Filipino Christians are facing persecution like their brothers and sisters in Middle East, according to an Italian missionary priest.
Father Sebastiano D'Ambra of Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, has been doing mission in Philippines for the last 50 years. According to D'Ambra, violence perpetrated against Christians in the southern island of Mindanao is almost the same as the persecution faced by Christians in Iraq.
"The situation is a worrying one," he said. "It is difficult to establish for certain whether the violence was directed specifically against Christians, even though everything points to the fact that this was the case."
On Christmas Day, nine Christians were shot down by militants, as about 200 gunmen from Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter group entered different villages in Mindanao and carried out eight separate attacks.
A grenade was also reportedly thrown at a chapel during the service at Christmas Eve midnight service, in which the structure, made from bamboo, was completely destroyed by fire. Some of the men from the congregation sustained light burns when trying to salvage local language Bibles. Only five copies of tribal language Bibles were burnt, and the rest were safe. Some of the Bibles from common Cebauno language were partially burnt.
"We learned that the BIFF had plans to attack civilians and our detachments so we went on heightened alert even before Christmas. That prevented the rebels from attacking villages and inflicting more casualties," Capt. Joan Petinglay, regional military spokeswoman, told The Christian Post.
"The growth of radicalism throughout the world is making our mission more difficult and still more necessary than ever at the present time," Father D'Ambra told Christian Today. D'Ambra founded the Silsilah movement in 1984 to promote a peaceful dialogue between Christians and Muslims.
The terrorist organization BIFF separated from Moro Islamic Liberation Front about eight years ago because they rejected peace talk proposals from the central government. The group pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014.
Steve Van Valkenburg of Christian Aid Mission told the Mission Network News that the persecuted Christians in Philippines do not intend to run away from persecution, but want to share gospel boldly.
"I think when you ask them, those local native workers, they would say not to pray that there would be less persecution," he said. "[Instead] they would [ask you to] pray that the Gospel goes out and that they would have the boldness and the power of the Spirit to present the Gospel in a way that many of their friends and family become believers in Christ."
