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Steel On Steel Persecution Update April 21, 2010           Edited by:  Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org Top Stories:          1.  Iranian Authorities Release Assyrian Pastor on Bail      2.  False Charges Filed against 47 Christians in Pakistan      3. Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released      4.  Young Christian Woman Allegedly Abducted in Pakistan      5.  Christians in Ethiopian Town Hit by Unexpected Attack      6.  Pakistani Brothers Threaten Family of Catholic Who Wed Muslim       7.  Pastor, Wife Killed in Northern Nigeria      8.  Official Orders Halt to Beleaguered Church in Indonesia      9.  New Evidence Stalls Murder Trial in Malatya, Turkey 1.  Iranian Authorities Release Assyrian Pastor on Bail Accused of ‘converting Muslims,’ church leader faces trial – and threat of murder. By Wayne King ISTANBUL, April 5 (Compass Direct News) – An Assyrian pastor the Iranian government accused of “converting Muslims” has been released from prison on bail and is awaiting trial. The Rev. Wilson Issavi, 65, was released from Dastgard prison in Isfahan last week. Conflicting reports indicated Issavi was released sometime between Sunday (March 28) and Tuesday morning (March 30). State Security Investigations agents arrested Issavi shortly after he finished a house meeting at a friend’s home in Isfahan on Feb. 2. Along with the accusation of “converting Muslims,” the pastor was charged with not co-operating with police, presumably for continuing to hold such house meetings after police sealed the Evangelical Church of Kermanshah and ordered him not to reopen it. After his arrest, Issavi was held at an unmarked prison facility in Isfahan and apparently tortured, according to a Christian woman who fled Iran and knows Issavi and his family. The Christian woman, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Issavi’s wife, Medline Nazanin, visited the pastor at the unmarked facility. Nazanin said it was obvious Issavi had been tortured, the Christian told Compass. Issavi’s confinement cells were so filthy he contracted a life-threatening infection, Nazanin told the Christian woman. During Issavi’s imprisonment, authorities threatened to execute him, sources close to the case said. The joy of Issavi’s family at his release was tinged with fear as they waited in agony for the possibility of him being killed by Islamic extremists, as is common in Iran when Christians are detained for religious reasons and then released. “Sometimes they release you just to kill you,” the Christian source said. 2.  False Charges Filed against 47 Christians in Pakistan Police try to extract bribe after attacking home; in Rawalpindi, militants attack chapel. By Jawad Mazhar VEHARI, Pakistan, April 8 (Compass Direct News) – Police here filed false charges of alcohol possession against 47 Christians, including women and children, on March 28 in an attempt to intimidate and bribe them, Christian leaders said. Police broke into and ransacked the home of Shaukat Masih at 10:15 p.m. on Palm Sunday, manhandled his wife Parveen Bibi, and threatened to charge them and 45 other area Christians with alcohol possession if they did not pay a bribe, said attorney Albert Patras. The Christians refused. Those charged include two children and eight women. None of the Christians has been arrested, as police are interested only in extorting money from them, Patras said. Non-Muslims with a permit are allowed to possess and drink alcohol in Pakistan, and Shaukat Masih has such a government permit, Patras said, thus making the possession charge baseless. “No longer using just ‘blasphemy’ laws, police and fanatical Muslims have begun to use alcohol laws, Section 3/4 of the Pakistan Penal Code, to persecute the destitute Christians of Pakistan,” Patras said. “Only Christians in Pakistan are allowed to keep and drink alcohol, so Pakistani police can apprehend any Christian and then level section 3/4 of PPC against him or her.” In other Easter week incidents, in Rawalpindi law enforcement agents secured the liberty of Christian hostages held by several armed Muslim militants, including at least five burqa-clad women, who attacked a church building after a Good Friday (April 2) service. Khalid Gill, head of Lahore zone of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the assailants armed with automatic rifles and pistols desecrated Gordon College Chapel of Robinson Community Development Ministries Church. The assailants also entered nearby residences and reprimanded adults and children for their faith in Christ, besides looting many of the homes, Gill said. Two Christians, Shaban Gill and Imran Nazir, were scaling the wall of their property to enter their home when the Muslim militants opened fire on them, hitting Nazir. The militants held his wife and two daughters, one 4 years old and the other 18 months, at gunpoint. A heavy contingent of police from City Police Station Raja Bazaar arrived and secured the liberty of all three Christian hostages; they arrested at least 10 suspects.   3.  Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released Church likely to face another harsh year, report says. By Sarah Page DUBLIN, April 9 (Compass Direct News) – Christian human rights activist Gao Zhisheng, kidnapped by state security agents on Feb. 4, 2009, has been released, though he appears unable to move or speak freely. On Tuesday (April 6), Gao told Bob Fu, president of the U.S.-based China Aid Association (CAA), by telephone that he had just returned to his Beijing apartment from his guarded location in Shanxi Province. “Gao Zhisheng and his family have suffered deeply from the long separation,” Fu stated on CAA’s website. “Despite the persecution, he continues to trust the Lord.” Gao’s, wife, daughter and son escaped to the United States in March 2009. With Fu and with reporters from The Associated Press (AP) this week, Gao declined to discuss his physical condition or how he was treated during his captivity. He told the AP that by leaving his role as a critic of human rights violations in China, he hopes to be re-united with his family. Gao’s disappearance had drawn protests from international human rights groups, U.S. and British officials and the United Nations. He has defended house church Christians and coal miners as well as members of the banned Falun Gong. In an earlier report, CAA noted that Chinese Christians can expect more attacks on large urban churches, harsher punishments for house church leaders and tighter control of registered churches this year. Authorities last year targeted house church leaders, sometimes handing out harsh sentences and fines; carried out violent raids on large urban churches; attempted to disrupt regular worship meetings and tightened control of churches registered with the government-approved Three-Self Protestant Movement, and CAA said more of the same is expected this year.   4.  Young Christian Woman Allegedly Abducted in Pakistan Muslims said to employ various ruses; forced conversion, marriage feared. By Brian Sharma LAHORE, Pakistan, April 13 (Compass Direct News) – A Muslim tricked a 19-year-old Christian woman into leaving her house here on April 1, and he and a car full of friends took her away, according to her family. Sonia Mohan’s family said they fear the Muslim, Ali Raza, will force her to convert to Islam and marry him. Raza came to their home in Lahore’s Nishtar Colony claiming that her brother, Johnson Parvaiz, wanted to see her outside, Parvaiz said. “Sonia would not have gone with them if he hadn’t told her that I wanted to see her,” Parvaiz said. “Ali Raza came to our home and told Sonia that I had asked for her, and she went out of the house with him. They had parked a vehicle outside and left, and afterwards we never heard from her.” After two days he was able to reach her by cell phone, he said, and she told him not to call her, that she was very happy and that they should not try to find her. “It was obvious from her voice that she had been forced to say that,” Parvaiz said. Nishtar Colony Station House Officer Munawar Doggar told Compass that it did not appear that Mohan, who along with the rest of her family belongs to the American Reformed Presbyterian Church, went with Raza willingly. He said he had delayed registering a case on behalf of Mohan’s family only because Raza’s family had filed a complaint that Raza himself had been abducted. In a bizarre attempt to delay police action against Raza, Parvaiz said Raza’s uncle Zaffar Jamil had filed a complaint that Raza had been kidnapped – by the very accomplices who allegedly helped Raza kidnap Mohan. 5.  Christians in Ethiopian Town Hit by Unexpected Attack Orthodox church members strike two evangelical worship buildings, beat evangelist unconscious. By Simba Tian NAIROBI, Kenya, April 15 (Compass Direct News) – Evangelical Christians in an area of Ethiopia unaccustomed to anti-Christian hostility have come under attack from Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) members threatened by their existence, Christian leaders said. In Olenkomi, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, two church buildings were attacked by an EOC mob in Olenkomi town, Oromia Region, on Jan. 27 – leaving one evangelist unconscious and other Christians fearful of Orthodox hostility. Area Christians fear the assailants will not face justice due to the EOC’s powerful presence and official’s desire for calm ahead of May 23 elections. A Mekane Yesus Church building was destroyed in the assault, while a Brethren Church structure suffered damages. The attacks came after an accidental fire from liturgical candles burned an EOC building. EOC members blamed evangelicals, and in the ensuing attacks visiting evangelist Abera Ongeremu was so badly beaten the mob left him for dead. Another three Christians also sustained minor injuries. After the mob stoned the Brethren Church, they next targeted Mekane Yesus Church, where Ongeremu was staying in guest quarters. A member of the mob took a Bible from his guest room and told him to burn it. He refused, and they bound his hands and legs and threw him back into the room, sprinkling diesel on the walls and roof and locking him in before setting it on fire, he said. But some of the assailants argued that Ongeremu should not die by burning but by beating, and two of them dragged him out of the room and continuously beat him. “After repeated beatings I lost consciousness,” he said. “I didn’t know how and when they left me. I only recall they argued about how to kill me.” 6.  Pakistani Brothers Threaten Family of Catholic Who Wed Muslim  Before attempted abduction of groom’s mother, Muslims accused Christians of kidnapping. By Jawad Mazhar  SARGODHA, Pakistan, April 19 (Compass Direct News) – Family members of a Muslim woman who married a Roman Catholic here have threatened to kidnap the groom’s mother and sister and kill the newlyweds and other relatives, the Christian family members said. Muslims have heavily bribed police to allow the crimes, sources told the Christian family. The brothers of Sadia Bashir, the 22-year-old Muslim woman who married the Christian, issued the same threats most recently on April 12, said her father, Mushtaq Bhatti. After the young couple wed in court on May 16, the Muslim family accused the groom, 24-year-old Jibran Masih, and his mother and father of kidnapping, for which they languished in jail for several months last year. Masih, his mother Nargis Bibi and Bhatti could have been sentenced to death, a life sentence or a fine had the Lahore High Court not declared them innocent in December. On Jan. 18, Bhatti said, Bashir’s brothers tried to kidnap his wife, Jibran Masih’s mother, on a Sargodha street. The brothers, Muhammad Arif and Muhammad Tariq, tore off her blouse as she struggled to keep from being put in the car, Nargis Bibi said. She managed to escape, but police were slow to register a First Information Report (FIR) on the incident, she said. Police reluctantly registered charges of abducting for the purposes of adultery, she said, but they have not arrested the brothers. “The culprits who tried to kidnap me are still at large, and the Muslim family members with the approval of the police are hurling threats to kill us or abduct our college student daughter,” Nargis Bibi told Compass.  7.  Pastor, Wife Killed in Northern Nigeria Suspected Islamists kidnap, slay couple in Bauchi state. By Lekan Otufodunrin LAGOS, Nigeria, April 20 (Compass Direct News) – Suspected Islamic extremists last week abducted and killed a Church of Christ in Nigeria pastor and his wife in Boto village, Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. The Rev. Ishaku Kadah, 48, and his 45-year-old wife Selina were buried on Saturday (April 17) after unidentified assailants reportedly whisked them from their church headquarters home on Tuesday (April 13) and killed them. Their burnt bodies were found hours later. On Jan. 22, suspected Islamic extremists had set fire to their church building days after Christians displaced by violence in Plateau state had taken refuge on the church premises. Police have reportedly arrested two suspects and have launched a man-hunt for several other accomplices. Authorities are not releasing the names of the suspects. The murdered couple’s son, Simeon Kadah, said an eyewitness who had come to the church premises to collect some rented chairs saw men dragging the pastor and his wife out of their house. Kadah said the men asked the eyewitness if he was a Muslim, and when he told them that he was, the kidnappers told him to leave the area and tell no one what he had seen. “This is yet another case of unprovoked killing of Christians, which we condemn, and demand that the law enforcement agents must fish out the perpetrators of this act,” Bishop Musa Fula, state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Bauchi state, told Compass. 8.  Official Orders Halt to Beleaguered Church in Indonesia With construction permit in limbo, government also denies congregation’s temporary site. By Samuel Rionaldo JAKARTA, Indonesia, April 20 (Compass Direct News) – A local government official in Bekasi, West Java last week forbid all worship of the Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church in Jejalan village. Regent Sa’duddin on April 12 ordered a halt to all activities of the church, including worship services that have been held on a strip of roadside land since the government on Jan. 12 summarily sealed the church’s building, which was under construction. Announcing the order at a meeting of government officials with the Rev. Palti Panjaitan, Vice-Regent Darip Mulyana said the reason for the closure of the church’s makeshift site was that worship interfered with “community activities,” though the site is on a nearly deserted roadside bordering vacant fields. Mulyana said that Sa’duddin had ruled that the church needs to find a new place to construct its prospective permanent church building because local residents had rejected it – even though the church had secured approval from local residents when it submitted its application for a permit in 2008. The government has never acted on the application, and since then Islamic organizations have organized protests to try to pressure government officials to deny approval. The church on March 30 filed suit against Sa’duddin for unilaterally closing their church building under construction.      9.  New Evidence Stalls Murder Trial in Malatya, Turkey Defense lawyers’ absence also prolongs case that court wants closed.  By Damaris Kremida MALATYA, Turkey, April 21 (Compass Direct News) – On the eve of three-year commemorations of the murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey, defense lawyers’ absence and new evidence kept a Malatya court from concluding the case here on Thursday (April 15). Two defense lawyers excused themselves from the hearing, rendering the judges unable to issue a verdict to the five defendants charged with the murders of three Christians in Malatya on April 18, 2007. Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske, who worked at a publishing house that distributed Christian material in this southeastern Turkish city, were found murdered three years ago. At Thursday’s hearing, prosecuting lawyers presented a 28-page detailed request that the Malatya case be joined to a plot called Cage Plan, believed to be part of Ergenekon, a “deep state” operation to destabilize the government led by a cabal of retired generals, politicians and other key figures. In churches and at various memorial services on Sunday (April 18), Christians around Turkey commemorated the deaths of the three slain men. Scores of people came to the graves of Aydin in Izmir, Tilmann in Malatya and Yuksel in Elazig, an hour northeast of Malatya, to commemorate the deaths. The Malatya murders have become a milestone for the Turkish church, which is also eager for closure on the murder case and justice for those responsible. “For the church, it’s another one of those events in life which we don’t understand but entrust it to the hands of a loving God who we believe in,” said Zekai Tanyar, chairman of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey.