Jihadists could end Christianity in Syria if given power, says nun

Catholic nun warns against deposing Assad until viable alternative appears

Monasteries like this one in Maaloula have been part of the fabric of Syria for centuries.

Hovic / Flickr / Creative Commons

An outspoken Catholic nun living in Syria has denied suggestions that she believes the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad would bring an end to Christianity in Syria.

Instead, Mother Agnes-Mariam says that could be the consequence if religious extremists were to seize on a power vacuum left by his deposition.

The Lebanese-born nun, who is Mother Superior of the monastery of St. James the Mutilated – the oldest monastery in the Qalamoun area of Syria – is part of the Syria Solidarity Movement and has recently finished a speaking tour in the US.

Now in the UK, Mother Agnes-Mariam told the BBC yesterday that supporting Assad is not her goal; rather, she said, it is to bring peace to Syria and to find a viable alternative to the current government before any attempts are made to overthrow the beleaguered dictator.

“It’s not about Assad; it’s about the Syrian population and the fate of a whole country,” she said. “If you have a tumour, you do not kill the patient; you have to bypass the problem to be able to give the good answer, and now the good answer is a peaceful process.

“It will be the end of the civilised world today in Syria, where the alternative is the fundamentalist and extremist jihadists that are throwing violence and terror everywhere.”

Mother Agnes-Mariam denied that she was working for President Assad, saying suggestions that she was were “deprived of any root in reality” and only seeking to undermine and discredit an “honest and fair work” to help Syrians.

She also thanked the British government and people for voting against military intervention in Syria, saying that this had “opened widely a door for peace”.

However, Mother Agnes-Mariam acknowledged that the greatest challenge facing Syria was the lack of a credible opposition.

“The big problem is that we are talking about toppling a government while we don’t have an alternative,” she said. “It’s good to look at the Syrian population and to look who is representing effectively on the ground the Syrian population.”

Mother Agnes-Mariam also reinforced her controversial belief that videos purportedly showing chemical weapons attacks in Damascus on August 21 were fabricated.

“I am sure 100 per cent,” she said. “I have new evidences through observation and metadata.”

Mother Agnes-Mariam denied accusations that in order to orchestrate the evacuation of several thousand families from Damascus, she had agreed to hand over 600 people to government forces.

“[The accusation] is false, it’s false,” she said. “We have been working with the families, they asked us for evacuation. I entered on danger of my life to talk with the military council; there was a battle inside, we were going to be killed and then to be abducted. Finally a rebel leader protected us because he wanted his family to go out and that’s how we could evacuate 7,000 families. Nobody was imprisoned; on the contrary they were treated with the best standards.”

 

Religious Freedom Advocate Flees Sudan New constitution considered as Sharia looms

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN (ANS) -- Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org), is reporting that a Christian lawyer helping to promote religious freedom in Sudan has fled the country after authorities threatened to kill him if he failed to report to them every day, his attorney said.

A Sharia flogging in Khartoum (Photo Newscom/Photoshot)

As Sudan prepares to draft a new constitution, personnel from Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Khartoum this year questioned the lawyer, Nahmia Ibrahim Omer Shaloka, about conducting training on religious freedom and reconciliation in Sudan, he told Morning Star News.

"After security officials arrested him at his home in Khartoum on May 27 and seized his documents, laptop and Internet modem, they interrogated him for eight hours, he said," reported the Sudan Correspondent for Morning Star News.

"While in custody, they interrogated me about many things, including workshops I conducted on freedom of religion in Sudan," Shaloka said.

If he failed to report to their office on a daily basis, the NISS officials threatened to kill him, he said. Later in the year, he managed to flee to another country, where the now destitute Christian from the Nuba Mountains has few options but feels that his life is less in jeopardy.

"I knew it would be bad if I had returned back to them," Shaloka said.

As a rights worker for a Christian organization, Shaloka had been collaborating with other civil society groups urging Sudan to include religious freedom provisions in the constitution to replace the Interim National Constitution that grew out of the 2005 peace agreement with southern Sudan.

Sudan flag (The World Factbook)

"The interim constitution upholds sharia (Islamic law) as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to the U.S. Department of State," added the story. "If Sharia is further entrenched in the Sudanese constitution, Christians fear they and people of other faiths will lose all religious and many other civil rights.

"How and when the new constitution will be formulated is a matter of deep uncertainty.

"Christian institutions formerly owned by or associated with southern Sudanese Christians have already faced months of seizure or destruction at the hands of authorities influenced by Islamist elements. Among them is a Catholic school that authorities confiscated on the claim that its ownership can be traced to southern Sudanese who lost citizenship rights following the secession of South Sudan on July 9, 2011."

Authorities from Khartoum's Karary District - north of Omdurman District, where the church is located - first forcefully entered Comboni School more than a year ago, confiscating the building on Aug. 5, 2012 on the claim that it belonged to South Sudanese who were no longer citizens.

"We were so surprised to learn that some people are determined to seize the school and make many students go without school," said a school official.

Morning Star News went on to say that the school produced documents showing it belonged not to South Sudanese but to the Khartoum Diocese of the Catholic Church and made several appeals to Khartoum state officials and the Court of Appeal. That court ruled on March 26, however, that the school belonged to South Sudanese.

The Khartoum state minister of education subsequently determined that the school was owned by the Catholic Church, not South Sudanese, and school officials on May 14 instructed the Karary District officials to turn the property over to them. The Karary officials refused based on the court's refusal to acknowledge ownership by the Catholic Church.

"We would like to assert that the school belongs to the Catholic Church," the school official said.

Anti-Christians are coming down hard

India (GFA) ― One Gospel for Asia Bridge of Hope center was closed November 17 after extremists forced the landlord to stop renting space to the program. They also threatened to kill staff members if they stay in the area.

On November 16, the center’s staff held a medical camp for the students, followed by other activities. At around 4:30 p.m., a group of more than 300 people from a nearby village came to the Bridge of Hope center and told the staff to leave the cluster of local villages as soon as possible.

“We will not allow any Christian activity in our village, even if it is social work,” they said, while others shouted anti-Christian slogans and verbally abused the staff.

The staff talked with the protestors for nearly an hour, explaining the activities of the center and how they help impoverished children, but the crowd was unmoved. They called the landlord of the house and threatened to banish him from the village if he continued to allow the program to operate in his building.

At the homeowner’s request, the staff brought all the center’s supplies to a local believer’s house. The following afternoon, however, more anti-Christian groups arrived in the village, many bearing weapons.

They told the staff to leave the area, saying, “We will not allow any work of Christians in this area. If you do not obey, we will take your lives.”

Upper caste groups, who are a minority in India, often oppose the education of lower caste and Dalit (“Untouchable”) children. However, this is the first time such a severe campaign has been mounted against a Bridge of Hope center, marking an increase in persecution.

The center’s closing means a loss of free education, food, and medical care to more than 100 local children, many of whom come from Dalit backgrounds and will be unable to receive an education apart from the Bridge of Hope program.

"It breaks our heart to see adults who should be the protectors of these children become the roadblocks to their future and hope of a better life," said K.P. Yohannan, the founder and international director of Gospel for Asia.

The Bridge of Hope staff and local church ask for the prayers of fellow believers as they determine how to serve the community at this time.

"We will do all we can to ensure that these children will continue to have the future they deserve," Yohannan said.

Pray for the protection of the Bridge of Hope staff, local believers, and everyone in the area who stands in support of the Bridge of Hope. Pray for wisdom as GFA staff determines its response to the anti-Christians’ demands. Pray for open eyes and softened hearts in the people who are making threats against believers.

‘White Widow’ key suspect in Kenyan pastors' murders

Samantha Lewthwaite also wanted for execution of two radical Muslim clerics

Fort Jesus, Mombasa.

Ricky Thakrar / Flickr / Creative Commons

The widow of one of the bombers on the London Tube in July 2005, 29-year-old Samantha Lewthwaite, has been named in connection with the murders of two Kenyan pastors.

Lewthwaite is wanted for seven murders in Kenya altogether, including the recent execution of two radical Muslim clerics, and others. She was previously linked with the Nairobi Westgate bombings, though no charges were brought.

The Kenyan police chief of the regional coastal area (including Kenya’s second city, Mombasa), Aggrey Adoli, told Kenyan media that the security services have Lewthwaite (the daughter of a former British soldier, and colloquially known as the ‘White Widow’) as the top suspect in thedeaths of Pastors Charles Mathole and Ibrahim Kithaka recently in Mombasa.

Mathole was a leader of Mombasa Redeemed Gospel Church in Mtopanga and Kithaka a leader of East African Pentecostal Churches in Kilifi.

The murder of the pastors shook Christians in Mombasa, with the Mombasa Church Forum calling on the government to protect churches. One church leader called for the government to issue them with guns, saying to the police to either protect the Christians or give them the means to do it themselves. 

There is widespread criticism against the police for their inability to protect Christians in the coastal regions.

“Our many churches are not under any protection. They do not have walls or gates. The government should issue AK-47 rifles to every church so that we can stop them from being burnt, our property from being looted and our pastors and Christians from being killed,” said Lambert Mbela, a pastor at Mathole’s church, during his funeral.

Christians from different churches said that such a move would contradict Biblical teachings but argued that it showed the frustrations of the increasing level of insecurity.

“I don’t think arming Kenyan [clerics] will ensure security. However, the government should see this as the writing on the wall. Kenyans are getting tired of the continuing insecurity,” said the Rev. Peter Karanja, the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, at a news conference in Limuru, near Nairobi.

Kenya’s top Muslim leader also added his voice to halt the calls to arm pastors: “It is a good idea, but not all clerics should get the guns. Some are rogue clerics and may pose more danger to other religious leaders,” said Sheikh Juma Ngao, Chairman of the Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council.

The ‘White Widow’ has also been named as the key suspect in the executions of two radical Muslim clerics, Aboud Rogo Mohammed and his successor, Sheik Ibrahim Rogo, after reportedly falling out with them.

The murder of the two radical clerics had led to the worst violent protests Mombasa has seen. Muslim youths torched a Salvation Army church and also caused destruction elsewhere.

Lewthwaite is said to have ordered the murder of Mathole, 41, after she became paranoid over his contact with Kenyan intelligence officials. Mathole’s widow is reported to have told the Star newspaper that her husband had received death threats weeks before he was killed, after allegedly being approached by Kenyan Security Services. It is believed they wanted him to inform them if any young Muslim men had approached him for help to avoid being recruited by Al-Shabaab.

UK newspapers report that Lewthwaite sought larger control of Al-Shabaab, thereby angering the Al-Shabaab elders.

Police boss Aggrey Adoli said: “She is without a doubt an incredible threat to national and international security. We are working round the clock to bring her in, to stop her causing more carnage.”

Lewthwaite is apparently not working alone. Security Services say she has seven disciples: a Tanzanian preacher, a Somalian, a Ugandan and three Kenyans. They are also on the radar of security services.

Pastor Saeed Abedini Alive But Still Held in Deadly Iranian Prison as Iranian Family Allowed Visitation

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

WASHINGTON D.C . (ANS) -- For the first time since he was abruptly transferred from Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison earlier this month, American Pastor Saeed Abedini was allowed visitation with his Iranian family.

Pastor Saeed Abedini with his wife Naghmeh and their children.

According to a story by Jordan Sekulow for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), this is a positive sign that international pressure continues to work to keep Abedini alive.

Abedini's Iranian family has, for the past two weeks since his transfer, been prevented from visiting him - something they had previously been permitted to do once a week during his imprisonment in Evin Prison.

The ACLJ said it is also the first physical confirmation of Abedini's condition and life since his transfer to the brutal prison.

Abedini remains in the violent criminal ward - Ward 3 - of Rajai Shahr, sharing a three meter by three meter cell with other prisoners. This ward of the deadly prison holds some of the worst criminals in Iran - murderers and rapists.

International human rights organizations have reported that prisoner on prisoner violence, including murder, is routine at Rajai Shahr Prison.

Abedini's situation remains serious. However, the ACLJ said it's encouraged that his Iranian family was allowed vis itation - and that his Iranian family was able to see him face-to-face and communicate with him.

Abedini has yet to receive the medication he has been prescribed for internal injuries suffered at the hands of his captors.

The ACLJ said, "We believe that prayer and strong international pressure - the outcry of hundreds of thousands of people around the world - are keeping Pastor Saeed alive."

Last week the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution calling for the release of this U.S. citizen, and key members of the European Parliament wrote a letter raising Abedini's case.

A similar resolution is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives. The House Foreign Affairs Committee has announced that it will take up the resolution (H. Res. 147) this Wednesday. These statements, resolutions, and letters from U.S. and international government leaders are key to Abedini's case.

The ACLJ said, "We must not allow him to be forgotten. We must not allow him to disappear.

We continue to urge President Obama - who has previously directly spoken out about Pastor Saeed's case - and the U.S. State Department to reengage this issue at the highest levels. As international negotiations continue with Iran regarding its nuclear program, Pastor Saeed's freedom must be a chief concern. Human rights and specifically religious freedom - the first freedom - is a critical step forward for any nation on the world stage."

For more information visit www.BeHeardProject.com.

Ban Ki-moon warns Central African Republic ‘spiralling into anarchy’

UN Secretary General expresses alarm about increasing retaliatory attacks between Muslim and Christian groups

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, pictured in 2012.

Africa Renewal / Flickr / Creative Commons

The UN Secretary General Ban-Ki moon said on Monday (Nov. 18) that anarchy in the Central African Republic risks spiralling further out of control, and could need up to 9,000 peacekeepers.

In a report Ki-moon commissioned, due to be debated at the UN on Nov. 25, his adviser expresses alarm about increasing retaliatory attacks between Muslim and Christian groups. The report calls on the UN Security Council to act urgently on the crisis.

The Security Council is due to meet on Nov. 25 at France’s request, to decide whether to create a UN peacekeeping force for the area. Ki-moon said on Monday the UN is preparing to deploy peacekeepers to CAR eventually, but that the African Union (AU) and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) first want a chance to try to combat the crisis.

The UN and France have warned that the number of African peacekeepers intended to be deployed under ECCAS and the AU by 2014 will not be enough to curb the spiral of violence in the country. The latest report offers the option of a UN peacekeeping force of between 6,000 and 9,000 troops, plus 1,700 police.

Ki-moon stressed the importance of implementing strategies which will see that the focus on security and development coincides. “Today we are sounding the alarm for immediate, decisive action to ensure that the crisis is addressed in all its dimensions – security, political, human rights and humanitarian,” he said.

Last Wednesday, rebels from the Islamist Séléka group opened fire on civilians protesting the kidnapping of a soldier, killing at least three and injuring several others. ECCAS peacekeepers responded but retreated when the rebels fired at them. On Nov. 16 ex-rebels also shot dead Judge Modeste Martineau Bria, the Director of Judicial Services, and his assistant. “Ex-Séléka members... sped up to them on a motorbike and opened fire,” a police officer said. The motive for the murder is unknown.

The UN has called on the Transitional Government to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Ki-moon also discussed the escalating religious tensions between Muslims and Christians in the CAR. These tensions are being exploited by the ex-Séléka coalition.

Red Cross workers bury a corpse near Bossangoa.

World Watch Monitor

Since the Séléka coup in March, the country has descended into anarchy. Warlords and militia continue to loot, rape and murder. After facing months of victimisation, the mostly Christian and Animist local population started forming self-defence groups in September to counter the marauding Séléka. These self-defence groups have now attacked Muslims, raising fears of inter-faith genocide, inviting brutal reprisals from Séléka.

The Séléka rebel alliance led by Michel Djotodia toppled the government of President Francois Bozizé in a coup in March. The rebels recruited as many as 20,000 mercenaries from Chad and Sudan. Their campaign to conquer Bangui was characterised by horrific violence directed at the mostly Christian population.

After the fall of Bangui and after Djotodia became President of the Transitional Government, the coalition lost control over the Séléka soldiers. Séléka was disbanded by Djotodia in September, but warlords and militia continue to loot, rape and murder Christians, in particular, while sparing Muslim villages.

The Africa Director of Open Doors, which is partnering with the main CAR Church leaders and denominations to both bring in aid and raise global awareness, said: “We remain concerned over ECCAS and the AU’s reluctance to ask for help from the UN in restoring order to CAR. We support the Church in CAR in asking for the deployment of at least 10,000 troops under the authority of the UN. We call on the UN Security Council members to vote in favour of this deployment, and thus prevent the genocidal interfaith war Christian leaders have warned the international community about in their Bangui Declaration.”

Meanwhile, the situation in the CAR was the subject of an hour’s debate in the UK’s House of Lords.

The founder of the All Parliamentary Group on International Freedom of Religion or Belief, Baroness Elizabeth Berridge, introduced the debate. Baroness Kinnock, a former Minister for Africa and the UN, quoted Adama Dieng, UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, who, she said, after a recent visit to the CAR, “did indeed speak of the possibility of genocide, in what he described as a ‘tinderbox’ and a country where ‘the scale of suffering is among the worst in the world’, and where a daunting host of problems impede delivery of humanitarian assistance”.