FLASH from COMPASS DIRECT NEWS
News from the Frontlines of Persecution
Summary:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, January 4 (Compass Direct News) - Infuriated by an alleged anti-Islamic comment by a mentally ill man, more than a dozen Muslims attacked his Christian family here last week, beating his 20-year-old sister unconscious and breaking her leg. The woman's father, Aleem Mansoor, said his daughter Elishba Aleem went unconscious after being struck in the head with an iron rod in the Dec. 28 attack.
Mansoor said Muslims beat him, his daughter and other family members with rods and cricket bats on the street in front of their apartment home after falsely accusing his 32-year old son, Shumail Aleem of blasphemy. Aleem, who suffers from schizophrenia, had remarked to a Christian that a shopkeeper was right as a Muslim not to show movies in his general store during a Muslim holy day - to which shopkeeper Muhammad Naveed responded by beating Aleem for profaning Hussein ibn Ali, grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
Mansoor's daughter received treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and eventually regained consciousness, though she remains in intense pain. When Mansoor told Naveed and others that he would take them to court over the attack, his Muslim adversaries said he would fail because they had paid off PIMS officials 50,000 rupees (US$600) to withhold the medical report on his daughter's injuries. He said they also told him that they had paid off officers at the Shehzad Town Police Station to pressure the family to drop the case with an out-of-court settlement. "The assistant sub-inspector, Ghulam Gilani, of Shehzad Town Police Station, called my wife and told her that if the family pursued the case of assault on us, then we would be implicated in the blasphemy case, which would have serious consequences for us," Mansoor said.
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ALGERIA
MUSLIMS BLOCK CHRISTMAS SERVICE
December 31 (Compass Direct News) - Nearly 50 Muslim members of a community in northern Algeria blocked Christians from holding a Christmas service on Saturday (Dec. 26) to protest a new church building in their neighborhood. As Algerian Christian converts gathered for their weekly meeting and Christmas celebration that morning, they were confronted by protestors barring the doors of their church building. Tafat Church is located in Tizi-Ouzou, a city 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of the Algerian capital, Algiers. The local residents were reportedly irritated at finding that a church building with many visitors from outside the area had opened near their houses, according to an El Watan newspaper report.
The daily paper highlighted that the residents feared their youth would be lured into the church with promises of money or cell phones. "This land is the land of Islam! Go pray somewhere else," some of the protestors said, according to El Watan. Protestors also reportedly threatened to kill the church pastor, Mustafa Krireche. One of Algeria's Christian leaders, Youssef Ourahmane, said he could not recall another display of such outrage from Algerians against Christians. "It was shocking, and it was the first time to my knowledge that this happened," said Ourahmane.
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CHINA
COURT SENTENCES HOUSE CHURCH PASTORS TO PRISON
December 1 (Compass Direct News) - Five pastors arrested without a warrant in China's Shanxi Province as they were en route to file a complaint over the demolition of their church building have been sentenced to prison terms of three to seven years. In one of the most oppressive measures against Christians in recent years, house church leader Yang Rongli was sent to prison for seven years for "illegally occupying farming land" and "disturbing transportation order by gathering masses," according to China Aid Association (CAA). She and four other pastors were sentenced on Wednesday (Nov. 25) at the People's Court of Raodu district, Linfen City, Shanxi Province. Yang's husband, Wang Xiaoguang, was handed a sentence of three years on the charge of "illegally occupying farming land." Cui Jiaxing was sentenced to four and half years, and Yang Xuan to three and half years, on the same charge; Zhang Huamei received four years of prison for "disturbing transportation order by gathering masses." "To punish an innocent house church leader with seven years' imprisonment is the most serious sentence since 2004, when the senior Henan house church leader Pastor Zhang Rongliang received a similar length," CAA President Bob Fu said in a press statement. "We strongly condemn these unjust sentences, which are based on trumped-up charges."
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CHINA
FIVE MORE CHRISTIAN LEADERS SENTENCED
December 3 (Compass Direct News) - Bypassing the court system, China arbitrarily sentenced five more leaders of the Fushan Church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, on Monday (Nov. 30), this time to re-education labor camps for two years, according to China Aid Association (CAA). A Chinese court last week sentenced five house church leaders to three to seven years in prison after they were arrested en route to Beijing to file a complaint about an attack on their church, according to the advocacy organization. The five leaders sentenced to labor camps this week were accused of "gathering people to disturb the public order" after they organized a prayer rally of 1,000 people the day after military police and others attacked their church members and building on Sept. 13. In what CAA termed "an arbitrary administrative sentence by the Public Security Bureau enacted so the leaders would not be 'required' to go through the court and prosecution system," China delivered the verdicts to church leaders Li Shuangping, Yang Hongzhen, Yang Caizhen (wife of Pastor Yang Xuan, who was sentenced to three years of prison on Nov. 25), Gao Qin (also known as Gao Fuqin), and Zhao Guoai. "Yang Caizhen was seen being beaten severely during an interrogation," CAA said in a press statement. "Having had one of her front teeth knocked out during a beating, and fasting and praying during her detention, Ms. Yang is reported to look very fragile."
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CHINA
PASTOR SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON
December 8 (Compass Direct News) - Chinese authorities have quietly sentenced Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit (Alimujiang Yimiti in Chinese) to 15 years in prison on the apparently contrived charge of "providing state secrets to overseas organizations," according to China Aid Association (CAA). The charge against the 36-year-old house church leader, held for more than two years at Kashgar Detention Center in China's troubled Xinjiang region, was based on innocuous interviews he granted to media outside of China, according to his lawyer, Li Dunyong. "The 15-year sentence is far more severe than I originally expected," Li said in a CAA press statement released yesterday. "It is the maximum penalty for this charge of 'divulging state secrets,' which requires Alimujiang's actions to be defined as having 'caused irreparable national grave damage.'" CAA President Bob Fu said Alimjan's sentence was the most severe for a house church leader in nearly a decade. "The whole world should be appalled at this injustice against innocent Christian leader Alimujiang," Fu said in the CAA statement. "We call upon the U.N. and people of conscience throughout the world to strongly protest to the Chinese government for this severe case of religious persecution."
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INDIA
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS TEAM SOUGHT IN ORISSA VIOLENCE
December 7 (Compass Direct News) - Christian leaders in India have called for a special investigations team to counter the shoddy or corrupt police investigations into anti-Christian violence in Orissa state in August-September 2008. Of the 100 cases handled by two-fast track courts, 32 have been heard as of Nov. 30, resulting in 48 convictions and more than 164 acquittals. The number of cases registered total 787. Among those exonerated "for lack of evidence" was Manoj Pradhan, a legislator from the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who was acquitted of murder on Nov. 24. Thus far, Pradhan has been cleared in six of 14 cases against him. "Manoj Pradhan has been let off in all the major cases against him, mostly murder cases, for lack of evidence," attorney Bibhu Dutta Das told Compass. "Now only small cases of arson remain against him." Attorneys have said acquittals have resulted from police investigations that are intentionally defective to cover up for Hindu extremist attackers. Meantime, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has publicly admitted that Hindu nationalist groups were behind the killings and arson of Christians and their property. "It is learnt from the investigation into the riot cases that the members of the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh], the VHP [World Hindu Council] and the Bajrang Dal were involved in the violence that took place last year," Patnaik told the state legislative assembly last month.
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INDIA
HINDU NATIONALIST PARTY OFFICIAL CHARGED IN NUN'S RAPE
December 11 (Compass Direct News) - Police in Orissa state have arrested an official of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly leading an attack that ended in the rape of a Catholic nun during last year's anti-Christian mayhem in Kandhamal district. Gururam Patra, identified by local residents as general secretary of the BJP in Kandhamal district, was arrested on Saturday (Dec. 6) in Balliguda; he was charged with leading the attack but not with the rape of Sister Meena Lalita Barwa, then 28, on Aug. 25, 2008. "He is the one who went into the house where the nun was staying and took her out, along with his associates who outraged her modesty," said an investigating officer, Dilip Kumar Mohanty. Previously police had arrested 18 associates of Patra. Hindu extremist groups distanced themselves from Patra, with Orissa BJP President Suresh Pujari telling Compass that he did not know if Patra was a member of his party. Union Catholic Asian News (UCAN) agency reported that Patra had attended a Catholic school, Vijaya High School, in Raikia town in Kandhamal district. Principal Mathew Puthyadam told UCAN that right-wing Hindu groups commonly recruit people educated at Christian schools and indoctrinate them against Christians.
*** Photos of Sister Meena Lalita Barwa are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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INDIA
CHRISTMAS SEASON ATTACKS WORRY CHRISTIANS
December 22 (Compass Direct News) - With at least two violent attacks and alleged "reconversion" of over 1,700 Christians in the week leading up to Christmas, a sense of fear is growing among India's minority Christian community. On Sunday (Dec. 20), Hindu extremists attacked a church during worship in western Maharashtra state's Sindhudurg district and a Christmas exhibition in Gwalior city in Madhya Pradesh state. The following day, extremists claimed having converted over 1,700 tribal (aboriginal) Christians "back" to Hinduism in western Gujarat state. "Christmas is a favorite time for violence against Christians in India, as it intimidates the Christian community at large," said Dr. John Dayal, member of the government's National Integration Council. Dayal pointed out that India's first mass attack on Christians took place in Gujarat's Dangs district during Christmas in 1998, setting the stage for future attacks through the season. "Then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee [of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP] went to see the damage [in Dangs], but instead of commiserating with the victims, he called for a national debate on conversions," Dayal said. "That political philosophy has been behind the festive season attacks on the Christian community."
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INDIA
BRIEFS: RECENT INCIDENTS OF PERSECUTION
Andhra Pradesh, December 23 (Compass Direct News) - Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Dec. 20 seriously injured a pastor and beat his wife in Decarakonda, Nalgonda. At about 7:30 p.m., Pastor R. Timothy, his wife Nirmala and their child were on their way to a neighboring village when the Hindu extremists stopped them and attacked them, reported the Global Council of Indian Christians. They hit the pastor on his head with an iron rod and beat his wife on her left leg. The pastor was bleeding profusely when passersby saw him and called an ambulance. He received hospital treatment, including five stitches on his head. A local Christian leader filed a police complaint against the extremists at Nalgonda town police station, and a First Information Report was registered against the assailants. No arrest had been made at press time. - MS
Karnataka - Police on Dec. 20 arrested eight Christians after Hindu extremists filed a complaint of forceful conversion against them in Madugere, Tumkur. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that police arrested pastors N. Nagesh, Joshua Abraham and one identified only as Jilani, along with five other church members, as they were heading toward a nearby area after Sunday worship. The Christians were accused of forceful conversion and charged under Sections 295-A and 153 of the Indian Penal Code for "malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class" and "giving provocation with intent to create riot" respectively, and they were locked up in Madugere jail. With local Christian leaders' intervention, they were released on bail on Dec 21. - MS
Karnataka - Police in Chikmagalur district on Dec. 19 disrupted a Christmas service of Christ Fellowship Church and falsely accused a pastor of forcible conversion. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that officials of Lingadahalli police station, acting on a false complaint from the Hindu extremists of the Bajrang Dal, barged into the house church and verbally abused the 80 Christians present, asking them if they were being given promises of money to convert. Police then told Pastor S. David to accompany them to the police station. A GCIC coordinator told Compass that officers questioned David for nearly 90 minutes. They sent him away after warning him of possible attacks from extremists if he conducted such large services at the house church. - BW
Karnataka - Police arrested a Christian after Hindu extremists filed a baseless complaint against him of forceful conversion on Dec. 15 in Mandhya. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported a person identified only as Srinivas beat B. Bhaskar of a Brethren Assemblies fellowship after finding him praying for a sick friend in a hospital; Srinivas later alerted an area leader and member of the Hindu extremist Rashtiya Swamyamsevak Sangh. As is customary in India, police arrested the victim instead of the aggressor; Bhaskar was arrested under Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code for "promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion." He was sent to Mandhya jail and was released on bail on Dec. 17 with local Christian leaders' intervention. - MS
Karnataka - Police on Dec. 14 arrested a pastor and his wife after Hindu nationalist extremists beat them and filed a false complaint of forcible conversion in K.R. Nagara-Mysore. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at 10:30 a.m. nearly 15 extremists from the Bajrang Dal stormed into a house church, verbally abused Pastor Herurer Manjunath, slapped him repeatedly and accused him without basis of forcible conversion. They also slapped his wife, Saraswati. The intolerant Hindus broke two chairs and tore up some Christian literature in an attack that lasted for nearly 45 minutes. After they left, Manjunath went to the local police station to file a complaint, but instead officers charged Manjunath and Saraswati under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. A GCIC coordinator told Compass that both were not released on bail until Dec. 18. - BW
Karnataka - Police on Dec. 14 detained Christians in Kodagu district after falsely accusing them of converting people in local tribal villages. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that Thimmappa Rammana invited independent Pastor Benedict Sunil to his rented home in Ammathi village, about eight kilometers (five miles) from Gonikoppal, Virajpet Taluk, for a service of around 100 Christians. At around 11:30 a.m., Ammathi police arrived, insulting those present and falsely accusing the pastor of forcibly converting local tribal villagers. They questioned many about their faith and inquired whether they had permission from the landlord to conduct such a meeting. A local GCIC coordinator told Compass that police took Rammana, Sunil and 11 other Christians to the police station for further questioning, later transferring them to the Virajpet Rural police station where they were detained for a few hours. Sub-Inspector Santosh Kumar of the Ammathi Police outpost told Compass that he had received complaints from villagers that conversion activities were taking place at Rammana's house - as if conversion were illegal in India - so he had sent officers to bring them to police outposts and warn them of the complaints. He added that, as a preventive measure to avoid future clashes, he advised Rammana against conducting prayer meetings in his house. - BW
Karnataka - On Dec. 12 in Bangalore, police detained a pastor and choir members of City St. Paul Methodist Church after Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh accused them of forceful conversion. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the extremists arriving in Jeeps and on motorbikes stopped the choir members on their way home from visiting a church member's home. They verbally abused the Christians. An area police inspector reached the site and took the pastor and choir members to the police station for questioning. Only with local Christian leaders' intervention were the Christians released at 4 a.m. - MS
Andhra Pradesh - Hindu extremists accused a pastor of forceful conversion and beat him on Dec. 9 in Kistapuram, Mahabubnagar, according to the All Indian Christian Council. Accusing Pastor Ninanapu Moses of forceful conversion, members of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal at about 8 p.m. attacked a prayer meeting led by Pastor Moses, verbally abused the Christians and beat them. The pastor received hospital treatment for internal injuries. Local Christian leaders filed a police complaint, but no arrests had been made at press time. - MS
Karnataka - Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Dec. 9 accused Christians of forceful conversion in Chikballapur. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that at about 2 p.m. the extremists stormed into the prayer meeting held at the home of a pastor identified only as Joseph. In attendance was Pastor Franklin Prabakar and church members from Grace Gospel Church. At about 1:30 p.m., the extremists stopped the prayer meeting, threatened the Christians and accused them of forceful conversion. Alerted by the extremists, Chikbalapur Kasaba police arrived at the spot and took eight Christians to a local police station. The Christians were released at 11 p.m. later that night. - MS
Haryana - Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on Dec. 7 accused the operator of an orphanage of trying to forcefully convert street children to Christianity by providing shelter and food in Faridabad, Haryana, sources said. The extremists stormed the charitable trust orphanage home run by B.K. Mishra at about 7 p.m. and severely beat him, smashed his car and pressured the police to arrest him. Black and blue from the beating, Mishra sustained injuries on his face, back and legs, the sources said. Police refused to register a case against the attackers, and the home was closed down due to the extremists' pressure. - MS
Karnataka - Local Hindu extremists on Dec. 6 accused Pastor C. John Christopher, a leader of Grace Gospel Church Saythagiri in Anekal, near Bangalore, of forceful conversion, and Anekal police issued him a warning. The police barged into the church's Sunday worship, searched the premises and took the pastor to the police station. Officers asked the pastor to submit his license for conducting worship meetings, as well as church property documents, and the pastor submitted the required papers. No case was filed against the pastor, but police warned him not to conduct future Christian meetings. - MS
Karnataka - Hindu extremists accused a Christian teacher of forceful conversion and disrupted her class on Dec. 2 in Mandhya. The Global Council of Indian Christian reported that Hindu extremists entered the classroom of Gangothri Vadovasthan at Chikanahalli Government Primary School at about 2 p.m., falsely accused her of trying to forcibly convert the students to Christianity and verbally abused her in front of them. They also insulted the school authority for appointing a Christian teacher. The Hindu extremists filed a complaint against the Christian at Harakeri police station. School administrators forced Vadovasthan to take leave from the school due to the extremists' pressure. - MS
Andhra Pradesh - Police on Nov. 24 detained a Christian worker from Australia, Paul Jemison, on baseless charges of "forceful conversion" in Utnur. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at 7:30 p.m. Jemison had gone to the Industrial Training Institute campus for the screening of a film for about 200 students, after which he began telling about Christ to students. Nearly 20 Hindu nationalist extremists arrived and accused him of "forceful conversion," speaking derogatorily of his foreign origin. They forced Jemison to a police station, where they filed the complaint of "forceful conversions to Christianity" against him. A representative of the Adilabad Division of the All India Christian Council said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sriram Nayak had complained to police after being alerted by District Tribal Welfare Officer Dasarath Nayak. A GCIC coordinator told Compass that Jemison was detained in the station until late that night and then released. Additionally, extremists warned a local pastor identified only as Premanandam, as well as his daughter, not to invite any more foreign workers to the town. - BW, MS
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INDIA
CHRISTIANS FACED THREE ATTACKS PER WEEK IN 2009
December 31 (Compass Direct News) - After unprecedented large-scale attacks on Christians in the previous two years, 2009 brought hardly any respite as the minority faith faced an average of more than three violent attacks a week. There were at least 152 attacks on Christians in 2009, according to the "Partial List of Major Incidents of Anti-Christian Violence in India" released by the Evangelical Fellowship of India. The north-central states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Orissa in the east, Gujarat in the west and Himachal Pradesh in the north have anti-conversion laws, which Hindu hardliners routinely use to arrest Christians on spurious accusations of "forcible conversion." A disturbing new trend emerged this year as southern India, which had long been considered a haven for Christians, recorded the highest incidence of anti-Christian violence. Of the total 152 incidents, 86 were reported from southern states, mainly Karnataka with 48, Andhra Pradesh with 29, Tamil Nadu with five and Kerala with four. The morale of Christians in Orissa remained low as few assailants in the 2008 rampage were brought to justice. "The courts in Kandhamal make a mockery of the judicial process, and the murderers lord it over the witnesses and victims while judges and law look on," said Dr. John Dayal, a member of the government's National Integration Council. "The church remains helpless, its puny effort at giving strength to the witnesses falling far too short."
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INDONESIA
THEOLOGY STUDENTS WITHSTAND THREATS, ILLNESS
December 1 (Compass Direct News) - Some 1,000 seminary students are resisting efforts to evict them from the former municipal building of West Jakarta where they have taken refuge after Muslim protestors drove them from their campus last year. On Oct. 27 officials began evicting about 300 students of Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) from blocks I and II of the former mayoral building, but those in blocks III, IV, and V chose to remain. The students, some of whom had sown their mouths shut as part of a hunger strike, asserted that new quarters offered by the Jakarta Provincial Government are not yet fit for occupancy - dirty and unkempt with broken windows and doors. The seminary students told Compass that unidentified mobs have threatened them, telling them to leave the former municipal complex immediately. In July 2008 hundreds of protestors shouting "Allahu-Akbar ["God is greater]" and brandishing machetes forced the evacuation of staff and students from the SETIA campus in Kampung Pulo village. The Rev. Matheus Mangentang, rector of SETIA, confirmed that students were facing new threats. Asked about the identity of the mobs, he said he knew only that they appeared daily to intimidate and threaten students. "We are going to move as soon as possible - Dec. 31 at the latest," Mangentang said. "If we don't, the place is no longer safe."
*** A photo of Mutari Unang, a SETIA student on hunger strike is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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INDONESIA
MASSIVE MUSLIM MOB DAMAGES CHURCH BUILDING
December 23 (Compass Direct News) - Hundreds of Muslims celebrated the eve of the Islamic New Year last Thursday (Dec. 17) by attacking a Catholic church building under construction in Bekasi, West Java. A crowd of approximately 1,000 men, women and children from the Bebalan and Taruma Jaha areas of Bekasi walking in a New Year's Eve procession stopped at the 60 percent-completed Santo Albertus Catholic Church building, where many ransacked and set fires to it, church leaders said. Damage was said to be extensive, but no one was injured. Kristina Maria Rentetana, head of the church building committee, said there were no hints that the group would become a mob and attack the church building. Rentetana said she joined the crowd as they walked along. Upon nearing the church, she said, they began throwing stones. "They shouted, 'Destroy it, destroy it,'" Rentetana told Compass. "Even women carrying babies joined in stone-throwing. Then a large group dressed in white robes entered the church, which was under construction, and started fires." Police promised security so that plans for a Christmas Mass at the site could proceed.
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ISRAEL
JEWISH CHRISTIAN SEEKS PROTECTION FROM REPEATED ATTACKS
December 28 (Compass Direct News) - A Christian of Jewish origin who has been attacked on the streets here four times because of his faith in Christ is seeking police protection. Jerusalem resident Yossi Yomtov said police have been slow to investigate hate crimes against him by youths wearing kippahs, cloth skullcaps typically worn by observant Jews. In two of the attacks a youth plied him with pepper spray and stun gun shocks, he said. "This young man cursed me for my belief in Christ," Yomtov told Compass. "He used ugly curses and spoke in highly abusive language." Yomtov, who founded social activist group Lemallah ("Upward") after moving to Israel from the United States in 1999, said he was last attacked on Dec. 19. Regarding himself as a Jewish Christian belonging to no one church, he does not belong to the highly organized movement of Messianic Jews. In previous attacks in the last few months, the assailants appeared to be teenaged or young men of French origin, he said. On Oct. 12, a group of youths attacked him with stun guns, he said, adding that although police said they would investigate there has been no progress. Police in Jerusalem declined to comment.
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KENYA
SOMALI CHRISTIAN FLEES REFUGEE CAMP UNDER DEATH THREAT
December 9 (Compass Direct News) - Somali Christian Mohamud Muridi Saidi last month fled a refugee camp near Kenya's border with Sudan after Muslims threatened to kill him. For Saidi, a father of four, the recent relocation of 13,000 refugees from the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border to the Kakuma camp, where he had lived since 2002, brought its own nightmare: the arrival of Muslims from Somalia's Lower Juba region who knew of his father's Christian activities in his home village. After Somalis four times threw stones at Saidi's iron sheet home in the Kakuma refugee camp - once in mid-October, and again on Nov. 17, 21 and 22 - word spread that they intended to kill him. Case workers for a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) service group confirmed the death threat. "I know the attackers are the Muslims who forced us to leave Somalia in 2002," Saidi told Compass in Nairobi, adding that he was unable to bring his family with him when he fled on Nov. 23. "They are not safe, and that is why we should be out of Kakuma as soon as possible." Saidi has reported the attacks to the LWF as well as to police in Kakuma. Case workers for the LWF service group confirmed that the stoning of his home had escalated to the threat of him being assassinated. "Saidi has security-related issues fueled by the new refugees from Dadaab," said one LWF service worker, who requested anonymity for security reasons, last month. "I did some investigation and found out that Saidi's life is threatened."
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NEPAL
CHURCH BOMBER REPENTS, ADMITS INDIA LINK
December 30 (Compass Direct News) - Disillusioned with Hindu nationalists, the leader of a militant Hindu extremist group told Compass that contact with Christians in prison had led him to repent of bombing a Catholic church here in May 2008. Ram Prasad Mainali, the 37-year-old chief of the Nepal Defense Army, was arrested on Sept. 5 for exploding a bomb in the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, in the Lalitpur area of Kathmandu on May 23. The explosion killed a teenager and a newly-married woman from India's Bihar state and injured more than a dozen others. In Kathmandu's jail in the Nakkhu area, Mainali told Compass he regretted bombing the church. "I bombed the church so that I could help re-establish Nepal as a Hindu nation," he said. "There are Catholic nations, there are Protestant nations and there are also Islamic nations, but there is no Hindu nation. But I was wrong. Creating a religious war cannot solve anything, it will only harm people." Mainali said he began reading the Bible after experiencing the graciousness of prison Christians. "Although I bombed the church, Christians come to meet me everyday," he said. "No rightwing Hindu has come to meet me even once."
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PAKISTAN
CHURCH SCREENING OF 'JESUS FILM' ATTACKED
December 14 (Compass Direct News) - Some 50 Muslim villagers armed with clubs and axes attacked a showing of the "Jesus Film" near this city in Punjab Province on Wednesday night (Dec. 9), injuring three part-time evangelists and four Christians in attendance. Two of the evangelists were said to be seriously injured. The Muslim hardliners also damaged a movie projector, burned reels of the film and absconded with the public address system and donations from Christian viewers in Chak village, about 10 kilometers northeast of Sargodha, at 7 p.m. Officers at the Saddr police station refused to register a case against the Muslim assailants, sources said. The three part-time evangelists - Ishtiaq Bhatti, Imtiaz Ghauri and Kaleem Ghulam - were screening the film within the premises of the Catholic Church of Chak. Bhatti was treated for minor injuries, while Ghauri and Ghulam sustained serious injuries for which they received treatment at another hospital. The evangelists said from their clinic beds that a Muslim cleric instigated the Muslim villagers, who were armed with clubs, spades and axes. "They charged on us deadly and swiftly and left us injured and broke all our appliances and took away funds collected by congregants to help us," Bhatti said. "Muslim men also injured those Christian villagers who tried to intervene and stop them."
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PAKISTAN
MUSLIMS ALLEGEDLY POISON CHRISTIAN EMPLOYEES TO DEATH
December 15 (Compass Direct News) - Muslim employers of three Christian sanitation workers at a banquet/wedding hall here allegedly poisoned the three workers yesterday, killing two of them; at press time the third was struggling for life in intensive care. The father of the three workers, Yousaf Masih, said the owner of the hall, along with the manager, poisoned his sons because they were Christians who had dared to ask for pay owed to them. Imran Masih, 29, and Irfan Masih, 25, died at the Ferozewala Pul Banquet & Marriage Hall after being forced to drink something that was heavily poisoned, Yousaf Masih said. The third worker, 23-year-old Aakash Masih, was in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit of Civil Hospital Gujranwala, in Punjab Province. "It appears from the position they were in that they were forced to consume some kind of poisoned drink, or a drug, and they were left there to die," Yousaf Masih said. "The administration of the banquet and wedding hall did not call a hospital or take them to a hospital -instead they called us after the death of two of our loved ones." The Peoples Colony police station has registered a murder and deception case against Imtiyas Warriach, owner of the Ferozewala Pul Banquet & Marriage Hall, and hall manager Abid Virk. At press time they remained at large.
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PAKISTAN
CHRISTIANS ACCUSED OF DESECRATING QURAN FREED
December 16 (Compass Direct News) - A Christian in Faisalabad district and his 20-year-old daughter were released on Monday (Dec. 14) after 14 grueling months in jail on false charges of blaspheming the Quran. Khalil Tahir, attorney for Gulsher Masih and his daughter Ashyana Gulsher (known as Sandal), said the case was typical of the way Pakistan's blasphemy laws can be used to harass innocent Christians. "Christians are the soft targets, and most of the people implicated in these inhumane laws are Christians," he said. "We Christians are fighting for the same, noble goal - to provide justice to the victims of blasphemy laws." Masih said that inmates beat him at least five times since he was arrested on Oct. 23, 2008. His daughter was arrested two weeks earlier, on Oct. 10. "These long 14 months seemed like ages," Masih said. "There was one inmate, Ghulam Fareed, a rich man, who always harassed me, trying to coerce me to convert to Islam by saying he would make me rich and would send me abroad." Fareed, who also promised high quality education for Masih's children, joined with Islamic extremists jailed for terrorist acts to beat him in an effort to force him to "come into the fold of Islam," Masih said. While in jail, he said, his wife told him that their daughter had been beaten several times by the superintendent of police. "During cross examination, I proved that the whole case was concocted, frivolous, fake and that charges against the accused Christian brother were unfounded," Tahir said.
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PAKISTAN
MUSLIMS GUN DOWN CHRISTIAN FRIEND
December 21 (Compass Direct News) - A group of Muslims shot their Christian friend dead this month on the outskirts of this city after saying they would spare his life only if he recanted his faith, according to the young man's father. The friends of Patras Masih, who died from gunshot wounds on Dec. 3 in Karol village, Punjab Province issued the ultimatum to him after accusing him of the murder of their friend Anees Mahammad. An autopsy reported showed Mahammad died from toxic alochol earlier that day. Patras Masih's father, Gulzar Masih, said his son was at home on that day, had no contact with Mahammad, and that his friends accused him of the murder only because he refused to recant Christianity and embrace Islam. His voice full of grief, Gulzar Masih said that when his son refused to recite the Islamic conversion creed, Sohail Muhammad, Imran Muhammad and Amir Muhammad sprayed bullets at his chest, killing him instantly. "My son bravely refused to recant Christianity and clung to Christ," Gulzar Masih said, dejected but with a small smile on his face. "He bravely embraced martyrdom."
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PAKISTAN
ACCUSED CHRISTIAN SAYS MUSLIMS TRIED TO COERCE HIM
December 29 (Compass Direct News) - A Pakistani Christian accused of killing a Muslim during the Aug. 1 Islamist attack on Christians in Gojra said he was arrested and tortured only because he was a key witness of the mob assault that left at least seven Christians burned to death. Naveed Masih, released on bail on Wednesday (Dec. 23), told Compass that several Muslims have offered him large amounts of money to alter his testimony regarding the assault in Gojra, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Faisalabad in Punjab Province. The mob attack, prompted by calls from Muslim clerics spreading a false rumor of "blasphemy" of the Quran, included banned Islamic terrorist groups and resulted in the looting of more than 100 houses and the burning of 50 of them; at least 19 people were injured. Masih said one of the Muslims accused in the attack, Qadir Awan, approached him at an early court hearing and invited him to come to his house to strike a cash-for-testimony deal. "He said that I could make lots of money because I was the witness of the ransacking, but I feared God," the 32-year-old Masih said. "Because I was not prepared to take money, he had me implicated in the counter-charges."
*** Photos of Naveed and Nauman Masih are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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SUDAN
CHRISTIAN WOMAN FLEES MUSLIM FAMILY
December 10 (Compass Direct News) - A Sudanese woman who fled to Egypt after converting from Islam to Christianity is living in secluded isolation as her angry family members try to track her down. Howida Ali's Muslim brother and her ex-husband began searching for her in Cairo earlier this year after a relative there reported her whereabouts to them. While there in July, her brother and ex-husband tried without success to seize her 10-year-old son from school. "I'm afraid of my brother finding us," said the 38-year-old Ali, who has moved to another area. "Their aim is to take us back to Sudan, and there they will force us to return to the Islamic faith or sentence us to death according to Islamic law."
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TURKEY
MORE THAN HALF OF CITIZENS OPPOSE NON-MUSLIM RELIGIOUS MEETINGS
December 4 (Compass Direct News) - More than half the population of Muslim-majority Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith, according to a recently issued survey. Fully 59 percent of those surveyed said non-Muslims either "should not" or "absolutely should not" be allowed to hold open meetings where they can discuss their ideas. Fifty-four percent said non-Muslims either "should not" or "absolutely should not" be allowed to publish literature that describes their faith. The survey also found that almost 40 percent of the population of Turkey said they had "very negative" or "negative" views of Christians. In the random survey, 60 percent of those polled said there is one true religion; over 90 percent of the population of Turkey is Sunni Muslim. Ali Çarkoglu, one of two professors at Sabanci University who conducted the study, said no non-Muslim religious gathering in Turkey is completely "risk free." "Even in Istanbul, it can't be easy to be an observant non-Muslim," Çarkoglu said.
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TURKEY
MUSLIMS THREATEN TO KILL PRIEST OVER SWISS MINARET DECISION
December 15 (Compass Direct News) - In response to a Swiss vote banning the construction of new mosque minarets, a group of Muslims this month went into a church building in eastern Turkey and threatened to kill a priest unless he tore down its bell tower, according to an advocacy group. Three Muslims on Dec. 4 entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Rev. Yusuf Akbulut. They told him that unless the bell tower was destroyed in one week, they would kill him. "If Switzerland is demolishing our minarets, we will demolish your bell towers too," one of the men told Akbulut. The threats came in reaction to a Nov. 29 referendum in Switzerland in which 57 percent voted in favor of banning the construction of new minarets in the country. The Swiss ban, widely viewed around the world as a breach of religious freedom, is likely to face legal challenges in Switzerland and in the European Court of Human Rights. Fikri Aygur, vice president of the European Syriac Union, said that Akbulut has contacted police but has otherwise remained defiant in the face of the threats. "He has contacted the police, and they gave him guards," he said. "I talked with him two days ago, and he said, 'It is my job to protect the church, so I will stand here and leave it in God's hands.'"
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TURKEY
PLOT TARGETING COUNTRY'S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES ALLEGEDLY DISCOVERED
December 16 (Compass Direct News) - Chilling allegations emerged last month of a detailed plot by Turkish naval officers to perpetrate threats and violence against the nation's non-Muslims in an effort to implicate and unseat Turkey's pro-Islamic government. Evidence put forth for the plot appeared on an encrypted compact disc discovered last April but was only recently deciphered; the daily Taraf newspaper first leaked details of the CD's contents on Nov. 19. Entitled the "Operation Cage Action Plan," the plot outlines a plethora of planned threat campaigns, bomb attacks, kidnappings and assassinations to target the nation's tiny religious minority communities - an apparent effort by military brass to discredit the ruling Justice and Development Party. The scheme ultimately called for bombings of homes and buildings owned by non-Muslims, setting fire to homes, vehicles and businesses of Christian and Jewish citizens, and murdering prominent leaders among the religious minorities. The plan identified 939 non-Muslim representatives in Turkey as possible targets. "If even half of what is written in Taraf is accurate, everybody with a conscience in this country has to go mad," Eyup Can wrote in his Hurriyet column two days after the news broke.
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TURKEY
EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF CHURCH
December 18 (Compass Direct News) - In a decision many hope will lead to greater religious freedom in Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that a Turkish court ruling barring a church from starting a foundation violated the congregation's right to freedom of association. Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a Turkish attorney and legal advisor for the litigants, said the decision earlier this year was the first time the ECHR has held that religious organizations have a right to exist in Turkey. Cengiz added that this case is just the first of many needed to correct conflicts within the Turkish legal system in regard to freedom of association, known in Turkey as the concept of "legal personality." "This case is a significant victory, but it is the first case in a long line of cases to come," Cengiz said. In its decision, the court unanimously found that the Turkish Courts' "refusal to register the foundation, although permitted under Turkish law, had not been necessary in a democratic society, and that there had been a violation of Article 11."
*** A photo of attorney Orhan Kemal Cengiz is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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TURKEY
COURT SEEKS TO LINK MURDER OF CHRISTIANS TO 'CAGE PLAN'
December 29 (Compass Direct News) - Malatya's Third Criminal Court on Friday (Dec. 25) took steps to connect the murders of three Christians in southeastern Turkey to a Turkish military plan to destabilize the pro-Islamic government. Evidence surfaced in Turkish press last month linking the murders of the three Christians in the southeastern city of Malatya with army activities to overthrow the government in a special operation called the "Operation Cage Action Plan." The Malatya prosecutor and plaintiffs on Friday requested that the Istanbul prosecutor further probe links between the Malatya case and the Cage Plan, which included an elaborate scheme to attack Muslim-majority Turkey's religious minorities. They also requested that the Malatya court open to plaintiffs the currently "classified" prosecutor's investigation into links between the Malatya murders and an alleged operation by the military and other political figures to destabilize the government known as Ergenekon. The Cage Plan, believed to be part of Ergenekon, termed as "operations" the murders of the three Christians in Malatya, the 2006 assassination of Catholic priest Andreas Santoro and the 2007 slaying of Hrant Dink, Armenian editor-in-chief of the weekly Agos. "This Cage Plan starts with a reference to the Malatya, Dink and Santoro cases and mentions them as previous 'operations,'" said one of the plaintiff lawyers, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, adding that a connection of the murders with the Cage Plan would be difficult for any court to ignore.
*** A photo of attorney Orhan Kemal Cengiz is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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VIETNAM
UNPRECEDENTED CHRISTMAS GATHERING HELD
December 14 (Compass Direct News) - On Friday evening (Dec. 11), history was made in communist Vietnam. Christian sources reported that some 40,000 people gathered in a hastily constructed venue in Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate Christmas and hear a gospel message - an event of unprecedented magnitude in Vietnam. A popular Vietnamese Christian website and other reports indicated up to 8,000 people responded to the gospel message indicating a desire to follow Christ. Authorities initially refused to grant permission and tried urgently to talk leaders out of going ahead, promising future concessions if they would cancel the event. At the close of business on Dec. 9, just 48 hours before the scheduled event, officials granted permission but for only 3,000 people; organizers had less than two days to turn a vacant field into something that would accommodate a stadium-size crowd. Christian sources said authorities either did not or could not stop busses from other directions, and that at least 2,000 people had to be turned away. They said that the main speaker, the Rev. Duong Thanh Lam, head of the Assemblies of God house churches, "preached with anointing" and people responding to his gospel invitation poured to the front of the stage "like a waterfall."
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VIETNAM
CHRISTIANS HOLD ANOTHER HISTORIC CELEBRATION
December 21 (Compass Direct News) - For the second time in 10 days, Protestant history was made in Vietnam yesterday when 12,000 people gathered for a Christmas rally here. The event, which took place in the large square in front of the entrance to My Dinh National Stadium in the heart of Hanoi, was said to be 10 times larger than any prior Protestant gathering in history in northern Vietnam. On Dec. 11 in southern Vietnam, an estimated 40,000 people attended a Christmas celebration in Ho Chi Minh City. Local sources said long-requested written permission for the event, entitled "Praise Jesus Together," never came in spite of several reminders. But four days before the event was to take place, Hanoi authorities and police told organizers - in words as close as they would get to granting permission - that they would "not interfere." Said one long-time Compass source, "One can hardly overestimate the importance of such an event in the lives of northern house church Christians. For many, this will have been the first time to join in a large crowd with other Christians, to feel the growing power of their movement, to hear, see and participate in the high quality, and deeply spiritual mass worship."
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