22 Christian Families to Be Executed in Afghanistan

The claim: 'Afghan Islamists' accept sentenced 229 Christian missionaries to death

A decade-old old hoax about the death of Christian missionaries is spreading on social media platforms and messaging apps in the wake of the Taliban'due south takeover of Afghanistan.

"Please pray for the 229 Christian missionaries, who have been sentenced to death tomorrow afternoon by the Afghan Islamists," reads text in a screenshot of a Facebook message, shared in an Aug. 17 post from a page chosen In God We Trust.

The message claims the missionaries were sentenced to expiry after "the radical Islamic grouping" took over Qaraqosh, a city "where there are hundreds of Christian men, women and children who are being beheaded."

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"Laissez passer the message to whoever you lot tin can," the post says.

More 1,600 Facebook users shared the post in less than a day. Similar posts accept accumulated tens of thousands of interactions, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool.

Since the Taliban'south arrival in Kabul and the collapse of the Afghan government, the Islamic fundamentalist grouping has tried to portray itself equally more moderate than when it ruled the state in the 1990s. Even so, many fright the new Taliban-controlled authorities will over again infringe upon human rights, peculiarly the rights of women and religious minorities.

Yet, at that place is no show to support the claim in the Facebook post.

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The rumor is a chain bulletin that has circulated online for more than a decade, according to contained fact-checking organizations. Although proselytizing is illegal in Afghanistan, at that place take been no recent reports of Taliban fighters executing Christian missionaries. And the city mentioned in the message is in Iraq, not Transitional islamic state of afghanistan.

The poster offered no specific evidence in response to a USA TODAY query.

"I don't recall information technology (is) possible for anyone to provide evidence equally to what really is happening in Afghanistan, minute past minute," In God We Trust told United states of america TODAY in a Facebook message. "At this point, everything is 'word of mouth.'"

Message stems from years-onetime, debunked rumor

The chain message shared in the Facebook mail service is a persistent online rumor dating dorsum to at least 2009.

That'southward when Snopes first debunked a claim that 22 Christian missionaries were set to exist executed in Afghanistan. Equally Snopes reported at the time, the concatenation message appeared to misconstrue the 2007 kidnapping of 23 South Korean missionaries in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan. The Taliban killed two of them and released the rest.

Since then, the rumor has spread around the world.

In 2017, ACI Prensa, a Catholic news source in Peru, debunked a like version of the concatenation message circulating in Castilian on WhatsApp, a private messaging platform. The message mentioned 229 missionaries being sentenced to decease.

Dissimilar versions of the rumor reappeared online in 2019 and 2020, according to fact-checkers. Almost recently, the bulletin circulated on WhatsApp in India and Espana.

In that location is no testify to support the principal claim in the chain message.

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U.s. TODAY could find no recent reports of Christian missionaries being sentenced to decease in Afghanistan. Qaraqosh, the city mentioned in the Facebook posts, is located in northern Iraq, not Transitional islamic state of afghanistan. The Islamic Land captured the city in 2014.

In that location is a small Christian minority in Afghanistan that practices its organized religion in hush-hush, according to an April report from Norway's Country of Origin Information Centre. Converting others to Christianity was illegal prior to the Taliban's takeover.

"Conversion is punishable by death unless the convert expresses remorse," the report reads. "There is little evidence from case law; simply one case has been brought before Afghan courts after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001."

The new Taliban regime could be more aggressive in its persecution of Christians.

When the Taliban last came to power in the mid-1990s, Supreme Leader Mullah Omar ordered churches razed and Christians killed or imprisoned. Subsequently the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban claimed responsibleness for a slew of killings targeting Christians and missionaries.

"The Hindu, Christian, Shia and Sikh populations of Afghanistan volition suffer immensely," Khaled Beydoun, an acquaintance law professor at Wayne State Academy who specializes in national security and the war on terror, said in an Aug. 15 tweet.

Our rating: Fake

Based on our research, we rate Faux the claim that "Afghan Islamists" have sentenced 229 Christian missionaries to decease. The rumor stems from a decade-quondam chain bulletin that independent fact-checking organizations take repeatedly debunked. At that place is no evidence the Taliban has sentenced 229 Christian missionaries to expiry, although the group has killed Christians in the past.

Our fact-check sources:

• NewsMeter, Aug. 18, Will Christian missionaries be sent to gallows in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan?
• USA TODAY, Aug. xv, Subsequently ii decades and billions spent, Afghan government collapses every bit Taliban takes Kabul
• CrowdTangle, accessed Aug. 18
• Us TODAY, Aug. 16, A Taliban takeover, chaos at the airport: Run across how the collapse of Afghanistan unfolded
• USA TODAY, Aug. 15, Many fear Taliban will again cease Afghan man rights, support terrorism
• Associated Press, Aug. 17, Taliban invites women to bring together authorities, announces 'amnesty.' Afghans are skeptical.
• USA TODAY, Aug. five, 'No possible life' under Taliban rule: Afghan women fright murder, oppression after US withdrawal
• Religion News Service, Aug. 17, Christian family in Afghanistan appeals to pope to aid them flee persecution
• Snopes, Nov. 17, 2009, '22 Christian Missionaries Sentenced to Expiry' Prayer Request
• Agence France-Presse, Aug. 22, 2019, An old hoax well-nigh Christian missionaries being sentenced to death in Afghanistan is spreading online again
• Agence France-Presse, Sept. two, 2007, Freed South Korean Hostages Apologize
• ACI Prensa, April viii, 2017, Esta es la verdad de la cadena en Whatsapp sobre misioneros condenados a muerte
• Google Maps, accessed Aug. 18
• Verificador, Jan. 20, 2020, ES FALSO QUE ASESINARON A 229 MISIONEROS CRISTIANOS EN AFGANISTÁN
• VerificaRTVE, Aug. 17, Es falso que 'islámicos afganos' hayan sentenciado a muerte a 229 misioneros cristianos en Irak
• BBC, Aug. seven, 2014, Iraq Christians abscond as Islamic State takes Qaraqosh
• Norway's Country of Origin Information Centre, April 7, Afghanistan: The state of affairs of Christian converts
• Der Spiegel, March 30, 2006, A Community of Religion and Fright
• Khaled Beydoun, Aug. 15, Twitter
• In God We Trust, Aug. 18, Facebook exchange with Us TODAY

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/19/fact-check-no-evidence-taliban-sentenced-229-christians-death/8180791002/