News on
the Persecuted Church
With a rise of
anti-Semitism and the systematic elimination
of Christianity in many countries, I'm
devoting a new portion of our site to these
issues. I believe it is very important
we know what is taking place elsewhere and
pray for our brethren who are persecuted
because of their worship of God. they are
risking and giving their lives because of
their faith. We know of over 160,000
(more like 250,000) of our brethren who die
each year because of their Christian faith,
there are probably just as many that we do not
know of. This is taking place worldwide and
increasing dramatically bringing us closer to
what will take place during the tribulation
(Rev.7).
“Yes, and all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution” (2 Tim 3:12).
“The
same sufferings are experienced by your
brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5).
“And
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony, and they did
not love their lives to the death” (Rev.
12:11).
Here
are websites to read more on the religious
atrocities taking place.
http://www.frontline.org.za/
http://www.compassdirect.org
-news of Christians being persecuted for their
faith
http://allafrica.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com
http://www.persecution.com
http://www.persecution.org
http://www.christianpost.com
Some posts from the Be
Alert News by Scott Brisk
It is time
to raise our voice and let the world know what
is happening.
Let us not become- Jer. 5:28 “They
have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they
surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not
plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless;
yet they prosper, and the right of the needy
they do not defend.”
G2
BULLETIN - June 2, 2007
LONDON
- A report by Britain's intelligence service
MI6 reveals for the first time an estimated
200 million Christians in 60 countries are now
facing persecution orchestrated, in part, by
al-Qaida.
The report is based on details from MI6 agents
stationed in the countries. North Korea is
identified as the world's worst repressor of
Christians. More than 50,000 Christians are
incarcerated in work camps because they refuse
to submit to the extreme views rigorously
enforced by the country's dictator, Kim Jong-
il.
An estimated 40,000 Christians are imprisoned
in China for their beliefs. The MI6 analysis
calculates there are some 70 million
"active Christians" in the People's
Republic, all living in a climate of fear
because of their beliefs.
(source: WORLDNETDAILY - From JOSEPH FARAH'S
G2 BULLETIN - June 2, 2007)
COMPASS
DIRECT - March 04, 2005 - Muslim militants
attacked the Christian community in Demsa
village, Adamawa state, northern Nigeria, on
Friday, February 4, killing 36 people,
destroying property and displacing about 3,000
others. The surviving Christians have taken
refuge in Mayolope village in the neighboring
state of Taraba. http://www.compassdirect.org
WORLDNETDAILY - Feb
16, 2005 - reported – Relatives of a
brutally slain New Jersey Christian family
spoke out yesterday for the first time at a
National Press Club news conference.
The bodies of the
Coptic-American family, including father
Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife Amal Garas, 37,
and daughters Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, were
found bound and gagged with their throats
slashed in their New Jersey home on Jan. 14.
Hudson County prosecutors are said to be
exploring several possible motives for the
slayings, including retaliation by terrorists
against Hossam Armanious, described as an
outspoken advocate for Coptic Christian
religious freedom in Egypt and a well-known
leader of an online ministry to the
Muslim-American community.
Yesterday's news conference
included a statement by U.S. Copts Association
President Michael Meunier. "We feel it is
extremely important that the public hear the
Armanious family members' side of the story
and we are pleased to help them express their
point of view on this disturbing crime,"
Meunier said.
Family members were cautious
in their speech and unwilling to ascribe any
outright motive for the slaying. When
questioned by the press, Meunier did say the
manner of the slayings was consistent with
passages in the Quran that describe how to
kill an infidel. The family stressed it is
waiting for the investigation to play out.
Regarding the possibility the slaying was a
jihadist act, family uncle Emile Garas told
WND afterward, "We're not ruling anything
out."
The Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick,
Washington representative of Christian
Solidarity International and secretary general
of the Coalition for the Defense of Human
Rights, offered a statement relating to
concerns over the manner in which the crime is
being investigated.
"The investigation is
not complete; no suspects have been
identified," said Roderick, "and the
district attorney's office of Hudson County is
pursuing a number of theories related to the
motive and nature of the crime. Public
statements by that office indicate that
theories related to robbery have been given
precedence over a possible hate crime as a
motive. By stressing that there are no facts
substantiating a religious motivation to this
crime, the confidence of the family has been
eroded that the local investigation will lead
to a resolution."...
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39136
anti-Semitism (
Mt.25:35-46)
Annan Sees 'Alarming
Resurgence' of Anti-Semitism Jun 21, 5:31 PM
By Evelyn Leopold
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/410394%7Ctop%7C06-21-2004::17:32%7Creuters.html
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -
Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared on
Monday there was an
“alarming resurgence” of anti-Semitism in
the world and called for U.N. bodies to adopt
resolutions and investigate the ancient
scourge.
Greeted with a standing
ovation, Annan opened the first U.N.-organized
seminar dedicated to anti-Semitism in response
to charges that the world body dwelled on
Palestinian rights and deliberately ignored
injustices to Israelis and Jews.
“When we seek justice for
the Palestinians -- as we must-- let us firmly
disavow anyone who tries to use that cause to
incite hatred against Jews, in Israel or
elsewhere,” Annan told the gathering, which
included a wide spectrum of American Jewish
groups and representatives of other religions.
… “But it is clear that
we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of
this phenomenon in new forms and
manifestations,” he said. “This time the
world must not, cannot be silent.”
How bad is
anti-Semitism in France?
A
French Nazi hunter says it's so bad, the best
way to keep up the fight is to leave the
country. Six
decades after the end of the Holocaust, the
prominent French Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld
told the Jerusalem Post that French Jews
should pack their bags and get out.
“One
of the lessons of the Holocaust is that even
if you want to fight against a wave of
anti-Semitism, the best [thing] is to leave if
you can," Klarsfeld said during a visit
to Israel.
At the
same time, Klarsfeld, who lives in Paris, said
that he does not expect there be a great wave
of Jewish emigration from France to either
Israel or the U.S. because most French Jews
are well off. Klarsfeld
said history has proven it would have been
best "had the Jews of Poland and the Jews
of Austria left Europe when they could have.”
Klarsfeld's
remarks came on the heels of reports that the
Jewish Agency was planning to launch a
campaign to persuade French Jews to immigrate
to Israel to escape a wave of anti-Semitism...”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39049
Israel
*(VOM-Canada)
On September 4th, the homes of at least 14
Christian families in the village of Taybeh,
northeast of Ramallah, Palestine, were torched
by Muslims from the neighboring village of Dir
Jarir. The Muslims destroyed a store, a farm
and a gas station. They also vandalized cars
and beat the villagers as they fled their
homes
Vietnam
*WORLDNETDAILY September 14,
2005 - Vietnamese authorities burned more than
10 homes of tribal Christians who refused to
deny their faith, a U.S. persecution monitor
reported.
Christians in Suoi Rut
hamlet, Doi Sau village, Quang Ngai province,
were forced to flee their village July 21 and
now are searching for a new place to live,
according to Washington, D.C.-based
International Christian Concern.
The victims belonged to the
Evangelical Church of Vietnam, which has
formal recognition by the Vietnamese
government. But the local communist
authorities publicly have stated “the
Christian religion is America's religion, and
is not allowed here.” http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46306
*Human
Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Vietnamese
government to "immediately release the
Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, activist leader of the
banned Mennonite church in Vietnam" and
end the apparently widespread persecution of
Protestant Christians, Assist News Service
reported.
HRW
said Quang's arrest was part of "a
massive crackdown against Montagnard
Protestants in the Central Highland." http://www.charismanow.com/a.php?ArticleID=9404
An estimated 400 Christians
have been killed during peaceful and prayerful
demonstrations by Christians in the Central
Highlands of Vietnam.
On Saturday 10 April up to
400,000 Vietnamese Christians, from the Degar
people, gathered in several Vietnamese cities
to demonstrate against the government’s
refusal to allow them to follow the Christian
faith freely. The demonstrators in the cities,
which included the Central Highland city of
Buonmathuot, were attacked by soldiers, police
and other Vietnamese civilians. The Christians
were shot at, beaten with electric batons and
bombarded with rocks and stones. Hundreds were
killed (400 according to one report) and many
others have suffered broken bones reports the
Barnabas Fund which works to support Christian
communities in the Islamic world....In a
statement issued after the demonstrations had
begun, the President of the Montagnard
Foundation said that no attempt was made by
the Christians to use violence. He also stated
that the Christians are not seeking
independence, merely the right to worship
freely....
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_040413barn.shtml
The
global threat from radical Islamic terror in
Southeast Asia has overshadowed many of the
region's other problems. Religious persecution
is one growing crisis that should not be
overlooked by Washington and the West. Laos
and Vietnam, for example, are still run by
ruthless Communist regimes that do not allow
freedom of religion. While these Communist
nations are working to increase ties to the
civilized world, they — like China —
continue to step up their oppression of
Christians.
Last month in Laos, Nambak
District officials ordered 35 Christian
families in the village of Nam Thuam to
publicly renounce their faith. When they
refused, the government assigned agents to
live in the households to prevent them from
practicing their religion. The families are
forced by the Communists to pay for the spies
living in their own homes until they formally
turn their backs on God. In the village of
Thong Sa Vang, officials have confiscated
Bibles and threatened believers with arrest if
they do not reject Christianity. One villager
who fled his home to avoid the Communist
aggression told Christian Freedom
International (CFI), “If I return to Thong
Sa Vang I will be killed or arrested.” He
already has spent several years in prison
because of his religious beliefs. Across Laos,
Christians are routinely forced into slave
labor or forced at gunpoint to disparage God.
The situation in neighboring Vietnam is
equally grim. According to CFI President Jim
Jacobson, “Vietnam is engaging in a
systematic genocidal crackdown against
minority Christians in the Central
Highlands.” The Christian Montagnards of
Vietnam's Central Highlands have long been
persecuted by the Communist government because
they were staunch allies of the United States
during the long Vietnam War. On Easter Sunday,
hundreds of Christians were killed or
disappeared in Buon Ma Thuot village during a
peaceful demonstration protesting the
confiscation of their ancestral lands. Around
Christmas, pastors were rounded up and jailed
and churches bulldozed. Hundreds of churches
have been closed over the past few years. A
few thousand Christians have tried to flee
across the border to Cambodia, but the
government there sends the refugees back to
imprisonment in Vietnam.
In Communist states,
the persecution is getting worse. That should
give pause to all of us in the free world.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040425-102732-6508r.htm
Laos
Cambodia
Cambodian police have
arrested and deported 160 Christians who
crossed the border illegally to escape
violence in their country last week. The
Christians are members of a Vietnamese ethnic
minority known as the Montagnards. An
estimated 400 Christians were killed during
peaceful and prayerful demonstrations in the
Central Highlands of Vietnam over the Easter
period. Thousands of Montagnards took part in
the protests.... http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_040420camb.shtml
Indonesia
SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS
SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS IN PRISON
*Islamic extremists again
threaten violence before court session.
Indonesian judges today sentenced three women
to three years in prison for allowing Muslim
children to attend a Christian Sunday school
program.
“The ladies, witnesses and
judges were constantly under the threats of
violence from hundreds of Islamic radicals who
threatened to kill the three ladies,
witnesses, pastors, missionaries and even the
judges if the women were acquitted,”
Hammond told Compass.
Before a court proceeding on
August 25, the Islamic radicals warned the
judges that they were willing to shed their
own blood if the women were not found guilty.
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/newslongen.php?idelement=3949
Along with the challenges
facing Indonesians since the Dec. 26
quake-tsunami devastation, local Christians
continue to face persecution in the
predominantly Muslim nation, a persecution
watchdog group reported Thursday.
Most recently, VOM reported
that a priest in Purworejo in Indonesia’s
Central Java region was found dead in a church
retreat compound on Friday, Jan. 14, with
massive head wounds. “Despite the string of
attacks against Christians in various areas of
Indonesia, the provincial police chief said
that the attack was ‘probably’ robbery,”
VOM wrote. However, local sources say that
police frequently downplay incidents of
violence against Christians. christianpost
*Seven people have been
wounded in a shooting at an Easter church
service on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Hundreds of people have died on the island in
conflicts between Christians and Muslims.
Police said two gunmen burst
into the church on Saturday night and sprayed
the congregation with automatic weapons fire
before escaping.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3617401.stm
same story on another
news
A church
congregation in Indonesia has been sprayed
with bullets as they were singing hymns on
Easter Saturday two Christian human rights
groups have reported today.
Christian
Solidarity Worldwide and the Barnabas Fund
said that masked gunmen attacked Christians at
the Tabernacle Church in Kilo village, Poso
district, injuring seven Christians including
a four-year girl.
The attack
follows three recent incidents in which
Christians have been shot. On March 30,
Reverend Freddy Wuisan was killed by unknown
attackers behind the Membuke Church in Poso
Pesisir district on Sulawesi. Eyewitnesses
reportedly saw two people driving away on a
motorcycle....
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_040419ind.shtml
Muslim
militants in eastern Indonesia burned down
several hundred homes in an overnight attack
on a mainly Christian area where 26 people
were killed in three days of fighting.
The attacks
on Christians in Maluku province, once known
as the Spice Islands, continues with no end in
sight, according to the Washington, D.C.-based
human rights group International Christian
Concern.
On Monday,
several hundred homes of Christians were
burned down in the Tanah Lapang Kecil and
Batugantung neighborhoods of Ambon, the
provincial capital.
The attack
began at about 3 a.m. and continued into the
afternoon hours until all of the homes were
destroyed, ICC said.
According to
news reports, government buildings have been
abandoned and taken over by unidentified
snipers using the rooftops to scout victims,
including several policemen who have been
killed in the past few days.
Maluku,
which has been about half Christian and half
Muslim, came under attack between 1999 and
2002 from a radical Islamic group called
Laskar Jihad, or Army of Holy Warriors, which
aimed to make Indonesia an Islamic state....http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38239
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, Christians are
on the defensive after a series of attacks on
churches by radical Buddhists.
Christianity is growing and
gaining influence in the island nation that
sits off the coast of India.
The number of evangelicals
has increased by more than 200,000 since 1980.
They are dedicated to evangelism, church
planting, and even mission] work.
But Buddhism is the official
religion of Sri Lanka. The growth of
Christianity has angered Buddhist priests who
see it as a threat. Some of those priests are
encouraging normally peaceful Buddhists to go
on the attack. They're pushing for laws to
forbid religious conversions.
Australian pastor Danny
Nalliah is a native of Sri Lanka. He described
the situation:
"In the last 1 year, possibly 1 ½ years,
there have been 74 incidents of attacks on
churches. Churches burned down, pastors
beaten, some girls were almost raped, but
thank God they were not. The basic message is:
we're going to shut you down. And now they're
going to push forward legislation in order to
ban evangelism."...
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/CWN/052804srilanka.asp
India
Indian Christians
have expressed deep concern over the
increasing attacks on Christian Churches by
violent mobs across India.
The attacks on
individuals or churches across many states of
India have been worsening. The motives behind
the crimes are often being reported as
religious hatred, given the evidences that the
hard-line Hindu political party Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and Hindu nationalist
organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
have been tying to restrict Christian
minorities by implementing some laws.
The Global Council of
Indian Christians (GCIC) has already sent an
open letter to the Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in September, urging the Indian
government to launch urgent measures to curb
the alarming trend... (Reported by The
Christian Post - by Eunice Or - December 5,
2005) http://www.christianpost.com/article/asia/841/section/violent.mob.attacks.
on.christian.churches.increasing.across.india/1.htm
*Police in northern India
thwarted a plot by Hindu extremists who
threatened to burn to death more than 60
Christian converts if they refused to return
to Hinduism by Sunday. ...
Last week, the attackers
forced Masih, 62, to sign a document stating
his willingness to participate in a ceremony
last Sunday in which all of the Christians
would convert back to Hinduism. Refusal to
participate would prompt the radicals to burn
the converts to death...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47573
November 24, 2005
*August
30, 2005 - A mob of 50 "Hindu
radicals" today ransacked an Assembly of
God church building in India desecrating the
Bible, sources on the ground report.
We
are shocked the way the Hindu radicals
destroyed the worship center without any fear
of the law of the land."
The
attack comes on the first day of a weeklong
Christian festival scheduled for Bangalore
that attracts thousands of believers from
other communities, and the Global Council of
Indian Christians fears the assault was meant
to stir up tensions in the city during the
event.
"The
Christian community continue to face violent
attacks at regular intervals, and we believe
that we are treated like second-class
citizens," the statement from the Global
Council of Indian Christians said.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46057
*Indian
Christians continue to be attacked in India on
an almost daily basis.
On
October 5 two Indian missionary pastors
serving with Gospel for Asia (GFA) were beaten
and kidnapped by a group of militant Hindus in
Chattisgarh state, central India.
Pastor
Kumar had received threats from anti-Christian
groups over the past few weeks in the village
where he and his family arrived two years ago
to preach the gospel and to establish a
church. The militants had also threatened that
anyone who went to the church - including the
40 new believers over the last two years -
would be killed.
On
October 1 they threatened Pastor Kumar that if
he went to church to lead the service that
Sunday (October 3) they would kill him in
front of his family. In the end the pastor and
the other believers, following police advice,
stayed away from the church and met elsewhere
in secret...
http://www.csw.org.uk/Latestnews.asp?item=506
Bangladesh
*Two evangelists in
Bowalmari District Faridpur, Bangladesh, were
stabbed to death around midnight on 29th July.
Liplal Mardy (35) and Tapan Roy (30) had been
showing the Jesus film, as well as health
education films, in villages around the area.
They had received at least two verbal threats
from the head of the local madrassa (Islamic
religious school), telling them to stop
showing the film. After the second threat they
stopped their work and were planning to leave
the area, but were murdered before they could
do so BARNABAS FUND E-MAIL NEWS SERVICE -
Aug 5, 2005 -. http://www.barnabasfund.org/
* ASSIST News Service - By
Dan Wooding - May 22, 2005 - A U.S. based
interdenominational human rights organization
for religious liberty that helps persecuted
Christians, has urged Bangladesh to stop the
persecution of Muslim converts to
Christianity.
In a story released by U.S.
Newswire, Jim Jacobson, the International
President of Christian Freedom International,
is quoted as saying, “Serious attacks on
converts to Christianity by Islamic extremists
are increasing. The Bangladesh government is
doing nothing to stop the persecution of these
Christians.” http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05050096.htm
Thailand
Muslim
militants in eastern Indonesia burned down
several hundred homes in an overnight attack
on a mainly Christian area where 26 people
were killed in three days of fighting.
The attacks
on Christians in Maluku province, once known
as the Spice Islands, continues with no end in
sight, according to the Washington, D.C.-based
human rights group International Christian
Concern.
On Monday,
several hundred homes of Christians were
burned down in the Tanah Lapang Kecil and
Batugantung neighborhoods of Ambon, the
provincial capital.
The attack
began at about 3 a.m. and continued into the
afternoon hours until all of the homes were
destroyed, ICC said.
According to
news reports, government buildings have been
abandoned and taken over by unidentified
snipers using the rooftops to scout victims,
including several policemen who have been
killed in the past few days.
Maluku,
which has been about half Christian and half
Muslim, came under attack between 1999 and
2002 from a radical Islamic group called
Laskar Jihad, or Army of Holy Warriors, which
aimed to make Indonesia an Islamic state....
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38239
Shri Lanka
Christians
in Sri Lanka continue to face violent attacks
and intimidation following the parliamentary
elections in early April. Over 45 churches
have been attacked since January, and during
the past year more than 140 churches have been
forced to close, due to attacks, intimidation
and threats.
On
Easter Sunday, a Christian Fellowship Church
in Kalutara district was attacked, and ten
people were injured. The church had been
closed for three months following an initial
attack in late December, when a mob of 300
villagers prompted a riot at the church. The
pastor resumed services on Good Friday, and on
Easter Sunday, a mob demanded that church
members leave the building. They threw stones,
damaging the windows, and beat the pastor and
other church members as they emerged.
According to news agency Compass Direct,
'parents tried to shield their terrified
children, but despite this, a few children
were among the ten or so people injured in the
attack.'...
http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/sri-lanka-persecution.html
Pakistan
A Pakistani Christian who
had been sentenced to prison on charges of
blasphemy under Pakistan’s strict
legislation died Friday, May 28 in the Lahore
hospital where he was beaten into a coma by
one of the policemen assigned to guard him,
human rights group The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM)
said.
Several human rights groups
have quoted the guard, a Muslim, as telling
investigators that it was “his religious
duty, as a Muslim, to kill the Christian
man” Samuel Masih.” He reportedly said he
was “spiritually satisfied and ready to face
the consequences,” VOM added.
VOM Spokesman Todd Nettleton
suggested that Masih's killing underscored
concern about rapidly spreading anti Christian
violence in the area. “This is another
example of the danger our brothers and sisters
in Pakistan face every day,” he said in a
statement to ASSIST News Service (ANS).
The death of 32-year old
Masih came only weeks after another young
Christian man, Javed Anjum, reportedly died as
a result of torture by Islamic militants while
Christian leaders in Quetta, Baluchistan
province, apparently received threatening
letters.
One pastor, Wilson Fazal,
was kidnapped and tortured, although he
subsequently escaped, Christian Solidarity
Worldwide (CSW) claimed. Other Christians have
reportedly gone into hiding, as Islamic
violence spreads throughout the country,
several human rights groups say.
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04050139.htm
Sudan
Sudan's militant Muslim
regime is slaughtering Christians who refuse
to convert to Islam, according to the head of
an aid group who recently returned from the
African nation.
Backed by Muslim clerics,
the National Islamic Front regime in the Arab
and Muslim north declared a jihad, or holy
war, on the south in 1989. Since 1983, an
estimated 2 million people have died from war
and related famine. About 4.5 million have
become refugees...In his letter urging action
by the U.S., he points out that Sudan's
military continues to decorate and promote
known war criminals such as Commander Taib
Musba, who in the mid-1980s killed an
estimated 15,000 unarmed, civilian, ethnic
Uduk Christians.
In 1986, Musba entered the
Uduk tribal capital of Chali and declared to
its Christians: "You are all going to
convert from Christianity to Islam today,
because here is what's going to happen to you
if you don't."
Musba then killed five
church leaders in front of the gathered
villagers. When they refused to convert, he
began killing unarmed men, women and children.
Some were herded at gunpoint into a hut then
run over by a 50-ton, Soviet-made tank.
He also herded groups of
about a dozen people into a hut, where he
asked the first person "Do you renounce
Jesus Christ?" Anyone who refused was
killed by a three-inch nail driven into the
top of the head...
Islam also is forced on
Sudanese in the Muslim north. Security police
in Khartoum are pursuing a local convert to
Christianity who went into hiding three weeks
ago to escape arrest and possible death, the
Compass Direct news service reports.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26672
Reports had leaked out of
Renk County in the nation's oil region that,
from March 26, 2004, through until the second
week of April 2004, 22 Shilluk villages had
been burned and hundreds of people murdered
while Government of Sudan (GoS) troops looked
on.
"They did more than
look on," said Phillips. "Survivors
told us that GoS soldiers in motorboats had
fired on them from the Nile while
government-sponsored militia attacked from the
bush. We received testimonies that between 300
and 1,000 people were killed during these
attacks. More died afterward from wounds and
disease. Hundreds were abducted. Twenty
thousand people were driven out of their
homes, their villages burned. At the beginning
of June, 700 Shilluks who had fled these
attacks reached our distribution site in
Payuer, where more than 85,000 internally
displaced Christians have taken refuge this
year. We knew the situation was desperate when
we arrived, because we found the people eating
'apam' [leaves from the Acacia trees],"
Phillips said...
"The soldiers came in
the middle of the night," said a man
named Odatti. "They came from Malakal.
Everybody ran. Some into the bush. Others into
the river. Many drowned. They shot everyone.
They killed blind old ladies who could not run
away."
"My husband was killed
right away," Elizabeth told us. "I
ran with the kids. Two of them drowned in the
river and the other two I don't even know
where they are. You tried to grab one child
here and there, but you could only do so
much."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39416
“Sudan is suffering from a
massive ethnic war in the western Darfur
region, led by Arab Muslim military group,
killing thousands of people and driving out
millions of African tribes to a refugee camp
in other regions.
While people in Sudan are calling out for
peace, Christian humanitarian groups and
churches are working together to provide
emergency relief to the refugees who are
starving.
The U.S. based Human Rights Watch has called
for a U.N. mission to investigate on the
unspeakable attack, accusing the Sudan
government for committing crimes against
humanity.
Humanity Under Attack in
Sudan Friday, May. 7, 2004 http://www.christianpost.com/dbase.php?cat=society&id=637
The Sudanese
government is responsible for 'ethnic
cleansing' and crimes against humanity in the
western region of Darfur, Human Rights Watch
said in a new report released on Friday, May
7, 2000..
Human Rights
Watch called on the Security Council to
strongly condemn the actions of the Sudanese
government and demand that it disarm, disband
and withdraw the Arab militias that engage in
ethnic cleansing, frequently in conjunction
with government forces.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200405070809.html
Nigeria
More than a
dozen Christians were killed and seven
kidnapped when members of a militant Islamic
sect raided towns in Borno State in the north
of Nigeria.
Members of
Al Sunna Wal Jamma, a group also known as the
Taliban, are reported to have carried out the
raids on the towns of Bama and Gwoza on
September 20. The group had launched similar
raids on towns and villages in neighbouring
Yobe State during January, but had been
defeated by the Federal armed forces. Those
who survived and avoided capture, had fled
across the border.
During the
recent violence, 60 members of the sect are
reported to have attacked police stations in
Bama and Gwoza killing four policemen,
including a police Area Commander.
According to
news agency Compass Direct, the group went on
to attack Christian communities, killing,
raping and burning down homes. A police
spokesman confirmed that 14 bodies had been
recovered from areas targeted by the raids,
but that there may be many more victims.
Enquiries into the whereabouts of the
kidnapped Christians are ongoing.
According to
the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
thousands of non-Muslims were killed in
violence that broke out in response to the
killing of Muslims in Plateau State, central
Nigeria...
http://www.csw.org.uk/Latestnews.asp?item=499
Muslims have
slaughtered an estimated 600 Christians this
week in Nigeria, according to the Christian
Association of Nigeria.
The carnage
in Kano, in the country's mostly Muslim north,
began with a protest in retaliation for Muslim
deaths hundreds of miles away in Yelwe, said
the British-based monitor of persecution
against Christians, Barnabas Fund, the Assist
News service reported.
Andrew Ubah,
general secretary of the association, told
Reuters Thursday the tally was based on
reports from church leaders throughout the
city. Twelve churches have been burned, he
said.
David
Emmanuel, a factory worker, told Reuters he
saw two truckloads of corpses Wednesday night
and counted at least 30 bodies in the street.
Elsewhere,
Assist said, correspondents have seen 35
mostly burned and mutilated bodies... "Hundreds
of people were killed," said Christian
leader Mark Amani. "Some corpses were
burned in wells. Even little children were
killed. "The
bodies of pregnant women were ripped open and
their bodies burned," he said...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38513
The latest
crisis in Yelwa erupted in the early hours of
Sunday, May 2. Victims who fled to the state
capital of Jos said that more than 1,000
houses and religious buildings had been
destroyed by fire...
Local
Christian sources said the crisis is linked to
recent attacks on Christian villages in the
area by Muslim extremists. They believe
because only Muslims remained in Yelwa
following the February 23 murders, aggrieved
Christians carried out last Sunday’s attack
in reprisal for the earlier assault.
Muslim-Christian
violence broke out in the northern state of
Taraba in late April, causing the death of
over 120 people and leaving thousands more
displaced...
http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/fresh-vioence-nigeria.html
in
addition--Plateau State: Some 49 Christians
were massacred by Islamic militants in a raid
on the Christian town of Yelwa on Tuesday 24
February. Plateau Police Commissioner Innocent
Ilozuoke told reporters how most of the
Christian victims had been shot as they ran to
a church desperately seeking refuge. The
attackers are thought to have mainly been
ethnic Fulani Muslims. Local security sources
indicate that the merciless guerrilla tactics
used in the assault suggest Islamist fighters
from Chad and Niger may also have been
involved.
Muslim extremists have
burned down 10 Christian churches in Nigeria
in an attack thought to have been sparked by a
mentally retarded Christian teenager
desecrating the Quran.
According to a report by the
Compass news service, an undisclosed number of
Christians were reported killed in the
incident April 3, which occurred in the town
of Makarfi. The attack resulted in the
displacement of hundreds of other Christians
from the town.
The following day, bodies of
the dead Christians were reportedly brought to
police stations in nearby Kaduna City, where
some Christians were taking refuge.A reporter
with Compass witnessed trucks piled with
corpses that were to be taken away for mass
burial.
At a press conference last
Monday, the Christian Association of Nigeria
confirmed the killings and destruction of the
churches...."Islamic terrorists hiding
under the cover of religion have invaded the
state and are now unleashing terror on
Christians over stupid reasons."Continued
Kujiyat, "The situation we are witnessing
today is the emergence of a dangerous trend in
which religious sentiment is being used as a
cover to victimize Christians."....It is
our conclusion that Muslim leaders are
deliberately using fanatics in the name of
Islam to engage in periodic attacks on
Christians with the sole aim to intimidate,
terrorize and force Christians into submission
and to denounce their faith," Kujiyat
said...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38007
Plateau State: Some 49
Christians were massacred by Islamic militants
in a raid on the Christian town of Yelwa on
Tuesday 24 February. Plateau Police
Commissioner Innocent Ilozuoke told reporters
how most of the Christian victims had been
shot as they ran to a church desperately
seeking refuge. The attackers are thought to
have mainly been ethnic Fulani Muslims. Local
security sources indicate that the merciless
guerrilla tactics used in the assault suggest
Islamist fighters from Chad and Niger may also
have been involved. Police and army units have
been sent to the town and order has now been
restored....Local Christians in Plateau State
have suffered repeated attacks from ethnic
Hausa/Fulani Muslim settlers since September
2001. Hundreds have been killed in the
violence. Islamic militants from Chad, Niger
and other countries outside of Nigeria have
repeatedly been involved. Local Christians
believe militant elements within the Muslim
community are working to a strategy to drive
out Christians and Islamise the whole state.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37116
Governor
Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State, has ordered the
demolition of all churches in the state, as he
launched the second phase of his Sharia
project yesterday.
Speaking
at the launch in Gusau, the state capital,
Governor Sani disclosed that time was ripe for
full implementation of the programme as
enshrined in the Holy Quran.
He added that his government would
soon embark on demolition of all places of
worship of unbelievers in the state, in line
with Islamic injunction to fight them wherever
they are found....
The
governor's stance on the demolition of all
non-Islamic worship centres, however, runs
contrary to the provisions of the country's
constitution, …
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404290789.html
http://www.zamfaraonline.com/
http://www.nigeria.com/
Thousands of
people are reported to have fled recent ethnic
and religious fighting in central Nigeria.
Local media
reported fighting on Tuesday between Muslims
and Christians in six remote farming villages
between Plateau and Taraba states.
According to
the Nigerian Red Cross many were wounded and
killed but few confirmed details are
available.
Muslim
Fulani cattle herders and Christian Tarok
farmers have been clashing for more than two
months.
They
are fighting mainly over land and cattle....
In 2001 more than 1,000
people died in clashes in the Plateau State
capital, Jos. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3674175.stm
Philippines
“Asia News is reporting a
cold-blooded massacre in the Philippines.
Suspected members of the Abu
Sayyaf are accused of shooting six Christians
to death in the Sulu Archipelago. According to
published reports, the attackers went
door-to-door Friday asking if the occupants of
the house were Muslims or Christians.
The Philippines is about 80
percent Christian. Muslims make up about seven
percent of the population, with extremists an
even smaller percentage.
Some guerrilla groups have
engaged in attacks against Christians,
creating a tense environment for evangelistic
work in some parts of the country”
( MISSION NETWORK
NEWS - February 7, 2006, http://www.mnnonline.org/article/8280)
Egypt
* “Young Christian males
and females are being kidnapped and forcibly
converted to Islam, their families are now
protesting outside a local monastery in Egypt
and have called on the world's media to help
plead their cause.
The website report says that
Egyptian society is an honor vs. shame-based
culture and victims worry about the effects of
shaming their families. It is also believed
that those who are abducted are silenced by
threats to family members. Victims are brought
to “religious guidance committee” meetings
for the purposes of “reviewing” their
cases. These meetings are often held in a
National Security Police headquarters, which
is against the law...” ASSIST News Service -
By Michael Ireland - May 22, 2005 http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05050093.htm
*A police
officer in El Minia, Egypt, drove a truck into
a canal killing three of his five bound
prisoners, including an elderly church leader,
according to a report from the U.K-based
Barnabas Fund.
The Barnabas
Fund reported the police officer arrested five
Christians in the early hours of Sunday May 2
in the village of Taha El Omadeen, El Minia.
Sixty-four year old Father Ibrahim Mikhaeil
and four others were charged with the unlawful
construction of a church fence. Part of the
fence had collapsed during a storm and the
five men attempted to mend it as soon as
possible, concerned that, given the
opportunity, local officials would stall and
possibly halt its rebuilding. Obstruction and
the refusal to grant permits for church
repairs is a recurring problem in Egypt.
The officer,
named Ahmed Kelani, went to the church at 1
a.m. after a Muslim villager informed the
police station of the efforts of the five men
to repair the fence. The arrested men were
bound and placed in the back of a rented
vehicle. Officer Kelani ordered the vehicle's
driver to get out and took control of the
truck himself. As the vehicle approached the
brink of the Ibrahimiya Canal, Kelani jumped
out.
Father
Mikhaeil and two other Christians (Mahrous and
Nasef) were killed, while the other two remain
in a critical condition in hospital. http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/egypt-police
-officer-murders-christians.html
Eritrea
*MISSION NETWORK NEWS - May
23, 2005 - Last week reported that 916
Christians are being held against their will
in the African nation of Eritrea. 16 of them
are pastors. Persecution against Christians
isn't getting any better, according to
Strategic World Impact's Kevin Turner.
“The more Eritrea is
confronted with this, the worse they get,”
says Turner. “They're just hardening
themselves. The church, it's quite
interesting, the people continue to share the
Gospel. In fact, a couple days ago there was a
believer arrests in Samara (for) sharing
Gospel to people on the bus.”
The situation is getting
eerily like North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Turner says, “They've actually consulted
with some of these other governments for those
very issues of how to contain or control the
church. At another level, this isn't just a
physical, this is a spiritual battle and so,
it boils down to our enemy Satan who is trying
to crush or oppress the church.”
*"Persecution
is not sweet, but it's useful" is how one
pastor described the suffering of Evangelical
Christian believers in the East African nation
of Eritrea.
Though churches have been
closed and Christians persecuted in Eritrea,
most people in the Western World are not
familiar with this East African nation.
But, in the last two years, Christians
worldwide have started to learn more about
this small nation-because of the plight of
Jesus' followers there and the persecution
they face.
The persecution comes from
their own government. By the way, the Eritrean
government flatly denies persecution is taking
place.
Yet, in the midst of the
Evangelicals' suffering, there has been an
unprecedented Christian unity in the
church....
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/CWN/041604eritrea.asp
Africa
Arab gunmen
on horses and camels, backed by bombers and
helicopter gunships, have razed hundreds of
black African villages, killed tens of
thousands and driven more than 1 million from
their homes.
"They
say they don't want to see black skin on this
land again," said Issa Bushara, whose
brother and cousin were gunned down in front
of their horrified families during an attack
by the Janjaweed militia.
More victims
of the raids are dying now from hunger, thirst
and disease than in the killings, U.N.
officials say. They have described the region
as the world's worst humanitarian crisis..
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-sudan-slaughter,0,7907433.story?
The
Comboni Missionaries today called upon the
governments of the United States and Canada to
take action that will encourage an end to the
warfare that has ravaged the lives of the
Christian population of northern Uganda.
In
this war, an insurgent group calling itself
the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) killed and
disfigured innocent people by the tens of
thousands, caused the displacement of 1.5
million refugees, and abducted more than
20,000 children for use as child soldiers and
sex slaves.
“For
the past two decades,” the resolution
stated, the LRA has employed “hellishly
barbaric tactics against the civilian
population of northern Uganda, principally the
Acholi people.”
Using
statistics cited by the United Nations News
Service, the resolution said, “This
insurgency has driven approximately 1.5
million people into displacement camps where
they live in extreme deprivation, entirely
dependent upon relief for survival ...
“In
its oppression of this almost uniformly
Christian population, the LRA has received
support from the ruling National Islamic Front
in Sudan; and the LRA has abducted as many as
20,000 children for use as child soldiers and
sex slaves, with children making up at least
80 percent of its insurgent force.”....
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404260285.html
a fresh eruption of violence
in Duwi village, Wase council area Tuesday
night claimed five lives.
Another attack in Lyangit, a community in
Langtang North local government was said to
have led to the loss of one life even as
Senate yesterday began accelerated hearing on
the eight emergency powers bills presented to
it for approval two days ago by President
Olusegun Obasanjo.
Several
persons were reportedly wounded in the Duwi
incident just as about 20 houses were
destroyed in the process... Sources
told Daily Champion that some Fulani herdsmen
armed with guns, bows and poisoned arrows
attacked Duwi, a christian Tarok-populated
settlement in the muslim-dominated local
government at about midnight while the
residents were sleeping.
Duwi is close to Kadarko
village where a major Christian/Muslim clash
recently claimed several lives spuring a chain
of events leading to the clamping of the state
of emergency... http://allafrica.com/stories/200405270708.html
Afghanistan
Five Afghan men who had
converted to Christianity have been killed in
separate incidents since late June near the
borders of eastern Afghanistan.
All five men were stabbed or
beaten to death in summary executions by
Taliban adherents who accused them of
abandoning Islam and then “spreading
Christianity” in their communities.
news
China
VOM-USA News & Prayer
Update - September 6, 2005 - Two recent news
releases from China Aid Association (CAA)
document a shocking escalation of persecution
in China. There seems to be a direct
correlation between increasing
Russian-Chinese-Central Asian solidarity and
growing persecution of unsanctioned Protestant
Christians in those states. China is
systematically strengthening its assault on
"cults" (which includes house
churches.) On July 7th, Pastor Cai Zhuohua
faced court in Beijing charged with
"illegal business operations" for
printing more than 200,000 Bibles and other
Christian books. (As they were given away and
not sold, there was no "business.")
He is in prison awaiting sentence. On August
15th, five American church leaders were
arrested in Jiangxi province along with 27
house-church pastors. The group had simply
been enjoying Christian fellowship together.
… Pray the supernatural grace of China's
persecuted believers will convict their
persecutors and the Holy Spirit will bring
sweeping revival to all of China. http://www.persecution.com/
To ensure that the
plight of Christians living in China continues
to be told, the Committee for Investigation on
Persecution of Religion in China (CIPRC) is
periodically releasing stories documenting
their brutal treatment.
CIPRC's Chief Secretary John
Lee said in a previous e-mail interview, “We
have mobilized thousands of brave house church
Christians in China to investigate and collect
the persecution cases. They have interviewed
560,000 house church Christians from 22
provinces, and have obtained invaluable
first-hand information of
over-two-million-word testimonies full of
blood and tears and many photos as well.”
ASSIST News Service - By Jeremy Reynalds
May 20, 2005 http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05050090.htm
*A
prominent leader of an unregistered
house-church movement based in Shanghai was
recently released from a labor camp. Philip Xu
Guoxing, who served 18 months in the Jiangsu
Province camp for setting up unregistered
house churches in the country's eastern
region, was freed on June 7, Compass Direct
reported.
Guoxing
reportedly has returned to Shanghai to be with
his wife and young daughter. First arrested in
March 1980, he was again arrested and jailed
in 1989 and 1997. He performed hard labor and
suffered beatings during more than six years
in "re-education through labor"
camps, which served as punishment for his
refusal to join the government-controlled
Three Self Patriotic Movement.
Meanwhile,
the more than 100 house-church leaders
arrested on June 11 have been released from
police custody, according to Asia Harvest. The
leaders were attending a religious retreat
held by the China Gospel Fellowship (CGF) in
the city of Wuhan, located in Hubei Province,
when they were jailed... http://www.charismanews.com/a.php?ArticleID=9408
*China
continues its repression of popular Christian
house churches, according to a report this
week from Freedom House, which is calling on
U.S. trade representatives to protest
violations of religious rights by Chinese
authorities.
U.S. diplomats currently in
China for trade talks, and those in Chile
attending the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation meetings, should call on the
government of China to immediately cease its
assaults against China's large Christian house
church movement, Freedom House's Center for
Religious Freedom says.
Last week, the Center
reported on the Chinese government's attacks
on one large church and its members. The
Center has since received new information from
the Pennsylvania-based China Aid Organization
regarding the ongoing repression, as well as a
new assault against another house-church...
http://www.religionjournal.com/showarticle.asp?id=1534
* Shocking video of the
destruction of an unregistered Chinese church
has been smuggled out of China to a
persecution watchdog group....The Tu Du Sha
Church in Zhejiang Province was bulldozed to
the ground June 26, reports the Voice of the
Martyrs....The church, in Hangzhou City, was
founded around 1930 by the group launched in
the 19th century by famed missionary Hudson
Taylor, China Inland Mission....Weekly
attendance had grown to 1,500....Police first
arrived before 4 a.m. expecting the church to
be empty, VOM said. Instead, they found 300
Christians gathered for prayer. The police
left, but returned just before 8 a.m. with 200
military policemen and more than 40
vehicles....In spite of the protests of church
members, the church was completely destroyed,
the Oklahoma-based group said. A Chinese
Christian covertly videotaped the entire
scene, and the video was smuggled out of the
country...."In our 36 years of ministry,
we've never had a videotape like this,"
said Tom White, VOM's U.S.
director...."This tape shows how the
Chinese government treats Christian groups
that refuse to register," he said....The
Chinese government considers all Protestant
churches outside the official
government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic
Movement to be subversive. The official
churches are restricted, to varying degrees
around the country, in their doctrine and
practice. The vast majority of Protestants are
in "underground" churches. Catholics
also are restricted to a government-controlled
church, which does not recognize the authority
of the pope. See VOM story and video here: http://www.persecution.com/china/
* For the
first time in history, Chinese Christians gave
evidence of persecution in April at a special
meeting called by the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva.
Several speakers testified to beatings,
imprisonment, torture and damage to church
buildings in recent years.
This
is the 11th year in a row that politics within
the UNCHR have defeated similar resolutions
against China. Speakers
at the special meeting on “Repression of
Religious Freedom in China” included Bob Fu,
president of the China Aid Association which
documents persecution of Chinese Protestants;
Xu Yongze of the Born Again house church
movement, who was imprisoned five times for
his faith; and Brother Yun, hero of the
best-selling autobiography The Heavenly Man...http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/chinese-testify-un.html
* The China Aid Association
has learnt that more than 100 leaders of the
China Gospel Fellowship (CGF) were arrested on
June 11, 2004. The arrests took place at Wuhan
city, Hubei province (mid east China) while
these church leaders were meeting together.
The China Aid Association
also learned from an internal source in the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that its
Politburo had recently convened a special
secret meeting discussing ‘How to deal with
religious affairs in China’. According to
the source, a secret directive was issued
after the meeting, calling on every level of
the Chinese government and the Party to crack
down on ‘illegal religious activities’.
The directive also urged the CCP’s
Department of Propaganda to carry out a
special media campaign to promote atheism...
http://www.csw.org.uk/Latestnews.asp?item=469
Asia
“You
Christians should all be shot!” City
Public Prosecutor M. Arzymbetov is said to
have declared to eleven members of the Church
of Christ who were summoned for questioning on
April 21st. The
Christians were pressured to renounce their
faith and to convert to Islam. The
declaration was made after the believers
refused to sign documents admitting that they
had participated in ‘illegal’ religious
meetings and training. They now face steep
fines in court. Authorities have denied the
statement, stating the reason for the
interrogations was because, “All of them are
members of an unregistered religious
organization,” Atzymbetov told Forum 18
News. “The activity of unregistered
organizations is forbidden by law.”
In
other parts of the country, however, reports
of harassment, threats, interrogation and
badgering of Protestant believers have also
increased in recent days. In Tashkent on March
10th, six Christians were charged in criminal
court and fined for holding religious meetings
in a private apartment. Also in the capital
the day before, police raided a religious
meeting of ten Uzbek and South Korean
Christians. The Uzbek citizens were fined five
times the monthly minimum wage, and the
Koreans were “recommended” to leave the
country for engaging in “unlawful religious
activity”.... http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=681
*
....A week of sectarian fighting in Ambon has
left 37 people dead, reviving fears the Maluku
islands could plunge back into the
Muslim-Christian bloodletting that killed up
to 9,000 people three years ago. Ambon is the
capital of the province comprising the
islands, known as the Spice islands during
Dutch colonial rule.
Indonesian
security forces have done little to stop the
clashes and in some cases have even joined in,
witnesses say.
While
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim
nation, the 2 million inhabitants of the
Malukus are evenly divided between Christians
and Muslims.
Christians
here, as elsewhere in Indonesia, have accused
authorities of discrimination and failing to
protect them from Muslim attacks....
"This
is a holy war," said one Muslim fighter,
gesturing to the Christian part of the divided
seaside city with a spear. "We are
obliged to defend our faith."
The
fighting erupted Sunday after the province's
small, mostly Christian separatist movement
paraded through the city center. The display
of secessionist sentiment angered Muslims, who
have cast themselves as defenders of the
country's unity to avoid military crackdowns
and attract legitimacy in Jakarta....
"How
is burning churches and homes fighting
separatism?" asks one woman who declined
to be identified. "We work in Indonesia,
we love Indonesia. We are only defending our
homes."....
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=7&u=/ap/20040501/
ap_on_re_as/indonesia_holy_war
Indonesia
Extremist
Muslims from the Middle East are threatening
violence toward Western interests, foreign aid
workers, and Christians, or 'Crusaders'.
While the
threat originated from the Middle East, it had
the effect of unifying the Islamic front
toward an all-out 'holy war'. The threat of
terror has spread to Indonesia, the
Philippines and parts of Africa.
Because risk
now includes mission workers, contingency
plans are being made ready, should they be
needed. However, AMG International's Paul
Jenks says, "The Christians there live
under a constant reality that they are in the
minority and that there are those that would
like to see them driven out or converted to
the majority religion there in Indonesia.
These threats are taken very seriously."
That means
very little will stop the teams from sharing
the hope of Christ. However, the violence has
flared in Ambon, the Maluku provincial
capital. This was the worst fighting since an
agreement in February 2002 ended three years
of sectarian fighting in which some 5,000
persons died...http://mnn.gospelcom.net/light/article/6086
Twelve
Laotian Christian believers have been
imprisoned simply for refusing to give up
their faith in Jesus Christ. According to
World Help , three believers were forced to
appear before police authorities in the Phin
district of Laos and were arrested. Nine
others have been imprisoned in just the past
four or five weeks.
In each
case, the police gave these Christian leaders
and church members the opportunity to deny
their faith in order to avoid prison.
Can you
imagine the pressure these men faced at the
hands of their Laotian police accusers? But,
not one of them recanted.
The authorities at Phin
District Prison were so upset at the believers
for refusing to give up their faith in Jesus
that the police forced many of them into
around-the-clock hard labor with only a single
meal per day. Others have had their hands and
feet bound in wooden stocks. This is the way
the worst criminals are treated in Laotian
prisons. Family members who were allowed to
visit their relatives in prison reported these
abuses to our ministry partner. For security
reasons, I cannot share the name of our
partner who sent me this report...http://mnn.gospelcom.net/light/article/6089
Indonesia's
president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was met by
hundreds of Muslim protesters as she made her
first visit to the city of Ambon since 38
people died in sectarian violence last month.
About 500
students urged Ms Megawati to take action
against a mainly Christian separatist
movement, as she held talks with religious and
Maluku provincial officials during the visit.
Ms Megawati
told religious leaders that her government
would do what it could to maintain the
country's unity.
Thirty-eight
people died and over 100 were injured during
more than a week of communal violence in Ambon,
which was sparked by a parade by the
separatists on April 25.http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_1113921.htm
Iraq
An all-out jihad has been
declared against Iraq's minority Christian
population, car bombs exploded outside at
least five Christian churches today, killing
more than a dozen people and wounding scores
more in an apparently coordinated attack timed
to coincide with evening prayers. No one knows
with certainty how many Christians live in
Iraq because they were not part of census
statistics kept by Saddam Hussein. However,
estimates run as high as 10 percent of the 25
million population...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39742
The series of violent
attacks against Christians in southern Iraq
have badly shaken the minority community,
nearly succeeding in driving them out from the
city of Basra....."Most of the Christians
have had these thoughts about leaving, anyone
with relatives elsewhere or money to leave the
country will not hesitate to go," said
Muwafaq Butris, Habeeb's brother, speaking at
their home next to a mosque....Archbishop
Gabriel Kassab, who presides over Basra's
estimated 1,150 Syrian Orthodox, Catholic,
Protestant and Chaldean Christian families,
also warns of an exodus....."Before,
under the previous regime, there was security,
there were no big problems. Now at least six
people have been killed from our
community," he said...."There are
some Muslim radicals who see the Christians as
feeble. My people are now afraid, some of
those with family outside are
leaving."....Kassab, originally from the
northern Iraqi city of Mogul, said he was
optimistic the situation would improve,
blaming the attacks on non-Iraqis and
insisting that relations between Basra's
religious communities were still
strong...."The trouble that comes here is
not coming from Basra's citizens. We have good
cooperation here, at Christmas all the Muslims
came here and now it is Enid I am visiting all
the mosques," he said, referring to the
Enid al-Adhere feast of the sacrifice.
http://www.worthynews.com/zone.cgi?
http://www.christiantoday.com/dbase.php?cat=missions&id=605
Assyrian Christians recently
liberated from Saddam Hussein's regime are
suffering a string of deadly attacks church
leaders believe are religiously motivated.
Christians and churches have
received letters in Arabic threatening that if
they don't follow Islamic practice and support
"the resistance," they will face the
consequences: "torture, and burning or
exploding the house with the family in
it," says Elizabeth Kendal, researcher
for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission, in a report published by
the Assist News Service.
Mandaean Christians, who
follow the teachings of John the Baptist, have
been receiving the same threats and suffering
the same violence, Kendal says.
The unchecked Islamic
aggression is forcing the Christians to flee,
she states, citing some examples.
On June 7, four masked men
drove into the Christian Assyrian Quarters of
the Dora district of Baghdad and opened fire
on Assyrians going to work. Four were killed
and several others wounded.
In the afternoon, the same
day, three Assyrian women were killed in
another drive-by shooting as they returned
home from working at the Coalition Provisional
Authority.
On 22 March, an elderly
Assyrian couple was murdered in the Assyrian
district. The wife was beaten to death and the
husband had his throat cut.
As WorldNetDaily reported,
Ken Joseph Jr., an Assyrian who directs
Assyrianchristians.com, says several
developments that "bode ill for
Christians in Iraq are causing believers to
flee the nation."
Facing next Wednesday's
deadline for transfer of power, a temporary
constitution that reads Islam is the
"Official
worldnetdaily
Saudi Arabia
An Indian national abducted
and tortured by religious police for
"spreading Christianity" remains
jailed without trial weeks after his
detention. Brian Savio O'Connor, 36, was
accosted in the Mursalat district of Riyadh on
March 25 by four policemen, Compass Direct
reported.
After discovering that
O'Connor was a Christian, they beat him for
seven hours. In response to questions,
O'Connor admitted that he did preach the
Bible, but denied converting Muslims to
Christianity. Authorities then charged him
with preaching Christianity, selling liquor
and peddling drugs.
http://www.charismanow.com/a.php?ArticleID=9307
The
commander of the terrorist attack in Khobar,
Saudi Arabia, has revealed his account of the
operation in an al-Qaida-affiliated
publication, boasting about purging Arab land
of Christians and other
"infidels."...
Al-Nashami
gleefully talked of dragging the body of one
Western victim behind a car.
"The
infidel's clothing was torn to shreds, and he
was naked in the street. The street was full
of people, as this was during work hours, and
everyone watched the infidel being dragged,
praise and gratitude be to Allah."...
"We
entered one of the companies' [offices], and
found there an American infidel who looked
like a director of one of the companies. I
went into his office and called him. When he
turned to me, I shot him in the head, and his
head exploded. We entered another office and
found one infidel from South Africa, and our
brother Hussein slit his throat. We asked
Allah to accept [these acts of devotion] from
us, and from him. This was the South African
infidel...
In
one description, al-Nashami tells of killing
Christians.
"We
began to comb the site looking for infidels.
We found Filipino Christians. We cut their
throats and dedicated them to our brothers the
mujahedeen in the Philippines. [Likewise], we
found Hindu engineers and we cut their
throats, too, Allah be praised. That same day,
we purged Muhammad's land of many Christians
and polytheists."
After
slitting the throats of several Hindus, the
terror leader says he and his colleagues held
a Quran study.
"We
utilized the time for [teaching] the Quran to
the Muslims who remained," he said.
"We taught them how to read [Surat] Al-Fatiha
properly. They were amazed by us, [and said],
'How are you able to do this in such an
inflamed atmosphere?' Thanks be to Allah for
enabling us to do so."...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38955
While Riyadh insists to the
world Saudi clerics condemn terrorism,
statements broadcast on national television
convey the opposite message, calling for the
killing of Jews and Christians and the
ultimate takeover of the United States by
Islam.
Since the March 24 bombings
in the Saudi capital, the kingdom's diplomats
have been preaching tolerance, says the Middle
East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
For example, Saudi
Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar
bin Sultan, said in a June 15 statement that
"senior religious scholars in Saudi
Arabia have continually and unequivocally
condemned terrorism. In our war against
terrorism, these condemnations are a powerful
weapon."...
But that contention is
flatly refuted by numerous examples from Saudi
television provided by MEMRI, including some
available on the Washington-based group's
website.
On May 24, Sheik Dr. Ahmad
Abd Al-Latif, a professor at Um Al-Qura
University, was asked the following question
on Saudi channel TV1: "Some imams and
preachers call for Allah to annihilate the
Jews and those who help them, and the
Christians and those who support them... Is it
permitted according to Islamic law?"
Professor Al-Latif
responded: "What made them curse the Jews
is that the Jews are oppressors. ... The same
goes for the Christians, because of their
cruel aggression against Islamic countries ...
while the truth is that this is a crusading
war whose goal is to harm Muslims. This is why
a Muslim is allowed to curse the oppressors
from among the Jews and Christians. ...
Cursing the oppressing Jews and the oppressing
and plundering Christians and the prayer that
Allah will annihilate them is permitted."
Al-Munajid stated on Iqraa
TV on April 15: "...It requires the
mobilization of the nation. How can the nation
be mobilized? I believe that the stupid acts
of these Jews and Crusaders mobilize the
nation. The big explosion will come! In spite
of everything, it will happen!"...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39136
