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COMPASS DIRECT NEWSNews from the Frontlines of Persecution

June 2007(Released July 2, 2007)

Compass Direct is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct News is acknowledged as the source of the material.

Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News

****************************************************************************IN THIS ISSUE

BANGLADESH

Christians Beaten; Mob Threatens to Burn Homes Muslim neighbors strike converts from Islam with bricks, clubs; extremists say they will kill two.

EGYPT

Mobs Attack Churches near Alexandria ***Government forces act quickly to halt second incident in one week.

Copts Appeal Religious Identity Ruling ***Interior minister demands execution of Christian ‘apostates.’

INDIA

Extremists Step Up Efforts for ‘Hindu Nation’Campaign to win masses suggests Christianity threatens religion, country.

Briefs 6/7/07: Recent Incidents of Persecution

Hindu Mob Beats, Strips, Parades Pastor ***During assault, they douse him with kerosene and toss burning Bible at him.



INDONESIA

Compass Direct News for June 2007 1

Imprisoned Sunday School Teachers Released ***Three women walk free after serving nearly two years of three-year sentence.

Muslim Radicals Threaten House ChurchesDemonstration in West Java calls for closures; two congregations attacked.

IRAQ

Assailants Gun Down Priest, Deacons ***Murder is first known killing of Chaldean clergyman since fall of Saddam Hussein.

Priest Still Missing One Week After Kidnapping Islamic militias threaten more than 1,000 Christian families in Baghdad.

Church Secures Kidnapped Priest’s ReleaseBishop: ‘They demanded money because we are Christian and we must pay jizya.’

Gang Frees Kidnapped Christians ***Priest says university students, faculty targeted for their faith, money.

Christians Targeted in BaghdadSyrian Catholic policeman murdered, Chaldean home bombed.

MALAYSIA

Court Halts Woman’s Effort to Legally ConvertJudges rule Lina Joy must seek Muslim tribunal’s approval to remove ‘Islam’ from ID.

NIGERIA

Muslim Rule in Kebbi State Chokes Church ***Converts from Islam feel the hostility in sanctuary demolitions, discrimination.

PAKISTAN

Mob Assaults Christians with Axes, Guns ***Police slow to register case; Muslim extremists pressure doctors to under-report injuries.

SRI LANKA

Christians Arrested for Destruction of StatuesChief monk at Buddhist temple files accusations; two believers in custody deny charges.

VIETNAM


Ethnic Christian Dies from Torture InjuriesCause of death confirmed as Vietnamese president faces human rights criticisms in U.S.

*** Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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**********************************************************************Christians in Bangladesh Beaten; Mob Threatens to Burn Homes Muslim neighbors strike converts from Islam with bricks, clubs; extremists say they will kill two.by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, June 28 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim villagers armed with bricks and wooden clubs savagely beat 10 Christian converts in Nilphamari district, Bangladesh, on Tuesday (June 26) and threatened to burn down their homes if they did not leave by today.

The mob gave the Christians an ultimatum on Wednesday (June 27) to leave the village within 24 hours, threatening more beatings along with home burnings; that deadline expired today without incident. Muslim extremists also threatened to kill two Christians.

A human rights advocate working on behalf of the Christians who requested anonymity said he had contacted local police and government officials, including the district commissioner, but “they are very slow to respond.” Police rejected the Christians’ attempt to file a complaint, instead threatening to arrest them for “converting Muslims.”

After receiving news of the beating, the advocate traveled to Durbachari Bhatiapara and Laksmirdanga villages to find that the mob had bound both male and female converts with ropes in their homes and “seriously wounded” them. Several victims required hospital treatment, and one house was destroyed in the attack.

During the beating, one of the believers picked up a phone and called a Christian leader in a nearby town, saying, “They are beating my wife. Why should they beat her? And now they are coming for me!”

Muslim villagers had told the Christians, referring to local authorities, “Nobody will come to save you. We are stronger than they are!” the advocate told Compass.

“Now these believers feel helpless,” he added. “I just visited one of them in hospital, but he was not getting good treatment so I checked him out and tried to admit him to a private clinic, but the clinic is expensive. These people also have no food to eat, so I’m


trying to buy rice and lentils for them, but in the current situation it’s dangerous even to carry sacks of rice to their homes.”

Conversions from IslamThe attack came after 42 men and women from Muslim backgrounds were baptized at a local river on June 12.

Within days, authorities at the mosque in Durbachari banned Christians from using the village tube-well, a serious deprivation as it is the area’s only source of potable water. The Christians have since resorted to carrying water from a river 600 meters from their homes.

Muslim extremists also issued death threats against Abul Hossain and Barek Ali, two villagers appointed as leaders of the new converts.

Kamal Hossain, a cousin of Abul Hossain’s and the principal of a local madrassa (Islamic school), has repeatedly summoned Hossain to his home, demanding that he give up his Christian faith. On Sunday (June 24), he argued with Hossain for several hours before writing a statement claiming that the Christian had forcibly converted local Muslims.

At the same time, a local Muslim cleric has questioned and threatened Barek Ali repeatedly, asking how much money he received for his conversion and demanding that he abandon his Christian faith.

Ali denied receiving monetary incentives. He pulls a rickshaw, a form of local transport, for a living, while his wife works in a neighbor’s field to supplement the family income. Last week Muslim extremists damaged his rickshaw beyond repair, leaving him without work or funds to replace the vehicle.

No Protection As the 24-hour deadline expired today, the advocate, who said police had not yet come forward to assist the believers, told Compass, “We have applied to the district commissioner, to no avail. It seems the extremists have strong links with local government.”

He appealed to the international community to intervene.

“Now these Christians are panicking,” he added. “They can’t get drinking water. None of them can go out to work for fear of attack. Some are still in hospital. They need food, medicine and protection.”

The Christians don’t know where they will stay if they are forced to leave, he said, adding, “But incredibly, in spite of this pressure, they have not denied their faith.”

END


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***********************************Mobs Attack Egyptian Churches near AlexandriaGovernment forces act quickly to halt second incident in one week.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 15 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim rioters attacked two Coptic Orthodox churches, damaged Christian-owned shops and injured seven Christians in two unrelated incidents in northern Egypt during the past week, local Christians said.

Witnesses said that a mob in Zawyet Abdel-Qader, 20 miles west of Alexandria, had freely vandalized the town’s Christian quarter for 90 minutes the night of June 8 before police intervened.

In a second incident in Dekheila, six miles west of Alexandria, police immediately halted a mob attack on the Church of the Holy Virgin on Tuesday night (June 12), preventing all but minimal damage from occurring.

Local Christians confirmed that each attack was triggered by a fight between a Muslim and a Christian, but Akram Anwar Bekheed, a local member of the National Democratic Party in Zawyet Abdel-Qader, laid partial responsibility on the government.

Bekheed said that the government had created a permissive atmosphere for sectarian violence by allowing previous attacks on churches to go unpunished in the interest of keeping peace.

In April 2006, Alexandria was the scene of three knife attacks on churches that killed one Christian and left a dozen more injured. The government appeared unable or unwilling to halt subsequent vandalism of Coptic-owned shops and churches, blaming the initial attacks on a man they said was mentally unstable.

In a more recent incident in January, local sources said that violent Muslims had attacked a church-owned social services building in southern Zawyet Abdel-Qader, damaging the doors and windows. Hours later, police oversaw the bull-dozing of the building, despite the fact that the church had obtained a permit from Alexandria’s governor.

Local Christians in Zawyet Abdel-Qader said that last week’s attack followed a June 7argument between a Christian truck driver and a Muslim teenager who refused to move out of his truck’s path on a narrow street. Both young men’s fathers became involved in the fight, and police eventually arrested the four men.

Eyewitnesses said that on June 8, after mid-day prayers, Muslim worshippers exiting the mosque began congregating at local coffee shops.


“We felt that there was some sort of conspiracy, and we couldn’t understand what it was,” local Christians told visitors to Zawyet Abdel-Qader. They said that men from outside the town arrived at the coffee shops carrying large bags, which they said they later found out contained swords, daggers and flammable material.

At 9:45 p.m. the Muslims marched to the Christian quarter of town, where they began attacking Christian homes and shops. Local Copts attempted to defend their property, seven of them sustaining injuries during the fighting.

Mariam Adel, 24, suffered burns from an acid solution while grocery store owner Yasser Agaibi received stab wounds to his head, face and back and had to be hospitalized. A poultry and fish shop owned by Abdel Messih Sidqy and a bakery co-owned by Khairi Rizq and William Butros also sustained damage.

“They broke glass and windows and looted the shops,” one source told Compass in the wake of the attack.

A telephone calling center owned by Nashat Mitiass was badly damaged in the attack. “My losses amount to approximately 40,000 Egyptian pounds [LE],” he told visitors to the town.

“Considering it’s a very poor neighborhood, 40,000 LE is like a fortune,” one Copt commented to Compass. “Here they can’t get loans from banks and his place was not insured.”

The mob had just turned its efforts toward the St. Mary and St. Mercurius Church when law enforcement arrived and halted the violence. The church sustained relatively little damage.

“Zawyet Abdel-Qadir is an informal settlement that grew up around the railway line,” one Egyptian observer told Compass. “There is not much law enforcement there and there are a lot of Islamists.”

Police reportedly detained eight Muslims and 10 Christians at the Amriya police station, though no further details were available.

Street ViolenceFour days later, on Tuesday (June 12) at 9 p.m., tension flared between 16-year-old Christian Bassem Mikail and 21-year-old Muslim Abdel-Dayem, both construction workers, directly in front of Dekheila’s Holy Virgin church. The conflict escalated into a street fight between local Muslims and Christians, and the Muslims launched an attack on the nearby church, throwing bottles and stones.

A church guard quickly closed the church gates and called police, who immediately arrived and surrounded the church, quelling all violence.


According to Christian members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), police arrested 15 Copts and seven Muslims. Compass sources said that four Christians were referred to the state prosecutor, who charged them with assault. No charges have been brought against the other 11, who remain in detention.

The source also said that three charges of assault, destruction and inciting people to destruction have been brought against the seven Muslims, one of whom is the imam (Muslim cleric) of a mosque next to the church.

Attacks against Egyptian Christians have been on the rise in recent months. In May, Muslims in the town of Bemha attacked Christian homes after hearing a rumor that the community was building a new church.

According to Coptic editor and columnist Youssef Sidhom, sectarian violence will continue to erupt in Egypt as long as underlying issues remain unaddressed.

“Fanatic thought, the culture of rejection of the other, and the curtailed freedom of worship, if left unchecked, constitute a time bomb that can go off any minute,” Sidhom stated in his June 10 column in Coptic weekly Watani.

Coptic Christians are estimated to make up 8 to 15 percent of Egypt’s population. The majority of these belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

END

*** Photos of damaged shops in Zawyet Abdel-Qader are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Egyptian Copts Appeal Religious Identity RulingInterior minister demands execution of Christian ‘apostates.’by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court heard a final appeal last week for 45 Coptic Christian citizens who were denied their attempt to legally reclaim their Christian identities after officially converting to Islam.

Of the 45 plaintiffs, half were adults when they changed the required religion section on their national identity cards from Christian to Muslim. The remainder were children whose Coptic parents had become Muslims. All have declared they want to return to their Christian faith.

Arguing before presiding Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz on June 18, Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel declared that a lower administrative court’s April ruling against his 45


clients’ joint-action suit had “embarrassed the Egyptian government at an international level.”

“This [refusal] says that the government is forcing people to embrace beliefs against their free will,” Gabriel said. “It is forcing them according to their official papers to belong to a religion they don’t believe in.”

Egyptian Christians can easily change their religious status to Muslim, which allows them to receive incentives ranging from employment and marriage options to custody of their children in divorce cases. But the nation’s Muslims are not permitted to leave their religion for any other faith.

Gabriel presented an exhibit portfolio of 29 previous verdicts issued by the administrative courts to allow Copts to regain their Christian identities. None of these decisions handed down in the past three years had been challenged or appealed by the state.

The government’s attorney, however, argued that the initial verdict issued on April 24 by Judge Muhammad Husseini was “completely consistent with the principles of Islamic sharia [religious law].” He accused the Coptic appellants of adopting Islam for the purpose of “religious manipulation.”

Pending an expert legal opinion requested from a state commissar, the court declared it would announce its final verdict on Sunday (July 1). The higher court’s ruling is not subject to further appeal.

‘Manipulating’ Religious FreedomIn the initial court ruling, as reported by Al Ahram newspaper on April 26, the lower court had declared there was a “huge difference” between giving freedom of belief and “manipulating” this freedom by changing from one religion to another.

“Muslims have not forced anyone to believe in Islam, so they are not allowing anyone to desert Islam and leave it,” the court was quoted as saying.

But in the same verdict, the court declared that according to the principles of Islamic law, no citizen can be forced to reveal his religious beliefs. It remained unclear whether this stipulation could allow Egyptian citizens to leave blank the religion section on their identity card.

According to a report published on May 8 in the weekly Sout el Oma newspaper, Interior Minister Habib el-Adly threw his support behind the ruling a week later.

In his May 1 memo to the administrative court, El-Adly requested blanket rejection of all cases involving Copts trying to return to their Christian identity after having converted to Islam.


The interior minister insisted that Islam, as the state religion of Egypt, demands that any Muslim man who abandons his faith should be killed. But a Muslim woman “apostate,” he wrote, should only be imprisoned and beaten every three days until she returns to Islam.

The newspaper said El-Adly accused the several hundred Copts who have opened court cases to retain their Christian identity of “playing with religion” and disrupting national unity.

Dangerous Double Standard But according to Dr. Muhammad el-Sayed, an expert in the Al Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, such a verdict can be expected to fan religious hatred and sectarian strife in Egypt.

Quoted in Watani newspaper on April 29, El-Sayed stressed that the ruling contradicted the constitutional guarantee that all citizens are equal.

It is unclear whether the final ruling on July 1 will be enacted retroactively, cancelling previous court rulings that granted Coptic converts to Islam the right to return to their Christian birthright identity.

“We have to appeal this ruling,” General Secretary Hafez Abu Saada of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights told Watani after the April ruling. “This is simply because we know that converting to Islam could be under pressure, such as getting a divorce or financial problems. So the individual has the right to choose his religion.”

After the initial lower court ruling, Coptic lawyer Gabriel told Compass, “In practice, Egypt has a double standard for any citizen who wants to change his religion.”

According to Article 47 of Law No. 143 of the Egyptian civil code, all citizens are required to carry on their person a national identity card. The law stipulates that a change in the citizen’s name or religion can only be made by producing either a legal certificate or a court verdict authorizing the change.

“Those who convert to Islam only have to produce a formal certificate of conversion from Al-Azhar [Egypt’s official Islamic establishment],” Gabriel said. “But for those coming back to Christianity, a certificate from the Coptic Patriarchate is not enough. They are also required to request a court verdict.”

“This process takes at least two years in court,” the lawyer noted.

Moderate Islamic scholars in Egypt contend that only birthright Muslims who attack the Islamic faith can be judged as “apostates.” They exclude from this category any converts to Islam who later return to their previous faith.


But the Muslim Brotherhood and other hardliners insist that anyone who embraces the Muslim religion and then abandons it is an apostate who should be executed.

Legal Stalemate for Non-MuslimsAlthough next week’s verdict will directly affect citizens from Christian background, it will also impact the legal stalemate against both the tiny Baha’i religious community and Egypt’s growing number of ex-Muslims who have become Christians.

“This verdict indirectly targets converts to Christianity, and the Baha’is, too,” one former Muslim in Cairo told Compass.

“During the past three years, it had become so much easier for former Christians to change back,” he said, referring to the first watershed decision in April 2004, which permitted a Coptic-born woman who had converted to Islam to recover her legal Christian identity.

“Now, this ruling is saying, indirectly, that it is impossible to let any Muslim change his religious identity.”

Although there is no legal means for Egyptian Muslims who have converted to Christianity to register a change in religious status, this prohibition has yet to be tested in the courts.

When a Baha’i couple launched such a test case several years ago, a landmark lower court ruling in April 2006 recognized the right of Egyptian Baha’is to state their religion on official documents. But six weeks later, the Supreme Administrative Court suspended the verdict and cancelled its implementation, followed by a final overruling of the decision in December 2006.

END

*** A photograph of Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Extremists in India Step Up Efforts for ‘Hindu Nation’Campaign to win masses suggests Christianity threatens religion, country.by Vishal Arora

NEW DELHI, June 6 (Compass Direct News) – Televised attacks on Christian workers and a spurt in persecution in various parts of the country point to a renewed attempt to win support for Hindu nationalistic goals, Christians say.


TV camera crews showed extremists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, beating up independent pastor Walter Masih in Rajasthan state’s capital Jaipur on April 29. On May 7 in Maharashtra state, television viewers saw Hindu extremists attacking two evangelists, Ramesh Gopargode and Ajit Belavi of the Friends Missionary Prayer Band, in Kolhapur district.

Both attacks were telecast on private national news channels. Dr. John Dayal, member of the National Integration Council of the Government of India, told Compass he has never seen such violent attacks in the presence of TV news cameras.

Dayal added that the televised assaults could invite “copy cat” tactics, but that “it is also because of such attacks that we, at last, have documentary evidence of anti-Christian violence, which we lacked.”

Christians as ‘Enemy’Dr. Dominic Emmanuel, spokesman of the Catholic Archdiocese of Delhi, told Compass that the VHP came out in the open to launch the attacks because “they want to get a larger support of the Hindu masses by suggesting that their religion is in danger due to the evangelical activities bringing new converts to Christianity.”

“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS, parent organization of numerous Hindu extremist groups including the VHP] has the agenda of creating a Hindu nation, and it is trying to tell the Hindus to wake up and protect their religion,” Emmanuel said.

Dayal, also secretary general of the All India Christian Council (AICC), said the VHP’s motive was to send a message to the Hindu community that they have “enemies” beyond Muslims in India, so as to portray themselves as the “protectors” of the Hindus and their religion.

Hindu extremists claim that minority Muslim and Christian communities are a threat to their religion – the former through their terrorist activities, and the latter by conversions. Muslims form close to 14 percent of India’s 1 billion-plus population, and Christians account for 2.3 percent. About 82 percent of the population is Hindu.

Survival TacticsStressing that Hindu extremists in India need an enemy to survive, Dayal went on to say that if there were no Muslims and Christians in the country, the RSS would then target Dalits and tribals or anyone who would not fit the Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) ideal or who worship “Mother India” as a goddess incarnate.

“We will have to keep on reminding ourselves and the world that India is designed to be a secular country, and not a Hindu theocracy,” Dayal said. “It is not easy to combat Hindutva. Even the governments cannot afford to hit at the ideology, because ministers and others even in the Congress Party and socialist parties, and often also in the Marxist parties, at some stage bow down before it.”


He noted that the Indian government has long taken more seriously the persecution of Muslims than that of Christians. “We are lobbying to make sure that the anti-Christian violence gets the same attention as anti-Muslim violence in the law against religious violence being formulated in the Parliament.”

Emmanuel of the Catholic Archdiocese of Delhi added that portraying Christians as a prime enemy is calculated to win votes.

“The assertion that Christians are out to destroy Hinduism is a totally unfounded belief, but this is what will help them [extremists] to consolidate their Hindu votes to get back to power, which they hope will one day help them to translate their dream of creating a Hindu nation,” he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which ruled the federal government as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance from March 1998 to May 2004, is the political wing of the RSS. Part of the Hindutva ideology promoted by the RSS foresees non-Hindus having to submit to the will of Hindus with no special or equal rights.

The BJP lost the 2004 general election to the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) but continues to rule several states, either directly or in coalition: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Karnataka and Bihar.

Although the next general election is expected in early 2009 – unless the ruling government falls before completing its five-year term in the office – political parties have begun preparing for it.

Daylight ReligionSeveral hundred Christians marched through the streets of New Delhi on May 29 to protest the “silence” of the UPA government over increasing attacks on them.

“According to the AICC, at least one incident of anti-Christian attack was reported every third day in 2006,” the Rev. Madhu Chandra, an AICC leader and the coordinator of the rally, told Compass. “This rose to at least one attack every alternate day during the first four months of this year.”

Addressing the gathering, Dayal said Christianity had been reduced to a “daylight religion,” because “the people of the community feel unsafe after sunset.”

He also said it was no longer only the BJP that should be blamed for an anti-Christian agenda. “Look at the Congress-government in Himachal Pradesh, which enacted the anti-conversion law,” he said.

Dr. Joseph D’Souza, AICC president, recently wrote to the Indian prime minister calling for urgent steps to protect the Christian minority. He said the silence of the government could result in the killing of many Christians.


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***********************************India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecutionby Vishal Arora and Nirmala Carvalho

New Delhi, June 7 (Compass Direct News) – The Congress Party has asked India’s government to advance slowly on the issue of granting equal rights for Dalit religious minorities – discouraging India’s 16 million Dalit Christians who hope for a positive outcome in a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for July 19. The Congress Party’s intervention could mean the granting of Scheduled Caste (SC) status for Christian and Muslim Dalits will be put on hold once again, The Times of India reported on June 6. The hearing in the high court has already been deferred seven times since August 2005. Christian and Muslim Dalits are denied access to many SC privileges extended to Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist Dalits. The Congress Party made its move after two tribal communities, the Gujjar and Meena in Rajasthan state, rioted over SC privileges; at least 14 people were killed in the riots. The Rajasthan government had promised official tribal status to the Gujjars before coming to power in December 2003. – VA

Karnataka – Representatives of the Pastors’ Fellowship of Bangalore and Mysore met with police on June 4 to request the withdrawal of false charges against the wife of a pastor assaulted in May. Both Pastor Hosula Raj of Pandavapura village, Mandya district, and his wife Geeta had been charged with outraging religious feelings and aiding and abetting forced conversion after a mob of around 30 Hindu extremists attacked their church. Raj’s wife and their 18-month-old son Joshua have moved to a safer location since the charges were filed, said Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “Circle Inspector Sibbalangappa was very hostile to our request,” Pastor J. Jacob of the Pastors’ Fellowship told Compass. “He angrily questioned us about the whereabouts of Geeta and her son and asked why, if Geeta and Hosula Raj were innocent, they had not filed a counter-complaint against the extremists.” Ironically, “it was Sibbalangappa himself who refused to register our own complaint when the attack took place,” Jacob added. – NC

Madhya Pradesh – Members of the extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked two pastors in separate incidents in the state on June 3. A mob of around 25 RSS members attacked Pastor Bheem Singh of Khandwa district at around 11:30 a.m. as he returned home from Sunday worship. Sources told Compass that the RSS accused Singh of unethical conversions and shouted derogatory remarks against Christianity. They also insulted members of his family. A few hours later, at around 2:30 p.m., RSS members disrupted a prayer service in Rajgarh district, slapping and punching Pastor Mukesh Pal as a worship service was being conducted, said Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “The RSS members threatened the believers with dire consequences if they continued attending the services,” said a local source. “They also damaged furniture, hymn books and musical instruments.” The extremists also warned Pal to cease holding Christian meetings in the district. – NC


Orissa – Four members of the extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked two pastors of the Good Shepherd Community Church in Ramannaguda village, Gajapati district, on June 2. The four beat Pastors Kanstantino Pariccha and Harish Chandra with bamboo sticks as they were preparing for a prayer meeting, according to Dr. Sam Paul of the All India Christian Council. The assailants, who were allegedly drunk and came from a neighboring village, accused Pariccha and Chandra of “forcibly converting” local people. Pariccha was recovering from serious internal injuries in a hospital at press time. About 17 families in Ramannaguda village are Christian, and the village headman, absent at the time of the attack, supports the Christian minority. “The pastors do not want to press charges against the attackers, but they have asked the local police to intervene and help them reach a compromise with the assailants in a peaceful manner,” Dr. Paul told Compass. – VA

Uttar Pradesh – Around 60 members of the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM or Hindus’ Forum for Revival) threatened members of the Believers’ Church in India (BCI) in Sukhpara village, Ballia district on May 29 and tried to “reconvert” one of them to Hinduism. The HJM extremists stormed the village, caught hold of Mohan Ram, a local Dalit Christian, and symbolically reconverted him to Hinduism by sprinkling him with water from the Ganges River – considered holy by Hindus – a local source told Compass. “They also threatened other believers in the village, saying they should stop worshipping God or their houses would be burned,” the source added. Local police intervened and registered a complaint on behalf of the Christians, although at press time no arrests had been made. The complaint named four people who allegedly instigated the attack against the small community of six Christian families. – VA

Himachal Pradesh – Hindu extremists on May 27 launched an intimidation campaign against the Christian Fellowship Church in Joginder Nagar, Mandi district. Pastor Anil Kumar said Munshi Sharma, a local leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), slapped a church member, Prem Singh, and his son Gyan Singh as they returned home from a service. Sharma and his associates also warned the Singhs not to attend church in future. “Singh’s son lost his temper and slapped Sharma back, after which they beat him up very badly,” Kumar told Compass. On the following day, RSS members assaulted the pastor. When Kumar went to the police station to file a complaint, police informed him that Sharma had already lodged a complaint against Gyan Singh. “A few days before this, the RSS threatened another Christian, who has since stopped coming to the church,” Kumar added. When the Christian Legal Association of India intervened, police promised to help the two parties to reach a compromise. Local Christians say discrimination and persecution has increased since the state government passed an anti-conversion bill on December 30, 2006. – VA

Maharashtra – Extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal assaulted Joseph D. Baptist, a Christian worker of Good News Fellowship as he distributed gospel tracts at the Mulund railway platform in Mumbai on May 26. The small mob grabbed Baptist’s literature, slapped him and dragged him to the railway police station. According to Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian


Christians, Baptist had just finished giving tracts and a book to a man identified as Shri Devang Bilakhia when the extremists approached him and accused him of attempted forcible conversion. The railway police said religious charges were outside their jurisdiction and declined to register a complaint against Baptist. The mob then took Baptist to the Mulund police station, hitting him repeatedly en route, and filed a complaint there. Baptist was detained for several hours at the police station and released later that evening. – NC

Maharashtra – Around 20 members of the extremist group Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (VKP or Forest Dwellers Welfare Council) attacked two Christians, Jeepar Laxman Tumada and Ramesh Dhame Dilat, as they returned home from a prayer meeting in Sakwar village, Thane district, on May 25. “These right-wing VKP activists often attack tribal Christians in remote rural areas under the pretext of preserving traditional religion and society,” Dr. Abraham Mathai, vice-chairperson of the State Minorities Commission, told Compass. Tumada and Dilat have registered a complaint at the Mandvi police station, but at press time no arrests had been made. – NC

Maharashtra – Members of the extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) tried to stop a three-day Pentecostal healing convention in Mulund, north-east Mumbai, on May 24. At 5:30 p.m., when the first meeting was due to start, approximately 50 RSS members gathered outside the venue and accused the organizers of arranging the meeting as a ploy to convert Hindus to Christianity. The extremists also threatened to beat up anyone who attended the meeting. “They also lodged a complaint at the police station, and the police registered a case under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code [forming an unlawful assembly and rioting] against the organizers,” Dr. Abraham Mathai, vice-chair of the State Minorities Commission, told Compass. Mathai registered his own complaint under Section 149 against the RSS, and the convention was allowed to proceed as scheduled. Conditions were tense, however, and attendance at the convention was poor as people feared further threats from the RSS. – NC

Gujarat – The Gujarat state government in May filed a complaint against two Christians, G.U. Nathan and P. Selvan, under the state’s anti-conversion bill, though it has yet to be signed into law. A local resident had complained that Nathan and Selvan, who work for the Alpha Bible College (ABC), had converted a minor, Raisinh Vasava, from Surat district. After charges were filed, Samson Christian of the All India Christian Council and Govind Swamy of the ABC petitioned the High Court, arguing that the case had adversely affected the ABC by exposing it to possible attack. The Gujarat High Court on May 23 then issued a warning notice to the government, pointing out that the state’s anti-conversion bill had not yet become law. The Gujarat anti-conversion bill was initially passed on March 26, 2003, but when legal hurdles arose the government introduced an amendment bill on September 19, 2006. The bill is still waiting assent from the state governor. – VA

Himachal Pradesh – Forty extremists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked Bernard Christopher and Ravinder Gautam, two workers from the Transfiguration Missionary Society (TMS), on May 23 and threatened them with death if


they did not leave Kullu city. The extremists beat the two missionaries and shaved their heads, leaving only a small tuft of hair. This practice, known as “tonsuring,” is usually a Hindu religious rite and therefore an insult to Christians. They then forced Christopher and Gautam to drink water from the Ganges River, clean a Hindu temple, write a false report about their activities and sign it, according to Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). Pastor Naresh Lall of the India Evangelical Mission said the two missionaries may have argued with local Hindu priests about the authenticity of Hindu idols, triggering the attack. Christopher and Gautam have declined assistance from the GCIC to register a police complaint and have left Kullu. – NC

Karnataka – Extremists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) attacked five Christian workers from the Church of South India (CSI) during a Vacation Bible School (VBS) function in Kolar district on May 22. The extremists dragged the five men to a local police station and filed a complaint against them. A local CSI pastor, who requested anonymity, told Compass that the incident took place during the VBS children’s prize-distribution ceremony. The five Christian workers sustained internal injuries. “But instead of arresting the attackers, the police arrested the victims on false charges of ‘forced conversion,’” the source said. Of the five arrested, three were granted bail the same day, while the other two remained in jail at press time. – VA

New Delhi – The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) has submitted a memorandum to the president of India asking him to ensure investigation against Christian missionaries’ “conversion activities” and enactment of a national anti-conversion law. The memorandum, entitled, “Ground Reality about allegations of so-called assaults on Christian Missionaries” and signed by VHP resident Ashok Singhal, was allegedly presented to the president on May 28, a day before several hundred Christians in New Delhi protested against growing anti-Christian violence. Calling missionaries a “vested interest” and “Taliban,” the memorandum alleges they malign the name of Hindu organizations by making false allegations and try to “finish” non-Christians by “use of force.” “Your Excellency… Christian missionaries work under the garb of innocuous-looking fronts but with the offensive, aggressive and imperialist design and agenda to Christianize the whole of humanity,” it states, along with accusing them of bringing money from foreign countries into India for “conversions” through illegal means. Responding to the memorandum, a representative of the Christian Legal Association told Compass that the VHP’s claims were “baseless,” as not a single Christian has been convicted of using force or allurement for conversions, whereas numerous VHP members had been found guilty of beatings, killings and rape. – VA

END

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***********************************Hindu Mob in India Beats, Strips, Parades Pastor During assault, they douse him with kerosene and toss burning Bible at him.by Vishal Arora


NEW DELHI, June 12 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of Hindu extremists on Friday (June 8) beat a pastor and tried to set him on fire before parading him naked in the suburbs of Bangalore, capital of Karnataka state.

Laxmi Narayan Gowda, an independent pastor and representative of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), was recovering in a hospital at press time with swelling and numerous bruises.

The incident took place at about 7 p.m. in Hessarghatta, about 30 kilometers from Bangalore, when a group of about 50 people barged into the pastor’s house and threatened him with violence unless he moved out of the area, said Sam Joseph, a Karnataka-based leader of the All India Christian Council (AICC).

The group returned with 100 more people shortly after, cornered Pastor Gowda in a room in his house, and began assaulting him in front of his wife and two small children.

Extremists of the Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council), allegedly led the mob.

One of the assailants threw kerosene on the pastor, and others started burning Bibles. Someone tossed a burning Bible onto Pastor Gowda, but miraculously he did not catch fire, Joseph told Compass.

The extremists then stripped the pastor naked and hung a board around his neck that said, “I am the one who was converting people,” before parading him through the area.

“By this time, the mob had swollen to about 1,000, as more people joined in to harass and torture the pastor,” Joseph added.

Local police arrived about an hour later, after one of the pastor’s relatives called them by telephone.

The assailants burned at least 250 Bibles and also vandalized furniture and equipment.

Police had not registered a case against the attackers at press time. When Compass spoke to Inspector R. Malesh of the Soladevanhalli police station, he said the victim did not want to file a complaint.

“We have requested the Christians to give us a complaint in writing, but they do not want to press charges against the attackers,” he said. Malesh claimed that the mob consisted of local people who did not belong to any Hindu extremist groups. Some of Pastor Gowda’s neighbors attacked, he said, because they do not want Christian prayers and meetings to take place in his house.


A local source, however, told Compass on condition of anonymity that the attack was pre-planned and directed by an unidentified lawyer. The lawyer suggested to the crowd that if they hit the pastor as a mob, then there would be no possibility of prosecution, said the source.

Before Pastor Gowda accepted Christ about 15 years ago, the source said, he was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organization of numerous Hindu extremist groups in India.

“The attackers seemingly wanted to punish Pastor Gowda for converting to Christianity from their Hindu nationalistic ideology, and warn others against dong so,” added the source.

Pastor Gowda has been working in the area for the last 12 years. The source also said the pastor was firm in his faith following the attack.

Dr. Sam Paul, AICC’s public affairs secretary, said that although Karnataka was known for anti-Christian attacks, the situation has become more volatile in the state since the Janata Dal-Secular party, in coalition with the Hindu nationalistic Bharatiya Janata Party, took power from the Congress Party in February 2006.

“Extremists in Karnataka are emboldened as the police usually turn up after the incident,” he said. “There are also times when the police encourage anti-social elements to harass Christians.”

Paul also stressed the need to educate India’s people about true conversion, in particular that it does not mean that one becomes anti-national.

Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the GCIC, told Compass that he was thankful to God for saving the life of one of his organization’s representatives.

END

*** A photo of Pastor Laxmi Narayan Gowda recovering in the hospital is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecutionby Vishal Arora and Nirmala Carvalho

Madhya Pradesh, June 17 (Compass Direct News) – Police in Chhindwara district detained Pastor Sumat Yadav and three members of his church on June 17 after extremists accused them of attempted conversion. “Hindu extremists came along with the police to the Believers Church in Parasiya area of Chhindwara on Sunday afternoon and


disrupted the worship service,” a local source told Compass. The police told Pastor Yadav that there was a complaint against him in connection with attempted conversions. A team of women from the Believers Church were preaching in Parasiya the previous day (June 16). Extremists questioned the women, who allegedly admitted to converting people. In response, police detained Pastor Yadav and three church members and questioned them for two hours on June 17, before issuing a warning against such preaching and releasing them. When Yadav later asked the team members if they had admitted to converting people, they denied doing so. – VA

Karnataka – Around 25 members of the extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) beat Pastor Hosula Raj on June 16 at his home in Pandavapura village, Mandya District, Karnataka. Raj was earlier assaulted by the RSS on May 13 and charged under the Indian Penal Code for “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings.” On June 4, representatives of the Pastors’ Fellowship of Bangalore and Mysore met with senior police officers in Pandavapura village, asking them to withdraw charges placed against Raj’s wife, Sister Geeta. “They also submitted a memorandum to the police, but to no avail,” Pastor J. Jacob, a member of the Pastors’ Fellowship, told Compass. In this most recent attack, despite pleas for help, nobody came to Raj’s aid. “He is in great pain, with swollen arms, and his lip is cut and bleeding,” Jacob told Compass. “But he is terrified of filing any charges.” Police inspector S.T. Sibbalangappa told Compass that the attackers may simply have inquired about the whereabouts of Geeta and been enraged when he refused to answer. – NC

Madhya Pradesh – About 40 members of the extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) stormed a prayer meeting in Sehore district on June 16, confining Pastor Teras Khaka to the house and beating him for three hours, according to a local source who requested anonymity. The mob forcibly took Khaka away in a jeep after the beating. Khaka later submitted a complaint to the police, but they had not recorded an official complaint at press time. Assistant Sub-Inspector D.L. Verma confirmed to Compass that Khaka had minor injuries and said an investigation was still underway. The RSS members meanwhile have lodged a counter-complaint against Khaka, accusing him of forced conversions. – VA

Maharashtra –Interests in Nagpur district recently launched a campaign to seize land belonging to the Believers Church in Kalmeshwar sub-district, site of a prospective Bible college. After receiving threats, church authorities asked the Land Survey Department to demarcate the boundary; they then began building a fence to protect the land against illegal occupation. “On June 13, however, a mob came into the compound and forcibly stopped the fencing work, issuing threats against the workers,” Bishop M.A. Lalachen of the Believers Church told Compass. “They think they can easily grab our land since we are a persecuted minority community.” Inspector Ashok Iyyer of the Kalmeshwar police station told Compass police would take action against the culprits if they tried to create further tensions. – VA

Madhya Pradesh –Attorney General of India Milon Banerji has criticized the Madhya Pradesh state anti-conversion amendment bill, passed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya


Janata Party (BJP) on August 3, 2006. State Gov. Balram Jakhar had sought Banerji’s opinion on the controversial amendment, which was passed without any discussion, The Indian Express reported on June 12. Gov. Jakhar had also asked the state government to submit a detailed report on the number of conversions over the past five years, but the BJP could furnish details only of conversions in 20 out of 48 districts – with no proof of forced conversions. Several poorer districts did not report any conversions, despite state government claims that conversions in poor areas were rampant because Christians were offering inducements to the poor. Jakhar had sought the attorney general’s opinion because “the figures provided by the government did not justify the amendment,” The Indian Express article stated. – VA

Karnataka – Extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) disrupted a worship service in a rented building in Sirsi city on June 10 and issued threats against the pastor. “About 50 RSS members barged into the Good Shepherd Community Church and threatened Pastor Paul Bellam, saying if he did not stop his ministry, they would ensure that his wife Esther Rani lost her job at the local government hospital,” Dr. Sam Paul, public affairs secretary of the All India Christian Council (AICC), told Compass. The assailants also asked the pastor to move out of the area or face unspecified consequences. “AICC representatives in Karnataka are helping Pastor Bellam to take proper legal action against these people,” Paul added. Karnataka’s state government is ruled by the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) party, in coalition with the Hindu nationalistic Bharatiya Janata Party. Christians say Hindu extremists have intensified their activities since the JD-S party came to power in February 2006. – VA

Goa – Members of the Hindu extremist group Bajrang Dal attacked Pastor S. Zachariah of the Prayer House in Bambolim on June 10, according to Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. A congregation of around 80 people meet at the Prayer House for Sunday morning worship. About eight months ago, Philomena D’Cunha began worshipping at the Prayer House, with her neighbor joining her five months later. Zachariah had apparently encouraged his church members not to worship Hindu deities, local sources said, and D’Cunha’s neighbor attempted to remove some idols from her home. Her husband, Manoj Nippanikar, became furious with her for attending the meetings and trying to remove the idols George explained. “He informed the Bajrang Dal that conversion activities were taking place at the Prayer House and then joined them in the attack,” George said. The extremists slapped Zachariah, grabbed the Bible from his hands and punched him repeatedly. The same group has since filed a formal complaint with police regarding Zachariah’s alleged “forced conversion” activities. – NC

Madhya Pradesh – Police in Jabalpur city arrested three Christian workers under the state anti-conversion law on June 7. Sudhir Kumar, a 52-year-old pastor who works with India Every Home Crusade, and two associates identified only as Pramod Kumar and K. Kumar, were arrested under Sections 1 and 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians, told Compass. The arrest took place after unknown persons lodged a complaint at the Civil Lines police station, charging the Christians had “forcibly converted” area Hindus. The


complainants submitted a personal letter written by Kumar, which they had apparently stolen from the local post office, as “evidence” against the Christians. The letter contained a report of the pastor’s ministry in the area. All three Christians were released on bail on June 7, and police were investigating the charges at press time. – VA

Madhya Pradesh – Police in Dargaon Chikli village, Khargone district arrested three independent Christian workers, including a woman, on charges of conversion by use of “allurement” on June 7. The Christians – identified as Pastor Kailash Mansingh Barela, Sister Eelu Bai and Kirale Singh Barela – had gone to police to file a complaint against unidentified Hindu extremists who had broken into their house on June 5 and disrupted a prayer meeting. All three were arrested and charged under Sections 3 and 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, or anti-conversion law, according to Head Constable Murli Dhar of the Barud police station. “Local villagers had lodged a complaint against them claiming that they were offering financial benefits to other villagers for adopting Christianity,” Dhar told Compass. Christian rights groups maintain that anti-conversion laws are enacted by governments in India to allow Hindu extremists to harass Christian workers. – VA

Maharashtra – Unidentified persons have been issuing death threats against two pastors of the Believers Church in Ahmednagar district. A caller claiming to be a member of the Hindu extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has called Pastor Ajit Deshpande, who has a church in Mirajgaon, Karjat sub-district, several times since April 6, according to his associate, the Rev. Thomas Varghese. “The caller keeps asking Deshpande to deny Christianity and ‘reconvert’ to Hinduism, saying he and his family will be killed if they don’t comply,” Varghese told Compass. “Similar threats were made against Pastor Gregory Francis Kedari last week, with an anonymous caller asking him to stop his preaching ministry,” Varghese added. Kedari had earlier received a letter on March 29 warning him to stop preaching Christianity or face “dire consequences.” Warnings were also issued to Kedari asking him to cancel a three-day Christian meeting from May 25 to 27. The phone calls began after Kedari proceeded with the meeting. At press time, neither pastor had reported the phone calls to the police and were praying earnestly for protection for their families. – VA

Orissa – Residents in Kaushalyapal village, Dhenkanal district are threatening a Christian family with ostracism because of their faith. “Christian convert Biswanath Banara, his wife and their seven children, who converted to Christianity a few years ago, have now lost their ancestral land because they no longer take part in the traditional animal sacrifices,” Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians told Compass. Villagers have illegally occupied Banara’s land to express their anger against his family’s conversion. When Banara went to the village headman to complain, the headman “tried to incite Banara to kill the culprits to implicate him in a police case,” George added. Banara has submitted a written complaint to the police, but at press time no action had been taken. Of 300 animist villagers in Kaushalyapal, Banara’s is the only Christian family. – VA

Andhra Pradesh – Police in Guntur district arrested two Catholics, an underage boy and


a woman, for distributing Christian literature in a Buddhist-dominated area on June 2. Dr. Sam Paul, public affairs secretary of the All India Christian Council, told Compass that the Catholics, identified only as 15-year-old Chilka Peter and Sister Prabha, were distributing booklets about God’s love in Amaravati, the site of a Buddhist temple. Hindu extremists saw Peter and Prabha distributing literature and reported them to the police, who charged them under Sections 296 and 298 of the Indian Penal Code for causing disturbance and wounding religious feelings respectively. The police released them on bail the same day. “We condemn the police action, as it is a violation of the religious freedom provided by the Indian Constitution,” Paul said. Andhra Pradesh is ruled by the Congress Party; its chief minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, is a Christian. Hindu extremists, who accuse Reddy of giving a free hand to Christian missionaries, launch frequent attacks against Christian workers in the state. – VA

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***********************************India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecutionby Nirmala Carvalho, Vishal Arora and James Varghese Karnataka, June 28 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists assaulted Silvester Pereira, a Roman Catholic priest at Carmel Church at Katkeri, in the village of Koteshwara, Kundapura, in a hospital on June 25, the Deccan Herald News Service (DHNS) reported. Fr. Pereira had gone to Surgeon Hospital, along with four companions, for a medical check-up. As he waited for a doctor, four local Hindu extremists confronted the priest and his companions, accusing them of forcibly converting people to Christianity, according to the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. Local sources told Compass the accusers were members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. They pulled Fr. Pereira down the stairs, pushed him to the floor and struck him with kicks and blows. One of his companions tried to intervene and lost teeth in the altercation. The extremists took them to a local police station and accused them of forcible conversion. Initially police refused to allow Fr. Pereira to file a complaint, but with the support of another priest he was able to file a First Information Report against the assailants. At press time, police had arrested one person. – NC

Andhra Pradesh – Unidentified Hindu extremists on June 21 dragged a Christian worker to a temple in Narayankede area in Andhra Pradesh state’s Medak district and told him to bow down before an idol. When Pastor John Peter of Bible Centered Ministries refused, they tore his clothes, shaved his head and beat him till he fell unconscious, Dr. Sam Paul of the All India Christian Council told Compass. The assailants took the pastor, whom unidentified people had earlier warned against preaching the gospel, from the Pochamma temple, paraded him around the area, beat him and left him lying unconscious in a forest area near the Manjeera River. Around 10 p.m., the pastor regained consciousness and walked 25 kilometers (16 miles) to Papannapet village in Narayankede; from there he caught a cab home in Pathuru village. Peter later refused to press charges against the extremists, saying he had forgiven them. – VA


Karnataka – Hindu extremists of the Hindu Jagaran Vedike attacked pastor Paul Samuel in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka state on June 10, Samuel told a meeting of Christian leaders organized by the All-India Christian Council and the Joint Action Forum of Christians in Bangalore on June 21. According to The Hindu newspaper, Samuel told the meeting, “No one, not the local member of the Legislative Assembly, the police or the media are on our side.” Dr. Sam Paul of the All India Christian Council told Compass the meeting of Christian leaders was held to develop a strategy for networking and staging protest marches and sit-ins. “The police are not responding to the Christian appeal for security as they should,” Samuel said. “Often the police connive with the fundamentalist elements to harass the Christians.” – NC

Kerala – The Kerala unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on June 21 demanded that the state government deport foreign missionaries in Kerala state who are “indulging in widespread religious conversion with the help of foreign aid,” reported the daily DNA. VHP Kerala Organizing Secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan told reporters in Kochi that about 150 missionary workers under tourist and business visas in various parts of the country are converting people in violation of visa regulations. He claimed that five missionary workers from the United States in Kerala for three years had converted about 2,000 people. Rajasekharan said if the government failed to take steps to stop the “illegal functioning” of missionaries, the VHP would organize a “march” to their meetings sites and homes. Dr. Sam Paul of the All India Christian Council (AICC) told Compass, “There is absolutely no record or truth that there are 150 missionaries with tourist visas. There may be 150 tourists, and they may be all Christians, as majority of the tourists may be Christians. If the VHP’s allegation is true, India should close down its multi-million dollar tourist industry.” – NC

Karnataka – Hindu extremists burned 500 copies of a book called The Life History of Jesus Christ that they confiscated from a girls primary school in Siddapur, Karnataka state on June 18, the Vijay Times reported. The mob, drawn from Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV, or Hindu Forum for Revival) and the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the books were being used to convert schoolchildren to Christianity. They also staged a protest in Sirsi. According to local sources, the Siddapur protest was conducted under the leadership of Member of Legislative Assembly Vivekananda Vaidya, who told reporters, “This matter will be taken to the knowledge of the education minister, and action will be taken by the authorities.” Others present in the protest were BJP town President K.J. Naik and Satish Kodia of the HJV. – JV

Kerala – Eight people known for their Hindu extremist ideology on June 15 killed a 52-year-old Christian social activist, allegedly over his activism against a toddy shop in the Konny area of Kerala state’s Pathanamthitta district. The body of Joy Anthariveth was found in the Kavil area near Thannithodu, where the slain Christian was running a movement against the toddy shop, the Rev. Paul Ciniraj of Kerala-based Salem Voice Ministries (SVM) told Compass. Anthariveth, a member of the SVM’s prayer fellowship, was murdered while returning from a prayer meeting. “Anthariveth was walking on the Kavil bridge on June 15 when the culprits came in their Scorpio car and beat him to death,” Ciniraj quoted the police as saying. “He tried to escape through the narrow path


between the Marthoma Church and the Federal Bank but could not. They threw the body from the bridge to the rivulet.” Police told Ciniraj that Anthariveth had received several threats and warnings by toddy shop personnel. On June 20, police arrested five of the accused, while the remaining three were absconding at press time. – VA Karnataka – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV) handed over nine Christians to the police on June 10 in Sirsi, Karnataka state, for alleged forcible conversion of Hindus to Christianity, said Dr. Sajan George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “The Christians were assembled for Sunday worship when the HJV activists disrupted the prayers and dragged the nine believers to the local police station,” George said. The nine Christians mentioned in the HJV’s complaint are Paul Samuel and his wife Estela, John Alfhans, Zavier Fernandes, Iresh Bhovi, Usha Manohar Naik and others identified only as Pramod, Ganesh, Antoni. – NC

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***********************************Imprisoned Indonesian Sunday School Teachers ReleasedThree women walk free after serving nearly two years of three-year sentence.by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, June 8 (Compass Direct News) – A small crowd gathered to welcome Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun as they walked free from the Indramayu district prison in West Java, Indonesia early this morning. They had served nearly two years of their three-year sentence.

The three women were arrested in May 2005 and sentenced to prison that September for allowing Muslim children to attend their Sunday school program, even though the parents had consented to their children’s attendance. After several legal appeals failed, the women were delighted to be granted an early release on parole following international advocacy campaigns on their behalf.

Authorities quietly moved the release from 9 a.m. to 6 a.m. after Muslim extremists said they would gather outside the prison to protest the reduced sentence. During their trial in 2005, Muslim extremists had made murderous threats against the three women within and outside the courtroom.

The Christian Peace and Prosperity Party sent two busloads of people to the prison to ensure safety for the women. Supporters and a handful of local and international journalists were also present to witness the release.

Tearful FarewellThe women appeared happy and peaceful as they emerged through the prison gates, an eyewitness told Compass. All three said they had no fears for the future and were convinced that God would protect and guide them forward.


Other female prisoners were tearful as Zakaria, Pangesti and Bangun left the women’s cell-block, the eyewitness told Compass. Zakaria’s daughter, Linda, had traveled to the prison almost daily with food for the three; they cooked meals on a small gas stove in their cell to supplement the poor prison diet and often shared the meals with fellow inmates.

“It was really moving to see how the other prisoners cried when they waved goodbye to them,” the source said.

With little fanfare, the women were taken by bus to Cirebon where they reported to the prison superintendent. As a condition of their early release, the women are required to sign in at the Cirebon office once a month until February 2009.

After their early morning release, the women spent the rest of the day celebrating with their families in Cirebon. Bangun hopes to visit her father’s grave in Medan during the next few weeks; her father died two months ago while she was still in prison.

All three women will return to their homes in Indramayu district, although plans for future employment and/or ministry involvement are still unclear.

Zakaria, 49, returned to her hometown, Harguelis, late today, where she plans to attend a thanksgiving retreat with her church members tomorrow (June 9). A family doctor, Zakaria has two children attending university, in addition to Linda.

The 45-year-old Pangesti has three children, the youngest 8 years old. Ratna, 40, has two sons, the younger one now 4 years old.

Prison ChurchZakaria, Pangesti and Bangun were arrested after members of the local Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI or Muslim Clerics Council) in Indramayu district, West Java, accused them of trying to convert Muslim children.

A local primary school had approached Zakaria’s church in 2003 and asked them to run a Christian education program for their Christian students, as required by a new National Education System Bill. The school lacked the necessary equipment and teachers to run the program itself.

Several months later, when Muslim children were discovered attending the classes, Muslim clerics filed a complaint with the Indramayu police. The women were arrested on May 13, 2005 under Indonesia’s Child Protection Act. After a series of hearings, judges on September 1, 2005 found the women guilty of “Christianization,” saying they had used “deceitful conduct, a series of lies and enticements to seduce children to change their religion against their wills.” (See sidebar below.)

For almost two years, prison guards have granted permission for Zakaria’s church, the Gereja Kristen Kemah Daud, to meet within the prison grounds on Sunday mornings,


after the forced closure of their meeting place in Harguelis. The church now faces the very-real challenge of finding another, more permanent worship facility.

Muslim extremists have forced a number of churches in West Java to close in recent years, citing lack of official permits. Church closures peaked around the time of the Sunday school teachers’ trial in 2005.

A controversial law governing permits for places of worship was then revised. The Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) now requires proof of at least 90 existing members, the approval of 60 neighbors from different faith backgrounds, and approval from local authorities before a church permit is granted. A separate building permit is also required.

Christians say the new provisions make it virtually impossible to obtain a church permit, particularly in Muslim-majority neighborhoods.

Last Sunday (June 3), around 100 Muslim hardliners barged into a home in Soreang, West Java, during a Sunday school class. The mob, members of the Anti-Apostasy Alliance Movement, smashed glass images of Jesus Christ and demanded that the church be shut down, citing lack of a proper permit, Reuters reported on Monday (June 4).

Lidia Elisa, wife of the Rev. Robby Elisa, told Reuters that the men tried to force a teenage student to “spit on the Bible and deny Christ. But when he refused, they kicked him in the gut … they sent the kids outside screaming and crying.”

As Zakaria, Pangesti and Bangun return to life in the volatile environment of West Java, they ask that Christians around the world continue to support them in prayer.

SIDEBAR

Sunday School Teachers on Trial: How it Happened

Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangunwere arrested after allowing Muslim children to attend their “Happy Sunday” Christian education program.

In 2003, a public elementary school in nearby Babakan Jati approached the staff of Zakaria’s church, the Gereja Kristen Kemah Daud, and asked if they would establish a Christian education program for the school.

Under the terms of a new National Education System Bill passed in June 2003, all public schools were required to provide religious education for children of religious minorities attending their schools (see Compass Direct News, “A New Twist on Indonesia’s Controversial Education Bill,” September 12, 2003.)


The school asked Zakaria’s church to provide teachers and an appropriate program for their Christian students. Pangesti and Bangun volunteered to run the program under Zakaria’s direction.

Within 18 months, 40 children were attending the program – but only 10 were from Christian homes. The Muslim participants had full verbal consent from their parents, but when they began to sing Christian songs at school, Islamic elders reacted and forced Zakaria’s church to close.

The women then continued to run the program from Pangesti’s home.

On March 26, 2005, the women organized an Easter bus tour to an amusement park in Jakarta. Each of the participating children was given a T-shirt displaying the name of the church and a Star of David logo, so that the teachers could keep track of them during the outing.

During the tour, one of the children asked for and received a Bible from one of the teachers.

As a result, Islamic leaders approached church staff and demanded that Muslim children no longer attend the program. They also filed complaints with the Indramayu district Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) council and the Indramayu police.

On May 13, 2005, the women were arrested and accused of breaching Indonesia’s Child Protection Law. They faced a maximum sentence of five years and a potential fine of 100 million rupiah (US$10,536).

During court hearings in July and August of 2005, the courtroom was surrounded and literally invaded by Muslim extremists chanting anti-Christian slogans. Judges sentenced the women on September 1, 2005 to three years in prison for “deception, lies and enticement” causing a child to convert to another religion – even though no Muslim child attending the program had converted to Christianity.

END

*** Photos of Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun following their release are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Muslim Radicals in Indonesia Threaten House ChurchesDemonstration in West Java calls for closures; two congregations attacked.Special to Compass Direct


JAKARTA, June 21 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim extremists demonstrating on June 14 in West Java threatened to close down churches operating in private homes, and a pastor on Sunday (June 17) received an anonymous letter promising to destroy his home if it is “still functioning as a church.”

The protest and threats followed two attacks on churches in West Java in early June.

Some 150 protestors from the Mosque Movement Front (FPM) and the Anti-Apostasy Alliance joined the mid-June march, The Jakarta Post reported on June 15.

By law, Indonesian church groups must have a worship permit – but strict terms of a Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) revised last year make it virtually impossible to obtain one.

A church now requires proof of at least 90 existing members, the approval of 60 neighbors from different faith backgrounds, and approval from local authorities before a church permit is granted. A separate building permit is also required.

For this reason, most churches worship without the requisite permit in private homes or rented facilities.

After marching from the al-Ikhlash Mosque to the Katapang district office in Bandung, FPM head Suryana Nur Fatwa warned officials that if they failed to close down illegal churches, FPM would take matters into its own hands: “Every violator must stop their activities or the FPM will be forced to close them down.”

Fatwa presented a list of 26 private homes being used as churches in Bandung regency. He claimed 17 of them had stopped operating “of their own free will,” but that nine others were still meeting for worship.

Katapang district chief Nina Setiyana said she did not wish to take sides but wanted all houses of worship in her area to be authorized, The Jakarta Post reported.

“It would surely be better if they all had permits and did not break the regulation ... so no one could make a problem out of it,” Setiyana added.

The Rev. Simon Timorason, head of the West Java Christian Communication Forum, said that according to an article in the SKB, local government officials were legally required to facilitate the acquisition of places of worship for minority religious groups.

Timorason, who often acts as a negotiator between Christian and Muslim leaders, has recorded at least 70 disputes over the use of private homes as worship facilities since January 2004.

Attacks in TalegongPrior to the demonstration, Muslims mobs attacked two churches in early June.


On June 9, a mob attacked the Assembly of God (GSJA) church in Talegong with stones and wooden clubs, smashing doors, roofs, windows and kitchen furniture. They also took away a Bible and ownership deeds for the church land and threatened the pastor’s wife with a machete.

A government official arrived just in time to prevent further violence, and nobody was hurt in the attack. On the following day, however, a larger crowd of 300 people gathered and demanded that church members move away from the area.

“Witnesses said the mob was looking for Pastor Tata Budiman, who was away at the time,” local Christian mission leader Gideon Eddy reported. “It’s a good thing they didn’t find him.”

Budiman began his ministry in Talegong in 2003 and soon had a congregation of 40 people, all from Muslim backgrounds.

“Locals were aware of this, but never protested, since the believers were still identified as Muslims on their ID cards,” Eddy said.

On June 7, however, two days before the attack, police contacted local administrators and asked them to help GSJA members change the religious status on their ID cards.

Some local Muslims perceived this as an official acknowledgement of Christianity in their community; the news spread quickly, leading to the attack on June 9.

With tensions soaring, Budiman and his family, along with a dozen other church members, have taken shelter in a nearby city and will not return home for at least two months.

“I submit everything to the Lord,” Budiman told Compass. “I’m just thankful that none of my church members reconverted to Islam.”

Attack in SoreangA week earlier, on June 3, 56 members of the Anti-Apostasy Alliance Movement broke into a GSJA house church in Soreang, West Java, disturbing a Sunday school class. The mob demanded that the church be shut down and that all Christian activities cease in the area.

“I was away when they came, but my wife Lidia was home, along with several Sunday school teachers and children,” the Rev. Robby Elisa told Compass. “The mob entered my bedroom by force and threw my books around. My wife was hit twice on the head – first with a Bible, and then with a bare hand – when she tried to stop them.”

Lidia Elisa told Reuters news agency on June 4 that “the men forced a teenage student to spit on the Bible and deny Christ. When he refused, they kicked him in the gut.”


Mobs attacked four other churches in Soreang in 2005, forcing them to close. Elisa, however, refused to shut down his church or move it to another location.

“If we Christians did something wrong, please let us know – but without violence,” he told Compass. “We have equal rights in front of the law. We need the government to acknowledge our rights to worship as fellow citizens.”

Police are reviewing the case, and meantime the church has applied for a building permit. Several Christian organizations, including the Advocacy Body of Human Rights (Elham), are providing legal assistance.

“Elham countered the Muslims’ claims that we gave false charges regarding the physical attacks on my wife,” Elisa explained. “They also filed a report to the National Human Rights Commission for Children, since our Sunday school children were heavily traumatized by the incident.”

But threats continue. On Sunday (June 17), Elisa received an anonymous letter that stated in part, “If your house is still functioning as a church, we will destroy it.”

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***********************************Assailants Gun Down Iraqi Priest, DeaconsMurder is first known killing of Chaldean clergyman since fall of Saddam Hussein.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 5 (Compass Direct News) – Iraq’s Chaldean community yesterday mourned the deaths of a priest and three deacons shot on Sunday night (June 3) by unknown assailants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Father Ragheed Ganni was leaving his Holy Spirit parish at 6:40 p.m. with three deacons when armed men stopped him and pulled him from his car, a source in the Mosul archbishopric said.

The source said that the attackers gunned down the four Christians, shooting Ganni approximately 15 times before driving away in the priest’s car. Members of the Holy Spirit parish, located in eastern Mosul, waited until 10 p.m. to collect the bodies from the street for fear they would be attacked, the source said.

“You cannot imagine what the bodies looked like,” a priest who photographed the corpses told Compass.

Ganni’s death is the first known killing of a Chaldean clergyman in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.


“Why my son, what mistake did he make to be killed?” the priest’s father asked, according to those who attended Ganni’s funeral. “He liked his church, he loved his people and everyone loved him.”

Ganni and other Mosul clergy had been threatened in the past, but the motives for the priest’s murder remain unclear, a source in the archbishopric told Compass.

“We don’t know who and we don’t know why,” the source said.

“Everyone gets threats,” one priest commented, noting the anti-Christian attitudes of Mosul’s predominantly Sunni population.

According to Catholic news agency Asia News, Ganni’s church faced previous harassment, suffering a bomb attack on May 27.

“We are on the verge of collapse,” Ganni wrote in a May 28 e-mail to Asia News.

The archbishopric identified the three murdered deacons as Basman Yusef, Waheed Isho and Ghasan Bidawid. Both Yusef and Bidawid were in their mid-20s and unmarried, while Isho, in his late 30s, left behind a wife and four children, the archbishopric said.

“It was really a shock to her,” one priest who attended the funeral told Compass when asked about Isho’s widow. “I don’t know how she can live with this.”

Delayed Returning to RomeThe four men were buried in the town of Karameles, a Chaldean Christian village 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Mosul yesterday. Mosul Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho celebrated the funeral mass, held at 3 p.m. in the Mar Addai church.

Many high level clergy attended the funeral, including Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly, head of the Chaldean church. Delly called on the Iraqi government to take notice of the plight of its Christian minority, which has faced increasing attacks and harassment in recent months.

Also in attendance was Sarkis Aghajan, a member of Iraq’s historical Christian community and finance minister for the Kurdish regional government.

In a telegram sent to Archbishop Rahho yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased and said he hoped their costly sacrifice would inspire men and women to reject evil and violence, “hastening the dawn of reconciliation, justice and peace in Iraq.”

Having worked in Mosul, the city of his birth, since 2003 after graduating from seminary in Rome, Ghanni was known for his willingness to sacrifice for his congregation.


According to Iraqi Christian website Baghdadhope, Ganni delayed returning to Rome for further studies last year in order to remain with his congregation in Mosul.

“He was the right-hand man to the bishop [Mosul archbishop Rahho],” one priest said. “For the bishop, he was like his son.”

Chaldean Patriarch Delly yesterday called on Iraqi leaders to intervene and end the “persecution of Iraqi Christians, their forced emigration, and their being pushed to deny their faith,” according to Zenit news agency.

A source in Mosul’s archbishopric told Compass that emigration has caused attendance at Ganni’s former parish to drop 70 percent in the last three years. Church leaders fear that if killings such as that of Ganni continue, soon no one will remain.

“Kill the priest, and it will kill the community,” one priest told Compass from northern Iraq this morning.

In October 2006, a Syrian Orthodox priest from Mosul was kidnapped and dismembered, reportedly in retaliation for a controversial speech made by Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg that some believed insulted Islam. Ganni’s church also came under attack in the weeks following the pope’s Regensburg address.

An eastern rite church in communion with Rome, the Chaldean Church is Iraq’s largest Christian community.

Christians made up 3 percent of Iraq’s population before the toppling of Hussein in 2003, but hundreds of thousands of Christians have since fled their homes amid the anarchic violence throughout much of the country.

END

*** Pictures of Father Ragheed Ganni are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Iraqi Priest Still Missing One Week After Kidnapping Islamic militias threaten more than 1,000 Christian families in Baghdad.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 13 (Compass Direct News) – Iraqi church leaders continue to hope for the release of a priest kidnapped exactly one week ago, even as the number of threats against Christian families in the Iraqi capital tops 1,000, church sources said.


Fr. Hani Abdel Ahad and four young men from his church were kidnapped on June 6 while traveling from his Divine Wisdom parish to the city’s minor seminary, both in northeastern Baghdad’s Suleikh neighborhood.

“I can’t say anything before Hani is released,” Fr. Warduni said today by telephone from Baghdad. Other church leaders said they believe Ahad is alive but declined to disclose what, if any, efforts were being made to secure the missing priest’s release.

Fr. Ahad was transporting several personal belongings by truck with the help of young men from his church when he was stopped and kidnapped, a church source said.

The four young men were released the following day. Church sources refused to openly state whether a ransom had been paid for their release.

One church leader said that the four young men had been kept in a separate house from Fr. Ahad. Upon their release, the source said that the kidnappers “left them on the street and gave them just enough money for a taxi home.”

Previous ViolenceFr. Bashar Warda, rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in Erbil, told Compass he hoped Christians around the world would continue praying for Fr. Ahad’s freedom.

“Christians are facing a more and more difficult time,” Fr. Warda commented. The priest said that as of this morning, a church committee had documented more than 1,000 Christian families, mostly from southern Baghdad, who have been threatened by Islamic militias.

He said that the families have been either directly or indirectly threatened by armed groups as part of a “campaign” to rid Dora and several adjacent neighborhoods of their Christian populations.

Christian families in these areas have reportedly been told to convert to Islam, pay jizya (a tax paid by non-Muslims living in Muslim countries), leave with only the clothes on their backs or marry one of their daughters to the Muslim fighters.

“Around 60 of these families are without a house now, and they will be sent within the week to either Kirkuk or Kurdistan,” Fr. Warda said.

Fr. Ahad, the seventh Chaldean priest known to have been kidnapped within the past year, was working in a northeastern, majority-Sunni neighborhood that has seen relatively little direct targeting of Christians.

The quiet and introverted cleric had arrived in Baghdad a year ago to fulfill his dual post as parish priest for the Church of Divine Wisdom and as assistant to the rector of the minor seminary, located near the church in Suleikh. Before that, he had worked for two years at a parish in Lebanon.


But despite being relatively more “Christian-friendly” than certain other Baghdad neighborhoods, Suleikh has seen several anti-Christian attacks.

The priest who formerly held Fr. Ahad’s position at the Church of Divine Wisdom said that he remembered at least two specific occasions where the minor seminary had been bombed in the past year. He said the seminary closed approximately 10 months ago because of escalating violence.

Fr. Ahad’s capture came just days after another Chaldean priest, Ragheed Ganni, was shot to death near his Holy Spirit parish in Mosul on June 3.

According to Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com, Ganni and three deacons were told to convert to Islam before being riddled with bullets as one of the deacon’s wives looked on.

Afraid that the bodies were rigged with explosives, church members called both local police and the military to collect the corpses from the street. Law enforcement did not arrive, and Christians eventually collected the bodies three hours later.

Ankawa.com also reported on Monday (June 11) that unknown assailants bombed an Assyrian Church of the East church in the Nineveh plain city of Telkaif, 10 miles north of Mosul, at 11:30 a.m. The article said that two people sustained minor injuries while the blast broke the parish garden wall and shattered its windows.

City officials later claimed that the blast had not targeted the church, which is located on one of the city’s main roads, but had been an assassination attempt against a district official.

“Some security sources confirmed that this explosion was aimed at me personally,” district head Bassem Blo told Ankawa.com. Blo said that his entourage had passed along the road only 15 minutes before the explosion.

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***********************************Iraqi Church Secures Kidnapped Priest’s ReleaseBishop: ‘They demanded money because we are Christian and we must pay jizya.’by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 18 (Compass Direct News) – An Iraqi Chaldean priest kidnapped 12 days ago in Baghdad was released yesterday, a church leader said.

Father Hani Abdel Ahad was released Sunday (June 17) at 1:30 p.m. in Baghdad, Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni told Compass from Baghdad today.


The bishop declined to comment on whether the church had paid a ransom but confirmed that the motive for the priest’s kidnapping was a mix of religious and financial considerations.

“They asked for money because we are Christians and we must pay jizya [a tax on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule],” Warduni said. In recent months Islamist gangs have begun to demand this religious tax of Christian residents in certain Baghdad neighborhoods, forcing them to leave the area if they are unable to pay.

“Because we don’t give them [jizya], they kidnap and ask for money from the church,” Warduni said. He said that Ahad’s kidnappers had referred to jizya during telephone negotiations with Warduni for the priest’s release.

The bishop said that Baghdad’s summer heat and constantly being blindfolded had been especially hard on Ahad, but he declined to elaborate on the priest’s physical condition. He said that Ahad has been able to talk about his experience in captivity and was doing well emotionally.

“He needs some [medical] examinations, because 11 days under the treatment of those people…” Warduni trailed off, declining to go into further detail. “But in general he is good.”

Ahad was kidnapped on June 6 along with four young men from his Divine Wisdom parish in Baghdad’s Suleikh neighborhood. The young men were helping the priest move several personal belongings and were on their way to the smaller of the city’s two Chaldean seminaries when their truck was stopped. Unknown assailants abducted all five Christians.

The seminary had been closed for about 10 months due to rising violence in Baghdad, including two bomb attacks on the institution, a former school staff member told Compass.

“Suleikh is part of a Sunni area, and the people who kidnapped him were Sunni,” one priest told Compass. “We got so scared about this because you know the Sunni don’t ask about money, they just directly kill people, like what happened in Mosul.”

Only three days before Ahad’s kidnapping, a Chaldean priest and three deacons in Mosul had been forced from their car and gunned down after being told to convert to Islam.

But despite fears of a quick execution, the four young men kidnapped with Ahad were released the following day (June 7) after a ransom had been paid for their release, one church source told Compass.

Another church source said that the kidnappers had initially demanded half a million U.S. dollars for Ahad’s release, which the church was unable to pay. That figure had already


been negotiated down to a fraction of the original by the middle of last week, the source said.

By that time, church leaders told Compass they felt hopeful that Ahad would be released. On Tuesday (June 12), several priests were able to speak by telephone with Ahad to ascertain that he was alive.

“They asked him about the date of his ordination and some other dates, to make sure that [they were speaking with Ahad],” one source said.

Referring to Christians around the globe who had been praying for Ahad’s release, Warduni said, “Thank them very much Their prayers and all of our prayers were good for him. They sustained him and allowed him to live these days in hope.”

Islamic Reasoning Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com reported yesterday that Muslim militia bombed a Christian home in Baghdad’s Amariya suburb because a family refused to pay jizya.

Though Ahad’s captors used the religious pretext of jizya to justify the kidnapping, Warduni said that it was impossible to reason with them using Islamic theology.

“We told them, ‘The Quran says we are brothers in creation because our Lord created all of us,’” Warduni told Compass. “‘Also, we read in the Quran that there is no obligation [compulsion] in religion. You have your religion and I have my religion.’”

But the bishop said that Ahad’s captors had scoffed at his reasoning. “You are pagans because you worship Christ,” the kidnappers told Warduni. “You are outside the faith.”

“Still, it’s a matter of money,” said one priest who has been involved in negotiations for the release of other kidnapped priests. “You start the business going [by paying ransom], and you feel that it’s an immoral act. You feel like you are participating in the violence, because you are maintaining the whole process.”

The priest said that his greatest struggle was knowing that if he did not pay for a kidnapped person’s release, he might cause his or her death.

“It’s all part of the game – once you pay, you expect that there will be another one kidnapped,” he said.

Ahad is the seventh Chaldean priest known to have been kidnapped within the past year. Warduni has negotiated for the release of several of the seven. Asked if he was worried that another clergyman would be kidnapped soon, or that he himself might be targeted, his answer highlighted the uncertainty facing Christians in Iraq.


“We leave everything in the hands of the Lord, because we believe that he loves us and also we cannot explain why we are in this situation,” Warduni said. “I hope there will be no more like this.”

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***********************************Iraqi Gang Frees Kidnapped ChristiansPriest says university students, faculty targeted for their faith, money.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 22 (Compass Direct News) – Christian university students and faculty kidnapped two days ago on their way home from exams at Mosul University were released today, an Iraqi satellite TV channel reported.

According to Ashtar TV, two university teachers and six students from the predominantly Syrian Catholic village of Qaraqosh were released in Mosul city around noon today.

“We have received the good news of the release of the eight, and the people here are very happy,” a priest from Qaraqosh told Compass. He requested that Compass not publish the names of the eight people for security reasons.

Local sources said that family members retrieved the freed Christians from an undisclosed location in Mosul city at about 1 p.m. after a representative of all eight families had paid a ransom for their release earlier this morning.

According to one priest, the families gave a total of US$250,000 for the group, which he said consisted of only one teacher and seven students, several of whom were doing post-graduate work.

The kidnapping highlights the vulnerability of Iraq’s religious minorities, who, without militias of their own, often suffer at the hands of armed groups.

“First of all, they were kidnapped for money, and secondly, they were kidnapped because they are Christians,” the Qaraqosh priest said. “The minorities are vulnerable.”

The priest said that Christians’ vulnerability stemmed from the fact that they were called to live lives of peace. “That’s why we can’t arm ourselves,” he commented. According to the priest, the students and teacher had suffered from torture during their two day captivity.

On Wednesday (June 20), unidentified assailants stopped a bus carrying Christian students from Mosul University, where they had been taking exams, to their homes in Qaraqosh, 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast.


Local sources confirmed initial reports by Catholic news agency Asia News that armed men had boarded the bus and read a list of names of the people they wanted, checking identity cards when no one responded.

“They had some names written down, because there were some people who told them that they could have a big ransom from these [particular] families,” a source said.

The source also confirmed that the kidnapping had taken place in Hail Musena, near a police station, but that officials had failed to intervene.

In a June 21 article, police told Reuters that eight Christian university students had been snatched off a bus east of Mosul. Battling DangersLocated only a few miles from Mosul, where religiously-driven violence has killed two priests in the past year, Christians in Qaraqosh have been forced to adopt creative solutions to counter deteriorating security.

Syrian Catholic leaders have organized a volunteer-based village guard of approximately 1,200 men who patrol Qaraqosh’s perimeter around the clock in four six-hour shifts. Armed men check all traffic entering and leaving the village, at times accompanying unknown travelers on their personal visits.

During a visit to the village in November 2006, local clergy told Compass that they had temporarily opened their own seminary, the St. Ephraim Institute, because their young men were unable to attend classes in Baghdad. At that time, deteriorating security in Baghdad’s Dora district and a string of kidnappings had forced the Chaldean college and seminary, which served members of various churches, to close its doors.

Qaraqosh also has had to deal with an influx of some 1,500 refugee families from Baghdad and Mosul over the past three years. Its total population has now hit 35,000, up from 29,000 in 2003.

But the most recent kidnapping is halting one of the Syrian Catholic church’s most gutsy innovations, a daily caravan of buses to transport students to and from Mosul University. It was one of these buses from which gunmen snatched eight Christians on Wednesday.

“It tears us apart, the fear of even one bus being hit,” one Qaraqosh priest told Compass in November, referring to the possibility of an attack on the caravan.

“We are stopping the buses because it’s too dangerous,” a priest told Compass from Qaraqosh today, saying that the caravan created too big a target for Islamists and money-making gangs.

Mosul-based groups have increasingly begun to carry out violence in Christian villages outside the city. Two Christians were buried in Telskuf, 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of


Mosul, on Tuesday (June 19) after a kidnapping gang returned the bodies to their families the previous day, Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com reported.

Ramzi Yakou Shamasha, 50, and Ismael Azria Shamashal, 48, were kidnapped on June 11 and killed two days later, despite the fact that their families paid $20,000 for their release, Ankawa.com reported.

Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christians made up 3 percent of the country’s population. That number has dropped in the past four years as hundreds of thousands have fled Iraq due to the deteriorating security situation in which Christians and other minorities are often specifically targeted.

END

*** A photo of the Syrian Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Iraqi Christians Targeted in BaghdadSyrian Catholic policeman murdered, Chaldean home bombed.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 27 (Compass Direct News) – For one man, the release of eight kidnapped Christians from his hometown of Qaraqosh on Friday (June 22) was bittersweet.

Ten days prior, his own brother-in-law, Fouad Salim, had not been so fortunate when militants killed him in Baghdad as he left his work at a police station in Razaliyah.

“It was because of his religion,” said the Syrian Catholic, who asked to remain anonymous. “They asked him to be Islamicized [convert to Islam], and when he refused they killed him.”

Salim, 32, left behind a wife and two children, a 5-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. Like many of the 50,000 Iraqis displaced by violence each month, according to the United Nations, they have fled to Iraq’s relatively stable northern region. There they live with relatives in the village of Qaraqosh, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Mosul.

But recent kidnappings and murders of Christians in and around Mosul, as well as the skyrocketing cost of living, make the north less than appealing for many. Most difficult are the painful memories that each migrant from the south carries with them.

“I’m not gong to stay in Iraq, because Iraq is the land of death,” Salim’s wife, still in shock, told her relatives when she arrived in Qaraqosh.


Salim’s family believes he was murdered by Shiite militants within the police force. Before his death, he had confided to his family that he was receiving anonymous threats that he would be killed if he refused to convert. He suspected the threats came from radical colleagues.

Fleeing BombsSalim’s story is one of a growing number of incidents of persecution against Christians reported from Baghdad in recent months.

In a Baghdad neighborhood that once held 50 Christian families, the remaining two were forced to flee after their car was bombed over two weeks ago.

A middle-aged Chaldean couple from Hai Al-Jamiyah district told Compass that they were forced to leave home with only the clothes on their backs when militants planted a sound bomb beside their car. Area residents spoke of how Christians should leave the area, said the couple, whose own children and grandson left two months prior.

The husband and wife said that even though local militias had not demanded that they pay jizya, an Islamic tax exacted from non-Muslims under Muslim rule, they felt their lives were threatened all the same. After their car was bombed, they said that armed gunmen had forced them to leave home without any of their possessions.

Christian Iraqi website Ankawa.com reported on June 17 that militants in Baghdad’s Amariyah district had set off a bomb in the garden of a Christian home, forcing the family to leave. On June 20, the website said that another four families from Sayedia were forced to flee their homes after militants threatened them with consequences similar to those faced by Christians in Baghdad’s Dora district.

A Sunni stronghold and fault-line between Sunni and Shiite militias, Dora has been almost emptied of its Christian population. In late March and early April, stories began to trickle out of the neighborhood that local Islamist groups were demanding that they convert to Islam or pay jizya. The only alternative was to leave.

“There’s about 30 percent of the city that needs work, like here in Dora and the surrounding areas,” U.S. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told The Associated Press on June 16 from Dora’s market. U.S. forces have worked to increase their presence in the district as part of campaign to regain control of the capital.

Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly strongly condemned U.S. forces in May after they had occupied the church’s seminary and college in Dora last April, though some church leaders felt troop presence would keep away looters. The buildings had stood empty since staff relocated classes to the northern village of Ankawa for security reasons.

Iraq’s increasing violence has precipitated a mass exodus, with some 2.2 million Iraqis now residing outside the country and another 2 million internally displaced, according to


a June 5 U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) briefing in Geneva. UNHCR figures from Syria and Jordan last year showed that an exceptionally high percentage of refugees are Christians, though the group only constitutes 3 percent of the country’s population.

“Particularly in Iraq … Christian families and communities are feeling increasing pressure from insecurity, aggression and a sense of abandonment,” Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday (June 21), a day after calling on Christians to offer hospitality to refugees.

“The number of the refugees is being increased because of the threats and the atrocities,” Salim’s brother-in-law told Compass from Qaraqosh. “We need the international conscience to pay attention to the Christians in Iraq.”

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***********************************Malaysian Court Halts Woman’s Effort to Legally ConvertJudges rule Lina Joy must seek Muslim tribunal’s approval to remove ‘Islam’ from ID.by Jasmine Kay

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 (Compass Direct News) – Malaysia’s highest court on Wednesday (May 30) handed down a decision that prevents Lina Joy, a Muslim convert to Christianity, from having her conversion legally recognized.

In a 2-1 majority decision, the Federal Court ruled that the National Registration Department (NRD) was right in requiring Joy to produce a declaration from the sharia (Islamic law) court stating that she is no longer a Muslim before it would remove the word “Islam” from her identity card.

The ruling comes after a seven-year legal battle to have Joy’s conversion officially recognized.

Her final legal option would be to ask for a review of the Federal Court decision. If she applies for review and it is accepted, then her case would be heard before an expanded panel of either five or seven judges.

Joy was quoted in the May 31 local daily The Star as saying through her lawyer, Benjamin Dawson, that she was disappointed with the court decision.

“The Federal Court has not only denied me that right but [denied it] to all Malaysians who value fundamental freedoms,” she said.

Joy had hoped that the outcome of her case would influence the development of constitutional issues in many other cases that are pending in the courts.


Joy has refused to submit herself to the sharia court, which has jurisdiction only over Muslims, saying that to do so would undermine her position since she no longer professes the Islamic faith.

She expressed concern that it would be very difficult for her to “exercise freedom of conscience” in the present environment.

Legally, Joy will not be able to enter into marriage with a non-Muslim (unless he converts to Islam), and children from her marriage would be regarded as Muslims.

The outcome of Joy’s case will have bearing on a number of cases in which the issues of jurisdiction (whether civil or sharia courts have authority) and freedom of religion are at stake.

In two cases, those of S. Shamala and R. Subashini, the question of jurisdiction arose in relation to custody of children following the women’s husbands’ conversion to Islam.

In another case, Siti Fatimah was separated from her family and sent to a religious rehabilitation camp when Islamic authorities found out she had married a non-Muslim. Her daughter was handed over to her mother to be brought up as a Muslim.

Public ReactionOn the day of the court decision, hundreds of Muslim observers gathered outside the Palace of Justice, following the proceedings in the courtroom via text messages. They greeted the outcome of the case with shouts of “Allahuakbar [Allah is great].”

While Muslim groups welcomed the verdict, Christian groups and non-governmental organizations expressed disappointment that the decision failed to protect religious freedom in the country.

The Rev. Dr. Herman Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, said in The Star today, “We believe that the constitutional provision in Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion in our country, has been severely violated.”

Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing, Chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia said, “The decision reflects a growing trend where civil courts are renouncing their responsibility of providing legal redress to individuals who only seek to profess and live their religion according to their conscience.”

The Bar Council of Malaysia has called for the upholding of the Federal Constitution as the supreme law in the country. In a press release, it said, “The express provisions of the Federal Constitution were made to give way to an interpretation of some form of implied jurisdiction of the sharia courts.”


The panel of judges who heard the case comprised Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Bin Sheikh Abdul Halim, Federal Court Judge Alauddin Bin Mohammad Shariff and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum. Ahmad Fairuz and Alauddin ruled against Joy, while Richard Malanjum ruled in her favor.

The Role of IslamIn his judgment, Ahmad Fairuz argued that the NRD’s request for an order from the sharia court is reasonable since the issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law.

Given the special position of Islam as the “religion of the Federation,” he argued that Article 11 cannot be interpreted so widely as to nullify the requirement to follow and abide by Islamic laws that are binding on Muslims.

Dr. Ng Kam Weng, who heads Kairos Research Centre, a Christian organization, disagreed with Ahmad Fairuz’s interpretation on the role of Islam as the “religion of the Federation.”

He cited former Chief Justice Hashim Yeop A. Sani, who wrote, “The words ‘Islam is the religion of the federation’ appearing in clause (1) of that article has no legal effect,” and that “the intention was probably to impose conditions on federal ceremonies to be conducted according to Muslim rites.”

Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz was also quoted in the May 31 issue of The Star as saying, “One cannot embrace or leave a religion according to one’s whims and fancies.”

Some local observers have questioned this statement in light of the evident hardship Joy has undergone following her decision to convert to Christianity. She is believed to have gone into hiding for her safety.

In response to the judgment, the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship said that the Federal Court’s insistence on Joy obtaining an order from the sharia court is similar to asking someone who leaves another religion to embrace Islam to first seek permission from his or her religious leaders. The statement went on to say, “Mutual respect and tolerance surely cannot be fostered without due regard to the principle of reciprocity.”

Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., commented, “The judge’s statement flies in the face of the fact that, in Malaysia, if Joy had decided to convert from Christianity to Islam she would have faced no legal impediment whatsoever.”

Marshall added that the double standard discredits Malaysia’s claim to be the home to a new, progressive Islam.

Long Legal RoadJoy, who was given the name Azalina binti Jailani at birth, converted to Christianity in 1990 and was baptized in 1998.


Since 1997, she has made multiple applications to the NRD to have her name changed to reflect her new-found faith. Her application for a name change was approved on October 22, 1999, and she was issued with a new identity card.

Her identity card, however, stated that she was a Muslim according to a new regulation that came into force on October 1, 1999 requiring all Muslims to be identified as such on their identity cards. The NRD refused to change her religious status and insisted that Joy obtains an order from the sharia court stating that she had become an apostate.

At that point, Joy decided to bring her case to the courts. Prior to this, the lower courts – the High Court and the Court of Appeal – had dismissed her application.

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***********************************Muslim Rule in Nigeria’s Kebbi State Chokes ChurchConverts from Islam feel the hostility in sanctuary demolitions, discrimination.by Obed Minchakpu

KALGO, Nigeria, June 29 (Compass Direct News) – For Kebbi state pastor Nuhu Mamman, to become a Christian was to have a death sentence passed on the life he knew: converting killed his past, and his future appeared moribund as family, friends and fiancée abandoned him. Raised a Muslim, Mamman received Christ as a young man in 1969 after missionary Malam Shekaru of Garu Kurama preached to him and others. He was the first person in his village to receive Christ, he said.

“My conversion from Islam to Christianity was first thought to be a joke by my parents, but when they realized that I was a committed Christian they kept away from me,” Rev. Mamman said. “I was disowned by my family members and was told that I have lost my inheritance from the family. I became an outcast with no home or family, and no one wanted to eat with me.”

Using only the Bible, Shekaru taught Mamman and others how to read and write, Rev. Mamman told Compass in Kalgo town, where he is a pastor and secretary of the Kebbi district Church Council of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA).

He never attended elementary school or high school. Learning to write under the tutelage of his missionary teacher, Rev. Mamman eventually gained admission to a Bible school, where he studied pastoral theology. He also obtained a bachelor’s degree in pastoral theology at the Jos ECWA Theological Seminary.


Rev. Mamman now presides over a church with over 2,000 members, 16 pastors, and 25 church planters. The church has 44 mission stations spread across Kebbi state, whose population of over 2 million is majority-Muslim.

Before his conversion, he had been engaged to marry. After he confessed Christ, he said, the family of his fiancée cancelled the engagement.

“I could not find any girl to marry,” he said. “All Muslim families in my village considered me an infidel.”

It took Rev. Mamman 11 years to find a Christian woman, Naomi – far from his Muslim community, in distant Katsina state – to marry.

His commitment to remaining faithful to Christ has resulted in two of his brothers becoming Christians as well, he said. Otherwise, Rev. Mamman is often shunned.

“My Muslim blood relations don’t like me – they dislike and keep away from my family as if we are a plague to be avoided,” Rev. Mamman said. “They hate us because we have abandoned Islam. Our predicament has even been made worse as even Christians from other non-Muslim communities still don’t trust us. They believe that we are still Muslims despite our conversion to Christianity. This is very tough on us.”

DemolishedRev. Mamman, from the Hausa ethnic group of Kebbi state, says persecution of Christians is widespread in the state.

“In the northern part of Kebbi state, Christians face serious difficulties,” he told Compass. “We are always being forced to transfer former Muslims who have become Christians to other parts of this country in order to shield them from persecution.”

The church works hard to protect converts to Christianity from Muslim extremist attacks. After Adamu Muhammed, a Muslim from the town of Birnin Kebbi, became a Christian in 1997, Muslim radicals sought to kill him. As they hunted for him, Rev. Mamman said, the church moved him to Jos in central Nigeria, where he became a Bible student.

In 2003, Rev. Mamman added, a Muslim named Ibrahim Jega from Jega town converted to Christianity.

“His family members and other Muslims threatened to kill him,” Rev. Mamman said. “We were forced to take him to Zuru town for safety. Another convert from Islam to Christianity, Mohammed Abara from Sabon Birni town, also had to be taken to Pisabu by us in order to save his life.”

Equally difficult is obtaining places for converts from Islam to worship.


“Even if we succeed in getting land to provide such converts with places of worship, Muslims who are in government will not allow us build such churches,” said Rev. Mamman, who was ordained an ECWA minister in 1994.

“Whenever we go to renew our land documents or even pay land rent for our church lands, Muslim government officials usually refuse to accept such payments,” he said. “But then, this is deliberate, as after a period of time they usually declare our church buildings as illegal structures, just to find reasons to demolish our places of worship.”

As one example of arbitrary demolitions of places of Christian worship in the state, Rev. Mamman cited the destruction of a church in Danbargo village by government agents.

“In Danbargo village of Shanga Local Government Area, almost all the villagers last year decided to become Christians after listening to the gospel preached to them,” he said. “We built a place of worship for these Christians, but the local government council authority of Shanga demolished this church building.”

Rev. Mamman said the local council also told the Christian villagers that if they refused to recant their belief in Christ and return to Islam, the government would seize their farms.

“Without any visible means of surviving this attack,” he said, “these Christians in Danbargo village went back to Islam.”

The Rev. Adamu Sunday Peni, vice chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kebbi state chapter, told Compass that lack of land for building places of worship – along with forceful conversion of Christians to Islam and discrimination against Christian public workers – is among the most pressing problems Christians face.

“In Gwandu town, there are Christians in this town, but there is not a single place of worship there because Christians have been denied land to build church buildings,” said Rev. Peni, also a pastor with the United Missionary Church of Africa. “So also in Aliero town, Christians have no place to worship and are forced to travel every Sunday to Jega town for worship services.”

In 1992, said Rev. Mamman, 13 churches including an ECWA building were demolished in Birnin Kebbi on the claims by the state government that they did not comply with town planning laws.

“But this is a farce,” he said. “Government officials here who are all Muslims, have always devised means of creating false claims on churches so as to demolish them.”

Kebbi state is one of 12 states implementing sharia, or the Islamic legal system, in northern Nigeria. While officially sharia is supposed to apply only to Muslims, Rev. Mamman said it is used to forcibly convert Christians to Islam. He said Christians


recently had been forced to convert to Islam in the villages of Rafin Gora, Tungan Tanko, Hayin Banki, Nakadere, and Tungan Goge.

BurnedRev. Mamman and other converts to Christianity still face humiliation and stigma, he said.

Besides state opposition, Christians in Kebbi state also face social hostilities. The few buildings that serve as worship places are often targets of Muslim extremists, who set fire to them at will.

Islamic rioting and church burnings are not unknown in Kebbi state, the church leaders said.

With rioting in Jega town having burned churches and killed Christians in 1994, Muslim extremists again went on a rampage in 2005, Rev. Mamman told Compass.

“They burned our churches, and the ECWA church in Jega town too was burnt to ashes,” he said. “One of our members, Ayuba Mamman [no relation], was killed.”

Rev. Peni confirmed the attack on Jega Christians, the burning of their churches and the killing of four Christians there in the year 2005. He could provide only two partial names of those killed, however: Ayuba and Livinus.

Also in 2005, Rev. Mamman said, Muslim extremists in Kangiwa town burned the ECWA church there.

Marginalized Rev. Peni said Christians suffer discrimination in the public service sector.

“In appointment into government, Christians don’t stand the chance of getting appointed,” Peni says. “There is only one Christian commissioner in the state public service, as appointments are based on whether one is a Muslim or not,” he added.

Pastor Sati Riba of Redemption Power Ministry said that in Kebbi state, only one of the state’s 12 permanent secretaries is a Christian.

Rev. Peni further noted that Christian Religious Knowledge is not taught in public schools, while Islamic Religious Knowledge is compulsory in all of them.

Kebbi state government officials declined to discuss these issues with Compass.

END


*** Photos of new converts in Kebbi state, the Rev. Nuhu Mamman, the Rev. Adamu Sunday Peni and Pastor Sati Riba are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Pakistani Mob Assaults Christians with Axes, GunsPolice slow to register case; Muslim extremists pressure doctors to under-report injuries.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, June 20 (Compass Direct News) – Christian families fled a Pakistani village in Punjab province this week after an armed mob injured Protestants preparing for an evangelistic meeting, the victims’ lawyer said.

Seven Christians were injured when at least 41 Muslim men armed with guns, axes and wooden sticks attacked a Salvation Army church in Chak 248 north of Faisalabad on Sunday night (June 17), lawyer Khalil Tahir Sindhu said.

The Christians’ refusal to give in to demands that they cancel the evangelistic meeting prompted the attack, Sindhu said.

Armed Muslims had stormed the home of Christian Sawar Masih on June 16, injuring his teenage son, Shahbaz, and daughter, Robeela. They warned Masih, a member of the Human Life Association that was organizing the outreach, to cancel the evangelistic meeting scheduled for the following day at 6 p.m.

“They had just put up posters advertising the event two or three days before, so this is what triggered the attack,” Sindhu told Compass from Faisalabad.

Emboldened by the fact that they had obtained written permission from local union council head, Badir Munir, to mount a loudspeaker that would broadcast the sermon, the Christians continued with their plans to stage the event. Believers were already at the church carrying out preparations when the mob attacked at 5 p.m. on Sunday evening.

According to Sindhu, the mob used axes and wooden sticks to assault the Christians and desecrate the church, firing pistols into the air to cause panic. He said that many of the church books were ruined and that seven Christians suffered from bruises and fractured bones. In some cases, the bones were exposed.

“Some of the injuries were caused by being hit with the blunt side of an axe, while others were caused by the weapon’s sharp side,” Sindhu said.

The lawyer said that Christians had fought back against the attackers outside the church, and that one Muslim had allegedly been injured. He said that Muslims from Chak 248


had also registered a First Information Report (FIR) yesterday against four Christian men whom they claimed had started the fighting.

In the FIR, Chak 248 resident Abdel Ghafoor claimed that four Christians had thrown trash at the home of Muslim Abdel Hammad, attacking and injuring him when he protested.

Police Drag FeetPolice initially refused to file a case against the mob, lodging an FIR only yesterday evening after Sindhu and 50 Christians from the village lobbied the district inspector general.

“They finally registered a case because they knew that it would get bad attention if they didn’t,” Sindhu told Compass today.

National English-language daily Dawn reported yesterday that the injured Christians had allegedly been forced out of Allied Hospital in Faisalabad, only hours after arriving for treatment on Sunday night (June 17).

But Sindhu said the injured victims had received medical examinations at Dijkot hospital. The real problem, he said, was that doctors came under pressure from the Muslim attackers to under-report the Christians’ wounds.

“Five of the medical certificates are incorrect, including the certificate of Shahbaz Masih, because it fails to mention his fractured bones,” Sindhu said.

The lawyer plans to submit a petition tomorrow for Faisalabad district and sessions judge Muhammad Yusuf to order a second medical examination to correct the mistakes.

Sindhu is also dissatisfied with the FIR, which names 16 of 41 attackers, because it fails to charge the mob with illegal trespassing and religious hatred under penal code articles 452 and 295-A, respectively. He hopes to add charges of terrorism, as almost all of the Christian men from the village have fled to escape reprisal attacks, and those who remain live in fear.

Sindhu is helping to house and feed 28 Christians from Chak 248, who are afraid to return home.

Christian politicians told Compass today that they plan to increase lobbying efforts to ensure that the case is not dropped.

“We all condemn this tragic event,” Shahid Arif, a former district assembly member, told Compass from Faisalabad while on his way with several other Christian leaders to discuss the incident with district assembly head Rana Zahid Tauseef.


Speaking from Faisalabad, where he heads inter-religious dialogue for the diocese, Catholic priest Aftab James Paul commented that violence against Christians stems from antagonistic messages from various parts of society.

“The whole education system is like that, the media, both print and electronic, and the Muslim religious clergy also teach negative things,” Paul said. “The whole atmosphere in this country is anti-minorities and anti-poor. All the weak sections of society are victimized.”

The priest called on Christians to set aside Friday (June 22) as a day of prayer for the Pakistani church. He said that it is often on Friday, after midday prayers at the mosque, that violence occurs.

“All Muslims are not bad, in fact most of them are very good and want peace and harmony,” Paul said.

But the priest remained skeptical about Muslim fanatics. “To change the hearts and minds of these people is very difficult. It’s not impossible, but I don’t know how long it will take.”

END

*** Photos of Christians injured in the attack are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Christians Arrested in Sri Lanka for Destruction of StatuesChief monk at Buddhist temple files accusations; two believers in custody deny charges.by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, June 5 (Compass Direct News) – A pastor and two associates from Mt. Carmel Theological College in Kandy, Sri Lanka, were arrested on May 27 and charged with destroying Buddhist statues.

Pastor Suresh Ramachandran, principal of the college, was released on May 28 after authorities learned he had a clear alibi. Pastor Christian Velu Selvarajah and Stephen Thomas, however, are still in custody and face an initial hearing on Thursday (June 7), according to a report by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL).

The chief monk at a local Buddhist temple has accused the men of destroying two small statues of Buddha placed by the roadside at Unkelipitiya and Thalathuoya, in Kandy district. The monk claims to have two eye-witnesses to the attack, according to local sources.


Ramachandran was released on bail after proving that he was in a hospital with his daughter at the time of the alleged incident. The other two men have denied the charges.

Following the arrests, masses angry at the accused held demonstrations outside the college; police, however, have prevented any direct attacks on the staff and students.

Buddhist authorities reacted angrily to the news of Ramachandran’s release. Ramachandran has since received threats, and police have advised him to take precautions for his safety. They also advised him to send students home until tempers cooled in the district.

With local radio stations giving high profile coverage to the incident, however, tensions remained high.

Sources in Kandy reported that a lawyer who initially agreed to represent the Christians has reneged following pressure from the Buddhist accusers. Selvarajah and Thomas have found other lawyers for the hearing on Thursday.

Church Burned Elsewhere, unknown persons set fire to the Prayer Tower Church in Karawilawelpitiya, Puttlam district, in the early hours of May 12. The flames quickly consumed the simple wooden walls and thatched roof of the church, along with the pulpit, carpets, drapes and banners.

Police carried out an initial investigation but at press time had not identified those responsible for the attack.

Buddhist monks launched a wave of violent attacks against Christian churches and individuals in 2002, seeking to discourage a growing number of conversions to Christianity. NCEASL had logged at least 160 such attacks by the end of May 2006.

In November 2002, T.E. Maheshwaran, Hindu Cultural Affairs minister, vowed to introduce anti-conversion legislation to Sri Lanka modeled on similar laws in India. Senior Buddhist monks supported this idea and soon launched their own legal campaign.

Two rival anti-conversion bills are making their way through Parliament, but progress on the bills has stalled due to a renewed outbreak of conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a breakaway group fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in northern Sri Lanka.

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***********************************Ethnic Christian in Vietnam Dies from Torture InjuriesCause of death confirmed as Vietnamese president faces human rights criticisms in U.S.


Special to Compass Direct News

HO CHI MINH CITY, June 26 (Compass Direct News) – A young Hroi ethnic minority man who refused to recant his Christian faith died from injuries received while under official interrogation, Compass confirmed as Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet met with U.S. officials. Triet met with President Bush in Washington, D.C. on Friday (June 22) amid some protests over Vietnam’s human rights violations.

In his early 20s, Vin Y Het died on April 20, leaving a pregnant wife and two small children.

From Son Hoa district in the costal province of Phu Yen in south-central Vietnam, Het died from internal injuries suffered when officials beat him several months earlier for refusing to deny his Christian faith, Compass has confirmed.

Het, of Krong Ba Commune, became a Christian in September 2006. Not long after that, local government officials summoned him to their offices and pressured him to sign a document denying his faith. When he refused, they had him savagely beaten.

The young Hroi man suffered internal injuries that caused severe swelling in various parts of his body. Officials released him with threats of further abuse or worse unless he recanted.

Het reported what had happened to him to the Rev. Dinh Thong, long-time pastor of the Tuy Hoa City church in Phu Yen Province, and chief provincial representative of the legally-recognized Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), or ECVN (S). Rev. Thong wrote a letter to provincial authorities describing the abuse and asking for an investigation.

The province sent a team to the commune to investigate. The brief “investigation” yielded a paper signed by Het saying that he had not been beaten. The investigators also accused Rev. Thong of making a false report.

Vietnamese authorities previously have investigated such deaths following expressions of strong foreign concern. But church sources in Vietnam said that these investigations thus far have produced only cover-ups; no perpetrators have ever been prosecuted.

For many years, church leaders have told authorities that government sincerity about better policies for religious believers could be easily demonstrated by prosecuting officials who persecute Christians for religious reasons. In the case of Het, even the report of a reputable pastor within the legally-recognized ECVN (S) went unheeded.

Facing the HeatA recent crackdown on human rights activists in Vietnam threatened to scuttle Triet’s visit, but it went ahead on a somewhat downgraded basis.


Before Triet’s historic meeting with Bush, he met with evangelical leaders at the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Thursday (June 21). The unprecedented meeting followed Triet’s testy meeting with U.S. congressional leaders earlier in the day.

In Vietnam, state media such as Thanh Nien Daily highlighted the business dimension of Triet’s visit with headlines trumpeting the $11 billion in commercial deals he secured, but the Vietnamese president did not escape human rights and religious freedom criticisms while in Washington.

The Vietnam president met with carping from Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., both with large ethnic Vietnamese populations in their constituencies. They pressed him hard on the crackdown on peaceful rights advocates, which has seen religious leaders such a Father Nguyen Van Ly and Christian lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan sentenced to prison for calling for more religious freedom and democratic reform.

In advance of the visit, President Bush hosted four prominent overseas Vietnamese spokespersons for human rights to show disapproval of the crackdown.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., held a bipartisan press conference in connection with the Vietnam president’s visit. One speaker was Mike Benge, an aid worker in Vietnam during the Vietnam War who has been a leading advocate for Vietnam’s minorities in the Central Highlands.

Benge appealed for justice for several hundred chiefly Christian Montagnards who remain in prison for demonstrating for religious freedom and against confiscation of their ancestral lands in 2001 and 2004, or for fleeing to Cambodia in the aftermath.

Under pressure on the human rights front, Vietnam did release three dissidents in advance of Triet’s U.S. trip. According to a report by the Vietnam Study Group, some 38 dissidents have been arrested since August 2006, and since March 30, 2007, 20 of them have received sentences totalling 80 years.

Asked about the crackdown during meetings, however, the president could do no better than repeat the communist mantra that all the dissidents were simply lawbreakers – without any discussion of whether Vietnam’s laws violate international human rights standards.

Evangelical ConcernsRegarding Triet’s meeting with evangelicals, the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) released a statement yesterday (June 25) calling it “unprecedented in Vietnam’s diplomatic history, allowing evangelicals a rare opportunity to speak openly with the President about issues of religious freedom.”

IGE President Chris Seiple, who has been constructively engaging Vietnam officials on religious freedom issues for more than five years, raised three issues: the need to


accelerate church registrations; the need to train local government officials in Vietnam’s new religion policy; and the need to expand theological training as a means to prevent anti-state theologies from developing.

Bob Roberts, senior pastor of NorthWood Church near Dallas, Texas, which has participated in numerous humanitarian missions to Vietnam for over a decade, told Triet that efforts to change perceptions of Vietnam in his congregation were complicated by “what has happened to Father Ly.”

The delegation also included overseas Vietnamese Pastor Phuc Dang, and Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The latter hopes to go to Vietnam in January to witness the long-promised legal recognition of the dozen or so small congregations related to the SBC, which have been considered illegal since 1975.

Church leaders of both unregistered and legally recognized groups in Vietnam, contacted on the eve of their president’s visit to Washington, unanimously called on their government to resume and accelerate the registration of congregations and move toward “regularizing” religion.

This process slowed considerably after Vietnam fulfilled its wish list from the United States – removal from the U.S. religious liberty blacklist, a state visit by President Bush, and U.S. support for membership in the World Trade Organization. Hundreds of applications by local congregations for registration, all carefully following government protocol, have gone unanswered in spite of legislative promises to reply within a set time.

The situation remains particularly hard for ethnic minority churches along the borders of Laos and China in Vietnam’s northwest provinces. In these remote places, lack of registration is still used as an excuse to break up or to prevent regular worship services.

The Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) has submitted requests for well over 600 churches, and the Northwest Highlands reports only 31 church registrations. Only 13 of the 31 church registrations came after Vietnam’s status as a Country of Particular Concern was lifted last November.

The U.S. Office of International Religious Freedom is pressing for further registrations in the Northwest Highlands.

Disappearance of Church LeaderSome mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the president of the ECVN (N), the Rev. Phung Quang Huyen, during Triet’s U.S. visit.

One of his colleagues in Hanoi reported to friends in the United States that Rev. Huyen had been secretly invited to accompany the country’s president on his U.S. visit as the only religious representative. His name was even confirmed in Washington as being on the official delegation list.


He was not present at the meeting with evangelical pastors in Washington on June 21, and another church leader in Hanoi informed Compass that people were confused when Rev. Huyen had gone to China with Vietnam’s Bureau of Religious Affairs at the same time the presidential delegation left for the United States.

Rev. Huyen has extensive knowledge of the continuing difficulties faced by ethnic minority Christians in Vietnam’s northwest provinces.

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**********************************************************************COMPASS DIRECT NEWS

News from the Frontlines of Persecution

Jeff Sellers, Managing Editor

Bureau Chiefs:Barbara Baker, Middle EastSarah Page, Asia


compass direct news - living faith information, …old.lff.net/resources/compass/june 2007.doc ·...

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