Archived News
INDIA: Christmas Season Attacks Worry Christians
With at least two violent attacks and alleged “reconversion” of over 1,700 Christians in the week leading up to Christmas, a sense of fear is growing among India’s minority Christian community. On Sunday 20 December, Hindu extremists attacked a church during worship in western Maharashtra state’s Sindhudurg district and a Christmas exhibition in Gwalior city in Madhya Pradesh state. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Gun Down Christian Friend
A group of Muslims shot their Christian friend dead this month on the outskirts of the city after saying they would spare his life only if he recanted his faith, according to the young man’s father. The friends of Patras Masih, who died from gunshot wounds on 3 December in Karol village, Punjab Province issued the ultimatum to him after accusing him of the murder of their friend Anees Mahammad. An autopsy reported showed Mahammad died from toxic alcohol earlier that day. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: "There Is No Persecution in Kazakhstan"
As Kazakhstan is about to begin the role of 2010 Chairperson-in-Office for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the country continues to violate its OSCE human rights commitments. One Protestant pastor is facing criminal charges for "causing severe damage to health due to negligence" because he prayed with a woman about her health, at her request. The KNB secret police declined to explain why a pastor praying for people attending his church should be a matter for criminal charges. Asked whether Pastor Kim is being targeted for his faith, a KNB officer told Forum 18 News Service that: "There is no persecution in Kazakhstan". [more...]
ERITREA: Elderly Women Arrested
Authorities have arrested 27 women of the Faith of Christ Church. Apparently the 27 women, all elderly, were arrested on Sunday morning, 6 December, while they gathered for fellowship in one of their members’ home. According to sources, the women are being held at Asmara’s Police Station Number 1 [more...]
ALGERIA: Revival Continues Despite Anti Conversion Laws
Despite laws preventing conversion, Muslims are turning to Christ in what's being called an amazing move of the Spirit in northern Algeria. In 2008, Algeria put into full effect a new anti-conversion law to prohibit Muslims converting to another religion and gave the government the right to regulate every aspect of Christian practice. This law was a direct attack against Christians since almost all Algerian Christians are converts from Islam. [more...]
SUDAN: Christian Woman from Sudan Flees Muslim Family
A Sudanese woman who fled to Egypt after converting from Islam to Christianity is living in secluded isolation as her angry family members try to track her down. Howida Ali’s Muslim brother and her ex-husband began searching for her in Cairo earlier this year after a relative there reported her whereabouts to them. While there in July, her brother and ex-husband tried without success to seize her 10-year-old son from school. [more...]
VIETNAM: Unprecedented Christmas Gathering
On Friday evening, 11 December, history was made in communist Vietnam. Christian sources reported that some 40,000 people gathered in a hastily constructed venue in Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate Christmas and hear a gospel message – an event of unprecedented magnitude in Vietnam. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Church screening of ‘Jesus Film’ Attacked in Pakistan
Some 50 Muslim villagers armed with clubs and axes attacked a showing of the “Jesus Film” near this city in Punjab Province on Wednesday night 9 December, injuring three part-time evangelists and four Christians in attendance. Two of the evangelists were said to be seriously injured. [more...]
INDIA: Hindu Nationalist Party Official in India Charged in Nun’s Rape
Police in Orissa state have arrested an official of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly leading an attack that ended in the rape of a Catholic nun during last year’s anti-Christian mayhem in Kandhamal district. Gururam Patra, identified by local residents as general secretary of the BJP in Kandhamal district, was arrested on Saturday 6 December in Balliguda; he was charged with leading the attack but not with the rape of Sister Meena Lalita Barwa, then 28, on 25 August, 2008. [more...]
TURKEY: Turks Threaten to Kill Priest over Swiss Minaret Decision
In response to a Swiss vote banning the construction of new mosque minarets, a group of Muslims this month went into a church building in eastern Turkey and threatened to kill a priest unless he tore down its bell tower, according to an advocacy group. Three Muslims on 4 December entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Rev Yusuf Akbulut. They told him that unless the bell tower was destroyed in one week, they would kill him. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Allegedly Poison Christian Employees to Death
Muslim employers of three Christian sanitation workers at a banquet/wedding hall here allegedly poisoned the three workers this week, killing two of them; at press time the third was struggling for life in intensive care. The father of the three workers, Yousaf Masih, said the owner of the hall, along with the manager, poisoned his sons because they were Christians who had dared to ask for pay owed to them. [more...]
UK: Hotelier Cleared of insulting Muslim Guest
A district judge yesterday questioned the character of a Muslim convert as he dismissed the case against husband-and-wife Christian hoteliers accused of offending her new-found religion. Ericka Tazi, 60, who converted when she married a Muslim man, had claimed that Ben Vogelenzang, 53, had called her a terrorist and compared Muhammad to a warlord when she wore a hijab on the last day of her stay at the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool last March. She also claimed that his wife, Sharon, 54, told her that wearing such a garment represented a form of bondage, or oppression, in a finger-pointing tirade that left her traumatised. [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Flees Refugee Camp under Death Threat
Somali Christian Mohamud Muridi Saidi last month fled a refugee camp near Kenya’s border with Sudan after Muslims threatened to kill him. For Saidi, a father of four, the recent relocation of 13,000 refugees from the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border to the Kakuma camp, where he had lived since 2002, brought its own nightmare: the arrival of Muslims from Somalia’s Lower Juba region who knew of his father’s Christian activities in his home village. [more...]
Pakistan: Christians Freed
.jpg&size=120)
Pakistani Christians Sandul Bibi and her father, Gulsher Masih, were released from gaol today after a court found them innocent from charges of blasphemy against the Koran.
The pair had been in custody since October 2008, when a radical Muslim mob gathered outside their home after mosque loudspeakers announced rumours that Sandul had torn pages from a copy of the Koran. [more...]
CHINA: Pastor Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
Chinese authorities have quietly sentenced Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit (Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese) to 15 years in prison on the apparently contrived charge of “providing state secrets to overseas organisations,” according to China Aid Association (CAA). [more...]
COLOMBIA: Bring freedom to the Kogui Christians
More Christians have been taken prisoner by the Kogui governor, as the situation in Colombia worsens. Late last month the governor ordered the wives and children of current prisoners to meet the authorities. When they arrived they too were taken prisoner, and are being pressurised to give up their faith. There are now 23 prisoners, including eight children and two babies who are dangerously ill. As the governor threatens to round up the remaining Christians (120 in total) and hold them indefinitely, the current prisoners are being subjected to hard labour and are physically and emotionally exhausted. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Shop bombed for stocking 'Jesus film'
A man was seriously injured when Islamist extremists bombed his shop in North-West Frontier Province – because he stocked the Jesus film. Just half-an-hour before the attack, Muhammad Taos Khan received a warning letter, hand-delivered by a child to his shop in the Saleem Commercial Square in the Kas town area of Upper Dir district. 'It is evident from the letter that I was attacked for keeping the Jesus film in the Pashto and Urdu languages, as well as Islamic and Christian films about Abraham, Isaac and Adam and Eve,' Muhammad told BosNewsLife news agency. [more...]
IRAQ: Church and Convent Bombed in Mosul
On the morning of 26 November, two Christian sites in the northern city of Mosul in Iraq were bombed. A group of approximately 10 gunmen entered the Church of Saint Ephrem, ordered those inside to leave and placed explosives around the premises. When the explosives detonated, the building was completely destroyed. Half an hour later, the attackers proceeded to the Mother House of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine and detonated more explosives. Although five believers were inside the building, no one was injured. [more...]
INDIA: Three Churches Attacked in Tamil Nadu
Three church buildings were attacked within two days in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. On 29 November, a bomb exploded at a church in Thammathukonam, badly damaging the building's wall. Later that day, a statue of St Francis Xavier was desecrated by militants in Konamkade while the local congregation was preparing for an Advent procession. [more...]
ERITREA: Regime Maintains Severe Persecution
Eritrean Christians have been suffering severely since May 2002 when President Isaias Afewerki's totalitarian regime launched a campaign of persecution. Initially Eritrea's 20,000 Protestants were targeted. Then the regime seized control of the large Eritrean Orthodox Church in 2006, arresting anyone who protested. Today some 3,000 Eritrean Christians are imprisoned in the most appalling conditions in underground cells, 'secret prisons' and shipping containers in the desert. [more...]
TURKEY: More than Half the Population Oppose Non-Muslim Religious Meetings
More than half the population of Muslim-majority Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith, according to a recently issued survey. Fully 59 percent of those surveyed said non-Muslims either “should not” or “absolutely should not” be allowed to hold open meetings where they can discuss their ideas. Fifty-four percent said non-Muslims either “should not” or “absolutely should not” be allowed to publish literature that describes their faith. [more...]
INDIA: Special Investigations Team Sought in Orissa
Christian leaders in India have called for a special investigations team to counter the shoddy or corrupt police investigations into anti-Christian violence in Orissa state in August-September 2008. Of the 100 cases handled by two-fast track courts, 32 have been heard as of 30 November 30, resulting in 48 convictions and more than 164 acquittals. The number of cases registered total 787. Among those exonerated “for lack of evidence” was Manoj Pradhan, a legislator from the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was acquitted of murder on 24 November. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Mob Attacks Church
Approximately 200 suspected Buddhists armed with weapons stormed the Our Lady Rosa Mystica Church building in Croos Watta, Sri Lanka on 6 December. The assailants destroyed construction materials and the interior of the building. They also attempted to attack the priest. He was able to escape the scene unharmed, but his vehicle was torched in the violence. As word spread of the attack, approximately 500 local believers blocked the nearby main road in protest, demanding that police arrest the culprits. [more...]
VIETNAM: Christian Denomination Awarded Official Recognition
The Vietnamese government has awarded official recognition to the Assemblies of God, which, for the past 20 years, was an illegal Christian denomination. The director of Ho Chi Minh City's Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs said, "Before the recognition it was an illegal religious organisation and we had warned them for their violations." However, the church had never been punished because Vietnamese laws were unclear on how they should be treated. It is expected that it could take up to a year before the organisation's status becomes fully legal. [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Trying to Expose Underground Church
According to a recent report, the North Korean government is reportedly setting up fake underground churches and disguising national security agents as defectors to expose Christians. Voice of the Martyrs Canada's Glenn Penner says, "Apparently, they're going into China, infiltrating the Korean churches that assist North Korean defectors, and then coming back into North Korea with money and Bibles, with the idea of unmasking Christians and giving the funds to the Government." [more...]
IRAQ: Christians Return Cautiously to Baghdad
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, thousands of Iraqis fled Baghdad, including many Christians who had lived with their Muslim neighbours for centuries. Now, with the security situation improving, some of Iraq's Christians are returning home, just in time for Christmas. Returnees are encouraged by the improved security. But they're also broke. For example, many are living in a three-bedroom home with two other families, and hoping to return to a standard of living they haven't known since the fall of Hussein in 2003. "Baghdad is like our mother," Reema Rafael said, while weeping. She prays to God that improved security here will let Iraqi Christians return home. [more...]
VENEZUELA: Trouble Mounts for the Church
The World Bible Translation Centre is urging prayer for the Church in Venezuela along the Colombian border. There are reports that believers there are starting to experience unrest and persecution. According to Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs, "There are some cases of Venezuela providing sanctuary for FARC guerrillas from Colombia, and instances of persecution against the church in that particular area." The Centre distributes literature to people searching for God who need a Bible that is easy to read and understand. [more...]
TAJIKISTAN: Court Bans Baptist Church
Members of a Baptist congregation in the capital Dushanbe have appealed to the City Court against a ban on their activity imposed because they meet for worship in a private home without state registration. But Judge Soliya Ismailova of Somoni District Court, who handed down the ban, defended her decision and denied that this violated the Baptists' freedom of worship. "The Law demands that all non-government organisations register," she told Forum 18 News Service. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian on Run from Taliban Death Threat
A young Christian man is in hiding in Pakistan from Taliban militants who seek to kill him for “blasphemy” because he defended his faith. In February Jehanzaib Asher, 22, was working in a barbershop his family jointly owns with his cousin in Wana, South Waziristan – a Taliban stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan’s northwest – when the Islamic militants showed up to try to convert him to Islam. It was not the first time the Taliban’s Noor Hassan had delivered strident sermons to him and his relatives, and this time Asher decided not to listen silently. [more...]
INDONESIA: Theology Students Withstand Threats, Illness
Some 1,000 seminary students are resisting efforts to evict them from the former municipal building of West Jakarta where they have taken refuge after Muslim protestors drove them from their campus last year. On 27 October officials began evicting about 300 students of Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) from blocks I and II of the former mayoral building, but those in blocks III, IV, and V chose to remain. The students, some of whom had sown their mouths shut as part of a hunger strike, asserted that new quarters offered by the Jakarta Provincial Government are not yet fit for occupancy – dirty and unkempt with broken windows and doors. [more...]
BIBLES = PRISON
As a disciple of Marx and Lenin, Communist China's founder Chairman Mao forced all churches into his own 'communist church' in 1951. His communist soldiers murdered, or tortured and imprisoned all Christian leaders. Foreign missionaries who did not flee were imprisoned. It is not surprising that today most Christians in China do not want to belong to a state founded church, protected and enforced by disciples of Marxism. [more...]
RUSSIA: Courageous Missionary Priest Martyred in Church
A masked intruder entered the Church of St Thomas in southern Moscow on the evening of 19 November and assassinated Russian Orthodox priest Rev Daniil Sysoyev (34, married with three children) after asking for him by name. Choirmaster Vladimir Strelbinsky was shot and is in hospital, seriously wounded. Father Daniil was an experienced theologian and specialist on Islam who had been actively engaged in missionary work amongst Russia's Muslims for at least eight years. He also regularly debated Islam's representatives in public and had received many death threats. [more...]
VIETNAM: Father Van Ly in Poor Health
Father Nguyen Van Ly, a 63-year old Catholic Priest and human rights advocate has experienced a serious stroke while in prison. Father Van Ly was arrested in March 2007 for his religious freedom and pro-democracy work under the guise of "disseminating anti-government propaganda" and was gagged and sentenced to 8 years in prison and 5 years house arrest without a chance to defend himself. Father Van Ly suffered the stroke on 14 November 2009, as he was kneeling to pray and as a result he is now paralysed on the right side of his body. He is currently undergoing tests and treatment at a hospital in Hanoi where doctors believe he may have a blockage in his brain. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamic Extremists Execute Young Convert
Islamic extremists controlling part of the Somali capital of Mogadishu this month executed a young Christian they accused of trying to convert a 15-year-old Muslim to Christianity. Members of the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab had taken 23-year-old Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf into custody on 28 October after the 15-year-old boy reported him to the militants, an area source told Compass. Yusuf’s body was found on 14 November on an empty residential street in Mogadishu, with sources saying the convert from Islam was shot to death, probably some hours before dawn. [more...]
CHINA: Uyghur Church Leader Released from Prison
A Uyghur Christian in China’s troubled Xinjiang region was released last week after serving two years in a labour camp for alleged “illegal proselytising” and “leaking state secrets,” according to Compass sources. House church leader Osman Imin (Wusiman Yaming in Chinese) was freed on Wednesday 18 November, sources said. Authorities had called for a 10-15 year prison sentence for Osman but significantly reduced the term following international media attention. [more...]
EGYPT: Violence against Christians Increasing
On 18 November a 12-year-old Muslim girl in the Upper Egyptian town of Farshoot reported that she had been raped by an unknown man in a black jacket. Police arrested Girgis Baroumi (21), a Copt, on suspicion. On 21 November a massive Islamic pogrom erupted with widespread seizing, looting and torching of Coptic property, homes and businesses in Farshoot, spreading to several neighbouring villages. A mob ambushed Coptic priest Rev Benjamin Noshi and assaulted him, fracturing his skull. [more...]
IRAN: Two Christian Women Released from Evin Prison
Two Christian Iranian women, Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, were released from prison yesterday with no bail amid an international campaign calling for their freedom since their arrest on 5 March. They still could face charges of proselytising and 'apostasy', or leaving Islam. [more...]
INDIA: Hindutva Plus Impunity Equals Persecution
Violent persecution continues to plague India. It is fuelled by the unchecked propagation of Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) ideology and by the impunity of persecutors. Not only are Christians suffering escalating violence -- beatings, stabbings, burnings, killings, pogroms -- but Christian pastors and evangelists are now routinely being dragged before the police and courts falsely accused of 'forced conversions'. This accusation is wielded as an instrument of persecution, much like an accusation of blasphemy in Pakistan. [more...]
ITALY: Modern Day Persecution
Persecution today takes different forms depending on country to country and region to region. The form of persecution in Europe in the days we live in could me most broadly described as aggressive attempts to silence Christianity and delete it from the public arena on the basis of humanistic human rights interpretation. Last evidence for that is the most recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in which the Court has issued an order finding that the mere presence of the crucifix in Italian public school classrooms constitutes a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Kogui Christians taken prisoner
Sixteen members of the indigenous people group, Kogui, in Colombia are being held prisoner in an effort to force them to renounce Christianity. The group includes men, women and three babies. Christians in the indigenous Kogui community have faced escalating tension in recent years - Kogui governors have repeatedly threatened to expel them from Kogui land, and some years ago a group of Kogui Christians were forced to leave the reserve. But last month things took a dramatic turn for the worse. [more...]
ERITREA: Church Members Arrested
Pastor Tewelde Hailom, founding elder of Asmara Full Gospel Church (FGC), is facing deteriorating conditions under house arrest. Sources say that Pastor Hailom’s sister, who has been taking care of him at home, have been ordered to leave. He is now provided the same food as those who find themselves in prison, i.e. a piece of bread and a cup of tea in the morning and in the evening. This is insufficient food and it is aggravating his stomach ulcer. [more...]
PHILIPPINES: Priest Kidnapped Freed After a Month
The Irish priest kidnapped a month ago in Pagadian (Mindanao) was released last week in the coastal village of Sangalo. The Philippines and Ireland said they had not paid any ransom. The kidnappers had demanded the payment of 2 million U.S. dollars. Delivered by a group of the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) to a military base in Zamboanga, Fr. Michael Sinnot said he was treated well by his captors, though he had to endure many difficulties when moving by sea and walking in the jungle that the rebels used as cover to escape army troops. [more...]
IRAN: Church Closed
The Central Assemblies of God Church has been forced to close down its regular Friday afternoon services and can only hold two services on Sundays, Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN) reported. After the 30 October service, Assemblies of God leaders announced that Friday worship services would no longer take place and that only Sunday services, in two separate shifts, would be conducted. The church, which is the largest public and formal gathering of Iranian Christians in Iran, was forced to close by the Iranian Ministry of Information. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: "They Can Meet and Pray To God, But The Law Says They Have To Register"
Two brothers from Kazakhstan, both Baptists, have been prosecuted for religious worship without state registration. Both were prosecuted under articles of the Administrative Code which violate international human rights commitments, and which the government is set to retains almost intact in a revision of the Code. An Internal Policy Department official defended the fine, telling Forum 18 that "they can meet and pray to God, but the Law says they have to register." In a case from another region, a member of New Life Church also convicted under one of the Administrative Code articles set to be retained, has lost her appeal against deportation and a fine, and has been deported to Uzbekistan. Her "offence" was giving a 12-year-old girl a Christian children's magazine. The deportation cuts her off from her four grown-up children. [more...]
IRAN: Pastor Gaoled for protesting Islamic Teaching of Children
The Voice of the Martyrs recently learned of the arrest of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani in Guilan, Iran on 12 October after he protested against the decision of local authorities to impose the reading of the Koran on Christian children. This requirement, Pastor Nadarkhani insisted, violates the Declaration of Universal Human Rights (which Iran has signed) that states: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children" (Article 26). [more...]
CHINA: Expelled Chinese student invited back to school
According to an 29 October report from ChinaAid, a 17-year-old high school student who was expelled on 20 October after he signed a document confirming his Christian faith was able to return to class on 29 October. On 29 October, the Party Secretary of the High School Division and several other party members and instructors from the Huashan Middle School visited Chen Le at his home and politely invited him to return to his studies. The Party Secretary was reportedly deeply concerned with the international pressure caused by the expulsion. [more...]
PHILIPPINES: Kidnappers Demand Ransom for Priest
On 10 October, Michael Sinnott, a 79-year-old priest from Ireland, was abducted by six armed men in the city of Pagadian near Zamboanga (Mindanao), Philippines as he was conducting evening prayers in his home. Last week we reported that he was able to receive medication for his heart problems. This week, his kidnappers, who many believe are members of a rogue element of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, released video footage of the priest and demanded a $2 million (USD) ransom. [more...]
MEXICO: High Court Frees Nine Men Accused in Acteal Massacre
More than 35 mainly evangelical Christian prisoners unjustly accused in the December 1997 massacre in Acteal, Chiapas had hoped they would be released from gaol this week, but after long deliberations the Supreme Court of Mexico on Wednesday 4 November ruled only nine should be freed and ordered new trials for 16 others. The high court thus ended its involvement in the controversy over the ordeal of the peasant labourers, ordering the release of the nine men – without declaring them innocent – and retrials for the 16 others, this time without “invented” evidence and testimony. Those 16 men, plus several others sentenced in the Acteal case, remain in prison. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Court Impedes Effort to Rescue Kidnapped Girl
A bail order in Bangladesh has impeded police from rescuing a young Christian girl who was abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry one of her kidnappers, according to police. Four Muslim men abducted eighth-grade student Silvia Merry Sarker on 30 July as she made her way home from school in west Sujankathi village, under Agoiljhara police jurisdiction, in Barisal district in southern Bangladesh, according to her father, Julian Sarker. Filing a case under the Women and Children Repression Act against Al-Amin Faria, 24, Shamim Faria, 22, Sahadat Faria, 20, and Sattar Faria, 50, Sarker charges that the men abducted his daughter initially to “indulge Al-Amin Faria’s evil desire.” Later she was forced to convert to Islam and marry Al-Amin Faria, which Sarker said was part of an attempt to take over his land and property. [more...]
UGANDA: Muslims Attack Worship Service
About 40 Muslim extremists with machetes and clubs tried to break into a Sunday worship service outside Uganda’s capital city of Kampala on 1 November, leaving a member of the congregation with several injuries and damaging the church building. Eyewitnesses said the extremist mob tried to storm into World Possessor’s Church International in Namasuba at 11 am as the church worshipped. A member of the congregation who was taking photos of the worship service – and then the attack – was beaten, sustaining several injuries. [more...]
IRAQ: Bombing Leaves Baghdad Church Nearly Ruined
Canon Andrew White, the Anglican leader of St. George's church in Baghdad, said the twin truck bombing Sunday "almost totally ruined" the church compound, which includes a medical clinic, bookstore and school. "Everything is destroyed," he wrote Sunday in an e-mail update. More than 150 people were killed Sunday and another 600 injured when two suicide car bombs blew up almost simultaneously outside the Justice Ministry and city government offices in downtown Baghdad. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Harassed in Jharkhand
The believers of a village have been harassed and are under pressure to return to their religion in West Singhbhun of Jharkhand. Around 25 believers residing at Khunta village of West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, who had earlier converted to the Christian faith from their original Sarna faith, have been under pressure to go to go back to their original faith. The representatives of Adivasi Maha Sabha, along with some village leaders, including the village pradhan, visited the church where the believers gathered for their prayer on 27 October and asked them to return to their faith. Besides threatening them with boycott, they took away the handle of the hand pump, the only source of water for the believers. The following day the believers went to the local police station in Chaibasa and briefed them about what had happened. But the police failed to take the matter seriously. [more...]
INDONESIA: Seminary Students Evicted from Two Locations
In the past week hundreds of students from Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) were evicted from two sites where they had taken refuge after Muslim protestors drove them from their campus last year. With about 700 students earlier evicted from Bumi Perkemahan Cibubur campground, officers appointed by the West Jakarta District Court on Monday 26 October began evacuating more than 300 other students from a former West Jakarta municipal building. [more...]
EGYPT: Coptic Blogger Pressured to Convert in Prison
A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt entering his second year of prison without charge is being pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for his freedom, his attorneys said. On 3 October, 2008, Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog “Karz El Hob” (“Love Cherries”), was arrested by Egypt’s State Security Investigations and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Gamel Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said Nazeer upset Islamic authorities by criticising the increasing Islamisation of Egyptian civil society and irked church leaders by lamenting political involvement of the Coptic Orthodox Church. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Fined 260 Times Monthly Minimum Wage Each - and Banned From Leading Religious Communities?
Uzbekistan has fined three Baptists a total equivalent to 260 times the monthly minimum wage each, allegedly for tax evasion and teaching children religion illegally. The three have consistently insisted that the charges are fabricated, and one suggested to Forum 18 that the real reason for the charges was to remove the Baptist Union's leadership. This is supported by the three having also been banned from all administrative and financial activity for three years - which may stop them playing any organisational role in any religious community. [more...]
WE ARE HERE TO STAY
Mustafa, 39, came to know the Lord when he was 19 years old. His decision to follow Jesus has had difficult consequences.
Only four months later, security officials discovered his involvement with a group of approximately 50 other converts. Hoping to use him to speak out against his friend who taught him about Christ and baptised him, they kept Mustafa in prison for eight months. Four years later, Mustafa was again arrested and accused of evangelising and trying to baptise converts from Islam. He spent two weeks in prison where he endured great suffering. “I was raped four times,” he said. “I couldn’t talk about what happened for 10 years until after I was healed inside.” [more...]
INDIA: Two Pastors attacked in Karnataka
Two Pastors have been attacked in the northern part of Karnataka, alleging forcible conversion activities in the area. Two evangelists - Ganesh and Chandru - went to share at Lakshmeshwar in the northern part of Karnataka. While they were preaching, a group of anti-Christian activists arrived on the scene and started to harass them. The culprits physically pushed them down and then beat them up. They also destroyed all the Christian literature the Pastors had carried along with them. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Taliban Threatens Christian Leaders
The Taliban is directly threatening believers in north-eastern Pakistan's Punjab province. Jonathon Racho with International Christian Concern (ICC) says they've learned that on 6 October, members of the Taliban sent threatening letters in Sargodha, Pakistan, warning Christian leaders to convert to Islam or face dire consequences. A copy of the letter obtained by ICC warns Christians to convert to Islam, pay Jizya tax (an Islamic tax imposed on religious minorities), or leave the country. [more...]
CHINA: Christian Minor Expelled from Xinjiang High School for His Faith
Second-year high school student Chen Le stated emphatically, "I would rather be forced out of school, than deny my faith." On 20 October, 2009, the High School Division of the Huashan Middle School officially expelled Chen for signing a document confirming his identity as a Christian. [more...]
INDIA: Pastor in India Lured into Violent Trap
A group of Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month beat a pastor unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, pelting him with stones after he fainted from the pain. Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured him into a house in Malphalia village, Jhabua district with an offer of water on 4 October. The 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from his regular Sunday service in Malphalia at 4 pm when six men sitting outside a house invited him in for a glass of water. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Two Evangelists Released from Prison
The latest in a series of false charges against two Ethiopian evangelists was put to rest on Friday 23 October, and they were released. A court in Debiretabor, Ethiopia acquitted the two evangelists of insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) in prison, an accusation made by fellow inmates after the two were gaoled on false charges of offering money for people to convert. The charge that the two Christians insulted the EOC was orchestrated by EOC members both inside and outside the prison, according to area church leaders. [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Who Refused to Wear Veil is Killed
Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, according to a Christian source in Somalia. Members of the comparatively “moderate” Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on 19 October at 9:30 pm in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region, said the source. Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam. [more...]
INDONESIA: Islamists Bully Villagers into Revoking Church Permit
The regent of Purwakarta regency, West Java has revoked his decision to permit construction of a Catholic worship building in Cinanka village after Islamists threatened residents into withdrawing their approval. Dedi Mulyadi on 16 October revoked the permit for construction of Catholic Church of Saint Mary after Islamists intimidated some of the local residents whose approval is required by Indonesian law, the priest of the church told Compass. “Those who had signed were continually terrorised by the FPI [Front Pembela Islam, or Islamic Defenders Front],” the Rev. Agustinus Made said. “They became so frightened that when they were called to a meeting by the Interfaith Communications Forum, many did not attend. Also, the members of the Interfaith Communications Forum and the Department of Religion were also terrorized by the FPI so that they were afraid to say that they agree to the church building.” [more...]
TURKEY: Police Official Axed amid Allegations in Murders
The head of Turkey’s police intelligence department was removed on Friday 16 October amid allegations that he failed to prevent the murder of the Christian editor of an Armenian weekly and the slayings of three Christians in this city in southeastern Turkey. Ramazan Akyurek is also accused of withholding evidence in those cases and improperly investigating the murder of a Catholic priest in 2006. [more...]
VIETNAM: Church Registration Inches Along
The Assemblies of God (AoG) in Vietnam on Monday 19 October received an “operating license,” which the government described as “the first step . . .before becoming officially legal.” This operating license gives permission for all of the congregations of the Vietnam AoG to “carry on religious activity” anywhere in the country for the next year. During this time the church body must prepare a doctrinal statement, a constitution and bylaws and a four-year working plan to be approved by the government before being allowed to hold an organising assembly. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Police Torture Christians Arrested in Islamic Attack
Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on 1 August told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them. Only one of the hundreds of Muslim assailants responsible for burning at least 50 homes is in gaol for the fire assault on Gojra’s Christian Town, but sources said Islamists have provided police a pretence for arresting the two Christian brothers who gave shelter to 300 people. [more...]
INDONESIA: Theology Students to be Evicted from Campground
Approximately 700 students from Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) are facing eviction at the end of the month from a campground where Muslim protestors drove them last year. Education will end for students who have been living in 11 large tents and studying in the open air at Bumi Perkemahan Cibubur (BUPERTA) campground, many of them for more than a year. Hundreds of protestors shouting “Allahu-Akbar [“God is greater]” and brandishing machetes forced the evacuation of staff and students from the SETIA campus in Kampung Pulo village on 26-27 July, 2008. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Did Investigator Fabricate Evidence Against Baptists?
Several parents - named as victims in the indictment against three Baptist Union leaders now on trial in Tashkent - have told the court that statements that their children were taught the Baptist faith against their wishes were fabricated or dictated by Investigator Anatoli Tadjibayev. The head of Uzbekistan's Baptist Union Pavel Peichev and two colleagues went on trial on 24 September accused of teaching religion illegally to children at church-run summer camps and evading tax on profits from the camp. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Dismayed By Courts' Leniency Towards Gojra Suspects
Churches in Punjab are dismayed by court decisions to release on bail 19 people accused of involvement in the attack on Gojra in which 11 Christians died.
On 12 October, the district and sessions court of Toba Tek Singh granted bail to six people accused of inciting and perpetrating violence during the raid in August. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Asia Bibi in Court
On 14 October, Asia Bibi appeared in court, in Sheikhupura, Pakistan and spent some time with her family before the court appearance. Asia’s husband, Ashiq Masih, her daughters and VOM contacts met her for 15 minutes before the court appearance. “Asia is in strong faith. Her eyes were hopeful. Praise God,” VOM contacts said. Asia told VOM contacts she prays everyday at 3 am “I thank God that the gaol administration has good behaviour with me,” she said. “I don’t have trouble from them, but I miss my daughters and family. Please arrange my soon release from this gaol,” Asia told VOM contacts. [more...]
TURKEY: Lawyer Calls Turkish Christians’ Trial a ‘Scandal’
After three prosecution witnesses testified yesterday that they didn’t even know two Christians on trial for “insulting Turkishness and Islam,” a defence lawyer called the trial a “scandal.” Speaking after yesterday’s hearing in the drawn-out trial, defence attorney Haydar Polat said the case’s initial acceptance by a state prosecutor in north-western Turkey was based only on a written accusation from the local gendarmerie headquarters unaccompanied by any documentation. “It’s a scandal,” Polat said. “It was a plot, a planned one, but a very unsuccessful plot, as there is no evidence.” Turkish Christians Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal were arrested in October 2006; after a two-day investigation they were charged with allegedly slandering Turkishness and Islam while talking about their faith with three young men in Silivri, an hour’s drive west of Istanbul. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Taliban Insurgency Escalates
Since declaring war on the Pakistan government in July 2007, the Pakistani Taliban has made great gains. After Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile strike on 5 August 2009, the new Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud vowed revenge. Four recent major terrorist attacks within the period of a week killed around 100 and wounded many more. [more...]
INDIA: Hostilities Flare in BJP-Run Madhya Pradesh
Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003, Christians in the state have suffered increased attacks and concerted efforts to tarnish their image, church leaders said. Before the BJP took office the state recorded two or three attacks against Christians per year, they said, whereas Jabalpur Archbishop Gerald Almeida said that in the past five years 65 baseless charges of forceful conversion – commonly accompanied by mob violence – have been registered in his diocese alone. [more...]
GAZA: Islamisation Continues As Schoolgirls Told To Cover Up
Gaza has taken another step towards strict Islamic law with the imposition of new dress codes on schoolgirls. Girls and young women are being told that they must wear jilbab, traditional Islamic sleeved robes, and cover their hair, or they would not be allowed to attend classes. [more...]
PHILIPPINES: Elderly Priest Kidnapped
Michael Sinnott, a 79-year-old priest from Ireland, was abducted by six armed men on 10 October in the city of Pagadian near Zamboanga (Mindanao), Philippines as he was conducting evening prayers in his home. Although no group has yet claimed responsibility for his kidnapping, an Islamist group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is the main suspect. There is great concern over the condition of Father Sinnott, who is known to be in frail health. According to reports, Filipino military informants spotted him and his captors on 12 October in Lanao del Sur province, some 70 kilometers from where he was abducted and then again in another location the following day. Father Sinnott has been serving in the Philippines for the past 40 years. [more...]
IRAN: Update- Further Charges Brought against Iranian Prisoners
There have been significant developments in the past week regarding Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30), who have been imprisoned in Tehran, Iran for their Christian faith since March. When the women were brought before the Revolutionary Court in early August and ordered to recant their faith, they refused and were sent back to prison. On 7 October, Maryam and Marzieh were unexpectedly taken back to the Revolutionary Court and three charges were brought against them: anti-state activity, propagation of Christianity, and apostasy (i.e. leaving Islam). The judge then acquitted them of the charge of anti-state activity. Because this charge has been dropped, their case will now be transferred to a general court where the other charges will be considered. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Pastor Martyred
On 21 September, Pastor Manuel was shot and killed by The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. FARC guerrillas made an appointment with Pastor Manuel and his family. “He thought they were going to authorise him to have a church officially, which he had discuss[ed] and asked [for] before,” said VOM contacts. “One of them came in [the house] with the pastor’s wife, Gloria, and his daughter while the pastor was outside. He was shot five times.” [more...]
EGYPT: Coptic Family Forced to Surrender Woman Rescued
State Security Investigations (SSI) forces in Egypt arrested, abused and then extorted money from a Coptic Christian for rescuing his daughter from her Muslim husband, who was holding her against her will in Alexandria, according to sources in Egypt. Security forces also arrested 10 people in Alexandria and tortured them in an attempt to find all those involved in the rescue. Authorities are preparing to make a new wave of arrests, the sources said. On 30 September, they said, the only daughter of Gamal Labib Hanna called home and asked her family to save her from her Muslim husband. How Hanna’s daughter, Myrna Gamal Hanna, came to marry Mohamad Osama Hefnawy is disputed, but sources said the now-20-year-old woman was 19 and under the age of marital consent when she and Hefnawy were wed 10 months ago. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Gaoled Evangelists Win Appeal but Remain in Prison
Two Christian men in Ethiopia who had been sentenced to six months of prison on false charges of offering money and gifts to people to change their religion, had successfully appealed their sentence on 21 September, only to be kept in prison on a new charge. The State Supreme Court in Bahir Dar had ordered Temesgen Alemayehu and Tigist Welde Amanuel to be released after paying a 500 birr (A$45) fine each, Christian sources said. However the two Ethiopian evangelists are still in prison awaiting the result of a new charge that fellow inmates filed for allegedly insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) while in prison. [more...]
INDIA: Christian attacked in Maheswaram
A Christian has been attacked while organising a Bible study programme for children at Maheswaram in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh on 25 September. Abishek, a member of Hebron Church, Santoshnagar, was taking children for a vocational Bible school programme organised at Hamamguda, Maheswaram in Ranga Reddy district when he was attacked by some activists belonging to Hindutva outfits. The culprits - Venkat Reddy, Balaraju, Ramesh, Danamjaya and others – manhandled Abishek, alleging that he was forcibly converting the children to Christianity. They later went to the local police station and filed a complaint against Abishek alleging that he was indulging in forcible conversions. Abishek has been admitted in Apollo Hospital at Santoshnagar in Hyderabad. [more...]
SUDAN: Abductions Spread Fear Among Christians
In September, 20,000 Christians walked bare foot for two miles in sacrificial prayer as a sign of protest of the government's inability to protect the region, following a month of abductions and bloodshed. [more...]
INDONESIA: Islamic Groups Shut Down Worship of Church
Several Islamic organisations have pressed officials in a sub-district near Indonesia’s capital city to forbid Jakarta Christian Baptist Church to worship in a house, resulting in an order to cease worship. The Islamic Defenders Front, the Betawi Forum Group, and political party Hizbut Tahrir have told officials in Sepatan sub-district, Tangerang district, near Jakarta that worship activities cannot be conducted in a residence. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Concerned over Acquittals in Orissa, Violence
Only 24 people have been convicted a year after anti-Christian mayhem took place in India’s Orissa state, while the number of acquittals has risen to 95, compounding the sense of helplessness and frustration among surviving Christians. Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, called the trials “a travesty of justice.” Last month a non-profit group, the Peoples Initiative for Justice and Peace (PIJP), reportedly found that as many as 2,500 complaints were filed with police following the violence in August-September 2008 in the eastern state’s Kandhamal district. Police registered only 827 complaints and arrested fewer than 700 people, even though 11,000 people were named as attackers in these complaints, according to a PIJP survey. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Police Chief Deports Local-Born Baptist - With No Documentation
Local Baptist Javid Shingarov was cut off from his wife, father and children in his native village near Yalama in northern Azerbaijan when he was deported to Russia on 30 September. Yalama's police chief Gazanfar Huseinov - who punished him under the Administrative Code with a fine and deportation order for holding religious worship in his home - refused to tell Forum 18 News Service why he had refused to give his verdict in writing and why the Migration Service was apparently not involved. [more...]
LEBANON: Christians Emigrating As Islamic Influence Grows
Christians are fleeing Lebanon as the country becomes increasingly “Islamised,” according to Father Samir Khalil, founder of the Centre for Arab Christian Research and Documentation. One-third of the nation’s Christian population has left since the beginning of the 1975-90 Civil War, and Christians now make up just 34 percent of Lebanon’s population. Christians in the Arab world are moving abroad to places with higher Christian populations, such as America, Europe and Australia, which is increasing the Muslim majority in countries like Lebanon. "The same is happening all over the Middle East, and this is certainly a very tragic situation, which will have great consequences in the future,” Father Khalil warned. "Christians must stay in the Middle East to keep numbers up. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamic Extremists Kill Another Church Leader
Islamic militants in Somalia this week killed a woman who led an underground Christian movement in the war-torn country. Sources told Compass that a leader of Islamic extremist al Shabaab militia in Lower Juba identified only as Sheikh Arbow shot to death 46-year-old Mariam Muhina Hussein at 2 pm on Monday 28 September in Marerey village after discovering she had six Bibles. [more...]
EGYPT: Christian Arrested for Distributing Tracts
An Egyptian Christian arrested in Cairo for handing out Gospel leaflets and held in prison illegally for four days has been released, the freed Protestant Copt told Compass. Abdel Kamel, 61, was arrested on Sept. 23 in downtown Cairo for handing out copies of a Christian leaflet. As they arrested him, police told Kamel it was 'unlawful' to hand out religious information on public roads. When Kamel countered that Muslims commonly hand out Islamic literature, police told him it was 'more unlawful' for Christians. [more...]
CHINA: Worship Site Demolished, Pastors Arrested
Following a mob attack on a church in northeastern China and the demolition of their worship site last month, the government put officials on alert to use military force against churches to quell potential “unrest,” according to a leading advocacy group.
Citing reliable government sources, China Aid Association (CAA) reported that the central government on 26 - 27 September ordered officials in “all relevant government agencies” to prepare to use military force against Christians who might react to the attack on the Fushan Church branch congregation in Linfen city, Shanxi Province. [more...]
A Sacrifice of Praise
Pastor Justin faces the Sarkin Mangu COCIN Church. To the casual observer it looks like a broken dream. Soot stains the edges of the doors and windows. Inside, behind what is left of the altar, a silver cross is now blackened by the flames. Grime replaces paint on the cracked walls. Exposed rubble litters the church compound. Towering over the compound’s thick walls is one of the many mosque turrets in this neighbourhood of northern Nigeria. The eerie sounds of the Islamic call to prayer echoing from a mosque loudspeaker, reminds the pastor of the night Muslim fanatics tried to destroy his church. [more...]
EGYPT: Mourners Protest Islamic Attacks on Copts in Egypt
A funeral for a Coptic Christian gruesomely killed on a village street north of Cairo by a Muslim assailant last week turned into a protest by hundreds of demonstrators in Egypt. Galal Nasr el-Dardiri, 35, attacked 63 year old Abdu Georgy in front of the victim’s shop in Behnay village the afternoon of 16 September, according to research by a local journalist. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Motive Sought for Slaying of Church Worker
Authorities are investigating possible motives for the vicious killing of a church worker by students at Dhaka University. A management student at the university and his friends are accused of torturing and killing Swapan Mondol, 35, on 12 September in Suhrawardy Park, adjacent to the university. Mondol, a convert from Hinduism, was supervisor of youth mission for Free Christian Church of Bangladesh. [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Prison Terms Upheld for Two Christians
An Ethiopian court on Monday 21 September threw out an appeal by two evangelists said to be falsely accused of offering money and gifts to people to convert to Christianity, thus upholding their six-month prison sentences. Christian sources said Temesgen Alemayehu and Tigist Welde Amanuel of Wengel Lealem church in Addis Ababa went to Debiretabor, Amhara state, to plant a church in July. [more...]
ERITREA: Imprisoned Christian Dies of Meningitis
A Christian man detained in Eritrea's Wi'a Military Camp for the past year died of meningitis on 3 September following an outbreak of the illness at the prison, according to reports from Open Doors. Mesfin Gebrekristos, an evangelical Christian, is the fourth known believer to have died in detention this year. He is survived by a wife and two children. [more...]
CHINA: Beijing Public Security Seizes House Church Pastor Hua Huiqi
Hua Huiqi, Pastor of the Tent-Making Ministry, was seized by Public Security and State Security agents from Fengtai District in Beijing. Pastor Hua was returning home from "forced vacation" in Shanxi, when five PSB officers immediately surrounded his apartment home. [more...]
IRAQ: Kidnapped Christian Doctor Freed in Critical Condition
Islamic kidnappers in Kirkuk last week dumped a Christian doctor in critical condition in front of a mosque after 29 days of torture and threats to him and his family. Thanks to his 23-year-old daughter’s negotiations with the terrorists, 55-year-old Sameer Gorgees Youssif was freed but with wounds, haematomas and bruises covering his body. The doctor’s daughter, who requested her name be withheld, said that for two weeks the abductors insisted on $500,000, and then dropped the amount to $300,000. [more...]
SOMALIA: Muslim Militants Slay Long-Time Christian
The faith journey of a long-time underground Christian in Somalia ended in tragedy when Islamic militants controlling a security checkpoint killed him after finding Bibles in his possession. Militants from the Muslim extremist al Shabaab killed 69-year-old Omar Khalafe on Tuesday 15 September at a check-point they controlled 10 kilometres from Merca, a Christian source told Compass. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Police in Pakistan Shoot Mourners at Funeral of Christian
At a funeral for a Christian man allegedly tortured to death while in custody on a spurious charge of blaspheming the Koran, police in Sialkot, Pakistan fired on mourners trying to move the coffin to another site. Area Christians suspect police killed 22-year-old Robert Danish, nicknamed “Fanish” or “Falish” by friends, by torturing him to death on Tuesday 15 September after the mother of his Muslim girlfriend contrived a charge against him of desecrating Islam’s scripture. [more...]
UK: Christian Hotel Owners Hauled Before Court after Defending Their Beliefs in Discussion with Muslim Guest
A Christian couple have been charged with a criminal offence after taking part in what they regarded as a reasonable discussion about religion with guests at their hotel. Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were arrested after a Muslim woman complained to police that she had been offended by their comments. They have been charged under public order laws with using ‘threatening, abusive or insulting words’ that were ‘religiously aggravated’. The couple, whose trial has been set for December, face a fine of up to £5,000 and a criminal record if they are convicted. [more...]
LAOS: Authorities Gaol and Threaten to Kill Christians
Authorities in Laos last week gaoled a church leader in Liansai village, Savannakhet Province for embracing Christianity, and threatened to expel him unless he renounces his faith – and kill him if his arrest is made public, according to a human rights organisation. Local officials on 3 September arrested Thao Oun, an elder at Boukham Church, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). [more...]
ETHIOPIA: Convert Gaoled for Handing out Bibles
A convert from Islam who has led a push for Muslim-Christian understanding in Ethiopia has been in gaol for nearly four months since his arrest for “malicious” distribution of Bibles. [more...]
CHINA: Violent Attack on House Church
At 3:00am the morning of Sunday 13 September, a mass of 400 deviants in police suits and red armbands broke into the "Good News Cloth Shoes Factory", on the site of Fushan Church's new building in Linfin City, Shanxi province. Two shovel loaders tore at the building foundations, while the mob, with bricks and other blunt instruments in hand, beat Fushan church members who were sleeping at the church construction site. Within the hour, more than ten church members lay bleeding heavily; some were severely injured and sent to the emergency room. Several people lost consciousness and were subsequently hospitalised. [more...]
NEPAL: Mastermind of Church Bombing Arrested
Ram Prasad Mainali, head of the terrorist organisation that bombed one of Nepal’s oldest churches in May, has been arrested along with three accomplices. [more...]
INDIA: Prayer Team Beaten Mercilessly - Then Arrested
The Christian community of Chhattisgarh state is rattled after a gruesome mob attack and torture. Hindu nationalists broke open the door of a house where a three-day prayer meeting was taking place and attacked participants as they slept – ultimately forcing two Christians to beat one of their own prayer partners unconscious under threat of death. The mob beat the participants, including women, and dragged three of them from the house. It was thought they were taken to the police station, but instead they were taken to a secluded place where the beatings continued. [more...]
SUDAN: Violence Spreads Fear Among Christians
Thousands of civilians have fled after fresh attacks by the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Sudan's remote western Equatoria region. Two people died and three others were injured when the LRA carried out a series of attacks in Ezo district, near the Sudanese border with the DRC, on 12 August. It has also been reported that the rebel group abducted ten girls from a local church, ransacked and torched homes and stole food. They also struck in Bereamburu village, burning a local church and health centre and raiding medical supplies. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Seven Members of One Family Killed in Anti-Christian Riots
The violence at a Christian colony in Gojra, Pakistan, on Saturday 1 August has left one man devastated after losing several members of his family. Minhas Hameed's 75-year old father was the first victim when he was shot in the head by a Muslim mob. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Arrested for Operating Boys' Hostel
Karnataka police, accompanied by ten Hindu extremists, on Friday 28 August arrested a Christian operator of a boys' hostel, after accusing him and another Christian of offering food, shelter, education and future job prospects to the children as an 'allurement' to convert to Christianity. [more...]
CHINA: Christian Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison for Aiding North Korean Refugees
Christians Li Mingshun and Zhang Yonghu were indicted by the Erlianhaote City People's Procuratorate on 31 July 2009, for aiding North Korean refugees fleeing to South Korea through China. Li and Zhang were among several Christians helping to provide food, shelter, and transportation for the 61 refugees crossing Northern Chinese provinces into Mongolia, where neutral state laws permit residents to seek asylum in South Korea. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: "Such Preaching is Prohibited by our Law"
Within hours of arriving in the town of Uspen to visit a local Christian and set up a local congregation, police broke into the house where members of the Pavlodar Grace Church were staying, church members told Forum 18 News Service. One visitor was questioned and a local woman the visitors had prayed with was beaten by police until she signed a statement saying she had been forced to submit to a religious ritual. [more...]
EGYPT: Two Copts Imprisoned after Reporting Attack
Two Coptic Christians in Egypt have been arrested and are being held without charge after reporting to police they had been beaten by a mob, an attorney for the men said yesterday. On the evening of 31 July, Reda Hnein, 35, his brother Nagi Hnein Fawzi, 27, and their uncle Youssef Fawzi Iskandar, 58, all Coptic farmers, were leading a cow down a road in the village of Al-Fashn when two Muslim men riding a motorbike crashed into the cow. [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Shot Dead near Kenya Border
Muslim extremists seeking evidence that a Somali man had converted from Islam to Christianity shot him dead on 18 August near the Somali border with Kenya, according to underground Christians in the war-torn nation. Al Shabaab rebels killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan in Bulahawa, Somalia, according to Abdikadir Abdi Ismael, a former leader of a secret Christian fellowship in Somalia to which Matan belonged. [more...]
INDIA: One Year Later, Christians in Orissa Pray for Peace
One year after India’s worst-ever attack on Christians, which began after Maoists killed a Hindu leader on 23 August in Orissa state last year, churches across the country will fast and pray for a peace that remains elusive. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has appealed to all the Catholic dioceses in the country to “pray for peace and harmony and a spirit of reconciliation” by fasting tomorrow, one year to the day that Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed by non-Christian Maoists last year. On Monday 24 August, an inter-denominational meeting to pray for peace, healing and reconciliation will be held at The Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi to mark “National Kandhamal Day.” [more...]
BELARUS: Authorities Prepare Again to Expel New Life Church from its Own Building
Members of the New Life Full Gospel congregation in the capital Minsk refused to accept the latest official demands to give up the place of worship they bought back in 2002, the church's lawyer Sergei Lukanin told Forum 18 News Service. Court executors delivered an order to vacate the building by 20 August, but church members have held a series of prayer meetings to defend their building. [more...]
BELARUS: Fines on Religious Activity Continue as Pastors Complain to President of Restrictions
The official in the western town of Baranovichi who arranged for two local Baptists to be fined about one month's average wages each for using their home for religious worship defends his action. "They violated the Religion Law," ideology official Sergei Puzikov insisted to Forum 18 News Service. Told that the two point to Belarus' Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, he responded: "In any country there is not only the Constitution, but individual laws." [more...]
MEXICO: Justice Prevails for 20 Men in Chiapas
At least 20 men accused of participating in a massacre in Chiapas State in December 1997 left prison early on the morning of 13 August. The release of the 20 men, most of them evangelical Christians, came after Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in a 4-1 decision that they had been convicted in unfair trials in which prosecutors fabricated testimony and illegally obtained evidence.
The evangelical Christians convicted were serving 25 or 36 year sentences and had up till now exhausted all appeals. The court will review the cases of another 31 men convicted in connection with the killing, and 6 more will be given new trials, according to news reports. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Rash of Attacks on Christians
Attacks on Christians in Sri Lanka have surged noticeably in recent weeks, following the government's defeat of Tamil separatists in May. Attacks were reported in Puttlam, Gampaha and Kurunegala districts in western Sri Lanka, central Polonnaruwa district, Mannar district in the north and Matara district in the south, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL). [more...]
INDONESIA: Christians Call for Rejection of Sharia-Inspired Bills
The Indonesian Council of Churches (PGI) has called for the rejection of two bills inspired by sharia (Islamic law). The Halal Product Guarantee Bill and the Zakat Obligatory Alms Management Bill, both under consideration in the Indonesian parliament, cater to the needs of one religious group at the expense of others, thereby violating Indonesia's policy of pancasila or religious tolerance, said the Rev Dr A A Yewangoe, director of the PGI. "National laws must be impartial and inclusive," Yewangoe told Compass. "Since all laws are binding on all of the Indonesian people, they must be objective. Otherwise discrimination will result...The state has a duty to guard the rights of all its citizens, including freedom of religion." [more...]
INDIA: Christians attacked throughout Karnataka
As the one year anniversary of the unprecedented violence against Christians in Orissa state looms closer, believers throughout India are concerned of further attacks. In recent days, for example, believers in Karnataka state have faced intimidation and arrests from Hindu militants and police.
Approximately 20 Hindu militants shouting anti-Christian slogans barged into a worship service in the village of Gabbur on 9 August Pastor James (46) was beaten and dragged out of the building. He was able to escape his assailants and registered a complaint against them with police. At approximately 9:30 pm, the militants attacked Pastor James at his home and chased him and his family out of the village. At last report, the family had not returned to their home. [more...]
IRAN: Unrest Roils as Iran Tightens Grip on Christians
More than 30 Christians were arrested in the past two weeks near Tehran and in the northern city of Rasht. Two waves of arrests near Tehran happened within days of each other, and while most of those detained – all converts from Islam – were held just a day for questioning, a total of eight Christians still remain in prison. In Rasht, eight Christians belonging to the same network were arrested on 29 and 30 July in two separate rounds of arrest. Seven were released, while one, a male, remains in the city’s prison.
Source: Compass Direct
[more...]
VIETNAM: Authorities Raid and Threaten House Churches
Local authorities in Vietnam have balked at registering house churches, contributing to a recent increase in sometimes violent harassment of congregations. Four police officers and two government officials broke up the Sunday morning worship service of a house church in Tran Phu Commune in Hanoi on 26 July, announcing that it was illegal to worship and teach religion. The police chief of Tran Phu Commune in greater Hanoi, Dang Dinh Toi, had ordered the raid. [more...]
TURKEY: Christian Held Hostage at Knife Point
In a bizarre show of Turkish nationalism, a young Muslim took a Christian Turk at knife point, draped his head with the national flag and threatened to slit the throat of the “missionary dog” in broad daylight earlier this week. Yasin Karasu, 24, held Ismail Aydın, 35, hostage for less than half an hour on Monday (3 August) in a busy district on the Asian side of Istanbul in front of passersby and police who promptly came to the scene. Karasu threatened to slit Aydin’s throat if anyone came near him and commanded those watching to give him a Turkish flag. Within minutes, Aydin told Compass, bystanders produced two flags. [more...]
NIGERIA: Death Toll Climbs in Attack by Islamic Sect
With 12 Christians, including three pastors, confirmed killed in rioting ignited by an Islamic sect opposed to Western education, the Christian community in northern Nigeria’s Borno state is still counting its losses. The rioting instigated by an Islamic extremist sect known as Boko Haram, which initially attacked police and government bases, left hundreds of people dead and large property losses. [more...]
INDIA: Church Attacked in Kerala
Hindutva activists have attacked a church in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala alleging large-scale conversion activities in the area. The activists, numbering around 20, attacked the church at Kozhencherry Pulladu Junction in Pathanamthitta district on 2 August 2009. They came armed with lethal weapons and attacked Joe Kaithavana, the Pastor of the church, and Deepu, one of his believers late in the evening while they having their supper. [more...]
IRAN: Women - We Love Christ!
UPDATE: On 8 August, Marzieh and Maryam were summoned to an Iranian court and ordered to deny their faith verbally and in a written statement, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts.
Marzieh and Maryam were pressured to recant their faith after the chief interrogator recommended they be charged with apostasy. Praise God, they stood firm and replied, "We love Jesus. We will not deny our faith." [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Executions of Christians by North Korea on the Rise
Human rights groups in South Korea have reported that North Korea has stepped up executions of Christians, some of them in public.
In June, Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was publicly executed after being charged with distributing the Bible, spying for South Korea and the United States, and organising dissidents. Ri was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China. The following day her parents, husband and three children were all sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong. [more...]
NEPAL: Christians Increasingly Vulnerable in ‘Secular’ Nepal
Three years after a pro-democracy movement led to the proclamation of Nepal as a secular state, some Christians say they are in greater peril than ever. They are now being targeted by militant Hindu organisations that blame the church for the abolition of Hinduism as the state religion and the end of monarchy. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Strive for Justice following Onslaught
A standoff here between Pakistani officials and Christians protesting the government’s reluctance to prosecute a murderous Islamic assault ended with officials finally consenting to file a complaint against key Muslim clerics and security officers. On Sunday 2 August hundreds of Christians demonstrated in Gojra, where the previous day rampaging Muslims – acting on an unsubstantiated rumour of “blasphemy” of the Koran and whipped into a frenzy by local imams and banned terrorist groups – killed at least seven Christians, looted more than 100 houses and set fire to 50 of them. At least 19 people were injured in the melee. [more...]
EGYPT: Senior Egyptian Preacher Speaks Out For Christian Churches
Sheikh Khaled al-Gindi, a senior Islamic preacher in Egypt, has called on his government to allow Christians to build churches. Speaking in July he said, "As we demand that the West allows us to build mosques, we have to do the same here (in Egypt) with churches." He added that "all citizens have the right to practise their religious rights". Christians in Egypt struggle with an insufficient number of church buildings because it is very difficult to get permission to build new ones (or even repair the old ones).
Source: Barnabus Fund [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Disabled Man Not Allowed To Go To Church
Gafur Yusupov, who lives in a home for people with disabilities in Fergana, eastern Uzbekistan, has been banned by the director of the home from attending the local church of which he is a member. Gafur has no legs, so over the last few years, church members have taken him to Sunday services in a wheel-chair. The director of the home has confiscated Gafur's Christian books and audio tapes and forbidden him from having any contact with his fellow believers. [more...]
SOMALIA: Church Grows Despite Turmoil
The country of Somalia is in a dire state. The terrorist group Al Shabaab, linked with al Qaeda, wants to overthrow the government there and become the most extreme version of Islam. “Politically, it’s still just an absolute vacuum. Anything that goes into Somalia, whether it’s human aid or relief supplies or some attempt to provoke stability, just seems to get sucked up in chaos. And in today’s reality, Christians are bearing the brunt of that,” said Carl Moeller, president and CEO of Open Doors USA. [more...]
NIGERIA: Churches Destroyed and Police Stations Attacked by Islamic Militants in Four States Over Two Days
Coordinated attacks by Islamic militants in four states of Northern Nigeria on Sunday and Monday left an estimated 80 people dead, including two pastors. At least seven churches are reported destroyed, with other targets including four police stations, a prison and a customs post. [more...]
ERITREA: Third Christian this Year Dies in Eritrean Military Prison
Another Christian imprisoned for his faith in Eritrea has died from authorities denying him medical treatment, according to a Christian support organisation. Sources told Netherlands-based Open Doors that Yemane Kahasay Andom, 43, died Thursday (23 July) at Mitire Military Confinement Centre. [more...]
BURMA: Government Troops Attack Displaced Karen Groups
The Burmese army and militia have attacked two displacement camps for the mainly Christian Karen people close to the Thai border. In one camp in Karen State, at least 90 children were forced to try to swim across a river into Thailand in the middle of the night to avoid being attacked. Their camp was ringed by landmines on the Burmese side. Many were very young and could not swim – but reports suggest that most of them survived. A recently built orphanage was also attacked by government troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army. [more...]
FIJI: Government Blocks Church Celebrations
Earlier this year Police banned the Annual Conference and Choir Festival of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma scheduled for August 2009. The Church engaged in unsuccessful discussions with the military regime to have the decision reversed. On 17 July 2009, the Church’s Standing Committee confirmed that both the Conference and Festival would nonetheless go ahead. On 20 July the General Secretary of the Methodist Church, the Rev Tuikilakila Waqairatu, was taken by police for questioning. He was returned that night but was taken again on Tuesday 21 July. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: "Joy" Children's Holiday Camp Attacked
Uzbekistan's Baptist Union is facing criminal charges for allegedly unlawfully teaching children religion, and for supposedly misusing their property as a summer camp. As a result, Baptist Union Chair Pavel Peichev faces huge fines, the confiscation of the property, imprisonment, or some combination of these penalties. Baptists have vehemently denied the allegations. [more...]
CHINA: Youth Camp Raided in Henan; Two Christian Leaders Detained
A Christian youth camp was raided in Nanyang city, Henan on 23 July. More than 20 students were participating the summer youth camp were gathering at No. 23, Lizhuang, Pushan town, Wuolong district, Nanyang city, Henan when they were raided by a number of Public Security Bureau (PSB) and Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) officials. The raid took place at 12 noon, and all of the students were taken away for further interrogation. [more...]
TURKEY: Christian Murdered on Busy Street in Istanbul
On a crowded street last week a German businessman died after a Turk with a history of mental problems stabbed him for being a Christian. Witnesses saw Ibrahim Akyol, 26; stab Gregor Kerkeling in the chest on 20 July at 10:50 am after following him out of St. Anthony Catholic Church in Istanbul's central district of Beyoglu. Church security cameras captured the attack on Kerkeling, who regularly visited the church when he was in town for business. [more...]
VIETNAM: Pastor Escapes 'House Arrest' to Speak out About Police's Abuse
A well-known evangelical pastor has made a desperate cry for help for his family – because the police have made them prisoners in their own home. Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, who oversees several Mennonite churches in the Central Highlands, says his family have been under siege in their home in Hoa Lu commune in Pleiku city, central Vietnam, for months. Police have been guarding his house around the clock. The pastor managed to escape in a bid to find 'help, food and medication' for his wife and three young children on 17 July. [more...]
BURMA: Karen Christians Suffer at the Hands Of Burmese Military
Violence in rural Burma/Myanmar has resulted in a growing number of displaced Karen people, a tribal group that is 60 percent Christian. In the last month, more than 4,000 ethnic minority Karen have crossed the border into Thailand which now has a refugee population of more than 100,000. This influx was brought on by fighting between the Karen National Union and the Myanmar military. In addition to the refugees in Thailand, the fighting has created nearly 500,000 internally displaced people in eastern Myanmar and resulted in countless atrocities against civilians. [more...]
EGYPT: Police Collusion Suspected in Attack on Church
Villagers in Ezbet Basillious, Minya suspect local police in Egypt of corruption and collusion after two Copts were arrested for an arson attack on their own house church on Saturday (11 July). Egyptian State Security Investigations officers later arrested three Muslim suspects in accordance with eyewitness testimony that local police had ignored. The Muslim suspects were seen entering the Church of St. Abaskharion Kellini with cans of kerosene and leaving it shortly after, shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is great].” [more...]
SOMALIA: Convert from Islam Shot Dead in Somalia
Muslim extremists killed a Christian convert in Mahadday Weyne, Somalia, 100 kilometres north of Mogadishu. Al Shabaab Islamist militia shot Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman to death at 7 am on Monday 20 July, eyewitnesses told Compass. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Banned From Meeting Fellow-Believers
Gafur Yusupov, who lives in a home for people with disabilities in eastern Uzbekistan, has been banned from attending his Baptist Church. All his Christian books and audio tapes have also been taken from him, and he has been banned him from having any contact with his fellow believers. When Baptists complained, the home told them to talk to the NSS secret police. [more...]
LAOS: Village Officials Announce Ban on Christianity
Following the confiscation of livestock from Christian families earlier this month, officials in a village in Laos on Saturday (11 July) called a special meeting for all residents and announced that they had “banned the Christian faith in our village.” The chief of Katin village, along with village security, social and religious affairs officials, warned all 53 Christian residents that they should revert to worshiping local spirits in accordance with Lao tradition or risk losing all village rights and privileges – including their livestock and homes, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). [more...]
IRAQ: Churches Bombed as Sectarian Violence Escalates
There have been a number of bomb attacks against churches in Iraq in recent days. On Saturday 11 July a church in western Baghdad was bombed. On Sunday 12 July five further churches in Baghdad were bombed. On Monday 13 July a church in Mosul was also bombed. In the deadliest of these bombings, in Baghdad on Sunday evening, four have been confirmed dead including three Christians. One source in Baghdad mentioned as many as 14 may have been killed. There are reports of many injuries, and of damage to the church buildings. [more...]
CHINA: Christian Woman Jailed For Smuggling in North Korean Refugees
Li Mingshun, a Chinese Korean from Heilongjiang province, north-east China, is in jail in neighbouring Inner Mongolia, charged with helping to smuggle 61 refugees into China. [more...]
CHINA: Changchunli Church in Shandong Sends Plea for Prayer
ChinaAid received a letter from Changchunli Church asking Christians around the world to pray for them as the government has shut down their church gatherings and is attempting to demolish their church building. Even though Changchunli Church is a legally registered, government-sanctioned church, government officials, working together with government-sanctioned religious organisations, the China Christian Council (CCC) and the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM,) have made agreements with real estate developers to take over the church land to for financial profit. [more...]
LAOS: Officials Seize, Slaughter Christians’ Livestock
Last Sunday (5 July) officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih district, Saravan province, Laos, confiscated and slaughtered livestock belonging to nine Christian families in an effort to force them to renounce their faith. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamists Get Minority Rights Leader Jailed
Well-known Pakistani minority rights activist Joseph Francis and two others were jailed on Sunday (12 July) for forged documents in connection with false charges of assaulting a woman who visited his office in 2006, their lawyers said. Francis, national director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), which for more than two decades has defended Christians and others against spurious charges by Islamists, was arrested on Thursday (9 July) along with CLAAS official Ashar Sarfaraz and Sarfaraz’s brother-in-law, Zulfiqar Wilson. [more...]
IRAN: Maryam and Marzieh - In danger of being forgotten
Arrested on 5 March, 2009, the two young women have now been in prison for four months. After being in solitary confinement for three weeks in May and early June, they were then put one small cell together for about two weeks. Then, following the arrests of thousands of protestors after the disputed presidential elections, Marzieh and Maryam were moved to a larger cell to make room for new prisoners. About 600 women were brought Evin prison during the days of the protests. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims attack Christians in Pakistan
Christians in the village of Bahmaniwala in Punjab province, Pakistan, were attacked by Muslims on 30 June after a believer allegedly committed blasphemy against Islam. When Sardar Masih (38) and his son were returning home on their tractor on 29 June, they asked a reportedly intoxicated Muslim man and his nephew to move their motorbikes which were blocking the road. Enraged that a Christian gave them an order, the two grabbed Masih and began to beat him. Later that evening, a group of 15-20 Muslims attacked Masih's family and damaged his home. His tractor was ruined and his brothers sustained serious hatchet wounds. The Muslim man filed a report with local police and told a Muslim religious leader that Masih had blasphemed. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Shopkeeper Beaten and Detained on Blasphemy Charges
Imran Masih (25) was arrested after Muslims accused him of burning pages of the Koran in the town of Hajwery, Faisalabad, Pakistan, according to reports from AsiaNews and Pakistan Christian Post. While Masih was cleaning up his fruit and vegetable shop, he set some paper and books on fire--a common practise for waste disposal in the area. The Muslim owner of a nearby shop then accused Masih of burning the Koran and called for Muslims to kill the "infidel." A group of Muslims gathered and beat Masih until police intervened and took him into custody. [more...]
EGYPT: Two Clashes Shake Coptic Community
Separate cases of sectarian violence in two villages erupted in Egypt last week, shaking the country’s Coptic Christian community as Muslims attacked their homes and security forces imposed curfews in an effort to maintain peace. Last Wednesday 1 July in the village of Kafr El Barbari in Mit Ghamr, Dakahlia, north of Cairo, Muslim villagers mourning the death of 18-year-old Mohamed Ramadan Ezzat, a student stabbed to death in a dispute with a Coptic grocer, attacked Christian homes with stones, breaking their windows. Ezzat’s family members attacked and burned the Gerges’ store as well as two of the family apartments. During post-funeral violence, 25 people were injured as hundreds of angry Muslims attacked Coptic homes. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Stoned to Death for Ordering Tea from 'Muslim-Only' Stall
Recent reports from the Punjab have highlighted a grievous case of religious violence. On 9 May, Ishtiaq Masih had disembarked from a bus that had stopped in Machharkay village to give the passengers an opportunity for rest and refreshment. A sign hung on the roadside tea stall, which read, "All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This stall serves Muslims only." Ishtiaq failed to see this and paid for the mistake with his life. [more...]
EGYPT: Village Christians in Hiding after Clash
Nearly 1,000 Coptic Christians are hiding in their homes after clashes erupted Sunday 21 June between them and their village’s majority- Muslim population over the use of a three-story building belonging to the Coptic Church. When on Sunday at 11am. a group of 25 Christians from Cairo stopped in Ezbet Boshra-East, a village of about 3,000 people three hours south of Cairo by car, few villagers failed to take notice. [more...]
IRAN: Scraps Mandatory Death Penalty for ‘Apostates’
A member of Iran’s Parliament reportedly revealed last week that the country’s Parliamentary Committee has stricken the mandatory death penalty for those who leave Islam from proposals for an amended penal code. [more...]
MAURITANIA: Islamic Extremists Kill U.S. Aid Worker
Funeral services have been held for a U.S. teacher in Mauritania who was shot dead last week by Islamic extremists for spreading Christianity. Christopher Leggett, 39, was killed Tuesday 23 June in front of the language and computer school he operated in Nouakchott, the capital city. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, North African unit of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, claimed responsibility for the murder on an Internet site, accusing Leggett of “missionary activities.” [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamists Behead Two Sons of Christian Leader
Islamic extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father. Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, 55-year-old Musa Mohammed Yusuf was the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometres from Kismayo in Somalia. [more...]
INDONESIA: Bold Witness for Christ
On the evening of 23 December 2004, after a worship service at the church, Santoso and his wife went to spend the night at his parents' house. He decided it wasn't safe to stay overnight in the church. "The following morning as I was praying with my wife, I didn't feel afraid. Instead I was filled with peace unlike anything I had ever felt before. "Later that morning, Santoso borrowed a friend's motorbike because he wanted to return to the church. After completing his work he asked if someone from the congregation would follow him back to his parents' house. They were only one kilometre from the church when some men came out of the bushes. "At that moment, I didn't feel afraid at all even though I saw one of them holding a machete. I thought he was a nice guy who just worked with his machete at the plantation nearby," Santoso said. [more...]
INDONESIA: Underground Church Growing In Muslim Dominated Area
Churches on the tsunami-ravaged coast of Indonesia are experiencing a wave of conversions and healings. In the strongly Muslim Aceh province of northern Sumatra where 167,000 people died in the 2004 tsunami, the underground church movement is growing. Indonesia has an official policy of religious tolerance, but in Muslim-dominated areas Christians face open hostility and persecution. In Aceh province, churches must register with the authorities and are not permitted to evangelise. Many Christians choose to meet in unregistered, or underground, churches. [more...]
IRAN: Unrest May Signal Good News for Christians
Defying a government ban to hold a rally, an estimated 100,000 Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi. He's the moderate presidential candidate who says he is the rightful winner in Iran's hotly-contested presidential elections last week. In the wake of these protests, Iran's supreme leader ordered the Guardian Council to investigate presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's claims of electoral fraud. [more...]
YEMEN: Christian Relief Workers Abducted and Killed In Yemen
On 12 June, nine Christian foreigners were abducted and three of them killed in Yemen. Reports indicate that they were targeted because they were Christian relief workers suspected of being involved in evangelistic work. According to officials, the Christians left the city of Sa'ada without an armed escort to visit a doctor who lives nearby. The believers left the doctor's home after two hours. Eyewitnesses saw a group of armed men stop the Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Woman Facing Blasphemy Charges
Thirty-seven-year-old Asia Bibi was recently arrested by police on allegations of blasphemy in the village of Ittanwali, Punjab province, Pakistan. On 19 June, some of the Muslim women who work with Bibi on a farm owned by a local Muslim engaged in a heated discussion with Bibi about Islam. Bibi told them that Christ died on the cross for their sins and asked them what Mohammed had done for them. "Our Christ is the true prophet of God and yours is not true," Bibi said. The Muslim women became angry and began to beat her. [more...]
VIETNAM: Police Attack House Church, Jail Leaders
Police invaded the Sunday service of the Agape Baptist congregation in Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province on 7 June and beat worshippers, including women, and arrested a pastor and an elder. Christian sources said police put the two church leaders into separate cells, and each man was beaten by a gang of five policemen. Pastor Duong Van Tuan of the house church in Hamlet 3, Ong Dinh Commune, Khoai Chau district said that officers beat them in a way that did not leave marks: hard blows to the stomach. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Family of Kidnapped Pastor Flee Home
The wife and children of Pastor William Reyes, who was kidnapped last September in Colombia and is still missing, have moved from their home to another city due to threatening strangers presumably linked to his kidnappers. Compass learned that Idia Miranda Reyes, her son William, 19, and daughters Luz Nelly, 17, and Estefania, 9, suddenly left their home in Maicao in the department (state) of La Guajira two months ago and moved to an undisclosed location in the country. [more...]
North Korean Fax threatens Voice of the Martyrs Project
An anonymous fax believed to have been sent from the North Korean embassy for Finland promises workers affiliated with Voice of the Martyrs that "something very bad will happen to you" if Voice of the Martyrs continues a special project to share the Gospel via weekly fax transmissions to government and business representatives of the restricted Asian nation.
During the past year Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has made an effort to collect as many fax numbers as possible inside North Korea, one of the world's most isolated nations. VOM sends weekly faxes containing Christian messages and Scripture passages on love and forgiveness to each of the fax numbers. [more...]
BELARUS: Largest Fine yet For Unregistered Religious Activity
Belarus has imposed its largest fine yet for unregistered religious activity. A court in the eastern town of Osipovichi fined local Baptist Nikolai Poleshchuk the equivalent of almost three months' average salary in the town and another Baptist received a warning for running a Christian street library. However, Belarus' Supreme Court changed an earlier court order to destroy Bibles and New Testaments confiscated from Poleshchuk - they have been handed to the state instead. [more...]
LAOS: Thirteen Christians Arrested
On 12 June, thirteen Christians were arrested by plain clothes police, after visiting Christian villages in Laos, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts.
The visiting believers met the police when they were in the village for their routine daily work. The police questioned them about what they were doing in the village. The police have not disclosed why they arrested the believers and at last report the Christians are still being held at a provincial police station. [more...]
EGYPT: Rescue of Coptic Girl Prompts Muslim Attack
Egyptian news sources report security forces have wrongly detained two Christians for nearly a month as part of a ruse to cast a Muslim attack on Copts as “sectarian violence.” Violence broke out last month in the village of Toma, near El-Mahalla El-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta, when local Muslims attacked Copts who had rescued Nermeen Mitry, 16; Muslims had kidnapped the Coptic girl and tried to convert her to Islam, according to Assyrian International News Agency. [more...]
EGYPT: Right to Convert to Second Christian Denied
A Cairo judge on Saturday (13 June) rejected an Egyptian convert’s attempt to change his identification card’s religious status from Muslim to Christian, the second failed attempt to exercise constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom by a Muslim-born convert to Christianity. For Maher El-Gohary, who has been attacked on the street, subjected to death threats and driven into hiding as a result of opening his case 10 months ago, Saturday’s outcome provided nothing in the way of consolation. [more...]
TURKEY: Iranian Refugee Beaten for His Faith
Since Iranian native Nasser Ghorbani fled to Turkey seven years ago, he has been unable to keep a job for more than a year – eventually his co-workers would ask why he didn’t come to the mosque on Fridays, and one way or another they’d learn that he was a convert to Christianity. Soon thereafter he would be gone. Never had anyone gotten violent with him, however, until three weeks ago, when someone at his workplace in Istanbul hit him on the temple so hard he knocked him out. When he came back to his senses, Ghorbani was covered in dirt, and his left eye was swollen shut. It hurt to breathe; his whole body was in pain. He had no idea what had happened. “I’ve always had problems at work in Turkey because I’m a Christian, but never anything like this,” Ghorbani told Compass. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Attack Pastor’s Home
In a growing culture of violence, a traffic incident in Punjab Province this month led to Muslim assailants later mounting an attack on the home of a Christian pastor they have increasingly resented for his evangelism and justice ministries. The attackers threatened more violence if the pastor does not drop assault charges. A few of the 17 assailants struck the mother and sister-in-law of pastor Riaz Masih with rifle butts after the pastor’s brother, who lives at the same multi-housing complex as Masih in Kila Sardar Shah, Sheikhupura district, on 1 June complained to a local councillor about the official nearly driving into his sons. [more...]
CHINA: Renewal of Licenses for Human Rights Lawyers Refused
Li Dunyong, one of several lawyers involved in the defence of Uyghur house church Christian Alimjan Yimit (Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese), was effectively disbarred at the end of May when Chinese authorities turned down an annual application to renew his law license. Zhang Kai, another Beijing lawyer who had defended Alimjan, suffered the same fate. Authorities failed to renew licenses for at least 15 other lawyers who had defended civil rights cases, religious and ethnic minorities and political dissidents, according to watch group Human Rights in China (HRIC). [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Christians Standing Steadfastly In Prayer
In light of the recent defiant missile launches by Kim Jong-ll and his regime in North Korea, the eyes of the world are nervously watching the impoverished country. Christian Believers and the underground Church in North Korea are stepping up their intercession and have launched an evangelistic prayer campaign amid the darkness of their oppression. Carl Moeller, President of Open Doors USA noted, "Christians in North Korea are suffering terribly for their faith. An estimated 40,000 to 60,000 are Christians are suffering for their faith in prison." [more...]
NEPAL: Hindu Group Demand All Christians Leave
A Hindu extremist group calling itself the Nepal Defence Army (NDA) has demanded that all Christians leave the country. A statement released by the group said, "We want all the 1 million Christians out of the country, if not we will plant 1 million bombs in all the houses where Christians live and detonate them." NDA is believed to comprise former soldiers, former policemen and victims of Maoist guerrillas. It claims to have trained suicide bombers to fight communists, Christians and Muslims. The shadowy group's main objective is to restore Nepal as a Hindu nation. [more...]
IRAQ: Five-Year-Old Christian Boy Kidnapped and Killed
A five-year-old boy has become the latest casualty of what appears to be a concerted campaign to attack Iraqi Christians. The body of Tony Adwar Shaweel was found in the Roofya area of Akra, two months after an unknown group abducted the child and demanded a $50,000 ransom. He had been shot several times. [more...]
CHINA: Pastor Hua Huiqi Beaten by Authorities
On the morning of 5 June, Pastor Hua Huiqi was arrested by police officers from Shanxi province and Beijing when he was transferring trains at the Taiyuan Railroad Station in Shanxi, according to a report from ChinaAid. Hua was taken to a hotel and severely beaten by officials. One of the officials reportedly said to him: "I'm going to strangle you and I'd like to see whether you can still preach the Gospel.... Our Domestic Security Protection Squad is specially set up here to suppress you Jesus believers." [more...]
INDIA: Church Closed Down; Pastor Beaten
On 7 June, a group of police officers and Hindu militants disrupted a worship service being held in the newly built Indian Apostolic church building in Chennagiri village, Davanagere district in Karnataka state. The police claimed that the church was opened with an illegal license. The pastor explained that he had already obtained the necessary permission from authorities but was told that no churches were allowed in the village since they were engaged in "conversion activities." All of the church members were sent away and the building was locked up. [more...]
KAZAKHSTAN: Five Days Jail for Unregistered Worship
Kazakhstan has given Baptist Pastor Vasily Kliver a five day jail term because he refused to pay fines for leading unregistered worship. Judge Zhanar Zhubatova of the Administrative Court in Aktobe told Forum 18 that the sentence is "not persecution." Asked why he Kliver is being punished for unregistered worship, Judge Zhubatova replied "it's not for that" before putting down the telephone. Prior to Pastor Kliver's jail term, three Council of Churches pastors have been sentenced since 2007 to three-day prison terms, Forum 18 notes. [more...]
CHINA: Bookstore Owner Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
A Beijing court has found Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan guilty of “illegal business operation” and sentenced him to three years in prison and a 150,000 yuan ($A 27,340) fine. Sources said Shi’s store operated legally, sold only books for which he had obtained government permission, and that his Holy Spirit Trading Co. printed Bibles and Christian literature without authorisation but only for free distribution to local house churches. The 38-year-old Shi had been released on 4 January, 2008 due to insufficient evidence for the same vague charge of “illegal business operation,” but he was arrested again two month later, on 19 March, and held virtually incommunicado. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslim Forces 12-year-old Girl to Convert, Marry Him
The Christian mother of a 12-year-old girl in Punjab Province who was kidnapped, coerced into converting to Islam and forcibly married to a 37-year-old Muslim hopes to recover her daughter at a court hearing today. The reaction of Pakistani law enforcement authorities to Sajida Masih’s complaint so far – ridiculing her and asserting that there is nothing she can do because her daughter is now a Muslim – does not encourage her hopes of recovering her daughter Huma at the 11 June hearing. [more...]
EGYPT: Enforced Slaughter of Pigs Damages Livelihoods of Local Christians
At the height of the swine flu outbreak in April, local Christians in Egypt and Jordan were deprived of a major source of income. In Egypt, the Health Minister ordered the slaughter of all pigs, approximately 300,000 animals. The rate of compensation was around 25 Egyptian pounds per pig ($A6). [more...]
INDIA: Pastor Brutally Attacked
In May 2009, Pastor Ramesh Mandevey was brutally attacked by 10 Hindu extremists, while he was returning from visiting a believer’s home in Tundavata, Madhya Pradesh, India, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. [more...]
NEPAL: Christians Little Consoled by Arrest in Church Bombing
Vikash and Deepa Patrick had been married for nearly four months before the young couple living in Patna in eastern India managed to go on their honeymoon. The decision to come to Nepal would be a choice the groom will rue the rest of his life. Vikash Patrick’s 19-year-old bride died while praying at the Assumption Church in Kathmandu valley’s Lalitpur district, the largest Catholic church in Nepal, in an anti-Christian bombing on 23 May, the day the couple was to return home. [more...]
INDIA: Homes burned, paramilitary forces withdrawn in Orissa
On 30 May, Hindu militants set fire to six Christian homes in Kisapanga village in Kandhamal district, Orissa, according to a report from All India Christian Council. Approximately 2,500 of the tens of thousands of people displaced by the August 2008 mob violence remain in relief camps and are fearful to return to their villages. The central government in India recently decided to withdraw paramilitary forces from the district within a month, triggering concern among Christians of further violence.
Source: VOM Canada
[more...]
BANGLADESH: Muslim Villagers Beat Evangelists
Nearly four months after Muslim villagers in this southeastern Bangladesh sub-district furiously beat two evangelists for showing the “Jesus Film,” one of the Christians is still receiving treatment for nerve damage to his hip. Christian Life Bangladesh worker Edward Biswas, 32, was admitted to Alabakth Physiotherapy Centre on 5 May. Dr. Mohammad Saifuddin Julfikar told Compass that injuries Biswas sustained from the February attack in Feni district, some 150 kilometres southeast of Dhaka, had led to neurological complications in his hip. “His hip joint was displaced, and one bone in the hip was fractured,” Julfikar said. [more...]
EGYPT: Two Copts Re-Arrested in Abu Fana Murder
Police this month released two Copts wrongfully arrested for killing a Muslim during an attack on Abu Fana monastery in Egypt in May 2008, but then re-arrested them as part of an intimidation campaign against Christians, their lawyer said. More worrisome to the Christians in custody is that their fate most likely will be decided outside of the justice system, in “reconciliation meetings.” The state prosecutor investigating the case has not announced the results of his findings on the true identity of the murderer, as he is awaiting the outcome of the out-of-court talks between Copts and local Muslims. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamic Radicals Storm Pakistani ‘Blasphemy’ Hearing
Radical Pakistani Muslims in a town outside of Lahore overran a courtroom in hopes of swaying a judge in a “blasphemy” case against a Christian couple, and a member of the prosecution later threatened to kill the wife. Some 50 molvis (Muslim clergy) on 14 May burst into the courtroom in Mustafabad, where a bail hearing was taking place in the case against Munir Masih and his wife Ruqiya Bibi, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). [more...]
THE GOSPEL INVADES ENEMY TERRITORY
"Jesus told me to go. He never said I would come back. Isn't this the life of a Christian?" At nearly 70 years of age, Celso is full of life and actively evangelises in dangerous areas of Colombia. His smile is contagious and his testimony is amazing. [more...]
EGYPT: Threat of Swine Flu Used to Persecute Copts
In Egypt, a largely Muslim country, pigs are farmed in small quantities by poor Coptic Christians (Copts). In Cairo there is an area known as "Garbage City" where those Copts known as "zabaleen" (Arabic for garbage man) are living together with the garbage that they collect from the city and recycle for a living. In order for the "zabaleen" to generate extra income, they began to raise pigs. Pork is consumed only by Christians in Egypt. In spite of the fact that there was no case of influenza among Egyptians, the ruling regime made the decision to conduct a mass killing of all the local pigs. [more...]
CHINA: All 16 Christians Released From Prison in Henan
On the afternoon of 9 May, the remaining 16 Christians from China Gospel Fellowship (CGF) house church group who were imprisoned by the Security Bureau (PSB) in Xinye, Henan province were released early from administrative detention. Even though the prisoners had not completed their sentences of 10-14 days in detention or paid their fines of 1,000 Yuan ($A185), the officials did not require any other terms for their release. ChinaAid sources said the early release of the prisoners was due to pressure from the international community and meant that, “the government admits what they did was wrong.” [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Bible and Mel Gibson Film Banned in Karakalpakstan
Nurulla Zhamolov, the senior religious affairs official in Karakalpakstan Region in north-western Uzbekistan has banned the Bible, the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ", and other religious literature. The bans state that the material - which also includes a hymn book, a Bible Encyclopaedia, a Bible dictionary, and a children's Bible - is "banned for import, distribution or use in teaching." [more...]
ZANZIBAR: Radical Muslims Drive Church from Worship Place
Worship in a house church near Zanzibar City, on a Tanzanian island off the coast of East Africa, did not take place for the third week running on Sunday 24 May after Muslim extremists expelled worshippers from their rented property. Radical Muslims on 9 May drove members of Zanzibar Pentecostal Church from worship premises in a rented house at Ungunja Ukuu, on the outskirts of Zanzibar City. [more...]
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Facing Threat From Militant Islam
According to the Anglican Bishop of Malaita Sam Sahu, militant Islam poses a threat to social stability in the Solomon Islands Muslim missionaries funded by Malaysian and Saudi Islamist groups have led to heightened tensions in the South Pacific nation, which erupted in violence in December after a Muslim leader attacked an Anglican priest. The attack was allegedly in retaliation for Anglican youths having throne stones at a Muslim League truck, police said. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Families Flee Violence
Aid groups estimate that nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military in Swat, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. Most of the displaced people who have fled Swat are in temporary shelter and the numbers of families arriving at the makeshift camps are increasing with each passing day. Swat Valley Christians are amongst the displaced people and are in particular need of assistance because of the discrimination they suffer in daily life and even now as refugees. Some families have had to flee the valley on foot as they had no money for transport, and they were unable to stock up on resources before escaping the war-ravaged area. Pakistani Christians, who are often poor day labourers, are particularly vulnerable in the mass exodus as prices of transport and products rise sharply. [more...]
EGYPT: Stabbing, Bombing Attacks Strike near Two Churches
In separate attacks in Egypt earlier this month, a Coptic Christian suffered severe stab wounds as he left a worship service in Minya, and a car-bombing outside a venerable church in Cairo disrupted a wedding. Without provocation, three Muslims repeatedly stabbed Coptic Christian Girgis Yousry, 21, as the army conscript was leaving the gates of the church of Saint Mary in Minya, Upper Egypt on 2 May, according to Copts United. The assault left him with severe injuries to internal organs, and he was taken to the district hospital, where he was still receiving treatment at press time. Three men were arrested on 5 May and were given a 16-day initial incarceration while the case was investigated. [more...]
EGYPT: Christian Man Kidnapped by Muslims
Twenty one year old Mina Basily was abducted from his home in Alexandria by four Muslim men on 6 May, according to Middle East Christian Association. Muslims armed with swords, sticks and knives broke into the Basily family's home, assaulted Mina and forced him into a car parked outside. Neighbours who witnessed the kidnapping were too fearful to intervene. The police initially refused to file an official report of kidnapping, even though officers questioned witnesses and visited the Basily's home, which was still spattered with blood from the attack. The report was only issued after the family appealed to the Chief Prosecutor of the Montaza district. [more...]
INDIA: Churches Attacked, Believers Beaten
On 5 May, Hindu militants attacked approximately 200 Christians gathered together for a meeting in Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra state, according to a 6 May report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India. The militants forcefully entered the building, blocked the exits and ordered the believers to chant "Jai Shri Ram" (Praise Lord Ram). Those who refused were beaten. Several were injured, including a 5-year-old girl and a pastor who required five stitches in his head. [more...]
ERITREA: Three Christians Released
Three Christian women were released from an Eritrean military camp on 8 May, according to the Dutch branch of Open Doors. All three were originally detained for being members of a "banned" Christian movement after openly expressing their faith in a predominately Muslim village. A friend of one of the women arranged to have her arrested after she shared with him that she had converted from Islam to Christianity. [more...]
VIETNAM: Hmong Church Threatened with Demolition Yet Again
A group of Christians fled persecution in north-west Vietnam only to have their new church in the Central Highlands demolished – and they may soon face the same trauma again. Last December, local officials and police destroyed the Cu Hat church in the Central Highlands on the ground that it was ‘illegally constructed’. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Pressed as Military Battles Taliban
Pakistani Christians in Swat Valley are caught between the Taliban and the Pakistani military as it assaults the stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules. Nearly 15,000 troops have been deployed in the picturesque Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province and neighbouring Afghanistan. [more...]
INDONESIA: Muslim Group Threatens Newly Elected Christian
An Islamic group in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, has issued threats against Dominikus Supriyanto, the only Catholic to win a seat in the district legislature in recent general elections, warning him that he should convert to Islam if he wants to retain the seat. [more...]
INDONESIA: Protestant Clergyman and Wife Killed with Machetes
Police found Rev Frans Koagow, 64, and his wife Femy Kumendong, 73, at their home, dead, killed with machetes. The couple lived in Manado, capital of North Sulawesi province, where a majority of Sulawesi Island Christians live. Most local Christians are Protestant. [more...]
VIETNAM: Alleged Murderer of Christian Strikes Again
A Hmong man in Vietnam's Northwest Mountainous Region who murdered his mother in February because she had become a Christian has assaulted another Christian, leaving him critically wounded, according to area Christian sources. Lao Lia Po on 25 April viciously beat Koua Lo of Meo Vac district, Ha Giang Province, because he had become a Christian, according to a local church leader. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Muslims Attack Christians Following Blasphemy Accusations
On 1 May, a mob of approximately 500 armed Muslims launched attacks on Christians in the village of Chak, Punjab province, after five local believers were arrested for blasphemy. [more...]
LIBYA: Christian Released from Prison
Daniel Baidoo, a Ghanaian Christian who was convicted of attempting to convert Libyans to Christianity and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2001, was released from Libya's Jedidah Prison on 29 April. Baidoo was arrested at a post office where he had gone to collect a parcel of Arabic Christian literature mailed to him from a ministry in the United States. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Violence Erupts as Government Seeks to Control Taliban
Helicopter gunships and artillery have swung into action against the Taliban in Pakistan. An estimated 800,000 people are on the run as the government tries to pound the Taliban back into line. While many of the refugees are heading for relatives' homes, humanitarian agencies are struggling to accommodate the thousands pouring into refugee camps. Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs notes that the stakes are high for believers. "The Taliban do not want a Christian presence in the area that they control. They do not really want a Christian presence in Pakistan, at all." [more...]
VIETNAM: Woman Imprisoned for Praying
Concern is growing for a Vietnamese Christian who has not been seen since officials seized her a year ago. Puih H’Bat, an ethnic minority Montagnard and mother of four children, ran into trouble by leading prayer meetings in her home in Ploi Bang village. Police raided one such meeting at Puih’s home on 9 April last year. Officers tried to force all 20 Christians present to sign documents agreeing to join the government-sanctioned Evangelical Church of Vietnam. They all refused. Two days later, at 4am, the police arrested Puih and took her into custody. [more...]
INDIA: Christian Pastors Attacked
On 20 April a group of Sikhs in Dalli Rajhara, Durg district, attacked Christian pastors who had converted from the Sikh religion. A source told Compass the pastors were guest speakers from New Delhi at a Christian event organised by Christian Community Church, where about 200 people were in attendance. [more...]
INDONESIA: Church’s Permit Revoked
Church members in Depok city, West Java, are unable to use their church building after the mayor, citing protests from area Muslims, revoked a permit issued in 1998. Under a Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) issued in 1969 and revised in 2006, all religious groups in Indonesia must apply for permits to establish and operate places of worship. [more...]
Burma: The Land of Soft Whispers
Lydia's Testimony
In 1999, a Baptist church where my father used to be a minister decided to petition the Japanese Embassy for assistance in supplying electricity to every home in the village. They asked me to help prepare the application. The Japanese accepted the application I prepared and in 2000, the electricity project was completed.
A government official had a misunderstanding with the church about the project and wrote letters to the government complaining about the people who had been involved with the project. In 2002, intelligence officers came to my apartment demanding I go to the capital city of my state to answer questions. They said that I must sign a paper promising never to help with anything like this without government permission. [more...]
VIETNAM: Massive Christian Celebration Allowed
In what religious freedom advocates regarded as a breakthrough in Vietnam, authorities granted rare permission to unregistered house church groups to hold a large, public Easter-related service in Ho Chi Minh City on 21 April. More than 15,000 people gathered at Tao Dan Stadium to worship God, proclaim Christ and experience a rare sense of large-scale Christian unity, especially house church members accustomed to meeting in small groups. The only other such event granted to unregistered groups was an open-air meeting during Christmas of 2007, sponsored by the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF, a house church umbrella group). At the Easter event, the VEF endeavored to include all house churches, not just its own members, sources said. [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Christians Question Regime's Claims
Even as the North Korean government this month allowed two high-profile, US Christian bands to perform at a music festival in Pyongyang, the fear of punishment which authorities have instilled in North Korean Christians keeps most of them from publicly revealing their faith. As many as 400,000 Christians are estimated to worship secretly in the country, and Suzanne Scholte, head of the North Korean Freedom Coalition (NKFC), estimates that more than 200,000 North Koreans are held in political prison camps for various perceived ‘disloyalties’ to the regime, including adherence to Christianity. Christian support group Open Doors estimates that of the 200,000 people incarcerated in political prison camps, at least 40,000 are Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Taliban-Inspired Attacks Hit Christians
As Taliban control hits pockets of Pakistan and threatens the nation’s stability, Christians worry their province could be the next to fall under Islamic law. Violence on Tuesday night and Wednesday (21-22 April) near the port city of Karachi – some 1,000 kilometers from the Swat valley, where the government officially allowed the Taliban to establish Islamic law this month – heightened fears. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Christian Blogger Released
In a surprise move, a Saudi Christian arrested in January for describing his conversion from Islam and criticizing the kingdom’s judiciary on his blog site was released on 28 March with the stipulation that he not travel outside of Saudi Arabia or appear on media. Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri , 28, reportedly attributed his release to advocacy efforts by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). [more...]
SRI LANKA: Buddhist Mobs Attack Churches
Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka last week, threatening to kill a pastor in the southern province of Hambanthota and ransacking a 150-year-old Methodist church building in the capital. On 8 April, four Buddhist extremists approached the home of Pastor Pradeep Kumara in Weeraketiya, Hambanthota district, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. [more...]
CHINA: Detained Uyghur Christian Taken to Hospital
Family members of detained Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit are increasingly concerned for his safety following reports that police and a prison doctor escorted him in handcuffs to a hospital in Kashgar two weeks ago. Alimjan (Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese) called out to onlookers, “I’m sick. Tell my lawyer to come quickly to see me,” according to a China Aid Association (CAA) report. Sources told Compass that Alimjan had been beaten in prison. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Two Christians Acquitted of ‘Blasphemy’
After more than two years in a Pakistani jail, two elderly Christian men convicted of “blasphemy” against the Quran were acquitted on Thursday 16 April when a high court in Lahore overturned their 10-year sentence. [more...]
CHINA: PSB Officers Return 150,000 Yuan to Pastor Bike
On 17 April Pastor 'Bike' Zhang Mingxuan was summoned to the Nanyang Public Security Bureau (PSB) office where authorities returned the 150,000 yuan that officials had confiscated from him on 21 March by the Beijing PSB. This action came as a direct result of international pressure after ChinaAid sent out a press release on the story. Pastor Bike told ChinaAid sources, "The authorities gave the money back, because of the pressure. Hallelujah! We will continue the ministry and fight for religious freedom." [more...]
IRAQ: Four Christians killed in two days
Four Christians have been murdered in Iraq in the space of two days - confirming the church's fears that persecution is far from over.
Three Christians - Nimrud Khuder Moshi, Glawiz Nissan and Hanaa Issaq were murdered in Dora, a Christian neighbourhood of Baghdad, on 2 April. The previous day, Sabah Aziz Suliman, 60, was killed in Kirkuk, in the north of the country.
[more...]
SUDAN: Support for Sudan’s President Leads to Attacks on Churches
Support for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in the wake of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant is fast turning into orchestrated attacks on Christians. A thatched-grass building in the Nuba Mountains village of Chat, used by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Sudanese Church of Christ, is one of the latest targets of such attacks. [more...]
SUDAN: Converts from Islam Struggle to Survive
When Halima Bubkier of Sinar town converted from Islam to Christianity last year, initially her husband accepted it without qualms. News of her conversion spread quickly, the 35-year-old mother of three said, and last 14 September she came face to face with Islamic hardliners who felt her conversion to Christianity was an act of betrayal. A few weeks later, during the daily fasts and nightly feasts of Ramadan, the Islamists blocked her husband from the communal meals because of her change in faith; he subsequently attacked her and threw her out of their home. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Suspects in Rape of Christian Girl Cleared
Police have declared three Pakistani men innocent of raping a 13-year-old Christian girl despite eye witness accounts and medical evidence indicating their guilt. At a hearing in Nankana Sahib district court on 3 April, police from the Pakistani town of Sangla Hill, cleared 40-year-old Mohammed Shahbaz, 30-year-old Waqas Sadiq and 25-year-old Yousaf Sadiq of accusations of raping and threatening Ambreen Masih. [more...]
EGYPT: Coptic Church Issues First Conversion Certificate
In a bold move, Egypt’s Coptic Church has issued its first-ever certificate of conversion to a former Muslim, supporting his petition to have his national identification card denote his Christian faith. Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s request to legally convert is only the second case in Egypt of a Muslim-born citizen trying to change his religious affiliation to Christianity on identification documents. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: 15-Day Jail Term For Teaching Baptist Beliefs
A court in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent has given a 15-day prison term to Pavel Nenno, a deacon of a registered Baptist Church, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Nenno was prosecuted after a raid involving the NSS secret police on his home, where he was "feeding neglected children from poor families" Protestants told Forum 18. In a separate case, 17 people associated with a registered Bukhara Full Gospel church were each fined 100 times the minimum monthly salary, following a raid on a birthday party for a church member. [more...]
INDIA: General Elections Start 16 April
India has a long election season as more than 700 million votes need to be collected. Voting starts on 16 April and goes through until 13 May, with the results due to be announced on 16 May. Displaced Christians in Orissa living under constant threat of Hindutva violence wonder if they will even get to vote, let alone be able to vote freely. [more...]
LAOS: Khmu Christians Stand Firm Despite Intense Persecution
Fourteen Khmu Christian families in Laos are standing strong in their faith, despite the Communist government forcing them to relocate to another village and their homes and church building being destroyed, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. [more...]
INDIA: Murderer of Missionary Graham Staines Runs for Election
Dara Singh, responsible for the murder of the Australian Protestant missionary Graham Stewart Staines, is a candidate for the upcoming provincial elections in Orissa, in the district of Keonjhar.
The supporters of Dara, whose real name is Rabindra Kumar Pal, have presented him as an independent candidate for the legislative assembly of Ghasipura. Dara was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading the group that in the village of Manoharpur, on the night of 22 June, 1999, set fire to the station wagon of Graham Staines, killing the Australian lay missionary and his two sons, Philip, 7, and Timothy, 9.
[more...]
AZERBAIJAN: "We Have Long Been After You and Now We've Caught You!"
Police, the NSM secret police and the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations in Azerbaijan have all refused to explain why they raided a peaceful religious meeting. "We never engage in such acts," the NSM secret police told Forum 18 News Service. [more...]
IRAN: Two Iranian Women Arrested and Held in “Notorious” Prison
On 5 March, Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad and Maryam Rustampoor were arrested by Iranian security forces and labeled “anti-government activists,” according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN). [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: "We Just Need To Make Sure What They Teach In Their Homes"
Uzbekistan continues to penalise people who distribute religious literature. In two separate cases, Baptists from registered and unregistered churches are facing prosecution, fines and literature confiscations for distributing and possessing religious literature. In the case involving members of a registered church, a local official told Forum 18 that "we just need to make sure what they teach in their homes, and they need to get special permission to have religious activity in a private home." [more...]
MOROCO: Five Foreign Christians Deported
The Moroccan government announced on Sunday (29 March) it had expelled five female Christians for attempting to “proselytise” in the Islamic country, although sources said they were foreign visitors merely attending a Bible study with fellow Christians. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Brace for Sharia in Pakistan’s Swat Valley
Just over two months since Pakistan’s Swat Valley turned into a Taliban stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules, the fate of the remaining Christians in the area is uncertain. In an effort to end a bloody two-year battle, the Islamabad administration struck a deal with Taliban forces surrendering all governance of Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province. Sources told Compass that in the violence that has killed and displaced hundreds, an estimated 500 Christians remain in the region. [more...]
INDIA: Gospel for Asia missionaries Beaten by Mob
Two Indian missionaries have been beaten by an anti-Christian mob in the state of Himacha Pradesh. Danny Yohannan, of Gospel For Asia (GFA), said a group of 30 extremists attacked the GFA missionaries. “[They] took them to the local temple and stripped them naked and made fun of them, took all their Gospel tracts and Bibles and burned them. Then they beat up the missionaries really bad. Then, they took them to the police station and had them arrested," he was quoted as saying by Mission Network News. [more...]
Sharia Law Tearing the West in Two
Sharia, or Islamic law, is gradually working its way into public life in Islamic and non-Islamic nations around the world. "Sharia law is a legal system on the teachings of the Qur'an, the Sunna and the Hadith of Mohammed applied into the community as the legal basis for life," said Jeff Hammond, a Christian who has lived and worked in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, for 35 years. "Christians are very concerned" Hammond explained. [more...]
ERITREA: Persecution Rages On
Persecution of Christians in Eritrea continues to be overlooked by many western nations despite the arrests of over 2000 believers. The Eritrean government claims no persons have been arrested based on their religious practises and in fact denies that any amount of religious disunity exists in the country. However, there has recently been reason to believe otherwise. [more...]
COLOMBIA: Six Months Later, Pastor Still Missing
Six months after the disappearance in Colombia of the Rev William Reyes of Maicao, La Guajira, no one knows what happened to him. This week marks six months of agonising uncertainty for the family of Rev Reyes. On 25 September 2008, the pastor of Light and Truth Inter-American Church disappeared en route home from a ministers’ meeting in Valledupar, a city in the neighbouring department (state) of Cesar. Family members and friends fear that guerrilla fighters kidnapped the veteran minister; they have not seen or heard from him since his disappearance. [more...]
ARMENIA: A "Serious Setback to the Development of a Modern, Progressive and Liberal Armenia"
Armenian human rights defenders and religious communities remain deeply concerned by many parts of the draft Religion Law. Serious concern has also been expressed about the proposed new Article 162 in the Criminal Code, which would punish the sharing of beliefs. Both drafts were approved by Parliament in their first readings. [more...]
CHINA: Gao Zhisheng Held Hostage
Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, has now been missing 50 days, and there is increasing concern for his life. He was last seen being hauled away from his home by more than a dozen police officers on 4 February. Reports from inside China indicate he is undergoing brutal torture.
The situation is critical, and with each day that passes, Gao Zhisheng's life hangs in the balance. [more...]
SOMALIA: Islamist Violence Resurging
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have died in famine and conflict over recent decades as the country has suffered under a belligerent Soviet-backed dictatorship, poverty, famine, clan-based warlordism and now militant Islam. It is very easy to despair over Somalia as being no more than a land of war, chaos, lawlessness, hopelessness, tribalism, barbarism and Islam. The international community and the mainstream media seem to have largely abandoned Somalia, not least because it is simply too dangerous to visit. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Islamist Insurgency Threatens Christian Community
The Christians of Pakistan, already vulnerable and beleaguered, are now in serious danger from a rising tide of radical and violent Islamism. A Christian leader from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province told Barnabas Fund last week how the Taliban are trying to enforce their interpretation of Islam on the whole nation. “That is why the religious minorities fear for their safety and their future,” he said. He described how Christians, desperate to blend in for safety’s sake, are beginning to dress like Muslims and the Christian men to grow beards so that they look like Muslims.
[more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Faces ‘Blasphemy’ Abetting Charge
A Pakistani investigator has ruled out a charge against a Christian for “blaspheming Islam” but retained another for abetting blasphemy, and advocates worry the stigma of the charges could make him a target for local Islamists. Hector Aleem, 51, remains in Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. His lawyer said he believes law enforcement officers and community members framed Aleem for his social activism on behalf of Christians so that the stigma of the charges would subject him to the danger of violence.
[more...]
BRITAIN: Minister beaten after clashing with Muslims on his TV show
A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: "If you go back to the studio, we'll break your legs." [more...]
COLOMBIA: Leftist Guerrillas Threaten, Kill
Having been sentenced to die by leftist rebels for holding Christian worship services in 2006, a pastor in Colombia’s northern department of Arauca took seriously the death threats that guerrillas issued on Friday (13 March), according to Christian support organisation Open Doors.
[more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Four Protestants Jailed, Three More Detained In Homelessness Centre
Uzbekistan has imposed short jail terms on four Protestants, as well as detaining three more in a centre for the homeless. Three Protestants were each jailed for 15 days, after police raided a meal in a private home where the three were present, and three more were held in a homelessness centre for between four and eleven days. Asked why individuals must ask for permission to gather for a religious purpose, the judge told Forum 18 that "I am not a law-maker, and I don't want to discuss the law."
[more...]
IRAQ: Secular Parties Make Gains in Regional Elections
In what is potentially a good outcome for Christians in Iraq, the regional elections of 31 January produced significant gains for secular parties, and especially for religious parties that had adopted a more secular stance.
[more...]
TURKEY: School Textbook Encourages Prejudice and Discrimination
The Ministry of Education in Turkey has introduced a new textbook into its schools that encourages discrimination against the country's small Christian community. The book is aimed at 13-year-olds, and is published by Devlet [State] Books. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Girl Gang-Raped At Gunpoint
On 7 February an impoverished 13-year-old Christian girl in the Punjab province of Pakistan was gang-raped at gunpoint by five Islamic extremists. [more...]
CHINA: Court Says "Insufficient Evidence" for Pastor Lou Yuanqi's Case, yet Continues to Keep Him in Prison
Pastor Lou Yuanqi of Uygur Autonomous Region received a verdict of 'insufficient evidence' and his case was sent back to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) by the prosecutor. The court said ''the facts used in the case are not clear, the evidence is insufficient.' Despite this ruling, Pastor Lou continues to be imprisoned. [more...]
KENYA: Church Struggling after Islamists Destroy Building
Six months after a gang of Muslim youths ruined a church building in a town in northern Kenya, Christians still worshipping in the sweltering heat of the open air say they feel disillusioned that officials have done nothing to punish the culprits or restore their structure. [more...]
INDIA: Persecution Persists, Prayer a Priority
A Christian in the state of Karnataka was recently the victim of a direct attack as his house was burned to the ground. Extremists threatened the believer to relinquish his home to their control. They wanted the property as a choice spot to build a Hindu Temple and verbally abused the man. He would not give in, explaining that the property belonged to his son by law. After several attempts to sway the believer, extremists returned with a final demand for the land, and he refused again. Two days later, extremists returned, drenched the house in petrol and set fire to it. [more...]
VIETNAM: Church Grows, Despite Opposition
While Vietnam has been dropped from the United States’ list of countries of particular concern, Christians are still reporting difficulties. Reports indicate churches have been destroyed by the government and believers have been forced to recant their faith. [more...]
NIGERIA: New attacks on Christians in Bauchi State
In spite of the fact that the government has declared a comprehensive curfew in the state capital, violent attacks against Christians continue in Bauchi State.
The violence began early on 21 February. In the latest figures, at least eleven people have been killed and over 1,500 displaced, and fourteen churches, eight vicarages, one mosque and around 150 homes and businesses have been destroyed. [more...]
INDIA: Christian Father of Two Murdered in Orissa
Family members of a Christian found murdered last week in the Pandagadu area of Orissa state’s Kandhamal district said they believe the killers were Hindu nationalists such as those responsible for more than two months of violent anti-Christian rioting last year.
[more...]
EGYPT: Islamic Lawyers Urge Death Sentence for Convert
In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death. More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday 22 February in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Charges Filed against Kidnappers of Young Sisters
After months of legal deadlock, lawyers in Pakistan said they have new hope they can restore to her family a 13-year-old Christian girl who was kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim. Saba Masih might be returned to her family, the lawyers said, if they can legally maneuver around Pakistani policemen who have stonewalled their attempts to pursue a kidnapping case against the captors. On Saturday (21 February) a Pakistani judge charged the suspects with kidnapping for the first time in the seven-month legal ordeal. [more...]
Iran's War on Christianity
There is a war raging in Iran and Christians like Rachel and Ali live on the brink of eternity. Beatings, kidnapping, rape, arrests and death all once considered unthinkable have become punishment for Iranian Muslims willing to take the Christian walk. Rachel and Ali had their first run-in with the secret police in 2005 when they were attending a house church meeting. Police, armed with automatic weapons, stormed into the prayer meeting and arrested the group of Christians. The police confiscated their Bibles and wrote down family names, phone numbers and addresses.
[more...]
BANGLADESH: Pastor Threatened for Rape Accusations
Christian and human rights advocates said doctors likely fabricated a medical report that falsely concluded there were no signs of rape in the wife of a Bangladeshi pastor whom village Muslims have now threatened for pressing charges. The Rev Shankar Hazra of Chaksing Baptist church in Gopalganj district, 100 kilometres south of Dhaka, said influential area Muslims have used threats to try to force him and his wife to withdraw charges of robbery and rape; he declined to name them out of fear of reprisals. 'If I do not withdraw the case, they said they will make a 'Ganges (river) of blood' here,' Rev Hazra said. [more...]
BURMA: Report Documents Abuse of Chin Christians
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released in January details serious and ongoing abuses against the Chin people, a minority group in Burma's northwest who claim to be 90 percent Christian. HRW's research echoes a 2004 report by the Chin Human Rights Organisation that described targeted abuse of Christians in Chin state, with the Burmese army subjecting pastors and church members to forced labour, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and sometimes death. [more...]
MALDIVES: Reform Excludes Freedom of Religion or Belief
Mohamed Nasheed's election as President of the Maldives was hailed as the dawn of a new era of democracy and freedom in the Indian Ocean country. Under former President Gayoom, the once religiously tolerant Maldives - which tended towards folk Islam - was changed into a society intolerant of all beliefs except state-approved Sunni Islam. [more...]
KENYA: Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Released
Two nuns working in northeast Kenya who were kidnapped last November have been freed and arrived here from Mogadishu, Somalia on Thursday 19 February, but they are still traumatised, sources told Compass. Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Oliviero, 61, both of Italy, are receiving medical care, and top leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are providing them spiritual counselling. Pastor Alois Maina of Mandera, a close friend of the nuns, told Compass that a representative of the pope and the Cardinal of Kenya are among those counselling the nuns, who on 10 November were abducted at gunpoint by suspected Islamic militants from Elwak, near Mandera, and taken across the nearby border into Somalia. [more...]
CHINA: 2008 Persecution Report Released
The 2008 Persecution Report has been released documenting significant increase of persecution of house church Christians in China, during the past year. The report will now be reviewed by the UN. The 2008 Persecution Report, whilst not comprehensive of all the abuses of human rights and religious freedom in China, covers the majority of provinces and municipalities in China and involves many types of persecution and indicates a trend towards targeting Christians in urban areas with tougher tactics. [more...]
NIGERIA: Nine Christians Killed As Violence Erupts In Northern Nigeria
An outbreak of violence between Muslims and Christians in the capital of Bauchi province in Northern Nigeria has left at least eleven people dead. Nine of the victims are said to be Christians, six of whom were shot and three killed with machetes. At least six churches, perhaps as many as 13, have been destroyed by fire, as well as three mosques and over 200 houses. Around a hundred people have been injured. About 4,500 people were displaced from their homes, and many of them have taken refuge in military barracks. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Update on Sandal
For months now, we've been following the case of a young woman named Ashiyana (alias 'Sandal') who is imprisoned for her faith in Pakistan. She and her father were arrested on 9 October after a mob from the local mosque surrounded their house. As the loudspeakers from the mosque called out accusations, the angry crowd hurled stones and bottles of kerosene at the family's house, intending to set it on fire. [more...]
BURMA: Chin Christian Minority Persecuted by Dictatorship
Myanmar's military regime is committing widespread abuses against the mainly Christian Chin ethnic group, who face forced labour, torture and religiously-motivated persecution, The Human Rights Watch report also features interviews conducted between 2005 and 2008 with about 140 Chin; some living in exile abroad, others in their traditional homeland. Ethnic Chin are subject to intimidation and threats by the junta, with violations such as restrictions on freedom of movement and extorting of money, food, and property regularly reported. [more...]
CHINA: More Than 60 House Church Leaders Arrested in Henan; 4 Still in Custody
On 11 February, 2009, more than 60 house church leaders, along with two South Korean pastors, were arrested by local police in Wolong district, Nanyang city in Henan province. At present, at least four leaders are still in custody. [more...]
INDIA: Hard-line Hindus Still Forcing Conversions in Orissa
In the wake of anti-Christian violence in Orissa state last year, hard-line Hindus in Kandhamal district have forced nearly half of 40 Christian families in one village to convert under threat of death, area Christians said. [more...]
CHINA: Elderly House Church Leader Arrested in Henan
A coal miner in his 70's, was arrested on the afternoon of 31 December, 2008 when he went to pick up books and CDs at a storage centre. He was placed in criminal detention until 20 January, 2009 when he was formally arrested, accused of 'using an evil cult organisation to obstruct justice.' [more...]
DRC: Congolese Pastor Imprisoned for Ten Years
Evangelical church leader Fernando Kutino was arrested in May 2006, charged with illegal possession of firearms, criminal conspiracy and attempted murder, and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. The charges were introduced after the trial was underway, and the trial itself lasted only nine sittings despite the complexity and gravity of these charges. [more...]
TURKEY: Christian Bookshop Vandalised
Following threats from Muslim nationalists, a Turkish Bible Society bookshop in the southern city of Adana was vandalised for the second time in a week on Thursday 12 February Security camera footage shows two youths attacking the storefront of the Soz Kitapevi bookshop, kicking and smashing glass in both the window and the door. The door frame was also damaged.
[more...]
NIGERIA: Sani Kibili Released From Prison
Praise God! Sani Kibili, the 55-year-old Christian from Kano State Nigeria who was sentenced to three years in prison for alleged blasphemy against Islam in October 2007, has been released. He has a wife and six children. Sani's release on 15 January came as a result of the efforts of the Christian lawyer appointed by Open Doors. [more...]
IRAN: Christian Arrested at Home
Hossein Karimi, a 27 year old Christian convert from Islam, was arrested the morning of Friday 30th January, 2009. The Secret Agents raided his home without any legal jurisdiction and he has been detained to an unknown location. After a thorough search and inspection the agents also detained all Christian resources, literatures, along with any computer devices. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Parliament to Vote on Anti-Conversion Laws
The Sri Lankan Parliament may soon enact laws to restrict religious conversions. A final vote on a draft 'Bill for the Prohibition of Forcible Conversions' is expected this month. The provisions of the bill criminalise any act to convert or attempt to convert a person from one religion to another by the use of force, fraud or allurement. Those found guilty of breaking the law could be imprisoned for up to seven years and/or fined up to 500,000 rupees ($6544 AUD). [more...]
CHINA: Officials Grapple with Spread of Christianity
Concerned by the growth of unregistered house church groups in an uncertain political and social climate, the Chinese government has ramped up efforts both to identify Christians and to portray Christianity as a subversive foreign force. Sources told Compass that authorities in recent months have been quietly gathering data on church growth, with surveys at universities and workplaces pointedly asking whether respondents were Christians. At the same time, Communist Party officials have called meetings at various institutions in the capital to discuss supposed dangers of foreign religious influence. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Muslim Pilgrims Beat Bible Student
Pilgrims to a massive Islamic conference near this capital city on Sunday (1 February) beat and threatened to kill a Bible school student as he distributed Christian literature. Rajen Murmo, 20, a student at Believers' Church Bible College, was distributing the 32-page books among Muslims near the school along with 25 other students in Uttara town in northern Dhaka, just a few kilometres from the banks of a river in Tongi, where the government claimed 4 million Muslim pilgrims had gathered. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Charged with 'Blasphemy' for Text Message
More than 100 protestors last week surrounded a Pakistani courthouse and chanted death threats against a Punjabi Christian said to be framed for sending a 'blasphemous' text message on his cell phone. At 51-year-old Hector Aleem's hearing at the Rawalpindi Sessions Court on 27 January, crowds gathered and began shouting death threats. His attorney, Malik Tafik, told Compass that a local man allegedly framed Aleem for the charges because Aleem has made legal challenges on behalf of Christians involved in a land dispute.
[more...]
ARMENIA: Two Years' Imprisonment for Organising Sharing of Faith?
If two draft laws which began passage through Armenia's Parliament on 5 February are adopted, spreading one's faith would be banned. Those who organise campaigns to spread their faith would face up to two years' imprisonment, while those who engage in spreading their faith would face up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of more than eight years' minimum wages. Gaining legal status would require 1,000 adult members. "These proposed Laws contain violations of all human rights." Russian Orthodox priest Fr David Abrahamyan told Forum 18.
[more...]
CHINA: Tortured Christian Lawyer Arrested as China Denies Abuses
A Christian defender of human rights in China ' whom authorities detained last week ' detailed state-sponsored torture he suffered in 2007 in an open letter released on Monday (9 February), the same day advocacy groups criticized a UN review of China's treatment of Christians and other minorities for omitting serious abuses. [more...]
EGYPT: Christians Sent to Prison after Brutal Police Raid
Following a brutal raid on six Christian brothers and their cafe because they had opened for business during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, a judge on 22 January sentenced them to three years in prison with hard labour for resisting arrest and assaulting authorities. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Pastor Flees Death Threats
A prominent foreign pastor in Saudi Arabia has fled Riyadh after a member of the mutawwa'in, or religious police, and others threatened him three times in one week. Two of the incidents included threats to kill house church pastor Yemane Gebriel of Eritrea. On Wednesday (28 January), Gebriel escaped to an undisclosed city in Saudi Arabia. A father of eight who has lived and worked as a private driver in Saudi Arabia for 25 years, Gebriel told Compass that on 10 January he found an unsigned note on his vehicle threatening to kill him if he did not leave the country. [more...]
INDONESIA: Sharia-Based Laws Creep into Half of Indonesia's Provinces
As candidates hit the campaign trail in preparation for Indonesia's presidential election in July, rights groups have voiced strong opposition to an increasing number of sharia-inspired laws introduced by local governments. Opponents say the laws discriminate against religious minorities and violate Indonesia's policy of Pancasila, or 'unity in diversity.' With legislative elections coming in April and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono likely to form a coalition with several Islamic parties for the July presidential election, such laws could become a key campaign issue. Although Aceh is the only province completely governed by sharia (Islamic law), more than 50 regencies in 16 of 32 provinces throughout Indonesia have passed laws influenced by sharia. These laws became possible following the enactment of the Regional Autonomy Law in 2000. [more...]
INDIA: Charges Filed in Rape of Nun in Orissa
Orissa police on Thursday (29 January) filed preliminary charges against 10 men in the rape of a nun during anti-Christian violence in Orissa last August. A native of Dhama area in Sambalpur district of Orissa, the nun said she was raped in K. Nuagaon village on 25 August, 2008, during large-scale violence against Christians that broke out in Kandhamal and surrounding districts of Orissa. [more...]
VOM Assists Former Islamic Apologist
The Voice of the Martyrs has provided encouragement and financial help to 'Mohammad' an Islamic apologist who converted to Christianity.
Before becoming a Christian, Mohammad wrote articles attempting to prove Islam was the only way to God. After they were written, however, Mohammad began to have doubts about Islam. He saw violence in Islam and heard his colleagues say that one day those who follow Islam will invade Europe and take their women. After hearing this, Mohammad was very disgusted.
Later, Mohammad met a Christian who invited him to his house. 'He gave [Mohammad] a Bible and asked him to read. When he opened the Bible, the first verse he read was 'And all who accepted Him, He gave them authority to be the sons of God,'' VOM contacts said. 'Mohammad said it was like an electrical current went through his body when he read those words,' VOM contacts added.
'The word of God is powerful,' Mohammad added.
[more...]
'Orissa is the Newest and the Worst Example of Ongoing Persecution against Christians in India.'
Since August 2008, it is estimated that Hindu extremists have displaced over 70,000 Christians, destroyed 4,000 homes, burned 450 churches and killed at least 87 Christians.
Christians make up only two percent of the population in India. In a small section of Orissa where the violence began, nearly 30 percent of the population is Christian. The growth of Christianity in this region angered Hindu radicals who follow Hinduvta, an extreme nationalist ideology that believes no other religion should exist in India. VOM contacts report that the Hindu radicals organised the anti-Christian attacks in an effort to stop the spread of the Gospel and claimed that Christians were bribing or forcing people to convert. The violent attacks in Orissa have slowed but they have not disappeared. "This violence is part of a movement that is not going away," said a VOM staff member. "Orissa is the newest and the worst example of ongoing persecution against Christians in India."
[more...]
INDIA: Relief Camps Closed in Orissa
Government authorities in Orissa state have shut down relief camps forcing thousands of Christians displaced by the wave of violence that began last August to flee, according to VOM contacts. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christians Acquitted in 'Blasphemy' Case
Five Christians charged with 'blasphemy' against Islam during April 2007 religious holidays were released on Monday (19 January) after reconciliation meetings between Christian and Islamic leaders - the first verdict to have resulted from such efforts in Pakistan. [more...]
IRAN: Three Christians Arrested from Homes in Tehran
Three Christians from two different families were arrested from their homes Wednesday morning (21 January) and are being held without charges, sources told Compass. Authorities took Jamal Ghalishorani, 49, and his wife Nadereh Jamali from their home in Tehran between 7 and 8am., about a half hour after arresting Hamik Khachikian, an Armenian Christian also living in Tehran. Ghalishorani and his wife are Christian converts from Islam, considered 'apostasy' in Iran and potentially punishable by death. [more...]
EGYPT: Judge Tells of Desire to Kill Christian
After her arrest at Cairo's airport on 13 December while attempting to flee anti-Christian hostilities in Egypt, convert Martha Samuel Makkar was granted bail on Saturday (24 January), but not before a judge took her aside and said he would like to kill her, according to her lawyer. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Authorities Arrest Christian Convert
Five months after the daughter of a member of Saudi Arabia's religious police was killed for writing online about her faith in Christ, Saudi authorities have reportedly arrested a 28-year-old Christian man for describing his conversion and criticizing the kingdom's judiciary on his Web site. Saudi police arrested Hamoud Bin Saleh on Jan. 13 'because of his opinions and his testimony that he had converted from Islam to Christianity,' according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. [more...]
BURMA: Clamp Down on Churches
Burmese authorities last week increased restrictions on Christian activity in the capital city of Rangoon and surrounding areas, including the closure of several churches. Orders issued on 5 January had already forced many Christians meeting in residential homes or apartments to cease gathering for worship. Officials last week ordered several major Rangoon churches to cease holding services and continued enforcing the ban on meetings held in unauthorised facilities. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Sisters Abducted, Forced to Convert to Islam
The ordeal of two teenage Christian sisters in Pakistan is over after Muslims allegedly abducted and raped them and forced them to convert to Islam, but they fear a future of societal rejection. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Pastor's Wife Gang-Raped, Home Robbed
The pastor of a Baptist church in this village about a 100 kilometres south of Dhaka said that earlier this month local Muslims tied him and his wife up, robbed his living quarters on the church property and gang-raped his wife. The Rev. Shankar Hazra, 55, of Chaksing Baptist church in Gopalganj district, said that before leaving, the assailants desecrated the church building. [more...]
ERITREA: More Christian Deaths
Three Christians incarcerated in military prisons for their faith have died in the past four months in Eritrea, including the death on Friday (16 January) of a 42-year-old man in solitary confinement, according to a Christian support organisation. Sources told Open Doors that Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom died at the Mitire Military Confinement centre from torture and complications from diabetes. Asgedom was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera. His death followed the revelation this month of another death in the same prison. [more...]
CHINA: More than a Dozen PSB Officers Force Pastor Bike out of Beijing
Last week more than a dozen Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers forcibly escorted Pastor 'Bike' Zhang Mingxuan from Pastor Hua Huiqi's home in Beijing and put him on a bus to Henan province. Authorities refuse to allow Pastor Bike and his family to stay in Beijing. [more...]
CHINA: Deathly Ill Husband Denied Visitation with his Imprisoned Wife
Chinese government authorities have denied Hua Zaichen, 91, visitation with his imprisoned wife, 79-year-old Shuang Shuying, according to China Aid Association (CAA).
Zaichen, who is deathly ill, requested a final meeting with his wife to say his goodbyes, but officials refused to grant the request. "Authorities say Shuang Shuying in not allowed to leave prison before 8 February, 2009, the end of her two-year sentence. Officials stated that if her husband died before then, she would be allowed to see his body for 10 minutes and would have to be chained, handcuffed, shackled and wearing a prison uniform," CAA added.
[more...]
CHINA: PSB Pay Pastor Bike Zhang Compensation
On 5 January, 2009 Pastor 'Bike' Zhang Mingxuan received 17,000 yuan ($3765 AUD) from the Director of the Public Security Bureau branch office of Chaoyang district, Beijing. [more...]
EGYPT: Convert Wins Rare Legal Victory to Revert to Christianity
An Egyptian convert to Christianity who spent 31 years officially identified as a Muslim has won a rare legal victory to be officially registered in his 'new' faith. An Alexandrian administrative court awarded Fathi Labib Yousef the right to register as a Christian at a hearing on 20 December in the Mediterranean coastal city. [more...]
TURKEY: 19 year Old Sentenced for Stabbing Priest in Izmir
A judge in Turkey sentenced a 19-year-old Muslim to four-and-a-half years in prison on 5 January for stabbing a Catholic priest in the coastal city of Izmir in December 2007. [more...]
UZBEKISTAN: Children and Parents Threatened for Attending Places of Worship
Police in south-east Uzbekistan have begun a campaign against children attending places of worship. The authorities' campaign, which also uses the state-controlled mass media, attacks schools and parents who allow children to attend religious "sects". [more...]
BANGLADESH: Muslims Drive Christian Grandparents from Home
Muslims in a village in western Bangladesh have forced two brothers to expel their parents from their home for converting to Christianity. Ishmael Sheikh, 70, and his wife Rahima Khatun, 55, were baptised on 9 November. By the end of the month, Sheikh told Compass, Muslim neighbours in Kathuly village, near Gangni town in Meherpur district, had compelled their two sons to expel them from their house. [more...]
INDIA: Church Leaders Attacked
Praise God! Christians in Kandhamal district, Orissa, were able to celebrate Christmas in relative peace and stability. However, in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh state, this was not the case. [more...]
CHINA: Fifty One Christians Detained in Xinjiang, One Young Mother Sentenced
At 1pm local time on 2 January, 2009, a house church in Shayibake District of Urimuqi city, Xinjiang Autonomous Region was raided by a number of Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers. Fifty one Christians were detained for questioning, with forty-eight released later that day. [more...]
ERITREA: Approximately 100 Christians Arrested
Since late November, about 100 Christians, men, women and children, have been arrested by Eritrean authorities, VOM Canada reported. The wave of house arrests began in northern Eritrean cities and moved to southern regions before reaching the capital, Asmara, on 12 December. Some of the detained Christians were reportedly transferred to a military facility and were severely mistreated. Local sources indicate that an unspecified number may have died due to untreated injuries sustained in detention. [more...]
CHINA: Guangzhou House Church Pastor Wang Dao's Case against Persecution Accepted by Court
On 25 December, 2008, Haizhu District People's Court accepted the filing of Pastor Wang Dao's lawsuit against the State Administration of Religious Affairs Bureau (SARA) in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province for raiding Liangren Church. This is an unprecedented move by the court to accept an administrative lawsuit filed by a house church pastor challenging the penalty decision by SARA. [more...]
Guerrilla Fighter Turns Gospel Follower
Ismael excelled quickly through the ranks of the FARC guerrilla movement. At age 17 he was recruiting others in the surrounding villages and at 21 he was commanding a gang of 12 guerrillas. Ismael's commander dared his gang to massacre a group of civilians. Ismael complied. He was promoted and sent for further training in explosives and kidnapping. 'I kidnapped many people, including foreigners,' Ismael said. Saul of Tarsus, Ismael learned to hate Christians. [more...]
INDIA: Going Rate to Kill Pastor: $250
Hindu extremist groups are offering money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes.
[more...]
NIGERIA: Six Pastors Killed, 40 Churches Razed in Jos, Violence
The murderous rioting sparked by Muslim attacks on Christians and their property on 28 - 29 November left six pastors dead, at least 500 other people killed and 40 churches destroyed, according to church leaders. More than 25,000 persons have been displaced in the two days of violence, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. [more...]
INDIA: Going Rate to Kill Pastor: $250
Hindu extremist groups are offering money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes.
The violence is nothing new in Orissa, India, where India's Communist Party estimates that more than 500 Christians have been killed by Hindu mobs in Orissa since late August, 12 times more than official government claims of only 40 homicides. But now the stakes are even higher - and pastors have a bounty on their heads. [more...]
CHINA: Officials Reach Out to House Churches; Raids, Arrests Continue
In recent months Chinese officials have attempted to build bridges with the Protestant house church movement even as police raided more unregistered congregations, arrested Christian leaders and forced at least 400 college students to swear they would stop attending such worship services. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Dowry Demanded from Captor of Christian Girl
After a judge yesterday placed new financial and social pressure on the captors of a Pakistani girl kidnapped and converted to Islam, attorneys have guarded optimism they can return her to custody of her Christian parents. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Christian Family Beaten, Cut - and Face Charges
The harassment that Bangladeshi converts from Islam face from Muslim neighbours in this south-eastern area near Cox's Bazar can take serious turns - as it did last month, when an attack by about a dozen Muslims left a Christian family with machete wounds. Confident that no police would side with Christian converts from Islam, the Muslims in Chakaria town, near Cox's Bazar 380 kilometres southeast of Dhaka, later filed false charges of assault against the wounded and limping Christians, family members said. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Christian Family Beaten, Cut - and Face Charges
The harassment that Bangladeshi converts from Islam face from Muslim neighbours in this south-eastern area near Cox's Bazar can take serious turns - as it did last month, when an attack by about a dozen Muslims left a Christian family with machete wounds. [more...]
COMOROS: Christians Oppressed on Pemba Islands
Christians on the predominantly Muslim islands of Pemba and the Comoros archipelago are beaten, detained and banished for their faith, according to church leaders who travel regularly to the Indian Ocean isles off the east coast of Africa. These violations of religious freedom, the church leaders said, threaten the survival of Christianity on Pemba and the Comoros, with fewer than 300 Christians in a combined population of 1.1 million people. [more...]
EGYPT: Thousands Protest and Vandalise Church
Thousands of Muslim protestors on Sunday (23 November) attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt, burning part of it, a nearby shop and two cars and leaving five people injured. Objecting to a newly constructed extension to the church of St. Mary and Anba Abraam in Ain Shams, the huge crowd of angry protestors gathered outside the church at around 5 pm following a consecration service for the addition earlier that day. [more...]
PAKISTAN - 20-year-old Arrested & Falsely Accused
Church elder Gulsher and his 20-year-old daughter Sandal were arrested on 9 October 2008 and falsely accused of ripping pages from the Koran after a mob from the local mosque surrounded their house. Accusations blared from the mosque loud speaker, fuelling the mob's anger. [more...]
NIGERIA: Violence Erupts in Jos
Communal violence broke out in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Friday (28 November) after Muslims began attacking Christians on claims of vote-tampering, leaving hundreds dead and thousands fleeing their homes. After officials reportedly refused to post local council election results on Thursday (27 November) - prompting speculation that a party backed largely by Christians had won - Muslim gangs in the Ali Kazaure area of the city began attacking Christians, according to local residents. Violence along political, ethnic and religious lines followed, with security forces said to be responsible for killing more than 300 Muslims whose bodies were later brought to one mosque. [more...]
PAKISTAN: 'Blasphemy' Cases Send Christians into Hiding
A Christian doctor in Pakistan jailed since 5 May on charges of "blasphemy" was acquitted last week, while another Christian and his adult daughter remain incarcerated after more than a month on charges of desecrating the Quran.
[more...]
IRAQ: Two Christian Sisters Killed by Islamic Extremists
On 12 November, two sisters were killed and their mother wounded by a gang of Islamic extremists in the Al Qahira section of Mosul, Iraq, according to VOM contacts. The gunmen shot one of the sisters as she was waiting for a bus outside their home. They then stormed into the home, killed the other sister and injured their mother. A bomb placed by the assailants at the entrance of the house detonated as police arrived on the scene, injuring several officers. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Pastor Awaits Trial Hearing under House Arrest
Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov - on trial since July for allegedly possessing an illegal gun - was transferred from prison to house arrest at a hearing in Zakatala on 5 November, church members told Forum 18 News Service. He had been detained for twenty weeks. His next hearing is due on 17 November. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Forced to Convert as Extremists Seek To Turn Orissa into a Hindu St
Hindu extremist violence against the Christian community in Orissa State, India, which started on 24 August, has been continuing unabated for two months now. There have been numerous cases of forced conversions to Hinduism as Hindu extremists try to turn Orissa into a Hindu state. Christians who want to return to their homes are told by the Hindu extremists: "Come back as Hindu or don't come back at all." In some cases the Hindu extremists poured petrol over the Christians and then asked them to convert; if they refused they were burnt. [more...]
SOMALIA: Christian Aid Worker Beheaded for Converting from Islam
Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness. Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on 23 September sliced the head off Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a World Food Program (WFP) worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometres from Baidoa. [more...]
INDIA: More Homes Burned; Closure of Relief Camps Planned in Orissa
On the evening of 19 October, Hindu militants burned several homes belonging to Christians in Kandhamal district, Orissa Despite the government's claim that the state is "returning to normal," reports of militants burning homes, raiding hospitals and stealing animals belonging to Christians continue. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Girl's Account Re-opens Custody Fight for Sisters
Lawyers for two underage Christian sisters who were kidnapped plan to renew a custody fight for the older girl, a 13-year-old allegedly coerced into marrying her captor, based on new statements from her 10-year-old sister that they were raped and forced to convert to Islam. The plans come after the court last month allowed 13-year-old Saba Masih to decide whether to return to her parents or remain with her husband. [more...]
CHINA: Prominent House Church Leader's Sons Assaulted by Chinese Police
On 16 October, Zhang Jian, the elder son of Pastor "Bike" Zhang Mingxuan, was severely beaten by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials in Beijing, China Aid Association (CAA) reported.
Zhang Jian was at home with his mother, Xie Fenglan, when PSB officials entered their residence and secured the exits before severely beating him with iron bars for nearly half an hour. As Zhang lay bleeding profusely, his mother called the ambulance, but the receptionist told her that a higher government authority gave a directive not to dispatch an ambulance to rescue Zhang because he is related to Pastor Bike CAA reported. Xie Fenglan called her younger son, who rushed to the house and was also beaten by the same authorities, CAA added. [more...]
IRAN: Parliament Votes in Favour of Punishing Apostasy with Death
The Iranian Parliament has voted in favour of a bill stipulating the death penalty for apostasy. The bill was approved by 196 votes for, seven against, and two abstentions. The approved bill will be sent back to the Legislative Commission to debate proposed amendments before it is brought before parliament for a further vote.
[more...]
IRAN: Christians Charged with 'Apostasy'
Two Iranian Christians have officially been charged with "apostasy," or leaving Islam, as a draft law making the death penalty mandatory for those convicted of the charge is set to be debated in Iran's Parliament. [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Christian Persecution Expected to Continue
The Voice of the Martyrs contacts working with North Korean Christians do not expect a change in the North Korean government's policies and practises that persecute believers, despite reports the country's dictator, Kim Jong Il, is acutely ill. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Custody Case to go to Surpreme Court
A custody battle in Pakistan over two Christian girls kidnapped and allegedly forced to convert to Islam remained inconclusive after a hearing today, with rights advocates for the family suspecting Muslim fundamentalists of pressuring the minors and a medical board. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Partial Victory Seen in Ruling of Kidnapped Girls
Christian human rights lawyers in Pakistan saw a partial legal victory in a judge’s ruling last week that one of two kidnapped girls be returned to her Christian parents. The judge further ruled that her sister be free to choose whether to go with the Muslim man who allegedly forced her to convert and marry him. [more...]
INDIA: Attacks and 'Reconversions' Continue in Orissa
The spate of anti-Christian violence that began following the killing of a Hindu leader on 23 August in Orissa's Kandhamal district continued yesterday, despite a stream of meetings by Christian and rights groups with high government officials.
According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), more than 20 houses belonging to Christians from the Orissa Follow-Up ministry (OFU) in Khajuripada village in Kandhamal were set on fire last night. The Rev. Dr. D.B. Hrudaya of the OFU told EFI that the whereabouts of the 20 families whose houses were destroyed were unknown and that he was "deeply concerned." [more...]
MEXICO: Three Family Members Murdered in Chiapas
When the 11-year-old daughter of Antonio Gomez became ill of a stomach ailment, her father decided that it was due to 'witchcraft' committed by his evangelical neighbour. Gomez, of the Jolitontic community of Chalchihuitan municipality in Chiapas state, and seven friends on 23 August allegedly killed three adults - the parents and their eldest son - and wounded six children with machetes. [more...]
NIGERIA: Islamist Group Attacking Christians
Blaming the death of their leader on Christian prayers, an Islamist group that launched a hate campaign in response to an evangelistic event in 2004 is reportedly attacking Christians in this Kwara state capital with renewed virulence, area Christians said. At least three Christians have died and several others have been injured in attacks with machetes and other weapons since June, clergymen said. [more...]
SAUDI ARABIA: Father Burns Christian Daughter to Death
A Saudi man cut the tongue of his daughter and burned her to death for converting to Christianity, according to a report by the United Arab Emirates based Gulf News. The victim frequently wrote on various website blogs about her conversion from Islam. It is believed that she turned to Christianity after being exposed to its teachings on the internet and through Christian media. [more...]
LAOS: Authorities Detain 90 Christians
Authorities in Laos have detained or arrested at least 90 Christians in three provinces in recent weeks, including an arrest last Sunday (3 Aug) of a pastor and two other believers from a house church in Boukham village, Savannakhet province. Arrests were reported in the southern provinces of Saravan and Savannakhet and in Luang Prabang province in the north. [more...]
Pakistan: Custody of Child Hinges on Medical Report
Amid pressure from radical Muslim clerics, a medical board is expected to determine the age of a Christian Pakistani girl allegedly forced to convert to Islam. The medical report on 13-year-old Saba Masih, who married a Muslim man, is due by her Aug. 20 custody hearing. The custody battle over her and her 10-year-old sister, Aneela Masih – two girls raised as Christians who were kidnapped and allegedly converted to Islam – may be decided on their testimonies even though they contradict court evidence. [more...]
IRAN: Christian Couple Dies from Police Attack
An Iranian Christian couple in their 60s died last week from injuries sustained when secret police raided a house church service hosted at their house and severely beat them, a source told Compass. Less than a week after Abbas Amiri's funeral, his wife died from similar injuries and stress from her husband's death, according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN). [more...]
INDONESIA: Demonstrations turn violent at theological school; at least 17 injured.
For a second consecutive night some 580 students from the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology (SETIA) in East Jakarta slept in the lobby of Indonesia's parliament following demonstrations against the school that left at least 17 students injured. Urged on by announcements from a mosque loudspeaker to "drive out the unwanted neighbour," hundreds of protestors shouting "Allahu-Akbar ["God is greater]" and brandishing machetes, sharpened bamboo and acid continued to attack 1,400 students and school staff members even as they were evacuated over the weekend (26-27 July). [more...]
BELARUS: Baptism Banned, Pastor fined
Officials have tried to stop three different Protestant communities in Grodno Region, north-western Belarus, from conducting peaceful religious activity. In the small town of Svisloch, a planned open-air baptism has been banned, despite the attempts of Pentecostals to negotiate with the authorities. Bishop Fyodor Tsvor told Forum 18 that "they just don't want to allow it." [more...]
OAKISTAN: Children in Converion Dispute Sent to Shelter
A Pakistani court today took over supervision of two children in a custody battle that appears to hinge on their disputed conversion from Christianity to Islam. At a hearing in Multan, Judge Saghir Ahmed ordered Aneela and Saba Masih, 10 and 13 respectively, to be temporarily placed in a government-run women’s shelter. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Court Grants Custody of Girls to Kidnappers
A Pakistani couple has appealed a court decision to award custody of their two daughters, 10 and 13, to the children?s alleged kidnappers. The court based its custody decision on the girls? conversion to Islam. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Christians Injured in Violent Attacks
Recently there have been at least two incidents of violence against Christians in Sri Lanka. According to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), "Unidentified assailants set fire to the house of an Assemblies of God church pastor in the city of Middeniya on the evening of 3 July. [more...]
INDIA: Pastors Attacked, Accused of Forcible Conversion
On 24 June, Pastor Murugan was beaten by Hindu militants who ambushed him and two other believers while returning home from a prayer meeting in Moodalpalya, Karnataka, India. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, "The other two managed to flee and escape any harm. The militants accused the pastor of forcibly converting people and 'spoiling the minds of the children' and took him to the local police station where he was detained." [more...]
PAKISTAN: Girls Kidnapped, Allegedly Forced To Convert
A Christian father in Pakistan is in a legal battle with kidnappers for the custody of his pre-teen daughters, who allegedly have been forced to convert to Islam. Yesterday a judge in Pakistan’s Punjab province ordered further investigation into the kidnapping of Saba Younis, 12, and Aneela Younis, 10, who went missing on June 26 in the small town of Chowk Munda. [more...]
IRAN 'Temporarily' Releases Badly Injured Christian
After four weeks in police custody, Iranian Christian Mohsen Namvar was released "temporarily" last week to return to his home in Tehran. A doctor summoned to Namvar's home after his release last Thursday (26 June) administered medicines and serum to treat the badly beaten prisoner. Arrested on 31 May from his home in Tehran, the convert from Islam was kept incommunicado until his release. "They put a great deal of pressure on his body and his mind," an Iranian Christian told Compass. "No one knows exactly what they did to him during those four weeks." Noting that government authorities know a great deal about Namvar's Christian activities and want to punish him, the source said, "We praise the Lord that they have not killed him." [more...]
INDIA: Women Still Traumatised from Christmas Attacks
Preliminary findings of an ongoing study on gender violence shows that female victims of attacks in Orissa state last Christmas season are struggling with post-traumatic disorders. The study conducted by local Christians and led by Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, records accounts of premature births, sexual molestation and attempted rape during the violence that began on Christmas Eve and lasted for more than a week in Kandhamal district. [more...]
INDIA: Christians Attacked after Hindu Leader Killed
The killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) leader Swamiji Laxmanananda Saraswati and four associates by suspected Maoists on Saturday night (23 August) led to renewed anti-Christian attacks in Orissa state, with churches torched and two people burned alive. [more...]
PAKISTAN: Christian Girl Raped by Muslims
On 25 May, a 12-year-old girl from a Christian family, Elishba, was raped by three Muslims in Lahore, according to a 13 June report from AsiaNews. Elishba's father, Niamat Masih, returned from work to find her not at home and grew worried for her safety because she suffers from mental problems. When he went outside to look for her he heard noises coming from a nearby home and went inside. He was met by the young Muslim men who fled at the sight of him. He then found Elishba lying unconscious on the floor with her clothing torn. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Zaur Balaev threatened by authorities
Baptist former prisoner of conscience Zaur Balaev - freed on 19 March after being held for nearly a year to punish him for leading his congregation - was summoned and threatened with a new prison term in early May, he told Forum 18 News Service on 12 June from his home village of Aliabad in the north-western region of Zakatala [Zaqatala]. "Haven't you learnt from your imprisonment?" Balaev quoted police officers as telling him. "Wasn't one prison term enough for you?" And, in what Balaev says was a clear threat, one officer added: "You may not be afraid, but you've forgotten you've got a wife, daughter and a son." [more...]
INDIA: Christians in Orissa Still Targeted after Attacks
Still struggling to rebuild their homes and lives after suffering large-scale attacks last Christmas season, Christians in Orissa state's Kandhamal district continue to face ostracism and threats from Hindu nationalists. [more...]
CHINA: Beijing Churches Raided
House churches were broken into by government officials from 4 different Government agencies, including the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, on the morning of 25 May. Officials proceeded to forcefully enter and search the homes of the house church members, confiscating religious materials without presenting proper documentation or search warrants. Some members received minor injuries from police officials, who resorted to violence against the members. Despite the illegal actions taken by the Government officials, the house church members obediently complied with their demands, even shaking the hands and pronouncing a blessing upon the officials who had broken into their homes. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Pastor's 13-year-old Daughter Gang-Raped
Muslim villagers in Mymensingh district eager to rid the area of the Christian work of a local pastor have gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter. Pastor Motilal Das of United Bethany Church said that at around 3 am on Friday (2 May) the villagers sexually assaulted his daughter, Elina Das, and left her unconscious in front of his house in an attempt to drive him and his Christian ministry out of Laksmipur village in Fulbaria sub-district, 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the capital.
[more...]
INDONESIA: Pastor Released
On 7 March, 2006, Abraham was visiting relatives in West Java when he was attacked by a group of Muslims who beat him severely. They rolled over his van and helped themselves to its contents, including the new clothing merchandise. They were joined by other Muslims and began shouting, "Burn him!" They set fire to his van before police arrived just in time to rescue him. Originally, he was detained in the Tasikmalaya Police station for security reasons, but was later charged with blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. [more...]
PHILIPINES: Attacker Shoots Two Pastors and Wife; One Pastor Killed
On 15 April, Pastor Vic Vicera, his wife, Beth, and Pastor Noli Saturnino were shot at when an unknown assailant stormed Pastor Vic's home in Mindanao, Philippines, and started shooting. Pastor Vic was killed in the attack. [more...]
NORTH KOREA: Report Details Targeting of Christians
In a report released this month by a U.S. government body, refugee testimonies confirm severe persecution of Christians throughout North Korea. [more...]
INDONESIA: Christian village burnt to ground by neighbouring Muslims
The mainly Christian village of Horale was attacked on the night of 2 May by a mob from the neighbouring village of Saleman which is predominantly Muslim. The Muslims burnt down 120 houses, three churches and the village school. Four Christians were killed and 56 wounded. Fifteen hectares of crops were destroyed as well as 20 fishing boats and 2 motor-cycles. [more...]
SOMALIA: Four Christian Teachers Murdered
Four Christian teachers, two of them converts from Islam, were murdered by Islamic militants last Sunday, 13 April, in Beledweyne in south-central Somalia. Mr Daud Assan Ali (aged 64), Ms Rehana Ahmed (aged 32), both of Somali origin, and two Kenyans were shot and killed when militants stormed the school where the Christians were sleeping. [more...]
IRAQ: Syrian Orthodox Priest Murdered
Saturday saw more violence against Christians in Iraq, as an Assyrian Orthodox priest was gunned down outside of his house. Pope Benedict expressed his "profound sorrow" upon hearing of the killing, which is the latest in a string of attacks Christians. [more...]
WEST BANK: Pastor's Son Injured in Bombing
On 20 March, Amiel Ortiz, the teenage son of Messianic pastor David Ortiz, was seriously injured when a bomb delivered to the family's home in the Jewish settlement town of Ariel went off in his hands. [more...]
ERITREA: Jailed Pastors Could Face Treason Charges
Unconfirmed reports emerged last month in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, indicating that the repressive regime plans to press formal charges of treason against several Protestant pastors jailed for the past four years. Official conviction for treason carries the death penalty in the tiny Horn of Africa nation. [more...]
ALGERIA: 13 Protestant Churches Closed
Algeria has ordered the closure of 13 Protestant churches, the head of the denomination said Monday, amid anger over allegations that Evangelist Christians are trying to convert Muslims. [more...]
INDIA: Intolerant Hindus Attack Easter Services
Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists stormed two Easter Sunday services and beat at least 16 Christians, including two pastors, in Karnataka's state capital of Bangalore and in Shimoga district. A mob of more than 150 intolerant Hindus on Sunday (23 March) launched an attack on a Pentecostal church in Karnataka's Shimoga district at 9 am, and a group of more than a dozen assailants struck Christians of an independent church in Byapanahalli on the suburbs of Bangalore at 11:45 am, reported the Global Council of Indian Christians. [more...]
AZERBAIJAN: Baptist Pastor Released from Prison
On 19 March, Baptist Pastor Zaur Balaev was released from prison in Azerbaijan. The release was part of a presidential amnesty on Novruz Bairam, a holiday marking the beginning of spring. [more...]
IRAN: Death Penalty Proposed for Apostasy
The Iranian parliament is reviewing a bill for the Islamic Penal Law (Penal Code) that aims at legislating the death penalty for apostasy. According to the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the draft law defines an apostate as "any Muslim who clearly announces that he/she has left Islam and declares blasphemy." [more...]
IRAQ: Kidnappers Demand Huge Ransom for Chaldean Archbishop
Kidnappers are demanding a huge ransom for a Chaldean Archbishop abducted last week in northern Iraq, sending fear through the country's Christian community, a local priest said. Since the Friday (29 February) kidnapping in Mosul, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's captors have refused to decrease the amount of money they are demanding for his release, according to Father Najeeb Mikhail. "They want money, but in addition they want to break all the Christians in Mosul," the priest said in a telephone conversation from Erbil. [more...]
SRI LANKA: Pastor Killed, Wife in Seriously Injured in Attack
On 17 February, Pastor Neil Edirisinghe, of the House Church Foundation, was gunned down by two assailants outside his home in Ampara, Sri Lanka. According to a report by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), "Pastor Edirisinghe was engaged in the Lord's ministry in Ampara for many years. [more...]
NIGERIA: One Dead, 60 Injured in Muslim Attacks on Christians
On 2 February, one Christian was killed and 60 others injured; churches, businesses and homes were set on fire in the latest Muslim attacks on Christians in Bauchi state, Nigeria. According to Voice of the Martyrs contacts in Nigeria, "One Christian man was killed, over 60 people were seriously injured and five churches were damaged." [more...]
PAKISTAN: Pastor Martyred
Pastor Sajid William was shot and killed by unidentified, masked gunmen on 17 January. William, age 29, was on his way home in the city of Peshawar, in Pakistan's violent Northwest Frontier Province. VOM contacts report that Pastor Sajid was employed by a humanitarian relief agency and also involved in evangelistic work. [more...]
BANGLADESH: Elderly Convert from Islam in Bangladesh Dies from Burns
A 70-year-old woman convert from Islam died on Friday (1 February) from burns she suffered when unknown assailants in a Muslim-majority area about 150 miles northwest of the capital set her home on fire last month. Rahima Beoa of Cinatuly village suffered burns over 70 to 80 percent of her body after the bamboo and wood home she shared with her daughter and son-in-law, also converts, was set ablaze on 7 January, said Khaled Mintu, Rangpur regional supervisor of the Isha-e-Jamat (Jesus' Church) Bangladesh denomination.
[more...]
BANGLADESH: Elderly Christian Woman's Home Set Ablaze
Rahima Beoa, who was planning to be baptised on 13 February in Muslim-majority Rangpur district, 248 kilometres northwest of the capital city of Dhaka, suffered burns on 70 percent of her body. "The unknown people wanted to burn alive the elderly woman because they came to know that she would be a Christian in the next month," said Khaled Mintu, a regional supervisor of the Rangpur district of the Isha-E-Jamat Bangladesh denomination. "It was a devilish conspiracy to stop her being a Christian." [more...]
INDIA: Hindu Nationalists Plan to Revive Tensions in Orissa
Amid reports of forced conversion of Christians to Hinduism following an unprecedented spate of violence over Christmas in Orissa state's Kandhamal district, federal intelligence sources have warned churches of the likelihood of more attacks. [more...]
IRAQ: Two injured in car bomb blast outside temple in Mosul
A car-bomb exploded outside a Chaldean church in northern Iraq yesterday, injuring two people, a Baghdad bishop said. The blast is the 10th reported attack on Iraqi churches in two weeks. Acting on reports that an unfamiliar vehicle was parked outside the church, police had already cleared the area and were waiting for a team of bomb experts to arrive when the car exploded, Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com reported. The blast hurt a policeman and an unidentified woman and damaged a church wall and windows, the site said. It came just a week after two churches in Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, were simultaneously bombed.
[more...]
CHINA: House Church Leader and Orphans Evicted
Several orphan children and their caretakers were forced to spend the night in a hotel room after having been evicted from their orphanage by local police officials on Christmas day. The orphanage's caretakers, Ming Xuan Zhang along with his two sons, had prepared to celebrate Christmas with the children, but were in no way prepared to deal with the situation that unfolded that morning. After presenting an eviction notice, officials then proceeded to beat the care-takers and the children until they were literally forced onto the street. [more...]
CHINA: Prominent House Church Leaders Arrested
Prominent leaders of the Fangcheng house church, Tian Ming-ge and Su Dean, were detained by local police in Jiuquan City on 20 December 2007. Su and Tian Min-ge, also known as Tian Jin, were in the midst of conducting a church service with fellow co-worker, Wang Hongliang, when local authorities disrupted the gathering and detained the pastors. The three church leaders were arraigned under the charges of "gathering in an illegal assembly under the guise of religion." Mr. Wang was released after serving 15 days detention, while Tian and Su's penalties have been elevated to criminal detention on 5 January, 2008. With a shaved head and donning prison garb, the 71 year old missionary, Tian Jian, was escorted by authorities from Jiuquan Detention Center to the Fangcheng County Public Security Bureau of Henan. [more...]
[sign up now...]
Iraq's indigenous Assyrian and Chaldean Christians are being killed or else driven from their homeland.
[more...]
Phone: (02) 4759 3700
General Enquiries:
Youth Ministry: