Christians persecuted throughout the world

Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.

Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as “Western education is sinful”), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group.

Other notable trouble spots include Egypt, where 600,000 Copts – more than the entire population of Manchester – have emigrated since the 1980s in the face of harassment or outright oppression.

Why is such a huge scourge chronically under-reported in the West? One result of this oversight is that the often inflated sense of victimhood felt by many Muslims has festered unchallenged. Take the fallout of last month’s protests around the world against the American film about the Prophet Mohammed. While most of the debate centred on the rule of law and the limits of free speech, almost nothing was said about how much more routinely Islamists insult Christians, almost always getting away with their provocations scot-free.

Innocence of Muslims, the production that spurred all the outrage, has been rightly dismissed as contemptible trash. What, though, of a website such as “Guardians of the Faith”, run by Salafist extremists in Cairo? Among many posts, it has carried an article entitled “Why Muslims are superior to Copts”. “Being a Muslim girl whose role models are the wives of the Prophet, who were required to wear the hijab, is better than being a Christian girl, whose role models are whores,” it declares. “Being a Muslim who fights to defend his honour and his faith is better than being a Christian who steals, rapes, and kills children.” Hateful messages breed hateful acts. Is it any surprise that mobs have set fire to one church after another across Egypt in recent years(Source)?

Prayer update: Christians Suffering in Burma

10/12/2012 Burma (Barnabas Aid) – Despite the praise that Burma (Myanmar) has attracted this year for its recent reforms, the Christian minority there continues to be persecuted. A new report has shown that the government is still pursuing its agenda to assimilate the mainly Christian Chin ethnic group into a Buddhist national identity. Lift up to the Lord Christians in Burma, and ask that He will protect them from this on-going campaign, and that they will be able to stand strong in their faith.

The report documents more than 40 separate incidents of ill-treatment or torture, and 24 official complaints of religious freedom violations and other human rights abuses. These include the intimidation and harassment of pastors and other Christian workers, sexual violence, forced labour, closure of churches and disruption of worship services. Pray that the Lord will comfort those who have been the victims of this persecution, and ask that the Holy Spirit would enable them to forgive and love their persecutors.

Pray also for Christian schoolchildren in Burma, who are particularly at risk. Those who attend the free government schools for minorities endure frequent official coercion to convert to Buddhism. The schools try to entice the Chin children, who come from very poor families, with free food, education and government jobs when they graduate. Children at the schools are prevented from practising their Christian faith, and instead are forced to wear monastic robes and shave their heads. They may be beaten for refusing to recite Buddhist scriptures, and the threat of military conscription is used to force them to comply. Pray for Christian children in Burma, that the Lord will be a shield around them so that they will grow up firm in their faith(Source).

Christians Fleeing Persecution in Mali

10/27/2012 Mali (VaticanToday) - "In the north of Mali, all Christians were forced to flee" a complaint expressed in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Fr. Laurent Balas, a missionary of the White Fathers, who spent six years in Gao in northern Mali before being appointed pastor of the Church of the Holy Martyrs of Uganda in Bamako.

"My Gao successors were forced to flee," said Fr. Balas describing the conquest of the north of the Country in the spring of this year on behalf of the Islamic militias.

Christians fleeing from the north are welcomed by the families in the south under very precarious conditions, after having left all their belongings. "There are no refugee camps in the Country, but there are in neighboring Countries. The displaced have been 'absorbed' by the people. It is very difficult to say how many there are, " says the missionary.

In the north Islamist groups have imposed their radical interpretation of the Sharia even reaching the point of breaking into homes in search of unveiled women. In this case the unfortunate’s ear is cut off.
"Faced with this situation, the Muslims themselves are fleeing en masse, except that now, in the south, these families who flee put extra weight on other families who are already devasted(Source).

Iran Detains Seven Christians in Church Raid

10/14/2012 Iran (Christian Post)- Authorities in Iran's Fars Province arrested seven Christians in a church raid on Friday, even as five other Christian converts who were detained eight months ago from the same province will face trial on Monday. Over 300 Christians have been arbitrarily arrested and detained over the last two years.

Security personnel on Friday evening raided a house church belonging to the Church of Iran denomination in the city of Shiraz, and detained seven Christians, U.K.-based charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported.

The seven, identified as Mohammad (Vahid) Roghangir, Suroush Saraie, Roxana Forughi, Eskandar Rezaie, Bijan Haghighi, Mehdi Ameruni and Shahin Lahooti, were being held in Plaque 100, the Intelligence Ministry's notorious detention center.

Security men threatened older people at the prayer gathering, and then allowed them to leave while detaining the others. CSW said the latest detentions were part of a "marked upsurge in a campaign of harassment of Christians of all denominations, with reports of a significant increase in arrests during recent weeks."

"There appears to be an increasing tendency by the Iranian authorities to characterize legitimate religious activities as crimes against the state," CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said. "In reality, people are being harassed merely on account of their faith."

Meanwhile, five Christian converts arrested eight months ago from Shiraz officially received a trial date through a lawyer for Monday, Mohabat News, an Iranian Christian news agency, reported.
The trial will be held in Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz.

The accused were identified as Mojtaba Hosseini, Mohammad-Reza Partoei (Kourosh), Vahid Hakkani, Homayoun Shokouhi and his wife Mrs. Fariba Nazemian. The charges against them include "creating illegal groups," "participating in house church service," "propagation against the Islamic regime," and "defaming Islamic holy figures through Christian evangelizing."

Since their arrest, the five Christians are being held in separate wards with dangerous criminals in Adel-Abad prison in Shiraz.

Thomas from CSW said the ongoing harassment and imprisonment of Christians, Baha'is and other religious minorities "contravenes international covenants to which Iran is a signatory, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of religion."
Reuters last month quoted Ahmed Shaheed, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, as saying that he estimated that "over 300 Christians have been arbitrarily arrested and detained throughout the country since June 2010."

"Scores of other Christians appear to remain in detention for freely practicing their religion," Shaheed said. "Churches continue to report undue pressure to report membership, in what appears to be an effort to pressure and sometimes even detain converts(Source)."

Indonesian Pays Steep Price for Converting to Christ

The founder of Islam said that apostates should be killed:
Sahih al-Bukhari 6922—Allah’s Messenger [said], “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.”

Therefore stories like those below shouldn't surprise us:

10/12/2012 Indonesia (CBN News)- In the world's largest Muslim nation, changing your faith can bring lots of trouble. One man Christian World News spoke with lost his home and his job. In fact, he almost lost his identity. But he still says turning to Christ was worth it all. Andi was raised as a Muslim and he considered himself to be a devout believer of Islam.

"I was diligent in practicing the Muslim faith. I encouraged friends to pray and to build the mosque. I was faithful to Islam and didn't have any intentions of befriending Christians," he said.

"My goal in life was to get rich. And I was also involved in witchcraft. People came to me for healing and they paid me," he said. "I had a big house and lots of money to spend but I felt empty."

According to Andi, all this changed when a Christian came to his house and spoke to him about Jesus.
"He kept on coming to our house but I avoided him," he said. "Then one day I became ill and my whole family was sick with high fever. This Christian guy brought us to the hospital. He and his friends took care of us."

The Christians also gave him a Bible and encouraged him to read it.
"I did not want to read the Bible, but when I got healed, I felt an urge to read the Bible," Andi said. "And when I read it, I wanted to know more about Jesus."

Since then, Andi's Christian friends regularly met at his home for bible study. When his Muslim neighbors heard them singing Christian songs, Muslim leaders came to his house to persuade him to return to Islam.
Andi refused to recant and preached the gospel to them instead. This agitated his Muslim neighbors. More than 30 of them threw rocks at his house.

He was even brought before a mob at the local public hall. They questioned his new religious identity and confiscated his residence card. The card holds important personal information, including a person's religion. without the card, a person can't get a passport, obtain most licenses, or conduct many transactions. Andi met a lot of opposition before he could change his religious affiliation on his residence card from being Muslim to being a Christian. Now he is boldly paying the price even if it meant having to live in a remote place.

Open Doors, a Christian organization, provided a lawyer for Andi.
"The lawyer presented a letter to the village leader that stated the laws in Indonesia that included Andi's right to choose his religion," Boas Panggabean, Open Doors coordinator, said. "The village chief then returned Andi's residence card that showed his new identity in Christ."

But because it was not safe anymore for his family, Andi, together with his wife and five children, left their village. He lost his home and his job. He is grateful that Open Doors helped him to start a new business. He now sells small household appliances in his new community(Source).

Pastor and 12-Year-Old Daughter Beaten by Radicals in India

 08/07/2012 India (MNN) - While believers were gathered at his home singing worship songs, a mob of Hindu extremists brutally attacked Raju*, a church leader trained by Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India. Mission India's Dave Stravers said about 20 men broke into Raju's home wielding clubs. Radicals destroyed things in the home and then turned their rage to Raju. When his 12-year old daughter asked the extremists why they were attacking her father, they began to beat her too.

"Persecution is a growing reality in India," said Stravers. After violently attacking Raju and his family, extremists proceeded to drag the believer and his wife to a nearby Hindu temple.

"They smeared vermillion, which is like a finger-paint, on their foreheads and pushed their heads down…and forced them to worship the idols in the temple," Stravers explained. "This is a pretty typical thing; it happens quite often in India."

Last month, the Evangelical Fellowship of India observed weekly attacks on Christians. Hindu extremists throughout India threatened and beat believers, often accusing them of 'forcible conversions'. Could this escalating violence lead to another Orissa?

"That possibility is always there, yes," Stravers admitted. "It's impossible to predict when that might happen or where, but it's always a possibility.

"In the meantime, you have these local acts of aggression that happen every week, and many cases every day. This is happening all over India."

One of Mission India's partners believes that a non-Christian relative may have told the attackers about Raju's worship group. Raju and his family are currently in hiding. Stravers said a similar pattern takes place in India whenever believers face persecution - they lie low for a few weeks until the chaos dies down, and then resume their work quietly(Source).

Children Attacked at Sunday School in Kenya

10/1/2012 Kenya (CBNNews) - Kenyan police are investigating a deadly attack on a church in the capital city of Nairobi.   An explosive device was set off in a Sunday school class full of children. One child was killed and at least three seriously wounded.   Jackson Mwangi was worshipping in the church when the blast occurred.

"We heard a blast from outside on the side of the nursery school and people started stampeding and scampering all over," he recalled. "The kids who were injured...the congregation started taking them to the hospital."

Police believe the Somali Muslim militant group al-Shabab is behind the attack. They have been targeting Kenyan churches ever since Kenyan forces moved into Somalia to fight al-Shabab last year(Source).