Egyptian Crhristians harassed by Islamists

Egypt 2012 (Photos by Ruth Kramer)

Egypt (MNN) ― As tensions boil in Egypt, the country's Christians are dreading its repercussions.

Since President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood were removed from power by the military in early July, Islamist extremists have targeted Egypt's Christian minority, holding them partly responsible. E3 Partners Middle East expert Tom Doyle explains, "Whenever there is some political change, whenever there is something new--the Arab Spring, whatever arises--inevitably targets result...and typically, it's Christians."

Over the weekend, a clash in one southern city between Christians and Muslims saw 15 people wounded, and homes and a church burned. It started innocently enough: Muslim neighbors had a dispute over a speed bump being built in front of a Christian home. Tempers flared and fighting broke out, resulting in the ruins seen in the light of day.

When asked why Christians were blamed for the Morsi's ouster, Doyle said, "They went from having oppression under the government, to now [being] out of power and then being the agitators. They really can't do anything to the military, at this point, because the military is so strong. So they're going after Christians. They're unleashing their anger on Christians."

Applications to leave the country are increasing among both Christians and Muslims. By some estimates, tens of thousands of Christians have fled post-revolution Egypt.

According to corresponding reports from the Voice of the Martyrs USA, radicals have vandalized Christian-owned shops to identify them. Many Christian shop owners have closed their businesses. Christian women and girls are staying at home to prevent being attacked or kidnapped by radical Muslims. Asking for protection provides little comfort. Doyle cited a case where church officials got wind of a threat against them, asked police for help, and only after the church burned to the ground did help arrive. As cases like these pile up, he says, "God is their protector there because they cannot depend on the government."

Doyle goes on to say that the paradox of persecution comes to life in times like this. "There's unrest on both sides, Christian and Muslim. It's a dangerous situation, and people are reevaluating how they think and what they believe."

As people begin questioning the violence, their dogma, and more, ground is being prepared for the seed of hope. "We really need to pray for believers there. There are Christians that are in above-ground churches, like the Coptics. There are underground believers that come from a Muslim background, that are worshiping privately in homes so they're not in danger."

Christians in Egypt are asking you to pray with them for protection, but there's more to it than that. "Pray that the Christians can be known for love and not retaliation," notes Doyle. When believers respond in the name of Christ, and with boldness, it gets noticed. "Privately, Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus, wanting a different way, looking for a different relationship with God that they can only find through Jesus."

VBB seeks open doors in North Korea

According to the Open Doors World Watch List,
North Korea is the worst persecutor of Christians
 in the world. (Image courtesy World Watch List)

North Korea (MNN) ― Concern is growing for a U.S. Christian being held in one of North Korea's infamous gulags.

Kenneth Bae, a 45-year-old U.S. missionary, was recently moved to a hospital because his health is rapidly declining. Detained in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of "hard labor" in April, Bae is accused of "hostile acts" against the country of North Korea.

According to the Associated Press, Bae is the sixth American to be detained by North Korea since 2009, and at least four of the people imprisoned in recent years are devout Christians.

Vision Beyond Borders President Patrick Klein just returned from the oppressive nation.

"It was unbelievable spiritual warfare. I mean, just constant," says Klein. "I've never faced such spiritual oppression before in my entire life."

Klein and a few others were visiting foreign workers in North Korea, looking for ways VBB could start supporting believers in the country.

"I think the people of North Korea are hungry," says Klein. "But there's incredible oppression, and I believe that's why we have to pray that God will break through that and that the people will see the Truth of Jesus Christ."

Idolatry is a significant challenge in North Korea because the national government insists people worship their leaders as gods. Klein recalls an oft-played video; he feels it was intended to showcase North Korea's supremacy.

"It really was a mockery of a church service," says Klein. "It had women leading [something] like a praise service, and people were worshiping their leaders. The whole place was filled with people dressed nicely.

"And then, they flashed on the big screen pictures of their leaders, and people started applauding and worshiping these leaders."

As if that weren't enough, the video's ending scenario truly "put a cherry on top."

"There was a nuclear warhead headed for the United States, and then they showed this big explosion," Klein recalls. "And at the end of this explosion, the people stood up and started applauding very, very loudly.

"That is such a mockery of our worship services, where we exalt Jesus and are looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ."

According to the Open Doors World Watch List, North Korea is the worst persecutor of Christians in the world.

"[This government] is so wicked that they actually turn children against their parents," says Klein.

He shares a story he heard while in-country: "'Some of your parents have a little book,' teachers told their students one day. 'Your assignment is to go home tonight and find that book, and bring it back to school tomorrow.'"

In class the next day, 16 children came to class with their parents' Bibles and were paraded around the classroom to much applause and cheering. One little girl was so excited by the celebration, Klein says, she couldn't wait to run home and tell her parents about it.

However, "when she got home, her parents were gone, and [they] never came back. They were taken to a concentration camp, and the little girl was taken to a state-run orphanage," Klein says.

"What a wicked, wicked system," he continues. "But we know that God is so much greater and that He Himself can break through this. I believe that prayer is the key."

As VBB searches for a way to support the Body of Christ in North Korea, please pray.

"The only way we can really get involved in there is through prayer and God opening the doors. We're committed to go back," says Klein. "We know it's only the Lord that's going to open the doors; we can't do it on our own."

Pray that doors will open for VBB in North Korea. Ask the Lord to open blind eyes to governmental oppression and idolatry.

Visit our Interviews page and hear more of Klein's stories from North Korea.

Coptic Christian Girl Shot Dead in Egypt Threats, attacks continue as Christians are blamed for ouster of Morsi

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS) -- Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org) is reporting that a Coptic Christian girl walking home from a Bible class at her church was shot and killed this week in Cairo by an unidentified gunman, human rights activists said on Friday, August 9, 2013.

Jessica Boulous (Morning Star News photo courtesy of Boulous family)

Amid a near-constant din of threats and scattered attacks against the Christian population in Egypt by militant political Islamists, the rights representatives said 10-year-old Jessica Boulous of the Ain Shams section of Cairo was killed early Tuesday evening (Aug. 6) while walking from the Ahmed Esmat Street Evangelical Church through a market to her home with her Sunday school teacher.

According to the Middle East Correspondent for the news service, the teacher turned to buy an item at a market stall only to turn back and find Jessica lying in the dirt in a puddle of blood, rights activists said. A Muslim shopkeeper who knew Jessica saw her fall to the ground and ran to her side. He took off his shirt, wrapped it around her motionless body and rushed her to a hospital, but she was already dead.

A single bullet had passed through her chest and heart, killing her instantly, witnesses said.

Nasr Allah Zakaria, Jessica's uncle, said the killing has devastated the girl's family.

"I just can't believe she is gone," Zakaria said. "She was such a sweet little girl. She was like a daughter to me. I can't believe she is gone."

The story added that no one has claimed responsibility for the killing. Zakaria, pastor of an evangelical church in Egypt, said he didn't know for sure if the shooting was religiously motivated but quickly added that violence against Christians "seems to be normal" in Egypt now.

"Violence or intimidation against Christians has become almost a daily occurrence in most parts of Egypt," continued the Middle East Correspondent. "In the aftermath of the protests that led to the removal of Mohamed Morsi as president, militant supporters of Morsi have publically scapegoated the Coptic Christian minority for the Islamic Brotherhood-backed president's fall from power.

"Many have called for revenge against Christians. Less than 12 hours after the Egyptian military announced that it had expelled Morsi from office, reports of attacks against Christians by Morsi supporters began.

"After numerous attacks for about a week and a half, there was a relative lull in the violence. But at the end of July, the pace picked up once more. The attacks were inspired, human rights activists said, by a near-constant stream of vitriol from Islamic leaders calling for retribution against the Copts."

The journalist went on to say that members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Aug. 2 distributed flyer threatening to attack church buildings and police stations in Minya in Upper Egypt, according to local residents. Muslim Brotherhood leaders have stated that the attacks against the Christians will not stop until Morsi has returned to power. The new wave of attacks has included drive-by-shootings, kidnappings, attacks on church buildings and Christian-owned property and now two lethal shootings.

On the same day Jessica was killed, masked gunmen burst into a grocery store in Jazeerat Al Khazendara village in Souhag and attacked a Coptic Christian family according to the rights activists. During the kidnapping attempt, Milad Ebeed was abducted and his father, mother and brother were all shot. His father, Sadek Ebeed, 75, died at the store. The others sustained serious, but not life-threatening wounds.

Milad Ebeed was later released after a ransom was paid, the rights activists said.

Along with the shootings, the towns of Minya and Assuit have been the sites of repeated attacks against Christians, which make up about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population. For the past two weeks, unidentified vandals have painted graffiti on church buildings and Christian-owned homes and businesses in Assuit declaring, "Egypt is Muslim, not Christian."

According to the story, "At the same time, Islamists have been roaming Christian areas of Assuit handing out anti-Christian flyers and intimidating any Coptic business owner who keeps his store open, rights activists said.

"On Saturday (Aug. 3), roughly 20 people were injured and five Coptic-owned homes were destroyed along with several Coptic-owned businesses in the village of Al-Sharqiya in Minya Governorate when a political dispute at a Coptic-owned café turned ugly. A fight that started over changing the channel from a news program quickly led to Islamist mobs rampaging through the village with clubs, swords and Molotov cocktails, according to human rights activists."

Mina Thabet, spokesman of the Maspero Students Union, said things could get worse in Minya.

"For the past few days, we have had many instances of attacks against Copts," Thabet said. "Threats are widespread. In the Minya Governorate, I think it will be hard for the next few days."

In a statement released Wednesday (Aug. 7), the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and 15 other human rights organizations condemned Islamist incitement to violence and the government's lack of will to stop it.

"These organizations strongly condemn the rhetoric employed by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies, which includes clear incitement to violence and religious hatred in order to achieve political gains, regardless of the grave repercussions of such rhetoric for peace in Egypt," the statement read.

The statement further denounced negligence of the state to protect Christians, to confront sectarian attacks and to hold assailants in several governorates responsible.

"This negligence reveals that the pattern of impunity which spread during the Mubarak era and remained in place throughout the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood continues to this day, even after both of these regimes were overthrown," the organizations stated.

The Morning Star News story stated that Zakara said that, strangely, Jessica, an only child, was concerned about the violence and seemed to have a premonition of her death. She watched protests on television and urged her parents to get involved, but at the same time she was afraid enough for her safety that she asked her Sunday school teacher to escort her home from Bible school.

"She said she didn't feel safe," Zakaria said. "She asked her mother and father, 'What if I am at a protest and I got shot in the chest? What would happen to me?'"

Egypt: CSW Expresses Concern about Attacks against Christians As Coptic Pope Cancels Public Sermons

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS) -- Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has told the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) that it is deeply concerned by continuing attacks against Egyptian Christians, which have increased in frequency since the removal of the Morsi regime and have prompted Pope Tawadros II to cancel his weekly public sermons.

Pope Tawadros II (Photo: Reuters)

The UK-based group says that violence and hate speech targeting religious minorities was already on the increase under the former president's rule. Since his removal from power, attacks on the Coptic community in particular have increased sharply, primarily but not exclusively in Upper Egypt, following allegations from several Islamist sources that Christians played a pivotal role in the removal of Morsi's regime.

On August 7, 2013, 16 Egyptian human rights organizations issued a statement expressing "grave concern regarding the increasing sectarian violence which has targeted Christians and their churches since the June 30 uprising" and denounced the "continued negligence of the institutions of the state to provide the necessary protection to Christian citizens, to decisively confront sectarian attacks, and to enforce the law by holding those responsible for the acts of sectarian violence, which have been seen in several governorates to account."

In a statement issued yesterday, Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, said, "Egypt cannot move forward while state apparatus does not hold people accountable for these unlawful hate crimes that stand to divide the country further, promoting increased polarization at every level.

Proactive efforts must be made towards promoting social cohesion and inclusion for all members of society so that this new phase of Egyptian history can be built upon true unity, collaboration, and reconciliation."

CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, "CSW urges the interim government to ensure security for the Coptic community, and that those perpetrating sectarian violence are apprehended and charged. Egypt's Christians must be afforded the same protection under the law as their fellow citizens. We continue to pray and stand in solidarity with all Egyptians at this critical time in their nation's journey to full democracy."

Note: Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organization working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0) 20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visitwww.csw.org.uk.

Vietnamese Christian electrocuted in prison

(Photo courtesy of Aapo Haapanen/Flickr)

Vietnam (MNN/VOM) ― “Bao,” a new Christian, is being pressured by village authorities in Vietnam to recant his faith, a Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) worker reports.

After Bao and his family converted to Christianity four months ago, authorities told Bao he could not live in the village. They also barred him from purchasing products like food, clothing, or candles in the village as long as he continued in his beliefs.

They repeated their threat three times. After Bao was baptized on July 16, his brother beat him and had him arrested. Bao was jailed for two days, beaten, and shocked in his eye with electric wires.

Police fined Bao $250, which had to be paid before he could be released. His wife was unable to go and find someone to loan them the money because she is blind. Instead, Bao was released on the condition that he returns in two days with the full payment. VOM is providing Bao with money to pay the fine.

VOM exists to serve the worldwide persecuted church through spiritual and practical assistance. Their ministry is based on Hebrews 13:3 which reads, “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”

You can also take action to show our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ that they are not forgotten. Click here to support VOM’s ministry or write a letter to a Christian prisoner.

Please pray for the provision and protection of Bao and his family. Pray that Bao’s faithfulness to Christ will cause others to ask, “Who is this God he serves?”

Spotlight on religious freedom chief highlights problems in Eritrea

(Images courtesy Open Doors)

Eritrea (ODM/MNN) ― The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has a new chair: Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.

As focus turned to function, the leaders of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom say that religious liberty is an "essential element" of human dignity and that its protection deserves prominence in U.S. foreign policy.

The State Department and the religious freedom commission both named Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan as "countries of particular concern."

It's a designation that Eritrea both disputes and ignores. However, there have been multiple reports of a widespread crackdown on Christians this year, especially for those outside the state-approved churches.
While children were once considered exempt from it, that's not the case anymore, says Jerry Dykstra, a spokesman for Open Doors USA. "We believe there's been about 200 Christians that have been incarcerated in military camps. That includes 39 students who had just completed the training for military and for schooling. They were not allowed to go forward. Instead, they were arrested because of their ‘Christian beliefs.'"

According to a statement on the official Eritrean Ministry of Information Web site, 17,000 students of the 26th national service intake graduated on July 13. All of these students had successfully completed eight months of academic studies and four months mandatory military training, according to the announcement. These students will now proceed to Senior Secondary school to complete grade 12.

The group of 39 was taken to the Sawa Military training center. Sources told Open Doors that the arrests came as a result of the students' "Christian beliefs and for their commitment to Christ." Dykstra says, "They now face beatings, hard labor, lack of food and water. But if they renounce Christ, then they can go back to their studies."

Since the beginning of the year, Christians belonging to groups outside of the government sanctioned Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches have faced a widespread arrest campaign. More than 200 men and women of various ages have been arrested since the beginning of the year, he adds. "They have no judicial system. In other words, they're arrested, there are never any charges, there is no trial. They just disappear into thin air."

One 85-year-old woman is being held in a shipping container and has contracted pneumonia. She is still being refused medical attention because she will not agree to camp authorities' terms for receiving medicine. Military training forms part of the Eritrean curriculum. But after completing school, all Eritreans must also do national service.

Since 2002, worship has been forbidden outside the government-sanctioned Sunni Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox Church (EOC), Roman Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea, with Protestant worship a criminal offense. In 2005, authorities also began persecuting the EOC, particularly those in the church's renewal movement. The flip side, Dykstra observes, is that "where there is hostility toward the church, Christ spreads the church and grows it. That's what's happening in Eritrea."

The fact that it's a seemingly sanctioned campaign is disconcerting, at best. "A government official stated that there are three things that need to be eradicated from Eritrea: HIV/AIDs, the regime of arch-enemy Ethiopia, and independent Christians." At least 105 Christians were arrested in 2012, and 31 Christians were reported to have died in prison.

Dykstra goes on to say that it's likely to get worse before it gets better. There's a new peril. "Another growing threat is the rise of the Muslim terrorists in the country, besides the government. We've seen the increase of that over the past year."

Pray for God's strength for Christians imprisoned in containers, especially those arrested in 2012. Pray for spouses and families who are forced to live as refugees in different countries, and for worldwide awareness of the plight of Eritrean Christians.