The attack occurred on the evening of April 15 at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church (CGSC) in Wakeley, and was captured on a live stream. A teenager wearing a black hoodie approached Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, drew a switchblade and proceeded to stab the Assyrian Orthodox cleric. Three other individuals in the congregation who intervened, including Father Isaac Royel, also suffered injuries.
The suspect, who was restrained by parishioners following the attack, reportedly said in Arabic: "If he wasn't criticizing my prophet [Muhammad] and my religion [Islam], I wouldn't have come or attacked." The remark was also recorded during the live stream. Law enforcement arrested the 16-year-old suspect immediately after the attack, and questioned him over his motives.
According to Channel News Asia, "the Wakeley neighborhood is a hub for Sydney's small Christian Assyrian community, many of whom fled persecution and war in Iraq and Syria. The church holds a prayer session every Monday evening and streams its sermons on its social media page."
Emmanuel was first ordained as a deacon in the late 1990s. He was ordained a priest in 2009 and became a bishop two years later in 2011. Emmanuel established CGSC in 2015 and eventually gained a following on social media.
During the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the bishop became notorious for speaking out against the medical tyranny prevalent at the time in the form of social restrictions and vaccine mandates. He described such actions as "mass slavery."
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"Are we humans? Because we are being treated like animals," Emmanuel said in a sermon from 2021. "They are encouraging people to go and take [the COVID-19] vaccine and stay at home. They have had enough."
Man shot at Catholic church in Istanbul back in January
The April 15 stabbing of Emmanuel and four others is not the first instance of radical Muslims committing violence in Christian churches. Back in January of this year, a man was shot during a Catholic Mass at a church in the city of Istanbul in Turkey.
According to LifeSiteNews, 52-year-old Turkish national Tuncer Cihan was shot and killed on Jan. 28 at the Santa Maria Church. As the Body of Christ was being raised, two masked men opened fire on Cihan – killing the victim and causing panic in the congregation. "The [pews] and walls [of the church] were peppered with bullet holes," the Associated Press (AP) said in a separate report.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took credit for Cihan's killing through its media outlet Amaq News Agency. According to the radical Islamist group, individuals affiliated with it "attacked a gathering of Christian unbelievers during their polytheistic ceremony." (Related: ISIS takes credit for fatal shooting during Catholic Mass in Istanbul.)
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the suspects behind the attack had been apprehended. He added that police raided 30 locations and took some 47 others into custody in connection with the murder of Cihan.
"Both of the suspects are foreign nationals. One of them is from Tajikistan and the other is Russian, and evaluated them to be with [ISIS]," Yerlikaya told reporters during a news briefing.
Emphasizing that Ankara "strongly condemns" the killing of Cihan, the interior minister continued: "We will never tolerate those who try to disrupt the peace of our country – terrorists; their collaborators; both national and international criminal groups; and those who aim at our unity and solidarity."
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Watch this clip of the April 15 stabbing incident that injured Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
This video is from the CreeperStatus channel on Brighteon.com.
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