The image you see to your left is the Arabic character ن, or "Nūn". Normally it'd be a beautiful character in a beautiful alphabet, but its meaning has been perhaps forever tarnished by the way it's been used in the wars of the Middle East.
The character stands for "Nasara" or "Nazarenes", a pejorative word used to refer to Christians. In the war, when ISIS fighters take over a city, they'll go from house to house and spray paint this character on the homes of people they identify as Christian. Their ultimatum? Those who live in these houses have one of three choices-convert to their twisted interpretation of Islam, pay an exorbitant fine well beyond the ability of most people to pay, or face "death by the sword". The result has been a mass exodus of Christians from these cities. The men who cannot or will not go are beheaded, some on the spot. Women are raped. Children are sold into slavery and unmentionable acts committed against them. And perhaps the worst crime of all? The US government not only will not speak out against these atrocities in the name of political correctness, in yet another example of its completely backward immigration laws, it will not even grant these people asylum.
The non-profit Mercury One has set up a fund with an aim of collecting money to place threatened Christian families in safe countries that will accept them and ensure they have enough to start new lives. While the number of families they can help is woefully small compared to the countless more who will need to suffer, they are the only charity I've seen so far that has any kind of tangible plan to tackle this problem.
Revisionist historians and the media like to position Christianity as a Western religion, and Islam as a Middle Eastern religion. And worse, since they apparently can't look beyond labels, they tend to conflate the insane brand of Islam practiced by ISIS with the respectable and peaceful practice of Muslims here in the US. But the truth that Christianity was a Middle Eastern religion long before Islam came along or any Westerner heard of it. And some of these Christians who are being persecuted have worship traditions that date back to near the time of Christ.
To help, donate here. You can also buy this shirt and others like it to give as gifts, and proceeds will go to help the fund.
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