Rescue mission for 2,000 vulnerable Christians trapped in Sudan underway

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN (ANS) -- Barnabas Aid’s major operation to rescue 2,000 Christian women and children trapped in Sudan got underway on Thursday, September 19, 2012, with the first successful airlift to South Sudan.

The first group of returning Christians are helped off the plane in Juba

A number of practical and bureaucratic obstacles that had delayed the start of the rescue mission have been overcome, enabling the first of 12 chartered flights to depart from Khartoum for Juba.

The second and third flights are scheduled for tomorrow, with more to be arranged in the days and weeks ahead.

Church and community leaders have identified the most needy and vulnerable Christians among the hundreds of thousands of Southerners trapped in Khartoum.

“We are flying approximately 800 women, around two-thirds of whom are widows, and 1,200 children to Juba. The cost per person is US$275,” said a spokesperson for Barnabas Aid.

“They will be welcomed at temporary reception facilities set up by the South Sudanese government before moving on to extended family connections around the country. The Church in South Sudan is ready to help with their practical needs."

Endangered and impoverished

Christian women and children awaiting  their return to South Sudan

Christians of Southern origin remaining in Sudan are extremely vulnerable. They were stripped of their citizenship after the South voted to secede and were given a deadline to leave. President Omar al-Bashir has made it very clear that they are not welcome, repeatedly declaring his intention to make the country’s next constitution 100% Islamic and strengthen sharia law.

Many have made their own way to South Sudan, but hundreds of thousands remain trapped in a country that is increasingly hostile to their presence, and the Sudanese government has closed the border to prevent any more travelling to South Sudan by the river Nile.

“Their vulnerability has intensified over the last week as violent Islamic protests against the film Innocence of Muslims rocked Sudan; several Western embassies in Khartoum have been attacked and threats made against Christians in the city,” said the spokesperson.

“As well as facing danger, the impoverished Southern Christians have been living in dire conditions in makeshift shelters on the outskirts of the capital for many months.”

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, said: “We are extremely thankful to the Lord that this rescue mission is now underway. He has gone before us and prepared the way, removing obstacles one by one. These vulnerable Christian women and children, who have endured so much hardship and suffering, can now look forward to beginning a new life in South Sudan.”

Anti-Christian Incidents Nearly Doubled in Indonesia in 2011

Attempts to institutionalize intolerance, close churches increase.

NEW DELHI, January 4 (CDN) — Acts of violence and intolerance against Christians in Indonesia almost doubled in 2011, with an Islamist campaign to close down churches symbolizing the plight of the religious minority.


The Indonesian Protestant Church Union, locally known as PGI, counted 54 acts of violence and other violations against Christians in 2011, up from 30 in 2010.


The number of such incidents against religious minorities in general also grew, from 198 in 2010 to 276 in 2011, but the worst is perhaps yet to come if authorities continue to overlook the threat of extremism, said a representative from the Jakarta-based Wahid Institute, a Muslim organization that promotes tolerance.


Rumadi, who goes by a single name, said his Wahid Institute also observed an attempt to institutionalize intolerance in this archipelago of about 238 million people, of whom about 88 percent Muslim. At least 36 regulations to ban religious practices deemed deviant from Islam were drafted or implemented in the country in 2011.


A Jakarta-based civil rights group, the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, noted that both the government and groups in society were responsible for the incidents, with the main violators including religious extremist organizations such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).


Indonesia’s hot-bed of extremism is West Java, the most populous province that includes the nation’s capital city of Jakarta. This province alone witnessed 160 incidents against religious minorities. In the 1950s, West Java was the base of an Islamist group, Darul Islam, whose splinter groups are still active, fighting the “secular” government and religious minorities.


Church Closures 
Churches in West Java, which has about 520,000 Christians, also suffered the most last year. On Christmas Day, two churches in West Java’s Bogor city bore the brunt of growing extremism.


“Islamist vigilantes screamed and yelled at us and threatened us, as we sought to hold a Christmas service,” a leader of the Gereja Kristen Indonesia, also known as the GKI or the Yasmin Church, told Compass in an email.


“We could not hold Christmas service in our own church for a second year,” said the source, who requested anonymity.


The city administration, allegedly under pressure from local extremist groups, sealed off the half-constructed building of the church, situated in the Taman Yasmin housing complex on a street named H. Abdullah Bin Nuh, in 2010. Before Christmas that year, the Supreme Court ordered the city mayor, Diani Budiarto, to unseal the church building, and later an ombudsman also recommended the same, but the official refused to oblige. The church has held worship services on a sidewalk, with police cordoning off the compound, since April 2010.


On Dec. 25, church members insisted they wanted to celebrate Christmas in the building, which is legally theirs, but police prevented them from even going near the structure, the source said. The congregation met in a church member’s home.


Showing solidarity with the church were members of Ansor, youth wing of one of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU); interfaith activists, including the sister and youngest daughter of former president Abdurrahman Wahid; and members of the Asian Muslim Action Network. But they could do little to help.


“The police first allowed the vigilantes to stand next to us, and then moved them just about three meters away,” the church leader said. “The vigilantes issued threats to us, but the police did not arrest them.”


Having overseen the sealing of the Yasmin church, Muslim extremists are now targeting a 2,000-member Catholic church in Bogor city’s Parung area. The Santo Joannes Baptista (St. John the Baptist) church was able to hold its mass on Christmas Eve, followed by a Christmas Day service, although authorities had formally ordered the church to stop all activities.


The church building was constructed six years ago, but days before Christmas the head of Bogor district, Rachmat Yasin, issued the cessation order arguing that its construction violated planning rules due to its proximity to a residential area. Soon after the order, a group called the Muslim Community of Parung Bogor placed a banner near the church, stating that it was in support of Rachmat’s move to ban church activities, according to The Jakarta Globe.


“The site is not for a church, but it was a house turned into a house of worship. It is a violation,” Rachmat told the daily. “Moreover, they worship on a regular basis. It is a mistake.”


The head of the Indonesian Bishops Conference, Benny Susetyo, said there had been no conflict between the church and the people living in its vicinity for six years.


“The problem arose when a group of people started to disturb the calm in the region around the house of worship,” he told The Jakarta Globe.


Susetyo added that district authorities had repeatedly rejected demands made by the church for a permit, without giving any reason.


“This is despite us having clearly followed the procedure for the construction of houses of worship.”


Islamist groups have demanded a similar action against five other churches in Pracimantoro town in Central Java province, the source added. These churches – Pentecostal Church of Indonesia in the Ngalu Wetan area, Church of all Nations and Bethel Tabernacle Church in the Gebangharjo area, Javanese Christian Church in the Godang area, and Nazarene Christian Church in the Lebak area – have operational permits to hold church services. They had applied for building permits, but authorities never responded.


Central Java is also a hub of Islamist extremists. Last Sept. 25, a suicide bomber said to be an Islamist terrorist blew himself up at the gate of the Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (Bethel Full Gospel Church) in Solo city, injuring about 20 people.


Sealing of church buildings and the refusal to grant building permits top the list of major violations of Christians’ religious rights in Indonesia, according to the Setara Institute. A 2006 joint ministerial decree requires signatures from congregations and residents living nearby, as well as approval from the local administration, to build a house of worship.


Government Inaction
The Setara Institute criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for inaction. The president urged people to be tolerant in at least 19 of his speeches in 2011, but he has not backed his words with action, it noted in a recent report.


Intolerance has steadily been increasing in Indonesia, whose constitution is based on the doctrine of Pancasila – five principles upholding the nation’s belief in the one and only God and social justice, humanity, unity and democracy for all.


The Setara report cited a February incident in which a mob of about 1,500 Muslim extremists brutally killed three members of the Ahmadiyya community, which is seen as heretical by mainstream Muslims, in the province of Banten near West Java.


“Cases of intolerance have intensified this year, numbering more than last year, and at the core of the problem is poor law enforcement by the government,” Setara deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos told The Jakarta Globe.



END

Christian Areas of Jos, Nigeria Bombed, Killing One

Explosions hit three TV viewing centers during high-profile soccer match.

By Obed Minchakpu

 

JOS, Nigeria, December 15 (Compass Direct News) – Joshua Dabo, like other young Christians in this city in central Nigeria, had dreams for his life. He had graduated from a Christian high school, Mt. Olives Secondary School, and at 31 was finally looking forward to attending university.

 

Apart from commitment to his fellowship at Nasara Baptist Church at Tirji Junction near the University of Jos, Dabo ran a barbershop to earn income as he awaited admission to college, and he was an ardent soccer player and fan.

 

As such he made sure to be among the 120 people from the Christian community on Bauchi Ring Road who paid to watch a classic soccer rivalry, Barcelona FC v. Real Madrid, on TV at an outdoor bar (called a “viewing center” in Nigeria) on Saturday night (Dec. 10). A few minutes into the match, televised in the hall of corrugated sheet metal at Yangwava Television Viewing Center at Ukadum village, a bomb went off.

 

“It was shocking for me,” said viewing center owner Emmanuel Exodus Nimkun, 30, of the Ukadum congregation of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN). “I saw Joshua Dabo standing without a head. I have never seen a thing like this – a human being standing but with his head blasted off, and he was struggling to move.”

 

Dabo was the lone fatality in three bomb blasts targeting viewing centers in predominantly Christian areas of Jos during the Spanish soccer match; at least 10 others were injured in the blasts, leaving four in critical condition, including two in a coma.

 

Nimkun told Compass that he was bleeding and his back was hurt after the explosion, but he held Dabo and brought him down.

 

“I began to cry, and suddenly there were shouts that another bomb was hidden in a bag beside the viewing hall that had not exploded,” he said. ‘We all ran out, and then a policeman came to the scene. He picked up courage and went to check the bag, and the device was intact.”

 

A few minutes later, military personnel arrived and took the device away, he said.

 

“They told us that the battery of the device had run out, and that that was the reason it did not explode,” Nimkun said. “If it had exploded, they told us, the destruction could have been massive.”

 

Nimkun said his cousin was badly injured and was among six people taken to Jos University Teaching Hospital.

 

A worker with the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission, Nimkun said he opened the TV viewing center for additional income, never considering that it would become a target for Muslim extremists. The culprits were unknown at press time, but the area has a history of Christian-Muslim conflict.

 

“I cannot reconstruct that place again, because it will keep reminding us of that sad incident – if only for the remembrance of Dabo, I will not reopen that place again,” he said. “This is a person killed not because he has done anything wrong but because he is a Christian.”

 

Danladi Dabo, Joshua Dabo’s older brother and a member of Nasara Baptist Church, said he was at home when he first heard an explosion at another viewing center, in Jos’ Tina Junction area.

 

“Knowing that my brother is a soccer fan, I raced to the viewing center near our house to alert them, but just about 100 meters to the place, my fears were confirmed as a bomb exploded,” Dabo said. “I was dazed by the explosion, but I kept running there, knowing that my brother was in there. On getting there I found my brother’s body but with no head. I was shocked.”

 

Family members buried Joshua Dabo on Sunday (Dec. 11).

 

Danladi Dabo said that Christians in Jos have reached out to their Muslim neighbors, but Muslims seem uninterested in peaceful relations with Christians.

 

“The government has urged us to live peacefully with each other, but while we Christians have accepted to live peacefully with Muslims, they have continued to attack us,” Dabo said. “I pray and urge the Nigerian government to take decisive steps to stop these killings, now that they know that Muslims are the aggressors.”

 

Damaged House

One of the survivors of the attack, 22-year-old Gift Danjuma of Zumunci Baptist Church in the Ukadum area, told Compass that her family has lost four members to religious conflict in Jos in the past three years.

 

“I thank God that I survived this attack, but this is becoming too much for us,” she said. “In the last three years we’ve had four members of our family killed – Umaru Haruna, Salami Mainoma Dutse, Esther Ishaya, and Ruth Danladi.”

 

Muslim extremists killed Haruna, Ishaya and Danladi as they returned from work in 2008, while Dutse was killed in 2010 while returning from a church activity, she said.

 

“Unless the Nigerian government does something urgently to curtail these attacks on us Christians by Muslims, we will get to the point that Christians will have no other option than to fight back in order to stay alive,” Danjuma said.

 

At Tina Junction along the Bauchi Ring Road in Jos, where the first bomb exploded, Hiroshima Ishaku Nyam, a member of the Jos Jarawa COCIN congregation, told Compass that his house was damaged by the bomb at the TV viewing center opposite his house.

 

“I was sleeping when the sound of a loud explosion woke me up,” Nyam said. “The entire house was shaking and vibrating. Suddenly the ceiling in my bedroom and the living room caved in.”

 

He switched on a flashlight but could hardly see anything, he said.

 

“There was dust all over,” Nyam said. “I struggled until I found my way out of the room. It was then that I heard people outside our house shouting that a bomb had exploded at the TV viewing center opposite our house.”

 

Nyam said his family had travelled to Abuja for a church program, so he was able to restrain himself from running out to check on them. Some 20 minutes later, he heard gunshots outside, confirming his resolve to stay inside.

 

Ironically, he said, the University of Jos had organized a peace meeting that brought together area Christians and Muslims a few meters from one of the bombed viewing centers.

 

Nyam said that after the bombings, it will be difficult for Christians to trust Muslims again.

 

“How will Christians be convinced that Muslims really want genuine reconciliation in the face of the bombings and secret killings of members of Christian communities going on in the city of Jos?” he said.

 

The third TV viewing center bombed is located opposite the University of Jos Staff Quarters along Bauchi Ring Road. It is also a few meters away from a Christian ministry known as City of David.

 

James Daniel, 22, an apprentice carpenter and a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All Nasarawa Gwong congregation, told Compass that about 100 Christians were watching the soccer game at the TV viewing center.

 

Daniel, whose carpentry workshop is near the TV viewing center, said the bombs planted at Tina Junction and Ukadum went off first.

 

“Most of the viewers here are Christian students of the University of Jos who reside here,” he said. “Thank God none of them died, as most of them only sustained injuries.”

 

Daniel said that ever since the Christmas Eve bombings in the Angwan Rukuba area of Jos last year, Muslims have targeted Christians through bombings or secret killings.

 

Plateau state has seen religious conflict since 2001.

 

END

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

Arab Spring 1 Year Later: Outlook Gloomy for Suffering Christians

SANTA ANA, Calif., Dec. 13, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Almost a year ago a wave of revolutions started in the Middle East, with Tunisia the central country where the first regime tumbled. 

Called the "Arab Spring," repressive governments crumpled like dominoes, changing the landscape of the Middle East and North Africa forever and sending shockwaves around the world.

Unfortunately for the already minority Christian population in Muslim-dominated countries like Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, the future is all but clear. Will 2012 bring more persecution and marginalization for Christians or greater liberty to worship?

So far, the signs are not encouraging, according to Open Doors USA President/CEO Dr. Carl Moeller.

"Many hail this movement of popular discontent that has toppled dictators as victory for democracy," Moeller says. "But within Arab Spring are troubling incidents against Christians, even those in countries yet unreached by the revolutionary wave. For Westerners, the notion of democracy is majority and minority groups working together, each having a voice at the table.

"But the model unfolding in these lands is far from Jeffersonian. A possible result is the law of mob rule, where Islamists are likely to control governments, exclude minority faiths even from police protection, and Christians live in constant terror from the clear message: There is no place here for Christians."

Moeller adds that the current situation in Egypt where the Islamists' Muslim Brotherhood is holding an estimated 40 percent of the seats in the parliamentary elections so far is a reality check for Coptic and evangelical Christians, who comprise 10 percent of the population. Hardline Salafists are also doing well in the on-going election.

Moeller adds: "There have been significant reports of increased violence against Christians. We know Christians whose churches have been burned, and thousands who have been affected by extremist groups.

"Hopefully a new government will produce more protections for the Christians, but that's not necessarily something that people are expecting. Many are fearing that there will be a decrease in the capacity of Christians to freely exercise their faith, as well as further restrictions on their public activity."

Likewise, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has repeatedly spoken out regarding the plight of Egypt's largest minority.

"For hundreds of years, Jews have known persecution, both political and religious," says Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, Director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "We know the particular virulence of the latter, and we therefore fear for Egypt's Copts. They have suffered discrimination for decades as a vulnerable minority. What they face from a resurgence of Islamist fervor is something we would like not to think about, but moral outrage leaves us no choice.

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center has asked Egypt's interim government to demonstrate its commitment to her Christians by a visible and demonstrable security presence to protect her communities and institutions. It has tried to persuade the world community to measure the success of Egypt's experiment with democracy -- as well as those of other countries that have thrown off the yoke of dictatorship -- first and foremost by how well she guarantees religious liberties. Egypt is not Syria. It will respond to wall-to-wall pressure from the West. It is the job of all with a conscience to ensure that this pressure is applied."

A Coptic Christian recently told a visiting team from Open Doors that "we have lived side by side with Muslims for many decades without problems, but a lot of these extremists hold very radical views and are not afraid of using violence. It feels we are going backwards -- moving in the wrong direction."

Some Christians have already left Egypt and others are preparing to leave. According to Moeller, a mass exodus of Christians from Egypt would be disastrous.

"Thousands of Christians have either left Iraq or fled to the northern part of the country due to the violence against them by Muslim extremists," he states. "There were almost 1 million Christians in Iraq in the early 1990s but now only an estimated 345,000," he states. "Pray that does not happen in Egypt....that there is not another religicide."

Another Christian in Egypt made the following request to the Open Doors team while saying goodbye:

"Thank you for coming. It was a great encouragement and it really meant something for us. Please remember us in your prayers and ask believers in the West to pray for us. We need your prayers. We need to be one in Christ in this challenging chapter of our history. My wife and I want to stay here, but we know it will not be easy. Please, do not forget us and leave us alone."

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 our Website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.

Muslim Extremists Destroy Lives, Church Buildings in Nigeria

One woman, three girls killed as northeastern states of Yobe, Bauchi heat up.

By Obed Minchakpu

 

The blood-stained home of Samaila
 Darabo in Gargari, Bauchi state.
(Courtesy Compass News Direct)

GEIDAM, Nigeria, December 2 (Compass Direct News) – In Nigeria’s increasingly dangerous northeast, Muslim extremists in this town in Yobe state helped members of the Islamic terrorist sect Boko Haram destroy five church buildings last Saturday (Nov. 26), while previously in neighboring Bauchi state Islamic radicals killed four Christians, including three girls.

 

Boko Haram members’ weekend rampage in the Yobe state town of Geidam destroyed all Christian-owned businesses, as area Muslims pointed them out for the sect raiders, according to local Christians. Five of the eight church buildings in town were ruined, and the violence displaced about 700 Christians, sources said.

 

When Compass visited the town on Tuesday (Nov. 29), only two of the eight pastors in the town remained. The other six pastors and their families had fled.

 

The Rev. Amos Ajeje, 48, vice chairman of the Geidam chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Compass that local Muslims assisted Boko Haram members in carrying out the attacks on Christians. He said the attack by Boko Haram, which seeks to impose a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) than that already in place in northern Nigeria and expand it to the rest of the country, had driven all other Christians from town.

 

Ruined interior of the Deeper Life
 Bible Church in Geidam, Yobe state.
(Courtesy Compass News Direct)

“There are no more Christians in this town,” Ajeje said. “All shops belonging to Christians have been looted and then destroyed by these Muslims. Many of these Christians who fled into bushes when the attack was going on have never returned.”

 

The Rev. Bitrus Mshelbara, pastor of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) at Geidam, confirmed that local Muslims led the Boko Haram members to the church buildings and Christian-owned businesses.

 

“The Muslims in this town were going ‘round town pointing out church buildings and shops owned by Christians to members of Boko Haram, and they in turn bombed these churches and shops,” he said.

 

Destroyed in the attack were worship buildings belonging to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Emmanuel Anglican Church, Living Faith Church, Deeper Life Bible Church and Cherubim and Seraphim Church. These buildings were located in the Geidam areas of Kafela, Akodiri Street, and Low-Cost Housing Estate.

 

“Boko Haram members came in a convoy of cars last Saturday at about six o’clock in the evening,” Ajeje said. “They were well-armed. They attacked the police station. They exchanged gunshots with the police and overpowered them. After this they broke into the First Bank and removed money there, before they were joined by Muslims here to bomb churches. That is how the five churches were destroyed.”

 

Because of the attack, the three remaining churches in town were unable to hold worship services on Sunday (Nov. 27), he said.

 

“Our church members who ran away when the attack took place could not come back, so it was not possible for us to conduct worship services on Sunday,” Ajeje said. “Our fate is hanging in the balance because we do not know what will happen next.”

 

Pastor of an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation of about 120, Ajeje added that Boko Haram members set fire to a local government building and the town’s high court.

 

Ajeje’s ECWA church building was among the three remaining in Geidam.

 

“We thank God that no one was killed, but I must say that this has brought fear to Christians since we are a minority here,” he said. “In all we just have about 700 Christians in the town, and all are dependent on their small businesses to survive. With these businesses now destroyed, how will they survive if they remain here? I guess that must be the reason they have not returned since fleeing the town on the day of the attack.”

 

Mshelbara told Compass that his COCIN church building is standing only because of the pleas of a Muslim neighbor boy.

 

“My church was spared because of a son of my Muslim neighbor who was among the local Muslims that accompanied Boko Haram members as they burned down churches,” Mshelbara said. “He pleaded with them not to set fire on our church because burning down our church will affect their house, as their house shares walls with our church building. More so, our neighbor the Muslim was sick and was in his house at the time. Based on the pleas of the young Muslim man, our church was spared.”

 

At Emmanuel Anglican Church, Mshelbara said, a church program was underway at the time of the attack.

 

“But they were alerted, and they all escaped by jumping over the fence constructed around the church premises before Boko Haram members got there – you can see the destruction yourself,” Mshelbara said, pointing at the charred church building.

 

Christians at the Deeper Life Bible Church in the Low Cost Housing Estate area also escaped, he said.

 

“Deeper Life members were holding an evening service, too, when the attack by Boko Haram was going on,” Mshelbara said. “They too were alerted, and they all escaped from the church before it was destroyed.”

 

Peter Mgoni, secretary of the Geidam ECWA church, said the Muslims looted shops and churches before burning them.

 

“Boko Haram is an anti-Christian movement out to establish sharia in Nigeria,” he said. “This is the reason they attack churches, just as they attack government institutions. They know that they cannot establish sharia without first crippling the government, and that is the reason they attack the police, after which they now come for us Christians by destroying our churches and businesses.”

 

Gargari Killings

In neighboring Bauchi state, 48-year-old Samaila Darabo called the members of his household together for the evening family devotion in Gargari village on Nov. 17. He led them in the reading of the Bible and prayer, and shortly afterwards they went to bed.

 

At about 2 a.m., he was suddenly awakened by his barking dogs. He stepped out of his room only to be confronted with bright lights from different directions around his compound. Stunned, he blindly pushed away part of the mud-brick walls closest to his room. Climbing over the fence and bolting out, he escaped to alert other neighbors about a raid on the village.

 

The assailants were later identified as local Muslim extremists who came in groups to attack the village on Nov. 18. Darabo’s escape and warning are credited with saving the entire community except for some family members in three residential compounds. Darabo lost his 12-year-old daughter, Laraba Samaila, and his wife, Rifkatu Samaila. She was 48.

 

In another home, the Muslim extremists killed 11-year-old Gloria Zakka and 7-year-old Martha Zakka, daughters of Zakka Jumba, Darabo’s brother. After attacking these and another residential compound of the Christian community in Gargari in the Bogoro Local Government Area, the assailants withdrew.

 

Six other people were injured in the attack, including relatives of Darabo’s other brother, Harunna Jumba.

 

“I climbed a fenced wall just beside the door to my room, and in the process a part of the wall collapsed with me,” Darabo said. “The collapsing wall forced some of the attackers to move away from the spot, and this gave me the opportunity to escape.”

 

After alerting neighbors, they quickly contacted soldiers in nearby Gobbiya village, he said.

 

“By then, the attackers had already left, having set fire on my house and that of my brothers,” he said. “They killed my wife, Rifkatu, and my daughter, Laraba. They also attacked some of my family members with machetes and shot them too. My brother had two of his daughters, Gloria and Martha killed. That is the grave where we buried the four of them you are seeing over there.”

 

Receiving hospital treatment from injuries sustained in the attack were 2-month-old Matwi Mathias, Esther John, Rebecca Zakka, Yelshi Zakka, Sarauniya Samaila, and Mummy Zakka.

 

Aminu Gida, 38, told Compass that he was awakened by sounds of gunshots and the cries of children and women that night.

 

“The men who attacked us are Muslims whom we know live just across the river north of our village of Gargari,” Gida said. “They came in groups that night and started the attack from the western part of the village.”

 

Yakubu Lawal, 58, said attacks on Gargari village began as far back as 1991 and have become more regular. This year alone, he said, the community has been attacked about four times.

 

“The first attack was on June 28, when at about 10 a.m. six Christian girls from the village who were returning from their farms were attacked by a group of Muslim attackers,” he said. “They took one of the girls away and raped her in turns before leaving her to die in the bush.”

 

The girl survived and was found days later, he said. Two young Christian men were also attacked the same day while working on their farm, and the assailants also stole two cows, Lawal said.

 

The second attack on the village, Lawal said, came on July 6, when seven members of the community returning from Bogoro town were ambushed by another group of Muslims.

 

“Three of them were killed – Yohanna Godiya, Appollos Godiya and Rhoda Gashon,” Lawal said. “The remaining four were injured in the attack – the wife of the village pastor, Mrs. Talatu Karmus, and Rahila Gashon and Ruth Gashon. The fourth victim of the attack was a 6-month-old baby.”

 

On Oct. 8 at about 8 p.m., four members of the Christian community were returning from the neighboring village of Gobbiya when they were attacked by another group of Muslims, he said. They escaped unhurt, but before the Muslims withdrew from the village they set fire to the house of Joseph Ezekiel.

 

Ishaku Gambo, 58, pastor of the village COCIN congregation, told Compass the attacks have crippled worship. The church had an average attendance of about 200 at Sunday services; now only about 105 show up, he said.

 

“The reason is that some members have to keep watch over the village while church service is going on,” he said.

 

Gambo urged the Nigerian government to urgently find a lasting solution to attacks on Christian communities in northern Nigeria.

 

Another Village Attacked

In neighboring Tudun Wada Gobbiya Kazar village, Christians have been forced to flee, with more than 60 residents now living in Gobiyya town as displaced persons, Christians said.

 

Tudun Wada Gobbiya Kazar village was last attacked on Oct. 1, when its Christian village head, Bitrus Ramako, was killed. A member of the local ECWA in Gobbiya, Ramako was killed at about 10 p.m., area Christians said. Muslim assailants set fire to his house after killing him and then raided the entire village, forcing the Christian villagers out, they said.

 

Solomon Jingina, 41, pastor of the ECWA Church in Gobbiya, told Compass the displaced Christians are living outside their village without any form of assistance. Jingina said there is an urgent need for the Nigerian government to intervene.

 

“These 60 members of my church are now homeless, and they cannot return to the village because of the incessant attacks on them,” he said. “I want to appeal for the Nigerian government to address this problem of attacks on Christians, as this is threatening the peaceful co-existence of the people of this country.”

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

**********

Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

 

At Least 45 Christians Killed in Plateau State, Nigeria

Charred interior of Christian-owned home burned  by Muslim assailants in Barkin Ladi, Platea state.

(Photo: Compass)

Charred interior of Christian-owned home burned
 by Muslim assailants in Barkin Ladi, Platea state.

(Photo: Compass)

Ethnic Fulanis crying ‘Allahu akbar!’ attack church, communities.

BARKIN LADI, Nigeria, November 28 (CDN) — Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said.

Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders.

Church attendance was decimated yesterday as thousands of Christians have left the area.

“Christians are fleeing the town because we have no guns to fight back,” said one woman in a group of six Christians trying to leave Barkin Ladi. “Muslims have guns, and they have their soldiers fighting for them, so we have no choice but to leave town.”

Almost all churches in the town cancelled or held reduced worship services on the first Sunday (Nov. 27) after the crisis was contained, as nearly all area Christians have fled to Jos or have left Plateau state, long hit by ethnic property conflicts fueled by anti-Christian sentiment. In March 2010 ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, suffered attacks from Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land, resulting in hundreds of deaths in three villages near Jos.

In the attack on Thursday (Nov. 24), the Fulani Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” said farmer Choji Pamjamo, 51.

“On Thursday at about 9 a.m., the Muslims’ call to prayer was made at the Izala [Islamic sect] mosque,” Pamjamo said. “And shortly after that, we saw hundreds of armed Muslims invading the town from all directions, attacking and killing Christians. They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,’ as they were burning properties belonging to Christians.”

Pamjamo confirmed Christian leaders’ account of an attack on a Church of Christ of Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in the Sabon Layi (Rantya) area of Barkin Ladi the previous night (Nov. 23), saying that among the four Christians killed was Bible teacher Yakubu Pam.

David Gyang, 51, an elder at the COCIN Barkin Ladi church, said Muslims set off a religious crisis by attacking Christians at the church site on Wednesday night (Nov. 23) and then launching a major offensive the next morning.

“Some of the Christian victims in this attack that I know include a Christian police officer, one Mr. Bulus, who is the station officer of the Barkin Ladi police station,” Gyang said. “He was inside his house on that day, and these Muslims broke the walls of his room and went inside to kill him and his son. A second Christian victim is Solomon Pam. He was attacked and had his hand broken.”

Gyang lamented that Muslim soldiers brought to town to restore order joined their fellow Muslims in killing and maiming Christians.

“Muslims soldiers took sides with their fellow Muslims and were shooting and killing Christians,” he said. “They also had soldiers guarding mosques in the town, but none was sent to watch over our churches, and that is the reason Muslims were able to burn the Baptist church in the town.”

The COCIN church in Barkin Ladi had an average Sunday service attendance of about 1,200 people, but yesterday only 50 showed up, he said.

“We could not go on with the worship but held a prayer meeting, and then our pastor left to Kwok village for the burial of the 26 killed there,” he said.

Sources told Compass that along with the 26 Christians killed in Kwok village, nine others were killed in the attack on Barkin Ladi on Thursday (Nov. 24). Compass found that the area attacks on Christians began Nov. 20, the day of the alleged cattle theft, with the killing of three Christians outside Barkin Ladi, and then two Christians in the town were killed on Nov. 21.

The next day, a Christian was beheaded behind a popular hotel in Barkin Ladi known as the White House, sources said. The attack on the COCIN church ensued the following evening.

Bitrus Davou and John David, two young Christian men who live near the church building, said they narrowly escaped death.

“Bullets fired at me by a Muslim soldier missed me and killed my dog,” said Davou, 21.

David, also 21, said he and five friends were sitting in front of their house when a Muslim soldier appeared and began shooting at them.

“My friends ran inside the house, but I could not follow suit immediately as there was no route for me to run – so I jumped into an unfinished building beside my house,” David said, pointing toward the bullet holes in the wall where he had taken refuge. “While there, the soldier spotted me and began shooting at me. It is a miracle that I escaped unhurt.”

The Rev. Daniel Moses, pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), said the violence was started by town Muslims who obtained massive support from Muslims from other parts of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. Thousands of Christians have been displaced, he said.

“As of this morning [Sunday, Nov. 27) corpses of Christians killed are still being recovered, but we can confirm that 37 corpses have been recovered already, and even as I talk to you the burial of some of them is going on in the surrounding Christian villages,” Moses said.

Emmanuel Kyesmen, secretary of ECWA congregation, said the government has been slow to address security concerns.

“Alhaji Kasimu, one of leaders of the Muslim community in Barkin Ladi, is responsible for arming Muslims to attack Christians – we all know this, and the attention of security agencies have been called to his activities, but no one seems to take the necessary steps to check him,” Kyesmen said. “It appears the man is above the law.”

The Barkin Ladi ECWA church, whose regular worship service usually attracts about 270 people, was a ghost of itself on Sunday, with only 42 members able to muster the courage to show up. The service lasted no more than 15 minutes, as they only prayed and left.

Kyesmen told Compass that 11 members of the church had their houses set ablaze by Muslims.

“As a church, we have become targets of attacks,” Kyesmen said. “Our pastors and members are being killed in Plateau state by Muslims, while thousands of others have become refugees in their fatherland. There is the urgent need for the Nigerian government to find a lasting solution to this problem.”

Religious conflict has been growing in Plateau state since 2006, he said, with numerous investigating committees instituted to investigate and report on the immediate and deeper causes, he said.

“But the surprising thing is that none of these reports has been implemented, and no individual has been made to face the wrath of the law,” Kyesmen said. “The government must have the courage to ensure that those causing these problems are prosecuted.”

Among the church buildings found locked on Sunday morning were St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, ECWA Good News Church, COCIN Church Sabon Layi, Living Faith Church, and a host of other Pentecostal and charismatic churches. The few churches that opened for prayer, which lasted no longer than 15 minutes, included the ECWA church, the COCIN church, and the All Denomination Church at the police barracks.

David Alamba, 48, a technician whom Compass met near the town’s police station along with five Christian women who were trying to leave Barkin Ladi, said many churches in town have been closed as most Christians have fled.

“Most Christians who live in Muslim quarters like Sabon Layi, Angwan Hausawa, Angwan Kwano, Angwan Izala, and Angwan Katako areas have to get soldiers to accompany them before they get their few belongings to leave the town,” he said. “You have to pay the soldiers at least 2,000 naira (US$12) before they escort you to your house to get a few belongings before you move out of the town.”

Alamba said Muslims have been moving into the farms belonging to Christians and are destroying crops.

“This is to chase us out of the town and make us homeless, and at the same time starve us to death, since we now have no food to eat,” he said.

Predominantly Christian areas affected by the attacks included Rantya Gwol, Anguwar Tasha, Gangare, and Hayin Asibiti, sources said.

Several people fleeing the town as Compass arrived asked, “When will the killings of Christians in Nigeria stop?”

END

Pastor’s Arrest Stir’s Anti-Christian Sentiment in Kashmir, India

Bishop says area Christians in danger from angry Muslims after accusation of ‘allurement.’

By Vishal Arora

 

NEW DELHI, November 23 (Compass Direct News) – Charges that a pastor in Jammu and Kashmir state “lured” Muslims to Christianity by offering money are false and have put the lives of the clergyman and other Christians in danger, according to Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy of the Church of North India denomination.

 

Following the arrest on Saturday (Nov. 17) of the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church in Srinagar, Bishop Samantaroy told Compass by phone that the time has come for the church to speak up against the “discriminatory action” by authorities in India’s Kashmir Valley.

 

The bishop of the Amritsar Diocese said the pastor told him his life was in danger, as the charges have angered area Muslims. The government must provide protection to the pastor, churches and Christian institutions “immediately,” he said.

 

The allegations of allurement appear to have turned Muslim clergy and separatist leaders against the Christians. Kashmir lies at the heart of a bitter territorial dispute between India, Pakistan and China, even as many Kashmiris call for separation from India. Two prominent leaders of the separatist movement, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have met religious leaders to prevent “conversions.”

 

A court in Srinagar on Sunday (Nov. 18) remanded Pastor Khanna to judicial custody for 15 days, a representative of the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s advocacy wing told Compass. Pastor Khanna was arrested for creating “enmity” between religious communities and hurting religious sentiments.

 

Bishop Samantaroy said the allegation made by Kashmir Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din Ahmad, the state’s highest official of Islamic law, that Pastor Khanna had converted Muslims by offering money was “totally baseless and untrue.”

 

Ahmad has a video of Muslims being baptized in Pastor Khanna’s church, which he said was evidence on which to file a police complaint of fraudulent conversion, although the video only shows a baptism ceremony. The Constitution of India grants religious freedom to all, allowing them to propagate and change their religion or have no religion at all.

 

Superintendent of Police of East Srinagar Sheikh Zulfkar Azad, however, told Compass there was “certain evidence” of allurement by Pastor Khanna, though he did not specify it.

 

“I am in hospital for treatment, and that’s all I can say at the moment,” he said.

 

Seven youths who were baptized, as shown in the video, have denied to police that they were offered money to convert, a local Christian told Compass. But some local newspapers have quoted anonymous police sources as claiming the converts were given money.

 

A source who requested anonymity previously told Compass that police beat the converts from Islam when asking them if Christians had given them money for their conversion (seewww.compassdirect.org, “Police Detain, Beat Converts from Islam in India,” Nov. 10).

 

Police arrested Pastor Khanna two days after the mufti held a hearing on conversions in thesharia (Islamic law) court he heads. Although sharia courts in India deal only in civil matters with community people’s cooperation and do not have any legal authority, the mufti had summoned the pastor to appear for the hearing. The pastor agreed in an effort to maintain peace.

 

On the pretext of meeting with a senior police official, police picked up Pastor Khanna at his residence on Saturday evening (Nov. 17). After arresting him, officers did not inform his family, nor was the pastor given any written communication concerning the charges, the bishop said.

 

Police later brought Pastor Khanna to his home as they searched for evidence. They took CDs and literature for examination and kept him in custody.

 

Bishop Samantaroy said Kashmir’s Bar Association had asked its members not to defend the pastor. The church has asked a lawyer from Jammu, a Hindu-majority region in the state, to apply for his bail.

 

He also said he was worried about Pastor Khanna’s health. The pastor is diabetic and needs daily medical attention, and the bishop said he has learned that the doctor looking after him has a poor attitude toward him.

 

The pastor earlier told Compass that the Muslim youths had been coming to the church on their own initiative and wanted to take part in Holy Communion. Pastor Khanna told them they had to follow a procedure if they wanted to join in the sacrament, and they expressed desire to be baptized in due course.

 

Barring a few sporadic incidents of communal violence, Christians and Muslims had had good relations in Kashmir. Tensions began in March 2003 after local newspapers alleged that Christian missionaries were converting Muslim youth. Reports of conversions followed an article in an evangelical Christian website in the United States that claimed thousands of Muslim youths were converting to Christianity, which local Christians say was not true.

 

In November 2006, a convert from Islam, Bashir Ahmed Tantray, was shot dead by Islamist extremists in Barmullah district. Tantray’s name had appeared in newspaper reports.

 

In September 2010, Muslim mobs burned a school and a church in Tangmarg district after a television channel showed U.S. pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

**********

Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

Church Building in North Sudan in Ruins as Hostilities Grow

Presbyterian congregation sees little hope of rebuilding amid growing anti-Christian sentiment.

Special to Compass Direct News

 

KHARTOUM, Sudan, August 23 (Compass Direct News) – More than seven months after Muslim extremists burned its church building, a Presbyterian Church of the Sudan (PCOS) congregation is still afraid to meet for worship, according to Christian sources.

 

The Rev. Maubark Hamad said his church in Wad Madani, 138 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Khartoum, has not been able to rebuild since the Jan. 15 devastation due to the congregation’s meager resources.

 

“Nothing has been done for the burned church building; so far it has not been rebuilt,” he told Compass by phone.

 

Christian sources said they are increasingly fearful as Muslim extremists pose more threats against Christians in an attempt to rid what they call Dar al Islam, the “Land of Islam,” of Christianity.

 

“The increased challenges now faced by many Christians in North Sudan are something for which we need to pray very hard for the Lord to intervene,” said another church leader on condition of anonymity.

 

The PCOS building in Wad Madani was burned after a series of threats against its members by Muslims extremists, sources said.

 

“These anti-Christian activities continue to be growing these days, aiming to cause fear among the believers in North Sudan,” said the church leader.

 

When PCOS leaders reported the case to police in Wad Madani, they were surprised to find officers reluctant to investigate. At press time the assailants had not been arrested.

 

Property damages to the church building were estimated at 2,000 Sudanese pounds (US$740); destroyed items included Christian literature, Bibles in local languages, chairs, tables and a pulpit.

 

“Muslims target our church because they don’t want anything that is related to the church,” one church member said.

 

Christians in North Sudan are living beneath a blanket of fear since South Sudan seceded on July 9. Just one month after the South voted for independence from the predominantly Islamic North, pressures on churches and Christians have increased, with Muslim groups threatening to destroy churches, kill Christians and purge the country of Christianity.

 

One anti-Christian newspaper with strong ties to the North’s ruling party continuously advocates that North Sudan become a purely Islamic state and a purely Arab country. The Al Intibaha Arabic daily is well-known for provoking Muslims against Christians in Sudan.

 

North Sudan’s predominantly Arab population has intermingled with several indigenous peoples, leading some other Arab nations to regard it as not “pure Arab,” according toOperation World. Besides striving for an Arab-based ethnic-religious purging in North Sudan, Islamists may also be trying to counter estimated losses among adherents to Islam, with some estimating the Muslim population of the formerly unified Sudan recently dropping to about 55 percent from 61 percent.

 

Hostilities toward Christians by the Islamic government in Khartoum began to increase last year following a statement by President Omar al-Bashir, when he asserted that his second republic would be based on sharia (Islamic law) and Islamic culture, with Arabic as the official language.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

**********

Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

Motives for Church Burnings in Indonesia Questioned

Outside Islamist groups use lack of permits as pretext for violence.

By Victor Raqual Ambarita

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia, August 17 (Compass Direct News) – Suspected Islamists were behind the burning of three homes used as churches on Sumatra Island’s Riau Province this month, though a political motive may also have played a role, Christian leaders said.

 

Muslim mobs burned the meeting places of a Batak Karo Protestant Church (GBKP) congregation and a Pentecostal Church in Indonesia (GPDI) group on Aug. 1, and that of a Methodist Church of Indonesia on Aug. 2, all in Kuantan Singingi district.

 

Provincial GBKP leader Sahat Tarigan reportedly said about 100 people on motorcycles arrived at the home at 11 p.m. on Aug. 1, throwing stones, threatening church members with knives and ultimately pouring gasoline and setting it on fire. A number of church members were inside painting at the time of the attack, but there were no casualties, Tarigan told Radio 68H News Agency.

 

The same mob also set the GPDI home on fire some five kilometers (three miles) away, he said.

 

“We do not know where they came from, but certainly we have no problem with local people,” he told Radio 68H. “Those who burned the churches are not residents who live around us.”

 

Tarigan said the home where the GBKP church meets was built about three years ago, and area resident have never objected to any worship there. He said he did not know the reason mobs set the home on fire, though Metrotvnews reported that an area Muslim said the site lacks a permit and that the singing bothers Muslims fasting by day for Ramadan.

 

But the executive secretary of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, Jeirry Sumampow, said he suspected political motives. An election in April in which all churches in the Kuantan Tengah sub-district backed the winning regent may have played a role, he said.

 

“I regret that the church has been the victim of political in-fighting,” Sumampow told Compass.

 

He said those who burned the house churches were not dressed as hard-line Muslim demonstrators customarily are. He noted that the incident occurred only in the one sub-district where the churches backed the victorious candidate.

 

“At the time of the election there was tension, because the Christians in the sub-district openly stated their support for the candidate who is now elected,” he said.

 

Sumampow said he regretted that police were slow to react to the attacks of Aug. 1, which contributed to the third house church burning on Aug. 2.

 

The governor of Riau Province urged citizens to refrain from vigilante violence. Riau Provincial Administration spokesman Chairul Rizky said the governor ordered the regent of Kuantan Singingi to urge residents to resolve conflicts with dialogue rather than force.

 

Rizky said that although the house churches do not have permits, arson cannot be tolerated. Though the governor ordered police to protect church sites that have permits, this does not mean that people can attack those that do not have permits, he said.

 

“The governor ordered police to protect places of worship that have been permitted, and to not let anyone take the law into their own hands to solve problems,” Rizky told Radio 68H. “So, we hope this problem can be resolved in a short time, so that Christians can pray without being disturbed.”

 

He added that the three house churches did not have permits because their leaders sought only housing authorization, rather than church permits.

 

The head of Criminal Police in Kuansing, AKP Darmawan, confirmed the attacks, telling Vivanews.com the structures set on fire were not church buildings but private homes made of wood.

 

The vice chairman of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, said he regretted the burning of churches during Ramadan, adding that Muslims who are fasting during the month are supposed to be able to restrain their passions.

 

The former chairman of the Muhammadiyah socio-economic reform movement in Indonesia, H. Ahmad Shafi Ma’arif, was furious over the church burnings.

 

“Only crazy people want to burn churches, and no matter what the reason, such incidents cannot be tolerated,” Ma’arif reportedly said, adding that such incidents continue to occur because law enforcement is weak.

 

At press time Riau Provincial Police had reportedly questioned 21 witnesses and arrested two suspects.

 

Church Shuttered

In West Jakarta, about 100 hard-line Muslims from the Betawi Rempug Forum (FBR) went to a three-storey shop where Maranata Bible Church meets in Jalan Kacang Tanah, Bojong Indah, on July 31 and demanded that it close because it was operating without a permit.

 

After meeting with the Islamist group for half an hour, church leaders agreed to stop worship services and remove the church sign until it obtains a permit, though no area residents had complained about the church.

 

Promising to obtain the permit from the mayor of West Jakarta immediately, Pastor Silas Kusah said he had already obtained permission from local residents for the church to operate. Area residents have never complained about the existence of the church, which has been active for three-and-a- half years, he said.

 

The head of the Cengkareng sub-district reportedly said the church had no permits because residents had presented no objections.

 

The Setara Institute’s Bonar said that as no one in the area disputed the existence of the church, there should be no problems with the processing of its application for a permit.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

**********

Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecution

By Mahruaii Sailo

 

Chhattisgarh, India, August 17 (Compass Direct News) – After receiving a letter from Hindu extremists demanding the closure of Grace Church in Dhamtari, district government officials on Aug. 6 stopped the church’s worship service, warning those present that they could be attacked if they continued to hold services in the area. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the officials warned that if there is anymore Christian worship at Grace Church, the Christians would be responsible for any subsequent rioting. The church, led by Pastor Rohit Sahu, discontinued meeting, but area Christian leaders are taking steps to solve the matter.

Andhra Pradesh – In Ramagundam, Karimnagar, police on Aug. 3 arrested a pastor, five of his evangelistic team members and a local bystander after Hindu extremists filed a complaint against them of forceful conversion. All India Christian Council representative Moses Vattipalli told Compass that the Christian team was on an evangelistic outreach that included scrawling Bible verses on the rocks of a hill near a Hindu temple when the extremists appeared and began verbally abusing them, took their cell phones and beat them. The assailants forced the Christians to erase the Scripture verses and manhandled an onlooker who had been reading them, according to Vattipalli. Six Christians and the bystander were charged with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and were sent to the district sub-jail of Karimnagar, he said, adding that they were released on bail after two days.

Uttarakhand – A mob of about 300 Hindu extremists in Makhdoompur on July 31 beat Christians at a church service and accused Pastor Bachan Singh of forceful conversion. The All India Christian Council (AICC) reported that as the church was about to take the Lord’s Supper, a large mob of Hindu extremists gathered, accusing the congregation of forceful conversion. Those the extremists beat included women and children as the extremists demanded that the Christians stop all church activities, according to the AICC. Local police arrived after about 25 minutes and stopped the commotion, and no one was seriously hurt.

Chhattisgarh – Police in Bilaspur, Kawardha district on July 29 arrested Pastor Diwarkar Kumar after an attorney along with Hindu extremists filed a complaint against him of forceful conversion. A source told Compass that on July 28 Rani Matle visited a lawyer for help in submitting a legal request to the church stating her wish to attend a seminary. Another lawyer, Naval Kishore Pandey, learned that Believers’ Church Pastor Diwaker Kumar had advised her to do so and contacted a local Hindu extremist group, which filed a complaint against Kumar of forceful conversion. Subsequently police took Kumar and Matle into custody for questioning, the source said. Matle told police that there was no forceful conversion and stated that she willingly chose to follow Christ, and police released the pastor without charges. The next day, however, police summoned Kumar, Matle and her father to the station and forced Bharat Matle to sign a First Information Report (FIR) against Kumar “for deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs,” the source said. The FIR also cited sections 3 and 4 of the Chhattisgarh law outlawing forcible and fraudulent conversion. The pastor was sent to Pandariya Jail and was released on bail on Aug. 5.

 

Madhya Pradesh – Hindu extremists in Dewihar, Bajna, Ratlam on July 15 barged into a prayer meeting conducted by a Christian convert from Hinduism, damaging a roof and ransacking the house, stealing 20,000 rupees (US$440), some silver and five kilograms of corn. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that they entered Suresh Maida’s house and verbally abused those at the gathering for their faith in Christ. The Christians filed a police complaint, according to GCIC, but at press time police had made no arrests.
 

Uttar Pradesh – Police in Katra Divan Kheda, Dhagpur, Unnoa on July 14 arrested pastors Om Prakash, Ganga Prasad, Premshankar, Desh Kumar and one identified only as Vinod of the New India Church of God for leading a prayer meeting in Prakash’s home. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the Hindu radicals ordered Prakash and his family to give up their faith in Christ and stop the services in their home. Police along with the Hindu extremists had earlier threatened Prakash’s wife, Uma, and her three grown daughters if they continued in their faith, according to the GCIC. The church subsequently stopped Christian activities in the area.

Orissa – Hindu extremists in Banapur, Khurda, on July 8 harassed a Christian family for their conversion from Hinduism to Christ, ending in a Hindu woman beating her Christian daughter-in-law. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that after Satyaban Nayak and his family began to trust Christ as Lord and Savior and were healed from physical ills, Nayak’s mother strongly opposed her son’s worship of Christ and warned him to either forsake Christianity or be deprived of his birthright; she also told him she might commit suicide if he and his family did not deny Christ. When this failed, according to the GCIC, she planned a village meeting or “panchayat”  with area hard-line Hindus so that the community would pressure him into forsaking his faith, but the village head questioned him and his wife about their faith in Christ and found them guilty of no wrongdoing. Nayak’s mother took a firewood log from a burning furnace and began beating her daughter-in-law in front of the crowd, cursing and verbally abusing her, knocking her to the ground as the extremists demanded the family’s expulsion from the village, the GCIC reported, adding that Nayak’s wife, Sarojini, continued to pray and praise the Lord amid the beatings. As her mother-in-law continued to deal her painful blows, Sarojini prayed louder, praising God with calls of “Halleluiah” and asking forgiveness for her, according to the GCIC. The village head and some villagers rescued the Christians.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

**********

Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News