Arabic teaching were made compulsory in the school curriculum when Muslim leaders sought to open schools there.
Furthermore, in a bid to spread Islam, the Jihadi terror groups kidnap girls and sometimes even married women and then forcibly “marry” or “remarry” them to some of their members, resulting in a life of sexual slavery. Christian men and boys are subjected to brutal physical and sexual assault, compelled to join the armed groups and also forced to convert to Islam. The Mali Christians also face several restrictions in travelling for religious reasons, particularly outside of the capital city, Bamako.
