Compass Direct News Report of August 2009
BANGLADESH
POLICE TORTURE PASTOR, TWO OTHERS
August 4 (Compass Direct News) - At the urging of local Muslim leaders, police in western Bangladesh have tortured a pastor and two other Christians for legally proclaiming Christ. Habibur Rahman, 45, pastor of Boalia Spiritual Church (Boalia Ruhani Jamat) in Boalia in Cuadanga district, 220 kilometers (136 miles) west of Dhaka, said he was about to meet with 11 others for a monthly meeting on evangelism at 8 p.m. on June 8 when local police stormed in and seized him and Zahid Hassan, 25, and a 40-year-old Christian identified only as Fazlur.
Police blindfolded them and took them to Shamvunagar police camp. "While beating us, police told us there will be no Christian in this area," the pastor said. "Police hurt our hands, lips, thighs and faces with burning cigarettes. They beat me in the joints of my limbs with a wooden club. They beat us for one hour, and I became senseless at some point."
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EGYPT
TWO COPTS IMPRISONED AFTER REPORTING ATTACK
August 20 (Compass Direct News) - Two Coptic Christians in Egypt have been arrested and are being held without charge after reporting to police they had been beaten by a mob, an attorney for the men said yesterday. On the evening of July 31, Reda Hnein, 35, his brother Nagi Hnein Fawzi, 27, and their uncle Youssef Fawzi Iskandar, 58, all Coptic farmers, were leading a cow down a road in the village of Al-Fashn when two Muslim men riding a motorbike crashed into the cow. An argument ensued, and a mob of about 10 other Muslim men joined into the disagreement and began beating the Copts with sticks, said attorney Ihab Ramzi. Reda Hnein and Iskandar received minor injuries. Fawzi, however, suffered a fractured skull and lacerations on his scalp. He was taken to Minya University Hospital, where he regained consciousness earlier this week but remains hospitalized. On the day of the incident, Hnein and Iskandar went to police to file a complaint. They were told to return the next day to file a report with an investigating attorney. But after they gave their report the next day, local police arrested the two men on orders of Egypt's State Security Investigations. A cousin said she is "boiling" with anger. "How can the police turn an innocent victim into a criminal?" she said. "How can they treat a victim like a criminal?"
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INDIA
CHRISTIANS DISPUTE POLICE THEORY OF PRIEST'S DEATH
August 3 (Compass Direct News) - The suspicious death of a 39-year-old priest in the southern state of Karnataka has further terrified Christians living in an area known for anti-Christian violence, but police indicate that they doubt it is a homicide. The body of the parish priest of St. Mary's Church, the Rev. James Mukalel, was found lying near his motorbike in Belthangady sub-district near Mangalore early last Thursday (July 30). The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) maintains that Mukalel, from Belthangady's Syro-Malabar diocese in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district, was killed. Officials at the CBCI said the death of the priest appeared to be suspicious and unnatural, as his body was found nearly naked lying on a remote roadside near the motorbike he had been riding. Superintendent of Police of Dakshina Kannada district Subramayeshwar Rao told Compass that police had only two theories on the cause of death. "Although I have not seen the autopsy report, I learned from the forensic surgeons that Fr. James Mukalel died of poisoning - most likely naturally because of food poisoning, or he was poisoned."
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INDIA
HINDU EXTREMISTS ATTACK PASTORS, MANHANDLE WOMEN
Aug. 14 (Compass Direct News) - Hindu nationalist extremists attacked Christians attending teacher training in Dharwad district, Karnataka on Wednesday (Aug. 12), but when one of the attendees escaped and went to police, officers arrested eight pastors on baseless claims of forcible conversion and - in a blow to free speech - for allegedly speaking ill of Hindu gods. Pastor Moses Bentic, coordinator of the Seva Bharat Mission, told Compass that more than 80 Christians including nine pastors were attending the mission's teacher training, which began Wednesday and was supposed to continue through today. At around 11:30 pm on Tuesday (Aug. 11), 30 Hindu extremists from the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army) entered the facility where the training was taking place and began beating the pastors. They repeatedly slapped and kicked the pastors, cursed Christianity using foul language and falsely accused them of forcible conversion. The Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists also manhandled young women at the training, most of whom between the ages of 17 and 23, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians. Pastor Joseph Christopher, who managed to escape from the hall just after midnight, rushed to the Annigere police station to seek help. He told Compass that police were "indifferent" and refused to accept a complaint. "At around 1:30 a.m., two policemen arrived at the center and were mute spectators as the extremists collected all the copies of the Bibles and burned them," Pastor Christopher said, adding that they also took mobile phones from the Christians.
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INDIA
OFFICIALS ON DEFENSIVE AT 'WATCH LIST' DESIGNATION
August 18 (Compass Direct News) - Ahead of one-year remembrances of massive anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has put India on its "Watch List" for the country's violations of religious freedom, evoking strong reactions from the Indian government. USCIRF Chairman Leonard Leo said in a statement on Wednesday (Aug. 12) that it was "extremely disappointing" that India "has done so little to protect and bring justice to its religious minorities under siege."
The U.S. panel's decision was "regrettable," a spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs, Vishnu Prakash, said in a statement on Thursday (Aug. 13), after the USCIRF put India on the list due to a "disturbing increase" in violence on minorities and a growing culture of impunity in the country. Violence erupted in Kandhamal district of the eastern state of Orissa in August-September 2008, killing more than 100 people and burning 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions. Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council said the USCIRF's latest conclusions could have been avoided if more action had been taken against the perpetrators of last year's violence. "The USCIRF action would not have been possible, and India would have been able to rebuff the U.S. scrutiny more effectively, if several thousand Christians were still not in refugee camps, if the killers were still not roaming scot-free and if witnesses, including widows, were not being coerced," he said.
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INDIA
ONE YEAR LATER, CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA TO PRAY FOR PEACE
August 22 (Compass Direct News) - One year after India's worst-ever attack on Christians, which began after Maoists killed a Hindu leader on Aug. 23 in Orissa state last year, churches across the country will fast and pray for a peace that remains elusive. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India has appealed to all the Catholic dioceses in the country to "pray for peace and harmony and a spirit of reconciliation" by fasting tomorrow, one year to the day that Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed by non-Christian Maoists last year.
On Monday (Aug. 24), an inter-denominational meeting to pray for peace, healing and reconciliation will be held at The Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi to mark "National Kandhamal Day." Christians believe it may take a long time for peace and reconciliation to become a reality in Kandhamal, where the violence lasted for weeks in August and September 2008, killing more than 100 people and burning more than 4,500 houses, over 250 churches and 13 educational institutions. The Hindu extremists who inflicted the violence last year have warned those who have returned from refugee camps for displaced Christians to withdraw the cases filed against them, said Dr. Sam Paul, spokesman for the All India Christian Council. "At some places they were threatened to convert to Hinduism," he said. "At a few places, to maintain the peace, the local Christians had to deny their faith."
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INDIA
CHRISTIANS FALSELY ACCUSED IN CLAN-FIGHT MURDER
August 31 (Compass Direct News) - Hindus opposed to a pastor in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India have falsely charged him and three other Christians in the murder of a young man killed in a gang fight between two clans, according to area Christians. Pastor Kamlesh Tahed, 32, of Mehendi Kheda village, Jhabua district, told Compass he was not even in the village on Aug. 8, the day 22-year-old Roop Singh Baria was killed. Pastor Tahed, who spent 20 days in jail on false charges of "forcible conversion" in 2001 before a court declared him innocent, is in hiding. Three other Christians from his clan - Kasna Tahed, 25, Ramesh Tahed, 26, and Vasna Tahed, 36 - are in police custody, also charged in the murder of Baria, of nearby Negadia village, even though they were not present at the site of the melee either, Pastor Tahed said.
Pastor Bahadur Baria of the same village's opposing clan told Compass that in all previous conflicts - personal, religious or social - sympathizers of Hindu extremists falsely accuse area Christians as well as bait them into conflicts. Pastor Baria said what happened to Pastor Tahed also has happened to him; a member of the Tahed clan was murdered by a Baria clan gang, and his name appeared among those charged. Only after a costly court process was he exonerated from murder charges, he said. "This has not been once but every time something happens, the Christians are dragged into it," he said.
*** A photo of Pastor Kamlesh Tahed is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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INDIA
BRIEFS: RECENT INCIDENTS OF PERSECUTION
West Bengal, August 31 (Compass Direct News) - Hindu hardliners have again attacked the Christian community in Bishnupur and threatened to kill them if they continue to practice their faith. About 15 Hindu extremists armed with knives and heavy rods of bamboo and iron shouted anti-Christian slogans as they attacked Khagen Majhi on Aug. 20. Threatening the Christian with violent "incidents like Orissa's Kandhamal situation," they commanded that he recant his Christian faith, reported the Evangelical Fellowship of India. Running from one Christian house to another, the enraged Hindu extremists also beat Manik Jana and verbally abused and manhandled Jharna Pradhan. Similar violence took place in the same area on July 29, as well as on Christmas Day of 2006. Area Christians filed a police complaint at Bishnupur police station, but no arrests had been made at press time. - MS
Andhra Pradesh - Suspected Hindu extremists set aflame a newly built church building in Mahasamudram, destroying it on Aug. 20. Best Friends Church was built with the permission of local authorities and was scheduled to be inaugurated on Aug. 30, reported the All Indian Christian Council. The next morning local Christians went to the site to find the church building in ashes. Pastor A. John filed a complaint at Bangarupalem police station. A police investigation is underway. - MS
West Bengal - Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Aug. 20 attacked two Christians in Amtala, Kolkatta. The All India Christian Council reported that eight extremists accused two unidentified Christians of forceful conversion and filed a police complaint against them after forcing villagers to sign a letter of complaint. Christian leaders have taken the matter to authorities, and a police investigation is underway. - MS
Karnataka - Hindu extremists attacked the Mayer Memorial Church building and set fire to three vehicles belonging to Christians on Aug. 17 in Hubli. A Compass contact said the extremists were opposing a Christian rally organized by the church. Area Christians said they believe the attack was planned well in advance as the extremists arrived with media. The church cancelled the rally, and police provided protection to the Christian community. - MS
Karnataka - Members of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) on Aug. 16 disrupted a Christian prayer meeting in Karwar, accused the pastor of forceful conversion and threatened him with violence if he continued Christian activities. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that at 7 p.m. a church leader of New Life Fellowship identified only as Pastor Quadros was conducting a prayer meeting in a church member's house when the extremists barged in. The intolerant Hindus accused the pastor of forceful conversion, searched the house and took Christian literature. The VHP filed a complaint against the pastor, and police ordered him to inform them about any future Christian activities. - MS
Kerala - Police on Aug. 12 arrested Christians based on false allegations of destroying Hindu holy books in Vythiri, Wayanad district. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Hindu extremists of the local Hindu Ikkaya Vedhy group surrounded the house of Karthyani Amma, a Hindu in Laksham colony, near Vythiri police station, as her son - a convert to Christianity identified only as Manikandan - was cleaning her home along with evangelist Sunny Joseph. The extremists created a disturbance, and Christians became embroiled in the subsequent uproar. Amma filed a complaint against the Christians for destroying Hindu holy books and articles used in rituals. The Christians were charged with promoting communal disharmony, house trespass, and damaging property. - BW
Karnataka - Hindu hardliners on Aug. 9 disrupted the worship of Indian Missionary Service and beat Pastor V. James in Gulbarga. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported that at around 10 a.m., about 20 Hindu extremists shouting anti-Christian slogans stormed into the worship service and accused the pastor of forceful conversion. They dragged the pastor out to the street, kicking, punching and beating him. The pastor fled to Ganigapura police station and filed a complaint against the extremists, reported EFI. Later in the evening, the intolerant Hindus went to the pastor's house and assaulted him again, chasing him, his wife and four children away from the village. The pastor has relocated to another area. No arrests had been made at press time. - MS
Karnataka - Hindu extremists on Aug. 9 ordered 20 Christians to leave their home village of Gulbarga because they had put their trust in Christ. The All Indian Christian Council (AICC) reported that village leaders in alliance with the Hindu extremists were reacting against a recent baptism service conducted by Pastor Sukruuth Raj. AICC reported Pastor Raj, who was instrumental in the baptized person coming to faith in Christ, as saying "all the believers are from the same village, and they are going to stay there." - MS
Maharashtra - About 45 Hindu extremists attacked two Gospel for Asia Christian workers, accused them of luring people to convert to Christianity and took their equipment on Aug. 8 in an undisclosed area in Maharashtra, according to a Christian source. Two Christian workers identified as Jayant Mehta and Dayanand Tambe were screening a film about Jesus that was attended by many villagers, reported the source. As the Christians were getting ready to go home, the Hindu extremists rushed at them and snatched their film equipment, then began beating them. They took the Christians to a police station and charged them with bribing people to convert to Christianity, giving fake names of people who would supposedly testify against them. After local Christian leaders intervened, the two Christian workers were released the next morning. The film equipment was returned to the Christians on Aug. 10 after police confirmed that the allegations were false. - MS
Kerala - Hindu extremists armed with swords on Aug. 7 barged into the prayer hall of the Full Gospel Church for God, attacked two Christians and vandalized the facility in Pullad. Hindu newspapers reported that about 25 extremists, two armed with swords, attacked Pastor Joe Kaithavana and a church member identified only as Deepu at around 10:30 p.m. and vandalized the prayer hall. The Christians sustained injuries and received hospital treatment. Koipram police have registered a case against the assailants. Member of Legislative Assembly K. Sivadasan Nair visited the site, condemned the attack and called for the immediate arrest of the extremists. - MS
Karnataka - On Aug. 7 in Haveri, a group of Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal accused a pastor from Every Home Crusade church of forceful conversion and threatened to beat him if he continued his ministry in the area. A church representative told Compass that about 25 extremists went to Pastor Ajit Kumar's house at around 11 a.m., spoke derogatorily about his faith, and warned him not to conduct a worship meeting on Aug. 10 or face serious consequences. The pastor registered a case against the extremists, and the Sunday church service took place on Aug. 10 under police protection. No arrests had been made at press time. - MS
Karnataka - Police arrested two Christians for distributing pamphlets and conducting a medical camp on Aug. 4 in Mosarukunte village, Tumkur district. The Evangelical Fellowship of India reported that Pastor M. Shivanna, Vijay Kumar and some doctors were conducting a medical camp when the Hindu hardliners along with the village head objected to their activity, claiming that they had not obtained prior permission. The extremists later filed a police complaint, accusing the Christians of distributing gospel pamphlets to forcefully convert people to Christianity. Police arrested the two Christians under section 109 of the Criminal Procedure Code to ensure "good behavior from suspected persons," and later they were released on bail. - MS
Madhya Pradesh - Hindu extremists in Rewa, including a woman said to practice sorcery and witchcraft, burned down the home of a Christian on Aug. 2. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that when Raj Bahor accepted Christ and began attending the church of Pastor Heeralal Kushwaha, the Hindu woman in the neighborhood found the spells she cast on Bahor prior to his conversion had become ineffective. She and other Hindu extremists opposed to Bahor's new faith burned down his house, and local Christians filed a police complaint. An investigation is underway. - MS
Andhra Pradesh - Hindu extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) on Aug. 1 attacked Christians charging large-scale, forceful conversion; they forced the Christians to wear tilak, a Hindu symbol on the forehead, and threatened to kill them if they went ahead with church construction in Mahabubnagar. The All Indian Christian Council reported that Pastor B.Y. Dass of the Smarna Prayer Home Church had obtained land to build a church with permission from the village head. Upon hearing of the Christians' plan to build a church building, the VHP came to the site with the threats and accusations. At press time local Christian leaders were taking the matter to authorities. - MS
Orissa - The Rev. S.P. Lima of Cross International Ministries, operator of Agape Manor International Residential School, has been arrested and imprisoned since January 2008 in Baragarh and Sambalpur after Hindu extremists falsely accused him of raping a schoolgirl and feeding schoolchildren beef while claiming that it was mutton, according to his brother. Lima's brother, Dayanidhi Lima, told Compass that Hindu extremists filed a false complaint against his brother because Rev. Lima had refused to meet their demand that they give them 50,000 rupees (US$1,035) to build a Hindu temple.
A medical and DNA examination of the girl at Burla Medical College showed no evidence of rape. The girl had left the school on Jan. 5, 2008, and the First Information Report naming the pastor was filed on Jan. 12 of that year. Nevertheless he was arrested on Jan. 28, 2008. Area Christians maintained that the extremists pressured the parents of the girl to falsely accuse the pastor. The Additional District Session Court on June 12 of this year imposed a fine of 10,000 rupees (US$207) and sentenced Rev. Lima to 10 years in prison; he was transferred to Sambalpur Prison, where he is subject to various kinds of punishment. - MS
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INDONESIA
CHRISTIANS CALL FOR REJECTION OF SHARIA-INSPIRED BILLS
August 19 (Compass Direct News) - The Indonesian Council of Churches (PGI) has called for the rejection of two bills inspired by sharia (Islamic law). The Halal Product Guarantee Bill and the Zakat Obligatory Alms Management Bill, both under consideration in the Indonesian parliament, cater to the needs of one religious group at the expense of others, thereby violating Indonesia's policy of pancasila or religious tolerance, said the Rev. Dr. A.A. Yewangoe, director of the PGI. "National laws must be impartial and inclusive," Yewangoe told Compass. "Since all laws are binding on all of the Indonesian people, they must be objective. Otherwise discrimination will result ... The state has a duty to guard the rights of all its citizens, including freedom of religion." Muslim groups, meantime, recently moved to close more Christian institutions. On July 21, following complaints from community groups, police forcibly dismantled a church in West Java on grounds that it did not have a building permit - previously denied even though all requirements had been met - while similar groups in East Java successfully lobbied for the closure of a Catholic orphanage claiming that it planned to "Christianize" local children.
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IRAN
OFFICIALS TIGHTEN GRIP ON CHRISTIANS AS UNREST ROILS
August 11 (Compass Direct News) - More than 30 Christians were arrested in the past two weeks near Tehran and in the northern city of Rasht. Two waves of arrests near Tehran happened within days of each other, and while most of those detained - all converts from Islam - were held just a day for questioning, a total of eight Christians still remain in prison. In Rasht, eight Christians belonging to the same network were arrested on July 29 and 30 in two separate rounds of arrest. Seven were released, while one, a male, remains in the city's prison.
And on Sunday (Aug. 9), two Christian women appeared before a judge who asked them if they would deny their newfound faith and return to Islam, reported the Farsi Christian News Network. Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, have been held in the notorious Evin prison since March 5 accused of "acting against state security" and "taking part in illegal gatherings." As both women refused to recant their faith, the judge sent them back to their prison cells "to think about it," according to a source who spoke with family members. "When they said, 'Think about it,' it means you are going back to jail," said the source. "This is something we say in Iran. It means: 'Since you're not sorry, you'll stay in jail for a long time, and maybe you'll change your mind.'"
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MEXICO
CHRISTIANS JAILED FOR ACTEAL MASSACRE WIN RELEASE
Aug. 13 (Compass Direct News) - At least 20 men accused of participating in a massacre in Chiapas state in December 1997 left prison early this morning - amid concerns over threats of violence at their home communities near San Cristobal de las Casas - following a Supreme Court ruling yesterday that their convictions violated fundamental norms of justice. The release of the 20 men, most of them evangelical Christians, came after Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in a 4-1 decision that they had been convicted in unfair trials in which prosecutors fabricated testimony and illegally obtained evidence.
Area evangelicals view the imprisoned Christians as caught between survivors clamoring for convictions and government police and military forces eager to shift blame away from their minions following the Dec. 22, 1997 killing of 45 civilians in Acteal village. "Acteal is a double tragedy," attorney Javier Cruz Angulo reportedly said after the ruling. "On the one hand you have an abominable massacre, and on the other more than 50 human beings imprisoned without proofs." The court will review the cases of another 31 men convicted in connection with the killing, and six more will be given new trials, according to news reports. The identities of those released were not immediately known. As 32 of those imprisoned for the crime were Christians and another 15 received Christ while in prison, most of the previous total of 57 prisoners are Christians.
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MEXICO
'TRADITIONALIST CATHOLICS' ATTACK, EXPEL CHRISTIANS
August 19 (Compass Direct News) - "Traditionalist Catholic" leaders last month expelled 57 evangelical Christians from towns in two states for refusing to participate in their religious festivals. Leaders of traditionalist Catholicism, a mixture of Roman Catholicism and native rituals, expelled 32 Christians from their homes in a village in Hidalgo state and another 25 from a town in Oaxaca; in each case, the evangelicals were deprived of their property for refusing to participate in drunken festivals that included worship of Catholic icons. Hundreds of evangelical Christians from six states of Mexico organized a caravan on Aug. 10 on behalf of the 32 evangelicals from Los Parajes, near Huejutla in Hidalgo state, who were violently torn from their homes on July 13 when the town's traditionalist Catholic leaders struck them with machetes and ropes.
They were forced to leave behind 121 acres of land planted with crops, as well as their homes and animals. The Christians had reached an agreement with the community in February allowing them to choose to follow their own faith, but when Enedino Luna Cruz became town leader he burned the document, according to the evangelicals. In the southwestern state of Oaxaca, in the Yavelotzi community near San Jacinto, 25 Christians were threatened and expelled from their homes on July 17, also for refusing to participate in drunken festivals and worship of Catholic icons, according to Christian support organization Open Doors.
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NIGERIA
DEATH TOLL CLIMBS IN ATTACK BY ISLAMIC SECT
Aug. 7 (Compass Direct News) - With 12 Christians, including three pastors, confirmed killed in rioting ignited by an Islamic sect opposed to Western education, the Christian community in northern Nigeria's Borno state is still counting its losses. The rioting instigated by an Islamic extremist sect known as Boko Haram, which initially attacked police and government bases, left hundreds of people dead and large property losses. "We are still taking inventory of how the crisis affected our members, but so far we have confirmed some of the Christians killed and churches burnt," Samuel Salifu, national secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass.
Rampaging members of the sect burned 20 churches before police captured and killed Boko Haram's leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Police say Yusuf was killed "while trying to escape," but a federal government panel is investigating allegations that security agents executed him after arresting him alive in his hideout. The chairman of the Borno state chapter of CAN, the Rev. Yuguda Zubabai Ndurvuwa, said many Christians abducted by Boko Haram extremists were yet to be found. Violence started on July 26, when armed sect members attacked a police station in Bauchi state that set off a firestorm of violence spreading to Borno, Kano and Yobe states.
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PAKISTAN
CHRISTIANS BURNED TO DEATH IN ISLAMIST ATTACKS
August 1 (Compass Direct News) - Islamic extremists today set ablaze more than 50 houses and a church in this town in northeastern Pakistan following an accusation of "blasphemy" of the Quran, leaving at least 14 Christians dead, sources said. The dead include women and children, with several other burn victims unable to reach hospitals for medical care, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement. The attack came amid a protest by thousands of Muslim Islamists - including members of banned militant groups - that resulted in another six people dying when participants shot at police and officers responded with tear gas and gunfire.
The same rumor of desecration of the Quran that led to today's massive protest and attack in Gojra, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Faisalabad, also prompted an arson assault on Thursday (July 30) by Islamic extremists on the village of Korian, seven miles from Gojra, that gutted 60 houses. Punjab Minister for Law Rana Sanaullah reportedly said an initial investigation of allegations of the Quran being blasphemed indicated "there has not been any incident of desecration."
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PAKISTAN
CHRISTIANS STRIVE FOR JUSTICE FOLLOWING ONSLAUGHT
Aug. 5 (Compass Direct News) - A standoff here between Pakistani officials and Christians protesting the government's reluctance to prosecute a murderous Islamic assault ended with officials finally consenting to file a complaint against key Muslim clerics and security officers. On Sunday (Aug. 2) hundreds of Christians demonstrated in Gojra, where the previous day rampaging Muslims - 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. In protest of government reluctance to name two security officers for negligence in connection with Christians burned to death, demonstrators on Sunday refused to quickly bury the dead as officials requested.
Believing the government was stalling in registering a complaint, demonstrators put the coffins with the charred remains on railroad tracks for three hours before officials agreed to include District Police Officer Inkasar Khan and District Coordinating Officer Sikandar Baloch in the complaint filed against more than 20 named and 800 unnamed people. The two officers are accused of negligence in allowing the Islamic violence to erupt. Sources told Compass they have not been suspended, terminated or arrested.
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SOMALIA
CHRISTIAN SHOT DEAD NEAR KENYA BORDER
August 22 (Compass Direct News) - Muslim extremists seeking evidence that a Somali man had converted from Islam to Christianity shot him dead Tuesday morning (Aug. 18) near the Somali border with Kenya, according to underground Christians in the war-torn nation. Al Shabaab rebels killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan in Bulahawa, Somalia, according to Abdikadir Abdi Ismael, a former leader of a secret Christian fellowship in Somalia to which Matan belonged. Matan had been a member of the underground church since 2001. The early morning shooting comes at a time when Islamist groups led by al Shabaab are hunting down converts to Christianity as they seek to establish sharia (Islamic law) throughout Somalia. Ismael, who fled the area in 2005, said he received a telephone call from Matan two weeks ago in which the convert told him that monitoring by the Islamic extremists kept him from leaving his home and carrying out his small-trade business across the border in Mandera, in eastern Kenya. "I am afraid for my life - the al Shabaab want to get a proof that I follow the Christian faith," Matan told Ismael. "They have not been seeing me in the mosque and seem to have realized that I am not part of them."
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SRI LANKA
RASH OF ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS REPORTED
August 17 (Compass Direct News) - Attacks on Christians in Sri Lanka have surged noticeably in recent weeks, following the government's defeat of Tamil separatists in May. Attacks were reported in Puttlam, Gampaha and Kurunegala districts in western Sri Lanka, central Polonnaruwa district, Mannar district in the north and Matara district in the south, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL). Most recently, attackers on July 28 set fire to an Assemblies of God church in Norachcholai, Puttlam district, destroying the building. In Markandura village, Kurunegala district, seven men wielding swords on July 12 attacked caretaker Akila Dias and three other members of the Vineyard Community church, causing serious injury to church members and church property. Dias and others received emergency care at a local hospital before being transferred to a larger hospital in the area for treatment.
On June 28, a mob consisting of more than 100 people, including Buddhist monks, surrounded the home of a female church pastor of a Foursquare Gospel in Radawana village, Gampaha district, according to the NCEASL. At the time the pastor, whose name was withheld for security reasons, and her husband were away. Their 13-year-old daughter watched helplessly as the mob broke in, shouted insults and destroyed chairs and other furniture. Later, in the presence of Buddhist monks and other protestors, the pastor was forced to sign a document promising not to host worship services for non-family members.
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TURKEY
CHRISTIAN HELD HOSTAGE AT KNIFE POINT
August 6 (Compass Direct News) - In a bizarre show of Turkish nationalism, a young Muslim here took a Christian Turk at knife point, draped his head with the national flag and threatened to slit the throat of the "missionary dog" in broad daylight earlier this week. Yasin Karasu, 24, held Ismail Aydin, 35, hostage for less than half an hour on Monday (Aug. 3) in a busy district on the Asian side of Istanbul in front of passersby and police who promptly came to the scene. Karasu threatened to slit Aydin's throat if anyone came near him and commanded those watching to give him a Turkish flag. Within minutes, Aydin told Compass, bystanders produced two flags. Karasu, who has known Aydin for a year, wrapped the larger of the two flags around Aydin's head, making it difficult for him to breathe in the heat.
"Do you see this missionary dog?" he yelled at the crowd. "He is handing out gospels and he is breaking up the country!" Police managed to convince Karasu to put down the knife and release Aydin, telling him that if he killed the convert Turkey would be ridiculed around the world, and that as a last resort they were authorized to shoot to kill him.
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TURKEY
MURDER DEFENDANT AGAIN ADMITS PERJURY
August 25 (Compass Direct News) - Turkish murder suspect Emre Gunaydin admitted in court last week that he had again committed perjury in the trial over the savage murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey. Gunaydin, 21, faced off in Malatya's Third Criminal Court last Friday (Aug. 21) with Varol Bulent Aral, whom he had named as one of the instigators of the attack at Zirve Publishing Co.'s Malatya office in a previous disposition before state prosecutors. Gunaydin, the alleged ringleader of the murderers, told the court that he had lied in a previous disposition before state prosecutors by implicating Aral. "I named Varol Bulent Aral to reduce the sentence," Gunaydin said under questioning. His admission came after Aral testified at length, painting an elaborate scenario of himself as a key player in the "Ergenekon" conspiracy - said to include top level political and security officials, among others - suspected of orchestrating the 2007 Malatya attack with Gunaydin and four other defendants. At a hearing three months ago, Gunaydin retracted similar allegations he had made against Huseyin Yelki, a former volunteer at the Christian publishing house where Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske were bound hand and foot, tortured and then slain with knives. Plaintiff lawyers have expressed skepticism about Gunaydin's two retractions, questioning whether he has been pressured to change his testimony in order to shield the actual instigators of the plot. They also remain unconvinced that Aral and Yelki were not collaborators in the attack.
*** Photos of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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VIETNAM
AUTHORITIES RAID, THREATEN HOUSE CHURCHES
Aug. 6 (Compass Direct News) - Local authorities in Vietnam have balked at registering house churches, contributing to a recent uptick in sometimes violent harassment of congregations. Four police officers and two government officials broke up the Sunday morning worship service of a house church in Tran Phu Commune in Hanoi on July 26, announcing that it was illegal to worship and teach religion. The police chief of Tran Phu Commune in greater Hanoi, Dang Dinh Toi, had ordered the raid.
When Christians under the leadership of Pastor Dang Thi Dinh refused to sign a document admitting they were meeting illegally, an angry police officer shouted, "If I find you meeting here next Sunday, I will kill you all like I'd kill a dog!" Officials had previously refused to grant the church's application for registration. Pastor Dinh and the national leader of the Ecclesia Revival denomination, Pastor Vo Xuan Loan, appealed to commune authorities the following day - again trying to register the church according to the Prime Minister's 2005 Special Directive Concerning Protestants. The commune head angrily proclaimed, "There are absolutely no Christians in this commune!" and then shooed them away, church leaders reported.
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