Print Page - The Persecution of Christians, around the world.

Evangelicals To Be Expelled from Town in Hidalgo, Mexico

Roman Catholic town council decides to “end the evangelical religion” in San Nicolas.

by Elisabeth Isais

MEXICO CITY, October 4 (Compass) – About 150 evangelicals – 40 families – will be expelled from their homes in San Nicolas, Hidalgo state, at the end of October, according to a town council vote on Saturday, October 1.

Catholic officials in San Nicolas, near Ixmiquilpan, accused the evangelicals of refusing to cooperate in work projects, a charge Protestant leaders denied. The day after the expulsion decision, townspeople blocked access to property belonging to the Independent Christian Pentecostal Church. They forcibly took away tools and materials to be used for constructing a church building.

“The evangelicals have not done work projects and have not contributed anything to the community,” San Nicolas official Pablo Beltrán Ibarra told La Jornada newspaper on Sunday, October 2. The Rev. Pedro Olvera Rivera, national superintendent of the Independent Christian Pentecostal denomination, denied the frequent accusation that evangelicals have failed to participate in town projects.

He said evangelicals are leaders of the committee for community services and have been working hard in that capacity. Other Pentecostals in the town also emphatically denied Beltrán Ibarra’s accusation.

Reporter Carlos Camacho stated in the La Jornada article, “Of the population of 8,000 inhabitants, 70 percent consider themselves Catholics and have decided to end the evangelical religion.” A local Catholic priest has tried to persuade the town to practice religious freedom, once announcing through a loudspeaker, “We are all children of God,” but townspeople cut off the amplification as he spoke, according to the report.

Catholic town leader Noe Gerardo threatened reporters who were present that they would be burned and no longer allowed into San Nicolas if they repeated the priest’s message.

According to Rev. Olvera, Catholic authorities are considering removing the priest from San Nicolas. Meanwhile, government representatives are trying to deal with the problem of the probable expulsion of 150 people from their homes and property by the end of the month.

The Independent Christian Pentecostal Church was established in the town 21 years ago, according to Rev. Olvera. Religious persecution began there about 14 years ago when evangelicals’ water and electricity services were suspended. Five years ago, one believer was killed and the Bethel Temple was destroyed. Since then, the Pentecostals have been meeting in a home, more families have converted, and they had recently acquired the land to erect the church building.

Longtime hostilities erupted anew when Ponciano Rodriguez, an evangelical Christian, died last August 18, and Catholics refused to grant permission to bury him in the San Nicolas cemetery. In 1948 Rodriguez had been the chief instigator of a movement to expel two non-Catholic families from San Nicolas, but later he became a Pentecostal.

Hostilities in Chiapas

In the state of Chiapas, town leaders also have tried to ban evangelicals. Officials in San Antonio Las Rosas have decreed that only Catholics may live in the town.

Last July, three evangelicals were jailed for 24 hours in the town to try to force them to move out, according to Pastor Esdras Alonso Gonzalez, coordinator of religious affairs for San Cristóbal de las Casas. The three non-Catholics had to pay a fine of 1,000 pesos each ($93) to be freed, reported Christian lawyer Abdias Tovilla Jaime.

On September 25, local authorities cut the electricity to evangelical families, causing them to protest to the state and further angering the Catholics, said Pastor Alonso in the October 1 La Jornada.

An inter-religious council led by Tovilla is trying to mediate to avoid the expulsion of evangelicals.

Evangelicals To Be Expelled from Town in Hidalgo, Mexico (http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/evangelicals-expelled-hidalgo.html)

200 Christians detained in mass sweep
Follows U.S. sanctions for religious freedom violations
Posted: October 11, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

The North African country Eritrea has detained more than 200 Christians in an operation said to be the worst of its kind.

Eritrean security forces captured evangelicals and members of minority churches from the streets, their workplaces and homes Oct. 3, reported the British group Release Eritrea.

The whereabouts of the Christians is unknown.

Authorities also shut down a church's development project and detained its entire staff. The project includes an extensive emergency aid and feeding program.

Among the detainees are the general secretary of the project, identified only as Mr. Ukbay, and his administrator, Ghebre Michael.

Release Eritrea said that in addition to the safety of the detainees, they are concerned about the well-being of the families left behind.

Our source said, "Please remember that in many homes children and women are suffering and have also becomes victims of persecution. There will be no salary coming into many homes and their lives are in danger. Please pray for us."

Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year war, has been designated by the U.S. as a "country of particular concern" for severe and ongoing violations of religious freedom.

As a result, the State Department notified Congress two weeks ago that the secretary of state banned commercial export of certain defense articles to Eritrea.

In 2002, the PFDJ, Eritrea's ruling party, ordered the closure of all churches not belonging to the Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Evangelical Lutheran denominations.

At least 36 churches have been closed, and many members and their leaders have been imprisoned, harassed and tortured, Release Eritrea said.

The government has issued several blanket denials, insisting "no groups or persons are persecuted in Eritrea for their beliefs or religion" and that people were "free to worship according to their wish."

200 Christians detained in mass sweep (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46765)

50 house church leaders arrested, some beaten
Communist authorities raid meeting of pastors from 20 provinces
Posted: October 21, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Chinese communist authorities arrested 50 house church leaders from more than 20 provinces at a retreat in Hebei Province.

Some were beaten during the Oct. 20 raid, reported China Aid Association.

According to an eyewitness report, the leaders, from independent house churches outside government control, planned to discuss how to help the poor, orphaned and the floating population in urban areas.

Public Security Bureau of the city of Baoding and government religious affairs officials made the arrrests.

One of the church leaders, Dai Hong, was beaten by an officer named Tang, China Aid said.

Among the arrested is a famous evangelist, pastor Zhang Mingxuan, who, along with two other Christians once ran a nursing home in Beijing.

He previously was detained prior to President Bush's trip to China in February 2002.

"It is no coincident that this kind of incident should happen again before President Bush's upcoming visit to China next month." says Bob Fu, the President of China Aid Association.

"The Chinese government is systematically targeting the house church movement in China," Fu added. "We urge the international community and President Bush to pressure the Chinese government to protect freedom of religion and other human rights."

President Bush is expected to visit Beijing Nov. 19.

The vast majority of Christians in China, perhaps as many as 100 million, are part of the unregistered church. The communist government requires all Protestant church activity to be under control of the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which restricts activities such as evangelism and certain teachings. Catholics, forbidden contact with the Vatican, are required to submit to a similar organization.

50 house church leaders arrested, some beaten (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46953)

Thursday, October 20, 2005

INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS ATTACKED AS THEY WORSHIP IN THE STREET

By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent,
ASSIST News Service

INDONESIA (ANS) -- A group of Christians worshipping on the street was attacked on Sunday, October 16 as they met in Jatimulya, East Bekasi, West Java.

Barnabas Fund reports that outdoor worship was the only option for these Christians as their church building had been recently forced to close, part of an ongoing pattern of forcible church closures in West Java.

An e-mail report from the organization says: "The Christians came from three churches who had been ordered by the Mayor of Jatimulya to close their church buildings five weeks ago, the closures then enforced by a radical Muslim group called the Alliance Against Apostasy. The constitution of Indonesia guarantees freedom of religion, but with their buildings closed and forbidden to meet for worship in private homes, the Christians have had to gather in the streets each Sunday, in order to worship together."

Barnabas Fund says: "When they met for their service on Sunday, October 9 they were warned to stop but when some 50 lawyers arrived from Jakarta the service proceeded, although it was shorter than normal. Then on Sunday, October 16 the Christians found that in the street where they had been worshipping for the past weeks some 300 radical Muslims had laid out their prayer mats and were conducting their own Islamic worship service. Undeterred the Christians moved to another street and began their service there."

The determination of the Christians to continue to worship apparently angered the Islamic radicals, Barnabas Fund says.

"They approached the gathered Christians and began to mock them and insult them, calling on them to disband their meeting. A female church leader was pushed and shoved until she fell into a drain. The police who were on duty stood by and watched the mob, while a few even joined in the attack."

While no one was seriously hurt, and the Christians remain committed to meeting together, there is fear that there will be more violence and greater danger as they do so, Barnabas Fund says.

Incidents of forced church closures in West Java are increasing. According to some reports there may be as many as 30 a month.

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta 18 churches have had police collecting data on their services, and are now expecting to be closed in the near future. The mayor of Sukabumi has called for all churches without permits in his town to be closed. The pattern of church closures appears to be moving into East Java, where 24 churches in the city of Malang are under threat of closure. The Indonesian Government has made public statements that they do not agree with church closures, yet government officials continue to issue decrees to close them.

Worse news comes from Poso, Sulawesi, where the number of suspected Islamic radicals has increased and there have been three assassinations in the past two weeks. On the weekend of October 15-16 churches in Poso and Palu were placed under police guard.

INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS ATTACKED AS THEY WORSHIP IN THE STREET (http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05100109.htm)

Three Christian schoolgirls beheaded in Indonesia

Sat Oct 29, 8:22 AM ET

JAKARTA (AFP) - Three Christian teenage girls were beheaded in an assault that marks an escalation of the violence against non-Muslims in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province.

The three high school students were found with their heads severed early Saturday in the sectarian-divided town of Poso, said provincial police spokesman Rais Adam.

The girls were believed to have been murdered while they walked to school, Adam said Saturday.

He said two of the victims' heads were found near a police post while the third was discovered outside a Christian church in Poso.

Muslim extremists have been linked to bombings, shootings and other attacks targeting Christians in the Poso area over the last two years but these appear to be the first recent beheadings.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono strongly condemned the beheadings, a tactic used periodically by insurgents in Muslim southern Thailand.

"I condemn this inhumane murder, whoever the perpetrators are and whatever their motives," the president was quoted as saying by Detikcom online news service.

Another teenage student girl was wounded in the attack, said national police spokesman Ariyanto Budiarjo.

But the girl, who was hacked in her upper chest, told police the killings were carried out by six men clad in black and wearing face masks.

Police earlier detained eight men after they refused to have their car searched at a checkpoint, said Budiarjo, but he would not say whether those men were connected to the killings.

Poso has seen several home-made bomb explosions in the past month which caused minimal damage and no casualties.

In May a pair of bomb attacks killed 22 people at a market in the neighbouring coastal town of Tentena.

Police said the Tentena bombings were the work of Islamic militants with possible links to Jemaah Islamiyah, which authorities say has some ties to Al-Qaeda. Others say the attack was politically motivated.

Authorities have linked JI to numerous deadly bombings elsewhere in Indonesia.

Last December a Christian priest was critically injured when unidentified attackers slashed him with machetes in Poso ahead of Christmas services, police said. On the same day south of the provincial capital Palu, to the west of Poso, two Christians died in a machete attack.

Among other violence last year was the assassination of a Christian prosecutor who handled terrorism cases in Palu.

In July last year gunmen sprayed bullets into a Palu church, killing a woman priest and injuring four other people.

In the worst bloodshed of 2003, armed gangs in October killed 10 people in attacks on mainly Christian villages.

A report last year by the International Crisis Group think-tank blamed many of the Christian deaths in Poso on Mujahidin KOMPAK, an outfit with loose affiliations to the Jemaah Islamiyah.

Budiarjo said security at checkpoints in and around Poso was tightened after the beheadings.

"We hope that the public will not be provoked by this incident because this is clearly an act of provocation," the police spokesman said.

Yudhoyono dispatched national police chief Sutanto and armed forces chief Endriartono Sutarto to Poso to "control the situation and hold dialogues" with local community leaders.

"Find and arrest the perpetrators and charged them with the existing law," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying.

Adam told AFP police were still trying to determine whether the case was religiously motivated.

Three Christian schoolgirls beheaded in Indonesia (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051029/wl_afp/indonesiaunrestposo;_ylt=AkXlQxIkvPaUIVvw2y0YM5gBxg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--)

Three Christians Jailed for Printing Bibles in China

Pastor Cai Zhuohua, his wife and brother-in-law are sentenced.

by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, November 15 (Compass) ï¿½ Beijing authorities on November 4 ordered a Chinese legal firm to suspend activities for a year, hours after top lawyer Gao Zhisheng filed court documents in defense of Pastor Cai Zhuohua.

Four days later, Cai and three family members were convicted of ï¿½illegal business practices.ï¿½

State security officers arrested Cai on September 11, 2004, following a raid on a church warehouse containing over 237,000 privately printed copies of the Bible and other Christian literature.

His wife, Xiao Yunfei, was arrested on October 4, 2004, while her brother, Xiao Gaowen, and sister-in-law, Hu Jinyun, were arrested on September 27 of that year, according to a China Aid Association (CAA) report.

A government permit is required for all Chinese publications. The new Regulations on Religious Affairs ï¿½ brought into effect on March 1, 2005 ï¿½ strengthened the ban on illegal religious publications and increased the penalty for printing or distributing religious books without prior government approval.

Cai, who led six Beijing house churches, claimed the books were printed for free distribution within house church networks, but authorities accused Cai and other church members of running the warehouse as a profit-making venture.

The four were held for 10 months before the case finally went to trial on July 7. Defense lawyers acknowledged that the literature was printed without permission but argued that the defendants could not be charged with ï¿½economic crimesï¿½ since the Bibles were not intended for sale.

Judge You Tao found three of the defendants guilty as charged. Cai, 34, was sentenced to three years, his wife Xiao Yunfei, 33, to 2 years and her 37-year-old brother to 18 months. The judge, however, announced that Hu Jinyun, charged with ï¿½storing illegal goods,ï¿½ had escaped punishment by providing evidence against her sister-in-law, Reuters reported.

Caiï¿½s mother, Cai Laiyi ï¿½ now caring for Caiï¿½s 5-year-old son ï¿½ told Reuters that the prosecution had not found a single witness to testify that Cai had earned money from the sale of the books.

Reuters also quoted Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA), who told a Beijing-funded Hong Kong newspaper that Cai had illegally printed 40 million copies of the Bible and other Christian books, and then sold 2 million of these for profit.

No evidence has been found to support this statement.

Ye also insisted that the case had nothing to do with religious persecution, but in the same interview he said that religion was a ï¿½point of penetration through which Western anti-China forces seek to Westernize and disintegrate China.ï¿½

Following their conviction, Cai, Xiao Yunfei and Xiao Gaowen had just 10 days to file an appeal, a difficult endeavor in light of the order that their law firm suspend all activities.

Gao, one of eight lawyers who volunteered to defend Cai free of charge, said he would challenge the suspension order.

The order followed several visits this year from officials encouraging Gao to drop ï¿½politically sensitiveï¿½ cases, The Washington Post reported on November 6.

The verdict came just two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bushï¿½s scheduled visit to China on November 19-21. Bush told reporters at a press briefing on November 9 that he would raise religious freedom issues with President Hu Jintao and other government officials during his stay.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department on November 8 included China on its list of ï¿½Countries of Particular Concern,ï¿½ the nations designated as top violators of religious freedom.

Three Christians Jailed for Printing Bibles in China (http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/three-christians-jailed-china.html)

3 Christians face execution
Claim they were falsely convicted during Muslim clash
Posted: December 15, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Fabianus Tibo
Three Christian men in Indonesia who claim they were falsely accused of murder during attacks by radical Muslims face execution after being denied clemency by the Asian nation's president.

Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus Dasilva and Marinus Riwu were sentenced to death during the conflict in Poso, Central Sulewesi, in 2000.

With denial of clemency by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, their execution by firing squad could take place as early as the end of this month, according to the British-based Christian charity Jubilee Campaign.

The three men claim their convictions resulted from irregularities during their trial. They contend, for example, the judge in the case neglected to consider the testimony of 13 different witnesses – including the defendants themselves – that would have exonerated them.

A number of other witnesses – including Irwanto Hasan, who at the time was a member of the Poso Police Intelligence Division – say the men were part of a humanitarian team when they were arrested.

They came to Poso in 2000 after hearing reports a Catholic Church there had been burned, Jubilee Campaign said.

The men entered the conflict zone to evacuate children from a church-run school in the village of Moengko, Poso City. On the morning of May 23, 2000, a Muslim mob entered the village and set fire to the church. The defendants and the students escaped out the back door before the building burned to the ground.

A few days later, according to Hasan, Tibo and the others were recruited by the Red Group, described as a "militant Christian group." Hasan claimed the men acted to subvert the Red Group's leaders and protect various individuals – both Christian and Muslim – from violence.

Hasan claimed that at one point Tibo saved his life.

A number of Indonesian human rights groups are supporting the three men, seeking clemency and exoneration.

At the request of Jubilee Campaign Indonesia, several members of the U.S. Congress have written to President Susilo, urging him to reconsider his denial of clemency. Jubilee Campaign's U.S. branch is developing a case to take before the United Nations.

As WorldNetDaily reported in 2001, more than 2,000 people died in three years of clashes in Central Sulawesi province before a peace agreement was reached between Muslim and Christian leaders.

An Islamic terrorist group called Laskar Jihad threatened to eliminate Christians from the region but was held off by government troops.

Since the agreement, however, sporadic attacks – mostly against Christians – have continued, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
3 Christians face execution (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47909)

Christians under siege globally, Land, others say
Dec 15, 2005
By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (BP)--American Christians may live with concerns about whether ï¿½Merry Christmasï¿½ greetings are welcome at their local retailers or in the public square, but followers of Christ in numerous countries live with the knowledge that expressing their faith may result in torture, imprisonment or death.

The persecution of Christians overseas continues and, in some countries, is increasing, specialists on international religious liberty said at a Dec. 14 briefing at the U.S. Capitol.

Charles Chaput, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Denver, said three things distinguish persecution of and discrimination against Christians globally.

ï¿½First of all, itï¿½s ugly,ï¿½ said Chaput, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). ï¿½Secondly, itï¿½s growing. And third, the mass media ... seem to generally ignore or downplay its gravity.ï¿½

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and also a USCIRF member, told the audience of congressional staffers, activists and reporters, ï¿½We come here at Christmastime, and we can celebrate our religious freedom. [W]eï¿½re hear to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves because they live in countries where they are not free to worship....ï¿½

In a briefing titled ï¿½Christmas Under Siege Around the World,ï¿½ Land, Chaput and five other experts on the issue described the conditions for Christians in countries such as North Korea, China, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and India.

Though North Korea is the ï¿½worldï¿½s most closed society,ï¿½ a recently released USCIRF report based on interviews with refugees and escapees gives some indication of the ongoing repression of believers in that Asian country in which the late dictator, Kim Il Sung, is the object of a ï¿½quasi-religious cult of personality,ï¿½ Land said.

The findings in interviews of the North Koreans included, Land said: 1) ï¿½[T]here is no freedom of thought, conscience or belief in North Koreaï¿½; 2) North Koreans are required to attend indoctrination sessions at least weekly at Kim Il Sung Revolutionary Research Centers; 3) none knew of ï¿½any authorized religious activity;ï¿½ 4) some reported on executions of people who participated in religious activities or possessed a Bible or other religious material.

Summarizing a November report based on a trip to China by Land and six other USCIRF members, the ERLC president said the ï¿½scope of political openness and individual freedom is narrowingï¿½ in the worldï¿½s most populous country.

Chinese parents ï¿½are not free to raise their children in their faith,ï¿½ Land said. ï¿½That is not religious freedom. I wouldnï¿½t even dignify it by [calling it] toleration. I would say it is persecution. And itï¿½s getting worse, not better, and itï¿½s up to us and the rest of the world to call forï¿½ religious freedom, he said.

Indonesia ï¿½has the largest Muslim population of any nation in the world, and violence against the Christian minority has steadily continued over the past decade,ï¿½ Chaput said. The October beheadings of three teenage Christian girls ï¿½were part of a brutal, ongoing war by Islamic militants,ï¿½ he said.

ï¿½Anti-Christian violence in Indonesia poses a threat not just to regional peace but also to mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims worldwide,ï¿½ Chaput said. ï¿½And that is something neither community of faith can afford.ï¿½

New Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad desires to increase the oppression of the countryï¿½s 20,000-plus Christians, said Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International.

In a November meeting with 30 provincial governors, Ahmadinejad said the government ï¿½should eradicate the growing house church movement across Iran,ï¿½ Roderick said at the briefing. ï¿½Reportedly, he said, ï¿½I will stop Christianity in this country.ï¿½ï¿½

Lawrence Uzzell, president of the International Religious Freedom Watch, said it is scandalous that the State Department under the Bush administration has not declared Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as ï¿½countries of particular concern,ï¿½ a classification reserved for the most severe violators of religious freedom. The USCIRF has recommended both countries be designated as CPCs.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are ï¿½by far the most oppressive of the former Soviet republics,ï¿½ Uzzell said.

He expressed concern that the Pentagon, in its execution of a war on terrorism, is winning the debate with the USCIRF and human rights groups regarding the Central Asian regimes. U.S. officials are overlooking human rights violations by dictators in both governments to gain their support against terrorism, he said.

ï¿½We may win the war on terrorism but lose our souls,ï¿½ Uzzell said. ï¿½If we continue our current ham-fisted policies in Central Asia, we may lose both.ï¿½

The countries practicing religious persecution can be divided into three categories, said Paul Marshall, senior fellow at Freedom Houseï¿½s Center for Religious Freedom: 1) Remaining and former communist countries, including China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and Belarus; 2) countries in which religious nationalism is practiced, such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Burma, and 3) countries dominated by Islam, including Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Unlike the others, the countries controlled by radical Islam are ï¿½expansionist,ï¿½ Marshall said.

Christians under siege globally, Land, others say (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22289)

University rejects Christian student group
Association can't exclude homosexuals, non-believers as members
Posted: December 20, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

A state university in California refuses to recognize a Christian student organization because it requires members to live according to the group's religious faith.

The Christian Student Association at California State University at San Bernardino submitted a constitution pledging it will not discriminate on the basis of "race, color, national origin, gender, or physical disability" but reserve the right to restrict membership based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE.

In October, however, a university administrator said although the group "would not be required to admit members who did not support the purpose of the organization," it could not exclude students "because of their status as a non-Christian or as a homosexual."

The student group then contacted FIRE for help.

"Time after time, college administrators have robbed students of their fundamental freedoms of association and religion, so CSA's situation sadly comes as no surprise," said FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff.

Lukianoff asserts the university, like so many others, "is misusing nondiscrimination policies to tell Christian students that they cannot associate based upon the dictates of their faith."

FIRE says it has defeated similar treatment of Christian and Muslim student groups at Tufts University, Rutgers University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Purdue University, The Ohio State University, Louisiana State University, Milwaukee School of Engineering and other institutions.

"CSA is not discriminating based on students' status but trying to express its religious faith and adhere to its beliefs regarding sexual morality," said Lukianoff.

FIRE argues student groups at public universities have a right to ensure that their members "share their central beliefs."

The California State University system's policy denying student religious organizations the right to govern themselves according to their own religious principles is under challenge in a lawsuit filed by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund.

Nevertheless, California State University at San Bernardino stands by its policies, refusing official recognition to the Christian group, FIRE says.

But Lukianoff argues the Constitution ensures "Muslim groups are free to be Muslim, Buddhist groups are free to be Buddhist, and Christian groups are free to be Christian, even if the principles they express run counter to the official viewpoints or unconstitutional policies of state universities."

University rejects Christian student group (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47985)

Islamic terrorists shot aid couple as they watched TV
By Auslan Cramb
(Filed: 23/12/2005)

A husband and wife who dedicated their lives to helping African children were murdered in cold blood by Islamic terrorists, an inquest heard yesterday.

Dick and Enid Eyeington were watching television at their home in Somaliland when a terrorist linked to al-Qaeda shot them.

The couple were considered "infidels" by their attackers, who wrongly believed that they were trying to convert Africans to Christianity.

Four men were involved in the attack in which a gunman wielding an AK47 put the weapon through the living room window and opened fire on Oct 20, 2003.

Mr Eyeington, 62, was shot four times. He was still holding the television remote control when he was found, Westminster coroner's court heard. Mrs Eyeington, 60, died from a single shot to the head.

The aid workers, originally from Co Durham, where they were childhood sweethearts, had lived in Africa since marrying in 1963 and worked with poor children in Tanzania, Swaziland and Somaliland.

Mr Eyeington became headmaster of Waterford School and his wife worked with people suffering from HIV. Despite their families' worries, they took up an offer three years ago to set up a new school for the charity SOS Village in the village of Sheikh, in Somaliland, a country in which violence is widespread.

Their daughter Louise, 37, a solicitor from London, told the hearing that her father, a Sunderland supporter, had run football clubs in Africa and her mother had set up outreach health centres. "Dick and Enid dedicated most of their lives to the education of underprivileged African children," she said. "They had great courage, commitment and honesty and the world is a poorer place without them."

The authorities in Somaliland asked the Metropolitan Police for help and officers flew from Britain to collect evidence and to help in the investigation.

There was a breakthrough in March last year when a German aid worker and his Kenyan girlfriend were attacked. A man was arrested and he confessed to killing the Eyeingtons.

Det Chief Insp Jill Bailey told the hearing that last month four men, including Mohammed Ali Essa, who fired the AK47, had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death by firing squad. The terrorists shouted "Allah Akbar" (God is Great) after being sentenced and are still awaiting execution.

Miss Bailey said the men were part of a terrorist cell called El Itihad which had killed an Italian nun a week earlier. She also said that Essa's brother-in-law, Adan Ayro, who owned the house in which Essa was captured, could have had links to al-Qa'eda. A plan to blow up an Ethiopian airliner and bomb-making manuals were uncovered during the investigations.

"The defendants did not recognise their actions as crimes," Miss Bailey said. "They felt justified in murdering infidels who they believed were offending Muslim fundamentalism."

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, the coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, said: "This is a terrible tragedy in which two people who had dedicated their lives to improving the lives of underprivileged African children were murdered in cold blood and appear to be victims of terrorism abroad."

Airline bans Bibles to avoid offending Muslims
Carrier to Saudi Arabia also precluding crucifixes, teddy bears
Posted: January 9, 2006
11:20 p.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A British airline banned its staff from taking Bibles and wearing crucifixes or St. Christopher medals on flights to Saudi Arabia to avoid offend the country's Muslims.

British Midland International also has told female flight attendants they must walk two paces behind male colleagues and cover themselves from head to foot in a headscarf and robe known as an abaya, the Mirror newspaper of London reported.

Teddy bears or other cuddly toys also are not allowed.

Airline officials, who have sparked outrage, the paper says, explain the Islamic kingdom's strict laws – enforced by religious police – prohibit public practice of Christianity and figures of animals.

BMI spokesman Phil Shepherd said: "In providing air services people want, demand and use, we have an obligation to respect the customs of the destination country."

An airline employee who asked not to be named told the Mirror: "It's outrageous that we must respect their beliefs but they're not prepared to respect ours."

The employee said his grandmother gave him a crucifix shortly before she died that he wears at all times.

"It's got massive sentimental value and I don't see why I have to remove it," he said.

The airline's staff handbook says: "Prior to disembarking the aircraft all female crew will be required to put on their company issued abaya. It will be issued with the headscarf which must be worn."

The employees' union wants staff members to be able to opt out of the flights, but the airline says the only option is to transfer from overseas staff to domestic flights, which could mean a loss of about $30,000 a year in wages.

About 40 staff members have filed complaints since the route began in September.

Some of the male members who are homosexual have called in sick, because they are afraid of traveling to Saudi Arabia, where homosexual activity is punishable by flogging, jail or death.

Airline bans Bibles to avoid offending Muslims (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48269)

My note; Frankly, I would tell them to stick it in their ear. Course I won't be traveling, to these stick in the mud countries. ;D

Quote from: DreamWeaver on January 10, 2006, 10:41:49 AM

Excuse me! but if anyone gets offended ecause they see my crucifix or sees my Bible, they can just turn their heads and look the other way, or just close their eyes. No one tells the muslims not to wear their attire or to dress the way everyone else on the flight dresses. I;m glad I have no reason to use this airline.I would sing praises to the Lord until the plane landed, what can they do arrest me for singing????

Quote from: airIam2worship on January 10, 2006, 01:31:54 PM

Quote from: DreamWeaver on January 10, 2006, 10:41:49 AM

This sounds a bit far fetched. If it is true, I am speechless. I'm with you airIam....singing the hallelujah chorus the entire flight. This diversity stuff is getting out of control.

Quote

we have an obligation to respect the customs of the destination country."

::) Wonder if this airlines has any flights to Israel or the US? (probably not) but if they did, They probably would not respect the customs of either of those destinations......unbelievable!

Pakistani Drops 'Blasphemy' Charge in Sangla Hill Case

Christians are forced into uncomfortable compromise – and the accused is still in jail.

by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, January 11 (Compass) – A Pakistani Muslim in the Punjabi town of Sangla Hill dropped formal charges last week against a Christian he had accused of setting fire to pages of the Quran.

Mohammed Saleem’s accusation – broadcast over mosque loudspeakers in November – triggered a violent reprisal from local Muslims, destroying four churches and landing Yousaf Masih in jail for allegedly desecrating the Quran. Threats against the town’s Christians have continued since the November 12 attack.

As part of a reconciliation agreement reached by local Muslim and Christian leaders on Thursday (January 5), Saleem signed an affidavit declaring Masih innocent.

For their part, local Christian leaders agreed not to press charges against the mob of 2,000 Muslims who attacked the town’s Christian community. Police have held 88 rioters in custody since the assault.

In a gesture to the Christian community, Asif Jilani Sheikh of Punjab’s Provincial Assembly apologized on behalf of the rioters and requested the Christians’ help in defusing tensions.

Father Samson Dilawar of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Sangla Hill told Compass that Jilani Sheikh said, “We would like to request you to help us to release these 88 people, because we have so much pressure from these 88 families that are pestering us.”

Dilawar and a Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. Tajjamal Pervaiz, were among those who signed the agreement. Both their churches had been destroyed by the mob.

Case Not Closed

It is not yet clear how the agreement will affect legal proceedings.

Two days ago, a local court in Sangla Hill’s Nankana district reportedly refused to grant bail to the 88 rioters, even though they had appealed based on the new compromise. Yousaf Masih also remains under arrest.

“Actually, this compromise does not mean a stop to the legal process,” Dilawar stated. “It is an official process and it will go on. The agreement shows all the 88 affected families that it is not we [Christians] that are not doing anything to get their people released. The government is responsible for releasing them all.”

The agreement promises to end ongoing harassment against Sangla Hill’s Christians. Dilawar reported that since last week, Friday sermons at the local mosque have been free of anti-Christian hate-speech, and newspapers have discontinued inflammatory articles against the religious minority.

But many Christians are not satisfied with the compromise, seeing it as an all too common failure of Pakistan’s government to provide justice for its religious minorities.

“This [compromise] is because of the pressure, because we have been receiving threatening calls that they will kill us,” Dilawar mentioned. “So the Christians have to give in and say, ‘Okay, we will not pursue, provided that you also don’t pursue the case of Yousaf Masih.’”

Legal proceedings have been crippled by the government’s refusal to make public a judicial report completed on November 29 about the Sangla Hill incident. Police have also failed to arrest 20 suspects named by the Christian community as the true culprits behind the attacks. Among those accused are sub-district mayor Malik Muhammad Azam and Saleem, whose accusations against Masih triggered the event.

Judicial Report Withheld

The government also has yet to fulfill promises to cover the full cost of repairing the four churches, convent, mission-run school, and 10 homes that were destroyed in the attack. According to a local source, only one Catholic church has been partially renovated, and reconstruction has been at a standstill since December 24.

“It is a very frustrating situation where the government was not doing its duty,” Peter Jacob of the National Council for Justice and Peace (NCJP) told Compass. “They were just exploiting the situation, and you see it is not a just solution. It is not what we had expected.”

In the weeks after the attack, Muslim agitators tried to exact retribution for the alleged Quran burning.

On December 2, political and religious leaders addressing 3,000 men at the Jamia Masjid Rizvia mosque in Sangla Hill called for the public execution of Masih. Police forced mosque-goers to leave the building in small groups and flooded the town’s stadium so that demonstrators could not gather there.

In December some Christians fled Sangla Hill after Muslim activists threatened to kill them for not dropping charges against the imprisoned rioters. Dilawar and other Christian leaders received anonymous telephone threats on the heels of a December 29 announcement by Azam that several religious organizations planned to demonstrate against the arrest of the 88 Muslims.

Violence was only avoided after 12 platoons of police were deployed in the town, according to a December 31 article in the Daily Times.

Christians in Sangla Hill have complained that Muslim shopkeepers tried to stir up tension by using paper bags with pictures of Christian icons to package their goods.

“The Muslim community has been complaining that the Quranic verses are desecrated,” Jacob of the NCJP explained to Compass. “Now, of course, the Christians feel in the same way that no one should misuse Christian icons. This could have provoked some other incidents of quarrels between Christians and Muslims, or a shopkeeper and a customer.”

At a January 7 rally in Lahore, human rights groups and Christian organizations continued to call on the government to release the judicial report on the Sangla Hill incident. Many fear that the town’s Christians will face the same fate as their religious compatriots in the villages of Shantinagar and Chianwala.

In February 1997, a group of 30,000 Muslims went on a rampage at the Christian village of Shantinagar and at the nearby town of Khanewal, 100 miles from Sangla Hill. Although the mob burned down three churches and destroyed the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of Christians, the final judicial report was never released.

In Chianwala, 50 miles from Sangla Hill, two men killed three worshippers and wounded 13 others on Christmas Day 2002 in grenade attacks on a Presbyterian church. The attackers were set free by the provincial High Court only nine months after their arrest.

Demonstrators at last week’s rally also demanded that the government repeal Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, stating that they are consistently misused to settle personal scores. The controversial laws call for life imprisonment or the death penalty for blasphemy against the Quran or the prophet Muhammad, respectively.

As in the case of Saleem, who apparently accused Masih of blasphemy to avoid having to pay a gambling debt to the Christian, the laws also are misused for personal gain.

“We are feeling very helpless,” Dilawar admitted, requesting prayer and pressure from the international community to ensure that “the real culprits are apprehended.”

The Top 10 Christian Persecution News Stories of 2005

January 11, 2006
1 – Dramatic Spike in Eritrea

Eritrea dramatically accelerated its imprisonment and torture of Christians even as the U.S. State Department designated it as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for the second consecutive year. By October the number of Eritrean Christians confirmed to be jailed for their religious beliefs had shot up to a total of 1,778, nearly double the documented count in April. At least 26 full-time Protestant pastors and Orthodox clergy were jailed and their personal bank accounts frozen by government order, causing severe suffering for their families. The regime of President Isaias Afwerki stripped Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios of his ecclesiastical authority on August 7, and the country’s only Anglican priest, the Rev. Nelson Fernandez, was abruptly ordered out of the country in early October. Since May 2002, the Eritrean government has outlawed all Christian meetings for worship except those of the officially registered Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran churches – but the regime began jailing and harassing key leaders of even the legally recognized churches this year. On September 23, Eritrea became the first nation ever sanctioned by the U.S. State Department under the 1998 Religious Freedom Act for failure to address severe violations of religious freedom.
2 – Hollow Promises in Vietnam

Vietnam Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s historic visit to the United States in June, an equally historic (secret) human rights agreement between the two countries in May, and supposedly less restrictive religion legislation introduced in November 2004 all made headlines but had no effect on continued high levels of persecution of Christians. The Mennonite church continued to face the kind of harassment documented by missionary Truong Tri Hien, who submitted testimony to the U.S. Congress on June 20 showing how local officials have abused administrative powers to harass the denomination. The Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a Mennonite pastor convicted of an offense he denied having committed, was freed from prison on August 30 as part of Vietnam’s National Day amnesty after enduring more than a year of harsh conditions and pressure to renounce his faith. While he was in prison, authorities destroyed a 16-foot section of his Mennonite center and home in a dispute over a building add-on permit. All attempts by the Vietnam Mennonite church to seek guidance on how to register, including appeals to the country’s prime minister, have gone unanswered. Typical of persecution elsewhere, authorities in Quang Ngai Province incited a mob to burn down the home of evangelist Dinh Van Hoang on August 21 because he would not sign a paper denying his Christian faith. Likewise, on July 26 and 31, authorities in the same province destroyed the homes of 10 ethnic Hre families because they would not renounce Christ. Understandably, house church leaders in Vietnam remained skeptical of Vietnam’s supposedly liberalized religion laws inviting unofficial churches to register. In spite of the flurry of official activity, Vietnam remained on the U.S. State Department’s list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom in 2005.
3 – State-Sponsored Persecution in Iran

In Iran, an Islamic court on May 28 acquitted Christian lay pastor Hamid Pourmand on charges of apostasy and proselytizing, though he continued to serve a three-year jail sentence for “deceiving the Iranian armed forces” by not reporting his conversion to Christianity. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, a military tribunal had ruled him guilty, dishonorably discharged him and handed down the maximum three-year prison sentence. Though he has not suffered physical mistreatment since his acquittal for apostasy, the 48-year-old Pourmand has been subjected to repeated pressure to recant his Christian faith and return to Islam. Such government-sponsored persecution tends to pave the way for vigilante “religious police” and acts of violence among Muslim extremists; on November 22, an Iranian convert to Christianity was arrested from his home in Gonbad-e-Kavus and stabbed to death, his bleeding body thrown in front of his home a few hours later. The death of Ghorban Dordi Tourani, a 53-year-old house church pastor of Turkmen descent, came just days after Iran’s new hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an open meeting of the nation’s 30 provincial governors that the government needed to put a stop to the burgeoning movement of house churches across Iran. “I will stop Christianity in this country,” Ahmadinejad reportedly vowed. Before the end of November representatives of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security had arrested and severely tortured 10 other Christians in several cities, including Tehran.
4 – Massive Destruction in Pakistan

In Pakistan, some 2,000 Muslims armed with iron rods, axes and tins of kerosene ransacked and looted four churches, a convent, a mission-run school and several Christian homes in Sangla Hill on November 12 after the burning of the Quran led local mosques to appeal for Muslims to “teach the Christians a lesson.” The previous day Catholic Christian Yousaf Masih was gambling with his Muslim friend Saleem Sunihara near the Sangla Hill sports stadium. To avoid paying a large gambling debt, the Muslim set fire to old pages of the Quran kept in a nearby storage room and blamed the fire on Masih. Eyewitnesses told a joint fact-finding team from Jubilee Campaign and the Lahore-based Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) that they saw Sunihara throw a burning match into the room. Several busloads of Muslim men arrived in Sangla Hill to join the mob the morning of November 12, and hundreds of Christian families, mostly poor farmers and laborers, fled the area during and after the attack. Police not only failed to protect the Christian places of worship but joined the crowd in vandalizing Catholic and Presbyterian churches. Sangla Hill police also arrested and tortured four of Masih’s six brothers, prompting the alleged blasphemer to give himself up in exchange for their release. Masih was held at the Sheikhupura jail. The homes of Masih and his brothers were burned to the ground, with no one able to confirm the whereabouts of his wife and three children. Addressing a crowd of 3,000 men at the Jamia Masjid Rizvia mosque in Sangla Hill on December 2, Muslim clerics flanked by government officials demanded the public execution of Masih.
5 – Sunday School Teachers Jailed in Indonesia

In a disturbing development for a country with a relative degree of religious freedom, Indonesian judges on September 1 sentenced three women to three years in prison for allowing Muslim children to attend a Christian Sunday school program. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun received the sentence after judges found them guilty of violating the Child Protection Act of 2002, which forbids “deception, lies or enticement” causing a child to convert to another religion. The Indramayu district, West Java Sunday school teachers had instructed the children to get permission from their parents before attending the program, and those who did not were asked to go home. None of the children had converted to Christianity. Muslim parents had been photographed with their children during the Sunday school activities, but when Islamic leaders lodged a complaint, the parents refused to testify in support of the women. No witnesses testified or provided evidence of the charges that the women had lied, deceived, or forced the children into changing their religion. The three defendants, described as “ordinary housewives,” were relieved that they had not been given the maximum five-year prison sentence but were devastated to be separated from their children, who range in age from 6 to one daughter in her 20s. As they have done throughout the trial, Islamic extremists made murderous threats both inside and outside the courtroom. Several truckloads of extremists arrived; one brought a coffin to bury the accused if they were found innocent. The defendants, witnesses and judges were continually threatened with death by hundreds of Islamic radicals if the women were acquitted.

6 – Sham Trial in Egypt

A Christian with dual U.S./Egyptian citizenship who retired and went to Egypt to begin a shelter for troubled young women – especially Coptic girls who are lured into marrying Muslim men with promises of escape from economic deprivation – was sentenced to one year in jail on October 20 after a teenager at the shelter lodged unsubstantiated accusations against him. Coptic Christian Shafik Saleh Shafik went into hiding in Egypt while his lawyers pursued an appeal over the controversial conviction of illicitly holding a minor at his shelter. Magda Refaat Gayed, then 17, had accused Shafik of beating and raping her as well, though a physician’s report refuted these charges. Her Christian parents had signed over custody of their daughter to Shafik in September 2004, after police recovered her from an Islamist group. She had fled her family two weeks earlier and was reportedly living with the Muslim religious leader of an Islamist group, learning Muslim rituals in hopes of converting and marrying a Muslim young man. Though Shafik was convicted on October 20, the verdict detailing charges against him were not revealed until November 13. Many of the Christian young women at Shafik’s shelter were brought there after their families recovered them from Muslim groups determined to spread Islam by abducting and converting them. The court initially ordered police to illegally transport the underage Gayed to an Islamic center to officially convert to Islam. Moreover, several witnesses threatened to kill Shafik if the court found him innocent.
7 – Pastor Cai Jailed in China

In China, a judge on November 8 found house church pastor Cai Zhuohua and three other relatives guilty of “illegal business practices” – a little more than eight months after new Regulations on Religious Affairs, effective March 1, strengthened a ban on illegal religious publications and increased the penalty for printing or distributing them without government approval. Judge You Tao sentenced Cai, 34, to three years, his wife Xiao Yunfei to two years and her brother to 18 months. Cai’s sister-in-law Hu Jinyun was found guilty of concealing illegally acquired goods but escaped prison because she had provided information to police. Cai’s mother, Cai Laiyi – now caring for Cai’s 5-year-old son – told Reuters that the prosecution had not found a single witness to testify that Cai had earned money from the sale of the books. Cai, who led six Beijing house churches, said the books were printed for free distribution within house church networks. The four were held for 10 months before the case finally went to trial on July 7. Defense lawyers acknowledged that the literature was printed without permission but argued that the defendants could not be charged with “economic crimes” since the Bibles were never intended for sale. Gao Zhisheng, a key lawyer on the defense team, received notice on November 4 to suspend his law practice for a year, making an appeal extremely difficult. (Gao said police have made attempts on his life and harassed his family, and he now faces imminent arrest after releasing two reports in late 2005 on the torture of Falun Gong members and the rights of minorities in Xinjiang province.) Moreover, a clerk from the court visited Pastor Cai to warn him that his sentence would be increased if he “annoyed” judges with an appeal. The defendants appealed anyway, which the court rejected on December 20 (leaving their verdicts and sentences unchanged).
8 – Legal and Physical Assaults in India

In a year of weekly incidents of violence against Christians and the introduction of a bill that could make Rajasthan the sixth state restricting religious conversions in India, the Supreme Court on November 28 deferred – for the third time – ruling on whether Dalit Christians (low-caste “untouchables”) can be denied job and education rights. Dalits belonging to Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths qualify for a government plan that reserves 26 percent of jobs and educational places for them. Under current laws, Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam lose their reservation privileges. Christian leaders said India’s 16 million Dalit Christians are extremely frustrated and demoralized by the government’s position. In October, government attorneys had delayed a ruling by telling justices that a commission had been set up to study a broad range of issues surrounding government reservations for Dalits. That commission, which Christian leaders dismissed as a way of stalling the issue, is due to finish its work next year. Additionally, throughout 2005 police routinely refused to register complaints from Christians who were assaulted by Hindu extremists.
9 – Islamization in Northern Nigeria

Christians in Nigeria’s northern quarters were frequent targets of violence in 2005 as the imposition of sharia in 2001 in 12 states continued to feed Islamic rage. A Muslim militant attack on the Christian community in Demsa village, Adamawa state, on February 4, killed 36 people and displaced about 3,000 others. In Niger state, where Christians make up half of the population, Islamic officials seized Christians’ property, discriminated against them in the public sector, and forced Christian girls to marry Muslims. As of October, nine cases of forceful conversions of Christian girls below the age of 14 were reported to the office of the Niger chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria; many other cases go unreported. State authorities found pretexts to force churches to relocate out of their towns. In Kano state, Christian children were denied admission into public schools, and those that were admitted were forced to study Arabic, Islam, and say Islamic prayers. Christians in Bari Dorayi village built a nursery and primary school for their children, but the government halted construction. The state has recruited 9,000 Muslims, known as Hisba, who have been trained as enforcers of sharia, acting as instruments of coercion, intimidation and harassment. Even in Christian-majority Plateau state, where sharia has not been imposed, Muslims worked for “Islamization” to break the state’s position as a launch point for missions to the north – destroying churches, appointing Muslims into political positions of power and denying Christians land to build churches.
10 – Gruesome Violence in Indonesia

A series of gruesome attacks showed all the signs of attempts by Muslim extremists to provoke Christians into religious war. A bombing on May 28 in the Christian market of Tentena left 22 dead and at least 49 injured. Two witnesses in the ensuing trial were shot dead in Poso district, as was a policeman involved in the investigation. On October 27, another bomb exploded in a Christian bus en route from Aplu to Tentena. In late October in Poso, four teenage girls were assaulted while walking to their Christian high school. Theresia Morangke, Alfita Poliwo and Yarni Sambue were beheaded while a fourth, Noviana Malewa, is still recovering from serious injuries. All three heads were found in plastic bags with a note stating in part, “We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers and their heads will be presented as presents.” Two more schoolgirls – one Christian and one Muslim – were shot on November 8. Machete-wielding assailants attacked three young people, killing one of them, on November 18, and a Christian couple was shot and seriously wounded on November 19. Finally, in Central Sulawesi in the early morning hours of December 31, a bomb explosion in a market of a Christian area of Palu killed eight people and left 56 others injured.

January 25, 2006

Students ban Christians in row over gays
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

A UNIVERSITY Christian Union has been suspended and had its bank account frozen after refusing to open its membership to people of all religions.

The Christian Union, an evangelical student organisation, has instructed lawyers and is threatening court proceedings against the Birmingham Guild of Students.

The Birmingham Christian Union has more than 100 members who attend meetings regularly and has been functioning at the university for 76 years.

Members claim the actions have been taken against them after they refused on religious grounds to make “politically correct” changes to their charitable constitution, including explicitly mentioning people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered.

The Christian Union was advised that the use of the words “men” and “women” in the constitution were causing concern because they could be seen as excluding transsexual and transgendered people.

Difficulties arose after the organisation Christians in Sport, whose supporters include Jonathan Edwards, the Olympic gold medallist, attempted to book a room in the name of the Christian Union. After checking the union’s constitution, the Guild of Students objected to a number of clauses.

Andy Weatherley, Christian Union staff worker in Birmingham, said: “The guild insists the Christian Union constitution must be amended to include mandatory clauses, insisting on more control by the guild and open membership to those who would not call themselves Christians.”

At a recent guild meeting Matthew Crouch, of the Christian Union, appealed against derecognition. He said: “All guild members can attend our meeting but only members can vote,” but Stuart Mathers, a guild vice-president, said that all student groups have to follow guild council policy. Birmingham University Christian Union is affiliated to the University and Colleges’ Christian Fellowship. Pod Bhogal, its communications director, said: “We support the Birmingham Christian Union. We would not dream of telling a Muslim group or a political society how to elect their leaders or who could or could not become a member. The same applies to a Christian Union.”

Students ban Christians in row over gays (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2-2008732%2C00.html)

Christian prayer meet attacked in Bhopal, 8 hurt
MILIND GHATWAI
Send Feedback E-mail this story Print this story
Posted online: Sunday, January 29, 2006 at 0102 hours IST

BHOPAL, JANUARY 28: At least eight Christians were injured on Saturday morning when a group of men attacked them with sticks and iron rods during a prayer meeting at a house in Kailashnagar locality.

Around 30 people had gathered for the prayer meeting when the assailants stormed the first-floor room and started beating them. ‘‘They accused us of converting people to our faith and beat us mercilessly,’’ pastor Ivin Parera told The Indian Express, adding that it appeared the attackers had come from the nearby slums.

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‘‘Some of them had big tilaks on their foreheads and a bearded youth was sporting a saffron sash,’’ said Pastor Kishor Sadhvani, who had come from Nagpur to deliver a sermon. Both he and Parera are among the four people who were admitted to hospital with severe injures.

There was no provocation nor was any conversion activity going on, Sadhvani said. ‘‘They started pelting stones at the house and smashed vehicles before storming into the hall.’’

SP Anant Kumar Singh said it was difficult to identify the culprits because the complainants had not named anyone yet.

Dr Indira Ayengar, member of the state Minority Commission, accused the police and the administration of complicity with the attackers. She said she would give the police a few hours to make arrests, after which she would submit a list of 10 people who, she said, were behind the attack.

Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi said the Sangh was raking up false cases of conversion to instigate communal hatred. Bajrang Dal leader Devendra Rawat said his organisation had nothing to do with the attack.

Christian prayer meet attacked in Bhopal, 8 hurt (http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=86847)

INDIA: SHABRI KUMBH MELA THREATENS 8000 CHRISTIANS IN DANGS - 11-13 FEBRUARY 2006

By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Over the weekend 11-13 February, Hindu nationalist groups and their militantfactions will hold a major Kumbh (Hindu festival) in Dangs district, Gujarat,northwest India.

Called 'Shabri Kumbh Mela', in future it is to be held every four years. Its official website openly declares the aim is to '...deal a death blow to such anti-dharmic and anti-national activities' as Christian missions. The central slogan for the Kumbh is 'Hindu Jago, Christi Bhagao' (Hindus arise, throw out the Christians). The two main aims of the Kumbh are to convert the tribals to militant Hindu nationalism, and to get rid of Christianity because it challenges the status quo and threatens to liberate the enslaved tribals. Dangs is being targeted because Gujarat is 0.05 percent Christian whilst Dangs is 5 percent Christian. Moreover, the Hindu elites have political and economic interests in either co-opting or ridding themselves of the despised, sub-caste tribals. So they will co-opt as many as possible into militant Hindu nationalism, and then set them against the Christians.

The strategy the Hindu nationalists use is to convince the tribals that, though they think they are indigenous animists or Christians, historically they are Hindu forest dwellers who will be better off returning to the Hindu fold. Hindu nationalists have been busy Hinduising tribal rituals by giving them Hindu names, saying they are just corrupted Hindu practices and then adjusting them to suit Hindu sensitivities. They have also invented a whole new mythology to justify creating a Hindu pilgrimage site and festival to the Hindu goddess Shabri in Dangs.

The Hindu nationalists have produced high quality CDs that exhort the tribals to kill Christians as the Hindu god Ram killed the demon Ravana. The NGO 'ANHAD' (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) filed a petition concerning the CD, which suggests Christians should be attacked and beheaded. On Friday 3 February, the Supreme Court viewed the CD and sought responses from the central government, the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, and the Shabri Kumbh Mela organising committee.

According to ANHAD, the disc has been widely distributed and openly sold in Gujarat, Maharashtra and in northeastern states. ANHAD states the CD 'makes constant references to the evil forces and foreign powers that are out to destroy the Hindu religion, while simultaneously flashing pictures of churches and the cross on the screen as if to insinuate that the Christian community is the evil force and the foreign power that the Hindu community has to reckon with'. They say it also encourages viewers to adopt aggressive attitudes and militant methods. The CD also has 'a caricature of a headless Christian priest wearing a cassock and holding a cross. In place of the head is a question mark symbol. The caption on the top of this picture literally translates into church: in the name of service'.

Swami Aseemanand, one of the key instigators of the Kumbh, believes the Shabri Kumbh Mela will '...end missionary activity in Dangs'. In 1999 Aseemanand told the Times of India, 'Dangs cannot know peace so long as even a single tribal remains Christian.'

The Hindu nationalist state government in Gujarat is actively supporting this initiative. They have given Hindus saffron coloured flags to fly outside their homes, making Christian homes easy to identify. While the government has refused to cancel the event, advocacy from Indian and foreign groups has forced

8000 Christians targeted to be killed or beheaded in India (http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06020043.htm)
__________________________________________________________________________ ___________
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR:

the Spirit of God to breathe great peace into the Dangi Christians and great spiritual wisdom into their Christian leaders; may he draw them into prayer and increase their faith.
God to spread his protection over each Christian family and individual, surrounding them with his favour as with a shield.

'Let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Surely Lord you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield.' Psalm 5:11,12

God to intervene profoundly so that wicked, exploitative, violent schemes will be frustrated and scuttled. Psalm 146:9

God to bless the advocacy of Indian and Christians worldwide, working through the Supreme Court and central government, and putting an end to the crimes of the Hindu nationalists: their incitement to violence; their forced conversion campaigns; and their intimidation and violent persecution of religious minorities.

Quote from: DreamWeaver on February 12, 2006, 03:42:46 PM

Iran to hang teenage girl attacked by rapists
Sat. 07 Jan 2006
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

Last week, a court in the city of Rasht, northern Iran, sentenced Delara Darabi to death by hanging charged with murder when she was 17 years old. Darabi has denied the charges.

In August 2004, Iran’s Islamic penal system sentenced a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, to death after a sham trial, in which she was accused of committing “acts incompatible with chastity”

Iran to hang teenage girl attacked by rapists (her crime = she fought back) (http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5183)

How truely sad. I really feel for this young lady, I will be praying for her.

130 Christians murdered over cartoons
Muslim rioters rampage through Nigerian villages
Posted: February 24, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Muslim rioters, incensed over the cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark, were responsible for killing at least 130 Christians on the streets of Maiduguri and Onitsha in Nigeria, according to reports filtering out of the country from Voice of the Martyrs.

At least 51 Christians are confirmed dead in the Maiduguri attacks that took place Saturday. In the rampage, more than 150 homes and 32 churches were burned, and 85 shops were destroyed. Authorities were finally able to control the volatile scene after arresting 114 and having militia enforce a curfew.

The mayhem began when Muslims staged their demonstration against degrading caricatures of Muhammad that were originally published in September 2005 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. Even though the cartoons were by no means a Christian attack on Islam, Muslims in Nigeria and throughout the world have turned their rage toward Christians – many of whom have never even heard of the controversial sketches, reports Voice of the Martyrs.

Muslims were reported running through the streets of Maiduguri threatening people with death and violence if they did not speak their local dialect. Many of the dozens of victims were publicly tortured to death in the city streets.

Amidst the violence, six children were burned to ashes in front of their father, Joseph Tukwa, who was unable to rescue them. Six Christian leaders, including the Rev. Joshua Adamu, were injured and are now in hiding. Church of Christ in Nigeria, Living Faith Church, Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, St. Augustine's Catholic Church and St. Mary's Catholic Church were some of the churches set ablaze by rioters, who killed two Catholic priests. St. Rita's Catholic Church was also torched. The Rev. Fr. Matthew Gajere was murdered and then burned after he helped several altar boys escape to safety.

In total, at least 123 people have been killed in the last four days of violence across Nigeria.

At least 80 people, mostly Christians, were slaughtered during two days of violence in Onitsha, leading Nigerian human rights group Civil Liberties Organization, said yesterday.

Chinese police detain 36 in raid on bible school, aid association says at 14:59 on March 1, 2006, EST.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Chinese police on Wednesday raided a bible school run by an underground Protestant church, detaining 36 people amid a nationwide crackdown on Christians worshipping outside Communist Party control, an overseas support group said.

About 50 officers armed with electric cattle prods and backed by more than 10 police vehicles surrounded the school in the eastern province of Anhui, according to the Texas-based China Aid Association. Those inside, including students, teachers and leaders of the underground church, were taken away in police vans, the group said.

The school's owner, Chu Huaiting, was later arrested at his home, it said. It identified Chu as vice-president of the Chinese House Church Alliance, which it said groups about 300,000 worshippers in unofficial congregations.

The school also taught sewing to help students support themselves, and completed blankets were confiscated in the raid along with thousands of copies of religious literature, the association said.

A female officer who answered the phone at the police department in the town of Huaibei where the school was located said she had not heard of the reported raid. She refused to give her name.

The China Aid Association said most of the Church Alliance's leaders have been either questioned or detained in recent months, adding to similar reports from other groups.

The reported crackdown follows the adoption of new rules on religious organizations that critics say are being used to persecute groups deemed troublesome by authorities.

China allows worship only in the official Three Self Patriotic Movement, set up following the expulsion of foreign missionaries and church leaders after the 1949 communist revolution. The party retains final say on the group's finances, leadership and doctrinal issues, and severely restricts religious education, especially among young people.

A similar organization controls the Catholic church, with defiant priests and parishioners subject to similar harassment.

Millions of other Protestants worship in unregistered groups, often called house churches because they meet in private homes to avoid detection. Those groups have in past been tolerated to various degrees in different parts of China, with some even operating seminaries and printing houses.

Other sects have adopted unorthodox beliefs, and infighting and competition for adherents have sometimes resulted in violence. On Monday, 17 members of the Three Ranks of Servants church went on trial Monday on charges of killing of 20 members of a rival group, Eastern Lightning.

Chinese police detain 36 in raid on bible school (http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=24&id=30173)

Egypt Christian Woman "Kidnapped" by Muslim Militants, Contacts Family
Added: Feb 27th, 2006 8:09 AM

CAIRO, EGYPT -- There was concern Sunday, February 26, over the condition of a kidnapped young Christian women in Egypt amid reports she is being held in a Cairo apartment and forced to convert to Islam.

The situation of 19-year old Theresa Ghattass Kamal, who disappeared over a month ago, has underscored international concern over kidnappings of Coptic girls throughout Egypt.

Last seen in the village of El-Saff 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Cairo on January 3, she apparently briefly contacted her aunt on January 24 saying she had not "yet succumbed" to her unknown captors’ demands "that she become a Muslim," her brother Sa’eed Ghattass Kamal was quoted as saying by Compass Direct, a Christian news agency.

Her phone call contradicted earlier police statements that she had converted to Islam "voluntarily" and did not want to see her family again, the news agency said. Police reportedly made the claims last month following a three-day protest by clergy and lay members of the Coptic Orthodox church demanding her return.

NO RECORDS

Further investigation by Sa’eed Kamal revealed that no official records of his sister’s conversion existed at Cairo’s Al-Azhar Islamic center, Compass Direct said. Egyptian law requires that all conversions be registered at Al-Azhar and then validated with the security police, the State Security Investigation (SSI).

The Kamal family allegedly traced the origination point of the 19-year-old woman’s call to an apartment in Cairo’s Shubra district owned by Muslim Mostafa Mahmood Ali. A local priest who asked not to be named for security reasons told reporters that Ali’s house was “a dangerous place, full of fundamentalists.”

Originally from the village of Wadi El-Natroun 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Cairo, Kamal was living in a church-owned apartment for women in the town of Giza and taking courses at the Secretarial Academy in old Cairo.

MUSLIM FATHER

Her father converted to Islam in 1995 and her mother died in 2003, leaving her and her four adult siblings on their own, Compass Direct claimed. She apparently was kidnapped by Muslims early January while traveling from a Coptic priest with arranging national and student identity cards.

When his sister had not returned home by January 6, Sa’eed Kamal traveled to Giza and the priest's town of El-Saff to find her. But police in both towns allegedly refused to file a missing person report sending him back to his sister's home village Wadi El-Natroun. However police officials there were reluctant to cooperate and reportedly threatened to arrest some of the priests protesting against the police inaction between January 11-January 13.

Unless the convert is under 18, the legal age for conversion, police can refuse to recover the missing woman by claiming that she does not want to see her family, Compass Direct added.

CHRISTIAN GIRLS

While some Christian girls romanced by young Muslim men voluntarily leave their families and convert to Islam to escape poverty or unhappy family situations, many are forced into accepting another religion, rights groups say. The United States has expressed concern about the situation.

"There were credible reports of government harassment of Christian families that attempted to regain custody of their daughters," the US State Department said in its recent human rights report on Egypt. "The law states that a marriage of a girl under the age of 16 is prohibited. Between the ages of 16 and 21, marriage is illegal without the approval and presence of her guardian. [However] the authorities also sometimes failed to uphold the law in cases of marriage between underage Christian girls and Muslim boys," the State Department added.

Coptic Christians comprise up to 6 percent of Egypt's population of nearly 78 million, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In December 2004, thousands of Coptic Christians in Cairo reportedly protested when Wafaa Constantin, the wife of an Orthodox priest in Bahayrah province, supposedly converted to Islam and eloped with a Muslim man. Constantin was returned to church custody by Egyptian security forces. (With reports from Egypt).

I can't post the link because of advertisment.

Vietnamese Christians come to aid of U.S. businessman
Even as Hanoi seeks WTO membership, religious persecution continues
Posted: March 12, 2006
5:15 a.m. Eastern

By Jay Baggett
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

When Vietnam's prime minister, Phan Van Khai, visited the U.S. last summer to discuss his country's entry into the World Trade Organization, he was faced with demands to ease religious persecution – a demand he took to heart upon returning to Hanoi with several liberalizing measures – but one Northern California businessman, who claims he's been harassed for the last week while visiting Christian friends in Ho Chi Minh City, says the local police must not have been informed of the new policies.

Chad MacNamee, a building contractor and land developer from Northern California, is on his third trip to Vietnam in five years. "It's really changed.. There are more cars, fewer bicycles, and the food in the restaurants and the accommodations are much better.

But the police have been unbearable, he said. "From Monday we have been followed everywhere we go. Even the hotel staff have been threatened into telling all our movements and who comes and goes with us."

The only reason for this treatment, he said, is because the friends they are visiting in Vietnam are Christians.

In their travels throughout Southeast Asia, the McNamees have met local Christians and formed lasting friendships. Some of those they've met have visited them in California.

"We've only come as tourists to visit this beautiful country and see our friends that have come over to the U.S. before," said Loree McNamee, Chad's wife. "The prime minister of Vietnam told President Bush that there is freedom here. However, we have been followed and harassed since we arrived. Although Chad is a building contractor, not a preacher or a teacher, they seem to want to believe otherwise."

The pair, and another American couple traveling with them, now find themselves in the center of an escalating faceoff between local authorities and a Christian church in Ho Chi Minh City.

Last Thursday, the two couples received "invitations" to come to the immigration office the next morning at 8:30 a.m.

"Really," Loree said. "At the top, it read 'Invitation.' We were 'kindly invited' to come to immigration the next day. As we were busy that day, we kindly declined their 'Invitation.'"

At 10:00 p.m., Friday, the police came to the couples' hotel to inquire about their failure to appear.

"No problem. No problem," the officers repeatedly assured them, while continuing to insist they come to the immigration office on Monday morning to have their visas checked.

"They never threatened the men physically," noted Loree. "They were very courteous and careful."

At that point, Chad McNamee informed the officers that a local pastor was on his way to the hotel and they left quickly.

"They did not want to talk to Pastor Mai," Loree said, noting that the minister and other church members arrived at the hotel carrying cameras.

According to the McNamees, Mai reports many instances of the police intimidating Vietnamese Christians. In return, he and some of his parishioners have begun videotaping and photographing incidents to document cases of official harassment. According to the Vietnamese Embassy website, the nation's constitution guarantees citizens "freedom of belief and religion."

Mai has told the McNamees, who have a meeting at the U.S. Consulate tomorrow, he will deal with the police for them.

In a related matter, Associated Press reports a U.S. trade delegation, representing more than 20 major American companies and currently meeting in Hanoi, endorsed Vietnam's bid to join the WTO.

"We'd like to see Vietnam's WTO accession finalized by the end of the year, preferably by the end of November. That's a pretty vigorous timetable," said Matthew Daley, head of the US-ASEAN Business Council. "There will be questions of religious freedom, there will be questions of democracy, there will be questions of human rights. Any number of these things could come up. I think it's going to be important for Vietnam and the United States to be in a position to address those in straightforward manner," he said.

The pro-business McNamees don't think Vietnam is ready for WTO membership just yet.

"Although Vietnam has told President Bush that there is freedom of religion in Vietnam, apparently there is a misunderstanding," Chad McNamee said. "The government here wants to have it appear that they have freedom of worship but not lose control – saying one thing to the outside world and doing another.

Vietnam "Tortures" Christian Montagnards For Refusing to Worship Ho Chi Minh
Added: Mar 16th, 2006 7:23 AM

VIETNAM -- Representatives of Vietnam's embattled Degar Montagnard Christians remained concerned Wednesday, March 15, over the whereabouts of fellow believers who they said were tortured and detained by security forces for refusing "to abandon Christianity" by joining a government church "which worships [Communist leader] Ho Chi Minh."

The Degar, referred to by French colonists as Montagnard or "mountain people", are the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands, but have been accused by Vietnam's authorities of observing "an American religion" and of cooperating with American troops during the Vietnam War.

The US-based advocacy organization Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI), which is also active in Vietnam through several contacts, told BosNewsLife that this month several believers were detained and abused in the Central Highlands area and said groups of believers are now hiding in the jungle.

MFI said the problems began March 2 when "the Vietnamese government committee from Ia Ko commune summoned our Christian Brother Siu Phon, 46, " from the village of Plei Sur in Cu Se district of GiaLai province to meet with them at their local office. "The authorities initially spoke kindly to him about why he refused to join the official government recognized church but then took him to the police station at Cu Se district in Gialai province," the group explained.

POLICE TORTURE

MFI said however that "the police tortured Siu Phon by repeatedly punching and kicking him until he lost control of his bowels and he collapsed unconscious on the prison floor covered in his own excrement." It claimed that Siu Phon "refused to abandon Christianity and refused to join the church that is recognized by the government." He is now imprisoned at the prison facility in Cu Se district "and the condition of his health is unknown."

On March 5, Siu Thit, 43, from the same Plei Sur village was also summoned to arrive at what is known as the local "commune office," MFI investigators reported. "After he arrived there with his wife, the believer was allegedly arrested by police "for refusing to join the official government recognized Church," they said in a statement.

"Police took him to the police station at Cu Se district in Gialai province and sent his wife away. It is unknown what has happened to Siu Thit at this time but it is feared he was tortured like Siu Phon above. He is now imprisoned at the prison facility in Cu Se district," said MFI.

On March 7, 2006 the Vietnamese government committee from the same region ordered five other Christians from Plei Sur village to meet with them. They were identified as Rmah Anoc, 27, Rmah Plik, 47, Rmah Kul, 34, Rmah Suaih, 32, and Kpa Huin, 30.

CHRISTIANS FLEE

"These five Christian Montagnards knew what had happened to Siu Phon and Siu Thit and fearing torture they did not attend the commune meeting. The commune committee then sent police to arrest them in their village and the police ransacked the houses in Plei Sur village searching for them. Unable to locate the five Christians the police then threatened the villagers and their families. These five Christians are now on the run and it is greatly feared they will be tortured or killed if found by police," MFI added.

MFI said the government had tried on February 2 with what it called "public relations ceremonies" to inaugurate an official church built for the Montagnard people at Plei Batel of Ia Hru commune in the Cu Se district of Gialai province.

The group noted that the officials included Montagnard government Church leaders, identified as Siu Pek and Siu Kim and a Vietnamese government official, Thay Hung. “Many Vietnamese” from Ho Chi Minh City reportedly came to join them at the service. "Siu Kim, a Montagnard working for the government led the service and had invited 10,000 Montagnard Christians in the area to participate in the dedication ceremony. Only a few followers of Siu Kim came to the ceremony however, and inside the church the officials placed a big picture of Ho Chi Minh and the national flag."

WORSHIPPING HO CHI MINH

MFI noted that they "started the opening service by worshipping Ho Chi Minh,” singing songs praising the late leader, "and then telling stories how brave the Vietnamese people are for defeating the French and Americans in the wars." Soon after Siu Kim reportedly started to preach "but the Montagnards then commenced leaving the church one by one, not happy with Ho Chi Minh’s picture being placed in the Church."

The Degar Montagnard Christians who attended the Church reported to MFI that they did not see a picture of Jesus, or Mary or the cross at the Church ceremony. "They were also told they are not allowed to place a cross on graves of their relatives, but only flowers. The authorities told the Montagnard Christians that anyone who places a cross on a grave will be arrested, " MFI claimed.

There was no immediate reaction from Vietnamese officials. However recently the Vietnamese government denied claims of human rights abuses made by MFI and other secular organizations such as Amnesty International. "The Vietnamese Government always respects and protects human rights including the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of press and freedom of religion and beliefs," said the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Dzung when asked by reporters about persecution allegations.

MFI stressed that "the Degar Montagnard people respect Vietnamese leaders such as Ho Chi Minh but they will refuse to worship him as their god and they will not tolerate his picture in Church. The Montagnard Degar people do not become Christian because they want to overthrow the government of Vietnam or demand independence," MFI added.

"MORALLY RIGHT"

"The Bible teaches Christians to do morally right things and to be good citizens that respect their government. Thus the Vietnamese communist government should cease all religious persecution and interference in Montagnard religious affairs."

MFI has blamed the Vietnamese communist government for what it calls "religious repression" amounting to “creeping genocide” towards the Montagnard Degar people. "They threaten Montagnards with arrest and torture, forcing our people to hide in the jungles. Then the Vietnamese government uses this as an excuse to conduct sweeping operations giving their soldiers the right to persecute and even kill our people. It is not enough for them to confiscate our ancestral farmlands but it seems the Vietnamese government policy is also to repress us so they can force us into poverty in order to eliminate our people and our livelihood."

MFI said it has urged the United States Government, the European Union, and the United Nations to insist Vietnam ceases "all religious persecution" before it be granted entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

It also wants the international community to demand that all Degar Montagnard prisoners are fully accounted for and released from Vietnamese prisons. In addition MFI wants demands that human rights monitors will receive access to the Central Highlands before the country joins the WTO. Of the roughly 1-million Degar Montagnard people, close to half are Protestant, while around 200,000 are Catholic, according to estimates.

Christian Families Evicted in Laos
Added: Mar 16th, 2006 7:21 AM

LAOS -- A human rights group expressed concern Wednesday, March 15, over a possible new government crackdown on Christian villagers in Laos.

Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC) said it learned that already Fifteen Khmu Christian families in the village of Ban Nam Haeng in Udomxai Province "received notice earlier this month that their homes were being confiscated and given to other families."

Last year, the Laotian government unsuccessfully attempted to evict the Christian families, VOMC added. However "this time, hand-written notices were posted on each door, stating that all of their farm land was being confiscated and given to other villagers."

Churches have been growing in rural villages across Laos, one of the few remaining official Communist states in Asia, BosNewsLife established in Laos recently. Human rights workers say authorities see Christianity as a threat to their powerbase and ideology.

PRAYERS URGED

VOMC said it had urged its supporters to "pray" amid concern that the latest developments in Udomxai Province will "not be followed by violence in enforcing the evictions."

Village chiefs and other state workers as well as pastors and other Christians have been pressured by Communist authorities to give up their Christian faith, with security forces using torture and detention against resisting believers, BosNewsLife learned.

Authorities have refused to allow the official import of Bibles, Christian Freedom International (CFI), a religious rights group, said. As foreign missionaries have been banned from Laos, native Christians play an important part in Christian missions, according to Christian Aid Mission and other groups.

Lao Communist authorities have strongly denied human rights abuses and say they act only against those seen as a threat to society.

Of the over 6-million people living in Laos, just 1.5 percent are Christians, according to the US Central Intelligence Agency. Church leaders have suggested the real figure may be higher as they report a "revival" in villages across Laos.

Afghan Man Faces Execution After Converting to Christianity
By Benjamin Sand
Kabul
18 March 2006

An Afghan man who recently admitted he converted to Christianity faces the death penalty under the country's strict Islamic legal system. The trial is a critical test of Afghanistan's new constitution and democratic government.

The case is attracting widespread attention in Afghanistan, where local media are closely monitoring the landmark proceedings.

Abdul Rahman, 40, was arrested last month, accused of converting to Christianity.

Under Afghanistan's new constitution, minority religious rights are protected but Muslims are still subject to strict Islamic laws.

And so, officially, Muslim-born Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and not for practicing Christianity.

Appearing in court earlier this week Rahman insisted he should not be considered an infidel, but admitted he is a Christian.

He says he still believes in the almighty Allah, but cannot say for sure who God really is. "I am," he says, "a Christian and I believe in Jesus Christ."

Rahman reportedly converted more than 16 years ago after spending time working in Germany.

Officials say his family, who remain observant Muslims, turned him over to the authorities.

On Thursday the prosecution told the court Rahman has rejected numerous offers to embrace Islam.

Prosecuting attorney Abdul Wasi told the judge that the punishment should fit the crime.

He says Rahman is a traitor to Islam and is like a cancer inside Afghanistan. Under Islamic law and under the Afghan constitution, he says, the defendant should be executed.

The court has ordered a delay in the proceedings to give Rahman time to hire an attorney.

Under Afghan law, once a verdict is given, the case can be appealed twice to higher courts.

This is the first case in which the defendant has admitted to converting and is refusing to back down, even while facing the death penalty.

If convicted, the case could ultimately force President Hamid Karzai's direct intervention.

The president would have to sign the papers authorizing Rahman's execution, a move that could jeopardize Mr. Karzai's standing with human rights groups and Western governments.

So far, President Karzai has not commented on the case.

But political analysts here in Kabul say he will be under significant pressure from the country's hard-line religious groups to make an example of Rahman.

Afghan Man Faces Execution After Converting to Christianity (http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-03-18-voa7.cfm)

Group Says Rahman One of Thousands Awaiting Death Sentence for Accepting Christ
U.N. Expects Approval of Asylum Request from Afghan Convert

By Jody Brown and Allie Martin
March 28, 2006

(AgapePress) - News reports indicate that Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man who faced a possible death penalty for his acceptance of Christ as his personal Savior, has been released from a Kabul prison. No one, however, seems to know where he is since being released late yesterday. He had indicated that because of death threats from radical Muslim clerics, he wished to seek asylum in another country.

The United Nations says it will work with Afghanistan to accommodate Rahman's request for asylum. Rahman, who claims he converted from the Muslim faith 16 years ago, recently faced the death penalty for that decision until a Kabul court dismissed the charges and reportedly released him from a high-security prison near Kabul on Monday night.

But Islamic extremists have called for his death since the start of the trial, prompting groups that are concerned about Rahman's safety to call for his quick exit from the predominantly Muslim nation. Associated Press is now reporting that Rahman "quickly vanished" after being released on Monday night, and speculates he did so "out of fear for his life" with Muslim clerics still demanding his death.

A spokesman says the U.N. expects the 41-year-old convert's request for asylum to be met. "We've been working closely with the government of Afghanistan to find a solution to this," Adrian Edwards tells Associated Press. "As for Mr. Abdul Rahman, he has asked for asylum outside Afghanistan. We expect this to be provided by one of the countries interested in seeing a peaceful solution to this case."

He says the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan "has a mandate for good offices and for upholding human rights in Afghanistan" and has been following the case "closely since the outset." Hundreds of people protested against the court's decision to drop the case. The decision came partly because officials expressed concern that Rahman is mentally unfit to face trial. (See earlier story)

Conversion from Islam Taboo in Most Muslim Nations
The president of a grassroots human-rights organization says while much attention has been focused on the Afghan Christian who was on trial for his faith, the case is not an isolated incident. A recent report from Associated Press confirms that observation.

AP points out that Afghanistan is not the only U.S. ally where Muslim converts to Christianity can face prosecution or even execution. Saudi Arabia, for example, neither permits conversion from Islam nor allows other religions in the kingdom. In addition, there are no churches, and missionaries are barred. Islamic Shariah law considers conversion to any other religion apostasy and most Muslim scholars agree the punishment is death. Saudi Arabia considers Sharia the law of the land, though there have been no reported cases of executions of converts from Islam in recent memory.

The report continues, noting that in Jordan, after a Muslim man converted to Christianity two years ago, a court convicted him of apostasy, took away his right to work, and annulled his marriage. And in Kuwait, a court convicted a Shiite Muslim man who publicly proclaimed his conversion to Christianity, but did not sentence him since the criminal code did not set a punishment.

Jim Jacobsen, president of the group Christian Freedom International (CFI) says there "literally thousands" of Christians all over the Islamic world who are awaiting a death sentence because they converted to Christianity.

"We're involved with many, many other cases just like [Rahman's]," Jacobsen says. "They lose everything -- all possessions, their inheritance. They're literally thrown out into the streets. The local mosque will issue a fatwa or death sentence against them."

The CFI leader says his organization sent a letter to President George W. Bush, asking him to push for Rahman's immediate release -- and reminding him that minority Christians face severe and growing persecution in many Muslim nations. Jacobsen theorizes that Rahman's case has received widespread media coverage simply because it can embarrass the president.

"He's spent so much effort and treasure on assisting in Afghanistan, and they see this somehow as the president's fault and that his policies have failed," he says. "But give me a break here. Yeah, we'd like to see a lot more, but this is the kind of thing that's happening throughout the Islamic world."

Humphries, Klein interview terror leaders accused of abuses

Just hours after the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in Bethlehem was killed during an Israeli anti-terror operation, top radio host Rusty Humphries and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein today conducted interviews with the group's gun-toting senior leadership to be broadcast tonight on Humphries' national program.

The Brigades, currently the most active Palestinian terror group, today forced Christian and Muslim schools and shops in Bethlehem to close early in protest of the death of its leader, Raad Abiat, who reportedly was killed after refusing to disarm or put down an explosive device he was carrying during an Israeli raid.

"It was terrible," said Klein. "Rusty and I were starving but we couldn't find any food because all the restaurants and stores in the city were forced to close. Then we watched Al Aqsa block the streets as they stormed to their leader's funeral."

The Al Aqsa Brigades has been accused the past few years of leading the persecution of local Christians in Bethlehem. The city's Christian population, once 90 percent, has declined drastically since the Palestinian Authority took control in December 1995. Christians now make up less than 25 percent of Bethlehem, according to Israeli surveys.

Speaking mostly on condition of anonymity, Christians in Bethlehem have told the media they regularly are targeted by Muslims, particularly members of Fatah, of which the Brigades is a part.

The Brigades several times the past few months has stormed Bethlehem municipal buildings.

In December, an aid to Jerusalem's Latin patriarch told WND the Palestinian Authority has been appropriating lands of the Greek Orthodox Church in Bethlehem and building mosques on the formerly Christian land. He said he is aware of several cases in which Christian women were raped and murdered, but the alleged criminals were not arrested.

"The Palestinian security forces know who did these crimes," said the aide. "They know where the criminals live. Still nothing to arrest them."

One religious novelty-store owner in Bethlehem in December cited examples to WND of Muslim gangs defacing Christian property, the PA replacing Christian leaders on public councils with Muslims and armed Palestinian factions stirring tensions.

Cases involving other alleged anti-Christian violence in Bethlehem include attacks against Christians in 2001 after a Palestinian Muslim leader called for a "jihad" against both Jews and Christians; riots that spilled over from Ramallah in 2002 in which Muslim mobs burned Christian businesses and attempted to destroy churches; and regular reports of shootings and threats.

In one of the most infamous cases of anti-Christian violence, The Al Aqsa Brigades in 2002 holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and refused to release the religious staff inside. There were reports the gunmen, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, looted the facilities, desecrated the church and even used the Bible as toilet paper.

Today's radio interview with the Brigades members will be broadcast on "The Rusty Humphries Show," which is live tonight from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m Eastern and is featured on over 230 radio stations nationwide, including WDBO in Orlando, WCBM in Baltimore, KSFO in San Francisco, KOKC in Oklahoma City, WNIS in Norfolk, KHBZ in Honolulu and KVI in Seattle.

The show tonight will be hosted from the Israel National Radio studios in Beit El, adjacent to Ramallah in the West Bank.

Humphries this week is scheduled to broadcast from various hotspots in Israel and will conduct exclusive interviews with regional leaders and newsmakers. Last week Humphries hosted his show live from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Humphries has been named one of America's 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts six years in a row by Talkers Magazine, was nominated as Talk Radio Personality of the Year by Radio and Records and was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame as its youngest inductee ever.

Russia Bans Christian Radio Network
Added: Apr 11th, 2006 5:39 AM

Saturday, 08 April 2006

MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- There was concern Saturday, April 8, over the future of Christian radio in Russia after the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications refused to renew the radio license of a key evangelical radio station, an official said.

New Life Radio in the Russian city of Magadan applied for a new permission this fall but "was informed that the deputy minister refused to approve the license renewal due to late submission of documents," said network representative Dan Johnson in an interview with US-based Mission Network News (MNN), a Christian broadcaster.

Johnson added however that the action seemed part of Moscow's actions against Christian radio stations. "There is a bias that exists within the government against evangelical mission activities and in this case we're concerned that radio has simply been targeted and we fear for the future development of radio."

He added that "the deputy minister continued to give approval and his signatures for other secular radio stations seeking license renewals..."

NO NEW NETWORKS

Johnson said there were currently only two Christian radio networks in Russia as "no new Christian stations have started in the last five years," apparently due to tensions with authorities.

"For us the bigger question is the Russian government's move against freedom of religion and freedom of the press," he explained. He stressed that New Life would appeal the decision to the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications and does not rule out a court case.

Russian officials were not immediately available for comment. Russian President Alexander Putin has come under international pressure to improve human rights and the freedom of expression situation in the country.

HUNGARY VISIT

During a visit to Hungary last down he tried to play down concerns over these issues, while human rights activist were kept on a distance.

Russia is a predominantly Orthodox nation, and analysts say Moscow has been concerned about the growing influence of evangelical congregations and activities of missionaries in the country.

I can't post the link because of adxertisment.

13 April, 2006
PAKISTAN
Christian woman nailed with Muslim blasphemy charge for defending cross

Naseem Bibi is in solitary confinement: at the peak of enraged Muslim protests against the Muhammad cartoons, she fought with demonstrators for desecrating Christianity.

Kasur (AsiaNews/ANS) – A Christian woman is languishing in prison for defending the cross from desecration. Naseem Bibi is in solitary confinement, charged with having offended an image of the Kabah, the most sacred shrine of Islam in Saudi Arabia. On 7 April, judges refused to release her on bail. Meanwhile, her husband and their three sons have been forced to flee their home and to go into hiding out of fear of retaliation by Muslim extremists.

The woman’s family said she protested against a group of Muslims who were drawing a cross on top of a rubbish heap. The prison authorities have not allowed members of the Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan (SLMP), a Protestant organization, to visit the detainee. The SLMP has disseminated a statement by Gulzar Masih, the woman’s husband, narrating Naseem’s story.

Everything started on 3 March when many Muslims were protesting the blasphemous cartoons of Muhammad near Naseem’s house in Kasur. “They were raising slogans against the US president George W. Bush, abusing him and Christianity too,” said Gulzar. “Naseem saw the protesters draw a cross on top of a rubbish help and so she went out to protest the desecrating gesture.” The woman told the demonstrators they were violating a sacred symbol of Christianity while protesting about exactly the same offence against their own faith.

According to her husband’s account, Naseem was beaten and stripped. The group of Muslims then left only to return after a few hours with an image of the Kabah soiled with excrement. The men accused Naseem of blasphemy and the police, who came to the spot, took her away to the local police station. Gulzar admitted that he did not intervene to help his wife because he was afraid.

The SMLP said a blasphemy case has been opened against the woman and her husband has been unable to visit her after more than a month.

The so-called blasphemy law (article 295 b & c of the Pakistani penal code) carries life sentences for offences against the Koran and the death penalty or life imprisonment for defamatory actions against the prophet Muhammad. The Catholic Church and human rights groups have long been calling for a total abrogation of the law. So far, the government has only introduced weak amendments.

Christian woman nailed with Muslim blasphemy charge for defending cross (http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5902)

Persecution report precedes Hu visit
Torture of Christians documented for Chinese president

Just days before the summit between President Bush and Chinese President Hu, a report of torture and abuse against Christians in China has been released by human rights groups.

The report includes photographic evidence and video interviews of 19 believers from five different provinces and highlights some of the most egregious cases of brutality and state-sponsored torture of evangelical Christians last year, says the China Aid Association, which worked together with the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, Jubilee Campaign USA and Midland Ministerial Alliance.

The Chinese president arrived in Seattle yesterday for meetings with Microsoft and Boeing and plans a summit with Bush Thursday in the nation's capital.

China Aid asserts that despite the condemnation of torture nationally and internationally, its implementation remains widespread in China today.

There's a sharp contrast, the group says, between the People's Republic of China's written laws and the actions of authorities.

In the report, 23 year-old Zhao Yan recalls how she was treated by her interrogator, Qiu Yunfei, after she was arrested for having a Bible study with two American seminary students at Zaoyang city, Hubei province Aug. 2.

After a few words, he slapped me in the face and kicked me to the ground. He ordered me to kneel on the ground and cuffed my two thumbs. He then let me raise my arms and keep them level. He again slapped me across the ears.

He also hit me with a leather belt on my mouth. He took the drinking glass on the table and smashed it on my arm. … He then kicked my cuffed hands. I rolled around on the floor; the cuffs were eating into my flesh. When the cuff on my right thumb became loose he put it on my two forefingers. Again he wanted me to hold up my hands.

Whenever I lower my arms he burned me with a cigarette butt. The head of the Security Bureau, Zhang Xujin, also entered the room. He scolded me and severely kicked my left leg. He also severely kicked my two hands around on the muddy floor. Afterwards he wanted me to raise my hands up. He grabbed the cuffs and dragged me forward and up.

My fingers simply wanted to break. I was continually tortured like this.

China Aid said Zhao later was pressured into signing false documents before she was released.

Bob Fu, the report's primary author, said the report is by no means exhaustive, dealing only with the tip of the iceberg. It's meant he said, to "provide clear and concise details of what occurs on a regular basis within the PRC’s borders."

The report concludes that the Chinese government demonstrates no regard for national nor international laws its attempt to purge independent, or unregistered, Christian faith from China.

All Protestant and Catholic churches in China are required to be under control of the communist government, and groups that do not register – the vast majority – are labeled "illegal cults."

The report urges the international community to hold accountable officials involved in torture and abusee.

Yahoo accused of helping jail China Internet writer

BEIJING (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. may have helped Chinese police to identify an Internet writer who was subsequently jailed for four years for subversion in the third such case, an advocacy group for journalists said on Wednesday.

News implicating Yahoo in the imprisonment of Jiang Lijun in 2003 surfaced on the eve of a summit between Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Bush in Washington.

It was the third such case involving the U.S. Internet giant.

Yahoo was accused of providing electronic records to Chinese authorities that led to an eight-year prison term for Li Zhi for subversion in 2003 and of helping to identify Shi Tao, who was accused of leaking state secrets abroad and jailed last year for 10 years.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said it had obtained a copy of the verdict showing that Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) helped Chinese police to identify Jiang by confirming that the e-mail account ZYMZd2002 had been used jointly by Jiang and another pro-democracy activist Li Yibing.

"Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long suspected, that Yahoo! is implicated in the arrest of most of the people that we have been defending," the group said.

"We hope this Internet giant will not, as it has each time it has been challenged previously, hide behind its local partner, Alibaba, to justify its behavior. Whatever contract it has with this partner, the e-mail service is marketed as Yahoo!," it said.

But the watchdog conceded that the access code could also have been provided by Li, who is suspected of having been a police informer in the case.

Yahoo could not immediately be reached for comment. The company has defended itself in the past, saying it had to abide by local laws.

The 40-year-old Jiang was accused of seeking to use "violent means" to impose democracy, Reporters Without Borders said.

Police believed Jiang to be the leader of a small group of Internet dissidents, including Liu Di, a university student who was detained for one year and released in November 2003 after police decided against pressing charges.

The case is the latest in a string of examples that highlight the friction between profits and principles for Internet companies doing business in China, the world's number-two Internet market.

Web search giant Google Inc. has come under fire for saying it would block politically sensitive terms on its new China site, bowing to conditions set by Beijing.

In December, Microsoft Corp. shut down a blog at MSN Spaces belonging to outspoken blogger Michael Anti under Chinese government orders.

China has intensified a crackdown on the media in the past year, sacking newspaper editors, arresting journalists and closing publications.

Protester to China leader:
'Your days are numbered'
Woman tries to interrupt President Hu's speech
as Bush stands by on White House South Lawn

As demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest Beijing's abuse of human rights today, a woman who managed to get into the press area on the South Lawn shouted during Chinese President Hu Jintao's speech, warning him his "days are numbered."

The two leaders, who ignored the woman, began talks today focused on Iran and the United States' $202 billion trade deficit with China.

The woman shouted for several minutes before being escorted away by secret service officers.

"President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong!" she said in English, referring to the spiritual movement banned by China as an "evil" cult.

In Chinese, the woman shouted, "President Hu, your days are numbered."

On television in China, the screen went black as the yells of protesters became audible, according to the Drudge Report. The feed returned but once again went black when the woman's voice was heard.

After the event, the Chinese government abruptly blacked out CNN International in the Asian nation when discussion turned to the protester.

According to the weblog Newsbusters.org, CNN International said the network's feed was disrupted only for Chinese viewers.

Two incidents of censorship took place, Newsbusters said, during the demonstration and during the first post-speech discussion of the protest.

"From time to time the Chinese authorities do disrupt CNN's signal into mainland China," CNNi spokesman Nigel Pritchard said. "It happens every so often."

Pritchard declined to say whether CNN protests such acts of censorship to government officials.

"I'm not going to discuss my or CNN's coversations with the Chinese government," he said.

The female demonstrator also said, "No more time for China's ruling party" and unfurled a yellow Falun Gong banner.

She had a temporary pass with a big 'T' on it, according to Drudge.

Earlier, Bush welcomed Hu, saying "the United States and China are two nations divided by a vast ocean yet connected through a global economy that is creating opportunities for both our people."

But Bush took aim at China's tightly controlled currency, saying he would move "toward a flexible market exchange rate."

He also called for greater cooperation on stopping nuclear weapons development in Iran and North Korea.

Hu arrived in the nation's capital last night after two days with business leaders in Washington state.

In Seattle, Falun Gang protesters demonstrated around the clock at Hu's hotel and were seen at other venues, including an intersection near Bill Gates' lakeside mansion.

Beijing has arrested and imprisoned hundreds of Falun Gong members since outlawing the movement in 1999. Introduced by American Li Hongzhi in 1992, Falun Gong was developed from the ancient Chinese meditative practice qigong and has quickly spread in popularity among all socio-economic classes.

US Christians detained briefly after China raid

Chinese police detained five US citizens in a raid last month on a Christian retreat in the country's southwest, an overseas church monitoring group said yesterday.

They were released after five hours of interrogation, along with two Taiwanese and 80 Chinese citizens representing congregations worshiping outside the tightly controlled official state Protestant church, the China Aid Association said.

The US citizens, three of whom are ethnic Chinese, are attached to churches in Greensboro, North Carolina, the association said. It did not identify them by name because they are still in China.

Interrogators accused the five of being "foreign religious infiltrators," it said -- not a formal criminal charge, but a reflection of the Communist Party's fears that outside forces are using burgeoning Christianity to undermine their rule.

About 120 officers took part in the raid on a conference center outside Kunming on the morning of March 23, said the association, based in Midland, Texas.

Calls to the Kunming police spokesman's office and the city Religious Affairs Bureau rang unanswered yesterday.

The association said that China detained at least 1,300 underground Chinese Christians and 17 foreign missionaries last year.

"The persecution against Protestant house churches in China has intensified," the association said in a statement.

A total of 1,317 detentions of house church pastors, leaders and believers occurred in 20 provinces while 17 foreign missionaries, including 11 Americans, were detained between February and December last year, it said.

Most were released after they had been interrogated for periods ranging from 24 hours to several months, the group said. But it claimed that police and state security agents tortured, drugged and practised other abuses against some of the detainees.

Pastors Arrested for 'Fraudulent Conversion' in India
Added: Apr 20th, 2006 12:50 AM

Hindu extremists aid police who manhandle Christian leaders in Madhya Pradesh state.

Police backed by Hindu extremists arrested Avinash Lal, an independent Pentecostal pastor from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh state, and six other Christian leaders last night (April 18) on charges on 'fraudulent conversion.'

They were released on bail at midnight, charged with conversion by allurement and illegal religious gatherings.

Shrada Vishwakarma, a Hindu, called police with the accusation against Pastor Lal. Madhya Pradesh police burst into the pastor’s home around 8:30 p.m., manhandling him and six other Christians leaders and confiscating their Bibles as evidence of “fraudulent conversions.”

When Pastor Lal tried telephoning for help, activists from the Bajrang Dal (youth wing of the extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council) grabbed his mobile phone while he was talking to a Christian leader attending a pastors’ convention eight kilometers (nearly five miles) away.

“Police barged into our house, and in loud and threatening voices, they shouted abuses and began pounding the furniture with their batons,” Pastor Lal told Compass. “They accused me of ‘converting people to Christianity,’ they flung my Bible and tore up the Bibles of the others. They slapped me while another policeman grabbed [another Christian leader] by his ears, and a policeman grabbed another by the hair – all the while we could hear the loud ranting of the Bajrang Dal fundamentalists outside.”

The Christian leaders were confined at Barela police station, where Hindu extremists shouted slogans against them. Christians at the nearby convention rushed to the police station as a sign of solidarity with the Pastor Lal and the others.

The Christian leaders’ attorney, R.A. Robertson, said they were released at midnight on bail.

Sanjay Kumar, police inspector at Barela police station, told Compass that because Pastor Lal was under investigation for converting people through allurement, “It is our duty to investigate the matter and record his statements.”

‘Illegal’ Prayer Meetings

Indira Iyengar, president of the Madhya Pradesh Christian Association and a member of the Madhya Pradesh Minority Commission, said that the Jabalpur collector had told her that Lal and the six others were also under investigation for illegal prayer meetings.

“He informed me that Pastor Avinash and the six others held prayer meetings in homes, which the administration should have been notified of, and that this had not been done,” Iyengar said. “Under the MP Freedom of Religion Bill, ‘Cottage meetings’ are not permissible, the collector explained.”

Iyengar said she would write to the chief minister and to the National Minorities Commission that “cottage meetings” are as much part of Christian services as church gatherings, and that there is no distinction in worship between the two.

“This form of discrimination between churches and domestic assemblies is another ploy of the [Hindu] fundamentalists and government to harass the Christian community,” she said. “This is another pretext by these fundamentalist elements to arrest Christians on charges of conversion.”

Dr. John Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Council, said that if police wanted to arrest the pastor, it did not need Bajrang Dal support.

“Who is running the government in Madhya Pradesh – is it the Bajrang Dal?” Dayal said. “Under the Indian Penal Code, it is criminal on the part of the Bajrang Dal to break into houses.”

Dayal said criminal charges should be filed against the Bajrang Dal before police register a case against the pastor. “Holding prayers at home is not a crime, even under the ugly anti-conversion law,” he said.

According to the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act of 1968, people promoting religion or organizing religious functions need to seek permission from the district collector.

Father Cedric Prakash, director of human rights center Prashant, told Compass that the police acts of intimidation and harassment were a gross violation of basic rights of Indian citizens.

“While the police have every right to investigate any activities of a person in a civilized way, they have no right to arrest anybody on fabricated or fictitious charges,” he said. “The police in connivance with the Hindu, right-wing government of Madhya Pradesh should stop this Fascist mentality and action and protect the freedoms of people. It is within [Lal’s] rights to preach his religion anywhere, even in the seclusion of his own home.”

Guinea Family "Kidnaps" Wife Of Native Missionary

A native missionary in Guinea was without his wife Thursday, April 20, after she was kidnapped by her family, in a case that has come to symbolize tensions between minority Christians and members of other traditional religious groups in the West African nation.

New Tribes Mission (NTM) told BosNewsLife that the troubles began after native missionary Masalu decided to become a Christian and help NTM's representative Kirk Rogers "learn the Landuma language to translate the Bible" for Landumas, the local ethnic group here.

"I know you are telling the truth, but I'm afraid of the truth and all the trouble it will cause me," Masalu said in a testimony about his conversion, obtained by BosNewsLife

ANGRY FAMILY

After news of his conversion spread across the village, "the family of his wife, Fatumata, came to take her back because he had left the traditional religion," NTM said. "Fatumata remains with her family, even though she wants to return to her husband," the group added.

He also received an angry letter from the uncle of his first wife, Kadi, who he married before he became an evangelical Christian, missionaries said. Her uncle, who is the head of the local military police, demanded to send Kadi back to her family.

"Because he continues in the Christian faith and has become a leader, the uncle feels he has betrayed the traditional religion. If he does not send Kadi to her family, the uncle has threatened to come get her himself," said NTM.

MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES

Despite the setback Masalu continues his missionary activities for NTM and a local church. "Masalu continued to grow in the Lord and to serve Him faithfully. He and a fellow believer, Salu, were chosen to serve the Lord's Supper. Then the Landuma Church commissioned him to serve as their first missionary," the organization explained.

He is also teaching evangelistic Bible lessons to a group of Landumas in his village "and helping disciple the believers," NTM said.

Christians comprise just 8 percent of the mainly Muslim population of nearly 10 million in Guinea while about 7 percent holds indigenous beliefs, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

FAITH IMPORTANT

Religion is playing an important role in everyday decisions of locals, at a time when the region is still reeling from major upheavals. Guinea has had only two presidents since gaining its independence from France in 1958.

Lansana Conte came to power in 1984 when the military seized the government after the death of the first president, Sekou Toure. He held and won democratic elections only nearly a decade and was reelected in 2003.

Unrest in nearby Sierra Leone and Liberia has spilled over into Guinea on several occasions over the past decade, threatening stability and creating humanitarian emergencies, analysts say. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Guinea).

Anti-Missionary "Witch-Hunt" Haunts City

Muslim woman attacked for ‘Christianizing,’ while followers of Jesus live in ‘disgrace.’

Fanned by local media and a Muslim mufti, an anti-missionary witch-hunt targeting Christians in Turkey’s eastern city of Bingol left a Muslim woman beaten in her tailor shop last month while police allowed her attacker to walk free.

Guler Morsumbul has not yet found a lawyer willing to represent her in court next Monday (April 24) against the man who attacked her six weeks ago, accusing her of “Christianizing” his daughter.

On the morning of March 8, Mehmet Caf entered the Muslim woman’s tailor shop in Bingol’s city center, vandalized the premises and beat Morsumbul’s face black and blue.

In front of police and Morsumbul’s neighbors, Caf claimed that Morsumbul had been trying to “Christianize” his 13-year-old daughter, Bingol’s local Kent Haber newspaper reported on March 9.

“We’re Being Christianized,” shouted the paper’s banner headline. Providing only Caf’s initials, the article quoted his claims that Morsumbul and other “missionaries” had forced his daughter and 100 other students to attend a secret mass.

Ismet Gunyel, a relative of Morsumbul and one of only four known Christians in the city, confirmed reports that Caf had not been arrested. But he refuted Kent Haber’s claims that Morsumbul and her husband did not want to open a case against Caf.

Another relative of Morsumbul, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the woman’s family wished to prosecute Caf. “She is the complainant in the case,” the relative said. “They should have arrested Caf, but they didn’t and he’s still free.”

Gunyel told Compass that it took Morsumbul, 49, three days to find a doctor who was willing to examine her and issue a medical report. Finding a lawyer has been even more difficult.

As one local source commented, area lawyers have said in essence, “I don’t want to be an advocate for these missionaries.”

Climate of Fear

Gunyel told Compass that many others have suffered from rising anti-missionary sentiment in Bingol since reports of missionary activity first appeared in a national newspaper three years ago.

“Whoever has a grudge against someone else, whoever wants to destroy someone’s business, simply calls the other person a Christian,” said the 45-year-old who converted to Christianity over 10 years ago.

According to Gunyel, Caf attacked Morsumbul as part of a revenge campaign by one of Caf’s relatives, a former business partner – and now competitor – of Morsumbul’s husband.

After the two business associates reportedly parted ways in 2004, Caf’s family began to spread rumors that the Morsumbuls were building a church and converting Muslims.

Overall, Gunyel said the main responsibility for the growing fear of missionaries in the city lay with Bingol’s mufti, Yalcin Topcu. As the state-appointed Muslim authority for the province, the mufti had organized an anti-missionary conference in 2004.

Yet in an interview with Compass, Topcu said anti-missionary fears in Bingol were so strong that he himself was a potential victim.

When Morsumbul’s husband came to see him after she was attacked, the mufti said, “I told him, ‘If today I support you and explain everything, tomorrow they’re going to come after me and say I was the one doing Christian propaganda.’ I don’t feel safe.”

‘Complete Disgrace’

Talk of suspected Christian proselytizing first emerged in May 2003, when Gunyel helped Turkish Christians from the neighboring city of Diyarbakir distribute tents in the wake of an earthquake.

A May 22 article in national daily Vakit claimed Gunyel was helping missionaries “profit from the suffering of the earthquake victims” by distributing Bibles in relief packages.

Gunyel said that life with his wife and two sons (also Christians) remained relatively peaceful until January 2004, when they happened to appear on national television attending a church service.

During the evening news, Kanal 7 TV station ran a 10-minute clip on the Turkish Protestant Church in Diyarbakir, where Gunyel and his family happened to be visiting. Gunyel’s wife drew the attention of both television cameras and commentators because her head was covered in the typical Islamic style.

“After that, everyone in Bingol started to ask questions,” Gunyel told Compass. Neighbors and relatives reacted by cutting all ties with the family. “Our business relations terminated. Our lives were a complete disgrace.”

Mufti Topcu said that to help “ease everyone’s anxiety,” his office organized a week-long conference in April 2004 on the danger of missionary activities in Bingol.

“Don’t give in to the illusion that our surroundings are secure,” the conference’s keynote speaker, Mehmet Keskin from the Ankara Religious Affairs Directorate, was quoted by local Bingol newspaper as saying.

Bingol population 68,876
According to the April 8, 2004 article, Keskin claimed there had been reports that 50 to 60 people in Bingol had converted to Christianity and were trying to take over Turkish soil.

Gunyel said that, far from calming fears, the conference only made the situation worse. “At that time we were always afraid,” the Christian said. “They were talking about missionaries, but in a qualified way they were talking about us, because there are no other Christians in Bingol.”

Gunyel told Compass that his relatives were constantly threatened with violence if Gunyel did not publicly renounce Christianity or leave the city. Soon after the conference, a group of women barged into a store belonging to one of his relatives, thinking that it belonged to Gunyel. Store employees quickly told the women that they had come to the wrong place; when the women asked them for directions to Gunyel’s clothing shop, they claimed ignorance.

“Those were terrible days. We kept thinking, ‘Now they’re going to attack us,’” Gunyel said. “Within seven months of the conference I suffered a terrible heart attack.”

The November 15, 2004 heart attack left the Christian dependent on medication to control erratic blood pressure.

“All of this is happening because of the mufti,” a relative of Gunyel who requested anonymity told Compass. “He really wants to drive Gunyel out of this city.”

Rights Advocate Deported

Gunyel also took issue with Bingol’s governor and security directorate for remaining silent on the issue.

Bingol Gov. Vehbi Avuc repeatedly declined to talk with Compass by telephone, and his personal secretary said he had no knowledge of the situation.

Mufti Topcu acknowledged that anti-missionary fears had been misused for personal advantage but also said that missionaries with ulterior political motives were a problem in Bingol. “In my personal opinion, missionary activities are political – they aren’t actually a service to religion,” the mufti commented.

With the resurgence of Kurdish separatist attacks throughout Turkey in the past year, Bingol’s ethnic Kurdish majority has made city officials especially sensitive to perceived political meddling.

Last week Turkey deported Human Rights Watch researcher Jonathan Sugden, who was investigating human rights abuses in Bingol.

The British national told Compass yesterday that he had been officially deported on April 13 for carrying out research on a tourist visa. Thus he refuted claims by Turkish media that he had been “making inflammatory speeches to villagers.”

Gunyel admitted he was worried that “anti-missionary” violence will continue if Caf is not duly punished. He said that, as Christians, his own family is in danger now because anyone can “go to Bingol, beat up someone and not get arrested because the person they beat up is [labeled] a Christian.”

YMCA warned to vacate Hamas town
After 6 years of operation, Christian organization being booted by terror group

JERUSALEM -- The leadership of a West Bank Palestinian city now controlled by Hamas has warned a local Young Men's Christian Association to close its offices and leave town or face likely Muslim violence, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The move highlighted long-standing fears Hamas would use its win in last January's Palestinian parliamentary elections to impose an anti-Christian, anti-Jewish hard-line Islamist regime in the West Bank and Gaza.

"The face of the new Hamas government is coming to the forefront now that they finally took over and have a lot more confidence. They want to create a territory free of Christians and Jews," said a Christian leader associated with the YMCA in Qalqiliya, a West Bank town under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

Yesterday, major Muslim organizations in Qalqiliya in conjunction with local mosques, the city's Mufti and municipal leaders, sent a letter to the interior minister of the Hamas-led PA accusing the YMCA of missionary activities and demanding the Palestinian government immediately shut down the Christian offices.

The YMCA has operated in Qalqiliya since 2000.

The petition, obtained by WND, states, "We the preachers of the mosques and representatives of major families in Qalqiliya ask you to close the offices of the YMCA because the population of Qalqiliya doesn't need such offices, especially since there are not many Christians in our city."

It warned, "The act of these institutions of the YMCA, including attempting to convert Muslims in our city, will bring violence and tension."

Already this past weekend several Molotov cocktails were thrown at Qalqiliya's YMCA.

Local political sources said the attacks followed Friday sermons in dozens of Qalqiliya mosques in which preachers called upon the community to revolt against the YMCA.

"There was a coordination among the mosques to speak about the YMCA Friday night. One major imam, for example, warned if the YMCA doesn't close down it will lead to 'acts that no one would like to see,'" said one political source.

Joseph Medi, the YMCA manager in Qalqiliya, told WND his operation has never been involved with missionary activity.

"It's not what we're about. There is no missionary activity here whatsoever. The YMCA is in the city to serve the population with financial help, sporting activities and general educational programs," said Medi.

Medi pointed out many employees at his branch of the YMCA are Muslim. He said the YMCA was instrumental in establishing a number of community programs, including contributing to the financing of the Al Ahli Club, a mostly Muslim local soccer organization that has competed in national games.

Medi said Qalqiliya's YMCA received a final notification from local leaders warning the association to close its offices before "drastic measures" were taken. He said no specific measures were specified.

Qalqiliya is located at the West Bank's point of closest proximity to the Mediterranean Sea. There are reported only about 50-100 Christians in a population of about 28,300. The city's mayor, Sheikh Waji Qawwas, is a Hamas member just released from Israeli prison yesterday.

Hamas swept all 15 municipal offices in local elections in Qalqiliya in December. The terror group went on to win the vast majority of Palestinian parliamentary seats in January and officially took over the Palestinian Authority earlier this month.

One Christian leader, an aide to Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Michel Sabah who asked his name be withheld out of fear of Muslim retaliation, called the threats against Qalqiliya's YMCA part of a general trend of Christian persecution in Palestinian areas.

"It's been happening all over the West Bank and Gaza," said the aide.

There have been rampant reports of abuses and persecution in several West Bank towns taken over by the PA.

Anti-Christian riots have been reported in Ramallah, Nazareth and surrounding villages as well as in towns in Gaza.

In Bethlehem, local Christians have long complained of anti-Christian violence. The city's Christian population, once 90 percent, declined drastically since the PA took control in December 1995. Christians now make up less than 25 percent of Bethlehem, according to Israeli surveys.

The demands for the YMCA to close are also the latest in a series of reports indicating Hamas may be seeking to impose Taliban-like Islamic rule.

Israeli officials say Hamas in the Gaza Strip has established hard-line Islamic courts and created the Hamas Anti-Corruption Group, which is described as a kind of "morality police" operating within Hamas' organization. Hamas has denied the existence of the anti-corruption group, but it recently carried out a high-profile "honor killing" widely covered by the Palestinian media.

A Hamas-run council in the West Bank came under international criticism last year when it barred an open-air music and dance festival, declaring it was against Islam.

In response to the uproar, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told WND during an exclusive interview: "I hardly understand the point of view of the West concerning these issues. The West brought all this freedom to its people but it is that freedom that has brought about the death of morality in the West. It's what led to phenomena like homosexuality, homelessness and AIDS."

Asked if Hamas will impose hard-line Islamic law on the Palestinians, al-Zahar responded, "The Palestinian people are Muslim people, and we do not need to impose anything on our people because they are already committed to their faith and religion. People are free to choose their way of life, their way of dress and behavior."

Al-Zahar said his terror group, which demands strict dress codes for females, respects women's rights.

"It is wrong to think that in our Islamic society there is a lack of rights for women. Women enjoy their rights. What we have, unlike the West, is that young women cannot be with men and have relations outside marriage. Sometimes with tens of men. This causes the destruction of the family institution and the fact that many kids come to the world without knowing who are their fathers or who are their mothers. This is not a modern and progressed society," al-Zahar explained.

The terror chieftain told WND the West can learn from his group's Islamic values.

"Here I refer to what was said in the early '90s by Britain's Prince Charles at Oxford University. He spoke about Islam and its important role in morality and culture. He said the West must learn from Islam how to bring up children properly and to teach them the right values."

U.S.-China summit ignores arrests of Christians
Chinese police continue to raid meetings, detain house-church pastors

Unmentioned during Chinese President Hu Jintao's White House visit with President Bush were an abundance of cases of continued repression of Christian house churches and leaders by Chinese police.

Chinese police recently conducted two major raids ahead of the summit Thursday.

More than 160 church leaders recently have been arrested, according to U.S.-based Voice of the Martyrs.

Also, the group's sources have confirmed that between February and December last year, Chinese authorities arrested over 1,300 Christians, including 11 missionaries from the U.S. and six from other nations.

Bush spoke in general terms with Hu about the subjects of freedom of religion and assembly, said Dennis Wilder, the acting National Security Council senior director.

But there was no specific mention of individual cases, he said, only discussion that "China has some way to go on this area, that a modern society that has moved as far as the Chinese have economically must begin to provide these kinds of freedom to their people."

VOM contacts report 80 Chinese house-church leaders, along with five American and two Taiwanese evangelical church leaders, were arrested March 23 at 9:30 a.m. by more than 120 police officers in the suburbs of Kunming City, Yunnan province.

The raid was coordinated by Yunnan province's director of the Public Security Bureau, who utilized officers from the religious affairs bureau, national security, military police, provincial public security and foreign affairs office, VOM said.

The officers converged on the conference building in 10 patrol cars and two buses.

The 87 taken into custody were after interrogators harassed them for five hours and accused the Americans and Taiwanese of being foreign religious infiltrators.

Many of the Chinese pastors released are being closely monitored by Chinese security agents, and some were followed until they returned to their home provinces, VOM said.

The arrested pastors came from 20 provinces and represent 25 Chinese minority groups.

VOM co-workers at China Aid Association said that after storming the meeting, officers refused to show their identification and devoured the lunch intended for the pastors.

Just 10 days earlier, March 13, about 100 Public Security Bureau officers raided a house-church leadership meeting in Wenxian County of central China's Henan province, leading to the arrest and torture of 80 pastors, according to VOM.

Chinese authorities accused members of the world-renowned evangelical Henan Fangcheng Mother Church of conducting an "illegal evil cult gathering" before they were searched and stripped of their cash.

Pastors said after their released that all those taken into custody were beaten brutally with electric shock batons and interrogated at police stations during a 15-to-30-day detention.

A disabled 51-year-old pastor, Li Gongshe, was among the tortured. Li repeatedly was beaten by officer Wang while the police chief and political director watched, even after showing them his handicap certificate.

Li was taken to a hospital and treated for a broken rib, according to China Aid.

The group also said a 21-year-old Christian, Shan Ailing, was forced to strip naked, and Li Hongmin, a 15-year-old Christian girl from Henan province's Nanle County, also endured torture and abuse before her release.

Before the China-U.S. summit, China Aid President Bob Fu urged President Bush to discuss the specific cases with Chinese President Hu.

"The first freedom – the freedom of religion – should not be expended freely with free trade," Fu said.

United Coptic Voice: First Amendment and Civil Liberties Under Attack

A coalition of mostly Christian organizations is joining United Coptic Voice (UCV) in a rally to bring attention to Egypt’s sanctioning of murder, mayhem, persecution and prosecution of Christians in the name of Islam.

Knife-wielding assailants attacked worshippers at three Coptic churches in Alexandria during Mass on Friday, April 14, killing one person and wounding more than a dozen. The Associated Press quoted the Egyptian Interior Ministry as saying, "A citizen attacked three worshippers inside the Mar-Girgis Church with a knife and then fled and went into the Saints Church, where he attacked three other worshippers and again fled."

The Egyptian government described the man as suffering from "psychological disturbances." Long time Middle East Christians supporter and Pat Buchanan‘s VP running mate (Election 2000) observes, "It seems the Muslims’ insanity targets only Christians and their Churches. This vicious episode adds to the series of horrendous crimes Muslims in Egypt commit against the Copts from attacking their churches, shedding their blood, raping their women and daughters and forcibly converting them to Islam."

Paul Marshall, a Senior Fellow with Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom outlines 18 instances of escalating violence against and oppression of Coptic Christians in Egypt from August 19,2003 to February 20, 2006 (will be available to press at rally).

UCV joins with the International Christian Union (ICU) in calling for an end to the escalating violence against Christians in Egypt. Coptic Christians in Egypt who number approximately 15-20 million are denied human rights as to the practice of their religion and their security inside their own professions and occupations.

UCV, and coalition members, will rally Monday, April 24, Noon to 4:00 PM in front of the Federal building, 11000 Wilshire Bl, Los Angeles, CA 90024, asking the USA government to intervene, as Egypt is the second largest recipient of USA aid.

U.S. panel: China among worst abusers of religious
In wake of Hu visit, Bush must decide which countries require response

Two weeks after Chinese President Hu Jintao was welcomed to the U.S., China joined a list of 11 countries recommended to the Bush administration as deserving of a diplomatic response for engaging in or tolerating systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom.

Along with China, the Congress-established U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Burma, Eritrea, Sudan, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

The law that created the USCIRF in 1998 requires the president to name the worst violators of religious freedom and take specific policy actions, ranging in severity from a quiet demarche to economic sanctions.

Only Eritrea, however, has been the recipient of presidential action specifically tied to the law. Last year the African nation – named with Saudi Arabia and Vietnam – was denied any trade from the U.S. of defense articles and services covered by the Arms Control Export Act, with some items exempted.

After sending a delegation to China last August, the commission found religious-freedom conditions in the communist country to be poor.

The USCIRF said in its 2006 report released today that "every religious community in China is subject to serious restrictions, state control, and repression."

The most severe abuses are directed against Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Roman Catholics, house church and unregistered Protestants and spiritual groups such as the Falun Gong, the report said.

The abuses include "imprisonment, torture and other forms of ill treatment."

During Hu's speech on the South Lawn of the White House April 20, a woman protesting the government's abuse of the Falun Gong managed to get into the press area and shout, "President Hu, your days are numbered."

The commission noted that while the Chinese government issued a new Ordinance on Religion in March 2005, "its provisions, in fact, restrict rather than protect religious freedom, offering party leaders more extensive control over all religious groups and their activities."

"Prominent religious leaders and others continue to be confined, imprisoned, tortured, 'disappeared' and subjected to other forms of ill treatment on account of their religion or belief," the commission report said.

The Chinese government also is disregarding its international obligation to protect refugees from North Korea from facing persecution on their return, the panel charges.

Meanwhile, Nina Shea, a member of the commission, called on the U.S. government to take action against Saudi Arabia, according to the Voice of America.

"Since religious freedom conditions in Saudi Arabia have not substantially improved in the last year, the U.S. government must not hesitate in taking aggressive action to demonstrate that it will not disregard the persistent and egregious religious freedom violations committed by the Saudi government," said Shea, who directs the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House in Washington.

Shea pointed out a waiver period Washington initially granted to Riyadh, allowing the two nations to discuss the issue, has expired.

The commission also added Afghanistan and Iraq to its "watch list" of countries for which it has concerns about the future of religious freedom.

Regarding Afghanistan, the commission pointed to "flaws in the country's new constitution," said commissioner Preeta Bansal, according to the VOA.

"The constitution does not contain clear protections for the right of freedom of religion or belief for individual Afghan citizens," she said.

As an example, Bansal pointed to the recent high-profile case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan citizen threatened with the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

On Iraq, commissioner Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention described a "grave escalation" of sectarian violence.

As the U.S. government assists in Iraq's political reconstruction, it a "special obligation" to help strengthen and ensure protection of Iraqi rights, he said.

Town rejects National Day of Prayer banner
Reversed itself after accepting fee, allowing group to buy sign
Posted: May 11, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Despite initial acceptance, a Michigan town rejected a street banner promoting the annual National Day of Prayer.

An employee of the city of Ludington, Mich., took a $100 fee from the local National Day of Prayer organizers, but only a few days before the May 4 commemoration, the city refused to hang the banner, reported the Ludington Daily News.

The group paid $350 for the sign, which was made after getting the city's OK.

In the wake of the controversy, Ludington has enacted a new policy making it clear any banner must specify an event rather than state a cause.

The National Day of Prayer banner read "National Day of Prayer, first Thursday in May."

City councilors said the sign would have been allowed if it had included the word "rally" or something similar, or had more detail about where and when events would be held.

The Mason County National Day of Prayer organizers, represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, argued the city "has created a limited public forum by allowing the display of banners of private persons and organizations for the purpose of advertising local events of benefit to the community."

City Attorney Roger Anderson disagreed, saying if it's a public forum, "that'll be the end to banners."

The city, Anderson said, won't discriminate which organizations can place signs, but instead set a policy that allows groups to promote events of general interest to the community.

Local NDP representative Melissa Thompson said the city should have delayed its decision and read the ACLJ's opinion.

She pointed out the group had the $350 banner made only after the city accepted it and cashed the fee check.

The banner had no space for additional wording, Thompson insisted.

"It's frustrating," she said.

The NDP organizers also were rejected in 2003 when the city attorney sent a written denial in April. The group took no action because they felt there was not enough time before the first Thursday in May.

The group tried again this year, making the request in early February. But the rejection didn't come until April 26.

The new policy, approved by a 5-4 city council vote, states, "It is not the intent of the city to create a forum or location for public speech. Thus, banners that are primarily for the purpose of advocating particular political, religious or other points of view, candidate for office, or advertising a product or service are not permitted.

Bible ban uproar
By KELVIN HEALEY and IAN HABERFIELD
14may06

BIBLES have been banished from Victorian hospital bedsides and some schools because they may offend non-Christians.

Almost all Melbourne's major hospitals have withdrawn the Holy Book from rooms and several schools have refused to allow their students to be given free Bibles.

The Gideons International Australia, which distributes Bibles free to hospitals, schools and motels, blames political correctness.

"The reason most often given is that 'We are a multicultural organisation and we don't want to offend anyone'," Gideons' executive director Trevor Monson said.

"It is a terrible shame because we get lots of letters from people who say having a Bible by their hospital bed has been a great comfort to them during their darkened days."

The Catholic Church condemned the ban and labelled arguments that Bibles could offend non-Christians as "silly".

"To say that other faiths might be offended if a Bible is there is nonsense," Archdiocese of Melbourne auxiliary bishop Christopher Prowse said.

Hospitals including the Royal Melbourne, Royal Children's, Austin, The Alfred, Monash Medical Centre, Box Hill, Maroondah, Dandenong and Casey have all removed Bibles. Royal Melbourne spokesman Rod Jackson-Smith denied a ban, but said: "We don't (have Bibles in each room) any more.

"Because we have so many people from different religious backgrounds it is considered inappropriate.

"It is also an infection control measure."

The Gideons have offered to supply hospitals with hard cover Bibles that could be wiped to reduce infection fears.

At most hospitals Bibles are only available in a chapel or "multi-faith" room. The Austin has a copy in each ward.

Only St Vincent's, a Catholic hospital, confirmed it had New Testaments at every bedside.

Gideons also revealed several schools had refused free New Testaments for secondary students.

Bible ban uproar (http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19124794%255E2862,00.html)

Rescued – the Pakistan children seized by Islamist slave traders
Marie Colvin, Muridke
Hoax saves boys held for months

THE slave traders came for 10-year-old Akash Aziz as he played cops and robbers in his dusty village in eastern Punjab.

Akash, still in the maroon V-neck sweater and tie that he had worn to school that day, was a “robber”. But as he crouched behind a wall, waiting for the schoolfriend designated as the “cop” to find him, a large man with a turban and a beard grabbed him from behind and clamped a cloth over his nose and mouth before he could cry for help.

He recalls a strange smell and a choking sensation. “Then I fainted,” said Akash, a delicate little child from a loving family that takes pride in his enthusiasm for English lessons at school.

Akash woke up in a dark room with a bare brick floor and no windows. The heat was suffocating. As he languished there over the next month, 19 other panic-stricken boys were thrown into the room with him.

The children, all Christians, had fallen into the hands of Gul Khan, a wealthy Islamic militant and leading member of Jamaat-ud Daawa (JUD), a group linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Khan lives near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, but when in the Punjab he stays at the JUD’s headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore, where young men can be seen practising martial arts with batons on rolling green lawns patrolled by guards with Kalashnikovs. Osama Bin Laden funded the centre in the late 1990s.

The JUD, which claims to help the poor, says that it has created a “pure Islamic environment” at Muridke that is superior to western “depravity”. Khan’s activities explode that myth. He planned to sell his young captives to the highest bidder, whether into domestic servitude or the sex trade. The boys knew only that they were for sale.

This is the story of the misery that Akash and his friends, aged six to 12, endured in captivity; of their rescue by Christian missionaries who bought their freedom and tried to expose the kidnappers; and of the children’s moving reunions with their loved ones who had believed they were dead.

Last week I had the privilege of taking six of the boys home to their families, including Akash. The astonishment of mothers and fathers who had given up hope and the fervent, tearful embraces made these some of the most intensely emotional scenes I have witnessed.

That joy was a long time coming. On the first day after his abduction, Akash was left in no doubt about the brutality of the regime he would endure.

“I drank from a glass of water and one of the kidnappers pushed me so hard I fell on the glass and it broke in my hands,” he said. His slender fingers still bear the scars. No more glass for him, he was told: he was fit to drink only from a tin cup.

The boys were ordered not to talk, pray or play. Five of them were playing a Pakistani equivalent of scissors, paper, stone one day when the guards burst in and beat them savagely on their backs and heads. On another occasion Akash was repeatedly struck by guards yelling “What is in your house?” “I kept telling them, ‘We have nothing’,” he said anxiously. “I was so afraid they would go back and rob my father and mother.” It is painful to imagine blows raining down on the ribs of so slight a figure.

The guards mostly sat outside playing cards, shaded from the 116F heat by a tree. But the boys were allowed out of their room only to use a filthy hole-in-the-ground lavatory. All they could see were high walls around the two-room building that was their prison. The other room was always locked.

The children were fed once a day on chapatis and dhal, but never enough. Akash slept huddled against the others on the floor and woke each morning a little more resigned to his fate.

“We just sat around the walls thinking,” Akash said. “We were remembering our homes and our mothers and fathers and hoping someone would rescue us. But nobody came.”

I first saw Akash in a photograph among those of 20 boys who were being touted for sale in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan on the Afghanistan border renowned as a smugglers’ paradise and home to fugitives of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. He was just another black market commodity along with guns, grenades and hashish.

Unbeknown to Akash, a Pakistani Christian missionary and an American evangelist who runs a tiny charity called Help Pakistani Children had seen the boys’ photographs and taken up their cause. Neither man is willing to be identified today for fear of the consequences.

An elaborate sting was conceived. The Pakistani missionary would pose as a Lahore businessman named Amir seeking boys to use as beggars who would give their cash to him.

The two men would also collect evidence that could be used in any police action against the kidnappers. “We knew if we just purchased the boys, the slavers would just restock. We would be fuelling the slave trade,” said the American evangelist, who asked to be referred to as “Brother David”.

They had no idea how hazardous their enterprise was until Amir used some black market contacts to engineer a meeting with Khan and discovered his links to the JUD. “We realised we were out of our depth,” Brother David said ruefully. But they persevered — and prayed a good deal.

Amir played his part well. Within a week he had bought three of the boys for $5,000 (£2,650) and put down a $2,500 deposit on the 17 others, including Akash.

The first three were handed over on a Quetta street in April and returned to their families. But Khan wanted $28,500 for the lot. He gave Amir two months to come up with the money, saying he did not mind if the deadline was missed: he could earn more if he sold them for their organs, he claimed.

Brother David went home to America to raise funds. Amir travelled again and again to Quetta, taking Khan to lunch as his bodyguards lounged outside in pickup trucks, their Kalashnikovs at the ready. He enlisted police officers who insisted that the eventual transaction be recorded with a secret camera so that the evidence against Khan would be irrefutable.

Twelve days ago Amir received a call from Khan summoning him to a meeting at a crossroads on a dirt road near the JUD’s Muridke camp.

There was no cover here, just newly harvested wheatfields and water buffalo wallowing in a pond. Six policemen dressed as labourers with the intention of alerting colleagues in cars concealed a mile away to arrest Khan once the cash had been exchanged for the children.

Amir and a young assistant waited for an hour at the crossroads before one of Khan’s men walked up and directed him to another location. The police had been wrong-footed.

Amir finally found his quarry under a large, shady tree where he was sitting on a rope bed while an acolyte massaged his shoulders. “You have the money?” Khan asked.

When Amir handed him the $28,500 cash in a black knapsack, he examined it briskly. Then, without explanation, he broke his promise to hand over the boys there and then.

“I will check the dollars are real first,” he said. “If your dollars are good, you will get the children.”

A second blow followed. Khan announced that he was going to take Amir’s assistantas hostage. If the money was real, he said, the children would be delivered in two hours. If it was counterfeit, the hostage would not be seen again.

It was a heart-stopping moment, not least because the young man posing as Amir’s bag carrier had hidden the secret camera under his shirt. Amir motioned him to the back of his car as if to retrieve something from the boot, and ripped the camera from his body.

The hostage was blindfolded and driven to a building where he was held alone in a room. “I was so praying that your money was good,” he later told Amir.

cont'd

Another anxious wait ensued. The police were off the scene and the two hours passed with no word from the kidnappers. Nor was there any news the next day.

Finally, a call came through from Amir’s assistant in the dead of night. He had just been dropped off by the side of a road 15 minutes’ drive from JUD headquarters with the remaining 17 boys. They were afraid but alive, he declared. They were being taken to a shack nearby. I drove there immediately and found Akash asleep on a plastic mat surrounded by his 16 friends.

Their thin limbs were sprawled and their bodies curled against each other for comfort. One boy gripped the sleeve of another as he slept. They stank of urine.

As the children awoke, the bewilderment showed in their eyes. The first task of the missionaries was to reassure them but few seemed to believe Brother David when he said: “We will protect you. We will take you home to your mothers and fathers. The bad men who took you are gone.” Not one boy smiled. It had been too long since they had dared to hope.

Yet after a cold wash under an outdoor tap and a change into fresh clothes, preparations began for the the first of the long car journeys back to their homes in remote Punjab villages. As the boys gradually warmed to their liberators, they talked a little about their ordeal.

Asif Anjed, 8, one of the smallest, had the biggest personality. But his concept of time was so childish that when I asked him how long it had been since he had seen his parents, he thought hard for a moment and said: “Six or seven years.” It had been five months.

Asif had retained a sense of outrage from the moment of his abduction. “They put me in a bag!” he kept saying indignantly. He picked out a bright orange T-shirt because he liked its bear logo, the symbol of a football team in Chicago.

Like Akash, Asif said he had lost consciousness when a man with a beard and turban put a rag over his mouth. He became indignant again when I asked whether he had tried to escape. “The men told us if we ran out of the door they would cut our throats,” he said.

Asif seemed to have few memories of home. “My friend was Bilal,” he said. He grew quiet when he realised he had forgotten what his mother looked like.

As if exhausted by the effort of trying to remember, he fell asleep across my lap during the 15-hour drive to his home in the desert of southern Punjab on the Indian border. As we drew near, the garrulous Asif looked solemn, perhaps not knowing quite what to expect. At a place where fertile green fields gave way to white desert sands, he pointed to his house at the end of a path across a stretch of wasteland.

His father, Amjed, must have seen him getting out of the car. He came running out of the house, barely able to believe that the boy walking hesitantly towards him in plastic sandals was his son. Then he flung out his arms, scooped up Asif and squeezed him against his chest.

Asif’s mother, Gazzala, came bustling down the path as fast as she could in her flowered salwar kameez, dragging his younger sister, Neha, by the hand.

She collapsed on her knees in front of Asif, her only other child, weeping and clutching him to her, the long months of anguish etched into the lines on her face.

Like any other boy of his age, Asif seemed embarrassed by these extreme displays of emotion, glowering as his mother clung to him for longer than he would have liked.

Both parents remembered every detail of the day their boy had failed to return home from school. Asif’s father manages a small chicken farm and usually collects him on a bicycle for the 3km ride. He still cannot forgive himself for staying home to work that day.

When Asif did not appear his father started a frantic search, stopping strangers on his bicycle to ask, “Have you seen my little boy?” In common with other families, Asif’s did not go to the police. “The police will only take interest if they are paid and we have nothing,” Amjed said.

“We thought someone had killed him,” his mother added, the tears streaming down her cheeks. “I couldn’t stop imagining that maybe they had broken his arms and legs.”

As the reality sank in, both parents began to smile. They looked at Asif in shock as he repeated his customary line — “they put me in a bag” — but were soon planning a family feast to celebrate. “It’s a miracle!” Amjed said.

Khan would also be shocked if he knew that his captives had not been sold into slavery. Their rescuers fear retribution and are also worried because the exposure of Khan has implications for the way religious extremist groups are treated in Pakistan. Even the police said the reach of such groups was too long for them to be dealt with in a straightforward way.

Why should it be so difficult to prosecute slave traders who cloak themselves in the garb of pious Muslims? For one thing, the JUD offers free medical care and education and won hearts and minds by providing blankets, tents and food after last year’s Kashmir earthquake. Few Pakistanis care to know how closely it is associated with Lashkar-i-Toiba, a group proscribed by Pakistan and Britain as a terrorist organisation that participated in an Al-Qaeda attempt to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, in 2003.

There can be no denying Khan’s connections with the JUD. After he collected his $28,500, he was seen driving directly into its headquarters.

Brother David and Amir are ready to present their dossier of evidence, including the secret tape of Khan taking the money for the boys.

In almost any other country, an investigation into Khan and his work for the JUD would be automatic. It is not so simple in Pakistan. Musharraf has announced numerous crackdowns on the extremist religious militants but the extremists continue to gather strength.

The stories of these boys cry out for action. “The slavers must be stopped and brought to justice,” Brother David said. “I pray that a public outcry will arise in Pakistan and around the world that will put an end to their vile business.”

Akash, the first boy to be returned to his family, constitutes the strongest possible case for an end to child trafficking.

For the first few hours of the journey to his village, Akash sat on the edge of the back seat next to me. He rested his hands on the front seats, gazing out through the windscreen, answering any question with a monosyllable and flexing his fingers over and over again.

He recalled that his best friend was called Rashed — they played cricket together — but he could not remember the name of his school.

He shook as we approached his village. I thought he would collapse. Then came a quiet, uplifting moment that brought tears to my eyes.

The driver stopped by a canal to ask directions. Taking the initiative for the first time, Akash tentatively raised his arm, pointing down a narrow dirt road running with sewage.

He had not even reached the door of his house before his grandmother, wrapped in a colourful shawl, engulfed him in an embrace in the dirt alley outside, her face contorted with delight.

Akash’s mother was so strangely impassive that it made me angry until I realised she was too shocked to take in the fact that the son she had thought was dead was snuggling up to her. Finally, she hugged him, kissing him over and over again on the top of his head. “We were hopeless,” she said. “His father searched and searched. We prayed. But we thought he was gone.”

Akash had another surprise waiting for him at home: a two-month-old brother he had never seen.

Home at last, resting against his mother, he smiled broadly for the first time and, just a few hours after getting into a car for the first time, declared his ambition to become a pilot.

Al-Qaida group funded
by Christian-slave trade
Pakistani, American missionaries
film purchase of 20 boys in sting

Two Christian men – one an American evangelist and the other a Pakistani missionary – have exposed a senior member of an al-Qaida-linked group behind a trade in Christian children by going undercover and secretly filming their purchase of 20 boys, age six to 12.

Gul Khan, a wealthy militant and senior member of Jamaat-ud Daawa, an Islamic organization declared by the U.S. State Department to be a front for another banned terrorist group banned in Pakistan for joining with al-Qaida in 2003 in an attempted assassination of President Pervez Musharraf, was filmed by a hidden camera accepting $28,500 from a Pakistani missionary posing as a businessman wanting to purchase boys to work for him as street beggars.

The two Christian men hatched their elaborate sting after seeing pictures of the abducted boys, taken from Christian villages in the Punjab, the London Times reported. During the months the two developed their plan, the American evangelist, who runs a small charity called Help Pakistani Children returned to the U.S. to raise funds. He asked to be identified only as "Brother Dave," His Pakistani counterpart took on the identity of a businessman named "Amir."

"We knew if we just purchased the boys, the slavers would just restock. We would be fuelling the slave trade," said Brother David.

Neither man knew when Amir made contacts in the black market to set up a meeting with the boys' abductors, the trail would lead to Khan or the JUD.

"We realized we were out of our depth," Brother David said. But they didn't give up – and they prayed.

Within a week, Amir had purchased three of the boys for $5,000 and paid a $2,500 deposit for the remaining 17. Amir was given two months to raise $28,500 to complete the purchase. Khan, he said, told him it would not be a problem if the deadline was missed – he could make more money by selling them for their organs.

While Brother David was in the U.S. raising the needed funds, Amir continued to socialize with Khan who always had a retinue of Kalashnikov-toting bodyguards. He also began to work with the police in hopes they would arrest Khan, but the authorities insisted that any transaction be secretly recorded for evidence.

Almost two weeks ago, Amir was summoned to meet Khan to complete the deal. Although police, disguised as laborers, were stationed close to the outdoor meeting site, Khan's agents took Amir and his assistant to a second location for the exchange.

To Amir's dismay, Khan took the bag of cash – and the assistant as a hostage – saying he would release the children and the assistant once he determined the currency was real. Khan was filmed driving from the meeting with a bag full of money to the JUD headquarters at Muridke, near Lahore.

In the late '90s, Osama bin Laden funded the building of JUD's headquarters. The group's assets were frozen last month after the U.S. Treasury Department declared the group a terrorist organization.

"I was so praying that your money was good," Amir's assistant told him later.

After several hours, the hostage and 17 boys were freed. They have been returned to their parents, many of whom had given up hope of ever seeing their sons.

The two Christian men are prepared to present their evidence and have demanded the prosecution of Khan and an investigation of JUD, but the police told them the reach of Pakistan's Islamic groups is too long for them to be dealt with directly. They continue to flourish, despite repeated "crackdowns" on extremists by the Pakistan government.

JUD's leader, Hafez Muhamed Sayeed, was accused of inciting riots earlier this year in connection with the cartoons of the prophet Muhammed published by a Danish newspaper.

"The slavers must be stopped and brought to justice," Brother David said. "I pray that a public outcry will arise in Pakistan and around the world that will put an end to their vile business."

May 21, 2006, 9:26PM

Five dead in Baton Rouge church shooting
By DOUG SIMPSON
Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. — The shooting started about the time church services were supposed to end. Five family members were killed and another was shot in the back of the head but survived.
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A 25-year-old was charged with five counts of first-degree homicide in the shootings at a Baton Rouge church today, accused of opening fire at his wife's two grandmothers, grandfather, great aunt and cousin, then killing his wife at a nearby apartment complex. Police said they did not know suspect Anthony Bell's motive.

"I am very mad, and I am mad at the devil, because he had something to do with this," said Frankie Smith, a relative of the victims by marriage.

Police Chief Jeff LeDuff said today was "one of the worst days in the history of our city."

Police identified the dead as Erica Bell, 24, Leonard Howard, 78, Gloria Howard, 72, Deloris McGrew, 68, and Darlene Mills, 47.

Erica Bell's mother, church pastor Claudia Brown, was wounded and in serious condition, police said, but would not provide further details. Her brother, Jeffrey Howard, said she had been shot in the back of the head. She gave investigators a statement about the shooting, according to a police affidavit.

Bell faces a count of attempted first-degree murder in Claudia Brown's shooting. He also faces a second-degree kidnapping charge, because he allegedly abducted three of Erica Bell's children, released two and had the third with him when he was arrested, police said.

Investigators did not know the motive for the shooting at The Ministry of Jesus Christ church.

"This is senseless. This is a total waste of human life," Leduff said.

In an interview, Jeffrey Howard said Anthony and Erica Bell had had some "domestic trouble" in the past. Howard hinted that Anthony Bell used drugs and had "smoked away" what money the couple had.

The small church shares space in an old warehouse with a guitar shop in a nonresidential area of Baton Rouge. Jeffrey Howard described the ministry as a "full gospel-type church" that often paid bills for parishioners who were having money problems.

Bell is believed to have entered and opened fire with a handgun shortly before the Sunday service was to end, about 10 a.m.

"To the best of my knowledge, the service was ongoing when this happened," LeDuff said.

After shooting five people, Bell fled with his wife and with three children, including an infant, police said. The two older children were found safely at a residence.

Police said Bell called 911 to report a shooting; responding officers found him at an apartment complex, holding the child. His wife's body was inside the car he had been driving, police said. Bell did not resist arrest.

Bell left a police holding facility with hands and feet cuffed, without shirt or shoes, in blue jeans shorts.

Five dead in Baton Rouge church shooting (http://chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/front/3878055)

Radical Hindus raid church service
Pastor, members of his family beaten by mob of 15

Fifteen members of a radical Hindu group raided a church service in India, beating the pastor, his wife and daughters and other congregants.

The mob – belonging to the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the World Hindu Council – used cricket bats in the April 16 assault and vandalized the meeting hall's furniture and equipment, valued at $3,500, reported the U.S. persecution monitor Voice of the Martyrs.

The 65-year-old pastor, V.P. Paulouse, suffered numerous injuries and was admitted to the Mangala Hospital in Mangalore, where VOM provided for his medical expenses.

Paulouse's injuries included a gash on his forehead requiring stitches and extensive damage to his toes.

The attackers, who entered the prayer hall with their faces covered, specifically targeted the pastor's family members, who sustained wounds from the violent rampage, VOM said.

The Bajrang Dal organized the attack because it did not want Christians in their area conducting prayer meetings, according to VOM.

Paulouse's ministry covers three villages in south Karnataka state, where he leads about 60 Christians.

In September, Hindu fundamentalists attacked a Christian missionary compound in India's Bihar state, severely injuring several people.

The attack was the second within a month at the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society facility in Rohtas district.

In the previous attack, Aug. 31, a mob of about 800 held the compound under siege for three days, injuring 12 Christian residents.

The radical World Hindu Council, or Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has called for a comprehensive law to ban religious conversions in India as part of a new campaign to stem the "increasing" number of conversions around the country.

Addressing media last August, Mohan Joshi, national secretary of the council, said anti-conversion laws in some states were not stringent enough to curb religious conversions.

India, which is 83 percent Hindu and 11 percent Muslim, has 25 million Christians, who represent 2.4 percent of the population.

Christian forced to reproduce lesbian films sues
Businessman claims county-order violates his religious beliefs, values

A film-and-video lab owner has filed suit against a county Human Rights Commission for ordering him to duplicate two pro-homosexual videos produced by a lesbian activist.

Tim Bono and Bono Film and Video, Inc. of Arlington, Va., is challenging the authority of the Arlington County Human Rights Commission, the Arlington County Board and Arlington County.

The controversy began when Tim Bono was contacted by lesbian activist Lilli Vincenz via e-mail to reproduce documentaries entitled "Gay and Proud" and "Second Largest Minority."

Bono told Vincenz his company does not duplicate material that is obscene, could embarrass employees, hurt the company's reputation or runs counter to the company's core values and to Christian ethics.

Vincenz filed a complaint with the Arlington Human Rights Commission under the county's nondiscrimination ordinance, which was amended to include "sexual orientation."

On April 13, the commission entered a decision directing Bono Film to "provide the requested duplication service at the complainant's expense or in the alternative to assist the complainant in locating a suitable facility where this service can be provided at the Bono Film and Video's expense."

Bono, represented by Florida-based Liberty Counsel, argues Virginia law, under a provision called "Dillon's Rule," prohibits local government from passing or enforcing nondiscrimination laws that are not authorized by the state.

The state does not list "sexual orientation" as a protected civil right or class.

Liberty Counsel says that in addition to removing the county commission's authority to enforce "sexual orientation" nondiscrimination laws, the lawsuit also will affect several other Virginia counties that have illegally passed "sexual orientation" antidiscrimination laws.

The suit also alleges violations of Bono's freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.

Erik Stanley, chief counsel of Liberty Counsel, contends that just as a newspaper is not required to run every proposed ad, a duplicator or printer is not obligated to reproduce every proposed copy.

"Mr. Bono does not have to reproduce a customer's hate speech, obscenity or pornography, nor may a customer hijack Mr. Bono's business and force him to promote a homosexual agenda," he said.

Stanley points out that several years ago, the Virginia attorney general issued an opinion concluding that local "sexual orientation" laws violated state law.

Bono's case is similar to that of Scott Brockie, a Canadian Christian printer who was penalized $5,000 in 2001 for refusing to print letterhead for a homosexual advocacy group.

Seven-Year-Old Beaten at School For Father's Stand Against Homosexual Activism

On May 17—the two-year anniversary of same-sex "marriage" in Massachusetts—the first-grade son of a prominent pro-family advocate was dragged and beaten behind the Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington during recess, receiving multiple blows to the chest, stomach, and genital area.

Jacob Parker, the 7-year-old who was attacked, is the son of David Parker. LifeSiteNews.com readers will recall that David Parker objected to homosexual curriculum in his son's kindergarten class. At a meeting with the principal of the school last year Parker requested that the school inform him of when homosexual discussions would take place, so he could exclude his son from the activity. The principal refused and Parker said he would not leave until his request was granted. School administration called the police and had Parker charged with trespassing.

The topic of Parker's beliefs has become so widespread among the students that Jacob says he overheard his fellow classmates ruminating that perhaps their current principle—who has resigned her position to take up a job elsewhere—was leaving the job because of Jacob’s father. Members of the community itself have organized public demonstrations specifically against Parker, in which their children have taken part. One of these demonstrations is pictured on the right and below. (photos courtesy of MassResistance.com) While prominently displayed in the student library are the back issues of the Lexington Minuteman that specifically deal with Parker’s case, for the children to read.

“We’re trying to be patient and tolerant," said Parker when asked if he was considering pulling his son out of the school. "We’re trying to hang on to the notion that the schools are for every child and for everyone. I don’t feel that we should have to leave for an injustice.”

But he added that “There are limits to how much patience we can have. I certainly understand why more and more parents are pulling their children out of public schools.”

Ironically, the school prides itself on its long-time involvement in various "Safe School" programs, which are geared to creating school environments "safe" for students who are homosexual.

Parker asked, "Isn't the school supposed to be addressing safety and preventing bullying and violence? Or are such programs only focused on children with homosexual parents? You can be certain that if this happened to a child with homosexual parents more would be made of this and that 'lessons' teaching tolerance and diversity of homosexual behavior normalization would be forced upon the young children."

The school and larger community are deeply divided over the Parker's stand against pro-homosexual indoctrination. A group has been formed in Lexington to counter Parker's efforts. The 'Lexington Cares' group maintains an anti-Parker website and has conducted anti-Parker letter writing campaigns and demonstrations.

Calls to Estabrook school were not returned by press time.

Brian Camenker the President of MassResistance, a pro-family group, that has worked with Parker to have the rights of parents in Massachusetts respected told LifeSitenews.com that the school system has since continued to refuse to notify parents of such material being presented in class. On April 27, 2006, Parker, his wife, and another family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the school system.

LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Mr. Parker about the incident. According to Mr. Parker, school authorities determined from an investigation into the assault that the beating was indeed planned and premeditated.

Mr. Parker described the incident at the school saying: "During the recess period, a group of 8-10 kids suddenly surrounded Jacob and grabbed him. He was taken around the corner of the school building out of sight of the patrolling aides, with the taunting and encouragement of other kids. Jacob was then positioned against the wall for what appeared to be a well planned and coordinated assault.”

Parker told LifeSiteNews.com, his son related that one student in particular performed the actual physical assault while, “many children stood, watched silently, and did nothing as the beating commenced.”

Parker added: "The group of kids surrounded Jacob and he was beaten and punched. Then, as he fell to the ground, another child was heard saying to the group of children, 'Now you all can finish him off,' and as he was down on his hands and knees, the beating continued on his back. Then, fortunately, one little girl ran to contact the oblivious playground aides to stop it.

"Four of the attackers were from Jacob's first-grade class; the others were from other classes at Estabrook.

"The teachers' aide apparently determined that since she could not see external bleeding, and since Jacob apparently was not hit in the face, she did not send him to she school nurse."

The family was immediately notified of the incident.

Speaking to LifeSiteNews.com, Parker speculated that the cause of the attack was most likely what he called “displaced aggression.” “If children hear venomous things from their parents, the children do internalize this,” he said.

“I certainly don’t want to vilify the children in this,” he said. “We understand that skirmishes happen on the playground. It’s taking the child around out of view of the aides, and the number of children that stood around watching that concerns us.”

Parker noted that his conflict with the school over homosexuality is well known among the students. "We are aware that the school administration sent notices home with all the young children concerning the Parker arrest, the 'King and King' incident and the federal lawsuit," he said. “They must know that the children read them.”

He pointed out that the date of the attack--the two year aniversary of same-sex "marriage" in Massachusetts--cannot be a coincidence.

June 15, 2006
POLICE ARREST FOUR EAST AFRICAN CHRISTIANS

Detainees held at Jeddah’s deportation jail.
June 15 (Compass Direct) – Ten Saudi Arabian police armed with wooden clubs raided a private Christian worship meeting in the coastal city of Jeddah on June 9, arresting four East African citizens leading the service.

At press time the two Ethiopian and two Eritrean Christians remained in the city’s deportation jail.

More than 100 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Filipinos were gathered for worship in a home in Jeddah’s Al-Rowaise district at 11 o’clock last Friday morning when a group of Saudi police entered the meeting, wooden clubs in hand.

The startled worshippers brought chairs to seat the policemen, who sat and waited for the three-hour worship service to conclude. None used their clubs or physically mishandled the worshippers.

“Actually, some muttawa [Muslim religious police] came to this gathering about two weeks before,” a local source told Compass, “but they did not do anything.”

But after the June 9 weekly praise and prayer service finished, police arrested four leaders of the group: Ethiopian Christians Mekbeb Telahun and Masai Wendewesen, together with Eritrean Christians Fekre Gebremedhin and Dawit Uqbay.

The four were jailed in the Jeddah Terhil (Deportation) Center, where guards have since permitted an acquaintance to bring them all a change of clothes. Three of the men are married; Wendewesen is single.

A Christian who spoke with the detainees by telephone reported they were “doing fine, with okay morale.” But he said he did not know how they were being treated, or whether they were undergoing interrogation.

According to local sources, the incident has been reported to consular officials of the Philippines and the United States.

Typically the Saudi government deports expatriate Christians caught conducting worship meetings in their homes or privately owned villas, forcing their employers to terminate their work contracts.

Under the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, public non-Muslim worship is prohibited, although members of the royal family insist that Christians are free to worship within their own homes.

Last year five East Africans were detained for a month for leading a private Christian worship service in Riyadh.

POLICE ARREST FOUR EAST AFRICAN CHRISTIANS (http://www.compassdirect.org/en/lead.php)

Friday June 23, 2006
PAKISTAN : WOMAN RAPED FOR LEAVING ISLAM
Christian family forced into hiding to protect young mother’s convert identity.
June 23 (Compass Direct) – Attacked by her own family, one Muslim’s decision to convert to Christianity highlights the precarious situation of Muslims in Pakistan who leave their faith.

Sehar Muhammad Shafi, 24, has fled her home city of Karachi with her husband and two young daughters after being attacked and raped for changing her faith.

With help from the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, the Christian couple has relocated to another city. But as long as Shafi and her family remain in Pakistan, they must hide the truth of Shafi’s conversion.

Shafi was born the fourth child of a Muslim proselytizer in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Her family belonged to Ahle Sunnat wa-al Jimmat, a non-violent Muslim group that focused on converting non-Muslims. Members were instructed not to share food and eating utensils with “pagans” considered unclean.

Shafi’s father taught fellow members of his religious community how to proselytize. As a teenager, Shafi often attended her father’s training sessions on how to convert non-Muslims.

“It wasn’t normal for a girl to participate in those sessions,” the young woman told Compass. “But I was the daughter of an ‘evangelist’ and was eager to bring others to my faith.”

In 1999, Shafi began work for a medical company, Glaxo Wellcome plc, where she focused her energy on proselytizing a co-worker, a Christian named Naveed Paul. Paul had an interest in apologetics and engaged Shafi in religious discussions, inviting her to church with him.

Four years later, Shafi decided to become a Christian, and a local pastor secretly baptized her. “I had shared Islam with [Paul] and wanted to convert him, but instead I realized that my life was empty without Jesus,” Shafi said.

Secret Marriage

Shafi’s family was not aware of her conversion, but sometimes they would beat her when they found her singing Psalms to herself. Once they ripped up a Bible they discovered her reading.

In January 2004, Shafi and Paul were secretly married and broke all ties with Shafi’s Muslim family. After the birth of their daughter, Angela Rose, in January 2005, Shafi contacted her parents and told them that she had married a Christian man.

One Sunday evening a month later, a large mob attacked the convert’s home. Shafi said that she and her family barely escaped with their lives out the back door of their apartment. The young woman said she believes that her family had discovered her location and organized the attack.

Resettling elsewhere in Karachi, the convert called her parents from a local pay phone and asked them to stop harassing her. After hanging up, Shafi’s parents called back to the phone booth owner and explained that their daughter had converted to Christianity.

The booth owner, whom Shafi only knew as Rana, followed the Christian woman to her home and then informed her parents of her whereabouts. Later that night, while Paul had gone out to check his e-mail at an internet café, Rana forced his way into Shafi’s home.

The phone booth owner told Shafi that he was going to punish her for committing the “unpardonable sin” of “apostasy” and raped her at gunpoint.

“I was terrified,” the young woman told Compass.

When Paul returned home, he and his family immediately fled, hoping to avoid another attack from Shafi’s family.

The couple initially sought shelter with Paul’s relatives and later with a group of nuns. Paul’s relatives soon asked the couple to leave, fearing that they would be targeted for hosting a convert.

The Christian couple stayed with the nuns for eight months but was eventually forced to flee after one of the sisters treated them badly and informed the Muslim community that Shafi was a convert.

Paul and Shafi tried to leave the country but were denied foreign visas.

This past April, Shafi and Paul, with 18-month-old Angela Rose and 6-month-old daughter Magdalene, secretly fled to another Pakistani city, where they are trying to start life over. But Shafi told Compass that her family continues to live with the fear of being discovered.

“My husband is keen to get a marketing job,” Shafi commented. “But I don’t want him to do something that open, where he will be known.”

Though returning to Islam would seemingly solve many of Shafi’s problems, the Christian woman said that leaving her new-found faith is not an option.

“It is not a joke to change religions,” she said. “We’ve fallen in love with Jesus, so how could we betray him?”

Religious Double Standard

Though Pakistani law does not outlaw conversion from Islam to another religion, those who leave the Muslim faith are often harassed by police and relatives.

Pakistani Muslims often cut all ties with a family member who converts to another religion. “Apostates” – those who renounce Islam – can experience difficulty finding a job, and they may even face torture and death at the hands of vigilante extremists.

For veteran Pakistani human rights activist I.A. Rehman, most religious freedom violations in Pakistan stem from the religious orientation of the state.

After coming to power in 1977, military general Zia Ul-Haq based Pakistan’s legal system on Islamic law.

According to Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, many Pakistani Muslims view leaving Islam – “apostasy” – as a form of blasphemy, a crime that merits either life imprisonment or death under Pakistani law.

Thus, though Pakistani law does now outlaw conversion from Islam to another faith, in effect “changing religion is not a constitutional right,” Rehman said. “Every non-Muslim is welcome to change his religion, but on the other hand a Muslim cannot change his faith.”

During recent debate surrounding the trial of Abdul Rahman, a Muslim convert to Christianity in Afghanistan, Pakistani clerics reinforced their stance that “apostates” be punished with death.

“Pakistan’s top cleric, Mufti Munib ur Rehman, announced that ‘if a state is truly Islamic,’ it would have to kill the apostate,” Pakistani newspaper Daily Times reported in a March 29 editorial.

Schools May Answer in Court for Censoring Students' Christian Messages

By Jim Brown
June 23, 2006

(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney says a Colorado high school was wrong to withhold a valedictorian's diploma because her commencement speech encouraged people to learn about Jesus Christ.

Erica Corder, an 18-year-old graduating senior at Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument, used her commencement speech to speak about the death and resurrection of Christ and to urge listeners to learn more about his sacrifice. After the valedictory address, however, school officials told Corder she would not receive her diploma until she wrote an e-mail to the school community's students and parents, apologizing for her comments.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Florida-based Liberty Counsel, believes the school acted inappropriately. "Frankly, schools have no right to withhold a diploma," he argues. "That diploma is earned. It's just like if you already worked at your job, and you get paid after the fact; what you do on vacation or off work does not have any bearing on whether you're going to get paid."

Corder's case has a number of "very disturbing components," Staver says, "because after she gave her speech, she was threatened that her diploma would be withheld unless she wrote an e-mail apologizing to the seniors in her class." But Corder had already "earned" her diploma, he insists, and as the valedictorian, "she was entitled to the diploma, and the school should not have forced her to give this apologizing e-mail."

The pro-family attorney feels this has been one of the most egregious incidences of abuse of power by school officials at graduation that he has ever encountered. Until this situation in Colorado, he notes, "I've never seen a case where a diploma is withheld because someone gave a religious message. I believe that was obviously illegal to do that."

In fact, Staver believes it was unconstitutional for the school to censor the Christian valedictorian's message. The Liberty Counsel spokesman has sent a letter to school district officials on Corder's behalf, informing them that, under the Constitution of the United States, she has the right to share her faith. He says even though Corder agreed to write parents and fellow graduates an apology letter, a lawsuit against the school is still warranted.

New Jersey Second Grader Barred From Singing "Awesome God"

Meanwhile, in another case of apparent school censorship, a judge will decide whether a New Jersey elementary school violated a student's free speech rights when it barred her from singing a Christian song at a school talent show. The Frenchtown School District described the lyrics of the second-grader's selected music -- the Rich Mullins anthem "Awesome God" -- as too violent and graphic for the elementary school presentation.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Olivia Turton. ADF attorney Demetrios Stratis says, contrary to the school's claims, allowing Olivia to sing the song would not have violated the First Amendment. In fact, he asserts, "It's preposterous. It really, really is, to think that an eight-year-old, a second grader, is singing songs or lyrics that are violent and that in some way violate the establishment clause."

Stratis feels the school's defense is particularly ludicrous in light of some of the acts the school did not choose to censor. He says far more questionable performances were allowed at the talent show. For instance, he notes, "Someone was dancing to Shakira, I think," referring to the Colombian Latin pop performer known as much for her provocative dance style as for her at times suggestive lyrics.

Also, someone in the talent show performed a song by the rock band Bon Jovi, and someone else acted out "a scene from MacBeth regarding witches," the ADF lawyer recalls. With all the things that were allowed in show, Stratis contends it is beyond the pale for the Frenchtown School District officials "to suggest that the song 'Awesome God' is violent" and, he adds, "it just goes to show you the 'logic' behind them refusing to let Olivia sing her song."

Both sides in the case have filed motions for summary judgment. Judge Stanley Chesler will receive the papers on July 3 and will then decide whether to issue a ruling or have the case go to trial.

Schools May Answer in Court for Censoring Students' Christian Messages (http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/6/232006a.asp)

Chaplain faces punishment for gospel message
Navy officer already subject to court-martial for 'praying in Jesus name'

The Navy chaplain who went without food for 18 days to protest the service's prayer policy has submitted a whistleblower complaint to Sen. Hillary Clinton and other lawmakers, charging top naval officials with violating the Constitution by affirming the actions of officers who barred him from praying "in Jesus name" and quoting certain Bible passages during an optional worship service.

Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt's complaint to Congress was issued Monday after an admiral and top Navy lawyer capped an 18-month investigation by ruling the chaplain's superior officer, Capt. James R. Carr, had grounds for punishing him.

Military Judge Anita K. Baker, designated by Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter, endorsed a decision by Rear Adm. F.R. Ruehe, commander of the Navy's Mid-Atlantic region, to dismiss Klingenschmitt's original complaint as being "without merit."

Ruehe, meanwhile is convening a special court-martial against Klingenschmitt for the chaplain's participation in a March 30 event with former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in front of the White House. The special court-martial, considered a misdemeanor court, will take place in August or September. The maximum punishment is a reprimand and a fine of up to two-thirds of his annual salary, but Klingenschmitt believes the trial will lead to a review board that could dimiss him from the Navy.

Klingenschmitt, a minister in the Evangelical Episcopal Church – which split from the liberal mainline denomination in the 1990s – says he is being punished by his superiors for praying in Jesus name, in uniform, at the event.

Now, based on Ruehe's ruling, the chaplain says the complaint against him also includes preaching the gospel at an optional service – a memorial for a sailor.

Klingenschmitt said his line-by-line explanation of Romans chapter 8 during the memorial service was the same message given to the sailor before he died from a motorcycle accident.

The sailor responded, the chaplain said, by "dedicating his life to Jesus Christ."

But after the sermon at the service, which "included references to Jesus Christ as the way of salvation," Klingenschmitt said he received complaints from Carr and others, who claimed they were offended by the "exclusive" message.

Klingenschmitt argues the Romans 8 text was approved by the command and attendance at the service was voluntary.

"I was preaching at a memorial service, honoring the Christian faith of the deceased sailor, saying he's in heaven today because of his faith in Jesus Christ," Klingenschmitt said.

The chaplain says the Navy's objection to his preaching contradicts its public statements.

"This proves that for six months senior naval officials have been lying to the public, claiming chaplains are free during optional worship to preach what their denominations preach," Klingenschmitt told WND.

A spokesman for the admiral, Lt. Com. Robert Mehal, did not respond to WND's request for comment.

Klingenschmitt contends the U.S. Code gave him the right to conduct the service according to the manner and forms of the church of which he is a member.

In the ruling, Ruehe argued:

"In all the material Lieutenant Klingenschmitt has submitted as part of this complaint … he has not submitted any document that establishes he was required by his church to preach, on that occasion, the particular message he did. Presumably, if his bishop requires him to preach all the Gospels, and he's not required to deliver that particular message on that particular occasion, he was free to choose to deliver a message at the memorial service that, while being true to his own beliefs, could also have commanded the assent of the vast majority of his audience. Nevertheless, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt chose to deliver a message he knew to be, by his own description, "exclusive."

Klingenschmitt says this is proof Ruehe affirmed Carr for punishing him because of certain Bible verses he quoted during a voluntary service.

The chaplain also points out he, in fact, submitted to Ruehe a letter from his church expressing its' "grave concern" regarding Carr's "well-documented improprieties" toward "one of our priests."

"Our agreement with the Navy, and our understanding of the Navy's agreement with us, is that when we endorse our priest to serve in the military that they will be permitted to conduct public worship according to the manner and forms of the Evangelical Episcopal Church, and provide for the free exercise of religion for service members of diverse religious traditions," wrote Emily A. Grider, the Colorado Springs-based church's registrar.

Ruehe also responded to Klingenschmitt's complaint about another incident involving the content of prayer. Each evening the chaplain says a short prayer over the ship's PA system. Klingenschmitt said Carr censored his prayers, asked him to pray a "Jewish" prayer so as not to offend a Jewish sailor.

Ruehe argued Carr "legitimately sought to ensure evening prayer had the broadest possible appeal."

The Navy, the admiral said, "must be sensitive to the requirements of the Constitution's Establishment Clause which prohibits official government endorsement of sectarian religious beliefs."

Klingenschmitt said he wants Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to overrule Navy Secretary Winter.

"I've asked for a congressional inquiry as to why the secretary of the Navy is now letting commanding officers punish chaplains for their optionally attended sermons," he said.

Not about prayer?

Navy officials have insisted over the past several months it was Klingenschmitt's attendance at the event with Roy Moore – known for his ouster from the Alabama Supreme Court after refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument – that violated policy, not any specific prayer.

In April, Terri Davis, public affairs officer at Norfolk, Va., where Klingenschmitt is stationed, pointed out the charge involves his allegedly disobeying a "regulation or an order."

"This stems from his appearance, in uniform, at a press conference," the spokeswoman said. "This has absolutely nothing to do with him praying. This has to do with his conduct as an officer and being there in uniform."

Davis pointed out Navy regulations prohibit an officer from appearing in uniform and expressing political or personal views. Klingenschmitt counters that he did not express a political view at the press conference but simply prayed.

The chaplain points to a Feb. 21 Navy policy that states: "Religious elements for a command function, absent extraordinary circumstances, should be non-sectarian in nature."

A command function is an official Navy event outside the traditional chapel or worship-service setting. By punishing Klingenschmitt, the chaplain contends, the Navy is stretching its "command function" requirement to every public event at which a chaplain wears his or her uniform.

Klingenschmitt believes the March 30 event qualified as one appropriate for wearing his uniform since the Navy Uniform Regulation "permits a member of the naval service to wear his or her uniform, without obtaining authorization in advance, incident to attending or participating in a bona fide religious service or observance."

In April, Capt. Lloyd Pyle presented the charge to Klingenschmitt. The chaplain had a choice of accepting a letter of reprimand or insisting on his rights to a court-martial. He has chosen the latter.

Pyle's letter said Klingenschmitt violated the Navy policy by "wrongfully wearing his uniform while attending and participating in a news conference in support of personal views on political and religious issues."

The event was meant to protest against the Navy policy requiring non-sectarian prayers in all but chapel settings.

As WorldNetDaily reported, in January Klingenschmitt received a letter from his commanding officer recommending he not wear his uniform at an earlier White House event, but not prohibiting it.

"If, despite my recommendation, you choose to participate in this [White House] event in uniform, you should limit your participation, while in uniform, to the 'bona fide religious service or observance,'" stated the letter.

In January, then, the chaplain broke his 18-day hunger strike by praying at the White House in uniform, for which he received no discipline.

"They gave me prior, written permission to wear my uniform, so long as I only said prayers," Klingenschmitt explained. "And that's all I did."

Klingenschmitt said Navy personnel contacted the Washington Post Friday as a sort of pre-emptive PR move. The Post published a story about the charges against him Saturday.

The chaplain described the two White House events, saying, "On 7 January, I wore my uniform in front of the White House and I never got punished. But on 30 March, I wore my uniform in front of the White House and I got punished. At both events, all I did was say prayers."

"All I did was say prayers at a press conference," he said. "I did not make any political speeches. The Navy is characterizing the prayers themselves as political speech."

After the February Navy policy came out, Klingenschmitt filed a whistleblower complaint with Winter, which is part of the reason, he claims, the service is punishing him.

Homeschoolers take case to Human Rights Court
German Supreme Court turns down appeal by Christian parents

German homeschooling parents who face fines or jail sentences are prepared to take their cause to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe recently turned down an appeal by Christian parents. According to the justices, the parents are required to send their children to state registered schools.

Homeschooling is illegal in Germany, even if parents object to institutional education for religious reasons. Many Christians, however, are defying legal requirements. Some have been fined or incarcerated after refusing to pay the fines. It is estimated at least 1,000 children in Germany are taught by their parents.

Germany takes a tougher line against homeschooling than other European democracies. France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland and Austria also require children to receive school education but leave the form of education up to the parents.

The constitutional appeal was launched by Sigrid and Michael Bauer, members of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Giessen, 50 miles north of Frankfurt. The Bauers teach five of their eight children at home.

The parents argue they want to rear their children according to the Bible and shield them against negative influences. According to the Bauers, sex education and the teaching of evolution undermine the Christian upbringing of their children.

The Bauers were fined $650 and $800 respectively by lower courts. The Constitutional Court refused to accept their appeal on the grounds compulsory school education "serves the legitimate cause of enforcing the state's educational mandate." The German constitution did not include the right to exempt children from religious expressions other than their own.

The parents, however, believe their human rights are being violated, as Sigrid Bauer explained to the evangelical news agency IDEA. According to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, state authorities must uphold the parental right to religious instruction of their children.

The German homeschooling association SchuzH argues sex education in schools is indoctrinating and does not respect the parents' right to educate their children. German courts of law had never considered how much the curricula interfere with parental religious education.

German homeschoolers cannot expect support from the Christian Democratic Party in the federal Parliament. The party's spokesman for internal affairs, Hans-Peter Uhl, and deputy Ralf Goebel, welcomed the decision by the Constitutional Court.

The spokesman said the decision sent a positive signal for the "overwhelming majority of religiously minded parents in our country, who accept the educational mandate of the state and are happy to send their children to state schools."

‘Forgotten’ Christian serves eighth year waiting for appeal hearing.

A Pakistani Christian has won a religious persecution award after spending eight years in prison on contested charges that he damaged a sign containing verses from the Quran.

The International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) honored Ranjha Masih, still serving his life sentence, with the newly established Stephen Endowment award in recognition of Masih’s “steadfastness in maintaining his Christian beliefs.”

Masih was unable to accept the award in person at the IGFM annual conference in Frankfurt, Hesse state, Germany on May 6.

The prizewinner remained behind bars thousands of miles away in Faisalabad Central Jail, seemingly forgotten by Pakistan’s legal system. Three years after filing an appeal before the provincial High Court, the Christian has not been given a hearing.

IGFM said it hoped that the award, including 500 Euros (US$629), would “raise Ranjha and his family’s morale, helping them financially and improving Ranjha’s fate through greater publicity.”

IGFM Director Karl Hafen presented Masih’s award to Wasim Muntizar from the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) to deliver to Masih’s family. CLAAS lawyers have been pursuing Masih’s appeal since a district court sentenced the Christian to life imprisonment in April 2003.

CLAAS lawyers told Compass they anticipate a hearing in the High Court by the end of this year. “We hope to God that he will be acquitted,” one lawyer handling the case commented.

Masih, 58, suffers from arthritis and hemorrhoids and at times experiences difficulty walking due to swelling in his knees. But the Christian remains in “good spirits,” Masih’s Faisalabad lawyer Khalil Tahir Sindhu informed Compass after visiting the prisoner last month.

Many Pakistani Christians despair that Masih’s case has been forgotten. His initial trial lasted five years.

“Please pray for Ranjha Masih,” Faisalabad Catholic Bishop Joseph Coutts appealed to Compass. “The man has been sitting forgotten in jail for years.”

Masih was arrested on charges of blasphemy in May 1998, allegedly having disfigured an Islamic sign during a funeral procession for former Faisalabad Catholic Bishop John Joseph. Ironically, Bishop Joseph had committed suicide in front of the Faisalabad courthouse to protest Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.

Masih denied damaging the sign, and police testified in court that its invocation of Muhammad as the prophet of Islam was in perfect condition, lawyer Sindhu told Compass. But the Faisalabad Additional District and Sessions Court sentenced Masih to life imprisonment in April 2003.

Threat from Extremists

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws stipulate life imprisonment for defamation of the Quran and the death sentence for blasphemy against Muhammad. No blasphemy convict has been executed since the law was established in 1986, but extra-judicial killings of blasphemy prisoners are common.

Human rights organizations claim that Christians and other religious minorities are disproportionately targeted under the blasphemy law.

At least 23 people involved in blasphemy cases have been murdered in Pakistan, according to the National Commission for Justice and Peace. A quarter of the victims were Christians, although Christians constitute less than 2 percent of the country’s population.

Masih, his wife and six children may face greater danger if Masih is acquitted.

“In case [Masih] is released, it is to be feared that he, like other acquitted Christian blasphemy prisoners, will have to live in hiding or outside of Pakistan,” an IGFM representative told Compass. “The threat from Islamic extremists and self-proclaimed guardians of sharia, Islamic law, would be too great.”

Cleared of blasphemy charges last month after spending eight years in prison, Christian brothers Amjad and Asif Masih have been forced to live in hiding due to threats from radical Muslims.

Most blasphemy charges in Pakistan are leveled against Muslims. In unrelated incidents, two Muslims in Punjab province were killed on June 15 and 16 for their involvement in blasphemy cases.

An angry mob in Hasilpur killed elderly school teacher Mohammad Sadiq when he tried to save a Muslim leader whom the mob was torturing on charges of blasphemy. The next day, blasphemy suspect Abdul Sattar was knifed in Muzaffargarh while on his way to court in police custody.

A group of Muslims bulldozed the house of a Christian Munsha Masih and killed his son

Kasur: The Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan team rushed to a small village in Kasur on information of killing and demolishing home of one Christian family.

Background

Mansha Masih son of Izhaq Masih his father and two brothers were living at village Gadi Wind district Kasur from their forefathers. They are poor laborer and hardly meet their needs. Mansha and his brothers are married.

A Muslim fellow named as Nazar Mohammad son of Murly Khan claimed that the house in which they were living is his property; litigation is pending with the courts. Nazar Mohammad is a businessman and has strong terms with police officers and political leaders.

According to Mansha Masih, Nazar Mohammad made fake documents of the disputed property with the help of “Patwari” (record keeper of lands).

One of SLMP team members asked Mansha Masih that how long they are living for. Mansha replied, “We are living in the house from our forefathers”, “Now about 40 years later Nazar Mohammad claimed that the land of the house belongs to him”.

Occurrence

On the day of occurrence Mansha, his father and brothers were at their work place while Mansha’s wife named as Arshad Bibi was present at the house with her daughter aged 2 years and a son about 40 days’. Nazar Mohammad came there along with some vagabonds armed with deadly weapons, some policemen and started beating Mansha’s wife Arshad Bibi and throwing the households out in the street and bulldozed the house.

Mansha’s 40 days’ son was lying in the bed. When Nazar Mohammad etc were throwing the households out in the street they also threw bed with. 40 days old baby son of Mansha received injury on his chest and got expired. When police saw the dead body of Mansha’s son they fled away from the spot.

Mansha and his brothers were informed later about the occurrence, they rushed the house and saw the house was demolished and households were scattered in the streets while Arshad Bibi was weeping on the dead body of her son.

Statement of Mansha Masih

SLMP team asked Mansha Masih about the occurrence, who told, “My father, brothers and I were present at our work place on the day of occurrence. Somebody informed me that Nazar Mohammad bulldozed my house and my son is also died”, “We rushed the house and saw our house was demolished and my wife was howling on my son’s death. We moved application in local police station but did not Registered the case. Superintendent of the police threatened us if we would raise the voice. We took dead body to hospital for medical certificate but Nazar Mohammad already reached there before us and joined hands with doctor. When we asked doctor for medical certificate, he refused us by saying that my son is died with hunger”.

SLMP team also met with Station House Officer (S.H.O) of local police station

Statement of S.H.O

‘I was informed about the bulldozing of Mansha’s house but their cases are pending with court so I cannot interfere the court’s matter”.

One of SLMP team member asked S.H.O that why did police not registered case of Mansha’s murder, but he denied giving any answer on it.

S. H.O also denied that police was present there when occurrence took place.

Current Situation

Mansha along with entire family members became homeless..

Opponent party has taken possession on the land of Mansha Masih and started construction while more then half articles of households are still there.

Criminal case could not be registered against Nazar Mohammad for killing a baby boy of Mansha Masih.

Prayer Request

Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan strongly recommends keeping the homeless family in your prayers.

Death sentence
for not praying
Islamic regime spells out law
for Muslims in Somali capital

Muslims who fail to pray five times daily will be sentenced to death under the rule of Islamic clerics who have taken over the Somali capital Mogadishu.

"He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel, and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, reported Agence France-Presse.

The edict was issued by a leading cleric speaking at the opening of an Islamic court in the capital last night, who added it was the duty of every Somali to implement the provisions of Sharia, or Islamic law.

The Quran requires Muslims to pray five times daily.

Mogadishu was taken over in June by militia – now called the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts – that routed a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords after four months of fighting. The U.S. wanted to stem what officials call "creeping Talibanization" of Somalia by the courts and harboring of terrorists, including al-Qaida members.

Late Tuesday, militia members broke up a protest against a ban on watching television, shooting dead two people among a crowd viewing a World Cup game at a local cinema.

The accused killers, however, face prosecution under Sharia law for shooting unarmed civilians and could be sentenced to death.

In recent months, according to AFP, Muslim militiamen have presided over several public executions ordered by Islamic courts.

Somalia is regarded as a predominantly moderate Muslim country, but the Islamists have vowed to impose Sharia law nationwide, challenging a mostly powerless transitional government.

Last month, the Islamic courts signed a mutual recognition pact with the government, but are at odds with the regime over a number of issues. The Islamists oppose a proposal to deploy foreign peacekeepers to help establish central authority.

The African nation has been in turmoil, with no effective government, for the past 16 years.

The leader of the Islamic militia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, is listed by the U.S. State Department as a suspected al-Qaida collaborator. Bush administration officials say Aweys was an associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.

THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND

City begins condemnation process for church land

The city of Arvada is working toward condemning a church property in Olde Town to build a parking lot for the new Arvada Library set to open this fall.

Arvada City Council approved an ordinance to use eminent domain if needed to acquire the lot owned by Shrine of St. Anne's Catholic Church. A public hearing is set for 7:30 p.m. on July 10.

However, City Manager Craig Kocian said negotiations are ongoing with the church.

"It's still entirely possible that there will be an agreement between the parish and the city," he said.

Negotiations between the two have been ongoing for about 18 months for the 35,500-square-foot lot at Webster Street and West 57th Avenue.

Kocian said condemnation proceedings had to be started if talks didn't work out so parking space would be available in time for the library's opening.

While Kocian was optimistic about reaching a deal, the attorney representing the church in negotiations, Robert Frie, was not.

"The message I'm getting loud and clear is that the City Council's made up its mind," Frie said. "They're condemning this even though the city owns a piece of property of equal size that is adjacent to this and could build their parking ramp on that structure."

The city land near the church is planned as a site for future housing, city officials have said.

Church officials will meet with some parents and the parish council this week to inform them of the latest news, Frie said.

Although few details were available, the last potential agreement was a 15-year lease, with a 15-year renewal option at the city's behest, said Bill Ray, deputy city manager.

City officials did not release how much the city would pay for the lease and had said it was under negotiations.

If the council approves the condemnation after the July 10 public hearing, then the city will take steps to sue the church for the property, Frie said.

MOB STONES WOMAN TO DEATH FOR EVANGELIZING

Extremists overwhelm police to kill unidentified Christian for ‘insulting’ Muhammad.
July 6 (Compass Direct) – Church leaders here said Muslim extremists overwhelmed police officers providing refuge for an unidentified Christian woman in this town in Niger state on June 28 and stoned and clubbed her to death for doing street evangelism.

David Atabo of the Roman Catholic Church in Izom said he witnessed the killing of the woman. He told Compass that she had met a group of Muslim youths, shared the gospel with them and gave them some tracts to read.

“As soon as the woman left, some Muslim elders standing by sought to know from the youths what the woman told them,” Atabo said. “When they learned that the woman had preached to the youths, they claimed she insulted the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and directed that the woman must be killed.”

Atabo said the Muslim leaders’ allegations inspired hundreds of Muslims to pour into the streets to track down the woman. They caught up with her around the River Gurara area and started beating her, he said, but police rescued her.

Officers took the woman into protective custody at the Izom police station. But the restive mob stormed the premises, demanding that the woman be released to be stoned to death in accordance with sharia (Islamic) law or else they would burn down the police station.

“The police, realizing that the Muslim crowd was overwhelming, smuggled the woman through a back door to escape with her, but the Muslims blocked all escape routes, and at this point the police abandoned the woman to save their lives,” Atabo said. “She was clubbed to death.”

Police later moved the woman’s corpse to the mortuary at the Suleja Government Hospital. Atabo added that three policemen were injured in the fracas.

Mystery Identity

Christian leaders in Izom said they were disturbed that police have not identified the woman.

“This woman was killed before the police could identify her or even question her,” Atabo said. “We have also tried to find out which church she comes from, but without success.”

The area Christian leaders suspect the murdered woman might have come from neighboring Suleja town.

Atabo, chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Izom town, said the Muslims claimed that the Christian woman dropped a document containing derogatory remarks about Muhammad.

When he asked the police to allow him see the alleged document, though, “there was nothing like that,” he said.

Daniel Mazuri, pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) Good News Church in Izom, said those at the scene of the incident told him Muslims accosted the woman and accused her of insulting Muhammad. The Muslims claimed she dropped a letter in a mosque insulting Muhammad, he said, but friends of his in the police force told him this was false.

“I believe the Muslims just wanted to ignite a religious crisis in this town,” Muzari told Compass. “This is a very unhealthy development, and it has now opened the door for unending religious conflicts.”

Mazuri said his inquiries led to the conclusion that Muslims doctored a document in order to create a religious crisis in this town.

“They are known for this attitude, and we are not surprised at the occurrence of this incident,” he said.

The Rev. Tanko Madaki of the ECWA, Hausa section, also concluded that Muslims planned the attack with the aim of igniting a religious crisis in the town.

“We are aware of the antics of the Muslims,” he said. “They are always good in fabricating falsehood and then anchoring their actions on such falsehood.”

Another First

It is common in Nigeria to find Christians engaged in street evangelism – preaching the gospel in marketplaces, buses and trains. Muslims are believed to constitute about half of the residents of Izom town, in the Gurara local government area.

The death of the unknown Christian woman marks the first fatality of Niger state’s Islamic legal system, introduced in 2000. Niger is one of the 12 states that has implemented sharia in northern Nigeria.

“We are hoping that the police will be able to unravel the identity of this woman eventually, or that any of her relations may contact us soon,” Atabo said.

There are nine churches in Izom town, including the Roman Catholic Church, the ECWA, All Christian Fellowship Mission, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), The Apostolic Church, the Baptist Church, and the Deeper Life Bible Church.

House-church leader gets
7-1/2 years in prison
Family members concerned over prominent Chinese pastor's health

A prominent Chinese house movement leader, Pastor Zhang Rongliang, has been sentenced to seven-and-a- half years in prison.

According to China Aid Association, the July 4 verdict was issued by Zhongmu County People's Court, though CAA reported that neither Zhang's wife nor other members of his immediate family received a formal notification. Zhang was arrested Dec. 1, 2004.

The China Aid Association was told by one of its sources that Zhang, 55, was arrested at Xuzhai village, Zhengzhou city, Henan province in a rented apartment. The apartment was searched and all of Zhang's Christian DVDs, materials and photos revealing relationships with foreigners and foreign agencies were confiscated.

Zhang's wife and their two sons have been deeply concerned for his welfare and safety, especially as he has suffered from serious diabetes for seven years. His disease was so serious that he was admitted to the Xinmi City People's Hospital while at his detention center from Dec. 19, 2005, until Jan. 23, 2006, for emergency treatment. He was seen handcuffed and chained to his hospital bed while there.

The popular Christian pastor was charged with "attaining a passport through cheating" and with "illegal border crossing" for his international traveling including to the U.S., Australia, Egypt and Singapore for world mission conferences.

Zhang is the leader of the Fangcheng Mother Church, Henan, and the leader of the China for Christ Church, which is one of the largest house-church networks estimated to have more than 10 million members. He has been well known by the international community, CAA stated, as one of the house-church patriarchs.

He is a co-author of the book "House Churches of China's Confession of Faith and Declaration" in 1999. He has been featured in a number of international articles and books, including "Jesus in Beijing" (2003) by former Time magazine writer David Aikman, Newsweek (May 12, 2004), Charisma and Christianity Today. Last year, the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding Zhang's release.

Zhang has been wanted for many years since his last imprisonment in August 1999. He has already spent 12 years in prison for his faith since his secret baptism in 1969 during five separate detentions. CAA reported that he has experienced extreme torture, including electric shocks, during his prison terms.

Bob Fu, who is the president of China Aid and personally knows Zhang and his family, said in a news release: "We are deeply disappointed for this extraordinary harsh verdict given the fact that the Chinese authorities often deny passports and other travel documents to well-known religious leaders like Pastor Zhang."

He added, "This is yet another case showing the Chinese government's new tactic of religious persecution in the name of criminal charges."

Suit Filed On Behalf of Repent America Members Arrested in Chicago

(AgapePress) - Members of a Philadelphia-based Christian ministry claim they were harassed by authorities in Chicago, Illinois, for sharing the gospel with homosexuals who were in town for the city's "Gay Games," an Olympics-style sports event series for homosexuals. Three members of the evangelical group Repent America say they were handcuffed and arrested by Chicago police officers for passing out Christian literature to homosexuals and holding up signs with Bible verses near Navy Pier.

The evangelists had been warned that they would be arrested if they were caught handing out literature outside of certain designated "free-speech zones." But even after they moved across the street from Navy Pier as directed, the police returned and told the Christians they could not stay in that area and then arrested them.

Repent America filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. Consequently, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority -- the government agency that runs Navy Pier -- agreed to allow the Christian group to continue their activity there. However, Chicago attorney John Mauck says the arresting officers had made it clear, at least one of them in profane language, that Repent America's message was not welcome.

It is not unusual, Mauck notes, for evangelical ministry workers and other believing individuals to encounter this kind of response. "There's a level of antagonism among some people against the Christian message, that it's politically incorrect or somehow insulting," he says.

But the people from Repent America were not at Navy Pier to insult or harass homosexuals, the Christian attorney insists. "In fact," he adds, "these are folks that so love gays that they're willing to spend a significant amount of time and even go to jail so they can tell them that there's hope."

The Christians' lawyer believes it was because of this very message that the three ministry members were targeted. The lawsuit he has filed on behalf of the arrested believers alleges that their free-speech rights were violated by the city and by the police officers.

The Repent America members were singled out for harassment, Mauck contends, by officials who saw these young evangelists from out of town and said to themselves, "Well, we can push them around, and nobody's going to complain -- and we're not going to have to worry about offending the homosexual activists."

So that is exactly what the local authorities did to the Christians -- "they just pushed them around," the Chicago attorney contends. "And if it weren't for the lawsuit and the federal courts," he adds, "they wouldn't be preaching the gospel right now."

Mauck says he plans to go forward with the lawsuit against the City of Chicago and the police officers who arrested the Repent America members. The suit seeks a court order that would prevent the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority from confining the plaintiffs to free-speech zones in the future.

Missionaries face jail in India

JULIA and Richard do not look like fugitives but they could be jailed under new Indian laws to stop missionaries converting low-caste Hindus to Christianity without a magistrate’s approval.

A well educated British couple with young children, they left London two years ago to teach missionary work in some of India’s poorest states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa.

Last week Madhya Pradesh became the latest state to pass an anti-religious conversion bill that could leave Christian missionaries open to criminal charges. Leaders of India’s 26m Christians say the bill is an attempt to intimidate and persecute them, while increasing votes for the Hindu nationalist BJP party. Under its provisions missionaries and their converts face up to three years in jail if they do not notify a magistrate of their intentions.

Christian leaders also fear the initiative will encourage attacks against them. India’s National Commission for Minorities has voiced concern about incidents in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in which orphanages and schools have been targeted.

Last month police in Madhya Pradesh raided a Bible study group and arrested worshippers after complaints that they were converting Hindus. Nuns have been raped and several priests have been murdered in the past seven years. Last year 11 members of a Hindu mob that burnt an Australian missionary and his two young sons to death as they slept had their convictions overturned.

Hindu fundamentalists claim missionaries, mostly American and South Korean, prey on the ignorance of lower castes and persuade them to turn against their culture. The missionaries say they provide education and healthcare and teach the Bible to untouchables whose own religion treats them as outcasts.

“In the past 10 years Christianity has taken off in north India. Dalits (untouchables) are asking, ‘What has Hinduism done for us?’” said Richard, who asked for his name and that of his wife to be changed. “We’re authentic followers of Jesus in a country with a range of ideas, but where one section is antagonistic towards all non-Hindus. I don’t think we’re doing anything wrong.”

He said he did not believe missionaries had forced anyone to convert, but acknowledged there were problems with some Indian missionaries who were telling tribesmen that God would heal their illnesses.

Richard and Julia are not allowed to work legally as missionaries in India because of visa restrictions, but Raju Matthew, a British neuro-physiologist, and his wife Kate operate freely because he has an Indian passport. Matthew has been targeted by Hindu nationalists and was recently acquitted of making forced conversions after a two-year legal battle.

A spokesman for the Madhya Pradesh government denied the bill was intended to stop conversions, saying it was to protect people being coerced into changing religion. “We had some complaints and we have to enforce the law,” he said.

China police crush Christian church
Dozens imprisoned as nearly-finished meeting place destroyed

A nearly completed Christian church building in Xiaoshan district has been demolished by government contractors and about 60 Christian leaders imprisoned as China continues to battle unregulated Christianity.

China Aid Association, a Texas-based organization set up to develop and preserve religious freedom in China, said yesterday the demolition of the Dangshan city church building happened July 29.

On that day, about five dozen Christian leaders, some of whom now have disappeared, were taken into custody. And yesterday, China Aid said three more leaders were jailed.

The three latest Christian community leaders jailed were identified as Ni Huiming, 45; Shen Zhuke, 52; and Shen Jian, 48. China Aid officials say they, like the people arrested earlier, largely are held incommunicado, and their locations and conditions are unknown.

One other woman, Wang Aizhen, of Kanshan town, remained hospitalized with broken chest bones after being beaten by riot police during the July 29 church demolition, China Aid said.

The action is out of the ordinary, even for a government that maintains a constant crackdown on house churches like this one, or those that are not formally acknowledged by the government, officials said. "It was very unusual to use excessive force to destroy an almost-finished church building," Bob Fu, a spokesman for China Aid, told WorldNetDaily yesterday.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government agency, noted in its 2006 report that "every religious community in China is subject to serious restrictions, state control, and repression."

"We were informed that some brothers and sisters were seriously injured when they were caught, and some have lost contact with their family members who do not know where to send money or clothing to help them," China Aid said. "The lives of some Christians might be in danger."

The original church building, built in 1921 on a 10,000-square-foot parcel, was occupied starting with the 1949 "liberation" by the communist government. The local Christians then worshipped in a 200-year-old building for a time, and in recent years had been reconstructing a worship center on the original site. Then government officials, four excavators and hundreds of military policemen arrived and destroyed the structure.

Of the 60 Christians arrested, about 50 remain in custody, without any formal charges being filed, China Aid said.

"What has worried us most is that some Christians disappeared after the conflict," China Aid said. "Some are young students that can not be found in either the detention or custody centers. According to reliable sources, some may have been beaten to death."

In China, only churches that have registered with the state and meet the government's requirements are allowed to meet, have property or buildings. The government also decides who can register.

While China Aid monitors the China situation on its Monitor China site, the USCIRF lists China as a country of "particular concern" because of the government's behavior towards religious groups.

In its 260-page report on international religious persecution, agency members noted that during their first-ever visit to China to discuss those issues, when a Catholic bishop with the state-affiliated Catholic church began discussing the arrest of a bishop from the unregistered Catholic church, the interview was immediately ended.

Priest guards church against ‘racist’ attacks
By Caroline Innes

A PRIEST is set to install high fences around his church in Blackburn in a bid to combat racist attacks.

The move was revealed as a Muslim leader blasted the gang of youths which targeted St Joseph's RC Church, in Audley, Blackburn.

Coun Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said the gang were "disgraceful and disrespectful" and he was so angry that when he found out who was responsible he would personally report them to the police.

The latest incident happened on Sunday at 11pm and although the church's alarm system prevented the youths from gaining access to the church, significant damage was done to the church door.
continued...

Father Francis Parkinson, the Roman Catholic priest at St Joseph's, was also targeted in February when he was racially abused by a gang of youths who had been loitering in the church car park.

A 19-year-old later admitted racially aggravated threatening behaviour against the priest and was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £50 costs.

Father Francis said the church and its car park have been plagued with gangs of juveniles making a nuisance of themselves.

He said he was looking to install high fences around the church and car park to keep youths out and protect the church from vandalism.

He added: "I would simply like to know why these young men feel they have got to do this as I personally don't understand it.

"This is just another example of wanton vandalism that is upsetting community cohesion.

"These youths have shown no respect for the church as a place of worship. How would they feel if a gang of vandals attempted to break into their mosque?

"I was racially abused by youths hanging around the church car park a few months back and now we have had an attempted break-in.

"The bolt on the door has been broken. Repairs cost money. I have spoken to Coun Mulla about this situation and he is most upset that this keeps happening and has said he will do what he can to find those responsible."

Coun Mulla said he couldn't believe the church had been targeted again and called for the Muslim community to condemn the youths' actions.

He said: "The Muslim community works very closely with the Christian community and it is important we understand and respect everybody else's beliefs.

"I expect all youths to be law abiding and not cause harm to people's places of worship. Sadly some youths behave disgracefully and these youths in particular have disgraced their community by what they have done to St Joseph's."

"I want to send a strong message to the community that this sort of racist and anti-social behaviour is not acceptable."

Insp Jenny Coulston, of Blackburn police, said she believed the incident was part of an ongoing problem of juvenile nuisance in the Audley area.

Priest guards church against ‘racist’ attacks (http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/display.var.861362.0.priest_guards_church_against_racist_attacks.php)

Homosexual-activist cop threatens Christians
Officer orders pro-marriage petitions removed from Promise Keepers event
Posted: August 4, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A homosexual-activist police officer assigned to security at a Promise Keepers men's conference in Florida is being investigated for threatening members of a Christian organization petitioning for a state constitutional marriage amendment.

"I have never in my life seen such unprofessional and bizarre behavior from a law enforcement officer," said John Stemberger, the president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council.

"This kind of ridiculous harassment and intimidation was meant to thwart the effort to protect marriage in Florida. It should remind all of us that we are engaged in a culture war. …"

Sgt. Stephen Allen, right, kisses another officer to mock Christians (Florida Family Policy Council)

His group had rented a display table at a June Promise Keepers conference in the Fort Lauderdale area to publicize its effort to collect more than 611,000 signatures on petitions to call for a vote of Florida people. The goal is to protect traditional marriage – between one man and one woman – in the state constitution.

But as the signatures were being collected, officers of the Sunrise city police department ordered volunteers for Florida4Marriage.org to stop accepting names.

"Officers then physically removed the petitions from 'public view' on the table at the exhibitors tent," the council said in a website update of the situation. "Two of the male officers mocked the volunteers by kissing each other after they initially removed all the petitions from the area."

Stemberger yesterday told WorldNetDaily the situation now is on hold while the police department fulfills its obligation to do an investigation.

"I have filed the complaint with internal affairs. They are doing a good-faith investigation because they've called me several times. I know that the officer's retained counsel," he said.

"No one would have ever believed our story without that photograph. That photograph really captures the attitude that we were approached with," he said.

The camera was a fortunate circumstance, he said, because one volunteer said she always carried one around. Her tape recorder, however, didn't work, he said.

Stemberger said without a significant result from the police department's investigation, it would produce a "chilling" effect on any Christian activities in public areas.

"Marriage is the picture God gives in the Scripture about Christ and the church," he said.

In the actual confrontation, Stemberger was called after the officers removed the petitions. He sought further legal counsel from Rick Nelson of American Liberties Institute and then confronted Sgt. Allen.

He said he asked the sergeant what law or ordinance was being violated by the petitions and Allen simply responded with a not-entirely accurate lecture on Jesus' view of homosexuality in the New Testament and the statement that the petition was a "waste of time."

The sergeant then proclaimed he was the authority and "the Bible says that Christians should obey the authorities."

Allen was backed up by four other Sunrise officers and continued to argue "theology" even after Promise Keepers' own security and event officials arrived and explained the petitions were authorized.

Allen also threatened to arrest Stemberger, who stood his ground.

The situation ultimately cooled down when managers for the arena told the sergeant to stand down, the council said.

WND's calls to the city manager's office yesterday were referred to the police chief, whose secretary said he was out of town and unavailable to provide an update on the investigation. The police agency's website does speak of a "diversified" team of officers.

The petition drive is trying to collect 611,009 signatures to put the issue on the 2008 election ballot. Similar constitutional amendments already have been endorsed by voters in 20 states, with another half dozen on the ballot this year already.

"We always have great relationships with the venues and the security details (at the conferences) and that's the first time we ever saw that level of partisanship from security," Promise Keepers spokesman Steve Chavis told WND.

Indian judges OK 'Hindu Taliban'
Police given unlimited power to jail those talking of Christ

The Supreme Court in India has given police across the nation unlimited power to arrest and detain anyone who has been accused of talking to another person about Christianity.

The report comes from the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission, which issued the alert on its News & Analysis mailing list, and Assist News Service.

The WEA report by researcher Elizabeth Kendall said the ruling "opens the door for police with Hindutya sympathies to act as Hindu Taliban."

Hindutya is a militant Hinduism that seeks political and religious dominance.

"Nuns, pastors, bishops and evangelists, as well as Christian aid workers, teachers and social workers, are all immediately at risk of arrest and imprisonment because of their Christian witness," Kendall's report said.

As WorldNetDaily has reported, India is moving up on the list of nations around the world where Christians are persecuted.

"In fact, every Christian, actively witnessing or not, is at risk from hostile elements that may exploit the opportunity to bring false charges against them, inspired by a variety of motives, in the same manner that the blasphemy law is exploited for person gain in Pakistan," Kendall wrote.

The technical ruling from India's Supreme Court was that police are not required to have warrants to file First Issue Reports and arrest and detain suspects.

According to the Times of India, the ruling relieves police and prosecutors of the requirement of "prior sanction" from the federal or state governments, or a local prosecutor.

The previous practice that protected religious leaders in their speech was found in the Criminal Procedure Code, which says, "no court shall take cognizance" of a complaint about proselytizing unless there was government approval for the arrest.

But the new court ruling from Justices G.P. Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari said the only requirement for an arrest on those charges is a complaint, relieving police of that "authorization" requirement that was set for the courts.

The decision, described by the IndLaw.com website, came in a case involving Pastor Paulrai Raju of Kanartaka state. He was beaten by Hindus last year and arrested on charges of trying to convert Hindus to Christianity. His wife petitioned on the basis there was no warrant, and a lower court quashed the case.

But the state government appealed and the case eventually ended up before the Supreme Court.

Kendall's report said the Times of India noted the court explained that although a prior sanction would be required for a court to hear the case, that is not needed before someone could be accused by police, then arrested and detained, for proselytizing.

"Mere production of the arrested accused before the magistrate and the latter remanding him to custodial detention does not amount to taking cognizance of the offence, for which alone prior sanction is required," the court's opinion said.

Praying chaplain faces court date
Minister told grieving family members accident victim dedicated life to 'Christ'

A priest in the Evangelical Episcopal Church who has served as a U.S. Navy chaplain is asking a military court to dismiss a series of complaints filed against him after he was caught praying in "Jesus" name.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled Monday for Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who is accused of participating in a March 30 event with former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in front of the White House. He's also accused of telling the congregation at the funeral of an accident victim the man had given his life to "Christ."

Lt. Klingenschmitt told WorldNetDaily he prayed at the White House event, as historically has been allowed for military chaplains, but didn't express political or other views while in uniform. And at the funeral, he talked about the victim's faith.

"I was preaching at a memorial service, honoring the Christian faith of the deceased sailor, saying he's in heaven today because of his faith in Jesus Christ," Klingenschmitt said.

He said his superior officer, Capt. James R. Carr, then punished him for speaking about Jesus, and that decision was affirmed by officers higher up in rank.

On Monday, his lawyer will argue in the hearing at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., that his commander's order that he not wear his uniform and speak of Jesus was illegal, that his prosecutors and judges so far, in fact, have been the same people, and the Navy has refused to document evidence in the case.

The chaplain, who earlier this summer staged an 18-day hunger strike to protest the military's new prayer policy, also has filed a whistleblower complaint with Congress because of his commander's criticism that preaching about Jesus is "exclusive" and that offended people.

Klingenschmitt told WND the new prayer policy, essentially, allows only generic prayer.

The order not to pray in Jesus name was inappropriate, Klingenschmitt's motion to dismiss argues, because federal law "expressly protects a chaplain's right to 'conduct public worship according to the manner and forms of the church of which he is a member.'"

"The very symbol upon the Chaplain's uniform, a cross to symbolize his Christian faith, implies that his public religious speech during public prayer is not the 'official view of the government,' yet still permitted in the uniform," the motion says. "For the government to attempt to punish a chaplain for publicly saying two prayers and reading from the Bible in uniform would impermissibly violate the chaplain's right protected by the U.S. Code to speak as an officer specifically commissioned to represent the official views and worship style of his church."

When Klingenschmitt was told not to wear a uniform at a church service, "his rights to the free exercise of religion, speech, to assemble and petition the government were all impermissibly restricted," the motion says.

The order also violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, it said. During a court challenge to that law, the federal court's conclusion was that an attempt to prevent military chaplains from discussing "political" issues violated the First Amendment.

"What we have here is the government's attempt to override the Constitution and the laws of the land by a directive that clearly interferes with military chaplains' free exercise and free speech rights," the decision said.

The case falls under the "whistleblower" framework because the restrictions were imposed only on Klingenschmitt shortly after he had contacted Congress and the president about the issues.

It was during this process and following his complaints that the U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure permitting chaplains to pray "according to the dictates of their conscience."

Another six dozen chaplains also have joined together in a civilian lawsuit that alleges the Navy hierarchy allows only those Christian ministers who advocate only non-sectarian blandishments to be promoted. Those with evangelical beliefs, they say, are routinely drummed from the Navy.

The lieutenant's second motion to dismiss is based on the fact that the charges against Klingenschmitt were filed under the general supervision of an admiral who clearly had an interest in the case.

"Not only has ADM (F.R.) Ruehe been the decision-making authority for previous complaints filed by Chaplain Klingenschmitt, but he also is currently the subject of several official complaints made against him personally … by Chaplain Klingenschmitt," the motion says.

The motions, prepared by Lt. Tiffany Hansen, JAG, and civilian defense counsel William J. Holmes, conclude with a motion noting that the government has declined to provide emails that were exchanged among the officers involved in disciplining Klingenschmitt unless he paid a fee in excess of $47,000.

The conversations among officers that led to Klingenschmitt's various punishments certainly are pertinent to making judgments on those actions, his motion says.

Reports of 4 missionaries tortured in China
The head of the local police station, who was allegedly drunk that evening, and ten policemen tortured the four missionaries

Saturday, August 12, 2006

On July 24, 2006, four missionaries were arrested by the local police in Wuyi Township, Mengla County, Jinghong City, Yunan Province charged with "superstitious activity," according to the China Aid Association.

The head of the local police station, who was allegedly drunk that evening, and ten policemen tortured the four missionaries from 8 PM, July 24th until 2 AM the next day. One female missionary had her hair torn out, claimed CAA.

"In this remote area, where it is far from the emperor, I can beat you until you obey. You have no where to lodge a complaint," the police threatened. The police even discussed handing over the two women missionaries to a minority tribe to rape them, according to CAA.

CAA said the police handcuffed the four missionaries to chairs in their office and left them there until 2 PM, July 25, 2006, when they were escorted to Mengla County National Security Guard squad office.

The police could not prove they had committed any crime so they set them free at 8 PM, July 25, 2006, after searching their pockets. The police confiscated $400 in cash, Bibles, and hymn disks and did not issue any receipts.

The 4 missionaries were in so much pain they could hardly walk out the gate of the National Security Guard office, CAA said, adding that they stated that they did not think they would survive the interrogation.

According to CAA, the 4 missionaries are: Xing Baoying and Wang Guizhen from Luohe, Henan; Li Jianying from Jinghong town, Jinghong city; Li Tuying from Jinghong Farm;

Xing Baoying and Wang Guizhen were just released on March 10th 2006 from the Reeducation through Labor camp, where they served their sentence of 2 years because of religious sake.

Sister Wang Guizhen was converted in 1984. 10 years after her conversion she studied in southern China Theological Seminary. She worked for the Three-Self church for 1 year after graduation. In 1999, Sister Wang left the Three-Self church, and started serving in house churches, said CAA.

Sister Wang Guizhen and her husband, brother Xing Baoying were arrested on July 25th, 2004. They endured torture in the custody centre, said CAA, adding that they were later put into "Re-education through labor camp" for 2 years because of sister Wang refused to cooperate with the Three-Self church. Sister Wang Guizhen and Brother Xing Baoying had just been

Reports of 4 missionaries tortured in China (http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=4918&t=Reports+of+4+missionaries+tortured+in+China)

Malaysia braces for ruling on Islam conversion
Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:11pm ET161

By Jalil Hamid and Liau Y-Sing

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia is expecting a court ruling any day now that could shake society to its foundations: does a Muslim have the right to convert to another faith?

A Muslim by birth, Lina Joy decided to become a Christian, marry and raise a family. But in Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, this is an affair of state, not conscience.

The 42-year-old has asked the Federal Court, the country's highest civil judicial authority, to acknowledge her decision to convert to Christianity and is now awaiting a verdict.

Whatever the outcome, the decision could pose a headache for a government that is trying to meet the demands of the majority Muslim population and the sizeable minority of non-Muslims.

"The fundamental question in Lina's case is whether Muslims in this country can convert?" said political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

It's a tricky legal question in multiracial, multi-religious Malaysia. Ethnic Malays, who make up just over half of Malaysia's 26 million people, are deemed Muslims from birth.

Azlina Jailani was one of them. She was brought up as a Muslim but at the age of 26 she decided to become a Christian.

In 1999, the National Registration Department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the ID entry for her religion remained as "Islam".

Until the entry is deleted, she cannot legally marry outside the Muslim faith. The legal wrangling began when she took the department to court over the anomaly.

Joy could not be reached for comment.

Constitutionally, freedom of religion is guaranteed. But in reality, conversion out of Islam comes under the ambit of sharia or Islamic courts. And under sharia law, renouncing the Islamic faith is punishable by fines or jail. It isn't an option.

'POLITICAL DYNAMITE'

Muslims who leave Islam end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new religious affiliations or to legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep quiet about their choice or emigrate.

A court victory for Joy could be explosive.

"It's political dynamite. It will create instability," Abdul Razak said. "For decades, the position of Malays and Muslims have been guaranteed.

"It will open the floodgates. Now you see Malays are going to convert and the government sanctions that. Definitely there will be a huge backlash and PAS is going to town with it."

Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), the country's biggest Islamic opposition party, agrees.

"It will be a bad precedent," PAS deputy chief Nasharuddin Mat Isa told Reuters. "It will create some uneasiness in the Malay community. It could lead to demonstrations."

The influential Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, the Muslim youth group once led by former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, wrote a letter asking the Federal Court to dismiss the appeal.

"Allowing Malays to leave Islam automatically will erode the status, the rights and the privileges of Malays," it said.

But a ruling against Joy could also inflame opinion among non-Muslims, who are already aggrieved over what they see as the gradual encroachment of Islamic law into civil society.

"If they rule against Lina Joy, the whole question of religious liberty -- the freedom of conscience, choice, expression and thought of an individual -- will be greatly affected," said Wong Kim Kong, secretary-general of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Malaysia, which represents about two-thirds of Malaysia's roughly 4,000 churches.

But he agreed that a court victory for Joy could spark a Muslim backlash. "This group may sow discord or even create public disorder that will result in greater polarisation of the races and religion in the country," Wong said.

For Islamic scholars, Joy cannot win.

"If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will, it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem," said Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad, senior fellow at Malaysia's Institute of Islamic Understanding.

"And people may then question its completeness, truthfulness and perfection."

Malaysia braces for ruling on Islam conversion (http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-08-13T011118Z_01_KLR286231_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-MALAYSIA.xml&src=rss&rpc=22)

Muslim Radicals, Govt. Officials Trouble Indonesian Christians

(AgapePress) - A Baptist church in one Indonesian village is the target of Muslim terrorists who want to eradicate all Christian churches from the area. In recent years, three prominent churches in Bandung, the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia, have closed due to pressure from local Muslim leaders.

Last month a group of Muslims disrupted a service at the Batu Zaman Baptist Church, demanding that the Christian church shut its doors. Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, says pressure is mounting on evangelical churches like this one throughout Indonesia.

There is "a history of Muslim extremism in some of the provinces in Indonesia," Moeller notes, "and Bandung is just one of the places where we're working. In Ambon Province in recent years, we've had murders of Christians."

Also, the ministry leader points out, many Christians have been tortured by Muslim extremists, and Indonesia continues to be a place where churches are burned and the local communities of Christians are threatened by dominant Muslim populations. And in addition to the physical threat of terrorist violence, he notes, church members must sometimes face various levels of persecution, discrimination, and harassment from Muslim authorities.

Moeller says officials with Batu Zaman Baptist Church have been working with government officials in an effort to remain open. "This church has been denied a worship permit," he explains. "The situation for Christians in Indonesia is that they have to register for these types of permits. As far as the church itself is concerned, they're asking for prayer that this building permit be approved."

The Open Doors spokesman says the church is navigating the official channels and getting a fairly good response. "But this is a very difficult situation," he acknowledges, "because the government is very resistant. This is one of the only worship places in that region."

Open Doors USA ministers to persecuted churches and individuals in areas around the world where Christians face religious persecution or other violations of their religious freedom. Each year the ministry compiles a "World Watch List" of countries where some of the worst persecution of Christians is occurring. Indonesia ranks 35th on the 2006 World Watch List.

'China-level' Christian persecution coming
Pastors say court's ruling in Houston Bible case 'breath-taking'
Posted: August 17, 2006
5:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Houston's Bible monument

A few more court decisions like this week's over a display of a Bible in Houston and the United States will be approaching the "China-level" for Christian persecution, according to a leader in the midst of that battle.

The ruling from the Fifth Court of Appeals said the display of a Bible on public ground in Houston to honor the founder of a mission has to go, not because it was unconstitutional itself, but because it became unconstitutional when a Christian group rallied around it.

The pastor's group said that means any monument, building, or even feature of nature is an illegal "establishment of religion" if a church ceremony is held there.

"Connecting the dots between the eminent domain case, which says all of your churches are up for grabs if a town wants a mall, secondly you now have been told you do not have constitutional rights in the public square," Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastors Conference, told WorldNetDaily.

"Any kind of an event is okay, as long as you didn't express any religious faith. What is that telling you?

"We're not persecuted yet, we know that. But we're on our way there. Add that to the surprising acceptance of militant Islam, the fear of speaking against that from a Christian standpoint and then we're dangerously approaching the point where we have literally given away and yielded our freedoms that were earned," Welch said.

"We have history, law and the founding fathers who adopted the Constitution collectively affirming the truth expressed by revered Justice Joseph Story in 1840 that, 'We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity,'" said a statement issued by the pastor's group.

Welch told WND that the court's conclusion was "ludicrous" and if followed logically, could mean that a religious rally at any public building would therefore make the building unconstitutional so it would have to be removed.

The Bible was installed on county property about five decades ago in honor of William Mosher, the founder of Star of Hope Mission, and was replaced in 1996 with donated funds. However, an atheist challenged the monument, and on an appeal from the District Court decision that the Bible was unconstitutional, the appeals court carried the argument further.

Its ruling said that the monument became an unconstitutional "establishment" after a 2003 rally was held by Christians to defend the display. That rally involved prayers and clergy, the court noted.

"The ramifications of this tortured decision are breath-taking and without any historic or legitimate Constitutional rationale," said the pastors' organization. "For the court to state that if a private citizen exercises his or her First Amendment rights of religious expression and assembly on public property, that any monument, building or fixed item of any kind that contains religious references becomes 'establishment of religion' is simply irrational."

The conclusion, if applied nationwide, would result in the sandblasting of hundreds of monuments and buildings "including the capstone on the Washington Monument, which reads, 'Laus Deo,' or 'Praise be to God,'" the pastors group continued.

"For this panel majority of two justices to claim that words and actions by private citizens or elected officials with religious content, expressed about a building or monument, convert it from 'secular' and constitutional to 'sacred' and unconstitutional amounts to an act of blatant judicial activism against the freedoms and Constitution," the HAPC said.

The group Battle For The Bible also is working on the case, and Welch said there are experts on constitutional law who have been and plan to continue assisting the county in its fight over the representation of the Bible.

"They are of the opinion this needs to be appealed directly to the Supreme Court, and we're working on that right now," Welch told WND.

He called the logic "twisted" that could conclude the monument once was constitutional, but since "some action by a private citizen" it now becomes unconstitutional.

Because the atheist's lawsuit was against the county over the monument on county land, the pastors and their advisors have been assisting County Attorney Michael Stafford in the fight.

Embattled church regains tax status
Government accused of 'grabbing' money meant for rebuilding after fire

The pastor of an African-American church in Wichita Falls says he believes a court ruling in favor of his congregation gives hope for a future that might not have been otherwise.

Liberty Legal Institute has announced the end of a property tax dispute that was resolved in favor of the Full Gospel Powerhouse Church of God in Christ. At issue was an estimated $20,000.

This was a great victory for the church," said Hiram Sasser, director of the institute's litigation division. "This relief will allow them to move forward as a church body."

The agreement between the church, in a predominantly white Texas neighborhood, and the Wichita County Appraisal District settled the church's claims of religious discrimination by the government officials.

The issue developed a few years back, when the congregation's building was destroyed in an apparently accidental fire. Without money to rebuild immediately, the land was left vacant.

The taxing district, however, then concluded that although the land was owned by a tax-exempt organization, the property taxes would have to be paid because it wasn't being used for church activities.

"We applaud the appraisal district and Wichita Falls for seeing the injustice and waiving the taxes," said Sasser. "The city and appraisal district should be commended for ending this suit and restoring the hope for this small church."

The discrimination complaint, which had been filed in 2005, accused the district of violating the Constitution by denying Full Gospel Powerhouse tax-exempt status on property, while granting it to other churches in the same and area and having similar circumstances.

"The church burned, and they tried to rebuild," Sasser said. "Right when they had the money to rebuild for themselves, the tax collector swooped down and grabbed it."

Institute spokesman Jonathan Saenz said the demand for property tax payments of thousands of dollars a year actually was preventing the congregation from moving forward with its rebuilding plan.

"The church was really under this extremely heavy burden of taxes," he said.

Pastor Theuophilus Thompson said those tax bills, for 1998-2001, would "pretty much clean up everything we had."

"We hope that this will clear up all the clouds that were over our heads," Thompson told local television KUAZ-TV.

Machete attack survivor working on rehab
Christian high school girl was only victim left alive in ambush by Muslims

The only survivor of a machete attack by radical Muslims on four Christian high school girls successfully has had surgery on her massive injury, and officials with Voice of the Martyrs say they are working on additional treatments for her.

As WND has described, Noviana Malewa and three of her friends were walking on a school path Oct 29, 2005, when they were assaulted by jihadists wielding machetes. Three of the girls were decapitated and Noviana suffered a massive slash that ran from her cheek to her neck.

After being under police protection for several months, there were negotiations so she could be moved from her hiding place to the location of her hospitalization, according to an announcement from VOM yesterday.

She recently underwent surgery in Surabaya, Indonesia, to address a number of complications from the injury, as well as the scarring, officials said. She had suffered from an involuntary tick in her eye, and another near her mouth, because of the deep cut.

She also had severe nerve damage and a dislocated jaw, and deals with severe and sudden pain as well as the emotional trauma of having survived such a gruesome attack, officials said.

VOMedical said it was pleased to be able to help so far, and will continue to provide what help will be useful.

"She must daily massage her face to stimulate nerve growth and expose her scarring to infra-red beam treatment for five minutes," VOM said. "Neuro-medicine therapy and skin salves must also be administrated on a daily basis."

Help from a plastic surgeon reduced the scarring, which boosted her morale, officials said.

VOM sources in Indonesia said the attack happened as the four girls were walking through a cocoa plantation on their way to a private Christian high school in Posa Kota subdistrict.

Noviana, now 16, and Theresia Morangke, 15, Yarni Sambue, 15, and Alfita Poliwo, 17, were ambushed by six masked Islamic terrorists, who decapitated the three. Noviana survived because the sword slash did not make a direct connection and she ran away bleeding.

Authorities reported the heads of the three girls were found in bags on the steps of a church and along a road, carrying a message, "We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers and their heads will be presented as presents."

The Pakistan Christian Post reported that Noviana recalled streaming with blood.

"All I could do was pray to Jesus for his help,' she said.

The report said Muslim-Christian violence killed almost 1000 people on Sulawesi between 2000 and 2002, and a peace agreement has not halted the bombings, shootings and other attacks on Christians near Poso.

Voice of the Martyrs was launched by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who spent more than a decade in a prison for his Christian faith, and later wrote, "Tortured for Christ."

Christian preacher injured when bus rams SUV
But he says Muslim militants' reports of his death premature

A Christian man whose witnessing enraged Muslims is recovering from his injuries after a bus driver rammed into his SUV, driving shards of broken glass into his arms, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs.

Because of the potential for danger to other Christians, relatives and acquaintances, many of the details of the recent attack on the minister known as Andrew were being withheld.

But the report said he was en route to visit a group of 17 families whose members have converted from Islam to Christianity when his vehicle was rammed by a bus.

"His left elbow was broken from the impact, and his right forearm was embedded with glass and severely lacerated in five places," the VOM report said, so the group is working to provide continuing medical care for him.

The ministry, which was launched by Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, author of "Tortured for Christ" relating his experiences representing Christ in war-torn Europe, focuses on getting help, support, and the Gospel to persecuted Christians worldwide.

The group said drivers of four buses had been hired by a militant Muslim group to crash into Andrew's SUV, and one succeeded. Immediately after the crash, the bus driver ran from the scene and reported that he had "killed the targeted Christian preacher."

However, while two others from the militant group were racing to the scene to confirm the fatality, Andrew's driver drove the smashed SUV to a nearby hospital, where the unconscious Andrew was admitted.

At the hospital, doctors cleaned some of his wounds and removed some of the glass shards, but when Andrew's brother, also a medical doctor, arrived he quickly checked Andrew out and took him to another physician where the rest of the glass was removed from his arms.

Then Andrew, who has been threatened because of his Christian witness in the past, was driven several hundred miles to a large city for a period of recuperation, officials said.

Ominously, during that trip, Andrew took four calls on his mobile phone, where callers told him, "Now you are going to heaven with your Isa (Christ)."

A pin was installed in his elbow to hold together a broken chip, and further surgery and physical therapy may be needed, officials said.

"Despite all of this hostility and opposition, Andrew remains determined to continue his ministry to Muslim-background believers," the VOM said.

Indonesia executes 3 Christians over Muslim deaths

By Crack Palinggi 23 minutes ago

PALU, Indonesia (Reuters) - Three Christian militants convicted of leading a mob that killed Muslims were executed by an Indonesian police firing squad early on Friday amidst tight security in Central Sulawesi province, police said.
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Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus Silva had been sentenced to death in 2001, after being found guilty of leading a Christian mob in an attack that killed more than 200 people at an Islamic boarding school during Muslim-Christian clashes in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi.

The convicts' priest, Jimmy Tumbelaka, said they had been officially declared dead at 3 a.m. (2000 GMT Thursday), although police officials have said they were actually executed hours earlier.

"According to valid information I received they were shot in a sitting position with their hands tied. Two were blindfolded while Marinus Riwu refused to be blindfolded," Tumbelaka told Reuters.

The bodies of Tibo and Riwu were flown to their hometown while Silva was buried in the provincial capital, Palu, where the executions took place, police spokesman Muhammad Kilat said.

Another police officer, who declined to be identified, said

the executions had taken place near the city's airport.

The trio had originally been scheduled to be put to death in August in Palu but the executions were postponed at the eleventh hour after demonstrations by thousands of Indonesians and an appeal from
Pope Benedict.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of the world's most populous Muslim nation, rejected the men's appeals for a pardon last year. They had appealed again for clemency last month.

Authorities turned down a request for their bodies to be laid out in the Santa Maria church in Palu, Tumbelaka said.

"We are disappointed they didn't get a proper religious service and customary rites," he said.

Hundreds of Christians had been praying for the convicted men at Santa Maria starting from late Thursday night. A heavy police presence at the church was reinforced after the executions, including personnel from para-military mobile brigade units.

SECURITY FORCES DEPLOYED

About 4,000 police and soldiers had been deployed in Palu, provincial police spokesman Kilat said earlier this week. "We are increasing our vigilance to anticipate any untoward incidents."

Human rights groups had urged Indonesia not to proceed with the executions. On Friday Isabelle Carton, South East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said: "We are deeply disappointed that despite the debate on the death penalty that the case had sparked across Indonesia, the state went ahead and killed these three men."

In recent weeks there have been sporadic attacks, mainly targeting Christians, in Poso, where two people were killed this month in separate bomb blasts.

Muslim-Christian clashes erupted in Central Sulawesi from late 1998 to 2001, killing an estimated 2,000 before a peace accord took effect.

Elsewhere in Indonesia's sprawling archipelago, three Islamic militants are on death row for their leading roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

The attorney-general's office said on August 21 their executions would be delayed for a judicial review planned by defense lawyers.

Indonesia had last carried out an execution in March 2005 when a woman in East Java province was put to death in a multiple murder and mutilation case.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, but some areas in eastern Indonesia have roughly equal proportions of Muslims and Christians.

Indonesia executes 3 Christians over Muslim deaths (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060922/wl_nm/indonesia_executions_dc_1;_ylt=ApPlw0CqVa4kkTQRlvJdtlX9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--)

'Religion of peace' followers torch Christian churches
Hundreds seek refuge as mobs riot over alleged 'insult' to Muhammad

Nearly a dozen Christian churches have been burned and hundreds of people forced to seek refuge in a police station by Muslims who rioted through the Nigerian city of Dutse, and they blamed their actions on a "comment" made by a Christian woman.

According to a Reuters report, authorities in the city imposed a night curfew this week to try to quell the violence allegedly triggered by a statement by a woman that Muslims said was a blasphemy to Mohammad.

Scores of houses and shops owned by Christians also were burned in the Jigawa state capital city, police spokesman Haz Iwendi reported. There also were some injuries, but no fatalities, he said.

"Eleven churches and so many houses and shops were burned," he told Reuters. "The house of the Anglican bishop also was ransacked."

Another report from Africa News quoted police spokesman Kieran Dudari as saying the situation was "unfortunate."

The Christian aid organization Barnabas Fund said the conflagration destroyed two-thirds of all Christian churches in the area, including St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral, and there were reports that the state's governor himself was attacked when he tried to calm the mob.

Hundreds of heavily armed police officers were called in to patrol the city, eventually providing some calm amidst the ashes, the organization said.

The Barnabas Fund noted Muslims already were in an uproar worldwide because of a recent comment from the pope where he cited a historic document that describes Islam as violent.

"There have been attacks against Christians in the Palestinian territories, Somalia and Iraq," the group said.

"There have also been many verbal protests. The Islamic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a so-called moderate who had justified violence in the past, called for 22nd September to be a 'day of rational anger' across the world and warned Muslims not to attack churches," the Fund said. "Sadly his warning against violence does not seem to have been heeded."

Al-Qaida in Iraq has publicly threatened Christians, saying, "We will destroy the cross … then all that will be accepted will be conversion or the sword. May God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," according to the Fund.

"Muslims are always saying that Islam is a religion of peace," said Fund International Director Patrick Sookhdeo. "But many Christians in the Muslim world know differently. For them, Islam has been and remains a religion which metes out violence."

The organization said it is launching an online drive to raise funds for the victims of the violence, as well as the eventual reconstruction of the burned church facilities.

Joseph Hayab, of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Reuters that the woman's comment was a tit-for-tat remark after a derogatory comment was made about Christianity.

"Her comment was in retaliation to uncomplimentary remarks made by her colleague about Jesus," he told the news service. The woman was detained briefly by police, then released, and that's what triggered the rioting, he said.

According to a report, more than 1,000 Dutse residents remained camped in an open field at state police headquarters a day later, too terrified to return to their homes.

The comments from the pope that have left the Muslim world calling either for his death or his conversion to Islam came as he quoted 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus.

"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached," the pope quoted, according to a CNN report.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference said that statement shows a "deep ignorance" of Islam.

The pope apologized that people were offended by his quotation, but he stopped short of denying its truthfulness.

ChristiansUnite Forums

Theology => Prophecy - Current Events => Topic started by: Shammu on October 03, 2005, 12:37:59 AM