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10-Sep-2002

Mission Network News has this story of Christians suffering for Christ.

Indonesia:

Believers terrorized by jihad warriors.

Christian Aid Mission reports that believers in Indonesia’s Poso District of Central Sulawesi still live in fear of massacre. The Laskar Jihad has embarked on a new campaign-one that attacks the reputation of an outstanding Christian leader, Rinaldy Damanik. The group has falsely accused him of promoting violence and branded him an "extremist", and authorities are searching for him.

Please check http://www.mnnonline.org to learn about missions news and to hear a weekday audio broadcast.

The Voice Of The Martyrs has the following persecution incident to report.

Iran:

Application for Asylum in Canada Accepted.

For the past several months, the Persecution and Prayer Alert has been following the story of Mahmoud Erfani as he and his family have been seeking asylum. Erfani and his family fled Iran to Turkey in 1999 to escape persecution they have faced since converting from Islam to Christianity 21 years ago. Since arriving in Turkey, they have sought refugee status with the United Nations. In June 2001, a church in Toronto pledged full support for the family if they would be accepted in Canada. However, they faced rejection by both Canada and the United Nations who said there was no evidence of religious persecution.In April 2002 the family’s application for asylum in Canada was rejected. Following that decision, they were able to compile evidence of persecution of relatives still in Iran as well as harassment by an Iranian since they have been in Turkey. Based on that evidence,Canadian immigration authorities allowed them to reapply in July 2002.According to a report from Compass Direct, Mahmoud received notice on August 29 that Canadian immigration authorities in Ankara have accepted his family’s application for permanent residency in Canada. All that is remaining is to complete mandatory medical examinations before Canadian Immigration can issue the final formal acceptance." We are so grateful!" Erfani told Compass by telephone. At The Voice of the Martyrs, we are also grateful to those who have been praying and working on behalf of the Erfani family through this ordeal. Pray that there will be no further complications so that they may come to Canada soon. There has been a continuing concern for the health of Mahmoud’s wife, Atefeh, who is in a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis. The extreme heat in Turkey has been making her condition somewhat worse lately.

Please see http://www.persecution.net to learn more about believers being persecuted and what can be done to help them.

Keston News Service has this to report.

Tajikistan:

Home-based religious services "illegally" banned.

The pastor of an Evangelical Christian church in Chkalovsk on the outskirts of the city of Khojand in northern Tajikistan, has complained to Keston News Service that the town procuracy is preventing church members from meeting in her home. Although Tajikistan’s religion law permits meetings in private homes, it has been superseded by a government decree, which, according to Chalovsk’s chief public prosecutor, has not been enforced until recently. Harald Hartvig Jepsen of the OSCE office in Khojand believes the tightened controls are aimed primarily at the country’s Muslim organisations but have rebounded on Christians as well.

Russia:

What did Putin tell the Pope on banished bishop?

More than a month after the Russian president Vladimir Putin wrote to Pope John Paul II to explain why one of Russia’s four Catholic bishops is being denied entry to the country, the exact reasons he gave remain unclear. The pope had sought an explanation from Putin in the wake of the stripping of the visa from Bishop Jerzy Mazur of Irkutsk, a Polish citizen, at Moscow’s Sheremyetevo airport in April and a similar move against the Italian Catholic priest Father Stefano Caprio. The pope had also asked for these moves to be revoked. Keston News Service has learnt from a Vatican official close to Russian affairs that Putin’s letter has not led to any progress in resolving the visa denials. "I don’t know of any moves forward. But our hope is great. Prayer is very important."

Please check http://www.keston.org for more information on religious persecution in communist and post-communist lands.

Assist News Service has this story to report.

Undisclosed country:

Ayub Masih flees Pakistan.

Christian prisoner Ayub Masih fled his native Pakistan and arrived in an undisclosed country in the West on Wednesday after being imprisoned for six years on blasphemy charges. Despite being acquitted and released on August 15 by Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Masih’s life remains under constant threat from Muslim extremists.

"It is the result of prayers of the body of Christ and the grace and mercy of God the Father," Masih said of his release. "I am grateful to Open Doors’ Brother Andrew, that he worked hard for my release and raised a lot of prayer support for me."

Masih appealed for the release of other Christian prisoners suffering under section 295-C of the Pakistan penal code, which mandates the death sentence for anyone convicted of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed. "Please pray for them too, and please work hard for their release as well. I pray that God will also release them, so He will be glorified."

Masih, 31, was arrested and jailed on October 14, 1996, in his village of Chak 353/IB near Arifwala, located about 200 kilometers southwest of Lahore. He was convicted and sentenced on April 27, 1998, on the verbal testimony of a Muslim neighbour who claimed Masih had blasphemed Mohammed by praising Salman Rushdie’s book, "The Satanic Verses." Local Christians, however, said the accusation was made because of a property dispute.

Iraq:

Sister Cecilia Hanna becomes latest Iraqi martyr.

According to the Chaldean News Agency, Sister Cecilia Hanna became the latest Christian martyr in Iraq when she was killed savagely in what has been called "a disgusting crime where her head was severed from the rest of her body."

The Chaldean News Agency said she was killed "not because this old and kind human being did something wrong, but because being a Christian in a land roaming with Muslim fanatics is becoming a dangerous venture and a provocative act to those who have twisted the teachings of their religion to that of being blood thirsty thugs."

The news service reported that Sister Cecilia Hanna was born in 1931 in the Chaldean town of Araden in northern Iraq, and since her early years decided to enter the Order of Heart of Jesus for nuns to serve her people and other human beings in the best traditions of Christianity. The order of Heart of Jesus was established in 1904 at the hands of Father Ablahad Rayes and by the year 1914, the order had already grown to having 10 nuns. Sister Cecilia joined the order when she was in her early teens and stayed with it till her martyrdom.

The agency said: "During the Kurdish rebellion of 1961, many residents of the town of Araden were forced to flee their homes, which forced Cecilia and her sisters to move to the town of Mosul where she became in charge of the newly established monastery there. Sister Cecilia stayed there till 1999 when she moved to Baghdad to continue serving her Chaldean community and other needy people."

Sister Cecilia joined the long list of Chaldean Christian martyrs on 15 August, 2002, on exactly the 98^th anniversary of the establishment of her beloved Order of Heart of Jesus, the agency said.

Finally, the Chaldean News Agency "called once again upon the Iraqi government to follow through its investigation with the Arab Muslim suspect that has been arrested to find his accomplices and to make public the results of that investigation.

It also called upon the Iraqi authorities "to take the necessary measures to control the rising tide of Muslim fanaticism in Iraq and to reconsider its policies of appeasement of that movement. A terrorist group that has neither morals nor principles to abide by and a movement that has its final goal not only the murder or the complete subjugation of non-Muslims but all those who do not measure up to its doctrine of terror and hatred."

Please go to http://www.assist-ministries.org to learn more about these stories._

   

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca