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Subject: Persecution report for May 13, 2003.

Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 14:41:14 -0600

From: "Bruce Atchison" <ve6xtc@telusplanet.net>

To: "Ted" <thilts@help-for-you.com>

The Voice Of The Martyrs reports the following incidents of Christians being persecuted.

Colombia:

Four Christians Brutally Murdered.

As violence in Colombia continues to escalate this week, four Christians were murdered in the northern town of Tierralta on Tuesday night, May 6. According to reports received by Compass Direct, twenty-five armed men entered a rural church and murdered its 80-year-old evangelical pastor and three other believers. Among the dead is Miguel Mariano Posada, pastor of Sardis, a church in the Association of Caribbean Evangelical Churches denomination; teacher and church treasurer Ana Berenice Girardo Velásquez; 80-year-old Natividad Blandón, the wife of another pastor; and 17-year-old Julio Torres, who was visiting the church.

Police reports indicate that those killed were apparently known to the attackers and they were attacked near the door of the church building in front of the rest of the church. They slit the throats of Pastor Posado and the church treasurer and shot the other two victims before fleeing into the night.

Since neither of the country's main guerrilla organizations (FARC and ELN) are known to have a presence in the area, it is believed that paramilitaries loyal to the government are responsible. The Council of Evangelical Churches of Colombia (CEDECOL) has issued a statement calling for armed groups to respect life, expressing its concern for the recent turn of events, and reaffirming evangelicals' rejection of armed force against any human being as an expression of the search for justice and equality.

Eritrea:

Another Fifty-six Evangelicals Arrested.

Despite a formal statement made by the Eritrean government on May 1 that "no groups or persons are persecuted in Eritrea for their beliefs or religion," security police arrested two full-time evangelists and another 54 members of the Rema Church during the evening of May 7 in Asmara for allegedly conducting "illegal prayer meetings" in two homes of their members. As of may 6, Compass Direct reported that the jailed Christians, 21 women and 35 men, remained under detention at the No. 7 Police Station in the capital's Kahawta district. Compass sources said the Christians were undergoing "severe punishment" at the hands of police authorities.

More than 300 Protestant Christians have been arrested, beaten and sentenced with death in the last three months for holding religious meetings without government permission. A year ago, the Eritrean government revoked official status for all religious groups in the country except the four "recognized" religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran.

In the latest incidents, Compass Direct reported on May 5 that, over the Orthodox Easter weekend, two members of the government-recognized Evangelical Lutheran Church were arrested and detained for three days. Following tradition, a group of believers was singing hymns in the streets of central Asmara on the evening of April 26 when police confronted them. Most of the group fled, but two young men stayed and were arrested and held without charges. They were released after being warned to not repeat this Easter tradition again.

Three days later, on April 29, military police raided homes and workplaces in the northern province of Sahel, arresting 56 members of independent Pentecostal churches. Military authorities justified the raid as "conscription for military service." According to other church members, however, most of the 16 women and 40 men had already served their mandatory military service. They were all members of the Full Gospel Church or the Kale Hiwot Church.

None of the 56 have been heard from since their arrests. Security police said they were taken to the Sawa Military Training Centre, but the families have been unable to confirm this. The families are concerned for their safety, particularly another 74 Protestant Eritrean soldiers have been held in the Assab military prison for more than a year. They have been subjected to beatings, threats and abuse for refusing to deny their Pentecostal beliefs.

Lebanon:

Missionary Home Bombed; Believer Killed.

On the night of May 6, the home of a European missionary couple was bombed in Qubba, a suburb of Tripoli, Lebanon. A neighbour, Jamil Ahmed Rifai, was killed instantly while trying to defuse the bomb. Rifai was a Jordanian convert to Christianity who was at the couple's house when they heard a noise outside. Leaving the apartment, Rifai found a bag with sparks coming out of it. Inside he found a bomb with a lit fuse. While he was trying to remove the fuse, it detonated, killing him instantly and damaging houses and cars. The missionaries, Jacob Jakarta from Holland, his German wife and their three children, were unharmed. A military official told The Associated Press the bombing was likely related to their missionary activities and did not appear to be linked to anti-Western sentiment.

According to Middle East Concern, Rifai had left Jordan in 1997 because of pressure from authorities over his conversion to Christianity. He was an active witness in Lebanon. Rifai was unmarried. The missionary couple asks that we pray for inner peace and calm as they recover from the trauma of the attack as well as wisdom for their future.

Saudi Arabia:

Christians Face Imminent Deportation.

Two Christians face imminent deportation from Saudi Arabia because of their Christian work, according to a May 6 report from Middle East Concern. Both men are from the Ethiopian/Eritrean church in Jeddah. Endashaw Adane Yizengaw, the pastor of the church, had his residency permit revoked and was arrested on April 26 or 27. His deportation to Ethiopia is expected before the end of this week. The other man, Girmaye, was from Eritrea and was arrested in mid-March. Though his residency permit had expired two years ago, he had been detained and released several times. His deportation order came only three weeks after he began working at the church. Members of the church report that they have been questioned and threatened by the authorities, making them fearful of meeting together.

Nigeria:

Pastor and Family Burned to Death.

A pastor, along with six members of his family, died in a fire in the northern Nigerian city of Kano which Christian leaders suspect was deliberately set. The only survivor was his son, Daniel, who remains in critical condition. According to a May 6 report from Compass Direct, Pastor Madumere and his family were asleep in their home on April 22 when it was engulfed by flames. While police authorities say the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault, Christian leaders have ruled out that theory, insisting that the pastor and his family were victims of religious intolerance. Pastor Madumere was known for his powerful preaching and many Muslims in Kano had converted to Christianity through his ministry, angering Muslim militants in the city.

In speaking about the incident, Bishop Nyam of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, said, "We are not surprised at all about this incident.... We saw it coming."

For several years militant Muslims having been carrying out a jihad against Christians in northern and central Nigeria. Hundreds of Christians have been killed and homes, churches and businesses destroyed. Representatives from The Voice of the Martyrs recently visited Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria who have been brutalized for their faith. Greg Musselman from VOM Canada visited hospitals in Nigeria's Plateau state where he saw women, men, and children with bullet wounds and deep slash marks on their necks and heads inflicted by machete-wielding attackers. Despite this suffering, however, Musselman also witnessed how they were committing themselves to God's care. The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter will have a special feature on the suffering and faith of believers in Nigeria in an upcoming edition this summer.

For a free subscription to this publication, visit http://www.persecution.net/nlonline.htm.

Information on how to pray and write on behalf of persecuted believers is on the http://www.persecution.net web page.

Forum 18 reports this incident.

Azerbaijan:

Nakhichevan Adventist Church fights for survival.

Within days of the reopening of the Adventist church in Nakhichevan after a year when the community was banned from meeting, the local justice ministry informed the church it was seeking its liquidation through the courts. It claimed the community was wrong to have given its legal address as the church in Baku (of which it was a branch) when it registered in March 1996. One Adventist pastor told Forum 18 News Service he was reluctant to speculate on why the authorities are again seeking to prevent the church from functioning "as we don't want to offend the authorities". "But the justice ministry waited a full seven years before pointing out our mistake - and they're the people who registered our church." Idris Abbasov, head of the Nakhichevan branch of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, denied that the Adventists were being obstructed from worshipping. "No-one has informed me of any liquidation through the courts," he claimed to Forum 18. "They're engaged in prayers and services. No-one is stopping them from doing that."

Please see http://www.forum18.org to read the full version of this story and other incidents of religious rights violations.

ASSIST News Service presents these stories of persecuted Christians.

Bangladesh:

Christian evangelist stabbed to death.

A Christian evangelist may have become Bangladesh's first modern martyr, following an attack by at least seven Muslim extremists armed with knives.

According to the Barnabas Fund, in the early morning hours of April 24,Hridoy Roy was returning home after showing the Jesus Film, a movie version of Luke 's Gospel. As Roy approached his house seven or eight people attacked him, stabbing him seven times. He died instantly.

Roy was a Bangladeshi evangelist and frequently used the Jesus Film as an evangelistic tool. Officials from the Barnabas Fund say local believers fear that Roy's martyrdom will not be the last. They are mourning the loss and are in a state of great shock and fear following the attack.

In Islamic (or Shari'ah) law, conversion from Islam to another faith can result in death. Converts who are not killed often lose their families, are beaten and have their possessions taken away from them.

As a statement from the Barnabas Fund commented, "This (Shariah law) is the fundamental reason for the antipathy that most Muslims hold towards those who try to proselytize in their communities. It goes along way towards explaining why they are sometimes willing to take such draconian measures to make sure that none of their community will be corrupted."

Yemen:

Yemeni sentenced to death for killing three American missionaries.

A Yemeni court sentenced a suspected al-Qa'ida militant to death May 10 for killing three U.S. missionaries, according to his lawyer.

An Associated Press (AP) article by Ahmed Al-Haj reports that Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, 30, was sentenced in the Dec. 30 shooting deaths of Kathleen A. Gariety of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Martha C. Myers of Montgomery, Ala., and William E. Koehn of Kansas, according to Kamel's lawyer, Mahrous Oqba.

Donald W. Caswell, of Levelland, Texas, was wounded in the attack, The AP said.

The verdict was handed down in Jibla, 125 miles south of the Yemeni capital of San'a, where the killings took place at the Southern Baptist-run hospital, The AP reported.

According to the AP, Kamel pleaded not guilty to the killings and his lawyer told The AP that he will appeal the verdict, saying it violated Islamic law. Court officials were not immediately available for comment, the article said.

Kamel, who was arrested the day of the shooting, told an April 20 court hearing that he coordinated the attack with Ali al-Jarallah, another suspected Muslim extremist accused of gunning down a Yemeni politician two days before the Jibla hospital attack.

Kamel has said he had planned his attack for 18 months, and often consulted with al-Jarallah. He even scouted his target, visiting the remote hospital often.

Yemeni security officials say they believe both Kamel and al-Jarallah belonged to a terrorist cell linked to al-Qaida, The AP report said.

Kamel told the court he killed the missionaries "out of a religious duty...and in revenge from those who converted Muslims from their religion and made them unbelievers.''

Kamel said he had learned that women were visiting the hospital to get sterilized. "This is a violation of Islam,'' he said at the hearing.

Jibla residents have said the Americans never discussed religion. Yemeni law prohibits non-Muslims from proselytizing in this overwhelmingly Muslim country.

Abdel Karim Hassan, the hospital's director, welcomed the death sentence, but said it didn't go far enough. "He deserves even worse,'' Hassan told The AP.

On the day of the shooting, Kamel said he walked into the hospital with a semiautomatic rifle hidden under his clothes and opened fire on a staff meeting involving the Americans, firing two shots at each target.

Security officials said audiotapes with the voice of al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden were found at Kamel's house. Police also said they believed a cell Kamel belonged to was plotting attacks against at least eight targets, including foreigners and Yemeni politicians.

The Saudi-born bin Laden has family ties to Yemen and is believed to have strong support here.

Egypt:

Christian couple imprisoned for conversion.

Naglaa, a Christian convert from Islam, and her husband Malak Gawargios Fahmy have been held in prison since mid-February in an effort to force Naglaa to give up her Christian faith and return to Islam.

The Barnabas Fund reports that Naglaa and her husband Malak were arrested at the airport as they tried to leave Egypt for Cyprus. They were sentenced to be detained for four days by the El Nozha District Attorney.

However, on February 26 this was extended for a further 45 days and for another 45 on March 18, and the couple are still being held despite this period having now passed. Police are trying to force Naglaa to give up her Christian faith and return to Islam, to leave her husband, and to raise her children as Muslims.

In 1996 Naglaa Hassan Ibrahim, then a student at Ain-Shams University, was baptized after spending three years exploring the Christian faith. The same year Naglaa married Malak, a Christian.

Barnabas Fund was informed of the couple's plight by senior church leaders in Egypt involved with their case.

"Becoming Christian shouldn't be a crime punishable by a prison sentence," the Fund was told by Egyptian church leaders who lament that "it is strictly forbidden to convert from Islam to Christianity...although the opposite happens hundreds and even thousands of times. Freedom of religion should be a human right to all, and conversions should take place with each person's own accord."

The ostensible reason for the couple's arrest in February was that Naglaa had a forged passport and ID card. Conversion from Islam to Christianity, although technically not illegal, is not recognised by Egyptian law, and it is prohibited for Christian men to marry Muslim women.

Since Naglaa acquired her passport as a Christian woman after her marriage it may have been viewed as bogus by the police as she is still a Muslim in the eyes of the law. Similarly since there is no capacity for converts to change their religious identity on their ID card, so this too may have been considered technically bogus.

Saudi Arabia:

Christians face deportation.

According to Middle East Concern (MEC), a co-operative effort by concerned Christians in the Middle East focusing on the need for Middle Eastern authorities to ensure the rights of all who choose to call themselves Christian, Mr. Girmaye, from Eritrea, was arrested in mid-March and transferred to Terhil deportation centre where he has remained ever since. Pastor Endashaw Adane Yizengaw, from Ethiopia, was arrested on April 26 or 27 after the authorities cancelled his residency permit. Other members of the church have been warned not to attend any more.

MEC says that Pastor Yizengaw is the pastor of the Ethiopian/Eritrean church in Jeddah. He was arrested on Saturday or Sunday, April 26 or 27. Mr. Girmaye had been working at the same church.

MEC reports the Saudi authorities have openly watched this church. They have questioned at least eight other members and warned them not to attend church again.

In early April Pastor Yizengaw tried to transfer a car into his name but the car dealer refused saying there was a problem with his residency permit. Pastor Yizengaw discovered from his sponsor's secretary that the police had cancelled his residency permit and were looking for him. He has been called in for questioning by the police several times over the last two years. He was always questioned about the church and his Christian activities.

Police told his employer that pastor Yizengaw has been accused of selling alcohol and involvement in prostitution. These charges have not been pressed officially and have been vehemently denied by pastor Yizengaw and other Christians in Jeddah. An official from the Ethiopian Consulate in Jeddah told Middle East Concern that pastor Yizengaw had been arrested because of his Christian activities.

One month before his arrest Girmaye was approached by the authorities before a Church service and forced to give his fingerprint and sign a paper in Arabic, which he does not understand.

Girmaye's residency papers expired two years ago. The authorities have detained and subsequently released him several times since.

For further details please contact Middle East Concern: Phone: +44-1509-239400;

Fax: +44-870-134-8312;

E-mail: Office@MEConcern.org.

Please go to http://www.assistnews.net to read many edifying stories.

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