News
PAKISTAN: Christian Stoned to Death for Ordering Tea from 'Muslim-Only' Stall
Recent reports from the Punjab have highlighted a grievous case of religious violence. On 9 May, Ishtiaq Masih had disembarked from a bus that had stopped in Machharkay village to give the passengers an opportunity for rest and refreshment. A sign hung on the roadside tea stall, which read, "All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This stall serves Muslims only." Ishtiaq failed to see this and paid for the mistake with his life. [more...]
EGYPT: Village Christians in Hiding after Clash
Nearly 1,000 Coptic Christians are hiding in their homes after clashes erupted Sunday 21 June between them and their village’s majority- Muslim population over the use of a three-story building belonging to the Coptic Church. When on Sunday at 11am. a group of 25 Christians from Cairo stopped in Ezbet Boshra-East, a village of about 3,000 people three hours south of Cairo by car, few villagers failed to take notice. [more...]
IRAN: Scraps Mandatory Death Penalty for ‘Apostates’
A member of Iran’s Parliament reportedly revealed last week that the country’s Parliamentary Committee has stricken the mandatory death penalty for those who leave Islam from proposals for an amended penal code. [more...]
MAURITANIA: Islamic Extremists Kill U.S. Aid Worker
Funeral services have been held for a U.S. teacher in Mauritania who was shot dead last week by Islamic extremists for spreading Christianity. Christopher Leggett, 39, was killed Tuesday 23 June in front of the language and computer school he operated in Nouakchott, the capital city. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, North African unit of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, claimed responsibility for the murder on an Internet site, accusing Leggett of “missionary activities.” [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamists Behead Two Sons of Christian Leader
Islamic extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father. Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, 55-year-old Musa Mohammed Yusuf was the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometres from Kismayo in Somalia. [more...]
TANZANIA: Two Church Buildings Burned Down in Zanzibar
Two church buildings were razed Sunday night 28 June on the island of Zanzibar after worship services. Suspected radical Muslims set the church buildings on fire on the outskirts of Unguja Township, on the Tanzanian island off the coast of East Africa, in what church leaders called the latest incidents of a rising tide of religious intolerance. [more...]
INDONESIA: Bold Witness for Christ
On the evening of 23 December 2004, after a worship service at the church, Santoso and his wife went to spend the night at his parents' house. He decided it wasn't safe to stay overnight in the church. "The following morning as I was praying with my wife, I didn't feel afraid. Instead I was filled with peace unlike anything I had ever felt before. "Later that morning, Santoso borrowed a friend's motorbike because he wanted to return to the church. After completing his work he asked if someone from the congregation would follow him back to his parents' house. They were only one kilometre from the church when some men came out of the bushes. "At that moment, I didn't feel afraid at all even though I saw one of them holding a machete. I thought he was a nice guy who just worked with his machete at the plantation nearby," Santoso said. [more...]
INDONESIA: Underground Church Growing In Muslim Dominated Area
Churches on the tsunami-ravaged coast of Indonesia are experiencing a wave of conversions and healings. In the strongly Muslim Aceh province of northern Sumatra where 167,000 people died in the 2004 tsunami, the underground church movement is growing. Indonesia has an official policy of religious tolerance, but in Muslim-dominated areas Christians face open hostility and persecution. In Aceh province, churches must register with the authorities and are not permitted to evangelise. Many Christians choose to meet in unregistered, or underground, churches. [more...]
IRAN: Unrest May Signal Good News for Christians
Defying a government ban to hold a rally, an estimated 100,000 Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi. He's the moderate presidential candidate who says he is the rightful winner in Iran's hotly-contested presidential elections last week. In the wake of these protests, Iran's supreme leader ordered the Guardian Council to investigate presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's claims of electoral fraud. [more...]
YEMEN: Christian Relief Workers Abducted and Killed In Yemen
On 12 June, nine Christian foreigners were abducted and three of them killed in Yemen. Reports indicate that they were targeted because they were Christian relief workers suspected of being involved in evangelistic work. According to officials, the Christians left the city of Sa'ada without an armed escort to visit a doctor who lives nearby. The believers left the doctor's home after two hours. Eyewitnesses saw a group of armed men stop the Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Woman Facing Blasphemy Charges
Thirty-seven-year-old Asia Bibi was recently arrested by police on allegations of blasphemy in the village of Ittanwali, Punjab province, Pakistan. On 19 June, some of the Muslim women who work with Bibi on a farm owned by a local Muslim engaged in a heated discussion with Bibi about Islam. Bibi told them that Christ died on the cross for their sins and asked them what Mohammed had done for them. "Our Christ is the true prophet of God and yours is not true," Bibi said. The Muslim women became angry and began to beat her. [more...]
VIETNAM: Police Attack House Church, Jail Leaders
Police invaded the Sunday service of the Agape Baptist congregation in Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province on 7 June and beat worshippers, including women, and arrested a pastor and an elder. Christian sources said police put the two church leaders into separate cells, and each man was beaten by a gang of five policemen. Pastor Duong Van Tuan of the house church in Hamlet 3, Ong Dinh Commune, Khoai Chau district said that officers beat them in a way that did not leave marks: hard blows to the stomach. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Family of Kidnapped Pastor Flee Home
The wife and children of Pastor William Reyes, who was kidnapped last September in Colombia and is still missing, have moved from their home to another city due to threatening strangers presumably linked to his kidnappers. Compass learned that Idia Miranda Reyes, her son William, 19, and daughters Luz Nelly, 17, and Estefania, 9, suddenly left their home in Maicao in the department (state) of La Guajira two months ago and moved to an undisclosed location in the country. [more...]
North Korean Fax threatens Voice of the Martyrs Project
An anonymous fax believed to have been sent from the North Korean embassy for Finland promises workers affiliated with Voice of the Martyrs that "something very bad will happen to you" if Voice of the Martyrs continues a special project to share the Gospel via weekly fax transmissions to government and business representatives of the restricted Asian nation.
During the past year Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has made an effort to collect as many fax numbers as possible inside North Korea, one of the world's most isolated nations. VOM sends weekly faxes containing Christian messages and Scripture passages on love and forgiveness to each of the fax numbers. [more...]
BELARUS: Largest Fine yet For Unregistered Religious Activity
Belarus has imposed its largest fine yet for unregistered religious activity. A court in the eastern town of Osipovichi fined local Baptist Nikolai Poleshchuk the equivalent of almost three months' average salary in the town and another Baptist received a warning for running a Christian street library. However, Belarus' Supreme Court changed an earlier court order to destroy Bibles and New Testaments confiscated from Poleshchuk - they have been handed to the state instead. [more...]
LAOS: Thirteen Christians Arrested
On 12 June, thirteen Christians were arrested by plain clothes police, after visiting Christian villages in Laos, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts.
The visiting believers met the police when they were in the village for their routine daily work. The police questioned them about what they were doing in the village. The police have not disclosed why they arrested the believers and at last report the Christians are still being held at a provincial police station. [more...]
EGYPT: Rescue of Coptic Girl Prompts Muslim Attack
Egyptian news sources report security forces have wrongly detained two Christians for nearly a month as part of a ruse to cast a Muslim attack on Copts as “sectarian violence.” Violence broke out last month in the village of Toma, near El-Mahalla El-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta, when local Muslims attacked Copts who had rescued Nermeen Mitry, 16; Muslims had kidnapped the Coptic girl and tried to convert her to Islam, according to Assyrian International News Agency. [more...]
EGYPT: Right to Convert to Second Christian Denied
A Cairo judge on Saturday (13 June) rejected an Egyptian convert’s attempt to change his identification card’s religious status from Muslim to Christian, the second failed attempt to exercise constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom by a Muslim-born convert to Christianity. For Maher El-Gohary, who has been attacked on the street, subjected to death threats and driven into hiding as a result of opening his case 10 months ago, Saturday’s outcome provided nothing in the way of consolation. [more...]
TURKEY: Iranian Refugee Beaten for His Faith
Since Iranian native Nasser Ghorbani fled to Turkey seven years ago, he has been unable to keep a job for more than a year – eventually his co-workers would ask why he didn’t come to the mosque on Fridays, and one way or another they’d learn that he was a convert to Christianity. Soon thereafter he would be gone. Never had anyone gotten violent with him, however, until three weeks ago, when someone at his workplace in Istanbul hit him on the temple so hard he knocked him out. When he came back to his senses, Ghorbani was covered in dirt, and his left eye was swollen shut. It hurt to breathe; his whole body was in pain. He had no idea what had happened. “I’ve always had problems at work in Turkey because I’m a Christian, but never anything like this,” Ghorbani told Compass. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Attack Pastor’s Home
In a growing culture of violence, a traffic incident in Punjab Province this month led to Muslim assailants later mounting an attack on the home of a Christian pastor they have increasingly resented for his evangelism and justice ministries. The attackers threatened more violence if the pastor does not drop assault charges. A few of the 17 assailants struck the mother and sister-in-law of pastor Riaz Masih with rifle butts after the pastor’s brother, who lives at the same multi-housing complex as Masih in Kila Sardar Shah, Sheikhupura district, on 1 June complained to a local councillor about the official nearly driving into his sons. [more...]
CHINA: Renewal of Licenses for Human Rights Lawyers Refused
Li Dunyong, one of several lawyers involved in the defence of Uyghur house church Christian Alimjan Yimit (Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese), was effectively disbarred at the end of May when Chinese authorities turned down an annual application to renew his law license. Zhang Kai, another Beijing lawyer who had defended Alimjan, suffered the same fate. Authorities failed to renew licenses for at least 15 other lawyers who had defended civil rights cases, religious and ethnic minorities and political dissidents, according to watch group Human Rights in China (HRIC). [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Christians Standing Steadfastly In Prayer
In light of the recent defiant missile launches by Kim Jong-ll and his regime in North Korea, the eyes of the world are nervously watching the impoverished country. Christian Believers and the underground Church in North Korea are stepping up their intercession and have launched an evangelistic prayer campaign amid the darkness of their oppression. Carl Moeller, President of Open Doors USA noted, "Christians in North Korea are suffering terribly for their faith. An estimated 40,000 to 60,000 are Christians are suffering for their faith in prison." [more...]
NEPAL: Hindu Group Demand All Christians Leave
A Hindu extremist group calling itself the Nepal Defence Army (NDA) has demanded that all Christians leave the country. A statement released by the group said, "We want all the 1 million Christians out of the country, if not we will plant 1 million bombs in all the houses where Christians live and detonate them." NDA is believed to comprise former soldiers, former policemen and victims of Maoist guerrillas. It claims to have trained suicide bombers to fight communists, Christians and Muslims. The shadowy group's main objective is to restore Nepal as a Hindu nation. [more...]
IRAQ: Five-Year-Old Christian Boy Kidnapped and Killed
A five-year-old boy has become the latest casualty of what appears to be a concerted campaign to attack Iraqi Christians. The body of Tony Adwar Shaweel was found in the Roofya area of Akra, two months after an unknown group abducted the child and demanded a $50,000 ransom. He had been shot several times. [more...]
CHINA: Pastor Hua Huiqi Beaten by Authorities
On the morning of 5 June, Pastor Hua Huiqi was arrested by police officers from Shanxi province and Beijing when he was transferring trains at the Taiyuan Railroad Station in Shanxi, according to a report from ChinaAid. Hua was taken to a hotel and severely beaten by officials. One of the officials reportedly said to him: "I'm going to strangle you and I'd like to see whether you can still preach the Gospel.... Our Domestic Security Protection Squad is specially set up here to suppress you Jesus believers." [more...]
INDIA: Church Closed Down; Pastor Beaten
On 7 June, a group of police officers and Hindu militants disrupted a worship service being held in the newly built Indian Apostolic church building in Chennagiri village, Davanagere district in Karnataka state. The police claimed that the church was opened with an illegal license. The pastor explained that he had already obtained the necessary permission from authorities but was told that no churches were allowed in the village since they were engaged in "conversion activities." All of the church members were sent away and the building was locked up. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: Five Days Jail for Unregistered Worship
Kazakhstan has given Baptist Pastor Vasily Kliver a five day jail term because he refused to pay fines for leading unregistered worship. Judge Zhanar Zhubatova of the Administrative Court in Aktobe told Forum 18 that the sentence is "not persecution." Asked why he Kliver is being punished for unregistered worship, Judge Zhubatova replied "it's not for that" before putting down the telephone. Prior to Pastor Kliver's jail term, three Council of Churches pastors have been sentenced since 2007 to three-day prison terms, Forum 18 notes. [more...]
CHINA: Bookstore Owner Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
A Beijing court has found Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan guilty of “illegal business operation” and sentenced him to three years in prison and a 150,000 yuan ($A 27,340) fine. Sources said Shi’s store operated legally, sold only books for which he had obtained government permission, and that his Holy Spirit Trading Co. printed Bibles and Christian literature without authorisation but only for free distribution to local house churches. The 38-year-old Shi had been released on 4 January, 2008 due to insufficient evidence for the same vague charge of “illegal business operation,” but he was arrested again two month later, on 19 March, and held virtually incommunicado. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Forces 12-year-old Girl to Convert, Marry Him
The Christian mother of a 12-year-old girl in Punjab Province who was kidnapped, coerced into converting to Islam and forcibly married to a 37-year-old Muslim hopes to recover her daughter at a court hearing today. The reaction of Pakistani law enforcement authorities to Sajida Masih’s complaint so far – ridiculing her and asserting that there is nothing she can do because her daughter is now a Muslim – does not encourage her hopes of recovering her daughter Huma at the 11 June hearing. [more...]
EGYPT: Enforced Slaughter of Pigs Damages Livelihoods of Local Christians
At the height of the swine flu outbreak in April, local Christians in Egypt and Jordan were deprived of a major source of income. In Egypt, the Health Minister ordered the slaughter of all pigs, approximately 300,000 animals. The rate of compensation was around 25 Egyptian pounds per pig ($A6). [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Brutally Attacked
In May 2009, Pastor Ramesh Mandevey was brutally attacked by 10 Hindu extremists, while he was returning from visiting a believer’s home in Tundavata, Madhya Pradesh, India, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. [more...]
NEPAL: Christians Little Consoled by Arrest in Church Bombing
Vikash and Deepa Patrick had been married for nearly four months before the young couple living in Patna in eastern India managed to go on their honeymoon. The decision to come to Nepal would be a choice the groom will rue the rest of his life. Vikash Patrick’s 19-year-old bride died while praying at the Assumption Church in Kathmandu valley’s Lalitpur district, the largest Catholic church in Nepal, in an anti-Christian bombing on 23 May, the day the couple was to return home. [more...]
INDIA: Homes burned, paramilitary forces withdrawn in Orissa
On 30 May, Hindu militants set fire to six Christian homes in Kisapanga village in Kandhamal district, Orissa, according to a report from All India Christian Council. Approximately 2,500 of the tens of thousands of people displaced by the August 2008 mob violence remain in relief camps and are fearful to return to their villages. The central government in India recently decided to withdraw paramilitary forces from the district within a month, triggering concern among Christians of further violence.
Source: VOM Canada
[more...]
BANGLADESH: Muslim Villagers Beat Evangelists
Nearly four months after Muslim villagers in this southeastern Bangladesh sub-district furiously beat two evangelists for showing the “Jesus Film,” one of the Christians is still receiving treatment for nerve damage to his hip. Christian Life Bangladesh worker Edward Biswas, 32, was admitted to Alabakth Physiotherapy Centre on 5 May. Dr. Mohammad Saifuddin Julfikar told Compass that injuries Biswas sustained from the February attack in Feni district, some 150 kilometres southeast of Dhaka, had led to neurological complications in his hip. “His hip joint was displaced, and one bone in the hip was fractured,” Julfikar said. [more...]
EGYPT: Two Copts Re-Arrested in Abu Fana Murder
Police this month released two Copts wrongfully arrested for killing a Muslim during an attack on Abu Fana monastery in Egypt in May 2008, but then re-arrested them as part of an intimidation campaign against Christians, their lawyer said. More worrisome to the Christians in custody is that their fate most likely will be decided outside of the justice system, in “reconciliation meetings.” The state prosecutor investigating the case has not announced the results of his findings on the true identity of the murderer, as he is awaiting the outcome of the out-of-court talks between Copts and local Muslims. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamic Radicals Storm Pakistani ‘Blasphemy’ Hearing
Radical Pakistani Muslims in a town outside of Lahore overran a courtroom in hopes of swaying a judge in a “blasphemy” case against a Christian couple, and a member of the prosecution later threatened to kill the wife. Some 50 molvis (Muslim clergy) on 14 May burst into the courtroom in Mustafabad, where a bail hearing was taking place in the case against Munir Masih and his wife Ruqiya Bibi, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). [more...]
THE GOSPEL INVADES ENEMY TERRITORY
"Jesus told me to go. He never said I would come back. Isn't this the life of a Christian?" At nearly 70 years of age, Celso is full of life and actively evangelises in dangerous areas of Colombia. His smile is contagious and his testimony is amazing. [more...]
EGYPT: Threat of Swine Flu Used to Persecute Copts
In Egypt, a largely Muslim country, pigs are farmed in small quantities by poor Coptic Christians (Copts). In Cairo there is an area known as "Garbage City" where those Copts known as "zabaleen" (Arabic for garbage man) are living together with the garbage that they collect from the city and recycle for a living. In order for the "zabaleen" to generate extra income, they began to raise pigs. Pork is consumed only by Christians in Egypt. In spite of the fact that there was no case of influenza among Egyptians, the ruling regime made the decision to conduct a mass killing of all the local pigs. [more...]
CHINA: All 16 Christians Released From Prison in Henan
On the afternoon of 9 May, the remaining 16 Christians from China Gospel Fellowship (CGF) house church group who were imprisoned by the Security Bureau (PSB) in Xinye, Henan province were released early from administrative detention. Even though the prisoners had not completed their sentences of 10-14 days in detention or paid their fines of 1,000 Yuan ($A185), the officials did not require any other terms for their release. ChinaAid sources said the early release of the prisoners was due to pressure from the international community and meant that, “the government admits what they did was wrong.” [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Bible and Mel Gibson Film Banned in Karakalpakstan
Nurulla Zhamolov, the senior religious affairs official in Karakalpakstan Region in north-western Uzbekistan has banned the Bible, the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ", and other religious literature. The bans state that the material - which also includes a hymn book, a Bible Encyclopaedia, a Bible dictionary, and a children's Bible - is "banned for import, distribution or use in teaching." [more...]
ZANZIBAR: Radical Muslims Drive Church from Worship Place
Worship in a house church near Zanzibar City, on a Tanzanian island off the coast of East Africa, did not take place for the third week running on Sunday 24 May after Muslim extremists expelled worshippers from their rented property. Radical Muslims on 9 May drove members of Zanzibar Pentecostal Church from worship premises in a rented house at Ungunja Ukuu, on the outskirts of Zanzibar City. [more...]
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Facing Threat From Militant Islam
According to the Anglican Bishop of Malaita Sam Sahu, militant Islam poses a threat to social stability in the Solomon Islands Muslim missionaries funded by Malaysian and Saudi Islamist groups have led to heightened tensions in the South Pacific nation, which erupted in violence in December after a Muslim leader attacked an Anglican priest. The attack was allegedly in retaliation for Anglican youths having throne stones at a Muslim League truck, police said. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Families Flee Violence
Aid groups estimate that nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military in Swat, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. Most of the displaced people who have fled Swat are in temporary shelter and the numbers of families arriving at the makeshift camps are increasing with each passing day. Swat Valley Christians are amongst the displaced people and are in particular need of assistance because of the discrimination they suffer in daily life and even now as refugees. Some families have had to flee the valley on foot as they had no money for transport, and they were unable to stock up on resources before escaping the war-ravaged area. Pakistani Christians, who are often poor day labourers, are particularly vulnerable in the mass exodus as prices of transport and products rise sharply. [more...]
EGYPT: Stabbing, Bombing Attacks Strike near Two Churches
In separate attacks in Egypt earlier this month, a Coptic Christian suffered severe stab wounds as he left a worship service in Minya, and a car-bombing outside a venerable church in Cairo disrupted a wedding. Without provocation, three Muslims repeatedly stabbed Coptic Christian Girgis Yousry, 21, as the army conscript was leaving the gates of the church of Saint Mary in Minya, Upper Egypt on 2 May, according to Copts United. The assault left him with severe injuries to internal organs, and he was taken to the district hospital, where he was still receiving treatment at press time. Three men were arrested on 5 May and were given a 16-day initial incarceration while the case was investigated. [more...]
EGYPT: Christian Man Kidnapped by Muslims
Twenty one year old Mina Basily was abducted from his home in Alexandria by four Muslim men on 6 May, according to Middle East Christian Association. Muslims armed with swords, sticks and knives broke into the Basily family's home, assaulted Mina and forced him into a car parked outside. Neighbours who witnessed the kidnapping were too fearful to intervene. The police initially refused to file an official report of kidnapping, even though officers questioned witnesses and visited the Basily's home, which was still spattered with blood from the attack. The report was only issued after the family appealed to the Chief Prosecutor of the Montaza district. [more...]
INDIA: Churches Attacked, Believers Beaten
On 5 May, Hindu militants attacked approximately 200 Christians gathered together for a meeting in Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra state, according to a 6 May report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India. The militants forcefully entered the building, blocked the exits and ordered the believers to chant "Jai Shri Ram" (Praise Lord Ram). Those who refused were beaten. Several were injured, including a 5-year-old girl and a pastor who required five stitches in his head. [more...]
ERITREA: Three Christians Released
Three Christian women were released from an Eritrean military camp on 8 May, according to the Dutch branch of Open Doors. All three were originally detained for being members of a "banned" Christian movement after openly expressing their faith in a predominately Muslim village. A friend of one of the women arranged to have her arrested after she shared with him that she had converted from Islam to Christianity. [more...]
VIETNAM: Hmong Church Threatened with Demolition Yet Again
A group of Christians fled persecution in north-west Vietnam only to have their new church in the Central Highlands demolished – and they may soon face the same trauma again. Last December, local officials and police destroyed the Cu Hat church in the Central Highlands on the ground that it was ‘illegally constructed’. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Pressed as Military Battles Taliban
Pakistani Christians in Swat Valley are caught between the Taliban and the Pakistani military as it assaults the stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules. Nearly 15,000 troops have been deployed in the picturesque Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province and neighbouring Afghanistan. [more...]
INDONESIA: Muslim Group Threatens Newly Elected Christian
An Islamic group in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, has issued threats against Dominikus Supriyanto, the only Catholic to win a seat in the district legislature in recent general elections, warning him that he should convert to Islam if he wants to retain the seat. [more...]
INDONESIA: Protestant Clergyman and Wife Killed with Machetes
Police found Rev Frans Koagow, 64, and his wife Femy Kumendong, 73, at their home, dead, killed with machetes. The couple lived in Manado, capital of North Sulawesi province, where a majority of Sulawesi Island Christians live. Most local Christians are Protestant. [more...]
VIETNAM: Alleged Murderer of Christian Strikes Again
A Hmong man in Vietnam’s Northwest Mountainous Region who murdered his mother in February because she had become a Christian has assaulted another Christian, leaving him critically wounded, according to area Christian sources. Lao Lia Po on 25 April viciously beat Koua Lo of Meo Vac district, Ha Giang Province, because he had become a Christian, according to a local church leader. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Attack Christians Following Blasphemy Accusations
On 1 May, a mob of approximately 500 armed Muslims launched attacks on Christians in the village of Chak, Punjab province, after five local believers were arrested for blasphemy. [more...]
LIBYA: Christian Released from Prison
Daniel Baidoo, a Ghanaian Christian who was convicted of attempting to convert Libyans to Christianity and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2001, was released from Libya's Jedidah Prison on 29 April. Baidoo was arrested at a post office where he had gone to collect a parcel of Arabic Christian literature mailed to him from a ministry in the United States. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Violence Erupts as Government Seeks to Control Taliban
Helicopter gunships and artillery have swung into action against the Taliban in Pakistan. An estimated 800,000 people are on the run as the government tries to pound the Taliban back into line. While many of the refugees are heading for relatives' homes, humanitarian agencies are struggling to accommodate the thousands pouring into refugee camps. Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs notes that the stakes are high for believers. "The Taliban do not want a Christian presence in the area that they control. They do not really want a Christian presence in Pakistan, at all." [more...]
VIETNAM: Woman Imprisoned for Praying
Concern is growing for a Vietnamese Christian who has not been seen since officials seized her a year ago. Puih H’Bat, an ethnic minority Montagnard and mother of four children, ran into trouble by leading prayer meetings in her home in Ploi Bang village. Police raided one such meeting at Puih’s home on 9 April last year. Officers tried to force all 20 Christians present to sign documents agreeing to join the government-sanctioned Evangelical Church of Vietnam. They all refused. Two days later, at 4am, the police arrested Puih and took her into custody. [more...]
INDIA: Christian Pastors Attacked
On 20 April a group of Sikhs in Dalli Rajhara, Durg district, attacked Christian pastors who had converted from the Sikh religion. A source told Compass the pastors were guest speakers from New Delhi at a Christian event organised by Christian Community Church, where about 200 people were in attendance. [more...]
INDONESIA: Church’s Permit Revoked
Church members in Depok city, West Java, are unable to use their church building after the mayor, citing protests from area Muslims, revoked a permit issued in 1998. Under a Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) issued in 1969 and revised in 2006, all religious groups in Indonesia must apply for permits to establish and operate places of worship. [more...]
Burma: The Land of Soft Whispers
Lydia's Testimony
In 1999, a Baptist church where my father used to be a minister decided to petition the Japanese Embassy for assistance in supplying electricity to every home in the village. They asked me to help prepare the application. The Japanese accepted the application I prepared and in 2000, the electricity project was completed.
A government official had a misunderstanding with the church about the project and wrote letters to the government complaining about the people who had been involved with the project. In 2002, intelligence officers came to my apartment demanding I go to the capital city of my state to answer questions. They said that I must sign a paper promising never to help with anything like this without government permission. [more...]
VIETNAM: Massive Christian Celebration Allowed
In what religious freedom advocates regarded as a breakthrough in Vietnam, authorities granted rare permission to unregistered house church groups to hold a large, public Easter-related service in Ho Chi Minh City on 21 April. More than 15,000 people gathered at Tao Dan Stadium to worship God, proclaim Christ and experience a rare sense of large-scale Christian unity, especially house church members accustomed to meeting in small groups. The only other such event granted to unregistered groups was an open-air meeting during Christmas of 2007, sponsored by the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF, a house church umbrella group). At the Easter event, the VEF endeavored to include all house churches, not just its own members, sources said. [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Christians Question Regime's Claims
Even as the North Korean government this month allowed two high-profile, US Christian bands to perform at a music festival in Pyongyang, the fear of punishment which authorities have instilled in North Korean Christians keeps most of them from publicly revealing their faith. As many as 400,000 Christians are estimated to worship secretly in the country, and Suzanne Scholte, head of the North Korean Freedom Coalition (NKFC), estimates that more than 200,000 North Koreans are held in political prison camps for various perceived ‘disloyalties’ to the regime, including adherence to Christianity. Christian support group Open Doors estimates that of the 200,000 people incarcerated in political prison camps, at least 40,000 are Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Taliban-Inspired Attacks Hit Christians
As Taliban control hits pockets of Pakistan and threatens the nation’s stability, Christians worry their province could be the next to fall under Islamic law. Violence on Tuesday night and Wednesday (21-22 April) near the port city of Karachi – some 1,000 kilometers from the Swat valley, where the government officially allowed the Taliban to establish Islamic law this month – heightened fears. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Christian Blogger Released
In a surprise move, a Saudi Christian arrested in January for describing his conversion from Islam and criticizing the kingdom’s judiciary on his blog site was released on 28 March with the stipulation that he not travel outside of Saudi Arabia or appear on media. Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri , 28, reportedly attributed his release to advocacy efforts by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). [more...]
SRI LANKA: Buddhist Mobs Attack Churches
Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka last week, threatening to kill a pastor in the southern province of Hambanthota and ransacking a 150-year-old Methodist church building in the capital. On 8 April, four Buddhist extremists approached the home of Pastor Pradeep Kumara in Weeraketiya, Hambanthota district, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. [more...]
CHINA: Detained Uyghur Christian Taken to Hospital
Family members of detained Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit are increasingly concerned for his safety following reports that police and a prison doctor escorted him in handcuffs to a hospital in Kashgar two weeks ago. Alimjan (Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese) called out to onlookers, “I’m sick. Tell my lawyer to come quickly to see me,” according to a China Aid Association (CAA) report. Sources told Compass that Alimjan had been beaten in prison. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Christians Acquitted of ‘Blasphemy’
After more than two years in a Pakistani jail, two elderly Christian men convicted of “blasphemy” against the Quran were acquitted on Thursday 16 April when a high court in Lahore overturned their 10-year sentence. [more...]
CHINA: PSB Officers Return 150,000 Yuan to Pastor Bike
On 17 April Pastor 'Bike' Zhang Mingxuan was summoned to the Nanyang Public Security Bureau (PSB) office where authorities returned the 150,000 yuan that officials had confiscated from him on 21 March by the Beijing PSB. This action came as a direct result of international pressure after ChinaAid sent out a press release on the story. Pastor Bike told ChinaAid sources, "The authorities gave the money back, because of the pressure. Hallelujah! We will continue the ministry and fight for religious freedom." [more...]
IRAQ: Four Christians killed in two days
Four Christians have been murdered in Iraq in the space of two days - confirming the church's fears that persecution is far from over.
Three Christians - Nimrud Khuder Moshi, Glawiz Nissan and Hanaa Issaq were murdered in Dora, a Christian neighbourhood of Baghdad, on 2 April. The previous day, Sabah Aziz Suliman, 60, was killed in Kirkuk, in the north of the country.
[more...]
SUDAN: Support for Sudan’s President Leads to Attacks on Churches
Support for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in the wake of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant is fast turning into orchestrated attacks on Christians. A thatched-grass building in the Nuba Mountains village of Chat, used by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Sudanese Church of Christ, is one of the latest targets of such attacks. [more...]
SUDAN: Converts from Islam Struggle to Survive
When Halima Bubkier of Sinar town converted from Islam to Christianity last year, initially her husband accepted it without qualms. News of her conversion spread quickly, the 35-year-old mother of three said, and last 14 September she came face to face with Islamic hardliners who felt her conversion to Christianity was an act of betrayal. A few weeks later, during the daily fasts and nightly feasts of Ramadan, the Islamists blocked her husband from the communal meals because of her change in faith; he subsequently attacked her and threw her out of their home. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Suspects in Rape of Christian Girl Cleared
Police have declared three Pakistani men innocent of raping a 13-year-old Christian girl despite eye witness accounts and medical evidence indicating their guilt. At a hearing in Nankana Sahib district court on 3 April, police from the Pakistani town of Sangla Hill, cleared 40-year-old Mohammed Shahbaz, 30-year-old Waqas Sadiq and 25-year-old Yousaf Sadiq of accusations of raping and threatening Ambreen Masih. [more...]
EGYPT: Coptic Church Issues First Conversion Certificate
In a bold move, Egypt’s Coptic Church has issued its first-ever certificate of conversion to a former Muslim, supporting his petition to have his national identification card denote his Christian faith. Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s request to legally convert is only the second case in Egypt of a Muslim-born citizen trying to change his religious affiliation to Christianity on identification documents. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: 15-Day Jail Term For Teaching Baptist Beliefs
A court in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent has given a 15-day prison term to Pavel Nenno, a deacon of a registered Baptist Church, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Nenno was prosecuted after a raid involving the NSS secret police on his home, where he was "feeding neglected children from poor families" Protestants told Forum 18. In a separate case, 17 people associated with a registered Bukhara Full Gospel church were each fined 100 times the minimum monthly salary, following a raid on a birthday party for a church member. [more...]
INDIA: General Elections Start 16 April
India has a long election season as more than 700 million votes need to be collected. Voting starts on 16 April and goes through until 13 May, with the results due to be announced on 16 May. Displaced Christians in Orissa living under constant threat of Hindutva violence wonder if they will even get to vote, let alone be able to vote freely. [more...]
LAOS: Khmu Christians Stand Firm Despite Intense Persecution
Fourteen Khmu Christian families in Laos are standing strong in their faith, despite the Communist government forcing them to relocate to another village and their homes and church building being destroyed, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. [more...]
INDIA: Murderer of Missionary Graham Staines Runs for Election
Dara Singh, responsible for the murder of the Australian Protestant missionary Graham Stewart Staines, is a candidate for the upcoming provincial elections in Orissa, in the district of Keonjhar.
The supporters of Dara, whose real name is Rabindra Kumar Pal, have presented him as an independent candidate for the legislative assembly of Ghasipura. Dara was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading the group that in the village of Manoharpur, on the night of 22 June, 1999, set fire to the station wagon of Graham Staines, killing the Australian lay missionary and his two sons, Philip, 7, and Timothy, 9.
[more...]
AZERBAIJAN: "We Have Long Been After You and Now We've Caught You!"
Police, the NSM secret police and the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations in Azerbaijan have all refused to explain why they raided a peaceful religious meeting. "We never engage in such acts," the NSM secret police told Forum 18 News Service. [more...]
IRAN: Two Iranian Women Arrested and Held in “Notorious” Prison
On 5 March, Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad and Maryam Rustampoor were arrested by Iranian security forces and labeled “anti-government activists,” according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN). [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: "We Just Need To Make Sure What They Teach In Their Homes"
Uzbekistan continues to penalise people who distribute religious literature. In two separate cases, Baptists from registered and unregistered churches are facing prosecution, fines and literature confiscations for distributing and possessing religious literature. In the case involving members of a registered church, a local official told Forum 18 that "we just need to make sure what they teach in their homes, and they need to get special permission to have religious activity in a private home." [more...]
MOROCO: Five Foreign Christians Deported
The Moroccan government announced on Sunday (29 March) it had expelled five female Christians for attempting to “proselytise” in the Islamic country, although sources said they were foreign visitors merely attending a Bible study with fellow Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Brace for Sharia in Pakistan’s Swat Valley
Just over two months since Pakistan’s Swat Valley turned into a Taliban stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules, the fate of the remaining Christians in the area is uncertain. In an effort to end a bloody two-year battle, the Islamabad administration struck a deal with Taliban forces surrendering all governance of Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province. Sources told Compass that in the violence that has killed and displaced hundreds, an estimated 500 Christians remain in the region. [more...]
INDIA: Gospel for Asia missionaries Beaten by Mob
Two Indian missionaries have been beaten by an anti-Christian mob in the state of Himacha Pradesh. Danny Yohannan, of Gospel For Asia (GFA), said a group of 30 extremists attacked the GFA missionaries. “[They] took them to the local temple and stripped them naked and made fun of them, took all their Gospel tracts and Bibles and burned them. Then they beat up the missionaries really bad. Then, they took them to the police station and had them arrested," he was quoted as saying by Mission Network News. [more...]
Sharia Law Tearing the West in Two
Sharia, or Islamic law, is gradually working its way into public life in Islamic and non-Islamic nations around the world. "Sharia law is a legal system on the teachings of the Qur'an, the Sunna and the Hadith of Mohammed applied into the community as the legal basis for life," said Jeff Hammond, a Christian who has lived and worked in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, for 35 years. "Christians are very concerned" Hammond explained. [more...]
ERITREA: Persecution Rages On
Persecution of Christians in Eritrea continues to be overlooked by many western nations despite the arrests of over 2000 believers. The Eritrean government claims no persons have been arrested based on their religious practises and in fact denies that any amount of religious disunity exists in the country. However, there has recently been reason to believe otherwise. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Six Months Later, Pastor Still Missing
Six months after the disappearance in Colombia of the Rev William Reyes of Maicao, La Guajira, no one knows what happened to him. This week marks six months of agonising uncertainty for the family of Rev Reyes. On 25 September 2008, the pastor of Light and Truth Inter-American Church disappeared en route home from a ministers’ meeting in Valledupar, a city in the neighbouring department (state) of Cesar. Family members and friends fear that guerrilla fighters kidnapped the veteran minister; they have not seen or heard from him since his disappearance. [more...]
ARMENIA: A "Serious Setback to the Development of a Modern, Progressive and Liberal Armenia"
Armenian human rights defenders and religious communities remain deeply concerned by many parts of the draft Religion Law. Serious concern has also been expressed about the proposed new Article 162 in the Criminal Code, which would punish the sharing of beliefs. Both drafts were approved by Parliament in their first readings. [more...]
CHINA: Gao Zhisheng Held Hostage
Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, has now been missing 50 days, and there is increasing concern for his life. He was last seen being hauled away from his home by more than a dozen police officers on 4 February. Reports from inside China indicate he is undergoing brutal torture.
The situation is critical, and with each day that passes, Gao Zhisheng's life hangs in the balance. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamist Violence Resurging
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have died in famine and conflict over recent decades as the country has suffered under a belligerent Soviet-backed dictatorship, poverty, famine, clan-based warlordism and now militant Islam. It is very easy to despair over Somalia as being no more than a land of war, chaos, lawlessness, hopelessness, tribalism, barbarism and Islam. The international community and the mainstream media seem to have largely abandoned Somalia, not least because it is simply too dangerous to visit. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamist Insurgency Threatens Christian Community
The Christians of Pakistan, already vulnerable and beleaguered, are now in serious danger from a rising tide of radical and violent Islamism. A Christian leader from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province told Barnabas Fund last week how the Taliban are trying to enforce their interpretation of Islam on the whole nation. “That is why the religious minorities fear for their safety and their future,” he said. He described how Christians, desperate to blend in for safety’s sake, are beginning to dress like Muslims and the Christian men to grow beards so that they look like Muslims.
[more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Faces ‘Blasphemy’ Abetting Charge
A Pakistani investigator has ruled out a charge against a Christian for “blaspheming Islam” but retained another for abetting blasphemy, and advocates worry the stigma of the charges could make him a target for local Islamists. Hector Aleem, 51, remains in Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. His lawyer said he believes law enforcement officers and community members framed Aleem for his social activism on behalf of Christians so that the stigma of the charges would subject him to the danger of violence.
[more...]
BRITAIN: Minister beaten after clashing with Muslims on his TV show
A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: "If you go back to the studio, we'll break your legs." [more...]
COLOMBIA: Leftist Guerrillas Threaten, Kill
Having been sentenced to die by leftist rebels for holding Christian worship services in 2006, a pastor in Colombia’s northern department of Arauca took seriously the death threats that guerrillas issued on Friday (13 March), according to Christian support organisation Open Doors.
[more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Four Protestants Jailed, Three More Detained In Homelessness Centre
Uzbekistan has imposed short jail terms on four Protestants, as well as detaining three more in a centre for the homeless. Three Protestants were each jailed for 15 days, after police raided a meal in a private home where the three were present, and three more were held in a homelessness centre for between four and eleven days. Asked why individuals must ask for permission to gather for a religious purpose, the judge told Forum 18 that "I am not a law-maker, and I don't want to discuss the law."
[more...]
IRAQ: Secular Parties Make Gains in Regional Elections
In what is potentially a good outcome for Christians in Iraq, the regional elections of 31 January produced significant gains for secular parties, and especially for religious parties that had adopted a more secular stance.
[more...]
TURKEY: School Textbook Encourages Prejudice and Discrimination
The Ministry of Education in Turkey has introduced a new textbook into its schools that encourages discrimination against the country's small Christian community. The book is aimed at 13-year-olds, and is published by Devlet [State] Books. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Girl Gang-Raped At Gunpoint
On 7 February an impoverished 13-year-old Christian girl in the Punjab province of Pakistan was gang-raped at gunpoint by five Islamic extremists. [more...]
CHINA: Court Says “Insufficient Evidence” for Pastor Lou Yuanqi’s Case, Yet Continues to Keep Him in Prison
Pastor Lou Yuanqi of Uygur Autonomous Region received a verdict of “insufficient evidence” and his case was sent back to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) by the prosecutor. The court said “'the facts used in the case are not clear, the evidence is insufficient.” Despite this ruling, Pastor Lou continues to be imprisoned. [more...]
KENYA: Church Struggling after Islamists Destroy Building
Six months after a gang of Muslim youths ruined a church building in a town in northern Kenya, Christians still worshipping in the sweltering heat of the open air say they feel disillusioned that officials have done nothing to punish the culprits or restore their structure. [more...]
INDIA: Persecution Persists, Prayer a Priority
A Christian in the state of Karnataka was recently the victim of a direct attack as his house was burned to the ground. Extremists threatened the believer to relinquish his home to their control. They wanted the property as a choice spot to build a Hindu Temple and verbally abused the man. He would not give in, explaining that the property belonged to his son by law. After several attempts to sway the believer, extremists returned with a final demand for the land, and he refused again. Two days later, extremists returned, drenched the house in petrol and set fire to it. [more...]
VIETNAM: Church Grows, Despite Opposition
While Vietnam has been dropped from the United States’ list of countries of particular concern, Christians are still reporting difficulties. Reports indicate churches have been destroyed by the government and believers have been forced to recant their faith. [more...]
NIGERIA: New attacks on Christians in Bauchi State
In spite of the fact that the government has declared a comprehensive curfew in the state capital, violent attacks against Christians continue in Bauchi State.
The violence began early on 21 February. In the latest figures, at least eleven people have been killed and over 1,500 displaced, and fourteen churches, eight vicarages, one mosque and around 150 homes and businesses have been destroyed. [more...]
INDIA: Christian Father of Two Murdered in Orissa
Family members of a Christian found murdered last week in the Pandagadu area of Orissa state’s Kandhamal district said they believe the killers were Hindu nationalists such as those responsible for more than two months of violent anti-Christian rioting last year.
[more...]
EGYPT: Islamic Lawyers Urge Death Sentence for Convert
In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death. More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday 22 February in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Charges Filed against Kidnappers of Young Sisters
After months of legal deadlock, lawyers in Pakistan said they have new hope they can restore to her family a 13-year-old Christian girl who was kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim. Saba Masih might be returned to her family, the lawyers said, if they can legally maneuver around Pakistani policemen who have stonewalled their attempts to pursue a kidnapping case against the captors. On Saturday (21 February) a Pakistani judge charged the suspects with kidnapping for the first time in the seven-month legal ordeal. [more...]
Iran's War on Christianity
There is a war raging in Iran and Christians like Rachel and Ali live on the brink of eternity. Beatings, kidnapping, rape, arrests and death all once considered unthinkable have become punishment for Iranian Muslims willing to take the Christian walk. Rachel and Ali had their first run-in with the secret police in 2005 when they were attending a house church meeting. Police, armed with automatic weapons, stormed into the prayer meeting and arrested the group of Christians. The police confiscated their Bibles and wrote down family names, phone numbers and addresses.
[more...]
BANGLADESH: Pastor Threatened for Rape Accusations
Christian and human rights advocates said doctors likely fabricated a medical report that falsely concluded there were no signs of rape in the wife of a Bangladeshi pastor whom village Muslims have now threatened for pressing charges. The Rev Shankar Hazra of Chaksing Baptist church in Gopalganj district, 100 kilometres south of Dhaka, said influential area Muslims have used threats to try to force him and his wife to withdraw charges of robbery and rape; he declined to name them out of fear of reprisals. “If I do not withdraw the case, they said they will make a ‘Ganges (river) of blood’ here,” Rev Hazra said. [more...]
BURMA: Report Documents Abuse of Chin Christians
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released in January details serious and ongoing abuses against the Chin people, a minority group in Burma’s northwest who claim to be 90 percent Christian. HRW’s research echoes a 2004 report by the Chin Human Rights Organisation that described targeted abuse of Christians in Chin state, with the Burmese army subjecting pastors and church members to forced labour, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and sometimes death. [more...]
MALDIVES: Reform Excludes Freedom of Religion or Belief
Mohamed Nasheed's election as President of the Maldives was hailed as the dawn of a new era of democracy and freedom in the Indian Ocean country. Under former President Gayoom, the once religiously tolerant Maldives - which tended towards folk Islam - was changed into a society intolerant of all beliefs except state-approved Sunni Islam. [more...]
KENYA: Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Released
Two nuns working in northeast Kenya who were kidnapped last November have been freed and arrived here from Mogadishu, Somalia on Thursday 19 February, but they are still traumatised, sources told Compass. Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Oliviero, 61, both of Italy, are receiving medical care, and top leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are providing them spiritual counselling. Pastor Alois Maina of Mandera, a close friend of the nuns, told Compass that a representative of the pope and the Cardinal of Kenya are among those counselling the nuns, who on 10 November were abducted at gunpoint by suspected Islamic militants from Elwak, near Mandera, and taken across the nearby border into Somalia. [more...]
CHINA: 2008 Persecution Report Released
The 2008 Persecution Report has been released documenting significant increase of persecution of house church Christians in China, during the past year. The report will now be reviewed by the UN. The 2008 Persecution Report, whilst not comprehensive of all the abuses of human rights and religious freedom in China, covers the majority of provinces and municipalities in China and involves many types of persecution and indicates a trend towards targeting Christians in urban areas with tougher tactics. [more...]
NIGERIA: Nine Christians Killed As Violence Erupts In Northern Nigeria
An outbreak of violence between Muslims and Christians in the capital of Bauchi province in Northern Nigeria has left at least eleven people dead. Nine of the victims are said to be Christians, six of whom were shot and three killed with machetes. At least six churches, perhaps as many as 13, have been destroyed by fire, as well as three mosques and over 200 houses. Around a hundred people have been injured. About 4,500 people were displaced from their homes, and many of them have taken refuge in military barracks. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Update on Sandal
For months now, we've been following the case of a young woman named Ashiyana (alias 'Sandal') who is imprisoned for her faith in Pakistan. She and her father were arrested on 9 October after a mob from the local mosque surrounded their house. As the loudspeakers from the mosque called out accusations, the angry crowd hurled stones and bottles of kerosene at the family's house, intending to set it on fire. [more...]
BURMA: Chin Christian Minority Persecuted by Dictatorship
Myanmar’s military regime is committing widespread abuses against the mainly Christian Chin ethnic group, who face forced labour, torture and religiously-motivated persecution, The Human Rights Watch report also features interviews conducted between 2005 and 2008 with about 140 Chin; some living in exile abroad, others in their traditional homeland. Ethnic Chin are subject to intimidation and threats by the junta, with violations such as restrictions on freedom of movement and extorting of money, food, and property regularly reported. [more...]
CHINA: More Than 60 House Church Leaders Arrested in Henan; 4 Still in Custody
On 11 February, 2009, more than 60 house church leaders, along with two South Korean pastors, were arrested by local police in Wolong district, Nanyang city in Henan province. At present, at least four leaders are still in custody. [more...]
INDIA: Hard-line Hindus Still Forcing Conversions in Orissa
In the wake of anti-Christian violence in Orissa state last year, hard-line Hindus in Kandhamal district have forced nearly half of 40 Christian families in one village to convert under threat of death, area Christians said. [more...]
CHINA: Elderly House Church Leader Arrested in Henan
A coal miner in his 70’s, was arrested on the afternoon of 31 December, 2008 when he went to pick up books and CDs at a storage centre. He was placed in criminal detention until 20 January, 2009 when he was formally arrested, accused of “using an evil cult organisation to obstruct justice.” [more...]
DRC: Congolese pastor imprisoned for ten years
Evangelical church leader Fernando Kutino was arrested in May 2006, charged with illegal possession of firearms, criminal conspiracy and attempted murder, and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. The charges were introduced after the trial was underway, and the trial itself lasted only nine sittings despite the complexity and gravity of these charges. [more...]
TURKEY: Christian Bookshop Vandalised
Following threats from Muslim nationalists, a Turkish Bible Society bookshop in the southern city of Adana was vandalised for the second time in a week on Thursday 12 February Security camera footage shows two youths attacking the storefront of the Soz Kitapevi bookshop, kicking and smashing glass in both the window and the door. The door frame was also damaged.
[more...]
NIGERIA: Sani Kibili Released From Prison
Praise God! Sani Kibili, the 55-year-old Christian from Kano State Nigeria who was sentenced to three years in prison for alleged blasphemy against Islam in October 2007, has been released. He has a wife and six children. Sani's release on 15 January came as a result of the efforts of the Christian lawyer appointed by Open Doors. [more...]
IRAN: Christian Arrested at Home
Hossein Karimi, a 27 year old Christian convert from Islam, was arrested the morning of Friday 30th January, 2009. The Secret Agents raided his home without any legal jurisdiction and he has been detained to an unknown location. After a thorough search and inspection the agents also detained all Christian resources, literatures, along with any computer devices. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Parliament to Vote on Anti-Conversion Laws
The Sri Lankan Parliament may soon enact laws to restrict religious conversions. A final vote on a draft “Bill for the Prohibition of Forcible Conversions” is expected this month. The provisions of the bill criminalise any act to convert or attempt to convert a person from one religion to another by the use of force, fraud or allurement. Those found guilty of breaking the law could be imprisoned for up to seven years and/or fined up to 500,000 rupees ($6544 AUD). [more...]
CHINA: Officials Grapple with Spread of Christianity
Concerned by the growth of unregistered house church groups in an uncertain political and social climate, the Chinese government has ramped up efforts both to identify Christians and to portray Christianity as a subversive foreign force. Sources told Compass that authorities in recent months have been quietly gathering data on church growth, with surveys at universities and workplaces pointedly asking whether respondents were Christians. At the same time, Communist Party officials have called meetings at various institutions in the capital to discuss supposed dangers of foreign religious influence. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Muslim Pilgrims Beat Bible Student
Pilgrims to a massive Islamic conference near this capital city on Sunday (1 February) beat and threatened to kill a Bible school student as he distributed Christian literature. Rajen Murmo, 20, a student at Believers’ Church Bible College, was distributing the 32-page books among Muslims near the school along with 25 other students in Uttara town in northern Dhaka, just a few kilometres from the banks of a river in Tongi, where the government claimed 4 million Muslim pilgrims had gathered. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ for Text Message
More than 100 protestors last week surrounded a Pakistani courthouse and chanted death threats against a Punjabi Christian said to be framed for sending “blasphemous” a text message on his cell phone. At 51-year-old Hector Aleem’s hearing at the Rawalpindi Sessions Court on 27 January, crowds gathered and began shouting death threats. His attorney, Malik Tafik, told Compass that a local man allegedly framed Aleem for the charges because Aleem has made legal challenges on behalf of Christians involved in a land dispute.
[more...]
ARMENIA: Two Years' Imprisonment for Organising Sharing of Faith?
If two draft laws which began passage through Armenia's Parliament on 5 February are adopted, spreading one's faith would be banned. Those who organise campaigns to spread their faith would face up to two years' imprisonment, while those who engage in spreading their faith would face up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of more than eight years' minimum wages. Gaining legal status would require 1,000 adult members. "These proposed Laws contain violations of all human rights." Russian Orthodox priest Fr David Abrahamyan told Forum 18.
[more...]
CHINA: Tortured Christian Lawyer Arrested as China Denies Abuses
A Christian defender of human rights in China – whom authorities detained last week – detailed state-sponsored torture he suffered in 2007 in an open letter released on Monday (9 February), the same day advocacy groups criticized a UN review of China’s treatment of Christians and other minorities for omitting serious abuses. [more...]
EGYPT: Christians Sent to Prison after Brutal Police Raid
Following a brutal raid on six Christian brothers and their café because they had opened for business during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, a judge on 22 January sentenced them to three years in prison with hard labour for resisting arrest and assaulting authorities. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Pastor in Flees Death Threats
A prominent foreign pastor in Saudi Arabia has fled Riyadh after a member of the mutawwa’in, or religious police, and others threatened him three times in one week. Two of the incidents included threats to kill house church pastor Yemane Gebriel of Eritrea. On Wednesday (28 January), Gebriel escaped to an undisclosed city in Saudi Arabia. A father of eight who has lived and worked as a private driver in Saudi Arabia for 25 years, Gebriel told Compass that on 10 January he found an unsigned note on his vehicle threatening to kill him if he did not leave the country. [more...]
INDONESIA: Sharia-Based Laws Creep into Half of Indonesia’s Provinces
As candidates hit the campaign trail in preparation for Indonesia’s presidential election in July, rights groups have voiced strong opposition to an increasing number of sharia-inspired laws introduced by local governments. Opponents say the laws discriminate against religious minorities and violate Indonesia’s policy of Pancasila, or “unity in diversity.” With legislative elections coming in April and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono likely to form a coalition with several Islamic parties for the July presidential election, such laws could become a key campaign issue. Although Aceh is the only province completely governed by sharia (Islamic law), more than 50 regencies in 16 of 32 provinces throughout Indonesia have passed laws influenced by sharia. These laws became possible following the enactment of the Regional Autonomy Law in 2000. [more...]
INDIA: Charges Filed in Rape of Nun in Orissa
Orissa police on Thursday (29 January) filed preliminary charges against 10 men in the rape of a nun during anti-Christian violence in Orissa last August. A native of Dhama area in Sambalpur district of Orissa, the nun said she was raped in K. Nuagaon village on 25 August, 2008, during large-scale violence against Christians that broke out in Kandhamal and surrounding districts of Orissa. [more...]
VOM Assists Former Islamic Apologist
The Voice of the Martyrs has provided encouragement and financial help to “Mohammad” an Islamic apologist who converted to Christianity.
Before becoming a Christian, Mohammad wrote articles attempting to prove Islam was the only way to God. After they were written, however, Mohammad began to have doubts about Islam. He saw violence in Islam and heard his colleagues say that one day those who follow Islam will invade Europe and take their women. After hearing this, Mohammad was very disgusted.
Later, Mohammad met a Christian who invited him to his house. “He gave [Mohammad] a Bible and asked him to read. When he opened the Bible, the first verse he read was ‘And all who accepted Him, He gave them authority to be the sons of God,’” VOM contacts said. “Mohammad said it was like an electrical current went through his body when he read those words,” VOM contacts added.
“The word of God is powerful,” Mohammad added.
[more...]
'Orissa is the Newest and the Worst Example of Ongoing Persecution against Christians in India.'
Since August 2008, it is estimated that Hindu extremists have displaced over 70,000 Christians, destroyed 4,000 homes, burned 450 churches and killed at least 87 Christians.
Christians make up only two percent of the population in India. In a small section of Orissa where the violence began, nearly 30 percent of the population is Christian. The growth of Christianity in this region angered Hindu radicals who follow Hinduvta, an extreme nationalist ideology that believes no other religion should exist in India. VOM contacts report that the Hindu radicals organised the anti-Christian attacks in an effort to stop the spread of the Gospel and claimed that Christians were bribing or forcing people to convert. The violent attacks in Orissa have slowed but they have not disappeared. "This violence is part of a movement that is not going away," said a VOM staff member. "Orissa is the newest and the worst example of ongoing persecution against Christians in India."
[more...]
INDIA: Relief Camps Closed in Orissa
Government authorities in Orissa state have shut down relief camps forcing thousands of Christians displaced by the wave of violence that began last August to flee, according to VOM contacts. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Acquitted in ‘Blasphemy’ Case
Five Christians charged with “blasphemy” against Islam during April 2007 religious holidays were released on Monday (19 January) after reconciliation meetings between Christian and Islamic leaders – the first verdict to have resulted from such efforts in Pakistan. [more...]
IRAN: Three Christians Arrested from Homes in Tehran
Three Christians from two different families were arrested from their homes Wednesday morning (21 January) and are being held without charges, sources told Compass. Authorities took Jamal Ghalishorani, 49, and his wife Nadereh Jamali from their home in Tehran between 7 and 8am., about a half hour after arresting Hamik Khachikian, an Armenian Christian also living in Tehran. Ghalishorani and his wife are Christian converts from Islam, considered “apostasy” in Iran and potentially punishable by death. [more...]
EGYPT: Judge Tells of Desire to Kill Christian
After her arrest at Cairo’s airport on 13 December while attempting to flee anti-Christian hostilities in Egypt, convert Martha Samuel Makkar was granted bail on Saturday (24 January), but not before a judge took her aside and said he would like to kill her, according to her lawyer. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Authorities Arrest Christian Convert
Five months after the daughter of a member of Saudi Arabia’s religious police was killed for writing online about her faith in Christ, Saudi authorities have reportedly arrested a 28-year-old Christian man for describing his conversion and criticizing the kingdom’s judiciary on his Web site. Saudi police arrested Hamoud Bin Saleh on Jan. 13 “because of his opinions and his testimony that he had converted from Islam to Christianity,” according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. [more...]
BURMA: Clamp Down on Churches
Burmese authorities last week increased restrictions on Christian activity in the capital city of Rangoon and surrounding areas, including the closure of several churches. Orders issued on 5 January had already forced many Christians meeting in residential homes or apartments to cease gathering for worship. Officials last week ordered several major Rangoon churches to cease holding services and continued enforcing the ban on meetings held in unauthorised facilities. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Sisters Abducted, Forced to Convert to Islam
The ordeal of two teenage Christian sisters in Pakistan is over after Muslims allegedly abducted and raped them and forced them to convert to Islam, but they fear a future of societal rejection. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Pastor’s Wife Gang-Raped, Home Robbed
The pastor of a Baptist church in this village about a 100 kilometres south of Dhaka said that earlier this month local Muslims tied him and his wife up, robbed his living quarters on the church property and gang-raped his wife. The Rev. Shankar Hazra, 55, of Chaksing Baptist church in Gopalganj district, said that before leaving, the assailants desecrated the church building. [more...]
ERITREA: More Christian Deaths
Three Christians incarcerated in military prisons for their faith have died in the past four months in Eritrea, including the death on Friday (16 January) of a 42-year-old man in solitary confinement, according to a Christian support organisation. Sources told Open Doors that Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom died at the Mitire Military Confinement centre from torture and complications from diabetes. Asgedom was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera. His death followed the revelation this month of another death in the same prison. [more...]
CHINA: More Than a Dozen PSB Officers Force Pastor Bike Out of Beijing
Last week more than a dozen Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers forcibly escorted Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan from Pastor Hua Huiqi’s home in Beijing and put him on a bus to Henan province. Authorities refuse to allow Pastor Bike and his family to stay in Beijing. [more...]
CHINA: Deathly Ill Husband Denied Visitation with his Imprisoned Wife
Chinese government authorities have denied Hua Zaichen, 91, visitation with his imprisoned wife, 79-year-old Shuang Shuying, according to China Aid Association (CAA).
Zaichen, who is deathly ill, requested a final meeting with his wife to say his goodbyes, but officials refused to grant the request. “Authorities say Shuang Shuying in not allowed to leave prison before 8 February, 2009, the end of her two-year sentence. Officials stated that if her husband died before then, she would be allowed to see his body for 10 minutes and would have to be chained, handcuffed, shackled and wearing a prison uniform,” CAA added.
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CHINA: PSB Pay Pastor Bike Zhang Compensation
On 5 January, 2009 Pastor 'Bike' Zhang Mingxuan received 17,000 yuan ($3765 AUD) from the Director of the Public Security Bureau branch office of Chaoyang district, Beijing. [more...]
EGYPT: Convert Wins Rare Legal Victory to Revert to Christianity
An Egyptian convert to Christianity who spent 31 years officially identified as a Muslim has won a rare legal victory to be officially registered in his �new� faith. An Alexandrian administrative court awarded Fathi Labib Yousef the right to register as a Christian at a hearing on 20 December in the Mediterranean coastal city. [more...]
TURKEY: 19 year Old Sentenced for Stabbing Priest in Izmir
A judge in Turkey sentenced a 19-year-old Muslim to four-and-a-half years in prison on 5 January for stabbing a Catholic priest in the coastal city of Izmir in December 2007. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Children and Parents Threatened for Attending Places of Worship
Police in south-east Uzbekistan have begun a campaign against children attending places of worship. The authorities' campaign, which also uses the state-controlled mass media, attacks schools and parents who allow children to attend religious "sects". [more...]
BANGLADESH: Muslims Drive Christian Grandparents from Home
Muslims in a village in western Bangladesh have forced two brothers to expel their parents from their home for converting to Christianity. Ishmael Sheikh, 70, and his wife Rahima Khatun, 55, were baptised on 9 November. By the end of the month, Sheikh told Compass, Muslim neighbours in Kathuly village, near Gangni town in Meherpur district, had compelled their two sons to expel them from their house. [more...]
INDIA: Church Leaders Attacked
Praise God! Christians in Kandhamal district, Orissa, were able to celebrate Christmas in relative peace and stability. However, in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh state, this was not the case. [more...]
CHINA: Fifty One Christians Detained in Xinjiang, One Young Mother Sentenced
At 1pm local time on 2 January, 2009, a house church in Shayibake District of Urimuqi city, Xinjiang Autonomous Region was raided by a number of Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers. Fifty one Christians were detained for questioning, with forty-eight released later that day. [more...]
ERITREA: Approximately 100 Christians Arrested
Since late November, about 100 Christians, men, women and children, have been arrested by Eritrean authorities, VOM Canada reported. The wave of house arrests began in northern Eritrean cities and moved to southern regions before reaching the capital, Asmara, on 12 December. Some of the detained Christians were reportedly transferred to a military facility and were severely mistreated. Local sources indicate that an unspecified number may have died due to untreated injuries sustained in detention. [more...]
CHINA: Guangzhou House Church Pastor Wang Dao's Case against Persecution Accepted by Court
On 25 December, 2008, Haizhu District People's Court accepted the filing of Pastor Wang Dao's lawsuit against the State Administration of Religious Affairs Bureau (SARA) in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province for raiding Liangren Church. This is an unprecedented move by the court to accept an administrative lawsuit filed by a house church pastor challenging the penalty decision by SARA. [more...]
Guerrilla Fighter Turns Gospel Follower
Ismael excelled quickly through the ranks of the FARC guerrilla movement. At age 17 he was recruiting others in the surrounding villages and at 21 he was commanding a gang of 12 guerrillas. Ismael's commander dared his gang to massacre a group of civilians. Ismael complied. He was promoted and sent for further training in explosives and kidnapping. 'I kidnapped many people, including foreigners,' Ismael said. Saul of Tarsus, Ismael learned to hate Christians. [more...]
INDIA: Going Rate to Kill Pastor: $250
Hindu extremist groups are offering money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes.
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NIGERIA: Six Pastors Killed, 40 Churches Razed in Jos, Violence
The murderous rioting sparked by Muslim attacks on Christians and their property on 28 - 29 November left six pastors dead, at least 500 other people killed and 40 churches destroyed, according to church leaders. More than 25,000 persons have been displaced in the two days of violence, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. [more...]
CHINA: Officials Reach Out to House Churches; Raids, Arrests Continue
In recent months Chinese officials have attempted to build bridges with the Protestant house church movement even as police raided more unregistered congregations, arrested Christian leaders and forced at least 400 college students to swear they would stop attending such worship services. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Christian Family Beaten, Cut - and Face Charges
The harassment that Bangladeshi converts from Islam face from Muslim neighbours in this south-eastern area near Cox's Bazar can take serious turns - as it did last month, when an attack by about a dozen Muslims left a Christian family with machete wounds. [more...]
COMOROS: Christians Oppressed on Pemba Islands
Christians on the predominantly Muslim islands of Pemba and the Comoros archipelago are beaten, detained and banished for their faith, according to church leaders who travel regularly to the Indian Ocean isles off the east coast of Africa. These violations of religious freedom, the church leaders said, threaten the survival of Christianity on Pemba and the Comoros, with fewer than 300 Christians in a combined population of 1.1 million people. [more...]
EGYPT: Thousands Protest and Vandalise Church
Thousands of Muslim protestors on Sunday (23 November) attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt, burning part of it, a nearby shop and two cars and leaving five people injured. Objecting to a newly constructed extension to the church of St. Mary and Anba Abraam in Ain Shams, the huge crowd of angry protestors gathered outside the church at around 5 pm following a consecration service for the addition earlier that day. [more...]
PAKISTAN - 20-year-old Arrested & Falsely Accused
Church elder Gulsher and his 20-year-old daughter Sandal were arrested on 9 October 2008 and falsely accused of ripping pages from the Koran after a mob from the local mosque surrounded their house. Accusations blared from the mosque loud speaker, fuelling the mob's anger. [more...]
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Recent reports from the Punjab have highlighted a grievous case of religious violence. On 9 May,
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