Muslims Told not to Celebrate Christmas, or Wish Christians a 'Merry Christmas'

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JAKARTA, INDONESIA (ANS) -- Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body has warned the country's 200 million-plus Muslims not to attend Christmas celebrations or even wish Christians a "Merry Christmas', maintaining that to do so remains forbidden under local Islamic law.

Indonesian children singing Christmas carols wearing Santa costumes in Jakarta (Photo via Boston.com)

Mohabat News (www.mohabatnews.com) says that according to a news report by UCA News, Ma'ruf Amin, head of the Fatwa Division of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI), a government funded organization, has reminded Muslims of a ban on celebrating Christmas imposed under a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1981.

"Wishing a 'Merry Christmas' is still not right," he said. "It would be better if (Muslims) say 'Happy New Year.

 It is sufficient for Muslims to show their tolerance towards Christmas by allowing Christians to celebrate peacefully.

He added, "(Muslims) must maintain tolerance and harmony."

Zuhairi Misrawi, a Muslim leader from Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic organization which falls under the umbrella of MUI, said that not all Muslims would accept this blanket ban on Christmas.

"Islam is like a wide and deep blue sea, and MUI's religious edict is only a flow of water. There are many other flows of water," he said.

Theopilus Bela, secretary general of the Indonesian Committee of Religions for Peace, said that MUI had a history of issuing fatwas which demonstrate a lack of religious tolerance.

"I hope Muslims, the majority group, won't be affected by MUI's remarks," he said.

Christian Teen Cleared of Blasphemy Appeals for Help for Christians in Prison

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

ROME (ANS) -- A Christian teen gave a heartfelt plea. "I ask Catholics, the West, the international community to help all Christians in prison, victims of the blasphemy laws."

Rimsha Masi

According to a story by Dario Salvi of AsiaNews, that was the appeal of Rimsha Masih, a Christian teen suffering from mental problems who was arrested last August for blasphemy, and then cleared.

For weeks, her story occupied Pakistani newspapers and world media, motivating worldwide appeals for action.

Asia News said as a result of the work of the Federal Minister Paul Bhatti, supported by the Muslim community and the government in Islamabad, the story - for the first time - has resulted in a positive outcome.

A few days before the holidays, Asia News reported, Rimsha and family wanted to send "greetings to Pope Benedict XVI and all Christians of the world."

In a plea addressed to all Christians, the West and the international community, Asia News reported Rimsha said, "I ask you to support and assist all Christians ... who are in prison because of the blasphemy laws" ... "be close to them."

Asia News said during the telephone interview, Rimsha was playing with her brothers. She laughed several times, confirming an atmosphere of relative calm.

Rimsha said that after a difficult period she is now happy. "This Christmas I thank God for saving me and Jesus Christ for helping me."

Asia News said her words showed the simplicity of a young girl whose life was turned upside down by a terrible accusation, and who asked only for things to return to normal.

"For Christmas," Rimsha told Asia News, "I would like to get nice clothes and a pair of sneakers."

She added that wish is to "be able to return to school."

Asia News said Misrek Masih, father of Rimsha, thanked "Jesus for saving us," and "the minister Paul Bhatti and his entire organization (the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance-APMA) for supporting us."

Asia News said Misrek also thanked the Pakistani government for protection. However, he added that the family still does not feel safe and would like to move to another country, "because here we still feel threatened. We cannot leave quietly. Our life is always in danger; extremist groups might strike. We strongly desire to start a new life elsewhere."

Despite the difficulties, dangers and threats, Asia News said, Rimsha and her family are looking forward to the holidays.

They said, "We want to wish Merry Christmas to the Pope and all the Christians of the world, and we thank you very much for the support we received."

Asia News said Rimsha and her family are currently under the protection of the Pakistani government and Catholic activists of the APMA, an association founded by Shahbaz Bhatti - former Minister for Minorities, who was assassinated by Islamic extremists. APMA is now led by his brother Paul.

Iran Court Convicts Christian Pastor who is a US Citizen

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

NEW YORK (ANS) -- A 32-year-old Iranian who is a U.S. citizen and a Christian convert has been imprisoned without notice of any formal charges while visiting his family in Iran.

That's according to his wife and attorneys in the U.S., who are now hoping that a media campaign will help set him free.

Saeed Abedini and his family via ACLJ

According to a story by Lisa Daftari for Fox News, Rev. Saeed Abedini, who lives in the U.S. with his wife and two young children, was making one of his frequent visits to see his parents and the rest of his family in Iran, his country of origin. Abedini spent many years there as a Christian leader and community organizer developing Iran's underground home church communities for Christian converts.

On this last trip, Fox News reported, the Iranian government pulled him off a bus and said he must face a penalty for his previous work as a Christian leader in Iran.

He is currently awaiting trial at Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison, where he has been incarcerated since late September.

"When he became a Christian, he became a criminal in his own country. His passion was to reach the people of Iran," Naghmeh, his wife, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News.

"He comes from a very close-knit family, and he loved evangelizing and passing out Bibles on the streets of Tehran. This was his passion," she said.

Fox News reported that in July, Abedini left his wife and kids to go to Iran to visit family and continue a humanitarian effort he began years ago to build an orphanage.

After a short visit to a nearby country, Abedini was traveling back into Iran to catch his flight back to the U.S. That was when members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stopped his bus near the Turkey-Iran border and pulled Abedini from the bus, confiscating his passports and subjecting him to intense interrogation, according to his wife.

Fox News said after weeks under house arrest and many calls to Iran's passport control office about the status of his confiscated passport, Abedini was told that his case has been referred to the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian government's elite military force.

Fox News said on Sept. 26, five men kicked open the door of Abedini's parents' residence in Tehran. They collected all communications devices and arrested him while placing the rest of his family members, who are also Christians converts from Islam, under house arrest.

The family remains under house arrest, according to Naghmeh.

Two days before the home raid, Fox News said Naghmeh reported getting a call to her cellphone in the U.S., from someone she thinks was an Iranian government agent threatening that she would "never see him again."

Abedini is the father of a house church movement in Iran, a community of underground places of worship for former Muslims who convert to Christianity and are not allowed to formally pray in recognized churches.

Fox News said over the course of his involvement, his home church movement had about 100 churches in 30 Iranian cities with more than 2,000 members.

"It was just growing so fast. They see the underground churches as a threat and they see Christianity as a tool from the West to undermine them," Fox News reported Naghmeh said. "They think if the country becomes more Christian, they are no longer under Islamic authority. That's why it's a threat."

But "Christianity saved his life," Naghmeh said of her husband, who converted at the age of 20, after becoming severely depressed from undergoing suicide bomber training by a radical Muslim group.

Abedini was recruited in high school and taken to the mosque to be trained, Fox News reported she said. The more he sought to be a devout Muslim and the deeper he went into training, the more depressed he became.

Under Shariah, or Islamic law, a Muslim who converts to Christianity is on a par with someone waging war against Islam. Death sentences for such individuals are prescribed by fatwas, or legal decrees. They are reinforced by Iran's Constitution, which allows judges to rely on fatwas for determining charges and sentencing on crimes not addressed in the Iranian penal code.

All religious minorities in Iran, including Bahais, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, have faced various forms of persecution and political and social marginalization throughout the regime's 30-year reign. But the government saves its harshest retribution for those who have abandoned Islam.

During ongoing interrogation, Fox News reported Abedini has informally been told he will be charged for threatening the national security of Iran and espionage, due to his involvement with Christian house churches and foreign Christian satellite TV ministries.

Fox News said the Iranian government offered bail in the amount of 500 million toman, or roughly $410,000. Abedini's family has prepared the bail documents many times already but have not been successful in having it accepted or approved, they said.

Just this week they prepared yet again the bail documents but were told they were not going to be accepted.

"It's hardest on the kids," Fox News reported Naghmeh said. "Saeed was a stay-at-home dad. My daughter said she is forgetting Daddy's voice and she asked me, 'Do you think he has a beard now?' I didn't even think of that. She keeps playing the home videos over and over. It's the hardest at night because he had a night routine with them when he would read them books and tuck them in. They miss that the most."

Abedini and his wife had met in Iran in 2002, while she was there working for Iranian relatives, and were married shortly thereafter. Together, they worked as Christian leaders in the underground house churches. After facing persecution for these activities, in 2005, they moved to the U.S. together.

According to Fox News his first trip back to Iran was in 2009 with his wife and two children to visit his family when he came under government scrutiny. As the family attempted to catch their flight back to the U.S., Abedini was detained and told he would have to stay in the country for further questioning. His wife and children were put on a plane bound for the U.S., separated from him.

After the arrest and rounds of intense interrogation, in which the interrogators threatened Abedini with death for his conversion to Christianity, they agreed to release him, according to his attorneys. Fox News said that was only after he signed a written agreement in which the government would not charge him for his Christian activities, and he would be allowed to enter and exit the country so long as he ceased all official house church activities.

Fox News said according to his attorneys, he had honored this agreement. "He thought if he honored his part, they would honor theirs. He was transparent about his humanitarian work there," said Tiffany Barrans, International Legal Director at the American Center for Law and Justice based in Washington D.C, the organization representing Abedini's U.S.-based family.

This was ninth trip since 2009 to visit family and to continue his humanitarian work on developing a non-sectarian orphanage in the city of Rasht on a family-owned land plot.

"You have a situation of arbitrary detention here. Iran is violating its own constitution and its international obligations. As citizens of the world, we need to wake up to these violations. Iran needs to be exposed for its violation of these laws," said Barrans, who has been working very closely with Naghmeh to push for her husband's release.

Fox News said the American Center for Law and Justice is providing legal support to Naghmeh by working through the US government, members of Congress, various governments around the world, and with leaders in the United Nations to help release Pastor Saeed.

According to Fox News, the ACLJ previously played an integral role in reaching various government representatives in the case of imprisoned minister Youcef Nadarkhani, who was freed from an Iranian prison after nearly three years following a tremendous international outcry demanding his release.

Despite the fact that Abedini was arrested Sept. 26, the family chose to work through different private means to get him released. In that time, however, he was denied access to an attorney and was badly been beaten by prison guards.

Fox News said according to his wife, Abedini is also being severely beaten by his cell mates who self-identify as members of Al Qaeda. The family is greatly concerned for his health and well being.

The U.S. has not had formal diplomatic ties with the Iranian government since 1980 and relies on alternative efforts in such instances.

Fox News reached out to the State Department for comment on Abedini's case, but has yet to received a call back.

Fox News reported Barrans said, "We were hopeful that the Iranian government would have released him by now and that private efforts would have been more successful. Also, as Saeed has family in Iran, we had to be mindful of the fact that any public action taken could put his family at risk."

She added, "They see that the house church culture is alive and thriving. They believe that making an example out of their former leader will deter others from practicing and converting to Christianity."

Fox News said several house church members, friends and distant relatives of Abedini have had to flee the country in recent months after being summoned by the government to collect evidence against him.

As a convert away from Islam, worshipers are not permitted to attend services at official churches. Underground house churches became a popular way to get around this restriction.

According to Fox News Barrans said, "They have denied converts the opportunity to worship in an official place of worship. Then they tell them they can't practice their faith underground, and doing so is a crime against Iran's national security interests. How is this not a violation of religious freedom?"

Iranian Christian Prisoner Writes to Sandy Hook Parents

By Michael Ireland
Special Reporter, ASSIST News Service

"When I imagine how hard your pain is, I forget my sufferings."

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) -- Imprisoned Iranian Christian Pastor Farshid Fathi, suffering for his faith in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, has sent a letter to the Sandy Hook parents who have lost their children.

According to Elam Ministries, on hearing the news of the shootings, Farshid forgot about his own pain of being separated from his children, Rosanna (9) and Bardia (3) to reach out to the Sandy Hook parents.

Pastor Farshid Fathi (Courtesy Elam Minsitries).

Farshid is an Iranian pastor who is serving a six-year prison term. He was arrested in December 2010 for his Christian ministry work, but the authorities have deliberately cast his activities as political offences.

The letter expresses his sorrow and speaks of the hope of heaven.

Farshid wrote:"To the fathers and mothers who lost their precious children in the Connecticut tragedy,

"I really don't know what word in the world could comfort you, what relief could be helpful for your broken heart, and which hand could clean the tears which fall from your cheeks. I just want to say: I am so sorry and you are in my prayers.

"I am sure these high walls cannot stop my prayers for you. Before this tragedy happened, I was thinking about my suffering that I'm going through because of my Lord Jesus Christ, especially being far from my lovely kids. But when I imagine how hard your pain is I forget my sufferings. Because I know by God's grace I will see my kids at the latest in 2017 when I come out from prison. But unfortunately you have to wait a bit longer. So I would like to express my deepest sorrow for your loss.

"I believe we will have enough time in heaven with our lovely children forever. There is no gun there, there is no prison, and there is no pain."

Farshid signs his letter, "In the hope of that glorious day. Your Brother in Christ from prison in Iran."

Algerian Christian Unknowingly Convicted, Sentenced Convert is tried in absentia for 'pressuring Muslim' who urged him to return to Islam

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA (ANS) -- Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org) is reporting that without any prior notice or summons from police, a Christian convert from Islam here received word on Dec. 11 that he had been convicted of pressuring a Muslim to leave his religion, he said.

Mosque in Larbaa Nath Irathen, 25 kilometers from Tizi Ozou, Algeria, was formerly a church building

Mohamed Ibaouene, 36, was convicted in absentia on July 4 by a court in Tigzirt, Algeria, and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars (US$635), according to a copy of the judgment prepared by a court in Tindouf, where he held a position with an international business concern.

"I have never been summoned by the police or any other authority - I have never been investigated by the police or gendarmerie," Ibaouene told Morning Star News.

Earlier in the year, Ibaouene said, a 27-year-old Islamic extremist from Algiers who worked as a machine operator at the company where he held a management post approached him at his office for the sole purpose of asking him, "Is it true that you are a Christian?"

When Ibaouene replied, "Yes, I am," the young worker - identified only as Abdelkrim M. - began to try to persuade him to return to Islam, which he called "the religion of all Algerians," the Christian said.

Morning Star News then reported that Ibaouene refused to renounce Christ. Abdelkrim M. then asked him if he believed in Islam and, in spite of what Ibaouene had already told him, was astonished when the Christian told him he did not believe in it at all, but rather in God and Christ, Ibaouene said.

Abdelkrim M. then filed a complaint with the National Gendarmerie in Tindouf, accusing Ibaouene of pressuring him to renounce Islam, according to a copy of the judgment obtained by Morning Star News.

After the ensuing trial that took place in Ibaouene's absence, the Tindouf court prosecutor requested a sentence of two years in prison and a fine of 100,000 dinars (US$1,270), but the judge ordered only half of each.

"Authorities did not serve the judgment to Ibaouene sooner presumably because he had left Tindouf after marrying in June and they were not aware of his whereabouts, and because of slow administrative processes. Ibaouene is part of an undisclosed church in Tizi Ouzou, capital of Tizi Ouzou Province on Algeria's northern central coast," added the story.

"Upon receiving the judgment, Ibaouene obtained the services of a lawyer hired by the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA). The attorney at the court of Tizi Ouzou, Mohamed Benbelkacem, filed an appeal on Dec. 15 in Tindouf, and a hearing was set for Jan. 23, 2013. Ibaouene has not been arrested."

He was convicted under Article 11 of Law 03/2006, commonly known as Law 06/03, which places restrictions on religious practice for non-Muslims. The law mandates a prison term of two to five years and a fine of 500,000 to 1 million dinars for anyone who "incites, constrains, or utilizes means of seduction tending to convert a Muslim to another religion, or using for this purpose the institutions of education, health, social, cultural, or educational institutions, or other establishment, or financial advantage; or (2) makes, stores or distributes printed documents or films or other audiovisual medium or means intended to undermine the faith of a Muslim.

Algeria's population of 35.4 million people is more than 97 percent Muslim and .28 percent Christian, according to Operation World.

Syrian Christians Preparing for Somber Christmas

SANTA ANA, Calif., Dec. 20, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Silent night, Holy night, all is calm, all is bright..."

Many Christians all over the world will sing this Christmas carol in the next few days. Millions look forward to Christmas. What about the Syrian Christians in the midst of a terrible civil war? Will they have the "heavenly peace" this Christmas classic speaks about?

Christmas in Syria will be different for Christians this year. There will be few decorations and no big celebrations. Christians don't want to attract a lot of attention with their Christmas decorations, fearing that Christmas trees might make them a target for extremists. And, of course, the civil war itself isn't a good setting for big celebrations.

"We will use the Christmas time to visit the families that have been going through pain and suffering," a pastor in Damascus says. "Christians will come together in the churches of the capital to have their Christmas services, but no decorations and nothing big," he says. "The whole city is mourning the loss of their people, family and friends this year, so people will not really celebrate."

His church will focus on visits to refugee families to bring encouragement and comfort. The congregation in the capital will do "something small" for the children, but there will be no big celebration. "We will be just serving others. We will focus on getting together for prayer," the pastor states.

A church leader from the northern Syrian city of Aleppo explains that their Christmas celebrations will be very somber, too.

"We are not celebrating Christmas like before," he says. "We will have services in church and invite church people to come and bring their friends. The focus will be on children more than anyone else because they need to feel some joy."

Open Doors has heard the same reports from the cities of Latakia and Bloudan: "It will not be like the years before. We will celebrate and have services, but it will be limited. We will have a small program and prayer time," a pastor from Latakia says.

Over the past two years the civil war between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and the Free Syrian Army has resulted in approximately 40,000 deaths, mostly civilians, according to several reports. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the country into Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, according to the United Nations. In addition, about 2.5 million Syrians need aid inside the country, with more than 1.2 million displaced domestically.

Syrian Christians ask prayers for:

• Safety and strength of Christians who have chosen to remain in Syria. That God would not only protect them, but would provide them with His never-failing strength this Christmas.


• Christians will be able to meet during Christmas and Jesus will comfort and strengthen them.


• Believers will continue to share their relief packages and the Gospel with their Muslim neighbors.

An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with millions more facing discrimination and alienation. Open Doors supports and strengthens believers in the world's most difficult areas through Bible and Christian literature distribution, leadership training and assistance, Christian community development, prayer and presence ministry and advocacy on behalf of suffering believers. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.