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Religious believers in Iran under serious pressure |
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Thursday, 12 June 2008 |
 Iranian authorities are intent on cracking down on non-Muslim religious activity, demonstrated in a series of raids on the homes of Christians and Baha’i followers.
On May 11, police in the southern Iran city of Shiraz arrested members of three Christian families who converted from Islam and confiscated their books and computers. The detained Christians were identified as Homayon Shokohie Gholamzadeh, 48, and his wife Fariba Nazemiyan Pur, 40; and Amir Hussein Bab Anari, 25, and his wife Fatemeh Shenasa, 25. Although the two wives were released the same day of their arrest, Anari was detained until May 14, and Gholamzadeh remains jailed. Raids on other families followed a day later.
Six Baha'i leaders in Iran were then arrested on May 14 and taken to the notorious Evin prison in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha'i leaders were summarily rounded up and killed. “We protest in the strongest terms the arrests of our fellow Baha'is in Iran,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations. “Their only crime is their practice of the Baha'i Faith.”
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Freedom for girls provokes attacks on churches in Nigeria |
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 |
When two teenage Christian girls were rescued from their Muslim attackers, their release sparked a rampage in which six churches were destroyed.
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Above: Uche Edward and Mary Chikwodi Okoye
Below: Churches destroyed in the rampage Deeper Life Bible Church (pictured), St Mary’s Catholic Church, All Souls Anglican Church, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Redeemed Peoples Mission
Photo: Compass
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Mary Chikwodi Okoye, 15, and Uche Edward, 14, were in foster care in Ningi, Bauchi state, Nigeria, when Muslim men kidnapped them. When they were found to be missing, the Christian community organized a search for the girls. Word got out that the girls were being held in another state—Kano—by a Muslim leader, in the town of Wudil. They were to be forcibly converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men.
When it became known that the Christians were coming to secure the girls’ release, the leader in Wudil sent them back to the Emir of Ningi. At this point police intervened and recovered the girls on May 12.
In protest against police intervention, a paramilitary group of Islamic extremists then went on a rampage and attacked six churches, causing extensive damage to property. The group responsible was an arm of Kano state’s Sharia Commission, used for enforcing Islamic law.
Following the incident, church leaders reported a decline in church attendance. Apparently there have been at least 13 other girls kidnapped from Ningi. Some have never been recovered and are still living in relationships with Muslim men. It is alleged that the mastermind behind the abductions is a local Muslim leader named Alhaji Bala Gambo.
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Uzbekistan: state media propaganda affects Christians |
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 |
 Uzbekistan continues to use state-run mass media to incite intoler ance of religious minorities and freedom of thought, conscience and belief, Forum 18 News Service reports. In the latest national TV attack, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterians and Methodists were all described as conducting unspecified “illegal missionary activities.” This was called “a global problem along with religious dogma tism, fundamentalism, terrorism and drug addiction.”
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Turkey: update on Malatya case |
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 |
 The trial of five young Turkish men accused of killing three Christian workers in a publishing house in April last year is still in progress. In testimony presented to the court, the suspects have blamed one another for the killings, saying they were not personally responsible for the deaths.
In other evidence, a letter from another convicted criminal has come forward, in which he stated he had been offered $300,000 in 2005 to kill anyone he found in the publishing house. This man, Metin Dogan, had been involved with an ultranationalist youth organization. He said that he was jailed on another charge before he could commit the deed, and that the job had passed in the meantime to Emre Gunaydin.
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Indonesia: threats on church in North Sumatra |
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
 In early May, Muslim extremists and local government authorities threatened to tear down a church building under construction. A mob of 100 members of the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defender Front) accompanied by government officials tried to destroy the church building, located in Jati Makmur village, North Binjai, 22km from the provincial capital of Medan. Church members quickly ran to protect the building, and there was a risk of conflict, when security forces arrived and brought calm to the situation.
The church, Protestant Bataks Christian Church, has complied with all government regulations but the local authorities have been unwilling to grant a permit. By law the church should receive the permit but pressure from extremists means permission has been obstructed.
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