December - a map to Living Faith

COMPASS DIRECT

Global News from the Frontlines

December 7, 2005

Compass Direct is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct is acknowledged as the source of the material.

Copyright 2005 Compass Direct

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IN THIS ISSUE

CHINA

Three Christians Jailed for Printing Bibles

Pastor Cai Zhuohua, his wife and brother-in-law are sentenced.

Cai Pressured to Drop Appeal of Conviction ***

Pastor and two others bow out of legal fight after court clerk threatens house church leader.

EGYPT

Family Accuses Muslim of Kidnapping Daughter ***

Christian couple risks family honor by going public over disappearance of 21-year-old.

Sheikh Jailed Eight Months Without Charges

Extremist cellmates threaten prisoner accused of ‘blasphemy.’

Christian Goes into Hiding to Avoid Court Sentence ***

Defense to appeal verdict claiming Copt illegally held girl at shelter for troubled women.

Pastor Fatally Crushed by Taxi ***

Police had harassed, jailed or tortured house church leader for two years.

ERITREA

Ailing Pastor Released after Severe Breakdown ***

Kale Hiwot Church prisoners set free yesterday in Asmara.

INDIA

Hindu Extremists Attack Church in Himachal Pradesh

Compass Direct December 2005 1

World Hindu Council threatens to burn pastor and church members to death.

Pastor Charged with “Forced Conversion”

Feigning baptism, false convert lays trap in which Hindu extremists attack.

Threat to Burn Christians to Death Defused

Extremists had demanded believers take part in ceremony to “reconvert” to Hinduism.

Extremists Lock Up Church, Attack Christians

Pastor suffers broken hand; extremists threaten to kill church members.

Supreme Court Again Defers Ruling on Dalit Rights

Government attorneys cite pending study, argue the matter should go to Parliament.

Convert from Islam in India Remains on Death List ***

Unfazed, son of devout Muslim cleric strives to teach seekers the essence of Christ.

Christians Attacked in Maharashtra State, India

Extremists put up posters warning Hindus of Christian conversion.

INDONESIA

Churches Find Temporary Home after Closures

Banned from rented facilities and the street, congregations worship in agency office.

Weekend Shooting, Machete Attacks Stun Christians

Tally rises to five dead and six critically wounded in Sulawesi since October 29.

Two More Schoolgirls Critically Injured in Poso

Heavy security fails to prevent second attack in 10 days.

IRAN

Convert Stabbed to Death

Secret police crackdown results in the torture of 10 other Christians.

NIGERIA

Islam’s Power Grab in Niger State ***

The imposition of sharia oppresses the Christians that make up half of the population.

SRI LANKA

Mahinda Rajapakse Wins Vote for President

Buddhist extremists who pressure him threaten more violence against churches.


SUDAN

Christian Aid Worker Murdered ***

Lord’s Resistance Army apparently expands attacks to target foreigners.

TURKEY

Authorities Harass Protestant Communities ***

Antalya’s St. Paul Cultural Center set afire by vandals.

VIETNAM

Churches Boldly Standing Up to Abuses

Once-private complaints to government are now reaching foreign officials and press.

***Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Three Christians Jailed for Printing Bibles in China

Pastor Cai Zhuohua, his wife and brother-in-law are sentenced. by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, November 15 (Compass) – Beijing authorities on November 4 ordered a

Chinese legal firm to suspend activities for a year, hours after top lawyer Gao Zhisheng filed court documents in defense of Pastor Cai Zhuohua.

Four days later, Cai and three family members were convicted of “illegal business practices.”

State security officers arrested Cai on September 11, 2004, following a raid on a church warehouse containing over 237,000 privately printed copies of the Bible and other

Christian literature.

His wife, Xiao Yunfei, was arrested on October 4, 2004, while her brother, Xiao Gaowen, and sister-in-law, Hu Jinyun, were arrested on September 27 of that year, according to a

China Aid Association report.

A government permit is required for all Chinese publications. The new Regulations on

Religious Affairs – brought into effect on March 1, 2005 – strengthened the ban on illegal religious publications and increased the penalty for printing or distributing religious books without prior government approval.


Cai, who led six Beijing house churches, claimed the books were printed for free distribution within house church networks, but authorities accused Cai and other church members of running the warehouse as a profit-making venture.

The four were held for 10 months before the case finally went to trial on July 7. Defense lawyers acknowledged that the literature was printed without permission but argued that the defendants could not be charged with “economic crimes” since the Bibles were not intended for sale.

Judge You Tao found three of the defendants guilty as charged. Cai, 34, was sentenced to three years, his wife Xiao Yunfei, 33, to 2 years and her 37-year-old brother to 18 months. The judge, however, announced that Hu Jinyun, charged with “storing illegal goods,” had escaped punishment by providing evidence against her sister-in-law, Reuters reported.

Cai’s mother, Cai Laiyi – now caring for Cai’s 5-year-old son – told Reuters that the prosecution had not found a single witness to testify that Cai had earned money from the sale of the books.

Reuters also quoted Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious

Affairs (SARA), who told a Beijing-funded Hong Kong newspaper that Cai had illegally printed 40 million copies of the Bible and other Christian books, and then sold 2 million of these for profit.

No evidence has been found to support this statement.

Ye also insisted that the case had nothing to do with religious persecution, but in the same interview he said that religion was a “point of penetration through which Western anti-China forces seek to Westernize and disintegrate China.”

Following their conviction, Cai, Xiao Yunfei and Xiao Gaowen had just 10 days to file an appeal, a difficult endeavor in light of the order that their law firm suspend all activities.

Gao, one of eight lawyers who volunteered to defend Cai free of charge, said he would challenge the suspension order.

The order followed several visits this year from officials encouraging Gao to drop

“politically sensitive” cases,

The Washington Post reported on November 6.

The verdict came just two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bush’s scheduled visit to China on November 19-21. Bush told reporters at a press briefing on November 9 that he would raise religious freedom issues with President Hu Jintao and other government officials during his stay.


Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department on November 8 included China on its list of

“Countries of Particular Concern,” the nations designated as top violators of religious freedom.

SIDEBAR

How Many Bibles Are Needed in China?

Cai Zhuohua’s sentencing and Ye Xiaowen’s statements raise questions about the demand for Bibles in China. At a forum of Christian organizations held in Colorado

Springs in February, the Rev. Cao Shengjie, president of the China Christian Council

(CCC), insisted that the government-approved Amity Printing Company produces enough

Bibles to meet the demand of the growing Chinese church.

When questioned, Cao said approximately 100,000 to 200,000 Bibles were held in reserve in the Amity Press warehouse at any one time, “depending on the demand” for that year, with an average of “about 2.5 million” printed every year.

Cao also said that Amity Press had printed 40 million Bibles since 1987; but it was not clear what percentage of the total were Chinese Bibles. Cao acknowledged that the figure included some Bibles printed for export in foreign languages.

Last year, the company printed 3.4 million Bibles destined for mainland China, a new record. A further 2 million Bibles were printed for distribution outside China, according to an Asia Opportunity report.

CCC officials also claimed there were only 16 million members in the registered

Protestant church but admitted that the figure did not include baptized members and

“could” be as high as 32 million.

Organizations working in China say the total figure – including both Protestant and

Catholic, registered and unregistered Christians – is well over 80 million. Some estimate that as many as 30,000 Chinese become Christians every day, or approximately 1 million a year. The numbers are impossible to verify; but if accurate, they indicate a huge demand for Bibles.

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Cai Pressured to Drop Appeal of Conviction in China

Pastor and two others bow out of legal fight after court clerk threatens house church leader. by Sarah Page


DUBLIN, November 16 (Compass) – Pastor Cai Zhuohua and two other Christians found guilty on November 8 of “illegal business practices” have dropped plans to appeal their conviction, two days before a legal deadline for the appeal.

A fourth Christian, Hu Jinyun, will continue the appeal process through her own lawyers, according to a China Aid Association (CAA) report released today.

A clerk from Haidian District People’s Court visited Cai at the Qinghe detention center and warned him that his sentence would be increased if he “annoyed” the judges with an appeal, according to CAA. Facing heavy pressure, Cai, his wife and brother-in-law agreed to drop the appeal.

This decision came as President Bush began an eight-day tour of Asia. Bush intends to visit China November 19-21. In a speech made in Japan, he urged China to open the door to more political and religious freedoms, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported today.

Cai, his wife Xiao Yunfei, brother-in-law Xiao Gaowen and sister-in-law Hu Jinyun were arrested last year following a raid on a church warehouse containing 237,000 privately printed copies of the Bible and other Christian literature.

China requires a government permit for all publications; these permits are harder to obtain for religious publications.

Cai claimed the books were printed for free distribution throughout house church networks, but officials accused him and other family members of running a profit-making venture.

Judge You Tao found three of the defendants guilty. Cai was sentenced to three years, his wife to two years, and her brother to 18 months. Hu Jinyun escaped punishment by providing evidence to police, Reuters reported.

Human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, a key lawyer on the defense team, received notice on November 4 to suspend his law practice for a year. When the judge sentenced his clients four days later, Cai and his relatives had just 10 days to lodge an appeal. The restrictions placed on Gao’s law firm, however, made this almost impossible.

Cai led six house churches in Beijing. The Epoch Times on Monday (November 14) quoted a letter from a member of one of these churches to the lawyers representing him:

“We were shocked and angry when learning that Attorney Gao Zhisheng was forced to close his legal practice because he helped people fighting for their rights,” the letter said.

“You broke through many difficulties and barriers to defend Brother Cai Zhuohua and his family at the risk of your personal interests and safety. We will remember your courage in our hearts.”


The Beijing Judicial Bureau said it closed Gao’s office for failing to apply for a change of address when he changed premises and for illegally providing legal documents to other attorneys, the Epoch Times reported on Friday (November 11).

Many believe the suspension notice is also linked to an open letter Gao wrote on October

18 challenging Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, entitled, “Stop

Persecuting Believers of Freedom and Mend Your Ties with the Chinese People.”

Gao has also defended members of the controversial Falun Gong movement, leading to frequent visits from Chinese officials and an investigation of his files and accounts.

Earlier this year China claimed improvements in human rights. At a session of the United

Nations Human Rights Commission in April, Representative Shen Yongxiang claimed that civil and political rights “range from personal freedoms to the rights to marriage and family, from the right to fair trial to freedoms of expression and belief which reflect basic ethical and social principles of mankind ... Therefore, civil and political rights are universal.”

He qualified this statement by saying, “To realize civil and political rights, countries inevitably have different paths to development and priorities, with no superiority of one over another.”

The U.S. State Department released a report on November 8 citing China as one of the worst violators of religious freedom worldwide.

*** Photos of Pastor Cai are available electronically. Please contact Compass for pricing and transmittal.

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Egyptian Family Accuses Muslim of Kidnapping Daughter

Christian couple risks family honor by going public over disappearance of 21-year-old. by Peter Lamprecht

CAIRO, November 18 (Compass) – Risking the loss of family honor, an Egyptian

Christian couple last week went public with their daughter’s sudden disappearance under questionable circumstances.

After highlighting 21-year-old Heba Nabil Narouz Ghali in “missing persons” reports in the newspaper and over national television on November 10 and 11, the Ghali family has identified a Muslim man whom they are accusing of kidnapping their daughter seven weeks ago.


A November 10 article in the weekly El-Wafd newspaper stated that the young woman was last seen on September 28 leaving work at a local Hyper supermarket in Sheikh

Zayid, a suburb of Cairo.

The Ghali family also released their daughter’s picture and a request for information in a

November 11 broadcast on TV Channel Three.

In an interview with Compass, the missing woman’s father, Nabil Narouz Ghali, said that when his daughter failed to return from work by 10 p.m. on September 28, the family telephoned Hyper supermarket, where their daughter had been working since February.

Supermarket staff said that the Christian woman had left work as usual on the 8:30 p.m. service bus.

When the Ghalis went to the supermarket the next day, however, they were told she had resigned. Moreover, her co-workers and supervisor gave them conflicting reports about when she had resigned.

Heba Ghali’s co-workers told them that she gave notice two days prior and claimed that their supervisor would not be at the supermarket until 5 p.m. that evening. But inside the store, the couple came face to face with the supervisor, who stated that their daughter had resigned only the day before.

“While we were there, one of my daughter’s friends, who claimed to be a Christian, came up to me and told me ‘Your daughter has embraced Islam,’” Nabil Ghali told Compass.

“Later we found out that this girl was not really a Christian.”

Pursuing this claim, Nabil Ghali contacted his parish priest. The clergyman checked with a colleague involved in government-required counseling sessions for Christians considering conversion to Islam.

But neither of the Coptic clerics could learn anything about Heba Ghali’s supposed conversion.

After the required 24-hour waiting period, Nabil Ghali reported his daughter’s disappearance to police at the October Sixth city station two days after she went missing.

The officer on duty first called an informer in Sheik Zayid, who claimed that Heba Ghali had often been seen in the company of veiled Muslim friends. He then refused to file a kidnapping report and instead reported the girl missing.

The policeman also visited the Hyper supermarket and returned with the missing woman’s work resignation. The document, shown to Compass, contained neither the required signature nor stamp of the supermarket manager.


Although the Ghali family protested that the handwriting on the resignation was not the same as that on Heba Ghali’s work application, the police refused to have the papers examined by a handwriting expert.

“It was not actually necessary to check with a handwriting expert,” the Ghali family’s lawyer, Athanasius William, commented. “It’s obvious the handwriting on the two documents is very different.”

She had a good relationship with the whole family, Nabil Ghali told Compass. “She wouldn’t have run away from us, and she never mentioned to us that she had any Muslim friends.”

With her father facing health problems, her younger brother still in school and her older sister married, Heba Ghali was one of the main breadwinners in her family.

The Ghali family showed Compass a handwritten letter that they received five days after their daughter’s disappearance.

Full of insults and obscenities, the letter stated that their daughter had had an affair with a man named Mahmoud Mustafa Ali and had eloped with him. It included Ali’s cellular and landline telephone numbers and urged the family to reclaim their daughter.

Nabil Ghali called Ali, who reportedly admitted that he had met Heba while delivering products to the supermarket where she worked. But he claimed to have no knowledge of the missing woman’s whereabouts.

Tracing Ali’s address through the telephone company, Nabil Ghali enlisted the help of a

Muslim friend and went to visit Ali on November 10.

The two men did not find Ali at home but were told by his former wife that Heba Ghali had converted to Islam and married him. The wife claimed to have divorced Ali before he and his new bride moved to Upper Egypt, Nabil Ghali said.

The next day, a source in the police force told Ghali that his daughter had converted to

Islam at Cairo’s Al-Azhar Islamic center.

“The girl is over 21. She has the right to marry and convert without her family’s permission,” William, the family’s lawyer, told Compass. “But they do have a right to confirm that the conversion and marriage were done legally and of their daughter’s free will.”

“No one supports me, not the priest, not anyone,” Nabil Ghali said through teary eyes. “I just want my daughter back. She’s a good girl.”

On November 13, the Ghali family acquired a copy of Heba Ghali’s conversion certificate, dated September 28, through a contact in the police force. They plan to check


with several priests involved in pre-conversion counseling sessions to confirm the document’s authenticity.

Lawyer William also plans to file a kidnapping report against Ali next week.

“This means that, legally, the police have to produce the girl and bring her to see her family,” he commented.

But William was quick to point out that even if the Ghali family does get to see their daughter, they may never uncover the truth of her disappearance.

“Such meetings always take place in the police station, and the girl is usually veiled and surrounded by men and police officers. [Of all similar situations in the past] I only know of one where the girl had the courage to say that she was taken by force.”

Reports of kidnappings and the forced conversion of Christian girls are common among

Egypt’s Coptic community.

Some Christian girls romanced by young Muslim men voluntarily leave their families and convert to Islam in order to escape poverty and unhappy family situations.

But last week, the U.S. government admitted that “there have been credible reports that government authorities have failed to sufficiently cooperate with Christian families seeking to regain custody of their daughters.” The comment came in the State

Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report on Egypt.

Egypt’s security police, the State Security Investigation (SSI), typically claims to be protecting young women in such situations from their birth families, whom it says might kill the converted daughter in order to “save the family’s honor.”

Without police cooperation, families find it difficult to verify the motives for each conversion.

In a similar situation in May, 20-year-old Coptic Christian Marianna Attallah disappeared while on a work errand in El-Fayoum. SSI officials told her fiancé and father that she had converted to Islam and reportedly warned them to stop searching for her.

*** Pictures of Heba Ghali and her father Nabil Ghali are available electronically. Please contact Compass for pricing and transmittal.

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Egyptian Sheikh Jailed Eight Months Without Charges

Extremist cellmates threaten prisoner accused of ‘blasphemy.’ by Barbara G. Baker


CAIRO, November 23 (Compass) – An Egyptian sheikh linked with a group devoted to the spread of Islam has been jailed without charges for nearly eight months on suspicion of committing blasphemy against Islam.

Arrested at his trading office on April 6, Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein Mohammed el-

Akkad was first detained at the Doqqi State Security Prison in Cairo. When El-Akkad’s wife inquired there about him, officials denied he was imprisoned there and refused any access to him.

Six weeks later he was transferred to Cairo’s Tora Mazraa Prison, where he has been incarcerated ever since.

El-Akkad, 56, became a sheikh (Muslim religious leader), during many years as a member of Tabligh and Da’wah, a fundamentalist Islamic group. Although the group is active in teaching and spreading Islam to non-Muslims, it is strictly opposed to violence.

After Egyptian lawyer Athanasius William took on El-Akkad’s case last May, he was permitted to attend his client’s interrogation sessions with the State Security Investigation

(SSI) and the prosecutor’s office.

The line of questioning followed by El-Akkad’s interrogators indicated that blasphemy, or defaming Islam, was the main accusation against him, William said.

The sheikh’s family, now allowed to visit him weekly at Tora Mazraa Prison, confirmed to Compass that he is jailed there in Cell 2 with other political prisoners, the majority of them from extreme Islamist groups. Since most face charges of violence against the state,

“His case is very different from theirs,” one relative said.

To the family’s alarm, two other suspects arrested with him and later released have reportedly spread rumors among prisoners that El-Akkad was converting and baptizing people into Christianity. “Now everyone treats him badly,” the relative said.

So far the sheikh has suffered mostly verbal abuse over these accusations from his interrogators, prison guards and other prisoners, his family said. But in one incident reported in September, a prisoner from an extremist group attacked El-Akkad and beat him severely until other cellmates intervened.

“He could easily be killed,” a member of El-Akkad’s family told Compass. “These

[extremist] people are not normal. They are provoked by any word he says, so they are always trying to attack him. They could just kill him for the name of God.”

Seven years ago, El-Akkad was arrested and jailed in a case given considerable press coverage in Cairo newspapers. As the leading “emir” of a Muslim group in a mosque in

Al-Haram, in the Giza area adjacent to Cairo, he had become well-known and revered by people throughout the neighborhood.


But some began to say they had seen El-Akkad in their dreams and started referring to him as Al-Mahdi, a messianic figure in Islamic writings whom many devout Muslims believe will appear at the end of time. Alarmed, the SSI arrested El-Akkad as a potential threat to public order and national security, allegedly for claiming to be a prophet.

Although the sheikh was accused of committing blasphemy under Article 98F of the

Egyptian penal code, no formal verdict was ever handed down, and he was released three months later. When he was set free, authorities stated that he was not responsible for the rumors spread about him.

Murky Accusations

But concerning El-Akkad’s most recent arrest and extended detention, Egyptian media have reported nothing.

Although the sheikh is apparently again under arrest for alleged blasphemy, “There is no formal accusation against him,” his lawyer said. “In all of his interrogations, they are accusing him of saying things against the prophet Mohammed, or the Quran, or the prophet’s friends. He has never been asked if he has changed his religion.”

The sheikh was asked informally by the prosecutor whether or not he was saying his prayers and fasting during the month of Ramadan, but these conversations were not recorded in the transcript of the interrogations, his lawyer noted.

El-Akkad’s detention has been renewed every 45 days under the provisions of Egypt’s notorious Emergency Laws, which allow prosecutors and the state security police to ignore court orders and jail citizens indefinitely without charges.

When El-Akkad was finally brought to court for the first time on October 24, the presiding judge asked him what he thought about the accusation against him.

“What am I accused of?” he asked. The judge referred the question to the state prosecutor, whose response was noncommittal: “We’ll see.” Without further comment, the judge renewed the sheikh’s detention for another 45 days.

An engineer, El-Akkad was running a private trade office at the time of his arrest. With his business temporarily closed, his wife’s minimal salary at the Ministry of Health is the sole support for her and their three children. The family has been forced to move to another location, fleeing mounting rumors about the reason for his arrest.

The jailed, full-bearded sheikh is the author of one book, entitled Islam: the Religion .

“He is not a fanatic,” El-Akkad’s wife told his lawyer three months after her husband’s arrest. “He loves God and discussions about religion, and he was assisting in conferences and seminars about religion with Christians and Muslims.”


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Egyptian Christian Goes into Hiding to Avoid Court Sentence

Defense to appeal verdict claiming Copt illegally held girl at shelter for troubled women. by Peter Lamprecht

CAIRO, November 29 (Compass) – With an arrest warrant hanging over his head,

Coptic Christian Shafik Saleh Shafik has gone into hiding in Egypt while his lawyers pursue an appeal over a controversial conviction of illicitly holding a minor at his shelter for young women.

Spearheading appeal efforts, defense lawyer Ramses Raouf el-Nagar plans to challenge the ruling this week on grounds of court corruption, misapplication of the law and failure to justify the verdict.

“None of the accusations in this case actually dealt with the reality of the situation,” El-

Nagar told Compass. “It was a weird verdict.”

Shafik, who holds dual U.S./Egyptian citizenship, was sentenced to one year in prison with hard labor last month for holding a 17-year-old girl at his Cairo shelter for troubled women “without the permission of the authorized guardians,” though her parents had given him custody. (See Compass Direct , “Egypt Slaps Jail Term on U.S. Citizen,”

October 26.)

Additionally, the verdict claimed that he possessed a “wooden cane without any professional necessity” and “tortured her physically.”

It also claimed that Shafik beat

Magda Refaat Gayed to “force her repentance and to convince her not to embrace the

Islamic faith.”

Shafik must pay all legal fees accrued during the 13-month trial.

A warrant for the Christian’s arrest was issued on October 20, the same day that his sentence was delivered verbally by Abdallah Abu-Hashem, head judge of Cairo’s

Abbassiya Criminal Court No. 15. But the handwritten verdict detailing charges against

Shafik was not produced until November 13, almost one month later.

In the verdict, judges Abu-Hashem, Sa’ad Sayed Megahed and Nabil Abdel Hak

Mohamed decided to discount Shafik’s testimony because he was “just trying to avoid the punishment for his crime.”

The verdict failed to respond to evidence that Gayed’s Christian parents had signed over custody of their daughter to Shafik in September 2004, after police recovered her from an

Islamist group. The 17-year-old had fled her family two weeks earlier and was reportedly living with Sheik Shabaan, the Muslim religious leader of a local Islamist group, learning

Muslim rituals in hopes of converting and marrying a Muslim young man.


“I was actually obliged to keep the girl, because I signed a paper promising her family that I would keep her,” Shafik commented.

The court’s decision also ignored the opinion of Egypt’s top forensic expert, Dr. Ayman

Soda, who testified in September that Gayed could not have balanced on the balcony ledge of the Apaskhyron El-Kellini shelter and jumped from a height of 11 feet with her hands and feet chained as the court doctor had said.

Prosecution witnesses testified to seeing the bound girl enter a local coffee shop, screaming that Shafik had beaten and raped her only a day after she arrived at the shelter, but no eyewitnesses could confirm Gayed’s claims.

Initial tests showed that the young woman had not been violated sexually.

El-Nagar was quick to take issue with contradictions between the initial medical report and a second report conducted 48 hours after the incident. “The second report states that she was still chained. How did they examine her the first time if they never removed the chains?”

The lawyer also claimed that it was a misapplication of the law to charge Shafik with possession of weapons. “By definition, a weapon is a knife, or even a hammer is, if a person does not need it for their profession. [But] in this case a wooden stick has nothing to do with this law.”

Religious Bias

A prominent speaker and writer on the issue of Coptic Christian rights, Shafik fears that authorities have used his case as a pretext to prevent him from attending human rights conferences and speaking engagements.

Never one to miss an opportunity to highlight the difficulties facing Copts in Egypt, the activist said, “In my case people want to know what has happened to me. But I want them to know why this is happening to me.”

At an October conference on freedom of belief sponsored by the National Council for

Human Rights, Shafik spoke against systematic efforts by radical Muslims to kidnap and convert Christian girls. Many of the Christian young women at his shelter were brought there after their families recovered them from Muslim groups determined to spread Islam by abducting and converting them.

“When I took the case, I never thought about it as a religious case,” lawyer El-Nagar commented. “I thought it was about custody.”

The case quickly took on religious overtones, with the prosecutor initially ordering police to illegally transport the underage Gayed to Al-Azhar Islamic Center to officially convert to Islam, and several witnesses threatening to kill Shafik if the court found him innocent.


Later in the trial, the court repeatedly ordered Gayed to appear at the hearings and be returned to her family, but police refused to cooperate. The girl is reportedly still living with an Islamic group in Cairo.

Despite Shafik’s frequent requests that the U.S. embassy attend his trial, embassy representatives never showed up at the hearings over the past year.

U.S. officials last month promised to monitor the U.S. citizen’s prison stay, but Shafik has little hope that this will protect him from abuse at the hands of the police.

Denied his heart medication for 48 hours during his initial incarceration last year, Shafik fears that this time around he may receive worse treatment. “The people inside are going to hurt me,” he said. “They are going to say with witnesses that I was the troublemaker, that I started the fight. I’m going to be a piece of cake in their hands.”

In order for the Court of Cassation (the highest court of appeal for criminal cases) to hear

Shafik’s appeal, the Christian will eventually have to turn himself in.

In past cases, such as the 2001 trial of U.S. citizen Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the Court of

Cassation has shown itself to be relatively independent of government control.

Though the court normally takes six months to three years to hear a case, it can choose to ignore an appeal indefinitely. Shaiboub William Arsal, a Christian sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for supposedly killing his cousin and another Christian in El-Kosheh, is still waiting for his case to be heard before the Court of Cassation more than five years after he submitted his appeal.

SIDEBAR

Highlighting Egypt’s Second Class Citizens

Conversion of Christian young women to Islam and being allowed to legally repair a church toilet are just two of the many problems Coptic activists like Shafik Saleh Shafik say confront Egyptian Christians.

The ancient Coptic community faces wide-ranging institutionalized oppression under

Egypt’s Islam-based legal system.

Laws derived from an 1856 Ottoman Hamayouni decree still require churches to get government approval before undertaking basic repairs and new construction.

In practice, congregations must often wait years to implement simple renovations, pending the signature of the president or local governors.


Although Article 46 of the Egypt Constitution provides freedom of religion, the government limits the rights of non-Muslim minorities through Article Two, amended in

1980, which states that, “Islamic jurisprudence [ sharia ] is the principal source of legislation.”

One-way restrictions on conversion are the most obvious form of legislative discrimination against the Copts and other religious minorities.

Conversion to Islam is legal, but courts have not allowed converts from Islam to

Christianity to change religion on their state identification papers. Several Coptic converts to Islam, however, have been able to convert back to Christianity since April

2004.

“The government’s interpretation of sharia dictates ‘no jurisdiction of a non-Muslim over a Muslim.’” This statement, issued by the U.S. State Department earlier this month, reflects the Islamic basis for prohibiting a Christian man from marrying a Muslim woman.

A Christian woman who converts to Islam must divorce her Christian husband and is automatically awarded custody of the children.

Copts dispute government claims that Christians make up 8 percent of Egypt’s population of 73 million, placing the number as high as 11 million. Yet according to the U.S. State

Department’s most recent human rights report, there are “no Christians serving as governors, police commissioners, city mayors, public university presidents, or deans.”

*** Photographs of Shafik Saleh Shafik, Magda Refaat Gayed and the Apaskhyron El-

Kellini shelter are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

(Return to Index)

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Egyptian Pastor Fatally Crushed by Taxi

Police had harassed, jailed or tortured house church leader for two years. by Peter Lamprecht

CAIRO, December 2 (Compass) – Under threat from Egypt’s security police for holding services at his house church, a Protestant pastor has been run down by a taxi in Cairo and died of internal bleeding and a broken skull.

Ezzat Habib, his son Ibram Habib and a friend were crossing the street in Cairo’s

Matereya district on the evening of October 23, when a parked taxi pulled into the street and hit them from behind. The taxi’s license number was 73746.


The pastor, 58, was immediately taken to a local hospital where he underwent surgery the following morning but died later that day. The friend, who asked to remain unidentified, suffered from a broken leg, while Ibram Habib received severe bruising in his legs. He continues to suffer from pain in his lower back.

Hospital personnel prepared a report about the incident and had Ibram Habib sign it soon after he helped deliver his father to the hospital.

“I signed the paper before I was fully conscious,” the son, who is involved in full-time

Christian ministry, told Compass. “When I read the report later it was completely different from what had actually happened. The taxi driver paid a lot of money to have them let him go.”

No Accident

Ibram Habib and his brothers, George and Amir, assert that their father’s death was no accident.

Egyptian Christians subjected to security police interrogations are frequently threatened that they will be killed or injured in contrived car accidents if they do not cooperate with police demands.

The Habib family has faced perpetual threats and physical persecution from neighbors and the State Security Investigation (SSI), Egypt’s national security police, over the past two years for their role in hosting the Beit-El (House of God) church in Giza, an outlying suburb of Cairo.

After much soul-searching in the wake of his oldest son Hany’s death, Pastor Habib, who earned a living as a tailor, founded a church in his home in 1997. For six years members of the Beit-El congregation worshipped in relative freedom as the only church in El-

Harem, a Muslim-majority neighborhood in Giza.

In June 2003, after receiving complaints about the church’s activities from neighbors, two soldiers came to investigate the congregation of 50. During a second investigation on July

1, police from nearby Boulak el-Dakrour station arrived with two marked cars, a minibus and a vehicle full of soldiers.

They filed a report against that congregation for disturbing the neighborhood and arrested

Pastor Habib.

He was jailed at the Boulak el-Dakrour station in an underground cell so narrow that he could not sit down. Over a period of six days the police abused the Christian physically and sexually, his sons told Compass.

On the fifth day SSI officer Hussein Gohar interrogated the pastor, his eyes bandaged and his hands chained, while a police officer on each side of him hit and kicked him and


insulted his wife. Gohar, notorious for his torture of Egyptian Christians, warned Pastor

Habib to stop his meetings and strictly forbid Muslims and foreigners from attending.

“Okay, I will stop the meetings,” the pastor finally told his captors. The next day he was taken to the state prosecutor, who in Egypt has wide ranging powers that include the jailing of suspects, and was told that he was free to go. But upon leaving the prosecutor’s office, police would not release him until he had paid a bribe.

Despite their pastor’s jail stay, the Beit-El congregation did not stop their weekday evening meetings. Over the following weeks police staged three more raids and made nine arrests. Each time no formal charges were filed, and the state prosecutor ordered the

Christians’ release, but police refused to free their captives until a bribe had been paid.

Following the final raid on July 30, 2003, in which a 72-year-old Orthodox priest, a 73year-old man and Amir Habib and his two cousins were arrested, the congregation decided to suspend all activities.

A year later, in July 2004, after attempts to register the church were rejected by local authorities, the Beit-El congregation resumed meetings.

Only days afterwards Pastor Habib received a phone call from SSI Lt. Medhat Allem.

“Why did you start the meetings again?” Allem asked angrily. “You will see what will happen to you.”

Later that month two trees in front of the Habib’s apartment building, one four stories tall, were cut down; they fell against the building and smashed windows. The pastor tried to call the police when he saw a man in his front yard chopping his tree with an axe, but the phone lines were cut and the front door was blocked from the outside.

According to a Muslim neighbor who approached the tree-chopper, the man claimed to have permission from the SSI to cut down the trees.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop doing your meetings?” Allem told Habib when the pastor eventually got through to the SSI officer. “Look what is happening to you.”

Battered Church

Members of the congregation, which now numbered only 15, continued to face harassment as they persisted in meeting over the following year. Young women on their way to the church meetings were verbally accosted by neighbors and had buckets of water thrown on them. The Beit-El apartment was also stoned.

On September 19, only a month before their father’s death, Amir and George Habib were escorting George’s fiancée and another young woman home from the evening church meeting when a local teenager, Ahmed Khalif Ali Mustafa, began shouting insults at them. When Amir Habib shouted back, the boy pretended that he had not been talking to them.


Later, as the Habib brothers returned home, Mustafa approached them with a concealed knife and stabbed Amir Habib three times before running away. After immediately filing a report with the police, the Christian went to a local hospital where he received stitches for the knife wounds in his shoulder and upper arm and had surgery for a severed ligament in his wrist.

In spite of their father’s death and continued harassment from police and neighbors, the

Habib brothers remain resolute in continuing their house fellowship.

“After the death of my brother, my father started to ask God what He wanted him to do,”

Amir Habib told Compass. “He started Beit-El because he believed that is what God wants. Also in that neighborhood there is no other church from any denomination.

Because of that we are going to keep going.”

But continuing the El-Beit house church in its current location will not be easy.

Attempts to relocate meetings in Giza this past summer were squashed after city officials refused to provide electricity and water and then sealed an apartment that the Habib family bought on a nearby street.

Licensing the apartment as a non-governmental organization has also failed, because no lawyer has been willing to help the family.

“The lawyer told us, ‘If the State Security Investigation is in the case, then there is nothing I can do,’” Amir Habib said.

The brothers also worry about their mother’s health, which they say was already deteriorating because of stress even before their father’s death.

Fearing deadly police harassment, the three brothers and their mother have been forced to separate and stay with various friends, only returning to their old home for church services.

*** Photographs of Ezzat Habib are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Ailing Eritrean Pastor Released after Severe Breakdown

Kale Hiwot Church prisoners set free yesterday in Asmara.

Special to Compass Direct


LOS ANGELES, November 9 (Compass) – Nearly 10 months after Pastor Oqbamichael

Tekle-Haimonot was arrested at a wedding in western Eritrea, authorities at the Sawa military training center have released the ailing evangelical leader on bail.

A minister in the Kale Hiwot (Word of Life) Church, Haimonot had suffered a severe breakdown last May after being subjected to solitary confinement, hard labor and other physical and emotional mistreatment at Sawa.

But the evangelical pastor’s health has improved significantly since his release in late

October. “He is in good spirits,” a fellow Protestant confirmed this week.

Bail conditions for the pastor’s release required that he sign a document (prepared by military authorities) promising that he would not attend any illegal Christian meetings in the future.

Since May 2002, the Eritrean government has banned any religious worship gatherings apart from those of the officially recognized Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim faiths, closing all independent churches. Authorities have even cracked down on small, home prayer groups and Protestant wedding ceremonies in public halls.

Haimonot was arrested in Barentu on January 9 with two other evangelical pastors and 64 of their church members, all of whom were then sent to Sawa for “military punishment” for participation in “illegal religious activities.” The group of Protestants had been escorting a bride to her wedding ceremony when security police halted the procession and jailed them all, including the bride and groom.

Within four months, many of the elderly and young children among those arrested were released after posting substantial bail payments, although Haimonot and five other evangelicals were refused release.

Meanwhile, Christians jailed in a security police raid against 25 Kale Hiwot Church members at their Asmara church headquarters five weeks ago were all released on bail yesterday morning from Police Station No. 5 in the capital.

These Protestant prisoners were instructed to call someone to post bail for them, and then required to sign a prepared statement promising not to attend any non-registered Christian meetings in the future. All of the women and a few other individuals in the Kale Hiwot raid had been released earlier, after three weeks of continuous interrogations.

The recent releases drop the total number of Eritrean Christians known to be jailed in police stations, military training camps and prisons by the regime of President Isaias

Afwerki down to 1,752. At least 26 full-time Protestant pastors and Orthodox clergy are among them, some held in underground cells and metal shipping containers under torturous conditions.


Even the Eritrean Orthodox Church, dating back to the fourth century, has come under direct government fire since August, when Patriarch Abune Antonios was stripped of his ecclesiastical authority and relegated to a ceremonial role. The patriarch remains under virtual house arrest, reportedly for protesting the arrest of three ordained Orthodox priests and resisting other government interference in church affairs.

Pope Shenoudah III, spiritual head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, has declined public comment on the sacking of the Eritrean patriarch. But in September, his official magazine, El Keraza

, noted that the “problem of the Patriarch of Eritrea is a concern of the whole world’s church circle.”

From Egypt, the Coptic prelate requested prayer for Patriarch Antonios during this “great tribulation.”

*** A photo of Patriarch Abune Antonios is available electronically. Contact Compass

Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Hindu Extremists Attack Church in Himachal Pradesh, India

World Hindu Council threatens to burn pastor and church members to death. by Vishal Arora

NEW DELHI, November 14 (Compass) – Hindu extremists attacked 62-year-old Pastor

Feroz Masih in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on November 4, accusing him of “forcibly converting” Hindus and severely beating him.

The attackers then forced Masih to sign a document saying he was willing to participate in a ceremony planned for Sunday (November 20), in which all 60 members of his church would be converted back to Hinduism.

If the pastor and other church members refused to take part, the extremists said, they would be burned to death.

The attack and beating occurred as Masih, a former Hindu, was traveling to nearby Norha village to comfort a believer who was mourning the death of a family member.

Masih’s son, Ramesh, told Compass that about 10 members of the World Hindu Council

(VHP or Vishwa Hindu Parishad ) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal , stopped his father and accused him of forced conversion.

Verbal arguments soon gave way to violence; the mob beat Masih so severely that he sustained internal injuries, requiring medical treatment. At press time he was still recovering.


Masih, along with his son, leads a local chapter of the Believers’ Church in India, which meets in their house at Baijnath town, five kilometers from Norha village. About 60 believers attend the worship service every Sunday.

Following the attack, the extremists told Masih they would come to his house on Sunday and conduct a Hindu program in which the Gita , the Hindu scripture, would be read and all Christians would be converted back to Hinduism.

“Then they forced my father to sign a paper saying that he was willing to reconvert himself and his church members to Hinduism,” Ramesh Masih said. “They also warned him that he, along with all the believers, would be burned alive if they refused to reconvert. They also threatened to burn down the believers’ houses.”

Masih and his son sent a letter of complaint to officials at the Baijnath police station, the district collector of Kangra district, and the National Commission for Minorities.

The letter urged police to protect Christians in Baijnath and said Christians would hold the administration responsible for any loss of life or property on Sunday.

“We will not allow the VHP to hold a reconversion meeting or any religious function in our house,” Masih wrote.

The letter included the names of six of the attackers, all residents of Baijnath sub-district:

Harbans Lal, Madan Lal, Santosh Kumar, Ravi Kumar, Jitender Kumar, and Bablu

Kumar.

The police, however, regarded the beating as a “minor incident,” according to Constable

Rakesh Kumar of the Baijnath police station.

“An official complaint [regarding the attack] has not been registered, and no one has been arrested,” he told Compass.

Kumar said the VHP had attacked Masih on the basis of a complaint made by a local resident, Prakash Chand, who came to the police station alleging that Masih had forcibly converted his wife two years ago. “We are satisfied that Masih did not convert her by force,” Kumar added.

Masih’s son, however, said the beating followed reports in the local media alleging that

Masih was forcibly converting Hindu villagers.

He denied the claims made against himself and his father.

“We simply preach the message of peace and joy as given in the Bible. All the believers who attend the worship ... have embraced Christianity out of their own will,” he said.

VHP extremists had previously threatened Masih and pelted stones at his house in April.


The Masihs are still waiting for a police response to the death threats issued by VHP members.

Himachal Pradesh has one of the smallest Christian populations in India. According to

2001 census figures, Christians number only 7,687 in a total population of 6 million.

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Pastor Charged with “Forced Conversion” in India

Feigning baptism, false convert lays trap in which Hindu extremists attack. by Vijayesh Lal

NEW DELHI, November 18 (Compass) – Govind Verma, chief of a local chapter of the

Bharatiya Janata Party, approached Pastor Masih Das Rai of Chattisgarh state last month saying he had had an encounter with God and wanted to become a Christian.

Just six months ago, Verma had threatened to harm Rai if he continued his pastoral work in Palari town in Raipur district. But Rai arranged for Verma to participate in a baptism ceremony on November 10, along with a few other villagers who had received Christ.

On the morning of the baptism, Verma told the group he would join them later in the day.

Sources later discovered that Verma contacted the Dharma Sena

(“Religious Army,” a militant Hindu organization) and complained about Rai, disclosing the details of the planned baptism.

Members of the Dharma Sena then attacked Rai and 12 other Christians as they were worshiping during the ceremony. Leela Dhar Chandrakar, chief of the Dharma Sena in

Chattisgarh, led the attack. Chandrakar has been implicated in other attacks against

Christians. (See Compass Direct

, “Christians Protest Church Attacks in Chattisgarh,

India,” September 20.)

The mob beat Rai and his companions and handed them over to the police, who interrogated the pastor before arresting him for “forced conversion” under the Freedom of

Religion Act, and a section of the Indian Penal Code that bans deliberate insults about another person’s religious beliefs.

The believers who attended the ceremony said policemen and members of the Dharma

Sena pressured them to give statements against Rai, who works for the local Christian organization Milap Mandali.

“The police have been uncooperative,” Arun Pannalal of the Church of North India confirmed to Compass. “Eight of the Christians were forced to give statements against

Pastor Rai. And when we as a delegation went to visit him at Palari [police station], we were not allowed to talk to him or see him privately.”


Pannalal’s delegation tried to file a counter-complaint with the police, but failed. “The police are just not entertaining a counter-complaint in this matter, even though Pastor Rai has been beaten up and still has the marks of the beatings on his body.”

Pannalal pointed out that the attackers had verbally insulted the Christian faith, illegal under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code. Offenders may be imprisoned for up to three years and/or fined.

While Rai has been charged with this offense, his attackers have not.

Under the Freedom of Religion Act “forced conversion” charge, meanwhile, Rai could be imprisoned for up to one year and/or forced to pay a fine of 5,000 rupees ($109).

Akhilesh Edgar, the director of Milap Mandali, has also been implicated in the case, although at press time he had not been arrested.

When Rai appeared at district court on November 11-12, his application for bail was rejected on grounds that police had not yet handed over the necessary paperwork.

A second bail application hearing is set for Monday (November 21). In the meantime, Rai remains in custody.

*** A photo of Masih Das Rai is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

SIDEBAR

Christian Escapes “Forced Conversion” Charge

Lawrence Rao, a Christian from Jabalpur city, Madhya Pradesh, narrowly escaped criminal charges on November 6 after Hindu extremists accused him of attempting to convert Jagdish Costa, a Hindu villager.

“About 15 people, along with a few policemen, stormed a prayer meeting in our home at about 1:15 p.m.,” Rao told Compass. “As soon as the extremists entered the house, they started shouting, ‘Who are the Jesus people who have come here for conversion?’ Then they tried to attack us physically, but the police intervened and saved us.”

The police took Rao, his wife and Costa to the police station. On the way there, the extremists continued to threaten and abuse them. “They were also trying to pressure

Costa to say that we had forcibly entered his house to convert him,” Rao said.

Costa categorically denied that he was forced to convert to Christianity, and told the police he had joined the prayer meetings after Rao successfully prayed for the healing of his 10-year-old son.


The police released Rao, his wife and Costa after holding them at the station for about six hours. They later called for Rao at 3.30 a.m. and asked him to come to the police station.

A local Christian who requested anonymity said about 200 members of the Vishwa Hindu

Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal , had surrounded the police station that night, demanding Rao’s arrest.

Rao and Costa were asked to give their respective statements at the police station and were released without charge at 4 p.m.

Arun Mishra, chief superintendent of police of Gorakhpur district, told Compass that Rao was innocent.

Rao, a retired government officer and member of the local Jeevan Jyoti church, was shocked at these events. “I have never been opposed like this,” he said later. “Many people believe in prayers and ask us to pray for them.”

Extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal had earlier attacked a prayer meeting organized by the Jeevan Jyoti Church in Dhanora village on

February 23, seriously injuring a 65-year-old Christian convert. (See Compass Direct ,

“Hindus in India Attack Church While Police Take ‘Lunch Break,’” March 14.)

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Threat to Burn Christians to Death in India Defused

Extremists had demanded believers take part in ceremony to “reconvert” to Hinduism. by Vishal Arora

NEW DELHI, November 21 (Compass) – Members of the Believers’ Church in India

(BCI) in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh met peacefully Sunday, despite death and arson threats issued by Hindu extremists.

“About 20 people came for the service. This was lower than usual as some villagers were facing opposition, but at least we were able to meet without incident,” Ramesh Masih, the son of Pastor Feroz Masih, told Compass.

The church meets in Masih’s house in the town of Baijnath.

On November 4, extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu

Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal , assaulted the elder Masih. After beating him, they told Masih that if he and his 60 church members failed to take part in a

“reconversion” ceremony on November 20, they would burn them to death. (See

Compass Direct

, “Hindu Extremists Attack Church in Himachal Pradesh, India,”

November 14.)


The planned reconversion ceremony was apparently dropped due to police intervention.

In the November 16 edition of a national Hindi daily, Amar Ujala , a senior VHP member,

Baldev Sood, said the VHP would not “reconvert” the BCI Christians against their will.

Police had warned VHP members that they would be held responsible for any harm done to Masih or his church members, senior police official Ravinder Singh Jamwal told

Compass.

Jamwal also said all citizens had a constitutional right to practice and preach their respective religions, and Masih had the right to preach and distribute Christian tracts.

Police Inspector Sureshta Thakur of the Baijnath police station said she had warned the

VHP and its supporters against taking the law into their own hands.

“There are many illiterate people in Baijnath who can easily be misled to believe that

Christians are forcibly converting Hindus,” she said. “These misconceptions are the root of the problem.”

When the church asked Thakur for police protection for the worship service on

November 20, however, she refused, saying, “Only the district collector has the authority to sanction police protection.”

Thakur sent two police constables to visit Masih’s house on November 19. She also tried to arrange a meeting between Masih and the six attackers named in his police complaint.

All six of the attackers, however, had gone into hiding and could not be contacted.

Masih’s son said he did not want the attackers punished, but that he hoped local officials would protect the Christian minority.

He also rejected the claims of “forced” or “fraudulent” conversion made against his father, saying such false accusations are a mere pretext for attacking and harassing

Christians.

“Recently, I arranged a press conference in which many of our church members said they had accepted Christianity out of their own free will, because they had been healed of their diseases,” he added.

A recent police inquiry found that Masih had not converted anyone by force or by fraudulent means.

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Extremists Lock Up Church, Attack Christians in India

Pastor suffers broken hand; extremists threaten to kill church members.


by Vijayesh Lal and Rahul Pant

NEW DELHI, November 29 (Compass) – Christians in the Kakradara area of Jhabua in

Madhya Pradesh state are living in fear after extremists barred access to their new church and beat up their pastor and visiting evangelists after a church dedication ceremony on

November 5.

Pastor Ramesh Bhuria established the Christian community in Kakradara about 15 years ago. When membership rose to over 100 people, the congregation raised funds and contributed materials for a new church building.

Several evangelists from Jesus Redeems Ministries in Tamil Nadu state were invited to speak at the dedication service. The ceremony completed, they started back home at around 4 p.m., accompanied by a few local Christians.

Just 100 meters away from the church, they were confronted by 12 men carrying long sticks. These men forced the evangelists to stop and asked them what they were doing in the village.

Taken aback, Pastor T. Samuel, the district coordinator for Jesus Redeems Ministries, began answering their questions. As he spoke, one of the assailants hit Bhuria from behind. The mob then beat all five Christians.

Samuel tried to protect one of the injured men, and the assailants broke one of his hands.

Another injured Christian managed to escape and used a public telephone to call for help.

Samuel later required surgery to repair his hand.

Family members and other villagers have since learned that village headman Sen Singh

(also known as Patel) and two other village officials planned and instigated the attack.

Witnesses identified several of the attackers by name: Jam Singh Babur, Sabon Khelson,

Jethra Vasuriya, Boocha Singh (Singh’s son) and Singh’s brother Kasan Him Ji.

Locked Out

On November 6, Singh and two other officials used a padlock to block access to the new church. They claimed the district collector had ordered the church closed.

Singh warned the Christians not to lodge a complaint, saying that if the collector gave orders for the church to be reopened, it would lead to more trouble for the Christian community.

Local Christians overcame their fear of Singh and approached police on November 7, but officers refused to file an official charge on the grounds that it could only be lodged by the victims. By this time the evangelists from Tamil Nadu had already left the area, and

Samuel was in hospital receiving treatment.


A legal expert told Compass this requirement was an abuse of the law, since anyone can file a charge.

Singh and other residents then visited Bhuria’s home and threatened to “cut [him] into pieces” if he continued his Christian activity in the village. The same threats were issued to other church members.

Bhuria and several other men from the church have since fled the area, fearing for their lives.

V. Devdos, the leader of a local mission connected with Bhuria’s church, told Compass he was unwilling to file a charges on Bhuria’s behalf unless he returned to the village to give a statement.

Meanwhile, the new church remains empty and all Christian meetings are suspended in the village. Most Christians in Kakradara live in fear of further attacks.

Jhabua has a reputation for violence against Christians. In January 2004, when the body of a young Hindu girl named Sujata was found dumped on the grounds of a Catholic school, riots ensued. Hindu extremists gathered mobs and made provocative speeches, demanding the arrest of school staff. Banners insulting the Christian community appeared in neighboring villages, and several Christian homes and churches were ransacked or burned to the ground.

A few days after the murder, police arrested Manoj Jadhav, a Hindu who reportedly confessed to raping and killing Sujata, before throwing her body into the mission compound. (See Compass Direct

, “Indian City in Uproar Over Death of 9-Year-Old

Girl,” January 22.)

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India’s Supreme Court Again Defers Ruling on Dalit Rights

Government attorneys cite pending study, argue the matter should go to Parliament. by Palash Kumar

NEW DELHI , November 30 (Compass) – India’s Supreme Court on Monday

(November 28) for the third time deferred ruling on whether Dalit Christians (low-caste

“untouchables”) can be denied job and education rights.

Dalits belonging to Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths qualify for a government plan that reserves 26 percent of jobs and educational places for them. Under current laws, Dalits who convert to Christianity or Islam lose their reservation privileges.


Supreme Court justices put off until February a ruling on the matter after government attorneys told the court they were awaiting the findings of a commission set up to study the issue.

The hearing had raised hopes among millions of Indian Christians who have been denied government benefits because they belong to a low caste and have converted to

Christianity from Hinduism.

At the last court hearing on the matter in October, government attorneys delayed a ruling by telling justices that a commission had been set up to study a broad range of issues surrounding government reservations for Dalits. That commission, dismissed by

Christian leaders, is due to finish its work next year.

All India Catholic Union (AICU) leader John Dayal told Compass that it was shocking that no commission was set up when the case of Hindu and Sikh Dalits was taken up.

“Why has our matter been referred to a commission? It defies logic,” Dayal said.

“Sending the matter to this commission is an effort to buy time.”

An AICU statement released Monday evening noted India’s 16 million Dalit Christian are “extremely frustrated and demoralized” by the government’s position. “We as Dalit

Christians are intrigued and saddened by the contrary positions taken by the ruling coalition in its public assurances to us and its arguments before the Supreme Court.”

On Monday the government counsel argued that the matter was “outside the purview of the courts and should be left to Parliament.”

Joseph D’Souza, international president of the Dalit Freedom Network, said in a statement that the government’s counsel was simply trying to stall the case in hopes that it will fade away.

“They in fact wanted the case dismissed, saying the issue was one that concerned

Parliament and not the Supreme Court and that the government had done enough by setting up a commission to look into the matter,” D’Souza said.

An attorney for the Public Interest Litigation, Prashant Bhushan, responded to government counsel arguments by saying that enough commissions had already determined that Dalit Christians cannot be denied affirmative action benefits on the basis of religion. He further argued that the matter was a Supreme Court issue because the seminal presidential order of 1950 ran counter to the fundamental rights in the constitution, which prohibited discrimination based on religion.

The AICU statement said that denial of rights to Dalit Christians appears to be a conspiracy by “hand-picked bureaucrats planted by the Hindi opposition Bharatiya Janata

Party regime” before it lost power to the Congress Party in 2004.


The Dalit Christian community held a massive rally in southern Hyderabad city on

Saturday (November 26). D’Souza, who has spearheaded an international campaign on the Dalit cause, said grassroots Dalit Christians had now mobilized themselves.

“It was historic because we bluntly laid down our position for the government and the

Congress Party that, ‘Don’t count on the political support of the Dalit Christians if you are not willing to support us on this matter,’” he said. “The time of waiting is over – 50 years is long enough. We as Christians need to stand and up act. And this rally is the beginning of our public agitation and movement.”

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Convert from Islam in India Remains on Death List

Unfazed, son of devout Muslim cleric strives to teach seekers the essence of Christ. by Vidyadar Sreeprasad

CALICUT, India, December 1 (Compass) – The Rev. K.K. Alavi, called “one of the bravest Christians in India,” is the son of a staunch Islamic cleric.

Since receiving Christ at age 21, Rev. Alavi has endured at least four attempts on his life.

Because of his ministry among Muslims, he receives numerous death threats by phone or by letter. Nearly every day he is assailed in Muslim speeches, newsletters and newspapers. Islamic groups have slapped 11 court cases on him, and last August a gunman shot at his house. He has also noticed two men stalking him lately.

Short with a thickly bearded face, the 53-year-old Alavi disarms others with a serene smile and a high singing voice.

“Last month, a few reporters came to me warning that killers were out to take me down,”

Alavi said. “All my life I have had threats from fundamentalists. So I wasn’t surprised to hear this from reporters who were tipped off by a source with a radical, Indian Islamic group.”

Though Muslim extremist organizations deny having any part in the attempts on his life, police officials and intelligence agencies have confirmed their role.

Machetes and Reproach

Higher-ranking police officials have asked Alavi to be cautious as extremist groups have issued warnings about attacks planned against him.

In Manjeri, a predominantly Muslim town in south India, Rev. Alavi pastors an independent Lutheran church, New Hope India Mission. He also oversees a literature program of tracts, booklets and study aides examining Islamic viewpoints on Christianity.


Many such works analyze Quranic arguments in favor of violence, contrasting them with

Christianity’s peaceful approaches. Rev. Alavi, a graduate from Concordia Seminary in

Nagercoil, has written more than 20 books and tracts calling upon Muslims to understand the true essence of the teachings of Jesus.

In an Islamic area where Christianity is considered blasphemy, Rev. Alavi has led at least

50 Muslims – estimates range as high as 200 – to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Each year thousands of inquiries pour in. Working out of his home in Calicut, he meets curious and questioning Muslims asking about Jesus.

The threats on his life began in 1981. “A mob of Sunni Muslims stormed into my property looking for me with machetes,” he said. “I ran all the way to the police station.

Later I took refuge at the home of a Hindu attorney.” The lawyer’s family fed him and eventually provided an escort back to his home.

Rev. Alavi is not attacked merely for being a Christian, he said.

“I happened to be the first Muslim in a Muslim town who still converts Muslims in modern times,” he said. “They saw clearly that I’m a sort of a bridge for many to walk to

Jesus. They could never stand the idea. Hence I happen to be their foremost enemy.”

The National Development Front (NDF), a major Indian Islamic group emerging in 1993 following the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque, has launched several public campaigns against Rev. Alavi.

During prayers, Muslim clerics are known to hold up Alavi as a prime example of an enemy of Islam. Rev. Alavi has copies of a collection of audio cassettes – circulated in

India and the Middle East – that revile him and his Christian mission.

In 1998, an Islamic group prompted various activists to file 11 charges against Alavi, including rape and fraud.

“All were well-planned and backed by renowned lawyers supported by Islamic groups,” he said. “They also produced a woman who claimed I raped her.”

Muslim groups announced these crimes throughout the towns of Manjeri, Calicut, Tirur, and others, he said. Posters appeared on walls saying he smuggled arms. These attacks were hard on his family, including his wife Yasmin Alavi, the daughter of Muslim converts, who is very active in extending hospitality to the hundreds of people who come to the Alavi home. The Alavis have three grown children.

“My family was shaken, but I knew the Lord would protect me,” he said.

One by one, courts dismissed all charges against Rev. Alavi. Moreover, the Kerala High

Court ordered protection for him.


Death Threats

Rev. Alavi still receives many threatening letters from organizations such as Tiger Force and the Islamic Front. His church has been attacked and the cross destroyed.

Police have informed Rev. Alavi of two attempts on his life. No one was aware of the attempts until suspects revealed them while questioned on other charges. Rev. Alavi’s outpost among Muslims was once forcefully shut down; the Lutheran church sponsoring his work temporarily moved him to Bangalore to save his life.

A decade ago, a group of Islamic extremists came looking for him while another team was dispatched to murder Chekannur Maulvi, a liberal Muslim teacher who broke with convention and decried Islamic fundamentalism. Maulvi was murdered that day, but

Alavi was away from home and thus spared.

“Now, sources have alerted me that I’m second on the hit list prepared by the Muslim fundamentalist NDF,” he says.

Last August, while he was still in Manjeri, someone shot at his house in Calicut at around

10 p.m. “The stone wall still carries the mark,” he said.

On another occasion, as he was speaking in church, there was a man in the church holding a gun. “But he had to flee when a Lutheran sister tried to talk to him,” he said.

Such are the ordeals of a pastor whose widely-published testimony has inspired many

Indian Muslims to turn to the path of Jesus. His life story, published in a booklet titled An

End of a Search , is translated into 32 languages and circulated in many cities in southern

India.

In spite of the dangers, Rev. Avali said he has declined the court-approved security offered to him.

“I can claim security from police wherever I go, but I believe if I do that I’ll lose the protection of my guardian angels,” said Rev. Alavi, who has been diagnosed with a weak heart. “So I’ve declined man’s support and have turned to God’s care and protection.

Who can kill me if God’s with me?”

*** A Photo of Rev. Alavi is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Christians Attacked in Maharashtra State, India

Extremists put up posters warning Hindus of Christian conversion. by Vishal Arora


NEW DELHI, December 2 (Compass) – A group of young people attacked three

Christians as they distributed Christian literature in the western state of Maharashtra on

Saturday (November 26). Two of the three injured were hospitalized.

“It’s a miracle that we are alive today,” Shaji Samuel, a Christian worker with the Panvel

Brethren Church, told Compass. “We were beaten up very badly. I still can’t take a deep breath, as I have received numerous internal injuries and my mouth is still hurting.”

The attack took place at about 7:15 p.m. behind the State Transport Bus Terminal of

Panvel Taluka in Raigad district, near the state capital, Mumbai.

Biju Jacob, 35, said he, Samuel and 30-year-old Reji Paul distributed and sold literature and Bibles at the Panvel bus terminal from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. without incident. When they returned in the evening, he said, “a group of about 30 young people brutally thrashed us.”

Paul and Jacob were sitting inside the jeep, and Samuel was standing near the hood, where a stack of literature lay.

“A young man approached Samuel, took a piece of literature and asked him why there was no mention of 330 million Hindu gods in it,” Jacob said. “Soon he got furious, and about 30 more young people came and started beating him.”

According to Vedas (Hindu scriptures), there are 330 million gods in India.

“When Paul and I got out of the jeep, they started beating us also,” Jacob said. “They beat us for about 15 minutes.”

The attackers then dragged the three and made them sit in a motorized rickshaw. They asked the driver to take them to the Panvel police station and followed them in their own vehicles.

“As we reached the police station, they [the attackers] alleged that we were converting

Hindus,” Jacob said. “I told the sub-inspector, S.H. Warenkar, that we were only selling

Christian literature without any force.”

Warenkar agreed to take the victims to a nearby government hospital, where they were treated for their injuries, he added.

The Panvel Municipal Hospital referred the three to a private hospital for further treatment. En route, however, the police asked at least one of them to report to the station for statements.

Samuel, who bore the brunt of the attack, went to the Thane Lok Hospital, where he was admitted immediately. Paul was able to return to his home.


When Jacob reached the police station, the attackers had given a written complaint to the police accusing him and his associates of conversion.

The police interrogated Jacob until 1:30 a.m.

“On Sunday, I had fever and terrible headache – therefore I went to a hospital and was admitted,” Jacob said. “The police had to come to the hospital for further interrogation. I was released on Tuesday. But I still have swelling on my head.”

The police, however, did not file charges against the Christians but against the attackers.

Anil Madhukar Kalyankar, Kishore Madhukar Kalyankar, Sanjay Yashwant Wahulkar and 25 others were charged with rioting and disturbing the public peace, said the investigating officer, Warenkar.

“The miscreants wanted us to register their complaint against the Christians, but we did not accept it,” he said.

Warenkar added that the persons charged were absconding. “The police will arrest them very soon.”

The situation is still tense, Samuel said, as the attackers have put up posters on area walls warning Hindus of conversion attempts. “The posters allege that a Christian program is on to convert Hindus in the area,” he said.

Samuel said he and the other victims have nothing against the extremists.

“We have forgiven them,” he said. “However, it is sad that we were misunderstood, as we were simply distributing Christian literature that talks about love and peace.”

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Churches Find Temporary Home after Closures in Indonesia

Banned from rented facilities and the street, congregations worship in agency office. by Luther Kembaren with additional reporting by Sarah Page

JAKARTA, November 16 (Compass) – Denied permits and ordered not to worship in public or at home, churches in East Bekasi, West Java, have taken temporary refuge in a

Social Affairs Agency office.

Trouble for the churches began in September, when local officials ordered congregations meeting in a rented housing facility to close because they did not have the required permits.

A joint decree issued in 1969 by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of

Religious Affairs – known popularly as the SKB – requires all religious groups to seek


permission from neighbors and district officials before they build or establish a place of worship.

Since Christians are a distinct minority in Indonesia, the decree has made it virtually impossible to secure a church permit.

When officials refused permits for three churches in the Jatimulya housing facility in East

Bekasi, the congregations altered residential buildings to cater to large numbers of worshipers. The total number attending services before the dispute began was approximately 1,500.

Following the September closure order, the Anti-Apostasy Movement Alliance (AGAP, an alliance of Muslim extremist groups) began to enforce the order.

AGAP members attacked the Pentecostal Church of Indonesia El Shaddai on October 2.

They also forced a Lutheran (HKBP) and a Presbyterian (GEKINDO) church in the complex to cease services.

The Rev. Maruli Tobing of the HKBP told Compass that a mob closed the road leading to his church with stones and other obstacles to prevent people from entering.

The Rev. Pestaria Hutajulu of the GEKINDO church said her congregation had been meeting in the complex since 1989. The congregation applied for a permit several times but resorted to “house church” meetings when the applications were refused.

“We were asked to collect signatures from the neighbors,” she explained. “But someone told them not to sign.”

Tobing encountered the same problem. “We applied three times for a permit with no success.”

Harassed Off the Street

Following the pressure from AGAP, church members decided to meet on the street. A somewhat diminished congregation gathered in an open field at the housing facility on

October 9. Potential conflict was averted when some 50 lawyers arrived from Jakarta to take part in the service, according to local media reports.

When church members returned to the field on October 16, some 300 Muslims had already laid out their prayer mats and were conducting their own worship service.

The Christians moved to a nearby street, but Muslim radicals approached them and ordered them to disperse. Someone in the mob shoved Hutajulu, who fell into a drain. An eyewitness said the policemen on duty that morning stood by and did not intervene.

Following the disturbance, members of all three churches said they would continue worshiping in the street until, in the words of Hutajulu, “the Lord gives us a way out.”


Around 500 Christians from the HKBP church “scuffled” with 200 Muslims on Sunday,

October 29, after a third street service, The Jakarta Post reported.

Following the clash, district officials offered the use of the Social Affairs Agency office for two months while they searched for a building site for each of the churches. The agreement was reached at a meeting between Christian and Muslim leaders, police and district authorities, and a member of the House of Representatives on October 30.

In return, the Christians have agreed not to hold services in their homes.

West Java Church Closures

The campaign to close churches in West Java, though not new, intensified in May after three local Christians were arrested on charges of “Christianizing” Muslim children. (See

Compass Direct

, “Teachers Appeal ‘Christianization’ Conviction in Indonesia,”

September 23.)

Extremist groups including AGAP and the Islamic Defenders Front have forced at least

30 provincial churches to close in recent months, although some churches re-opened within a matter of weeks.

Moderate Muslim leaders have joined former President Abdurrahman Wahid in condemning the attacks on churches.

A debate still rages over the function and relevance of the SKB, which was issued 36 years ago. As a ministerial decree, the SKB lacks the status of a federal law but has been treated as such by local officials and extremist groups. Government ministers recently promised a revision of the decree.

The SKB outlines the correct procedure for requesting and granting permits for places of worship. The opening text affirms “each citizen’s freedom to embrace their own religion and to worship according to their own religion and belief.” A later clause, however, restricts this freedom to religious activities that do not contradict existing laws or threaten

“public order and the security of the state.” (English translation)

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Weekend Shooting, Machete Attacks Stun Christians in Indonesia

Tally rises to five dead and six critically wounded in Sulawesi since October 29. by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, November 21 (Compass) – Indonesian Christians are in shock today as details emerge of two vicious attacks over the weekend on a Christian couple and three teenagers in the town of Palu, Central Sulawesi.


Motorbike riders shot a man and woman at close range shortly after they left a church service on Saturday (November 19). Palu is near the town of Poso, where machete and shooting attacks have killed four teenage girls and seriously injured two others in the past month (See Compass Direct

, “Two More Schoolgirls Critically Injured in Poso,

Indonesia,” November 9).

The victims of Saturday’s shooting were identified as Novlin Pallinggi, 37, and her husband Pudji Laksono, 45. A bullet was removed from Laksono’s chest on Sunday, and he is in stable condition. But surgeons failed to dislodge two bullets from Pallinggi’s chest and ribs, and she remains in critical condition, The Jakarta Post reported today.

Witnesses said two men had fired at the couple.

In the same town on Friday morning (November 18), two women and one man were attacked with machetes, killing one of the women. Officials have refused to comment on the religious affiliation of the three victims.

Three men riding a motorbike and carrying machetes drew near another motorbike bearing 20-year old Supriyanti and her friends, identified in local media reports only by their first names: a 23-year-old man named Anca, and a 20-year-old woman named Evi.

The assailants struck Supriyanti’s neck and almost severed one of Evi’s arms. Anca escaped serious injury and immediately took his friends to the local Wirabuana hospital, where staff turned them away because the wounds were “too serious.”

Anca then took Supriyanti and Evi to the Undata hospital, but Supriyanti died on the way due to severe blood loss.

By Friday afternoon, police had questioned five witnesses but were still looking for the perpetrators, according to an Antara news agency report.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Rais Adam, speaking on behalf of the Central Sulawesi police force, refused to speculate on links between these incidents and previous attacks in the nearby town of Poso.

Two female students, Ivon Maganti, 17, and Siti Nuraini, 17, were shot on November 8 while they sat chatting in front of a house in a Christian area of Poso. Siti, a Muslim, died shortly afterward, while Ivon, a Christian, is still recovering.

Machete-wielding assailants also beheaded three Christian schoolgirls – Theresia

Morangke, 15, Alfita Poliwo, 17, and Yarni Sambue, 15 – in Poso on October 29 as they walked to school. A fourth victim, 15-year-old Noviana Malewa, is still being treated for serious machete wounds to her face and neck.


National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko said on Friday that police had arrested a man named Irfan Masiro in relation to the beheadings. Masiro is a security guard at Poso

Hospital.

“We have named Irfan a suspect because ... he owned a machete with a bloodstain that matches [Morangke’s] blood type,” Soenarko said.

Irfan is one of five suspects previously questioned by the military; the other four were released last week due to lack of evidence.

Soenarko also said police had arrested four suspects in the November 8 shooting of

Maganti and Nuraini. Residents of Poso and Palu remained skeptical however, citing numerous violent crimes in 2004 and 2005 that remain unsolved. In most cases, the victims were Christians.

From 2000 to 2001, violent conflict between Muslims and Christians on the island of

Sulawesi resulted in at least 1,000 deaths. A similar conflict took place in the neighboring

Maluku islands from 1998 to 2002.

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Two More Schoolgirls Critically Injured in Poso, Indonesia

Heavy security fails to prevent second attack in 10 days. by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, November 9 (Compass) – Unidentified assailants yesterday shot two senior high school students in Indonesia’s Poso district, Central Sulawesi, just 10 days after the beheading of three Christian teenage girls.

Ivon, so far identified only by her first name, and Siti Nuraini, both 17 years old, were admitted to Poso Kota general hospital in critical condition last night, according to a

Jakarta Post report.

The attack followed the beheading on October 29 of Theresia Morangke (15), Alfita

Poliwo (17), and Yarni Sambue (15). All three were cousins.

A fourth cousin, Noviana Malewa (15), suffered deep machete wounds to her face and neck but survived the October 29 attack. She is still receiving treatment at a hospital in

Palu, the provincial capital.

Malewa and the other three girls were walking to a private Christian school at around

6:30 a.m. when they were attacked. She later described the assailants as six men wearing black shirts and masks.


Her cousins’ bodies were left at the site of the attack, near a cacao plantation. Their heads were found about two hours later; one near a Pentecostal church in the village of

Kasiguncu, eight miles away, and the other two near a police station five miles from Poso township, according to police spokesman Rais Adam.

The incident occurred as Muslims were preparing to celebrate Idul Fitri , the conclusion to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

By October’s end there were 3,500 police and army personnel stationed in Central

Sulawesi, according to a Jakarta Post report on November 1. A number of high-ranking police officials had also flown to the island following the beheadings, but the heavy security presence failed to prevent a second attack in the same district.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on security forces to hunt down the perpetrators. Indonesians are skeptical, however, citing numerous violent crimes in Poso that remain unsolved.

Human rights activist Ibrahim Buaya echoed the frustration of many fellow Indonesians in a press release sent out immediately after the beheadings: “How many times have we heard this rhetoric and nothing happens!”

According to local human rights group Imparsial and the National Commission for

Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, there were at least 19 shooting incidents in

Poso in 2002, 10 such incidents in 2003, seven in 2004, and four so far this year.

Both organizations recorded 11 murders in Poso between 2002 and 2005 and 33 bombings in the town over the same period, according to Paras Indonesia, an online news source. This figure includes the May bombing in the predominantly Christian village of

Tentena that left 22 dead (updated from 21 deaths in Compass Direct

’s, “Thirteen

Suspects Arrested in Indonesia For Tentena Bombing,” June 6) and at least 74 injured.

Police arrested 13 suspects in connection with the Tentena bombings. For the majority of incidents, however, the perpetrators remain at large.

Expressing their lack of trust in the police and security forces, Christian leaders in the region have united to ask President Yudhoyono to personally handle the investigation into the recent murders.

Central Sulawesi has long been prone to violence. Clashes between Muslim and Christian communities between 1998 and 2001 left over 1,000 dead in the region. A peace agreement signed in December 2001 brought an end to the worst of the conflict, but sporadic attacks – most of them against Christians – have continued.

Some sources say the beheadings and shootings are politically rather than religiously motivated, while others point to the existence of several terrorist training camps in the jungles of Central Sulawesi.


As one Christian leader in Jakarta told Compass, “The situation in Poso calls for more concerned prayer. This incident shows there are some people in Poso who are still trying to re-ignite the conflict. Whoever is behind all these recent incidents, we pray that God would stop future attacks, on both Christians and Muslims.”

SIDEBAR

Terrorists Plant Two Bombs in Central Sulawesi

Yet another battalion of troops arrived in Poso on November 3, hours after a homemade bomb was found near the home of Gustaf Tajongga, head of Lambogia subdistrict in

Poso regency. A police bomb squad safely defused it.

Passengers in a minibus traveling from Palu to Poso on October 27 were less fortunate. A male passenger left the minibus moments before a homemade bomb exploded, seriously injuring a 54-year-old man identified only as Murdani, who required hospital treatment for first- and second-degree burns. Hospital staff treated other passengers for minor injuries. Police said the bomb was a low-explosive device, filled with shrapnel for maximum impact.

The minibus bore the Christian name “Omega.” Minibuses carrying a maximum of 12 passengers are a common form of transportation in Central Sulawesi. They are often identified by their owners as “Christian” or “Muslim” – in the form of religious names, slogans, verses of Scripture, or stickers displaying religious symbols.

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Iranian Convert Stabbed to Death

Secret police crackdown results in the torture of 10 other Christians. by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, November 28 (Compass) – An Iranian convert to Christianity was kidnapped last week from his home in northeastern Iran and stabbed to death, his bleeding body thrown in front of his home a few hours later.

Ghorban Dordi Tourani, 53, was pastoring an independent house church of convert

Christians in Gonbad-e-Kavus, a town just east of the Caspian Sea along the

Turkmenistan border.

Within hours of the November 22 murder, local secret police arrived at the martyred pastor’s home, searching for Bibles and other banned Christian books in the Farsi language. By the end of the following day, the secret police had also raided the houses of all other known Christian believers in the city.


According to one informed Iranian source, during the past eight days representatives of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) have arrested and severely tortured 10 other Christians in several cities, including Tehran. All the detainees have since been released.

One of the arrested Christians was reportedly interrogated about his involvement in relief work after Iran’s deadly Bam earthquake in December 2003. Another working with a legal organization defending human rights was accused of using it as a “cover” for church activities.

In addition, MOIS officials have visited known Christian leaders since Tourani’s murder and have instructed them to warn acquaintances in the unofficial, Protestant house fellowships that “the government knows what you are doing, and we will come for you soon.”

A former Muslim of Turkmen descent, Tourani had converted to Christianity more than

10 years ago, while in Turkmenistan.

After he returned to his native Iran in 1998, Tourani began to share his new Christian faith with friends and relatives. Within two years, a small fellowship of 12 believers was meeting in his home.

But not all welcomed his message; at least one relative attacked Tourani, scarring his face. In the past year he received several threats from Islamic extremists vowing to kill him if he did not stop sharing his Christian faith.

Tourani is survived by his wife and four children, ages 3 to 23.

He is the fifth Protestant pastor assassinated in Iran by unidentified killers in the past 11 years. Three of the five were former Muslims, under Iranian law subject to the death penalty for having committed apostasy.

Tourani’s murder came just days after Iran’s new hard-line President Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad called an open meeting with the nation’s 30 provincial governors. During the session, an Iranian source told Compass, Ahmadinejad declared that the government needed to put a stop to the burgeoning movement of house churches across Iran.

“I will stop Christianity in this country,” Ahmadinejad reportedly vowed.

“This was apparently a green light from the president of Iran to go out and start killing

Christians,” the source said.

Slurring Non-Muslims

Last week a Zoroastrian representative in the Iranian Parliament protested a slur against non-Muslims on November 20 by a top aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.


According to the government-run Entekhaab website, in a public speech Ayatollah

Ahmad Jannati told youthful Basijis (members of a volunteer militia formed to enforce strict Islamic codes) preparing to join suicide missions that “non-Muslims are sinful animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption.” Jannati, who is secretary general of the powerful Guardian Council, is known to be a mentor and close advisor to

Ahmadinejad.

Iranian Member of Parliament Kurosh Niknam declared the comment, “an unprecedented insult to religious minorities.”

Over the past month, Ahmadinejad has conducted a broad shake-up within the government establishment, replacing hundreds of governors, ambassadors and senior ministry officials with young and mostly inexperienced Islamists. Yesterday students at

Tehran University protested noisily when a religious cleric without even a high school diploma was appointed rector of the nation’s oldest university.

In November, the new director of prisons also transferred a number of political prisoners of conscience into criminal wards with convicted murderers and drug dealers. At least one of these political prisoners has been killed by fellow inmates, sparking the fears of

Iranian Christians for the security of Hamid Pourmand, serving a three-year sentence at

Tehran’s Evin Prison for refusing to renounce his conversion to Christianity.

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Islam’s Power Grab in Niger State, Nigeria

The imposition of sharia oppresses the Christians that make up half of the population. by Obed Minchakpu

MAIKUNKELE, Nigeria, November 15 (Compass) – For Ishaya Kpotun Shaba of

Niger state in north-central Nigeria, the past four years have been a jumble of tears and pain. He has not set his eyes on his daughter, Saratu, since she was abducted in December

2001 at age 19 by extremists bent on converting and marrying her to a Muslim.

When Shaba reported the kidnapping to the Maikunkele town police, officials showed no interest in rescuing his daughter. Instead, to Shaba’s shock and disbelief, he was summoned to appear before an Islamic court in Minna on January 9, 2002. The Upper

Area Court judge informed him in the summons that his daughter had requested that he allow her to “embrace the religion of her choice.”

Shaba showed up at court but never saw his daughter. Instead, the judge called him into his chambers and told him that his daughter was now a Muslim, and that therefore he was summoned to an Islamic court.


“I protested this and told him that I was a Christian and should not have been summoned to appear before the Islamic court,” Shaba told Compass. He demanded that the court release his daughter – “wherever she may be” – but the judge refused.

Later, he heard that his daughter was forced to marry a Muslim man in Minna, the state capital.

“Isa Gwamna, a friend of mine who works with the Niger state government, told me that the marriage was conducted on the orders of the Islamic court,” Shaba said. “He witnessed the marriage, which was held in one of the government’s offices.”

Gwamna told Shaba that his daughter cried throughout the marriage ceremony, refusing to recite the Quranic passages she was asked to read; she also refused to declare a dowry amount.

“This clearly shows that not only was our daughter forcefully abducted, kept in seclusion, and forced into marrying a man she does not love, but also she was forced to marry a man who is not of her religion,” Shaba said. “My friend said that when my daughter refused to say how much should be paid as her dowry, she was forced to receive 5,000 naira

[$381].”

Four years later, neither the court nor the police have advised Shaba of her whereabouts; they no longer know where she is, he said.

So far this year, nine cases of forceful conversions of Christian girls below the age of 14 were reported to the office of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria

(CAN), according to the Rev. Samuel Ayuba Shaba, CAN state secretary. Many other cases go unreported.

For many years, Rev. Shaba said, the palace of the Muslim leader of Bida town, the Etsu

Nupe , has been used as a base for hiding abducted Christian girls. Once there, they are forcefully converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men.

Cruelties Large and Small

In Niger state, where Christians slightly outnumber Muslims, such a tactic is just one means extremists use in a quest for a dominant Islamic population, according to experts on religious movements. Increasingly, the extremists also target Christian widows as part of this effort.

Sharia (Islamic law) was implemented in Niger state in 2001. A first-time visitor to

Minna does not need to be told that Islam now dominates the city. In every street, signposts bearing Quranic inscriptions have been planted in intervals of 100 meters.

“ Allahu-Akbar ” (God is great) reads one of the signposts; “ La’illa a-illala Muhammad rasu lillah

” (There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger) reads another.


For the Christians who make up just over 50 percent of the 2.4 million population, life is full of seemingly unending cruelties. Besides forced marriages, Rev. Shaba and attorney

Bob James say Islamic officials in the state deny Christians basic rights by imposing sharia, forcing conversions, seizing property, and discriminating against Christians in the public sector.

Rev. Shaba, 49, pastor of Harvesters for Christ Ministries in Minna, said sharia has made persecution a lifestyle. It is no longer news to hear of arbitrary arraignment of Christians in Niger state.

“Initially we were told that sharia was meant to serve only Muslims,” Rev. Shabas said,

“but we are now living witnesses to the fact that it was meant to harass Christians and to combat Christianity.”

Muslim leaders in the state are deliberately trying to eliminate Christianity, he said. “It is a systematic and deliberate approach to oppress, deny, and frustrate Christianity.”

James, an attorney for the Justice Mission in Minna, noted that parts of sharia directly violate the Nigerian constitution. “The constitution says that one cannot use the machinery of government to promote any religion,” James said.

Cutting off the hands of those guilty of theft is clearly a doctrine of Islam, he said. A government that adopts the practice is promoting a religion, he said, and adopting Islam as a state religion contravenes the constitution.

Niger is one of 12 states (along with Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto,

Zamfara, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, and Gombe) implementing sharia in northern Nigeria.

Islamic officials have claimed that the Nigerian constitution allows them to enact laws that would bring about good governance, which they have employed as a check against rampant moral laxity and corruption, as well as to restore political stability.

But James responded, “The same constitution says any laws enacted by any state are subject to the constitutional principles on which the Nigerian government is based.” Any other course, he said, will result only in anarchy.

“If there are fundamental human rights that have been agreed upon, the right of a state to make laws is subject to those fundamental rights,” he said. “You cannot violate them.”

So far this year, James’ office has filed 10 lawsuits on behalf of Christians who have been arbitrarily jailed by Islamic courts. Since 2001, his office has handled 30 such cases.

“If not for the maturity that Christians in this state have exhibited,” he said, “all the atrocities would be enough to stir up an uprising.”

Christians Need Not Apply


Christians working in the public sector have been wrongfully denied promotions or even sacked because of their faith, sources said.

Most affected are Christian women, who are forced to wear hijab (Islamic head covering). Christian women who dare to show up at work without the head covering are beaten by Islamic Police ( Hisba ) recruited by the state government.

Before the introduction of sharia, Christians in the state frequently were appointed as commissioners, permanent secretaries, directors, and principals of schools, Rev. Shaba said.

“But today, Christians have only one commissioner to the 10 commissioners who are

Muslims,” he said. “The same applies to positions of permanent secretaries – we have only one.”

Christians are denied positions, Rev. Shaba said, even when they are the educated and have relevant experience.

“Muslims who are not educated are the ones getting appointed into positions of power,” he said. “There are even situations where Christians are retired from public service to pave the way for Muslims to be appointed into these offices.”

Suppressing the Truth

Increasingly, Rev. Shaba said, Christians find it difficult to obtain land for churches.

State authorities are finding pretexts to force even existing churches to relocate out of their towns. Rev. Shaba said this problem is “very common” in New Bussa, Sabon Wuse,

Bida, Kontagora, and Dokko.

Efforts to force all churches from town, Rev. Shaba said, are designed to create the impression that there are no Christians in the state and to shield Muslims from the gospel.

Suppression of the gospel also shows up in the schools. In a state where Christian schoolchildren are required to wear uniforms distinct from their Muslim counterparts – presumably so that they will be easily distinguished in the event of religious violence – it is perhaps no surprise that students receive no instruction on Christianity.

Islam, on the other hand, is taught in the state’s 142 public schools.

The same government that refuses to permit teaching on Christianity has built six Islamic schools across the state, Rev. Shaba said. The state-built Islamic schools are the College of Arts and Islamic Studies, in Tudun Fulani; the College of Arts and Islamic Legal

Studies, in Minna; and four campuses of the Women’s Islamic College, in Dikko, Kacha,

Babana-Wawa, and Borgu.

How We Got Here


Attorney James and other Christian leaders in Niger state filed a lawsuit against the enactment of sharia in 2001. But while the case was being heard, he said, the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo pressured them into withdrawing the case.

Obasanjo, a Christian, was working toward re-election at that time, James said, and felt the legal tussle could mar his political chances. Additionally, Obasanjo believed that a legal war pitching Muslims against Christians would polarize the nation’s judiciary.

The legal battle that would have decided the constitutionality of implementing sharia thus ground to a halt.

Religious liberty is enshrined in the nation’s constitution, and Nigeria is a country of many diverse religions, Rev. Shaba said. “That makes it a more urgent task for the federal government to stop the implementation of the Islamic law.”

That is not likely in a country where religious tensions have already cost thousands of lives and displaced more than 60,000 people. And for Ishaya Kpotun Shaba, sharia has already cost him his daughter.

A retired civil servant who worked for the Niger state government for 26 years, Shaba is stunned at how he has been treated.

“I know of Christians whose daughters have also been forcefully married to Muslim men,” he said. “I know of Christians who have been jailed for no just cause. We can do nothing, except to take our burdens before Jesus, the Christ. This is what it means to a

Christian in Niger state.”

*** Photos of the Rev. Samuel Shaba and attorney Bob James are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Mahinda Rajapakse Wins Sri Lankan Vote for President

Buddhist extremists who pressure him threaten more violence against churches. by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, November 18 (Compass) – Sri Lankans elected a new president yesterday who faces the challenge of dealing with a Buddhist elite seeking greater control over religious minorities.

Mahinda Rajapakse, who won by a narrow margin, faces other challenges: He must renew stalled peace negotiations with the Tamil Tigers and pour more effort into tsunami recovery programs.


Christians, however, are greatly concerned about the latter pressure on the new president from Buddhists. Prior to the elections, Rajapakse formed an alliance with the Jathika

Hela Urumaya (JHU or National Heritage Party), a Buddhist party that has campaigned vigorously for the adoption of anti-conversion laws.

These laws would restrict freedom to convert from one religion to another, and cast doubts on the motives of any religious group offering social or material assistance to the poor.

Rajapakse signed a deal with the JHU in mid-September, promising a more aggressive approach to peace negotiations with the LTTE in return for electoral support.

Anti-conversion legislation was not – at least publicly – part of the deal.

JHU leader Athuraliye Rathna Thero, however, told the daily Colombo Page on

September 20 that his party had “decided to withdraw its [anti-conversion bill], as the threat of conversion to other religions will not exist when Prime Minister Rajapakse becomes president.”

Now Rajapakse must deal with leading Buddhist monks who want the constitution amended to make Buddhism the state religion. Failing this, anti-conversion legislation will no doubt be put back on the parliamentary agenda.

Christians say the constitutional amendment would have the same or greater effect as two different anti-conversion laws presented to parliament earlier this year. (See Compass

Direct

, “Buddhist Monks Press for Anti-Conversion Laws in Sri Lanka,” September 23.)

Both Rajapakse and his opponent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, addressed religious freedom issues in their campaigns, but shied away from public commitment to anti-conversion legislation, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) reported.

An NCEASL staff member described an eerie silence in the streets of Colombo yesterday after votes were cast. Traffic was minimal, and many office workers had gone home, fearing post-election violence.

Buddhist extremists had already threatened to attack churches after the elections, according to NCEASL. The most concrete threat was directed at an Assembly of God church in Naalle, Gampaha district; church members were told to expect an attack last night.

Extremists have launched many violent attacks against Christians and churches in recent years, particularly after a leading Buddhist monk, Ven. Soma Thero, launched a campaign against conversions to Christianity in 2002.


A report issued by the U.S. State Department on November 8 took note of these acts of violence, and said Sri Lankans should honor their constitution – which protects the right of each citizen to practice the religion of his/her choice.

The report encouraged “interfaith efforts by religious leaders to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

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Christian Aid Worker Murdered in Southern Sudan

Lord’s Resistance Army apparently expands attacks to target foreigners. by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL , November 9 (Compass) – A British aid worker died of bullet wounds to the chest and neck last weekend after his jeep was ambushed by gunmen in Sudan near the Ugandan border.

Twenty militants attacked Collin Lee, his wife Hedwig Unrau Lee, and their Sudanese driver, Karaba Juma, on Saturday (November 5) as they traveled to the southern

Sudanese town of Yei from Uganda.

Juma tried to reverse the jeep in an attempt to avoid a roadblock that the gunmen had constructed, Mary Githiomi, Sudan liaison officer with International Aid Services (IAS), told Compass from Nairobi. But Juma was forced to halt the vehicle when the militants opened fire, wounding Lee and hitting the driver in the arm.

Despite threats from the gunmen that she would be burned alive inside the jeep, Hedwig

Lee refused to leave her bleeding husband, who was strapped into the passenger seat.

Convincing the militants to spare her husband’s life, she pulled him from the passenger seat of the vehicle before it was set ablaze.

After the gunmen retreated into the bush, the 35-year-old woman helped her husband make the hour-long trek to the village of Morobo, Githiomi said. The couple was then taken to Yei Hospital, where Lee died of his wounds that night, six hours after the incident.

“Collin was a man after God’s own heart,” his friend and IAS colleague, Elias Kamau, told Compass. “He felt that he had a calling from God, and he had a real sense of urgency to accomplish that goal. His death is a shock to us as an organization.”

Lee, 57, had worked with IAS for less than two years; along with his wife, he did trauma counseling for war victims in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda.

“We suspect that this is the work of the LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army], but we cannot confirm this,” Githiomi told Compass.


Army spokesman Capt. Paddy Ankunda confirmed to Agence France Presse on Monday that the Ugandan army held the LRA responsible for the attack. He said that the rebels shot on the IAS workers after realizing that they were being pursued by the Ugandan and

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) armies.

Sudan has agreed to cooperate with Uganda in carrying out joint operations against the

LRA, which originates in Uganda but has bases in southern Sudan.

Healing Ministry

The Lees’ work in trauma counseling was especially strategic in northern Uganda, where attacks by the LRA over the past two decades have displaced more than 1.5 million people. Practically the entire rural population has left home to take refuge in large cities.

Especially affected are children, 25,000 of whom have been kidnapped by the LRA for use as soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

As many as 50,000 children and teenagers, known as “night commuters,” avoid abduction by walking up to 10 miles every day to sleep in the security of large towns.

Today a group of 50 international aid agencies demanded that the United Nations

Security Council protect Ugandans from rebel attacks, which claim the lives of 1,000 people each week, BBC reported.

Based on an LRA letter the British Foreign office obtained that had been distributed to locals in northern Uganda, the office told Reuters that the LRA may now be targeting foreigners. Reuters reported that experts believe the rebels may be reacting to the

International Criminal Court (ICC). On October 14 the ICC announced that it had issued its first arrest warrants for the LRA leadership, including Joseph Kony, who claims to receive instruction from God.

Over the past two weeks, the LRA has killed four other foreign aid workers and injured four others in separate attacks, causing several international aid agencies to consider curtailing their activities in the region.

Yesterday the rebel group also killed a British tourist and kidnapped a New Zealander and Ugandan who were later rescued, BBC reported.

Hedwig Lee, a Paraguayan national of German background, has worked off and on with

IAS since 2000. She brought her husband into contact with the organization before they were married in his native Bermuda last year.

According to Githiomi of IAS, Hedwig Lee, who is six months pregnant, has been “very strong” during the days since her husband’s death. She is recovering in Kampala. This week the widow plans to return to Bermuda, where her husband’s body is being sent for burial.


*** Photographs of Collin Lee and the gutted IAS jeep are available electronically.

Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and details.

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Turkish Authorities Harass Protestant Communities

Antalya’s St. Paul Cultural Center set afire by vandals. by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, December 2 (Compass) – Turkey’s Protestant Christian minorities experienced fresh harassment this past week from both security police and the judiciary, along with an attempt by vandals to set on fire one local church.

Last Sunday (November 27), members of the Agape House congregation in Samsun, a city along the Black Sea coast, were disquieted by a large, white minibus parked in front of their church as they came to morning worship services.

Church members suspected someone behind the van’s darkly tinted windows was using a video camera to film everyone entering the church.

The apparent filming continued after the service concluded, when church leaders checked the van’s license plate and confirmed it was registered to security police headquarters.

Pastor Orhan Picaklar promptly called the police and demanded an explanation.

Two police officers soon arrived on the scene, one in uniform and the other a security official. Apologizing and urging the pastor to “cool down,” the officers promised to remove the van immediately.

“Under what law are you doing this?” Picaklar asked them. “Why are you taking these recordings? By chance are you trying to harass us?”

Despite police promises, the van remained parked in front of the church building until 6 p.m., when some of its occupants, who were frequenting a nearby coffee shop, returned and drove off.

Located in the city’s Atakum district, Samsun’s Agape House has just become the third

Protestant church granted formal “association” status by the Turkish authorities. A year ago the mayor had vowed he would never allow the congregation, now numbering 35, to open a church there.

Concocted Legal Charges

On the judicial level, earlier this week in the Aegean coastal town of Selcuk, the local prosecutor’s office summoned two members of the Ephesus Protestant Church to answer accusations filed against them.


The prosecutor summoned church elder Kamil Moussa in writing on Monday (November

28) to make a formal statement. Moussa was asked to respond to charges apparently filed with a prosecutor in Tarsus, 550 miles across the country from Selcuk, just south of

Izmir.

The Selcuk prosecutor informed Moussa that he had been accused of “threatening” a former student who attended the church’s Tyrannus Bible School from 2000-2002. The prosecutor declined to explain how or when the alleged threats took place, simply stating that a man named Ilker Cinar, now living in Tarsus, had registered a complaint against him.

Cinar grabbed sensational coverage in the Turkish media last January when he went on national television to “renounce” his conversion to Christianity and return to Islam.

Announcing his intentions to expose “subversive Christian missionary activities” in

Turkey, the 35-year-old Turk has since published two books and granted multiple interviews, all making extravagant claims regarding the extent and political motivation of

Christian activities in Turkey.

When Moussa flatly denied having ever threatened Cinar, the prosecutor then interrogated Moussa about his Christian activities. The prosecutor refused to give Moussa copies of his written summons, Cinar’s charges or the statement the pastor gave in his office.

Two days later, on November 30, church secretary Gulsum Mezde received a summons from a second Selcuk prosecutor, informing her that she had been accused by a young

Turkish man named Adnan Muradiye of threatening him if he did not convert to

Christianity.

“This young man, whom I have never met, said that I am a woman about 40 years of age who made some threats against him,” Mezde told Compass. “It is obvious he never met me as he claimed, since I am 55 years old!”

According to Mezde, an individual bearing the name of Adnan Muradiye had sent an email message to the church’s website on October 26, completing the request form to have a free New Testament mailed to him in Izmir.

“I sent him two email messages over the internet about that,” she said. “But he never came to our street address listed on the website, and he has never attended any of our church activities.”

After local security police detailed the allegations against her, Mezde decided to record her formal statement with them instead of the prosecutor.

“This is a completely concocted scenario,” she declared in her November 30 statement, in which she described the accusations as slander in violation of her legal rights.


“We have experienced this pattern before, when it appears that the authorities are getting people to make false accusations against us,” Moussa said. “It is annoying, but it also can be more serious than it looks on the surface. Unfortunately, some of them have the backing of ultranationalists and Islamists who have influence.”

Torched by Vandals

Meanwhile, in the resort city of Antalya along the Mediterranean coast, unknown vandals tried to set afire three windows of the St. Paul Cultural Center in the early morning hours of November 28.

According to the Rev. James Bultema, an American pastoring the English-speaking congregation at the facility, a neighbor woman across the narrow alley heard flames crackling outside her window at 1:40 a.m. Calling the fire department, she quickly woke up her husband and son, who with a water hose and buckets managed to douse the flames before firemen arrived 20 minutes later.

“If they hadn’t gone right to work, much more damage would have been done,” Bultema said, noting that the building has wooden ceilings. “As it was, about $1,100 damage was done.”

Bultema said the arson attempt appeared to be an amateur job by the assailants, who from the street could only access the three ground-floor windows of Paul’s Place, the center’s coffee shop. “Three windows were set afire, but only one was really burning,” he said.

Opened initially as a coffee house and prayer chapel in 1999, St. Paul Cultural Center was the first new Christian congregation in Turkey to gain government recognition as an official “association” in August 2004. Both English- and Turkish-language congregations use the office facilities and garden, worshiping in the second-floor sanctuary.

This week the European Union stepped up its criticism of Turkey’s reform efforts to meet its membership criteria, with EU enlargement commissioner Ollie Rehn citing religious freedom as one of six fundamental freedoms among the “significant shortcomings” that the country must address without delay.

In an interview published shortly afterwards in the Financial Times , Turkish Foreign

Minister Abdullah Gul acknowledged the difficulty of “spreading the spirit of reform” throughout the country’s judicial system.

*** Photographs of the Agape House, Ephesus Protestant Church and St. Paul Cultural

Center are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Vietnamese Churches Boldly Standing Up to Abuses


Once-private complaints to government are now reaching foreign officials and press.

Special to Compass Direct

HANOI, Vietnam, November 17 (Compass) – For years Vietnamese church leaders have filed complaints of religious liberty abuses to government officials and have almost never received replies. But in an unprecedented shift, pastors are now petitioning authorities more openly and internationally.

In a country that sentenced Father Nguyen Van Ly to 15 years in prison for writing to a

U.S. government agency about religious rights violations, leaders of one of Vietnam’s recognized churches are openly copying their petitions against such abuses not only to

U.S. and European Union officials, but to foreign media organizations. (Sentenced in

October 2001, Father Ly was released as part of a general amnesty last February 1.)

Since October 5, the Rev. Phung Quang Huyen and the Rev. Au Quang Vinh, president and general secretary respectively of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North), have copied foreign governments and media on petitions they have written on behalf of persecuted Hmong Christians.

Rev. Huyen, for example, wrote a petition on November 8 to authorities on government attempts to force seven Hmong families to give up their faith. He addressed it to

Vietnam’s prime minister and half a dozen other top government agencies, and openly copied it to the European Union office and U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, as well as to international news agencies.

The letter, obtained by Compass in both its original Vietnamese and a translation, relates

Hmong Christian Trang Seo Dinh’s description of how people were continually summoned to the police station, harangued and beaten for refusing to give up their

Christian belief. Dinh, of Xin Chai Village, Ta Cu Commune, Bac Ha District in Lao Cai

Province, names the offending officials.

“The Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) strongly condemns the human rights violations described above,” wrote Rev. Huyen. “We petition the Prime Minister, the

Government Bureau of Religious Affairs, and the Police of Lao Cai Province to investigate this case and punish any individual or group that violated the constitution and the law.”

While thousands of such petitions have been sent to local and central government officials in recent years and some of them have been published outside Vietnam, this marks the first time church officials have openly, simultaneously distributed such letters so broadly. While Father Ly was punished severely for such tactics while in prison, at press time authorities had taken no action against ECVN (N) President Rev. Huyen.

Other church leaders have taken the challenge of refuting their government’s widely broadcast denials and fabrications regarding religious freedom, as they too have decided to go international. Further raising the stakes, church leaders show they have acquired


legal savvy as their petitions cite articles of the criminal code in naming officials who abuse Christians.

At least in part, the new-found courage stems from growing frustration with the

Vietnamese government, which continues to deny credible reports of serious religious liberty abuses while proclaiming complete religious freedom.

The ECVN (N) has in the last two years issued letters accepting into membership 981 mostly Hmong, ethnic minority churches in the northwest provinces. Not only has the government refused to accept these churches as legitimate, but it continues a brutal campaign called Plan 184 to eradicate Christianity among Hmong Christians, according to a recent Freedom House release. Such activity directly contradicts Vietnam’s recent legislation on religion.

On November 8, the U.S. Department of State named Vietnam for a second time to its list of worst religious liberty offenders in the world, called “countries of particular concern.”

On October 29, Agence-Presse France reported that Vietnam had demanded the U.S. remove it from the black list.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Dung told a news conference in Hanoi, “There is not so-called religious repression to any religion in Vietnam.” Likewise, on November 11 the

Vietnam News Agency reacted angrily to the continued inclusion of Vietnam on the list, calling the action “a violation of the U.N. Charter and causing damage to Vietnam-U.S. relations.”

The Vietnamese blamed “distortion campaigns launched by hostile forces against

Vietnam.”

In announcing the CPC list, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did recognize that

Vietnam had made improvements. If those improvements continued, she said, Vietnam could be removed from the list.

Compass sources in Vietnam noted that Vietnam’s new religion legislation has not yet yielded the “improvements” the United States and others have hoped for. “As long as a huge segment of the church, such as a quarter million Hmong believers, are subject to a specifically anti-Christian government campaign,” said one source, “it is hard to accept that real ‘improvements’ have been made.”

Another source noted, “Vietnam’s top standing among the four East Asia countries on the black list – along with North Korea, China and Burma – is hardly something to be proud of.”

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COMPASS DIRECT

Global News from the Frontlines

Jeff Sellers, Managing Editor

Gail Wahlquist, Associate Editor

Nancy Von Schimmelmann, Editorial Assistant

Bureau Chiefs:

Barbara Baker, Middle East

Sarah Page, Asia

For subscription information, contact:

Compass Direct

P.O. Box 27250

Santa Ana, CA 92799 www.compassdirect.org


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