Steel On Steel Persecution UpdateApril 1, 2010
Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org
Top Stories:
1. Sheikh Incites Muslims to Attack Christians in Egypt
2. Pakistani Muslims Accused of Rape Allegedly Attack Sisters
3. Lao Officials Visit Expelled Christians, Give Assurances
4. Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India
5. Muslims Murder Pakistani Christian with Axe Blows
6. Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home
7. Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws
8. Construction of Two Churches Stopped in Indonesia
1. Sheikh Incites Muslims to Attack Christians in Egypt
Assault on community center, church, homes leaves 24 Copts wounded.
By Damaris Kremida
ISTANBUL, March 17 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of enraged Muslims attacked a Coptic Christian community in a coastal town in northern Egypt last weekend, wreaking havoc for hours and injuring 24 Copts before security forces contained them. The violence erupted on Friday (March 12) afternoon after the sheikh of a neighborhood mosque incited Muslims over a loudspeaker, proclaiming jihad against Christians in Marsa Matrouh, in Reefiya district, 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Alexandria, according to reports. The angry crowd hurled rocks at the district church, Christians and their properties, looted homes and set fires that evening. The mob was reportedly infuriated over the building of a wall around newly-bought land adjacent to the Reefiya Church building. The building also houses a clinic and community center. “I was very surprised by the degree of hatred that people had toward Christians,” said a reporter for online Coptic news source Theban Legion, who visited Reefiya after the attack. “The hate and the disgust were obvious.” Following afternoon mosque prayers, Sheikh Khamis rallied neighborhood Muslims, gathering more than 300 people. The mob broke into groups, attacking the church and nearby houses of the Coptic Christian community.
2. Pakistani Muslims Accused of Rape Allegedly Attack Sisters
Fearing conviction, five suspects are said to have tried beating 15- and 21-year-old into dropping charges.
By Jawad Mazhar
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 18 (Compass Direct News) – Five Muslims allegedly ransacked the house of an impoverished Christian in this capital city of Punjab Province last month and angrily beat his daughters in an effort to get the family to withdraw rape charges. Muhammad Sajjid wielding a pistol, Muhammad Sharif brandishing a dagger and Muhammad Wajjad and two unidentified accomplices carrying bamboo clubs arrived at the Lahore home of Piyara Masih the afternoon of Feb. 26, Christian leaders said. The Muslims allegedly ransacked the house and began thrashing his two daughters, a 15-year-old and her 21-year-old sister, Muniran Bibi, according to attorney Azra Shujaat, head of Global Evangelical Ministries, and Khalid Gill, president of the Christian Liberation Front. Muniran said Sharif stabbed her four times with the dagger. “They ripped apart my clothes, as well as my sister’s,” she said. “In the meantime, Muhammad Sajjid kept firing into the air to terrorize us.” The family accuses the men of raping her then-13-year-old sister in 2008. The alleged attacks on the family were predicated in part on the assumption that, as Christians, they will get little help from a justice system biased against non-Muslims and easily swayed by threats, bribes or other means of persuasion from Muslims, Christian leaders said. When the family approached Nishtar Colony police for help, officers refused to register a case. Attorney Shujaat said that only after a Lahore High Court order for police to file a First Information Report and strenuous efforts by him, Christian politicians and clergymen did the Nishtar Colony police register one against the Muslim gang. The Christian family said they were still receiving death threats.
3. Lao Officials Visit Expelled Christians, Give Assurances
Officials led by provincial governor explain law providing for right to believe.
By Sarah Page
DUBLIN, March 19 (Compass Direct News) – Officials in Laos’ Saravan Province yesterday visited 48 Christians expelled from Katin village and assured them that they had the legal right to embrace the faith of their choice, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom. The delegation, led by provincial Gov. Khamboon Duangpanya, read out June 2002’s Decree 92 on the Management and Protections of Religious Activity in Laos and explained its religious freedom provisions to the group, assuring them that they could freely believe in Christianity “if their faith was genuine.” They also said they had the right to live anywhere in the district. Ta-Oyl district officials had expelled the Christians from Katin village at gunpoint on Jan. 18 when they refused to give up their faith. Having lost access to their homes, fields and livestock, the Christians then built temporary shelters at the edge of the jungle, about six kilometers (nearly four miles) away from the village. The district head, identified only as Bounma, on Monday (March 15) summoned seven of the believers to his office and declared that he would not tolerate the existence of Christianity in areas under his control. The group must either recant their faith or move elsewhere, he’d said.
4. Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India
Investigation concludes Hindu nationalist state government is responsible.
By Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI, March 22 (Compass Direct News) – Minority Christians in southern Karnataka state are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court. The spate began on Sept. 14, 2008, when at least 12 churches were attacked in one day in Karnataka’s Mangalore city, in Dakshina Kannada district, said Justice Michael Saldanha, former judge of the Karnataka High Court. “On Jan. 26 – the day we celebrated India’s Republic Day – Karnataka’s 1,000th attack took place in Mysore city,” Saldanha told Compass, saying the figure was based on reports from faith-based organizations.
“Attacks are taking place every day,” said Saldanha. The latest attack took place on Wednesday (March 17), when a mob of around 150 people led by the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, stormed the funeral of a 50-year-old Christian identified only as Isaac, reported the Karnataka-based Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). The mob pulled the coffin apart, threw the body into a tractor and dumped it outside, saying his burial would have contaminated Indian soil, added the GCIC. Blaming the state government for the attacks, Saldanha said the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party had “outdone Orissa.” Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya denied the results of the inquiry. “The allegation of Karnataka having faced 1,000 attacks is absolutely false,” Acharya told Compass. “Karnataka is the most peaceful state in India, and the people are law-abiding.”
5. Muslims Murder Pakistani Christian with Axe Blows
Rival merchants threatened to kill potato seller if refused to convert to Islam.
By Jawad Mazhar
MIAN CHANNU, Pakistan, March 22 (Compass Direct News) – Six Muslims in Khanewal district, southern Punjab Province, killed a Christian with multiple axe blows for refusing to convert to Islam this month, according to family and police sources. The six men had threatened to kill 36-year-old Rasheed Masih unless he converted to Islam when they grew resentful of his potato business succeeding beyond their own, according to Masih’s younger brother Munir Asi and a local clergyman. The rival merchants allegedly killed him after luring him to their farmhouse on March 9, leaving him on a roadside near Kothi Nand Singh village in the wee hours of the next day. The Rev. Iqbal Masih of the Mian Channu Parish of the Church of Pakistan said Rasheed Masih was a devoted Christian, and that both he and his brother Asi had refused the Muslims’ pressure to convert to Islam. Mian Channu police have registered a case against the six men and an investigation is underway, but the suspects are still at large, police officers told Compass. Police said the suspects were Ghulam Rasool, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Amjad, one identified only as Kashif and two other unidentified Muslims; they were charged with torture and murder. Masih’s family lives in Babo John Colony, Mian Channu of Khanewal district. “Our continuous denial to recant our faith and convert gradually turned into enmity,” Asi told Compass. The FIR states, “Both the Muslim men were not only inviting them to Islam but hurling threats of dire consequences and death on them for the last six months in case they refused to convert.”
6. Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home
Al Shabaab militants execute pastor; government-aligned Islamists burn house containing Bible.
By Simba Tian
NAIROBI, Kenya, March 23 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic militants in Somalia tracked down an underground church leader who had previously escaped a kidnapping attempt and killed him last week, Christian sources said. Islamic extremist al Shabaab rebels shot Madobe Abdi to death on March 15 at 9:30 a.m. in Mahaday village, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Johwar. He had escaped an al Shabaab attempt to kidnap him on March 2. Abdi’s death adds to a growing number of Christians murdered by Islamic militants, but his was distinctive in that he was not a convert from Islam. An orphan, Abdi was raised as a Christian. Earlier, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, alleged members of the government-aligned Islamic Courts Union last month set fire to the house of an underground church member they suspected of having left Islam. Having learned that there was a Bible and Christian pamphlets inside, the angry militants stormed the house in Hamarwien district of Mogadishu on Feb. 17 at 1:15 p.m. as a warning to those who dare possess any Christian literature, sources said. The assailants looted the home before setting it afire. Area residents tried to extinguish the blaze, which left the house uninhabitable. “I saw smoke coming out of the house, then I ran outside and I saw two men coming out of the house with a bucket of gasoline,” said a neighbor who sought anonymity. “One of the men was shouting, ‘Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar ,’ then they entered a waiting car and drove off.”
7. Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws
Radical Muslim relative of accuser uses statute to exact revenge, Christian leader says.
By Jawad Mazhar
GUJRANWALA, Pakistan, March 24 (Compass Direct News) – Police in Alipur have arrested a Christian woman on a baseless accusation of “blaspheming” the prophet of Islam and tried to keep rights groups from discovering the detention, a Christian leader said. Alipur police in Punjab Province denied that they had detained Rubina Bibi when Khalid Gill, Lahore regional coordinator of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) and organizer of the Christian Liberation Front, inquired about her detention after a Muslim woman accused her of blasphemy, Gill told Compass. “The Muslim woman’s name was kept secret by the police and Muslim people, and we were not allowed to see the Christian woman,” Gill said. “The Alipur police said they had not arrested her yet, contrary to the fact that they had arrested and tortured her at Alipur police station.” A reliable police source told Compass on condition of anonymity that a First Information Report (No. 194/2010) dated March 20 identified Rubina Bibi of Alipur, wife of Amjad Masih, as accused of making a derogatory remark about the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The charge comes under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which have gained international notoriety for their misuse by Muslims to settle personal grudges. Police told Compass that the FIR was now sealed and no further information would be released to any person or news outlet. Inspector Asif Nadeem, Station House Officer of Alipur police, declined to speak to Compass in spite of repeated efforts to contact him. APMA’s Gill said the charge against Rubina Bibi grew out of a quarrel with her Muslim accuser over a minor domestic dispute. He said a radical Muslim relative of the accuser, Sabir Munir Qadri, had turned the quarrel into a religious issue in which the Christian could be sentenced to death or life imprisonment with a large fine.
8. Construction of Two Churches Stopped in Indonesia
Government unduly seals shut one church building, Islamic mob forces halt to another.
By Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 25 (Compass Direct News) – An Islamic mob stopped construction of Santa Maria Immaculata Catholic Church in Citra Garden, West Jakarta earlier this month even as government officials in Yasmin Park, Bogor, West Java halted work on an Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) building. On March 12, the same day GKI faced closure from government officials, protestors led by the United Islam Forum (FUIB) blockaded the entrance to Citra Garden, demanding that construction of the Catholic church building there cease. They based their demand on the claim that it did not have the approval of the local citizens, but the church had official permission and therefore has been under construction for several weeks. The building permit was posted in plain view, but the Islamic protestors said they felt that not all citizens had agreed to allow the building. Church leader Albertus Suriata said the congregation never has had problems with local people. “We have had good relations,” Suriata told Compass. “I don’t think that anyone near the church had objections. We suspect outsiders.” In West Java, Bogor city police sealed the construction site of the Yasmin Park Indonesian Christian Church. Previously the Bogor city government had revoked the church building permit, claiming that the congregation created “uneasiness” among local people. The claim that the church caused “uneasiness” is false, said a source who requested anonymity. The source said the Bogor city government came under pressure from several Muslim organizations to revoke the building permit, and that in fact Yasmin Park residents had no objection to a church in their midst. “Relations between the church and the residents were always good,” the source said.
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