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Imprisoned Vietnamese lawyers baptized and ordained |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Although visits to prisoners of conscience are usually for family members only, an exception was made when Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and three fellow pastors were allowed to visit imprisoned lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan just over a month ago.
 Nhan and Van Dai during their trial.
Photo: Women for Human Rights in Vietnam
Dai and Nhan were convicted of “threatening national security” and “propagandizing against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. After a trial of only four hours on May 11, 2007, the 38-year-old Dai was sentenced to five years in prison and four years of probationary detention (house arrest). Nhan, 28, received a four-year prison term and three years of probationary detention. However after international pressure, both had had their sentences reduced by one year.
During his visits, Rev. Quang, who has himself spent time in prison for his human rights advocacy, ordained Van Dai as a “minister of Christ.” One church leader in Vietnam
said that the occasion might have been more credibly presented “as a prayer to commission Dai for his witness in prison.”
Quang also baptized Nhan—who had been preparing for her baptism before she was imprisoned, but was arrested before the event could take place.
“She [Nhan] is an amazing, strong and courageous woman,” Rev. Quang told an associate. “Her open witness in prison has earned her the opposition of some fellow prisoners.”
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Iran proposes death penalty for 'apostates' |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
The Iranian parliament may mandate the death penalty for citizens who leave Islam, a human rights group announced in February.
 For the first time in Iranian history, a proposed penal code demands the death penalty for “apostates,” according to a February 5 statement by the Institute on Religion and Public Policy (IRPP).
“Apostasy was always illegal, but the court could hand down a jail term, hard labor or the death penalty,” said IRPP President Joseph Grieboski. “Now apostasy [would only] get the death penalty.”
Iran has used the “apostasy” law to target Muslim converts to Christianity, liberal thinkers and members of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority.
“This is not something new, they just want to be more harsh towards those who are leaving Islam,” one Iranian pastor said.
Though the draft law appears to indicate that both men and women can be accused of apostasy, some sections seem to limit execution to males who leave Islam. The proposed law stipulates that “hardship” will be exercised on a female apostate, who will be immediately released if she recants.
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Sri Lankan pastor murdered - wife in critical condition |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Late on Sunday, February 17, two men gunned down a Sri Lankan pastor, the Rev. Samson Neil Edirisinghe, 37, killing him instantly. They also shot his wife Shiromi, 31, leaving her in critical condition. The couple’s 2-year-old son received minor injuries and was still in shock after witnessing the shooting.
Buddhism is politically active in Sri Lanka. Above: Buddhist monks at a political rally in Sri Lanka in 2004. Photo: Compass
Initial evidence suggested the murder was a contract killing connected to Edirisinghe’s ministry in Ampara. Local media reports claim police have arrested at least five people in connection with the murder.
Prior to the killing, local Buddhist monks had conducted poster campaigns and used loudspeakers from the temples to criticize Eridisinghe and his church.
Rev. Ravindra Fernando, a Methodist minister and secretary of the local pastors’ fellowship, complained to the police, who found inflammatory anti-Christian posters in the temple.
In November last year, police thwarted an attempt to burn Edirisinghe’s house down. Investigations following the incident caused tensions in the town between Buddhists and converts to Christianity.
Religious conflict in Sri Lanka has been a serious issue in recent years, with senior Buddhist clergy launching a propaganda campaign against Christians in 2002.
A Buddhist political party was formed in 2004 to promote anti-conversion legislation in an effort to stem what it saw as “forced conversions” to Christianity. Several hundred violent attacks on churches have also occurred in the past five years.
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Inconsistent application of the law for converts in Egypt |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Egypt’s top administrative court has ruled in favor of 12 converts to Islam seeking to return to Christianity—but has left the group vulnerable to discrimination by mandating their former religion be noted on official documents. In his ruling on February 9, Judge El-Sayeed Noufal ordered Egypt’s Interior Ministry to issue the converts “Christian documents” noting their “ex-Muslim” status.
Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy. Photo: Compass
Human rights activists heralded the decision as a breakthrough for religious freedom in Egypt, where conversion away from Islam, though not illegal, has been forbidden in practice. But human rights advocates remained wary, saying that listing the converts’ former religion on their identity documents would make them vulnerable to discrimination. A representative for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights explained, “It’s obviously a stigmatization to have “ex-Muslim” on your ID card.”
In another case, a blow was struck against religious freedom in Egypt when a Cairo court ruled against Mohammed Hegazy, a Muslim convert to Christianity who also requested that his religious affiliation be changed. Judge Muhammad Husseini said in a verdict on Tuesday (January 29) that it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.
“He can believe whatever he wants in his heart, but on paper he can’t convert,” Husseini told the administrative court. Husseini based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution, which makes Islamic law, or sharia, the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that, according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and can not return to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism). “What happened is a violation of my basic rights,” convert Hegazy told the US Copts Association following the hearing.
Despite the ruling, a representative from the Arabic Network for Human Rights (ANHRI) said that Hegazy still planned to appeal the decision or open a new case if possible. Hegazy’s wife Zeinab (who recently gave birth to a daughter), also plans to go to court for her right to register as a Christian as well.
Death threats have forced the couple into hiding since the trial first hit news headlines in August 2007.
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Joy in sadness as martyr's widow gives birth to a daughter |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Palestinian Christian widow Pauline Ayyad gave birth in Gaza City to a healthy little girl, four months after the tiny infant’s father was kidnapped and shot to death by Islamist radicals. Rami Ayyad, 29, was serving as manager of the Palestinian Bible Society bookshop in Gaza when he was found murdered on October 7 last year. Ayyad’s family has yet to receive any concrete information on the investigation that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh ordered. At the time he vowed to bring the murderers to justice.
Rami Ayyad
“At the beginning, the Hamas authorities told us they had found the car Rami was taken in, and also the people who were in the car with him,” Pauline Ayyad told Compass. “They said they hadn’t captured the driver yet, but they knew his name. And we heard that the murderer had confessed, and the case was being taken to the National Internal Security officials.” But the widow said that a week later, “We started to hear all kinds of contradictions. They claimed they hadn’t captured anyone, and that they just had suspicions to go on.”
At the same time, an evacuated Bible Society staff member said that Christians “feel real pressures now between the Muslims and Christians in Gaza. Many of the Muslims believe that Rami was evangelizing people, so it was OK to kill him.”
Pauline named her new baby Sama, which is Arabic for ‘heaven’, “because,” she said, “her father is in heaven”.
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