News
UGANDA: Former Muslim Extremist Flees Wrath of Ex-Colleagues
A former member of a Muslim extremist group in Uganda who converted to Christianity is in hiding in Kenya, his movements severely restricted following threats to kill him. Hassan Sharif Lubenga, 54, was a sheikh and member of the Buk Haram, a violent group of Islamists whose name suggests that the Bible is corrupt and therefore forbidden. Originally from Chengera, seven kilometres from Kampala, the husband to four wives began his conversion process four years ago; in June 2011, he said, after dreams and visions in which Jesus appeared to him, he made a full commitment to follow Christ. In 2009, he said, a message from Jesus came to him in a vision: 'Do not hide your Christian faith.' Within a few months, a threatening letter arrived: 'If you do not join Islamic Jihad, then we shall kill you.' [more...]
IRAN: Christian Convert Sentenced to Two Years in Prison
Leila Mohammadi, a Christian convert, has been sentenced to two years’ prison after enduring 5 months of uncertainty in notorious Evin prison. Her trial was held on 18 January where she was charged with "collaboration with foreign-dependent groups, broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, Insulting sacred figures and action against national security." She was acquitted of collaboration with foreign-dependent groups because the judge believed she had done that unintentionally. For the other charges she was sentenced to two years in prison.
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SOMALIA: Islamists Arrest a Muslim Father After His Sons Convert to Christianity
On 14 January Somali Islamists arrested a Muslim father after two of his teenage children converted to Christianity in Kismayo, Somalia. The two sons of Mo’alim Mohamud Aw-Omar converted to Christianity late last year. They fled their homes following their conversion. Members of the radical Islamic group, al-Shabaab, accused Aw-Omar of “failing to raise his sons as good Muslims” because “good Muslims cannot convert to Christianity.” Aw-Omar, who is still a Muslim, insisted that his sons have memorised the Koran, fasted and prayed regularly and therefore he should not be accused of failing his duties. [more...]
EGYPT : Mob Sets Christian Homes Alight Over 'Phone Image
A 3,000-strong mob attacked a Christian village near Alexandria, looting shops and homes and then setting them alight. The attack on Kobry-el-Sharbat on Friday 27 January followed rumours that a Christian man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, had an 'intimate' photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. Two Christians and one Muslim were reported to have been hospitalised after the attack, which began mid-afternoon. [more...]
“But God is with us”
“Christians are like bed bugs, who hide under the guise of so-called missionary work and drink the blood of innocent vulnerable people, and bed bugs should be killed ...” According to World magazine, these words were spoken at a February 2011 Hindu nationalist event in India attended by an estimated two million people. Volunteers distributed literature calling on Christians to convert to Hinduism. Attacks against Christians continue in India. In 2010, more than 159 Christians were attacked in 11 Indian states. The heaviest persecution occurred in Karnataka state, which accounted for 59 of the 159 attacks, according to VOM contacts. In June 2011, there were attacks against Christians and churches in at least five Indians states. [more...]
UGANDA: Girl Tortured by Her Father for Her Faith Walks Again
A 15-year-old Christian girl in Uganda is slowly regaining the use of her legs after her father, in an attempt to make her convert back to Islam, confined her in a small room and deprived her of adequate food and water. Susan Ithungu was locked in a room for six months after accepting Christ as her Saviour in 2010. She weighed just 20 kilograms when she was finally rescued after her brother informed neighbours of his sister’s life-threatening condition. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Imprisoned Christians Released
Blasphemy charges against 74-year-old Rehmat Masih have been dropped while a Christian woman who was brutally beaten by police while pregnant has been released on bail due to lack of evidence. The elderly believer arrested in June 2010 under Pakistan’s contentious blasphemy law, which is often used to persecute Christians in the predominantly Muslim nation, was released after 18 months in prison. [more...]
SUDAN: Church Leaders May Face Arrest
Sharing Christ could land pastors in prison as Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and fail to provide their names and contact information.
The threats were sent by letter to church leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) shortly after the New Year. It arrived just a few days after Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur, told cheering crowds that following the secession of the largely non-Islamic south Sudan last July, the country’s constitution will be more deeply entrenched in Shariah, or Islamic, law. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: New laws Attempt to Repress the Gospel
Believers in Azerbaijan who distribute religious material that hasn’t been through compulsory state censorship will now face prison terms of two to five years or fines equivalent to nine years’ minimum wage salary. The punishments were included in proposed amendments to the Criminal and Administrative Codes, which were prepared by the powerful Presidential Administration. [more...]
INDIA: Karnataka Most Dangerous State for Christians
Christmas and New Year’s holidays in the south Indian state of Karnataka brought a dramatic increase in attacks on believers, and the state was identified as the most unsafe place for Christians for the third consecutive year. There were 49 cases of violence and hostility against Christians in the state last year, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s annual report. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported there were at least six anti-Christian attacks between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day alone. [more...]
CHINA: New Year Brings Renewed Efforts to Prevent Worship at Shouwang Church
Christian believers at Beijing Shouwang Church, who had arranged an outdoor worship service after the government continued to thwart their efforts to rent premises to worship indoors, were harassed, detained and prevented from worshipping together on 1 January. The church has long been a target for the oppressive government. Believers report that at least 49 Christians were taken into custody either before they were able to depart for the outdoor service or as they made their way there. Most believers were sent to 13 local police stations. Many were released home late that night and all were released by 3 January. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani refuses to Compromise Faith for Release
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani recently refused to state that the Muslim prophet Muhammad was a messenger sent by God despite the fact that it would have secured his release. On 30 December, local authorities said they would release the pastor if he agreed to make the statement, but the pastor rejected the offer and remains in prison awaiting a final decision on his case. The request violates article 23 of the Iranian Constitution, which states that no one should be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief. [more...]
YEMEN: Pray for Missing Christians
December 2011, marked two-and-a-half years since the kidnapping of nine foreigners in Saada, north-west Yemen, three of whom were murdered shortly afterwards. There continues to be no news of Johannes and Sabine (a German couple), Simon (their son, age 3) or of Tony (a British man). Lydia and Anna (7 and 5, daughters of Johannes and Sabine) who were freed in May 2010 are with relatives in Germany and are reported to be in good health. It is reportedly a challenge for these relatives to function as Lydia and Anna's parents in light of their unique needs and in the context of the other children in their home. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Sentenced to Death Fasting, Praying and Forgiving
Asia Bibi, a Christian wife and mother sentenced to die for allegedly committing blasphemy against Islam, says she has forgiven those who are persecuting her. She recently told a Pakistani journalist, who asked her a list of questions prepared by an American journalist, that she spends her time praying and fasting for her family and other persecuted Christians. [more...]
SOMALIA: Convert from Islam Whipped in Public
A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said. Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release. She received 40 lashes on 22 December while jeered by spectators. [more...]
NIGERIA: Radical Muslims Kill 29 Christians in Two Days
Members of the radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, have killed a further 29 Christians in two days. Twenty Christians were gunned down on 6 January while holding a meeting to discuss ways to transport a body of a fellow Christian who was killed in an attack a day earlier. The martyrs in the 5 January attack were attending a worship service at Deeper Life Church in Gombe when the attack took place. The wife of the church’s pastor was among the martyrs. [more...]
INDONESIA: Anti-Christian Incidents Nearly Doubled in 2011
Acts of violence and intolerance against Christians in Indonesia almost doubled in 2011, with an Islamist campaign to close down churches symbolising the plight of the religious minority. The Indonesian Protestant Church Union, locally known as PGI, counted 54 acts of violence and other violations against Christians in 2011, up from 30 in 2010. The number of such incidents against religious minorities in general also grew, from 198 in 2010 to 276 in 2011, but the worst is perhaps yet to come if authorities continue to overlook the threat of extremism, said a representative from the Jakarta-based Wahid Institute, a Muslim organisation that promotes tolerance. [more...]
EGYPT: One Year On, No Answers to Egypt Church Bombing
Just over a year ago, Amira Maurice was attending a New Year's Eve Mass in the Saints Church in Egypt's Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria with her parents and fiancé, their marriage set for only a few months away. Then the bomb blast ripped through the church. Now, the 28-year-old pharmacist is in Germany undergoing the latest in a string of surgeries to save her leg and deal with her burns. Her fiancé is dead, one of the 21 people killed in the suicide bombing targeting the church. [more...]
NIGERIA: Christians Warned by Islamist Militants to Leave the North Within 3 Days
On Sunday the militant Islamist group Boko Haram issued an ultimatum giving Christians living in northern Nigeria three days to leave the area amid a rising tide of violence there. CNN reports that Boko Haram spokesman, Abul Qaqa, also said late Sunday that Boko Haram fighters are ready to confront soldiers sent to the area under a state of emergency declared in parts of four states by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday. [more...]
LAOS: Officials Force Christians to Recant for Burial
Officials forced Christians in a Lao village to give up their faith in order to bury a family member in the village graveyard, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). In Huey, Ad-Sapangthong district of Savannakhet Province, the village's eight Christian families quickly began to arrange a funeral for the deceased, a woman who died on Christmas Day who went by the single name of Wang. On Monday 26 December, however, village officials ordered that her body be buried according to Buddhist funeral rites or be taken to a burial ground in Savannakhet city. [more...]
CHINA: “Disappeared” Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Imprisoned in Remote Far Western China
For the first time since his most recent forced disappearance 20 months ago, the whereabouts of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been confirmed. Gao Zhisheng’s older brother, Gao Zhiyi, received written notification on Sunday of Gao’s incarceration in Shaya Prison in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in far western China. The notification was signed and dated on 19 December by the prison. [more...]
UGANDA: Muslim Extremists in Uganda Throw Acid on Bishop
Islamic extremists threw acid on a church leader on Christmas Eve shortly after a seven-day revival at his church, leaving him with severe burns that have blinded one eye and threaten his sight in the other. Bishop Umar Mulinde, 37, was attacked on Saturday night, 24 December, when a man who claimed to be a Christian approached him. [more...]
Supporting Underground Bible Colleges
In 2011 Voice of the Martyrs Australia had a special focus on underground Bible colleges in order to equip evangelists, church planters, missionaries and pastors in restricted nations. We praise God for providing the funds needed to reach our target of $100,000. [more...]
SUDAN: Brutalised Teenage Believer in Sudan Prays for Forgiveness for Her Tormentors
A young Sudanese Christian teenager who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and physically attacked over the course of one year is praying her former captors, a gang of Muslims who tried to force her to convert to Islam, find mercy.
After escaping last July, she says she is praying that Jesus reveals himself to her assailants, and “forgives them for what they did to me.” Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo says she escaped from them with the help of God who did not want her to suffer any more. [more...]
WEST BANK: Bomber of Christian Family in the West Bank Deemed Fit to Stand Trial
An American-born man who bombed the home of a Messianic Jewish family in the West Bank has been declared fit to stand trial. Yaakov “Jack” Teitel, 39, stands accused of planting a bomb in the home of Pastor David Ortiz in 2008.Teitel, who has been dubbed the “Jewish terrorist,” is also charged with the murder of two Palestinians and with other serious offenses. [more...]
NEPAL: Buddhists Oust Believers from Their Homes
Buddhists in Nepal drove a pastor and other believers from their village, accusing the pastor of bringing a foreign religion to the village and promoting teachings against society. The oppressors accused Christians in the village of using bribery and coercion to covert local residents to Christianity. It is also believed a six-year-old girl was sexually abused by one of the individuals who incited the expulsion. A VOM worker has helped the victims resettle in another village and also prayed with the family of the girl who was abused. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
IRAN: Three Iranian Pastors Report to Prison
Three pastors, who are also husbands and fathers of young children, have been ordered to report to prison in Shiraz, Iran.
Pastor Parviz Khalaj, a husband and father to a 10-year-old son, was convicted of committing crimes against the order and was sentenced to two years in prison. Pastor William Belyad who was convicted of the same crime, was sentenced to five years in prison and will be taken away from his wife and one-month-old son. [more...]
PHILIPPINES: Church Elder Killed In Mindanao
MacArthur Arbado, an elder at the Bible Baptist Church in Carmen, Cotabato, was murdered on 10 November as he returned to his farm. The attackers shot him in the leg, back and abdomen before decapitating him with his own machete. MacArthur leaves behind his wife, Lolita, and 13 children. [more...]
IRAN: Officials in Iran Frantically Deny Spread of the Gospel
The Iranian media is desperate to refute claims that Christianity is spreading among Iranian youth and through cities considered to be almost exclusively Islamic. The government-supported Jomhouri-e-Eslami daily newspaper is calling the spread of Christianity an unfounded rumour, but there are definite contradictions in fact to this statement. On 2 October, the government-supported news website, Javan-Online, acknowledged that the acceptance of Christianity was becoming a trend and reported 200 house churches were discovered in just a few months in the traditionally Islamic city of Mashhad. [more...]
IRAQ: Christians in Iraq’s Kurdish Region Under Siege
Christian-owned businesses were burned to the ground earlier this month as unprecedented violence erupted against Christians in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Local sources say the attacks were organised by a pro-Islamic political party. The attackers waved flags that said, “There Is No God but Allah,” according to Ankawa News. [more...]
NIGERIA: Believers Killed and Property Destroyed by Muslim Herdsmen and Soldiers
At least 45 Christians were murdered by Muslim herdsmen and soldiers in Nigeria in late November. Unfounded allegations of cattle theft preceded the attacks, according to Christian leaders in Plateau state, and thousands of vulnerable and unarmed Christians fled the area in fear, leaving churches largely empty on the Sunday following the attacks. Homes were burned, churches were closed and many Christians were also maimed or injured. Muslims were also reportedly moving onto the farms belonging to the Christians who had fled and were destroying their crops. Witnesses say Fulani Muslim herdsmen were shouting, “Allahu Akbar,” which means, “God is greater.” [more...]
INDIA: Falsely Imprisoned Pastor Released
Reverend CM Khanna, who was arrested and imprisoned on false charges of forced conversion in the Kashmir Valley in India in October, was granted bail by the Srinagar court and has been released from jail.
When Rev Khanna could not help a Muslim cleric, the Grand Mufti, obtain admission for a student into one of the schools run by the Church of North India (CNI), it is believed the Grand Mufti retaliated by summoning the Christian to appear before the Sharia court on false charges of forced conversion based on video evidence of a routine baptism ceremony in his church. The seven newly baptised Christians had also previously been detained and beaten. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Illegal Prosecutions and Punishments
Sergei Kozin, a Baptist, has been fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage after a police raid on a group of Baptists who were reading on holiday together. The case was brought even though it was beyond the legal time limit to bring charges. Baptists stated that the case was "fabricated", with the alleged "witness" not producing the required identity documents.
The judge in the case had noted the lack of evidence legal documents produced by police. In another case, five officials raided a home in Fergana without a search warrant. [more...]
MYANMAR: Christian Civilians Face Deadly Attacks
On Wednesday 30 November, Burmese soldiers killed a woman and injured six other villagers as they fired four rounds of mortar shells at civilians in the Tarlawgyi area of Kachin state’s Waingmaw Township, Kachin News Group reported. Another battalion burned down 10 homes in Nam Wai village and five more in neighbouring Hpa Ke village, both in Dawhpumyang sub-township in Bhamo district, the Thailand-based news agency added. The killing and arson followed two explosions that killed a student and injured another the previous night in the state’s capital, Myitkyina. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Death Threats for Evangelist Challenging Injustice
A Pakistani Christian has received death threats after condemning the murder of a Christian government minister – who was himself killed for opposing the blasphemy laws.
Evangelist Arif Ferguson, 36, and his entire family have had to go into hiding, following death threats from the Pakistan Taliban and others. Arif was first warned for sharing the Gospel among Muslims. More serious death threats followed after he made a statement to a local newspaper condemning the assassination in March of Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, who had spoken up against the blasphemy law. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for killing Shahbaz Bhatti – and the same group is now threatening Arif. [more...]
EGYPT: Islamist Group Leading in Parliamentary Elections
Islamist groups made a strong showing last week in the first stages of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, according to figures released by elections officials, renewing concerns Christians have about their future in the country.
The Freedom and Justice Party, affiliated with the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, won 40 % of the vote overall. The Al Nour Party, made up of members of the extremist Salafi group, garnered 20 % of the vote. By comparison, the relatively liberal Egypt Social Democratic Party received 15 percent of the total vote. [more...]
NOT ABANDONED - EGYPT
President Mubarak was ousted from his 30 year rule after mass protests and demonstrations this year. The effect of Egypt’s political revolution continues as more nations in the Middle East challenge their own authoritarian governments. What has the recent political revolution meant for Egyptian Christians? David, one of VOM’s partners said, “Revolution or no revolution, our mission remains the same: to tell people about Jesus and to build His church.” [more...]
EGYPT: Christians Ask For Prayer for Elections
Egyptian Christians have requested prayer as Egypt started elections this week (the elections are in stages and are scheduled to conclude on 10 March 2012). Christians continue to be a vulnerable group, disproportionately affected by the lack of security in Egypt. They fear that the current climate of intimidation, violence and instability could lead to fewer Christians voting, which would impact their representation in Parliament. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: New Draft Regulations Outline Official Religious Censorship
Kazakhstan's state Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA) has prepared - but not yet adopted - new regulations to implement the system of compulsory state censorship of almost all religious literature and objects. The Regulations for "expert analyses" will also apply to religious organisations' statutes.
Without such ARA approval, religious books cannot be imported (apart from in small quantities) or distributed, and religious organisations will not be able to gain state registration. The draft Regulations make no provisions for any challenges to ARA's censorship decisions. Source: Forum 18 News Service [more...]
PAKISTAN: Police in Pakistan Beat Pregnant Christian, Husband for 3 Days
A Christian couple is facing charges of theft after police in Abbottabad severely beat a pregnant woman and her husband for three days when they refused to confess. Salma Emmanuel was taken to a hospital in critical condition on 7 November, the life of her unborn child also threatened. The 30-year-old Emmanuel and her husband, Emmanuel Rasheed, 39, said that they were inexplicably arrested after the Muslim woman who employed Emmanuel as a maid had allowed the Christian woman to temporarily store some of her jewellery at her employer’s house. Emmanuel said police arrested them on 5 November, keeping her at the Women’s Police Station for interrogation and her husband at the City Police Station. [more...]
VIETNAM: Believers Beaten and Belongings Destroyed in Vietnam
More than a dozen Christian men, women and teenagers were brutally beaten and their property destroyed near Hanoi, Vietnam, in what sources say was a religiously-motivated attack.
The Christian house church leaders, as well as other assembled believers, were severely injured during a gathering in the home of Pastor Nguyen Danh Chau in Lai Tao village. A gang burst into the home at 9:30 am on 13 November and warned Nguyen that they would kill him if he continued gathering Christians, according to sources in Vietnam. The attackers then beat him until he lost consciousness. [more...]
NIGERIA: More Than 130 Christians Murdered by Extremists in Nigeria’s North this Month
A murderous, four-hour rampage in early November in the eastern region of northern Nigeria left 150 people dead – at least 130 of them Christians, according to church sources. Ten church buildings were also bombed and hundreds of people are still missing after more than 200 members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram sect stormed the Yobe state capital on 4 November. The attacks by Boko Haram were motivated by anti-Christian sentiments. Witnesses say the terrorists asked Christians they met to recite the Islamic creed, and those who could not do so were instantly slaughtered. [more...]
ERITREA: Three Christians Die in Military Camps
Denied their most basic needs for survival, three Christians have died in Eritrean military camps.
Two Christian women died in the Adersete Military Camp in western Eritrea, according to a local source, as they were confined in a dungeon-like cell intended for religious prisoners. Twenty-eight-year-old Terhase Gebremichel Andu and Ferewine Genzabu Kifly, 21, both employees of a wholesale store, were arrested during a prayer meeting in 2009 at a private home. After two years of physical military torture and the denial of medical care, the women succumbed to starvation and poor health. [more...]
INDIA: Police Detain, Beat Converts From Islam in India
Seven newly baptised Christians were detained and beaten by police in India’s Kashmir Valley, and arrests are expected for Christian leaders considered responsible for converting the former Muslims.
Police identified the converts and pastors from a video recording of the baptism obtained by Kashmir’s grand mufti (the highest official of religious law), Bashir-ud-din Ahmad. The video was later posted on YouTube. [more...]
EGYPT: Religious Identification of Two Boys Restored to Christianity
A positive development has ended a long running case concerning twin boys in Egypt. Mario and Andrew’s religious registration was changed to “Muslim” by their father when he converted to Islam and divorced his wife, Kamilia. Although Kamilia won a custody battle in 2009, a court ruled in 2010 that the twins’ religious registration should remain “Muslim.” Kamilia later submitted an appeal. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani to hear Court's Decision in December
With his faith intact and his love for Christ steadfast, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani remains in Lakan Prison in Iran charged with apostasy and sentenced to death. The Iranian government has denied the sentencing is based on apostasy despite abundant evidence to the contrary. [more...]
CUBA: Formerly Imprisoned Pastor Forced to Remain in Cuba
Confined to a country where the government has made it well known his presence is unwanted, a Cuban pastor and his family have been refused permission to leave despite the US government’s offer of asylum. [more...]
CHINA: Bible Exhibition Called ‘Propaganda’ by House Church Leaders
A deceptive exhibit in the United States that displays Chinese Bibles is causing North Americans to believe there is religious freedom in China, say three former Chinese house church leaders. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Update: Christian Charged with ‘Defiling the Qur’an’ Seeks Bail
Ruqqiya Bibi was sentenced to 25 years in prison for ‘defiling the Qur’an’ by touching it with unwashed hands, and after spending eight months in prison, she is seeking bail. Her husband, Munir Masih, who was also imprisoned for the same crime, was released on bail in December of last year. At last report, the outcome of her 10 November hearing was unknown. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
NIGERIA: Boko Haram Hits Nine Churches
On Friday 4 November al-Qaeda affiliate Boko Haram launched attacks in Damaturu and Potiskum (Yobe State) and in Maiduguri (Borno State). The death toll from the co-ordinated bombings and gun battles presently stands at 150 and is expected to rise. Nine churches were targeted, along with mosques, a bank, an anti-terrorist court, police stations and army posts. In Damaturu's mostly Christian New Jerusalem district, six churches were bombed. According to one resident, “The whole city is traumatised.” Nigeria's The Nation reported on 7 November, “In spite [of] their churches being burnt, Christians in Damaturu yesterday defied the security panic and held their Sunday service in [the] open air at the premises of their burnt churches.” According to Boko Haram spokesman Abul-Qaqa, “More attacks are on the way.” Source: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Radical Wahhabi Muslims Seeking to Turn Ethiopia into an Islamist State
In a recent press conference, the Ethiopian government expressed its concern over the growing violence against moderate Muslims and Christians by radical Wahhabi Muslims. The government also announced discovering plans by the Wahhabi Muslims to turn Ethiopia into an Islamic country governed by Sharia law.
“We have found evidences and pamphlets [which] were publicly distributed during the month of Ramadan calling on the Muslim community to stand up against all non-Wahhabi Muslims and followers of other religions,” said Mersessa Reda, the Director General at the Ministry of Federal Affairs of Ethiopia, in a statement quoted by The New Business Ethiopia in early October. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
KENYA: Attack on Church Compound Kills Two, Wounds Three
Suspected Islamic extremists with Somalia's al Shabaab militia threw a grenade into the home of the church guard of an East Africa Pentecostal Church congregation outside Garissa, Kenya, on the night of Saturday 5 November. Killed instantly were 8-year-old Winnie Mwenda Mutinda and 25-year-old church member John Kikavu. The child was the youngest daughter of church elder Patrick Mutinda, who also serves as the guard or watchman of the church building, sources said. The watchman's son, Samuel Mutinda, 12, suffered burns on his chest and leg, and his 10-year-old brother, Peter Mutinda, sustained burns on his hand and leg; their grandmother, Rachael Kandu, was also severely burned, but all three were in stable condition at press time. [more...]
EGYPT: Coptic Student Murdered By Classmates for Wearing a Cross
Seventeen-year-old Ayman Nabil Labib was murdered following a classroom altercation in Mallawi, Minya province 16 October. Although Egyptian media reported the incident as non-sectarian, his parents confirmed to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) that their son was murdered “in cold blood because he refused to take off his crucifix as ordered by his Muslim teacher”. Ayman also had a cross tattooed on his wrist, as per the Coptic tradition, as well as another cross which he wore under his clothes. According to witnesses, he was told to cover up his cross tattoo, but refused and defiantly exposed the second cross he wore under his shirt. [more...]
LIBYA: Sharia to Rule New Libya
On Monday 24 October, National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil declared Libya to be 'liberated'. Operating free of any democratic constraints, Jalil also declared that the law against polygamy will be repealed, Islamic banking will be adopted and Sharia (Islamic) Law will form the basis for all Libyan law. As has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, any concession to religious freedom will be rendered void by the supremacy of Sharia which prohibits fitna (anything that could shake the faith of a Muslim), especially proselytism (Christian witness), blasphemy (criticising Islam) and apostasy (leaving Islam). [more...]
IRAN: Church of Iran Member Transferred to Underground Torture Cell
Mehdi Furutan, 27, a Church of Iran member who was arrested in January 2010 was recently transferred from Shiraz prison to an underground cell in Adelabad high security prison, where torture of inmates is commonplace. He has been incommunicado for a week and his current condition is unknown. Mr Furutan had just begun serving a one-year prison sentence, after an earlier sentence for ‘crimes against the order’ was upheld at an appeal hearing. While in the general prison, Mr Furutan had been presented with Islamic literature and sources fear that his transfer may have been prompted by responses he may have made when questioned about them. [more...]
NIGERIA: Christian Mother of Five Killed
Nigerian soldiers summoned to stop inter-religious fighting between Muslim and Christian youths last week shot and killed a Christian mother of five in the Yelwa area of Bauchi city, according to family and church sources. Soldiers were called in to restore calm following fighting that broke out at a high school soccer match on Thursday 20 October and later three Muslim soldiers shot and killed Charity Augustine Agbo and shot a Christian boy. The circumstances leading to the shooting of the boy, who is unrelated to Agbo, were not immediately known, his name has not been disclosed. He is recovering in hospital. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Up to Five Years Imprisonment for Uncensored Religious Literature
Prison terms of up to five years or maximum fines of nearly nine years official minimum wage are set to be adopted by parliament in mid-November, for groups of people who produce or distribute religious literature without going through Azerbaijan's compulsory prior state censorship of all religious literature. [more...]
CHINA'S GROWING EVANGELICAL PROBLEM
In December 2010, the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, the powerful nine-member committee of top party leaders, launched a new strategy called “Operation Deterrence” to deal with their growing “evangelical problem.”
At a national conference, China’s director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs outlined a programme intended to “guide” Protestants who worship at “unauthorised gathering places” toward churches controlled by the state. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamic Extremists behead 17-year-old Christian
Al Shabaab militants murdered a teenage boy on 25 September after monitoring Bible studies hosted by the boy's family near Mogadishu, says a journalist in the Somali capital. Islamic militants began watching the family of Guled Jama Muktar after the family arrived in the country from Kenya in 2008. "I personally know this family as Christians who used to have secret Bible meetings in their house," the source said. According to witnesses, al Shabaab members arrived at Guled's home at 6 am while he was getting ready for school and his parents were already at work at an area market. "The neighbours heard screaming coming from the house, and then it immediately stopped," the source said. [more...]
MALDIVES: Indian Teacher Arrested and Deported for Owning a Bible
Police in Maldives arrested and held Shijo Kokkattu, a 30-year-old teacher from India, for more than two weeks before deporting him earlier this month for keeping a Bible in his home, according to a foreign source in the capital city. Shijo was arrested during a police raid in late September prompted when his colleagues found Christian materials on a school computer he had used and reported it to authorities. [more...]
NIGERIA: Evangelist Murdered in Nigeria
A 36-year-old Christian evangelist was shot and killed in violence-ridden Borno state, Nigeria, the day after his family, along with other Christians, were evacuated from the region in the face of death threats by Boko Haram extremists. Mark Ojunta was ministering in Nigeria’s north-eastern state with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO) when he was murdered. “Brother Mark took his family out on Friday 26 August, but he went back to the field because he had a class with some believers on Saturday,” said CAPRO international director Amos Aderonmu. “It was in the night that the sect came to where they were staying and knocked at the door, and he tried to escape but could not get away.” Mark is survived by his wife, Ema, and two children, 3-year-old Kambe and 9-month-old Akira, as well as his parents and sisters. [more...]
CHINA: Christian Student Fellowship Banned in Inner Mongolia
Chinese police and government officials shut down a Christian student fellowship group in Inner Mongolia, China, and detained its leader in September. Authorities cited "illegal evangelism" as the reason for the ban. Mengfu (Blessed) Fellowship was forced to close and its leader, Liang Guangzhong, was put into administrative detention for 15 days as part of China's ongoing persecution of house churches and Christian groups that meet outside government-approved churches. [more...]
SUDAN: Officials to Demolish Church Buildings
Government officials are threatening to destroy three church buildings in Sudan. The church buildings were marked for demolition with red crosses on 11 September, and local church leaders say the officials simply said, “We are going to demolish these churches.” Officials from the Ministry of Physical Planning and Public Utilities-Khartoum State arrived at the Sudanese Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church of Sudan and the Roman Catholic Church accusing them of operating churches on government land without permission, although church leaders say the buildings are not located on government land. [more...]
INDONESIA: Church Closed and Pastor Arrested
The pastor of an Indonesian church established almost a quarter of a century ago has been arrested for allegedly forcing people to attend church. He faces up to three months in prison for the charges against him. His church has also been closed. Officials allege that the Indonesia Pentecost Church in Sumedang was using an illegal building permit. Officials had previously asked the church to cease conducting Christian worship and had also requested that the church move its services into a building belonging to the Institute of Public Administration (IPND). An Indonesian Christian organisation said the IPND cannot accommodate the congregations of any more closed churches, since about 14 churches have already been relocated to the building. At least 30 churches have been closed or burned in Indonesia this year alone, according to Jakarta Christian Communication Forum. Sources: VOM-USA, Kabar Gereja [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: New Laws Oppress Christians
The president of Kazakhstan has ushered in two new laws that severely restrict freedom of religion. President Nursultan Nazarbaev signed the laws – which have been adopted with what one observer called “unprecedented” speed – in mid-October. The laws have attracted fierce criticism from local religious groups, human rights defenders and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). “The Law on Religious Activity and Religious Associations” imposes a very complicated registration system for faith groups, bans unregistered religious activity, promotes censorship and requires government approval to build or open new places of worship. The other new law includes amendments that may also have a far-reaching impact on religious freedom. Source: Forum 18 News Service [more...]
UPDATE: Pastor Vahik and Sonia Abrahamian flee Iran
Iranian pastor Vahik Abrahamian and his wife, Sonia, left the country for the Netherlands on 15 September with the help of the Netherlands Embassy and with approval from the Iranian government. Vahik and Sonia continually expressed their desire to remain in Iran for the sake of their ministry; however, fears for their safety caused them to flee the country.
The Abrahamians were arrested along with another couple in September 2010. Sonia and the other Christians were released from prison in April 2011. Sonia was told her husband would be released 10 days later, but Pastor Vahik was not released until 29 August. Source: FCNN [more...]
EGYPT: Egyptians Mourn Massacre of Coptic Christians
Funeral services were held Monday in Cairo for some of the victims of a military attack against a group of Christian protestors that left at least 26 dead and hundreds wounded. In the wake of what could be the worst act of violence against Egyptian Christians in modern history, leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church called for three days of fasting and prayer for divine intervention, along with three days of mourning. [more...]
IRAN: Update on Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani
There have been developments in Iran concerning Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, whose death sentence for apostasy was upheld in court hearings in late September.
The case will now be referred to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Secondly, the Supreme Court has announced that it would be willing to consider a further appeal. There is continuing uncertainty about the case. The Iranian authorities have repeatedly suggested that a death sentence has not been passed. This is despite the fact that written verdicts issued by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Gilan Province in September 2010 and the Supreme Court in July 2011 explicitly stated that the charge was apostasy and the sentence death.
Source: Middle East Concern [more...]
PAKISTAN: Armed Group Kills Christian Over Land Dispute
Safdar Masih, a Pakistani Christian, was shot to death over a land dispute on 5 October. Masih’s church in Mian Channu purchased land to build an orphanage; however, their claim on the land was contested by an influential feudal lord. The church filed a complaint with the police but was encouraged by authorities to withdraw the petition. Days later, armed men attacked the village, murdering Masih and injuring a dozen others, including the children. The police have yet to file a report about the attack. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
INDIA: Students at Orphanage Forced to Pay Idol Worship Fee
Hindu extremists in West Bengal, India who earlier this year refused to admit Christian orphans to a high school have forced them to contribute funds for idol worship in order to gain admission, sources said. The Rev Dr Subimal Dutta, director general of Ambassadors Service Society, which operates the Gilgal Children’s Home, said he faced threats after opposing the collection of money for idol worship at government schools or government-aided schools. Dutta said that he has tried to stop school officials from collecting money from the Gilgal Children’s Home and from non-Hindu students at public schools for the “Puja subscription,” or idol worship fee. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Progress in Rape Case but Alleged Victim's Father Dies
A Christian mother of five who was allegedly raped by two Muslims rejoiced after police in Pakistan's Kasur district arrested a suspect and suspended an officer who had dismissed her complaints, but her solace was short-lived when her father collapsed and died Friday 30 September after learning of her ordeal. The 32-year-old woman and her husband, Mushtaq Masih, told Compass that they had lost hope of getting justice as they were facing threats from area Muslims to withdraw the case even as police were deliberately slow to investigate and arrest the accused. [more...]
EGYPT: Hard-line Muslims in Attack Coptic Church, Homes
A group of hard-line Muslims attacked a church building in Upper Egypt on 30 September, torching the structure and then looting and burning nearby Christian-owned homes and businesses. The 3,000-strong mob of hard-line and Salafi Muslims gutted the Mar Gerges Church in the Elmarenab village of Aswan, then demolished much of its remains, multiple witnesses at the scene said. The mob also razed four homes near the church and two businesses, all Christian-owned. Looting was also reported. [more...]
INDONESIA: Church Suicide Bombing In Solo, Central Java
On Sunday 25 September the second worship service at the 700-strong Bethel Full Gospel Church (Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh) in Kepunton ended as usual at 11am. At the moment the believers started moving out, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives by the main glass doors of the sanctuary. [more...]
IRAN: Wild Allegations Heaped Upon Pastor
The life of Iranian Pastor Youcef Nardarkani continues to hang in the balance as the Iranian state media is now getting involved in the case. 34-year-old Youcef has new, false charges levelled against him, including rape and extortion.
According to sources inside Iran, Iranian government authorities are providing deceptive information to Western media regarding charges against Pastor Youcef. There is some good news however, according to Todd Nettleton of VOM USA, "the international pressure is working. The Iranian government is hearing from people around the world".
Sources: Mission Network News, VOM USA, Assist News Service [more...]
Rubbish Dump Evangelist
A couple years ago we shared with you the story of Neneng*, a bold young woman with a passion to reach out to her people group, the Sundanese in West Java – one of the most devout followers of Islam. There are around 31 million Sundanese in Indonesia. Many of them are uneducated and extremely poor, needing their children to work with them to help provide the family’s daily needs. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor Stands Firm in Faith, Faces Execution
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani refused to recant his Christian faith yesterday at the fourth and final court hearing in Iran to appeal his death sentence for apostasy (leaving Islam). Applying sharia (Islamic law), the court in Rasht gave Nadarkhani, 35, a final chance to recant Christianity and return to Islam in order for his life to be spared. Nadarkhani refused. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor Refuses to Recant During Court Hearings
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy in September 2010, refused to recant his Christian faith during two court hearings held on 25 and 26 September. In July, the Supreme Court instructed the Revolutionary Tribunal of Gilan Province to review his case to verify whether he was previously a practising Muslim. At the recent hearings, the court in Rasht ruled that Pastor Youcef was not a practising Muslim before becoming a Christian but that he remains guilty of apostasy because of his Muslim ancestry. Further sessions have reportedly been scheduled for today (28 September). If Pastor Youcef continues to refuse to recant his faith, it is expected that he will be executed. Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Present Truth Ministries [more...]
WEST BANK: Lives Touched through Youth Centre Programme
Pastor Stephen Khoury, a VOM partner, successfully completed a summer Bible school programme in the Bethlehem suburb of Shepherd’s Field, despite opposition from neighbours and local authorities. On the first day, Stephen was accosted by a neighbourhood woman and her two sons, but the Holy Spirit enabled Stephen to respond wisely and to calm the woman. Over the course of the five-day event, the leaders’ car tires were slashed and the building and grounds of the youth centre were vandalised. But Stephen and the other Christian workers were encouraged. “We had more than 78 kids come, and more than 25 kids from different religions received Christ,” Stephen said. “Lives were changed forever.” As a result of their success, a new outreach meeting will be held each Friday at the centre. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
LAOS: Orphans under Pressure
Eleven orphans in northern Laos are currently facing pressure from the principal of their orphanage to stop attending church. If they do not obey, the children may have to leave the orphanage.
After attending a local church and becoming a Christian, one of the orphans shared the Gospel with his peers. Soon, 10 other orphans turned to Christ and began regularly attending church. When the principal heard of the conversions, he told the children multiple times to stop attending church. After pressuring the children with no results, the principal called the group to his office on 19 August. He told them they must stop attending church or face the consequences. Seven of the orphans promised they would stop attending church, but none of them have renounced their faith. The remaining four orphans continue to attend church and refuse to bend under the pressure. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
NIGERIA: Scores of Christians Killed In Plateau State
Dozens of Christians have been killed by Muslim extremists in Nigeria’s Plateau state in recent weeks. On 4 September, eight members of a Christian family were shot and butchered with machetes in Tatu village. The next day, seven Christians were killed in the village of Zakalio. Another four Christians were killed on 5 September after Muslims attacked the Christian communities of Dabwak Kuru and Farin Lamba. On 8 September, extremists attacked Tsohon Foron village and killed 10 Christians. The following evening, Muslim attackers killed 14 believers, including a pregnant woman, in the village of Vwang Kogot. The Muslims, aided by men in Nigerian Army military uniforms, then raided the village. A pastor in the area said, “No help or relief from the government has been received by our people.... We’ve just been living with the horror of not knowing what will happen next.” Source: Compass Direct [more...]
CHINA: Pastor Released Early from Prison
Zhang Rongliang, a prominent house church leader sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison in 2004, has been released nine months early. Zhang was charged with “attaining a passport through cheating” and “illegal border crossing” after attending several international mission conferences. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Mother of Five in Pakistan Alleges Rape
A Christian mother of five was allegedly raped by two Muslim men last week, and area Islamists are threatening to harm her family if charges against the suspects are not dropped, the woman and her husband told Compass. On Thursday 15 September, the 32-year-old woman said, she was returning home to Mustafabad, in Punjab Province’s Kasur district, when Muslims identified only as 23-year-old Bhallu and 27-year-old Shera, along with an unidentified accomplice, allegedly abducted her at gunpoint, took her to an abandoned house in the area and raped her. Muslim criminals in Pakistan, where the population is more than 95 percent Muslim according to Operation World, tend to assume they will not be prosecuted if their victims are Christians. [more...]
VIETNAM: Church Leader Re-Arrested, Suffering Ill Health
Father Nguyen Van Ly, a church leader who has spent over 15 years in prison for his work in advocating religious freedom, democracy and human rights in Vietnam, was re-arrested by authorities on 25 July.
Father Ly, 65, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2007 for distributing material “harmful to the state.” He was released temporarily in March 2010 to undergo a year’s medical treatment for serious health concerns after suffering two strokes in prison that left him partially paralysed. Despite his ill health, Father Ly continues to be detained. Sources: AsiaNews, Human Rights Watch [more...]
IRAN: First Hearing Scheduled For Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani
The first hearing for Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor who received a death sentence for apostasy, has been scheduled for 25 September. In July, the Supreme Court instructed the Revolutionary Tribunal of Gilan Province to review Youcef’s case to verify whether he was previously a practising Muslim. Youcef claims that, although raised in a Muslim home, he was never a Muslim by choice, conviction, belief or consistent practise, and that he should therefore not be regarded as an apostate. If the Tribunal concludes that Youcef was previously a Muslim and so is now an apostate, the Supreme Court's ruling makes clear that he should then be executed unless he recants his faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Sources: Middle East Concern, Door of Hope International [more...]
CHINA: Church Leaders Released
Several church leaders from the Linfen-Fushan house church in Shanxi province, China, have been released from detention. The released Christians were among those arrested following a police raid on their church’s grounds in September 2009. More than 30 believers were seriously injured and 17 buildings were destroyed in the attack. Three women -- Gao Fuqin, Zhao Guoai and Yang Hongzhen – were released, along with a Christian man, Li Shuangpin. Yang Caizhen, who was also imprisoned with the women, was released earlier on medical parole. All five of these leaders suffered physical and mental torture while detained at labour camps. [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: Update on Imprisoned Pastor
Family and friends of Pastor Ilmurad Nurliev were disappointed in late August when the president did not include the pastor in what has become an annual amnesty of prisoners. Pastor Ilmurad was arrested at his home in Mary in south-eastern Turkmenistan on 27 August, 2010. He was charged with extracting money from three people -- an accusation his wife, Maya, and fellow church members strongly deny. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor Freed On Bail; Others Remain Imprisoned
A pastor arrested and charged with blasphemy against Islam was released on bail on 27 August. Pastor Matthias Haghnejad was arrested 10 days earlier while making a pastoral visit in the city of Rasht, Iran. He was held until his family paid $30,000 in bail. While Pastor Matthias is currently free, he still faces a trial on the blasphemy charge.
Earlier this year, Matthias and 10 other church members were detained and charged with partaking in activities against the Iranian order. They were later acquitted. At least eight other Iranian Christian leaders are currently in prison. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
SOMALIA: Convert to Christianity Kidnapped, Beheaded
A kidnapped Christian convert from Islam was found decapitated on 2 September on the outskirts of Hudur City in Bakool region, in south-western Somalia. Juma Nuradin Kamil was forced into a car by three suspected Islamic extremists from the al Shabaab terrorist group on 21 August, area sources said. The kidnapping and subsequent manner of murder suggests that al Shabaab militants had been monitoring him, Christian leaders said. Muslim extremists from al Shabaab, a militant group with ties to al Qaeda, have vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity, and they control the area some 400 kilometres from Mogadishu. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Christians Seriously Injured for Refusing Islam
Liaqat Munawar, a Pakistani Christian, reported that his brother Ishfaq Munawar and his friend Naeem Masih were attacked by Pashtun youth in Karachi, Pakistan. Ishfaq and Naeem were travelling home from a church service when they were flagged down by a group of Pashtun youth. The youth questioned their identities and why they were travelling through the town. When they discovered Ishfaq and Naeem were Christians, they told them to recite the Kalma (the Islamic conversion creed) and that this was the only way they would leave the town alive. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: Expelled For Preaching In Own Church
After legal residence in Kazakhstan for 15 years, marriage to a Kazakh citizen and a two-year-old daughter, Russian citizen Leonid Pan was, in mid-August, denied his application to renew his residence permit because he volunteers to preach in his local Protestant church. The local Internal Policy Department had already refused permission for him to become leader of the church. "How can the Migration Police, without having a Court order, demand that Leonid leave the country?" church members complained to Forum 18. The KNB secret police denied to Forum 18 it was involved in the expulsion. [more...]
NIGERIA: Violence in Jos continues
On Sunday around 2am a mob of some 30 Fulani Muslims - reportedly with 'sophisticated weapons' - crept into Tatu village and forced their way into the home of the Chollom Gyang Christian family. Apart from the couple's fourth child who was away, all eight other family members were massacred in their beds, including a four- month-old baby. Due to rumours that they would be attacked there, most Christians stayed away from their churches all day. [more...]
IRAN: Believers Must Report to Prison to Serve One Year Sentence
Five Iranian Christian believers and ministers who were convicted of crimes against the Islamic Order on 8 March 2011 in Shiraz, Iran, have been told to report to prison immediately to serve a one-year prison sentence. According to Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries their names are: Behrouz Sadegh-Khandjani, Mehdi “Petros” Furutan, Mohammed “William” Belyad, Nazly Belyad, and Parviz Khalaj. [more...]
Unstoppable Courage: Singh's Story
Forty-eight-year-old Singh* has been jailed several times for his courageous devotion to Christ. A poor subsistence farmer, Singh and his wife Lae* lost six of their seven children to malaria. When Singh’s seventh child also contracted malaria, the prospect of losing his last child to this illness was unbearable. The local medical clinic had no medicine for malaria, so he turned to the village witchdoctor for help. The child’s illness grew worse. “Why don’t you try that Christian God?” a villager suggested. “What have you to lose?” “Why not?” Singh and Lae concluded. Singh offered up a simple, sincere prayer, “God, if you will heal my son, I will follow You all my life.” [more...]
IRAN: Prisoner Vahik Abrahamian Released
Pastor Vahik Abrahamian, a 45-year-old Armenian Christian, was released from prison on the morning of Monday 29 August, after suffering greatly behind bars for a year, and has now rejoined his family. On 4 September 2010 Pastor Vahik Abrahamian and his wife Sonia Keshish Avanesian were meeting with another Christian couple at Vahik and Sonia's home when all four were arrested. Sonia and the other couple were released from prison in April 2011. Officials told Sonia they would release her husband 10 days later, however, he was retained at Iran's notorious Evin prison in Tehran. The couples had been accused of various offences, including propagating Christianity, opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran, and having contact with exiled opposition figures. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Enforced Conversion and Marriage after Kidnapping of Christian Girl
In 2009, Arifa Alfred, a 27-year-old Christian girl, was kidnapped in Pakistan after drinking tea that had been drugged. When she awoke, she was in the home of Amjad, a Muslim man who told her that she was now his wife and that she had converted to Islam. Arifa's parents reported her kidnapping to the police in 2009, but the police did nothing to help. [more...]
NIGERIA: Army Said to Help in Slaughter of Christians
Muslim extremists, with the alleged help of Nigerian army personnel, killed 24 Christians this month in central Nigeria’s Plateau state, area sources said. The attacks started 11 August in Ratsa Foron village, where assaults that day and on 15 August left six Christians dead; also on 15 August in Heipang village, Muslim extremists killed nine members of one Christian family along with another Christian, the sources said. “I can swear to God Almighty that the attack was carried out with the support of the soldiers; I saw them,” said a tearful Nnaji John, who lost her family in the attack. [more...]
TURKEY: Government Overturns Historic Religious Property Seizures
The Turkish government made an historic U-turn in state policy last weekend, issuing an official decree inviting Turkey’s Christian and Jewish communities to reclaim their long-confiscated religious properties. The decree comes 75 years after the Turkish government seized hundreds of lands and buildings owned by its Greek, Armenian, Syriac and Jewish communities. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the surprise decision on Sunday evening 28 August in Istanbul, addressing a large gathering of Istanbul’s non-Muslim religious leaders representing 161 minority foundations. [more...]
NORTH SUDAN: Church Building in Ruins as Hostilities Grow
More than seven months after Muslim extremists burned its church building, a Presbyterian Church of the Sudan (PCOS) congregation is still afraid to meet for worship, according to Christian sources. The Rev Maubark Hamad said his church in Wad Madani, 138 kilometres southeast of Khartoum, has not been able to rebuild since the 15 Jan devastation due to the congregation’s meagre resources. Christian sources said they are increasingly fearful as Muslim extremists pose more threats against Christians in an attempt to rid what they call Dar al Islam, the “Land of Islam,” of Christianity. [more...]
CHINA: ChinaAid Seeks Special UN Investigation of "Disappeared" Human Rights Lawyer
ChinaAid formally requested a special UN investigation into the torture of missing Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng on Monday 15 August, the five-year anniversary of his first kidnapping by Chinese police. The request by China Aid Association was submitted by its legal counsel and was filed with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Human rights lawyer Gao was taken by police on 15 August 2006 from his sister's home and held incommunicado until the Chinese government announced on 21 September 2006 that he was being charged with inciting subversion. [more...]
VIETNAM: Christian Worshippers Brutally Beaten by Police
A violent attack against indigenous minority Montagnard Christians in the central highlands of Vietnam took place in July, leaving 16 men and women severely injured and one man still under arrest; his welfare remains unknown to date. On 7 July at approximately 8pm, Vietnamese security forces and police descended upon a worship service in the village of Buon Kret Krot (H’Ra commune, Mang Yang district, Plei Ku city, in Gai Lai province), and began kicking and beating the attendees. Security forces threatened the villagers, stating: “If anyone worships like this way, we will return to arrest you all and put you in prison for five years.” Twelve men and four women were beaten, and of these, ten men and two women were violently beaten to unconsciousness. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
IRAQ'S "Bloody Monday"
At least 80 people were killed in Iraq on Monday 15 August when a coordinated series of bombs were set off across the country, including outside a church in Kirkuk. More than 350 people were injured in the attack believed to be the work of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQIR). Recently, Sunni and Shia Islamists bombed St Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church and Holy Family Syrian Catholic Church, and attempted to bomb a Presbyterian church, but the bomb was fortunately defused before it caused any damage. Many Christians have already fled Iraq, but those that remain live in constant fear, claiming that the government makes no attempt to protect them from radical Islamists. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamists Prevent Starved Christians from Receiving Food Aid
A famine in Somalia has resulted in the death of thousands of people and millions more in urgent need of food aid. Aid is reaching some affected areas but radical Islamists are controlling its distribution and preventing Christians from receiving help and causing many to starve to death. [more...]
EGYPT: Christian Killed, others Injured in Mob Attack
A Christian was killed and several others were injured by a mob of Muslims who recently attacked the predominantly Christian village of Nazlet Faragallah in Upper Egypt. The attack was reportedly sparked by an argument on 6 August between a Muslim man and a Coptic Christian woman. The nature of the argument could not be confirmed, but several Christian men allegedly came to the aid of the woman, ending the dispute. Several hours later, a group of Muslims arrived at the village church and started pelting congregants with rocks as they left the building. The Christians responded in kind. Several people suffered cuts and bruises, and some of the windows of the church building were broken. [more...]
UGANDA: Christian Brutally Imprisoned by Muslim Father
A 14-year-old girl in western Uganda remains in frail health 10 months after her father tortured her for leaving Islam for Christianity. In March 2010, Susan Ithungu came to faith in Christ after an evangelist came to speak at her school in Isango village, Kasese district. A month later, news reached Susan’s father that she had converted to Christianity. He warned her and her brother, Mbusa Baluku, against attending church or listening to the Gospel message, threatening to kill them in broad daylight if they embraced Christianity. Susan was then locked in a room with no sunlight. Her brother was warned against telling anyone of her imprisonment, but would secretly bring her food and water. [more...]
CHINA: House Church Members Targeted
Chinese authorities have recently targeted several Christians who were involved in house church activities.
On 11 August, approximately 100 officials surrounded the residence of Pastor Lu Jingxiang in Mingguang city, Anhui province, where his house church was hosting a summer camp for children. Pastor Lu and three visiting Christian leaders were taken to the police station for holding an “unregistered, illegal meeting.” The principal of the local elementary and high school recorded the names of all the children in attendance. Pastor Lu and the three other leaders were later released. The evening before the raid, local officials had spread rumours that Pastor Lu had hidden drugs and cult members in his home. [more...]
UPDATE: Formerly Imprisoned Cuban Pastor Settles in United States
A formerly imprisoned Cuban pastor recently arrived in the United States as a political refugee along with his wife and daughters. In February 2006, Cuban authorities raided the home of Pastor Carlos Lamelas and arrested him on charges of aiding emigrants who sought to leave the country illegally. Pastor Carlos was later accused of being involved in human trafficking. Those acquainted with Pastor Carlos denied that he was ever involved in such activities and believed he was being targeted for opposing the Cuban regime on religious rights issues. Carlos suffered in prison without charges until he was suddenly given a "conditional release" in June 2006. He was later fined, however, on charges of "falsifying documents. [more...]
IRAN: Imported Bibles Seized by Government
The Iranian government is expressing great concern over the large volume of Bibles entering the country. Authorities reportedly seized 6,500 Bibles in transit between the cities of Zanjan and Abhar in northwest Iran. An Iranian official recently stated that “missionaries with reliance on huge money and propaganda are trying to deviate our youth." He also expressed his concern that “religions are strengthening their power to confront Islam.” Prior to this, in November of 2010, police officers and revolutionary guards seized 300 Bibles and burned them. Source: Mohabat News [more...]
SUDAN: Christian Teenager Traumatised after Kidnapping
A Christian teenager in Sudan recently escaped from kidnappers who tortured her and pressured her to convert from Christianity to Islam. On 17 June 2010, Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, then 15 years old, was abducted by a gang of Muslims. She was initially locked in a room and beaten until she was unconscious. For months, the men moved her to various locations in Khartoum, threatening to kill her if she tried to escape and insulting her Christian family members as “infidels.” [more...]
ERITREA: Mass arrests of Christians Continue
Eritrean officials have arrested at least 90 Christians in recent months, including many college students. In May, authorities detained 64 believers in Adi Abeyto, a village near the capital, Asmara. Only six of the 90 arrested have been released. The others are thought to be held at a police station or in the notorious Mitire military prison. It is not clear why the Christians were detained, but college students have reportedly been arrested in recent weeks for refusing to take part in celebrations for the country’s Independence Day (24 May). For example, 26 students from the Mai-Mefhi College of Technology were arrested in June and detained at an unknown location. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Pray for Distraught Christian Widow
On 21 March, a group of young Muslim men attacked a Salvation Army Church in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and shot to death 25-year-old Jamil and another man. Recently VOM staff visited with Jamil’s wife, Sana, who had been married to Jamil but a month before his tragic death. Sana is very emotionally fragile at this time. “One minute she is laughing and the next she is crying. Her behaviour is very erratic,” said the VOM team leader. Jamil had been supporting Sana, his parents and two siblings by working as a sweeper. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
SUDAN: Genocide of Nuba by Starvation
Continual aerial bombardment has displaced hundreds of thousands of Nuba, the predominantly Christian African tribes indigenous to the Nuba Mountains in Sudan's South Kordofan State. Furthermore, the Government of Sudan (GoS) is preventing humanitarian aid entering the region. Sudan experts warn that if there is no intervention 70,000 or more Nuba will starve to death within the next two months. Eye-witnesses report that Christian pastors specifically are being targeted for arrest, torture and execution, because the Church has been labelled an enemy. Please pray for God to intervene on behalf of his imperilled and besieged people in the Nuba Mts. Source: Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Persecution of Church Leaders Continues
An indictment has been filed against a Baptist in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent. Konstantin Malchikovsky is accused of not paying in monies from church offerings and book sales. Baptists strongly dispute the charges, describing them as "absurd", and noting that they "violate the Religion Law". They also note that courts have ignored what they describe as "exhaustive proofs of falsification and forgery of documents by the tax authorities". The charges have, as in previous cases, been accompanied by a hostile campaign in the state-run media accusing Baptists among other things of running an "illegal training centre". [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Jailed Indian Christians Released After Six Months
Two Indian Christians, Sekhar and Yohan, were arrested and charged with proselytising in Saudi Arabia. After six months in prison, they were released and returned to India on Sunday.
The raid and the arrests in Saudi Arabia are believed to be an attempt to stop Christians from worshipping in their homes. During the raid in which the two men were arrested, authorities confiscated Bibles, Christian literature, and musical instruments. They also reportedly painted verses from the Koran on the apartment walls [more...]
CHINA: House Church Leader Sentenced to Labour Camp
The deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance, Pastor Shi Enhao, has been sentenced to two years of “re-education through labour,” an extra-judicial punishment that is handed out by police and requires no trial or conviction of a crime. The charge on the sentencing papers is “illegal meetings and illegal organising of venues for religious meetings.” This charge stems from the fact that Pastor Shi’s large house church of several thousand members meets in various different sites around the city. [more...]
TANZANIA: Muslim Extremists Torch Churches in Zanzibar
Muslim extremists on Saturday 30 July burned down a church building on Zanzibar Island off the coast of Tanzania, church leaders said, just three days after another congregation’s facility on the island was reduced to ashes. In Fuoni on the south coast of Zanzibar island, Islamic extremists torched the building of the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) at around 2 pm, said Pastor Leonard Massasa, who oversees Zanzibar’s EAGT churches. The assailants were shouting, “Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children,” Pastor Massasa said. The EAGT church is about 60 kilometres from Zanzibar town. In Kianga about 10 kilometres from Zanzibar town, another church building was burned down on 27 July at about 2 am, said Pastor George Frank Dunia of Free Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Africa. [more...]
PAKISTAN: A Call for Mercy
In Pakistan today, Asia Bibi, a Christian wife and mother, sits alone in a 1.8m by 2.4m jail cell, awaiting possible execution. Her ‘crime’ was that she spoke the truth about her faith. Asia is an ordinary Pakistani Christian, an impoverished fruit picker, but she is a vital link in the Lord’s plan to bring His truth to Pakistan and the entire world. Militant Muslims view Asia and courageous Pakistani evangelists as blasphemers. They are offended and angered by the truth of the Gospel, and they think they are serving Allah by burning churches and jailing or killing Christians. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Violence Against Christians
Several Christians were assaulted and threatened throughout Sri Lanka in recent weeks. A pastor was assaulted after attending a meeting convened by a Buddhist monk in Ampara District, Eastern Province on 10 July. During the meeting, which was in regard to land distribution, the pastor was assaulted by the monk and others present. The monk kicked the pastor, resulting in serious injuries to his arm and stomach. They later followed the pastor to his home and continued to verbally abuse him and members of his family. [more...]
LAOS: Christian Kicked out by Family for Refusing Witch Doctor
A Christian in Laos was recently kicked out of his home for taking his daughter to a medical doctor rather than seeking treatment from a witch doctor. Twenty-six-year-old ‘Noy’ lived with his wife and their two children in his in-laws’ home. He has faced opposition from his family members since he converted to Christianity because he attended church on Sunday rather than work in the field. When his daughter became ill, the family told Noy to take her to a witch doctor. Instead, Noy said, “I will take my daughter to the hospital. God will rescue her life.” His in-laws cursed him and burned his Bible and other Christian books while he was at the hospital. When Noy returned after his daughter’s recovery, his in-laws told him he couldn’t live there unless he renounced his faith. Noy refused, saying, “How can I forsake the living God?” They then forced him to leave the house. [more...]
TAJIKISTAN: New Restrictions on Religious Freedom
The Upper Chamber of Tajikistan's Parliament recently adopted two legal measures that will further restrict religious freedom, particularly the religious education of children. On 21 July, a new Parental Responsibility Law was passed, banning almost all children under 18 from participating in religious activity. At the same time, an amendment to the Criminal Code was passed to punish organisers of ‘extremist religious’ teaching – an unidentified concept that could easily be applied against Christian leaders.
Both of the new legal measures – which still need to be signed by President Emomali Rahmon to come into force – come just two weeks after an amendment made to the country’s Religion Law decreed tight restrictions on religious education abroad for children and adults.
Source: Forum 18 [more...]
PAKISTAN: Update: Muslims Convicted for Murdering Christian
Three Muslims were recently sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Christian who refused to convert to Islam. Rasheed Masih, a 36-year-old potato business owner in Punjab province, was brutally killed in March 2010 by Muslims resentful of his success. Rasheed was also pressured to renounce his faith. On 7 July, the Sessions Court in Mian Channu convicted the three men of torturing and killing Rasheed and sentenced them to life sentences of 25 years. They were also each ordered to pay 100,000 rupees (approximately AU$1,045) to Rasheed’s family. A fourth suspect was acquitted.
Source: Compass Direct [more...]
SUDAN: South Sudan Receives Independence; Christians Remain at Risk
On 9 July, North and South Sudan officially became separate nations—a separation in accordance with a referendum held in January. The succession comes after a long history of violence and conflict, including two civil wars between the largely Islamic North and the Christian and animist majority in the South. Christians, in particular, have endured severe opposition. [more...]
IRAN: Court Re-Examining Case of Iranian Pastor Sentenced To Death
In early July, it was reported that the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for leaving Islam, was being returned to a lower Iranian court. In recent days it was learned that has lawyer has finally received the written confirmation of the ruling from the Supreme Court. According to one source, the Supreme Court has agreed with the death sentence verdict. However, the court also found procedural flaws and is asking the lower court to re-examine the case. The judges are reportedly seeking clarification as to whether Pastor Youcef was truly a Muslim prior to becoming a Christian. If Pastor Youcef is determined to have been a "true" Muslim and does not recant his Christian faith the death sentence will stand. It is also feared that Pastor Youcef could be executed before the court re-examines the case. Sources: VOM contacts [more...]
LAOS: Imprisoned Pastor ‘Extremely Weak,’ Family Says
A Lao pastor imprisoned six months ago for holding a “secret meeting” has lost weight under harsh prison conditions and is extremely weak, according to his family. Police arrested Wanna and fellow pastor and inmate Yohan, both identified only by a single name, on 4 January along with several other Christians in central Laos’s Khammouan Province. [more...]
NIGERIA: Boko Haram Strikes
Boko Haram, 'the Nigerian Taliban', formalised its links with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in mid-June 2010. Consequently terror has escalated. On 16 June Boko Haram perpetrated Nigeria's first ever suicide bombing, attacking the Police Headquarters in the capital Abuja, killing eight. Whilst some church bombing plots have been foiled, four Christians died when militants bombed the All Christian Fellowship Mission in Selija, Niger State, 40km from Abuja, on Sunday 10 July. [more...]
EGYPT: Sexual Harassment of Christian Wife Turns into Violence against Christian Villagers in Egypt
On 30 June, the Egyptian village of western Kolosna was looted and torched--injuring at least ten Christians. Earlier in the week, a Coptic Christian man tried to protect his wife from being sexually harassed by Muslim men at a local bus terminal. The fact that the Christian husband was defending his wife enraged the Muslim men. [more...]
Iran ‘Annuls’ Death Sentence for Youcef Nadarkhani
Following a huge prayer campaign on behalf of an Iranian pastor, the ASSIST News Service has learned that Iran’s supreme court has overturned the death sentence handed down to Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor accused of apostasy for having converted from Islam. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: "Absurd" Criminal Charge for Praying for the Sick
Pastor Yerzhan Ushanov of the New Life Protestant Church in the city of Taraz could face up to two years' imprisonment if criminal charges of harming an individual's health, brought by the KNB secret police, reach court. The KNB claim a visitor to the church suffered after Pastor Ushanov prayed for him using hypnosis, the second time the secret police have brought such charges against a Protestant pastor in Jambyl Region. "This is not the first time the authorities in southern regions of Kazakhstan bring such absurd accusations against pastors for allegedly using hypnosis, while in reality all they do is pray for the sick," [more...]
INDIA: Pastor’s Father Beaten Unconscious in Attack in Rajasthan
Hindu extremists in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan have threatened to kill a pastor after beating his family and violating an agreement to stop attacking them, the pastor said. Pastor Shantilal Ninama of Believers Church told Compass that the Hindu extremists beat his 65-year-old father until he fell unconscious in one of the attacks last month. On the evening of 8 June, after agreeing to do no further harm to Pastor Ninama and his family in exchange for him dropping police charges he’d filed over a previous attack, the enraged Hindu extremists stormed into his home and began beating and stoning his father, sister, wife and three children, he said. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor’s Death Sentence Upheld
The death sentence of Youcef Nardarkhani, an Iranian pastor convicted of apostasy, has been upheld and confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court. Pastor Youcef, a leader in the Full Gospel "Church of Iran" network, was arrested and imprisoned in October 2009 after protesting a decision by the government requiring that his son study the Koran. In September, Iran's 11th Circuit Criminal Court of Appeals for the Gilan Province upheld Pastor Youcef’s death sentence and conviction for apostasy. The delivery of the death sentence, however, was delayed. Many believe the delay was a means to pressure him to him to turn away from Christ in prison. [more...]
SUDAN: Christians Tortured and Killed in South Sudan
Government agents and Islamic militants recently launched deadly attacks on Christians in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. On 8 June, a Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Intelligence unit detained a seminary student, Nimeri Philip Kalo, near the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in the capital city of Kadugli. Nimeri and other Christians were fleeing the town after Muslim militias loyal to the SAF attacked and looted at least three local churches. The agents reportedly accused Nimeri of being a Christian and suspected he was therefore opposed to the Islamic government. The UNMIS’s mandate is to support the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the country’s Christian and animist south, which is scheduled to secede on 9 July. Nimeri was killed in front of several bystanders. “They shot him in front of our eyes and forced us not to cry, or else we would face the same fate,” said one witness. [more...]
NIGERIA: Pastor Killed In Borno State
Two Christians were recently killed by members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram in the northeastern town of Maiduguri, Nigeria. Pastor David Usman (45) and Hamman Andrew, the church secretary, were shot dead near the church in an area of Maiduguri called the Railway Quarters. In 2009, when the church was set on fire by militants, Pastor David had reportedly raised the problem of Boko Haram with his superiors and commented that the Government needed to do more to stop their aggression. [more...]
CHINA: Harassment Continues For Shouwang Church in Beijing, China
Members of the Shouwang Church in Beijing, China have been arrested and repeatedly harassed by authorities for their attempt to hold outdoor Sunday worship in recent months. In the latest such incident, 15 Christians were detained for gathering at the church’s designated outdoor worship site on 26 June. Several of the detained believers were visiting from other churches, including one woman who had travelled from Henan province to show her support. Police had reportedly stopped two other Christian women from another house church from leaving their home to visit the worship site. By 9:00 pm that evening, all of the believers were released. [more...]
UZBEK: Christian Threatened by Police
A Christian man is facing threats and harassment from police in Tashkent, Uzbekistan for challenging a fine he received for his religious activity. In April, Anvar Rajapov was fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage after police raided his home and confiscated literature. In an attempt to stop Anvar from appealing against the police actions and court decisions, local police summoned him to the police station in late May. [more...]
VIETNAM: Pastor Kidnapped by Authorities
According to VOM sources, Pastor T a Mennonite from Ho Chi Minh City was arrested on the evening of Saturday 26 June. He was beaten in custody and taken to an unknown location. While speaking on RFA radio, Nu, Pastor T’s wife said, at around 10pm her husband left home but phoned 15 minutes later from the Ward 26, Binh Thanh district police station to say he was being held. [more...]
The New Mecca of Terrorism
On Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, a modern-day religious war is raging. Radical Islamists are using violence, kidnapping and murder to persecute Christians, most of whom are poor subsistence farmers.
Christians live under constant threat from their Muslim neighbours. The violence is so routine, one United States official dubbed Mindanao 'the new Mecca of terrorism.' Though it makes up just five percent of the population on Mindanao, the Muslim minority plays a sadistic game of musical chairs, stealing the land, destroying the homes, dividing the families and targeting the lives of Christians. It is their hope, when the music stops, the 13 million Christians currently living on the island will either be dead or Islamic converts. [more...]
INDONESIA: Mission Training School Attacked
A mission training school was recently attacked by a mob of Muslims following a prayer meeting in Jonggol, West Java, Indonesia. Approximately 85 Muslims rushed into the school and raided each class and living quarters, removing pictures of Jesus. They told the staff that the school must be closed. No students were on the premises, as school was not in session that day. Several police officers and soldiers accompanied the mob from a nearby military base and neighbours did not recognise them as locals. [more...]
IRAN: Christian Held in Solitary Confinement
Friends and family of a detained Iranian Christian are calling for clarification of his case more than five months after he was sent to Tehran’s notoriously brutal Evin prison. Farshid Fathi (32) was one of several believers detained by government security officials in December 2010 during a series of raids on Christians’ homes in Tehran. He has endured months of solitary confinement even though no court orders or instructions have been issued in his case. Interrogators have reportedly used psychological torture in attempts to force Farshid to reveal details of Christian contacts. [more...]
LAOS: Missionary Charged With Human Trafficking
A missionary to youth in Laos was recently charged with human trafficking, an offence that carries a hefty fine and a prison sentence of five to 50 years. Brother K was arrested and charged with human trafficking in May after he went to a police station to seek the release of 24 young people. The youths had been detained while travelling to a Christian training conference, where Brother K was serving as a leader. [more...]
SUDAN: The South Approaching Independence
Sudanese Christians request continued prayer as the North and South prepare to separate on 9 July , in accordance with a referendum held in January. Alarming developments include the North’s intention to implement Shariah more strictly, potentially reducing the limited freedoms given to Christians and other non-Muslims. There is also fear that, with many Christians feeling the South, the remaining believers will be especially vulnerable to pressure and attacks. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Attacked and Threatened In Jharkhand State
Several Christians came under attack in Jharkhand state, India, in recent weeks. On 28 May, Hindu militants beat the members of five Christian families in Palamu district. A week prior, a group of Hindu militants threatened to beat Pastor Sanjay Choudary of the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society if he did not stop leading worship meetings. He and his congregation then filed a complaint, leading the police to visit with them on 28 May. Immediately after the police left, the enraged militants appeared and started beating people. One woman suffered internal injuries, and another of the believers was still missing at last report. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: New Measures to Control Religious Freedom
Christians in Azerbaijan fear that new amendments to the restrictive Religion Law will increase state restrictions on freedom of religion or belief in the country. The amendments, adopted 10 June, could make it difficult to determine which individuals are able to serve as religious leaders. A news article states that a “religious person engaged in religious activity is a person with higher or secondary specialised religious education." While this definition does not specify that only “professional” religious workers can conduct activities such as religious education or leading worship, officials could use the new definitions to ban individuals from any religious activity not specially authorised by the published law. [more...]
YEMEN: Continued Prayer Requested For Christians Abducted
June marks the second anniversary of the kidnapping of nine foreigners in Saada, northwest Yemen, three of whom were murdered shortly afterwards and two of whom were freed last May. There continues to be no news of Johannes and Sabine, a German couple, and their young son, Simon, or of Tony, a British man. Johannes and Sabine�s daughters, Lydia, 6, and Anna, 5, are currently living with relatives in Germany and reportedly in good health. It is understood that both German and British investigators have stopped the active search for the missing believers. Those close to this situation remain hopeful that those still missing are alive and ask for continued prayerful intercession on their behalf. Source: Middle East Concern [more...]
PAKISTAN: Police Reluctant to Prosecute Attack on Church
Armed Muslims disrupted the worship service of a church outside Lahore on Sunday 29 May, cursing the congregation, smashing a glass altar and desecrating Bibles and a cross, Christian leaders said. Police initially tried to protect the leader of the Muslim intruders, the nephew of a former Member of the Punjab Assembly (MPA), and instead of making arrests eventually pressured Christians to accept an apology from the accused, they said. [more...]
NEPAL: Planned Criminal Code Forbids Evangelism
Five years after it abolished Hinduism as the state religion, Nepal is working on a new criminal code forbidding a person from one faith to “convert a person or abet him to change his religion.” Article 160 of the proposed code also says no one will be allowed to do anything or behave in any way that could cause a person from a caste, community or creed to lose faith in his/her traditional religion or convert to a different religion. Offenders could be imprisoned for a maximum of five years and fined up to 50,000 Nepalese rupees ($A 656). [more...]
CHINA: Two Women Ministers Detained & Beaten by Police in Xinjiang are Released
Two women house church ministers in the far northwest region of Xinjiang were taken into police custody on Saturday and beaten, but were quickly released early Sunday morning, according to ChinaAid sources. The two – Li Tianping and Wang Ling – were detained by police in the city of Korla at 7pm and taken to the Sayibage police station, but were released on Sunday at 3am. Sources credited prayer for the speedy release. [more...]
EGYPT: Muslim Mob Besieges Egyptian Church
Thousands of Muslims protested against the reopening of the St Mary and St Abraham church in Egypt. The church was forced to close in 2008 because of severe protests occurring against Christians and church goers. When the church attempted to reopen on 19 May, the priests were met with the same protests and violence. Muslims are protesting the church’s dome and cross, which reportedly violate the Muslim custom of “dhimmitude” – the custom considers displays of faith by religious minorities to be intolerable. [more...]
SUDAN: Christian Woman in Darfur Arrested for Evangelising
Hawa Abdalla Muhammad Saleh was arrested on 9 May in the Abu Shouk camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Al-Fashir. Authorities have accused her of possessing and distributing Bibles to others in the camp. Sources said she could also be tried for apostasy, which carries the death sentence in Sudan. Abdalla has been transferred to an unknown location in Khartoum, sources said, adding that they fear she could be tortured as she was detained and tortured for six days in 2009. [more...]
ALGERIA: Christian Sentenced beyond Prosecutor’s Request
In Oran, 470 kilometres west of Algiers, a criminal court in the city’s Djamel district on Wednesday 25 May sentenced Siaghi Krimo to a prison term of five years for giving a CD about Christianity to a neighbour, who subsequently claimed he had insulted Muhammad. Krimo was also fined 200,000 Algerian dinars ($A 2,590), according to Algerian news reports. The prosecutor had reportedly requested the judge sentence him to a two-year prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 Algerian dinars ($A 646). The lawyer said he plans to appeal the case. Krimo is not required to serve his prison sentence until the court hears his appeal and upholds the conviction. [more...]
TAJIKISTAN: Restrictive Parental Responsibility Law May Be Adopted
Tajikistan's Parliament may adopt a restrictive Parental Responsibility Law, drafts of which ban children from attending religious activities apart from funerals. The latest text of the proposed Law has not been made public - even though it is being discussed in Parliamentary Committees - and deputies and officials have been giving contradictory answers about the expected timetable. It may be adopted by July, even though drafts of the Law - which was initiated by President Emomali Rahmon - break the Constitution and international human rights standards. Local religious communities, independent legal experts and human rights defenders have condemned the draft Law, but Deputy Marhabo Jabborova, Chair of a parliamentary committee leading discussions on the Law, told Forum 18 that: "I am not aware of any comments from religious communities." Source Forum 18 News Service [more...]
IRAN: Christians on Trial for Christian Practice
Eleven members of an evangelical denomination, who were charged with ‘action against the order of the country’ and drinking alcohol, have been acquitted by an Iranian court. The charges referred to their involvement in a house church meeting and to taking communion wine. Following their arrests in April, the eleven members of the Church of Iran denomination were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal in Bandar-Anzali on 1 May for a rushed hearing where their lawyer, Mr Seyyed Mohammed-Ali Dadkhah, hastily drafted a statement in their defence. [more...]
Colombia: The Jungle Evangelist
After Rolo turned to Christ, he met a pastor who took him under his care. “He told me to stay as long as I wanted,” Rolo said. He began to join the pastor on trips to distribute Bibles. “He started taking me to the little villages, and I was really enjoying it,” Rolo said. “I really loved giving out Bibles.” Rolo told his pastor he wanted to be a full-time missionary in the red zones. “It’s too dangerous there,” the pastor said. “They will kill you.” Rolo was determined to go. “I had completely lost all fear,” he said. “It wasn’t because I thought I was so great or because I wanted to show them, but rather I had a desire to be back in the jungles giving out Bibles. I felt a tremendous necessity.” [more...]
IRAQ: Christian Tortured and Killed
A 29-year-old Christian man was recently tortured and killed by members of al Qaida in Kirkuk, Iraq. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Christians Facing Increased and Intense Violence
Colombian Christians are on high alert as intense and deadly violence continues in the country. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Accused of Blasphemy
A Christian bookstore owner is facing blasphemy charges due to the allegations of a local Muslim, his former business partner, in Punjab province, Pakistan. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Officials Raid Churches, Question Christians
Several Christians were targeted by authorities in town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan, in recent weeks. [more...]
NORTH AFRICA: Blasphemy Laws Threaten Christians
Amid the political shifts in the North African countries of Egypt and Sudan, the laws against defaming Islam continue to threaten Christians in the countries.
Article 98(f) of Egyptian law, known to attorneys as the “contempt of religion” charge, is not officially an anti-blasphemy law. It is meant to discourage people from offending others’ religious sensitivities. In reality, however, it is reportedly used to stifle free speech and punish and intimidate those who do not subscribe to the standard, Orthodox version of Sunni Islam practiced by most in Egypt. Violating this statute is known as having “defamed a heavenly religion.” Others have been charged under the statute with “insulting Islam.” By comparison, no convert from Christianity to Islam has ever been charged with Article 98(f) for defiling Christianity. [more...]
CHINA: Released Chinese Christian in Ill Health
Yang Caizhen, a Chinese Christian detained along with her husband and four other believers in November 2009, has been released. In September 2009, Yang Caizhen and four other members of the Fushan church in Linfen, Shanxi province, were sentenced to two to several years of criminal detention for organising a prayer rally. She has been ill and in the hospital several times since her arrest and was reportedly released in February due to her poor health. At last report, she was still in a very fragile state. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
CHINA: Shouwang Church in Beijing Continues To Face Opposition
For the sixth straight week, members of Shouwang Church in Beijing, China, have faced opposition from authorities for trying to hold outdoor Sunday worship. On 15 May, Beijing police rounded up about 20 church members and roughly 100 church members were confined to their homes to prevent their going to the outdoor worship site. By noon, a few of those taken into police custody were released. Some of the church’s leaders, however, including its pastors and elders, have been under extra-judicial house arrest since 9 April, the day before the first outdoor worship attempt. [more...]
NIGERIA: Muslim Attackers Kill Christians
Muslim attackers killed 17 Christians, including the wife and three children of a pastor, and burned down several Christian homes in the village of Kurum, Bauchi State, Nigeria late on Friday 6 May.
Since the introduction of Sharia law in northern Nigeria in 1999, thousands of Christians have been killed by Muslim radicals in an unrelenting series of regular attacks. The local Muslim government officials have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Jonathan Racho, International Christian Concern's Regional Manager for Africa, said, “We are extremely concerned with this latest killing of Christians by Muslim attackers. We once again urge Nigerian officials to prevent the bloodshed of innocent Christians in northern Nigeria. Nigeria must end impunity for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.” [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Oppose Appointment of a Muslim to Replace Slain Christian Minorities Minister
Pakistani Christian leaders are opposing the appointment of Riaaz Hussain Pirzada, a Muslim, to the position of the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs (FMMA). Pakistan’s Christian leaders are concerned that the appointment of a Muslim will be a further blow to the rights of religious minorities. The FMMA’s job is to represent religious minorities and their interests to the federal government. Islamists assassinated Shahbaz Bhatti, the former FMMA, on 2 March 2011 for opposing the country’s blasphemy laws. [more...]
EGYPT: Islamic Extremists Attack Churches in Cairo
At least 12 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded when members of a conservative Muslim movement attacked two churches and surrounding Christian-owned homes and businesses in a poor section of Cairo on Saturday 7 May. Salifis, a hard-line Islamic movement with extremist tendencies, set fire to one of the two church buildings, leaving most of it gutted.
The arson attack on the Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba was one of many recent assaults on Coptic Christians by members of the Salafist movement, and the second time in two months that a church building in the country has been set ablaze. [more...]
CHINA: Police Turn Out in Force to Stop Shouwang Church's Outdoor Meeting in Beijing
Police in Beijing confined the clergy and lay leaders of one of the capital’s largest house churches in their homes and turned out in force at the church's planned outdoor meeting site on Sunday 8 May to prevent hundreds of Christians from holding an open air worship service. Police vehicles were waiting at the meeting site in western Beijing’s Haidian district when some of Shouwang Church’s more than 1,000 members arrived. Witnesses reported seeing at least 20 members being taken away by police, but others regrouped as planned in smaller numbers at nearby locations and proceeded to hold their regular Sunday worship using worship order sheets that had previously been distributed. Authorities shut down mobile phone service at the meeting site area in an apparent effort to prevent news from getting out. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Rioting Muslims Damage Church, Properties
Hundreds of Muslims in Gujranwala on Saturday 30 April attacked Christians’ homes, a school and a Presbyterian church building after learning that police had released two Christians accused of “blasphemy” – amid reports of another alleged desecration of the Koran. Mushtaq Gill and his son Farrukh Mushtaq were released on Friday afternoon after a handwriting expert hired by police determined that the latter had not written a threatening note accompanying burned pages of the Koran, police sources said. The two Christians had been taken into protective custody on 15 April. [more...]
ALGERIA: Christians Arrested For Proselytising and Blasphemy
Two Algerian Christians are scheduled to appear in court on charges of proselytising and blasphemy and may face a five year prison sentence. Sofiane and Krimo were arrested in Oran on 14 April after sharing their Christian faith with their neighbours. Sofiane, was released a day after their arrest, while Krimo was imprisoned for three days. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Raids and Confiscations
Uzbekistan's secret police with other officials have carried out two raids on an officially registered Baptist church in the capital Tashkent. Over 50,000 Christian books, a large quantity of printing and office equipment, and a sum of money personally belonging to one person were confiscated. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Muslims Beat Evangelist to Death, Assault his Pregnant Wife
On 21 April four Muslims beat an evangelist to death and assaulted his pregnant wife in Worabe, Ethiopia, an area that is 97% Muslim. Evangelist Abraham Abera died on the spot, but his wife, who sustained a severe head injury and was left unconscious on the street, was found and taken to a hospital in Butajira, where she regained consciousness on 22 April. Though Birtukan did suffer injuries to her mid-section, her unborn baby fortunately survived the attack. [more...]
LIFE UNDER A MILITARY JUNTA
“There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised,” states the first sentence of the “Program to Destroy the Christian Religion in Burma.” The document, created in 2007 and reportedly sanctioned by the government, outlines a 17-point plan to “wipe out’ Christians. “The Christian religion is very gentle,” states the document. “Identify and utilise its weakness.” [more...]
CHINA: Five Christian leaders arrested in Inner Mongolia
Four Christian leaders were recently arrested in Inner Mongolia, China. One of the leaders, a pastor named Jesse, was reportedly arrested for the 'offence' of having 1,000 university students attend his church. Approximately 100 of the university students are also Bible school students who are taught by a VOM worker. Police have detained Pastor Jesse five times over the last year, and they had warned him that he was being kept under close watch. [more...]
CHINA: Members of the Shouwang Church Arrested Again
Police placed at least 500 members of the Shouwang Church, in Beijing, China, under house arrest in an attempt to prevent them from holding an outdoor Easter worship service on 24 April. The arrests did not stop other members from showing up at the designated worship site, however. Several went to the site, a plaza, where they were met by police and police vehicles and then bundled onto a bus. Other church members were able to assemble in small groups in nearby restaurants, where they proceeded to hold their worship service. Police reportedly detained 34 of the believers. [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Convert from Islam Murdered
A newly converted Christian from Islam was recently murdered by Muslim militants in the Lower Shabele region of Somalia. On 18 April, two members of the al Shabaab Islamist group entered the house of 21-year-old Hassan Adawe Adan in Shalambod town and shot him dead. Adan, single and living with his Muslim family, reportedly came to Christ several months ago. Members of the secret Christian community to which Adan belonged suspect someone informed the Islamic militants of his conversion. One source said that a relative who belonged to the al Shabaab Islamist group had told Adan’s mother that he suspected her son was a Christian. The murder has heightened fear among other converts living in the area. Source: Compass Direct [more...]
INDIA: Christian Leader Attacked by Militants
Hindu militants recently beat Ramesh Devda, 30, a pastor and evangelist, in Madhya Pradesh state, India. On 4 April, Pastor Ramesh was travelling by motorbike with his two sons from Chikklia to Raseda when three militants on motorbikes suddenly blocked his way. The militants, drunk and armed with large bamboo sticks and clubs, beat the pastor in front of 10-year-old Elias and 8-year-old Shimon. They threatened to kill Pastor Ramesh and warned him not to come to the area again. [more...]
NIGERIA: Muslims Riot over Election Results in Nigeria
Muslim rioters have killed more than 100 Christians and burned down more than 40 churches in an attack that began in response to the election of Jonathan Goodluck, a Christian, as president of Nigeria. The rioters even destroyed the homes of many Muslims who supported President Goodluck Jonathan. In Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, it took the military and police over four hours to rein in rampaging Buhari supporters. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Beaten and Arrested
Two Christian meetings were attacked by Hindu militants in India in recent weeks. On 9 April, a mob of more than 100 attacked an open-air Christian worship meeting in Bhajanpura, East Delhi. The Christians had received permission from government officials to conduct the meeting, and five police officers were present. Shortly after the meeting began, militants armed with clubs and stones arrived on scene. They beat several Christians, including the pastor. The five policemen were also severely beaten. Two believers sustained head injuries. The militants destroyed furniture, a sound system, a generator and a Christian’s vehicle. The attack lasted for about an hour before police reinforcements arrived and the attackers fled. At last report, two of the assailants had been arrested. [more...]
MEXICO: Pastor Kidnapped
A pastor has been kidnapped by suspected drug traffickers in the city of Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico. At approximately 8:15am on 10 April, a group of men armed with machine guns barged into the Christian Centre El Shaddai where some 500 Christians were gathered for a worship service. The men fired guns into the air and grabbed Pastor Josué Ramírez Santiago. The following day, the pastor’s family received news that the criminals wanted a ransom of 20 million pesos (approximately $A 1.6 million). Even if the family could raise such an immense sum, however, it is unlikely that payment would secure the pastor’s safe return. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Christian Assaulted, Fined For Distributing Bible
An Uzbek Christian was recently assaulted and fined in the capital city of Tashkent for giving a children's Bible to one of her work colleagues in 2010. On 1 April, Galina Shemetova was leaving a hospital after medical treatment, for which she had been granted sick leave from her work at the local subway station, when she was accosted by a police officer. The officer struck her on the head and dragged her into a police vehicle. The same day, Galina was charged with "attracting believers of one confession to another (proselytism) and other missionary activity” and fined 50 times the minimum month salary in the country approximately $A 1,375. The officer who assaulted Galina claimed that she was “hiding from police for one week [by] pretending to be ill” and when asked what she had done wrong, said “she is a missionary and violated the law.” Source: Forum 18 News [more...]
CHINA: Church Leader Brutally Beaten By Police
A house-church leader was brutally beaten this month by authorities attempting to prevent a Christian meeting in Shaanxi Province, China. On 7 April, Pastor Wang Zhanhu and other members of the Cross Church in Huaxian were gathered for praise and worship when they were approached by three police officers. When the officers grabbed a microphone away from a female believer, Pastor Wang protested, saying, “How can you rob people's belongings like this?" The police then asked the pastor for his identification card, but he refused to provide it, saying that he had not broken any laws. One of the officers then started hitting the pastor’s shoulders and the others soon joined in hitting him. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Riot Police versus Worshippers
Three religious communities in Azerbaijan's second city Gyanja have been banned from meeting for worship. Babek Sadykov of Gyanja Police completely denied this, claiming that "no one is being prevented from worshipping". Local people, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of state reprisals, told Forum 18 that one of the communities was warned that "if they met for worship on the following Sunday or at any future date they will all be arrested". Two buses full of ordinary police and riot police later arrived to prevent any religious worship. Protestants told Forum 18 that the church had already reluctantly decided not to hold one big Sunday service that day. "People are now very afraid." [more...]
CHINA: Church Leaders kept from Public Worship Attempt
Police in China held “about two dozen” pastors and elders of Beijing’s Shouwang Church under house arrest or at police stations over the weekend to keep them from attending a Sunday worship service in a public location, according to Bob Fu of the China Aid Association. Three top leaders of the church remain in jail and several others are under strict surveillance after hundreds of Chinese police cordoned off the walkway to a third-floor outdoor meeting area adjacent to a property purchased by the church in Haidian district, Beijing, and arrested at least 160 members of the 1,000-strong church as they tried to assemble. Most have since been released. [more...]
NEPAL: Christians on Hunger Strike for Cemetery
On 20 March, thousands of Christians marched with empty coffins (and empty stomachs) in front of Nepalese government offices. The believers were begging the government of Kathmandu to allot them plots of land to bury their loved ones. In recent years, there has been a limited amount of land available to Christians, forcing them to bury their dead on top of one another in the same tomb. In 2009, Christians were given the Shleshmantak Forest as a place to bury their dead, but unfortunately, this forest was right next to a Hindu temple. This decision sparked protests from Hindus around the country, forcing the government to ban Christian burials in Shleshmantak Forest. Although the Nepalese government has lifted the ban, radical Hindus continue to stop Christians from burying their dead in the forest. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
VIETNAM: Government Steps Up Repression of Christian Group
Recently, the Vietnamese government has been harassing the Montagnards, a peaceful group of Christians living in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Although the Montagnards have always been a target of Christian persecution, it has just been recently that the Vietnamese government has stepped up its repression of this indigenous minority – forcing hundreds to renounce their religion. According to reports, “…the Vietnamese government has increased its harassment of peaceful ethnic minority Christians in the Central Highlands, targeting members of unregistered house churches.” Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
CHINA: Government Persecution of Church Worsens for Fifth Straight Year
Persecution of the church in China continued to worsen in 2010, the fifth straight year of escalating persecution, according to an annual report released by the Christian monitoring group ChinaAid Association. Although the report was based on just 90 known cases of persecution of Christians and churches in China last year, ChinaAid founder and President Bob Fu pointed out that these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The Chinese government’s stranglehold on information and the authoritarian regime’s other security measures make getting a true picture of the extent of persecution impossible. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Arrested
Fourteen Christians, including two pastors, were arrested on 29 March for converting to Christianity without official permit in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the arrests came after a police complaint was filed against Pastors Samuel Mohopathra and Manuel Mahopathra and 12 newly converted Christians. The Christians were produced before a court and were released on bail the same day, charged under the “Orissa Freedom of Religion Act,” which, ironically, bans any conversion lacking a permit issued by authorities. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, called on Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to withdraw the accusations and put a stop to anti-Christian violence in the state. Source: Compass Direct [more...]
AFGHANISTAN: Christian Remains Behind Bars
An Afghan who was arrested for his conversion to Christianity remains behind bars a month after the release of Said Musa, another convert who was quietly granted asylum in Europe after an abusive nine month imprisonment. Shoaib Assadullah, 23, was arrested on 21 October in Mazar-e-Sharif for giving a Bible to a friend. While in prison, Assadullah described being physically abused and receiving death threats from fellow prisoners. Assadullah also fears he may face the death sentence for his conversion if he is summoned back to court. While Afghanistan’s constitution upholds freedom of religion, apostasy is tried under Islamic law and is punishable by death. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Death Threats Issued Against Joseph Francis and Other Christian Leaders
A leading human rights campaigner in Pakistan has urged the government to provide “full-fledged security” for Mr Joseph Francis, Director of CLAAS (Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement), after Francis has received death threats for his work on the repeal of the country’s controversial blasphemy laws. [more...]
CHINA: House Church Raided By Police
Chinese authorities recently raided a home in Shaanxi Province where believers were gathered for Sunday worship. On 13 March, a dozen Christians were attending a house-church service in the village of Ma’an when the local police chief and two other officers barged into the building. The officers confiscated Bibles and other Christian literature. They also took all of the believers into police custody. Ten of the Christians were released that same evening. At last report, however, two believers—Weng and Zhang Yongkuan—remain detained.
Source: China Aid Association [more...]
NIGERIA: A Call to Pray
Nigerians will go to polls three times during April: 2 April to elect their National Assembly (parliament); 9 April to elect their President; 16 April to elect State Assemblies and governors. The leading candidates are the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan (People's Democratic Party), Ibrahim Shekarau (All Nigeria Peoples Party), Muhammadu Buhari (Congress for Progressive Change) and Nuhu Ribadu (Action Congress of Nigeria). Jonathan (a Southern Christian), the front-runner, is favoured to win. [more...]
MALAYSIA: Detained Bibles Released
Two shipments totalling approximately 30,000 Bibles detained by Malaysian port authorities in January were recently released. Authorities seized the Bibles, which had been imported from Indonesia for distribution in schools, churches and longhouses; because they claimed they could cause a conflict with an ongoing court case involving use of the word “Allah” in a Catholic newspaper. Most Christians, however, believe the government is worried that the Bibles will be distributed to Muslim Malays, and see the seizure as part of a systematic plan to deny access to the Bible in Malay. Authorities had taken similar action in March 2009, when they detained 5,100 copies of the Good News Bible in Malay in Port Klang. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: "Anti-Terror" Raid On Old People's Home
Six Baptists who led Sunday worship in an old people's home near Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent face criminal and administrative charges after an "anti-terror operation" against their service. Asked why the authorities halted the service and harassed participants, deputy police chief Major Sofar Fayziyev - who took part in the raid - told Forum 18: "They could not produce any proof that they had authorisation for their activity." Elsewhere, three Baptists were fined after police raided a Sunday morning church service. As happens frequently, the court verdict ordered the destruction of Bibles and other confiscated Christian literature. Source: Forum 18 News Service [more...]
Delivered from Death: Yang’s story
Yang* is a North Korean Christian now living in South Korea who carries physical and emotional scars from life in North Korea and her escape into China. North Korean women who attempt to flee the country are especially vulnerable, and are preyed on by human traffickers, who sell them into forced marriages or prostitution in China. Life is so unbearable in North Korea, women like Yang are willing to take the risk. “I was living in the poorest village in North Korea,” said Yang. “We had to eat sand, which was hard to get. I had to go far away to get this sand and only a few people got some. I also had to eat wood. It was difficult to go to the bathroom.”
During the 1990s, an estimated two million North Koreans starved to death in a preventable famine, while dictator Kim Jong Il bolstered his armed forces. At the peak of the famine, Yang said 10 or 11 people in her village were dying of starvation every day. Many people suffered mental breakdowns because of the horrors they witnessed. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Indian Christians Arrested
Two Indian Christian men working in the state of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were recently arrested and sentenced to 45 days in prison. At approximately 8:30 pm on 11 March, Vasantha Sekhar and Nese Yohan were beaten and arrested in the city of Batha on accusations of “proselytising.” Their apartment was ransacked after they were imprisoned, and local Christians believe they were arrested to keep them from practising Christianity privately in their home. An employer has returned the passport of one of the Christians, making it clear that his job is no longer available, and he will be expelled. The other Christian awaits information regarding his legal status and job. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
EGYPT: Convert From Islam Escapes with Daughter
An Egyptian father and daughter who have been in hiding for two-and-a-half years after converting from Islam to Christianity recently fled the country. In February, Maher El-Gohary (58) and his daughter, Dina Mo’otahssem (17), flew from Cairo to Syria. After contact with a US organisation that concentrates on religious freedom, El-Gohary expected he would quickly be able to obtain a visa to the United States, where his wife lives. He tried for over a week, however, and was not able to make any headway. He then went to a U.N. office in Syria seeking assistance, and an appointment was scheduled for late April at last report. [more...]
CHINA: Imprisoned Christian Released
Shi Weihan, a Christian bookstore owner and house church leader, has been released from prison nearly three years after his arrest for "illegally" printing and distributing Christian literature. Weihan, who was first arrested in November 2007, was reportedly released on 9 February. He is said to be in “stable condition both mentally and physically.” At last report, he was at home with his wife and two children, but government officials were closely monitoring his activities. Sources: Christian Broadcasting Network, China Aid [more...]
TURKEY: Court Cases Continue For Several Christians
Turkish Christians are requesting prayer in response to three long-standing court cases involving injustice against Turkish believers.
There continue to be complications in the ongoing trial of the five men charged with the vicious murder of three believers at a Bible-publishing house in Malatya in April 2007 as a result of efforts to identify those behind the five suspects. The trial has been underway since November 2007. On 17 March, twenty people suspected of being involved in the slayings of the three Christian men, Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske, were arrested. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Christians Slain in Attack Outside Church
Two Christians were gunned down and two others are in a serious condition with bullet wounds after Muslim youths attacked them outside a church building in Hyderabad earlier this week, witnesses said. Residents of Hurr Camp, a colony of working-class Christians in Hyderabad in Sindh Province, were reportedly celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Salvation Army church when a group of Muslim youths gathered outside the building and started playing music loudly on their mobile phones. They also started teasing Christian women as they arrived for the celebration, according to reports. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Freed From Her Captors
A Christian mother of seven in Lahore, Pakistan, was recently freed from her Muslim captors after being kidnapped last August, drugged, raped, sold into marriage, and threatened with death if she did not convert to Islam. Forty-year-old Shaheen Bibi was taken from her place of employment to a nearby city, drugged and raped. When she awoke, her kidnappers told her that she had been sold into marriage to one of them. She told them she was a Christian, and they gave her a prayer rug and tried to get her to convert to Islam by reciting a Muslim prayer.
[more...]
INDIA: Police Ransack Church and Arrest Pastors
Two pastors were recently arrested for conducting a worship service in a home in Karnataka state, India. On 6 March, Pastor Mathew and Pastor Jose were holding a worship service in a house church when a police officer disrupted the meeting. The officer asked the pastors to stop the service, and then ransacked the building and confiscated Bibles and other Christian literature. Both men were arrested and taken to the local police station. They were told that a leader of a local Hindu militant group lodged a complaint against them for engaging in “forceful conversion activity.” That evening, the pastors stood before the magistrate, who freed them on temporary bail. Source: Global Council of Indian Christians [more...]
MALAYSIA: Christian Literature Held By Authorities
Authorities in Malaysia’s Kuching Port have detained approximately 30,000 copies of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in the Malay language, causing great upset among the nation’s Christians. Gideons International imported the books from Indonesia for distribution in schools, churches and longhouses in Betong and other Christian areas in Sarawak state. They have been detained since January. Authorities told an officer that he could not distribute the books because they “contained words which are also found in the Koran.” The officer was ordered to transport the books to the Home Ministry’s office for storage. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Imprisoned Christian Dies
A Christian serving a life sentenced on blasphemy charges has died under suspicious circumstances in Lahore, Pakistan. Qamar David was imprisoned in June 2006 after a business rival accused him of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. He died overnight on 14 March, with prison authorities claiming he had a heart attack. Christian human rights activists are calling for an inquiry into Qamar’s death. At last report, his body was being held in the Civil Hospital in Karachi where an autopsy was to be performed by health authorities. Qamar was reportedly threatened and viciously beaten regularly by prison guards and inmates during his three years in prison. Source: AsiaNews [more...]
EGYPT: Islamic Mob Burns Down Church
A Muslim mob in a village south of Cairo last weekend attacked a church building and burned it down, almost killing the parish priest after an imam issued a call to “Kill all the Christians,” according to local sources. The attack started on Friday evening in the village of Sool, in Helwan city 35 kilometres from Cairo, and lasted through most of Saturday. A local imam, Sheik Ahmed Abu Al-Dahab, issued the call to area Muslims to kill the Christians. [more...]
INDIA: Spate of Attacks on Christians Erupts in Orissa
Hindu extremists have attacked Koya tribal Christians in villages in a remote area of Orissa state at least 15 times since 8 December 2010, Christian leaders said. In the latest incident in Murliguda, about 80 kilometres from Malkangiri town, about 60 assailants from the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on 23 February damaged the eardrums of Bhadan Hontal and beat another Christian, Markari Soma, until he fell unconscious, according to a report by the Malkangiri District Christian Manch (MDCM, with Manch meaning “Forum”). Christian women, some pregnant, as well as children were among those injured in the attacks on churches, reported Pastor Vijay Purusu of Bethel Church and president of the MDCM. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Muslims Kill Christian, Burn More Churches and Christian Homes in Ongoing Attacks
According to International Christian Concern, Muslims have killed one Christian, burned down another eight churches, a Bible school, and 17 Christian homes in stepping up their attacks against Christians in Asendabo, Ethiopia. The attacks started on 2 March after Muslims accused Christians of desecrating the Koran. The attacks bring the total number of razed churches to 13. More than 150 Christians are now without homes. The attacks have spread to the villages surrounding the town of Asendabo. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti Laid to Rest
Over 30,000 mourners and protestors from many different religions in Pakistan, gathered on Friday, 4 March for the funeral of Mr Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs and the only Christian cabinet member. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Suspected Islamists Kill Pakistan’s Christian Cabinet Member
Unidentified gunmen in Islamabad today shot dead Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s only cabinet-level Christian and an outspoken critic of the country’s widely condemned “blasphemy” laws. Suspected Islamic extremists from Pakistan’s Taliban and al Qaeda reportedly left a letter at the scene saying those who try to change Pakistan’s blasphemy laws would be killed. The murder comes two months after Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard for supporting Asia Bibi, the first Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan on blasphemy charges. [more...]
EGYPT: Monk, Workers Shot in Monastery Attack
One monk and six church workers were shot and wounded last week when the Egyptian Army attacked a Coptic Orthodox monastery in order to destroy a wall monks had built to defend their property from raiders, sources said. The attack with small arms, heavy machine guns and armoured personnel carriers happened Wednesday afternoon 23 February at the Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Al-Natroun, 110 kilometres north of Cairo. The soldiers used armoured personnel carriers to bulldoze the wall, sources said, as the monks sang a prayer in unison, declaring, “God is merciful.” A monk who witnessed the attack said on condition of anonymity that the scene resembled “a war zone.” [more...]
SUDAN: Islamists Suspected in Abduction of Christian Girl
A Christian widow in north Sudan is agonising over the kidnapping of her daughter eight months ago by suspected Islamic extremists in Khartoum. Ikhlas Anglo said her daughter, 15-year-old Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, went missing while returning from the Ministry of Education in Khartoum on 27 June 2010. Hiba, a member of Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Khartoum, had gone to the education ministry office to obtain her transcripts for entry to secondary school. Two days later, the family received threatening telephone calls and SMS messages from the kidnappers telling them to pay 1,500 Sudanese pounds (AU$550) in order to secure her return. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Christian Students Attacked by Muslim Mob in Ethiopia
International Christian Concern reports that on 26 February, a Muslim mob assaulted and wounded 17 Christian college students on a mission trip in Oma village, Ethiopia. The mob overwhelmed the government militia who attempted to protect the students. The students, who were from Meda Welabu University, went to the Muslim village in Bale province on a short term mission trip. After the students started to distribute Bibles and speak with the Muslims, one of the villagers angrily argued with them, inciting a mob to attack the students. The Muslims shouted Allah Akbar (Allah is greater) as they hurled stones at the Christians and beat them with rods. When the Christians fled the village, the mob unsuccessfully attempted to set fire to their car. [more...]
IRAQ: Murder of 70-Year-Old Chaldean Man in Baghdad Raises Fears of More Attacks
A group of armed men burst into the home of an elderly Christian believer, stabbing him to death in Iraq. AsiaNews reports the group’s modus operandi suggests the murder was a ‘targeted killing’ against Christians. The Christian community expect more violence. Street demonstrations were scheduled in Iraq’s main cities in the wake of the attack. The victim’s name is Youssif Isho, a 70-year-old Chaldean Christian. He lived alone in a house in Karrad, central Baghdad. Nothing was stolen from the premises. [more...]
Hope & Healing for the Persecuted
MOURN WITH THOSE WHO MOURN
In November 2010, a team from Voice of the Martyrs Australia visited a small village in Nigeria with the hope that they would be an encouragement and support to the brothers and sisters rebuilding their shattered lives. Young and old spoke to us of the persecution they had endured. Their pain was written on their faces. [more...]
VIETNAM: Priest facing imprisonment again
Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Vietnamese priest who has spent more than 15 years in prison, including time in solitary confinement, could soon be imprisoned again. The 64-year-old’s last arrest was in February 2007, when he was detained for distributing material “harmful to the state.” In March 2010, he was released to undergo a year's medical treatment after suffering two serious strokes that left him partially paralysed. During his medical leave, authorities prevented him from giving interviews or meeting with activists. Police reportedly roughed up a US diplomat who attempted to visit with him. Father Nguyen is scheduled to be re-admitted to prison on 15 March. He has said that if he is indeed forced to return to prison, he will go on a hunger strike and refuse medical treatment as a means of protesting the injustice. Source: VOM-USA [more...]
CHINA: Government Planning Increased Regulations on Christian Worship
The Chinese government is reportedly planning to tighten regulations on Christian worship this year. China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) has announced that it will “guide Protestants worshiping at unregistered churches into worshiping at government-sanctioned ones.” A VOM source in China confirmed that during a detention in 2010, police told him they would stop being “nice” in 2011. The report also stated, “SARA will strengthen regulation of foreign nationals’ group religious activities in China and resist foreign infiltration under the pretext of religion.” This new policy could mean increased persecution of Christians in China, especially those who worship in unregistered churches. Christians faced similar pressure from the government before the 2008 Olympics, when several Christians were detained, forced from their homes and put under house arrest. Sources: VOM-USA, China Daily Newspaper [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Viciously Assaulted
A 65-year-old pastor was recently the victim of a brutal assault by Hindu militants in Rajasthan state, India. On 1 February, Pastor Hari Shankar Ninama was visiting his daughter in Ambarunda when her neighbour requested he pray for his 8-year-old son, who was ill. While Pastor Hari was praying, at least 10 Hindu militants stormed into the home. The militants beat the pastor, used abusive language against him and accused him of forcibly converting people. They also slapped his daughter and beat the sick boy’s father. The militants forced the pastor onto a motorbike and drove to a location outside the village. There, they stripped off the pastor’s clothes and beat him with wooden clubs. They threatened to kill him if he continued to spread Christianity. [more...]
CUBA: Christians Facing Intense Pressure
Christians continue to face opposition in Cuba. The government has reportedly shifted away from higher profile forms of oppression, such as threatening to destroy churches, to pressuring pastors and other Christian leaders. Church leaders -- both in and outside of the Cuban Council of Churches (CCC) that represents the Protestant Church -- report receiving frequent visits from state security agents and Cuban Communist Party officials. These visits and meetings seem to have the intent of intimidating church leaders by making them aware they are under close surveillance. [more...]
EGYPT: Muslims Abduct Daughter of Church Contractor
Muslims recently abducted an 18-year-old Egyptian Christian from her home. On 19 February, a group of Muslims broke into a house belonging to a building contractor who constructed the St Mary and St Michael Church in the city of Giza. In November, the church was the site of severe clashes between State Security forces and Copts protesting over the closure of their church. Three Copts were killed and hundreds were injured and arrested. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Killed by Muslim Employers
A young Christian man was recently killed by his Muslim employer in Gujranwala district, Punjab province, Pakistan. On 5 February, Imran Masih, 24, stayed home from his job as a driver for two local Muslims because he was ill. When Imran returned to work the next day, his employer verbally confronted him, attacked him and killed him. Imran’s body was brought to his father, Lal Masih, the next day, with the employer claiming that he committed suicide. Lal, who is also employed by the same estate, said that his son’s body was covered in blood and bore clear signs of torture. [more...]
AFGHANISTAN: Christian Convert from Islam Facing Execution
Said Musa, an Afghan who was imprisoned for converting from Islam to Christianity, is reportedly facing execution. A 15-year employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, Afghanistan, Said was arrested on 31 May, 2010, after a television station in Kabul broadcast images that allegedly showed Western Christians baptising Afghans. Since his arrest, he has remained in Kabul Detention Centre, where he has reportedly suffered sexual assault and torture and been denied access to a lawyer. [more...]
UZBEKIATSN: Christians Facing Prosecution after Police Raid
Authorities who raided a Christian meeting in Syrdarya Region, central Uzbekistan, in January, are reportedly preparing to prosecute several of the Christians present. On 6 January, 12 police officials broke into the home of Pastor Andrey Shevchenko, where approximately 25 members of an unregistered local Baptist church were gathered to celebrate the baptism of Christ. The officials confiscated DVDs, CDs and Christian books. They also forced some of the believers to write statements. Pastor Andrey showed the police documents proving that the material had been purchased from the officially registered Bible Society of Uzbekistan. However, police told him that the literature would be sent to the State Religious Affairs Committee in the capital Tashkent for “expert analysis.” [more...]
EGYPT: Christians Attacked
On 30 January, just days after the demonstrations to reform or overthrow the Egyptian government got underway, Muslims in the south of the country took advantage of the general chaos to break into two homes belonging to Coptic Christians and butcher every man, woman and child they could find. The Muslim assailants massacred 11 people and seriously wounded four others.Survivors of the attack told the Assyrian International News Agency the attackers were aided by Muslim neighbours of the Christian families. [more...]
IRAN: Seven Iranian Christians released
Seven Iranian Christians who were arrested on 26 December, along with 31 other believers, were recently released from prison on bail. On 26 January, two men and a woman were released in Isfahan. Three days later, four women were released from Tehran’s notoriously brutal Evin prison. The release of one of the women, Sara Akhaven, involved her family giving up their trade license in exchange for her bail. If authorities decide Sara has broken bail, however, the family’s livelihood will be gone. Sadly, the trade license was not valuable enough to secure bail for Sara’s sister, Leila, who remains in prison. Some of the original 31 Christians who were arrested have reportedly been released. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamic Somali Militants Confiscate Christian Farms
Since 19 January, members of Al-Shabaab, an Islamic Somali extremist group, have confiscated eight farms from Muslims who showed an interest in Christianity. Five of the farms were owned by Christian converts from Islam and three belonged to Muslims who had attended Bible studies in the cities of Afgoye and Baidawa. Most of the landowners fled their homes and remain in hiding. There are also unconfirmed reports of additional Christian farm seizures in Dinsor and Burhakaba districts. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Pakistani Lawmaker Drops Bid to Change Blasphemy Law after Death Threats
After encountering death threats and government opposition, a Pakistani parliamentarian dropped her proposed bill to reform Pakistan's blasphemy laws. The bill introduced by Sherry Rehman, a member of the Pakistani National Assembly, would have eliminated death as a penalty for blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. However, the proposed bill was not even supported by Rehman's own party. In addition, approximately 40,000 people participated in a rally to throw out the bill. [more...]
INDONESIA: Angry Muslim Crowd Attacks Churches
More than 1,000 Muslim protesters have stormed a courthouse and burned two churches in central Java, Indonesia. According to the BBC website, the attacks in Temanggung happened after a Christian man was sentenced to five years in jail for distributing leaflets deemed insulting to Islam. The BBC reported that Indonesian police said the crowd considered the sentence too lenient and were demanding the death penalty. A police spokesman told the BBC that the angry crowd began attacking the court building in Temanggung after the verdict was read out. [more...]
EGYPT: Rights Group Slams Treatment of Copts
Following recent sectarian violence in Egypt, the Human Rights Watch published its 2010 annual report Monday denouncing Egypt as a country that discriminates against Christians and other religious minorities. Persecution against Egypt’s Coptic Christians this January include violent attacks, such as the church service bombing on New Year’s Day in which over 20 Christians were killed, as well as continuing government refusal to grant or renew Copts’ church building permits. Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, says the West should not interfere in Egyptian affairs by urging him to do more to protect Coptic Christians. [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: Heavy Fines Imposed
After a 22 January raid on Protestants in a private flat in Turkmenabad in eastern Turkmenistan, a court has imposed heavy fines on 17 of those present. All are thought to have been fined under Article 205 Part 2 of the Administrative Code, which punishes "support for or participation in the activity of a religious group of religious organisation not officially registered in accordance with the legally established procedure". [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Muslims Warn Christians to Convert, Leave City or Face Death
Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of Christian homes warning them to convert, leave the city or face death. Three Christian leaders were forced to flee the city and two Christians have been forced to convert to Islam. In the Muslim majority city, the entire evangelical Christian community consists of about 30 believers. [more...]
NIGERIA: Christians Killed in Targeted Attacks
At least 24 Christians have been killed in targeted attacks around Jos, Plateau state, since last Thursday – as sectarian rioting in the Jos area and parts of Bauchi state continues to claim lives. At least six people were killed in a raid on Dorowa village in the Barkin Ladi area near Jos last Thursday and 18 others died in neighbouring Christian villages. More than 30 homes in Dorowa were burnt down. Religious rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that six villages in total in Barkin Ladi were attacked on 27 January. [more...]
INDIA: His Grace Abounds
Christians in India are facing increasing pressure from militant Hindus who are using mob violence and anti-conversion laws to attack the church. Despite this, believers testify to God’s grace and strength helping them in their time of need.
“They warned me about preaching. They said they would ‘finish me off’ because I preach to people about Jesus.” Pastor Krupanandam was returning home from visiting a new believer’s home when a group of about 30 men attacked him, punching and kicking him. His spinal cord was damaged, and he was left with fractured ribs and severe bruising. A warning not to bring the name of Jesus into their community. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Murdered, Believers Threatened
Christians in the city of Karachi, Sidh province, Pakistan, are facing threats from local police after filing charges in the murder of an 18-year-old Christian man. On 6 January, Waqas Gil was abducted from his home by four police officers. His body was found in a sewer two days later. The Christians who found his remains protested against local police, claiming they covered up Waqas’ brutal murder and accused them of delaying an autopsy. Head officials reluctantly filed charges against the four accused officers. An autopsy revealed that Waqas had been raped, tortured and shot with police-revolver bullets. [more...]
INDIA: Cover-Up Suspected in Death of Indian Pastor
A pastor whose house was targeted by Hindu militants during anti-Christian mob violence in 2008 was recently found dead in Kandhamal, Orissa state, India. Though police officials claim Pastor Saul Pradhan, 45, froze to death, his relatives suspect murder. [more...]
Update: South Sudan Secession Nearly Certain; Continue to Pray
The peaceful voting process of a historic referendum on Southern Sudan’s secession from the North came to an end on 15 January. Early numbers of the vote indicate that the country may soon be divided, and Christians around the world continue to call for prayer for the nation and its people. Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio, in the southern region of Sudan, says his people have strong "expectations of change for the better” and urged continued prayers worldwide for "permanent peace in Sudan." Many Christians have reportedly left the North and capital city of Khartoum for the South out of fear that President Bashir's regime will shift toward “radical Islamisation” in the wake of the referendum. Sources: Zenit, Christianity Today [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Killed
A mother of four was recently killed by Islamic militants in a village on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. On the morning of 6 January, Islamic militants, belonging to the insurgent group al-Shabaab, arrested Asha Mberwa, 36, outside her home in Warbhigly village. According to one of Asha’s relatives, Asha was killed the next evening when the militants cut her throat in front of local people. Asha had reportedly been receiving threatening messages after al-Shabaab members monitored her phone conversations with a relative. One of her relatives had phoned her on 5 January to make arrangements for moving her family out of the area for their safety. Al-Shabaab militants were reportedly able to monitor the conversation and confirm that Asha had become a Christian. [more...]
IRAN: Christian Couple Detained for Christian Activities
A Christian couple in Mashhad, Iran, was recently detained for hosting Christian prayer and worship meetings in their home. On 27 December, several Iranian agents of the revolutionary court arrive at the home of Hassan Razavi Derakhshan, 65, and his wife, Parya, 61. Only Parya was home at the time. The officers demanded she phone her husband and that he return home immediately. Razavi obliged. [more...]
CHINA: Police Raid Large Christian Meeting in China
Chinese authorities raided a large Christian meeting in coastal Shandong province in early January. More than 1,000 believers were gathered at the meeting, which was held in a church building in Cangshun County. In the afternoon, local Public Security Bureau officers burst into the church and forced the meeting to end. They detained an unspecified number of believers, including Lu Daihao, a well-known evangelist visiting from Taiwan to speak at the event. Local Christians have reported that Pastor Lu has left Cangshun, but his exact location was unknown at last report. Source: ChinaAid [more...]
BHUTAN: Government May Legalise Christianity
In the South Asian country of Bhutan, government officials recognise only Buddhism and Hinduism as the country’s two religions. As a result, only these two communities have the right to openly practise their beliefs and build places of worship. That may soon change as Chhoedey Lhentshog, the authority that regulates religious organisations, discussed at its December meeting how a Christian organisation can be registered to represent its community, according to agency secretary Dorji Tshering. [more...]
INDONESIA: Police, Islamists Put Up Obstacles to Worship in Indonesia
Government officials in West Java Province blocked one church from worshipping, and Islamic groups pressured authorities to seize the property of another during the Christmas season. The Bogor Regency Administrative Leadership Council tried unsuccessfully to forbid the Gereja Kristen Indonesia (Indonesian Christian Church, or GKI) in Bogor’s Taman Yasmin area from holding a 25 December Christmas service, but authorities did block it from its regular Sunday service on 26 December. [more...]
EGYPT: Muslims Attend Coptic Christmas Mass, Serving as ‘Human Shields’
Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night 6 January, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community. According to journalist Yasmine El-Rashidi, among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular Muslim televangelist and preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Hold Memorial Services for Slain Punjab Governor, Shaheed Salman Taseer
Christians across Pakistan on Sunday, 9 January, held memorial services for slain Punjab governor Shaheed Salman Taseer, who was assassinated by a police guard last week. Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, joined prayers at Fatima Church in Islamabad. Bhatti said the special congregations were arranged to promote inter-faith harmony, national integrity and religious harmony. Taseer had angered religious hardliners by defending Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death last year under the controversial blasphemy law. He also called for the amendment of the law to prevent its misuse. [more...]
ERITREA: Mass Arrest of Christians in Eritrea
Eritrean officials arrested 30 Christians for praying at a private house in Asmara, the capital on 2 January. Some of the Christians were only recently released after being detained for their faith. According to International Christian Concern (ICC) security officials arrested the Christians and took them to police station one in Asmara. Officials also detained another Christian on 4 January. ICC says the detained Christians are members of the Philadelphia Church, an evangelical church outlawed in Eritrea. [more...]
IRAN: Over 70 Christians Arrested in Iran during Christmas
In the early morning hours after Christmas day, the Iranian government arrested 25 Christians in Tehran and other locations. They also planned to detain sixteen others, but were unable to locate them. There are also unconfirmed reports that the authorities have arrested over 50 other Christians. According to BBC Persian, the Governor of Tehran has vowed to arrest more evangelical Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Punjab Governor Salman Taseer Assassinated in Islamabad
The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad. Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law. Mr Taseer made headlines recently by appealing for the pardon of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Friends of the governor say he knew he was risking his life by speaking out. [more...]
Orissa India
Voice of the Martyrs Australia had a special focus on Orissa state, India, in 2010. In August we hosted our national contact from India, Asit Samuel, who spoke to NSW supporters about the ongoing challenges faced by displaced Christians in Orissa. Many were attacked and forced to flee from their homes following a series of violent attacks by Hindu extremists in 2008. Asit estimated that as many as 40,000 Christians were still displaced in 2010. Many are living in tents or huts in the jungle with their families where food is scarce, sanitation poor, and the risk of disease is high. VOM Australia alerted you to the needs of Orissa Christians and you responded with intercessory prayer and great generosity. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Asia Bibi 'Has Price on Her Head'
Asia Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, says his family have been receiving threatening phone calls, though he is guilty of nothing, this Pakistani labourer is on the run - with his five children. His wife, Asia Bibi, has been sentenced to death for blaspheming against Islam. Mr Masih told BBC they move constantly, trying to stay one step ahead of the anonymous callers who have been menacing them. "I ask who they are, but they refuse to tell me," he said. He insists that Asia Bibi is innocent and will be freed, but he worries about what will happen next. "When she comes out, how she can live safely?" he asks. "No one will let her live. The mullahs are saying they will kill her when she comes out." [more...]
IRAQ: Gunmen kill elderly Christian couple inside their Baghdad home
An elderly Christian couple in Baghdad was killed when terrorists placed a bomb outside of their home, rang the doorbell and walked away, according to media and human rights reports. The bombing happened at the same time other Christian-owned homes and neighbourhoods throughout Baghdad were being attacked. Estimates of the number of people wounded in the attacks in Iraq range from nine to more than 13. Source: Compass Direct [more...]
EGYPT: Blast Kills 21 Outside Church in Alexandria
At least 21 people were killed and 90 were wounded on Saturday 1 January when a bomb outside a church in Alexandria, Egypt exploded as congregants were leaving a New Year’s Eve Mass celebration. The explosion ripped through the crowd shortly after midnight, killing instantly most of those who died, and leaving the entrance-way to the Church of the Two Saints, a Coptic Orthodox congregation, covered with blood and severed body parts. [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: "Ilmurad Will Pray and Praise God at Christmas in the Labour Camp"
Turkmenistan has not released any of its nine known religious prisoners of conscience in its latest prisoner amnesty. The latest prisoner of conscience sentenced for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief - Protestant pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, given a four year jail term with forcible "medical" treatment in October - is amongst those excluded. Pastor Nurliev's wife Maya who is under MSS secret police surveillance - told Forum 18 that her husband has been sent to Seydi Labour Camp. [more...]
EGYPT: Christian Charged with “Defaming Islam”
A convert from Islam to Christianity in Port Said, northeast Egypt, has been charged with “defaming Islam.” Ashraf Thabet, 45, came to faith in Christ in 2004. For years he questioned his Muslim beliefs and learned about the Christian faith through a Christian friend, as well websites and other media. During these years, he shared his doubts about Islam and told others what he was learning about Jesus Christ. [more...]
VIETNAM: Authorities Crack Down On Christmas Events
Authorities have put a halt to Christmas celebrations in several areas of Vietnam in what appears to be a central government crackdown on Christianity. On 19 December, hundreds of Christians arrived at the National Convention Centre in the Tu Kiem district of Hanoi for a planned Christmas event. However, they found the doors of the building locked and police on scene who tried to send them away. In a bold move, some of the Christians began to sing and pray in the square in front of the centre. Police then struck some Christians with their fists and nightsticks. [more...]
Vietnam: Officials bulldoze Mennonite Bible school and beat Pastor unconscious!
Disturbing news comes from VOM contacts in Ho Chi Min City that Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang was arrested by police Monday and taken away just minutes before his home and Bible school were demolished by authorities.
Pastor Quang is a human rights lawyer and chairman of the Legal Committee of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship. It isn't the first time he's been in trouble with Vietnamese authorities. He's been jailed three times and was last imprisoned in 2004 along with five other church leaders. They were known as the "Mennonite Six". [more...]
ALGERIA: Christians Sentenced For Setting up “Illegal” Place of Worship
Four Christians were recently given suspended prison sentences for opening a place of worship in the eastern region of Kabylia, Algeria, without a proper license issued by authorities. The Christians—a Protestant clergyman and three of his parishioners—were convicted on the basis of a controversial 2006 law that requires that anyone who wants to set up a place of worship, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, must obtain a permit indicating the name of the place of worship as well as that of the pastor. Some believe this law violates Algeria’s constitution, and this is first time it has been enforced in the nation. [more...]
INDONISIA: House Churches Forcibly Closed
Seven house churches were forcibly closed down in West Java, Indonesia, due to local Muslims’ objections to the buildings being used for “illegal church meetings.” On 12 December, between 200 and 300 Muslim militants from hardliner groups such as the Islam Protector Front (FPI), Moslem Forum (FUI) and the Islamic Reformation Movement (Garis) gathered outside seven houses and performed sudden inspections of the buildings. [more...]
CHINA: Authorities Raid Worship Service in Hunan Province
Chinese authorities raided a house church worship service held by members of the Hope Church in the city of Changsha, Hunan Province on 12 December. At approximately 9:30 am, dozens of believers were gathered for worship when police officers and government officials arrived on scene. The authorities forced the believers to disperse and confiscated several items belonging to the church, including the podium, chairs and air-conditioner. They also took into custody two of the believers—Pastor Zing Jinfu and Minister Le. They were taken to a local police station and questioned for a couple of hours. [more...]
VIETNAM: Two Evangelists Sentenced to Prison
Two Christian evangelists, Ksor Y Du, 47, and Kpa Y Co, 30, were sentenced this month to six and four years in prison respectively for “undermining national unity.” Ksor and Kpa, of the Vietnam Good News Mission (VGNM) church, received the harsh sentences on 15 November. House arrest of four and two years respectively also was added to the sentences, according to church sources and Vietnam’s Phap Luat (Law) newspaper. Both evangelists, who are of the Ede minority, live in Song Hinh district of Phu Yen Province, where there are some 20 VGNM congregations. Ksor was one of many thousands of ethnic minority people in Vietnam’s Central Highland that participated in demonstrations in 2004 against religious oppression and illegal confiscation of their traditional lands. They were held 10 months without charges, the area sources said. [more...]
SOMALIA: Teenage Girl Shot to Death for Embracing Christ
A 17-year-old girl in Somalia who converted to Christianity from Islam was shot to death last week in an apparent “honour killing,” area sources said. Nurta Mohamed Farah, who had fled her village of Bardher, Gedo Region to Galgadud Region to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam, died on 25 November. Area sources said they strongly suspected that the two unidentified men who shot her in the chest and head with a pistol were relatives or acting on their behest. She was killed in Abudwaq district about 200 metres from where she had taken refuge. Her parents had severely beaten her for leaving Islam and regularly shackled her to a tree at their home, Christian sources said. She had been confined to her home since 10 May, when her family found out that she had embraced Christianity, said a Christian leader who visited the area. Source: Compass Direct [more...]
PAKISTAN: Minister Condemns Reward for Killing Christian Woman
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti has condemned the recent announcement of a reward for killing the jailed Christian woman Asia Bibi. According to a story by Christian Post, Bhatti said the call is unjust and irresponsible. The Christian Post said a hard-line imam known for making similar reward-for-murder calls in the past offered about $6,000 to anyone who kills Asia Bibi during his sermon at the largest mosque in Peshawar on Friday. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Christian Accused of Defacing Koran
A Christian in Ethiopia’s southern town of Moyale who languished in jail for more than three months after he was accused of desecrating the Koran has been sentenced to three years of prison, church leaders said. Tamirat Woldegorgis, a member of the Full Gospel Church in his early 30s, was arrested in early August after a Muslim co-worker in the clothes-making business the two operated out of a rented home discovered Woldegorgis had inscribed “Jesus is Lord” on some cloth, area Christians said. His business partner later accused him of writing “Jesus is Lord” in a copy of the Koran, although no evidence of that ever surfaced. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Christian Books Confiscated
Uzbekistan has confiscated Christian books from a youth group returning from Kazakhstan. An Uzbek customs official claimed to Forum 18 that the confiscations were "not confiscation. It's temporary removal". Customs officials claimed that a court would decide what would happen to the literature. Baptists complained that a customs official swore at them, saying: "We are the bosses here and we will do what we like. If we need to, we'll lock you away." Officials refused to provide copies of Confiscation Certificates and the group was released after being held for nine hours. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Court Prevents Pakistan’s President from Pardoning Asia Bibi
A court in Pakistan has told that country’s president that he could not grant pardon to the Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’ against Muhammad. According to International Christian Concern the Lahore High Court issued the order after lawyers argued that the president cannot issue the pardon before Asia Bibi’s appeal to the High Court is decided. ICC says Bibi had appealed to the High Court for the reversal of her death sentence, but the court has yet to set a date for the hearing of her appeal. [more...]
EGYPT: Muslim Mob Firebomb Christian Homes, Businesses
Christians in a small village in southern Egypt are rebuilding their lives and homes after hundreds of Muslims rampaged through their community firebombing houses and businesses over rumours of a romantic relationship between a Christian and a Muslim. At least 23 homes and numerous businesses, all Christian-owned, were damaged or destroyed in the village of Al-Nawahid in Qena Governorate, 454 kilometres south of Cairo. [more...]
The Church is NOT Dead
“The Church is dead.” That was the declaration of Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party in 1923. The communists created the Soviet Republic and although their communist revolution was toppled in the early 1990s, the legacy of the party’s war on religion lives on in former Soviet republic, Uzbekistan.
Evangelical Christians in Uzbekistan face a government that maintains the oppression established under the Soviet Union – lack of religious freedom. Although officials will say the constitution of Uzbekistan upholds freedom of religion, in practice, the government and laws restrict these rights. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Killed For “Blasphemy”
Police suspect two Muslim militants are responsible for the recent murder of a Christian man in Punjab province, Pakistan. In early November, 22-year-old Latif Masih was granted bail after five months of imprisonment for “blasphemy” for allegedly burning pages of the Koran. His release came after the complainant in the case told the court he was not certain Latif was guilty. [more...]
IRAQ: Three More Christians Killed in Mosul
This week, three more believers were killed in Mosul, Iraq -- the latest in a series of recent deadly attacks on the country's Christian community. On 22 November, assailants entered a shop owned by two Christian welders -- brothers, Saad Hanna, 43, and Waad Hanna, 40 --and shot them. Waad was killed instantly and Saad succumbed to his injuries two hours later. The same day, police found an elderly Christian woman strangled in her Mosul home.
Sources: Assyrian International News Agency, CNN [more...]
CHINA: Church Building Demolished in Jiangsu Province
A church building was recently demolished in Tinghu district, Jiangsu province, China. On 19 November, Chengnan Church—that belongs to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and is legally registered with the government—was destroyed on orders of the local government. The demolition came as a surprise, as registered churches in China do not typically face the same intensity of persecution from the government as non-registered churches. In response to the situation, ChinaAid President Bob Fu said, “While the government’s powerful backhoes can destroy church buildings, they can never destroy the faith in the hearts and souls of believers. No one can stop the vigorous growth of the church in China. The Cross will surely be hoisted high in China by the glory of God and the sickle and ax will surely fall in shame.” Source: ChinaAid [more...]
INDONESIA: Islamic Groups Aim to Close Church
Muslims are reportedly attempting to stop a church from holding worship services in West, Java, Indonesia. Earlier this month, on 7 November, more than 50 Muslims gathered outside a multipurpose building in Karask village where members of The King of Glory Church were gathered for a Sunday worship service. The Muslims chanted 'Allah akbar' (God is great) and demanded that the meeting be put to an end because the building was not approved for worship services. The protest went on outside the church for more than an hour before the Muslims dispersed. [more...]
IRAQ: More deadly Attacks on Iraqi Christians
Christians in Iraq have again been the targets of deadly violence in recent days, including bombings and gunfire. On 11 November, suspected Islamist militants detonated 11 bombs in Christian suburbs across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, indiscriminately targeting shops and homes. At least five Christians were killed and approximately 33 injured. Fresh violence also erupted in predominately Christian areas of Iraq on the evening of 15 November. At least one person was killed and seven others injured when two car bombs exploded in Baghdad. Also that evening, gunmen invaded the homes of Christian families in the eastern region of Mosul and killed two men. The following afternoon, a Christian man and his six-year-old daughter were killed by a car bomb in Mosul. [more...]
CHINA: Churches Raided, Members Detained
Officials in China raided at least two churches in recent weeks. On 10 November, Public Security Bureau officers and representatives from the Bureau of Religion disrupted a church meeting being held in the city of Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang province. The general ledger of the church was confiscated. On the morning of 12 November, local officials and members of the Bozhou Bureau of Religion raided a house-church meeting held in Pingyao county, in Shanxi province. Several items belonging to the church were confiscated. Officials took at least 10 believers away, and five of them were detained until late afternoon. Source: ChinaAid [more...]
CHINA: Three Schools Raided In China; Believers Questioned
Officials invaded kindergarten classes in the Southern provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, China on 7 November. All three schools raided are under the leadership of Sun Haiping, who is the wife of formerly imprisoned house-church pastor Wang Dao. Sun is also part of the Chinese delegation currently in Washington DC, which focuses on issues of democracy and religious freedom. [more...]
URGENT PRAYER NEEDED: Christian Woman Sentenced to Death
Asia Bibi, a 37 year old Pakistani woman, was sentenced to death on Monday 8 November 2010 for blasphemy. She is the first woman ever to receive the death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan. [more...]
PAKISTAN: First Woman Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy
Christian mother-of-two Asia Bibi has been sentenced to death for blasphemy - the first woman ever to receive this sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan. A court judge gave Asia the maximum sentence yesterday at the end of a trial lasting more than 16 months. Asia, a farm labourer in her late-30s from Ittanwali, Punjab, was also fined more than the equivalent of two-and-a-half years' salary for the average worker. [more...]
NEPAL: Missionary Badly Beaten
Six men attacked and brutally beat a Gospel for Asia-supported missionary 17 October in Nepal. The men accused Indra Rai Waglan of blasphemy against their traditional gods. They also accused him of forcing all the members of two families to convert to Christianity.
Indra and an elderly believer were travelling to a neighbouring village to conduct a prayer meeting when the attack happened. After the attack the men left him unconscious beside the road. He was later able to get medical treatment. He has a broken rib and bruises all over his body. The police have identified and charged six men with the attack. Their case is now before the court. Source: Assist News Service [more...]
PAKISTAN: After Fatwa, Pastor Beaten with Bricks
Muslim extremists in Islamabad on Monday 1 November beat with bricks and hockey sticks a Christian clergyman who is the subject of a fatwa demanding his death. The Rev Dr Suleman Nasri Khan, a former fighter in Afghanistan before his conversion, suffered a serious head injury, a hairline fracture in his arm and a broken bone in his left ankle in the assault by 10 Muslim extremists; he was able to identify two of them as Allama Atta-Ullah Attari and Allama Masaud Hussain. [more...]
ISRAEL: Church Building Set Ablaze
An unidentified arsonist in Israel set fire to a Jerusalem church building that has long been a focal point for anti-Christian sentiment in a Jewish ultra-Orthodox-leaning neighbourhood, church officials said. On Friday 29 October shortly before 1 am, someone broke the basement windows of the Jerusalem Alliance Church Ministry Centre and set fire to its bottom floors. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Christian festival raided; believers detained
Police raided a Christian festival and detained four believers in the town of Kusar, Azerbaijan on 31 October. [more...]
CHINA: Authorities raid Christian’s home
Approximately 10 police officials raided the home of a Christian in Beijing, China, in an effort to search for Hua Huiqi, a formerly imprisoned pastor. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Update: Pray for imprisoned Christian Asia Bibi
In June 2009, Asia Bibi was imprisoned on charges of blasphemy in the village of Ittanwali, Punjab province, following a heated discussion with her Muslim coworkers. Since then she has been languishing in prison. Her husband and two daughters have been allowed very limited contact with her. A court hearing was planned for the end of October. At press time, it was not yet known if this hearing was held.
Source: VOM USA, VOM Canada [more...]
The Bible in the Oven
Noora* and her two daughters became followers of Jesus through the witness of Noora’s younger sister. After Noora became a Christian, she wondered, “What am I supposed to do with my life now? How can I tell my husband?” [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Massive Fine for Having a Film of Jesus' Life
Uzbekistan has imposed a massive fine on a Protestant for owning a Christian film. Murat Jalalov was fined - apparently on the instructions of the NSS secret police - after police raided his home. The film and other confiscated materials for analysis by the state Religious Affairs Committee, which said that the film "could be used among local ethnicities for missionary purposes" and was therefore banned. All the confiscated material was ordered to be destroyed. Source: Forum 18 News Service [more...]
TURKEY: Christians Acquitted of ‘Insulting Turkishness’
After four years of legal battle in a Turkish court, a judge acquitted two Christians of insulting Turkey and its people by spreading Christianity, but not without slapping them with a hefty fine for a spurious charge. Four years ago, gendarmerie officers produced false witnesses to accuse Turan Topal, 50, and Hakan Tastan, 41, of spreading their faith and allegedly “insulting Turkishness, the military and Islam.” At the Silivri court an hour west of Istanbul, Judge Hayrettin Sevim on Thursday 14 October acquitted the defendants of two charges that they had insulted the Turkish state and that they had insulted its people by spreading Christianity. Sevim cited lack of evidence. [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: Protestant Pastor Jailed
On 21 October Protestant Pastor Ilmurad Nurliev was jailed for four years on charges of swindling and is likely to be sent to the Seydi labour camp where there have been claims of the use of psychotropic [mind-altering] drugs against prisoners. Pastor Nurliev's wife and fellow-church members strongly deny the authorities' allegations, and are seriously concerned for his health as the court ordered forced treatment for alleged drug addiction. A diabetic, they told Forum 18 he looked "very, very pale and thin" at the trial. [more...]
SOUTH ASIA: Missionary Beaten, Thrown in Jail, Released
On Saturday, 2 October a group of four anti-Christian extremists attacked Vikranta Rao, a Gospel for Asia-supported missionary while he and another GFA-supported missionary, Nirav Pillai, showed a movie about Jesus in a South Asian village. Vikranta was praying for the people as they watched the film when the attackers came. The extremists accused Vikranta of forcing people to convert to Christianity and called the police after they finished assaulting him. The police arrested Vikranta, instead of his attackers. They made him spend the night in a jail cell without food or adequate medical attention. [more...]
INDIA: Hindu Militants Beat Christians in Karnataka
Suspected Hindu militants recently beat five Christians, including a pregnant woman, in Karnataka state, India. Approximately 40 local Hindus barged into New Public School in the district of Kolar, where Christians were gathered together for prayer. They then attacked five pastors, severely beating them. The assailants also struck Kejiya Fernandes, the wife of one of the pastors, in the stomach. Police eventually arrived on scene, but when the violence ceased, they took the Christian victims into custody instead of arresting the assailants. [more...]
BHUTAN: Christian Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
A Christian was sentenced to three years in prison on 6 October, for “attempting to promote civil unrest” by screening films on Christianity in the predominately Buddhist nation of Bhutan. Four months ago, Prem Singh Gurung (40) was arrested after local residents complained that he was showing Christian films in the villages of Gonggaon and Simkharkha in Jigmecholing block. Prem was charged with violation of the Bhutan Information, Communication and Media Act of 2006. Sections 105(1) and 110 of this law require that authorities examine all films before public screening. While Prem has the right to appeal, at last report it was not yet known if he intended to take that course or even had the resources to do so. Source: Compass Direct [more...]
CHINA: Police Harass Chinese Christians Invited to International Conference
Several Chinese Christian invitees to The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation -- which began on 16 October in Cape Town, South Africa -- have recently faced harassment from authorities. On 17 October, police raided a hotel in Beijing where more than 30 house church Christians, all invited delegates of the Lausanne Congress who had been blocked by Beijing customs officials, were gathered for a worship service. The officials charged the believers with holding an illegal gathering and sent most of them home. Others, including at least four pastors, were seized by police and taken to an undisclosed location. According to the pastors’ families, authorities plan to detain the leaders until 25 October -- the last day of the Lausanne Congress. Source: ChinaAid [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Pray for Christians Amid Political Transition
The recent naming of Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, as Vice Chairman of the Worker’s Party Central Military Commission has led the nation into a political transition which many view as a turning point for the country’s Christian population. On 10 October, during what is said to be the largest military parade staged by North Korea, the nation was officially introduced to Kim Jong-un, who is expected to succeed his ailing father as the country’s leader. Little is known about Kim Jong-un. Some are hopeful that his appointment to leadership will lead to an improvement in the ruthless treatment of Christians in the nation, where believers are regularly imprisoned, tortured and even killed for following Christ. Source: Christian Post, VOM-USA [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Christian Jailed Accused of Desecrating Koran
A Christian in Ethiopia’s southern town of Moyale has been languishing in jail for two months after his Muslim business partner accused him of writing “Jesus is Lord” in a copy of the Koran, local church leaders said. Tamirat Woldegorgis, a member of the Full Gospel Church in his early 30s, was arrested in early August after the Muslim co-worker in the clothes-making business the two operated out of a rented home discovered Woldegorgis had inscribed “Jesus is Lord” on some cloth, area Christians said. The Muslim associate, whose name has not been established, went to a nearby mosque with the accusation that Woldegorgis had written “Jesus is Lord” in the Koran itself, sources said. [more...]
SOMALIA: Family Laments Kidnapping of Christian Girl
An underground Christian family from central Somalia is agonising over the kidnapping of their daughter nearly eight months ago by Islamic militants bent on punishing those who leave Islam. Ghelle Hassan Aded has not seen his 15-year-old daughter, Anab Ghelle Hassan, since Islamic extremists from the al Shabaab (“the Youth”) insurgency kidnapped her on 15 February. The family formed part of a growing movement of underground Christians in Dhusa Mareb. The al Shabaab insurgents fighting the Transitional Federal Government began monitoring the family’s activities in 2008, Aded said, and often questioned him about their lack of attendance at the local mosque. [more...]
INDIA: Church Building Destroyed
Believers in an Indian village were working hard to construct a church building, only to have their hopes—and their building—dashed by anti-Christian extremists. Over two days, radicals completely destroyed the new facilities. Although the congregation had received government permission to build the church, the extremists tore it down anyway; they accused the church members of not having the proper permission to build. [more...]
Muslim Group to UN: Bar 'Defamation of Religions'
An international Muslim group is pushing for a controversial resolution in the United Nations after a Florida pastor threatened to burn Korans. The Organisation of Islamic Conference has sought a UN resolution barring defamation of religions for 10 years. The group claims the threatened Koran burning and the protests over a proposed mosque near Ground Zero make it imperative to protect against growing Islamaphobia. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Christian Charged In Spite of Thief’s Confession
Police in Nilphamari district have charged Christian day labourer Abul Hossen with cattle theft four days after the primary suspect confessed and testified that Hossen had no part in it, according to a defence attorney and a local official present in the courtroom. Police submitted the charge sheet against the convert from Islam on 12 September, even though Sirajul Islam had confessed to the crime and testified on 8 September that Hossen was not involved and that he did not know him. [more...]
CHINA: Church Raided, Members Beaten and Robbed
On 26 September, a house church meeting in Youqing, Sichuan Province was interrupted by 10 police and security people, who proceeded to destroy and confiscate private property and detain and beat church members. The authorities claimed the gathering was illegal. They smashed one desk and about 30 benches and hauled them away. They also confiscated the Christian’s books, as well as the money they carried (approx $A 77). They then took 20 Christians to the police station and demanded money for their release. [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Charged With Forced Conversions
On Sunday 26 September Hindu militants stormed the small, mostly tribal fellowship in Umachagi village, Karnataka, led by Pastor Shivanda Siddi, 45, for the past five years. After interrupting prayers they tried to argue with Pastor Siddi while abusing the believers and taking their Bibles. For the next half hour they insulted, beat and stripped the pastor before telephoning the police and falsely accusing him of forced conversions. [more...]
Never Give Up Seeking Justice
The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP), which translates Batak Christian Protestant Church, is the largest Protestant denomination in Indonesia, with a baptised membership of over four million. On 8 August Islamic extremists organised a protest against HKBP’s church in the city of Bekasi, West Java. Protestors soon turned to violence, attacking and injuring dozens of believers.
We heard a protest leader say a prayer asking Allah’s forgiveness for killing the Kafirs (infidels). “Then we heard a roar from the protesters, Allahu Akhbar! meaning god is great. They taunted the Christians by calling them, Christian dog! and some believers responded by shouting, Hallelujah! This made the protesters extremely angry and they tried to approach some of the women who were shouting this out, but the Police Riot troops protected them and pushed back the protesters.
[more...]
SYRIA: Eight House Churches Closed
At least eight evangelical churches in northern Syria have reportedly been closed by the Syrian government. The Syrian government ordered the closure of numerous house churches, claiming that they were meeting in places deemed inappropriate for worship by the government. Many Syrian Christians, however, believe that the government’s "legal" excuse for closing churches is merely a cover-up for a wider government crackdown against evangelical Christian activity in Syria. The closures are a devastating blow to Christian church communities in Syria, as many congregations cannot afford to buy a plot of land and build a church and so instead purchase apartment buildings to use as places of worship. Source: International Christian Concern [more...]
CHINA: Church Demolished, Bible Study Raided
Nearly 200 police officers demolished the prayer room of Taishan Christian Church in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, China on 21 September on the grounds of a “building code violation." After the demolition, dozens of church members arrived on site and worshipped the Lord, reciting the Bible and singing hymns while the police officers tried to disperse them. A member of the church said a line of police prevented them from removing their belongings from the prayer room. The attack was the second such incident in less than a month, as authorities previously destroyed prayer rooms on 30 August. Commenting on the incidents, Pastor Zhu said, “The last time they came here, they tore down six of the eight rooms…. [In this attack], about 200 people came again and surrounded the entire place. Then, they totally leveled the buildings, stating that the structures violated the building code.” [more...]
LAOS: Christians Arrested; Five Still Detained
Thirty-seven young Christians were arrested by police in Meungfeung, the north district of Laos, on 18 September. All of the believers, who were reportedly in the area for a tree-planting project, were then held in detention. Later on, however, 32 of them were released, including the mother of a four-month-old child. The group is very active in sharing the gospel and has helped lead many people to the Lord. Many are deeply concerned for the welfare of the five who remained detained. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Mob Attacks Christians in Punjab Province
Dozens of Christians were attacked by a mob of Muslims militants in Gujarat distract, Punjab province, Pakistan on 23 September. Approximately 40 Muslims -- some armed with guns and others with axes and clubs -- rampaged through the streets. They fired shots at homes and individuals in the streets and beat some Christians so severely that they were left for dead. Among the believers targeted in the violence was Tariq Gill, a man exonerated of charges of blaspheming the Koran in September 2009. Tariq’s parents were also assaulted -- his mother was stripped naked and dragged through the streets. Several critically injured Christians were receiving hospital care at last report. Source: Compass Direct [more...]
IRAN: Nine Believers Arrested
Nine believers were recently arrested on the charge of carrying out journalism just outside Hamedan, Iran, according to a broadcast on Iranian State television. Two of the arrested were reportedly supported by organisations based outside the country, in particular the United States and Great Britain, but their nationalities are unknown. The other seven detained were reportedly cooperating with “Christian-Zionist organisations”-- a term used in Iranian government culture for evangelical Christians who are benefiting from having access to a number of networks and TV satellite programs for evangelism. It is reportedly the first time in three decades that the State TV has broadcast news about the arrest of a group of Christians. Source: Farsi Christian News Network [more...]
PAKISTAN: Church Attacked by Militant Muslims
On 18 September, the Nasri Pentecostal Church in Shah Latif Town, Karachi, Pakistan was attacked and vandalised by militants angered over a threat to burn the Koran in the United States earlier this month. “The church gates were open and the locks broken. The attackers broke open a cupboard and vandalised religious items at around midnight,” said Pastor Peter Shahzad. Nine copies of the Bible, three hymn books and three wooden crosses were found burned, and a drum was damaged. It was the second church attack within a week as countrywide protests continue against American Pastor Terry Jones, who withdrew his threat to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Source: Union of Catholic Asian News [more...]
CHINA: Pastor Detained At Trial for Chinese House Church Leaders
The court proceedings for the trial of Liu Yunhua and Gao Jianli, two Chinese Christians imprisoned in Xuchang, Henan province, began on 20 September. The outcome of the proceedings is not yet known. It was reported, however, that several believers who had come to witness the event were detained, including the previously imprisoned Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan and his wife. Pastor Zhang and his wife were released a few hours later. Other local Christians, including the son of the defendant Liu Yunhua, were detained by authorities on their way home from the trial. These believers remained detained at last report. Source: ChinaAid [more...]
INDONESIA: Decree against Activities of Church in Bekasi Revoked
After months of conflict and legal battles, the State Administrative Court in Bandung, Indonesia has revoked the 31 December, 2009 decree prohibiting Christian activities of Batak Christian Protestant Filadelfia Church in Jejalan village, Bekasi. The ruling decreed that the regent of Bekasi should issue a permit for the church to establish a place of worship. The church has faced severe opposition in recent months, including recent violence in which two members were injured. [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: Family Concern for Health of Imprisoned Pastor
Pastor Nurliev (45), who leads Light to the World Church in Mary, Turkmenistan, was arrested on 27 August on charges of large-scale swindling, which carry a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and confiscation of property. His wife, Maya, and other church members continue to insist the allegations are false and that police pressured three people into writing fabricated statements against him. "He is innocent of the accusations against him and I want him back home. All this is being done because of his faith,” Maya said. She has been denied access to her husband since his arrest. The last she heard was that he was being held in a small, overcrowded and smoky cell. She is seriously concerned for his health in these conditions, as he suffers from diabetes, which could worsen if he does not receive his regular medical treatment. Source: Forum18 [more...]
INDONESIA: Congregation Attacked Again In Bekasi
Members of the Batak Christian Protestant Filadelfia Church in Bekasi, Indonesia were attacked by a group of eight unknown assailants during a worship service on 11 September. An elder, Asia Sihombing, was stabbed in the stomach. When Reverend Luspida Simanjuntak tried to come to his assistance, she was beaten with a stick and injured on her face, head and back. At last report, both of the believers were recovering in a local hospital. [more...]
INDIA: Five Christians Arrested
A church was recently attacked and five Christians arrested in Patagunta village, Andhra Pradesh, India. On 5 September, Hindu militants destroyed the local building being used for worship. The following day, the militants filed a case against two pastors and three believers belonging to the church, alleging that the Christians had destroyed local temples and Hindu idols. The police then took all five believers into custody. Source: All India Christian Council [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Woman Forced Into Slavery
A group of Muslims recently abducted Sana, a Christian mother of two, in Fatehpuh Kasur, Pakistan. Ejaz Masih, Sana’s husband who works as a labourer, took out a loan in order to provide medical treatment for his ill father. When his Muslim landlord heard about the loan, he demanded that Ejaz repay it within two weeks, saying, “We’ll come and take your wife and children to work for us as slaves. You have no choice [but pay]…. You are lowlife and will always be our slave. We Muslims are superior to any other religion.” A few days later, on 3 September, a group of armed Muslims confronted the family, throwing Ejaz to the ground, abducting his wife and beating his father. When his mother called for help, neighbours came out but no one tried to stop the kidnappers. His brother contacted police, but they refused to register the complaint. Source: AsiaNews [more...]
INDIA: Buddhists Assault Christian Aid Workers
A visually impaired Christian and his friend accused drunken Buddhists of abducting and assaulting them last week after the blind volunteer distributed relief material in a Buddhist-majority town in a region of India devastated by recent floods. The attackers are still at large after the assault on Wednesday 1 September in the town of Leh in Jammu and Kashmir state’s Ladakh region, where flooding and landslides destroyed hundreds of houses and killed around 200 people on 6 August. [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Killed, Four Children Kidnapped
Another member of an underground Christian movement in Somalia has been murdered by Muslim militants in a continuing campaign to eliminate converts from Islam. Area sources said al Shabaab militants entered the house of Osman Abdullah Fataho in Afgoi, 30 kilometres from Mogadishu in Shibis district, at 10:30 the night of 21 July and shot him dead in front of his wife and children. Fataho was a long-time Christian deeply involved in the activities of the small, secret Christian community, sources said. Area Christians said they suspected someone had informed the militants of Fataho’s faith. [more...]
CHINA: Church Leaders threatened for Mission Conference
According to ChinaAid, at least three house churches were shut down on 5 and 6 August. The churches were located in Wuhan, Hubei, in Sanmenxia, Henan, and in Changsha, Hunan. They belonged to China Gospel Fellowship, one of the major house church networks in China, with an estimated 5-7 million members. [more...]
IRAN: The Unknown Condition of Christian Detained in Ahvaz
Members of a home-based church in the city of Ahvaz are concerned about a fellow church member and have reported that after more than a month since his arrest, there is no information about his condition. The 27 year old Neshan Saeedi, on 24 July at 9:00 pm, while spending a quiet evening with his wife and young daughter at their home at the Golestan neighbourhood of Ahvaz, was attacked by plain-clothes security forces that had entered his house and was arrested. The security officers searched the home and seized personal belongings such as a computer, CDs containing films of Christian seminars and teachings, Christian books and Bibles, and family photo albums. [more...]
EGYPT: Sharia Means No Equality before the Law
The Assyrian International News Association (AINA) reports that on 13 August Sheikh Tobah, Imam of the village of Shimi 170km south of Giza, used Friday prayers to incite local Muslims to wage jihad against the local Coptic Christian community. Within hours an Islamic hard-liner named Mohamed Ali Almstaui had attacked a local Copt, Maher Amin, who was washing his taxi. That evening Almstaui led a mob of some 20 Muslims against the Amin family home. When the security forces arrived they arrested the Christians, ignoring their injuries, so they could pressure them to accept 'reconciliation'. (To uphold the Sharia provision that Christians may not testify against Muslims in court, the Egyptian government enforces 'reconciliation' whereby Christians are forced to drop charges in exchange for Muslim assurances that the conflict has ended.) [more...]
AFGHANISTAN: Aid Workers Killed
Just a week ago the world news agencies reported about the killing of a team of eye medics, including eight Christian aid workers, in a remote area of Afghanistan on 6 August 2010. The team of two Afghan helpers and eight Christian foreigners worked for the International Assistance Mission (IAM) - non-profit Christian organisation, registered as such in Afghanistan since 1966. Investigation by Afghan authorities on who is responsible for the deaths and what have been the motives still continues. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Christian Convert Falsely Accused of Theft
A Christian convert from Islam was falsely arrested for cattle theft last weekend in a bid by influential Muslims to stop his Christian activities, area villagers said. Day laborer Abul Hossen, 41, was arrested on Saturday 21 August for alleged cattle theft in Dubachari village in Nilphamari district, some 300 kilometres northwest of the capital, Dhaka. Christian villagers told Compass that Hossen was the victim of “dirty tricks” by influential Muslims. “There is another Abul Hossen in the village who might be the thief, but his father-in-law is very powerful,” said Gonesh Roy. “To save his son-in-law, he imputed all the blame to a different Abul Hossen who is a completely good man.” Hossen, who converted to Christianity from Islam in 2007, is very active in the community, and Muslims are harassing him with the charge so his ministry will be discredited and villagers will denounce his faith, Roy said. [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: Five Years' Imprisonment for Arrested Protestant Pastor?
Pentecostal pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, arrested at his home in Mary in south-eastern Turkmenistan on 27 August, faces criminal charges of large-scale swindling which carry a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and confiscation of property, his wife Maya and his lawyer have told Forum 18 News Service. Three women who had attended church meetings wrote statements that he took money from them, charges his wife and other church members deny vigorously. They say police pressured the three to write the statements and they now regret doing so. Another church member has been threatened that if she does not testify against Pastor Nurliev her husband - who is not a church member - will be sacked from his job. Forum 18 was unable to discuss the case with officials, including police investigator Durdimurad Gazakov. [more...]
"I will forgive you in the name of Jesus"
Life has become harder and more dangerous for Christians in Pakistan in recent years. Islamic militants see the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars on Muslims – and they regard Pakistan’s Christians as agents of the United States and her allies. In 2009 a large mob of radical Muslims attacked Christians in Gojra and Korian. The rioting started with a cry of blasphemy at a Christian wedding in the village of Korian, a few hours’ drive from Lahore. A boy cut up an Arabic textbook to use for confetti and some said the words printed on it were from the Koran. [more...]
INDIA: Twelve Christians Arrested
On 15 August, police arrested 12 believers in Mandya district, Karnataka state, India. Pastor Satish and Ravi, an evangelist with India Campus Crusade for Christ, were conducting a service in a believer’s home when approximately 30 people entered the building and started to accuse them of forcibly converting locals. The men, along with 10 other believers, were arrested and remained in detention at last report.
Source: VOM-USA [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Muslims Attack Somali Church Leader
Mohamed Ali Garas, a prominent Somali church leader and convert from Islam, was beaten recently by Muslims in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mohamed, who fled to Ethiopia from Somalia in 2005 after Somali authorities attempted to arrest him, recently moved to a new neighbourhood in Addis Ababa because Somali Muslims had threatened to attack him. On the evening of 21 August, he heard two men calling his name while he was walking to his new home. When he approached them, they struck him on the head with a wooden club and knocked him to the ground. The two Somali Muslims then continued to assault him, hitting and kicking him in the chest and stomach. They fled when a neighbour arrived on scene. At last report, Mohamed was being treated at a local hospital for his injuries, which included a damaged kneecap. [more...]
TANZANIA: Evangelist Arrested in Zanzibar
Security agents have reportedly arrested Peter Masanja, an evangelist in Zanzibar’s south-eastern town of Paje. Earlier this year, Peter invited fellow members of the Pentecostal Church in Zanzibar to hold religious activities in his home. Local Muslims grew angry, believing that he was planning to establish a church on his land. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Family in Hiding Following Accusations of Blasphemy
A Christian man, Tanvir Masih, and his family are in hiding after Muslim militants accused him of blasphemy. On 28 July, Muslims in Bahawalnagar district, Punjab province discovered Tanvir, who is a cleaning worker, using a broom covered with a pharmaceutical firm's advertisement cards bearing a verse from the Koran in Arabic that read, 'God is the best healer!' They then accused Tanvir of 'defiling Muhammad.' Tanvir tried to explain that others had given him the cards, which were written mostly in English, and that he did not understand English. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Exonerated of Blasphemy Charges
Rubina Bibi (25), a Pakistani Christian woman who has been imprisoned since March for blasphemy, was recently acquitted. Rubina was accused of blasphemy by a local Muslim shopkeeper following a dispute they had over a food product she had purchased and tried to return. Rubina was arrested and imprisoned in the Gujranwala jail along with her 18-month-old son, Joshua. On August 11, a judge dropped the charges against her and she was released. Had she been convicted, she would have faced the mandatory death penalty. Her accuser had reportedly offered to settle the matter out of court if she agreed to convert to Islam. Rubina, her husband, and their three children have since relocated to an unknown location for their safety.
[more...]
TANZANIA: Christian Evangelists Acquitted
On 12 August, a court in Tanzania acquitted two evangelists of "illegal preaching." Eleutery Kobelo and Cecil Simbaulanga were arrested in October 2009 after Muslims invited them to participate in a religious debate. The Christians reported that no Muslims showed up to the site of the supposed inter-faith debate until Islamists arrived with government security agents who charged them with "using religious sermons to incite Muslims and Christians into viewing each other with suspicion." The accusers had claimed that the Christians' message that Jesus is God had annoyed Muslims and therefore disrupted a peaceful coexistence between the two faiths. [more...]
PAKITAN: Two Christian Girls Raped in Punjab
Two Christian girls in Pakistan's Punjab province were brutally raped in recent weeks. On 22 July, a group of madrassa (Islamic school) students gang-raped a 12-year-old Christian girl in Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi district. A teacher who reportedly witnessed the rape stated: "Three or four Christian girls were washing dishes near a pond…. These guys ran towards them, and the girls started running. One of them fell on the ground, and these madrassa students got hold of her and took her in the fields. I tried to stop them, but they were 15-16 in number." Seven or eight of the boys reportedly then raped the girl, while the others looked on. [more...]
INDONESIA: Hundreds Injure Church Members in Bekasi
Leaders of a church in West Java, Indonesia demanded justice from police after a fifth attack from Muslim protestors left at least a dozen people injured. As some 20 members of the Batak Christian Protestant Filadelfia Church (HKBP Filadelfia) in Bekasi gathered for Sunday worship on a church-owned plot of land in Ciketing, at least 300 members of the Islamic People’s Forum (FUI) and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) broke through a police barricade and ordered them to leave, Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum, told Compass. When the church members refused, the protestors assaulted the group with sticks, stones or their bare hands. [more...]
MALDIVES: Prospects of Religious Freedom Appear Grim
After Saudi Arabia, the Maldives is the only nation that claims a 100-percent Muslim population. But the Indian Ocean archipelago featuring 1,192 islets 435 miles southwest of Sri Lanka has more than 70,000 expatriate workers representing several non-Islamic religions, including Christianity; those who intermingle must exercise caution. “Even if you engage any Maldivian in a discussion on Christianity and the person reports it to authorities, you can be in trouble,” said a source who requested anonymity. “A Maldivian youth studying in Sri Lanka became a Christian recently, but when his parents came to know about it, they took him away. We have not heard from him since then.” [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: "We Are Bandits"
Ten Protestant short-term prisoners of conscience have been jailed for between three and five days, and three were fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage. The raid which preceded the punishments - in which 23 people including small children were detained - was carried out with great brutality. Police under Major Ilyos Mustafayev broke into the house, confiscating two personal Bibles, four songbooks and one textbook of violin lessons. They then began "pushing the believers forcefully" into cars outside, Baptists complained. [more...]
IRAN: The Mass Arrest of New Christian Converts in Mashhad
On Thursday, 18 July, a group of 15 newly converted Christians, who were travelling to the provincial town of Bojnoord to meet and to fellowship with the believers of that town, were arrested in the city of Mashhad, the capital of the North Eastern province of Khorasan. [more...]
Two Christians Play Dead to Survive Attack in India
Two evangelists said they survived an attack in Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh by playing dead when suspected Hindu extremists on July 20 surrounded them and severely beat them. The six assailants accused Mahindra Kharoley, 20, and 30-year-old Munshi Prasaad Bahey of “forced conversion.” The two evangelists were bicycling to their home village of Susua following a prayer meeting at Dunda Sivni, 25 kilometers from Balaghat district, when the attackers on two motorbikes, with their faces covered, attacked them in Bhalwa village at around 10 pm. [more...]
RUSSIA: Pastor in Dagestan Killed
A pastor in the Russian republic of Dagestan known for founding the biggest Protestant church in the region and for successfully reaching out to Muslims has been killed by unidentified gunmen, local authorities have confirmed. Artur Suleimanov, 49, pastor of Hosanna Christian Church in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, was shot on the evening of 15 July while leaving his church building.
The identity of the shooters remains unclear, but in the weeks leading up to the killing Dagestan media broadcast calls for people to take measures against Suleimanov because he was too “active” and converted ethnic Muslims. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Suspected Islamists Shoot Five Christians to Death
A dozen masked men shot five Christians to death as they came out of their church building here on July 15, two months after a banned Islamic extremist group sent church leaders a threatening letter, relatives said. Pastor Aaron John and church members Rohail Bhatti, Salman John, Abid Gill and Shamin Mall of Full Gospel Church were leaving the church building after meeting to discuss security in light of threats they had received, said the pastor’s son, Shahid John. “As we came out of the church, a group of a dozen armed gunmen came and opened fire at us,” said Shahid John, who survived a bullet in his arm. Besides Shahid John, five others were wounded in the attack. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Two Christian Families Suffer Extortion, Beatings
Two Christian women in Bangladesh’s northern district of Jamalpur said village officials extorted relatively large sums of money from them – and severely beat the husband of one – for proclaiming Christ to Muslims. Johura Begum, 42, of Pingna village said a member of the local union council, an area government representative and the father of a police officer threatened to harm her grown daughters if her family did not pay them 20,000 taka ($A 315). The police officer whose father was allegedly involved in the extortion was investigating fabricated charges that Christians had paid Muslims to participate in a river baptism on 26 May. Only six men among 55 converts were baptised by leaders of the Pentecostal Holiness Church of Bangladesh, Christian leaders said, as the rest were intimidated by protesting Muslims. [more...]
INDIA: Four Students Taken to Custody in Lucknow
A team of students from a Bible college in Lucknow of Uttar Pradesh have been attacked and detained by the police allegedly for their conversion activities. The police first beat up the four students belonging to Compassion for India Ministry late in the evening on 24 July. The students had been engaged in serving the poor and underprivileged in and around Lucknow. The police team, led by one Tripathi, forced their Pastor to visit them at the police station. The police accused them of indulging in conversion activities. The pastor and his team were questioned about their work in detail. The police also extracted money from the Pastor before releasing the students from their custody. Source: All Indian Christian Council [more...]
God Will Use You Mightily
At age five, Abdulmasi was forced into almajiri, an antiquated Islamic practice popular in West Africa. His story is like that of millions of young Islamic boys who are currently being educated in Koranic schools around the world, especially in Nigeria and other West African countries. Many of those schools are training grounds for Islamic militants fuelling hatred for Christianity.
A boy doing almajiri may join 40 or 50 other boys in the Imam’s care. The boys live in poverty, without parental love or guidance. In the morning, the boys recite the Koran. It is in Arabic, a language they do not understand. They recite for hours, for years, until they memorise the Koran. Around 1 pm each day, the boys walk the streets and beg for food. Whatever food or money they get they must share first with the Imam. By 2 pm, they are back reciting and learning the Ahadith. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Nursing Student Brutally Assaulted
Magdalene Ashraf, a 22-year-old a Christian nurse trainee, was brutally attacked on 13 July by several Muslim men who raped her and threw her from the fourth-floor window of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. A fellow nurse tricked Magdalene into visiting the office of a Muslim doctor by telling her that he wanted to talk to her about a class assignment. The doctor, Jabbar Jabbar Meammor, reportedly has a history of sexually abusing Christian nurses in the hospital. Once she was inside the room with the nurse, Dr Jabbar and at least two other men then attacked her. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Somali Muslims Assault Christian
On 16 July, five Somali Muslim men assaulted and seriously injured a Christian man in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for reading a book critical of the Prophet Muhammad. Mike Abdul Falahow, a Christian convert from Islam, was reading "The Great Deception: How Muhammad Tried to Win Christians for Islam" when two Somali Muslims demanded that he hand over the book, saying that it was offensive and attacked the honour of the Prophet Muhammad. Mike refused to surrender the book and argued that they were living in Ethiopia and not in Somalia, and therefore had religious freedom. One of the Muslim men then attempted to seize the book from Mike’s grasp. [more...]
VIETNAM: House Church Attacked
A house church building in Xi Thoai village, Phu Yen Province, Vietnam was attacked and damaged by a gang of youths on 18 July. The building, which was also intended to be the home of Christian evangelist Mang Vuong, was in the process of being constructed in order to serve the ethnic Hroi community as the nearby church had reached full capacity. Vuong belongs to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), the country's largest government-registered denomination. [more...]
CHINA: Imprisoned Christian Refused Further Visits
Imprisoned Uyghur house church pastor Alimujiang Yimiti, who was finally allowed to visit with his family in recent months, has been prevented further visits. Alimujiang's mother, wife, and children were able to meet with him for the first time in two years in April. In May, they were permitted a second meeting for 20 minutes. However, authorities have since demanded that a letter stamped by the local police verifying Alimujiang's relationship with his wife and mother be brought to each meeting. The local police, meanwhile, claim the letter is unnecessary and refuse to cooperate. Alimujiang's lawyers have not been permitted to meet with him since he was moved into prison. [more...]
NIGERIA: More Deadly Attacks on Christians
Muslims attacked the predominately Christian village of Mazzah, near the city of Jos, on 17 July, killing eight people and burning seven houses and a church building. At approximately 1:30 am, Muslims entered the village and began shooting sporadically in the air to lure sleeping residents outside their homes. They then attacked people with machetes, including children. Seven were killed instantly, while another died while on the way to the hospital. Three others were seriously injured. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Christians Murdered After Accusations of Blasphemy
Rev Rashid Emmanuel (32) and his younger brother, Sajid Emmanuel (30), were shot and killed on 19 July after they were accused of blaspheming the prophet Muhammad. The two men, leaders of United Ministries Pakistan, were being returned to jail under police custody when they were attacked and shot by several masked men. Sajid was instantly killed, while Rashid later died from his injuries. The bodies of the two reportedly bore cuts and other signs of being tortured while in police custody. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Authorities Crackdown on Christians
Authorities in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, have renewed a crackdown on Protestant activity in recent weeks. On 8 July, two Christians were handed 10-day prison terms to punish them for their religious activities. One of the imprisoned believers, Lepes Omarov, has previously endured opposition. In 2003, he was dismissed from his job as a teacher after he rejected pressure from a local ideology official to renounce his beliefs. In 2006, a criminal case was launched against him for violating the law on religion, but the case never came to trial. [more...]
EGYPT: Persecution Still Escalating
Egypt's Constitution elevates Sharia as 'the principal source of legislation', rendering constitutional guarantees of religious liberty illusory. In 2007 Mohammed Hegazi and in 2008 Maher el-Gowhary courageously pursued the Interior Ministry for their constitutional right to have their conversion from Islam to Christianity officially recorded. They did this for their children who would thus be free to be Christian. The courts, however, ruled that Sharia prohibits leaving Islam (apostasy). Their lives are seriously imperilled with fatwas issued against them. After Nagla al-Imam (36), an attorney and Sharia expert, had publicly announced her conversion to Christianity, police detained, bashed and threatened her in early July. She then posted an Internet video of herself (battered) and her two young children singing a Christian lament. The three have since 'disappeared'.
Source: Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission [more...]
INDIA: Woman Brutally Attacked for her Faith
Amodini, a Christian woman, was brutally attacked on Tuesday for sharing her faith in Karnataka, India. She was hospitalised and is in critical condition. Amodini, who is 40 years old, is a member of a church where a Gospel for Asia-supported missionary serves as pastor. She was at her home when a group of 15 men came to her house, called for her and began accusing her of forcing people to convert to Christianity. After making the accusation, they grabbed hold of the woman and began to beat her. Witnesses described a horrific scene. “Amodini’s clothes were removed in public and she was attacked with knives,” a witness reported. Police sprang into action when the attack was reported and they have arrested 14 of the accused attackers so far. [more...]
KYRGYZSTAN: Church robbed in Bishkek
An Evangelical church in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, has been robbed and a church member badly beaten by the assailants.
In a message sent to the ASSIST News Service (ANS), by Jed Courley, the pastor, he said, “Some of you may have already heard -- our church was broken into last night. At about 1:00 in the morning four men climbed over the fence and broke into the back door of the church. A woman, Valya, who was there was badly beaten, tied up with tape, and then beaten more when very little money was found. Rooms trashed, safe demolished. Some music equipment, a computer, and other things were taken. “Valya managed to escape about 4:00 in the morning, hobbled to a neighbour, and called us. [more...]
IRAN: Family Visit Confirms Fears for Christian in Solitary Confinement
An Iranian Christian has won his fight to be allowed to visit his son in prison – but is now deeply concerned about the 29-year-old's health and well-being. Ali Golchin has been held in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison since he was arrested in his home town of Varamin on 29 April. After weeks of appealing to the authorities, his father was finally allowed access to Ali on 17 June – though they were allowed only ten minutes together.
[more...]
LEBANON: Sidon's Christians Threatened
Christians in the predominantly Christian villages east of the southern port city of Sidon were shocked on Friday 18 June to find pamphlets being distributed that called on Christians to 'spare their lives by evacuating the area within one week' or 'bear the consequences'. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Mob Kills Wife and Children of Christian
A Muslim mob in Jhelum, Pakistan murdered the wife and four children of a Christian last month, but local authorities are too afraid of the local Muslim leader to file charges, according to area Muslim and Christian sources. Jamshed Masih, a police officer who was transferred 50 kilometres from Gujrat to Jhelum, Punjab Province, said a mob led by Muslim religious leader Maulana Mahfooz Khan killed his family on 21 June after Khan called him to the local mosque and told him to leave the predominantly Muslim colony. Masih’s Muslim neighbour, Ali Murtaza, said that after a shopkeeper refused to sell laundry detergent to Masih’s oldest son, 11, Khan led a Muslim mob to Masih’s home and confronted his wife. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Churches Come Under Attack from Islamists
Christian communities in two areas in Punjab Province came under attack earlier this month. In Sargodha, an unidentified motorcyclist on 1 July tossed a grenade in front of the gates of St Filian’s Church of Pakistan, next to a small Christian-owned amusement park where children were playing, Christian sources said. It did not explode. The Rev Pervez Iqbal of St Filian’s said the Bomb Disposal Squad and New Satellite Town police took the grenade away. High-ranking police officials cordoned off the area, declaring a “High Red Alert” in Sargodha, he added. [more...]
AFGHANISTAN: Christians Plead for Help after Execution Call
A group of Afghan Christians living in exile in India have issued an "urgent" plea to the international community to help Christians still living in Afghanistan following the recent call for their execution by a government minister. The letter was issued earlier in the month by a community of 150 Afghan converts now living as refugees in New Delhi because of the threat to their lives in Afghanistan. In the letter they urge Christians around the world to speak out against the "egregious injustices" and "blatant human rights violations" taking place against Christians in Afghanistan. [more...]
MOROCCO: Continues to Purge Nation of Foreign Christians
Moroccan authorities expelled eight more foreign Christians from the country last weekend, bringing the total of deported Christians since March to 128. Two foreign women married to Moroccan Christians were included in this third wave of deportations since March, raising concerns that local authorities intend to harass the country’s small but growing Protestant community. “They are all in fear,” a source told Compass, “because this happened to people who are married.” One of the women, a Lebanese national married to a Moroccan, was diagnosed with cancer last month and is the mother of a 6-year old girl whom she was forced to leave behind. A Spanish national, Sara Domene, 31, was also deported on Monday 28 June, according to news sources. Domene was working as a language teacher in the Western Sahara, a territory under Moroccan sovereignty. [more...]
NIGERIA: Eight Christians Killed in Nigerian Muslim Attacks
A human rights organisation has learned that last weekend Muslims attacked Christian villages and killed at least eight Christians in Kaduna and Plateau States of Northern Nigeria. International Christian Concern (ICC) reported in a news release that on the night of 3 July, several Muslims attacked Kizachi village in Kaduna State and killed five Christians, including a primary school teacher and mother of six children. The Muslims also burned down five Christian homes. Nigerian sources told ICC that the police had stopped protecting the village on 2 July after the government failed to pay their salaries.
In the second attack, on the night of 4 July, 2010 ICC reported that Muslims armed with guns and machetes invaded Ganawuri community, near Jos. Three Christians are feared dead. [more...]
TURKEY: Christian Children Singled Out
There is a saying in Turkey: "To be Turkish is to be Muslim, and to be Muslim is to be Turkish." In this nation, 99.8 percent of its inhabitants are Muslim, and the few Turks who do turn to Christ are misunderstood and ridiculed for their decision to leave Islam. [more...]
INDIA: Conviction of Legislator Falls Short of Expectations
– Christians in Orissa state had mixed feelings about the sentencing on Tuesday 29 June of state legislator Manoj Pradhan to seven years in prison for causing grievous hurt and rioting – but not for murder. “Pradhan is not convicted of murder, but offenses of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons and rioting were upheld,” attorney Bibhu Dutta Das told Compass. Kanaka Rekha Nayak, widow of murdered Christian Parikhita Nayak, acknowledged that the judgment on Pradhan and fellow Hindu nationalist Prafulla Mallick did not meet her expectations. She said she was happy that Pradhan was finally behind bars, but that she “expected the court to at least pronounce life imprisonment on Pradhan and Mallick for the gruesome act that they committed." [more...]
ERITREA: Refugees Sent Back From Libya in Great Danger
As many as 250 highly vulnerable Eritrean refugees are in danger of being forcibly repatriated by Libyan authorities. CSW learnt that they were herded like cattle into trucks which took them from Misrata prison to a detention centre on the edge of the Sahara desert earlier this week. Before leaving, many of the group were severely tortured by their guards, some so badly that they had to be returned to the prison where they were being held for medical treatment. They are now being held in one single, dark, overcrowded cell, with no access to toilets, food or water and are being hosed with water, beaten and threatened by guards who say they have orders to “finish” them. [more...]
INDIA: “Blessed are the Persecuted”
The world knows the devastation wrought by anti-Christian violence that swept through India in 2008: 121 pastors and believers murdered, more than 5000 houses destroyed, 235 places of worship burned and more than 70,000 people displaced. The attacks have not thwarted the efforts of bold believers who continue to share Christ despite violent opposition. [more...]
PAKISTAN: ‘Blasphemy Laws’ Used to Jail Elderly Christian
A Muslim vying with a Christian for a parcel of land here has accused the elderly man of “blaspheming” Islam’s prophet Muhammad, which is punishable by death or life imprisonment, according to the Christian Lawyers’ Foundation (CLF). Jhumray police on 19 June arrested Rehmat Masih of village No. 165/RB Jandawali in Faisalabad district under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy laws,” and he was sent to Faisalabad District Jail on judicial remand by Magistrate Muhammad Sajawal. Christian sources said Masih, who suffers from arthritis, is 85 years old, though the First Information Report against him lists his age as 73. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Professor in Pakistan Beaten for Refusing to Convert
Muslim students attacked a Christian professor at the Peshawar University College, this month after he refused their demand to convert to Islam, the instructor told Compass. Psychology professor Samuel John, a father of four who has been teaching at the university for 12 years, said that as he came out of his house on the university campus at 8:30 am on 14 June, about 20 to 25 students rushed and assaulted him. When his wife learned what was happening she ran to help him, but the students beat her as well. Both John and his wife were rushed to Lady Reading hospital, where they were treated for their injuries, with John listed in critical condition. “I am still getting threats,” the professor told Compass. “They say, ‘Leave the university or accept Islam – if you don’t convert, we will kill your family.” Police have refused to register a First Information Report on the incident, he said. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: Parliaments to go against International Human Rights Commitments
Following a police raid on his ordination service, Baptist pastor Oleg Voropaev in Kazkhstan's northern Pavlodar Region has become the latest victim of the Administrative Code's punishments for leading unregistered worship. Voropaev told the court that he considered himself not guilty, as Kazakhstan's Constitution guarantees the right to worship individually or collectively. As a community without a bank account the church does not need legal status, and does not need or want registration to exist or meet. [more...]
IRAQ: Christian Shot
On 7 June a 34-year-old Christian businessman Hani Salim Wadi was shot and killed in front of his home in Kirkuk, Iraq. According to the available sources the witnesses of the shooting have described it as a "targeted killing," which has brought fear of renewed violence against Christians in Iraq. During the recent months there have been other serious attacks against Christians in Kirkuk and Mosul.
Source: WEA Religious Liberty Prayer [more...]
INDONESIA: Islamist Hardliners in Bekasi Declare 'War' on 'Christianisation'
Islamist hardliners are using fighting talk about the 'Christianisation' of Bekasi, amid rising interfaith tensions in the city. Nine Islamic groups meeting in the West Javan city have reportedly joined forces in a campaign to prepare local mosques to 'wage war on' the growing Christian influence in the city. The group is recommending that each local mosque should form its own laskar or 'paramilitary unit' to enforce Sharia or strict Islamic practices on local Muslims – and insisting that the Bekasi administration's policymaking should reflect this code. Hardliners say they are reacting to what they see as a concerted attempt by the church to extend its reach in Bekasi, a commuter city for Jakarta. Mass baptisms of Christians who were raised as Muslims are cited as a particular issue for concern. [more...]
USA: Three Christians Arrested in Outreach to Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan
Three Christians were arrested on 18 June at the Arab International Festival as they shared their faith with Muslims. The three were arrested by police as they engaged in intense, but respectful dialog in which they proclaimed their faith in Christ. "I never thought I would see this in America," says Steven Atkins, a resident of Toronto, Canada, who was visiting the festival and observed the incident. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Child Abducted, Forced into Bonded Labour
An 11-year-old Christian boy is growing weak and ill from malnutrition from working in slave-like conditions for a Muslim landowner who kidnapped him and is forcing him to work off his family’s debts, his mother told Compass. Katherine Bibi said landowner Ashraf Cheema of Dhonikay village, Wazirabad, has offered her son better conditions and possibly cancellation of the debt if he will convert to Islam. [more...]
MOROCCO: Islamists Use Facebook to Target Christians
Moroccan Christians say Muslim extremists in the country are aiding and encouraging the government to pursue them by exposing and vilifying them on social networking site Facebook. Facebook user Gardes Maroc Maroc has posted 32 image collages featuring dozens of Christian converts, calling them “hyena evangelists” or “wolves in lamb’s skins” who are trying to “shake the faith of Muslims” on the Arabic-language site. The online images depict Christian converts and their families from across the country and include details about their roles and activities in churches, their personal addresses and anecdotal stories attempting to malign them. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Kidnap, Rape Christian Girl
Five Muslims kidnapped and raped a Christian girl after threatening to kill her unless her father allowed one of them to marry her. Lazarus Masih said one of his three daughters, 14, was kidnapped on 29 May by five men identified only as Guddu, Kamran, Waqas, Adil and Ali. Police recovered her on 6 June in a raid on the home where she was being held, though the suspects escaped. [more...]
KENYA: Islamic Courts Issue Stirs Strife
Kenyans will vote on a new constitution on 4 August. Several elements in the proposed constitution are, however, highly controversial and opposed by the Church which is advocating a 'NO' vote. One contentious issue is the promotion of Kadhi (Islamic) courts. The Church maintains that if Islamic courts are entrenched in the constitution and given national jurisdiction, then secularism, equity, tolerance and religious liberty will be diminished. [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Slapped, Threatened When Youth Disrupt Prayer Meeting
Nikhil Sarin was physically abused and threatened when local youths disrupted his prayer meeting on 4 June. The Gospel for Asia-supported pastor was leading a time of prayer with a family that recently chose to leave their traditional village faith and trust in Christ. The time of fellowship was abruptly cut short when a group of anti-Christian extremists started arguing with Nikhil and the family. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Woman in Pakistan Abused, Forced to Resign
A Christian woman says she has been falsely accused of theft, beaten, threatened with rape and forced to resign her job in a bid to keep her from obtaining full benefits as a regular government employee. Razia Bibi, a 38-year-old sanitation worker known as Rajji of village No. 47-NB (Northern Branch), was due to obtain regular status as a government employee at Aysha Girls’ Hostel at the University of Sargodha at the end of May. On 7 May, however, Muslim office worker Safia Bibi accused her of stealing 10,000 rupees ($A135) from her cubicle – and when hostel warden Noshaba Bibi learned of it, she called female police officers and ordered them to beat her until she confessed, Rajji said. [more...]
SOMALIA: Family of 17-Year-Old Girl Abuses Her for Leaving Islam
The Muslim parents of a 17-year-old Somali girl who converted to Christianity severely beat her for leaving Islam and have regularly shackled her to a tree at their home for more than a month, Christian sources said. Nurta Mohamed Farah of Bardher, Gedo Region in southern Somalia, has been confined to her home since 10 May, when her family found out that she had embraced Christianity, said a Christian leader who visited the area. [more...]
IRAN: Christian Held in Solitary Confinement without Charge
On 29 April, agents from the Iranian National police entered Golchin's home in Varamin and confiscated several Bibles, his computer, identification cards, and other personal belongings. The police did not allow Golchin to call his father before taking him to an undisclosed location. On 30 April, the Intelligence Office in Varamin summoned Golchin's father, a Christian minister, to the local intelligence office. The intelligence agents interrogated him for several hours and threatened to further harm his son if he spoke publicly about Golchin's detention. The intelligence agents similarly threatened Golchin's wife. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Samarkand - City of Closed Protestant Churches
The seventh in a series of Protestant churches stripped of state registration in the central Uzbek city of Samarkand in the past four years is still battling to regain it. Without registration, all religious activity is illegal. "For more than a year our church has been trying to establish the illegality of the stripping of registration," a member of Samarkand's Central Protestant Church told Forum 18 News Service. "All the courts either say it is not within their competence or remain silent." [more...]
INDIA: Pastors Arrested
Police arrested three pastors on anti conversion charges in Amapalli Deogarh, Sambalpur district of Orissa on 10 June. According sources, some villagers of Amapalli village requested Pastor Lamuel Patnaik, Pastor Philemon Naag, and Pastor Sudhir Nag for a baptism service. While they were in the process of conducting the baptisms for those who had previously embraced Christianity, a group of villagers came to object. The matter was reported to local police and a team of police led by a female Superintendent arrived and stopped the baptism ceremony. Police arrested the three pastors and they were taken into police custody for further investigation. [more...]
AFGHANISTAN: Parliamentarian Calls for Execution of Christians
Abdul Sattar Khawasi, deputy secretary of the Afghan lower house in parliament, has called for the execution of Christian converts from Islam. Speaking earlier this month in regards to a video broadcast by the Afghan television network Noorin TV showing footage of Christian men being baptised and praying in Farsi, Khawasi said, 'Those Afghans that appeared in this video film should be executed in public. The house should order the attorney general and the NDS (intelligence agency) to arrest these Afghans and execute them.' [more...]
INDIA: Missionary Murdered
Ajit Bansi -- a Gospel for Asia-supported missionary in Assam, India -- was killed by an anti-Christian militant group on 20 May while on his way home from purchasing construction supplies for a new church building. Pastor Ajit and three others were ambushed by the militants and then shot, their bodies left on the roadside. He was murdered just days before the building for his growing congregation of approximately 60 believers was due for completion. "Pastor Ajit was one of hundreds of missionaries risking their lives to share Jesus' love in this area," K.P. Yohannan, Gospel for Asia's President, has stated. "He was doing a great work, and his life brought hope to many people." Source: Assist News Service [more...]
RUSSIA: Ghostlike Existence for Dagestan's Protestants
The Hosanna Church - the largest Pentecostal Church in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan - had a five-year agreement allowing prison visits abruptly cancelled in early 2010, Pastor Artur Suleimanov told Forum 18 News Service. The authorities have also changed their earlier positive assessment of the church's work with drug addicts. [more...]
EGYPT: Couple Shot by Muslim Extremists Undaunted in Ministry
On the afternoon of 27 February, lay pastor Ephraim Shehata and his wife Rasha Samir were ambushed on a desolate street by a group of Islamic gunmen outside the village of Teleda in Upper Egypt. The attack was meant to “break the hearts of the Christians” in the area, Samir said. The attackers shot Shehata twice, once in the stomach through the back, and once in the neck. They shot Samir in the arm. Both survived the attack, but Shehata is still in the midst of a difficult recovery. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Order Christians to Leave Village
The head of a Muslim village last week ordered 250 Christian families to leave their homes in Khanewal district, Punjab Province, local residents said. Abdul Sattar Khan, head of village No. 123/10R, Katcha Khoh, and other area Muslim residents ordered the expulsions after Christian residents objected too strenuously to sexual assaults by Muslims on Christian girls and women, said a locally elected Christian official, Emmanuel Masih. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Lawyers and Christian Former Prisoners of Conscience Threatened
Lawyers defending three former prisoners of conscience from Tashkent's Protestant Church of Christ have been threatened by the authorities that "they could be stripped of their licenses if they continue to defend these cases." Similarly, the Religious Affairs Committee has threatened to strip the registered church of legal status if church members continue to complain about the imprisonments and other human rights violations. [more...]
Pope Launches Middle East Bishops Group
Pope Benedict XVI launched a "special assembly" of bishops focused on the Middle East on Sunday, during a visit to the divided island of Cyprus. The group aims to "help to focus the attention of the international community on the plight of those Christians in the Middle East who suffer for their beliefs," he said in announcing the group, a part of the Catholic Church's Synod of Bishops. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Boys Accused of Raping Christian Girl
Forensic DNA results of semen samples in a sexual assault case show they match those of the Muslim boys a 14-year-old Christian girl accuses of raping her, according to advocacy organisations. The girl accuses Muhammad Noman and Muhammad Imran, both 17, of abducting her from her school in Kamboh colony, Lahore, in Punjab Province, on 6 May and drugging her prior to sexually assaulting her, according to Khalid Gill, president of the Christian Lawyers Foundation (CLF), and officials of the National Commission of Justice and Peace. [more...]
CHINA: Xinjiang Christian Petitioner Beaten and Detained
On 30 April, Feng Yongji, a Christian petitioner from Xinjiang was illegally intercepted by the Shanghai Domestic Protection Security Squad on her way to Shanghai during the opening ceremony of Expo 2010. The guards handed her over to the police of Shihezi (her hometown). As the Shihezi police "escorted" her home, four or five officers beat Feng so severely that she passed out. Feng Yongji is now being illegally detained at the Shihezi Police Detention Centre. Her current condition is growing worse, and she is in dire need of medical attention. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamists Keep Two Newlywed Couples from Home
Islamists armed with pistols and rifles waited for two Christian couples to return to their rented home this week, seeking to kill them after the newlyweds complained to police that the radical Muslims had falsely accused them of desecrating the Koran, according to a local Christian legislator. Atiq Joseph and Qaiser William and their wives, who requested anonymity went to an undisclosed location after Christians in Gulshan-e-Iqbal town, Karachi, warned them that the armed Muslims were stationed in front of their joint home on Friday 21 May, said Saleem Khurshid Khokhar, a representative of Sindh in the Punjab Provincial Assembly. [more...]
TURKEY: Trial over ‘Insulting Turkishness’ Again Yields No Evidence
The 11th hearing of a case of alleged slander against two Turkish Christians closed just minutes after it opened this week, due to lack of any progress. Prosecutors produced no new evidence or witnesses against Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal since the last court session four months ago. Despite lack of any tangible reason to continue the stalled case, their lawyer said, the Silivri Criminal Court set still another hearing to be held on 14 October. “They are uselessly dragging this out,” defence lawyer Haydar Polat said moments after Judge Hayrettin Sevim closed the Tuesday 25 May hearing. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Woman Kidnapped, Escapes
A Christian woman who was kidnapped, forced to marry a Muslim farmer and told to convert to Islam amid a dispute over a loan said today she has returned home after weeks of “captivity and torture.” Sania James, 33, was kidnapped 5 April by armed men who stormed her parent’s house in the small town of Rawat, just outside Rawalpindi, neighbours confirmed to Compass. [more...]
BELARUS: Action against the New Life Full Gospel Church
The head of the Belarusian capital Minsk's City Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Committee has denied to Forum 18 News Service that his action against the New Life Full Gospel Church is politically motivated. "I'm depoliticised," Aleksandr Borovikov insisted of his attempt to prosecute the church for alleged oil pollution, "I'm not part of any campaign against the church." Church members think the massive, disputed fine imposed on the church for environmental damage is part of the long-running state campaign against them. While concerned that grass being grown for a children's playground at the church might also cause environmental damage, Borovikov seemed unfazed when Forum 18 raised concerns about accumulated rubbish - including rotting vehicles and old washing machines - dumped within 500 metres of the church. [more...]
CHINA: Imprisoned House Church Leaders Released!
On 5 May, sixteen major house church leaders from different provinces were detained while meeting for prayer and Bible study.They were held at a detention center in Luoyang city. ChinaAid urged the international community to call on the authorities to release the pastors, including Pastor Li Fuxing from Shandong and Pastor Zhang "Peter" Bide. Because of international pressure, on 21 May all the house church leaders were released! Source: ChinaAid [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Church Raided
On 16 May, a Christian church in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, was raided by police, the secret police, tax inspectorate, fire Inspectors and the sanitary-epidemiological service. The 500 church members who were in the midst of the Sunday service as well as the Sunday school children were videotaped by the police. After a 5 hour search, which was carried out without a warrant, the police detained eight church members including the Assistant Pastor Artur Avanesyan. They were kept in detention for 24 hours without any food or water and were not allowed to contact their families. Equipment including computers and printers as well as Christian literature was confiscated. Letters of permission given by parents of 392 children to attend Sunday school were among papers taken away by the police. [more...]
Crossing the Line in China
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Esther is the 28-year-old daughter of Pastor Yang Xuan and his wife, Yang Caizhen, leaders in a large Chinese church. Esther grew up in a Christian home in the city of Linfen, in Shanxi province, China. Her parents are members of Linfen Church, a network of house churches with as many as 50,000 members.
Linfen Church is considered to be 'illegal' because it is not registered with the communist, state-run Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Nevertheless, the church has operated with a great deal of freedom. This freedom was so remarkable that within the Chinese house church movement, Linfen became known as the 'Liberated Zone.' Linfen's renown as a Liberated Zone held until September 2009, when Chinese officials closed the church headquarters, destroyed church buildings and arrested Esther's parents and other church leaders.
[more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Teachers Allegedly Abuse Christian Students
Muslim teachers at a girls school here have derided Christian students for their faith, beat them, pressured them to convert to Islam and forced them to clean school bathrooms and classrooms after class hours, according to area Christians. Muslim teachers at Government Higher Secondary School in village No. 79-NB (Northern Branch), Sargodha, have so abused Christian students that two have dropped out, said a 16-year-old student identified only as Sana. “Christian students are teased and mocked by radical Muslim female teachers from the start of the school day to the end,” she said. “Due to the contemptuous behaviour on religious grounds of the fanatical Muslim principal and staff, Christian students feel dejected, depressed and frustrated. I am totally broken-hearted because of the intolerance and discrimination.” [more...]
INDIA: Hindu Nationalists Plan ‘Religious Cleansing’ in Madhya Pradesh District
Hindu nationalist organisations in Madhya Pradesh state have declared their intentions to rid Mandla district of all Christian influence by starting preparations for a large “reconversion” event next year. A similar event in Dangs district, Gujarat state in 2006 was filled with Christian hate speech. As a result of anti-Christian sentiment stirred at the 22 April ground-breaking ceremony for the Madhya Pradesh “reconversion” rally to be held next February, Hindu nationalists attacked a house church in the district’s Bamhni Banjar village on 2 May, Christian leaders said. Hindu leaders reportedly announced a list of objectives to be achieved before the festival, with one prominent agenda item being to drive away Christian pastors, evangelists and foreign aid workers from the district. The leaders pledged to “cleanse Mandla of Christians” by means of the February 10-12 event. [more...]
MOROCO: Second Wave of Deportations Hits Foreign Christians
In a second wave of deportations from Morocco, officials of the majority-Muslim country have expelled 26 foreign Christians in the last 10 days without due process. Following the expulsion of more than 40 foreign Christians in March, the deportations were apparently the result of Muslim hardliners pressuring the nation’s royalty to show Islamic solidarity. The latest deportations bring the number of Christians who have had to leave Morocco to about 105 since early March. [more...]
NIGERIA: Muslim Youths Burn Church Buildings, Pastor’s Home
Scores of Muslim youths on Wednesday 19 May besieged church property in Kano state in northern Nigeria, destroying two church buildings and a pastor’s residence. One of the buildings and the pastor’s house were set ablaze on the premises of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) at Kwasam, in the Kiru Local Government area, while another building under construction was demolished. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Family Forced to Flee Town
A Christian who accused a Muslim of raping his 12-year-old daughter has fled his town in Punjab Province with his family following death threats and police pressure to drop the case. Citing “continuous threats” to take his life, Zafar Masih left Gujranwala’s predominantly Muslim town of Nai Abadi Tatlay Aali within 10 days of accusing Ali Ahmed, a 28-year-old businessman, of beating and raping his daughter on 12 May. His daughter, whose name was withheld, told Compass that her employer, Ahmed, beat and raped her when she went to his home, where she worked as a house servant. [more...]
EGYPT: Convert Endures Life at a Standstill – on the Run
The apartment where an Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity was living in hiding with his teenage daughter is across the street from a mosque that regularly broadcast anti-Christian messages. “Do not shake their hands. Do not go into their homes,” an imam shouted through the minaret loudspeakers as 57-year-old Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary looked through his window and grimaced. For nearly two years, he and his daughter have been forced to hide after he sought to change the religious designation on his national ID card to “Christian.” [more...]
IRAN: Conditional Release of Christian Couple after posting a $100,000 Bail
A Christian couple who were arrested and detained for 75 days on the charges of evangelising the Christian faith in the city of Isafahan was released conditionally after posting a $100,000 bail bond. According to new received by the Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), Mr Hamid Shafiee and Mrs Reyhaneh Aghajary, who were arrested at their home on 28 February and detained for more than 75 days in a detention centre in Isfahan, were released separately after posting heaving bail and commitments to the government. [more...]
IRAN: Marzieh and Maryam Acquitted
Praise God! On 22 May, Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh were acquitted of all charges by the Iranian judicial authorities, according to Elam Ministries. Iranian authorities warned Maryam and Marzieh that any future Christian activity would be dealt with seriously. “We are most grateful to everyone who prayed for us,” Marzieh told Elam Ministries. “I have no doubt that God heard the prayers of his people.” Maryam added, “I believe our arrest, imprisonment and subsequent release were in the timing and plan of God, and it was all for his glory. But the prayers of people encouraged and sustained us throughout this ordeal.” Following their acquittal, Marzieh and Maryam left Iran for another country. [more...]
VIETNAM: Murdered Christian’s Widow Could Lose Her Children
The widow of a Vietnamese Christian who was brutally tortured and murdered may be in danger of losing her children to the state. According to International Christian Concern, the widow was taken to a police station and told she must sign documents giving her children to the state. [more...]
INDIA: Hindu radicals demolish Indian Church under construction, Installs Hindu Idol
A church under construction in Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh, was demolished at around 9:00am on Sunday 23 May by a group of Hindu radicals, who then placed in what was left of the building, an idol of Hindu god Hanuman. According to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the church was destroyed by members of Rashtriya Swayam Sevaks (RSS), a Hindu radical group, despite the fact that the believers had secured all the necessary permits to build their house of worship in that place. [more...]
CHINA: Family Finally Allowed Visit Imprisoned Uyghur Chinese Church Leader
On 20 April, the family of Uyghur house church leader Alimujiang Yimiti was allowed to visit with him for the first time since his arrest in January 2008. Alimujiang was sentenced in October 2009 to 15 years' imprisonment for "providing state secrets to overseas organisations" [more...]
YEMEN: Christian Girls Kidnapped in Yemen Are Rescued
Saudi Arabian and Yemeni security forces rescued two German girls yesterday, 11 months after the two young sisters, their parents; brother and four other Christians were taken hostage in Yemen. Reported to be between 3 and 6 years old, the two girls, Lydia Hentschel and her younger sister Anna Hentschel, were part of a group of nine Christian foreigners who were kidnapped on 12 June last year. Three of the adult hostages, a Korean and two German women, were murdered shortly afterwards. The foreigners worked in a hospital near the city of Saada. [more...]
LAOS: Christians Expelled from Village Suffer Critical Illnesses
In spite of assurances of religious rights by officials in March, Lao Christians expelled from a village in Saravan Province in January are suffering from prolonged lack of adequate food and clean water. The lack of basic resources has led to dehydration, eye and skin infections, fainting and general weakness for the Christians expelled from Katin village, and one person has died, Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Forced to Sell Kidney to Pay Debt to Boss
A low-wage Pakistani Christian said his Muslim employer last week forced him to sell his kidney in an effort to pay off a loan his boss made at exorbitant interest rates charged only to non-Muslims. John Gill, a molding machine operator at Shah Plastic Manufacturers in the Youhanabad area of Lahore, said he took a loan of 150,000 rupees ($A 2095) – at 400 percent interest – from employer Ghulam Mustafa in 2007 in order to send his 17-year-old daughter to college. [more...]
EGYPT: Convert from Islam Devastated by ‘Delay Tactic’
An Egyptian convert to Christianity said he is devastated by a recent court decision to suspend a lawsuit he filed to change the religion on his identification card from Muslim to Christian. The First District of the Court of the State Council on 27 April suspended Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy’s case until the Constitutional Court rules on a challenge to Article 47, a section of the civil code that, in theory, allows Egyptians to change the religion listed on their ID card. Hegazy, 27, said the court’s suspension endangers his children’s welfare and will force them to lead a double life indefinitely. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: 15-Day Jail Terms, Large Fines, Literature Destruction Follow Raid
Uzbekistan has continued short-term jailings of religious minorities, with three Protestant Christians from a registered church on 18 May being given 15 day jail terms. Three other Protestants - arrested after a raid on the Tashkent church - were each fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage, and two other Protestants were fined five times the minimum monthly wage. Six computers seized during the raid were ordered to be given to the state, and seized Christian literature ordered destroyed. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Accused of Blasphemy Faces Court in Pakistan
Martha Bibi (45), a Pakistani Christian woman accused of blasphemy in January 2007 is scheduled to appear in court on 26 May. If deemed guilty, she may face the death penalty. Martha has been accused of making derogatory remarks against the Koran and of "defiling the sacred name of the prophet Muhammad." According to local Christians, the charges were brought against Martha by Muslim contractors who did not want to pay for materials she and her husband, a bricklayer, supplied to a construction site. Source: VOM Canada [more...]
IRAN: Christian Temporarily Released from Evin Prison
Vahik Abrahamian, an Armenian Christian, who was arrested unexpectedly and detained for 53 days in a solitary cell at the Evin Prison, without access to a lawyer or any of his family members, has been temporarily released. According to the Farsi New Network (FCNN), "Vahik Abrahamian", an Armenian Christian was released from his solitary conferment at the Evin Prison at 9pm on 24 April, 2010 after spending a total of 53 days in detention. He had to post a ten million tooman bond for his release and return to court for legal hearings surrounding the charges filed against him. [more...]
CHINA: Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Missing Again
Gao Zhisheng, a Christian human rights lawyer released by Chinese officials on 6 April and missing again since 20 April, is “definitely in the hands of Chinese security forces,” Bob Fu of the China Aid Association (CAA) told Compass.“Right now nobody has been able to locate him,” Fu said. “The Chinese security forces need to come up with an explanation.” Gao, initially seized from his home in Shaanxi Province on 4 February 2009 and held incommunicado by security officials for 13 months, was permitted to phone family members and colleagues in late March before officials finally returned him to his Beijing apartment on 6 April. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians’ Employer Has Them Illegally Arrested
Police illegally detained three Christians on false charges of alcohol possession in Sialkot last week at the request of their Muslim employer. The men – garment factory workers Atif Masih, Kamran Masih and Naveed Gill – said they had objected to their boss demanding they work on Sundays. Factory owner Rana Ejaz promptly accused them of selling alcohol, which is forbidden to Muslims in Pakistan and illegal to sell without a permit. On 4 May the station house officer (SHO) of Paka Garah, Sialkot, arrested the three Christians even though Ejaz had filed neither a First Information Report nor registered a written complaint, the Christians said. [more...]
INDIA: Evangelist Killed in Bihar
An evangelist has been killed in Jamalpur of Bihar allegedly for his conversion activities in the area. A media team consisting of Pastor Yunus Mandal and some young people went to screen a film on Jesus Christ at Laksmanpur village in Jamalpur on 2 May 2010. [more...]
INDONESIA: Muslims Burn Christian Centre under Construction
Hundreds of people calling themselves the Muslim Community of the Puncak Route last week burned buildings under construction belonging to a Christian organisation in West Java Province. Believing that a church or school building was being built, the mob set fire to the Penabur Christian Education Foundation’s unfinished guest house buildings in Cibeureum village of Cisarua sub-district, Bogor Regency, on 27 April. They also burned a watchman’s hut and at least two cars belonging to foundation directors. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Five Christian Boys Accused of Blasphemy Forced to Leave their Homes
Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law continues to be allegedly abused by extremists in Pakistan, at least five Christian boys have been forced to leave their homes in the Green Town area of the eastern city of Lahore, after they were accused of committing blasphemy. [more...]
IRAQ: CHRISTIANS UNDER SIEGE
After seven years of insecurity and ethnic-religious cleansing, few Christians remain in the south and the centre. Iraq's remnant Assyrian-Chaldean Christians live mostly in the historic Assyrian homeland: the Nineveh Plains of Northern Iraq. Even there Christians are under siege and so endangered that Christian students must travel to university in convoys under Iraqi military escort. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Abduct Young Christian Woman, Family Says
Muslims who kidnapped and forcibly converted an 18-year-old Christian woman to Islam severely beat her mother on two occasions to discourage her from trying to recover her daughter, lawyers said. Muhammad Akhter and Muhammad Munir on 25 April broke into the home of 50-year-old widow Fazeelat Bibi while her sons were at work and beat her because they were upset at her continuous demands that they return her daughter Saira, Christian Lawyers Foundation (CLF) leaders told Compass. CLF President Khalid Gill said that neighbours’ calls to the police emergency number went unheeded as the men beat her in Lahore’s predominantly Muslim Bostaan Colony. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Abduct Young Christian Woman, Family Says
Muslims who kidnapped and forcibly converted an 18-year-old Christian woman to Islam severely beat her mother on two occasions to discourage her from trying to recover her daughter, lawyers said. Muhammad Akhter and Muhammad Munir on 25 April broke into the home of 50-year-old widow Fazeelat Bibi while her sons were at work and beat her because they were upset at her continuous demands that they return her daughter Saira, Christian Lawyers Foundation (CLF) leaders told Compass. CLF President Khalid Gill said that neighbours’ calls to the police emergency number went unheeded as the men beat her in Lahore’s predominantly Muslim Bostaan Colony. [more...]
SOMALIA: Militants Execute Christian Leader
Islamic militants killed another leader of the underground church movement in Somalia. Before he was fatally shot on Tuesday 4 May in Xarardheere, about 60 kilometres from Jowhar, 57-year-old Yusuf Ali Nur had been on a list of people the Islamic extremist al Shabaab suspected of being Christian, sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told Compass. Al Shabaab, said to have links with al Qaeda, has vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity.
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BANGLADESH: Buddhist Extremists Drive Christians from Village
Four Christian families in south-eastern Bangladesh left their village under mounting pressure by Buddhist extremists to give up their faith in Christ. Sources told Compass that 20 to 25 Buddhists, brandishing sticks and bamboo clubs in Jamindhonpara village, 340 kilometres southeast of Dhaka, began patrolling streets on Friday 30 April to keep the 11 members of the Lotiban Baptist Church from gathering for their weekly prayer meetings. [more...]
North Korean Outlaws
A Special Report from Voice of the Martyrs Australia
Please click on file to download. [more...]
"I'm Not Ready to Die.......Yet"
Mr Chin* travelled all night. Before dawn, he crossed the Tumen River and stepped back into his homeland of North Korea. The guards patrolling the river’s banks remained deaf to his footsteps. Mr Chin knew the dangerous item that was buried under clothes in his backpack could lead to his execution, but he chose to carry it anyway. [more...]
INDIA: Theology Student Dies in Attack in Madhya Pradesh
Hindu extremists raided Christian events in India’s Madhya Pradesh state this month, leaving a visiting theology student dead and several other Christians injured. The body of 23-year-old Amit Gilbert was recovered from a water well 25 feet from the site of a Christian revival meeting that 15 to 20 Hindu extremists attacked on 17 April in Gram Fallaiya, Post Pathakheda, Betul district. With covered heads and carrying iron rods and bamboo clubs, members of the Hindu extremist Dharam Sena and Bajrang Dal cut electricity at the night-time event and began striking, sending the more than 400 in attendance running, Christian leaders said. Eyewitnesses said the assailants chased Gilbert, of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh state, and beat him mainly on his legs. [more...]
CUBA: Family of Imprisoned Pastor Given Eviction Order
The family of a pastor who was given a six year and seven month prison sentence in July 2009 has been ordered to vacate their home in Cuba. Authorities delivered documents to Pastor Omar Gude Perez's wife, Kenia, notifying her that their home is to be confiscated and that the family will be relocated to a significantly smaller apartment in poor condition outside the city of Camaguey. Kenia has told officials that she and her children will not leave their home voluntarily. Although the official reason for the confiscation and relocation is "illicit gain," Kenia has been informed by authorities that she is being punished for informing international human rights groups and foreign governments about the human rights violations her family has suffered.
Source: VOM Canada [more...]
NIGERIA: Journalists Become the Latest VictimsPlateau State Violence
Two journalists working for a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) publication have become the latest casualties of the violence that has afflicted Plateau State since January. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) says the bodies of Nathan Sheleph Dabak, Deputy Editor of The Light Bearer, and reporter Sunday Gyang Bwede were found in the mortuary of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) on the afternoon of 25 April, a day after they left their office to interview a local politician. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Buddhist Extremists Beat, Take Christians Captive
Buddhist members of an armed rebel group and their sympathisers are holding three tribal Christians captive in a pagoda in south-eastern Bangladesh after severely beating them in an attempt to force them to return to Buddhism, Christian sources said. Held captive since 16 April are Pastor Shushil Jibon Talukder, 55; Bimol Kanti Chakma, 50; and Laksmi Bilas Chakma, 40, of Maddha Lemuchari Baptist Church in Lemuchari village, in Mohalchari sub-district of the mountainous Khagrachari district, some 300 kilometres southeast of Dhaka. They are to be kept in the pagoda for 15 to 20 days as punishment for having left the Buddhist religion, the sources said. [more...]
NORTH KOREA: ‘Pinpricks’ of Truth Making Way
As refugees from North Korea and activists from Non-Governmental Organisations gather in Seoul, South Korea this week to highlight human rights violations in the hermit kingdom, there are signs that North Korean citizens are accessing more truth than was previously thought. A recent survey by the Peterson Institute found that a startling 60 percent of North Koreans now have access to information outside of government propaganda. “North Koreans are increasingly finding out that their misery is a direct result of the Kim Jong-Il regime, not South Korea and America as we were brainwashed from birth to believe,” Kim Seung Min of Free North Korea Radio said in a press statement. [more...]
NIGERIA: Pastor, Wife Killed in Northern Nigeria
Suspected Islamic extremists last week abducted and killed a Church of Christ pastor and his wife in Boto village, Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. The Rev Ishaku Kadah, 48, and his 45-year-old wife Selina were buried on Saturday 17 April after unidentified assailants reportedly whisked them from their church headquarters home on Tuesday 13 April and killed them. Their burnt bodies were found hours later. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Christians Hit by Unexpected Attack
Evangelical Christians in an area of Ethiopia unaccustomed to anti-Christian hostility have come under attack from Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) members threatened by their existence, Christian leaders said. In Olenkomi, about 65 kilometres west of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, two church buildings were attacked by an EOC mob in Olenkomi town, Oromia Region, on 27 January – leaving one evangelist unconscious and other Christians fearful of Orthodox hostility. [more...]
CHINA: Authorities Reject Uyghur Christian's appeal
On 16 March, The People's High Court of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region rejected an appeal from Alimujiang Yimiti (37), a Uyghur house church leader. Alimujiang was sentenced in October 2009 to 15 years' imprisonment for "providing state secrets to overseas organisations. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Feeding Homeless People is "Not According to Charter"
Protestants in Uzbekistan continue to be targeted. Police raided a Protestant youth conference, claiming to check identity documents. Many of the about 70 young people were playing football and basketball and 43 were taken to a police station where they were fingerprinted and photographed. Two leaders are under investigation for "violation of the procedure for holding mass events" and "violation of the law on religious organisations". [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Attacked in Kerala
Activists of the Sangh Parivar have attacked a Pastor in Kozhikode of Kerala for allegedly screening a film on a social cause. Church Pastor Ponnachen and his team went to Perambra for a Gospel meeting on 12 April. They screened a documentary film about cancer caused on account of tobacco use. [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Told to Get Out
A Gospel for Asia-supported missionary has been given notice that he must leave his mission field in Sikkim, India. Santua Barman, who serves as pastor of a small church, received the threat from a local anti-Christian group. They gave him 10 days to move away with his family members. In spite of the threats, Santua plans to stay in the village and continue ministering to the people. He filed a police complaint against the group that is making the threats against him. The courts are trying to resolve the matter, but the group’s leaders have so far refused to show up for their court dates. [more...]
VIETNAM: Released Christian Lawyer Vows to Fight on for Democracy
Christian lawyer Le Thi Cong Nhan has said she will continue to push for a free and fair Vietnam – after serving three years in jail as a pro-democracy activist. Nhan, jailed in 2007 for ‘propagandising to destroy the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’, was released from prison on 6 March. She is not yet free, however – she will spend the next three years under house arrest in Hanoi. In a radio interview with Voice of America soon after her release, the 31-year-old lawyer said she had no intention of giving up her struggle for greater democracy in Vietnam – even, she said, if there was a further price to pay. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Young Christian Woman Allegedly Abducted
A Muslim tricked a 19-year-old Christian woman into leaving her house on 1 April, and he and a car full of friends took her away, according to her family. Sonia Mohan’s family said they fear the Muslim, Ali Raza, will force her to convert to Islam and marry him. [more...]
ERITREA: Seventeen Christian Soldiers at Prayer Arrested En Masse
Military officials arrested 17 young soldiers as they met for prayer and fellowship in the town of Segenaite in the south of Eritrea. The young men, believed to come from several different churches, were rounded up on 27 March and taken to Segenaite police station. The 17 are believed to be in the middle of their compulsory national service. Assist News Service reports that this brings to 28 the number of Christians arrested in Eritrea since the beginning of March. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: "Struggle against Religious Extremism Must Be Carried Out On All Fronts"
Kazakhstan has left threats to deport Viktor Leven "hanging in the air". The now-stateless Baptist, who is Kazakh-born, was convicted of missionary activity without state permission, and because he and his wife do not have passports they cannot either obtain paid work or travel by train. He and his family live on what they can grow themselves. [more...]
PAKISTAN: False Charges Filed against 47 Christians
Police have filed false charges of alcohol possession against 47 Christians, including women and children, on 28 March in an attempt to intimidate and bribe them, Christian leaders said. Police broke into and ransacked the home of Shaukat Masih at 10:15 pm on Palm Sunday, manhandled his wife Parveen Bibi, and threatened to charge them and 45 other area Christians with alcohol possession if they did not pay a bribe, said attorney Albert Patras. The Christians refused. Those charged include two children and eight women. None of the Christians has been arrested, as police are interested only in extorting money from them, Patras said. [more...]
Lambs Among Wolves
Albert Francisco tugged on the small hand of Mial Rose. The 9-year-old struggled to keep up with her older cousin as they made their way down the jungle paths in the Philippine mountains. It was early Sunday morning on 3 May 2009 and the two were on their way to the banana plantation where Albert worked so he could collect his pay. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Woman Jailed under ‘Blasphemy’ Laws
Police in Alipur have arrested a Christian woman on a baseless accusation of “blaspheming” the prophet of Islam. Rubina Bibi of Alipur, wife of Amjad Masih, is accused of making a derogatory remark about the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The charge comes under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which have gained international notoriety for their misuse by Muslims to settle personal grudges. [more...]
CHINA: Gao Zhisheng Confirmed 'Alive!' Thanks to International Support
Sunday, 28 March missing human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng spoke to his wife and children for the first time in over a year - confirming he is still alive! False rumours of his death, torture, and escape from the custody of the Chinese Government have shrouded Gao's absence with mystery for over a year. Gao's brief phone conversations with western media mark the first official contact the public has had with him since his abduction by police on 4 February, 2009. [more...]
EGYPT: Muslim mob attacks Christians in Egypt
A mob of approximately 2,000 Muslims attacked Christians gathered for prayer in a Coptic church in the north-western city of Marsa Matrouh on 12 March. Muslims hurled stones at the building before entering and assaulting several of the over 400 believers trapped inside. Twenty-five people were reportedly seriously injured. The Muslims also burned and destroyed houses, shops and cars. At last report, approximately 28 Christians had lost their homes. The violence was allegedly sparked by local Christians building a wall around a plot of land belonging to the church. Source: VOM Canada [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Accused of Rape Allegedly Attack Sisters
Five Muslims allegedly ransacked the house of an impoverished Christian in this capital city of Punjab Province last month and angrily beat his daughters in an effort to get the family to withdraw rape charges. Muhammad Sajjid wielding a pistol, Muhammad Sharif brandishing a dagger and Muhammad Wajjad and two unidentified accomplices carrying bamboo clubs arrived at the Lahore home of Piyara Masih the afternoon of 26 February, Christian leaders said. The Muslims allegedly ransacked the house and began thrashing his two daughters, a 15-year-old and her 21-year-old sister, Muniran Bibi, according to attorney Azra Shujaat, head of Global Evangelical Ministries, and Khalid Gill, president of the Christian Liberation Front. Muniran said Sharif stabbed her four times with the dagger. “They ripped apart my clothes, as well as my sister’s,” she said. “In the meantime, Muhammad Sajjid kept firing into the air to terrorise us.” [more...]
INDIA: Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka
Minority Christians in southern Karnataka state are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court. The spate began on 14 September 2008, when at least 12 churches were attacked in one day in Karnataka’s Mangalore city, in Dakshina Kannada district, said Justice Michael Saldanha, former judge of the Karnataka High Court. [more...]
RUSSIA: Lutheran Extremists?
After initially denying it, Officer Senichev (who refused to give his first name) of the 1st department of Kaluga Police in central Russia admitted to Forum 18 News Service that eleven armed officers with dogs had interrupted the 28 February Sunday morning service of St George's Lutheran congregation. "We had a call on the hotline that extremist literature was there. We're obliged by law to investigate all such calls." He was unable to specify which Russian law requires the police to respond to anonymous calls. Senichev was also unable to say why, if extremist literature was believed to be present, police officers conducting a search needed to be armed and accompanied by dogs. Nor was he able to explain why the search was conducted during the church's Sunday worship service. Source: Forum 18 News Service [more...]
LAOS: Officials Visit Expelled Christians, Give Assurances
Officials in Laos’ Saravan Province last week visited 48 Christians expelled from Katin village and assured them that they had the legal right to embrace the faith of their choice, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom. The delegation, led by provincial Gov Khamboon Duangpanya, read out June 2002’s Decree 92 on the Management and Protections of Religious Activity in Laos and explained its religious freedom provisions to the group, assuring them that they could freely believe in Christianity “if their faith was genuine.” They also said they had the right to live anywhere in the district. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Murder Christian with Axe Blows
Six Muslims in Khanewal district, southern Punjab Province, killed a Christian with multiple axe blows for refusing to convert to Islam this month, according to family and police sources. The six men had threatened to kill 36-year-old Rasheed Masih unless he converted to Islam when they grew resentful of his potato business succeeding beyond their own, according to Masih’s younger brother Munir Asi and a local clergyman. The rival merchants allegedly killed him after luring him to their farmhouse on 9 March, leaving him on a roadside near Kothi Nand Singh village in the wee hours of the next day. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamic Extremists Kill Church Leader, Torch Home
Islamic militants in Somalia tracked down an underground church leader who had previously escaped a kidnapping attempt and killed him, Christian sources said. Islamic extremist al Shabaab rebels shot Madobe Abdi to death on 15 March at 9:30 am in Mahaday village, 50 kilometres north of Johwar. He had escaped an al Shabaab attempt to kidnap him on 2 March Abdi’s death adds to a growing number of Christians murdered by Islamic militants, but his was distinctive in that he was not a convert from Islam. An orphan, Abdi was raised as a Christian. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Allegedly Burn a Christian Man to Death
International Christian Concern (ICC) says it has learned that a Christian man, Arshed Masih, died after Muslims allegedly burned him alive for refusing to recant his faith. Additionally, a Muslim policeman is accused of raping Masih’s wife. [more...]
INDIA: Training Centre Attacked
A large mob of around 40 anti-Christian Hindu militants rampaged through a training centre for pastors, in the North Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Sunday. Prebhu, a leader at the centre, was punched and kicked as he screamed for mercy. Many students were brutally beaten and seriously injured. While they were being tortured, the gang interrogated them about the leadership at the centre. Students refused to reveal any names or addresses, so the mob furiously burned down all of the valuable teaching tools, literature and Bibles in the centre - everything was destroyed. [more...]
NIGERIA: Second Wave of Attacks Near Jos Leaves 13 Christians Dead
Less than two weeks after a massive attack in Nigeria that killed 500 Christians, Muslim Fulani herdsmen unleashed more horrific violence on two Christian villages in Plateau state, killing 13 persons, including a pregnant woman and children. In attacks presumably over disputed property but with a level of violence characteristic of jihadist method and motive, men in military camouflage and others in customary clothing also burned 20 houses in Byei and Baten villages, in the Riyom Local Government Area of the state, about 45 kilometre from the state capital, Jos. [more...]
MOROCCO: Large-Scale Expulsion of Foreign Christians Begins
Moroccan authorities deported more than 40 foreign Christian aid workers this week in an ongoing, nationwide crackdown that included the expulsion of foster parents caring for 33 Moroccan orphans with Moroccan authorities expressing their intention to deport specifically US nationals. Sources in Morocco told Compass that the government gave the US Embassy in Rabat a list of 40 citizens to be deported. Citing Western diplomats and aid groups, Reuters reported that as many as 70 foreign aid workers had been deported since the beginning of the month, including US, Dutch, British and New Zealand citizens. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Ten Year Sentence for "Honest Christian"
Uzbekistan has sentenced a Baptist to 10 years jail on drugs charges, which his fellow Baptists insist are fabricated. Seven weeks after his arrest, Tohar Haydarov was sentenced in Guliston on 9 March for "illegal sale of narcotic or psychotropic substances in large quantities". Fellow Baptists insist that this is to punish him for his religious activity. It is unclear why Haydarov has been given such a harsh sentence. [more...]
LAOS: Officials Threaten to Burn Shelters of Expelled Christians
Officials in southern Laos plan to burn temporary shelters built by expelled Christians unless they recant their faith, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). Authorities including a religious affairs official, the district head, district police and the chief of Katin village in Ta-Oyl district, Saravan province, expelled the 48 Christians at gunpoint on 18 January. Left to survive in the open, the Christians began to build temporary shelters, and then more permanent homes, on the edge of the jungle, according to HRWLRF. [more...]
CHINA: Guangzhou Police Kidnap Pastor Wang Dao
For more than two years, the Guangzhou police have harassed the house church believers of Liangren Church for their faith. In the boldest strike since last September, a mixed band of plain-clothed and uniformed PSB officers barged into the local restaurant at 3:20 pm on 4 March, where Liangren Church Head Pastor Wang Dao was meeting with twelve brothers and sisters for a meal. According to eye-witnesses in the restaurant, the policemen threw Pastor Wang violently to the ground, without showing their ID badges or any official documentation. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian sentenced to life in prison under Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws
Qamar David, a Pakistani Christian who was on trial for alleged blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, was sentenced last Thursday to life imprisonment. The verdict has been described as “biased and prejudiced” by a source close to Qamar.
Qamar and his lawyer, Parvez Choudhry received death threats leading up to the trial. They plan to appeal the decision. Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide [more...]
NIGERIA: Hundreds killed in Explosive Situation in Jos
Around 2:30am on Sunday 7 March 2010, hoards of armed, mostly Fulani
Muslims slipped in and massacred some 500 mainly Christian ethnic Berom residents in three villages on the southern outskirts of Jos, the capital of Nigeria's volatile Plateau State. Whole families were ambushed, shot and hacked to death as they fled their burning homes. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamic Gunmen Kill Christian Aid Workers
Suspected Islamic militants armed with guns and grenades stormed the offices of a Christian relief and development organisation in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing six aid workers and wounding seven others. The gunmen besieged the offices of international humanitarian organisation World Vision near Oghi, in Mansehra district, of the North West Frontier Province. [more...]
MEXICO: Christians under attack in Chiapas
There were several attacks on believers in Chiapas, Mexico in recent months. Evangelicals in the state face frequent threats and attacks by rebel groups and traditionalist religious groups. In one incident, a Christian community in the state was attacked by a group of 70 armed rebel sympathisers. Nearly 30 people were injured, including women and children. Seven Christians were kidnapped and one was shot in the back and left for dead. [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Brutally Beaten While Conducting a Prayer Meeting
An Indian pastor was brutally attacked by a group of Hindu radicals on Monday, 8 March at Mysore in Karnataka State. According to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the incident took place at around 11:30 am as Pastor Ravi Chandran (30) was conducting a prayer meeting at a nearby believer’s house. The source said that a group of about 10-15 Hindu radicals forcefully entered the house and began to abuse the pastor and the believers gathered there. The report said that they hit the pastor with glass bottles, as well as kicking and punching him mercilessly, after which they disappeared from the venue. [more...]
IRAQ: Endless Terror in Nineveh
Iraq's indigenous Assyrian and Chaldean Christians are being killed or else driven from their homeland. Five Christians were assassinated in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, Northern Iraq, in the week 14- 20 February. On Sunday 14 February Chaldean Rayan Salem Elias was killed by armed militants outside his own home. On Monday Fatukhi Munir was killed outside his shop by drive-by shooters. On Tuesday militants shot two Assyrian Christian university students, killing Zia Toma (21) and wounding Ramsin Shmael (22). On Wednesday militants kidnapped and then killed Assyrian Christian student Wissam George (20). On Saturday police found the body of Syrian Orthodox Adnan al-Dahan (57) who had been kidnapped for ransom a week earlier. Please pray for our traumatised, threatened fellow-believers in Iraq. Source: Australian Evangelical Alliance [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Persecution Intensifies
The Uzbekistan government's primary goal is the status quo: peace and regime stability at any cost. Jihadist and revolutionary Islamic groups pose a serious threat to national security. To address this threat, the government represses all 'non-traditional' (new) and 'foreign' religious groups, a policy that ensures Protestant Christians get caught up in the same net as prospective Islamic terrorists. As both the Russian Orthodox and Muslim populations are hostile to Protestants, the government can maintain peace and score points by targeting Protestants. Repression, harassment, intimidation and persecution are escalating. In scenes reminiscent of the mid-late 1990s, foreign missionaries are being deported, fellowships are being raided and worshippers are being beaten. Several Baptist pastors and leaders have recently been charged with criminal offences such as drug possession and tax evasion. Please pray for the Church in Uzbekistan.
Source: Australian Evangelical Alliance [more...]
IRAN: Senior Church Leader Arrested
The well-respected leader of a church in Iran has been arrested and held at an undisclosed location. The Rev Wilson Issavi, the leader of a church in Karmanshah, was arrested on 2 February while visiting friends. Security forces entered the home of Issavi's friend and took him away, along with the host couple and another visitor. Friends and family have found it virtually impossible to discover the whereabouts of the church leader or his state of health.
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INDONESIA: Muslim Groups Demand Closure of Large, Legal Church
Hundreds of Muslims from outside the area where a 600-member church meets in West Java staged a protest there to call for its closure this month in an attempt to portray local opposition. Demonstrators from 16 Islamic organisations, including the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), gathered on 15 February to demand a stop to all activities by the Galilea Protestant Church (GPIB) in the Galaxy area of Bekasi City. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Arrested after Muslim Attack
In the wake of an attack this week by 150 armed Muslims on a Christian colony in this city in Sindh Province, police have filed a false First Information Report (FIR) against 40 unnamed Christians and arrested five, Christian leaders said. They said the 40 unnamed Christians in the FIR are accused without basis with beating Muslim men, abusing Muslim women and girls, ransacking Muslim homes and looting expensive items from Muslim homes. [more...]
A Bible for the Imam’s Daughter
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Voice of the Martyrs breaks the law by smuggling Bibles because the Bible contains the words of eternal life and we have seen its life-changing impact firsthand.
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PAKISTAN: Christian Beaten for Refusing to Convert to Islam
The four older Muslim brothers of a 26-year-old Christian beat him unconscious earlier this month because he refused their enticements to convert to Islam, the victim told Compass. Riaz Masih, whose Christian parents died when he was a boy, said his continual refusal to convert infuriated his siblings and the Muslim cleric who raised them, Moulvi Peer Akram-Ullah. On 8 February, he said, his brothers ransacked his house in this Punjab Province town 233 kilometres southwest of Islamabad. “They threatened that it was the breaking point now, and that I must convert right now or face death,” Masih said. “They said killing an infidel is not a sin, instead it’s righteousness in the sight of Allah almighty.” [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Authorities Concoct New Charge against Christian
Prosecutors and police are trying to concoct a terrorism case against an Ethiopian convert from Islam who has been jailed since May without formal charges, Christian leaders said. Bashir Musa Ahmed, a 39-year-old Ethiopian national, was arrested on 23 May when police found him in possession of eight Bibles in Jijiga, capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Region Zone Five, a predominantly Muslim area in eastern Ethiopia. Zonal police arrested him after he was accused of providing Muslims with the Somali-language Bibles, sources said, though Ethiopia’s constitution protects such activity. [more...]
IRAQ: Four Christians murdered in Mosul
The Christian community in Mosul, Iraq was targeted in recent days in brutal attacks that some believe are motivated by the upcoming 7 March parliamentary elections. On 13 February, Sabah al Dahhan was kidnapped by a gang that has since demanded a large sum of money for his release. The next day, Rayan Bashir Salem was shot and killed in his home by armed assailants. Rayan's brother was also wounded in the attack. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Threats Heighten as Christian Faces Verdict on Thursday
Qamar David, a 50-year-old Christian, is on trial under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, and the verdict is expected on Thursday. He has been held in the Central Jail in Karachi since 2006, where previously he has reportedly been threatened and beaten by the prison officials as well as other prisoners. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Baptists Forced to Pay Massive Fines, "Taxes" and Removed From Posts
Uzbekistan continues to attack the country's registered Baptist Union, local Baptists have reported. One Baptist, Valery Konovalov, has been forced to pay a fine imposed in his absence, after he was forced to appear as a witness in the trial of three leaders of the Baptist Union. The three have themselves been forced to pay what the same court claimed was unpaid tax and two were removed from their posts. [more...]
BHUTAN: Anti-Christian Sentiment Marks Journey for Exiles
Thrust from their homes in Bhutan after Buddhist rulers embarked on an ethnic and religious purge, Christian refugees in Nepal face hostilities from Hindus and others. In Sunsari district in south-eastern Nepal, a country that is more than 80 percent Hindu, residents from the uneducated segments of society are especially apt to attack Christians, said Purna Kumal, district coordinator for Awana Clubs International, which runs 41 clubs in refugee camps to educate girls about the Bible. [more...]
KENYA: Push for Islamic Courts Alarms Christians
A constitutional battle to expand the scope of Islamic courts in Kenya threatens to ignite religious tensions at a time when authorities are on high alert against Muslim extremists with ties to Somalia. Constitutional provisions for Islamic or Kadhis’ courts have existed in Kenya since 1963, with their jurisdiction limited to the coastal province, but in a hotly debated draft constitution they would expand across the nation and their scope would increase. The proposed constitution has gathered enough momentum that 23 leaders of churches and Christian organisations released a statement on 1 February asserting their opposition to any inclusion of such religious courts. [more...]
TURKEY: Baseless Case against Christians Further Prolonged
Barely five minutes into the latest hearing of a more than three-year-old case against two Christians accused of “insulting Turkishness and Islam,” the session was over. The prosecution had failed to produce their three final witnesses to testify against Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal for alleged crimes committed under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. [more...]
EGYPT: Another Copt Killed as Alleged Shooters Plead Not Guilty
Three men accused of killing six Coptic worshipers and a security guard pleaded not guilty on Saturday 13 February as the Coptic community mourned the loss of yet another victim of apparent anti-Christian violence. The three men allegedly sprayed a crowd with gunfire after a Christmas service in Nag Hammadi on 6 January. On the evening of 9 February, Malak Saad, a 25-year-old Coptic carpenter living in Teta in Menoufia Province, was walking outside a meeting hall that police had seized from Christians when he was shot through his chest at close range. He died instantly. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: Government Proposes Retaining Punishments for Exercising Religious Freedom
Kazakhstan's proposed new Administrative Code continues current penalties for exercising freedom of religion or belief. The state-approved version being considered by Parliament continues existing fines and bans punishing individuals and religious communities operating without state-granted legal status or who conduct unregistered "missionary activity". [more...]
TURKEY: Assailant in Street Attack Ordered Released
An Istanbul court has ordered the release of a jailed Turk who publicly threatened and held a knife to the throat of a Christian he attacked six months ago. In a ruling on Wednesday 10 February, the Kadikoy Seventh Court of First Instance convicted Yasin Karasu, 24, of making death threats and mounting an armed attack against Ismail Aydin. Shouting to attract passers-by as he held a knife to Aydin's throat on 3 August, Karasu had denounced the Christian as a 'missionary dog' who had betrayed Turkey by leaving Islam and evangelising others. [more...]
MOROCCO: Authorities Raid Bible Study, Arrest Christians
A large, military-led team of Moroccan authorities raided a Bible study in a small city southeast of Marrakech last week, arresting 18 Moroccans and deporting a US citizen, area Christian leaders said. Approximately 60 officers from the Moroccan security services on Thursday afternoon, 4 February raided the home of a Christian in Amizmiz, a picturesque city of 10,000 mainly Berber people 56 kilometres southeast of Marrakech. [more...]
LAOS: Officials Force Christians from Worship at Gunpoint
About 100 local officials, police and villagers put guns to the heads of Christians during their Sunday morning service in a village in Laos last month, forcing them from their worship and homes, according to an advocacy organisation. Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported that in Katin village of Ta-Oyl district, Saravan Province, Lao authorities including the village chief, a religious affairs’ official, three district police and a 15-man volunteer unit joined 15 village police officers to force all 48 Christian adults and children of the church to an open field. [more...]
TURKEY: European Court Rules against Religion ID
A European court on Tuesday 2 February ordered Turkey to remove the religious affiliation section from citizens’ identification cards, calling the practise a violation of human rights. Religious minorities and in particular Christian converts in Turkey have faced discrimination because of the mandatory religion declaration on their identification cards, which was enforced until 2006. Since then, citizens are allowed to leave the “Religion” section of their IDs blank. [more...]
INDIA: Attacks on Christians Karnataka Frequent, Furious
Karnataka state recorded the highest number of anti-Christian attacks in India last year, and it is keeping pace this year. Christians in Karnataka are being attacked “at rapid regularity” and “with near impunity,” and it is “a serious matter of concern for the Christian community,” said Dr Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. Much of the violence occurs under the vigilante pretext of rounding up Christians supposedly involved in “forcible” or “fraudulent” conversion efforts. On Monday 1 February in Thagadur village, Kodagu district, Hindu extremists dragged 11 Christians – including four women – from their homes and colluded with police to arrest them on such false charges. [more...]
INDONESIA: Two Churches Forced to Close
Local governments have ordered the closure of two churches on Indonesia’s Java Island. Under pressure from Islamist groups, authorities ordered Christian Baptist Church in Sepatan, Tangerang district, Banten Province to cease services. In Pondok Timur, near Bekasi in West Java, officials abruptly closed the Huria Christian Protestant Batak Church (HKBP) after delaying a building permit for four years. Tangerang district authorities issued a decree on 21 January ordering all worship activities to cease at the Baptist church. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Drugs Planted and Worshippers Beaten Up?
Uzbekistan continues to punish people for unregistered religious worship. Tohar Haydarov, a Baptist, has been arrested and faces criminal charges of producing or storing drugs, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. Haydarov's fellow believers insist that the case has been fabricated, one stating that "police planted a matchbox with drugs." They also state that Haydarov "was beaten and forced by the police to sign different papers. His face looked exhausted and swollen, and he could hardly walk. He did not even remember what was written in those papers." The authorities claim these are "lies". [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: Women's Prayers Lead to Massive Fine
Kazakhstan has fined Zhanna-Tereza Raudovich 100 times the minimum monthly wage for hosting a Sunday morning worship service in her home, attended by local Baptist women and their children. Police who raided Raudovich's home drew up an official record that "they had discovered an illegally functioning religious community", local Baptists complained to Forum 18. An appeal is due to be heard on 11 February. It remains unclear how Raudovich could pay the fine, as she has six children and does not have paid work. She has been warned that she will face criminal charges if she does not pay the fine. [more...]
CUBA: Pastors under Fire
Pastor Omar Gude Perez, a Cuban pastor who was sentenced to six years in prison on false accusations of illicit economic activity, falsification of documents and human trafficking in 2009, has been denied the right to appeal by the Supreme Tribunal in Havana. Pastor Omar's wife stated that the court's decision confirmed her belief that his arrest and imprisonment was orchestrated at the highest levels of government. [more...]
ERITREA: Christian Dies in Eritrean Detention Centre
On 24 January, Hana Hagos Asgedom (41), a member of Asabe Rhema Church, died of a heart attack at Eritrea's Alla Military Camp. Hana, who had been detained at Wi'a Military Camp for three years following her arrest in 2007, was moved to the Alla Military Camp when the Wi'a camp was dismantled seven months ago. On arrival at the new camp, Hana was offered a final opportunity to renounce her faith. When she refused, she was placed in solitary confinement. Shortly before her death, she reportedly endured beatings with an iron rod for refusing to "make the chief commander in the camp a cup of coffee" -- an order local Christians believe was in reality a sexual advance. She was then returned to her cell where she endured further punishment and eventually passed away. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Violent Death of Girl in Pakistan Spurs Push for Justice
A daring protest and a high-profile funeral here on Monday 25 January for a 12-year-old Christian girl who died from torture and malnourishment has cast a rare spotlight on abuse of the Christian poor in Pakistan. In an uncommon challenge in the predominantly Muslim nation, the Christian parents of Shazia Bashir Masih protested the unresponsiveness of police to the alleged violence against their daughter by Muslim attorney Chaudhary Muhammad Naeem and his family and his attempt to buy their silence after her death. [more...]
IRAN: Christians Detained without Legal Counsel
At least 14 Christians have been detained in Iranian prisons for weeks without legal counsel in the past few months as last year’s crackdown has continued, sources said. Three Christians remained in detention at Evin prison after authorities arrested them along with 12 others who had gathered for Christmas celebrations on 24 December in a home 20 kilometres southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran, according to a source who requested anonymity. While the others were released on 4 January, remaining at Evin prison were Maryam Jalili, Mitra Zahmati and Farzan Matin, according to the source. [more...]
BHUTAN: Why Royalists Fear Christianity
Bars, pubs and discos have become legal in Bhutan – a cause of concern for the older generation – but construction of worship buildings other than Buddhist or Hindu temples is still prohibited. The prohibition remains in force even though Christians abide by Bhutan’s codes of conduct, speaking the Dzongkha language as well as the Nepali language at church gatherings, and wearing the national dress. The National Assembly of Bhutan banned the practise of non-Buddhist and non-Hindu religions through edicts in 1969 and in 1979. But Christians do meet for Sunday worship, with attendance of more than 100 Christians in an underground church not unusual. [more...]
TANZANIA: Arrested Evangelists Say Muslims Colluded with Police
Two Christian evangelists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, have been arrested after Muslims invited them to debate religion but instead called in security agents who charged the evangelists with illegal preaching. Anglicans Eleutery Kobelo and Cecil Simbaulanga, released on bail and facing a hearing on 11 February, told Compass that Christian and Muslim groups organised the inter-faith debate that was planned for a neutral venue in October of last year in the Kariakoo area of Dar es Salaam. Kobelo said no Muslims showed up at the debate until Islamists arrived with government security agents who charged them with “using religious sermons to incite Muslims and Christians into viewing each other with suspicion.” [more...]
TURKMENISTAN: Worship without State Registration "Illegal"
Turkmenistan continues to raid Protestants meeting for worship in different parts of the country. One such raid was led by Turkmenistan's former Chief Mufti, Rovshen Allaberdiev, who is now imam of Dashoguz Region as well as being the senior regional Gengeshi (Council) for Religious Affairs official. Allaberdiev and accompanying officials confiscated Christian books during the raid, including personal Bibles. All 22 people present were taken to a local government building, questioned and pressured to sign statements not to attend the church in future. [more...]
INDONESIA: Two Partially Constructed Church Buildings Burned
Suspected Islamic extremists burned two church buildings under construction in a village in North Sumatra on 22 January. The attackers came from outside the area to burn the partially constructed buildings of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church (HKBP) and the Pentecostal Church in Sibuhuan village, Padang Lawas Residency, during daylight hours, said the Rev S Lubis of the HKBP church. “Hundreds of people arrived on motorcycles and burned the empty church,” he said. “After that, the mob moved 200 metres down the road and burned the empty Pentecostal church.” No people were hurt in the fires. [more...]
INDONESIA: Imprisoned Christian Teacher Released
After serving one year in gaol, Wilhelmina Holle, 49, regained her freedom on 10 December 2009. “When I was going out, all I did was cry and thank God for my release,” she said. Holle, a Christian elementary school teacher, was falsely accused of defaming Islam while giving private lessons to her students on 10 November 2008. [more...]
I WILL DIE FOR CHRIST
“Lord, if you truly exist, please heal me. I offer my life to you and will serve you,” Trung prayed one night as he knelt in his room. The message he had heard in church that day about Jesus healing miraculously turned over in his mind, giving him a glimmer of hope. In 1985 Trung was conscripted into the Vietnamese army and sent to Cambodia for two years. He caught malaria and became extremely ill, but medicine seemed to have no effect and he was eventually sent home. Trung’s health continued to deteriorate and he thought he would soon die. One day, childhood memories of hearing about Jesus resurfaced and Trung felt compelled to find a church.
After he prayed for healing, Trung lay down and went to sleep. At about midnight, Trung heard the Lord call his name. He was startled and as he sat up in bed, he felt God’s peace come over him. “It seemed to bring healing and in the morning I felt well,” Trung said. “The Lord had answered my prayer and I have remained malaria-free to this day.” [more...]
NIGERIA: Death Toll of Christians in Jos Clash Hits 48
Two pastors and 46 other Christians have been confirmed killed in the outbreak of violence 10 days ago in Jos, Plateau state in Nigeria, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). In the Muslim/Christian clash, triggered when Muslim youths on 17 January attacked a Catholic church, 10 church buildings were burned and 27 Christians are still missing, CAN officials said at a press conference in Jos today. [more...]
BHUTAN: Despite Democracy, Christians Remain Underground
In this distant and isolated nation in the eastern Himalayas, known as the “Land of the Thunder Dragon,” almost everything looks uniformly Buddhist. There are no visible signs of Christians’ tiny presence, but they do exist. Christians, whose only official identity falls in the “others” category in the census, are estimated to range in number between 3,000 and 6,000. They live out their Christian lives underground – no church buildings, Christian cemeteries or Christian bookstores are yet allowed. [more...]
BURNMA: Karen Refugees Hunted and Slain In Burma
The Karen people in Burma, half of whom are reported to be believers, are constantly harassed by Buddhist and Burmese armies. In Karen refugee camps, horrific stories of persecution are told coupled with reports of steadfast faith. The Burmese army captures Karen men and boys, forcing them to become slaves and porters. Karen women are raped and burned to death. Despite traumatic attacks and persecution, the Karen persevere in God. Orphans wake up at 4 am to have devotions for two hours. They also have nightly worship. [more...]
ALGERIA: Church Continues in Spite of Burnt Building
Members of a church in Algeria’s Kabylie region gathered to worship last Saturday 16 January in their new building despite a protest, vandalism and a fire that damaged the building the previous weekend. Local Muslims bent on running the congregation out of the neighbourhood set fires inside and outside the building on 9 January. Before setting it on fire, the assailants ransacked the Tafat Church building in Tizi Ouzou, a city 100 kilometres east of Algiers. [more...]
NIGERIA: Anglican Archbishop Kidnapped
Gunmen are still holding the Anglican archbishop of Benin diocese in southern Nigeria’s Edo state after abducting him on Sunday 24 January. Peter Imasuen, who is also the state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, was abducted in front of his official residence on his way back from a church service. The kidnappers are reportedly demanding $750,000 for his release. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamic Militants Murder Christian Leader
Islamic extremists shot the leader of an underground church to death outside the capital city of Somalia this month and have threatened to kill his wife, his tearful widow told Compass. Having learned that he had left Islam to become a Christian, Somali militants from the Islamic extremist al Shabaab murdered 41-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Ali at about noon on 1 January, Amina Ibrahim Hassan said. He was killed sometime after leaving his home in Hodan, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, she said. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Sentenced to Life in Prison For Blasphemy
A 26-year-old Christian who was beaten by Muslims for allegedly burning verses from the Koran and another Arabic book in July 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison. On 11 January, the judge handed down the sentence to Imran Masih under Article 295-B, commonly known as the blasphemy law, claiming he burned the materials to deliberately "stir up religious hatred and offend the feelings of Muslims." Imran has also been sentenced to an additional 10 years in detention and fined 100,000 rupees ($A1,300) under section 295-A of the Penal Code. Source: VOM Canada [more...]
VIETNAM: Update on Father Nguyen Van Ly
On 12 December, Father Nguyen Van Ly, who had suffered a severe stroke on 14 November, was sent back to prison after several weeks of treatment in a hospital. Father Van Ly's sister said, "His situation is a bit better now, but his life is not normal yet. We don't know why they decided to transfer him back to prison, as he still needs help." At last report, he is partially paralysed and is able to walk only a few steps with a walking stick. Please pray for Father Van Ly. Also pray for his persecutors. Source: VOM USA [more...]
CHINA: Update on Gao Zhisheng
Since mid-December, 2009, ominous rumours have circulated about Gao Zhisheng, hinting that he has died after brutal torture in prison. However, no reports have been confirmed.
Gege, Gao's daughter, had been reportedly "pale and tired-looking" with worry for months. After hearing a rumour of Gao's death just before Christmas, Gege became so emotionally distraught, she was forced to be hospitalised. She remains fragile and under medical watch in a New York hospital. Last week, after searching out the policeman who originally detained Gao Zhisheng back in February, 2009, Gao's brother Zhiyi was told that Attorney Gao allegedly "went missing while out on a walk" on 25 September, 2009. Gao's wife refused to comment, but was reported to be extremely upset after hearing the news. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Christians Critically Wounded at Wedding
Two Pakistani Christians who were shot at a wedding on 26 December for refusing to convert to Islam are still receiving treatment at a hospital intensive care unit, but doctors are hopeful that they will recover. In low, barely audible voices, Imran Masih, 21, and Khushi Masih, 24, told Compass that two Muslims armed with AK-47s in Punjab Province’s Chak (village) 297-JB, in Toba Tek Singh district, shot them in their chests after they refused orders to recite the Islamic creed signifying conversion. [more...]
VIETNAM: Forced Recantations of Faith Continue in Vietnam
A Vietnamese man violently forced to recant his fledgling Christian faith faces pressure from authorities and clansmen to prove his return to traditional Hmong belief by sacrificing to ancestors next month. Sung Cua Po, who embraced Christianity in November, received some 70 blows to his head and back after local officials in northwest Vietnam’s Dien Bien Province arrested him on 1 December 2009, according to documents obtained by Compass. His wife, Hang thi Va, was also beaten. [more...]
NIGERIA: Christians in Jos, Fear Further Attacks
Gunshots and smoke continued to alarm residents of Jos in central Nigeria, with the Christian community fearing further violence from Muslim youths who on Sunday 17 January attacked a Catholic church and burned down several other church buildings. [more...]
IRAQ: Elderly Christian man killed in Mosul
A 75-year-old Christian was shot and killed in Mosul, Iraq on 11 January. Hikmat Sleiman had just returned home from closing his grocery shop when a group of assailants opened fire, killing him instantly. Local Christians see his murder and the string of other attacks against believers in recent months.
Source: VOM Canada [more...]
YEMEN: Negotiations Begin for Release of Christian Hostages
Authorities in Yemen have reportedly started negotiations for the release of six Christian hostages -- a family of five from Germany and a British engineer -- who were kidnapped along with three other women in June. The bodies of the women, Rita Stumpp (26), Anita Gruenwald (24) and Eom Young-sun (33), were found shortly after the kidnapping. Until recently, however, the state of Johannes (37), his wife Sabine (37) and their children, Lydia (5), Anna (3) and Simon (1), as well as Anthony was unknown. The kidnappers have demanded a ransom of $2 million USD as well as immunity, free passage and a guarantee that they will not be handed over to neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Source: VOM Canada
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EGYPT: Coptic Christians Gunned Down after Christmas Service
In spite of threats of violence from Muslims in an area of Egypt wracked by sectarian violence, police declined to increase security for a Coptic Christmas Eve service on 6 January, and six Christians were shot to death after leaving the church. Three men suspected to be Muslims, including one with a criminal record sought by police, were in a moving car from which automatic gunfire hit Coptic Christians who had attended services at St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi, 455 kilometres south of Cairo. [more...]
CHINA: Korla Police and Farm Leaders Burn Bibles and Persecute Elderly Christians
On 25 December, Puhui Farm leaders and policemen arrested several elderly and ailing Christians in Korla City, Xinjiang. Like many around the world, members of Corps house church were celebrating Christmas Day. In the middle of the celebration, a band of farmers and Security policemen disrupted the gathering of believers during their fellowship celebration. The Chief of Security, Yu Fagan, seized Wang Qiuyue, a 71-year-old widow, who had been a known Christian for over 45 years. Yu Fagan threw her roughly against a police car, like a rejected sack of garbage. The group wore hats of bearing the title "People's Police." They proceeded to dismantle and burn elderly Sister Wang's furniture before her eyes. [more...]
MALDIVES: Legislators Seek to Increase Pressure on Non-Muslims
The People’s Majlis (Parliament) of the Maldives have been debating a bill to ban non-Muslim places of worship. According to Maldivian sources the bill, proposed by Ibrahim Muttalib MP, would make it illegal to build non-Muslim places of worship or to practise non-Muslim faiths in public, although foreigners would be allowed to worship in the privacy of their homes. Punishment would be a gaol term of three to five years or a fine of between $A3000 and $A5000. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Child Beaten for Claiming to Be a Christian
Christians in Pakistan have reported the ordeal of an 11-year-old Christian school girl in the town of Dharema, Punjab province, in October 2009. Nadia Iftikhar was beaten unconscious by the Muslim teacher at her evening coaching school “Bright Future Academy” after she said she was both a Pakistani and a Christian. [more...]
CHINA: 30 Chinese House Church Alliance Leaders Detained, Facing Administrative Detention
Thirty leaders of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA) were detained in Handan city, Hebei province on 8 January. According to one detained pastor, who was able to use his mobile phone briefly to notify an outside contact. A group of officers from the Handan City Public Security and Religious Affairs Bureaus broke into their leaders' meeting place where the 30 men and women were having a Bible study, and forcefully took them to an unknown interrogation centre within the city. [more...]
MALAYSIA: Church Buildings Attacked in Malaysia Following Court Decision
In unprecedented acts that stunned Christians in Malaysia, suspected Islamists have attacked eight church buildings since the country’s High Court ruled that a Catholic weekly could use the word “Allah.” Firebombs were thrown into the compounds of four churches in Kuala Lumpur and neighboring Petaling Jaya on Friday 8 January; three more attacks occurred on Sunday 10 January in Taiping, Melaka and Miri; and another church building was hit today in Seremban. There were no reports of injuries. [more...]
IRAN: Arrests, Coerces Christians over Christmas Season
A wave of arrests hit Iranian house churches during the Christmas season, leaving at least five Christian converts in detention across northern Iran, including the mother of an ailing 10-year-old girl. Security officers with an arrest warrant from the Mashhad Revolutionary Court entered the home of Christian Hamideh Najafi in Mashhad on 26 December and took her to an undisclosed location, according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN). [more...]
INDIA: Christians Faced Three Attacks per Week in 2009
After unprecedented large-scale attacks on Christians in the previous two years, 2009 brought hardly any respite as the minority faith faced an average of more than three violent attacks a week. There were at least 152 attacks on Christians in 2009, according to the “Partial List of Major Incidents of Anti-Christian Violence in India” released by the Evangelical Fellowship of India. The north-central states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Orissa in the east, Gujarat in the west and Himachal Pradesh in the north have anti-conversion laws, which Hindu hardliners routinely use to arrest Christians on spurious accusations of “forcible conversion.” [more...]
PAKISTAN: Delivered from Slavery
Shafia, now 20, grew up in a Christian family and was baptised in 2002. Her father died when she was a child and her older brother Rafi worked in a cotton factory to support the family. Rafi led his siblings and mother in prayer each evening. He stood up for the Christians in their community and publicly confronted Muslims who tormented young Christian women. On 3 July 2004, three Muslim men came to speak with Rafi. They gave him a drink spiked with sleeping pills, and he passed out. One of the men shot Rafi in the head, killing him. [more...]
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