Steel On Steel Persecution Update
October 5, 2010
Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org
Top Stories:
1. Police Keep Indonesian Church from Worship Site after Attack
2. Muslim Mob Attacks Christians in Gujrat, Pakistan
3. Muslim Extremists Suspected in Death of Christian Worker in India
4. Church under Attack in Indonesia Agrees to Change Venue
5. Muslim Extremists Murder Christian Family in Pakistan
6. In Spite of Thief’s Confession, Christian Charged in Bangladesh
7. Muslims Force Expat Christian Teacher to Flee Maldives
8. Algerian Christians Acquitted of Eating during Ramadan
1. Police Keep Indonesian Church from Worship Site after Attack
Bekasi officials unable to persuade HKBP congregation to relocate to alternative venue.
By Victor Raquel Ambarita
JAKARTA, Indonesia, September 23 (Compass Direct News) – Following attacks on their church leaders on Sept. 12, a West Java congregation on Sunday (Sept. 19) faced a wall of security officers blocking them from worshipping on their property as authorities tried to coax them to meet at another venue. Hundreds of security force officers sealed off the street leading to their open-air worship site in Ciketing, near Bekasi, a week after suspected Islamists stabbed Batak Christian Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) elder Hasian Sihombing and struck Pastor Luspida Simanjuntak with a wooden block. At the Pondok Timur area where the church had gathered on Sunday, an official in a police vehicle announced through a loudspeaker that the Bekasi government requested they worship at the former office of a community organization. When Compass arrived at the Pondok Timur area, there were 1,500 regular police and public order security police officers standing by, some forming ranks in front of the Nurul Hulda Mosque 500 meters away. The official on the loudspeaker read a decree by Bekasi Mayor H. Mochtar Muhammad stating that security problems in the Mustika Jaya area were caused by the HKBP worship in Ciketing – where Islamists have staged protests in spite of a mayoral decree granting the congregation the right to worship there – and that in order to guard against further incidents, the church was no longer to hold services there. An argument ensued between Bekasi officials and HKBP leaders, with the Rev. Pietersen Purba, district head of the HKBP Pondok Timur District, asserting that the congregation wanted security at its property, not an order to relocate.
2. Muslim Mob Attacks Christians in Gujrat, Pakistan
Dozens beaten, shot at, left for dead since Sept. 8.
By Walter Smith
SARGODHA, Pakistan, September 27 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of Muslim extremists on Thursday (Sept. 23) shot at and beat dozens of Christians, including one cleared of “blasphemy” charges, in Punjab Province’s Gujrat district, Christian leaders said. The attack on Tariq Gill, exonerated of charges of blaspheming the Quran on Sept. 3, 2009, and on his father Murad Gill, his mother and the other Christian residents was the latest of more than 10 such assaults on the Christian colony of Mohalla Kalupura, Gujrat city, since Sept. 8, the Rev. Suleman Nasri Khan and Bishop Shamas Pervaiz told Compass. About 40 Islamists – some shooting Kalashnikovs and pistols at homes and individuals on the street, others brandishing axes and clubs – beat some of the Christians so badly that they left them for dead, Pastor Khan said. So far, 10 families have been targeted for the attacks. Bishop Pervaiz, central vice-chairman of the Pakistan Interfaith Peace Council, said the mob was led by two members of the National Assembly, Meer Anjum and Farasat Dar, at the behest of a powerful member of the Punjab Assembly named Sheikh Islam. The three Muslim politicians were not immediately available for comment, but the Gujrat superintendent of police investigations, identified only as Hafeez, told Christian leaders they were respectable legislators who were innocent. Bishop Pervaiz said the attackers have threatened to kill him, Pastor Khan and Bishop Yashua John and continue to roam the streets of Mohalla Kalupura looking for Christian residents to kill. The Lorry Adda police station house officer (SHO), inspector Riaz Qaddar, has stated publicly that “no stone would be left unturned” to apprehend the gunmen, but the Christian leaders said he has refused to act. “The SHO flatly denied indicting the Muslim mob and especially the Muslim legislators,” Pastor Khan said.
3. Muslim Extremists Suspected in Death of Christian Worker in India
Christian in Jharkhand state may have been slain during Islamic festival.
By Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI, September 28 (Compass Direct News) – Family members of a Christian worker who was found dead in a Muslim area in Jharkhand state a day after the Islamic Eid festival said they suspect he may have been murdered by local residents. The body of Shravan Kumar, who had worked with the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society, was found lying in a well near the Idgah Mosque in Garhwa town in the wee hours of Sept. 13, a close relative of the deceased told Compass by phone. Kumar, 31, lived in Pratapgarh district in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state. He left for Garhwa, 65 kilometers (40 miles) away, saying he wanted to see a colleague there on Sept. 10, but he never arrived. Local youths who pulled Kumar’s body from the well the morning of Sept. 13 informed the family member that they noticed injuries on his face and around his neck. Police were immediately informed, but they did not arrive until 10 p.m. “Kumar had lived in a rented house in Garhwa a few years ago, and on the morning of Sept. 12 he visited his old landlord and mentioned that he planned to preach in the Idgah Mosque area,” said the relative, adding that Kumar’s family suspected “that he preached to the Muslims on the Eid festival, and as a result he was killed and thrown in the well.” But police, asserting that there was no injury mark on the body, said that Kumar was not murdered. The religious atmosphere was tense at that time of Kumar’s death; on Sept. 13, Muslim mobs burned a Christian school and a church in the Muslim-majority Kashmir region in Jammu and Kashmir.
4. Church under Attack in Indonesia Agrees to Change Venue
Congregation accepts offer under condition that government build them permanent building.
By Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA, Indonesia, September 29 (Compass Direct News) – A West Java church has agreed to move temporarily to a government-selected site following Islamist harassment that included a Sept. 12 attack on two of its leaders. The Batak Christian Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) in Ciketing village, Bekasi, decided in a congregational meeting on Sunday (Sept. 26) to accept a government offer to move worship services to the former Organization and Political Party building on the condition that local officials will keep a promise to build a new house of worship for them within two years in the Mustika Sari district. The Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak, who received hospital treatment after she was struck with a wooden plank by suspected Islamic extremists in the Sept. 12 attack, said that the church was ready to stop struggling. “We are tired of being intimidated and terrorized,” Pastor Simanjuntak said. “We will be able to worship quietly and peacefully.” Church lawyer Saor Siagian said that the church had accepted the temporary move with the understanding that the Bekasi municipal government must fulfill its pledge. The government agreed to build a new church building to replace the structure the church is leaving on a 2,500-square meter lot belonging to PT Timah, the Government Tin Mining Co. in the Mustika Sari area of Bekasi. The church met at the new site on Sunday with dozens of police guarding the building.
5. Muslim Extremists Murder Christian Family in Pakistan
Lawyer, wife, five children shot to death after he tried to defend Christian.
By John Little
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, September 30 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic extremists killed a Christian lawyer, his wife and their five children in northwestern Pakistan this week for mounting a legal challenge against a Muslim who was charging a Christian exorbitant interest, local sources said. Police found the bodies of attorney and evangelist Edwin Paul, his wife Ruby Paul and children ages 6 to 17 on Tuesday morning (Sept. 28) at their home in Haripur, a small town hear Abbotabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (previously known as the North-West Frontier Province), according to Haripur Station House Officer Maqbool Khan. Paul had taken up the case of Robin Mehboob, a Christian taxi driver in Haripur facing a 500 percent interest on a loan from influential Muslim lender Noor Khan. Khan allegedly has been working with Islamic extremist groups to drive Christians out of the area, taking over their properties by charging exorbitant interest or leveling death threats. Noor Khan’s associates had beat Mehboob and Paul for going to the police, Mehboob said. The Muslim extremists have also threatened many Christians with death if they do not convert, area Christians said. Paul’s Muslim neighbor, Mushtaq Khan, told Compass that on Monday (Sept. 27) a group of armed men told Paul, “Leave the town in 24 hours – we know how to throw out Christians, we will not allow even a single Christian to live here.”
6. In Spite of Thief’s Confession, Christian Charged in Bangladesh
Primary suspect testifies convert from Islam was not involved, but police file charge anyway.
By Aenon Shalom
DHAKA, Bangladesh, October 1 (Compass Direct news) – Police in Nilphamari district have charged Christian day laborer Abul Hossen with cattle theft four days after the primary suspect confessed and testified that Hossen had no part in it, according to a defense attorney and a local official present in the courtroom. Police submitted the charge sheet against the convert from Islam on Sept. 12, even though Sirajul Islam had confessed to the crime and testified on Sept. 8 that Hossen was not involved and that he did not know him. Arrested on Aug. 21 in Dubachari village some 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Dhaka, Hossen was released on bail the same day that Islam testified to his innocence. “I do not know him,” Islam testified, according to Hossen’s lawyer, Alimuddin Bosunia. “That Abul Hossen who was with me during the theft is short in height, but this Abul Hossen is taller. This Abul Hossen was not involved in the cattle theft.” Shamcharan Roy, chairman of the local government body known as a union council, corroborated Bosunia’s account of the confession. “The thief present in the dock of the court confessed that he did not know the arrested Abul Hossen, and that Hossen was not involved in the cattle theft,” said Roy, a Hindu. “It remained somewhat of a mystery why police submitted the charge sheet against Abul Hossen.” Hossen told Compass that Islam also testified that the local union council secretary of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League party and his associates incited the thief to initially accuse him. Christian villagers have said that influential Muslims had Hossen accused in order to discredit his ministry. Local Police Chief Nurul Islam told Compass that authorities submitted the charge sheet against the Christian convert on Sept. 12 based on Sirajul Islam’s initial statement.
7. Muslims Force Expat Christian Teacher to Flee Maldives
Mistaking compass she drew for a cross, parents of students threatened to expel her.
By Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI, October 5 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities in the Maldives last week had to transport a Christian teacher from India off one of the Islamic nation’s islands after Muslim parents of her students threatened to expel her for “preaching Christianity.” On Wednesday night (Sept. 29) a group of angry Muslim parents stormed the government school on the island of Foakaindhoo, in Shaviyani Atoll, accusing Geethamma George of drawing a cross in her class, a source at Foakaindhoo School told Compass. George had drawn a compass to teach directions to the students, the source said. Administrators at the school set up a committee to investigate the allegation, but parents did not wait for the finding that she had only drawn a compass. Local newspaper Haveeru reported that authorities transferred George to the nearby island of Funadhoo “after the parents threatened to tie and drag her off of the island.” Preaching or practicing a non-Muslim faith is forbidden under Maldivian law, which does not recognize any faith other than Islam. The more than 300,000 citizens of the Maldives are all Sunni Muslims. “Fearing that the teacher would be physically attacked, the officials took her out of the island right away,” the source said. “She will never be able to come back to the island, and nor is she willing to do so. She will be given a job in another island.”
8. Algerian Christians Acquitted of Eating during Ramadan
Judge throws out case against men arrested during Islamic fasting period.
By Damaris Kremida
ISTANBUL, October 5 (Compass Direct News) – An Algerian court today acquitted two Christian men of eating during Ramadan in spite of a prosecutor’s demand that they be punished for “insulting Islam.” Authorities on Aug. 12 arrested Salem Fellak and Hocine Hocini for eating lunch on a private construction site where they were working during Islam’s month of fasting during daylight hours. The incident took place in Ain El-Hammam, in the province of Tizi Ouzou about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Algerian capital. Officers at a nearby police station saw the two men eating and confronted them for not fasting. When police realized the two men were Christians, they accused them of insulting Islam, according to local French-language press reports. Authorities interrogated them for two hours and “admonished” them, and then a state prosecutor questioned them, telling them that Algeria was a Muslim country with no room for Christians, according to a local news site. Today the judge at the court in Ain El Hamman, however, dismissed the case since “no article provided for a legal pursuit” against the two Christians, according to the BBC. The charges against the two Christians and a case of four Christians on trial for worshipping without a permit in Tizi Ouzou Province have raised concern among Christians. An Algerian church leader told Compass the government is finding subtle ways to pressure Christians. “They don’t want to do anything openly,” said the leader, who requested anonymity. “So they are using opportunities they can find, like not giving authorization to build the church in Tizi Ouzou, not fasting during Ramadan.”
For more information concerning the persecution of Christians around the world, please contact:
Compass Direct at www.compassdirect.org
Frontline Fellowship at www.frontlinefellowship.net
Christian Freedom International at www.christianfreedom.org
Jihad Watch at www.jihadwatch.org
Open Doors at www.opendoorsusa.org
The Voice of the Martyrs at www.persecution.com
Gospel for Asia at www.gfa.org
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