Apostasy, Fitna and abuse of Interpol

Saudi Arabia does not allow the public
 practice of any un-Islamic religion

If a 2 September report in the Saudi Gazette is true, then it may well be the first time Interpol as been abused by an Islamic State for the purpose of retrieving an apostate. 

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APOSTASY

On 28 July 2012, the Saudi Gazette reported: "A Saudi girl who recently embraced Christianity and fled the country for refuge in Lebanon told the host of a religious program on an Arabic TV channel that she was tired of performing prayers and fasting during Ramadan. 

"The girl, who said her name was Maryam, said praying and fasting did not bring her any benefits. She also criticized the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) and claimed that she was raised to hate Judaism and Christianity but fell in love with the religions after she found peace in Christianity.

"She said she became a Christian after she had a dream one night. In it, she climbed to the skies and heard God telling her that Jesus is His son." 

According to reports, Maryam (28) was working in an insurance firm in Al-Khobar when she became interested in Christianity through the influence of her Christian boss, Lebanese expatriate, Mr Henna Sarkees (50). An unnamed male Saudi national with links to the firm then secured false travel documents that allowed her to leave the country for Lebanon, then for Sweden. 

Henna Sarkees and the unnamed Saudi national will stand trial in Al-Khobar, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, on Saturday 15 September. Maryam's parents have charged the two men with coercing Maryam into converting to Christianity and then convincing her to leave the country without the consent of her male guardian. They have even suggested it may all be part of a conspiracy to get their daughter into the hands of international people-traffickers. 

Saudi media asserts that Maryam regrets her conversion, maintains she is still Muslim, denies ever talking to Arabic TV, desires to return home and is accusing Christians of taking her to Sweden against her will. 

For more background, details and links see: 
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 175 | Wed 05 Sep 2012
SAUDI ARABIA: convert flees; helpers to face court 
-- Interpol and Swedish authorities aid Saudi Embassy to hunt convert.
By Elizabeth Kendal

On 2 September, the following news report appeared in the Saudi Gazette: 
(copied in full; emphasis mine)
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Efforts on to bring back ‘Al-Khobar girl’ from Sweden
Sunday, September 02, 2012 

AL-KHOBAR —The Al-Khobar girl who fled the Kingdom after allegedly converting to Christianity will be brought home from Sweden in a matter of few days, Al-Yaum newspaper reported Saturday quoting informed sources.

The Interpol is coordinating with the Saudi Embassy in Stockholm and Swedish authorities to return the girl to her homeland before her 'kidnappers' move her to another country, the sources said.

The girl's father received phone calls from unknown people who threatened to kill his daughter or move her to another European country if the main suspect in her case, a Lebanese man named Henna Sarkess, was not released from jail in the Kingdom. 

Sources said it is highly likely that a global human trafficking network was involved in the kidnapping of the girl, who was persuaded by her Lebanese manager to embrace Christianity and leave the country without the knowledge of her family.

A Saudi was arrested for faking a travel permit, which the girl used to leave the Kingdom and go to Lebanon. There, she stayed with a Christian group inside a church for a while. When she told the group that she wanted to return to the Kingdom and that she regretted what she had done, the group decided to take her to Sweden because it did not want her to return to the Kingdom. 

The girl’s father has called upon the authorities to help him bring back his daughter. He said his daughter still talks to them over the phone and she is currently in Sweden. The father is worried that his daughter might get brainwashed. 

The Saudi Embassy in Stockholm said it received a letter from the girl’s father requesting it to help her return to the Kingdom. The [Saudi] embassy has started a search with the Swedish authorities.

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INTERPOL

The information in this section of the posting has mostly been gleaned from the following sources:

Interpol's Red Notices Used by Some to Pursue Political Dissenters, Opponents.
Investigative report by Libby Lewis, for The Cutting Edge, 25 July 2011 

GLOBAL ADMINISTRATIVE LAW MEETS “SOFT” POWERS:THE UNCOMFORTABLE CASE OF INTERPOL RED NOTICES
Journal article (91 pages) by Mario Savino, March 2010
Journal of International Law and Politics, New York University

The website of Fair Trials International / Interpol 

Interpol's official website 

INTERPOL: WHAT IS IT?

With 190 member countries, Interpol is the world's second largest international entity after the United Nations. As in the United Nations, Interpol's member countries span from totalitarian dictatorship to liberal democracies. While Interpol possesses many attributes of an international organisation, many would say it is really more of an international network, linking police globally for the purpose of facilitating police cooperation and law enforcement across the globe.

INTERPOL: HOW IT WORKS 

Interpol operates "a closed communications system linking police via vast international databases". (Lewis) Normally, police in member countries send Interpol a domestic arrest notice, which Interpol then sends out as a global Red Notice. On the basis of a Red Notice, police in other member countries may arrest suspects for extradition. 

While Interpol's Constitution mandates neutrality and prohibits "any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character," cooperation is based on trust -- i.e. Interpol trusts member countries not to abuse the system. 

WHERE IS THE PROBLEM?

While Interpol has doubtless made the world a safer place by facilitating the arrest of numerous transnational terrorists, traffickers and other criminals, there is nothing to prevent human rights-abusing, non-free, totalitarian states from abusing the system and using Interpol to extend their own repressive arms internationally. Indeed, dictatorial regimes have been known to abuse the system and use it to track down and capture, or even just drive underground, their most troublesome dissidents. 

And because Interpol is neither transparent nor accountable, it is extremely easy to abuse.

"Interpol is not entrusted with any significant investigative or operational powers. Those powers are still located at national level. . . Interpol's core business is the administration of information." (Savino, p26)

Fair Trials International reports: "Even though some of Interpol's member countries are known human rights abusers and notoriously corrupt, Interpol has no effective mechanisms to prevent countries, or even individual prosecutors, abusing the red notice system. As a result, even though most red notices may be perfectly valid, abuses of Interpol are also affecting human rights campaigners, journalists and businessmen, in countries all over the world.

"People in this situation have no independent court they can turn to for redress. Your only option is to request a review by a Commission, funded by Interpol and serviced by Interpol staff. You have no right to a hearing, no opportunity to respond to allegations against you and will be given no reasons for the decision reached. Even if the Commission concludes that a red notice is inaccurate or abusive, it cannot require its removal or amendment. It can only make non-binding recommendations."

According to Interpol's Chief Lawyer, Joël Sollier, the agency does try to ferret out dubious requests. His instruction to Interpol is that a Red Notice should be cancelled if there is any doubt. (Lewis)

According to Lewis, Interpol's issuance of Red Notices has increased markedly in recent years, from 2,343 Red Notices in 2005, to 6,344 in 2010. "Partly to deal with that increased workload, Interpol is putting more power into the hands of its police members.

"Two years ago," writes Lewis, "police had to apply directly to Interpol for a Red Notice. Today, every Red Notice request is entered into the system directly by the police themselves—not by Interpol. Police around the world instantly see those notices—before Interpol even reviews them.

"Police can also bypass the formal Red Notice system altogether—and just type an informal notice of arrest in an email—and post it on Interpol’s communications system. Those email notices—Interpol calls them 'diffusions'—go out instantly, with no automatic Interpol review."

And as Lewis notes, "these informal email notices are linked to far more arrests than arrests linked to the Red Notices Interpol vets for political concerns". In fact, according to Lewis, in 2010, at least 1,858 arrests were made of people named in email notices while only 663 arrests were made of people named in Red Notices.

This might explain why in February of this year, while Malaysian police were claiming that they had arrested the Saudi tweeter Hamza Kashgari (23) "following a request made to us by Interpol" on behalf of the Saudi authorities, Interpol was strongly denying that it had anything to do with it. 

See: Interpol accused after Malaysia arrests journalist over Muhammad tweet
Police agency strongly denies its system used by Saudi Arabia to get journalist detained for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter
By Own Bowcott, The Guardian, 10 February 2012

Kashgari had fled Saudi Arabia after his tweeted imaginary conversation with the prophet Mohammad was deemed blasphemous. After being arrested in Malaysia and extradited, he was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.He remains in prison to this day, still offering up apologies, but to no avail. Voices are still calling for him to be executed. 

There have also been some really obvious and undeniable abuses of Interpol.

One such case involves Indonesia's call for a Red Notice to be issued against Papuan independence advocate Benny Wenda (36). The Red Notice was issued despite the fact that the persecuted, tortured, now Oxford-based Wenda had been granted asylum in the UK. Only in August of this year was the Red Notice against Wenda dropped. 

See: Benny Wenda's plight has highlighted the misuse of Interpol
Interpol must act to stop its red notice system being abused by countries to persecute refugees and exiled political activists
By Alex Tinsley, The Guardian, 6 Aug 2012.

In an article published by CNN, Libby Lewis raises the case of Iranian dissident Shahram Homayoun (57). "After fleeing Iran in 1992 and moving to Los Angeles, Homayoun started a satellite television station, Channel One, to beam a message of civil resistance into the homes of Iranians.

"Over the years, his audience has scribbled his slogan, Ma Hastim ("We exist" in Farsi) on Iranian walls and bridges to promote democracy in the country. He has also called on his listeners to show their solidarity in creative ways, such as gathering at the tomb of Cyrus the Great or showing up at their local bakery on the same day -- every Thursday -- and asking for bread. 

"At the request of Iran, which charged Homayoun with inciting terrorism, Interpol issued a Red Notice in December 2009 requesting Homayoun's arrest."

Regarding Maryam, all the Saudi authorities would have had to do was to report through Interpol channels that a Saudi Arabian girl was being held in Sweden against her will, possibly by international traffickers, and request help to retrieve her and return her to her family. And with that, Maryam's hopes of liberty are dashed.  

FITNA

As I said in my opening remarks, if the 2 Sept 2012 report in the Saudi Gazette is true, then it may well be the first time Interpol has been abused by an Islamic State for the purpose of retrieving an apostate. 

In the past, Islamic states have generally been content to let apostates flee, for at least then they are not be around to spread fitna (temptation / doubt) amongst the locals. However, in these days of global communications -- satellite TV, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc -- the apostate can generate far more fitna from a safe-haven in the West than they ever could at home. And "fitna is worse than killing". (Qur'an Sura2:191).

Christian advocacy groups that have excelled at speaking into political power must quickly learn how to speak into international law enforcement so that Interpol and national police forces do not become unwitting extensions of Islamic religious police. 

Four years: shadow of anti-Christian pogrom lingers

India (MNN) ― Four years after the anti-Christian pogrom in India's Orissa State, 10,000 remain displaced.

Dave Stravers, president of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India, explains that in the wake of the violence, "Promises were made to these tribal villagers by government officials, but really not kept. People are afraid to go back because there are still threats of violence and even continuing violence in the area."

Justice has been slow in coming, so nearly 5,000 victims and survivors of the 2008 communal violence in Kandhamal district, Orissa, lent their voices of protest at a public rally marking the fourth anniversary of the violence and call for justice, peace, and harmony.

The attacks, led by Hindu extremists, caused 55,000 Christians to flee their homes. They have little recourse, Stravers says, because "these tribal Christians would be considered the bottom of the social ladder, so they don't have much political clout. They're discriminated against anyway, so they're just basically being ignored by the powers that be."

Asia News reports bear that out. Of the 3,232 complaints filed by victims and their families, district police accepted 48% of the cases. A scant 828 were registered as a first information report (FIR).

The numbers from Asia News also show that out of 245 cases dealt with by the Fast Track Court, convictions were obtained in 73 cases. Another 267 cases are still waiting to go to trial. Of the thousands accused in the pogroms, only 452 have been convicted; all the others were acquitted of the charges. Six have been sentenced to life in prison out of the 30 cases involving murder.

Despite the slow journey to justice, the work of Mission India continues, notes Stravers. "We still continue to work in all of Orissa, in all the different districts, including the tribal districts--all those places where you have these incidents of violence and our partners continue to work."

However, teams have had to be more careful in the days since the 2008 riots. "Obviously in those places where there has been this violence and continuing threats, there are many Christian workers that just don't feel that it's safe to carry on ministry. For us, that's the big prayer request."

Then, this news came: the Himachal Pradesh High Court struck down two provisions of the anti-conversion law. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported the decision on August 30.

Stravers says, "The changes that the Himachal Pradesh High Court delivered are really good for Orissa because they struck down a section of the law which makes it mandatory for any person seeking to convert to go and give prior notice to local authorities before he actually would be baptized."

On the other, "The court decision of Himachal Pradesh did not strike down the entire law, and people are unhappy about that." Stravers goes on to add, "The prayers are that these anti-conversion laws will continue to be struck down piece by piece, if necessary."

Yet, because the legal precedence has been set, they're hoping for a similar response to follow in neighboring states. "Orissa has the same law. Technically, in Orissa if you become a believer and you want to be baptized, you have to go to the chief of police and receive their permission first to do this. Of course, this sets you up for all kinds of intimidation/threats of violence."

Stravers knows their team. Regardless of what happens with the anti-conversion laws, the Gospel will still go forward. In fact, so far, "People are baptized, usually en masse, without first seeking permission because they're going to do it whether they get permission or not. So this section of the law is not routinely enforced."

Disruption their partners endure isn't on the same scale as the anti-Christian violence of 2008. However, it comes regularly. One of their literacy class teachers and his mother were recently assaulted and warned to stop their work or be driven out of the village. Stravers says what happened next is a near-daily occurrence throughout India. "They were both told, 'Convert back to Hinduism within a week or else leave the village and stop your work.' They're praying. They don't know quite what to do. It's a real situation of severe persecution for anyone who is aggressively bringing good news to people."

Pray for patience in this situation. Once the villagers learn to read, they will see the benefits of finishing this class. Pray for patience and wisdom for the teacher and his family. It's only a matter of time before something good comes from the Gospel seeds planted.

Stravers sums it up this way: "Jesus said repeatedly to His disciples, even when He was predicting persecution, 'Do not be afraid. Speak boldly because Jesus reigns.' So that's what we pray for."

Pakistan considers anti-conversion laws; India's Christians concerned

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

India (MNN) ― Shunned and hated in Pakistan, families who suffered through torture, kidnapping and increasing pressure to convert to Islam finally fled across the border to India.

The only difference is that instead of Christian families, those on the run were Hindu. That prompted a huge cry from the Indian government on their behalf.

Officially, the government's stance is that Pakistani Hindus arriving in India are on pilgrimage. However, this week, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari waded into the fray. After being briefed on the growing problem of mass migration, he told the Sindh government to amend the Constitution and write an "anti-conversion" law.

That is raising some alarms. Pakistan already has a "blasphemy" law which is frequently used to settle personal scores with Christians. Even though a new anti-conversion bill is supposed to protect minority religions, that's not how it's often enforced.  

On top of that, Dave Stravers with Grand Rapids, Michigan-basedMission India says if Pakistan comes up with its own "anti-conversion" law, it sets a precedent that neighboring states in India are likely to follow. Additionally, some Hindu leaders have grown more aware of the fast growth of Christians, especially in light of the Dalit Awakening in 2001. 

"They're worried that their culture is being eroded and their political influence, their power, is being eroded. So they want to stop it." 

Though India's constitution provides full religious freedom of worship and witness for all religions, there remains opposition. The rise of Hindutva extremism -- "India is Hindu only" -- resulted in hate campaigns against Christians and Muslims.

"Any law proposed in any India state will affect Christians first," Stravers notes. Harsh anti-conversion regulations in at least five states have done little to placate Hindu extremists. In many districts, the laws are often loosely worded and widely open to interpretation.  

In smaller villages, Christians are given a choice: reconvert to Hinduism, leave the village, or face death. The risk of violent mobs and riots exploding into days of rampage is high. Simmering tensions are threatening to explode with the smallest twitch. Stravers agrees, "Inter-religious conflict and inter-ethnic conflict in this (border) region is often violent.... It causes a lot of fear."

Yet, oppression has done little to stem the flow of the Gospel. Stravers marvels, "Christian workers have such a great deal of courage in the face of opposition." Pray that despite the intimidation and violence in many of India's states, Christians will unashamedly preach the Gospel.