Compass Direct News News of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith
India: Christians Falsely Accused in Clan-Fight Murder Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 NEW DELHI, August 31 (Compass Direct News) - Hindus opposed to a pastor in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India have falsely charged him and three other Christians in the murder of a young man killed in a gang fight between two clans, according to area Christians. Pastor Kamlesh Tahed, 32, of Mehendi Kheda village, Jhabua district, told Compass he was not even in the village on Aug. 8, the day 22-year-old Roop Singh Baria was killed. Pastor Tahed, who spent 20 days in jail on false charges of "forcible conversion" in 2001 before a court declared him innocent, is in hiding. Three other Christians from his clan - Kasna Tahed, 25, Ramesh Tahed, 26, and Vasna Tahed, 36 - are in police custody, also charged in the murder of Baria, of nearby Negadia village, even though they were not present at the site of the melee either, Pastor Tahed said. Pastor Bahadur Baria of the same village's opposing clan told Compass that in all previous conflicts - personal, religious or social - sympathizers of Hindu extremists falsely accuse area Christians as well as bait them into conflicts. Pastor Baria said what happened to Pastor Tahed also has happened to him; a member of the Tahed clan was murdered by a Baria clan gang, and his name appeared among those charged. Only after a costly court process was he exonerated from murder charges, he said. "This has not been once but every time something happens, the Christians are dragged into it," he said.
Turkey: Murder Defendant again Admits Perjury Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 ISTANBUL, August 25 (Compass Direct News) - Turkish murder suspect Emre Gunaydin admitted in court last week that he had again committed perjury in the trial over the savage murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey. Gunaydin, 21, faced off in Malatya's Third Criminal Court last Friday (Aug. 21) with Varol Bulent Aral, whom he had named as one of the instigators of the attack at Zirve Publishing Co.'s Malatya office in a previous disposition before state prosecutors. Gunaydin, the alleged ringleader of the murderers, told the court that he had lied in a previous disposition before state prosecutors by implicating Aral. "I named Varol Bulent Aral to reduce the sentence," Gunaydin said under questioning. His admission came after Aral testified at length, painting an elaborate scenario of himself as a key player in the "Ergenekon" conspiracy - said to include top level political and security officials, among others - suspected of orchestrating the 2007 Malatya attack with Gunaydin and four other defendants. At a hearing three months ago, Gunaydin retracted similar allegations he had made against Huseyin Yelki, a former volunteer at the Christian publishing house where Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske were bound hand and foot, tortured and then slain with knives. Plaintiff lawyers have expressed skepticism about Gunaydin's two retractions, questioning whether he has been pressured to change his testimony in order to shield the actual instigators of the plot. They also remain unconvinced that Aral and Yelki were not collaborators in the attack.
Somalia: Christian Shot Dead near Kenya Border Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 NAIROBI, Kenya, August 22 (Compass Direct News) - Muslim extremists seeking evidence that a Somali man had converted from Islam to Christianity shot him dead Tuesday morning (Aug. 18) near the Somali border with Kenya, according to underground Christians in the war-torn nation. Al Shabaab rebels killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan in Bulahawa, Somalia, according to Abdikadir Abdi Ismael, a former leader of a secret Christian fellowship in Somalia to which Matan belonged. Matan had been a member of the underground church since 2001. The early morning shooting comes at a time when Islamist groups led by al Shabaab are hunting down converts to Christianity as they seek to establish sharia (Islamic law) throughout Somalia. Ismael, who fled the area in 2005, said he received a telephone call from Matan two weeks ago in which the convert told him that monitoring by the Islamic extremists kept him from leaving his home and carrying out his small-trade business across the border in Mandera, in eastern Kenya. "I am afraid for my life - the al Shabaab want to get a proof that I follow the Christian faith," Matan told Ismael. "They have not been seeing me in the mosque and seem to have realized that I am not part of them."
India: One Year Later, Christians in Orissa to Pray for Peace Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 NEW DELHI, August 22 (Compass Direct News) - One year after India's worst-ever attack on Christians, which began after Maoists killed a Hindu leader on Aug. 23 in Orissa state last year, churches across the country will fast and pray for a peace that remains elusive. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India has appealed to all the Catholic dioceses in the country to "pray for peace and harmony and a spirit of reconciliation" by fasting tomorrow, one year to the day that Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed by non-Christian Maoists last year. On Monday (Aug. 24), an inter-denominational meeting to pray for peace, healing and reconciliation will be held at The Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi to mark "National Kandhamal Day." Christians believe it may take a long time for peace and reconciliation to become a reality in Kandhamal, where the violence lasted for weeks in August and September 2008, killing more than 100 people and burning more than 4,500 houses, over 250 churches and 13 educational institutions. The Hindu extremists who inflicted the violence last year have warned those who have returned from refugee camps for displaced Christians to withdraw the cases filed against them, said Dr. Sam Paul, spokesman for the All India Christian Council. "At some places they were threatened to convert to Hinduism," he said. "At a few places, to maintain the peace, the local Christians had to deny their faith."
Mexico: 'Traditionalist Catholics' Attack, Expel Christians Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 MEXICO CITY, August 19 (Compass Direct News) - "Traditionalist Catholic" leaders last month expelled 57 evangelical Christians from towns in two states for refusing to participate in their religious festivals. Leaders of traditionalist Catholicism, a mixture of Roman Catholicism and native rituals, expelled 32 Christians from their homes in a village in Hidalgo state and another 25 from a town in Oaxaca; in each case, the evangelicals were deprived of their property for refusing to participate in drunken festivals that included worship of Catholic icons. Hundreds of evangelical Christians from six states of Mexico organized a caravan on Aug. 10 on behalf of the 32 evangelicals from Los Parajes, near Huejutla in Hidalgo state, who were violently torn from their homes on July 13 when the town's traditionalist Catholic leaders struck them with machetes and ropes. They were forced to leave behind 121 acres of land planted with crops, as well as their homes and animals. The Christians had reached an agreement with the community in February allowing them to choose to follow their own faith, but when Enedino Luna Cruz became town leader he burned the document, according to the evangelicals. In the southwestern state of Oaxaca, in the Yavelotzi community near San Jacinto, 25 Christians were threatened and expelled from their homes on July 17, also for refusing to participate in drunken festivals and worship of Catholic icons, according to Christian support organization Open Doors.
Egypt: Two Copts Imprisoned after Reporting Attack Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 ISTANBUL, August 20 (Compass Direct News) - Two Coptic Christians in Egypt have been arrested and are being held without charge after reporting to police they had been beaten by a mob, an attorney for the men said yesterday. On the evening of July 31, Reda Hnein, 35, his brother Nagi Hnein Fawzi, 27, and their uncle Youssef Fawzi Iskandar, 58, all Coptic farmers, were leading a cow down a road in the village of Al-Fashn when two Muslim men riding a motorbike crashed into the cow. An argument ensued, and a mob of about 10 other Muslim men joined into the disagreement and began beating the Copts with sticks, said attorney Ihab Ramzi. Reda Hnein and Iskandar received minor injuries. Fawzi, however, suffered a fractured skull and lacerations on his scalp. He was taken to Minya University Hospital, where he regained consciousness earlier this week but remains hospitalized. On the day of the incident, Hnein and Iskandar went to police to file a complaint. They were told to return the next day to file a report with an investigating attorney. But after they gave their report the next day, local police arrested the two men on orders of Egypt's State Security Investigations. A cousin said she is "boiling" with anger. "How can the police turn an innocent victim into a criminal?" she said. "How can they treat a victim like a criminal?"
Indonesia: Christians Call for Rejection of Sharia-Inspired Bills Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 JAKARTA, August 19 (Compass Direct News) - The Indonesian Council of Churches (PGI) has called for the rejection of two bills inspired by sharia (Islamic law). The Halal Product Guarantee Bill and the Zakat Obligatory Alms Management Bill, both under consideration in the Indonesian parliament, cater to the needs of one religious group at the expense of others, thereby violating Indonesia's policy of pancasila or religious tolerance, said the Rev. Dr. A.A. Yewangoe, director of the PGI. "National laws must be impartial and inclusive," Yewangoe told Compass. "Since all laws are binding on all of the Indonesian people, they must be objective. Otherwise discrimination will result ... The state has a duty to guard the rights of all its citizens, including freedom of religion." Muslim groups, meantime, recently moved to close more Christian institutions. On July 21, following complaints from community groups, police forcibly dismantled a church in West Java on grounds that it did not have a building permit - previously denied even though all requirements had been met - while similar groups in East Java successfully lobbied for the closure of a Catholic orphanage claiming that it planned to "Christianize" local children.
India: Officials on Defensive at 'Watch List' Designation Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 NEW DELHI, August 18 (Compass Direct News) - Ahead of one-year remembrances of massive anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has put India on its "Watch List" for the country's violations of religious freedom, evoking strong reactions from the Indian government. USCIRF Chairman Leonard Leo said in a statement on Wednesday (Aug. 12) that it was "extremely disappointing" that India "has done so little to protect and bring justice to its religious minorities under siege." The U.S. panel's decision was "regrettable," a spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs, Vishnu Prakash, said in a statement on Thursday (Aug. 13), after the USCIRF put India on the list due to a "disturbing increase" in violence on minorities and a growing culture of impunity in the country. Violence erupted in Kandhamal district of the eastern state of Orissa in August-September 2008, killing more than 100 people and burning 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions. Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council said the USCIRF's latest conclusions could have been avoided if more action had been taken against the perpetrators of last year's violence. "The USCIRF action would not have been possible, and India would have been able to rebuff the U.S. scrutiny more effectively, if several thousand Christians were still not in refugee camps, if the killers were still not roaming scot-free and if witnesses, including widows, were not being coerced," he said.
Sri Lanka: Rash of Attacks on Christians Reported Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, August 17 (Compass Direct News) - Attacks on Christians in Sri Lanka have surged noticeably in recent weeks, following the government's defeat of Tamil separatists in May. Attacks were reported in Puttlam, Gampaha and Kurunegala districts in western Sri Lanka, central Polonnaruwa district, Mannar district in the north and Matara district in the south, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL). Most recently, attackers on July 28 set fire to an Assemblies of God church in Norachcholai, Puttlam district, destroying the building. In Markandura village, Kurunegala district, seven men wielding swords on July 12 attacked caretaker Akila Dias and three other members of the Vineyard Community church, causing serious injury to church members and church property. Dias and others received emergency care at a local hospital before being transferred to a larger hospital in the area for treatment. On June 28, a mob consisting of more than 100 people, including Buddhist monks, surrounded the home of a female church pastor of a Foursquare Gospel in Radawana village, Gampaha district, according to the NCEASL. At the time the pastor, whose name was withheld for security reasons, and her husband were away. Their 13-year-old daughter watched helplessly as the mob broke in, shouted insults and destroyed chairs and other furniture. Later, in the presence of Buddhist monks and other protestors, the pastor was forced to sign a document promising not to host worship services for non-family members.
India: Hindu Extremists Attack Pastors, Manhandle Women Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0200 MUMBAI, India, Aug. 14 (Compass Direct News) - Hindu nationalist extremists attacked Christians attending teacher training in Dharwad district, Karnataka on Wednesday (Aug. 12), but when one of the attendees escaped and went to police, officers arrested eight pastors on baseless claims of forcible conversion and - in a blow to free speech - for allegedly speaking ill of Hindu gods. Pastor Moses Bentic, coordinator of the Seva Bharat Mission, told Compass that more than 80 Christians including nine pastors were attending the mission's teacher training, which began Wednesday in Annigere and was supposed to continue through today. At around 11:30 pm on Tuesday (Aug. 11), 30 Hindu extremists from the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army) entered the facility where the training was taking place and began beating the pastors. They repeatedly slapped and kicked the pastors, cursed Christianity using foul language and falsely accused them of forcible conversion. The Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists also manhandled young women at the training, most of whom between the ages of 17 and 23, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians. Pastor Joseph Christopher, who managed to escape from the hall just after midnight, rushed to the Annigere police station to seek help. He told Compass that police were "indifferent" and refused to accept a complaint. "At around 1:30 a.m., two policemen arrived at the center and were mute spectators as the extremists collected all the copies of the Bibles and burned them," Pastor Christopher said, adding that they also took mobile phones from the Christians.
