Steel On Steel Persecution Update
February 6, 2011
Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org
Top Stories:
1. Somali Mother of Four Slaughtered for her Faith
2. Anti-Christian Speeches in Iran Led to Crackdown, Sources Say
3. Trauma Grips Survivors of Church Blast in Alexandria, Egypt
4. Supreme Court in India Rejects Bail of Orissa Legislator
5. Revelations of Torture Spur Wife of Chinese Lawyer to Action
1. Somali Mother of Four Slaughtered for her Faith
Al Shabaab militants carry out ritual slaying of Christian found to be ‘apostate.’
NAIROBI, Kenya, January 17 (CDN) — A mother of four was killed for her Christian faith on Jan. 7 on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia by Islamic extremists from al Shabaab militia, a relative said.
The relative, who requested anonymity, said Asha Mberwa, 36, was killed at 5:15 p.m. in Warbhigly village; the Islamic extremists from the insurgent group had arrested her outside her house the previous day at 8:30 a.m. She died when the militants cut her throat in front of villagers who came out of their homes as witnesses.
She is survived by her children – ages 12, 8, 6 and 4 – and her husband, who was not home at the time she was apprehended. They had married in 1993.
Her relative, whose location is also withheld for security reasons, said he had phoned her on Jan. 5 to try to make arrangements for moving her family out of the area. Al Shabaab extremists, who control large parts of Mogadishu, were able to monitor the conversation and confirm that she had become a Christian, he said.
He told Compass by phone that Mberwa feared that she and her family members’ lives were threatened.
“Asha had been receiving threatening messages” after al Shabaab monitored her previous communications with him, he said.
Her husband, Abdinazir Mohammed Hassan, fled to an unknown location. Mberwa’s relative said a “good Samaritan” in Mogadishu was caring for her four children. The traumatized children continue to weep and cry out for their mother, he said.
Al Shabaab insurgents control much of southern and central Somalia and have embarked on a campaign to rid the country of its hidden Christian population. With estimates of al Shabaab’s size ranging from 3,000 to 7,000, the insurgents seek to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law).
Al Shabaab was among several splinter groups that emerged after Ethiopian forces removed the Islamic Courts Union, a group of sharia courts, from power in Somalia in 2006. Said to have ties with al Qaeda, al Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by several western governments.
The transitional government in Mogadishu fighting to retain control of the country treats Christians little better than the al Shabaab insurgents do. While proclaiming himself a moderate, President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed has embraced a version of sharia that mandates the death penalty for those who leave Islam.
2. Anti-Christian Speeches in Iran Led to Crackdown, Sources Say
As many as 120 Christians arrested as government tries to stop house church movement.
ISTANBUL, February 1 (CDN) — Speeches by Iranian religious and political figures between August and October who acknowledged the existence of home fellowships and condemned them as a threat to the state triggered Iran’s crackdown on Christians in the past few months, analysts said.
Iranian authorities have detained more than 70 Christians in a wave of arrests that began around Christmas, according to a report last week by Elam Ministries. With the release of seven Christians last week after they spent a month in solitary confinement, at least 26 Christians remain incarcerated. Sources said that with the arrests across the country continuing, the number of Christians detained since Christmas could be as high as 120.
Though authorities have released most of the Christians after interrogations, many of them are still in prison, especially house group leaders. Many released in the last month had to sign statements saying they would not attend church again.
Iranian leaders have described house churches as the work of the “enemy,” analysts said. On Oct. 19, in Qom, Iran’s religious center, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran’s enemies want to shake the country’s religious and societal values through the spread of Baha’ism and a network of Christian house churches. Khamenei’s speech marked the fifth public statement from an Iranian leader condemning Iranian Christians in the three-month period.
“The public statements show that the government acknowledges the presence of the church and considers it a threat,” a regional analyst who requested anonymity told Compass. “It’s striking they have been talking about it publicly in a way they haven’t previously.”
Sources told Compass that Iranian Christians belonging to house churches knew it was a matter of time before the security forces acted on the supreme leader’s condemnation and tightened their grip on house church members.
“When the supreme leader comes out with a clear statement accusatory towards the church, he sends a clear message to security forces and commanders,” the analyst said. “It’s plausible that this starts a larger crackdown.”
The analyst noted that those who tend to remain detained are the leaders of the groups. While in prison, many Christians undergo harsh treatment that may include solitary confinement, prolonged interrogation, threats and verbal insults, pressure to recant and beatings, according to the Elam report.
While persecution against Christians has intensified, it is believed to be part of a wider government campaign to crack down on any group the government considers threatening. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported on Jan. 16 that since the beginning of the year, the government had executed 47 people in a two-week period. Thousands have been sentenced to death since elections in 2009.
“Yes, the pressure against Christians has increased, but the human rights violations against all opposition groups are intensifying,” the analyst said. “We have to acknowledge the context.”
The Elam report confirmed that Iranian authorities have arrested more than 200 Christians in 24 cities since June 2010.
The Iranian government is suspicious of Christian activities, which officials see as aiming to convert Muslims and acting as “possible footholds for foreign influence,” reported The Associated Press last month.
Yousef Nadarkhani, a pastor from Rasht, was handed the death sentence for apostasy (leaving Islam) on Nov. 13, 2010. His lawyer has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, and Nadarkhani is awaiting a trial date. Arrested in October 2009 and serving time in Lakan prison, Nadarkhani is married and has two young children.
None of the other Christians arrested since Christmas has been officially charged, but the analyst said it was clear that with the exception of Nadarkhani’s case, the other arrests were imbued with a “political” tint.
3. Trauma Grips Survivors of Church Blast in Alexandria, Egypt
Blinded Christian transported to Germany amid political riots clings to faith.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, January 31 (CDN) — The last thing Osni Naim Michael remembers seeing on New Year’s Eve was more than a dozen people standing in front of him who instantly disintegrated in a brilliant flash of light.
In the split second that followed, the shock wave of the bomb threw the 57-year-old Michael to the ground. As he lay there – bleeding, blind, deaf and unable to get up – he could feel people hurrying over him, fleeing the blast site. His daughter eventually found him, pulled him from the scene and took him to the hospital.
Several days after the attack, while recovering from injuries, Michael learned that the place he was standing when the bomb detonated marked a macabre line of demarcation; everyone between him and the bomb is now dead, and almost everyone behind him lived.
“I remember the flash and everything exploding around me,” Michael said. “The 18 people were between me and the bomb … the 18 were killed, and I was only wounded. I thank Jesus Christ for this.”
In the early-morning hours of Jan. 1, after a New Year’s Eve Mass celebration in Alexandria, Egypt, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Coptic Orthodox church of St. Mark and Pope Peter, or “(Two) Saints Church,” according to the Egyptian government. At least 22 people died in the blast or later as a result of their injuries; the remains from one or two others are still unidentified and unclaimed. Another 97 people were reportedly injured from the explosion, which witnesses initially said came from a car-bomb; area Christians suspect more than one assailant.
The latest victim to succumb to his injuries was Samuel Girgis. In his 30s, Girgis died on Jan. 21 in a London hospital after an infection from the burns that covered more than half his body, according to doctors from St. Mark’s Hospital in Alexandria. He was married and had an infant child.
The explosion left the church smeared with blood, and it shattered windows throughout the building. The damage to the structure is largely repaired or cleaned, but now the people who make up the church are left to struggle with injuries, unanswered questions and their faith.
4. Supreme Court in India Rejects Bail of Orissa Legislator
BJP assemblyman convicted in two murders in 2008 violence says he’s innocent.
NEW DELHI, January 28 (CDN) — India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday (Jan. 25) rejected the bail granted to Hindu nationalist Orissa state legislator Manoj Pradhan following his conviction in the murder of a Christian, Parikhita Nayak.
Pradhan, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was convicted on June 29, 2010 of “causing grievous hurt” and “rioting” and sentenced to seven years of prison in the murder of Nayak, of Budedi village, who died on Aug. 27, 2008. In its decision, the Supreme Court ordered the High Court to reconsider its decision to grant him bail.
Pradhan had been granted bail by the High Court on July 6 on grounds having won the April 2009 state assembly election. Contesting the election from jail, he had become a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Kandhamal’s G. Udayagiri constituency. On Sept. 9, 2010 he was convicted in the murder of Bikram Nayak of Budedipada, for which he was sentenced to six years of rigorous imprisonment (see www.compassdirect.org, “Court in India Convicts Legislator in Second Murder Case,” Sept. 10, 2010). He received bail within 40 days of that conviction.
Parikhita Nayak’s widow, Kanaka Rekha Nayak, had challenged the granting of bail before the Supreme Court. She pointed out in her petition that there were seven other murder cases against Pradhan, including the second conviction.
“Being an MLA was not grounds for granting of bail,” she told Compass.
Nayak’s petition also argued that, because of his position, Pradhan intimidated witnesses outside of jail. She told Compass that, after receiving bail in spite of their convictions, Pradhan and an accomplice continued to roam the area, often intimidating her.
In the Supreme Court decision, Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjaron wrote that the High Court should have taken into consideration the findings of the trial court and the alleged involvement of the respondent in more than one case.
“The order clearly reflects that the High Court was mainly impressed by the fact that the respondent is a sitting MLA,” they wrote. “In the circumstances, we find it difficult to sustain the order.”
Pradhan was accused of stopping Parikhita Nayak and then calling together a large group of persons armed with axes and other weapons, who then hacked Nayak to death; afterward they sought to dispose of the body by burning it.
Pradhan denied all charges against him, telling Compass by telephone that they were “baseless.”
“I have full faith in the judiciary system, and justice will be done,” Pradhan said, adding that he and other “innocent people” have been arrested due to political pressure and that the real culprits are at large.
On his next move, he said he would surrender himself to police custody if necessary and then file another application for bail.
Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, told Compass that he was pleased.
“Pradhan deserves to be behind bars in more than one case, and it was a travesty of justice that he was roaming around terrorizing people,” Dayal said. “He was not involved in every single act of violence, but he was the ring leader. He planned the violence; he led some of the gangs.”
Dibakar Parichha of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Catholic Archdiocese told Compass that police records showed that Pradhan was a “field commander of Hindu extremists sent to kill Christians.”
The state government’s standing counsel, Suresh Tripathy, supported this week’s cancellation of bail.
5. Revelations of Torture Spur Wife of Chinese Lawyer to Action
Christian human rights advocate Gao Zhisheng reveals further abuse.
DUBLIN, January 19 (CDN) — Geng He, wife of missing Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng, is demanding answers from the Chinese government following new revelations of torture of her husband.
“This is the first time that I heard about the details,” Geng, now living in the United States, told Radio Free Asia last week. “My husband did not tell me – would not tell me – how he was tortured.”
After consulting with Geng, The Associated Press (AP) on Jan. 10 published an interview with Gao, an outspoken human rights campaigner, during his brief release from captivity last April, in which he revealed details of the torture he had suffered during the previous 14 months.
Speaking with the AP in a Beijing teahouse on April 7, closely watched by police, Gao described many forms of torture, including a period of 48 hours when he was stripped bare, beaten continually with handguns and subjected to other excruciating abuse.
The AP released the interview in advance of an official visit this week (Jan. 18-21) by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States, stating its hope that “publicizing his account will place renewed pressure on the government to disclose Gao’s whereabouts.”
Geng planned to travel to Washington this week to further highlight her husband’s case. At a U.S. State Department dinner at the White House tonight for Hu, she planned to wait outside to draw attention to Gao’s disappearance.
Gao had asked that his account not be made public unless he disappeared again or “made it to someplace safe like the U.S. or Europe,” according to the AP.
Initially seized by public security officials on Feb. 4, 2009, shortly after his wife and two children fled China to seek asylum in the United States, Gao was held virtually incommunicado for more than a year before police staged his brief reappearance in Beijing last April 6. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released,” April 9, 2010.)
After speaking with the AP and other journalists, Gao made a supervised visit to his in-laws in northwestern Xinjiang Province. During that visit, he again vanished on April 20 while in the company of Chinese police, according to a report by The New York Times on April 30, 2009. He has not been seen or heard from since, but China watchers such as Bob Fu of the China Aid Association (CAA) believe he is “definitely in the hands of Chinese security forces.” (See www.compassdirect.org, “Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Missing Again,” May 7, 2010.)
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
Voice of the Copts at www.voiceofthecopts.org
Barnabus Aid at www.barnabasfund.org
Christian Solidarity International at www.csi-int.org
Smyrna Ministries International at www.smyrnaministries.org
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