American Pastor Imprisoned in Iran Given Ultimatum to Deny Christ or Remain in Prison

An American pastor who was sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison for planting house churches in the country says that officials in Iran have given him the ultimatum to either deny Christ or remain incarcerated.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which has been working for the pastor’s release, reports that they have obtained a new letter written by Saeed Abedini, which outlines the pressure that he is facing behind bars.

“‘Deny your faith in Jesus Christ and return to Islam or else you will not be released from prison. We will make sure you are kept here even after your 8 year sentence is finished.’ These are the threats that prison officials throw at me,” the pastor writes. “My response to them is Romans 8:35-39.”

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” the Scripture cited by Abedini reads. “As it is written, ‘For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

“The reality of Christian living is that difficulties or problems do arise in our lives,” he continues. “Persecution and difficulties are not new occurrences, but are seen often in the Christian life. It is through the suffering and tribulations that we are to enter the Kingdom of God.”

The ACLJ outlines that while Abedini’s physical strength is growing weak because of the brutal conditions in prison, his faith remains strong and is “what is keeping him alive.”

As previously reported, 32-year-old Abedini, who resides in Idaho with his wife and children, has been incarcerated in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison since late September for allegedly threatening the national security of Iran by planting house churches in the country a decade ago, and for attempting to turn youth in the nation away from Islam and toward Christianity. He had traveled to Iran to build an orphanage last fall, and was about to return to the states when he was taken into custody.

“When I saw my family for the first time behind the glass walls, I could see my mom four meters away. As she approached me and saw my face, she broke down and could not get closer. She was crying,” he wrote in a letter released last month. “I understood what she felt because after weeks of being in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, I also got to see my face in the mirror of an elevator that was taking me to the prison hospital. I said hi to the person staring back at me because I did not recognize myself. My hair was shaven, under my eyes were swollen three times what they should have been, my face was swollen, and my beard had grown.”

The ACLJ is asking for Christians around the world to send a note of encouragement to Abedini while he is incarcerated.

“We must let him know that we will never forget him and will never stop working for his release,” it states, noting that 20,000 people have already submitted correspondence for the pastor. “This has already quickly become one of the largest letter writing campaigns ever.”

Information on the Save Saeed campaign may be found at savesaeed.org.

Courtesy of
http://christiannews.net/2013/04/14/american-pastor-imprisoned-in-iran-given-ultimatum-to-deny-christ-or-remain-in-prison/

Pastor’s Death Sentence Highlights Christians’ Plight

Thirty-two years ago this month Americans were taken hostage when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

That was the start of an Islamic revolution that not only brought Sharia law to the country, but also one of the fastest growing house church movements in the world today.

Disillusioned with Islam, more Iranians are now embracing Christianity than perhaps at any other time since the Muslim invasion of Persia in the 7th century.

Crackdown on Christians

A massive government crackdown against Christians has led to the imprisonment of many believers and the threatened execution of a pastor.

At least 285 Christians in 35 cities were arrested in Iran during the second half of 2010. Many have spent week, and even months in prison, often serving long stretches in solitary confinement.

They also have endured interrogations and psychological abuse.

Iranian Pastor Hormoz Shariat of Iran Alive Ministries, formerly International Antioch Ministries, hosts a satellite television show that is broadcast into Iran. 

Shariat said most often the Iranian Revolutionary Guards arrest and don’t even tell their family.

“They can’t have a lawyer, not even a formal charge,” Shariat said. “Sometimes they get killed without even a formal charge.”

When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, he pledged to halt the spread of Christianity in Iran.

Facing the Death Penalty

The threatened execution of 34-year old Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is a part of the crackdown.

Nadarkhani had challenged a government requirement that Christian students be forced to recite the Koran and learn Islam in the public schools.

Pastor Youcef leads one of the country’s fastest growing house churches, which is now 400 members.

He was arrested in October 2009 and was eventually charged with leaving the Islamic faith, even though he claims that he was never a Muslim.

After he was sentenced to death, Christians prayed and others in the international community demanded the pastor’s release.

The Iranian government responded saying the world had it wrong, that Nadarkhani was charged with rape and extortion, not apostasy.

His case is now in the hands of the Ayatollah. Meanwhile, the Special Rapporteur at the U.N. accused Iran of violating human rights, and demanded the release of Nadarkhani and several other prisoners.

No Safe Place

Open Doors President Carl Moeller said even if the Ayatollah frees Nadarkhani and the pastor returns home to his wife and two boys, he will not be out of danger.

“Unfortunately he is not out of danger at all,” Moeller explained. “In fact what we have seen in numerous cases over the last 30 years in Iran is that someone may be judicially acquitted or released on a technicality, but then their lives are deeply also under threat.”

“As was the case with Mehdi Dibaj in the 90s and with Pastor Hovsepian, the reality is they were killed after they were released from (being) interrogated and from imprisoned,” he said.

“That’s a reality that can happen any day, to any Christian in Iran,” he continued. “They can simply disappear, or they can be tortured or arrested without any judicial process.”

“So, by no means is Pastor Youcef’s situation free and clear if he is acquitted of these charges,” he said.

National Security Threat?

The government– for the first time–is admitting that Iranians are leaving the Islamic faith and becoming Christians.

“The government is intentionally going after the house churches. The Supreme leader, he came and said the house churches in Iran are a threat to our national security,” Shariat said.

He explained that that claim was a signal for the government to target house church Christians and especially their leaders.

Iranian Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has warned against the strong attraction of Christianity among Iranian youth.

He recently admitted the government crackdown has failed to stop the spread of Christianity in Iran.

Prophetic Call to Prayer

Middle East analyst and author Joel Rosenberg said people like Pastor Youcef and others are putting their lives on the line for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“More Muslims are coming to faith than ever before but it is not enough. We also need to pray that the Gospel is spread throughout all of Iran,” Rosenberg said.

“Jeremiah 49 tells us that God is eventually going to set His throne inside Iran,” he said. “I think Iran is going to become a sending country for evangelical Christian missionaries coming from a Shia Muslim background.”

“The church in Iran is begging us to not forget them, to stand one with them, and to create the opportunity for the spirit of God to move as a witness through their persecution in Iran,” Moeller said.

Revolutionary Warning

Iran’s Islamic government is likely to continue the crackdown. Many Iranians are worried that similar radical Islamic governments could arise in other Middle Eastern countries.

As revolutions and uprisings spread throughout the Middle East, Shariat said his Iranian viewers are warning Arabs to learn from what happened in Iran in 1979 when Iranians protested against the shah and got Ayatollah Khomeini instead.

“They are telling their brothers and sisters, watch out, watch out, this is what we did,” he explained. “We wanted freedom, we wanted democracy, and we allowed the religious fanatics to take over. Please don’t let that happen to you.”

See video:  
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/November/Iran-Pastors-Death-Sentence-Highlights-Christians-Plight/

Courtesy of
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/November/Iran-Pastors-Death-Sentence-Highlights-Christians-Plight/

Phony Religious Freedom in China

By Chuck Colson

The exhibit is titled “A Lamp to My Feet, A Light to My Path.” Sponsored by the government of China, it’s meant to educate Americans about the history of the spread of Christianity in China from the Tang Dynasty onward.

The irony, of course, is that the same government that is urging us to join in celebrating the spread of Christianity over the centuries is brutally repressing Christians today. China Aid, an organization that exposes the persecution of Christians in China, says the exhibit is “a government propaganda ploy” intended to deflect attention from reports of growing religious persecution in China.”

None of this comes as a surprise to my great friend, Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia. In his new book, Prisoner of Conscience, about his human rights work around the world, Frank describes his trips to China, where human rights violations are among the worst in the world. How does he know? He’s seen it with his own eyes.

Frank and his friend, Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, flew to Beijing just prior to the 2008 Olympic Games. The plan was to dine with half a dozen human rights lawyers and underground house church pastors.

But when the Chinese government got wind of this, they started arresting the Congressmen’s dinner companions. In the end, only one dissident showed up-and he was arrested the next morning.

So much for religious freedom. When Frank and Chris publicly complained, the Chinese government told them to keep their noses out of China’s internal affairs.

Wolf and Smith also met with Ambassador Li Zhaoxing, and asked him to release people “who’d committed the ‘crimes’ of promoting democracy, religious freedom, and labor rights,” Wolf writes. It didn’t happen.

The two were especially concerned with Pastor Zhang Rongliang, who had been tortured with electric shock, and whose family relied on donations from fellow Christians to survive.

Protestants are not the only victims. “At the time of our visit,” Wolf writes, “every one of the approximately thirty-five underground bishops of the Catholic Church was either in jail, under house arrest, under strict surveillance, or in hiding.”

China’s leaders were attempting to brush all this under the rug as the world’s eyes turned to the Olympic Games. Frank Wolf was one of the few people who refused to let them get away with it. Which is why he’s not welcome in China today.

So if you happen to see those Chinese Bibles on display, know it for what it is: a propaganda ploy. Because those who worship the God of the Bible are being arrested, imprisoned, and persecuted.

Pray for them and agitate on their behalf with the Chinese Embassy-and with the State Department and your elected representatives! As Frank will tell you, and as I know from my many years in the White House, life gets better for dissidents when Westerners advocate on their behalf.

I also urge you to pick up a copy of Prisoner of Conscience, by Frank Wolf. You can order one at our book store at BreakPoint.org.

You will learn more about the congressman who makes a habit of dropping in on some of the most dangerous countries on earth, and how you can help him fight global injustice.

Courtesy of
http://www.christianpost.com/news/phony-religious-freedom-in-china-59715/

Iran Takes Note of Efforts to Save Pastor – Spreads Lies

It is clear that our efforts to put international media and political pressure on Iran to release Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani – who is facing execution for his faith – are having a tremendous impact.

The Iranian government has taken note of these efforts and has reacted by spreading lies about Pastor Youcef in an attempt to sway international attention from this horrific human rights abuse.

Over the last few days, we have reported that Iran’s semi-official news agency has spread false reports that pastor Youcef was never convicted of converting from Islam to Christianity, but that he had instead been charged with being a “Zionist” and committing “security crimes.” This is the worst possible charge that Iran could level at Pastor Youcef, and as one Iranian expert explained: “As soon as Iran’s regime is placed under international pressure because of its barbaric Middle Age laws, the regime looks for another reason to peddle” its execution sentence against Pastor Youcef.

Now, for the first time, the Iranian government has made a statement about Pastor Youcef, spreading blatant lies about his case. The official Iranian statement provides that “Iran has not issued any verdict on his case” and that “published news regarding the death penalty . . . are unsubstantiated.”

These are boldfaced lies being spread by the Iranian regime about Pastor Youcef because they have been caught in the act of attempting to execute a man for his faith, something that violates international and Iranian law and reportedly hasn’t happened in Iran for over 20 years.

We have the actual verdict from the Iranian supreme court (in original Farsi and translated into English by the Confederation of Iranian Students in Washington ), which provides undeniably that “Mr. Youcef Nadarkhani . . . is convicted of turning his back on Islam . . . .” The verdict further states, “During many sessions in court with the presence of his attorney and a judge, he has been sentenced to execution by hanging . . . .”

There is no question that Pastor Youcef has been convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death. It is crucial that Secretary of State Clinton – our top international diplomat – take the lead and that the United Nations (U.N.) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) end their silence on this issue and pressure Iran to spare Pastor Youcef’s life and release him unconditionally.

We can report from our contacts in Iran that, as of today, Pastor Youcef is still alive, but time is of the essence.

We know that the Iranian regime is taking note of our efforts, and now is the time to step up those efforts to keep this international pressure on Iran. You can help in this effort by joining the over 50,000 who have already signed the petition we are sending to Secretary of State Clinton and the U.N. to call on Iran for the immediate and unconditional release of Pastor Youcef.

Here is a Youtube link to the ACLJ Video:

Courtesy of
http://aclj.org/iran/iran-takes-note-efforts-save-pastor-spreads-lies

Attack Highlights Unrelenting Plight of Iraq’s Christians

CNSNews.com) – Iraq’s embattled Christian minority came under attack again on Sunday, when a double bombing near the northern city of Mosul targeted a convoy of buses carrying Christian students, injuring scores of them.
 
Ninawa provincial authorities said a shopkeeper nearby was killed in the attack – a roadside blast followed by a car bombing – on Sunday morning. Around 70 students were hurt in the blasts.
 
The students were traveling in convoy to Mosul University, because it was considered a safer way to get them to classes after previous attacks on Christians. The attack occurred near a checkpoint manned by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers as well as troops from the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.
 
Iraq’s Assyrian Christians are adherents of denominations including the Chaldean Catholic and Syriac Orthodox churches.
 
The community, which traces its origins to the early years of Christianity two millennia ago, has been dwindling in numbers over the past two decades, a trend researchers attributed initially to difficulties experienced after the 1991 Gulf War but said accelerated since the fall of the Baathist regime in 2003.
 
The last official census, in 1987, recorded 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. By 2003 estimates of its size ranged from 1.2 million to about 800,000. There are no definitive figures, but some experts believe the community may have been cut by half since then. Killings, kidnappings, harassment and church bombings have helped to drive the exodus.
 
More than a dozen Christians in Iraq have died violently since the beginning of 2010, the National Council of Churches in the U.S. said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week.
 
A bipartisan statutory body set up to advise the executive branch and Congress on religious freedom issues, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), wants the U.S. government to toughen its response to the situation in Iraq.
 
The International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998 empowers the Secretary of State to name foreign governments that violate citizens’ religious freedom (or allow them to be violated by other parties) “countries of particular concern” (CPCs). Designation allows the U.S. to take measures, including sanctions, against governments that engage in or tolerate serious abuses.
 
In the very first annual assessment issued under the IRFA, in 1999, the Clinton Administration identified Iraq as one of a small group of CPCs. The majority of the early reports on Iraq focused on the Sunni regime’s harsh treatment of the Shi’ite majority, with far less attention paid to the small Christian minority.
 
Iraq’s CPC designation was retained during the early years of the Bush administration, but a year after Saddam’s removal Baghdad was removed from the list in mid-2004.
 
Ironically, the situation for Iraq’s Christians has undoubtedly grown worse since then, and the USCIRF, a body created under the IRFA, has been urging a more robust response from Washington.
 
The Commission at first recommended that Iraq be added to a second-tier watchlist – one step short of CPC designation – but in late 2008 it recommended that its CPC designation be restored. (Four of the nine commissioners dissented, saying that religious minorities were being targeted not by the Iraqi government, but by “terrorist and insurgent groups.” The four argued that the requirements of the IRGA for CPC designation were met, although they agreed with their fellow commissioners that the government was not doing enough “to address the alarming plight of Iraq’s Christian and other religious minority communities.”)
 
When the USCIRF released its latest annual report, late last week, it criticized the administration for not following its recommendations to restore CPC designation for Iraq, as well as for Pakistan, Nigeria, Vietnam and Turkmenistan.
 
The Commission also questioned the Obama administration’s commitment to promoting religious freedom, noting among other things that it had still not nominated an ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, a position also established by the IRFA.
 
In the National Council of Churches letter to Clinton and Gates, church leaders appealed to them to urge the Iraqi authorities to do more to protect Iraqi Christians.
 
They said the U.S. should also encourage the preservation of religious and ethnic diversity in Iraq.
 
“Our concern is now particularly acute because it is possible that tensions will increase as various political forces continue to vie for power following the recent [Mar. 7] elections,” the letter said. “We fear that a growing climate of mistrust and animosity will further threaten the fragile Christian community.”
 
A coalition led by Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister who enjoys considerable Sunni support, narrowly beat a Shi’ite one headed by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Another Shi’ite faction came in third.
 
Almost two months later delays in forming a new government, because of continuing disputes about results and candidate eligibility, have raised concerns that the sectarian violence which roiled the country in 2005-2007 could return.
 
Under a security agreement that came into force at the beginning of last year, all U.S. combat forces are scheduled to be deployed out of Iraq by August, ahead of the end of 2011 deadline for a total withdrawal.

Courtesy of
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/65105

Advocates International Joins Nigerian Lawyers in Decrying Sectarian Murder of Christians in Africa

Advocates International Joins Nigerian Christian Lawyers in Decrying the Ongoing Sectarian Killing and Violence against Defenseless Christian Women and Children in Nigeria and Calls for Support for the Victims and Justice for the Perpetrators

CLASFON, the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria, joins with Advocates International to form an on-going project -The Justice for Jos Project - to provide humanitarian and legal assistance to the survivors of the unprovoked attacks and monitoring of the criminal investigations and prosecutions to assure justice is provided for these horrible crimes.

“His victims were sleeping when he arrived, he said, and he set their house on fire. Sure enough, they ran out. ‘I killed three people,’ Mr. Adamu said calmly. He and the other detainees showed no sign that they had been maltreated; some confessed to killings, and others denied them, speaking in front of the police. The police quickly arrested about 200 people in connection with the killings, and many of them were crouching anxiously in rows on a bare concrete floor, outside the police headquarters on Wednesday morning. The police have confiscated 14 machetes, 26 bows, arrows, 3 axes, 4 spears and 44 guns. Victims, many of them women and children, were cut down with knives, short and long; few survived.” — New York Times

Contact: Emmanuel Ogebe, eiogebe@advocatesinternational.org; Sam Casey, sbcasey@advocatesinternational.org, both with Advocates International, 703-894-4092

WASHINGTON, April 1 /Christian Newswire/ – On March 7, 2010 residents of three communities in the idyllic mountain range city of Jos in the Plateau State of Nigeria barely had a chance to be awakened from slumber before they were mercilessly butchered in a brutally executed massacre executed by Muslim Fulani tribesmen. By daybreak a mass burial was conducted for the hundreds of Christian women and children (estimated at about 500) slain in Jos - fondly called “Jesus Our Savior” for the strong Christian heritage and missionary presence in the frontlines of Nigeria’s Muslim/Christian divide.

Following up on its statements of sorrow and concern at that time, Advocates International (AI), along with the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), whose member organizations based in 18 countries are working on religious liberty issues around the world, made strong statements today on the killings and violence in Nigeria and launched a global campaign calling for justice and prayer for that nation.  

The Statement–formally known as the Cyrus Statement on the Crises in Northern Nigeria because it was released following the RLP’s meeting in Larnaka, Cyprus last week — acknowledges some positive elements within Nigeria, including the role that the church is playing, but expresses deep concern about the ways in which the situation is being handled by the government.  In addition, the Statement calls on the worldwide church to pray for the restoration of the  religious liberties of all Nigerians, the provision of needed humanitarian support, and for the institution of much-needed reconciliation efforts.  “Following the recent appalling massacres of Christian men, women and children in villages around Jos, Nigeria it was timely that our partners focus on Nigeria,” stated Mervyn Thomas, CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, UK and Chairman of the Religious Liberty Partnership. 

“Together as the RLP, we stand in support of Christians in Nigeria, calling upon the Church worldwide to pray for a restoration of lasting peace in Nigeria,” said Andy Dipper, CEO of Release International.  “Christians in central and northern Nigeria today face unprecedented persecution, with women and children suffering barbaric acts of violence.  In this context the Nigerian Church leadership is actively choosing to isolate those perpetrators of these recent killings by not retaliating, and relying on God to sustain them in their grief.”

Advocates International’s General Counsel, Samuel B. Casey, one of the co-drafters of the Cyprus Statement, said “the perpetrators of this violence must to be brought to justice. If these people continue to kill with impunity, the violence will escalate even further, and will eventually endanger the entire nation.  Therefore, in partnership with CLASFON, the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria, we are announcing today the formation of our Justice for Jos Project.  AI’s special counsel for this project, Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian lawyer who was born in Jos, said: “In the past decade in which we have lost thousands of lives in religious violence, this is the first time we actually have perpetrators in captivity who have admitted to the crime. In my two decades as a lawyer I have never seen anyone prosecuted and convicted for killing in the name of religion.”

AI sees a unique opportunity to provide a justice monitoring program that will track the trial of Mr. Adamu and others like him who calmly plotted the savage killings and raised resources to do it. Past suspects have slipped through the legal system creating a culture of impunity and incentives for more killers.

The Justice for Jos Project will:

• Provide immediate help for displaced families and survivors as well as create early warning alert systems in the communities.

• Work with local businesses and missionaries to create economic empowerment projects to engage Christian and Muslim youth in gainful employment that will keep them out of trouble and build bridges of commonality

• Monitor the performance of the legal system to ensure all perpetrators are brought to justice.

This Easter, you can be a part of ministry to the persecuted church in very real and practical ways. Just this week 12 more Christian women and children were murdered in their homes in Jos – a strong indication that more terror cells are on the loose in addition to the ones in detention. This underscores the importance of prosecuting the suspects and identifying other conspirators now at large. Says Mr. Ogebe, “We fear that this is a new strategy – sleeper attacks in the dead of the night. Christians are in the majority in Jos so if there is a direct daylight clash, they are more likely to successfully defend themselves. People who are sleeping don’t stand a chance.”

Advocates International is an international organization of attorneys in over 150 nations who seek to do justice with compassion, including through its Task Forces on the Rule of Law And Religious Freedom, dedicated to upholding  rule of law  and  protecting the rights to free expression, religious belief and free exercise and association throughout the world for all people.

The Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) is a collaborative effort of Christian organizations around the world focused on religious liberty.  A listing of RLP members is set forth at the end of the Cyprus Statement.  For more information about the Religious Liberty Partnership or the Cyprus Statement, please contact Brian O’Connell: E-mail:  Brian@REACTServices.com;  Phone: +1-425-218-4718

Christians call on Microsoft and Yahoo to end internet censorship in China

Release International is calling on Microsoft and Yahoo to follow Google’s lead and refuse to censor the Internet and reports of persecution in China.

“Religious persecution is a daily reality in China,” said Release CEO Andy Dipper. “The Chinese people need to be told the truth – and gatekeepers to the Internet Microsoft and Yahoo have a duty to let the truth be told.”

The message came at a conference in London last week to raise awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians in China. The joint conference was held by human rights advocates Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Release International.

The conference highlighted the plight of human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, who disappeared more than 400 days ago, after defending leaders of the persecuted house church and practitioners of the banned movement Falun Gong.

Addressing the conference was human rights campaigner, Bob Fu, a former leader of the Tiananmen Square student protest in 1989. He called on China to release immediately Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gao Zhisheng, whom he said had been tortured severely.

“When the authorities arrested Gao previously in 2005 they tortured him in ways that cannot be described,” said Fu, head of ChinaAid Association. “If he is still alive, they are almost certainly torturing him again. The aim is to break his spirit and to scare off other human rights campaigners.”

Fu was one of the last men to speak to Gao Zhisheng before he was hauled away by the Chinese authorities 400 days ago.

“We do not know for sure now whether Gao is dead or alive. It’s possible the authorities have disfigured or crippled him and would now be embarrassed to let him be seen,” he said.

“We call on China to let the world know whether he is still alive and, if so, release Gao immediately.”

Applauding Google’s decision to no longer allow China to censor its web browser, Fu extended a challenge to Yahoo and Microsoft to follow suit.

He said: “My message to Bill Gates and Yahoo is do the right thing. Don’t sell your conscience. Don’t give in to censorship.”

Dipper added: “We call on the international community to continue to bring pressure to bear on China to allow religious freedom and freedom of speech. We hope Microsoft and Yahoo will indeed do the right thing and stand up for freedom.”

Fu later briefed parliamentarians in the House of Lords on the continuing abuse of human rights in China.

ChinaAid reports persecution increased by almost 20 per cent in 2009. Some of the harshest persecution was suffered by the House Church movement, churches that refuse to register with the government and submit to state control and restrictions. ChinaAid recorded almost 3,000 cases of individual persecution, with a growing trend towards abuse and intimidation, rather than prosecution.

Courtesy of
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.call.on.microsoft.and.yahoo.to.end.internet.censorship.in.china/25584.htm

Baseless Case Against Turkish Christians Further Prolonged

SILIVRI, Turkey, February 15 (CDN) — Barely five minutes into the latest hearing of a more than three-year-old case against two Christians accused of “insulting Turkishness and Islam,” the session was over.

The prosecution had failed to produce their three final witnesses to testify against Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal for alleged crimes committed under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. The same three witnesses had failed to heed a previous court summons to testify at the last hearing, held on Oct. 15, 2009.

This time, at the Jan. 28 hearing, one witness employed in Istanbul’s security police headquarters sent word to inform the court that she was recovering from surgery and unable to attend. Of the other two witnesses, both identified as “armed forces” personnel, one was found to be registered at an address 675 miles away, in the city of Iskenderun, and the other’s whereabouts had not yet been confirmed.

So the court issued instructions for the female witness to be summoned a third time, to testify at the next hearing, set for May 25. The court ordered the witness in Iskenderun to submit his “eyewitness” testimony in writing to the Iskenderun criminal court, to be forwarded to the Silivri court. No further action was taken to summon the third witness.

International Inquiry
Judge Hayrettin Sevim, who has presided over the last five hearings on the case, informed the plaintiff and defense lawyers that recently his court had been requested to supply the Justice Ministry with a copy of relevant documents and details from the case file.

An inquiry outside Turkey about the progress of the case, he said, prompted the request.

Seven different state prosecutors have been assigned to the case since Prosecutor Ahmet Demirhuyuk declared at the fourth hearing in July 2007 that “not a single concrete, credible piece of evidence” had been produced to support the accusations against the Protestant defendants. After Demihuyuk recommended that the charges be dropped and the two Christians acquitted, he was removed from the case.

Originally filed in October 2006, the controversial Article 301 case accused Tastan and Topal, both former Muslims who converted to Christianity, of slandering the Turkish nation and Muslim religion while involved in evangelistic activities in Silivri, an hour’s drive west of Istanbul in northwestern Turkey.

After Turkey enacted cosmetic changes in the wording of Article 301 in May 2008, all cases filed under this law require formal permission from the justice minister himself to go on to trial.

According to the Turkish Justice Ministry, only eight of more than 900 Article 301 cases sent for review since the law’s revision have been approved for prosecution. On Friday (Feb. 12) the Justice Ministry declined in writing a Compass request last month for a list of the eight cases in question.

Despite the lack of any legally credible evidence against Tastan and Topal, the Silivri case is one of those eight cases personally approved by the Justice Minister.

According to a CNNTURK report dated Dec. 8, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama raised the Article 301 issue with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their last face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C.

“I think those asking about this don’t know what Article 301 is,” Erdogan reportedly said. “Until now it has only happened to eight persons.”

This month the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized Turkey’s revision of Article 301, declaring that the government should simply abolish the law.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg also warned earlier this month that Turkey is violating Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights to the extent that the European Court of Human Rights may impose sanctions on Turkey over Article 301.

Noting that the Assembly welcomed previous amendments to the law, the most recent PACE report declares it “deplores the fact that Turkey has not abolished Article 301.

Courtesy of Compassdirect.org at http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/turkey/15188/

Christian in Egypt: ‘They Try to Kill Us’

Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment.  They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country.

Maher and Dina nervously agreed to meet us at a Church in Cairo. The priest at the Church said he feared problems from the Egyptian authorities and while he agreed to have us watch his Sunday mass, the Priest  declined to speak to us about what is happening in Egypt and to the El-Gowhary’s.

They tell their story out of fear and desperation.  Born Muslims they chose to convert to the Christian Church after both claim they had religious visions.

Now Maher says “Muslims try to kill us,  and will kill us if they find us.”

Several religious fatwas have been issued for “spilling his blood” after Maher asked an Egyptian Court to legally recognize his conversion, so he can one day be buried as a Christian and so his daughter won’t be forced into a marriage by her Muslim mother.

The court ruled a legal conversion to Christianity would threaten public order.  His lawyer told us it’s a dangerous double standard because in Egypt a Christian can convert to the Muslim faith in a week, but a Muslim cannot convert to the Christian faith.

Ten percent of Egypt is Christian, largely the Coptic Christians who increasingly say they face daunting discrimination and even death.

We had to hide our camera as we followed the El-Gowhary’s because we were told if the authorities discovered we were preparing our story we would be arrested.

Religious tensions are running high in Egypt.

On January 6th, the Coptic Christmas eve, three Muslim men sprayed gunfire at a Church in Upper Egypt killing six Christians and wounding up to a dozen more.  Christians rioted the next day and the area is still closed to outsiders including the press.

Human rights activist Hussein Bahjet say’s Egypt has the potential to become like Lebanon because of growing sectarian violence.

“Civil strife that could engulf the country” Bahjet says.

The U.S. State Department reports respect of religious freedom in Egypt is declining, Christians are denied Government jobs, Priests are threatened and harassed, Christians are increasingly attacks in what State describes as “a climate of impunity that encourages violence.”

In some cases authorities turn a blind eye to attacks on Christians, in other cases there is evidence police sparked the attacks.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been largely silent about the problem, but this week he spoke out saying Egyptians must up-root “fanaticism and sectarianism, which threatens the unit of our nation.”

Dina has written a letter to President Obama which has been published on Christian websites.  She has been pulled out of school. She has only a blue jean jacket to stay warm and little food to eat.  Her letter was a desperate plea.  ”I wrote that we are a minority Christian Community treated very badly and I want to tell President Obama to tell the Egyptian Government to treat us well.”

Her father Mayer says he can’t stay in Egypt anymore.   He and his daughter are in such grave danger we can’t report where they are in Egypt now, or where they are planning on moving tomorrow.

In recent days the two  met with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Cairo.   They asked for refugee status to get out of Egypt.

A source at the Commission say’s its a complicated matter because Dina has a Muslim mother and there are legal issues, but their request is being considered.

The Commission source also says because of religious discrimination in Egypt, last year the State Department down graded Egypt to being on a watch list.  This year it could potentially be downgraded further to a Country of particular concern.   That means the U.S. might even consider sanctions against a Country which receives some 2 billion dollars in U.S. aid every year.

As I write this Dina and her father are packing, moving to another area of Egypt. Out of money. And running of out hope.

Courtesy of Foxnews.com