Steel On Steel Persecution Update June 28, 2010 Muslim landowner offers to remove chains from 11-year-old boy if he converts to Islam. By Thomas Kelly WAZIRABAD, Pakistan, June 21 (Compass Direct News) – An 11-year-old Christian boy here is growing weak and ill from malnutrition from working in slave-like conditions for a Muslim landowner who kidnapped him and is forcing him to work off his family’s debts, his mother told Compass. Katherine Bibi said landowner Ashraf Cheema of Dhonikay village, Wazirabad, has offered her son better conditions and possibly cancellation of the debt if he will convert to Islam. Young Danish Masih works without break from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m., often in iron chains, on half a loaf of bread per day, according to Dawood Masih of the National Commission of Justice and Peace. The boy’s father and older brother had been working for Cheema to pay off a debt of 142,000 rupees (US$1,640), but their employer was neither paying their monthly wages nor deducting the amounts from their debt, said Emmanuel Berkat Gill of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. Cheema also extorted land worth 35,000 rupees (US$404) from the boy’s older brother, again without deducting the amount from their debt, and ransacked the family’s house in Ali Naggar village, stealing Katherine Bibi’s dowry worth 200,000 rupees (US$2,308), she and Gill said. The family decided to flee to Islamabad, 165 miles (102 miles) away, Katherine Bibi said, but 18 months ago Cheema found them and abducted Danish Masih. Contacted by Compass, Cheema said that no such boy works at his farm or fields, and that “someone must have misled you.” Besides the court recognition of the abduction, however, Gill and other credible sources assert that Danish Masih works from dawn to dusk under a sizzling summer sun without any break or meal.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Top Stories:
1. Egyptian Couple Shot by Muslim Extremists Undaunted in Ministry
2. Christian Woman in Pakistan Abused, Forced to Resign
3. Suspicious Actions Follow Murder of Pastor in Assam, India
4. Family of 17-Year-Old Somali Girl Abuses Her for Leaving Islam
5. Muslims in Pakistan Kidnap, Rape Christian Girl
6. Church Closure in Indonesia Called Unconstitutional at Hearing
7. Christian Child Abducted, Forced into Bonded Labor in Pakistan
1. Egyptian Couple Shot by Muslim Extremists Undaunted in Ministry
Left for dead, Christians offer to drop charges if allowed to construct church building.
By Wayne King
CAIRO, Egypt, June 8 (Compass Direct News) – On the afternoon of Feb. 27, lay pastor Ephraim Shehata and his wife Rasha Samir were ambushed on a desolate street by a group of Islamic gunmen outside the village of Teleda in Upper Egypt. The attack was meant to “break the hearts of the Christians” in the area, Samir said. The attackers shot Shehata twice, once in the stomach through the back, and once in the neck. They shot Samir in the arm. Both survived the attack, but Shehata is still in the midst of a difficult recovery. The shooters have since been arrested and are in jail awaiting trial. A trial cannot begin until Shehata has recovered enough to attend court proceedings. Despite this trauma, being left with debilitating injuries, more than 85,000 Egyptian pounds (US$14,855) in medical bills and possible long-term unemployment, Shehata is willing to drop all criminal charges against his attackers – and avoid what could be a very embarrassing trial for the nation – if the government will stop blocking Shehata from constructing a church building. He has approached the State Security Investigations agency through church leaders, saying that if he is allowed to construct a church building, then he will take no part in the criminal persecution of the shooters. “I have told the security forces though the priests that I will drop the case if they can let us build the church on the piece of land,” he said.
2. Christian Woman in Pakistan Abused, Forced to Resign
Sanitation worker on verge of receiving benefits; in another village, church builders
attacked.
By Thomas Kelly
SARGODHA, Pakistan, June 10 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian woman here said she has been falsely accused of theft, beaten, threatened with rape and forced to resign her job in a bid to keep her from obtaining full benefits as a regular government employee. Razia Bibi, a 38-year-old sanitation worker known as Rajji of village No. 47-NB (Northern Branch), was due to obtain regular status as a government employee at Aysha Girls’ Hostel at the University of Sargodha at the end of May. On May 7, however, Muslim office worker Safia Bibi accused her of stealing 10,000 rupees (US$120) from her cubicle – and when hostel warden Noshaba Bibi learned of it, she called female police officers and ordered them to beat her until she confessed, Rajji said. When she refused, she ordered male security guards to rape her. Her husband, Nayyer Aftab, arrived in time to spare her from rape by paying the amount of the allegedly stolen money, but the hostel warden forced Rajji to resign. “As I am a Christian, the Muslim hostel officers Safia and Noshaba wanted a Muslim regular employee after their hearts instead of me,” Rajji told Compass. Noshaba Bibi initially refused to comment on the allegation that she falsely accused the Christian woman of theft in order to provide a job to someone of her choice, but after repeated questioning by Compass she yelled, “Yes, I have done it, do whatever you want!” In a village in southern Punjab Province, meantime, Muslim extremists on Saturday (June 5) attacked Christians trying to construct a church building, and then got police to file charges against them for defending themselves, according to the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA). A club-wielding Muslim mob led by Muhammad Nazir Ahmed beat the Christians in village No. 184/9-L, in Cheechawatni of Sahiwal district, seriously injuring several of them, said Javed Akber Gill, APMA district coordinator in Sahiwal.
3. Suspicious Actions Follow Murder of Pastor in Assam, India
Body destroyed before being identified; police try to link him with poachers.
By Shireen Bhatia
NEW DELHI, June 14 (Compass Direct News) – A pastor in Assam state was murdered and cremated without being identified last month before family members learned of his death when they saw a photo of his body in a newspaper. The body of Son Englang, 35, was recovered alongside National Highway 37 on May 20, with marks indicating his hands had been tightly bound before he was shot. The pastor from Mallasi village, Karbi Anglong, supported by Gospel for Asia (GFA), had been kidnapped early in the morning of the previous day as he rode his bicycle to the Bokakhat marketplace to buy paint materials for his nearly completed church building. The unknown kidnappers, suspected Hindu extremists, reportedly took the father of two to the jungle to kill him. Local police took his body to a hospital in Golaghat, where he was cremated without being identified after three days, the maximum period that the hospital will hold a body. News of his death reached his family four days after he was killed when they saw a photo of his body published on May 22 in local newspapers reporting him as unidentified. “With great difficulty, his photo could be recognized,” said the Rev. Juby John, Karbi Anglong diocesan secretary of GFA. “It was a semi-decomposed body.” Strangely, police reported Pastor Englang as killed while accompanying three rhinoceros poachers who were shot to death by guards inside Kaziranga National Park, a wildlife sanctuary. Investigations are underway regarding the suspicious claim, resulting in the arrest of a park guard and a local policeman.
4. Family of 17-Year-Old Somali Girl Abuses Her for Leaving Islam
Young Christian beaten, shackled to tree.
By Simba Tian
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 15 (Compass Direct News) – The Muslim parents of a 17-year-old Somali girl who converted to Christianity severely beat her for leaving Islam and have regularly shackled her to a tree at their home for more than a month, Christian sources said. Nurta Mohamed Farah of Bardher, Gedo Region in southern Somalia, has been confined to her home since May 10, when her family found out that she had embraced Christianity, said a Christian leader who visited the area. Her parents also took her to a doctor who prescribed medication for a “mental illness,” he said. Alarmed by her determination to keep her faith, her father, Hassan Kafi Ilmi, and mother, Hawo Godane Haf, decided she had gone crazy and forced her to take the prescribed medication, but it had no effect in swaying her from her faith, the source said. Traditionally, he added, many Somalis believe the Quran cures the sick, especially the mentally ill, so the Islamic scripture is continually recited to her twice a week. “The girl is very sick and undergoing intense suffering,” he said.
5. Muslims in Pakistan Kidnap, Rape Christian Girl
Five men threatened to kill her unless her father allowed one to marry her.
By John Little
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, June 16 (Compass Direct News) – Five Muslims here kidnapped and raped a Christian girl after threatening to kill her unless her father allowed one of them to marry her. Lazarus Masih said one of his three daughters, 14, was kidnapped on May 29 by five men identified only as Guddu, Kamran, Waqas, Adil and Ali. Police recovered her on June 6 in a raid on the home where she was being held, though the suspects escaped. Family members said the suspects took her to a house near Islamabad, where they gave her a drug that rendered her unconscious, and raped her. A medical report confirmed that she was given drugs and raped. “They threatened that if I don’t get her married to Guddu, they would kill her,” Masih said. “One of them said, ‘We attended an Islamic religious convention, and the speaker said if you marry a non-Muslim or rape a non-Muslim girl, you will get 70 virgins in heaven.” Devastated family members said the girl remained frightened and was not speaking to anyone. “It is such a shame that the religious leaders teach inhuman acts,” said the Rev. John Gill of Shamsabad Catholic Church. “This incident has ruined the life of an innocent child.”
6. Church Closure in Indonesia Called Unconstitutional at Hearing
Representative for HKBP congregation in West Java tells court sealing was illegal.
By Victor R. Ambarita
JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 18 (Compass Direct News) – In a hearing in its lawsuit against a local government, a representative for a church that Bekasi, West Java officials summarily closed earlier this year told an administrative court that the action was unconstitutional. The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) Filadelfia Church filed a lawsuit on March 30 against the local government for its Jan. 12 sealing of the building under construction. At a court hearing on June 2, the coordinator of the litigation team, Thomas Tampubolon, explained that the regent’s decree of Dec. 31, 2009 to seal the building conflicted with Indonesia’s 1945 constitution. He said the decree violated Article 28 of the constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, and Article 29, which guarantees freedom of worship, as well as Law No. 39 (1999) concerning human rights. Deddy Rohendi, a member of the regency defense team, replied that Tampubolon’s claims were false, and he requested that the court dismiss the suit. As the judges are considering the HKBP Filadelfia’s case, they are expected to travel to the village to interview citizens about the church building. A member of the legal team who is also a member of the church, Parasian Hutasoit, said that the Filadelfia congregation was upset with the Department of Religion and the Interfaith Harmony Forum because neither had acted upon the request for permission to build which was submitted on April 2, 2008. “Our application has not been acted upon, and suddenly our church is sealed without clear reason,” he said.
7. Christian Child Abducted, Forced into Bonded Labor in Pakistan
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