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Persecution Report for Tuesday, 21-Jan-2003

Mission Network News reports these incidents of Christians being persecuted.

Uzbekistan:

Pastor in court for having unregistered church.

An evangelical pastor will be in court this weekend in the predominately Muslim country of Uzbekistan. Bible Mission International's Paul Hagelgamns says Pastor Nikoly pastors a church just outside of Tashkent. Hagelgamns says he's charged with operating a church without government registration. He says there's more to it than that. "One of the problems is that they have converted Uzbek people. (The) official language in Uzbekistan it is (the) Uzbek language (and) you can not preach the Gospel in that language. You can preach (the) Gospel only in (the) Russian language. It is illegal that Muslims (convert) to Christianity." Pastor Nikoly could face fines and up to one year in jail. Hagelgamns says this won't affect their work. "We will continue doing. We will continue growing and God will open other doors and by (the) grace of God and by His faithfulness we'd like to reach these nations for Christ and it will be done."

India:

Church leaders get persecution-resistance instruction.

Open Doors with Brother Andrew is helping Christian pastors, leaders and other believers by conducting "Standing Strong Through the Storm" seminars in India. In the seminars, participants get the tools they need to stand against persecution.

India:

Another state proposes anti-conversion law.

The Gujarat government is introducing an anti-conversion Bill, entitled the Freedom of Religion Bill. The proposed legislation integrates the strongest provisions of similar bills enacted in four other states. When asked how the bill could be constitutional, Mission India's John DeVries said: "It fits under the constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion if there is no coercion to change, but they have to now prove if they want to become a Christian to the police that they're not being coerced to do this. So,the police now begin to monitor all conversions." DeVries says because enforcement may become subjective, the bill's passage could be problematic for their work. As to the effect on the ministry, DeVries stated: "We really, honestly, don't know. It's very much in the hands of the Lord. We only know that when you persecute Christians, the church grows like weeds."

India:

Anti-conversion bill challenged.

In the headlines, Tamil Nadu's controversial anti-conversion law is being challenged in India's High Court. The appeal reportedly cites the oppression suffered by the Dalits as the reason why the group abandoned Hinduism and embraced other faiths. Bibles For the World's Rochunga Pudaite says there is growing pressure to throw the law out. "The Christians are really protesting right now. Even the newspapers are protesting, and the leader of the untouchables has been calling this the most undemocratic law that has ever been passed. He has been really protesting against it, too. So, let's pray and join with them, that by the grace of God, the law would be reversed." Pudaite says the atmosphere has forced them to scale back. "In the law, even providing Bibles is to be considered as inducement. We are working very circumspectly and not doing as much as we had been doing. But, I think the law will be overturned and we will be able to do a much bigger job than we have ever done before."

Please see http://www.mnnonline.org for missions news and a weekday audio newscast.

The Voice Of The Martyrs has these persecution incidents to report.

Vietnam:

Noxious Gas Used to Break Up Worship Service.

On December 29, police used noxious gas to break up a worship service in the Dien Bien Dong district of North Vietnam. A source told ANS that of the 40 Hmong people gathered for worship, 20 had been hospitalized because of the gas. Vietnamese authorities have been systematically attacking the Hmong people. Listeners to Far East Broadcasting report that Christian villages are under constant surveillance preventing any Christian meetings and any Christian literature found is burned.

China:

Government Tries to Force Church Leadership Change.

The Voice of the Martyrs has received a report from China that a pastor was arrested when he refused to give up leadership of the church on orders from the government. According to the report received in the last week, Pastor Bian is the only pastor of the official church in Datong, Shanxi Province. He received notification on December 24 from the Religious Affairs Bureau that all Christians in his church had requested a change in leadership. According to a member of his congregation, who cannot be identified for security reasons, only 3-4 of the 4000 members wanted him removed. He was arrested on December 26 and was only released when the church threatened to go to the Datong government. The church members are asking for your urgent prayers, as the Religious Affairs Bureau continues to investigate, looking for grounds to remove him from leadership.

Pakistan:

Muslims Urged to Kill Christians:

An Islamic organization, Jesh Ihle-Alqiblat Al-Jihadi Alsari Al-Alami, has published a pamphlet in Urdu and Arabic calling on Muslims to kill Christians wherever and whenever they are found.

The pamphlet, being distributed in various parts of Pakistan, says that this is the duty of every Muslim. According to a report received by The Voice of the Martyrs on January 10, Pakistani Christians are being specifically targeted in connection with the "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan and there is fear for escalated violence if Iraq is attacked.

Pakistan:

Arrest Made in Christmas Day Bombing.

The Punjab police claim to have arrested one of the two men who threw bombs into a church in Chianwali, Pakistan on Christmas Day, killing three and wounding 14 others. Authorities told the Pakistani newspaper, DAWN, on January 12 that the suspect was arrested based on intelligence sources and that he has since confessed. Authorities will not reveal his identity nor if he has connections to any organization. This arrest came only one day after more than 100 Pakistani Christians rallied in Lahore, calling on police to arrest those responsible for the attacks.

Sri Lanka:

Christian Family Brutally Attacked.

For the past year, a Christian family in the remote village of Kirimetimulla in southern Sri Lanka had been facing intimidation and threats from those trying to force Mrs. Indrani Abeysinghe (49) to stop holding worship services in her home. According to a report received this week from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, around midnight, December 26, 2002, a mob of 10-15 hooded men smashed the windows of her home, forced their way in, and assaulted her sons while Indrani and her daughter hid. One son, Suranga (28) received a serious head wound when he was struck by the sharp edge of the mammoty (a spade used by Sri Lankan farmers). While a complaint has been filed with the police, no one has been identified because of the disguises.

Indrani has left her home and is now living with friends near the capital city of Colombo. She is determined to continue her ministry, but her children fear for her life. Suranga, has been discharged from the hospital.

To read the full report, go to www.persecution.net/report1.html.

Please check http://www.persecution.net for more information about persecuted Christians and how they can be helped.

ASSIST Ministries reports the following stories of believers suffering for Christ.

Iraq:

The forgotten Christians.

With signs of war with Iraq increasing every day, lost amidst the fog of war are a small, once proud and very influential people. While the Kurds of Northern Iraq are well known, for some reason almost completely ignored in the current discussion are 1.2 million Assyrian Christians living, many in their historic lands in Iraq.

Scattered through Iraq, but primarily near the city of Nineveh, currently known as Mosul, these remnants of the great Assyrian Empire and the only who still speak the language of Jesus - Aramaic - are frozen in time, once again the victims of circumstances beyond their control.

It is their history that is little known. It was to them that Jonah came to bring the message of repentance and they repented. It was to them that the Apostle Thomas came and their King Abgar repented for his people and Assyria in the first century became the first Christian Nation.

The Assyrian Empire ended in BC 612 and the Assyrian Monarchy was abolished in the 4th Century.

It is them that according to the famed historian Kenneth Scott LaTourette in his book "The History of Christianity" became, "The largest Missionary force in history." They carried Christianity as far as China and Japan with recent discoveries most recently in the Peoples Daily, Chinese Government newspaper dating to AD 86.

According to "Light from the East" by Irwin St. John Tucker, "The centre of the Church of the East was first Edessa… throughout the whole of central Asia, Turkestan, Mongolia, China, India and Japan its messengers went checked neither by Siberian Cold nor the head of the Indies. The relics and buildings have been found in all these places."

But the Assyrians because of their Christian faith have suffered greatly in an area that is almost completely Muslim. Oppressed by the Persians, Mongols, Turks, Kurds and Arabs, in World War I they lost nearly two thirds of their population including their Archbishop and spiritual leader.

Currently the Assyrian Christians in Iraq are centred in three main areas - approximately 200,000 in Northern Iraq, approximately 1,000,000 in Central Iraq, mostly in Baghdad and a third smaller group of a few thousand in Southern Iraq.

Another approximately 4 million Assyrian Christians are outside of Iraq primarily in Iran, Syria, Jordan, Canada, US, Australia and Europe.

According to Wilfred Alkhas, who edits a magazine for the Assyrian Diaspora, "One of the little known facts concerning the Middle East is the role of the Christians. Before the rise of Khomeini in Iran, Islam was generally a tolerant religion. Large groups of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others lived peacefully in majority Muslim populations for generations throughout the Middle East." Now, though particularly under the "No-fly zone" protected by the British and US Military, Churches are being rebuilt and the Assyrians have built 40 schools and nearly 8,000 children are being taught Aramaic for the first time in generations.

Another problem that has plagued the Christians of Iraq is an Iraqi government program to "Arabize" all citizens. Human Rights organizing say that the Assyrian Christians as with other minorities in the region have suffered under the Arabization programs. Although they are not Arabs they have been forced to sign national correction forms that require them to renounce their ethnic identities, religion and declare themselves to be Arabs.

According to Hania Mufti of Human Rights Watch, it is a form of ethnic cleansing by clearing an area of its ethnic minorities.

Following the radicalization of Islam, though according to sources in the Assyrian Diaspora, perhaps up to 70% of the Christians in the Middle East have left finding it impossible to live under the oppression of radicalized Islamic states.

The reality of the current situation in the Middle East is in many ways more economic than political, as the economic system has basically collapsed giving rise to young men with no hope for a job and a future willing to give their lives for radical ideas that in normal economic times would be unheard of.

One reason for the regions economic depression is that the Christians ran most of the small businesses in the Middle East, which kept the local economies growing. Their departure was in many ways what triggered the present economic collapse.

Muslim law prohibits payment of interest, which is essential to borrow money to create business. Therefore Christian owned small grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and other small businesses exerting disproportionate leadership. As Christian businessmen fled persecution to Europe and America their businesses in the Middle East closed throwing many Muslims out of work.

Strict interpretation of the Koran, in practice destroys basic business enterprise.

Currently the Assyrian Christians are in an extremely precarious situation. Unlike the Kurds who receive relief through the United Nations and unlike the Turcoman who are supported by Turkey, the Assyrians have had no financial support or relief. They are a minority of Christians in an overwhelmingly Muslim region.

Under the umbrella of the "No Fly Zone" in northern Iraq, an informal Kurdish Parliament has evolved, however the Assyrians have been grudgingly granted only five of its 105 seats. They are extremely fearful of any post-Salaam government and the dramatic changes that may take away even that representation.

In a recent interview on the Fox Television Network, a representative of the Iraqi opposition said, "Our goal is to restore a free Iraq on all Arab territory." This comment, which specifically leaves out the Kurdish Territory, puts the Assyrian Christians once again in jeopardy as without specific international assurances of their independence they would once again be at the mercy of the Muslim Kurds who have slaughtered them in the past.

Currently the US State Department is attempting to put together a coalition of Iraqi Nationalist Groups to decide on a future Government but the Assyrian Christians as the only non-Islamic group in the mix is at a decided disadvantage. (See the website for the full story.)

India:

Pastor and missionary attacked by Hindu fundamentalists.

An American missionary and a local Indian pastor were attacked in the village of Kalimanur on January 13 by members of the Hindu fundamentalist Sangh Parivar group.

According to a report from a local indigenous ministry, missionary Joseph W. Cooper from the United States and local Christian Pastor Rev. Benson were coming back from a gospel crusade in the village, when a majority of Hindu Fundamentalist (Sangh Parivar) volunteers suddenly attacked the pair with iron rods, hockey bats and other harmful weapons.

"They tried to kill Cooper with the weapons. He was wounded and the situation was very bad. The volunteers of the Hindu Fundamentalist group Sangh Parivar escaped from the area. Then the local police and others who saw what happened and Joseph Cooper and Rev. Benson went to the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). Cooper is in Intensive Care. He is recovering now," the report said.

A ministry reporter from Kerala said that the RSS (Rastriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) volunteers attacked Cooper and Benson and they tried to kill the missionary with harmful weapons. One of the RSS volunteers has been arrested by the police; some other RSS volunteers escaped. The police are investigating the case under section 307 (attempt to murder).

Really the Hindu fundamentalists are trying to kill the pastors, families and individuals those who are praying and coming from the crusades or meetings.

Please go to http://www.assistnews.net to learn more about these, and many other, interesting stories.

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