The Persecution of Christians, around the world.

[airIam2worship]

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

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.

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?

[2nd Timothy]

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

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.

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?

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.   

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!

[Shammu]

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?

     I'm with you sister Maria, as I said earlier. I would tell them to stick it in their ear. If you sing like I do, they may arrest you.

[Shammu]

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.   

   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!

I guess, if I rode on this rat trap of an airline. I would be singing  praises to the Lord, till the plane landed.  I have found another source 2T, so I would guess it to be true.

[airIam2worship]

La La La La La La La The way I sing they might not make it to their destination alive 
And if they arrest me I'll sing my way out. Put a whole new meaning to singing jailbird huh? Who knows they might be willing to let me preach to them instead of singing.   

[Shammu]

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.”

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

Christian prayer meet attacked in Bhopal, 8 hurt
MILIND GHATWAI    
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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

[Shammu]

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
__________________________________________________________________________ ___________
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.

[airIam2worship]

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)

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

[Shammu]

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.

[nChrist]

Dreamweaver Said:

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

Hello Dreamweaver,

Things like this make me sick. In the absence of the cartoons, the reality is that they would have found another reason to riot. We all simply need to wake up and know that there are ruthless butchers loose in the world who really don't need a reason to kill innocent people. There is no value attached to human life, and this problem is not going to go away. In my opinion, this is no reason to stop trying. In fact, to stop trying would mean that these barbarians would come to our own soil to kill us. Backing down from a full effort would simply make them bolder, more confident, and more able to recruit and train many more ruthless butchers who share their lack of morals and values.

We must win this conflict to survive. At this point, we are simply choosing where the battles will be fought, on foreign soil or our soil. May God give us wisdom, guidance, and strength!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 9:9-10 NASB  The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;  And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.

[Shammu]

We must win this conflict to survive. [/b]

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 9:9-10 NASB  The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;  And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Brother,

We have already won the battle, the Lord is our stronghold! Look at what you posted, Psalms 9:9-10 NASB  The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;  And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.

That verse speaks volumes. Jesus is there for us, he will win the battle. If this was durning tribulation, each one would be given, a white robe and told to wait a while, till futher brethern joined them.

But as you know, this isn't tribulation. This I believe is apart of Gods plan, to unite the muslim world. Setting the stage for the attack on Israel and Rapture.

Your brother, and friend in Christ.
Bob