Attack on two Iranian Christian converts
A reporter for the Persian-language Christian News Network from Finland reported that on Sunday, March 6, two Iranian Christian converts were injured in an attack by radical Muslims at a refugee camp in Helsinki.
The attack took place in a refugee camp near Helsinki by a group of non-Iranian extremist Muslims. The attackers attacked the two Iranian Christian converts with knives after an argument.
The report states that both Persian-speaking Christians suffered injuries to their hands. Both Iranian Christians are reported to be doing well.
In an interview with the injured Christians by a reporter from the Persian-language Christian News Network, the incident took place in a refugee camp after two Christian converts participated in a church meeting. One of the Christians who was attacked stated in the interview: “On Sunday, after the church meeting, we were eating food when several Iraqi Kurds and Syrian Arabs approached us and aggressively protested against us for eating non-halal meat. We were explaining when suddenly one of them attacked me with a knife. After the knife hit my hand, he tried to stab me in the neck with the knife, but my Christian companion blocked the attack with his hand, which also injured his fingers. Of course, we had faced harassment from these people several times because of our Christian faith.”
The intervention of the security guards of the refugee camp prevented the fight from continuing. After visiting the refugee camp, the Helsinki police viewed the CCTV footage and arrested all those involved in the attack. The two Christian converts were returned to their camp after initial treatment and questioning. The attacker was transferred from the Helsinki police detention center to another refugee camp in northern Finland and is likely to be returned to his country of origin. The attacker's other companions are in police custody and have denied involvement in the fight.
This is the third reported case of Muslim attacks on Christians in Finnish refugee camps in the past two months. So far, the Finnish Refugee Agency has received numerous reports of “Muslim extremists not allowing Christians into the camp’s dining hall, harassing Christians for attending church, and insulting and humiliating Christians.”
The number of asylum seekers in Finland has increased by about 10 times compared to previous years by the end of 2015. The acceptance of this number of asylum seekers by the Finnish Ministry of Immigration has been met with protests from representatives of right-wing parties and mixed reactions from the public and social groups.
