Steel On Steel Persecution Update March 11, 2011 Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org Top Stories: 1. Monk, Workers Shot in Monastery Attack in Egypt 2. Suspected Islamists Kill Pakistan’s Christian Cabinet Member 3. Spate of Attacks on Christians Erupts in Orissa, India 4. One Dead as Islamist Mobs in Ethiopia Destroy Church Buildings 5. Islamic Mob Burns Down Church in Egypt 6. Christian Woman Freed from Muslim Kidnappers in Pakistan 7. Pakistani Officials Back Muslim Land-Grabbers, Christians Say Christian leaders fear large-scale violence like that of Kandhamal in 2008. By Mahruaii Sailo NEW DELHI, March 4 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists have attacked Koya tribal Christians in villages in a remote area of Orissa state at least 15 times since Dec. 8, 2010, Christian leaders said. In the latest incident in Murliguda, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Malkangiri town, about 60 assailants from the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Feb. 23 damaged the eardrums of Bhadan Hontal and beat another Christian, Markari Soma, until he fell unconscious, according to a report by the Malkangiri District Christian Manch (MDCM, with Manch meaning “Forum”). Christian women, some pregnant, as well as children were among those injured in the attacks on churches, reported Pastor Vijay Purusu of Bethel Church and president of the MDCM. The spate of attacks began on Dec. 8 in Katanpali village, when about 35 Hindu extremists stormed the house of Pastor Mark Markani and beat him. Christians have suffered midnight raids on prayer meetings in which they have been beaten, he said, resulting in some Christians fleeing their homes and going into hiding. At least four families have left their village and not returned due to extremist warnings, reported the MDCM. “There is great fear among the people because of the threats they received from the extremists,” Pastor Purusu said. “Persecution against the Christians has become a daily occurrence in the area. By Simba Tian NAIROBI, Kenya, March 7 (Compass Direct News) – At least one Christian was killed and others injured when thousands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in western Ethiopia in the past five days, Christian leaders said. More than 4,000 Christians in and around Asendabo, Jimma Zone have been displaced as a result of attacks that began on Wednesday (March 2) after Muslims accused a Christian of desecrating the Quran by tearing up a copy, sources said. “The atrocity is still going on, and more people are suffering,” said a source in Addis Ababa who is in close contact with area church leaders. The Christian killed, believed to have been a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, has not yet been identified. A source based in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa noted that evangelical church leaders have reported the attacks to authorities and asked government officials for help, but no action had been taken at press time. “The church requested more police protection,” he said. “The authorities sent security forces, but they were overwhelmed by the attackers.” After the destruction began at Asendabo, it spread to Chiltie, Gilgel Gibe, Gibe, Nada, Dimtu, Uragay, Busa and Koticha, as Muslim mobs in the thousands rampaged throughout the area, sources said. “Police at the site are not taking any action – they just watch what is happening,” he said. “It is difficult to estimate the attack in terms of deaths, since we have no access to any location. We are very concerned that the attack that began on March 2 in Asendabo, which is the rural part of Jimma, is now heading to Jimma town.” Captors tried to force mother of seven to convert to Islam. By Brian Sharma LAHORE, Pakistan, March 11 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian mother of seven who last August was kidnapped, raped, sold into marriage and threatened with death if she did not convert to Islam was freed this week. After she refused to convert and accept the marriage, human traffickers had threatened to kill Shaheen Bibi, 40, if her father, Manna Masih, did not pay a ransom of 100,000 rupees (US$1,170) by Saturday (March 5), the released woman told Compass. A member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lahore, Shaheen Bibi said she was kidnapped in August 2010 after she met a woman named Parveen on a bus on her way to work. Her father asked police to take action, but they did nothing as her captors had taken her to a remote area between the cities of Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad, considered a “no-go” area ruled by dangerous criminals. Masih then sought legal assistance from the Community Development Initiative, a human rights affiliate of the European Center for Law and Justice in Pakistan. CDI Field Officer Haroon Tazeem, Masih and police went to Khan Baila, near Rahim Yar Khan, and at midnight on Sunday (March 6) the rescue team managed to get hold of Shaheen Bibi, the CDI source said. The kidnappers handed her over on the condition that they would not be the targets of further legal action, but the team told her captors that those who had sold her in Lahore would be brought to justice. Chained to a tree outside a house last week, Shaheen Bibi lifted her eyes in prayer, saw a cross in the sky and was comforted that God’s mighty hand would release her even though her father had no money to pay ransom, she said. 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
1. Monk, Workers Shot in Monastery Attack in Egypt
Two people in critical condition, five others hurt, after assault by Egyptian military.
By Wayne King
CAIRO, Egypt, February 28 (Compass Direct News) – One monk and six church workers were shot and wounded last week when the Egyptian Army attacked a Coptic Orthodox monastery in order to destroy a wall monks had built to defend their property from raiders, sources said. The attack with small arms, heavy machine guns and armored personnel carriers happened Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 23) at the Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Al-Natroun, 110 kilometers (68 miles) north of Cairo. The soldiers used armored personnel carriers to bulldoze the wall, sources said, as the monks sang a prayer in unison, declaring, “God is merciful.” A monk who witnessed the attack said on condition of anonymity that the scene resembled “a war zone.” Seven people today remained in the Anglo American Hospital in Cairo, two of them in critical condition. The attack took place in the wake of the political riots that swept through Egypt beginning Jan. 25, culminating in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. As security diminished, the Anba Bishoy Monastery had come under increasing attacks from raiders and criminals set free from prisons. The military had denied a request for protection from the monks, who then built a brick wall with a metal gate to control access. The army later claimed the monastery had not acquired the proper permits and issued a deadline for the wall to be torn down. The monks refused to demolish the wall, and the army moved in. The attack followed other anti-Christian incidents throughout Egypt.
2. Suspected Islamists Kill Pakistan’s Christian Cabinet Member
Shahbaz Bhatti assassinated, apparently for advocating review of ‘blasphemy’ laws.
By Asher John
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 2 (Compass Direct News) – Unidentified gunmen in Islamabad today shot dead Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s only cabinet-level Christian and an outspoken critic of the country’s widely condemned “blasphemy” laws. Suspected Islamic extremists from Pakistan’s Taliban and al Qaeda reportedly left a letter at the scene saying those who try to change Pakistan’s blasphemy laws would be killed. The murder comes two months after Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard for supporting Asia Noreen (also known as Asia Bibi), the first Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan on blasphemy charges. The assailants sprayed 25 to 30 bullets at Bhatti’s car after he came out of his mother’s home in a residential area of the Pakistani capital to attend a meeting of the federal cabinet. The federal government had provided bodyguards for Bhatti, but they were not present at the time of the attack. A letter found at the scene, purportedly from Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists, claimed responsibility for the killing. Police sources said the letter found at the murder site accused Bhatti of waging a campaign to amend the blasphemy law. Islamabad Police Chief Wajid Durrani said three or four armed men in a white Suzuki car intercepted Bhatti’s official vehicle. “The squad officer told me that the minister had directed him to wait for him at his office,” Durrani claimed. “He used to often visit his mother’s house without a squad.” Bhatti had defied death threats after the Jan. 4 assassination of Taseer, conceding in several interviews that he was “the highest target right now” but vowing to continue his work and trusting his life to God.
3. Spate of Attacks on Christians Erupts in Orissa, India
4. One Dead as Islamist Mobs in Ethiopia Destroy Church Buildings
Total structures razed at 59; at least 4,000 Christians displaced.
5. Islamic Mob Burns Down Church in Egypt
‘Kill all the Christians,’ local imam tells villagers.
By Wayne King
CAIRO, March 8 (Compass Direct News) – A Muslim mob in a village south of Cairo last weekend attacked a church building and burned it down, almost killing the parish priest after an imam issued a call to “Kill all the Christians,” according to local sources. The attack started on Friday evening (March 4) in the village of Sool, in Helwan city 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Cairo, and lasted through most of Saturday. A local imam, Sheik Ahmed Abu Al-Dahab, issued the call to area Muslims to kill the Christians. The Rev. Hoshea Abd Al-Missieh, a parish priest who narrowly escaped death in the fire, said the clamor of the Church of the Two Martyrs St. George and St. Mina being torn apart sounded like “hatred.” After demolishing it, the group of Muslims then held prayers at the site and began collecting money to build a mosque where the church building once stood, said the assistant bishop of Giza, the Rev. Balamoun Youaqeem. The attack was another in a long list of disproportionate responses in Egypt to a rumor of an affair between a Muslim and a Copt. Earlier this month, Sool villagers accused a Muslim woman and a Coptic man, both of them married, of being involved with each other. Because of the attack, Copts in Sool fled to adjacent villages. The women who remained in the village are now being sexually assaulted, according to Youaqeem, who added that he is receiving phone calls from area women begging for help. On Sunday (March 6), roughly 2,000 people gathered outside the Radio and Television Building in Cairo to protest the attack and what Copts see as a long-standing government refusal to address or even acknowledge the persecution of Christians in Egypt.
6. Christian Woman Freed from Muslim Kidnappers in Pakistan
7. Pakistani Officials Back Muslim Land-Grabbers, Christians Say
Senior district authorities accused of supporting desecration of 150 Christian graves.
By Asher John
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 9 (Compass Direct News) – Christians in south Punjab Province are accusing senior district officials of supporting local Muslims who allegedly demolished 150 Christian graves and desecrated holy relics – and are now threatening Christians seeking legal redress. In the Kot Addu area of Muzaffargarh district, Waseem Shakir told Compass by telephone that an influential Muslim group last Nov. 6 took illegal possession of a 1,210-square yard piece of land designated as a Christian cemetery and set up shops on it. “The situation has come to point where even the local police have warned their higher-ups that the tension could provoke a Gojra-type incident,” he said, adding that Muslim instigators were now openly trying to intimidate him and Boota Masih, who registered a case with police, into dropping the matter. In Gojra on Aug. 1, 2009, Muslim hordes acting on an unsubstantiated rumor of blasphemy of the Quran – and whipped into a frenzy by local imams and banned terrorist groups – killed at least seven Christians, looted more than 100 houses and set fire to 50 of them. At least 19 people were injured in the melee. Christians had repeatedly taken up the Kot Addu issue with District Police Officer (DPO) Chaudhry Manzoor and District Coordination Officer Tahir Khurshid. Manzoor rejected the Christians’ accusations. “It’s not as serious a case as they are portraying,” he told Compass. “The people who have built shops on the land are not illegal occupants but the real owners.”
Saturday, 12 March 2011
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