"As for sharia (Islamic law), the constitution permits its limited
application in personal and family issues. But the states have gone beyond
that limit," said Joseph Agabi, Nigeria's minister of justice and attorney,
at a press conference in Abuja on December 3.
"The penal code provides for dealing with criminal cases," Agabi said.
"There is no other law that is allowed by the constitution to handle
criminal cases than the penal code in our judicial system. Now that sharia
has been declared by these states to handle criminal cases, this is going
beyond the limit permitted. It is unconstitutional and illegal."
However, Agabi did not say what the Nigerian government would do if the
Muslim governors in the six states did not back down, as indicated by some
who insist that theirs is a divine mandate. Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara
state, the first to declare Islamic law, warned that Christian leaders must
stay clear of his administration's policy.
In a November 30 open letter to Christian leaders published in most
Nigerian newspapers, Sani maintained that his adoption of Islamic law in
Zamfara was in keeping with his religious beliefs and the fulfillment of
campaign promises. "I want to state here that no amount of threat,
intimidation, or harassment can change my course of action, as long as I am
the governor of Zamfara state," Sani declared.
Governor Joshua Dariye of Plateau state in northern Nigeria advised Muslim
governors to be careful. "The present situation where Nigerians have
freedom of worship rather than the entrenching of a state religion is a
better alternative," Dariye said.
(Report provided by Compass Direct; from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
Rev. Tran Dinh (Paul) Ai was for a long time Vietnam's most vocal and
courageous critic of the regime's repressive policies toward Evangelicals.
His activities got him a two year prison sentence in the early '90s and
frequent bouts of interrogation with officials of Vietnam's notorious
Ministry of Public Security which continued to hold Paul's passport until
late November. Proceedings to help the Paul Ai family leave Vietnam were
initiated last May when Paul was arrested in Hanoi and held under "hotel
arrest" for three weeks. He became very ill during that interrogation.
Authorities were irritated by the fact that the US had issued him an "R"
category visa, which meant he was being admitted as a religious worker. In
Vietnam, authorities consistently refused to recognize the religious
credentials of Paul, or the local Assemblies of God church organization.
Paul was finally issued an emigrant passport which implies he is not
welcome to return to Vietnam.
Paul and his family express their gratefulness to all who helped raise
their plight with authorities and those who prayed for them.
(from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
A worldwide poll of religious beliefs presents an intriguing
snapshot of man and God at the end of the millennium.
God is important to many people, but not primary, the poll
shows. Almost two-thirds of the world's people say God is quite
significant in their lives, but much of that belief appears to be
nominal, a survey conducted in 60 countries by the London-based
market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres and Gallup
International Association found.
Worldwide, 87% of people consider themselves part of a
religion and only 13% said they belong to none. Believers include
Roman Catholics, Protestants, other Christians, Jews, Muslims,
Hindus, Buddhists and followers of other religions.
Religiosity varies greatly by location. In West Africa, where
Muslims are the largest group and the Catholic Church has made
inroads, 99% believe in God, 12 points above average. The least
religious region is East Asia, which has 77% believers. In Hong
Kong, 64% said they do not believe in any religion, as is the
case for 55% in the Czech Republic, and 46% in South Korea.
Higher education correlates to lower levels of belief, the
survey showed. Fifty-two percent of college graduates are
religious compared with 54% of people with a high school
education and 70% of those who completed only primary school.
Much of religion appears to be nominal. Although 87% of
respondents say they are followers of some religion, just 32%
practice their faith by attending services at least once a week,
35% every now and then, and 33% never or less than once a year.
Women are more committed to attending than men, and people with
only a primary level of education more so than others. The
attendance rate at services is higher for those under 24 years
old.
Among those who almost never go to church, the survey singled
out people living in Western Europe (48%) and Eastern Europe
(44%). By contrast, nine out of 10 West Africans and seven out of
10 Latin Americans attend church. Even though many people who say
they are religious do not attend services, seven of 10
respondents say they regularly meditate or pray in solitude.
People in different cultures picture God in different ways,
the survey showed. Forty-five percent say they think of God as a
person, while 30% think of a force or spirit. About 14% had no
image of God, 8% do not believe God exists, and 3% did not
answer. Women, the elderly, and people with less education tend
to see God as a person. More-educated people prefer the idea of a
spiritual force, or reject the notion of a superior being. Men
are more prone to deny God's existence.
Forty-six percent of those surveyed said they believe there is
more than one true religion, and 31% think theirs is the only
true faith. Ten percent say there is no such thing as the one
true religion and 13% don't know or gave no answer. Those who are
more attached to the idea of just one religion as valid are the
elderly, women, and people with just a primary education, and are
concentrated in West Africa and Latin America. North Americans
are the most open-minded and Europeans the most agnostic.
Religion in the United States is a mile long and an inch deep,
a recent book by pollster George Gallup, Jr., says. Surveying the
Religious Landscape, which contains information and wisdom from
70 years of Gallup-family polling, says Americans are largely
ignorant about doctrine and lack trust in God. The challenge for
churches is to evangelize those already attending church to help
them grow deeper in the faith, Gallup and co-author D. Michael
Lindsay said.
-------------
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.tnsofres.com/homeframe.htm
http://www.gallup.com/
(from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
Christians report that "it is practically impossible to achieve registration
(of churches) even when all the documents are present". Churches
are regularly raided and property and literature confiscated and
Bibles destroyed. Pastors are frequently arrested, imprisoned,
beaten and fined. In Uzbekistan, pastors and Church members have
suffered torture at the hands of the authorities.
Pray for strength in body and spirit for these Christians of Central Asia. Pray for
their witness in these Muslim lands, and for their oppressors.
(from the WEF Religious Liberty Prayer List)
In northern Sumatra, Aceh is one province straining at the leash.
Early traders from Aceh worked the trading routes to the Middle
East and forged strong links with Arab countries and a firm
attachment to militant fundamentalist Islam.
The Free Aceh Movement sees Indonesia as a colonising power. The
Acehenese are determined to fight for their independence and an
Islamic State under Shar'ia Law; possibly even a return to a
Sultanate. The Christian minority in Aceh (less than 100 known
believers) are living in a seriously hostile environment.
Indonesia has a population of over 212 million, of whom 87% are
Muslim. Christians form the largest religious minority of around
10%, or 20 million, mostly in the eastern regions such as North
Sulawesi, East Nusatenggara (which includes West Timor and Maluku),
Ambon and Irian Jaya. The latter two were predominantly Christian
until Suharto's transmigration policies changed the demographics.
Muslims who were once a real minority in these areas are now there
in force, holding high office.
The 30 days of fasting during Ramadan (8 Dec - 6 Jan) brings many
tensions as Muslims abstain from food and water between sun-up and
sun-down. This often produces renewed religious zeal and emotional
excitement which, along with the stress of fasting, makes the
situation even more dangerous for Christians.
In Ambon, outside provocateurs have stirred up religious strife for
political ends. The violence that broke out there last January is
now well out of control. Since then, 700 have died, 520 have been
wounded and 95,200 people have been displaced. During November, 14
churches and 275 houses were burnt down in the northern Moluccan
towns of Soa Siu and Ternate.
In Irian Jaya, there are thousands of Christians aligned with the
freedom movement, and a perception amongst the Indonesian
authorities that all Christians would be. So their lives also are
at risk as this movement raises its voice for independence from its
foreign Muslim rulers and occupiers.
As various regions push for independence or, as in Ambon, suffer
jihad, the Suharto philosophy of 'Pancasila' (tolerance) is no
longer the glue that binds the Indonesian people together to give
unity in diversity. As in East Timor, a major problem for
Christians throughout Indonesia is not only lack of protection by
the police and army, but their armed involvement in atrocities.
Of the 30 killed in riots in Ambon on 26 November, 20 were
Christians, many of whom were deliberately gunned down by the
military.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR:
(from the WEF Religious Liberty Prayer List)
The Commission on International Religious Freedom, which issues the report, was established by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, 22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq., and issued its first comprehensive report in September 1999. See this site for the full text.
7 December 1999
BEIJING (Reuters) - China demanded on Tuesday that the United
States withdraw newly imposed economic sanctions that aim to
punish Beijing for alleged religious persecution.
"The Chinese government and people express their strong
indignation over this,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue
told a news conference.
"The Chinese side demands that the U.S. side correct its
mistake immediately, and reverse its decision,'' she said, adding
that the sanctions had an adverse impact on bilateral ties.
Washington decided in October to extend sanctions that have been
in place since shortly after Chinese troops fired on student
demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The sanctions were among several responses required by U.S. law
against countries cited in an annual State Department report as
key violators of religious freedom.
The report, released in September, designated China, Iran, Iraq,
Myanmar and Sudan as countries of particular concern.
The report cited China for persecuting Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim
Uighurs and Protestants and Roman Catholics who do not belong to
"official'' churches.
It said while the Chinese constitution provided for freedom of
religious belief, in practice the government "seeks to restrict
religious practice to government-sanctioned organizations and
registered places of worship and to control the growth and scope
of religious groups.''
U.S. concerns over religious freedom in China have lately
focused on Beijing's harsh crackdown on the quasi-spiritual
movement Falun Gong, which Beijing says is attempting to
overthrow the government.
(from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
CAIRO - A Christian man is due to go on trial for murder today in a
backwater town in the upper Nile River valley, in a case that for Egypt's
Christian minority has become a landmark test of whether justice can be
evenhanded in this overwhelmingly Islamic state.
''What this case is about is the perversion of justice, the unprecedented
collective punishment of a Christian community, torture at the hands of
police, and ultimately the framing of an innocent man for murder,'' said
Hafez Abu Seda, director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and
lead defense attorney in the case, which has brought to the surface
long-dormant tensions between Muslims and Christians.
It began when two Coptic Christian men were found shot to death and lying
face down on the night of Aug. 14, 1998, in the farming village of Al
Kosheh.
From the outset, human rights workers, church leaders, and residents
allege, local police investigating the homicide, all of them Muslim, were
determined to frame a member of the Coptic Christian community in the
killing.
In the weeks after the murders, police reportedly rounded up for
questioning more than 1,000 of Al Kosheh's Coptic residents. The Coptic
church, one of the oldest in Christendom, dates back to Saint Mark the
Evangelist, who founded it as early as the year 60. Copts make up between 5
and 10 percent of Egypt's population of 60 million and for at least a
century have been steadily emigrating to Europe and America, largely to
escape poverty but also to evade discrimination - some would say
persecution - amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.
It was in this context that police swept through the Christian neighborhood
of Al Kosheh in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1998.
They arrested whole families, including small children, some in the middle
of the night. Scores of men were tortured with electric prods, bound, and
beaten while suspended from window grates in dingy cells, according to a
report by the Egyptian Human Rights Organization. That account was
supported in Globe interviews with dozens of the villagers.
Those reporting torture said they were pressured to make statements against
a Christian suspect.
Finally the police, citing the statements by two Christian witnesses,
charged 37-year-old Shayboub William Artori with murdering the two men.
Artori faces the death penalty.
The trial is set to begin in the regional capital of Sohag, about 15 miles
from Al Kosheh, even though the two witnesses, the only prosecution
witnesses, have retracted their statements and provided written testimony
that they were tortured and forced to implicate Atouri.
The witnesses, Yasser Shahed Allam and Rasmi Abdou Michael, changed their
testimony after going to Bishop Wissa, the chief Coptic cleric in the
region, and telling him that they had named Artori after being tortured.
The regional prosecutor then indicted Wissa as well, along with the two
witnesses, on a long list of charges that included ''obstruction of
justice,'' ''incitement,'' ''changing truth as reported in official
documents,'' and ''making statements that harm national unity.''
The charges against Wissa and the witnesses are pending, and they, too,
theoretically could carry the death penalty.
The police who allegedly ran roughshod over the town have not been
disciplined and are continuing in their jobs. Egyptian media quoted a
regional prosecutor on Oct. 27 saying that the investigation into the
torture allegations had been dropped.
The next day, a newly named Egyptian attorney general said the probe was
still underway, but human rights activists say little is being done to
pursue the case.
Senior aides to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in interviews, have
expressed confidence in the prosecution and dismissed the claims of torture
as exaggerated. The Globe's requests for an interview with Mubarak were
denied.
''The state has handled this case in a very unfortunate manner,'' said
Wissa, a frail 61-year-old cleric who has become less outspoken since
authorities brought charges against him.
''They want the case to die, to be forgotten, especially since the media is
not reporting on it,'' he said, adding that the government-controlled media
have mostly ignored the case.
Seda, the defense lawyer, added: ''The government's policy depends on
people forgetting. They just want it to go away.''
Seda, a Muslim, was arrested and jailed after his human rights organization
published its report, on the charge that the group had illegally received
foreign funding from the British government. Those charges are still
pending as well.
To some observers, the layers upon layers of seeming injustice in the case
recall the actions of local prosecutors and police in the American deep
South in the 1950s, before the civil rights movement, and eventually the
federal government, challenged the justice system's ingrained racism.
Sohag is a remote area, and the tiny town of Al Kosheh is a backwater bayou
along the Nile. It drifted through time as a sleepy farming community until
the murders put it on the map and captured how deeply disenfranchised many
Copts feel.
''The government has been on an insane policy of denying what happened in
Al Kosheh and sweeping it under the rug,'' said Milad Hanna, one of Egypt's
most prominent Copts and an outspoken voice for tolerance between the two
faiths. ''But they can't sweep this under the rug. This has become a
landmark case for the Coptic community.''
(Copyright © 1999 Globe Newspaper Company; from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
Leading Protestant House Church leader Li Dexian and three co-
workers have been released after fifteen days in detention. In spite
of his suffering, Li has pledged to continue preaching and holding
meetings.
Li was released at 10.00 a.m. on Wednesday 24th November, 15
days after being taken into detention. The three others held with him
were released later that day, at three o'clock in the afternoon.
Although there is no evidence that he faced physical violence, Li was
confined to his cell and denied visits by his family and friends during
his detention.
Li's arrest on 9th November was the fourth in as many weeks.
About a hundred police officers arrested him and six others as he
commenced his popular Tuesday meeting in Huadu, Guangzhou.
After being held for a night, three of the detainees were released, but
Li and another man, Mr Yung along with two women, Fan and Ling,
were transferred to the local prison where the two women were sent
to undertake hard labour.
Although Li has been released, it remains to be seen whether the
pattern of arrests and intimidation will continue, and in particular
whether the police will return again to the church next Tuesday
meeting.
There have been other attempts recently to exercise control over
unregistered religious groups in the same area. The police recently
visited and inspected the new building which the internationally
known House Church leader Samuel Lamb will be moving to next
year and asked questions about the property. They also approached
another key House Church leader, Brother Yiu, a week ago and
questioned him about why his church is not registered.
CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas stated: "We are delighted
by the news of the release of Li and his co-workers. However, we
remain concerned about their future welfare their and vulnerability to
further arrest and persecution. We will be monitoring events very
closely, and in particular will be watching to see how events unfold
next Tuesday."
CSW is asking for those concerned to contact the Chinese authorities
welcoming the release of the detainees and expressing the hope that
the pattern of persecution against Mr Li will now be halted and steps
taken to ensure that religious freedom is respected. (Those in the
United Kingdom can contact the Embassy of the People's Republic
of China to the United Kingdom, 49-51 Portland Place, London
W1N 4JL, fax 0171-636 2981, phone 0171-636 5726, Ambassador:
His Excellency Mr. Ma Zhengang.)
(news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide; from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
(from the WEF Religious Liberty Prayer List)
The Constitution of Laos prohibits "all acts of creating division of
religion or creating division among the people". Religion, according
to Laotian law, divides, distracts and destabilises.
(from the WEF Religious Liberty Prayer List)
"The International Day of Prayer is a day during which the body of Christ
unites to remember, to pray, and to commit ourselves to be a voice for the
voiceless," explains Johan Candelin, director and coordinator for the
International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. "Now more than ever,
we need to stand together in prayer for our brothers and sisters who are
suffering for a faith all of us share."
There have been more people martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ in the
20th century than in all of the previous 19 combined. World Evangelical
Fellowship sponsored the event internationally in partnership with Christian
Solidarity International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Friends of the
Martyr Church, Open Doors with Brother Andrew, Release International and
Voice of the Martyrs. As a result, Christians from Asia to Finland to South
America prayed in solidarity for their suffering brothers and sisters.
WEF's International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church website which received 180,000 hits from 68 countries
between November 1-20, helped promote the worldwide movement. The site offers a 23-page printable booklet with prayer guidelines, Bible passages to study, facts and trends about
persecution, tips on writing to government leaders on behalf of the
persecuted, and event planning suggestions for church leaders.
A believer in Surinam posted this prayer on the International Day of Prayer
website: "I pray for strength, courage and continued hope, and trust in You
for my beloved brethren in persecuted lands. One glimpse of You will make all
memories of hurts, pains, sufferings and persecution vanish, and through this
persecuting of Your people may the tormentors see Your glory, love and
forgiveness and bow to You as we do, Amen."
Persecuted pastor Richard Wurmbrand is grateful for the support shown by his
Christian brothers and sisters. "While imprisoned under the communists for my
faith in Christ, I prayed that the martyrs would not be forgotten by those in
the West. To forget the martyrs is to forget the Lord because, through them,
Christ again suffers chains, persecution and torture. The International Day
of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is an answer to that prayer."
The next International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church will be November 12, 2000.
It is immaterial for the purpose of the proposed criminal prison sentence
if, to the religion or religious testimony of the person persuaded, there
is no validity to such conversion, or if the violation occurred outside of
the country, provided that the person whose religion is to be changed
resides in Israel.
A 3-year sentence would be conferred upon anyone who solicits through
advertisement. A person would receive a 1-year prison sentence simply for
holding such an advertisement, without lawful justification.
A 1-year prison sentence would be imposed upon anyone who receives or
brings a minor or a needy person to a location in which prayer or other
religious activities occur (which are different from the religion of such
person) or upon one who holds such activities.
A minor or needy person will not be allowed into an educational
institution, youth hostel or club in Israel that is under the auspices of
another religion. Another religion is defined as a religion that is not
the religion of the religious community to which the individual belongs
according to Israeli Law.
_______________________
Although the gathering lasted for approximately two hours, our
representatives were allowed only 2 to 3 minutes each to speak and were
constantly interrupted. Charles Kopp was not even allowed to speak,
despite his expressed desire to do so. According to Maoz, Most of the
speakers were accorded 7 to 10 uninterrupted minutes and more to describe
the purported, but unsupported, allegations of the activities of the
missionaries and the repeated police failure to deal with them. It
apparently never occurred to those participating in the discussion that
repeated failure to find evidence could actually mean that bribes were
never offered. Nor did it occur to them that the police were merely
upholding the laws of this Land, which still secure freedom of speech,
worship and dissemination of ideas. When the police representatives said
as much to the Orthodox MKs, they were taken aback and expressed their
disappointment.
Leading the drive for introduction of legislation was MK Rabbi Porush
(National Religious Party). The Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee
is David Azoular (Shas Political Party), who stated that the Committee had
gathered to study, discuss and find ways to deal with the missionary menace
threatening our people. Although some political parties signed
governmental coalition agreements precluding private member legislative
bills, MK Porush indicated there would be no problem passing a Preliminary
Reading (first of four votes) introducing a proposed law and obtaining the
necessary votes, even without support from the Barak Government.
Individual member votes would be solicited beyond the religious parties.
A film was shown by one of the anti-missionary societies dramatizing the
perceived danger of baptism. According to Baruch Maoz, the purpose of the
meeting was to discuss two subjects: 1) the efforts on the part of
missionaries to baptize 400 Jews and 2) police obstruction of efforts to
restrict missionary activity in Israel. (The actual number of baptisms at
issue was 12.)
Cameras were conveniently present for use by the media. Television
reporters inquired of MAC representatives of their availability for public
media debate.
Police Inspector Yosef Cohen, who had been asked to infiltrate Messianic
groups, was asked why there was not more vigilance against the baptism
menace. He related that twenty years ago the United Christian Council in
Israel secured an agreement that no investigation of Messianic activity
could take place without the prior approval of the Attorney General. He
also stated that, in recent years, there have been sixty complaints against
the Orthodox for aggressive religious persuasion, and only thirty against
Messianic groups. No evidence was found of attempted bribery by Messianic
believers, except a single occasion of the parents of a child who gave
hearsay of 30,000 NIS allegedly being offered to their child to convert.
One Knesset member (of a non-religious party), upon observing the obvious
gang-up against the Messianic Jews, left the meeting. Strident press
quotations were cited by the anti-missionary societies, but a reference to
the name of the newspaper was only given when it was from the secular,
non-Orthodox press.
Daniel Yahav (a native-born Israeli and military officer) informed the
gathering that his parents were Holocaust survivors and that the fire
bombings of the houses of members of his congregation represented the
results of the kind of hatred produced by misinformation, unsubstantiated
reports and prejudice. Even the introduction of legislation assumes a
public danger.
Among those present at the meeting was MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, who
co-sponsored prior anti-Messianic legislation described in our previous
reports. He acknowledged before the Internal Affairs Committee that the
Israeli government had been flooded with a worldwide response of letters,
faxes and inquiries from parliamentarians, embassies and foreign
ministries.
In this regard, it is gratifying to learn that the efforts of you, our
readers, have indeed been effective.
It is our sincere hope that providential events intervene and that the
devices and intentions against our communities not materialize. If it does
occur, it is good to know that an army exists willing to act to preserve
religious freedom in Israel and the democratic nature of our society.
(Report provided by the Messianic Action Committee; from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)
* Caucasus: Awash in Anarchy
* Central Asia: Back to KGB Days
* China: Tightening the Screws
* Colombia: Violence and Chaos
* India: Extremism Gaining Momentum
* Indonesia: A Vulnerable Minority
* North Korea: the Last Stalinist State
* Pakistan: Forgotten on Death Row
* Saudi Arabia: the Heartland of Islam
* Sudan: Doing a Double-Talk Squeeze
Political ideology, religious extremism and social instability continue to
provide a breeding ground for severe Christian persecution worldwide. With
the approach of November 14 and the International Day of Prayer for the
Persecuted Church (IDOP), Compass Direct wanted to highlight 10 of the
worst persecution areas. Of course, these 10 are not the only places where
Christians suffer for their faith, and the problem is often much more
complex than can be easily summarized. Yet for Western Christians just
beginning to understand the extent of attacks on the church, we hope this
report will form a basis for a growing knowledge and involvement.
Infamous as one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, Chechnya has
martyred several of the Christians it held for ransom this past year.
Radical Muslims in the breakaway republic and neighboring Dagestan can be
expected to continue kidnapping any Christian believer left in the region,
especially local converts of ethnic Muslim heritage who convert to
Christianity. The Muslim extremists assume that all Christians have
well-heeled contacts in the West who could pay large sums of money. Also,
as trained Islamists under the strident influence of Saudi Wahabbism they
want to stop all Christian missionary efforts among the nominally Muslim
populace.
Increasingly cornered in a punishing resistance to the recent Russian
military offensive launched in August, local government leaders are
reiterating their commitment to establishing independent Muslim states,
built squarely on Islamic "sharia" law. However, they remain unable to stop
the rampant anarchy in the region, where various warlords command their own
large armed forces.
At least three of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia continue to
backpedal from their initial pledges to establish democratically guaranteed
religious freedoms after they became independent in the early 1990s.
This past year Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and more recently Azerbaijan have
taken more hard-line approaches through their government-controlled
Committees of Religious Affairs to squeeze out the small Protestant
Christian communities, many of which include ministries among the ethnic
Muslim majority population. By revising their laws which require all
religious groups to become officially registered, all three states have in
effect made it almost impossible for these small groups to remain legal.
However, the Muslim establishment and the Russian Orthodox Church achieved
prompt legal status as the "accepted" religious communities in each nation.
Repeated police raids against Protestant churches during their regular
worship services continue to intimidate church members and their pastors by
interrogations, confiscating their Bibles and other Christian materials,
pressuring employers to dismiss anyone "caught" in such a raid, and fining
their leaders sizeable sums.
All three countries have concocted weak pretexts to imprison Christian
pastors, either temporarily or for long sentences. In the face of an
international outcry, Uzbekistan finally retracted stiff prison terms
imposed upon four pastors "convicted" this past year on fabricated drug
charges. In an apparent show of apology, officials began to process these
pastors' long-stalled church applications for official registration. But
having grown up under the old Soviet system, local Christians are wary,
knowing that in the coming months, new roadblocks could still be created to
prevent their churches from becoming legal entities in their homeland.
"If we (the Communist Party) give you prosperity in the economic realm, you
must give up freedom in the social/political realm." Essentially this was
the "bargain" the late Deng Xiaoping struck with the Chinese people in the
1980s and is still the arrangement today. Many western analysts believe it
is a recipe for implosion.
It has always been a bad bargain for China's 60 million-plus Christians --
the vast majority of whom remain outside the official state-controlled
Three Self church. Remaining outside means China's Protestants are viewed
as a "criminal cult" that if organized could mount a political challenge to
the Party's hegemony. In 1999, over 50 house church leaders were rounded
up, mainly in the central revival province of Henan. Even in the cities,
surveillance has greatly increased, especially before the October 1
celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's
Republic of China.
The paranoia of the Party is not likely to decrease as social disorder
increases. China's old men know only one tactic to keep order -- tighten
the totalitarian screws. China's house churches can only expect more
suffering under this scenario.
Even within the official church, a more wintry ideological wind is blowing.
Annoyed that within the Three Self over 70 percent of the pastors are
evangelicals, a conference recently decreed that all pastors study the very
liberal theology of Bishop K.H. Ding, long-time leader of the Three Self.
Failure to toe this line and think like Ding is causing a purge at some of
the seminaries.
For all the worsening climate however, the oppression is always unevenly
spaced. Implementation of central policy is always up to local cadres, some
of which are quite sympathetic to Christians, and others quite hostile. Not
for the first time, the world's longest continuous civilization defies easy
categorization.
A recent gathering near Bogota of the National Evangelical Commission for
Human Rights and Peace included a talk on why pastors are frequent targets
of rival armed factions. A flyer cited reasons why they're singled out for
threats or murder by the country's warring groups. Here are some of those
reasons:
Violence between leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries,
narco-traffickers, Colombian army special forces and even satanic cults has
pushed Colombia to the brink of anarchy. No group recognizes neutrality as
an option in this 35-year-old war that demands every civilian to take
sides. There's no hiding place within Colombia's borders, so refugees flee
to neighboring countries and the United States.
In the hemisphere's most violent country, Colombia's Bellavista National
Jail was its most violent prison until two believers brought the gospel to
the prison in 1990 and stopped a riot. Hundreds of inmates -- among them
the nation's most notorious killers -- accepted Christ, and the prison's
murder rate plummeted from sometimes 60 in a month to less than one a year.
Now a Bellavista Bible Institute thrives in the prison. Some graduates who
completed their sentences have become full-time Christian workers in
ministries such as halfway houses that enable other released Christian
prisoners to transition to life outside Bellavista. Informal Bible studies
abound in cellblocks once stained in graffiti written in victims' blood.
Even as Colombia continues its downward spiral into violence and anarchy,
Bellavista's revival serves as a laboratory case-in-point that the gospel
can rescue this seemingly hopeless nation.
The resounding defeat of the Congress Party in the September-October
elections allows the Hindu nationalist BJP a possible five-year term, which
could be disastrous for India's 23 million Christians. To back this up, one
need look no further than the 13-month reign of the BJP that ended in April
1999, where a wave of over 140 acts of violence (including murders and
church burnings) took place against Christians.
Though BJP leaders are careful to condemn anti-Christian violence, they
ensure that the momentum of justice moves so slowly that the Hindu
extremists responsible will never be brought to book, thus effectively
offering an amnesty to anyone who harasses a Christian in the name of
Hinduism.
Hindu nationalism is based on hatred of Muslims and Christians, the two
groups alleged to have no right to remain on the Gangetic plain. This
ideology of hatred has triumphed in a vacuum, as the secularist position of
Gandhi and Nehru has declined, and India's Christians remain too small to
exert influence on a population that passed the one billion mark in August.
The hate campaign against Christians will surely continue, especially as
Hindu extremists maintain that all the "tribal" Christians were forcibly
converted. Their attempts to coerce Christians back to Hinduism will cause
the greatest flashpoint in the future.
Indonesia still remains a society lurching from upheaval to upheaval, and
in the midst of this turbulence, the Christian community of some 20 million
remains the most influential, yet most vulnerable, religious minority.
Whenever there is economic instability, Christians are scapegoated for it
and attacked. It is the Chinese Christian community that bears the brunt of
this, often with horrifying consequences. Half of Indonesia's 6 million
Chinese are Christian, and they are very wealthy, which makes them a target
for the outraged poor.
Also, the violence on East Timor has caused Christians to be stereotyped as
separatists. A new, ugly nationalism is rearing its head and maintaining
that Christians want to separate from Indonesia wherever they live -- a
blatant lie given that most of the Christians are thoroughly integrated
throughout the Indonesian archipelago.
The island of Ambon in Maluku province was earmarked by extremist Muslims
as a key domino, which, if tipped, would trigger "jihad" throughout the
land. Since January, over 500 Christians have been killed and large parts
of the island reduced to rubble in the strife.
The good news is the domino has not toppled, and most of the 90 percent of
Muslims in this country remain unattracted to extremist ideas. But with
Megawati and Habibie -- both revealing an alarming amount of political
ineptitude -- to contest the presidency at the end of the year, more
instability is inevitable.
No one knows how many Christians are left in the world's last Stalinist
state, but one thing is clear -- life cannot be tougher for a church
anywhere else in the world. Still in the grip of a severe famine that has
cost 2-3 million lives, and still stubbornly pursuing outdated centralized
policies, the prospect looks bleak for North Korea.
Kim Jong Il is hardly in the position to reverse course, for to do so would
be to imply his father, Kim Il Sung, had been wrong. His regime plays a
dangerous game of international brinkmanship, of forcing aid by threatening
to make war on the South, making the Korean peninsula the place most likely
to experience a nuclear exchange.
Christians may number between 10,000 and 100,000 -- most of them deep
underground. They have no freedom to practice their faith in what is still
the world's most atheistic state. The only good report is that the famine
has made the border with China more porous, resulting in more contact with
Korean Christians in China. It is possible that the Korean Christian
Federation -- a fraudulent church for visiting Westerners -- may be given
an expanded role, in order to tempt more Christian aid ministries into the
country. But it is unlikely that genuine Korean Christians will "surface."
Radical Muslim extremists in Pakistan continue to hold the nation's
Christian minority hostage with the dreaded power of a single word,
"blasphemy." Under the harsh statutes of the religious blasphemy laws, the
mere accusation of blasphemy against a member of a non-Muslim minority
subjects him to police arrest and jailing without bail. Rarely does a
magistrate review the allegations before the case is filed. But if
convicted, the sentence is mandatory execution.
In the volatile environment of extremist Islam, where unruly mobs can be
quickly whipped into a lynching mentality, such Christian prisoners
typically remain under arrest for years on end, allegedly "for their own
protection." Courts hearing their cases move sluggishly, and then only in
attempts to transfer the proceedings to another court. With more than one
lawyer and judge targeted by angry assassins for defending or acquitting
Christians accused of blasphemy, the judiciary are understandably nervous.
One such Pakistani Christian jailed three years ago has been on death row
for the past year and a half, his appeal frozen by judges afraid to touch
the controversial case. Even if Ayub Masih is fully acquitted, as evidence
would seem to require, he will have to flee the country to escape the
fanatics who have vowed to kill him, regardless of what the courts decide.
With the overwhelming majority of Pakistan's Christians at the bottom of
the social and economic scale, the average Christian faces the daily fear
that some day he could end up in Ayub Masih's shoes.
Despite bland assurances from the royal family to the contrary, Saudi
Arabia's notorious "muttawa" (Islamic police) continue their obsession to
harass, arrest, imprison and deport expatriate Christians attempting to
worship privately in the Kingdom. Government officials have insisted since
1997 that any "excesses" committed by these religious vigilantes against
Christians contradict official state policy, claiming that private worship
by non-Muslims is permitted.
But the evidence of recent months proves otherwise. In fact, individual
foreigners are being arrested and jailed for months over alleged evidence
that they participated in Christian worship. Raids of Christian worship
services have landed their leaders in jail and led to eventual deportation,
and congregational members have been forced to sign a promise to never
again attend "illegal" meetings. Local authorities are expected to continue
to justify such actions under Saudi's strict morality laws, which forbid
mixing of the sexes in public gatherings.
Saudi authorities continue to try to quietly force employers to dismiss and
send back to their homelands any employees found to be involved in
Christian activities. Some are detained in the process, and many denied the
financial benefits' package guaranteed in their job contracts. A few may be
tried formally in Islamic courts, which typically sentence religious
offenders to painful lashes at the conclusion of their jail confinement. On
the whole, Filipino Christians bear the brunt of these harsh measures,
although the chance arrest of citizens of the more powerful Western nations
can lead to exertion of greater diplomatic pressure on Saudi authorities.
Fortunately, news of such arrests now circles the globe in the matter of a
few hours, or at most, days, making it relatively impossible to hush up
such incidents.
For years now, the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime in Sudan has
relentlessly pursued its quasi-legal efforts to confiscate a growing number
of long-established church properties in the capital of Khartoum and its
twin-city, Omdurman. In a succession of ploys ranging from verbal and
written threats to armed takeovers by militia or police forces, the
government tries to bully the Catholic, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches
out of lands, buildings and churches held by legal deeds for decades. In
addition, dozens of small churches and church schools located in the
massive shantytowns surrounding the capital continue to be razed to the
ground under the pretext of city planning and zoning regulations.
Sudanese authorities still imprison and charge converts to Christianity
with apostasy, a capital offense under the laws of Sudan. Although one such
highly publicized prisoner was released by the Justice Ministry after he
suffered a stroke in prison this year, another convert remains jailed,
sentenced to four more years in prison on contrived charges.
The government has still to find a face-saving solution to the
long-stalemated case concocted 15 months ago against two Catholic priests,
one of whom is the influential chancellor of the Khartoum diocese. Although
accused of masterminding a series of bombing explosions against the
government, the two are believed to be bearing the brunt of Khartoum's
displeasure over the Catholic Church's refusal to support its so-called
peace plan with rebels in South Sudan. Dominated by Muslim Arabs from the
North, the Khartoum regime refuses to admit its complicity in the
documented atrocities of genocide, starvation, slavery and forced
Islamization in its fight to gain control over South Sudan, predominantly
made up of Black Africans of Christian and tribal religions.
(from the WEF Religious Liberty E-mail Conference)