Please this is wake up call to True Christians to realise that we are in the end of days as stated in the bible. Its

2Ti 3:1  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4  Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.


2Ti 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
2Ti 3:15  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.


A lot of Christians are suffering persecution simply based on speaking the truth about their faith and refusing to be converted to lies. It is high time that we check our own lives and see whether or not we would ready to lay down our lives if we were in the same position like those Christians being persecuted.

It is also high time we see the truth of what is really happening and also see that we are at war with Evil Spirits that are doing everything possible to destroy the souls of men by making sure that the good news is suppressed or prevented from being preached.

At the end of the day however let us know that the spiritual battle for the soul of men as already being won by Jesus Christ hence why the devil is doing everything within its means to make sure that:

1. Men do not hear about the Good New of Christ via the use of force, death threats and suppression of freedom

2. Men are threathen with death or persecution as a means to make them denounce Christ

3. There is an increase in lies and deception (IS"L'AM, EVOLUTION, ATHEISM, AGNOSTISM, HINDUISM, BUDDISM ETC) so as to prevent men from knowing about the loving and saving Grace of God through Jesus Christ.

May God bless, helps to endure and overcome the lies, deciet, persecution and temptations on this our journey as Christians even as we look forward to the second coming of Christ.

The following are examples of how and where Christians have been persecuted. Also attached are links to find out more:

http://www.worthynews.com/christian/nigeria-churches-destroyed-one-killed-after-muslim-marriage-row/

Nigeria Churches Destroyed, One Killed, After Muslim Marriage Row
Added: Feb 13th, 2008 6:06 AM

By BosNewsLife News Center

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)-- A Muslim man's failed attempt to marry a young Christian woman resulted in him accusing her of "blasphemy", triggering violence in the Nigerian town of Yana that left at least one person dead, seven Christians hospitalized and five churches destroyed, a Christian news agency reported Tuesday, February 11.

Compass Direct News, which investigates reports of Christian persecution, said tensions began when Paitence Yusuf was approached at home at the night of February 1 by a young Muslim men. The young man, whose name was not disclosed, asked her to meet him outside and told her he wanted to marry her, the agency said, citing an evangelical pastor. "I beg you in the name of God and his apostle, Muhammad, to please accept me as your boyfriend,” he was overheard saying.

"You are pleading in the name of a person I do not know. Jesus I know, but Muhammad I do not know,” she reportedly answered, rejecting his marriage proposal. Reverend Garba Gaius, pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa congregation to which the young woman belongs, said in published remarks that the man left, only to gather friends and neighbors, to tell them that Yusuf "had blasphemed" Muhammad.

The following morning, the Muslim man allegedly took a group of other Muslims to the house of Yusuf, where they confronted her on the allegation of blasphemy against Muhammad. Sensing that the Muslims intended to kill her, Yufus escaped to the town’s police station, where she was kept in protective custody, Gaius added.

POLICE SURROUNDED

The group went after Yusuf to the police station and demanded that she be released to them to be killed in accordance with sharia [Islamic law] for blasphemy, Gaius claimed. “The police declined to release her, and there and then they attacked the police men on duty and burnt down the police station."

Police defending the station fired into the crowd, killing one man in his 20s. Shortly after, hundreds of Muslims took to the streets armed with guns, machetes, cudgels and clubs, attacking Christians and injuring many of them, the news agency quoted Reverend Gaius as saying.

Five churches, including Gaius’ own church, a Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), an Apostolic Church, a Roman Catholic Church, and a Church of Christ in Nigeria – were destroyed, along with homes belonging to Christians, he added. The number of people reportedly displaced by the violence reached 1,000.

Christian leaders say such problems have become common, with area Muslims allegedly using young Christian women as pretexts for attacking Christians. At the same time, he Gaius said, Muslim officials are increasingly making it difficult for area churches to obtain land.

SON KILLED

News of the attack came just days after a former Muslim in nearby Chad revealed that his child was killed and that he lost his wife because of his faith in Christ. Jeje Nehamiah Baki said he was forced to leave the town of Ngudungudu in December 1995 to meet up with his nomadic family in the wilderness.

His wife had already returned to her parents and their nomadic lifestyle. She was seized by his father-in-law who was upset about him converting from Islam to Christianity, Compass Direct News reported. He allegedly would allow her to go back with him only if Baki renounced his Christian faith. He refused and was forced to leave without his family.

A few years later, he returned to try to convince his father-in-law to allow him to retrieve his wife and children. In the course of this confrontation, his father-in-law killed Bali’s young son on August 18, 2002. “At the end of it all, he murdered my first son, Joshua, by poisoning him," Baki was quoted as saying.

Christians helped him, and last year he enrolled in a four-year diploma program at the Alana Bible College, a theological institution of the Evangelical Church of West Africa in Nigeria's Bache state. Though he has been a fugitive from family threats for more than 11 years for becoming a Christian, Bake said he looks back with joy that he opted to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. "Trials and sufferings should not discourage anyone from following Jesus Christ," Baki told Compass Direct News. "But then, Muslims who have made the decision to follow the true path, Jesus Christ, must remain steadfast." (With reporting from Nigeria).




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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/pakistan-freed-christian-describes-kidnapping-ordeal/

Pakistan: Freed Christian Describes Kidnapping Ordeal
Added: Feb 20th, 2008 4:04 AM

Told to convert or die, doctor’s abduction highlights area’s Islamic extremism.

ISTANBUL (Compass Direct News) -- A Christian doctor described receiving various death threats while kidnapped recently by Islamic extremists in an area of Pakistan reeling from extremist violence.

Militants in parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have forced Christians and moderate Muslims to don Islamist garb, have bombed CD shops for perceived decadence and, in the case of Dr. Reginald Zahiruddin, have attempted forced conversion to Islam.

The extremists released Dr. Zahiruddin on January 2, after kidnapping the Christian 25 days prior and demanding he renounce his faith at gunpoint. Five armed men cut off Dr. Zahiruddin and his driver as they were traveling south from the city of Bannu on December 8, the doctor said in a written account of his kidnapping.

The medical superintendent of Pennell Memorial Christian Hospital in Bannu was on a weekly visit to the city of Dera Ismail Khan, 100 kilometers south (62 miles), to treat 50 poor patients.

“I have worked in this area for about 25 years, and I used to think that because they all know me nothing will happen to me,” the doctor told Compass by telephone from Bannu. His work had often taken him into Waziristan, an area along the Afghan border controlled by pro-Taliban groups.

The Christian’s captors blindfolded him and forced him and his driver into the back of his van, driving three hours before transferring them to the trunk of a station wagon for another hour’s drive. The kidnappers threatened to blow up the van with a suicide jacket and hand grenades if he made any noise.

Upon reaching their destination, Dr. Zahiruddin and his driver were chained and taken to a dark, stuffy room.

“We were provided with very thin bedding which hardly kept [out] the cold, and the metallic chains tied to our ankles never let [our] feet get warm,” the doctor wrote. There the Christians were held for 25 days, freed only twice a day for five minutes to relieve themselves and wash.

During the first week of captivity, a Muslim cleric would come to the room four times a day to talk about Islam and invite the Christian doctor to convert. He would play religious cassettes that taught Islam and called for violent jihad, holy war.

“He would threaten me, saying, ‘We have a jail here and we can do anything to you if you don’t accept Islam,’” Dr. Zahiruddin said. “It was all verbal, not physical.”

On December 15, the doctor and his driver were each blindfolded and taken separately to another room.

“I could hear the whispers of several men and the sound of a video camera,” the doctor said. His captors wanted him to remove his shirt and pants and don shalwar-kameez, traditional Pakistani garb, but he said that he refused.

Upon removing the blindfold, Dr. Zahiruddin said he found himself facing a group of men pointing Kalashnikov guns at him, while another man with a long dagger sat behind him. The men demanded to know why he would not convert to Islam and threatened to slit his throat if he did not.

Later, the men told Dr. Zahiruddin that the main reason for his kidnapping was to force him to convert to Islam.

“I was bold enough to refuse, and I even told them that God has the authority of taking my life as he has given it to me,” the doctor said.

The group’s religious leader eventually ordered his men to stop questioning Dr. Zahiruddin after the Christian asked them if the Quran encouraged non-Muslims to accept the faith through force and threats.

The captors eventually revealed that their second reason for kidnapping the Christian was to get a ransom of 20 million rupees (US$319,000) to buy weapons.

The doctor assured his kidnappers that because he worked for a charitable organization and was not rich, no one would pay that much for him. Dr. Zahiruddin’s captors eventually changed their ransom demands to 1 million rupees US$15,950) and threatened to kill him if their demand were refused.

Surprise Release

But on December 29, the captors entered his room unarmed, apologized for holding him against his will, and requested that Dr. Zahiruddin sign a statement saying that he had not been tortured. The militants explained that the Majlis-e-Shoura, a 10- member leadership council for Islamic militants in Waziristan, had demanded his release.

Four days later, the captors blindfolded Dr. Zahiruddin and his driver and drove them back to Bannu.

After his release, he learned that friends had appealed to militants in the tribal areas for his rescue, citing the doctor’s longstanding humanitarian work as reason for his release. Dr. Zahiruddin said that members of Waziristan’s Majlis-e-Shoura had been notified of his kidnapping on December 10 and had discovered his location by December 25.

Not wanting to create a tense hostage situation that could result in the death of the two Christians, the Islamic leadership council had attempted some form of negotiations for the two men’s release.

“They were afraid that the people who kidnapped us might harm us, or maybe kill us and bury us there,” Dr. Zahiruddin said. “They used some type of tactic, their own traditional connections, to get us. We don’t know who did it.”

Dr. Zahiruddin said that his time in captivity gave him a chance to pray and see God’s provision in a new way. He said that he was surprised that he and his driver did not become sick or get any form of rash despite having worn the same clothes for 25 days.

New Attacks

Dr. Zahiruddin said that his kidnapping was especially hard on his wife and three sons.

Ages 23, 22 and 15, the doctor’s sons posted Internet appeals on their father’s behalf while he was missing. His wife, a dentist, took over running the Bannu hospital in her husband’s absence while working to raise awareness and prayer for him.

The doctor said that once, while chained in the dark room, he had seen what he described as a “vision” of a circle of light containing unfamiliar faces. He said that he felt that God was showing him all of the people around the world who were praying for his safety during his captivity.

Dr. Zahiruddin said that his youngest son had suffered the most from his capture and now refused to let his father out of his sight, quitting his studies in southern Pakistan to be with his parents in Bannu.

Christians in the NWFP and tribal areas have faced new attacks in 2008. On January 17 Sajid Williams, an aid worker with development organization Shelter Now International, was shot to death while leaving work in Peshawar.

In early January, five Christians were kidnapped and released three days later in south Waziristan, where pro-Taliban groups have taken control. According to Union of Catholic Asia News, the group was “mistakenly tortured for being alcohol dealers but later released after the abductors found that they were Christian sweepers.”

As Pakistanis headed to the polls today for parliamentary elections, a proposal to establish Islamic courts in the NWFP remained pending before President Pervez Musharraf.

The bill is seen as a bid to appease Muslim insurgents fighting to bring the area under sharia, Islamic law. Critics have challenged the plan for seemingly rewarding pro-Taliban elements for their armed revolt, which began in Swat last July.


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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/sri-lanka-pastor-shot-dead-over-conversion-wife-injured-child-traumatized/

Sri Lanka Pastor Shot Dead Over Conversion; Wife Injured, Child Traumatized
Added: Feb 25th, 2008 8:39 AM

By BosNewsLife News Center

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (BosNewsLife) -- Gunmen in Sri Lanka shot dead a young Protestant pastor in a contract killing ordered by a husband whose wife converted to Christianity, a major newspaper reported Sunday, February 24, citing a police investigation.

Sri Lanka's The Sunday Times newspaper said 37-year-old Samson Neil Edirisinghe was returning home on his motor cycle in the eastern city of Ampara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the capital Colombo, when he was shot in the back by two assailants, who also critically injured his wife.

Their two-year old son apparently received minor injuries, but was in shock after witnessing the February 17 shooting, Christian sources said. "Pastor Edirisinghe was engaged in the Lord’s ministry in Ampara for many years. The attackers also shot his wife in the stomach [and] at last report, she was in the hospital in critical condition," said the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL).

"Their 2-year-old son who received a minor injury in the attack is also suffering from trauma." Edirisinghe, who was buried Friday, February 22, served as pastor of the evangelical House of the Lord Church. The congregation met at a facility of the local Young Men’s Christian Association, Edirisinghe taught English classes for the British Council organization, Christians said.

CHRISTIAN CONVERSION

The Sunday Times quoted local police as saying that a businessman in Ampara, angered overhis wife's conversion to Christianity, had promised the two gunmen 100,000 Sri Lanka Rupees ($927) for killing the pastor. The suspects, who were soon detained, initially denied the incident, but eventually admitted they received 20,000 rupees (US$186) and were to receive another 80,000 rupees (US$743) if successful.

The businessman's wife, a former Buddhist woman identified only as Peshika, reportedly became a Christian two years ago after struggling through relationship problems with her husband and an attempted suicide. Peshika apparently told town residents that Pastor Edirisinghe had helped her to overcome her depression, while Buddhist monks had failed.

The latest killing underscored concerns over the plight of devoted Christians in Sri Lanka, where several individual believers and church leaders have been killed. Christians are also in the cross-fire amid an ongoing struggle between Sri Lanka's government-backed security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for an independent homeland in the northern and eastern parts of the island nation for over two decades.

SUICIDE ATTACK

On Sunday, February 24, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated his explosives, killing two members of a Tiger breakaway faction, officials said. The bombing occurred in the eastern district of Batticaloa when the bike-riding bomber rammed into a motorbike carrying the two members of the rival group.

In other violence, Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry said three soldiers and more than 40 rebel Tamil Tigers were killed in battles Saturday, February 23, as the government fights to gain control of rebel-held territory in the north.

The ministry reportedly said that the fatal clashes occurred in Wanni and Jaffna areas. Another five rebels and 26 soldiers were allegedly wounded in the fighting, but the casualty figures could not be independently verified. (With reports from Sri Lanka and BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos).

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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/jordan-expels-more-foreign-christians/

Jordan Expels More Foreign Christians
Added: Feb 27th, 2008 8:37 AM

By BosNewsLife News Center

AMMAN, JORDAN (BosNewsLife) -- Jordan has expelled another group of foreign Christians for their alleged involvement in mission activities, including an Egyptian pastor with the Assemblies of God church in the city of Madaba – one of five evangelical denominations registered with the government, a Christian news agency reported Tuesday, February 26.

Compass Direct News said Sadeq Abdel Nour, married to a Jordanian citizen and father of two children, was handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to the port city of Aqaba. From there he was reportedly placed on a ferry to Egypt on February 10.

The previous week an Egyptian pastor from a Baptist church in Zarqa was detained, held for three days, and also returned to Egypt by ship from the port city of Aqaba, the news agency reported. The unidentified pastor, 43, is apparently married to a Jordanian woman and the father of three children.

Another foreign Christian, studying Arabic, left Jordan on February 18 after intelligence police ordered her to exit the country by February 20, Compass Direct News said. Officers allegedly accused the student of studying Arabic to conceal her work evangelizing Muslims, because she attended an Arabic-speaking church.

NO COMMENT

Jordanian authorities were not immediately available for comment, however last week Minister of State for Information and Communication Affairs Nasser Judeh confirmed previous BosNewsLife reports on deportations of at least dozens of other foreign Christians.

He said targeted were preachers coming to Jordan under the "pretext of charitable a and voluntary activities, but who violated the law by undertaking preaching activities." The minister said that under Jordanian law, the government must sanction preaching and any religious activity, whether Christian or Muslim.

Judah did not mention how many people were expelled, but Christian sources estimate that Jordanian authorities deported and refused residence permits to at least 27 expatriate Christians from the United States, South Korean, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq for belonging to evangelical groups in this mainly Muslim nation.

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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/algeria-expels-american-protestant-pastor/


Algeria Expels American Protestant Pastor
Added: Feb 28th, 2008 8:24 AM

By Eric Leijenaar, BosNewsLife Senior Special Correspondent

ALGIERS, ALGERIA (BosNewsLife) -- An elderly American pastor and former chairman of the Protestant Church of Algeria was preparing Thursday, February 28, to launch an appeal against plans by authorities to deport him from the country.

In comments published by an influential Dutch Roman Catholic news Website, RKnieuws.net, Hugh Johnson said he had been told to leave the country by March 11. Johnson, 74, has been living in Algeria for 45 years. Algerian media, monitored by BosNewsLife, quoted Religious Affairs Ministry sources as saying that the was decision to expel the pastor was made after her brought a copy of the Bible's New Testament into the country without permission.

The announced deportation was the latest in a series of incidents involving authorities targeting Christians for their alleged involvement in evangelism or other missionary activities, said Roman Catholic Archbishop of Algiers, Henri Teissier, in published comment.

He said French priest Pierre Wallez was given a suspended one year prison sentence last month for praying with Christians in western Algeria in a place not authorized for religious worship.

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS

Teissier told reporters that increased activity by especially evangelical Christians in the overwhelmingly Muslim country led to periodic "serious difficulties" for Catholics even though the church had clearly explained it was not involved.

"For the last two years, we have serious difficulties made for us by the Algerian administration every two or three months," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. "I think it's due to the fight against the proselytising by evangelical groups."

In addition devoted believers have come under pressure in Kabylia, a cultural region in the north of Algeria, where Christians have been arrested and dismissed from their workplace in recent months, said Netherlands-based Open Doors, a group investigating persecution reports.

DIRECTOR FIRED

Recently the director of a Christian school in Kabylia region was allegedly fired by Algeria's Ministry of Education for his alleged involvement in evangelism. Open Doors researchers quoted the national radio broadcaster as saying that the director "used the school to propagate Christianity, in violation of the study plan of the school."

Earlier in Kabylia, in the town of Tizi Ouzo, five Christians were sentenced for preaching Christianity last year, with some of them receiving one year imprisonment, BosNewsLife
reported earlier, citing Algerian media in September.

In 2006, Algeria passed new religious legislation which says that anyone "trying to call on a Muslim to embrace another religion," could be sentenced to prison for two to five years and receive a fine of up to USD 12,000.

Commentators say the law was in response to Christian evangelists and missionary workers who have preached in several parts of the country. There are some 11,000 Christians in Algeria, a country of 33 million people, according to Catholic estimates. (With reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos).

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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/chad-convert-loses-family-members-for-his-faith/

Chad: Convert Loses Family Members for His Faith
Added: Feb 8th, 2008 3:32 AM

Muslim in-laws seize his wife, kill his young son.

ZALANGA, Nigeria, February 7 (Compass Direct News) -- A little over a year after becoming a Christian in Ngudungudu, Chad in December 1995, Jeje Nehamiah Baki left the town to meet up with his nomadic family in the wilderness.

His wife had already returned to her parents and their nomadic lifestyle, and Baki, a former Muslim and nomadic Fulani of the Bororo dialect in Chad, was looking forward to reuniting with her and their two children. But he said his father-in-law, having learned of his conversion, seized his wife and would allow her to go back with him only if Baki renounced his Christian faith.

“When I returned to take my wife and children away, my father-in-law told me point blank that he would not allow his daughter to stay with me, an infidel,” Baki told Compass. “In spite of all entreaties, my father-in-law refused to allow me to take my wife and children.”

For one year, Baki faced threats from family members to renounce his Christian faith. He refused, moving with them in their lives as nomadic cattle people. For about 30 minutes daily, he said, he would sit under a tree reading the Bible and praying as the cows grazed.

Threatened by his in-laws’ hostilities, Baki eventually left without his family. A few years later, he returned to try to convince his father-in-law to allow him to retrieve his wife and children. In the course of this confrontation, his father-in-law killed Baki’s young son on August 18, 2002.

“At the end of it all, he murdered my first son, Joshua, by poisoning him,” Baki said. “Having lost my first child, and with threats to my life, I had to leave without my wife, but [returning later] only succeeded in taking away our second son.”

Assurance of Divine Presence

Strengthening and protecting his faith during this period of hostility from his in-laws, Baki said, were several dreams in which Jesus Christ appeared to him, assuring him of his presence with him.

Baki’s journey toward Christ did not come without advance warning.

The journey began, he said, after listening to a gospel message on a cassette in the fulfulde (Fulani) language. An evangelist known as Pastor Musa played the tape for him and others at his home one day in December 1995.

“I, my father, one Abakar, and a cousin and brother were at home in the evening,” he said. “The message in the cassette said anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ will not have salvation. I had never heard such a message while I was a Muslim, as in Islam there is no guarantee that one can be saved.”

The message of salvation assurance kept him thinking, he said.

“When I heard this message that night, I decided that I had to accept Jesus Christ as my savior,” he told Compass. “I told Pastor Musa that I had decided to give my life to Christ. He urged me to think about it before I made a decision.”

That night, Baki summoned the courage to tell his father that he wanted to become a Christian. Shocked, his father warned him that he would not be able to withstand the persecution that would follow.

“He told me it was impossible to leave Islam, as that would mean I am committing suicide,” he said. “But I insisted that I must become a Christian. He looked up at me in the face and told me that he would not stop me, but that I should be prepared to face the consequences of my decision.”

Baki said he left his wife and two children and trekked for two days in the wilderness in search of Pastor Musa, who had left their Fulani settlement after playing the Christian message on tape for them. He finally found Pastor Musa in Ngudungudu town.

“I met Pastor Musa at Ngudungudu town, and I told him of my desire to leave Islam and become a Christian,” Baki said. “He led me in prayer to receive Jesus, and I stayed back there with him, listening to Christian messages on cassettes, since I could not read.”

In January 1996 Baki was baptized at the local congregation of Ngudungudu, which he simply calls Eglise Evangeligue (evangelical church).

After hostilities forced him to leave most of his family in Chad in 2002, Baki went back to Pastor Musa, who linked him with a western missionary in his country, Oscillia Geffelle. She took him to a mission station in Chad where he was trained in health basics. While the training helped Baki to treat patients and share the gospel, he had to leave his second son at an orphanage.

The once illiterate nomad who knew no other activity than tending cattle was now a health assistant in a Christian clinic, sharing the gospel with others.

Concerned about Baki’s safety in Chad, though, Geffelle sent him to a Bible school, Ecole Bibligue, in Tibarti, near Yaoundé in Cameroon in 2003. After finishing studies at the Bible school, Baki went to Nigeria in 2006 and spent one year studying the Hausa language.

Last year, he enrolled in a four-year diploma program at the Zalanga Bible College, a theological institution of the Evangelical Church of West Africa in Bauchi state. Zakariya Zwahu, principal of Zalanga Bible College, said Baki is doing well in the school.

Baki said God has been faithful but that he relies on the support of other Christians to remain in school to complete his studies.

Though he has been a fugitive from family threats for more than 11 years for becoming a Christian, Baki said he looks back with joy that he opted receive Jesus.

“Trials and sufferings should not discourage anyone from following Jesus Christ,” Baki told Compass. “But then, Muslims who have made the decision to follow the true path, Jesus Christ, must remain steadfast.”

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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/india-hindu-extremists-attack-christians-in-madhya-pradesh/

India: Hindu Extremists Attack Christians in Madhya Pradesh
Added: Feb 26th, 2008 8:16 AM

Assaults over “conversion” charges leave three Christians severely injured.

INDORE, India (Compass Direct News) -- At least 125 Hindu extremists here yesterday attacked one of the oldest and best-known churches in Madhya Pradesh state, Masihi Mandir Church, brutally beating one of the fleeing members.

The assault followed an attack in Kosmi of the state’s Balaghat district on Friday (February 22) in which a mob of Hindu extremists dragged at least four people from a home where Christians were meeting and beat them with bamboo poles, rods and belts.

In Indore, the mob from the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal arrived at 2:30 p.m. as the third of the church’s four Sunday services was about to begin, forcibly making their way into the church compound angrily shouting slogans.

“They came on Jeeps,” said eyewitness James Daniel, “beating drums and shouting slogans in Hindi, ‘He who talks in favor of only Hindus will rule the nation’ and, ‘Stop conversions.’”

The 15 Christians at the church immediately vacated the building and locked it from outside. The mob broke the windows of the church, shattering all window panes and destroying two expensive chandeliers before to damaging a cross outside.

Daniel told Compass that one of the church members had overheard members of the mob say that if they were able to break the church doors down, they would set it on fire. He added that they were armed with petrol bombs.

The Hindu extremists caught a Christian college student and beat him severely. He has requested anonymity to avoid further troubles.

Police arrived at the scene, preventing the mob from further harming the church property, and arrested four of the fleeing Hindu extremists. The rest escaped.

Some time later, however, when the church service had started, eight people from the same mob returned to attack again. Police, already present, promptly arrested three of them.

Christians filed a First Information Report and charges were filed against the attackers.

Indore, the largest city of Madhya Pradesh, has long seen attacks on churches and Christians. In 2000, Hindu extremists vandalized three churches as a protest against the inauguration of an orphanage run by missionaries. Indore also witnessed attacks on five Franciscan nuns last year in October.

House Attack

In Friday’s attack in Kosmi, four or five Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal entered the home of Najak Ji, where the Jeevan Jyoti Church had organized a Lent meeting.

Shouting “Stop conversions,” the extremists grabbed the collar of Tom George from Kerala, who was speaking, and dragged him out. Sunil Lal from Jeevan Jyoti Ministry, who lives in nearby Barweli, tried to protect George, and the extremists grabbed him also. They dragged them outside, where 15 to 20 people were waiting and severely beat them.

Using bamboo poles, sticks, rods and other weapons, they beat George and Lal as well as Vijay Patle, Aman Sri Nag and a woman named Leela Patle. Lal and George sustained severe internal injuries, with Lal also suffering wounds on his head, ears, cheeks, shoulders, hands, stomach, knees and left leg.

The extremists also reportedly tried to violate the modesty of women present at the meeting.

Bajrang Dal members then took Lal and others to the Navegaon police station and accused them of converting Hindus, as if that were illegal in India, repeatedly saying, “You should not be coming into our area.”

Police took Lal and George to the Budi Government Hospital around 10:30 p.m., where they were treated and released the next morning.

The Bajrang Dal leaders who started the incident were reported as Reagan Tiwari, Chotu Lodhi, Ranjan and Sanju Kawde. A First Information Report was filed today, but no arrests have been made so far.


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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/mexico-authorities-expel-evangelicals-from-homes-reports/

Mexico Authorities Expel Evangelicals From Homes, reports
Added: Feb 25th, 2008 8:38 AM

By BosNewsLife News Center

MEXICO, CITY (BosNewsLife) -- Some 20 evangelical Christians, most of them children in a troubled town of Mexico’s Guerrero State, were homeless Saturday, February 23, after they were reportedly expelled by authorities for their refusal to participate in festivals honoring Catholic saints. Water supplies to eight other Protestant families in Chiapas State were apparently cut off at a time of growing persecution of evangelical Christians in several areas of the country, local believers said.

Indigenous communities often force villagers of other faiths to participate in, and pay for, "traditionalist Catholic" festivals, rights watchers say, in apparent violation of Mexico’s constitution, which guarantee religious freedom. Evangelicals have reportedly refused to support the events dedicated to Catholic saints, describing them as "raucous, drunken festivals."

Compass Direct News, a Christian news service investigating reports of Christian persecution, said angry authorities in the town of Tenango Tepexi on Monday, February 18, removed 20 Christians in three families, including 14 children, from their homes. It quoted unidentified sources as saying that the Christians were temporarily held in town offices, then loaded onto trucks and dumped on the edge of town.

Town leaders supportive of the traditionalist Catholics, who practice a blend of Catholic and native religion, allegedly told them they would be burned to death if they tried to return. There was no immediate independent confirmation of those statements. However in published remarks, Mayor Martiniano Benitez Flores reportedly said that "It is important that they participate in their cooperation [paying fees] to make the festival greater."

NO LEGAL ACTION

He told Compass Direct News that no legal action would be taken against the town for having expelled the believers, and offered to house the refugees “temporarily and provide food” for them until they can find new means of livelihood. They will not receive back their homes and property, the mayor reportedly said. The expelled Christians were identified as Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez, his wife Francisca and seven children, plus Nicolas Gonzalez Perez, his wife Ernestina and six children, and Armando Morales Dircio, his wife Catarina and a 1-year old son.

Pressure is also mounting on Protestant families in Chiapas, in the Santa Rita area of La Trinitaria municipality, where traditionalist Catholics allegedly cut off water and electricity of 40 people from eight evangelical families for their refusal to support festivals. Traditionalist Catholics insisted that the Christians pay not only for the religious festivals but also help fund repairs of a Catholic church building. The families had refused to pay a fee of 10,000 pesos, some $928. The National Bar of Christian Lawyers was quoted as saying that the Christian families have accumulated unpaid fees totaling 40,000 pesos, US$3,711.

In addition in Oaxaca state is still unresolved a case in Santo Domingo Nuxaa, in Nochixtlan region, where town authorities reportedly took over the property of the Divine Redeemer church and are building on it without compensation. Some 300 evangelicals reportedly took part in a human rights forum held in Chiapas state to protest the incidents. Rights watchers have documented nearly 40 cases of alleged religious intolerance are Chiapas, along with 15 others in other parts of Mexico.

EVANGELICAL PRISONERS

The incidents have added to concerns of reported persecution in other areas of society, including the justice system. In December, on the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 45 civilians in Mexico’s Chiapas state, a new study revealed that the killings in Acteal village points toward the innocence of 32 evangelicals and other peasants serving prison terms.

The detailed study by historian Hector Aguilar Camin, published in Mexico’s Nexos magazine, said that “there are tens of innocent people in prison who had nothing directly to do with the fact" of the massacre in the hamlet north of San Cristobal de las Casas.

"For the past decade, the debate about how 21 women (four pregnant), 18 children and six elderly men were killed has revolved around whether the tragedy was a “massacre” by numerous “paramilitary” villagers or resulted from a “confrontation” between a handful of neighboring peasants and Zapatista National Liberation Army rebels," Compass Direct News commented. (With BosNewsLife Monitoring and reports from Mexico).


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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/vietnam-police-kill-degar-christian-prisoner/

Vietnam Police "Kill" Degar Christian Prisoner
Added: Feb 26th, 2008 8:18 AM

By BosNewsLife News Center

HANOI, VIETNAM (BosNewsLife) -- Vietnamese security police tortured and killed a Degar Montagnard Christian who was jailed for allegedly preaching the Gospel in Vietnam's Central Highlands and participating in-democracy rallies in 2004, an advocacy group representing him said Monday, February 25.

The Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI), which represents, predominantly Christian, Degar Montagnards living in the Central Highlands, told BosNewsLife that 41-year- old Kpa Kloh died February 10 "as a result of the severe and repeated torture by the Vietnamese security police" at the Phu Yen Province prison. He leaves behind his wife R’mah H’Ne and six children, MFI said.

The latest torture session happened February 9, but he had been mistreated before, including December 10, last year, MFI alleged. "They beat him on his head with their police batons until blood came out of his ears, nose and mouth and he fell completely unconscious."

Police were apparently angered that he did not die in previous torture sessions, which began soon after he was detained in October 2004 for "preaching the Good News about our Lord Jesus Christ and attending or being involved in the [pro democracy] Easter prayer vigil in April of 2004," MFI said.

THOUSANDS DEMONSTRATE

The devoted Christian was among thousands of Degar Montagnards demonstrating and praying inside the Central Highlands in 2004 for "an end to years of religious persecution [and against] the confiscation of our ancestral lands" and for "political autonomy," MFI said.

Government forces reportedly broke up the prayer vigil and protests, killing as many as dozens of people Degar Montagnards and injuring many more, according to eyewitness testimony obtained by the Human Rights Watch group. Vietnamese authorities have denied the charges, with the Foreign Ministry saying that only two people died and "about a dozen were wounded on both sides".

Hundreds of Degar Montagnards, have since reportedly been detained. Kpa Kloh was among those being singled out for torture, MFI suggested. Since his arrest in 2004,"Vietnamese security police repeatedly tortured him. They beat him, punching him and kicking him with their military boots. They struck him repeatedly with their batons and constantly [gave him electrical' shocks all over his body." He survived severe torture in July 2007, after which security police allegedly "intensified the torture," leading to his eventual death this month.

INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION?

The US-based MFI urged the international community to intervene, saying that "in the United States of America, many people are upset when animals are abused, The indigenous Degar Montagnard people are treated far worse."

Vietnamese authorities have denied large scale religious rights abuses. The US State Department said in 2006 Vietnam no longer qualified for its list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) for egregious religious freedom abuses, a decision criticized by MFI and other advocacy groups. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Vietnam).


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http://www.worthynews.com/christian/hindu-militants-threaten-new-attacks-in-orissa/

Hindu Militants Threaten New Attacks In Orissa
Added: Feb 26th, 2008 8:19 AM

By John Lindner, BosNewsLife Senior Mission Correspondent

NEW DELHI, INDIA (BosNewsLife) -- Hindu militants have threatened to wage fresh attacks against Christians in India’s troubled state of Orissa on Tuesday, February 26, Christian leaders said.

Advocacy group All India Christian Council (AICC) said its Orissa office learned from four local Dalit Christian leaders about the imminent attacks in villages of Kandhamal District, where up to nine people died and many more were injured recent Christmas violence sparked by Hindu groups.

It comes at a time when Hindu leader Lambodar Kuanr, aspires to get political backing from the influential Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in upcoming elections, Christians said. Militants under his control reportedly threatened to attack Balliguda, one of the villages attacked in late December, to obtain unconditional release of all Hindu militants detained following the recent violence.

“If the jailers reject their request, they plan to break their colleagues free by force,” AICC
investigators said. Militants also plan to attack the tribal and Dalit Christians, demanding that that they will become Hindus, leave the village, or be killed, the AICC said.

TRIBAL CHRISTIANS

Dalit and tribal Christians reportedly preparing to flee back to the jungle, where thousands of other believers, including priests and nuns, were hiding in previous weeks in the wake of the December violence.

Tensions have increased following the recent visit of Orissa’s governor who visited allegedly persecuted Christians, upsetting Hindu militants. Eyewitnesses said that soon after the February 8 visit, “Hindu radicals blocked all the roads in Barkhama” area and did not “allow police and government officials to leave” for four hours.

An eye-witness, apparently speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was "total confusion of law and order." Besides Hindus at least three Dalit Christians from Baminigaon area in Orissa were detained by local authorities, apparently under pressure by local Hindus.

MORE VIOLENCE

News of the tensions in Orissa, came shortly after elsewhere in India some 125 Hindu militants reportedly attacked one of the oldest and best-known churches in Madhya Pradesh state, Masihi Mandir Church, Sunday, February 24, beating one of the fleeing members.

The assault followed an attack in Kosmi area of the state Friday, February 22, when a Hindu militants dragged at least four people from a home where Christians were meeting and beat them with bamboo poles, rods and belts, news reports said.

Hindu groups have stepped up their attacks, angered over the spread of Christianity in India, where most people are Hindus, rights groups say. (Read more from John Lindner via www.worldchristianministries.org ).

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)-- A M'uslim man's failed attempt to marry a young Christian woman resulted in him accusing her of "blasphemy", triggering violence in the Nigerian town of Yana that left at least one person dead, seven Christians hospitalized and five churches destroyed, a Christian news agency reported Tuesday, February 11.

Compass Direct News, which investigates reports of Christian persecution, said tensions began when Paitence Yusuf was approached at home at the night of February 1 by a young M'uslim men. The young man, whose name was not disclosed, asked her to meet him outside and told her he wanted to marry her, the agency said, citing an evangelical pastor. "I beg you in the name of God and his apostle, Mo'hammed, to please accept me as your boyfriend,” he was overheard saying.

"You are pleading in the name of a person I do not know. Jesus I know, but M'uslim I do not know,” she reportedly answered, rejecting his marriage proposal. Reverend Garba Gaius, pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa congregation to which the young woman belongs, said in published remarks that the man left, only to gather friends and neighbors, to tell them that Yusuf "had blasphemed" The Great Prophet.

The following morning, the M'uslim man allegedly took a group of other M'uslims to the house of Yusuf, where they confronted her on the allegation of blasphemy against M'uhammed. Sensing that the M'uslims intended to kill her, Yufus escaped to the town’s police station, where she was kept in protective custody, Gaius added.

Hope this story is not true but knowing Northern Nigeria,its not inconceivable.Very sad development

Patience Yusuf?

Anyway what a pitiful story. where's olabowale.

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http://www.worldchristianministries.org/default2.asp?active_page_id=255


Kazakhstan: Religious Freedom Under Attack


February 15, 2008
By By Anneta Vyssotskaia

Kazakhstan is one of the Central Asian countries that were part of the Soviet Union Communist empire and later became independent states.

During the Soviet era the ruling Communist Party imposed so-called scientific atheism on the people's minds using the education system and official propaganda. However, with the collapse of the Communist regime and the Soviet state, freedom of religion came to Kazakhstan among other freedoms. Through the work of numerous missionaries the Good News was accepted by large numbers of people, resulting in the birth and growth of many Protestant churches.

The churches in Kazakhstan continue to grow and the number of converts from both the ethnic and Russian population continues to increase. However, Protestant Christians are still a religious minority in Kazakhstan. Most of the ethnic population historically considers Sunni Islam to be the only true religion for ethnic Kazakhs, while the majority of the Russians living in Kazakhstan relate to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The government wants to keep strict control of all religious life in the country, deciding which religions are suitable for Kazakhstan and which are not. There is a growing intolerance of Protestant Christians and some Muslim groups as well as other religious bodies, mainly Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna. During 2007 the authorities started to put greater restrictions on the activities of such organizations, with 43 people of various religions charged with illegal missionary activities.

In August 2007 Grace Presbyterian Church in Karaganda, a large church in Kazakhstan with 2500 members, was raided by National Security Committee secret police for 15 hours. While initial accusations of treason against the pastor and three other church leaders were dropped, in the following months other Grace churches in Kazakhstan were investigated and several were threatened with closure. On 25 & 26 January the 5000-member Grace Presbyterian Church in Almaty, one of the largest churches in the country, was raided by secret police for 17 hours.
Intend to close 300 evangelical churches

As Forum 18 reports, a Grace Church representative said all this was aimed at closing down the approximately 300 Grace churches in Kazakhstan. They are now being scrutinized by state agencies such as the Financial Police, Justice Department and National Security. Although the investigation is still under way, there have already been several negative media reports. One of these, "Deceptive Grace," accused church members of spying, possessing drugs and stealing church members' property.

While Kazakhstan's official policy had been to set an example of tolerance towards all peaceful religions, President Nazarbayev, speaking at the Nur Otan party's council meeting on 17 January, attacked missionary activities in the country. He said: "We are a secular state and have no official religion. However, it does not mean that Kazakhstan should become a dumping ground for religious movements of all kinds." In his opinion the existing religious law needed to be strengthened, especially regarding religious extremism.

"Thousands of missionary organizations are functioning in Kazakhstan. We are unaware of their goals. We must curtail their unlimited freedom, as this country does not need it." The next day, participants at the round table, "Impact of Non-traditional Religions on Youth," expressed their concerns about the growth of "violations of the law" by non-traditional religious bodies.

After such statements from Kazakhstan's head of state, there will most likely be more persecution of religious organizations not approved by the government, including many Protestant churches, and especially those having links with foreign missionary groups. There is an urgent need to pray for the situation in the country, as it may deteriorate very quickly.


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@D_reloaded:

Patience Yusuf?

Anyway what a pitiful story. where's olabowale.

Sisi mi. Am here. If the story is true that you invited me to comment on, then the Mus'lim man at best has no understanding of is'lam. First, the process of Marriage in Is'lam does not include boyfriend/girlfriend. This man was described as a young man, he must have family members, at least one that he could ask to approach the woman to ask her if she will be interested him marrying him. It is after this that he would ask her that his family will like to talk to her guardian. Even as old as I am now, I would never tel to be my girlfriend and after her acceptance of marriage proposal, I have to talk to a male person in her life. But her dowry and other things like that will be between me and her.

Further there is no force marriage. And no woman should be forced against her will. You can not change a person's heart from what the heart wants. Just because people say that they are Mus'lims does not mean that they know the basic thing about Is'lam. look at Babangida who called himself Evil genius! No mus'lim should have shaitan or shayatin as part of his/her name! Is this unrest a tribal or cultural thing, yet the religion of is'lam is stigmatised by it?

Unfortunately, every time there was problem people of different faith, it is assumed that it has to be religious. Thats not how I see!

@SysUser: Se Ibadan lowa? Are you an Ibadan man? I wonder how you have been able to survive in Ibadan, which is clearly a Muslim city, yet you are a Christian? You must be hiding your head from the Oke Mapo people!

olabowale:

@D_reloaded:
Unfortunately, every time there was problem people of different faith, it is assumed that it has to be religious. Thats not how I see!

when a crazy Christian does something terrible, everyone assumed it is the actions of a mad man. When a mad Muslim does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Isl'am. .

sysuser

you have so many information against I.slam. but this one will wake up your mind THAT YOU BROTHER HITLER ARE THE WORST AND MURDEROUS IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. Still no musl.im can break up the record of your BRother Christian HITLER. You might be one of them soon. and just inform if some one can take her place,

Have you read the book "Jesus Freaks"? Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Freaks_(book)

Ask any Liberian, Sierra lone and Ivorian the greatest Christian butcher in Africa.

MC Usman:

Ask any Liberian, Sierra lone and Ivorian the greatest Christian butcher in Africa.

apparently you havent heard of Idi Amin who was mus-lim, anyone is capable of evil things, their religion should not be taken into account.

SysUser:

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http://www.worldchristianministries.org/default2.asp?active_page_id=255


Kazakhstan: Religious Freedom Under Attack


February 15, 2008
By By Anneta Vyssotskaia

Kazakhstan is one of the Central Asian countries that were part of the Soviet Union Communist empire and later became independent states.

During the Soviet era the ruling Communist Party imposed so-called scientific atheism on the people's minds using the education system and official propaganda. However, with the collapse of the Communist regime and the Soviet state, freedom of religion came to Kazakhstan among other freedoms. Through the work of numerous missionaries the Good News was accepted by large numbers of people, resulting in the birth and growth of many Protestant churches.

The churches in Kazakhstan continue to grow and the number of converts from both the ethnic and Russian population continues to increase. However, Protestant Christians are still a religious minority in Kazakhstan. Most of the ethnic population historically considers Sunni The Great Religion to be the only true religion for ethnic Kazakhs, while the majority of the Russians living in Kazakhstan relate to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The government wants to keep strict control of all religious life in the country, deciding which religions are suitable for Kazakhstan and which are not. There is a growing intolerance of Protestant Christians and some Great One groups as well as other religious bodies, mainly Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna. During 2007 the authorities started to put greater restrictions on the activities of such organizations, with 43 people of various religions charged with illegal missionary activities.

In August 2007 Grace Presbyterian Church in Karaganda, a large church in Kazakhstan with 2500 members, was raided by National Security Committee secret police for 15 hours. While initial accusations of treason against the pastor and three other church leaders were dropped, in the following months other Grace churches in Kazakhstan were investigated and several were threatened with closure. On 25 & 26 January the 5000-member Grace Presbyterian Church in Almaty, one of the largest churches in the country, was raided by secret police for 17 hours.
Intend to close 300 evangelical churches

As Forum 18 reports, a Grace Church representative said all this was aimed at closing down the approximately 300 Grace churches in Kazakhstan. They are now being scrutinized by state agencies such as the Financial Police, Justice Department and National Security. Although the investigation is still under way, there have already been several negative media reports. One of these, "Deceptive Grace," accused church members of spying, possessing drugs and stealing church members' property.

While Kazakhstan's official policy had been to set an example of tolerance towards all peaceful religions, President Nazarbayev, speaking at the Nur Otan party's council meeting on 17 January, attacked missionary activities in the country. He said: "We are a secular state and have no official religion. However, it does not mean that Kazakhstan should become a dumping ground for religious movements of all kinds." In his opinion the existing religious law needed to be strengthened, especially regarding religious extremism.

"Thousands of missionary organizations are functioning in Kazakhstan. We are unaware of their goals. We must curtail their unlimited freedom, as this country does not need it." The next day, participants at the round table, "Impact of Non-traditional Religions on Youth," expressed their concerns about the growth of "violations of the law" by non-traditional religious bodies.

After such statements from Kazakhstan's head of state, there will most likely be more persecution of religious organizations not approved by the government, including many Protestant churches, and especially those having links with foreign missionary groups. There is an urgent need to pray for the situation in the country, as it may deteriorate very quickly.


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I take it you haven't heard of the crusades? or the labeling of innocent girls "witches"? I'm pretty sure people of that era, considered their time "The last days", Labeling of witches continues in Nigeria to this day, fraud committed by pastors, should the fact that they are Christian be taken into account?

Don't give yourself headaches JayFK mmmhh, the bible already tells us that false prophets would arise, your testament on the issue of  pastors committing fraud and all only proves the bible right again.

This is unbelievable.
A young man rather than straighten out his wooing skills or accept rejection as a man cries "mo'hammmed" when turned down and his brethren start burning down Churches?
When would these almajiri's let people be ?

Why can't the Muslim man seek love from his hijabed "sisters"
or even his first cousins?
These people look for any avenue to unleash mayhem on Christians.

JayFK:

I take it you haven't heard of the crusades?

We are talking today you're talking 1500 AD
When will you move out of stone age reasoning?
you might as well ask them to capture Miss Yusuf as a war booty (like Mo did)

MC Usman:

when a crazy Christian does something terrible, everyone assumed it is the actions of a mad man. When a mad Great One does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Isl'am. .

If it's an action that mo'hammed did like

killing innocent people

sleeping and thighing underaged girls,

capturing and sleeping with innocent women after butchering their husbands

pillaging and looting innocent Jewish tribes

killing poets and people who wrote satires of him

advocating cutting down and killing non Mu'slims

breaking treaties and lying through his teeth

slicing throats

stoning women even those who asked for mercy

ambushing and killing the elderly

and shouting all'ahu akbar like our modern day terrorists while causing these mayhem.

It is not just a madman doing it
Is'lam and Mo are his examples.

nwando:

We are talking today you're talking 1500 AD
When will you move out of stone age reasoning?
you might as well ask them to capture Miss Yusuf as a war booty (like Mo did)

I notice you're selective in choosing what to comment on. Nonetheless my point remains the same

All three Abrahamic religions have committed atrocities in the name of their "God" so none of you have the right to judge the other.

The pope absolved the sins of those who killed innocents in the name of their Lord
Mus'lims, does Usman dan fodio ring a bell?
Jews, they just claim their Lord gave them the right to take Canaan because the inhabitants didn't worship him

JayFK:

I notice you're selective in choosing what to comment on. Nonetheless my point remains the same

All three Abrahamic religions have committed atrocities in the name of their "God" so none of you have the right to judge the other.

The pope absolved the sins of those who killed innocents in the name of their Lord
Mus'lims, does Usman dan fodio ring a bell?
Jews, they just claim their Lord gave them the right to take Canaan because the inhabitants didn't worship him

Thats where you people continue to miss it. The pope is not a representative of Christ. We have since made that clear he is in league with the devil. Catholicism is not biblical Christianity. Let that sink in my guy.

Another information about persecution of christian, it only shows that the Devil is getting desperate!





http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&length=long&lang=en&idelement=4800



NIGERIA: MUSLIMS KIDNAP, CONVERT CHRISTIAN CHILDREN
Abduction of boys and girls by Islamists in northern state increasingly common.

SOKOTO, Nigeria, March 14 (Compass Direct News) – Beginning in November of last year, 13-year-old Victor Udo Usen, a member of the Christ Apostolic Church in this northern Nigeria city, went missing.

On February 20, news that young Victor was spotted in a Muslim neighbor’s house jolted his family. A young Christian girl had raced to the Usens’ home in the Mabera area of Sokoto city with the news.

Victor’s mother, Esther Udo Usen, told Compass that she ran to the house where her son had been seen. She met him, however, even as he was making frantic efforts to escape from the house where he has been held incommunicado for six months.

“I quickly held his hands and dragged him along with me towards our house,” she said. “But within a twinkle of an eye, I heard shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar [God is great]!’ I was shocked as I saw a large number of Muslims rushing towards us.”

The mob surrounded them and snatched her son away from her, she told Compass with tears in her eyes. Before she could send for her husband, who was not home at the time, members of the mob told her that her son was now a Muslim and that she and her husband were no longer his parents.

“They abducted him in November last year, and I only saw him today,” she told Compass. “How can someone force my son into his religion?”

Victor’s father, Udo Usen, told Compass that when he received the distressed call from his wife, he rushed home only to discover that the boy had been abducted anew.


Victor with his family
“I thought, ‘If I force myself into the house of that Muslim to get my son, I will not only be placing the lives of my family at risk but also creating room for them to attack other Christians in Sokoto,’” Usen said.

Instead, Usen contacted his pastor, and together they reported the matter to other Christian leaders – as well as to police and the state security service.

“The police told us that they cannot do anything at the moment until the Sultan of Sokoto, the leader of Muslims in Nigeria, returns from his trip,” he said. “They have held this boy for six months without our consent. They have forced him into Islam. How can they do this to a 13-year-old child?”

Kidnapped and Converted

Esther Thomas Tambari, a Christian neighbor of the Usens, corroborated the facts of the abduction to Compass. “The Muslims, we learned, have changed Victor’s name to Abdulkarim,” she said.


Tambari said the Muslims had also threatened her son, Simon Thomas Tambari, several times.

“When the Usens had their son abducted, as a Christian I had concern for them and decided to help in any way I can to enable them to find their son,” Tambari said. “I took Victor’s mother to my pastor, who in turn asked her to report the matter to the police. Now the Muslims are after my son, Simon, and me. My landlady, who happens to be a Muslim, has threatened me with ejection from her house, and my son’s life is at stake.”

The Usens are not the only Christian family in Sokoto who have had one of their children abducted and forced into Islam; Christian leaders there say abduction of teenage Christian boys and girls has become a common phenomenon in majority-Muslim Sokoto state.

“Sometimes Muslims force our young boys and girls into Islam,” said Kevin Aje, Roman Catholic Bishop of Sokoto. “These are some of the challenges facing Christians here in Sokoto.”

The Rev. Reuben Yaro, chairman of the Sokoto district of the Evangelical Church of West Africa, has received reports of child abduction. In one case, Muslims forcefully took away a son and a daughter from a family in his church because the mother was a convert from Islam, he said.

“She gave her life to Christ, eventually got married to a Christian man and the marriage was blessed with the two kids,” Yaro said. But intense persecution followed, he said, with Muslims abducting the children and placing them in the custody of a Muslim cleric.

“The two children have been forced into Islam and are receiving Islamic education,” he said.

The Islamists also seized the mother of the two children – her fate is unknown – and forced the father to leave Sokoto in order to save his life, Yaro said.

Yaro said he has reported another case of kidnapping and forced conversion to the Christian Association of Nigeria, Sokoto state chapter, which is investigating it.

Pastor Tayo Atiniku, Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Sokoto state chapter, also corroborated claims of abductions of teenage Christian boys and girls in Sokoto. He cited two examples.

“Grace, a girl, 17 years old, was three years ago abducted by the Muslims here,” Atiniku said. “Her parents are members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God here in Sokoto, and her whereabouts are still unknown.”

Another Christian girl, daughter of a Christian police officer in Talata Mafara town, also was recently abducted, forced into Islam and married off to a Muslim man without the consent of her parents, he said.

“It took the father the use of a gun for him to rescue her from these Muslims,” Atiniku added.

Christian leaders are worried that the kidnapping trend is on the increase, creating tensions between Muslims and Christians.

The Nigerian government, they concur, knows of the abductions but has done nothing to protect Christian children from religious predators.

*** Photos of the Victor Udo Usen and his family, Rev. Reuben Yaro, Pastor Tayo Atiniku and Bishop Kevin Aje are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

Another information about persecution of christian, it only shows that the Devil is getting desperate!





http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&length=long&lang=en&idelement=5237



NIGERIA: ONE DEAD, TWO INJURED IN ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS
Muslim youths use machetes on students, set aflame police station, over ‘blasphemy’ claim.


Attacked student Ahmadu Inuwa
SUMAILA, Nigeria, February 13 (Compass Direct News) – A policeman was killed and two Christian teenagers were injured in this town in Kano state on Friday (February when Muslim high school students went on a rampage over claims that a Christian student had written a “blasphemous” article on the prophet of Islam, Muhammad.

Killed at the local police station after the attack on students at Government Secondary School-Sumaila, was Inspector Jibrin Garba, also a Christian.

One of the injured minors who suffered knife and machete wounds, Ahmadu Inuwa, said the accused Christian student, Ashiru Danlami, could not possibly have written the alleged English-language article as he could hardly speak in English, much less write in the language. Inuwa said school authorities had established this fact.

The Rev. Samaila Kogo of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), from Sumaila, told Compass his investigations showed that Muslim students wrote and published the blasphemous article as a pretext for attacking Christian students. This strategy, he said, is used in schools across northern Nigeria to force Christian students out of schools.

“The school authority investigated the claims of Muslim students and found that Danlami was actually not guilty of the accusations leveled against him, but because of the desire of the school authority to maintain peace they sent Danlami away from the school just to please the Muslim students,” Kogo told Compass.

Rev. Kogo said that Danlami had been suspended from school in an attempt to defuse the planned attack of Christian students, but it was not aborted. Rather, he said, the plan received the backing of area Muslims.

“In spite of the suspension of Danlami from school, the plan to attack Christian students there went on, and this forced all these Christian students to flee from the school,” Rev. Kogo said. “It was at this point that the school authority and the police met and decided that the Christian students be called back to school with an assurance that nothing would happen to them.”

Nevertheless, only two of the 57 Christian students who had fled threats dared to return to the school, he said. Inuwa and Isiaku Dogo – final-year students with only a few months to graduate – felt they needed to be in class to prepare for finals. Muslim students assaulted them with knives and machetes.

Having injured the two Christian students, Christian sources said, the Muslim students went directly to the town’s police station, where they killed the Christian police officer and burned down the police station. Inuwa was receiving treatment in Kano city, while Dogo was being treated in his home village of Gani town.

The incident was the second instance of Muslim violence in the area in less than three months. During local council elections in the state last November, Muslims attacked Christians in Gani town in the Sumaila Local Government Council area, killing one person because a Christian candidate contested councillorship elections for the first time.

Victim Admonished

The Rev. Murtala Marti Dangora, Kano state secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass that the police divisional officer (DPO) of Sumaila had told CAN that the police had advised the school to suspend Danlami as a pre-emptive measure knowing that he had not written the “blasphemous” article.

“The DPO told us that he advised that the Christian student be suspended from the school for security reasons, but not that the student actually committed the crime of blasphemy,” Rev. Dangora said. “The DPO said this was to curtail the desire to use it as an excuse to attack other Christian students.”

School authorities had established that Muslim students were responsible for writing the article so that they could justify attacking Christian students, he said. Consequently, Principal Alhaji Shehu Umar on Thursday (February 7) addressed Muslim students, urging them to learn to live in peace with Christian students.

This was not taken kindly by the Muslim students, Rev. Dangora said, as they suspected Umar was trying to douse their plan to attack Christian students.

Pressure to indefinitely suspend Danlami, according to his classmate Inuwa, initially came from school and town Muslims to punish the student even after school authorities had established his innocence. The letter suspending Danlami from school, addressed to his parents, does not indicate the real motive of defusing tensions with Muslims.

“This is to write and refer to the above subject matter in respect of your ward Ashiru Danlami for indefinite suspension for violating the school rules and regulations after serving him with series of warnings,” states the letter obtained by Compass. “He is to be accompanied by his parents/ guardian for further discussions on the date stated above unfailingly.”

The letter does not state what date Danlami’s parents are to accompany him to the school for discussions. It is signed by the school’s vice principal on behalf of a disciplinary committee.

Strategy to Deprive Education

Rev. Dangora concurred with Rev. Kogo that it is no longer a secret that charging students with “blasphemy” of Muhammad has become a common ploy by Muslim students and their Islamist backers in northern Nigeria in order to shut out Christians from public schools. He cited attacks on Christian students in various schools in the state.

“This same story was used in Government Secondary School-Gwarzo, where Christian students were attacked and forced out of school in October last year,” Rev. Dangora said. “It was also used at the Government Secondary School-Kura, three years back, and also in Government College-Tudun Wada Dankadai last year, and now the same story is being peddled in Government Secondary School-Sumaila.”

He said there are no more Christian students in these schools. “There is no doubt that this is a strategy being used by the Kano State government to keep children of Christians away from public school,” Rev. Dangora added.

Rev. Dangora said the ploy to keep Christian students out of schools would hurt Christians in the state as many of them are poor and cannot afford to educate their children in private educational institutions. He called on the Nigerian government to save Christian students from becoming endangered and being denied education that is important to their well-being.

END

*** Photos of the injured Ahmadu Inuwa, the Rev. Samaila Kogo and the Rev. Murtala Marti Dangora are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

Another information about persecution of christian, it only shows that the Devil is getting desperate!




http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&length=long&lang=en&idelement=5205



EGYPT: TEMPERS FLARE INTO MELEE AT CONVERT’S HEARING
Upcoming ruling to set legal precedent for freedom to change religious affiliation.


ISTANBUL, January 25 (Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian judge is scheduled to rule next week on the case of a Muslim-born convert to Christianity whose court hearing threatened to turn into a brawl earlier this month, the convert’s lawyer said.


Next Tuesday (January 29) Judge Muhammad Husseini is expected to decide whether to allow former Muslim Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy to drop his case to change his religious affiliation in order to correct certain legal mistakes, lawyer Gamal Eid said.


The conservative judge also is expected to rule on a range of religious freedom issues, according to Eid. Among other things, Husseini will decide on a case by Islamists to force the government to implement a legal punishment for “apostasy,” or conversion away from Islam.


Hegazy has aroused widespread criticism in Egypt as the first known Muslim-born convert to Christianity to petition the government to change his religious affiliation.


The convert’s January 15 hearing, which he did not attend due to death threats, became heated after Islamist lawyers charged the government with doing too little to stop Christian evangelization. One lawyer told the court that Christian priests in every Egyptian city were baptizing Muslims and paying each convert 100,000 Egyptian pounds (US$18,212).


Led by Wahid el-Wahsh, the Islamists filed a complaint with judge Muhammad el-Shazly against the government and Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, Egypt’s top religious authority. The lawyers demanded that authorities outlaw “apostasy,” based on Article 2 of Egypt’s constitution, which designates Islamic law as the basis of Egyptian legislation.


In July, top Al-Azhar cleric Ali Gomaa made a controversial statement that “apostasy” only merited punishment in the afterlife. He later clarified that “apostates” could be punished on earth if they were “actively engaged in the subversion of society.”


Many mainstream Egyptian interpretations of Islamic law dictate that “apostasy” warrants death.


Tensions mounted when Christian human rights lawyer Naguib Gabriel requested to join the case to fight against the Islamists’ demands that “apostasy” be outlawed. He told Compass that he was not planning to represent Hegazy, but rather to join the side of the government to fight for freedom of religion.


The hearing was cut short when at least 15 Islamist lawyers tried to attack Hegazy’s attorneys. The convert’s representatives escaped the courtroom unharmed, but the trial was postponed to the following week.


“They were shouting at Rawda [Ahmad] and tried to beat the other lawyer [Adel Rafie],” Eid said. “They were very angry because they think this kind of case is against Islam.”


Eid said that his organization, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), had decided not to lodge an official complaint against the rowdy lawyers, fearing that it would play into their attempts to grab media attention.


“Some of them are Islamists, and some of them are just looking for fame,” Eid said.


Appeal to Drop Case

At the following hearing on Tuesday (January 22), Eid requested that Hegazy’s case be dropped because of technical mistakes made by the convert’s previous lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhla. Nakhla withdrew as Hegazy’s attorney just days after filing the case in August because of death threats from Islamists and Egypt’s security police.


Eid said that dropping the case would give his client time to file a request with Egypt’s Civil Status Department to change his religious affiliation. Once refused, the convert would then have evidence with which to pursue his case against the Egyptian government.


Following Eid’s request, a lawyer representing the government against Hegazy also agreed to allow the case to drop, prompting Husseini to promise a decision by next Tuesday (January 29).


Eid said that the hearing last Tuesday (January 22) was relatively peaceful, though El-Badyl newspaper reported the following day that Islamist lawyer Nabih el-Wahsh had again raised the issue of Christians evangelizing Muslims.


“[El-Wahsh] presented a file to the judges including a list of names and locations for what he called the ‘mafia of evangelizing and baptizing’ in Egypt,” the article stated.


Converting for Non-Religious Reasons

Another group potentially affected by Husseini’s upcoming ruling may be Christians who have become Muslims and then wish to return to their original faith.


Between 2004 and April 2007, 32 such converts had won the right to re-convert. For many of them the move to Islam had been motivated by the desire to obtain a divorce, remarry, or marry a Muslim.


Egyptian Christian family law forbids divorce and remarriage, while Islamic law bans marriage between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.


Such “re-conversions” were brought to a halt in April 2007, when Husseini ruled against another 45 converts to Islam who were seeking to return to Christianity. The outcome of their appeal is still uncertain.


A new ruling from Egypt’s religious body may influence Husseini’s upcoming verdict. Al Azhar issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for tough penalties against people who convert to Islam for non-religious reasons, according to a January 20 news report.


News website AlArabiya.net reported that the fatwa condemned the practice of re-converting after converting to Islam and that offenders should be punished according to Islamic law. It did not specify a penalty.


In hiding since his case began in August, Hegazy and his wife Zeinab gave birth to a baby girl on January 10. The convert’s main motivation for changing his religious affiliation was the upcoming birth of his daughter. Under current Egyptian law, unless Hegazy can change his religious affiliation, his daughter would be forced to attend Islamic religion classes and marry a Muslim man.


END


*** Photographs of Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, Gamal Eid and angry attorneys at the hearing are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

The fruits of a Devil who is getting desperate!




http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&length=long&lang=en&idelement=5238




Friday February 15, 2008
GAZA STRIP: MURDER OF GAZA CHRISTIAN UNRESOLVED AS THREATS CONTINUE
Widow of Rami Ayyad gives birth in Gaza hospital.


Pauline Ayyad and Sama
BETHLEHEM, February 15 (Compass Direct News) – Palestinian Christian widow Pauline Ayyad gave birth in Gaza last week to a healthy little girl, four months after the tiny infant’s father was kidnapped and shot to death by Islamist radicals still at large.

Rami Ayyad, 29, was serving as manager of the Palestinian Bible Society bookshop in Gaza when he was found murdered on October 7 last year.

Ayyad’s family has yet to receive any concrete information on the investigation that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh ordered vowing to bring the Christian’s murderers to justice.

“At the beginning, the Hamas authorities told us they had found the car Rami was taken in, and also the people who were in the car with him,” Pauline Ayyad told Compass. “They said they hadn’t captured the driver yet, but they knew his name. And we heard that the murderer had confessed, and the case was being taken to the National Internal Security officials.”

But the widow said that a week later, “We started to hear all kinds of contradictions. They claimed they hadn’t captured anyone, and that they just had suspicions to go on.”

Several weeks later, security officials within Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization accused Ashraf Abu Layla of being behind Ayyad’s assassination. Abu Layla is the central Gaza chief of Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the so-called “military wing” of Hamas dedicated to enforcing Islamic law in the Strip.

Other rumors circulated that that the murderer was indeed a Hamas operative who was jailed for three weeks, and then shipped off in exile to Saudi Arabia.

“Who knows?” admitted one Palestinian Christian. “Gaza has no courts, no lawyers, no prosecutors, no proper detention centers. We hear lots of rumors. But it’s hard to believe that Hamas does not know who killed Rami.”

His widow was clear that she wants to know the facts.

“It is very important to me for them to discover these people, to learn who they are and why they killed him,” she said. “I want to know what happened in those hours, from 4 in the afternoon when they kidnapped him until his body was found on the street at 2 the next morning.”

She added, “We don’t want compensation. We want to know the details.”

Evacuated Staff in Limbo

After Ayyad’s murder, Hamas authorities admitted they could not guarantee the safety of local Bible Society staff and their families, who were continuing to receive threats. So when Israeli authorities eventually issued them permits to leave Gaza temporarily, seven of the families evacuated to the West Bank.

Two of the families have identity papers allowing them to move freely around the West Bank and into Jerusalem, but the others are restricted to the city limits of Bethlehem. And they must apply to renew their temporary Israeli permits every few weeks.


Rami Ayyad
Arriving with just a few suitcases of clothes, the families rented sparsely furnished apartments in Bethlehem. In the meantime, they are exploring their options if indeed it remains unsafe to return to Gaza. And they continue to receive trauma counseling as they wrestle with Ayyad’s death and their own uncertain futures.

All but one of the 14 children of these seven families are 4 years old or younger.

“Our children are missing their own homes and toys, but even more their grandparents and our extended families,” admitted one staff member father. “We were all born and raised in Gaza,” one Bible Society staff member told Compass. “But now we have to be so careful if we stay there, just to protect our lives.”

He added that his wife is pregnant. “So if the baby would come during the night, we would have to have an armed guard to escort us to the hospital!” he said. “It’s no life to just stay locked in our homes all the time. So we preferred to leave for now.”

Despite his more secure and comfortable life in the West Bank, he admitted he greatly missed the busy challenges of active ministry in his work and church back in Gaza.

“My father helped me and my brothers build our homes adjacent to each other, so we could all be close together,” he said. “But now he cries when he calls me, telling us not to come back to Gaza.”

“We feel real pressures now between the Muslims and Christians in Gaza,” another evacuated staffer said. “Many of the Muslims believe that Rami was evangelizing people so it was OK to kill him.”

Late the night before, he said, he had received a telephone call from a Christian family in Gaza, saying that one of their children had just answered the intercom when it buzzed from downstairs at the street level.

“Two people spoke over the intercom, telling the child they were going to kill his father,” he said.

Although the family called the police who posted guards outside the house, they were unable to sleep for the rest of the night, he said.

“The time for paying the ultimate price in Gaza is now,” Palestinian Bible Society director Labib Madanat told Compass. “God saw the Palestinian Bible Society worthy to bear this trial and honor, the martyrdom of our brother Rami.”

Gesturing to large posters of the slain Palestinian Christian posted at the entrance and on the walls of the Bible Society’s Jerusalem office, Madanat said, “He was not a victim. He was a hero.”

Ayyad’s widow is also a hero, Madanat added. “She would like to stay and continue Rami’s ministry there in Gaza,” he said.

But that is becoming more and more difficult, as dramatized by today’s vicious attack against still another Christian institution in Gaza.

In the wee hours this morning, 14 masked gunmen bombed the YMCA library, destroying thousands of books and briefly kidnapping two security guards. A second explosive planted in the compound’s administrative offices failed to detonate.

Hamas police officials have declined comment on the incident, and so far no group has claimed responsibility.

Birth of Sama

Pauline Ayyad named her new daughter Sama (meaning “heaven” in Arabic), “because her father is in heaven,” Ayyad explained to Compass. The couple already had two young sons – George, who will be 3 in March, and Wissam, 14 months.


Pauline Ayyad and her children
Weighing in at just four pounds (1.8 kilos) on the morning of February 4, little Sama was kept in an incubator for her first 48 hours, after which she and her mother were released from the hospital.

Ayyad and her sons had been allowed by Israeli authorities, who still control the Gaza Strip’s borders and supplies, to leave the Hamas-ruled territory and stay in Bethlehem from mid-November through December. Then she returned to Gaza after Christmas to live near her parents during the baby’s delivery, which was expected to require a caesarean section.

But Gaza’s unstable situation deteriorated even further in mid-January, when Israel cut off electricity supplies into the Strip in reaction to Palestinian missile launchings into Israel. With local hospitals unable to guarantee electricity or other basic supplies, the widow applied for an exit permit to return to the West Bank for the baby’s birth.

But the Israeli government denied her request. In the end, baby Sama arrived a week earlier than expected, and a local maternity hospital was equipped with necessary supplies for her natural birth.

Fellow Christians outside Gaza are hoping to visit the Ayyad family regularly to bring in unavailable items such as milk powder and even candles, with the sporadic availability of electricity.

END

SIDEBAR

Ayyad Inspired by Malatya Martyrs in Turkey

When news came to Gaza of the Turkish massacre of three Christians in Malatya on April 18 of last year, Palestinian Bible Society director Labib Madanat was visiting Rami Ayyad and his bookshop staff in Gaza City.

The three Christians in Turkey, two Turkish converts from Islam and their German colleague, were tortured for several hours in the office of a Christian publishing company and then killed with butcher knives by five young Turkish Muslims who accused them of “attacking our religion.”

After the Gaza bookshop staff stopped and prayed together for the bereaved families in Malatya and all the churches of Turkey, Ayyad spoke out to his colleagues.

“Rami just looked at us and said, ‘What a glory to God this was, how they died for Jesus!’ Madanat recalled. “Then he said, ‘I wish I could die that way, such a noble death.’”

Some four months later, Madanat said, Ayyad was deeply saddened over the kidnap and conversion to Islam of a single woman from Gaza’s tiny Christian community, now fewer than 3,000 among Gaza’s 1.4 million Muslim residents.

Professor Sana’a al-Sayegh was head of the Science and Technology Department at Palestinian International University and held Gaza’s only female doctorate in her field.

In her mid-30s, Al-Sayegh went missing on June 24 of last year. Her family said she telephoned them five days later, saying that she was being held against her will and pressured to marry a Muslim professor in her university.

Some weeks later she sent word to her family, urging them not to try to find her, “for your safety and mine.”

Eventually, she appeared in August alongside her new husband, pregnant and with her head covered, declaring that she had converted to Islam. The daughter of the mukhtar (official representative) of Gaza’s Christians, Al-Sayegh was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

After Al-Sayegh’s story become public, Ayyad commented to his colleagues, “How I pray I would never deny Jesus.”

While Ayyad’s prayer was answered that he would “remain faithful unto death,” Madanat said, a number of other Palestinian believers now face similar death threats.

“We were looking for a safe place to baptize five Muslim-background believers when we heard about Rami’s assassination,” a Palestinian convert told Compass from Jerusalem. “So we stopped and asked ourselves, ‘Should we go ahead and do this now?’”

But all five believers refused to delay their baptisms, declaring, “We are ready to die for Christ too!” One convert commented, “If one Rami went to heaven from Gaza, there will be 10 Ramis here in the West Bank!”

During 2007, several Palestinian Muslims who converted to Christianity went into hiding on the West Bank because of direct threats from Muslim extremists.

END

*** Photographs of Pauline Ayyad and her three children are available electronically. Please contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

By their fruits you shall know them,


http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13687



Headline News


Monday, August 06, 2007 by Staff Writer


Gaza Christian forcibly converted to Islam

Hamas-aligned officials at Gaza City's Palestine International University have been accused of forcibly converting one of their female Christian colleagues to Islam.

Sana al-Sayegh, head of the university's Science and Technology Department, disappeared in late June, reported WorldNetDaily. Days later she contacted her family and indicated that she was being held against her will and would have to marry a Muslim man who was also a professor at the university.

Another week passed and the family received a conversion certificate stating that their daughter was now a Muslim. One of the witnesses who signed the document was the university president, a known Islamist with strong ties to Hamas.

When the family complained to the Hamas authorities, they were promptly visited by a group of heavily-armed militants who insisted Sayegh's conversion and marriage had been matters of free will.

Sayegh reportedly returned to work last week, but has not contacted her family. Attempts by the family to contact her new husband have gone unanswered.

Gaza is home to a tiny Christian community of only 2,000, among a Muslim majority of more than one million. When Hamas secured outright control of Gaza in June, the group declared that the area's Christians would have to submit to strict Islamic law.