Christian Teen Murdered for Allegedly having Affair with Muslim Girl in Pakistan

2/25/2013 Pakistan (PCP) -A Christian boy named Mard-e-Khuda, resident of Tehsil Haroonabad, District Bahawalpur, aged 19 years was barbarically assassinated on 9thJanuary2013. He was falsely accused of having an affair with a Muslim girl.

The local young Muslims had threatened him and they also used to proclaim openly that they will kill Mard-e-Khuda. On 9th January 2013, three Muslim men named Muhammad Shafique, Illyas(Eidoo) and Sufiyan broke into his house and brutally assassinated him at 5.30 a.m. Illyas and Sufiyan gripped his hands and legs tightly and Mohammad Shafique hit his head with an axe. Afterwards Illyas and Sufiyan also stabbed him with a dagger. In the meanwhile Mard-e-Khuda’s father woke up and as he started shouting and crying, the culprits ran from the spot.

On the same day an FIR bearing no.7/13 under section 302/34 was registered against them in Faqeerwali Police Station Bahawalpur. Unfortunately the Police is cooperating with the culprits and they have not yet arrested Mohammad Shafique, Illyas and Sufiyan. All three of them are living in the same vicinity and the police is not taking any action against them, even the S.H.O stated that such Christian who was having an affair with a Muslim girl was rightly killed by the Muslims.

In Pakistan, hundreds of Christian girls are raped and forcefully converted by the Muslims but if any Christian man does such thing, he is sentenced to death and even the Muslim girl is also apostates. Religious minority is facing this discriminatory law every day while living in Pakistan(Source).

Chinese American and Two South Korean Missionaries Detained at House Church Meeting

02/25/2013 China (ChinaAid) - At about 2 o’clock on the afternoon of February 20, the Missionary Meeting of the West held by a house church in Jimo, Shandong Province, was raided by the local police and departments in charge of religious affairs. It is learned that two missionaries respectively from America and South Korea were detained. Besides, over 90 members of a fellowship of college students and house church missionaries were booked by their IDs and were then dispersed by force.

After the mission meeting of college students in Jimo City, Shandong Province was raided, a Chinese American and two South Korean missionaries remain in detention; their passports have been confiscated. Decisions will be made about them, and they may be deported from China.

In addition to these situations, it is reported that starting from 2012, some agencies of the Chinese government have conducted secret investigations on over 300 missionaries from South Korea. They have now deported or forced out nearly 100 of them. The remaining 200-some missionaries are all planning to withdraw from China soon to dodge the brunt of the crackdown(Source).

China: Presbyterian Church Raided, Pastor Beaten by Police

 

2/21/2013 China (CA) -Presbyterian Federation of Beijing has made an urgent appeal for prayers for the persecuted church in Heilongjiang and for assistance in hiring lawyers to intervene according to law. Prominent Christian Lawyer Li Fangping has agreed to represent the church in this case.

At about 7 p.m. on February 19, two police officers from Youhao District of Yichun City of Heilongjiang suddenly broke into Youhao Church (photo on the above). Under the guise of fire-code compliance inspection, they viciously harassed the members who were serving at the church. The chief pastor of the church, Sister Sun Wenxian, said that the officers didn’t give any acceptable reasons for their action. Further, one of the officers had a strong smell of liquor and was in a drunken state.

Pastor Sun Wenxian denounced them to their face for their unreasonable conduct and demanded that they show their identification papers. For this, the two police officers became furious and called her bad names and threatened to seal off Youhao Church. In addition, they became physically violent and beat her. In the physical conflict Pastor Sun Wenxian was injured so severely, both mentally and physically, that she had a heart attack.

Sister Hao, who serves in the church, told us that during this time they phoned #110 for police several times but none came. However, in comparison, these two police officers called, and within five minutes a large group of agents from Domestic Security Protection Squad (DSPS) of the Public Security Bureau entered the courtyard of Youhao Church. Sister Hao said that only when they saw Pastor Sun Wenxian was having a heart attack, they didn’t dare to do whatever they had intended.
After that, Pastor Sun Wenxian was rushed to a local hospital for treatment, where she is reported in a stable condition. In her telephone call, Pastor Sun Wenxian called on various churches to pray for Youhao Church and for the rulers(Source).

Hindu Radicals Terrorize Christians in India

 

2/24/2013 India (WND) - Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde says his nation faces an increasing terrorism threat from self-proclaimed “right-wing” Hindu groups, and that’s bad news for Christians here. In a report on India television network NDTV Shinde said ultra-nationalist Hindu groups have formed camps to train operatives to carry out attacks.

“Groups like RSS are a threat to India,” he said. That would be Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which states on its website: “Sangh is not a mere reaction to one or another social or political aberration. It represents a corpus of thought and action firmly rooted in genuine nationalism.”
The group states its movement is a response to colonialism and any anti-nationalist movement in India, including religious movements.

William Stark, Asia analyst for the Christian human-rights group International Christian Concern, says the RSS itself confirms the home minister’s statement that it’s a violent group.
“Attacks are common in India. Hindu radicals, generally linked with the group RSS, attack pastors and other Christians for converting to Christianity,” Stark said.

Stark added that one of the tragedies of the growing terrorist threat is that many of the attacks are covered up by the government.

“Often these attacks go uninvestigated by the police. In most cases the police go through the motions of an investigation, but really don’t want to uncover any evidence,” Stark said. Animesh Roul, an India-based terrorism analyst who directs the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict, disputes the home minister’s opinion, claiming RSS isn’t really violent.

“RSS is a right-wing Hindu group, but neither violent nor covert. Again, it’s not transnational in nature, but, yes, over the years it sympathizes with Hindu-related issues elsewhere,” Roul said.
“They do some moral policing and of course raise their voice against any misuse/abuse of Hindu gods or goddesses, in Indian culture abroad,” Roul said. He said RSS mostly is volunteers working for the idea of a Hindu nation(Source).

200 Million Christians in China Without Bibles

 I hope this situation changes.

02/22/13 China (MNN) - Within two decades, China is on track to be the largest Christian nation in the world, according to Bibles For China. Reports are projecting growth to over 400 million believers, and yet one thing is lacking: Bibles. Bob Drew with Bibles For China notes, "It's estimated that roughly 200 million Christians right now don't have Bibles in China."

Without the grounding of Scripture, new Christians are at risk of falling into heresy. Yet, the isolation prevents access. And there is another obstacle aside from remoteness and scarcity: cost. Millions of rural Chinese Christians subsist on less than $100 per year, which means a $5 Bible costs about a third of month's wages. "A lot of these people have never seen a Bible", Drew says. "They've been learning Scripture off of chalkboards; they've been learning from very, very old versions of the Bible, dating back prior to the 1940s."

The discipline required to memorize chapters at a time is admirable, but Drew says Bibles For China wants to do more. "We raise funds in developed countries that legally and openly give Bibles free of charge to the believers living in poverty-stricken areas. For Bibles for China, we focus on rural Chinese areas."

At a cost of $5.00 each, Bibles for China is currently purchasing and distributing God's Word free of charge to rural Chinese believers--complete Bibles which are legally printed in China. The need is huge: hundreds of thousands of Bibles have been requested. "When [some of them] actually got a new Bible, we had people literally break down and cry, screaming and chanting to God just how thankful they were just to have [His Word] in their hands(Source)."

Pakistani Christian Shot Dead after Arguing with Muslim over Religion

I pray that this Muslim one day faces justice.

2/202/2013 Pakistan (FIDES) -Roshan Masih, a 45 year old Christian, was shot dead after an argument over religion in Lahore, capital of Punjab Province. Fides learned that the episode, on 16 February, brought bewilderment and grief ito the local Christian community : it was an act of murder in cold blood: Roshan’s defence of his Christian beliefs compared to Muslim beliefs, may have been considered ‘blasphemous’. Roshan Masih had converted from Hinduism to Christianity and about 20 ago settled in Lahore. Days before the murder he had a heated argument over religion with a local Muslim, Sohail Akhtar. The latter waited for his opportunity, and, on 16 February, seeing Roshan sitting outside a shop run by Sadiq Masih, another Christian, Sohail Akhtar, armed with a rifle, shot him dead there and then.
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“This is truly a tragedy: an innocent man is slain for defending his faith in a simple argument. The episode is emblematic of the conditions of Pakistani Christians. The authorities have a duty to guarantee the basic rights of Christian minorities(Source).”

Arrested Chinese House Church Minister Stands up for His Rights

 

2/08/2013 China (CA) - A well-known Chinese minister taken into police custody twice for evangelizing before Christmas in a public park and administratively detained for 13 days has initiated administrative litigation against the police, using the law to protect his legal and religious rights.
Cao Nan was taken into police custody on Dec. 8 and 15 while he was evangelizing at the Lychee Park in Shenzhen. On the first occasion, seven other church lay leaders who were evangelizing with him were also detained, and everyone was released the next day. On Dec. 15, eight other church lay workers evangelizing with Cao were also detained. They were released the very late the same day, but Cao was transferred to the local detention center. The next day, he was administratively detained by the Futian Sub-Bureau of the Public Security Bureau for "masquerading under the name of Christianity to disturb social order multiple times at Lichi Park in Futian District." He was not released until Dec. 28.
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Litigation Request:
Confim, according to the law, that the “Public Security Administrative Penalty Decision” Shen Gong Fu Jue Zi (2012) No. 044018 imposed on the plaintiff by the defendant on December 16, 2012 was illegal and rescind the administrative penalty decision.

Facts and reasons:
At about 15:30 on December 16, 2012, the plaintiff, Wang Ruien, Wang Silang and several other Christians arrived of their own accord at Lizhi (Lychee) Park in Futian District, found a suitable place (many other people were singing and dancing nearby) and began to sing song, dance and talk about life experiences and Christian ideas. Some spectators gathered around, including some park security guards who were using their cameras to videotape the plaintiff, Wang Ruien, Wang Silang, and the others. As the plaintiff, Wang Ruien, Wang Silang and the others were engaged in their activities, a police officer and a government security officer arrived at the scene and told us to stop. The plaintiff stepped forward to explain, and the police officer took the plaintiff to the local police station, where they took down a written record of the questioning of the plaintiff. After the questioning, they made the plaintiff wait at the local police station until about 11 o’clock at night when the defendant issued “Public Security Administrative Penalty Decision” Shen Gong Fu Jue Zi (2012) No. 044018. The reason given was " harming society by masquerading under the name of religion,” and the punishment of 12 days of administrative detention was imposed based on Article 27, Paragraph 2 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Penalties for Administration of Public Security. The plaintiff did not agree and asked that the implementation be delayed. But they refused and sent the plaintiff straight to the detention center. Therefore, the plaintiff refused to sign the papers for the “penalty decision.”
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To sum up, the administrative penalty imposed by the defendant on the plaintiff violates the statutory procedures stipulated in the Law of the People's Republic of China on Penalties for Administration of Public Security and the Law of People’s Republic of China on Administrative Penalty and is illegal and invalid. Pursuant to Article 11 of the Administrative Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, the plaintiff is filing a complaint against the defendant in accordance with the law, asking the People’s Court of Futian District of Shenzhen City to confirm that the administrative penalty imposed by the defendant on the plaintiff violates the law and to rescind the administrative penalty decision made by the defendant on December 16, 2012(Source).