Iran Dentences US Pastor To 8 Years In Prison

 

01/28/2013 Iran (AFP) - An American-Iranian pastor sentenced to eight years in jail by Iran for his role in underground churches in the Islamic republic has vowed to appeal against the verdict, the Shargh daily said Monday.

Saeed Abedini, a naturalised US citizen who converted to Christianity, was handed down the jail sentence on Sunday, according to the American Centre for Law and Justice, a Washington-based group supporting his case.Abedini's Iran-based lawyer Nasser Sarbazi confirmed the sentence and said that his client will file an appeal.

"On Sunday I was summoned to court where I was handed the sentence, and my client is also aware of it ... he has been given an eight-year jail term for setting up churches in homes, aimed at disrupting national security," Sarbazi was quoted as saying by Shargh.He said he will appeal against the verdict within the stipulated time, adding that he was still working on freeing his client on bail.

"The bail presented for my client's freedom has not been accepted, but I am still pursuing it," Sarbazi said. Abedini's supporters said that he led underground churches in the early 2000s when such activity was largely tolerated during the pro-reform presidency of Mohammad Khatami.

Having resettled in the United States, Abedini was detained on a return trip to Iran in 2009 and was let go following an agreement not to engage in underground religious activities, according to his family. Naghmeh Abedini said that her husband complied with the 2009 agreement and had returned to Iran as part of efforts to build an orphanage.

He was arrested in September last year and he has alleged in a recent letter that he was beaten in prison, Naghmeh and his US-based lawyer said last week. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Friday reiterated US concerns over the fairness of the trial(Source).

Malaysian Muslims Threaten to Hold Bible Burning Festival

01/24/2013 Malaysia (WWM) - A threat this week to burn Bibles in the Malay language is the latest in a series of attacks on the Christian faith in Malaysia.A note sent to a Christian priest in Butterworth on Tuesday, 22nd January 2013 said a Bible-burning pesta or festival would take place in the town’s public park on Sunday [27th January]. Butterworth is sited on the mainland across from the tourist island resort of Penang. The note, written in Malay, ends with a sinister warning in English: “Let’s teach ‘em a lesson.” The police have been informed of the threat.

Whether the threat will materialise is uncertain but it has had the desired effect of adding to the despair of Malaysian Christians. A fortnight ago the Sultan of the State of Selangor forbade Christians from using the word ‘Allah’, defying practice and convention in the country. The Arabic term for God, in usage in religious and cultural contexts before the dawn of Islam, has been used in Bibles in the Malay language and litany for more than 400 years.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia, an ecumenical umbrella body, in a press release described the latest Bible-burning threat as “abhorrent”. Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of the organisation, which comprises the Council of Churches of Malaysia, the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, said: “We call on those who desire to foment hatred for political gain to cease and desist from such a vile act.” He hoped and prayed that “good sense would prevail”.

The threat to burn Bibles was first made last weekend by an extremist rightwing Malaysian Muslim group called Perkasa which has links to the ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno). Perkasa’s leader is a Member of Parliament Datuk Ibrahim Ali.

At the root of the Allah tug-of-war is the official view that Muslims in Malaysia might be confused if Christians also use the word to describe God. The controversy first surfaced in 2009 when the Herald, a Malaysian Catholic weekly newspaper with a circulation of 14,000, mounted a legal challenge against the Government; it had been ordered to stop using the word Allah or risk losing its publishing licence.

In December 2009 the High Court ruled that Allah was not restricted to Muslims and the Catholic Church had the right to publish the word in the Malay language section of its weekly. (The Malaysia Chronicle reports that Perkasa was founded in the wake of this ruling and that the group staged protests at several mosques, as did Umno groups).

The verdict led to fire-bombings and vandalism targeted at churches and Christian-run schools. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who has espoused a policy of "One Malaysia," visited affected sites and offered Government funding to repair the damage. The Government, nevertheless, appealed against the High Court ruling to appease Malays. The case is pending in the Appeals Court.

Malaysian Christians, who form only 9.2 per cent of a population of 28 million, say their anguish is profound as their faith is again under attack. They say that the threat to hold a Bible-burning festival flies in the face of the spirit of a once-famed harmonious multiracial and multi-religious country where the Federal Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.

They say their plight leaves them feeling that they are yet again being trodden on: to quote the Malay proverb “When two elephants [or in this case political foes] fight, the grass gets trampled(source).”
 

Nigeria Militants Kill 23 For Disobeying Islamic Law; Christians Tense

 

1/24/13 Nigeria (BNL) -Minority Christians in northern Nigeria were on edge Thursday, January 24, after militants killed at least 23 people for disobeying Islamic religious law, known as Sharia, residents said. In the deadliest attack, suspected Islamic gunmen fired at a market in Borno state killing 18 people late Monday, January 21.

"Gunmen suspected to be members of [Islamic group Boko Haram] came to the town market and shot dead 13 local hunters on the spot while five others died from their injuries at the hospital," the official said in published remarks.

"They came to the market in a Volkswagen Golf car, carried out the operation and left."
Locals said the militants appeared to have targeted the local hunters over their choice to sell "bush meat" such as pork and monkeys, forbidden by local Muslims.

In a separate incident Tuesday, January 22, suspected Islamic militants riding on motorbikes shot dead five people playing an outdoor board game in the northern city of Kano, some 500 km (310 miles) west of Damboa, witnesses and hospital sources said. Two people were reportedly seriously wounded. Authorities believe both attacks were carried out by Boko Haram, which means 'Western Education is a Sin'.

Boko Haram wants to carve out an Islamic state out of Nigeria, a country of 170 million people split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.
It has ordered Christians to leave the region and urged Muslims to move from southern areas to the north.

The latest attacks came after suspected Boko Haram fighters killed dozens of people, most of them Christians, since Christmas. On Christmas Eve, attackers raided two churches, killing 12 people in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe.

Six days later, suspected Boko Haram fighters killed at least 15 Christian worshipers, slitting some of their throats, in Musari, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, where the Islamic militants are based, according to Nigerian authorities(Source).

Widow of a Martyr Murdered in front of Her Children

01/09/13 Columbia (WWM) -Four months after guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) sent a murdered evangelist's wife their first demand to abandon her home in northeast Colombia's volatile Arauca department, the militants made good on their threats, report sources close to Open Doors, a ministry to persecuted Christians.

On Monday, Jan 7th 2013, as the family's pastor finished an evening devotional in the home of widow Alicia Castilla, assassins entered the home and opened fire on her with pistols, killing her instantly in front of her three children and her father. An Open Doors worker who cannot be named for security reasons told World Watch Monitor that before leaving the home, the guerrillas told Castilla's son, 18-year-old Hernán, that the rest of the family had three days to leave the region. After that, the killers warned, they would return and one by one kill other family members.

Castilla's death follows the murder of her husband, lay evangelist Nelson Ramos, two years before, in January 2011, also at the hands of the ELN. The armed rebel group holds a virtual sway of terror over the area. Although local government authorities are mandated to remove murder victims from crime scenes, they refused to handle Castilla’s body, fearing reprisals from the ELN insurgents. Finally funeral home workers retrieved her body.

"The local authorities understand who the guerrillas consider their enemy, and they prefer not to visit certain places," the Open Doors worker said. Founded in 1964, the ELN is one of several illegal armed groups fighting for control of the rich petroleum resources in this area along Colombia's eastern-central border with Venezuela.

"The ELN believe that Christians are brainwashed with the Bible, and that they will never support their revolution," the Open Doors worker said. The militants are also suspicious that Christians are spies and informants for the government, and complain that they give funds to their churches and refuse to support rebel activities.

"They also notice that when Christians fast and pray, the guerrillas’ violent plans against them are oddly stopped(Source)!"

New Delhi Rape Helps Bring Christian Persecution to Light in India

I hope this causes people to do something about it.

1/4/2013 India (AsiaNews) - A "propensity to forget": John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christians Council (AICC), thus terms a trend of Indian society, made up of silence, under-reporting and "contempt for the human person." The New Delhi rape seems to have lifted a veil of this mentality, with civil society united in demanding a change in a loud voice: enough corruption, more safety on the streets, some justice for those who are guilty of a crime. Just today, the main national news released a video recorded in a village in Assam: a group of women ripping the clothes from and slapping Bikram Singh Brahma, the local Congress MP, accused of rape.

However, notes Dayal, in addition to daily episodes of rape that occur throughout the country, the government "forgets the victims of past mass violence": the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi (1984), the riots between Hindus and Muslims in Mumbai ( 1992-1993), the massacres of Gujarat (2002), the anti-Christian pogrom in Orissa (2008).

In 2012, the district of Kandhamal (Orissa) registered 33 cases of rape, 19 of which were against teenagers. A phenomenon that has grown over the years: in 2009 the victims were 24 and in 2010 there were 27. Just recently, three young Christian Dalits - of 14, 13 and 5 years of age - were raped. "Two of them - Fr. Ajaya Kumar Singh, Director for Social Action Forum Orissa Bhubaneshwar told AsiaNews - are victims of gang rape. One was strangled to death, the other was able to survive." However, their case was never investigated.

"The problem - said John Dayal - is that the police takes days to register a complaint for rape [when it is done, ed.] The investigations are carried out carelessly, and the magistrate refuses even to hear the version of the victim." "The Church and the community - he concludes - must act. This situation affects us all(Source)."

Ordinary Muslims in Indonesia Involved in Attacks Against Christians

So terrorist Muslims aren't the only ones persecuting my brethren in Christ? I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will lead them to faith in Him.

01/04/2013 Indonesia (MSN) - Concerns are growing over at least 50 cases of religious freedom violations against Christians in Indonesia last year, as not only extremists but ordinary Muslims were responsible for many of the acts of intolerance and violence, according to a recent study.

“Cases of intolerance against Christians remained high in the country” in 2012, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of the Jakarta-based group Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, told Morning Star News. Christians were targeted in at least 50 of 264 cases of religious freedom violations in 2012, more than any other group, Naipospos added. Setara recorded 54 such cases against Christians in 2011, following the especially volatile year of 2010, when there were 75 cases against Christians.

Setara’s Report on Freedom of Religion and Belief in 2012 notes that the 264 cases of religious freedom violations overall last year include 371 “acts” against religious minorities, as one case often involves more than one attack or action. The Setara report came days before more than 200 local Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians going to a worship service in Bekasi on Christmas Eve. A photographer from Agence France-Presse witnessed furious men and headscarf-clad women blocking the road and launching the eggs at members of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (locally known as the HKBP) on the outskirts of Jakarta.

The attack was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the HKBP and Muslim residents who oppose the existence of the church. The Bekasi administration closed the church’s building in 2009, and it remains sealed in defiance of a Supreme Court order in favor of the church.

“During the attack, Tambun Police Chief Comdr. Andri Ananta and North Tambun District head Suhartono did nothing,” the Rev. Palti Panjaitan, pastor of the church, complained at a press conference in Jakarta on Dec. 26.

A sign of growing intolerance could be seen days before Christmas when the Indonesia Ulema Council (the MUI, a confederation that represents all Muslim groups to the government) issued a fatwa forbidding all Muslims from extending Christmas greetings to Christians and asking President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to skip Christmas celebrations.

While Indonesia’s Muslim-majority population of 232.5 million is believed to be largely tolerant, a trend is emerging of ordinary local Muslims leading violent attacks, not just outside extremist groups, the report found.

Many violent attacks were carried out with impunity by local Sunni Muslims, indicating that “the virus of intolerance” has trickled down from extremists to ordinary residents, Naipospos said. On top of the list of non-state actors were “citizens,” responsible for 76 cases of religious freedom violations – as opposed to the extremist group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which was behind 24 cases, and the MUI, which was responsible for 25 cases, according to the report(Source).

Christian Death Toll up to 22 in Nigeria

It's the New Year of 2013, and the number of my Nigerian brethren in Christ that. have been has gone up to 22 people. Lord Jesus Christ, keep my Nigerian brethren in Christ safer than they have ever been in the past in this New Year.

1/1/2013 Nigeria (CNN) - At least 22 people have been killed in three separate attacks in northeastern Nigeria since Friday, including 15 Christians shot Sunday inside a church, according to officials. The violence began early Friday when unidentified gunmen raided a village in Musari, in Borno state, killing five people, said Joint Task Force Lt. Col. Sagir Musa. JTF troops responded, and a gunbattle ensued. Three of the attackers were killed, and troops recovered weapons and ammunition. Musa declined to provide further details of the attack.

Also Friday, gunmen with suspected ties to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram killed two people and wounded another in an attack in Maiha, in Adamawa state, according to Godfrey Okeke, Adamawa state commissioner. The attackers freed 35 inmates from the Maiha prison and set government buildings on fire, Okeke said.

In Sunday's attack, gunmen entered a church in Chibok, also in Borno state, and killed at least 15 worshipers, said Mohammed Kana, a regional official for the National Emergency Management Agency.
"Some of the people had their throats slit," Kana said, citing NEMA staff who responded to the scene.
Sunday's violence comes six days after attackers raided two churches during Christmas Eve services, killing 12 people(Source).