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Speak Out Against Persecution news 2008

24 October 2008

India Update

Hindu violence against Christians continues almost unabated, along with the torching and destruction of their homes, churches and schools. The Hindu anti-Christian violence that started in Kandhamal district, Orissa, on 23 August has now spread across much of Orissa and into five other states. Anti-Christian attacks persist, even in major cities like Bangalore. As if it weren't enough that 180 churches and 4,500 homes had been destroyed, creating 50,000 Christian refugees, Christians in Kandhamal's relief camps are even being prevented from meeting for prayer and are being pressured to go home. Fr Ajay Singh reports the displaced are given one blanket per family, the relief camps have no sanitation, counselling services are not permitted and the emotional health — particularly that of the women — is 'deteriorating rapidly'. Meanwhile, according to AsiaNews and the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), a campaign to 'cleanse the land' is under way with Hindutva outfits physically removing all evidence of a past Christian presence. Efforts to forcibly convert Christians to Hinduism under threat of death have increased.The situation in the states of Orissa and Karnataka is very tense.

The Central Government has threatened to invoke Article 355 of the Indian Constitution against Orissa and Karnataka. This would empower the Centre to impose a 'national emergency' to address the 'internal disturbance'. It could also be a precursor to implementing Article 356 whereby the Centre may dismiss a state government for violating the Constitution. That threat is intended to motivate the state governments to rein in the Sang Parivar (Hindu nationalist) outfits that are presently orchestrating the violence. The BJP however has denounced it as a political stunt and retorted that the violence was provoked. Most doubt the Central government has the will to intervene against the Hindutva bodies and an ascendant BJP. The situation is extremely serious and unlikely to improve significantly in the seven months before the May 2009 general elections as the Hindutva forces escalate their efforts to advance Hindutva for political gain. Please pray for God's intervention. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty 22/10]

A first hand account of the persecution may be found at http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=727&catID=2

You might like to email the Indian High Commissioner using the following letter as a guide:

Egypt

The 4th Century Abu Fana monastery in Mallawi, Minya province, has been attacked at least 12 times since 2004. In April 2008 the monks received government permission to build a wall around their property. But on 31 May a mob of some 60 local Muslims attacked not long after building started. The police only 2km away did not arrive until three hours after the distress call was made. Apart from considerable property damage, two novices and a priest were shot and wounded, another priest was bashed and civilian farm workers were also injured. Three priests were kidnapped and tortured for 24 hours as their captors tried in vain to force them to spit on the cross and say the Islamic 'shahada' (the creed that signifies conversion to Islam). Because the government is reluctant to prosecute Muslims who persecute Christians, it sponsors instead 'reconciliation sessions'. In the case of the Abu Fana monastery attack, the monks were forced to hand over nearly 100 acres of their land, change their reports dropping all charges against their attackers in exchange for peace.

Tensions have also been inflamed by rumours concerning Wafaa Constantine (51), the wife of a Coptic monk. When Mrs Constantine disappeared for nearly two weeks in late 2004, Muslims claimed she had converted to Islam while Christians claimed she had been kidnapped and converted by force, a common occurrence in Egypt. When Mrs Constantine testified before the District Attorney (DA) that she was, is, and will die a Christian, the DA dismissed the case claiming Mrs Constantine had become a Muslim and released her into the custody of the Coptic Church. Muslims subsequently maintained that she was being held prisoner in a Wadi-El-Natrun monastery. Recently an Islamic scholar named Zaghloul El Naggar claimed in the Egyptian media that Mrs Constantine had been tortured to death in the monastery for refusing to renounce Islam. Whilst he offered no evidence for this claim, terror threats to monasteries have escalated, forcing the closure of three of the four surviving monasteries in Wadi-El-Natrun, along with monasteries in Alexandria, Beheira and Assiut.

On Saturday 4 October a minor incident between a Muslim and Christian in the majority Coptic village of al-Tayeba, near Minya in central Egypt, escalated into a violent communal clash. Property was damaged and a 19-year-old Coptic boy named Yeshua Gamal Nashed was shot dead. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

For a recent story on Egypt's Christians, see http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2008/s2354596.htm

Iraq

The violent attacks on Assyrian Chaldean Christians in the north-Iraqi town of Mosul continue. Information received by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) show that in spite of the top security level for Christian institutions the Maskanta church in the south of the town was bombed on Tuesday Oct 14. The door of the church was destroyed but nobody was hurt. In the previous two weeks at least twelve Christians have been murdered. By Wednesday evening, 2351 Christian families had fled from Mosul as a result of the planned terror against members of their religious community according to information received from the Christian Minister of Finance of the autonomous north-Iraqi federal state of Kurdistan, Sarkis Agajan. They have been seeking refuge in villages and small towns on the nearby Nineveh Plains and in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the Nineveh Plains the Christians, together with the Moslem and Yezidi Kurds and the small ethnic group of the Shabak, make up the majority of the population.

It has been reported in the media that on Wednesday the second-in-command of the terror network Al Kaida, the Moroccan Abu Kaswarah, was killed in an exchange of fire between US troops and AlQaida units. Four members of the terror group "Islamic State of Iraq" have been arrested by the Iraqi police. They are charged with being responsible for attacks on Christians in Mosul, stated General Khalid Peoples, Göttingen, Germany]

Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration reported last week that a further 600 families have fled Mosul due to threats, intimidation and attacks, bringing the total number of displaced Christians to around 9,360 from some 1,560 families. On 20 October Nineveh Deputy Governor Khasro Goran said the number has since risen to 2,000 families, based on the most recent figures from Nineveh's office of Immigration and Displaced Persons. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees comments that this amounts to about half the Christian population of Mosul. Most of those displaced have found refuge in churches. There is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

Afghanistan

On Monday 20 October, Taliban 'mujahideen' shot and killed Gayle Williams (34, from London) as she walked to work in Kabul. Miss Williams becomes the 29th aid worker to be murdered in Afghanistan by the Taliban this year. In August, three women working with the New York-based International Rescue Committee were ambushed and murdered by the Taliban for being part of 'the foreign invader forces'. The Taliban claimed responsibility for Gayle Williams' murder saying that their investigations revealed that 'this woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan', so the Taliban leadership 'issued a decree to kill this woman'. Miss Williams had been in Afghanistan for two years assisting mentally disabled Afghans with the British-registered charity 'Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises' (SERVE) which has been working with Afghan refugees since 1980. SERVE's chairman, Mike Lyth, dismissed the Taliban's claims to have targeted Miss Williams for religious revenge as 'opportunistic'. He said that while the charity is motivated by Christianity, it does not actively proselytise. Pray for a witness to be preserved in Afghanistan that the church may grow. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

10 October 2008

India Update

* PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR INDIA: Hindu violence against Christians continues almost unabated, along with the torching and destruction of their homes, churches and schools. Many tens of thousands are refugees in parlous and often life-threatening conditions. The Hindu anti-Christian violence that started in Kandhamal district, Orissa, on 23 August has now spread across much of Orissa and into five other states. The violence is the result of years of Hindutva efforts to Hinduise the masses and demonise Christians as a direct threat to Hindu India. The situation is extremely serious.

Anti-Christian attacks persist, even in major cities like Bangalore (India's 'Silicon Valley'). The Central government has threatened to invoke Article 355 of the Indian Constitution against Orissa and Karnataka. This would empow the Centre to impose a 'national emergency' to address the 'internal disturbance'. It could also be a precursor to implementing Article 356 whereby the Centre may dismiss a state government for violating the Constitution. That threat is intended to motivate the state governments to rein in the Sangh Parivar (Hindu nationalist) outfits that are presently orchestrating the violence. The BJP however has denounced it as a political stunt and retorted that the violence was provoked. Most doubt the Central government has the will to intervene against the Hindutva bodies and an ascendant BJP. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

A first hand account of the persecution may be found at http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=727&catID=2

Laos

Authorities in Laos have detained or arrested at least 90 Christians in recent months in three provinces - the southern provinces of Saravan and Savannakhet and northern province of Luang Prabang. On July 21, officials detained 80 Christians in Katin village, Saravan province, after residents seized a Christian neighbour identified only as Pew and poured rice wine down his throat, which flooded his lungs and killed him. When mourning family members buried the Christian and put a wooden cross on the grave, village officials accused them of “practicing the rituals of the enemy of the state” and seized a buffalo and pig from the family as a fine.

In July 25, officials rounded up 17 of the 20 Christian families in the village, 80 men, women and children, and detained them in a local school compound, denying them food for three days in an attempt to force the adults to sign documents renouncing their faith. As their children grew weaker, 10 families signed the documents and on July 30 were allowed to return home.The remaining seven families were evicted from the village and settled in an open field outside the village, building small shelters and surviving on food found in the nearby jungle.

On July 20, police stormed into the house church in Boukham village, Savannakhet province and ordered 63 Christians present to cease worshipping and believing in God—or face arrest, although the Lao constitution guarantees freedom of religion and worship.

Pastor Sompong was arrested and held with four other believers. They were detained in Dong Haen prison for two days with their feet secured in wooden stocks. On Sunday August 3, together with two other believers he was again arrested.

The chief of Boukham village on September 19 called a special community meeting to resolve the “problem” of eight resident Christian families who have refused to give up their faith. The meeting concluded with plans to expel all 55 Christians from the village. Although all adult members of a village are usually invited to such meetings, on this occasion the Christians were deliberately excluded, according to rights group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). Pastor Sompong Supatto, 32, and two other believers from the village, Boot Chanthaleuxay, 18, and Khamvan Chanthaleuxay, also 18, remain in detention in the nearby Ad-Sapangthong district police detention cell. HRWLRF earlier reported that police have held the men in handcuffs and wooden foot stocks since their arrest on Aug. 3, causing numbness and infection in their legs and feet due to lack of blood circulation. Authorities have said they will release the three only if they renounce their faith. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Egypt

The 4th Century Abu Fana monastery in Mallawi, Minya province, has been attacked at least 12 times since 2004. In April 2008 the monks received government permission to build a wall around their property. But on 31 May a mob of some 60 local Muslims attacked not long after building started. The police only 2km away did not arrive until three hours after the distress call was made. Apart from considerable property damage, two novices and a priest were shot and wounded, another priest was bashed and civilian farmworkers were also injured. Three priests were kidnapped and tortured for 24 hours as their captors tried in vain to force them to spit on the cross and say the Islamic 'shahada' (the creed that signifies conversion to Islam). Because the government is reluctant to prosecute Muslims who persecute Christians, it sponsors 'reconciliation sessions' instead. In the case of the Abu Fana monastery attack, the monks were forced to hand over nearly 100 acres of their land, change their reports dropping all charges against their attackers in exchange for 'peace'.

Tensions have also been inflamed by rumours concerning Wafaa Constantine (51), the wife of a Coptic monk. When Mrs Constantine disappeared for nearly two weeks in late 2004, Muslims claimed she had converted to Islam while Christians claimed she had been kidnapped and converted by force, a common occurrence in Egypt. When Mrs Constantine testified before the District Attorney (DA) that she was, is, and will die a Christian, the DA dismissed the case claiming Mrs Constantine had become a Muslim and released her into the custody of the Coptic Church. Muslims subsequently maintained that she was being held prisoner in a Wadi-El-Natrun monastery. Recently an Islamic scholar named Zaghloul El Naggar claimed in the Egyptian media that Mrs Constantine had been tortured to death in the monastery for refusing to renounce Islam. Whilst he offered no evidence for this claim, terror threats to monasteries have escalated, forcing the closure of three of the four surviving monasteries in Wadi-El-Natrun, along with monasteries in Alexandria, Beheira and Assiut.

On Saturday 4 October a minor incident between a Muslim and Christian in the majority Coptic village of al-Tayeba, near Minya in central Egypt, escalated into a violent communal clash. Property was damaged and a 19-year-old Coptic boy named Yeshua Gamal Nashed was shot dead. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

13 September 2008

India

The violent Hindu anti-Christian pogrom that erupted in Kandhamal district, Orissa (north-east India), on 23 August continues to rage.

Orissa is a State with a lot of tribal people, who have been oppressed and outcast in the Hindu system anyway, so that naturally there has been a response to the message of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. In Orissa the violence has spread to engulf nine districts indicating there is a high degree of VHP (World Hindu Council) co-ordination. According to the national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, Mr Sajan K George, 'Truckloads of [Hindu] militants from neighbouring states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have entered the area to back up the VHP campaign. Armed with bombs, swords and guns these VHP militants are pouncing on poor, weak and defenceless Christians.' Compass Direct reports that on Sunday 7 September, a mob of around 2000 Hindus attacked a church service in Bhudainjal village, causing worshippers to flee. Two church workers were assaulted. According to Mr George some 3000 Christians have been forced to convert to Hinduism over recent days in order to save their lives. The police watch and do not intervene. One man said armed Hindus chased him and his family into the forest where they were ordered to convert or die. 'My children and wife were all crying in fear so I agreed to take part in the ritual.'

A further atrocity is that relief camps in Kandhamal are now being attacked. On the evening of 2 September, Hindutva terrorists climbed onto the water tank at the relief camp in Habaq High School and were about to empty a bag of poisonous chemicals into the drinking water when they were caught by the security guard. On 3 September the camp at Vijoy High School reported their drinking water had been poisoned. Fortunately this was discovered before the water was dispensed. On 4 September a mob of some 2500 Hindu nationalists invaded the camp at Tikabali Government High School and stole the food supplies because they objected to Christians 'eating at government expense'. The police did not intervene. A group of Hindu women unsuccessfully attempted to torch another relief camp.

Violence is now erupting in other states controlled by the Hindu nationalist Bharantiya Janata Party (BJP). On 5 September a mob of Hindu nationalists violently attacked nuns of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Chhattisgarh and snatched the four orphaned babies they were transporting for adoption. The Hindus claimed the nuns were kidnapping the babies for forced conversion. In Madhya Pradesh, Hindu nationalists burnt down the 86-year-old St Bartholomew Anglican Church of North India in Ratlam city on Sunday 7 September. Police are trying to frame the church's Christian watchman for the crime even though he was at home with his family at the time. The state education department in Karnataka has issued notices to scores of Christian schools that observed a day's closure on August 29 in protest of the Orissa violence. Also in Karnataka three churches in Davangere city have been ordered to close. On Sunday 7 September a large mob of local Hindus invaded the 18-year-old Mission Action Prayer Fellowship in Bada Village in a rural area of Davangere where numerous churches are presently under threat. They beat the pastor and believers and burnt the church's Bibles, furniture, musical instruments, pulpit and cross. They brought a media team and all the action was telecast live.
[World Evangelical Alliance/Amnesty International]

If you feel strongly about this, you might like to email these two government officials and copy in each case to the High Commissioner in Australia

Letter 1

Email: cmo@ori.nic.in
Cc: admin@hcindia-au.org
Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa
Office of the Chief Minister
Naveen Nivas Aerodrome Road
P.O. Bhubaneshwar, Distt. Khurda, Pin - 751 001
Orissa, India
Dear Chief Minister
I write to express my deep concern at attacks on Christians in your state.

I urge your government to provide adequate security for the relief camps set up for Christians in the state of Orissa, and ensure that relief reaches them safely.

I also beg you to take immediate action to halt attacks on the Christian minority in Kandhamal and other districts of Orissa;

Finally, I urge you to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the attacks, including the one on the relief camp at Tikabali on 2 September, publish the results and bring those responsible to justice.

Yours sincerely,
YOUR NAME

Letter 2

Email: svpatil@sansad.nic.in
CC: admin@hcindia-au.org
Shivraj V. Patil
Minister of Home Affairs
Ministry of Home North Block
New Delhi 110 001
India

Dear Home Minister

I write to express my deep concern at attacks on Christians in your state.

I thank you for your announcement of a series of steps to rehabilitate those displaced by the attacks but feel that security is still not adequate. Therefore I urge … (as above)

Copies to:
Her Excellency Mrs Sujatha SINGH , High Commissioner
High Commission of India
3-5 Moonah Place

Yarralumla ACT 2600
Fax: (02) 6273 1308
Email: admin@hcindia-au.org

10 September 2008

India

Population of Kandhamal district, Orissa state

More than 10,000 Christians are living in refugee camps in the eastern Indian state of Orissa after anti-Christian violence in the area.

In 1969 a Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) proselytiser named Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati established an Ashram (Hindu religious centre) in Kandhamal district, Orissa state, north-east India, and committed himself to countering the work of Christian missionaries. He never succeeded in stopping conversions to Christianity but, with state government support, he has turned Orissa into a tinderbox of communal tension. As Hindutva-isation has advanced (especially since 2005) Hindutva zealotry and anti-Christian hatred have escalated, priming whole communities for genocide.

Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati organised and incited an anti-Christian Hindu pogrom in Kandhamal district in December 2007 that left a swathe of destruction and many thousands of Christians displaced. He urged the Hindus of Kandhamal via mobile phone messaging to burn the homes and churches of Christians and repeat the 'revolution' that brought 'peace' to Gujarat (referring to the 2002 Hindu pogrom that left some 2000 Muslims dead). A judicial inquiry into the violence, announced by the state government, is still in progress.

On 23 August 2008 Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was ambushed and shot dead. From the evidence this was a targeted assassination perpetrated by a group of well-armed Maoist guerrillas who as egalitarian left-wingers are natural enemies of the caste- perpetuating right-wing Hindu nationalists. Despite this, Hindu leaders in Orissa publicly charged the Christian community with killing the Swami because of his anti-conversion campaign. A violent Hindu pogrom erupted, so far claiming at least 36 lives. Numerous Christians have been burnt, beaten, raped and slashed with swords. A 20-year-old nun was burned live in an orphanage. Another young nun was pack-raped. A senior priest and nun were stripped and violently degraded before a crowd of cheering spectators, including known local government officials and several police. Hundreds of churches have been vandalised, looted and torched as have thousands of Christian homes.

The violence has spread into surrounding districts and 50,000 Christians are estimated to have fled their homes ahead of violent religious cleansing and are now displaced across Orissa, with many hiding in dense jungle. The Orissa state authorities have set up 20 relief camps to provide sanctuary for Christians forced to flee their homes in Kandhamal district. A total of 13,000 people were staying in the camps, in Kandhamal district and the Orissa state capital, Bhubaneswar

On 29 August over 40,000 Christian educational institutions throughout India closed in a nationwide protest against the anti-Christian violence. These institutions are now facing a backlash, particularly in BJP-ruled states like Karnartaka where the state government has ordered officials to take action against the schools for closing without government permission. Archbishop Raphael Cheenath has petitioned the Supreme Court for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the violence and the state's failure to maintain law and order.

A group of 200 women supporters of the murdered Hindu nationalist leader, angry that relief was being given to Christians, went to protest at the camp at Tikabali on 2 September. Police baton-charged them to drive them back. The 2 September attack came a day after India’s home minister, Shivraj Patil, visited one of the relief camps in the district and announced a series of steps to rehabilitate those displaced by the attacks.

The state government announced on 25 August that a special team had been constituted to investigate the murder of Lakshmananda Saraswathi and his associates.
[World Evangelical Alliance/Amnesty International]

Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible,

• urging the authorities to provide adequate security for the relief camps set up for Christians in the state of Orissa, and ensure that relief reaches them safely.
• urging them to take immediate action to halt attacks on the Christian minority in Kandhamal and other districts of Orissa;
• urging them to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the attacks, including the one on the relief camp, publish the results and bring those responsible to justice.

Appeals to:

Naveen Patnaik
Chief Minister of Orissa
Office of the Chief Minister
Naveen Nivas
Aerodrome Road
P.O. Bhubaneshwar
Distt. Khurda, Pin - 751 001
Orissa, India
Fax: +91 674 2535100
Email: cmo@ori.nic.in
Salutation: Dear Chief Minister

Shivraj V. Patil
Minister of Home Affairs
Ministry of Home Affairs
Room no. 104
North Block
New Delhi 110 001
India
Fax: +91 11 2309 4221
Email: svpatil@sansad.nic.in
Salutation: Dear Home Minister

Copies to:

Her Excellency Mrs Sujatha SINGH
High Commissioner
High Commission of India
3-5 Moonah Place, Yarralumla ACT 2600
Fax: (02) 6273 1308
Email : admin@hcindia-au.org
Salutation: Your Excellency

13 August 2008

China

• Chinese police detained house church leader Zhang Mingxuan, along with his wife Xie Fenlang and co-pastor Wu Jiang He, at a police station in Hebei after a BBC journalist attempted to interview him on Monday 4 August. International affairs journalist John Simpson phoned Zhang to request an interview, as required in a handbook given to journalists reporting on the Olympic Games in Beijing. Zhang agreed to the interview, but as Simpson travelled to meet him, police seized Zhang and his companions and moved them to a local police station. Public Security Bureau officials had banished Zhang and his wife from Beijing for the duration of the Games, fearing they would try to meet with visiting foreign officials. After forcing Zhang and Xie to leave their home, police on 18 July entered a guesthouse where they were staying and drove them to Yanjiao in neighbouring Hebei province. Zhang and Xie had moved to another, more remote town to await the completion of the Games. [Compass Direct]

• Pastor Zhang Zhongxin, of Jining City Shandong, was transferred to a Shandong Province labour camp to begin his two years re-education through labour on 6 July, 2008. On 11 July, Zhang's lawyer Li Fangping along with Zhang's wife Wang Guiyun met with pastor Zhang in the Labour Camp. On the morning of 14 July, Wang Guiyun, representing her husband, submitted an appeal to the District of People's Court of Jining City requesting that the court of Jining City withdraw the labour camp decision. The appeal has been submitted to the District Court and is awaiting review. [China Aid Association]

• Bike Zhang, pastor and chairman of the Federation House Church, and his wife Xie Fenglan were forced from their home in Beijing on 6 July by Public Security Bureau officials. The couple found shelter at the home of a friend, but when PSB officials learned about it, they came to the friend’s house and again forced the couple to leave. Bike Zhang and his wife then moved to a hotel in Guo Xian. However, only a few days later, on 14 July, PSB officials again arrived on the premises and asked the hotel manager to evict the couple, threatening him with imprisonment if he did not comply. Pastor Zhang and his wife were then taken for interrogation by the police. Xie Fenglan collapsed after hours of questioning without any food, drink or rest, but was not taken to hospital until several hours later. Bike Zhang and his wife then went to stay with Xie Fenglan’s sister in Sanhe, Hebei, but on 16 July, local police, who had followed Pastor Zhang as he went to get medicine for his wife, again forced the couple out of the house. Unable to find shelter, Bike Zhang and his wife are now living on the streets. One source reports that, when asked why the couple was being expelled from Beijing, officials said: “Because Bike Zhang met the Americans, and destroyed the harmony of the Beijing Olympic Games.”

*  Pray for Pastor Zhang and his wife that they will find shelter and that the PSB and other government officials will leave them in peace. Pray for full recovery for Xie Fenglan as she still struggles with the after-effects of the hours of interrogation and torture.
* Pray for the situation of Chinese Christians and house churches who have faced much harassment and persecution in the run up to the Olympic Games in Beijing. Pray for their protection during the Games. [Barnabas Fund]

Pakistan

Two girls who were kidnapped have been forcibly converted to Islam. Aneela Masih, 10, and Saba Masih, 13, appeared in court on July 12. Declaring they had become Muslims, they invalidated their Christian parents’ right to legal guardianship. The girls reportedly appeared in the Muzaffargarh District Court in the company of 16 Muslim men when they testified their conversion was genuine. Their parents lost custody of the children and are now appealing the ruling. There are grave fears for the girls’ safety, and it is believed the older girl has been married to a Muslim man. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Nepal

Early on 1 July, armed masked men broke into the Salesian mission complex in Sirsiya, which is close to the Indian border and due south of Kathmandu. They murdered Father Johnson Prakash Moyalan (60) who was an Indian missionary, Catholic priest and principal of the Don Bosco Nepali-language School in Sirsiya. After bashing and shooting him in the chest and stomach the exiting killers threw homemade bombs into the building causing considerable damage to the almost new premises. The killers – believed to be militants from the Hindu nationalist Nepal Defense Army (NDA) – left pamphlets stating their belief that Nepal should be a Hindu Kingdom.

The killers stole only Fr Moyalan's mobile phone with the details of numerous Catholic leaders, workers and institutions across the country, who have since been contacted by the militants threatening violence unless they pay money. Police are now guarding some Catholic institutions and have started investigating.

Nepal's Terai, the flat, alluvial southern lowland belt which runs near the Indian border, is also the 'Hindutva (violent Hindu nationalist) belt'. In May 2006 some 5000 Hindus ampaged in Birganj (close to where Fr Moyalan was murdered) protesting the parliament's decision to turn Nepal into a secular state. Since then the NDA has perpetrated many acts of terrorism, mostly against Maoist institutions. In the past year they also bombed a Christian orphanage in Birganj and in March 2008 a secular media outlet and a mosque in the south-eastern industrial hub of Biratnagar. In most cases they left pamphlets: 'Nepal Defense Army for Hindu Kingdom'.

* Pray that God will protect all Christian workers and institutions in Nepal from terrorism, so their gospel message and service can continue  in liberty and security. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty   Prayer List]

20 June 2008

Iran

Iranian authorities are intent on cracking down on non-Muslim religious activity, demonstrated in a series of raids on the homes of Christians and Baha’i followers.

On May 11, police in the southern Iran city of Shiraz arrested members of three Christian families who converted from Islam and confiscated their books and computers. The detained Christians were identified as Homayon Shokohie Gholamzadeh, 48, and his wife Fariba Nazemiyan Pur, 40; and Amir Hussein Bab Anari, 25, and his wife Fatemeh Shenasa, 25. Although the two wives were released the same day of their arrest, Anari was detained until May 14, and Gholamzadeh remains jailed. Raids on other families followed a day later.

Six Baha'i leaders in Iran were then arrested on May 14 and taken to the notorious Evin prison in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha'i leaders were summarily rounded up and killed. “We protest in the strongest terms the arrests of our fellow Baha'is in Iran,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations. “Their only crime is their practice of the Baha'i Faith’. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Algeria

In February 2006 Algerian President Bouteflika signed the controversial 'Presidential Order Concerning Religion' which severely restricts Christian worship and practice. The Order was then passed by the upper and lower houses of parliament without debate. However for two years it sat on the books without being implemented. Then in early 2008 the government finally caved in to pressure from Islamist groups and a crackdown began.

On 29 March 2008, police in Tiaret city, 240km (150 miles) south- west of Algiers, found Bibles in the handbag of an Algerian Christian woman named Habiba Kouider (35). She was subsequently charged with 'practising non-Muslim religious rites without a licence'. The case has attracted considerable local and international attention and condemnation. Writing on 27 May -- the day the verdict was due to be delivered -- Algerian dissident journalist Arezki Ait Larbi called on the government to stop the 'witchcraft trials' against Christians. He mocked the government's ridiculous 'conspiracy theories' and argued the case for 'fundamental liberties over fascist tendencies'. Regarding Habiba Kouider's trial he said: 'Whatever the verdict, Habiba is already a symbol of courage and liberty.' The ruling has been postponed.

On 1 June police in Tiaret harangued Habiba in the street for two hours, subjecting her to a humiliating public body search and interrogation. Then on 3 June, the Tiaret court handed down rulings regarding four Christians on trial for the crime of seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity: Rachid Muhammad Essaghir received a six-month suspended sentence and a 200,000-dinar (US$3,300) fine, whilst Chabane Beikel, Abdelhak Rebeih and Djillali Saibi were each given two-month suspended sentences and 100,000-dinar (US$1,650) fines. Another case against Rachid Muhammad Essaghir (37) started on 18 June in Tissemsilt, 175km (110 miles) south-west of Algiers. He and an associate, Djallal, had been charged with 'distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims' after Bibles were found in their car in June 2007.

On 7 June, Algeria's Minister of Religious Affairs, Mr Ghlamalah Bouabdellah, attempted to justify the repression by accusing Christian groups of collaborating with foreign elements; destabilising the country by sowing divergences between people; and seeking the political objective of opposing the ruling regime. He equated them with criminals and terrorists and promised to fight them 'the same way we fight terrorism'. Just days earlier, the head of the government-appointed Higher Islamic Council, Abu Amrane Chikh, had made the same accusations. According to Chikh, 'This is a new form of colonisation that is hidden behind freedom of worship.’

Algeria has a presidential election scheduled for April 2009, so this is a strategic time for debates about Islam, religious liberty and the future of Algeria. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

Nigeria

When two teenage Christian girls were rescued from their Muslim attackers, their release sparked a rampage in which six churches were destroyed.

Mary Chikwodi Okoye, 15, and Uche Edward, 14, were in foster care in Ningi, Bauchi state, Nigeria, when Muslim men kidnapped them. When they were found to be missing, the Christian community organized a search for the girls. Word got out that the girls were being held in another state—Kano—by a Muslim leader, in the town of Wudil. They were to be forcibly converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men. When it became known that the Christians were coming to secure the girls’ release, the leader in Wudil sent them back to the Emir of Ningi. At this point police intervened and recovered the girls on May 12.

In protest against police intervention, a paramilitary group of Islamic extremists then went on a rampage and attacked six churches, causing extensive damage to property. The group responsible was an arm of Kano state’s Sharia Commission, used for enforcing Islamic law. Following the incident, church leaders reported a decline in church attendance. Apparently there have been at least 13 other girls kidnapped from Ningi. Some have never been recovered and are still living in relationships with Muslim men. It is alleged that the mastermind behind the abductions is a local Muslim leader named Alhaji Bala Gambo. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Turkey

The trial of five young Turkish men accused of killing three Christian workers in a publishing house in April last year is still in progress. In testimony presented to the court, the suspects have blamed one another for the killings, saying they were not personally responsible for the deaths.

In other evidence, a letter from another convicted criminal has come forward, in which he stated he had been offered $300,000 in 2005 to kill anyone he found in the publishing house. This man, Metin Dogan, had been involved with an ultranationalist youth organization. He said that he was jailed on another charge before he could commit the deed, and that the job had passed in the meantime to Emre Gunaydin [Tears of the Oppressed]

Iraq

In a clash of values with Iraq’s Muslim culture, Christians in Iraq have deplored the death sentence handed down to the killer of Chaldean Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court charged al-Qaeda member Ahmed Ali Ahmed with killing Mosul's archbishop, whose body was found in a shallow grave on March 13.

Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako openly condemned the sentence. “We are not satisfied with this decision, because the church is against the death penalty,” he told Agence France-Presse. Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni said that Ahmed should be punished for his crime but that executing him would be pointless, adding violence to violence. “If somebody is killed I think there is no use in it for the Iraqi people,” the Chaldean church leader said. “Our principles are love and pardon and reconciliation.” [Tears of the Oppressed]

A new report by Amnesty International, Rhetoric and reality: the Iraqi refugee crisis, says that the international community continues to fail to respond to the crisis in a meaningful way. Countries like Jordan and Syria host most of the refugees but are simply not equipped to meet the needs of all those arriving.

West Papua

According to the International Crisis Group, Indonesian Papua has seen periodic clashes between pro-independence supporters and government forces, but conflict between Muslim and Christian communities could also erupt unless rising tensions are effectively managed. Violence was narrowly averted in Mano­kwari and Kaimana in West Papua province in 2007, but bitterness remains on both sides. The key fac­tors are continuing Muslim migration from elsewhere in Indonesia; the emergence of new, exclusivist groups in both religious communities that have hardened the perception of the other as enemy; the lasting impact of the Maluku conflict; and the impact of developments outside Papua. National and local officials need to ensure that no discriminatory local regulations are enacted, and no activities by exclusivist religious organisations are supported by government funds. More at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5485&l=1

18 Apr 2008

China

Uighur Christians in the far-west Xinjiang Autonomous Region appear to be caught up in the central government's crackdown on anything they fear could cause unrest, dissent and embarrassment ahead of the Olympics. The government fears Tibet-style unrest in Xinjiang where the Islamic revival of the 1990s has stimulated ethnic and religious intolerance, separatism and the threat of terrorism. Three Uighur Christians, all patriotic with no separatist sympathies, have been arrested in recent months. Two of them, Osman Imin and Alimjan Yimit, have been sent to prison labour camps while another has been accused of threatening national security. Please pray for the Church in China, particularly in Xinjiang, and that the Chinese authorities will have discernment and wisdom as they tackle complex issues. Pray that God will sustain and protect the three Christians, their families and their fellowship groups; that the Church in Xinjiang, especially that the Han Chinese believers will advocate for the rights of their Uighur fellow believers and help meet their needs - despite the cost. [World Evangelical Alliance - Religious Liberty News & Analysis.]

India

Easter celebrations in Bangalore and Shimoga District in India were marred by violence when Hindu extremists stormed services at two different churches on Easter Sunday, beating at least 16 Christians, including two pastors. A mob of more than 150 Hindu nationalists launched an attack on a Pentecostal church, accusing the church of 'forced' conversions. The attackers beat 35-year-old pastor Mandya Nagraj and five others. They also vandalized church property, including the church's roof and musical instruments. Police arrested six of the attackers and agreed to provide protection to the pastor. The Pentecostal church, attended by around 60 Christians, has been functioning for six years with no evidence of attempting to convert people by force or fraud.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen assailants— led by the Hindu priest of a local temple— attacked Christians of an independent church in Byapanahalli in the suburbs of Bangalore. The aggressors beat 30-year-old pastor P. Isaac and nine believers, including a 17-year-old girl identified only as Jency. The girl was rushed to a hospital for first aid. Following the attack, the assailants went to the homes of a few believers and warned them against attending the church. They also took Pastor Isaac to the police station and sought to register a complaint against him for 'forced' conversions. Police interrogated the pastor and subsequently released him. Please pray for the pastors that they many make a full and speedy recovery; that Indian Christians may be able to worship freely, especially during religious festivals; give thanks for the intervention of the police in the attacks. [ Tears of the Oppressed ]

Uzbekistan

A group of believers in Samarkand was arrested at a meeting in one of their houses on 3 April. The police confiscated all books, note-books and a laptop which they found in the house. The Christians present were severely beaten and then all were released except one named Bobur. Bobur was released after six days' imprisonment on 9 April. All criminal charges against him have been dropped. The only charges against him now are administrative charges for holding religious meetings without official registration. If there is a court hearing within the next month, Bobur still faces the possibility of 15 days detention or a large fine. Please pray for Christians in Uzbekistan who still face increasing persecution and harassment from authorities. [Barnabas Fund]

Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina 's Federation Anti-Terror Unit on 20 March arrested five men: Rijad Rustempasic, Muhamed Meco, Abdulah Handzic and Edis Velic, all in their early thirties and from Sarajevo, along with Muhamed Ficer, from the central Bosnian city of Bugojno, who was released from custody after questioning. The four arrested in Sarajevo were members of the local Wahhabi movement - the Saudi-based and financed order following a strict interpretation of Islam.Some of the suspects were already well known to the police for their radical activities. The group had been under surveillance for several months by the Federation Anti-Terror Unit and the State Prosecutor's Office. Federation Anti-Terror Unit and the State Prosecutor's Office have strong evidence that Rustempasic's group was planning attacks on Catholic Churches. [World Evangelical Alliance - Religious Liberty News & Analysis.]

Turkey

Plaintiff lawyers in the case of three Christian workers murdered in a Christian publishing house in Malatya, Turkey, have had to tolerate further delays after an important fax “went missing”. The legal proceedings, which have been surrounded by controversy and corruption, have been postponed for another month after court clerks failed to correctly file the lawyers' request to replace judges accused of bias.

The three victims of the killings, Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel, and Tilmann Geske of Zirve Publishing House were tortured and slaughtered a year ago by youths who carried in their pockets written notes that the killings were religiously and politically motivated. Evidence now suggests that the young men were co-opted by the 'Ergenekon' network—a group classified by the Turkish government as a “terrorist organisation”. It is believed that Ergenekon is also responsible for the murders of Armenia journalist Hrant Dink and Catholic priest Andrea Santoro. Turkish news outlets have reported that recent police raids uncovered evidence that Ergenekon was seeking to stage a coup in 2009 and is acting to destabilize Turkish society in advance. [More at http://tearsoftheoppressed.org/content/view/196/135/ ]

Iraq

Iraqi Christians discovered the body of Chaldean Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho, 65, buried in a cemetery, just 14 days after he was kidnapped. On February 29, armed militants gunned down his bodyguards and driver and took him by force, just after he finished presiding over the Stations of the Cross service at Holy Spirit parish in the city of Mosul. The kidnappers later issued impossible ransom demands in exchange for his release, increasing an initial demand of $1 million to $2.5 million. In addition, they demanded that that Iraqi Christians appeal to the West to supply arms to Iraqi militias and help secure the release of Sunni Arab prisoners in the northern Kurdish region. 

At the time of his abduction, the Archbishop was without his heart medication and the cause of his death remains uncertain. It is possible that he may have died in custody as a result of his illness. The kidnappers told church authorities that the clergyman had been very ill and later indicated where his body would be found. 

Despite many threats to his welfare, the Archbishop had refused to leave Mosul—even after the murder of his right-hand man, Father Ragheed Ghanni, in May last year. Fr Ghanni was killed for refusing to convert to Islam.

In other news from Iraq, the last remaining family of the Mandaean religious sect in the Alaza area of Kut was massacred by rocketfire into their home on March 27. Ten members of the family died, including three small children. One family member, Maayud Abdul Gatta, 33, is in hospital with serious injuries. The family had been harassed for some time by local Muslim militants who wanted them to leave. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Further information has come from The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), who have given a serious warning of the extinction of the small religious community of the Mandaeans in Iraq. 'Islamist terrorists continue to put their dreadful threats against people of other faiths into practice as brutally as on the 2nd February in Kut in the Alaza region, some 160 km south-west of Baghdad. There ten members of a Mandaic family were killed by a rocket aimed at their house and one Mandaean was seriously injured', reported workers of the GfbV Kurdistan/Iraq Section by telephone from Arbil. The family had received several threats from Islamists. This was confirmed the associations of Mandaeans in Australia.

'The effect of this dreadful attack against such a small religious community as the Mandaeans is devastating', said the GfbV Near-East correspondent, Kamal Sido, in Göttingen. This could mean the final exodus of the last members of this old religious community, of whom there remain according to the latest estimates at most 5000. In 2003 there were still about 30,000 Mandaeans living in Iraq. Some 25,000 Mandaeans have already fled to neighbouring countries to escape from murder, abduction and rape. There are shocking examples of even children and teenagers being attacked. [GfbV]

Iraqi Christians and Mandaeans need our support. Please write to your federal member, using your own words. You might like to mention some of the above information.

Sample Letter

Dear …

I am writing to you to convey my deep concern for the plight of religious minorities in Iraq, particularly Christians and Mandaeans who are suffering terribly at the hand of mujahadeen fighters.

I ask the Australian Government to take up their cause in the international arena. Prime Minister Rudd, in an address to the Australian church community last year, specifically mentioned the persecution of Christians in Iraq as an issue of special concern to him.

The religious minorities in Iraq have no protection whatever. Many will not take up arms as a matter of principle, in accordance with their faith — in stark contrast to the militant Islamists controlling their communities. Those believers who leave Iraq often face destitution in their new country, where they and their children have little access to employment and education. Most of them have fled to Syria and Jordan, where they are still a minority in a Muslim country.

Please convey my distress over this matter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and encourage him publicly to address these issues as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

11 Feb 2008

Iraq

In early January, churches were bombed in Mosul, Baghdad and Kirkuk. In Mosul a monastery and orphanage were also bombed. A Chaldean church in the northern city of Mosul was the target of the tenth bombing of Christian churches and facilities. On 18 January an abandoned car exploded outside the church building inflicting damage and minor injuries to a policeman and a woman. Though the extent of damage was minimal, this bombing adds to a growing concern for the safety and welfare of Iraq 's Christian minority. In response to the bomb attacks, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki vowed government support to ensure safety for Christians in Iraq . Please pray that this commitment will become a reality and for no harm to fall upon the righteous .

Canon Andrew White, ministering at St George's Anglican Church in the heart of Baghdad, told CBN, ‘The two largest Christian neighbourhoods of Dora and Karada are now devoid of all Christians. I have 1300 members in my church in Baghdad and we have six men left. All the rest have been kidnapped or killed.' Canon White says he has never loved a congregation as much as he loves his congregation of women of children in Baghdad. He says many have been driven from their homes and now live in the churches, which struggle to supply their basic daily needs. [ Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin ]

An account of the plight of women in Basra by CNN (broadcast by SBS on 9/2) can be viewed at http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/08/iraq.women/index.html

China

In a victory for the rule of law, four male and five female church leaders were released from labour camps after their convictions were overturned. The nine were originally detained in August 2007 when they were found having a worship service in the home of Ms Qin Daomin. The four men who are released are Mr Wang Caizhang (34), Mr Ma Zhao (35), Mr Yang Situan (39) and Mr. Du Dongliang (32). The five women are Ms Qin Daofang (40), Ms Hu Rong (42), Ms Li Mei (42), Ms Ren Xianxue (35) and Ms Qin Daomin (33). Mr Yang Situan and Ms. Ren Xianxue are husband and wife with three school-age children. Qin Daofang and Qin Daomin are two biological sisters and their father Mr Qin Hongjun (65) was sentenced to 10 days administrative detention for hosting the Sunday worship service at his home. He was also severely beaten. [ Tears of the Oppressed ]

Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan the authorities have dropped criminal charges against the leaders of Grace Church. They were falsely accused of keeping large quantities of psychotropic medicines in the church, when in fact the medicine was a commonly used cough mixture belonging to just one person in the church. Regardless, they still face the threat that the church building they have owned since 1999 may be seized. Other Protestant churches have strong concerns that the government may reconsider the issue of ownership of their church buildings as well. Praise God that the church leaders were cleared of the false charges and please pray for God's justice in the situation with the church building.

Pray that mass-media propaganda against Protestant churches will be ineffective and will cease. [ Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin ]

Pakistan

Martha Bibi - who served a term of three months and 13 days in jail on charges of blasphemy - went to live with her cousin, Mushtaq, after she was released on bail in May last year. In doing so, Martha was concealing herself, as it was feared she would be attacked by militants who wanted to execute their own justice against her. However, the plan was discovered, and Mushtaq received a threatening letter accusing him of ‘sheltering blasphemers' and telling him to convert to Islam or die. To the best of our knowledge, however, the threats have not been carried out. [ Tears of the Oppressed ]

Turkey

Father Adriano Franchini, 65, was stabbed by a 19-year-old Muslim youth outside St Anthony's Catholic church in Izmir in mid-December. The stabbing drew blood but it was not a deep wound and the priest was released from hospital the following day. The youth was arrested and told police he had been influenced by an episode of a TV series “Valley of the Wolves” which portrayed Christian missionaries as political infiltrators who pay poor families to convert to Christianity. Turkish Christians around the country are still nervous after the attacks last April.

Scandal has followed the trial of five men who confessed to murdering three Christians in Turkey last April. The court hearing into the murders of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske began in late November, 2007. The three Christians were workers in a Zirve Publishing House - a Christian literature distribution company in Malatya. A band of Islamic extremists overpowered them and slit their throats in their workplace. Those who confessed to the crimes later admitted the attacks were religiously motivated.

Lawyers for the families of the deceased have strongly criticized irregularities in the prosecution's case - including the fact that 16 of the 31 files cover the victims' missionary work rather than the killers' activities. In addition, numerous mobile phone records indicate the killers had regular contact with members of the police force, the military, a member of the Nationalist Movement Party, and even a chief public prosecutor. Problems were compounded by the fact that police who attended the crime scene put the victims' blood-stained clothes into a single plastic bag, rendering them useless as forensic evidence. Also astounding was the fact that at least 10 days' worth of security videotape recorded in the hospital room of one of the killers (who was injured during the crime) was erased by security officials. It is likely that the tapes would have identified others involved with the crime.

Turkish media and the public were outraged by these and many other revelations, and subsequently the government announced a judicial inquiry into the alleged involvement of public officials in the murders. Certainly the mounting evidence suggests at this stage that the young men may have been used by others to commit the execution-style killings.

In recent years, Turkey has made an effort to improve its human rights record, though such efforts have been met with a backlash from extremist groups. The prevailing culture in Turkey means that there are ingrained prejudices against Christians in many communities. [ Tears of the Oppressed ]

You might like to write to the Turkish Ambassador in your own words, using the following model and extra information in the report above.