Steel On Steel Persecution Update September 24, 2010 Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org Top Stories: 1. Despite Court Victories, Church Building in Indonesia Blocked 3. Moroccan Convert Serving 15 Years for His Faith 4. New Threats, Old Enmity Pummel Nepal’s Christians 5. Judges Rule Church in Bekasi, Indonesia Can Worship 6. Indonesian Church Leaders Wounded in Attack 7. Muslim Protestors Surround Worshipers in Bekasi, Indonesia 8. Zanzibar Muslims, Officials Stop Church Building, Erect Mosque
2. Continued Ban on Converting Others Proposed in Nepal
1. Despite Court Victories, Church Building in Indonesia Blocked
Islamists attack, issue threats to halt construction of worship center in West Java.
By Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA, Indonesia, September 22 (Compass Direct News) – A year after a church in West Java won a court battle over whether it could erect a worship building, Islamic extremists have blocked construction through attacks and intimidation tactics, church leaders said. A mob of 50 Muslim extremists on Sept. 12 attacked construction workers at the Batak Christian Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) site in Cinere village, near Depok City, in Limo district, eyewitnesses said; the 24 workers, who were on break, fled from the attackers, who chased them brandishing wooden boards studded with nails. Cinere village police arrived to restore order, but the mob left behind seven banners opposing the construction. Three days later, Islamic groups demonstrated near the construction site, demanding that all Christian activities in the area cease. About 70 Muslims participated in the demonstration, trying to approach the construction site until hundreds of police repelled them. The church won a case in West Java State Administrative Court onSept. 17, 2009, rescinding a local order that had revoked the church’s building permit; the Supreme Court later upheld the Bandung court’s ruling allowing construction. Betty Sitompul, vice-chair of the church building committee, said she has received many intimidating text messages from a group opposed to the construction. Despite having the law on their side, church leaders said many in the congregation are haunted with dread amid outbreaks of Islamic ire at the presence of churches in West Java, such as the Sept. 12 attack on the HKBP church in Ciketing, Bekasi, in which an elder was seriously wounded and a pastor injured.
2. Continued Ban on Converting Others Proposed in Nepal
Christians fear parliament likely to accept measure in new constitution.
By Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI, September 21(Compass Direct News) – A legislative panel in Nepal has proposed retaining a ban on converting others in the country’s new constitution. Parliament has yet to decide on the proposal, but Christian leaders said they fear it is likely to be approved given that Nepal’s largest political party, led by former Maoist rebels, sympathizes with the deposed king’s wishes for such a ban. The country is forging a new constitution as part of its transition from a Hindu monarchy to a democracy. The Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance reported that a preliminary draft the Committee on Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles (CFRDP) presented to Nepal’s parliament penalizes activities aimed at encouraging others to convert, though it does not punish individuals for converting. Asked if the proposal violated international conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nepal is a signatory, CFRDP Chairperson Binda Pandey said the committee looked at “all relevant conventions” as well as “Nepal’s own unique socio-political context” before reaching the consensus. Jesuit Bishop Anthony Sharma said the panel’s proposal will not alter his congregation’s Christian activities. “We do not have any fear, and we will continue to do what we are doing, whether it’s a Hindu constitution or a secular one,” he said. “Conversion is by God; people simply respond to Him. Our philosophy is, ‘We propose and not impose.’ The growth of the church in Nepal is due to the Christian witness, and not just by preaching.” But the Rev. Dr. Mangalam Mahajan, president of Koinonia Church Fellowship, said, “The restriction will affect the Christian work in Nepal.”
3. Moroccan Convert Serving 15 Years for His Faith
Christian’s sentence for ‘proselytism,’ burning poles called excessive.
Special to Compass Direct News
ISTANBUL, September 17 (Compass Direct News) – Nearly five years into the prison sentence of the only Christian in Morocco serving time for his faith, Moroccan Christians and advocates question the harsh measures of the Muslim state toward a man who dared speak openly about Jesus. By the end of December Jamaa Ait Bakrim, 46, will have been in prison for five years at Morocco’s largest prison, Prison Centrale, in Kenitra. An outspoken Christian convert, Bakrim was sentenced to 15 years prison for “proselytizing” and destroying “the goods of others” in 2005 after burning two defunct utility poles located in front of his private business in a small town in south Morocco. Advocates and Moroccan Christians said, however, that the severity of his sentence in relation to his misdemeanor shows that authorities were determined to put him behind bars because he persistently spoke about his faith. “He became a Christian and didn’t keep it to himself,” said a Moroccan Christian and host for Al Hayat Television who goes only by his first name, Rachid, for security reasons. “He shared it with people around him.” Authorities in Agadir tried Bakrim for “destruction of the goods of others,” which is punishable with up to 20 years in prison, and for proselytism under Article 220, which is punishable with six months to three years in prison. During his defense at the Agadir court in southern Morocco, Bakrim did not deny his Christian faith and refuted accusations that he had approached his neighbors in an attempt to “undermine their Muslim faith.” Though there have been other cases of Christians imprisoned for their faith, none of their sentences has been as long as Bakrim’s. “They will just leave him in the prison so he dies spiritually and psychologically,” said Rachid.
4. New Threats, Old Enmity Pummel Nepal’s Christians
Armed group that forced over 1,500 government officials to quit now threatens pastors.
By Sudeshna Sarkar
KATHMANDU, Nepal, September 16 (Compass Direct News) – An underground group in Nepal that speaks with bombs and has coerced hundreds of government officials into quitting their jobs is threatening Christian clergy with violence if they do not give in to extortion demands. The Nepal Christian Society (NCS), an umbrella group of denominations, churches and organizations, met in the Kathmandu Valley yesterday (Sept. 15) to discuss the dangers amid reports of pastors receiving phone calls and letters from the Unified National Liberation Front (Samyukta Jatiya Mukti Morcha), an armed group demanding money and making threats. The group has threatened Christian leaders in eastern and western Nepal, as well as in the Kathmandu Valley. “The pastors who received the extortion calls do not want to go public for fear of retaliation,” said Lok Mani Dhakal, general secretary of the NCS. Nearly 1,500 government officials from 27 districts have resigned after receiving threats from the Front. Besides facing threats from a new group, Christians have also been subject to persecution due to longstanding animosity that began when Nepal was a Hindu state; the anti-Christian sentiment refuses to die four years after Parliament declared the nation secular. Ishwor Pudasaini, pastor of Assembly of God Church, said that his neighbors revile him and make threatening gestures. His family is not allowed to enter any public place, and he is afraid to spend nights in his old home for fear of being attacked. A relative, Bharat Pudasaini, lost his job and was forced to migrate to a different district. “Bharat Pudasaini was a worker at Mulpani Primary School,” said Pudasaini. “The school sacked him for embracing Christianity, and the villagers forced his family to leave the village.”
5. Judges Rule Church in Bekasi, Indonesia Can Worship
Court revokes decree prohibiting Christian activities of HKBP Filadelfia.
By Victor Raqual
JAKARTA, Indonesia, September 15 (Compass Direct News) – A court in West Java Province has revoked a local decree that forbade Christian activities of a church in Bekasi and has ordered officials to allow the Christians to establish a place of worship. After months of conflict and legal battles, the State Administrative Court in Bandung on Sept. 3 revoked the Dec. 31, 2009 decree prohibiting Christian activities of Batak Christian Protestant Filadelfia Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestant, or HKBP Filadelfia) in Jejalan village, Bekasi. The church had argued that the decree, along with the closure of their worship building on Jan. 12, resulted from pressure by Islamist groups that did not represent the wishes of the area residents. The Rev. Palti Panjaitan of HKBP Filadelfia said he was happy that the church at last had found fair authorities who based their decisions on the rule of law, “unlike the regent of Bekasi, who often has been unjust in making a decision by tending to side with a small group of people.” Since 2008 HKBP Filadelfia has sought permission for a worship place from Bekasi Regent H. Sa’duddin, who declined to grant it under pressure from a small group of Islamists called the Forum Islamic Ummah Jejalen Raya Bekasi, according to church leaders. As a result, the church had been holding services on a strip of roadside land in front of their temporary site, using umbrellas to protect them from the intense heat of the sun and from sudden rainstorms. The judges, identified only as Setiobudi, Irna, and Susilowati, ruled that the regent of Bekasi should issue a permit for the church to establish a place of worship. “This point is important because if the regent of Bekasi does what the judge said, then we will build our church and no longer serve in the hot sun and the rains that sometimes come unexpectedly,” Pastor Panjaitan said.
6. Indonesian Church Leaders Wounded in Attack
Elder remains in critical condition after being stabbed in heart, stomach.
By Victor Raqual
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 15 (Compass Direct News) – An elder of a West Java church that Muslim groups attacked last month remains in critical condition after a motorcyclist stabbed him in the heart and stomach on his way to a service on Sunday (Sept. 12), according to Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum. Hasian Sihombing of Batak Christian Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) sustained a wound to his heart of three centimeters. Also injured in the attack was the Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak, struck with a wooden block on her back, head and face by another motorcyclist when she tried to help Sihombing. Simanjuntak, who suffered dizziness after the attack, was still weak and receiving hospital treatment along with Sihombing at Mitra Keluarga Hospital Bekasi Timur, Bela stated in an e-mail advisory today. A member of the HKBP congregation, Ratna Gurning, told Compass that Pastor Simanjuntak recognized the assailants as having participated in protests while the HKBP church worshipped in the open air. On Aug. 8 at least 300 members of the Islamic People’s Forum and the Islamic Defenders Front broke through a police barricade and ordered 20 members of the HKBP church meeting in Ciketing to leave, according to Bela. When the church members refused, the protestors assaulted the group with sticks, stones or their bare hands. Some required hospital treatment.
7. Muslim Protestors Surround Worshipers in Bekasi, Indonesia
Tensions mount as congregation asserts right to worship.
By Sarah Page
DUBLIN, August 4 (Compass Direct News) – Around 300 Muslim protestors and 300 police officers surrounded members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan or HKBP) on Sunday (Aug. 1) as they worshiped in an open field in Ciketing, Bekasi, local sources said. “There were many police on guard, but the attackers were able to get very close to the congregation,” Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum, said in a statement to international government and advocacy groups. “We are afraid that they will attack the church again next Sunday.” He added that a protestor hit the Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak on the cheek. Police held back the shouting protestors while the church worshiped, but at one point they allowed Murhali Barda, leader of the Front Pembela Islam (FPI or Islamic Defenders Front) in Bekasi, through the cordon for an angry confrontation with church leaders, Voice of America reported. The 1,500-strong congregation has been waiting for local officials to respond to a building permit application filed in 2006. When Muslim neighbors in December objected to the meetings in a housing complex on the grounds that the church had no permit, officials banned church members from meeting there. With its building permit application delayed, the church ignored the ban, leading officials to seal the building on June 20. Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad on July 9 reportedly said he would allow the congregation to meet in public areas or at the city hall, and Pastor Simanjuntak moved worship to the proposed building site. Her church has now filed a case against the Bekasi administration. “I fully support any efforts to take this to the courts,” a local Christian leader who preferred to remain unnamed told Compass. “We need to respond through legal channels and let the government know that these attacks are a gross human rights violation.”
8. Zanzibar Muslims, Officials Stop Church Building, Erect Mosque
Islamists demolish foundation; police withhold crime report from court.
By Simba Tian
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 6 (Compass Direct News) – On an island off the coast of East Africa where the local government limits the ability of Christians to obtain land, officials in one town have colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building. On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi of the Evangelistic Assemblies of God had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he said. Soon area Muslim residents objected, said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God in Tanzania. In August 2009, local Muslims began to build a mosque just three feet away from the church plot. In November 2009, Pastor Masegi began building a permanent church structure. Angry Muslims invaded the compound and destroyed the structure’s foundation, the pastors said. Church leaders reported the destruction to police, who took no action – and also refused to release the crime report, so that the case could not go to court, Pastor Masegi said. “It’s not possible to take the file to the court, because doing so would amount to defending Christianity,” the station police chief told Pastor Masegi, the clergyman said. Meantime, construction of the mosque was completed in December 2009. The planned church building’s fate appeared to have been sealed earlier this year when Western District Commissioner Ali Mohammed Ali notified Pastor Masegi that he had no right to hold worship in a house. “Now the Christian faithful are feeling targeted even by the government officials,” said Pastor Masegi.
For more information concerning the persecution of Christians around the world, please contact:
Compass Direct at www.compassdirect.org
Open Doors at www.opendoorsusa.org
Frontline Fellowship at www.frontlinefellowship.net
The Voice of the Martyrs at www.persecution.com
Christian Freedom International at www.christianfreedom.org
Jihad Watch at www.jihadwatch.org
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