The Taliban have shot dead a British aid worker in Afghanistan because she was preaching Christianity.

Gayle Williams, who had been in the troubled country for three years, was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle as she walked to work in the capital of Kabul. She recently moved from Kandahar back to Kabul because it was seen as safer.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, insisted his militia had carried out the killing: We killed her because she was working for an organisation which was preaching Christianity.

  Uneducated Women

The letter pinned overnight to the wall of the mosque in Kandahar was succinct. Girls going to school need to be careful for their safety. If we put acid on their faces or they are murdered then the blame will be on their parents.

October 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

A court in northwestern Algeria today acquitted three Christians charged with blaspheming Islam and threatening a member of their congregation who re-converted to Islam.

The acquittal was announced in a court at Ain El-Turck, 15 kilometers (nine miles) west of the coastal city of Oran. The defendants believe the judge’s decision to acquit was due to the spurious evidence used against them.

The acquittal also comes as part of a larger trend of the Algerian government bowing to negative international media attention and government condemnations of such cases, they said.

Defendant Youssef Ourahmane said that as a result, a recent government crackdown against evangelical Christians has eased off in recent months.

May 2008 from Compass Direct

An Algerian public prosecutor has demanded a three-year sentence for a convert to Christianity in western Algeria for practicing her faith “without license.”

Habiba Kouider was plucked off an inter-city bus outside of her home town of Tiaret on March 29 when police found several Bibles and books on Christianity in her hand bag. Held for 24 hours and interrogated by police regarding her conversion, Kouider was eventually brought before a state prosecutor.

You reinstate Islam and I will [drop the case]; if you persist in sin you will undergo the lightning of justice, the prosecutor told her.

It’s as if they are saying that if someone becomes a Christian they have to get permission, said one Christian from Tiaret.

Passed in February 2006, a law governing non-Muslim worship has been cited in a number of arrests and trials of Algerian Christians this year. The law, known as Ordinance 06-03, outlaws proselytism of Muslims, as well as the distribution, production and storing of material used for this purpose.

A total of 10 Christians visiting or residing in Tiaret have been detained or tried on religious grounds since January. More than half of the country’s 50 Protestant churches, many of which meet in homes, have been ordered to close down.

In addition, a barrage of news articles has warned of sinister plans by Christians to evangelize Algeria.

Update: Sentenced

6th June 2008

Four Algerian Christians received suspended jail terms and fines on Tuesday for seeking to convert Muslims in the latest in a series of cases to have provoked accusations in the West of religious repression.

31st March 2009. See full article from Forum 18

Armenian human rights defenders and religious communities remain deeply concerned by many parts of the draft Religion Law, Forum 18 News Service has found.

Serious concern has also been expressed about the proposed new Article 162 in the Criminal Code, which would punish the sharing of beliefs.

Both drafts were approved by Parliament in their first readings.

A joint review of the new laws are expected to be conducted by the Council of Europe's Venice Commission and the OSCE.

Alarm has been caused by, among other provisions, a high legal status threshold of 500 people, bans on sharing beliefs, and unclear wording of provisions allowing religious organisations to be banned.

They have been condemned as a serious setback to the development of a modern, progressive and liberal Armenia

Feb 2009. See full article from Compass Direct

If two draft Laws which began passage through Armenia's Parliament on 5 February are adopted, spreading one's faith would be banned.

Those who organise campaigns to spread their faith would face up to two years' imprisonment, while those who engage in spreading their faith would face up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of more than eight years' minimum wages.

Gaining legal status would require 1,000 adult members, while Christian communities which do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity would be barred from registering.

These proposed Laws contain violations of all human rights. Russian Orthodox priest Fr David Abrahamyan told Forum 18.

Religious affairs official Vardan Astsatryan told Forum 18 the government backs the draft Laws "in general".

13th October 2009. See article from news.com.au

A Pharmacist in western NSW has banned the sale of condoms, the contraceptive and morning-after pill because it is against his beliefs as a Catholic. Griffith pharmacist Trevor Dal Broi has refused to sell the oral contraceptive pill, the morning-after pill and condoms, referring customers to other chemists in the area.

Dal Broi, who runs the East Griffith Pharmacy, told The Sunday Telegraph he was strictly against the use of artificial contraception: As a practising Catholic, it is my obligation to accept the official teaching of the Catholic Church against the use of artificial contraception.

When I dispense an oral contraceptive pill I will ask the lady to sit at our counselling desk where I explain that there is a leaflet in the box regarding our pharmacy policy on the pill.

Family Planning NSW CEO Ann Brassil said contraceptive options should not be taken away by a health-care professional's personal beliefs: we strongly believe contraception should be freely available at all pharmacies.

A spokesman for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said individual pharmacies were entitled to sell, or not sell, any product or medication they liked: Pharmacists, like anyone, are entitled to hold ethical, religious or moral views.

30th June 2009.  See article from indexoncensorship.org

Azerbaijan has a new, harsher religion law and new penalties for producing, selling, circulating, importing and exporting religious literature without state permission, reports Felix Corley of Forum 18

22nd July 2009. See full article from Forum 18

Two weeks after Azerbaijan's repressive amendments to its Religion Law came into force, the Milli Mejlis (Parliament) is considering repressive amendments to six laws, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Further changes to the Religion Law ban foreign citizens, and those who have not had Islamic education within Azerbaijan, from leading prayers in mosques and at places of pilgrimage. They also require everyone who leads mosques and places of pilgrimage to have state approval.

Update: Now passed by parliament and is waiting presidential approval

  New Repressive Religious Law

5th June 2009. See article from forum18.org

Azerbaijan's repressive new Religion Law, and amendments to both the Criminal Code and the Administrative Code came into force on 31 May, Forum 18 has learned.

New "offences" - such as more severe censorship - and new punishments are introduced for religious activities and organisations the government does not like.

All registered religious organisations must re-register by 1 January 2010, the third time re-registration has been demanded in less than twenty years. It is implied that unregistered organisations are illegal, and stated that all religious organisations can act only after gaining state registration.

10th September 2009. See article from christianpost.com

Tiny Christian community in Solepur within Bangaladeshi capital Dhaka said Muslim gangs have been intimidating them to force them out of the locality and that they live in constant fear of being attacked.

For several weeks members of Solepur (Dhaka diocese) Catholic community have been targeted by armed Muslim gangs who carry out all sorts of crimes whilst the police does nothing to stop the violence, and this despite the many reports and complaints filed, AsiaNews reported Monday.

The Christian community has experienced break-ins, forced land sales and motorcycle thefts, it stated.

3rd August 2009. See article from news.iskcon.com, thanks to Alan

I Radha Rani Halder, a newly married Hindu woman of the Shariatpur District under Dhaka Division in central Bangladesh, was raped and killed by a group of Muslims on June 27, 2009.

Ms. Halder worked for the local NGO, the Shariatpur Development Society (SDS).

Mr. Bairagee, the devastated husband of the deceased, said, We got married about 2 months ago. She took up the job to relieve the family of its hardships, but got killed in this brutal way. We have filed a case with the police, but they failed to arrest any of the perpetrators.

Shariatpur police chief said, The case is under investigation; we are doing our best; and we have arrested one of the suspect.

27th May 2009. See article from news.iskcon.com, thanks to Alan

In Chittagong, the main seaport of Bangladesh on May 14, a monk said, he and his peers were busy preparing for a weekend festival when fifty to sixty terrorists burst into the temple, brandishing knives and iron bars. They first destroyed the kitchens, devotee accommodation, and Gaura Nitai deities. Then, as the devotees ran into the temple courtyard in a panic, the attackers poured boiling water on them from the balcony, badly burning many.

Devotees phoned the nearby police station again and again, but to no avail. By the time the police finally arrived, the terrorists had caused 80,000 taka worth of damage. Neither did they seem remotely intimidated by the presence of law enforcement. And it was soon clear why. When the terrorists threatened the devotees, You must all leave now and hand the temple over to us the police remained silent, not voicing any defense. The police eventually took out a case against the attackers.

December 2008. See article from compassdirect.org

Buddhist monks and local council officials are holding 13 newly converted Christians captive in a pagoda in a southeastern mountainous district of Bangladesh in an attempt to forcibly return them to Buddhism.

A spokesman for the Parbatta Adivasi (Hill Tract) Christian Church told Compass on condition of anonymity that the plight of the Christians is horrifying.

The 13 tribal Christians were taken forcefully to a pagoda on Dec. 10 to accept Buddhism against their will. They will be kept in a pagoda for 10 days to perform the rituals to be Buddhists – their heads were shaved, and they were given yellow saffron robes to dress in.

June 2008 see full article from Compass Direct

Muslim fundamentalists in a village north of the capital have threatened to kill a pastor as part of an effort to keep his church from constructing a church building.

The church planned to erect a worship building on the land, which the denomination purchased in January.

Muslims came to know that there would be a church inside the enclosure, so they demolished the boundary wall.

Upon learning of the damage, that same day pastor Rezaul Karim went to the site, where local Muslims and supporters of the country’s largest Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, beat him and threatened to kill him if he pursued plans to build a church in the village.

Pastor Karim filed a case over the assault at the local police station: where he mentioned that he had been threatened to be killed if he built a church on that land in the area. One month later, we withdrew the case by mutual understanding with the local Muslim leaders.

15th June 2009. See article from forum18.org

Belarus has imposed its largest fine yet for unregistered religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. A court in the eastern town of Osipovichi fined local Baptist Nikolai Poleshchuk the equivalent of almost three months' average salary in the town and another Baptist received a warning for running a Christian street library.

Asked by Forum 18 whether it is right to punish peaceful religious activity, Anna Zemlyanukhina, Head of Osipovichi District Ideology Department, replied: I know my Constitution and human rights. It is all in accordance with the law.

2nd June 2009. See article from christiantoday.com

A prominent church in an ongoing struggle with the authorities in Belarus has been told by city authorities that they must legally transfer the property to the government and vacate the building before Monday.

New Life Church, which has become an emblematic case in the battle for religious freedom in Belarus, was notified by the Property Maintenance and Repair Department (PMRD) of the Moscow District of the City of Minsk that if they did not comply by 1 June, the city will undertake necessary measures to settle the case .

Belarusian legislation demands that all religious groups must be registered, but in practice, it is almost impossible for most non-Orthodox churches to do so. Since its inception, New Life Church has repeatedly attempted to register but has been refused on each occasion.

July 2008 from www.forum18.org

Belarus officials have tried to stop three different Protestant communities in Grodno Region, north-western Belarus, from conducting peaceful religious activity, Forum 18 news Service has learnt.

In the small town of Svisloch, a planned open-air baptism has been banned, despite the attempts of Pentecostals to negotiate with the authorities. Bishop Fyodor Tsvor told Forum 18 that they just don't want to allow it.

In the nearby town of Mosty, a Pentecostal pastor was fined nine months' minimum wages for leading a small unregistered church. The court verdict notes as evidence of wrongdoing that at meetings they read the Gospel, discuss questions of religious faith, sing songs and conduct religious rites.

In Grodno itself, Baptist pastor Yuri Kravchuk was summoned by the senior state regional religious affairs official, Igor Popov, who told him that his leadership of a worship service in a private home violated the Administrative Code. His case has now been sent to the city's Oktyabr District Court.

All three communities point out that the state's actions violate the Belarusian Constitution.

Few nations so systematically brutalize so many of their citizens. Observes the State Department: The government continued to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom. Probably the worst religious horrors are visited as part of the barbaric war practiced against ethnic groups, such as the Karen and Karenni, which have been struggling for autonomy for decades. More than 100,000 refugees have fled into neighboring Thailand and millions more people have been displaced within their own country.

  Chinese Christmas Spirit

Dec 2008. See article from christiantoday.com

The officially atheist Chinese Government harassed Christians in different regions of the country in the days leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Eve, says one group that supports the persecuted church there.

Nine Christian women were arrested during a nativity play in the eastern province of Henan on Christmas Eve, according to China Aid Association. The house church Christians were reenacting the nativity scene on the street when a group of Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers raided the house church in Yucheng county, Henan province.

The women, including the leader of the group, were still held at the Detention Centre of Yucheng County as of December 25 when the CAA report was released. PSB officials have reportedly demanded that family members pay a fine in exchange for the women’s release.

July 2008. See full article from The Star (Malaysia)

The exiled World Uyghur Congress, which advocates Xinjiang independence, said last month that authorities there demolished a mosque in Kalpin county near Aksu city for refusing to put up signs in support of this August's Beijing Olympics.

The group's spokesman Dilxat Raxit said the mosque was also accused of illegal religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

  Crackdown on House Churches

June 2008 from Christian Today

House churches across China have been hit by a wave of arrests and detentions, says China Aid Association (CAA), the leading support group for China’s persecuted Christians.

CAA said that the sudden increase in incidents throughout May involving the Religious Affairs Bureau and the Public Security Bureau is indicative of a crackdown.

House church meetings have been disbanded and a number of Christians have been arrested, including two Christians in Xinjiang province who were charged with being “separatists”. Throughout the province, officials have posted signs asking citizens to report any “evil cult activity”, a label which encompasses house churches.

In Hebei province, officials closed down a Bible school on May 13, while on May 15 Public Security Bureau officials broke up a prayer meeting held by more than 20 Christians for victims of the earthquake and for the Olympics.

Although the plight of religious believers in China is better today than it was 20 years ago, the situation remains bleak for many people of faith. The Beijing government has been particular unforgiving in dealing with beliefs that it perceives to be a political threat, such as the Falun Gong and Tibetan Buddhism.

Antagonism towards Christianity is deeply embedded in China's history. Many church leaders are in prison and the authorities target home churches. Observes the State Department: In some areas, security officials used threats, demolition of unregistered property, extortion, interrogation, detention, and at times beatings and torture to harass leaders of unauthorized groups and their followers.

Cuba is a traditional communist dictatorship which registers religious organizations, harasses congregants, prevents churches from building or repairing worship facilities, forbids the distribution of religious materials, and bars church provision of social welfare services.

1st September 2009. See article from reuters.com. Thanks to Alan

AEgyptian police arrested 70 villagers on Thursday who were protesting against the relocation of Baha'i families to their area after they were chased out of another village in southern Egypt, security sources said.

About 150 people from Ezba and surrounding villages in Sohag province gathered outside regional government offices to voice opposition to the relocation of 25 Baha'i families to government-sponsored housing near their homes, the sources said.

Baha'is, who number between 500 and 2,000 in Egypt, call their faith's 19th-century founder a prophet -- anathema to Muslims who believe Mohammad was God's final messenger.

Rights activists say Baha'is face systematic discrimination in the conservative Arab country, which does not officially recognise the faith.

27th November 2008. Based on article from dailymail.co.uk

A riot broke out over plans to convert a building in a Cairo suburb into a Christian church.

Muslims and Christians clashed in Mataria after worshippers arrived for a service at the site of the planned church.

Police in Mataria intervened when large numbers of Muslims and Christians faced off over a building which the Christians want to convert into a church. The police then clashed mainly with the Muslim side, they said.

In the incident in Mataria, the confrontation between Muslims and Christians was the culmination of a long-running dispute over the plan to build a church there.

25th November 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

Authorities in an Egyptian village arrested 50 Coptic Christians, whose shops were then looted, to pacify Muslims following violence that erupted on Nov. 4 over a Christian boy’s unwitting break with custom.

Muslim villagers attacked the homes and shops of Coptic Christians in violence-prone Tayyiba, a town with 35,000 Christians and 10,000 Muslims, after 14-year-old Copt Mina William failed to dismount his donkey as a funeral procession passed.

William’s failure to dismount violated a local custom of showing respect, Copts United reported, and members of the procession reportedly beat him before completing the procession. William suffered minor injuries.

After the funeral procession, the processional members began throwing stones at the homes of local Copts and attacking their shops before police broke up the crowd with tear gas.

A priest said members of the procession did not attack the youths for showing disrespect but as an excuse to lash out against the community’s Christians for a previous episode of sectarian violence.

When the violence began, police presence increased significantly in the city. But rather than quell the unrest, police reportedly made matters worse for the Christians. After breaking up the crowd, officers detained 50 Copts and 10 Muslims.

A source told Compass that police arrested a disproportionate amount of Christians to create a false sense of equanimity and to pressure the Christians into “reconciliation” with the attackers so the Copts would not prosecute them. The arrested Christians have since been released.

  Muslims have the upper hand in court disputes despite the law

October 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

Following the Appeal Court of Alexandria on Sept. 24 granting custody of 13-year-old Christian twins to their Muslim father, their mother now lives with the fear that police will take away her children at any moment.

The court ruled in favor of the husband, Labib, in spite of Egyptian law’s Article 20, which grants custody of children to their mothers until the age of 15, and a fatwa (religious ruling) from Egypt’s most respected Islamic scholar, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, giving her custody. This decision was dangerous because it was not taken in accordance with Egyptian law but according to sharia [Islamic] law, said Naguib Gobraiel, Gaballah’s lawyer and president of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations.

He explained that Egypt’s civic code calls for children under the age of 15 to stay with their mother regardless of their religion. They want to stay with their mother, said Gobraiel. They don’t know anything about Islam and sharia. They are Christians and go to church on Sundays.

4th August 2009. See article from compassdirect.org, thanks to Alan

Another Christian imprisoned for his faith in Eritrea has died from authorities denying him medical treatment, according to a Christian support organization.

Sources told Open Doors that Yemane Kahasay Andom, 43, died on July 23 at Mitire Military Confinement Center.

Weakened by continuous torture, Andom was suffering from a severe case of malaria, Open Doors reported in a statement today.

He was allegedly further weakened by continuous physical torture and solitary confinement in an underground cell the two weeks prior to his death for his refusal to sign a recantation form, the organization said: It is not clear what the contents of the recantation form were, but most Christians interpret the signing of such a form as the denouncement of their faith in Christ.

Andom is the third known Christian to die this year at the Mitire camp.

  Christians Rounded up for Torture

See full article from Compass Direct

Eritrean security police cracked down on more Christians again last week, arresting 34 evangelicals gathered for prayer and fellowship in a local home in Keren.

The police raid on Wednesday (May 28) targeted members of the Berhane Hiwet (Light of Life) Church in Keren, Eritrea’s third largest city.

The Keren raid was the second round of arrests last week in Eritrea, where the oppressive regime has outlawed all independent Protestant churches since 2002, closing their buildings and banning gatherings in private homes. Worshippers caught disobeying the blanket restrictions are arrested and tortured for weeks, months or even years. They are never allowed legal counsel or brought to trial.

Eyewitnesses in Adi-Kuala confirmed that security police officials were beating the prisoners as they loaded them on a truck to be transported to Wi’a.

At least 2,000 Eritrean Christians are incarcerated in local jails, police stations and military camps for their religious beliefs and practices. Some are held in underground cells or metal shipping containers in an effort to pressure them to recant their faith and join one of the nation’s “historic” Christian churches.

The government recognizes only the Eritrean Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches as legal religions, in addition to the traditional Islam practiced by half of the population.

5th October 2009. See article from christianpost.com

A Muslim mob ransacked two Churches and seriously injured three Christians alleging that two Christians had desecrated Quran, in Senbete town, a human rights watchdog reported.

International Christian Concern (ICC) said an estimated 300 Muslims ransacked Mulu Wongel Evangelical Church and set on fire the Church property on 11 September and also attacked the nearby home of Evangelist Gizachew, one of the Church leaders, destroying his clothes, chairs, tables, soar, bicycles, and TV. The Church property too was set on fire.

The mob then marched to Kale Hiwot Evangelical Church where Christians were celebrating the Ethiopian New Year. They attacked the Christians with stones and sticks, broke the left arm of Aberash Terefe, and seriosly wounded Tefera Bati and Desleghn Eyasu. The three were taken to the nearby Kuyera hospital and were discharged after treatment. The Muslims pillaged the church's property and caused 52,000 birr (U.S. $4,127) worth of damage.

The violence erupted after Muslim leaders called for attacks alleging that Mulatu Eyasu, a second year Bible school student, and Berhanu Abose, a farmer, desecrated the Qur'an ICC reported.

Though the police have arrested six others suspected for perpetrating the violence, the main culprits still remain at large.

19th September 2009. See article from compassdirect.org, thanks to Alan

A convert from Islam who has led a push for Muslim-Christian understanding in Ethiopia has been in jail for nearly four months since his arrest for malicious distribution of Bibles.

Christian sources in Ethiopia said that, contrary to Ethiopian law, Bashir Musa Ahmed has not been formally charged since his arrest on May 23 in Jijiga, a predominantly Muslim area in eastern Ethiopia. Zonal police arrested him after he was accused of providing Muslims with Somali-language Bibles bearing covers that resemble the Quran, the sources said.

An Ethiopian national, Ahmed is known as a bold preacher of Christianity and is credited with opening discussion of the two faiths between Christian and Muslim leaders. He is well-known in the area as a scholar of Islam, but his case has gone largely unreported in Ethiopia.

7th July 2009. See article from news.bbc.co.uk, thanks to Alan

Ethiopian police have shot and killed two people who were helping to build a Christian church at a site which is also claimed by Muslims, officials say.

Violence broke out when police tried to stop the construction in Dessie. The police say they were responding to an attack on them by the Christians, but campaign groups say the police ambushed the workers.
The population of Dessie is about two-thirds Christian, one-third Muslim.

Information Minister Bereket Simon told reporters that the Christians had stormed the place and tried to continue building the church unlawfully.

  Mobs Attack Christian Churches

See full article from Compass Direct

During the Sunday morning attack on March 2 2008, muslim men wielding knives and machetes simultaneously broke into two churches, half an hour’s walk apart from each other, and began hacking worshippers. One man died instantly from a machete blow to his neck while two others lost hands, and another 15 people sustained wounds on their necks, legs, arms, shoulders and backs.

In a snap ruling that surprised local Christians, an Ethiopian court has sentenced three Muslim men to life imprisonment for the attack

June 2008. See full article from Earth Times

Two young neo-Nazis wielding baseball bats attacked a group of Muslims on their way to a mosque in the eastern German state of Thuringia, police said Sunday. A 23-year-old required medical treatment for injuries to his arm after the attack on Saturday evening in Nordhausen, some 250 kilometres southwest of Berlin. The assailants fled after hurling verbal abuse at their victims from Morocco, Russia and Pakistan, a police spokesman said.

14th October 2009.  See article from christianpost.com

A Hindu extremist group attacked, intimidated and threatened staffs of St Mary's Hospital in Jharsuguda in Orissa state terrifying the Christians in the hospital.

Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that two youth came to the hospital on motorbikes were later joined by 10 more in what seemed to be an organised attack. They threatened to take down the hospital, verbally abused and intimidated the Catholic nuns.

GCIC said, the two youth first entered the staff room of the hospital and demanded to see an orthopedic consultant for treatment for alleged injuries they were supposed to have received from an incident on the bike. Though they were given emergency medical treatment, but they began shouting and threatening the elderly religious sisters working in the hospital.

The report said, soon they were joined by some more around 10 of them, who came on motorbikes to the hospital, - as soon as they entered the hospital, they locked the gates and began intimidating the nuns, one of them raised his hand to strike Sister Mercia, an elderly nun.

The nuns phoned the police who rushed to the hospital and apprehended the mob.

15th August 2009. See article from christianpost.com

Two Hindu fundamentalist groups attacked Tuesday night the attendees of Christian Teachers’ Training Program in South Indian State of Karnataka, seriously injuring four pastors; when complained, police instead arrested eight pastors.

About 74 people had gathered together for a Teacher’s Training Program. The group consisted of 50 male pastors and 24 young women from various districts of Northern Karnataka.

On Tuesday night, while the group was asleep after attending a day-long training program; the Hindutva activists broke into the building premises and started beating up the male pastors at 11:30 p.m., stated GCIC. Pastors Madan Kumar, Francis, Jayraj and Prakash were seriously injured while other pastors incurred minor injuries.

The report said, Even the young women were not spared. Most of the women are aged between 17-23 years. They were humiliated with verbal abuses and man-handled by the attackers. All their Bibles and mobile phones were confiscated. The attack lasted about one and a half hours.

November 2008. See article from timesonline.co.uk

The US-based head of a Christian organisation that runs several orphanages in Orissa – one of India’s poorest regions – claims that Christian leaders are being targeted by Hindu militants and carry a price on their heads. The going price to kill a pastor is $250 (£170),  Faiz Rahman, the chairman of Good News India, said.

A spokesman for the All-India Christian Council said: People are being offered rewards to kill, and to destroy churches and Christian properties. They are being offered foreign liquor, chicken, mutton and weapons. They are given petrol and kerosene.

  Hindu radicals go on the rampage in Karnataka

September 2008.  Based on article from compassdirect.org

As tensions continued in the eastern state of Orissa, Hindu nationalist groups intensified attacks on churches and Christian institutions in the southern state of Karnataka.

Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) told Compass that a mob of more than 200 people attacked the Mission Action Prayer Fellowship church in Bada village of Davangere district on September 7, accusing the Christians of “forcible” conversions.

The attack took place during the worship service. Besides assaulting believers and the pastor, the mob burned the Bibles, musical instruments and furniture in front of the church. They also vandalized the church building.

Media accompanied the mob, and local TV channels telecast the attack, George added.

  Hindu radicals go on the rampage in Orissa

Based on article from christiantoday.com

As Hindu radicals go on the rampage in India's Orissa state, Christians are running for their lives, says one Gospel for Asia worker.

One woman was killed when a mob burned down a Christian orphanage during widespread violence triggered by the killing of a radical Hindu leader over the weekend.

The mob cleared the orphanage of children but beat up a priest. The woman, reportedly a cook, became trapped inside when the mob set the building alight.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) said that at least one of its missionaries had been attacked in the violence that has erupted since the killing of Swami Laxmananand Saraswati, leader of radical Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, on Saturday night.

GFA missionary Jeebaratna Lima was attacked by a mob whilst on his way to conduct a Sunday service, said GFA. When the mob tried to set him on fire, police intervened and took him into custody, where he remains.

Mobs have also attacked churches, convents and parish houses.

Update: Hindu extremists Acquitted

18th November 2009. From christianpost.com

Following six acquittals last week in trials for those accused of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in India's Orissa state and the release on bail of a key suspect, Christians are losing heart to strive for justice, according to a prosecuting attorney. Related

The acquittal of six suspects last week raises the total to 121, with just 27 convicted in the Orissa violence by Hindu extremists.

The victims are so discouraged due to the increasing number of acquittals that they neither have hope nor motivation for the criminal revision of their cases in the higher court, attorney Bibhu Dutta Das of the Orissa High Court told Compass. He said the acquittals are the result of defective investigations carried out by police: This has been done intentionally, to cover-up the fundamentalists.

Das said that in many cases police fraudulently misrepresented the ages of culprits so that the ages of the accused in court would not match the age denoted in the victims' First Information Reports, leaving the court no option but to let the alleged culprits go.

There can be two persons by the same name, so age is a major identification factor that is considered, said Das.

Christian leaders in Orissa said the state government's claims of justice for the victims of the anti-Christian violence ring hollow as the number of acquittals is far more than convictions.

27th July 2009. See article from asianews.it, Thanks to Alan

A Protestant community from Parung in the regency of Bogor, West Java province, denounces a new case of confessional discrimination in Indonesia. Local authorities have demolished a church because – they say – it has no construction permitmit.

Believers contend that they had sought several times to obtain a permit without any response; they add that they had received the consent of the local Muslim community.

The demolition of the church took place on July 21 last and was motivated by the lack of an Izin Mendirikan Bangunan (IMB), a sort of government concession that must be obtained before the construction of buildings. Without the IMB authorities may demolish buildings, without distinction between churches and private homes.

Based on article from speroforum.com, December 2008

A group of 500 Indonesian Muslims wreaked havoc and spread panic in Masohi, in the Moluccan Islands, during clashes with police and local Christians. As a result, 45 homes, a church and a village hall were set alight. The spark that set off the violence is an in incident in which a teacher allegedly insulted Islam in front of some Muslim students.

Once the story spread, the local Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) mobilised, rallying some 500 people in front of the Central Maluku Education Agency. For more than an hour they protested, accusing the teacher of blasphemy and calling for his dismissal. Afterwards, the protesters marched to police headquarters near the school. When they were told that the police chief was out of town, most of the demonstrators left but a group remained to confront the police. The violence spread and resulted in the burning of Christian homes and a church.

For his part the teacher who sparked the incident is currently in police custody.

 A Muslim Ban on Churches

From Compass Direct, August 2008

On August 17 2008 a Muslim mob stormed a church service in Cipayung, East Jakarta, forcing Christians to flee and then erecting banners in the street declaring a ban on “churches and religious services.”

As about 20 church members were celebrating the nation’s Independence Day at the service, the angry assailants arrived at the Pentecostal Church of Indonesia in Pondok Rangon village, Cipayung, at 9:30 a.m. shouting Allahu Akbar! or God is greater!

Church members managed to close a roller door protecting the room where services were held. But the attackers then chased church members out into the street, warning them not to return for future services.

The intruders then erected large banners in the street declaring a ban on churches and religious services in the village.

  Intolerant Moderates

From Compass Direct, June 2008

Members of the Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI) in Tangerang, Banten province, confronted and threatened to kill church leader Bedali Hulu.

For the past 18 months Hulu’s Jakarta Baptist Christian Church (GKJB) in Pisangan village, Sepatan district has wrestled for the right to hold church services in the village. Members will soon take the matter to court in hopes of finding a permanent solution to the dispute.

Yesterday’s confrontation by the Muslim extremist FPI was the latest in a series of threats. Last week as the congregation held a simple meeting in a church member’s home – sharing a meal and singing a few hymns – FPI members arrived and repeated threats first issued in November to raid the homes of church members if meetings continued.

A Joint Ministerial Decree promulgated in 1969 and revised in 2006 requires a congregation of at least 90 adult members, the permission of at least 60 neighbors and a permit from local authorities to establish a place of worship. Church leaders say it is virtually impossible to obtain a permit under these terms.

  Iran criminalises expression of affiliation to the Bahá’í faith

17th March 2009 See article from telegraph.co.uk

A new embargo on freedom of expression in Iran has formally been announced.

Iran’s Prosecutor General, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, has declared that the very expression of affiliation to the Bahá’í faith is illegal. This was communicated in a letter to the Minister of Intelligence, Ghulam-Husayn Ejeyee, who needs no encouragement to violate rights. Human Rights Watch named him one of Iran's Ministers of Murder four years ago.

According to the Prosecutor General , everyone is free to have his own belief and faith: However, no expression or declaration in order to disparage the thought of others, nor any attempt to teach them resulting in deception and agitation of minds is permitted.

He goes on to determine that the administration of the wayward Baha’i sect at all levels is illegal and forbidden … their danger to national security is documented and well-established.

A few days later, the Prosecutor General made the rather fantastic claim that Bahá’ís in Iran are provided with all facilities afforded other Iranian citizens, and are respected as human beings, but not as insiders, spies, or a political grouplet supported by Britain and Israel to cause disturbance in Iran.

The broader implication of the Prosecutor General’s statement, however, is that it is possible to legally separate out a (generous) respect of religion or belief from its (dangerous) expression or declaration.

  Apostasy

October 2008. Based on article from christiantoday.com

Iranian officials have released two Christian converts who were being held in prison on apostasy charges, one week after the Iranian Government voted overwhelmingly in favour of new legislation to introduce the death penalty for anyone who leaves the Muslim faith.

Mahmoud Mohammed Matin-Azad and Arash Ahmad-Ali Basirat were arrested in May and charged with apostasy following their conversion to Christianity from Islam.

Andy Dipper, head of Christian persecution watchdog Release International, gave a cautious welcome to news of their release: We’re delighted Iran has dropped its charges against these men but existence is about to become even tougher for other Iranians seeking freedom of faith.

Their release follows a statement from the EU last week, in which it urged the Iranian Government to reconsider the debate on the draft bill on apostasy and pressed for the release of people imprisoned because of their religious affiliation.

  Converted to Inhumanity

June 2008 from BozNewsLife

Iranian security police in Tehran have detained and tortured a married couple who recently converted from Islam to Christianity and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution.

Well-informed Compass Direct News, which investigates reports of persecution, said Tina Rad, 28, and her husband Makan Arya, 31, were arrested June 3 after holding Bible studies and attending a house church. A relative apparently informed Iran's security police about their activities.

Rad was reportedly charged with activities against the holy religion of Islam for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them, while officials accused Arya of activities against national security. The couple was allegedly also forced to leave their 4-year-old ill daughter unattended. In addition, police confiscated their personal computer, satellite dish and television set, as well as all books, videos, CDs, DVDs and even a photo album.

  New repressive religious law declared unconstitutional

March 2009 from www.forum18.org

President Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan will not be challenging the finding of the Constitutional Council that the proposed new law amending various laws on religion is unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Council told Forum 18 News Service that the Presidential Administration has informed it that President Nazarbaev agrees with its finding and is not planning to challenge it.

  Parliament passes new repressive religious law

November 2008 from www.forum18.org

Kazakhstan's parliament finally adopted on 26 November a Law seriously restricting freedom of religion or belief, Forum 18 News Service has learnt.

Immediate deep concern about the Law, which changes the Religion Law and other laws, was expressed by Kazakh human rights defenders and Lutheran, Hare Krishna, Baptist and Ahmadi Muslim representatives. We expect persecution in the future because of this very harsh Law, Baptist Pastor Yaroslav Senyushkevich told Forum 18, not just on us but on others too. It will be like under Stalin.

  New repressive religious law

October 2008. Based on an article from www.forum18.org

Kazakhstan's controversial amendments to various laws affecting religion or belief reached the Senate on 29 September after being approved by parliament's lower house and are now with the Senate's Committee for Social and Cultural Development. Committee chairman Akhan Bizhanov three times refused to tell Forum 18 News Service whether the new Law aims to increase state controls on the activity of religious communities and individuals.

The text of the Law as approved by the lower house - and seen by Forum 18 - would for the first time explicitly ban unregistered religious activity, ban sharing beliefs by individuals not named by registered religious organisations and without personal registration as missionaries, require all registration applications to be approved centrally after a religious expert assessment of each community's doctrines and history, and impose a wider range of fines on individuals and communities and bans on religious communities who, for example, conduct activity not specifically mentioned in their charter.

Groups without full registration would not be able to maintain publicly-accessible places of worship.

5th October 2008. Based on article from inspiremagazine.org.uk 

A longstanding effort to replace a church with a mosque in Kenya’s northern town of Garissa culminated in an attack by 50 Muslim youths recently that left the worship building in ruins.

The gang stormed the building of Redeemed Gospel Church on 14 September and pelted the congregation with stones, sending many Christians fleeing while others became embroiled in fistfights. Ten Christians received hospital treatment for minor injuries and were released.

17th January 2009. Based on article from balkanalysis.com

Despite several recent reports suggesting that radical Islam in Kosovo no longer represents a significant security threat, the beating of a prominent Albanian imam by Wahhabi Muslims indicates that the challenge within the Muslim community persists.

The disproportional yet unexplained influence of these extremists in the fledgling state's judicial and law enforcement institutions, cited by Islamic Community officials themselves, represents a challenge for the EU's nascent law-and-order mission, EULEX.

On 12 January, Radio-Television Kosova (RTK) reported that Mullah Osman Musliu, chairman of the Islamic Community in Drenas in central Kosovo had been attacked and beaten by nine Wahhabi extremists. These men were arrested, though four were soon released. The other five remain in police custody.

According to a transcript, the incident occurred when Musliu visited a mosque in the village of Zabel in order to elect a new local imam. Across the Balkans, religious-based violence has often centered on issue of candidates for such positions, with the Wahhabis often disagreeing, violently so, with the candidate supported by the mainstream Islamic community. Along with ideology, control over Islamic Community funds and properties is often the main reason for dispute.

The attack on Musliu represented the second time in recent months in which Islamic Community members were attacked by extremists, who take their inspiration, and funding, from the austere Wahhabi sect of Islam, official state religion of Saudi Arabia. This and other Muslim states were leading donors to post-war Kosovo, building hundreds of mosques in the process, though their contributions are said to have dried up considerably due to much of the population's disinterest in Islamic activities. ]

Calling the attack against him ]]an attack against the institution, Musliu added: this was not an accident. This was well-organized. Everyone involved in that attack passed at least by two mosques to come and pray in the mosque I was in.

22nd July 2009. See article from arabtimesonline.com, thanks to Alan

Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department arrested an unidentified male and female for conducting immoral activities in a flat in Hawalli area.

The officers raided another flat with an inspection warrant after receiving a call from a neighboring flat informing them of the suspected activities and loud music. They arrested six Kuwaiti citizens, two GCC citizens and two Arab nationals along with girls aged between 19 and 25 years.

18th August 2009. Based on article from Forum 18

Unregistered communities of Protestant Christians, Hare Krishna devotees and Ahmadiya Muslims in many parts of Kyrgyzstan have been ordered by the authorities to stop meeting for worship, Forum 18 News Service has found.

In some cases, communities have been told that state registration in the capital Bishkek does not allow religious activity elsewhere.

One Protestant church in the north-west told Forum 18 that they had been unsuccessfully trying for two years to register, but that they would not be registered unless they had 200 signatures. How can we collect 200 signatures if we are not allowed to function normally?

22nd October 2008. Based on article from Forum 18

Kyrgyzstan's Parliament has passed without discussion the first reading of a restrictive draft Religion Law. 

Deputy Zainidin Kurmanov told Forum 18 that the latest text is on the parliamentary website, but other deputies state that they do not know what is in the draft Law. Kurmanov revealed that the draft Law includes: a ban on unregistered religious activity; a threshold of 200 adult citizens to gain state registration; a ban on proselytism; a definition of a sect; and a ban on the free distribution of literature.

Kurmanov claimed he did not understand objections as only criminals should be afraid of law and order.

Update: Passed

11th November 2008 Based on article from Forum 18

The law was passed in Parliament in November 2008

2nd April 2009. Based on article from compassdirect.org

Police in Borikhamxay province, Laos, on March 19 destroyed a church building in Nonsomboon village while Christian residents attended a meeting called by district officials.

A member of the provincial religious affairs department, identified only as Bounlerm, has since claimed that police destroyed the worship facility because it was built without official approval.

Tension between the Christians and local authorities escalated last year when officials ordered at least 40 Christian families living in Ban Mai village to relocate some 20 kilometers (12 miles) to Nonsomboon for “administrative reasons,” according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). Local sources said the forced relocation to Nonsomboon village was an effort to control the activities of Christians in Ban Mai who were sharing their faith with other people in the district.

30th September 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

The chief of Boukham village in Savannakhet province, Laos, on Sept. 19 called a special community meeting to resolve the problem of eight resident Christian families who have refused to give up their faith. The meeting concluded with plans to expel all 55 Christians from the village.

Although all adult members of a village are usually invited to such meetings, on this occasion the Christians were deliberately excluded, according to rights group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

Pastor Sompong Supatto and two other believers from the village, Boot Chanthaleuxay and Khamvan Chanthaleuxay remain in detention in the nearby Ad-Sapangthong district police detention cell. HRWLRF earlier reported that police have held the men in handcuffs and wooden foot stocks since their arrest on Aug. 3, causing numbness and infection in their legs and feet due to lack of blood circulation.

Authorities have said they will release the three only if they renounce their faith.

  Mandatory Buddhism

22nd September 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

Confronted with evidence of rights abuses yesterday, an official in Champasak province, Laos, said district officials had misunderstood religious freedom regulations when they arrested and detained two men for converting to Christianity, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

District police officers in cooperation with the chief of Jick village in Phonthong district arrested Khambarn Kuakham and Phoun Koonlamit on Sept. 8, accusing them of believing in Christianity, a foreign religion, HRWLRF reported.

Both men were placed in criminal detention for five days and ordered to renounce their faith, the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) confirmed.

10th August 2009. See article from forum18.org

Officials continue to put into practice the Macedonian Religion Law's hostility to some religious communities, Forum 18 News Service has found.

Discrimination continues against the Serbian Orthodox Church and Bektashi Muslim community, and in favour of the two state faith communities - the Macedonian Orthodox Church and Islamic Community of Macedonia.

Smaller religious communities' main problems are the continuing official obstacles against them acquiring, regaining, expanding and using places of worship. Urban plans are often used as excuses to deny or give inadequate planning permission to religious communities,.

1st September 2009. See article from malaysiainsider.com, thanks to Alan

A group of Malay-Muslim protesters have threatened bloodshed unless the state government stopped the construction of a Hindu Temple.

Amid chants of Allahuakbar, the group also left the severed head of a cow at the entrance of the State Secretariat here as a warning to Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

The residents said that the construction of a Hindu temple in a 90% Malay- Muslim neighbourhood was insensitive because activities there would disrupt their lives.
They claimed that the "noise" from the temple would disturb their own praying, and that they would not be able to function properly as Muslims.

The group of 50 over protestors marched shortly after Friday prayers from the Shah Alam State mosque to the State Secretariat.

I challenge YB Khalid, YB Rodziah and Xavier Jeyakumar to go on with the temple construction. I guarantee bloodshed and racial tension will happen if this goes on, and the state will be held responsible shouted Ibrahim Haji Sabri amid strong chants of Allahu Akbar!

Feb 2009. see article from forum18.org

Mohamed Nasheed's election as President of the Maldives was hailed as the dawn of a new era of democracy and freedom in the Indian Ocean country. Under former President Gayoom, the once religiously tolerant Maldives - which tended towards folk Islam - was changed into a society intolerant of all beliefs except state-approved Sunni Islam.

President Nasheed has, Forum 18 News Service notes, taken no steps to dismantle the Gayoom legacy of continuing religious freedom violations. Indeed, the scope for violations has been increased by the creation of a new and powerful Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The 2008 Maldivian Constitution, inherited from the Gayoom era, also places many obstacles in the way of establishing human rights. Many Maldivians - especially secular and non-Muslim Maldivians forced to conceal their beliefs - have begun using anonymous weblogs to voice their concern over the situation. Fear of social ostracism and government punishment prevents this concern from being openly expressed. If President Nasheed does not respect all Maldivians' right to freedom of religion or belief, he will not be able to fulfil his promises to respect their human rights.

The Maldives Ministry of Islamic Affairs has announced  that it would block sidahitun.com, a website promoting Christianity aimed at Maldivians.

Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari said the ministry had consulted experts to find ways to block the site, which was both in Dhivehi and English.

Sheikh Ibrahim Fareed Ahmed, known for his inflammatory sermons, agreed that all anti-Islamic websites should be banned: Although this is an Islamic society, some Maldivians’ faith in Islam is not very strong. If they have access to these websites because their belief in Islam is weak, there might be a negative impact.

A similar view was upheld by scholar Sheikh Usman Abdullah who said that as the Maldives is recognised as a wholly Muslim society, all anti-Islamic activities, including websites promoting Christianity, should be banned.

Samuel Wallace, International Christian Concern’s regional manager for South Asia, said he was alarmed to hear officials in the Maldives were seeking to block Christian websites: As a member of the United Nations, the Maldives has an obligation to protect the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Right. This includes in Article 18 the ‘right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

  News May 2008: Maldives to revoke citizenship of non-muslims

The US government has cautioned the Maldives over new wording in the constitution in progress which means non-Muslims could lose their Maldivian citizenship, US ambassador Robert Blake said.

A group from the US House Foreign Relations Committee who visited Maldives in February were also rumoured to have spoken to government on the issue, whilst a 2005 international religious freedom report by the committee said that freedom of religion remains severely restricted in Maldives.

However as the new constitution was developed, the Special Majlis (constitutional assembly) voted to amend wording on citizenship from the current constitution, to add the words: A non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.

Information minister Mohamed Nasheed said on his personal blog that this wording will operate to take away the citizenship from citizens of Maldives who may have a faith different from Islam.

The existing constitution stipulates individuals must be Muslim in order to vote in elections, but not in order to be a citizen.

Nasheed said on his blog, It will be very difficult for Maldives mentality to accept Maldives citizens may belong to a different faith. It will be seen as an offense to the state of Maldives and an insult to being Maldivian, thus demanding serious reprisal.

Therefore, he added, No Maldives leader would want to rock the boat by advocating a change to the wording.

22nd June 2009. see article from forum18.org

Moldova continues to refuse legal status to religious communities of a variety of faiths, despite European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg judgements that it must do this, Forum 18 News Service has found.

The state has repeatedly refused registration to Muslim and Protestant communities, individual parishes of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, and the Falun Gong movement.

Without legal status, a community cannot seek land from the local authorities to place of worship, cannot run a bank account and cannot have an official stamp for legal documents.

  Moldova pay lip service to ECHR

15th June 2009. see article from forum18.org

Moldova's new Administrative Code replaces an article condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg with an almost identical article, Forum 18 News Service notes. Article 54 Part 3, which came into force on 31 May, less than three weeks after the article it replaces was condemned by the ECHR, punishes unregistered religious activity which contradicts the Law on Religious Denominations and its constituent parts. The only change from the condemned former Article 200 Part 3 is the replacement of the last phrase, which read which contradicts the current legislation.

The ECHR condemned the Article, as a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, in a May judgement in the case of local Muslim Talgat Masaev who was punished for conducting unregistered religious worship.

31st May 2009. See article from ajewwithaview.wordpress.com, thanks to Alan

A group of Islamists recently arrested in Morocco planned to attack Jewish interests in the country, a court source said, citing the charges against them.

The suspects, alleged to be members of a cell that was part of the radical Islamist movement Salafia Jihadia, were also preparing attacks against Moroccan security services, the source said.

The cell — Jamaat Al Moourabitine Al Jodod, or New Fighters Group — allegedly began operating in March 2008 in southern Morocco and sought to recruit militants from Koranic schools with the intention of infiltrating political parties.

Authorities announced their arrest on May 12 and they face charges including forming a criminal gang with the aim of carrying out terrorist acts. They are being held in jail.

7th January 2008. Based on article from forum18.org

The President of the internationally unrecognised entity of Nagorno-Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan, has signed a repressive new Religion Law.

It comes into force ten days after its official publication, which is expected to be after the current Christmas holidays.

The main restrictions in the new Law are: an apparent ban on unregistered religious activity; highly restrictive requirements to gain legal recognition; state censorship of religious literature; an undefined monopoly given to the Armenian Apostolic Church over preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to similarly undefined rallying their own faithful.

Based on article from forum18.org

A Protestant community, Revival Fire Evangelical Church, has become the first and so far only religious community to be denied legal status by the unrecognised entity of Nagorno-Karabakh, Forum 18 News Service has learnt.

It is uncertain what practical impact this will have. Ashot Sargsyan, head of the state Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs, told Forum 18 that they can continue to pray, but won't have the right to meet together for worship as before.

Asked what would happen if they do meet for worship, he responded: The police will fine them and if they persist they will face Administrative Court.

24th June 2009. See article from kantipuronline.com, thanks to Alan

Nurjahan Khatun, 29, a Nepal resident was physically assaulted and forcefully fed human faeces by villagers on Saturday on charge of practicing witchcraft.

I was cooking food when more than 20 locals entered my kitchen. They dragged me outside and started beating. They also fed me human faeces.

According to her, Islam Mohammed has been accusing her of practicing witchcraft for the past six months: Islam is frequently alleging me of making his grandson ill.

  Hindus Bomb Christians

28th May 2009. See article from news.bbc.co.uk

Two people have been killed and at least 12 injured in an explosion at a Roman Catholic church in Nepal.

The blast, south of the capital Kathmandu, comes as the country's parliament prepares to elect a new prime minister.

No group has said it carried out the attack but police said they suspected the involvement of a Hindu extremist group, the Nepal Defence Army.

The little known organisation says it wants to restore Nepal's Hindu monarchy.

See full article from Compass Direct

More than 1,000 people, including Hindus and Muslims, gathered in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state in India, on Friday (July 4) for the burial of a Catholic priest murdered last week by Hindu extremists in Nepal.

Father Johnson Prakash Moyalan, who belonged to the religious order of Salesians of Don Bosco, was from India’s Kerala state. He was shot in the chest and stomach by a group of masked men on July 1.

Salesian provincial secretary in Kolkata, Father Antony Earathara, told Compass that the 60-year-old Fr. Moyalan was Nepal’s first martyr for Christ.

The Salesian was killed by Hindu extremists belonging to an obscure group, the Nepal Defense Army, which left some pamphlets saying Nepal should be made a Hindu state again and that it was training Hindu suicide squads to achieve its mission, Fr. Earathara said. He added that nothing was missing from the priest’s room and therefore robbery was not a motive.

  Muslims kill pastor

3rd August 2009. See article from persecution.org, thanks to Alan

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Islamic extremists killed a pastor and razed five churches in the city of Maiduguri, Nigeria, on July 27. The extremists also attacked two churches in the Nigerian city of Potiskum.

Yakubu Sabo, a husband and father of seven, was hacked to death with a machete by members of a violent Islamic militant group know as Boko Haram (which means “education is prohibited”). Sabo pastored a Church of Christ congregation in Maiduguri.

Deeper Life Church, Evangelical Mission, and Church of the Brethren are three of five other churches set ablaze by Islamists in Maiduguri. In the city of Potiskum, Islamists attacked First Baptist Church and Church of the Brethren. They also burned the musical instruments and sound systems of the churches before police came and chased them away.

  Blasphemy Lynch Mob

2nd June 2009. See article from leadershipnigeria.com

A religious riot erupted yesterday in Sara town, Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa State when some youths staged a demonstration over an alleged blasphemous publication against  Muhammad.

The incident led to the burning down of a police station and a Toyota Hiace bus, while several people sustained various degrees of injury.

An eyewitness said the publication, whose source nobody knew, provoked the people of the town, who are 99% Muslim. A non-Muslim man, who was also a non-indigene of the town, was accused of being behind the publication. In his response to a discussion, he was said to have uttered some words which expressed his support for the publication.

The eyewitness further revealed that the utterances of this non-Muslim provoked the group and they thought he might have a hand in the publication. They chased him in an attempt to kill him.

When the man saw the group were after him, he was said to have rushed to the nearby police station where he sought protection.

Unknown to the demonstrators, the policemen had already whisked him out of the town. When the demonstrators learnt the police were not ready to bring out the person, they started stoning the police station. As the number of the demonstrators overpowered the few policemen at the station, the men ran away from the station and the mob took it over.

The eyewitness further recounted that when the demonstrators failed to find the accused person, they set the station ablaze and also burnt down the bus owned by the Gwaram Local Government Area, which was parked in the premises.

  Religions of Peace

December 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

The murderous rioting sparked by Muslim attacks on Christians and their property on Nov. 28-29 left six pastors dead, at least 500 other people killed and 40 churches destroyed, according to church leaders.

More than 25,000 persons have been displaced in the two days of violence, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

What began as outrage over suspected vote fraud in local elections quickly hit the religious fault line that quakes from time to time in this city located between the Islamic north and Christian south, as angry Muslims took aim at Christian sites rather than at political targets. Police and troops reportedly killed about 400 rampaging Muslims in an effort to quell the unrest, and Islamists shot, slashed or stabbed to death most of more than 100 Christians.

No religious liberty exists in what is perhaps the most closed society on earth. Although some churches exist, they are effectively government-controlled. Independent religious activity is proscribed and severely punished. Allegations abound of arrest, torture, and execution of members of underground churches.

18th August 2009.  See article from christianpost.com

In the heart of Islamabad, about 2,000 Pakistani Christians are forced to live in a refugee camp.

Their only crime is that they are Christians. The displaced Christians told CNN correspondents, who visited them recently, that the government had kicked them off their land without warning only because they are Christian.

We are constitutionally bound to protect the life and property of the minorities and to look after the interests of the minorities in this country, Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister of minority affairs and a Pakistani Christian, said, according to CNN: Because they played a role in the founding, they are equal citizens of the country. Yes, there is a problem, but we are trying to solve those problems.

  Taliban attack christians in Karachi

4th May 2009. Based on article from asianews.it, Thanks to Alan

Irfan Masih, the 11-yeaar-old boy wounded on 22 April during a Taliban attack against Christians in Tiasar Town near Karachi, has died.

On 22 April a gang of armed muslim extremists attacked a group of Christians in Tiasar Town, a Karachi suburb, setting six homes on fire and seriously injuring three Christians. One of them was Irfan Masih.

The Taliban attacked the Christians because they were wiping off insulting graffiti from the walls of local homes and the local church. The Taliban had scribbled words that incited hatred and violence, like Taliban are coming, Long live Taliban and Be prepared to pay Jizia (Tax for non-Muslims) or embrace Islam.

Christian activists have complained that police from the nearby Surjani station stood idly by when the attack took place.

As an explanation of their inaction, the agents said that both Christians and Muslims opened fire.

However, only Christians were hurt or killed. Five Muslims were arrested, caught brandishing weapons used during the attack.

8th March 2009. Based on article from asianews.it

One woman was shot dead and 28 people have been injured in an attack on the Presbyterian Christian community in a village in the province of Pakistan's Punjab.

The attack took place on March 2 when a group of Muslim inhabitants opened fire on the christians who had gathered in the church for prayer. The woman died on the spot, while other members of the congregation suffered injuries of various kinds while they were seeking to flee from the bullets or to protect the pastor. The attackers broke the windows of the church, destroyed the Bibles and the other prayer books, and removed the cross from the roof of the building.

The authors of the attack have been identified, and a report against them has been filed at the local police station. The Pakistan Christian Post says that for now, the security forces have turned down the request for investigations on the attackers.

27th May 2009. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Islamic Vandals have desecrated about 70 graves in two Palestinian Christian cemeteries in the occupied West Bank.

A church official in the village of Jiffna near Ramallah, where the attack took place, called in Palestinian security officials to investigate, but neither he nor the investigators said they had any initial clues who was responsible.

11th July 2009.  See article from newsinfo.inquirer.net, thanks to Alan

Four explosions rocked Mindannao within a 12-hour period starting Monday evening, leaving at least six people killed and 56 others wounded, prompting the police force in the south to go on the highest alert.

The explosions came after an improvised bomb went off outside a church in Cotabato City on Sunday, leaving five people killed and at least 35 others wounded.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) placed its forces in Mindanao on full alert, the highest alert level, while the rest of the country was placed on the second-highest heightened alert, said Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, PNP spokesman.
Police will also secure public places, including churches, malls, and transport terminals, Espina said

29th May 2009. See article from monstersandcritics.com, thanks to Alan

Muslim separatist rebels bombed a bridge and attacked a village in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, an army spokesman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the rebels swooped down on the nearby village of Reina Regente, looting homes, local stores and farms before torching at least eight houses.

More than 250 residents were forced to flee their homes as fighting erupted between MILF guerrillas and responding soldiers.

More than 27,000 residents have remained in evacuation centres in Maguindanao province after fleeing their homes amid fierce fighting between the MILF and the military last year, he said.

19th May 2009. See article from watoday.com.au, thanks to Alan

Islamic militants have beheaded a retired Christian carpenter abducted nearly two months ago in the southern Philippines.

The 61-year-old was kidnapped April 21 on the island of Basilan by a kidnap gang believed allied with the Abu Sayyaf group, a small group of self-styled Islamic militants blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks in recent years.

The kidnappers gave his family until Saturday to hand over 500,000 pesos ($A13,886) in ransom.

They failed to raise the ransom, police said on Monday, and a day later the victim's severed head was found by villagers in a town that is a known stronghold of extremists.

12th January 2009. See article from radioaustralianews.net.au

Muslim separatists have torched the houses of 30 Christian families in an attack on a southern Philippines village.

The military says rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are still occupying the farming hamlet of Sangay after raiding it.

25th October 2009. Based on article from forum18.org

Two

Following more than 500 check-ups on Jehovah's Witness communities across Russia, prosecutors in several regions are going to court to have various of their publications declared extremist.

This would see their distribution banned in Russia and cripple the organisation, Forum 18 News Service notes.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe state agencies want a total ban.

Rostov-on-Don Regional Court ruled 34 texts extremist on 11 September, the first court to do so. The court ruling, seen by Forum 18, claims that the sentence true Christians do not celebrate Christmas or other festivals based on false religious ideas represents incitement to religious hatred, while another publication which quoted Tolstoy - described as an opponent of Orthodoxy - created a negative attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church.

4th October 2009. Based on article from forum18.org

Two Baptist preachers in Russia's Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad have been fined after their community sang psalms and spoke about Christ in the street, they have told Forum 18 News Service.

A source in the Kaliningrad police told Forum 18 that all public gatherings - whether political or religious - must be sanctioned by the municipal authorities in advance. But they didn't have permission and they had no intention of getting it! he remarked, clearly irritated by the Baptists' actions.

Asked why permission is necessary, the source replied, That's the law in Russia! Aleksandr Legotin, one of the two Baptists, insisted that, as the Baptists held a religious service and not a demonstration, the legal requirement to notify the authorities in advance should not have applied.

25th September 2009.See article from israelnationalnews.com, thanks to Alan

Russian neo-Nazis attacked a Russian synagogue and the home of a police official who has been investigating terrorism. The attack on the home represents an escalation in violence on the part of the neo-Nazi movement, which targets Jewish, Christians, Muslims and foreigners.

Police arrested four youth, ages 15 to 21 for the firebombing of a Khabarovsk synagogue and the policeman's house. One of the suspects is a former member of Russia's special forces. Government officials said that young people deliberately targeted the window of a room that was specifically set up for the education of small children.

  Religious Freedom Liquidated

March 2009. See article from russia-ic.com

The Russian Federal Security Service of Sverdlovsk Region have carried out five examinations of literature of Jehovah's Witnesses and as a result claimed it extremist.

 

 

 

Nov 2008. Based on article from forum18.org

A total of 56 major religious organisations spanning confessions broadly considered mainstream in Russia are still earmarked for court liquidation because the Justice Ministry claims not to have received their accounts, Forum 18 News Service has found. Old Believer, Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, Protestant, Nestorian, Muslim and Buddhist organisations are among those on the list.

Over half of all centralised religious organisations belong to the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), but none are among the 56. This is because they were forewarned by the Ministry, religious rights lawyer Vladimir Ryakhovsky of the Moscow-based Slavic Centre for Law and Justice claimed to Forum 18.

Feb 2009. See article from compassdirect.org

A prominent foreign pastor in Saudi Arabia has fled Riyadh after a member of the mutawwa’in, or religious police, and others threatened him three times in one week.

Two of the incidents included threats to kill house church pastor Yemane Gebriel of Eritrea.

Gebriel told Compass that on Jan. 10 he found an unsigned note on his vehicle threatening to kill him if he did not leave the country. On Jan. 13, he said, mutawwa’in member Abdul Aziz and others forced him from his van and told him to leave the country.

On Jan. 15 Gebriel told Compass, four masked men – apparently Saudis – in a small car cut off the van he was driving. They said, ‘We will kill you if you don’t go away from this place – you must leave here or we will kill you,’ he said.

In 2005, the religious police’s Aziz had directed that Gebriel be arrested along with 16 other foreign Christian leaders, though diplomatic pressure resulted in their release within weeks.

No doubt Sheikh Abdul Aziz is still burning, said the local Christian source. Nor may such type of death threat be possibly idle words. The current situation and circumstance remind me very much of the machine-gun murder of Irish Roman Catholic layman Tony Higgins right here in Riyadh in August 2004.

From Christianity Today, August 2006

Saudi Arabia strictly forbids the practice of any religion other than Islam within its borders. Those who fail to comply could face arrest, torture or even death. Brian O'Connor, a Christian and a native of India, experienced that persecution first hand.

O'Connor was charged with "spreading Christianity" in Saudi Arabia in 2004. The muttawa (Saudi religious police) originally arrested O'Connor on the false allegation of selling liquor and possessing pornographic videos. The muttawa have the authority to detain persons for violation of strict Islamic standards regarding proper dress and behavior.

During his interrogation, he was brutally beaten, then sentenced to 10 months imprisonment and 300 lashes. While in prison he was pressured to convert to Islam. According to Compass Direct, after serving seven months in prison, he was deported to India.

Saudi Arabia is considered one of the most religiously intolerant nations in the world, ranking No. 2 on Open Doors' 2006 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. Last fall the U.S. Department of State re-designated Saudi Arabia along with seven other countries as "Countries of Particular Concern" for severe violations of religious freedom.

Although the Saudi Arabian government claims to exercise "practical tolerance" toward the thousands of non-Muslims working in the country who worship privately in their homes like O'Connor even "house church" Christians are rounded up and tried without defense counsel. In 2005, in what was called Saudi Arabia's largest crackdown on Christians in a decade, 70 expatriate Christians were arrested during worship in private homes. Most of the arrested Christians were released over a period of time.

Apostasy is punishable by death. No missionaries are allowed into the country, and custom officials routinely open mail and shipments to search for contraband, including Christian materials.

28th August 2009. Based on article from bosnewslife.com

Christians in Somalia were facing another potential day of bloodshed Monday, August 24, amid fresh reports that Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity, killing at least one man in recent days for abandoning Islam.

Fighters of the main al-Shabaab insurgent group shot and killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan last week, August 18, in the Bulahawa area, near the Somali border with Kenya, Christians said.

The reported attack came shortly after rights activists said al-Shabab militants beheaded four Christian aid workers for refusing to renounce their faith in Christ.

  Cleansing in Somalia

28th July 2009. Based on article from examiner.com

Islamic militants in Somalia so far this year have killed eight Christians.

The killings come from extremists al Shabaab insurgents wanting to topple Somalia's West-leaning transitional government and enforce sharia (Islamic) law.

Somalia's Christians comprise less than 1 percent of the nation's 9.8 million people.

Compass says al Shabaab has ties to al-Qaida which is monitoring converts from Islam and is intent on 'cleansing' Christians especially where Christian workers had provided medical aid through a former Christian-operated hospital.

6th July 2009. See article from compassdirect.org, thanks to Alan

Islamic extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father.

Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, Musa Mohammed Yusuf himself was the leader of an underground church.

Militants from the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab entered Yonday village, went to Yusuf’s house and interrogated him on his relationship with Mberwa, leader of a fellowship of 66 Somali Christians who meet at his home at an undisclosed city. Yusuf told them he knew nothing of Mberwa and had no connection with him. The Islamic extremists left but said they would return the next day.

At noon the next day, as his wife was making lunch for their children in Yonday, the al Shabaab militants showed up. Batula Ali Arbow, Yusuf’s wife, recalled that their youngest son, Innocent, told the group that their father had left the house the previous day.

The Islamic extremists ordered her to stop what she was doing and took hold of three of her sons – 7,11 & 12 years old. Some neighbors came and pleaded with the militants not to harm the three boys. Their pleas landed on deaf ears.

13th May 2009. See article from compassdirect.org

A pastor trying to visit Somalia's autonomous, self-declared state of Somaliland earlier this year discovered just how hostile the separatist region can be to Christians.

A convert from Islam, Abdi Welli Ahmed is an East Africa Pentecostal Church pastor from Kenya who in February tried to visit and encourage Christians, an invisibly tiny minority, in the religiously intolerant region of Somaliland.

When he arrived by car at the border crossing with all legal travel documents, his Bible and other Christian literature landed him in unexpected trouble with Somaliland immigration officials. I was beaten up for being in possession of Christian materials, Ahmed told Compass. They threatened to kill me if I did not renounce my faith

22nd April 2009. See article from christiantoday.com

Release International has received reports of death threats against a Christian pastor and intimidation from Buddhists and Hindus aimed at preventing worship services from taking place.

The reports come just days after human rights organisations issued a global call to prayer for Sri Lanka, where churches have come under increasing attack amid a prolonged civil war.

According to Release partner the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), a church in Hambanthota District was forced to cancel services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday after its pastor received a death threat.

Sept 2008. Based on article from sudantribune.com

There are some improvements since last year in religious freedom throughout Sudan, where restrictions on Christians in the north were relaxed, said a new report released by the US State department on Friday.

Unlike prior reporting periods, the Government did not engage in severe abuses of religious freedom, said the State Department’s annual report on religious freedoms around the world for the period between July 2007 and July 2008.

The State Department nevertheless singled out the fact that Muslims in the north who expressed an interest in Christianity or converted to Christianity faced strong social pressure to recant.

The report detailed few instances of specific abuses of religious freedom, but cited limitations on Christian missionary activity and dwelled heavily on the legal framework and political context within which past abuses have occurred.

Over the last two decades millions of people have died and been turned into refugees as a result of almost endless civil war. Discrimination is embedded within the system: For instance, Christian converts face arrest and possible death. Attempts have been made to forcibly convert Christians and impose sharia on Christians. Churches and other facilities have been destroyed.

While the military conflict is not strictly Muslim versus Christian, Christians and animists in the south are the most common victims of forces backed by the Muslim government. Atrocities by government forces and government-backed militias have been common, most recently in Darfur.

Oct 2008. Based on article from christianpost.com

A UK immigration court of appeals has for the first time recognized the life threatening circumstances of Muslim converts to Christianity by granting asylum to a Syrian evangelical Christian couple.

In an unprecedented victory, the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) helped a young couple gain refugee status in the United Kingdom.

The court recognized that the couple would face real physical threats, including death, if they return to Syria, the country of origin of the husband. The appeal was granted on both asylum and human rights grounds.

  Easter Reprieve

7th April 2009. See article from forum18.org

In Tajkistan's latest attack on religious property, the Protestant Grace Sunmin Church in the capital Dushanbe has been given 10 days to leave their church building.

Claiming they do not want to disturb the church over Easter, the authorities subsequently extended the eviction deadline to the end of April.

Church members strongly dispute the authorities' claim that they do not own their own church, as well as the ridiculous amount offered as compensation.

  Signed

30th March 2009. See article from forum18.org

Tajikistan's President, Emomali Rahmon, has signed a repressive new Religion Law, but Presidential Administration officials refused to tell Forum 18 News Service why the Law was signed when it violates the Tajik Constitution and the country's international human rights obligations.

Akbar Turajonzoda, a member of Parliament's Upper House and a former Chief Mufti told Forum 18 that I regret very much that the President signed this Law, which will severely restrict the rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims. He said he is already drafting amendments to the Law, which he hopes to submit to the Lower House of Parliament within the next month.

  Repressive religion law passed by parliament awaits presidential approval

25th March 2009. See article from rightsidenews.com

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is concerned that Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon is preparing to sign a highly restrictive religion law - with numerous provisions that may violate Tajikistan's international legal commitments.

The law was hastily adopted by Tajikistan's Parliament earlier this month and it is before the president.

If signed, the law will legalize harsh policies already adopted by the Tajik government against its majority Muslim population, including the closure of hundreds of mosques and limiting the religious education of children. Moreover, the law will impose state censorship on religious literature, restrict the conduct of religious rites to officially-approved places of worship and allow the state to control the activities of religious associations.

The law will also cause difficulties for Tajikistan's other religious minorities by dramatically increasing the numerical threshold for registration requirements, as well as requiring the founders of a religious group seeking registration to certify that they have lived in their territory for at least five years and adhered to the religion. The law also requires that a religious community obtain consent of the Religious Affairs Committee to invite foreigners or attend religious conferences outside the country.

  Salafi Islam Banned

27th January 2009 from www.forum18.org

Even though a Tajik official has admitted to Forum 18 News Service that
adherents of the Salafi school of Islamic thought have committed no crimes,
the country's Supreme Court has banned Salafism and the import and
distribution of Salafi literature.

The ban on the Islamic school of thought
comes into force on 9 February.

29th May 2009.  See article from compassdirect.org

Two church buildings were razed on June 28 on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar after worship services.

Suspected radical Muslims set the church buildings on fire on the outskirts of Unguja Township, on the island off the coast of East Africa, in what church leaders called the latest incidents of a rising tide of religious intolerance.

We don’t want churches on our street, read a flier dropped at the door of Charles Odilo, who had donated the plot on which the Evangelical Assemblies of God in Tanzania (EAGT) building stood. Today we are going to burn the church, and if you continue we are going to burn your house also.

With Christian movements making inroads in the Muslim-dominated area, the EAGT church and a Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship in Africa (PEFA) church building a few miles away were burned down as a fierce warning, church leaders said.

29th May 2009. See article from compassdirect.org, thanks to Alan

Sunday worship in a house church near Zanzibar City, on a Tanzanian island off the coast of East Africa, did not take place for the third week running on May 24 after Muslim extremists expelled worshippers from their rented property.

Radical Muslims on May 9 drove members of Zanzibar Pentecostal Church (Kanisa la Pentecoste Zanzibar) from worship premises in a rented house at Ungunja Ukuu, on the outskirts of Zanzibar City. Restrictions on purchasing land for church buildings have slowed the Christians’ efforts to find a new worship site.

Angered by a recent upsurge in Christian evangelism in the area, church members said, radical Muslims had sent several threats to the Christians warning them to stop their activities. The church had undertaken a two-day, door-to-door evangelism campaign culminating in an Easter celebration.

14th June 2009. See article from abc.net.au, thanks to Alan

Suspected Muslim separatist militants have shot dead an elderly Buddhist monk and seriously wounded another as they collected morning alms in Thailand's restless south, police said.

They say the 60-year-old monk died instantly after he was shot several times by two militants dressed as students in Yala. The second monk was critically wounded and hospitalised.

The attack comes amid a sharp upsurge in the number of brutal attacks in the Muslim-majority south bordering Malaysia. Eleven people were killed in an attack on a mosque, the deadliest incident in the region this year.

The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.

24th May 2009. See article from bangkokpost.com, thanks to Alan

Two elderly women were shot dead and their bodies set on fire in the latest atrocity in the troubled far south, police said. They blamed the murders on separatists.

They were returning home by motorbike from a market in Pattani province were killed in a drive-by shooting.

More than 3,600 people have been killed and thousands more wounded in five years of separatist violence across the three Muslim-majority provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

Attacks have become increasingly brutal as the insurgency drags on, with corpses sometimes mutilated or burnt and left in public areas.

Buddhist-majority Thailand annexed the ethnic Malay and mainly Muslim area in 1902, sparking decades of tension

4th Nov 2008 Based on article from nationmultimedia.com

The last Buddhist family in a village of Thailand's troubled south was attacked by Muslim insurgents Sunday, killing the mother and severely injuring the daughter.

Police said the mother Ladda Sutthani, 72, owner of a clothes shop, was fatally shot and her daughter, Darunee Duangkaew, 39, was severely injured and sent to the provincial hospital.

The shop was attacked with a bomb two years ago, injuring Ladda. Darunee's husband was killed about a year ago.

Ladda and Darunee's family is the last Buddhist family in the village.

21st June 2009. See article from compassdirect.org

Since Iranian native Nasser Ghorbani fled to Turkey seven years ago, he has been unable to keep a job for more than a year – eventually his co-workers would ask why he didn’t come to the mosque on Fridays, and one way or another they’d learn that he was a convert to Christianity.

Soon thereafter he would be gone. Never had anyone gotten violent with him, however, until three weeks ago, when someone at his workplace in Istanbul hit him on the temple so hard he knocked him out. When he came back to his senses, Ghorbani was covered in dirt, and his left eye was swollen shut. It hurt to breathe; his whole body was in pain. He had no idea what had happened. “I’ve always had problems at work in Turkey because I’m a Christian, but never anything like this,” Ghorbani told Compass.

Based on article from compassdirect.org

Turkey’s decision to try two Christians under a revised version of a controversial law for insulting Turkishness because they spoke about their faith came as a blow to the country’s record of freedom of speech and religion.

A court on Feb. 24 received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Justice to try Christians Turan Topal and Hakan Tastan under the revised Article 301 – a law that has sparked outrage among proponents of free speech as journalists, writers, activists and lawyers have been tried under it. The court had sent the case to the Ministry of Justice after the government on May 8, 2008 put into effect a series of cosmetic changes to the law.

The justice ministry decision came as a surprise to Topal and Tastan and their lawyer, as missionary activities are not illegal in Turkey. Defense lawyer Haydar Polat said no concrete evidence of insulting Turkey or Islam has emerged since the case first opened two years ago.

A Ministry of Justice statement claimed that approval to try the case came in response to the original statement by three young men – Fatih Kose, Alper Eksi and Oguz Yilmaz – that Topal and Tastan were conducting missionary activities in an effort to show that Islam was a primitive and fictitious religion that results in terrorism, and to portray Turks as a cursed people.

Prosecutors have yet to produce any evidence indicating the defendants described Islam in these terms, and Polat said Turkey’s constitution grants all citizens freedom to choose, be educated in and communicate their religion, making missionary activities legal.

  Turkey refuses to allow churches

16th June 2008 from Christian Today

A legally recognised church in Turkey is fighting to stay open after police last week delivered a letter from the government stating that it will be closed within days.

The letter said Batikent Protestant Church in the capital city Ankara would be closed because it is meeting in a building that is not approved as a place of worship, according to International Christian Concern on Tuesday.

But the church argues that it had won a court case last year against the local government over zoning code violations, and was essentially fighting a legal battle over a case it had already won.

It is very obvious that what is happening to our church is a pre-meditated, continuous and jointly orchestrated direct attack against the Church as a whole in Turkey by the right-wing Islamic government (AK Party) that is currently in control in Turkey, said the church’s founding pastor Daniel Wickwire, according to ICC.

  One plane a year allowed to go to Mecca on haj

24th November 2008 from www.forum18.org

As in previous years it appears that the government will allow only 188 Muslims to go on the haj pilgrimage to Mecca this year directly from Turkmenistan.

Only those on the official list who have been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers will go to Mecca on the one aeroplane, one source told Forum 18 News Service from Ashgabad.

Would-be pilgrims must present an application form to their imam, who hands it to the regional authorities who pass it on to Ashgabad, a Muslim told Forum 18.

  Religious communities still face a number of difficulties

Sept 2008 from article at hrea.org

At the end of her mission to Turkmenistan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief concluded that individuals and religious communities still face a number of difficulties, although the situation has much improved since 2007.

During her mission, the Special Rapporteur raised concerns at vague or excessive legislation on religious issues and at its arbitrary implementation. Concerning the current prohibition on activities of unregistered religious organisations in Turkmenistan, the Special Rapporteur recalled that international human rights law guarantees freedom of religion or belief regardless of registration status.

A number of religious communities, unregistered and registered, face restrictions relating to places of worship and imports of religious material. Referring to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, she was also concerned that in Turkmenistan conscientious objection is a criminal offence and that no alternative civilian service is offered.

  Impossible Registration

22nd May 2008 from www.forum18.org

One of the biggest problems faced by religious believers in Turkmenistan is not being able to freely maintain public places of worship.

A Turkmen Protestant from a region far from the capital argues: You cannot build, buy, or securely rent such property, let alone put up a notice outside saying 'This is a place of worship'. All kinds of obstructions are imposed, whether through rules or just in practice. Whenever officials raid our meetings the first thing they ask is: 'Where's your registration certificate?' The government likes to be able to say to outsiders 'We have registration' and show them communities in Ashgabad. But people don't look at what we experience in places away from the capital, where we have no hope of registration. Without freedom to meet for worship it is impossible to claim that we have freedom of religion or belief.

16th November 2009. See article from christianpost.com

About 40 Muslim extremists with machetes and clubs tried to break into a Sunday worship service outside Uganda's capital city of Kampala on Nov. 1, leaving a member of the congregation with several injuries and damaging the church building.

Eyewitnesses said the extremist mob tried to storm into World Possessor's Church International in Namasuba at 11 a.m. as the church worshipped.

The church members were taken by a big surprise, as this happened during worship time, said Pastor Henry Zaake. It began with an unusual noise coming from outside, and soon I saw the bricks falling away one by one. Immediately I knew that it was an attack from the Muslims who had earlier sent signals of an imminent attack.

The pastor said: There was a tug-of-war at the entrance to the church as members tried to thwart the Muslim aggression from making headway inside the church.

A member of the congregation who was taking photos of the worship service – and then the attack – was beaten, sustaining several injuries, church leaders said. He was later taken to a nearby clinic for treatment. During the pandemonium, some church members were able to escape through a rear door. Pastor Umar Mulinde added that nearby residents helped repel the attack.

20th October 2009. See article from sunderlandecho.com

A man is due to appear in court after an incident at a city mosque. Police launched an investigation after petrol was poured over the entrance of the mosque in Chester Road, Sunderland.

Gerald Davies will appear at Sunderland Magistrates' Court charged with attempted arson with attempt to endanger life with racial aggravation.

5th October 2009. See article from manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Up to 20 Muslim graves have been vandalised in a racially motivated attack at a south Manchester cemetery.

Vandals struck at the Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road sometime overnight. Staff arrived at the cemetery to find up to 20 gravestones had been deliberately pushed over, and a number had broken.

The attack is being treated as racially motivated as only Muslim graves were targeted.

 

 

 

29th August 2009. See article from guardian.co.uk

Racist attackers abducted a Muslim community leader at knifepoint, bundled him into a car and threatened his life unless he stopped running prayer sessions in a community hall that has been the target of a British National party campaign.

Police have confirmed they are treating the incident as a hate crime and are investigating links with an earlier firebomb attack on the same man's home.

Noor Ramjanally told the Guardian he had been the victim of a terror campaign which has also involved threats against his family after he began the Islamic prayer sessions in March. He said he fears for his life after the abduction at knifepoint, which happened at his home in Loughton, Essex.

A BNP campaign has been blamed for rising tensions in the area. The party has been leafleting the area warning of Islamification which it says flows from the weekly two-hour prayer session, which it claims is a prelude to a mosque being built.

See article from islamophobia-watch.com

The Glasgow branch of Islamic Relief, a worldwide disaster relief charity and member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), has been badly damaged after being set on fire in the early hours of Thursday morning. Commenting on the incident Habib Malik, Head of Islamic Relief Scotland, said: This is a huge blow for the local community. Not only is this our Scottish HQ but also our leading charity shop in the country, it is a vibrant hub for the community, with volunteers and donors regularly passing through the doors.

Unfortunately, earlier this year, during the time of our Gaza Emergency Appeal we received a number of threats of this nature. We are an apolitical charity; we do not take sides in any conflict and simply act to help alleviate people’s suffering. Unfortunately, due to the fact we have the word ‘Islamic’ in our name; we are often an easy target for certain racist and Islamaphobic groups and individuals.

See article from islamophobia-watch.com

A brave caretaker was hurt as he risked his life to save a mosque torched by arsonists in the second petrol bomb attack in a week.

Mohamed Koheeallee raced to tackle 7ft flames at the Greenwich Islamic Centre in Plumstead Road at 12.15am on Tuesday. Grabbing a bucket of water, he extinguished the fire as it spread inside but when he opened a fire exit, he was engulfed by flames burning his arm and his face. Choking with smoke inhalation and despite his injuries, he carried on dousing the fire until the mosque was safe but when he tried to tackle the source of the blaze he was pushed back by its intensity.

Koheeallee believes the attack was racially motivated

See article from news.bbc.co.uk

An Islamic centre in Bedfordshire has been gutted by fire in what police believe was an arson attack. No-one was injured in the blaze, which started just after midnight at the centre in Bury Park Road, Luton.

A police spokesman said there was considerable damage. and the road was likely to remain closed while forensic

Insp Martin Peters said: It appears an accelerant was used and our immediate priorities include who started this fire and why.

News from Forum 18 March 2009

A Baptist was jailed for 10 days after some 20 officials from various state agencies - including the Presidential Administration - raided a prayer meeting in a registered church.

Officials told church members that they need special permission for any services apart from those on Sundays, though Forum 18 can find no requirement for this in published laws or regulations.

News from Forum 18 March 2009

Uzbekistan imposed harsh prison sentences on 26 February on five writers for the Islamic periodical Irmoq (Spring), Forum 18 News Service has learnt.

The verdicts were: Bakhrom Ibrahimov and Davron Kabilov received 12 year sentences in general regime labour camps; Rovshanbek Vafoyev received a ten year general regime labour camp sentence; and Abdulaziz Dadahonov and Botyrbek Eshkuziyev each received eight year general regime labour camp sentences.

All five were arrested in mid-2008 by the NSS secret police on suspicion of being sponsored by a Turkish radical religious movement Nursi. The Ezgulik human rights society stated that the defendants insisting they had violated no laws. "

  Up to 15 Years for Teaching Religion

News from Forum 18 August 2008

Uzbekistan is continuing its nationwide attacks on religious minorities.

The trial of Aimurat Khayburahmanov, a Protestant detained since 14 June in the north-west of the country, is in progress. He faces a possible sentence of between five and 15 years' imprisonment, and is being tried for teaching religion without official approval and establishing or participating in a "religious extremist" organisation.

In a related case, Jandos Kuandikov, another local Protestant, has been fined for unregistered religious activity. The judge in that case, Bakhtiyor Urumbaev, claimed to Forum 18 that the Immanuel and Full Gospel churches were banned in Uzbekistan. Kuandikov disputes this, pointing out that his church is seeking re-registration.

In a separate case, Navoi police in central Uzbekistan have claimed that the Jehovah's Witnesses are banned in the country. Officials of the state Religious Affairs Committee have neither confirmed nor denied both these claims.

  Razed

22nd June 2009.  See article from compassdirect.org

Police invaded the Sunday service of the Agape Baptist congregation in Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province on June 7 and beat worshippers, including women, and arrested a pastor and an elder.

Christian sources said police put the two church leaders into separate cells, and each man was beaten by a gang of five policemen. Pastor Duong Van Tuan of the house church in Hamlet 3, Ong Dinh Commune, Khoai Chau district said that officers beat them in a way that did not leave marks: hard blows to the stomach.

The beatings came in retaliation for Pastor Tuan refusing to leave the area as police had ordered, Christian sources said. He and the church elder were released later that evening.

  Razed

See article from compassdirect.org. December 2008

Local government officials in Dak Lak Province this morning made good on their threat to destroy a new wooden church building erected in September by Hmong Christians in Cu Hat village.

At 7 a.m. in Cu Dram Commune, Krong Bong district, a large contingent of government officials, police and demolition workers arrived at the site of a Vietnam Good News Mission and Church, razing it by 8:30 a.m. Police wielding electric cattle prods beat back hundreds of distraught Christians who rushed to the site to protect the building.

Five injured people were taken away in an emergency vehicle authorities had brought to the scene. The injured included a child who suffered a broken arm and a pregnant woman who fainted after being poked in the stomach with an electric cattle prod. Villagers said they fear she may miscarry.

  Government vs Hmong Christians

Nov 2008. Based on article from compassdirect.org

In violation of Vietnam’s new religion policy, authorities in Lao Cai Province in Vietnam’s far north are pressuring new Christians among the Hmong minority to recant their faith and to re-establish ancestral altars, according to area church leaders.

When the authorities in Bac Ha district in Vietnam’s Northwest Mountainous Region discovered that villagers had converted to Christianity and discarded their altars, they sent “work teams’ to the area to apply pressure. Earlier this month they sent seven high officials – including Ban Gia Deputy Commune Chief Thao Seo Pao, district Police Chief A. Cuong and district Security Chief A. Son – to try to convince the converts that the government considered becoming a Christian a very serious offense.

Christian leaders in the area said threats included being cut off from any government services. When this failed to deter the new Christians, they said, the officials threatened to drive the Christians from their homes and fields, harm them physically and put them in prison.

27th August 2009. See article from nypost.com, thanks to Alan

Three more Jewish families will leave Yemen for Israel this week, according to a Yemeni rabbi who laments the dwindling of a community unnerved by threats and by the murder of a Jew last year.

A Shiite revolt in the tribal northern mountains and the growth of Sunni Islamist fervor in Yemen have made Jews uncomfortable in a land where they have deep roots.

Only 200 to 300 Jews still live among Yemen's 23 million Muslims, mostly in the north.

Musa said President Ali Abdullah Saleh had looked after the Yemeni Jews. Saleh's government is publicly supportive of the remaining Jews. The Yemeni Jews are citizens. They should have their own life as Yemenis, said Mohammed al-Sadi, the party's assistant secretary-general.

23rd June 2009. See article from timesonline.co.uk

A British engineer kidnapped in Yemen by armed killers was part of an evangelical group that may have been targeted as an act of revenge for its attempts to convert local Muslims to Christianity.

His captors have already killed three women members of the group and abducted a married couple and their three young children.

All the victims were members of Worldwide Services, a Christian relief group based in Holland that has been working at al-Jumhuri hospital in Saada for 30 years.

The kidnapping of foreigners is common in Yemen, where tribes often use them as bargaining counters with the government in local disputes. More than 200 foreigners have been abducted over the past 15 years but only a handful have been killed or injured.

This kidnapping was the first time that hostages were killed straight away and it is a worrisome development, said Christopher Boucek, a Middle East terrorism expert for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

  International Condemnation

19th October 2008 See article from religionblog.dallasnews.com

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is concerned about the status of Baha'i and Christian prisoners in Yemen, who have been imprisoned for months without charge and could face severe punishments.

Some of the Baha'i prisoners could be deported to Iran, where the Iranian government has imprisoned and tortured Baha'is in recent years.

The Christians, who are converts from Islam, could face the death penalty if charged with apostasy. According to sources familiar with the cases, the Baha'is and Christians were detained for sharing their faith.