Steel On Steel Persecution Update
January 27, 2010
Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org
Top Stories:
1. Church Buildings Attacked in Malaysia Following Court Decision
2. Two Christians Critically Wounded at Wedding in Pakistan
3. Forced Recantations of Faith Continue in Vietnam
4. Christians in Jos, Nigeria Fear Further Attacks
5. Spike in Anti-Christian Violence Feared before Burma Elections
6. Algerian Church Continues in Spite of Burnt Building
7. Christians Most Hit by Religious Freedom Violations in Indonesia
1. Church Buildings Attacked in Malaysia Following Court Decision
Muslim groups angered by ruling to allow Catholic newspaper to use word ‘Allah.’
By Jasmine Kay
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, January 11 (Compass Direct News) – In unprecedented acts that stunned Christians in Malaysia, suspected Islamists have attacked eight church buildings since the country’s High Court ruled that a Catholic weekly could use the word “Allah.” Firebombs were thrown into the compounds of four churches in Kuala Lumpur and neighboring Petaling Jaya on Friday (Jan. 8); three more attacks occurred on Sunday (Jan. 10) in Taiping, Melaka and Miri; and another church was hit today in Seremban. There were no reports of injuries. Judge Lau Bee Lan delivered the controversial court ruling on Dec. 31, arguing that the Herald had a constitutional right to use the word “Allah” for God in the Malay section of its multilingual newspaper, causing an uproar among many Muslim groups. The attacked churches were Metro Tabernacle (Assembly of God) in Kuala Lumpur, and three churches in Petaling Jaya: Life Chapel (Brethren), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (Lutheran) and Assumption Church (Catholic), although in the latter the Molotov cocktail failed to go off; also damaged was All Saints’ Church (Anglican) in Taiping, Melaka Baptist Church in Melaka, Good Shepherd Church (Catholic) in Miri and Sidang Injil Borneo (Evangelical Church of Borneo) in Seremban. Metro Tabernacle suffered the worst damage, with the ground floor of its three-storey building, which housed its administrative office, completely gutted. The Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches Malaysia, called on the government to “show zero tolerance for the use, threat or incitement, of violence as a means to pressure the decision of the court.”
2. Two Christians Critically Wounded at Wedding in Pakistan
Still in intensive care, they were shot for refusing order to convert to Islam.
By Jawad Mazhar
TOBA TEK SINGH, Pakistan, January 14 (Compass Direct News) – Two Pakistani Christians who were shot at a wedding on Dec. 26 for refusing to convert to Islam are still receiving treatment at a hospital intensive care unit, but doctors are hopeful that they will recover. In low, barely audible voices, Imran Masih, 21, and Khushi Masih, 24, told Compass that two Muslims armed with AK-47s in Punjab Province's Chak (village) 297-JB, in Toba Tek Singh district, shot them in their chests after they refused orders to recite the Islamic creed signifying conversion. Soon after they arrived at the wedding, a group of armed Muslim youths surrounded them and began shooting into the air, as is customary at village weddings. They were not alarmed, they said, assuming the young Muslim men were simply celebrating joyfully. One of the Muslims ordered them to recite the Islamic profession of faith or be shot, and the two young men refused, reciting Psalm 91 instead. "Our decision infuriated them," Imran Masih said, "and instead of shooting into the air they shot us, leaving us only after being convinced that we were dead." Police have yet to arrest the suspects, who claim they shot the two Christians by accident.
3. Forced Recantations of Faith Continue in Vietnam
New Christians in northwest violently compelled to return to ancestor worship.
Special to Compass Direct News
HANOI, Vietnam, January 18 (Compass Direct News) - A Vietnamese man violently forced to recant his fledgling Christian faith faces pressure from authorities and clansmen to prove his return to traditional Hmong belief by sacrificing to ancestors next month. Sung Cua Po, who embraced Christianity in November, received some 70 blows to his head and back after local officials in northwest Vietnam's Dien Bien Province arrested him on Dec. 1, 2009, according to documents obtained by Compass. His wife, Hang thi Va, was also beaten. Dien Bien Dong District and Na Son Commune police and soldiers took the Christian couple to the Na Son Commune People's Committee office after police earlier incited local residents to abuse and stone them and other Christian families. After Po and his wife were beaten at 1 a.m. that night, he was fined 8 million dong (US$430) and a pig of at least 16 kilos. Christians Sung A Sinh and Hang A Xa of Trung Phu village were also beaten about the head and back and fined a pig each so that local authorities could eat, according to the reports. Christian sources reported that on Dec. 15 police took Po and his wife to members of their extended family, who applied severe clan pressure on him to deny their faith. When police added their own threats, Po finally signed recantation documents. "I folded - I signed when police threatened to beat me to death if I didn't recant," he said. "Then they would seize my property, leaving my wife a widow, and my children fatherless - without a home."
4. Christians in Jos, Nigeria Fear Further Attacks
Churches burned following assault on Catholic church in volatile Plateau state.
By Lekan Otufodunrin
LAGOS, Nigeria, January 19 (Compass Direct News) - Gunshots and smoke continued to alarm residents of Jos in central Nigeria today, with the Christian community fearing further violence from Muslim youths who on Sunday (Jan. 17) attacked a Catholic church and burned down several other church buildings. A 24-hour curfew imposed yesterday in Jos and the suburb of Bukuru by the Plateau state government was extended through Wednesday. Police said continuing violence was initially triggered by unprovoked attacks by Muslim youth on worshippers at the St. Michael's Catholic Church in Nasarawa Gwong, in the Jos North Local Government Area. Also attacked were buildings of the Christ Apostolic Church, Assemblies of God Church, three branches of the Church of Christ in Nigeria and two buildings of the Evangelical Church of West Africa, Christian leaders said. The number of casualties continued to grow, reportedly reaching more than 100 as security forces tried to rein in rioters, with both Christian and Muslim groups still counting their losses. Hundreds have reportedly been wounded. "We have been witnessing sporadic shootings in the last two days," said the Rev. Chuwang Avou, secretary of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. "We see some residents shooting sporadically into the air. We have also seen individuals with machine guns on parade in the state."
5. Spike in Anti-Christian Violence Feared before Burma Elections
Attacks on Christians seen as politically expedient in majority-Buddhist nation.
By Vishal Arora
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, January 20 (Compass Direct News) - As Burma's military junta gears up for its first parliamentary election in two decades this year, observers fear attacks on the Christian minority could intensify. Mungpi Suangtak, assistant editor of a New Delhi-based news agency run by exiled Burmese journalists, the Mizzima News, said the Burmese junta has "one of the world's worst human rights records" and will "definitely" attack religious and ethnic minorities more forcefully in the run-up to the election. The military regime, officially known as the State Peace and Development Council, pledged to hold the election this year, and analysts believe polls will be held after July in the country, also known as Myanmar. Suangtak told Compass that the Buddhist nationalist junta would target Christians particularly in Karen state, bordering Thailand, and in Chin state, bordering India and Bangladesh. Given that the junta merely uses religion for political power, it doesn't target Christians alone, Suangtak said. "The junta has no respect for any religion, be it Christians or Buddhists, and anyone who opposes its rule is dealt with harshly," Suangtak said.
6. Algerian Church Continues in Spite of Burnt Building
Fellowship in Tizi Ouzou received no police protection despite repeated violence.
By Damaris Kremida
ISTANBUL, January 21 (Compass Direct News) - Members of a church in Algeria's Kabylie region gathered to worship last Saturday (Jan. 16) in their new building despite a protest, vandalism and a fire that damaged the building the previous weekend. Local Muslims bent on running the congregation out of the neighborhood set fires inside and outside the building on Jan. 9. Before setting it on fire, the assailants ransacked the Tafat Church building in Tizi Ouzou, a city 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Algiers. The perpetrators damaged everything within the new building, including electrical appliances. "This last Saturday the church held a service even though not everyone was present," said Mustapha Krim, president of the Protestant Church of Algeria. "But they continue."
7. Christians Most Hit by Religious Freedom Violations in Indonesia
Mob succeeds in getting local official to shut down HKBP church in West Java.
By Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA, Indonesia, January 21 (Compass Direct News) - A moderate Muslim
research institute focusing on interfaith issues in Indonesia reported 35 cases of government violations of religious freedom - including 28 against Christians - and 93 instances of community intolerance of churches in 2009. The Wahid Institute issued a year-end report of violations that included the revocation of the building permit for the HKBP Cinere Church - later overturned in court - opposition to a Catholic Church in Purwakarta and an order forbidding worship by the Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java. The overall figure of 128 cases of violations of religious freedom by government or society in 2009 represents a drop from the 2008 figure of 234 cases, according to the Wahid Institute. In West Java, mob efforts to shut down the Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church (HKBP) in Bekasi succeeded on Dec. 31 when the district officer issued a decree ordering a stop to all worship activities at the site of the church building under construction. Tigor Tambubolon, head of the church building committee, acknowledged that the building permit had not been formally granted even though the process had been under way since 2000. "We already have the permission of the Jejalen citizens," Tambubolon told Compass. "That's why we were brave enough to hold Christmas Eve services."
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