The Persecution of Christians, around the world.

[Soldier4Christ]

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

US Christians detained briefly after China raid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Illegal’ Prayer Meetings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

Guinea Family "Kidnaps" Wife Of Native Missionary


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

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

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

ANGRY FAMILY

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

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

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

MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES

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

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

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

FAITH IMPORTANT

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

Anti-Missionary "Witch-Hunt" Haunts City


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Climate of Fear

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Complete Disgrace’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rights Advocate Deported

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

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

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

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

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

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

The YMCA has operated in Qalqiliya since 2000.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

United Coptic Voice: First Amendment and Civil Liberties Under Attack

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Soldier4Christ]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Shammu]

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


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"It's frustrating," she said.

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

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

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

[Shammu]

Bureaucrats target 'Cowboy Church'
Farmer opens barn for services, county slaps him with violation notice
Posted: May 11, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


A county in Virginia has cited a farmer there because he hosts Thursday night worship services in his barn on a 900-acre farm.

According to a statement from Liberty Counsel, which is representing the man, Garland Simmons recently received a Notice of Violation from Bedford County stating that his barn cannot be used for religious services. Simmons' 900-acre piece of property apparently isn't zoned for such meetings.

"Barns in Bedford County can apparently be used for dancing to the tunes of Toby Keith or Reba, but a church service reciting the Psalms of David or praise and worship with Casting Crowns are not allowed," said Liberty Counsel's Mathew Staver. "Bedford County is wrong to prohibit religious services in a barn in the middle of a field. Bedford County should immediately reverse its decision, because it is treading on unconstitutional ground."

The religious-liberties law group has sent a demand letter to county officials on behalf of Raymond Bell, the pastor of the Cowboy Church of Virginia, the organization that has been using the barn for several months. The letter asserts that Bedford County is violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the First Amendment. It requests the county immediately rescind the Notice of Violation or face a possible federal lawsuit.

According to its website, the Cowboy Church's motto is: "Where everybody is somebody and Jesus Christ is Lord."

[nChrist]

Hello Dreamweaver,

Brother, I guess I've heard everything now in terms of the devil trying to stop worship of GOD. This case MUST be won, and I'm fairly confident that it will be. What we really need is fines and penalties for groups like the ACLU who start the ridiculous actions like this.

WOW!

[Shammu]

Hello Dreamweaver,

Brother, I guess I've heard everything now in terms of the devil trying to stop worship of GOD. This case MUST be won, and I'm fairly confident that it will be. What we really need is fines and penalties for groups like the ACLU who start the ridiculous actions like this.

WOW!

Brother I am convinced there is worse to come yet.

[Amorus]

Brother I am convinced there is worse to come yet.

Brothers.....May the Lord bring us strength is those times to come.  Revelation 7:17 (One day brothers this will be our path, until then may we all stand strong in His Word).

-Am-

[Shammu]

 Bible ban uproar
By KELVIN HEALEY and IAN HABERFIELD
14may06

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"It is also an infection control measure."

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

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

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

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

Bible ban uproar