Boko Haram investigated for 'crimes against humanity'

Cover photo courtesy of Pinterest/
Story photo courtesy of World Mission.

Nigeria (MNN) ― When the courts of a country fail to prosecute, the International Criminal Court (ICC) steps in.

ICC’s Chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, stated last Monday August 5 that Boko Haram is being investigated by ICC for “crimes against humanity” through “widespread and systematic attacks.”

Greg Kelly with World Mission says, “They’ve been targeting Christians especially. In the neighborhood of about 3,000 people have lost their lives as the direct result of their attacks since 2009. So they’re very aggressive, they definitely target Christians, and they primarily operate in Northern Nigeria.... They want to incorporate Sharia law among all of Northern Nigeria.”

World Mission has worked in Northern Nigeria for 12 years and have been personally impacted by Boko Haram’s attacks.

“We’ve lost leaders in that area,” says Kelly. “In fact, just a few months ago, one of our leaders...in Northeast Nigeria [was] participating in a prayer meeting, and Boko Haram people sort of invaded that area and executed 10 people, including our state national leader.”

It’s not safe to be a Christian in Northern Nigeria. When someone makes a decision to follow Christ, sometimes World Mission has to take protective action.

Kelly says, “In villages where hostilities are exaggerated,... it’s just not safe for someone who’s made a decision to follow Christ. Once they’re found, then they tend to disappear, and we never hear from them again. So that’s why we try and bring people out into a safe harbor, disciple them, mentor them, grow them in their understanding of who Jesus is, and then reintroduce them into either that village or another area where they can be effective.”

Because Boko Haram is so radical, they are difficult to engage, says Kelly. But God has called World Mission to reach northern Nigerians, including Boko Haram. “We’ve been distributing The Treasure--which is our solar-powered audio Bible--in the Hausa language, which is the language of the Boko Haram,” Kelly says. “So we do distributions and set up listening groups, and we’ve seen 20 people give their lives to Christ just in recent weeks.”

A high percentage of the population in Northern Nigeria learns orally. 9 times out of 10, they prefer The Treasure audio Bible to a written Bible. World Mission has a goal to distribute 500 Treasures to Northern Nigeria this year. On average, one Treasure touches the lives of 12 people. Over 50,000 people would be impacted by these 500 Treasures.

According to Kelly, “It takes $50 for us to distribute a Treasure. That unleashes our entire arsenal so to speak. We’re distributing a unit, paying the royalties, providing follow-up, providing leadership training.”

There’s also an opportunity to engage a community’s physical needs when World Mission passes out Treasure audio Bibles. “In many instances, especially in Northern Nigeria and places where there’s radicalization of Islam, we’ll do a water well or we’ll do a humanitarian expression which just softens the soil and makes the Treasure that much more impactful. So in Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram has created 240,000 refugees just in two states; there’s a real humanitarian crisis that’s really not spoken about,” says Kelly.

Pray for World Mission as they distribute Treasures to communities in Northern Nigeria. Pray for safety and for many Muslims to come to Christ.

Christian students massacred in Nigeria

Nigeria (MNN) ― Christian students were specifically targeted by Islamists in what some say was a retaliatory attack in northeast Nigeria. The massacre killed up to 30 students at Federal Polytechnic Collage in the city of Mubi in remote Adamawa State.

Emily Fuentes with Open Doors USA describes the attack. "Certain students were called out and attacked. But Open Doors sources in the area have notified us that the people who were attacking were allegedly members of Boko Haram and were allegedly separating Christians from Muslims students; [they] attacked the Christians students there."

This is a new for Boko Haram. "Up until now," says Fuentes, "Christians were either attacked in their churches, their homes, and maybe their places of business. So this is different to have Christians attacked at university, at the school that they're going to."

Was it retaliation? Some are claiming that, says Fuentes. "Police actually went through these halls and arrested 156 members who they believe were members of Boko Haram who were actually in the school."

Fuentes says more than 700 Christians have been attacked in 2012, and believers are on edge. "It's a different kind of attack than the ones that they're used to. And it's a whole different form when [terrorists] are attacking the young at the university."

Christians are taking action. "There's been a big movement with this minister, as well as other pastors and church leaders, to encourage churches and Christians to be wise about their security to prevent more attacks like these from happening."

Open Doors is encouraging people to be aware of this situation and pray earnestly for Christians there.

The U.S. State Department's 2011 International Religious Freedom Report released a few weeks ago confirms that there have been increasing attacks against Christians. However, the government didn't effectively quell rising hostility or investigate and prosecute those responsible.

Nigeria is ranked #13 on the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 countries which are the worst persecutors of Christians.

Human Rights Organization Calls for Investigation into Attack that left Cuban Pentecostal Pastor Brain Damaged

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

"Ladies in White" are under
 the siege of the Castro
 regime 

SURREY, ENGLAND (ANS) -- A human rights organization is calling for an investigation into a violent attack on Pastor Reutilio Columbie, 41, of Shalom Christian Center in which he suffered brain damage.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is reporting it is believed that the Feb. 6 assault was the result of the pastor's decision to challenge the arbitrary confiscation of a church vehicle by the authorities.

Columbie bought a truck from a local resident five years ago, and modified it to transport members of the Pentecostal church in Moa, Cuba.

CSW said in Dec. 2011 it was suddenly confiscated by the authorities and apparently returned to the original owner, who has family ties to an individual in the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

CSW said the Central Committee is the same entity which holds authority over all religious matters, including registration of church property and vehicles, through the Office of Religious Affairs.

CSW said when the pastor protested the confiscation of the church vehicle and began the process of filing a formal complaint to prove ownership, the family began to receive anonymous phone calls telling them to stop or he would pay the consequences.

CSW said on Feb. 6 Columbie left his house intending to travel to the capital of Holguin Province to file the complaint, but was found unconscious on the street a few hours later and taken to the hospital. He cannot remember anything about the attack, but the only thing missing from his possession were the papers related to the vehicle.

Columbie suffered severe inflammation of the brain as a result of the attack.

CSW said Columbie is now recuperating at home with his wife Maida Perez and their three children, but still struggles with speech and memory. His daughter says he is also frequently nauseous and dizzy. The family was promised an investigation into the attack, which never materialized. They have now been told that too much time has passed for any investigation to be pursued.

CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said in a news release, “CSW calls on the authorities to conduct a full investigation into the violent assault on Pastor Reutilio. The theft of documentation relating to the ownership of the church vehicle raises questions about the motives behind the violent assault on the pastor. Cuba lacks legislation to protect religious freedom and guarantee church property.”

Thomas added, “This, combined with the fact that all religious matters are dealt with by the Office for Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP), rather than regular judicial channels, leaves religious groups and leaders vulnerable to abuse and with no means to appeal decisions. CSW continues to call for the establishment of a legal framework, independent of the CCP, to regulate religious affairs.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide works for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

For further information, visit www.csw.org.uk.

 

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Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City." Additional details on "Homeless in the City" are available athttp://www.homelessinthecity.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net.

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** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

Islamic Rioters Attack Christian Shops in Northern Iraq

Burning of mostly Christian-owned shops in
 Zakho shocked residents of Iraq's Kurdish region.(Photo: YouTube frame-grab)

First widespread violence against Christians in once-safe Kurdish region.

ISTANBUL, December 6 (CDN) — Attacks against Christian Assyrian businesses in northern Iraq over the weekend, which local sources said were organized by a pro-Islamic political party, marked the first such destruction of Christian establishments in the Kurdish region.

The rampage threatens the frail security of Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, sources said.

After mullah Mala Ismail Osman Sindi’s sermon claiming there was moral corruption in massage parlors in the northern town of Zakho on Friday (Dec. 2), a group of young men attacked and burned shops in the town, most of them Christian-owned. The businesses included liquor stores, hotels, a beauty salon and a massage parlor, according to Ankawa News.

“The interesting thing with this incident is the place where it happened,” Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East said. “KRG [the Kurdish Regional Government] is, for the most part, safe and secure, and all inhabitants enjoy prosperity and security, until now at least. The future is, by all means, bleak for the Christians and other minorities living there.”

Some of the assailants waved banners stating, “There Is No God but Allah,” according to Ankawa News. Sources said local authorities were slow in responding, resulting in heavy financial losses.

Thousands of Christians had fled to the Kurdish region since the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq in 2003.

Mullah Sindi denied accusations that he provoked the violence against northern Iraq’s Christian community, according to Ankawa News. After Sindi’s sermon, a man reportedly stood up in the mosque and said that since there were un-Islamic massage parlors in Zakho, Muslims should go destroy them. The mob started with the town’s only massage parlor and continued to stores selling liquor and three hotels, where they lit fires, according to Ankawa News.

Later on Friday, the mob tried to attack the Christian quarters of Zakho, but authorities stopped them.

Violence also erupted on Saturday morning (Dec. 3) on the outskirts of Dohuk in two Christian neighborhoods, where groups attacked liquor stores and burned a Christian cultural club. Yesterday (Dec. 5) small pockets of violence against Christian communities were quickly extinguished near the Kurdish capital, Erbil, and in the center of Sulaymaniyah, 200 kilometers (124 miles) south.

In Zakho, near the border with Turkey, owners of liquor shops and other establishments whose shops were burned and vandalized found leaflets on the walls of their destroyed shops yesterday (Dec. 5) threatening to kill them if they re-opened, according to Ankawa News. Some of the shop owners were Yezidis, a local religious sect.

The attacks were reportedly organized by the Kurdistan Islamic Union party, which is inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the region’s oldest Islamist parties and founded in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood strives to influence governments in the region toward more Islamic values.

In retaliation for the Zakho attacks, members of the Kurdish ruling party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Friday evening (Dec. 2) burned an Islamic Union office in Zakho. Over the weekend, KDP members ransacked and destroyed 10 Islamic Union offices in Dohuk province. The KDP claimed the Islamic Union planned the weekend attacks, and the Islamic Union blamed the KDP for storming their offices in retaliation, according to Ankawa News.

The unrest in the KRG in the last few days is a reflection of the unrest in the region, and as commonly happens, Christians were caught in the middle as innocent victims, Christian sources told Compass.

“I think these attacks were organized,” Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako said. “They might be connected not only to domestic issues, but also to events outside the country. Unfortunately, it’s always the Christians who pay the price.”

The motives of the mobs in Zakho were not purely religious, according to General Secretary of the Chaldo-Assyrian Student and Youth Union Kaldo Oghanna. Some of the young men may have attacked the mostly Christian establishments out of religious motives, but Oghanna said many of them joined the attacks only out of frustration toward the government. Others probably joined for personal benefit, as some members of the mob stole money and even liquor from the shops they destroyed, he said.

Most importantly, however, the attacks reflect the attitude of intolerance and discrimination that threaten the stability, safety and democratic process of the Kurdish region, Oghanna said.

“This attack is not a normal attack,” Oghanna said. “It threatened our businesses, and it is threatening the situation in Kurdistan. They attacked the democracy of the Kurdish region, its safety and security. Of course, we think there are international and domestic influences that made this situation escalate, but we also think this is in the mentality of those people: that they do not tolerate those who are different. This is our real struggle here.”

The greatest challenge of Iraq’s Christian Assyrian community since 2003 has been its dwindling population. The waves of the Iraqi Christian exodus have usually come after violent attacks on their communities. Archbishop Sako said he fears this attack may inspire more to leave.

“Now, maybe, because Christians are shocked and afraid, they will start to emigrate, and this is a bigger challenge,” he said. “We are encouraging them to stay.”

END

Missionary attacked while walking home from church

Mission Network News: "South Asia (MNN) ― As a result of their location and of the general offensiveness of the Gospel, missionaries and pastors in South Asia frequently come up against extreme opposition.

Thus, Gospel for Asia workers are often chided, harassed and beaten for their faith."

Read more...

Prayer over sick child results in attack, beating

Mission Network News: "Asia (MNN) ― A missionary supported by Gospel For Asia was recently attacked by a 50-person mob while praying over a sick child in an undisclosed Asian nation.

The missionary, Matthew Kishard, serves as a pastor in a small village. He was distributing tracts in a neighboring village when a family asked him to come and pray for their child who had fallen ill."

Read more...