This is a series of reports on
attacks on Christians around the Islamic world during the past several months.
There are serious issues revealed
in all this.
The first issue is the implied
complicity of those in direct authority.
A school master stands by while his student is murdered. It can not be more inexcusable. The man in authority in fact surrendered his
authority.
Even had he hated the individual
targeted, it is never right or wise to surrender authority.
The second issue is that this is
all accepted under the aegis of Sharia law.
This is not natural law at all but a centric law that allots justice to
the strong alone. Obviously the progress
of this doctrine is an ethnic bloodbath that is unending. The Jews have largely been removed from the
Islamic World and the same ethnic hatreds are now been unleashed on the
Christian communities. This logic never
ends of course.
The third issue is that anarchy
prevails in many places which encourages the violence. Strong man rule has been the norm in this
world since Mohammad and usually this halts the violence. It now remains to be seen if democratic
systems are able to resolve and mange this tendency much better. That it has in fact worked well elsewhere is
encouraging but not too convincing.
The lack of confrontation from
the developed world remains disquieting but still reasonable. After all, a real confrontation will entail a
forcible reform of Islam itself allowing full freedom of religion and open
access to Christianity and a secular education system enforced throughout. It remains far too easy to allow the Islamic
world to simply stew in its own juices.
Think about that for a
moment. Every other culture is adopting
the Western secular paradigm and entering a rapid period of modernization. The Islamic culture is barely competing except
on the fringes of their economies. In
the meantime the worst news has yet to arrive.
That is the end of the Age of Oil.
The power sources already exist and automotive electrics are now good
enough. I will make a bold statement and
suggest that Global oil consumption will fall from 80,000,000 bpd to 30,000,000
bpd with a price structure of about $25.00 per barrel. The question is when? The scary thing is that it can happen by
2020. The USA
is already dropping its import consumption fast enough to become import neutral
outside North America by 2020.
A collapse of the oil market
immediately impoverishes the leading Islamic states and their economies all
then begin to look like Jordon’s.
Muslim Persecution of Christians:
October
Raymond Ibrahim Bio ↓ on Nov 21st, 2011
“The attacks on Christians continue and the world remains totally
silent. It’s as if we’ve been swallowed up by the night” — Iraqi Christian
More damning evidence continues to emerge: not only did Egypt’s
military plan to massacre Christians to teach them a “lesson” never to protest
again, but “death squads” were deployed up buildings the
night before to snipe at protesters. Instead of trying the soldiers who
intentionally ran-over demonstrators, the military has been randomly
arresting Copts, simply “for being Christian.” Finally, the
fact-finding commission of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights just
submitted its report which, as expected,
“whitewashes” the military’s role, including by “asserting that no live
ammunition was fired on the protesters by the military, as the army only fired
blanks in the air to disperse the protesters,” a claim many eyewitnesses reject
out of hand.
Meanwhile, not only are Western governments apathetic, but it was revealed that “Obama’s top Muslim advisor
blocks Middle Eastern Christians’ access to White House.” Newt Gingrich asserted that Obama’s
“strategy in the Middle East is such a total
grotesque failure” and likened the “Arab spring” to an “anti-Christian
spring.” Ann Widdecombe accused the British
government of “double standards in its threats to cut aid to countries which
persecute gay people while turning a blind eye to persecution against
Christians.” Even Christian pastors in the West, apparently more
concerned about appearing tolerant and in “dialogue” with Muslims, are reluctant to mention persecution to their
flock.
Categorized by theme, the rest of October’s batch of Muslim persecution
of Christians around the world includes (but is hardly limited to) the
following accounts, listed according to theme and in alphabetical order by
country, not necessarily severity.
Churches
Afghanistan: Ten years after the U.S. invaded and
overthrew the Taliban—at a cost of more than 1,700 U.S. military lives and $440
billion in taxpayer dollars—the State Department revealed
that Afghanistan’s last Christian church was destroyed. The
report further makes clear that the Afghan government—installed by the U.S. —is
partially responsible for such anti-Christian sentiments, for instance, by
upholding apostasy laws, which make it a criminal offence for Muslims to
convert to other religions.
Christian Symbols
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
“Dhimmitude” (General Abuse, Debasement, and
Suppression)
Iraq: A new report titled “the double lives of Iraq’s Christian children” tells of
their suffering—“If the children say they believe in Jesus, they face beatings
and scorn from their teachers”—as well as the struggle of their parents: “The
first years of my faith,” says a father, “I brought so many people to church,
because I was motivated, so excited. Now I don’t encourage anyone to be a
Christian, because in my experience it is very hard.”
Pakistan: Along with one
dead man, “two dozen Christians including children, men and women were
seriously injured” when “Muslim gangs” hired by an influential Muslim attacked
them “to grab a piece of land” which the church had
purchased to build an orphanage. Likewise, Muslim landowners raided a Christian
home, beat a sick father and abducted two brothers, whom they claim are in debt; the
kidnappers have added an extra 70,000 rupees in ransom. “The men’s mother tried
to file a report with police, which [was] refused because one of the suspects
is a fellow police officer,” not to mention a Muslim.
Turkey: The Education Ministry in Ankara published
a 10th grade
textbook that distorts the role of Christian Assyrians, “denouncing
them as traitors who rebelled against Turkey .” Still denying the historic
slaughter of Christians, “today’s Turkish Government is not hesitant to distort
historical events by inverting victim and perpetrator… About half of the
Assyrian population, were killed or died from starvation or disease in a series
of killings orchestrated by the Ottoman Turkish government during World
War I.”
Pakistani Rape
As usual, Pakistan —which
along with Egypt
oddly missed being categorized as a “country of particular concern” in the State Department’s recent religious freedom
report—dominates the headlines regarding the sexual abuse of Christian women:
• Kidnapped last Christmas Eve, “a 12
year-old Christian [was] gang raped for eight months, forcibly converted and
then ‘married’ to her Muslim attacker.” Now that she has escaped, instead of
seeing justice done, “the Christian family is in hiding from the rapists and
the police.”
• “A Christian mother of four was slaughtered by a Muslim colleague in Pakistan after
she resisted his attempt to rape her at the factory where they worked.”
• A new report asserts:
“The forced conversion to Islam of women from religious minority groups through
rape and abduction has reached an alarming stage… It appears today that
no one, from the judiciary to the police and even the government has the
courage to stand up to the threats from Muslim fundamentalist groups. The
situation is worse with the police who always side with the Islamic groups and
treat minority groups as lowly life forms.”
Killings
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the
Islamic world is on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, “Muslim Persecution
of Christians” was developed in order to collate some—by no means all—of the
instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It
serves two purposes:
1. Intrinsically, to document that which the
mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of
Christians.
2. Instrumentally, to show that such
persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is
ultimately rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of
persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for
churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced
conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of
jizya; overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis
(second-class citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a
combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span
different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to
India in the east, and even throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it
should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict
application of Sharia, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Muslim
Persecution of Christians: September, 2011
by
Raymond Ibrahim
An especially busy month in the persecution
of Christians in the Muslim world, September also witnessed Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton release the Annual Report on International Religious
Freedom. Ironically, aside from Iran
and Sudan ,
none of the countries that habitually appear in this series were designated as
"countries of particular concern," defined by the State
Department as countries that
are "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious
freedom."
Egypt,
for instance—which this year alone has seen nearly 80 Christians killed, their
many churches burned or bombed, and their daughters kidnapped and forcibly
converted—was not listed as a "country of particular concern," this
despite the fact that the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom,
an independent, bipartisan federal government commission, had recommended that
the State Department designate it so.
Neither was Pakistan cited as a "country
of particular concern." According to CNSnews,
"Clinton did not designate Pakistan even though the State
Department's own report stated that Pakistani law calls for the death
penalty for people who commit 'blasphemy' against Islam or who convert from
Islam to another religion—and even though the report listed multiple instances
of the Pakistani government using the law to persecute Christians."
In fact, September alone saw the following in Pakistan :
Blasphemy
A Christian student was expelled
from school because she
misspelled an Urdu word that, instead of praising, insulted Muhammad, leading
to accusations of "blasphemy," which carries the death penalty.
After the teacher beat her, the principal was notified and Muslims staged
demonstrations "demanding registration of a criminal case against the
eighth-grader and her eviction from the area." As riots and violence
were about to erupt, the military intervened: "They bundled the
family in an ambulance and took them away..."
"A Christian high school teacher has
suffered false
accusations of blasphemy by a
student and some Muslim professors, because of dislike, revenge and hatred
towards Christians. He was forced to leave his job and hide, he appealed to
Court, but the laconic sentence of the judge of first instance invited him to
'leave the country'…. Married and a father of three, he has been uprooted and
is in hiding."
A 30-year-old Christian man accused
of blasphemy and imprisoned,
died in his cell from a treatable disease, "after officials denied him
proper medical care." While in
prison, he and others "accused of blasphemy, were kept in solitary
confinement without access to a toilet, water or electricity."
Abuse
of Christian Women
A Christian mother
of five was raped by two Muslim men, who "tend to assume they will not
be prosecuted if their victims are Christians"; she and her family are
being threatened with violence unless they drop the charges.
A Christian nurse
was raped by a Muslim colleague who
filmed the act in an attempt to blackmail her into renouncing Christianity and
marrying him: "[he] raped me while his friend filmed the entire
incident. They ruined my life completely."
Accordingly, a new
report estimates that some
700 Christian girls annually are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry
their Muslim abductors.
Categorized by theme, the rest of September's
batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is
hardly limited to) the following accounts, listed according to theme and in
alphabetical order by country, not necessarily severity.
Attacks
on Churches
Egypt: Muslims
threatened Christians near Aswan for fixing a dilapidated church, even though
it was authorized, demanding that the church not have a cross, dome, bells, or
even be called a "church"; weeks later, after Friday prayers,
thousands of Muslims
attacked the church, burning it to the ground, and demolishing its domes,
even as Egyptian security watched. (Copts protesting this church attack
led to the recent military
massacre.)
Indonesia: A Muslim suicide
bomber attacked
a packed church killing
himself and wounding at least 27 worshippers, some critically; security
received advance warning but, as often happens in Muslim majority countries, left
their post at the time of the
attack.
Apostasy
Indonesia: Under
accusations of encouraging Muslims to apostatize to Christianity, an American
family(husband and wife, two sons) were attacked by a Muslim throng that
set fire to their property and vehicle. "Only the intervention of police
saved the[ir] lives" from "an enraged mob spurred by a local
religious leader."
Iran: A Christian
pastor remains incarcerated awaiting execution for refusing to recant
Christianity; the government of Iran, under international criticism, now
claims that he is getting the
death penalty, not because of religion, but because he is a "Zionist,"
a "rapist,"
and other new charges, even though its own court documents clearly assert his
crime is apostasy.
Somalia: A Muslim convert
to Christianity was abducted
and decapitated, his body dumped in the road, by Muslims from al-Shabaab,
"a militant group with ties to al Qaeda" that has "vowed to rid
Somalia of Christianity." According to a leader of the underground
church: "It is usual for the al-Shabaab to decapitate those they suspect
to have embraced the Christian faith, or sympathizers of western ideals."
"Dhimmitude"
(Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression of Christians)
Iran: Along with the
aforementioned Christian pastor awaiting execution, five Christians, including
a "heavily pregnant woman," were ordered to "report
to prison immediately to
serve a one year prison sentence," being convicted of "crimes against
the Islamic Order." Also, an adopted child was
confiscated from its Christian parents, as a way to pressure them to
testify against fellow Christians: "If you want your child back, you must
file a complaint against your fellow Christians in prison."
Kazakhstan: "Lawmakers
in Kazakhstan have voted for 'controversial
legislation' that Christians and rights activists say will further limit
religious freedom in the mainly Muslim Central Asian state." Among
other things, the new law "makes[s] it more difficult for churches to
worship freely" and bans "house churches."
Philippines: In Mindanao,
"the Christian minority is suffering
harassment and pressure from
the Muslim population. Government officials are forcing Christians to sell
their land to make room for Chinese industries. According to sources, the
climate of impunity, the abductions, the continuing clashes between the army
and extremist Islamic groups and the economic crisis have created an unbearable
atmosphere for the Christian population, who are afraid to express their faith
in public."
Incitement
against and Killings of Christians
Egypt: In a circulated
video, the grand mufti of Al Azhar, Ali Goma'a,
referred to Christians as "infidels"; Wagdi Ghoneim, a
popular cleric and former U.S. imam, called Copts "Crusaders" on Al
Jazeera, insisting that they do not deserve equal rights with Muslims in Egypt; Abu
Shadi, a representative of the Salafis, told Tahrir News that the Copts
must either convert to Islam, pay jizya and assume inferior status, or die.
Muslim Persecution of Christians: August,
2011
by
Raymond Ibrahim
September
7, 2011
This series was developed in order to collate
some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of Muslim persecution of
Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
Intrinsically,
to document that which the mainstream media does not: habitual, if not chronic,
Muslim persecution of Christians.
Instrumentally, to show that such persecution
is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is
ultimately rooted in a Sharia inspired worldview.
As will become evident, whatever the anecdote
of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for
churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced
conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of
jizya; overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis
(second-class citizens); and simple violence. Oftentimes it is a combination of
the aforementioned.
Because these accounts of persecution span
different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to
India in the east, and even throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it
is clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application
of Sharia, or the supremacist culture borne of it.
Categorized by theme, August's batch of
Muslim persecution of Christians includes (but is not limited to) the following
anecdotes, listed according to theme and in alphabetical order by country, not
necessarily severity of atrocity:
Attacks
on Christian Symbols: Churches and Bibles
Nigeria: Two churches
were bombed,
including a Baptist church no longer in use due to previous Muslim attacks;
when officials arrested Islamist leaders, a third Catholic church was torched.
Apostasy
and Forced Conversions
India: A female who was
formerly stripped
and beaten by a Muslim mob
for converting to Christianity, continues to receive severe threats to return
to Islam or die; likewise, Muslims held three Christian women "threatening
to beat and burn them alive if they continued worshipping Christ."
Malaysia: Religious police raided
a church when they
"found evidence of proselytisation towards Muslims" and
"receiving information that there were Muslims who attended a breaking-of-fast
event at the church"; aFacebook campaign created to support the raid
and to "prevent apostasy" has already drawn support from 23,000
people.
Pakistan: Muslims openly
abducted a 14-year-old Christian girl at
gunpoint saying she had to convert to Islam; another Christian woman who was abducted,
drugged, and tortured for two
years—all while being informed she had converted to Islam—happily made her
escape. In both cases, the police, as usual, are siding with the Muslim
abductors. Most recently, two Christians returning from church were attacked
by Muslims and beaten with
iron rods for refusing to convert to Islam or pay "protection"
(jizya) money.
Uganda: In accordance to
Islam's Hanafi School of law, a Muslim father locked his 14-year-old daughter in a room for
several months without food or water, simply because she embraced Christianity;
when rescued, she weighed 44 pounds.
General
Oppression, Violence, and Murder of Christians
Egypt: Soon after
breaking their Ramadan fast, thousands of Muslims rampaged a predominantly Christian village,
firing automatic weapons, looting and throwing Molotov Cocktails at several
homes; they beat a priest, plundering and torching his home; another Copt was
murdered in his home, which was also ransacked. Separately, a Copt was savagely
attacked by seven Muslims in front of a police station; he lost
one eye and required 20
stitches in his head. And girls leaving church were sexually harassed by Muslim
who hurled stones at the church shattering five windows.
These were just some of the stories of
Christian suffering under Islam that made it to a few non mainstream media last month.
Then there are the countless atrocities that
never make it to any media—the stories of persistent, quiet misery that only
the victims know—such as the recent revelation that a 2-year-old
girl was savagely raped in
Pakistan because her Christian father refused to convert to Islam: it took five
years for this story to surface. How many are the tales of woe that never
surface?
Now, back to your regular scheduled MSM programming
on how the perpetually misunderstood religion of Islam is really the "religion of peace"…
Muslim
Persecution of Christians: July, 2011
by
Raymond Ibrahim
August
12, 2011
Because the persecution of Christians in the
Islamic world is endemic, on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, I begin
with this article a new series called "This Month in Muslim Persecution of
Christians," wherein some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of
persecution that surface each month will be collated and assessed.
The
purpose of this series is two-fold:
Intrinsically, to document that which the MSM
does not: Muslim persecution of Christians.
Instrumentally, to show that such persecution
is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is
ultimately rooted in a Sharia worldview.
As will become evident, whatever the anecdote
of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for
churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women and
misogyny; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya; and
over all expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis.
Because these accounts of persecution span
different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to
India in the east—it will also become clear that one thing alone binds them:
Islam—whether the strict application of Sharia, or the supremacist culture
borne of it.
The vilest anecdote to surface in July comes
from Pakistan,
a hotbed of anti-Christian sentiment, even though Christians make up less than
2% of the population: a 2-year-old Christian girl was savagely raped when her
father refused to convert to Islam. Because her anatomy has been disfigured, she
has undergone five surgeries and suffers several permanent complications; her
family lives in fear and hiding. Though this anecdote surfaced days ago, it
occurred four years ago—a reminder that some of the most savage instances of
persecution never see the day of light; a reminder that, no matter how late
they surface, they shall be duly noted and remembered.
Categorized by theme, the rest of July's
batch of Muslim persecution of Christians includes (but is not limited to) the
following:
Attacks
on Churches
Egypt: Muslims angered
by the installation of a church bell—under Sharia, churches must not offend
Muslims by ringing bells—went on a violent spree, attacking among others a
5-month pregnant Christian woman and others who were "beaten with iron
rods and pipes."
Indonesia:
Christians were forced out of a church building and hounded even as they tried
to worship at the side of the road.
Nigeria:
Two churches were bombed simultaneously; at least three Christians died, several
were injured.
Pakistan:
Under accusations of "blasphemy," and with the help of a local
politician, Muslims attempted to annex a Christian hospital established in 1922
by missionaries.
Tanzania:
Muslims burned down two churches to cries of "away with the church—we do
not want infidels to spoil our community," and vows not to befriend
"infidels."
Sexual
Abuse of Christian Women and Misogyny:
Egypt: Muslims
"severely sexually harassed" a Christian woman in front of her
husband at a bus terminal; when her husband tried to defend her honor, he was
violently beaten. Soon afterwards, thousands of Muslims in the region began
looting and torching Christian property, screaming "Allahu Akbar!"
and "cursing the cross." Also, a Muslim ring using sexual coercion to convert Christian girls was
exposed.
Pakistan:
Newlyweds run for their lives, because the man is Christian, the woman Muslim.
Under Sharia, the leader of the household, the man, must be Muslim. Says a
Pakistani Muslim scholar: "I condemn this marriage, I call it illegal,
these two could be killed for what they did."
Apostasy
and Proselytizing
Iran:
A Christian pastor faces the death penalty for "convert(ing) to
Christianity" and "encourag(ing) other Muslims to convert to
Christianity." Even if he is found innocent of apostasy, the charge of
evangelizing Muslims will still carry a severe penalty.
Saudi
Arabia: A captured Christian pastor is set to be deported to Muslim Eritrea , where
he faces the death penalty.
General
Killing of Christians
Ivory
Coast: Muslims crucify two Christian brothers on "the example of
Christ" and in accordance to Koran 5:33: "The pair were badly beaten
and tortured before being crudely nailed to cross-shaped planks by their hands
and feet with steel spikes."
Why 'Christian' Persecution?
by
Raymond Ibrahim
September
9, 2011
Some are asking why my new monthly series,
"Muslim Persecution of Christians," wherein I collate and assess some
of the atrocities committed by Muslims against Christians, does not include the
persecution of other religious minority groups; others are suggesting I broaden
my scope to include all minorities,
for instance, homosexuals.
Of course other minority groups—essentially
any religion other than Islam (or even the wrong kind of Islam, e.g., Shi'ism,
Sufism)—experience persecution in the Muslim world. Accordingly, others
qualified in the particulars of the various religions and civilizations
persecuted by Islam are encouraged to collate and comment on them, monthly or
otherwise.
That said, a series documenting the
persecution of Christians under Islam is necessary for several reasons:
First, most religious persecution in the
Muslim world is by far directed against Christians. Several reasons account for
this; for starters, sheer numbers: from Morocco in the west, to Pakistan in the
east, and throughout most of Africa, wherever Muslims make a majority, there
are more Christians than other religious minorities; this tends to be true even
along Islam's periphery, like Indonesia, which also has a significant Buddhist
and Hindu presence.
These large numbers are not simply a
reflection of proselytization, but the fact that much of what is today called
"the Muslim world" stands atop land that was seized by force and
conquest from Christians, whose descendants still remain, sometimes in large
numbers, such as Egypt, where the indigenous Copts make millions. (Unlike the
Jews, who managed to make it back to their ancestral homeland, these Christians
are already on their homeland and have nowhere to go.)
Moreover, by collating and tracing the same
patterns of abuse regarding all things intrinsically Christian—people,
churches, crosses, Bibles—one can better highlight and articulate the issue as
a distinct phenomenon, which it is.
It is true that Muslim aggression and violence
knows no bound and is regularly directed against all non-Muslims in general.
But it is equally true that the wider the scope, the more the net catches, the
more generic the anecdotes become, the more they are liable to be dismissed by
the mainstream as a product of non-ideological factors (from poverty to
politics), even though that is not the case.
On the other hand, by focusing on one group,
one phenomenon, one can more clearly and unequivocally connect the dots,
present a more focused case.
For example, while Muslim animus for Israel is
interconnected to Muslim animus for Christians and others, it should be, and
is, highlighted as a distinct phenomenon to be acknowledged and rectified. Were
one to lump Israel with the rest of the "others" on Islam's hit
list—Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sufis, homosexuals, et al—without giving it
any special attention, focus would be lost on the particulars of its fight, its
history, and all the other aspects that make its conflict singular.
Accordingly, even though connecting the
various manifestations of Muslim aggression is useful, particularly as it
provides the big picture, when certain arenas reach a fever pitch, there is no
wrong that they be highlighted separately, say, through one monthly report.
There are, of course, practical issues to
consider as well: a document collating all Muslim
aggression and persecution would not only be too cumbersome and long to read,
but redundant; better simply to visit Jihad Watch for a comprehensive survey of
Islam's daily doings.
Finally, one needs to be knowledgeable of the
history and civilizations of the peoples being persecuted in order to do them
justice, to demonstrate historical continuity, show past precedents, connect
the dots, etc. And while I'm intimately acquainted with the particulars of
Muslim-Christian interactions—historically, theologically, even personally—I'm
less so with the particulars of, say, Muslim-Buddhist interactions.
I therefore leave it to others to highlight
the various minority groups' plights—ideally not merely by listing the various
anecdotes, but by demonstrating continuity for that particular group's history
with Islam.
1 comment:
Well maybe the Christians in the USA can go over and help them, like they did when they went to Uganda (many times over many years, and many other countries at tax payers expense) to help them write a law that sentenced gay people to death. This has been put on hold for now because of all the international attention, but Uganda's president and law makers are planning on moving forward to install a law that puts people to death for being gay.
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