by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - One Rohingya Christian is missing and 12--several of whom are children--are seriously injured after Muslims of the famously persecuted ethnic group from Myanmar assaulted the small Christian enclave within the refugee community in Bangladesh.
Over 100 Muslims ransacked a church and destroyed Christian homes, sending 20 families away homeless, in Cox's Bazar refugee camp, where 750,000 Rohingya Muslims, and a small number of Rohingya Christians, have fled in the wake of persecution by the Myanmar army.
“I also met with a group of Rohingya Christians who are in a most difficult position. They told me they were persecuted due to their religion by the Myanmar Government while they lived in Rakhine [Myanmar], and now they face hostility and violence from a small number of other camp residents. This worries me,” UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee said four days before the attack occurred on Jan. 27.
Rohingya Christian leaders posted a prayer on Facebook asking the Lord to forgive their persecutors, as Stephen did with his in Acts 7:59-60.
“While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them,'" the post said.
The Rohingya refugee crisis, in which the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar has forced many of the predominantly Muslim group to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, received international attention over the last year, but less known are the few hundred Rohingya Christians who are now asking for international support.