Christians in Tanzania Call for an End to Religious Violence

12/30/2012 Tanzania (AllAfrica) - As the world celebrated Christmas, the day of the birth of Jesus Christ, religious leaders have agitated for greater peace and harmony. They have called on the government to contain religious conflicts. The Catholic Church went a mile farther, challenging the government to take its role in providing security to churches and other places of worship against sabotages by gangs of criminals.

The Archbishop of the Dar es Salaam Catholic Archdiocese, Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, told the press that the government was sorely responsible for enabling the worshipers undertake their religious activities peacefully short of which chaos may erupt.

He said that although the government does not have direct affiliation in any religious sect, it recognizes the presence of religions, denominations and their activities and was therefore obliged to take immediate action whenever trouble occurs. "The government must ensure peace and security at places of worship be it at mosques, temples or churches. It has to make sure these places are respected," he stressed(Source).

Nigeria’s President Claims Christians Were Safe Over Christmas Holiday

It wouldn't be surprised if people said that he was wrong about saying my Nigerian brethren in Christ were safe over the Christmas holidays.

12/31/2012 Nigeria (TheSun) - President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said that, but for the security measures to check Boko Haram, this year’s Christmas celebration would have been the bloodiest, going by the Islamist sect’s plans. This is even as a church disclosed that it lost 109 members and 50 branches to the group. Jonathan spoke of plans by Boko Haram to push the nation backwards and stop the government from providing the dividends of democracy.

“They would not succeed because 2013 will be a good year for Nigerians and Nigeria,”he said. The President noted that Christianity and Islam are religions of peace and tolerance which forbid killings and blood-letting. The President disclosed this at the Ekklisiyar Yaruwa a Nigeria, EYN, (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), Utako, Abuja, where he attended Sunday service. While re-assuring that his administration was working round-the-clock to address insecurity, Jonathan said that government will contain insecurity posed by the sect.

The President said that government will ensure that the activities of the Boko Haram did not push the nation backward as the strategic security plans put in place were already yielding positive results. According to him, the sect had intended to unleash deadly attacks on Christmas day, but the plans were aborted because of the effective strategic operations of the various security agencies. “The Boko Haram planned to carry out a lot of attacks on Christmas day, but we suppressed their plans during the Christmas, because the extent of their plans was not executed as a result of the strategies by the security agencies.

“Although, we still recorded some incidences, but the extent of attacks which they planned, was not allowed to be executed. Boko Haram will not push us backwards. If their plan is to stop government from providing the dividends of democracy, they would not succeed because 2013 will be a good year for Nigerians and Nigeria. With your persistent prayer, we shall defeat them,” he said. Jonathan noted that it was strange how terrorism and suicide bombings which were alien to the culture of any section of the country had crept in. He thanked the EYN nationwide for keeping faith and remaining calm even in the face of provocation.

Earlier, Senior Pastor of the church, Rev. Daniel Mbaya, said that about 50 of their churches had been burnt and 109 members killed in the North by Boko Haram. He said that EYN, predominantly in the North- East, was worse hit by the Boko Haram insurgence(Source).

Rotten Egg Attack Mars Indonesia Christmas Celebration

12/25/2012 Indonesia (Jakarta Globe) - More than 200 Indonesian Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass near land outside Jakarta where they plan to build a church, police and a witness said. Some 100 Christian worshippers intended to hold a mass near empty land where they hope to build a church, about 30-kilometers east of the capital, in a project barred by district government and community members in 2009.

Since then, worshippers from the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant have held Sunday services under scorching sun outside the property. On Tuesday, however, local community members blocked the road near the land, Andri Ananta, a local police chief on Jakarta's outskirts, told AFP.

An AFP photographer witnessed furious locals — men and women wearing Muslim headscarf, with small children in tow — physically blocking the road and throwing rotten eggs at the gathering worshippers.
Ananta said police managed to convince the Christians to drop their plan and return home.

"We tried our best to avoid any clash and the Christians agreed to leave," he said, adding 380 police and military personnel including an anti-riot squad were deployed to the area. Church leader Reverend Palti Panjaitan said the incident came after a Christmas Eve attack on Monday evening when "intolerant people" threw not only rotten eggs but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung at them. "Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us," he told AFP(Source).

Northern Nigeria Remains Unsafe for Christians

12/29/2012 Nigeria (ChristianToday) - Christmas Eve attacks by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Nigeria's Borno state - already reeling from the slaughter of at least 10 Christians earlier this month - took the lives of six people at a Baptist church, as gunmen killed six others in Yobe state the same night.
According to Morning Star News, in Borno state, where Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is based, six Christians were slain at First Baptist Church in Maiduguri on Christmas Eve.

About 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in Kupwal village in Chibok Local Government Area, suspected jihadists shouting "Allahu Akbar [God is greater]" on December 1 slit the throats of at least 10 people in carefully selected Christian homes, according to reports from survivors.

In Yobe state on Christmas Eve, gunmen believed to be members of Boko Haram reportedly entered the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Peri, near Potiskum, and killed six Christians including a pastor before setting the church building ablaze. Several others were reported seriously wounded.

"No group has claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve attacks, but Boko Haram mounted Christmas assaults on Christians last year and in 2010," said the Morning Star News Nigeria correspondent.
Boko Haram has expressed its intention to eradicate Christians from northern Nigeria and impose a strict version of Sharia law. Attacks on Christians in Yobe state have forced thousands of Christians to flee to others parts of Nigeria, while others have become refugees in Cameroon, the newspaper reports.

It adds that in Jaji, in northern Nigeria's Kaduna state, 11 Christians were killed in a suicide attack on a church on November 25. The Reverend Titus Sambo and Israel Olaleye, students at Baptist Theological Seminary in Kaduna, died in the dual bomb blasts at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, a military barracks church serving military personnel, their families and civilians in Jaji, about 25 miles from Kaduna City. At least 30 people were reported injured(Source).

Christians are Deliberately Sidelined in Pakistan

I'm glad my Pakistani brethren-in-Christ are remembering the reason for the season, even in the midst of their persecution.

12/27/2012 Pakistan (Salem News) – With the advent of December, Christians all over the world kicked off their preparations to celebrate the most important festival of the year ‘Christmas’ across the world including Pakistan.

With every passing day till the eve of Christmas, Pakistani Christians prepare to celebrate the festivity with zeal and enthusiasm, feeling the echo of church bells for the mid night services on Christmas eve that announce the birth of Jesus.

While preparing for Christmas, the Christians living in Pakistan renew their spirit of celebrating Christmas which continues throughout the month. The programs and celebrations leading to Christmas include Christmas dinners, carol singing and other get together that have an element of sharing the joys of Christmas with the less fortunate(Source).

Pakistan’s loneliest church celebrates Christmas in Taliban country

12/24/2012 Pakistan (Reuters) - This Christmas, pastor Nazir Alam will stoke up a fire, lay a fresh cloth on the altar and welcome parishioners as they arrive at his church in Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal area known as an al-Qaeda haven.
"The lights are all up, and the choir boys are ready. The church is looking its best," said 60-year-old Alam, a former missionary who has celebrated his last ten Christmases there. "There's not much left to do but to pray and rejoice."
Outsiders might see little cause for joy. Pakistan is the sixth most dangerous country in the world for minorities, says London-based watchdog Minority Rights Group International. Christians, Shiite Muslims and Ahmadis are victims of a rising tide of deadly attacks.
But Alam's church, and the homes of most of his 200 parishioners, are nestled inside a Pakistani army base in South Waziristan, a mountainous region that was a hotbed of militancy until a military offensive in 2009.
"When the U.S. went into Kabul, things became bad for everyone. But we are safe here. The army protects us," says Shaan Masih, who helps clean the church and likes to play the drums and sing carols.
For two decades, the church was little more than a room and the tiny community worshipped there under light protection. In 2009, the army set up a base in South Waziristan as part of the offensive against the insurgency and invited the church inside.
"It was a longstanding demand of the community to be given a proper space," Col. Atif Ali, a military officer, told Reuters during a rare trip to the region arranged by the military.
Many of the Christians work for the army in clerical or domestic positions. So far, they have been sheltered from the bombings, raids and drone strikes, violence that rocks the region on an almost daily basis.
Less than a 100 miles away lies North Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan and one of the last areas controlled by the Pakistani Taliban.
The United States has repeatedly urged Pakistan to launch an operation against militants sheltered there including remnants of al Qaeda and Pakistani groups targeting the nation's minorities.
Pakistan says it is doing everything it can to fight the militancy and needs to consolidate the campaign in South Waziristan before opening a new front(Source).

Christians in Iraq celebrate Christmas in Kurdistan

12/25/2012 Iraq (RFI) – Iraq’s Kurdistan Region is home to one of the world's oldest Christian communities. In the last decade it has also welcomed Christians from the rest of Iraq who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. Christmas in Kurdistan takes on a special meaning for Christians knowing that not all their fellow citizens are free to celebrate the holiday.

You might think that one place you could avoid Christmas music in mid-December would be Iraq. But driving through Erbil, capital of the country’s Kurdistan Region, on a wet December afternoon, the local Babylon FM radio station has a full festive play list. That’s because Kurdistan is very different from the rest of the country as many Iraqi Christian refugees have discovered in recent years.

Since the 2003 Iraq war, the Kurdistan Region has offered a safe haven to Christians fleeing religious persecution in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and other Southern Iraqi cities. The small suburb of Ainkawa lies on the edge of the region’s capital Erbil and about 90% of its 40,000 strong population is Christian, most of them Assyrians or Chaldeon Catholics.

Ninos Mishu is a priest at the Assyrian Church of the East, St John Baptism Church, in Ainkawa, Erbil.
“We have [on] 24th, Monday, we have a prayer beginning at 7.30 for celebration for  coming of Jesus. And at morning 7.30, Tuesday, 25 December, we have a holy mass.”

“We are free here in Kurdistan to use our church here to pray, to make a holy mass. We are so safe here. We are always celebrating our prayers or holy mass. And there is no problems recorded until now. Thanks for God, and for our government that love the Christian people. And our neighbors, the Muslims, they are always giving their greetings for us, in Christmas or Easter(Source).”

Christmas in Indonesia a Matter of Faith and Security

I hope (or I hoped) my Indonesian brethren in Christ remember the true meaning of Christmas in the midst of their persecution during this Christmas season

12/23/2012 Indonesia (Jakarta Globe) - At Jakarta’s biggest shopping centers, lights twinkle on plastic firs and displays are buried under yards of cotton-wool snow. People of all religions can be seen having their photographs taken with a heavily costumed Santa Claus and his helpers. It is hard to tell from these open festivities that Christmas is in fact a minority celebration in Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.

Christians make up less than 10 percent of the population of 240 million. Protestantism and Catholicism count for two of the six officially recognized religions. But despite Christianity’s official status it still faces opposition in Indonesia from terrorist groups, community leaders and even government officials.
Churches in Indonesia are subject to closure from public pressure, face denial of permits to build in the first place and even experience episodes of violence.

In 2000, the nation was rocked by a series of bombings that targeted churches on Christmas Eve. Eighteen people were killed in the blasts that hit churches from North Sumatra through to West Nusa Tenggara.
This Christmas, almost 38,500 churches across the country will be guarded by police. Special attention will be paid to areas believed to be prime targets for terrorist attacks, including East and Central Java, North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi, Bali, Maluku and the Jakarta region.

“There are several regional police jurisdictions that have received special attention,” Insp. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the National Police’s assistant head of operations, said last week. “We have specifically identified the cities that are indicated as potential targets for terrorist activities.”

In Jakarta alone, 6,000 police personnel will be stationed to keep the peace, as part of an annual strategy known as “Operation Candle.” For Indonesia’s Christians, it remains to be seen whether the peaceful celebrations held in commercial spaces can be repeated in churches across the country this Christmas(Source).

A dark Christmas for Pakistani Christians

Another reason why we as Western Christians should pray for persecuted brethren during this time of year.

12/25/2012 Pakistan (Deutsche Welle) – Christians celebrate Christmas amid growing fear of persecution and rampant economic and social discrimination in Muslim-majority Pakistan. The year 2012 was one of the worst years for them in the country. In many parts of the world, Christmas means a time of celebration. But for Christians in Pakistan, who live under constant fear of persecution by the state and majority Sunni Muslims, there is not much to celebrate.

Christians make up about two percent of the 180 million people living in Pakistan. Rights organizations say that like any other religious minority, they face legal and cultural discrimination in the Islamic Republic.
Pakistan's non-government human rights commission, HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan), reported that the year 2012 was one of the worst years for Pakistani Christians; a number of them were charged with blasphemy, their churches were burnt and houses looted in many parts of the country.

Blasphemy is a sensitive topic in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where 97 percent of the population is Muslim. Controversial blasphemy laws introduced by the Islamic military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s make life for Christians more difficult. Activists say the laws have little to do with blasphemy and are often used to settle petty disputes and personal vendettas; they say the Christians are thereby often victimized.

Living under blasphemy laws
On August 16, Rimsha Masih - a Christian girl aged between 10 and 14 - was accused of committing a blasphemous act by a religious cleric in her town. The cleric said she had burnt pages upon which were inscribed verses from the Koran. Masih was promptly taken into police custody.

Pakistani officials claimed the girl suffered from Down's Syndrome, a genetic disorder causing major learning disabilities. Western governments expressed serious concern over her arrest. After numerous protests by rights organizations and Western governments, a Pakistani court ordered her release from custody. But Asia Bibi has not had such luck. In 2010, Bibi, an impoverished farmer, was sentenced to death after her neighbors accused her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. She is still languishing in prison. The liberal Pakistanis who chose to support Bibi were also not spared by Islamists.

A few months after Bibi's conviction, former governor of the Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was murdered by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri. Qadri said he killed Taseer for speaking out against the blasphemy laws and in support of Bibi. In March 2011, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's former minister for minority affairs, was assassinated by a religious fanatic for the same reason(Source).

Pastor to spend Christmas in Iranian prison, jailed for his faith

It saddens me that this man had to spend Christmas in prison. I hope he remembers that Jesus Christ is the reason for season while he is behind bars.
12/24/2012 Iran (Washington Post) – As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, a time of joy, hope, and peace on earth, we are reminded that in this world not everyone is free to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Last year, we told you about the death sentence against a Christian pastor in Iran, Youcef Nadarkhani. His only “crime” was his faith in Jesus Christ, convicted of apostasy (converting from Islam to Christianity). Hundreds of thousands of people around the world demanded his freedom. After an immense international campaign for his release, working closely with his brave Muslim attorney in Iran and world leaders, Iran relented, releasing him and dropping his apostasy charges in September.

Nadarkhani was not the only imprisoned pastor in the world, but he did become the face of Christian persecution. Today, another Christian pastor languishes in one of Iran’s most notoriously abusive prisons – this time an American citizen. Saeed Abedini, a 32-year-old Iranian-born American citizen, was arrested because of his faith while visiting his family in Iran.

After converting from Islam to Christianity, Abedini helped lead underground churches in Iran and began humanitarian efforts to establish an orphanage for the children of Iran.

In September, when traveling back to Iran to visit his parents and continue his humanitarian work, Abedini was stopped by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He has now been illegally imprisoned in Iran since September.
We at the ACLJ have been working on his case for a number of months, representing his wife, Naghmeh, and family here in America. Abedini’s wife explained, “When he became a Christian, he became a criminal in his own country. His passion was to reach the people of Iran. . . . He comes from a very close-knit family, and he loved evangelizing and passing out Bibles on the streets of Tehran. This was his passion(Source).”