Priests Released amid Wave of Abductions in Sudan

Southern Sudan Christians in north targeted for forcible conscription into rebel militias.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, February 15 (CDN) — Two Catholic priests abducted at gunpoint in Rabak, Sudan last month have been released amid a wave of forcible conscriptions into rebel southern militias.


Their captors – South Sudanese militiamen loyal to (north) Sudan’s Islamic government – accused the Rev. Joseph Makwey and the Rev. Sylvester Mogga of ties to the South Sudan military. South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan on July 9, 2011, has been in military conflict with (north) Sudan over border areas while staving off southern rebel militias.


“They knew we were just priests, yet they ‘arrested’ us,” Mogga told Compass.


The two priests were kidnapped from the compound of St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Church on Jan. 15 and were released two weeks later, they said. For security reasons they would not discuss conditions of their release, but the kidnappers had demanded 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US$185,530); press reports indicated no ransom was paid and that they were released after pressure from influential groups including the government in Khartoum.


Christians in Sudan have complained of a spike in threats against them by South Sudanese militias rebelling against the new South Sudan government. The South Sudanese rebels go house-to-house in Khartoum and other towns in the north abducting mainly Christian men, Christian sources said; hundreds of young men have been forcibly conscripted, while older men are either killed or ransomed.


The kidnappers tortured the two clergymen physically and psychologically, and they are now undergoing medical treatment, sources said; they will require more time to recover.


“The two Catholic priests were mistreated,” Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok Kur told Compass by phone.


There are at least three South Sudanese militia groups fighting against the government of South Sudan with the support of the government of Sudan. With almost no support within South Sudan, they have resorted to forcibly conscripting South Sudanese who are still living in (north) Sudan, where the government supports them as part of an effort to rid the country of Christianity, sources said.


Christians in (north) Sudan said that such abductions are increasing as the Islamic government in Khartoum supports these militias, which are fighting the government of South Sudan and the South Sudan-based Sudanese People’s Liberation Army


“Christians in Khartoum live in fear as they become the target of these militia groups,” one church leader said.


Episcopal Leaders KidnappedIn a separate incident, two leaders from the Episcopal Church of Sudan were abducted at gunpoint on the same day by members of the same militia in Gerif West, near a local Bible school in Khartoum, sources said.


Michael Mikol and Jacob Makeer were kidnapped on Jan. 15 at around 7 p.m. and were released one hour later, after the assailants took their mobile phones and other belongings, according to Christian sources in Khartoum.


Christians from South Sudan and South Kordofan in Khartoum are afraid to attend church services because these militias are targeting them, the sources said.


The official Islamic clerical authority in Sudan has called on the body tasked with drafting the country’s constitution to ensure inclusion of sharia (Islamic law), reported the Sudan Tribune website.


Sudan’s [Muslim] Scholars Association, a body of state-controlled imams and clerics, issued the statement last week.


Sudan’s Interim National Constitution holds up sharia as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to a U.S. Department of State report. On several occasions in the past year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has warned that Sudan’s constitution will be more firmly entrenched in sharia.

Two Catholic Priests Kidnapped in Sudan

Islamic militias loyal to government forces attack Catholic church compound.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, January 25 (CDN) — Islamic militias loyal to the Sudanese government have kidnapped two Catholic priests in Rabak, Christian sources said.

A large truck smashed through the gates of the St. Josephine Bakhita’s Catholic Church compound in Rabak, 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of Khartoum, on Jan. 15 at 10 p.m., and the assailants broke down the rectory door, the sources said. The Rev. Joseph Makwey and the Rev. Sylvester Mogga were kidnapped at gunpoint.

Four days later, on Jan. 19, the kidnappers forced the two priests to call their bishop with a ransom demand of 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US$185,530), 250,000 Sudanese pounds each.

Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok told Compass by phone that there was no direct communication between the bishop and the kidnappers, though the priests managed to convey that they were being mistreated.

“We are worried about the two priests,” he said. “They are not treating them well.”

The kidnappers have attempted no communication with church leaders since then, Adwok said. Neither Makwey, in his 40s, nor Mogga, in his mid-30s, are supporters of southern Sudan military forces in territorial conflict with Sudan over border areas, he added.

Eyewitnesses told Compass that they saw the assailants severely beating the priests while abducting them. The kidnappers also looted the priests’ living quarters, stealing two vehicles, two laptops and a safe.

The incident caused panic and terror among Christians in Rabak, with church leaders saying they fear for their lives as they become targets of the Islamic government and its allied militias.

Sudan has seen a steep increase in persecution against Christians, according to an annual ranking by Christian support organization Open Doors. Sudan – where northern Christians experienced greater vulnerability after southern Sudan seceded in a July referendum, and where Christians were targeted amid isolated military conflicts – jumped 19 places last year from its 2010 ranking, from 35th to 16th, according to Open Doors’ 2012 World Watch List.

Sudanese law prohibits missionaries from evangelizing, and converting from Islam to another religion is punishable by imprisonment or death in Sudan, though previously such laws were not strictly enforced. The government has never carried out a death sentence for apostasy, according to the U.S. State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report.

Christians are facing growing threats from both Muslim communities and Islamist government officials who have long wanted to rid Sudan of Christianity, Christian leaders told Compass. They said Christianity is now regarded as a foreign religion following the departure of 350,000 people, most of them Christians, to South Sudan following the July 9, 2011 secession.

Sudan’s Interim National Constitution holds up sharia (Islamic law) as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to the state department report. Christian leaders said they fear the government is tightening controls on churches in Sudan and planning to force compliance with Islamic law as part of a strategy to eliminate Christianity.

As he has several times in the past year, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Jan. 3 once again warned that Sudan’s constitution will be more firmly entrenched in sharia.

“We are an Islamic nation with sharia as the basis of our constitution,” he told crowds in Kosti, south of Khartoum. “We will base our constitution on Islamic laws.”

His government subsequently issued a decree ordering church leaders to provide names and contact information of church leaders in Sudan, sources said. Christian leaders said the government is retaliating for churches’ perceived pro-West position.

Muslim scholars have urged heavy-handed measures against Christians to Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.


END

The Slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's Son Abducted in Lahore

Yet another example of lawlessness in Pakistan

By Xavier Partas William
Correspondent, ASSIST News Service


LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Shahbaz Taseer, a son of the slain Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer, was kidnapped in broad daylight in Lahore on Friday, August 26, 2011.

Scene of the kidnapping with insert picture of Shahbaz Taseer

Reports state that Taseer's Mercedes was intercepted by more than four men in a black Land Cruiser as it drove down a street adjacent to MM Alam Road, where Taseer works at a brokerage house as its Executive Director.
According to the eye witnesses Shahbaz Taseer was going towards his company office at around 10:54 am and was just a few meters away from the office when a motorcycle intercepted Taseer's vehicle, bearing the license plate LZT 1. After he stopped, the armed men came out of a black Toyota Land Cruiser and kidnapped him at gun point. The abductors threw away Shahbaz Taseer's iPhone, two cell phones and his laptop and drove towards the Defense Housing Authority.

According to the close family sources, the Taseer family has been receiving threats from the Taliban and other extremist groups since the assassination of her father, Salman Taseer, the former governor of Punjab and a business tycoon had widely spoken against the country's controversial blasphemy laws, which he condemned them calling them "A Black Law."

Salman Taseer with Asia Bibi

Salman Taseer had also publicly supported Asia Bibi, the Christian mother-of-five who has been sentenced to death on for alleged blasphemy law and had appealed to the President of Pakistan for a pardon for Ms. Bibi.

In an interview with an international news channel in November 2010, Salman Taseer said, "If the High Court does not suspend her sentence we will pardon her. The blasphemy law is not a God-made law. It's a man-made law. It was made by General Ziaul Haq and the portion about giving a death sentence was put in by Nawaz Sharif. So it's a law which gives an excuse to extremists and reactionaries to target weak people and minorities."

Then, on January 4, 2011 Salman Taseer was assassinated by his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri, in Kohsar Market in Islamabad.

The self-confessed killer claimed that Taseer was a "Blasphemer".
The cleric, Muhammad Afzal Chisti, who led the funeral prayer for Salman Taseer, was forced to leave the country after receiving death threats for calling Taseer a "martyr" and leading his funeral prayer.

Early this year Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian in the Pakistani cabinet, was also assassinated in broad day light for suggesting amendments to the blasphemy laws.

Salmaan Taseer's daughter Shehrbano Taseer speaks about her father's assassination (Photo: Reuters)

Salman Taseer's daughter Shehrbano Taseer has already left the country due to the death threats. She had said, "We have been trying to wind up the business empire my father has built. My father has served the country with devotion, but we are victimized for serving the country and speaking for the voiceless."

Shehryar Taseer, brother of the kidnapped man, said, "The Punjab Government has given us the police security, but today the guards were not with Shahbaz Taseer as he went to the office. Along with the threats from the religious groups, we have the business rivals who have been targeting my father and now they are after us."

The Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, has taken notice of the kidnapping and has instructed the law enforcement agencies to ensure the safe return of Shahbaz Taseer. He also talked to Shehrbano Taseer on the phone.

The Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has instructed the Inspector General of Punjab to take immediate action. He said, "We have deployed security at the Taseer's residence, as well as at all of the entry and exit points in Lahore. The investigation teams are collecting evidences from the crime scene. The security personal are also being investigated.

Mumtaz Qadri

"The motive of the abduction is unclear, as the abductors left the vehicle, iPhone, laptop and the other belongings. If they had intended to kill, they had a clear chance. So far no one has claimed the responsibility. We are also investigating Mumtaz Qadri, Salman Taseer`s assassin, we are investigating all the aspects in the matter."

Shahbaz Taseer's mother, Amina Taseer, says she is in no position to comment as earlier this year she lost her husband and now her son has been abducted. According to the analysts, this may be an attempt to rescue Mumtaz Qadri in exchange for Shahbaz Taseer, as the abductors didn't take anything from the vehicle. If it was a matter of religious extremism they would have killed him on the spot.

The family has refused to comment about any specific business rival, so the only option left is the rescue for Mumtaz Qadri as the court is delaying his murder trial.

Earlier, on August 13, armed men had abducted an American aid expert Warren Weinstein from his residence in Model Town Lahore, and police are still investigating the matter. Lawlessness prevails in Karachi and Lahore and the police appear to be unable to control the situation.

The social sector has condemned Shahbaz Taseer's abduction. Several humanitarian organizations had highlighted the threats to the Taseer family after Salman Taseer`s murder.

A statement by Life for All Pakistan said, "Salman Taseer showed his solidarity with minority communities who are being targeted by the law and, in doing so, he sent across a strong message. The murders of Taseer and Bhatti and the extremism and intolerance that such acts displayed were not isolated incidents, and extremism is now part of mainstream Pakistan.

"Every Pakistani should be devastated when an individual gets kidnapped or when a human being gets killed for his personal opinion in this country.

"We are praying for the family and hope that Shahbaz Taseer returns home unharmed."

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Xavier Patras William is an international journalist and human rights activist. He is the Regional Director of "Life for All" in Islamabad, Pakistan, an organization is working for human rights and the education of the Christians in Pakistan. The head office of "Life for All" is in Lahore, Pakistan and its regional office is located in Islamabad. Xavier can be reached at:xave_william@yahoo.com

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No justice for kidnapping case

Sudan (MNN) ― Kidnapping, rape, torture, and threats are all methods of persecution suffered by Christians in Sudan at the hands of Muslims. One teenage girl who recently escaped from the hands of her Islamic abductors suffered all four.
Voice of the Martyrs, Canada(VCM) reported that Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, 16, was abducted last year on June 17 by a Muslim gang. She was just reunited with her family last month after several months of trauma and suffering.

According to VCM's source with Compass Direct, Hiba was kidnapped while going to the Ministry of Education for transcripts to enter into secondary school. She didn't know she was being monitored and one of the kidnappers pretended to work for the Ministry of Education.

She was taken and moved around various locations in Khartoum by her kidnappers. All the while, Hiba was constantly pressured to convert from Christianity to Islam. She was often locked in a room and beaten until she lost consciousness.
In trying to recount the story to Compass Direct, Hiba broke into tears. "They did many bad things to me," she says.

The group members tortured her and referred to her family as "infidels." They would not let her pray Christian prayers, and the leader of the group sexually abused her. "Apart from abusing me sexually, he tried to force me to change my faith and kept reminding me to prepare for Ramadan," says Hiba.

Two days after Hiba was kidnapped, her family started receiving threatening phone calls and text messages demanding a random of 1,500 Sudanese pounds ($560 USD) if they wanted her back.

Hiba's mother, Anglo, went to the police station to open a case to find her daughter, but the police refused unless Anglo converted to Islam as well.

Hiba tried to run away three different times, but each time her captors caught her and severely beat her for trying to escape. Freedom finally did come when Hiba gave enough of a pretense of converting to Islam for her captors to lighten up on guarding her. She got out and begged a motorcyclist to give her a ride to her home two hours away.
Such a situation just shows the intensity of the religious profiling at the level of law enforcement in Sudan and the ongoing persecution there.

Even Hiba's captors were so sure of their safety if they were caught. Hiba says she was warned by her captors, "Even if you call the government, they will not do anything to us."

Anglo says, "It is good that those who prayed for us to know that their prayers were answered, and that my daughter is back at home with me. I also need prayers because I am jobless since the time my daughter was kidnapped."

Please pray for Christians in Sudan suffering persecution both from Islamic groups and from lack of justice by the law.

Pray for the emotional and spiritual wellness of Hiba and she and her family recover in Christ from this traumatic time.

Egypt's Double Standard Shown in Difference Between Muslim and Christian Abduction Cases

By Michael IrelandSenior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS) -- A 15-year-old Muslim girl was abducted on April 3, 2011 by gunmen in two cars as she was on her way to school in the family car.

The driver was beaten and tied up by the kidnappers while the girl, named Zeina, was forced into another car.
A ransom of 5,000,000 Egyptian pounds was demanded for her return from her wealthy father Effat El-Sadat, a relative of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

The kidnappers drove Zeina through three Nile Delta provinces before releasing her near a cafeteria on the Cairo to Alexandria desert road, after getting the ransom.

According to Mary Abdelmassih, writing for AINA (Assyrian International News Agency )www.aina.org, the authorities gave a press conference the next day and said that thanks to the efforts of a team of 400 officers from the Interior Ministry who worked on the case, the six culprits had been arrested.

It took less than 24 hours for Zeina to return home, the six kidnappers to be arrested and the 5,000000 Egyptian pounds to be returned. The kidnappers were charged with abducting a minor and on April 19 the military court sentenced five of them to life imprisonment and the sixth to 15 years.

Nabila Sedky (Photo courtesy AINA).

Abdelmassih says that two days after this kidnapping, on April 5, Nabila Sedky (15), a Coptic Christian girl from the poor neighborhood of Zawya el Hamra in Cairo, accompanied her Muslim schoolmate Souad Abdelrassoul for a lesson at school, which was never to be. Her family never saw her again.

Abdelmassih writes that Sedky Sobhy, Nabila's father, said that he filed a report with the police after "the Muslim schoolmate evaded us and on numerous occasions gave us wrong information about the whereabouts of Nabila after they left each other, and sent us on wild goose chases."

Coptic activist and lawyer Karam Gabriel along with other Coptic colleagues volunteered to take up Nabila's case without fees because the family cannot afford a lawyer, the news agency said.

AINA reported that at first, the police had as their prime suspect a 22-year-old Copt, Pola Samir, who had asked for Nabila's hand in marriage when she becomes of age, as is customary in some parts of Egypt. "But Pola had an alibi," said Gabriel "as he was working 50 kilometers away from Cairo with Nabila's uncle on the day Nabila disappeared."

AINA says that after pressure from the Coptic lawyers, the state prosecutor's office obtained from the three mobile phone networks operating in Egypt the numbers and addresses of people who had spoken to Nabila before her disappearance.

"We were able to identify a young Muslim named Mohammad Abdelbari Mady and his accomplice," said Gabriel, "who owns the mobile phone line which Mohammad used to call Nabila with." He was arrested and confessed to abducting her.

In its report, AINA said that during the investigation it was revealed that Mohammad Abdelbari Mady and his brother-in-law took Nabila by car from Ramsis Street, in downtown Cairo, and hid her for over three months at his sister's home. By the time the prosecution got permission to search the sister's home, Nabila was moved somewhere else.

According to the AINA report, the District public prosecution charged Mady with 'abduction of a female without deception or coercion.'

"This is illogical. How could you 'abduct' someone with her free will?" said Karam, adding that during last week's court session, he insisted the charge should be "abducting a 15 year -old minor, without her free will, by deception and coercion." He added that the prosecution ignored his friend, who gave him his phone to use, and his sister and her husband, who hid Nabila for over three months in their home, then moved her again before the police searched their home. "These are accomplices and ought to be charged as well, according to Egyptian law," he said.

Karam Gabriel and his team have filed a complaint with the Attorney General and are asking to have the charges changed to abduction of a minor by deception and coercion, and to include the other three participants, the AINA report stated.

"I have proof there are corrupt police officers. I gave the investigators tips where to look, information we got through three months of hard work, and instead they were looking at a Copt with an alibi," said Karam, adding that he believes Mady still has Nabila hidden somewhere, and he could wait until she reaches 18-years-old to convert her to Islam or marry her before, which is also against the law but something that still takes place.

AINA now reports that two weeks ago Nabila Sedky appeared in a YouTube video clip presented by an Islamic website. She was wearing a Hijab and told her parents that she is fine and did not want to leave them, but she converted to Islam, the religion of truth, in March and it is not possible to return back to them "because as you know any Christian girl who converts to Islam, you send to the monastery and she is tortured until she dies," she said, echoing the false charge made by Islamists against the Coptic Church. She said if they wanted her to go back to live with them, they would have to convert to Islam.

Commenting on the video clip, Nabila's father said that she looks like his daughter, but she does not talk like her. He believes she has been drugged and brainwashed.

"I called the security officer and told him about the video clip but he assured me that it was all kids' play, and said your daughter is a minor and I will get her back for you," he said.

Ezzat Andrawes, of the Coptic History Encyclopedia, which monitors all offences against Copts, said the police policy is to delay matters for several weeks, to give the Islamization rings enough time to rape the Coptic girl or terrorize her through threats of killing her father or mother or disfiguring her sister's face by acid, or until she is pregnant with a Muslim fetus.

"The girl then gives in and sacrifices herself to save her family." In cases where the victim is raped, Egyptian law stipulates the death sentence, "but this applies only to Muslims and not to Coptic females," said Andrawes.
AINA reported that Nabila's father said he still knows nothing about her whereabouts. "All I get are promises from security officials. Why do they apply double standards? el-Sadat's daughter was found within several hours but what about my daughter? Are Coptic girls not Egyptian citizens as well?"

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** Michael Ireland is Senior Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can make a donation online under 'Donate' tab, then look for 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' under 'Donation Category' to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of th e National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior Reporter