Recently a prominent Palestinian Christian activist living in Gaza was murdered, sending a jolt of fear through the small minority Christian community living in the Hamas-controlled region, reported the Associated Press (AP). Rami Khader Ayyad, the 32-year-old director of the Teacher’s Bookshop, Gaza’s only Christian bookstore, was found lying dead on the street with a gunshot wound to the head. He was also stabbed numerous times. Simon Azazian, a spokesman at the Palestinian Bible Society, a group associated with the victim’s bookstore, told the AP that Christians in Gaza believe Ayyad was martyred. “We feel Rami was killed for his Christian faith,” he said. Earlier this year, Ayyad’s bookstore was firebombed. He reportedly received death threats on a regular basis for what Muslim extremists perceived as his evangelistic work.
