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Britain - religious hatred clause passed |
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Tuesday, 29 March 2005 |
Christian organizations, human rights groups, comedians, writers and others campaigning against a new clause in the Serious Organised Crime and Police bill lost their first battle on February 7.
The clause bans incitement to religious hatred, but opponents believe the law, as it stands, will silence legitimate criticism of religion and religious practices. This is of particular concern to local religious liberty campaigners, who may want to publicly criticize religious teachings which oppress people (e.g. Hindu traditions about the Dalits, who suffer as "untouchables" in India). The bill, having passed the House of Commons, will now proceed to the House of Lords. (Barnabas Fund)
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Australia - Pastors still to be sentenced |
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Friday, 25 March 2005 |
Pastors Daniel Scot and Daniel Nalliah are yet to be sentenced after being found guilty of the vilification of Muslims under Victoria's Racial and Religious Vilification law.
The Islamic Council of Victoria has revealed it will request an apology, an order regarding future conduct of the pastors (e.g. speaking and writing), and an order that the court files be closed or suppressed. The penalty hearing has been set as May 2, 2005.
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Belarus - pastor charged with organizing "illegal" worship |
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Thursday, 24 March 2005 |
Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko of the Minsk-based New Life Church is again facing prosecution for organizing worship without state permission. The 600-strong congregation has been worshipping in a disused cowshed ever since they were barred from public facilities.
The charges were announced on 25 January, following a police inspection of the Sunday worship on January 23. A second hearing is due to take place on March 1. (Forum 18)
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China - historic testimony |
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Monday, 21 March 2005 |
Ms Liu Xianzhi, 34, escaped from China last month after six years in a labour camp, spent making Christmas lights and rugs.
Released on February 1, Liu Xianzhi fled to America and told a US press conference about her experiences of torture, sexual abuse, and arbitrary imprisonment by Chinese police. For her involvement in the South China Church, she was arrested three times over a period of 14 years. She was also among women tortured to extract false rape accusations against South China Church past Gong Shengliang-who remains imprisoned under a life sentence. (CSW)
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Vietnam - Catholic prisoner released, Mennonites await appeal |
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Friday, 18 March 2005 |
Human rights campaigner and Catholic priest, Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, was released from prison on February 1 as part of a general amnesty for over 8,000 prisoners to mark Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.
The priest, aged 58, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in October 2001 during a one-day trial with no defence lawyer or public audience, after being accused of "undermining national unity". He had been campaigning for religious freedom and had criticized his government's human rights policies. In July 2003, as a result of international pressure, his sentence was reduced to 10 years, to be followed by five years' house arrest. Then, in July 2004, his sentence was reduced another five years. Observers hope he will not be detained again or have his freedom restricted.
Also in Vietnam - the Ho Chi Min City People's Court announced a delay in the appeal of Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach of the Vietnam Mennonite Church, which was set for February 2. The court is yet to announce a new date.
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Eritrea - evidence of a new anti-Christian taskforce emerging |
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Tuesday, 15 March 2005 |
The headquarters of Medhane Alem Orthodox Church
Photo: Compass
Over 200 people have been arrested in Eritrea for "illegal" Christian activities since the beginning of 2005. In recent moves, hotels and halls are now banned from renting their premises to Christians, and landlords are forbidden from letting homes to Christians from "illegal" denominations.
A number of incidents would seem to indicate considerable forces are dedicated to the capture of Christians:
- On February 3, Professor Senere Zaid of the Agriculture faculty of Eritrea University was arrested, as his name was found on the rental contract of a building used for Christian worship.
- On February 4, 14 members of the Kale Hiwot Church in Adi-Tekelzan, north of Asmara, were taken into custody during a Bible study at the home of their pastor.
- On February 12, 15 Christian women who gathered at a private home for prayer were arrested and jailed at the police station in Keren, north-west of Asmara.
- On February 19, a group of Sunday School teachers and their students were arrested. All were members of the Medhane Alem Orthodox Church in Asmara. Until recently, the Orthodox Church was exempt from the government's harsh crackdown.
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Nigeria turmoil continues... young people targeted |
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Saturday, 12 March 2005 |
Muslim militants have pronounced a death sentence on five Christian students who were expelled from public schools for conducting an evangelistic outreach. Opposition to the students' evangelism has already given way to the murder of one student - fourth-year architectural student, Sunday Nache Achi, who was abducted from his room by masked assailants dressed jihad-style. He was strangled to death sometime in the early morning hours of December 9, 2004, and his body abandoned next to a mosque.
Murdered Nigerian student, Sunday Achi
Photo: Compass
The families of two of the other students, Miss Hanatu Haruna Alkali and Abraham Adamu Misal, were attacked on January 26 when militants went to their family homes in the state of Gombe in northern Nigeria intending to kill them.
Rev. Oludare Aliu, national coordinator of the students' ministry of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), confirmed the report. "Muslim militants went to Gombe to … kill Hannatu, but fortunately, she was not at home at the time. The family was held at gun point. Hannatu's father happens to be a former military officer. He wrestled with the militants and was able to disarm one of them who had a gun. While he was fighting them, one of the militants stabbed Hannatu's mother with a knife. She has been treated for the wounds." Alkali is now in hiding.
"Also, the militants attacked the family of Abraham Adamu Misal; he has already escaped and is now in hiding. We are yet to get details about the whereabouts of the other three students," Aliu added.
Alkali, Misal, and three other Christian students (Habakkuk Solomon, Hankuri Gaya, and a student identified as Uzochukwu) were expelled by the authorities of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) and the Federal Polytechnic in Bauchi last November for sharing the Christian gospel with Muslim students - the students distributed a Christian leaflet that compared the teachings of Jesus with those of Islam. According to officials in the two schools, Muslims in the schools complained that the Christian students blasphemed the prophet Mohammed.
Also in Nigeria - Numan, a town in the northern state of Adamawa, Nigeria, remains under siege following major religious clashes there. On January 28, a Christian woman was shot to death by soldiers deployed to the town to keep order. Christian leaders say the killing, combined with the state government's oust of Numan's Christian monarch and its failure to prosecute a Muslim fanatic who killed a female Christian evangelist in the town 19 months ago, amounts to persecution.
Meanwhile in the northern city of Kano, the family of Yusuf Olawale, age 27, reported him missing and believe he may have been killed. The family has not heard from him since his arrest by Islamic law enforcers on May 13, 2004, on allegations that he breached sharia, the Islamic legal code. (Compass)
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Pray for justice for Pakistani teenager |
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Tuesday, 08 March 2005 |
Shakeela Ashraf, a 14-year-old Pakistani Christian girl, was tortured and raped on January 14, 2005.
 Shakeela and her family have since received threats warning them not to pursue the case against the culprit. Moreover, when Shakeela returned home from the hospital after receiving treatment for her injuries, unknown assailants fired bullets into the air in front of her house. The family has made a formal complaint to the police but the police have been slow to take action, and the family believe they have tried to hush-up the case. The All-Pakistan Minorities Alliance, headed by Christian human rights activist Shahbaz Bhatti, has been assisting the family and have temporarily moved them to another home.
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Christians denied vote in northern Iraq |
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Friday, 04 March 2005 |
At the end of January, Iraqis took part in an historic democratic vote, which was hailed as a "resounding success" by Britain's PM Tony Blair and US President George Bush. However, reports have emerged that thousands of ChaldoAssyrians in the Ninevah Plains were denied the right to vote.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by warlord Masoud Bazani, blocked the delivery of ballot boxes to at least six major ChaldoAssyrian towns and villages around Mosul, including Baghdeda, Bartilla, Karemlesh, Shekhan, Ain Sifne and Bahzan. Would-be voters were left stranded outside polling places with no opportunity to exercise their democratic right. In addition to the 100,000-strong Christian-majority ChaldoAssyrian voters in the region, members from smaller ethnic groups such as the Yezidis, Shabak and Turkman, were also affected.
It is believed that the KDP effectively reduced the number of Chaldo-Assyrian representatives in the National Assembly by 40%. The KDP wants to prevent the ChaldoAssyrians from obtaining self-governing status in the area, preferring to see the land come under Kurdish control as part of an autonomous Kurdish region.
Meanwhile, anti-Christian violence throughout Iraq has decimated the Iraqi Christian population, causing thousands to flee.
ChaldoAssyrian Christians have urged Christians around the world to join them in prayer and fasting for the Christians of Iraq, from Tuesday March 1, to Thursday March 3. (Jubilee Campaign)
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Iranian Pastor may face the death penalty |
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Tuesday, 01 March 2005 |
In mid-February, a Tehran military court sentenced Iranian Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand to jail for three years, ordering his immediate transfer to a group prison cell in Evin Prison - a penitentiary known for its systematic torture and countless executions.
Hamid Pourmand with his family.
Photo: Compass
Circumstances of his arrest: Pourmand, 47, converted to Christianity from Islam some 25 years ago. A volunteer pastor with the Assemblies of God church, he was first detained by authorities back in September 2004. Police raided a church conference he was attending in Karaj. Some 80 participants in the conference were taken in for questioning, and all except Pourmand were released within a few days.
Trumped-up charges: Until his arrest five months ago, Pourmand was serving as a colonel in the Iranian army-despite laws instituted after the Islamic revolution which prohibit non-Muslims from holding officer rank.
"His military superiors knew it was illegal for them to allow a non-Muslim to serve as an officer, but they trusted him so they allowed it. But now, they deny it," an Iranian Christian said.
At the court hearing, Pourmand was charged with deceiving the armed forces by not declaring he was a convert from Islam to Christianity. This was in spite of the fact that he had in his possession a series of documents indicating that his military superiors had acknowledged years ago that he was a Christian. He had even been excused by his commander from observing the Muslim month of fasting-an exemption only granted to non-Muslims.
The verdict: Nevertheless, the court did not accept the documents, saying the papers were falsified, and Pourmand was found guilty.
During the proceedings he was also accused of espionage, but Pourmand had no contact with foreigners, so there was insufficient evidence to support the claim. But the judge also decreed that Pourmand must return to his home town of Bandar-i Bushehr to face apostasy and proselytizing charges before an Islamic court. Under such charges he could be sentenced to death.
Family destitute: Meanwhile, Pourmand's sentence automatically discharged him from the army, cutting off his regular income, and also eliminating nearly 20 years of military pension. The verdict also required his family to vacate their home in military lodgings within a few days. Pourmand's wife and two children face destitution.
Appeal: Pourmand's lawyer will appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court and try to block efforts to put Pourmand on trial before an Islamic sharia court. (Compass)
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