Steel On Steel Persecution Update Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org Top Stories: 1. Iranian Pastor Tortured, Threatened for ‘Converting Muslims’ 2. Islamic Assailants Kill Hundreds of Christians Near Jos, Nigeria 3. Court Reverses Revocation of Indonesian Church’s Building Permit 4. Violence Escalates in Mosul, Iraq ahead of Elections 5. Christians in Nigeria Decry Police Inaction in Church Burnings 6. Christians Arrested after Muslim Attack in Pakistan 7. Muslim Groups Demand Closure of Large, Legal Church |
1. Iranian Pastor Tortured, Threatened for ‘Converting Muslims’
Arrest, imprisonment appear to be part of larger crackdown in Isfahan.
By Will Morris
ISTANBUL, March 8 (Compass Direct News) – An Assyrian pastor the Iranian government accused of “converting Muslims” is being tortured in prison and threatened with execution, sources close to the case said. State Security agents on Feb. 2 arrested the Rev. Wilson Issavi, 65, shortly after he finished a house meeting at a friend’s home in Isfahan, 208 miles (335 kilometers) south of Tehran. According to Farsi Christian News Network, Issavi’s wife, Medline Nazanin, recently visited her husband in prison, where she saw that he had obvious signs of torture. Iranian intelligence officials told Nazanin that her husband might be executed for his alleged activities. Issavi is the pastor of The Evangelical Church of Kermanshah in Isfahan, a 50-year-old church body affiliated with The Assemblies of God that caters to the local Assyrian population. One regional analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Iranian government is set on crushing religious freedom within the country. On Feb. 28, Isfahan residents Hamid Shafiee and his wife Reyhaneh Aghajary, both converts from Islam and house church leaders, were arrested at their home. Aghajary was at home with a group of other Christians when police came for her and her husband, who was not at home, according to Middle East Concern. Police handcuffed Aghajary and, upon finding boxes of Bibles, began beating her. Her husband Shafiee was arrested an hour later when he returned to the house. Their fate and whereabouts are still unknown. “The recent spate of church leader arrests provides clear evidence of the Iranian authorities’ desperate determination to strangle the growing church movement, along with all other forms of perceived political dissent,” said the regional analyst.
2. Islamic Assailants Kill Hundreds of Christians Near Jos, Nigeria
Fulani herdsmen strike Christian villages, slaying mainly ethnic Berom with machetes.
By Lekan Otufodunrin
LAGOS, Nigeria, March 8 (Compass Direct News) – An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria today following the killing of hundreds of Christians early yesterday morning in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims. The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned. State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed that about 500 persons were killed in the attacks, which took place mainly in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages. The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state to beat security forces that had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand. “We were woken up by gunshots in the middle of the night, and before we knew what was happening, our houses were torched and they started hacking down people” survivor Musa Gyang told media. Bishop Andersen Bok, national coordinator of the Plateau State Elders Christian Fellowship, along with group Secretary General Musa Pam, described the attack as yet another “jihad and provocation on Christians.” The Christian leaders said in a statement, “Eyewitnesses say the Hausa Fulani Muslim militants were chanting ‘Allah Akbar,’ broke into houses, cutting human beings, including children and women with their knives and cutlasses.”
3. Court Reverses Revocation of Indonesian Church’s Building Permit
Outside Islamists had intimidated local officials into withdrawing approval of project.
By Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 8 (Compass Direct News) – A court in West Java has reversed the revocation of a Catholic church’s building permit. The Purwakarta regency government had revoked the building permit for Santa Maria Catholic Church when Islamists threatened local residents and officials into opposing the project, church leaders said. The church sued the Purwakarta regency for revoking the approved building permit in Cinangka village last October, and in a little-publicized court ruling on Feb. 25, a judge in a state court in Bandung, West Java decided in favor of the church. “The error arose when external forces pressured the Purwakarta government so much that it revoked the building permit,” the head of the church legal team, Dr. Liona Nanang, told Compass. “Government sources have admitted that this was done because of outside pressure.” The Purwakarta government is planning to appeal the case, but Nanang said church lawyers are optimistic that construction likely would resume once the High Court in Jakarta rules. On Oct. 16 the regent of Purwakarta regency, Dedi Mulyadi, revoked the construction permit after Islamists threatened some of the local residents whose approval is required by Indonesian law. Church leaders said members of the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam) “continually terrorized” both the regent and residents who had previously given their approval.
4. Violence Escalates in Mosul, Iraq ahead of Elections
Christians targeted as political tension builds in weeks leading to parliamentary polls.
By Damaris Kremida
ISTANBUL, March 5 (Compass Direct News) – Political tensions ahead of parliamentary elections in Iraq on Sunday (March 7) have left at least eight Chaldean Christians dead in the last three weeks and hundreds of families fleeing Mosul. “The concern of Christians in Mosul is growing in the face of what is happening in the city,” said Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako. “The tension and struggle between political forces is creating an atmosphere of chaos and congestion. Christians are victims of political tension between political groups, but maybe also by fundamentalist sectarian cleansing.” On Feb. 23 the killing of Eshoee Marokee, a Christian, and his two sons in their home in front of other family members sent shock waves across the Christian community. The murder took place amid a string of murders that triggered the mass exodus of families to the surrounding towns and provinces. “It is not the first time Christians are attacked or killed,” said the archbishop of the Syrian Catholic Church in Mosul, Georges Casmoussa. “The new in this question is to be killed in their own homes.” The capital of Nineveh Province some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Mosul has been known as the most dangerous city for Christians. At least 275 Assyrian Christians have been murdered by Islamic insurgents since 2003, according to a report prepared by the International Committee for The Rights Indigenous Mesopotamians.
5. Christians in Nigeria Decry Police Inaction in Church Burnings
Zamfara state assailants emboldened by lack of prosecution in Jos mayhem, CAN leader says.
By Lekan Otufodunrin
LAGOS, Nigeria, February 26 (Compass Direct News) – The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Zamfara state told Compass that he was disappointed in the lack of response by state police to recent church burnings by Muslim youths. “It is unfortunate that there has been no response from the police, and even the state governor has refused to meet with us,” the acting state chairman of CAN, said the Rev. Edwin Okpara. The Redeemed Christian Church of God building in Tudun Wada was partly burnt on Jan. 25, and Christian Faith Bible church and the Living Faith Foundation Chapel, both in Gusau, were partly burnt in attacks on Jan. 20 and 24 respectively. In the petition dated Jan. 26, CAN stated that the church burnings came in the aftermath of “a grand plot to unleash mayhem on churches and Christians in the state due to the religious clash in Jos, Plateau state.” The association alleged that those who attacked the Zamfara churches were emboldened because officials made no serious move to arrest those who carried out the Jos attacks. Two pastors and 46 other Christians were killed in the outbreak of violence in Jos on Jan. 17, triggered when Muslim youths attacked a Catholic church; 10 church buildings were burned, and police estimated more than 300 lives were lost in the clash. The State Police Command was not available for comment on the CAN request.
6. Christians Arrested after Muslim Attack in Pakistan
Armed Islamic assault following fruit stand scuffle leads to police round-up of Christians.
By Jawad Mazhar
KARACHI, Pakistan, February 26 (Compass Direct News) – In the wake of an attack this week by 150 armed Muslims on a Christian colony in this city in Sindh Province, police have filed a false First Information Report (FIR) against 40 unnamed Christians and arrested five, Christian leaders said. They said the 40 unnamed Christians in the FIR are accused without basis with beating Muslim men, abusing Muslim women and girls, ransacking Muslim homes and looting expensive items from Muslim homes. The false FIR is designed only to harass the Christian community, they said, adding that the five arrested Christians were visitors to the area – the only ones on the street available for police to summarily round up as they were unaware of the FIR. Some 150 armed Muslims assaulted the Christian colony of Pahar Ganj in North Nazimabad, Karachi, on Sunday (Feb. 21), damaging two churches, shooting at houses, beating Christians and burning shops and vehicles after a fruit stand vendor attacked a Christian boy for touching his merchandise. Christian leaders said Muslim extremists helped gather and inflame the assailants, but they said the fruit stand vendor upset with the 14-year-old boy initially instigated the attack. The Rev. Edward Joseph of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi said the furious Muslim mob attacked homes and St. Mary’s Church of Pakistan and the Interdenominational Calvary Church. Sources told Compass that local politicians and clergymen from both sides were trying to broker a truce.
7. Muslim Groups Demand Closure of Large, Legal Church
Hundreds of demonstrators from outside area try to create image of local opposition.
By Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA, Indonesia, February 25 (Compass Direct News) – Hundreds of Muslims from outside the area where a 600-member church meets in West Java staged a protest there to call for its closure this month in an attempt to portray local opposition. Demonstrators from 16 Islamic organizations, including the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), gathered on Feb. 15 to demand a stop to all activities by the Galilea Protestant Church (GPIB) in the Galaxy area of Bekasi City. The Rev. M. Tetelepta, pastor of the church, told Compass that the church has had the required consent of local residents and official permission to worship since its inception in 1992. At the Galaxy area demonstration, FPI Bekasi branch head Murhali Baeda tried to impugn the legal status of the church by telling ANTARA, the official news agency of the Indonesian government, that he was “certain” that “a number of the church buildings” in the area “do not have complete permission.” “This is proved by the large number of posters and banners that are displayed in the alleys and public gathering places rejecting the presence of these buildings,” Murhali told ANTARA. Local organizations represented at the demonstration included the Bekasi Dakwah Council, the Bina An Nisa Dakwah Council of Bekasi and the Galaxy Mosque and Mushola Forum, but Tetelepta said he was sure that 95 percent of the protestors were not local people.
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