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REVIVAL NEWS |
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REVIVAL NEWS |
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I R N N E W S D I G E S T Editor: Tony Black
Email: news-items@openheaven.com | http://www.openheaven.com
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ENCOURAGE FRIENDS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SPECIAL EDITION - The Persecuted Church : June 2001
INTRODUCTION
At an ever increasing rate Christians are denied freedoms and are targets of discrimination, harassment, imprisonment and torture. Those of us who enjoy relative freedom in the West must pray for our suffering brothers and sisters, and pray too (except in US Schools of course, where it would be illegal!) that our freedoms would remain. I'd also like to encourage you to visit the source websites shown at the bottom.[Editorial Comment - We are informed that the statement "and pray too (except in US Schools of course, where it would be illegal!)" is incorrect. According to a source, "As someone who lives in the US, works in a school, and has studied this issue, I thought you might like to know that this is incorrect. No school official can lead a prayer, but any student, at any time, can pray. No school official has the right to stop them."]
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SECTION 1: AN OVERVIEW OF PERSECUTING NATIONS
SECTION 2: CURRENT NEWS OF PERSECUTIONS
- 2.1 Brutal attacks on Christians
- 2.2 Police round up of Christians
- 2.3 Ten dead in church bombing
- 2.4 Thousands flee devastating new attack
- 2.5 Tortured for refusing military service
- 2.6 Two Christians slaughtered
- 2.7 All non-muslims must wear yellow badges
- 2.8 Six butchered with machetes
- 2.9 Christian girls forced to become muslims?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SECTION 1: AN OVERVIEW OF PERSECUTING NATIONS
The following are the ten most watched countries by International Christian Concern, where violations are frequently reported.SUDAN
Over the past ten years, the Arab-Islamic radical government in Khartoum has openly declared a "holy war" against the Christians and other non-Muslims of southern Sudan. An estimated 1-1/2 million Sudanese have died. The majority of the casualties resulted from the government's imposed famines, warfare and the displacement of millions of people from their homes. Among the incidents of persecution against Christians include using food as an inducement to force Christians to convert to Islam as well as widespread reports of slavery and rape of mostly women and children. There has been reports of crucifixions and torture of Christians. One military officer allegedly buried alive a young Christian soldier in the parade ground, head down, as a warning to other Christian soldiers to convert to Islam.SAUDI ARABIA
Considered to be the most closed country in the world to Christians. The open display of Christian symbols is prohibited and Christian meeting places are forbidden. Foreign workers are commonly arrested, jailed and deported for holding worship services in private homes. Under Saudi Islamic laws, conversion to Christianity is forbidden and strictly enforced by the religious police.CHINA
Perhaps more Christians consistently practice their faith in China than any other country in the world. An estimated 50-100 million Christians are meeting "illegally in private homes, fields and even caves, defying a government ban on such gatherings. Over three hundred evangelists and house church leaders are serving sentences ranging from 6 months to 30 years in 're-education" labor camps. China's law limiting the size of a family to one child is an added offense to many Christians. ICC sources have reported that the Chinese government has launched a sweeping campaign to attempt to exterminate all illegal house churches.In 1994, at a meeting of one of China's "house churches" (a non-government sanctioned prayer meeting), five evangelists were seized by agents of the Public Security Bureau, China's KGB. Each man was severely beaten in front of the congregation. The security officers next handed the truncheons to the congregants and ordered them to beat the preachers, on pain of being beaten themselves. One particular evangelist was so badly injured that the security team feared he would die in their presence (leaving too much to explain), so they released him. He crawled and hobbled for several miles, attempting to reach his home, but finally collapsed and died on the road.
Such persecution is commonplace in China, where only a fraction of the estimated 30 million to 70 million Christians belong to government-approved sects. Amnesty International reports cases of Christian women hung by their thumbs from wires and beaten with heavy rods, denied food and water, and shocked with electric probes.
NORTH KOREA
As one of the world's most repressive regimes, the total number of Christians in prisons and labor camps is unknown. Christians are subjected to harsh persecution by the communist government. Christians who violate the government ban on evangelizing and distributing Bibles and Christian literature are strictly punished with imprisonment, torture and fines.CUBA
Scores of house-church leaders have been locked up and the Cuban police have closed down hundreds of churches throughout Cuba. The government intends to make an example of how the government will not tolerate growth of new converts in the unauthorized house churches. Many Christians have been warned to close down their house churches, but they have refused to comply. Wide-spread revival in Cuba has caused the government to fear losing control over the people.PAKISTAN
Despite claims of having a secular government, Pakistan's Islamic Sha'riah law serves as a constant reminder to Pakistani Christians that imprisonment or death hangs over their heads. With a score to settle, disgruntled Muslims have used Pakistan's blasphemy laws to seek vengeance against Christians. The blasphemy charges give Muslims not only the right but the obligation to kill Christians. At least five Christians have died from torture and one other from poisoning while in police custody. A number of outspoken Christian leaders have recently been accused of blasphemy and death threats have been made against them.EGYPT
Muslim violence against Christians increased during the past few years. Two Islamist attacks against Christians and churches took place in February 1996 and eight Christians were killed. Security police detained a significant number of Muslims converting to Christianity. Religious activities that are considered at conflict with Islam are restricted. Muslim-Christian conflicts have resulted in the destruction of several churches and Christian businesses over the past five years. Discrimination against Christians is evident in education, the media and hiring practices.VIETNAM
Despite the normalizing of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam in 1995, the new economic openness has done little to promote religious freedom for Vietnam's 112 million Christians. Although arrests and tortures had decreased the communist government has shown no sign of diverting from its previous path of a systematic campaign to divide and control religious communities. A number of Catholic and evangelical leaders are still imprisoned and new arrests, torture and harassment have been reported.NIGERIA
Due to pressure from Muslim extremists and lucrative Arab inducements, persecution against Christians in Nigeria continues unabated. The Nigerian authorities have started closing down Christian schools in the south and have been attempting to force the teaching of the Koran in all Nigerian schools. Sixty Nigerian Christians are facing trial after being accused of inciting a religious war in the Muslim Bauchi State. The charges stem from Christian-Muslim violence in July 1995 in which 31 Christian villages and 7 Muslim villages were destroyed. Hundreds of people were hacked, shot and burned to death. Far more Christians than Muslims were killed, yet very few Muslims are being prosecuted. Three people are known to have disappeared over the past year after converting to Christianity.UZBEKISTAN
Repression against evangelical Christians has dramatically increased in many of the former Soviet republics. The Uzbekistan government is the leading offender of religious freedom. Indigenous and foreign Christians are now being closely monitored. Uzbek Christians are frequently interrogated and intimidated by the authorities. A new law will impose a 40% tax on the income of foreign Christian workers. Evangelistic efforts are hindered by Muslim leaders and the government.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SECTION 2: CURRENT NEWS OF PERSECUTIONS
2.1 BRUTAL ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA
In a new twist to the violence against Christians in eastern Indonesia's Moluccan Islands, Muslim jihad fighters dressed like Japanese ninjas have begun targeting individuals under cover of darkness. On the evening of May 23 three masked men entered Kusu-Kusu, a village near Ambon. They broke into the house of Anace Huwae, a 43-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity, and stabbed her to death. Her husband found her body on his return home and raised an alarm. After an immediate search of the neighborhood, her husband and two other Christians were returning to his house when they encountered three men dressed in black clothes with their heads covered. The ninja-like intruders stabbed one of the Christians with a bayonet and then vanished into the darkness.Later that same night the attackers threw a grenade at two more Christians, injuring both. Hearing the explosion, residents and police quickly organized search parties and discovered the intruders hiding in a cave outside the village where two were shot by police. The third escaped briefly but was later caught and identified as a former resident of Kusu-Kusu. An estimated 5,000 people have died during the unrest in the Moluccan Islands in the past two years.
2.2 CHINESE POLICE ROUND UP CHRISTIANS IN MONGOLIA
Chinese police have smashed an underground Protestant church and detained 15 followers who could face up to three years in a labor camp, a Hong Kong rights group and police said Wednesday. Some 30 police burst into the unregistered "home church" on Saturday in Dongsheng city of Inner Mongolia and carted off all 35 followers to a detention center, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.The following day 20 of the followers were released after paying 200 yuan (24 dollar) fines, but the others including church leaders Wang Yulan and Li Haihe remained in police custody on charges of violating China's religious laws, the center said. "Wang Yulan and Li Haihe were detained and are being held in custody in the detention center," an official at the Dongsheng detention center, told AFP. He refused to say how many of the Christians remained in detention or whether they will be sentenced without trial to "re-education through labor" or criminally prosecuted.
The information center said that Wang's husband was currently serving three years of "re-education through labor" for "illegal religious activities," and expected Wang to be sentenced to a similar punishment. All religious groups in China must be registered with the government, while religious activities are closely monitored. The situation has resulted in a wealth of unregistered underground or "home churches" which have blossomed during China's years of market economic reforms as belief in communism has waned. According to the information center, there are over 40 million Protestants in China, of whom 25 million worship in the underground church rather than the officially-sanctioned "patriotic" church.
2.3 BANGLADESH: TEN DEAD IN CHURCH BOMBING
At least ten people were killed and 20 injured when a bomb exploded during Sunday worship at a church in the village of Jalirpar, Bangladesh on 3 June. Many were critically wounded and the death toll was expected to rise. No one immediately admitted responsibility for the attack, but Muslim extremists were suspected. There is a large Christian community in Jalirpar and surrounding villages, about 60 miles from the capital Dhaka. Pray for Christians wounded in this terrible explosion, pray too for the families of those who were killed. Pray that no further attacks will occur and that the Lord will heal and restore the devastated Christian community. The Barnabas Fund has several projects supporting Christian victims of violence who have suffered terrible violence directly because of their faith.2.4 SUDAN: THOUSANDS FLEE DEVASTATING NEW ATTACK
The Islamic extremist Government of Sudan launched its worst attack against the Christian, Muslim and animist people of the Nuba mountains since 1992 on 17 May. Nearly 2,500 homes have been destroyed. Some Sudanese sources put the figures as high as 5,000 homes and fourteen whole villages. Many have been killed including one woman who was burnt alive. Thousands have been forced to flee higher into the mountains or into the bush. One key church leader has revealed that his Christian staff were being hunted by government forces. Airstrips in particular were shelled and food stocks destroyed in what appears to be a deliberate aim to drive the isolated and starving Nuba refugees into government controlled areas of Sudan in search of food. The long history of tolerance between Christians and Muslims in the Nuba mountains is anathema to the Islamic extremist Government of Sudan.2.5 CHRISTIAN TORTURED FOR REFUSING MILITARY SERVICE
Turkmen Christian Dmitri Melnichenko has been severely tortured by agents of Turkmenistan’s KNB security agency for refusing to serve in the armed forces or swear the oath of military obedience after he was called up for armed service. Dmitri was seized on 15 May and held over night, during which time he was blindfolded, savagely beaten with a truncheon and electrocuted, but still he refused to swear the oath which he considers to be against his Christian faith. Dmitri has been forced to serve in two military units against his will since 10 May and was reportedly given until 10 June to swear the oath or face prosecution and almost certainly imprisonment. Pray that Dmitri will know the Lord’s constant presence, strengthening, support and love during this testing time of real persecution. Pray that many people will be blessed through Dmitri’s faith and witness.2.6 INDONESIA: TWO CHRISTIANS SLAUGHTERED
Three suspected Islamic extremist militants infiltrated the village of Kusu-Kusu under cover of darkness on 23 May. Breaking into the home of Mrs Anace Huwae they viciously hacked her to death. Another Christian was stabbed and two more injured by a grenade thrown by the attackers as they tried to leave the village before police and villagers finally cornered them, killing two. Mrs Huwae may have been singled out because she was a convert from Islam. The previous day the body of a Christian man who had been stabbed to death in a similar horrific attack was found elsewhere in Ambon. The man’s two year-old son had also been slashed and injured.Indonesian Christians, the security forces and the local Muslim community have all come under attack in recent days by Islamic militants using the same ruthless tactics which they utilised so effectively in a savage attack on Christian neighbourhoods in Ambon on 20 May Click Here. Several people have been killed or injured, others kidnapped. Gunfire and explosions are heard across the city. Many Christians have not dared to venture out of their homes, others have fled to safer areas. The security forces have manned barricades and closed schools to try to maintain calm. Meanwhile, in East Java a church was burnt down and two others pelted with stones causing serious damage as part of wide-scale clashes and chaos caused by a mob of thousands demonstrating in favour of beleaguered Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on 29 May.
2.7 AFGHANISTAN: ALL NON-MUSLIMS MUST WEAR YELLOW BADGES
On May 22, the Taliban ruled that all Hindus in Afghanistan must wear yellow badges to distinguish themselves from Muslims. The Taliban claim that this is to protect Hindus from the religious police who enforce the Shari’ah (Islamic law). However, they have also ruled that Hindu women must now cover their faces like Muslim women apparently indicating their intention: to impose the Shari’ah on non-Muslims. This new order from the Taliban has drawn international condemnation and raised new concern over the extent of religious liberty in Afghanistan. Many of the country’s Hindus and Sikhs - the only religious minority communities of any size in the country – have welcomed the move in public, while privately some have expressed fears. Sikhs are not targeted under the ruling as their traditional style of dress already makes them instantly recognisable. But while the focus has been on the Hindus and to a lesser extent Sikhs, this latest development is extremely disturbing for any Afghan Christians who may be in the country. As converts from Islam, they would be liable to the death penalty under the Shari’ah. In their case, a badge identifying them would not protect them but do quite the opposite, inviting death.2.8 INDONESIA: SIX BUTCHERED WITH MACHETES
At least six Christians have been butchered and seventeen injured, nine severely, in a shock attack on several Christian districts of Ambon launched by Islamic militants late on the night of 20 May. Shortly after a power blackout occurred the extremists launched their raid by spraying the area with gunfire. Dozens of homemade bombs were also thrown. Then, dressed in fatigues and using new sophisticated military-style tactics, the militants crept through Christian neighbourhoods, knocking on the doors of houses, then savagely hacking and slashing at the occupants with machetes and bayonets when they were opened. Dozens of Christian homes were burnt to the ground. The raiders were successfully repelled by the military in some areas, but in others the security forces have once again been accused of standing back and doing nothing to stop the extremists. As dawn broke the last raiders withdrew leaving two dead but no captives.2.9 CHRISTIAN GIRLS FORCED TO BECOME MUSLIMS?
Two Christian girls in Northern Nigeria are under great pressure from Muslim extremists to change their faith to Islam. The girls’ father, an animist who converted to Islam three years ago, is being pressured by Islamic extremists to force his daughters’ conversion. The two girls were being held by the police; one has managed to escape, the other is due in court today. Six Christian men, including three Church leaders, who have become involved in the case, also found themselves arrested and held by police for over a week in mid-April.
Source for 2.1, 2.2: Intercessors Network Intercessors.Network@Telia.com
International Christian Concern - www.persecution.org~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPYRIGHT RESERVED: REPRODUCTION OF REPORTS WELCOME, BUT
ONLY WITH CREDIT LINE PLEASE = [ Source: IRN - www.openheaven.com ]
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