The Persecution of Christians, around the world.

[nChrist]

Dreamweaver Said:

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

Brother, I really can't imagine a Christian wanting to take a vacation or go spend money in a country where we are hated and be in danger of loosing our lives because if who we are or our strong beliefs in JESUS.

I would say that one of the biggest mistakes the free world has made over the last 50 years is not developing energy resources other than oil. In all reality, the entire free world is being held hostage because of oil. Here's the sad part that we don't have an excuse for: we've had the technology to be completely free of middle Eastern oil for many years, BUT WE DIDN'T USE IT:

1 - Nuclear energy is clean, safe, and cheaper than oil.

2 - Wind power is clean, safe, and cheaper than oil.

3 - Zero emissions coal-fired electric plants are clean, safe, and cheaper than oil.

4 - We have massive amounts of oil in this part of the world that environmentalists have stopped us from getting.

In short, everyone should know by now that the entire free world is going to pay a horrible price by becoming dependent on oil from terrorist countries. The sad irony is that they are using the massive incoming oil revenue to arm themselves and attack us. WOW! - We've been ignorant. We would be better off without many of our modern conveniences that have made us slaves and hostages.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 107:6 NASB  Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses.

[Shammu]

Brother, I really can't imagine a Christian wanting to take a vacation or go spend money in a country where we are hated and be in danger of loosing our lives because if who we are or our strong beliefs in JESUS.

I would say that one of the biggest mistakes the free world has made over the last 50 years is not developing energy resources other than oil. In all reality, the entire free world is being held hostage because of oil. Here's the sad part that we don't have an excuse for: we've had the technology to be completely free of middle Eastern oil for many years, BUT WE DIDN'T USE IT:

1 - Nuclear energy is clean, safe, and cheaper than oil.

2 - Wind power is clean, safe, and cheaper than oil.

3 - Zero emissions coal-fired electric plants are clean, safe, and cheaper than oil.

4 - We have massive amounts of oil in this part of the world that environmentalists have stopped us from getting.

In short, everyone should know by now that the entire free world is going to pay a horrible price by becoming dependent on oil from terrorist countries. The sad irony is that they are using the massive incoming oil revenue to arm themselves and attack us. WOW! - We've been ignorant. We would be better off without many of our modern conveniences that have made us slaves and hostages.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 107:6 NASB  Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses.

AMEN brother AMEN!

[nChrist]

AMEN DREAMWEAVER,

JESUS will definitely win the war and put down all evil at His appointed time. And, YES!, I'm believing more and more that we might be seeing the end of this Age of Grace unfold in front of our eyes. I know that both of us and most of our Christian friends believe that Bible Prophecy is literal, and it will be fulfilled perfectly, according to the Holy Bible.

Regardless of whether this is the end of this age or not, I hope and pray that God gives all of us the strength and guidance to fight the powers of evil until HE comes to take us home. RIGHT NOW WOULD BE GREAT!!

I love the portion of Scripture below:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NASB  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

KEEP LOOKING UP!!

Love In Christ,
Tom

John 10:8-10 NASB  "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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

[Shammu]

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."

[Soldier4Christ]

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.

[Shammu]

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.

[Shammu]

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

[Soldier4Christ]

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.

[Soldier4Christ]

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.