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PAKISTAN: CHRISTIANS VULNERABLE AND PERSECUTED By Elizabeth KendalWorld Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)Special to ASSIST News Service AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Pakistani Christians are extremely vulnerable to suffering persecution due to the widespread Islamic intolerance of Christians, the discriminatory sharia (Islamic law), the endemic lawlessness and corruption (including the police force), and the impunity granted to persecutors. On 28 November 2004, a Muslim named Ahmed Ali (26) attacked a Christian shop-keeper, Shahbaz Masih (22), with a butcher's axe, severing his left arm. Ahmed Ali was arrested only after church authorities pressed the case. Though he is currently imprisoned in...

Police success leaves Muslim leaders in shock SAAJID BADAT’S guilty plea to conspiracy to destroy, damage or endanger an aircraft was hailed as a major success by counter-terrorist detectives and left many Muslim leaders shocked. Police say that the conviction is not only important in showing that the huge resources put into fighting terrorism get results but may also help to convince the Muslim community that there is a genuine threat in Britain. For several years police have been trying to counter criticism from Muslim communities unhappy at what they have described as heavy-handed tactics. Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner...

One killed, another injured by suspected militant shooting NARATHIWAT, March 3 (TNA) - Suspected militants shot dead one man and injured his colleague early Thursday here as nearly daily attacks by Muslim insurgents in Thailand's deep south have continued, said local police. Kuhasan Lueba, 24, was a temporary clerk for the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command to build peace in three Southern border provinces. He died instantly from gunshot wounds in his torso while his colleague, Muhama Sahea, who rode on the pillion of his motorcycle, survived the shooting, said Pol. Sub-Lt. Sornphet Tantiamornchaikul, an officer at Ra Ngae District...

Nigerian Christians Brace for More 'Taleban' Attack Kaburu Salisu looks at burnt property belonging to Christian settlers in Sharada (AP photo) Small Christian communities in northeastern Nigeria are bracing for new attacks by groups of Islamic radicals, who call themselves the Taleban. A Christian businessman who was once abducted by the group styling itself to Islamic hardliners in Afghanistan says it could happen again. Speaking in Haussa, Ali Dangwa says he was returning from a bartering trip to Cameroon, walking through hilly terrain, when he was abducted at gunpoint by men wearing stolen police uniforms. They told him he should...

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Christian Holy Site Jerusalem also holds one of Christianity's most venerated spaces of worship—the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians believe occupies the site of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. In the northwest quarter of the Old City, the church still stands at the end of Via Dolorose, the Path of Sorrows, believed by Christians to be the path along which Jesus carried his cross to Calvalry. Apparently, the site was a burial ground at the time of the crucifixion. Later, the Roman Emperor Hadrian erected a temple to Venus in this...

24/02/2005 SUDAN : ANGLICANS STRUGGLE TO REGAIN CHURCH HEADQUARTERS Alleged Arab ‘owners’ defy Khartoum court injunction. Anglican Church headquarters in Khartoum February 24 (Compass) -- Nine months after the Anglican Church headquarters in Khartoum was sold out from under church officials and confiscated at gun point, the Arab company now claiming ownership of the headquarters and guesthouse has started making major renovations to the building. A court-ordered injunction last June had forbidden Al-Ghazal Residence Enterprises from tampering with the property until its disputed ownership was resolved by the courts. Owned by a wealthy Sudanese Arab, the construction firm is...

Afghan Christian says faith might cost him his life KANSAS CITY, Mo. - (KRT) - For those with faith, the moment of acceptance often is clear and simple. Years after his conversion to Christianity, Ahmad Ahmadshah, a 43-year-old Minneapolis cabdriver, explained that moment to a U.S. immigration judge. Ahmadshah described how he had received a Bible from friends in Pakistan and read it in secret at his home near Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1988. "I read a book, and my heart accepted," Ahmadshah said. "I believe that this is the book that says the truth." Today, Ahmadshah is convinced that his...

Over One Hundred Children Detained By Eritrean Authorities Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is reporting that 131 children between the ages of two and eighteen were rounded up this week by Eritrean police as they were in their Christian classes. According to CSW, the children were attending their classes at the Medhanie-Alem Orthodox Church in the capital Asmara when a truck with the policemen arrived at approximately 9:30am on February 19. The police reportedly put the children in the truck and took them to the nearby Police Station Number 1 where they registered their names and addresses. According an eye witness,...

Christians in Lahore Attacked ICC has received a report about an attack on Christians in the 'Essa Nigir' suburbs of Lahore, Pakistan. Moslems attacked the homes of Christians in this community and forced them to flee during the last week of Jan. '05. One Christian was killed and scores of others were seriously injured and were forced to flee their homes (some of the families have returned).Some of the christian representatives succeeded to bring the families back. Pray that there is truce between the two communities.  Christians make just the 2% of population in Pakistan where Islam is the state religion.The...

Lead story - Thursday February 17, 2005 IRAN : GOVERNMENT JAILS CHRISTIAN PASTOR FOR THREE YEARS Military court claims convert’s documents were falsified. Hamid Pourmand with his family February 17 (Compass) -- Yesterday a Tehran military court sentenced Iranian Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand to jail for three years, ordering his immediate transfer to a group prison cell in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. The former army colonel was found guilty of deceiving the Iranian armed forces by not declaring when he acquired officer rank that he was a convert from Islam to Christianity. Under the laws of the Islamic Republic...

5,000 troops ring Abu, MNLF forces in Sulu; 70 now dead, including 25 gov’t soldiers Some 5,000 troops backed by attack planes and gunship helicopters ringed the two groups of fully-armed fighters holed up in a mountain hideout in Southern Philippines as an estimated 70 fatalities were already reported, 25 of them government troops. Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, AFP Southern Command (Southcom) chief, deployed another Marine battalion in Jolo, Sulu, as a rebel camp was overrun by government troops in nearby Panamao area. Three OV-10 aircraft dropped 250 lb. bombs while MG520 attack helicopters fired rockets at the rebel forces...

Manila sending more troops; ninety dead in Jolo fighting The Philippine army flew more troops to the remote southern island of Jolo on Friday, the fifth day of fierce fighting with two groups of Muslim rebels, as appeals for a truce by local leaders fell on deaf ears. The military said nearly 30 soldiers and about 60 rebels had been killed in clashes since Monday. At least 7,000 villagers have poured into Jolo town to escape the fighting. Lieutenant-General Alberto Braganza, the most senior commander in the southern Philippines, said it was beyond his authority to contemplate a cease-fire. "I...

Iraqi Christians Flee to Safer Ground INKAWA, Northern Iraq (IPS) -- Zaid Suleyman, a 34-year-old taxi driver, sits in the administration office of St. Joseph's, an Assyrian Christian church in the Kurdish-controlled north of Iraq. He and his wife fled the capital, Baghdad, for the comparative peace of this region in September, and have been renting a room from an elderly church member ever since. But despite the move, Suleyman has not been able to put the violence of Baghdad behind him. "I have a sister living in Baghdad still, and two months ago her husband was kidnapped," he...

(AINA) -- The Assyrian Universal Alliance issued the following statement yesterday on the lockout of Assyrian voters in north Iraq. AUA appeals to World Governments to restore voting rights to Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs and Yazidis The Assyrian Universal Alliance on behalf of its officers, Executive Board and Affiliates throughout the world has taken a very strong position condemning the denial of Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriac and other minorities of the right to vote in the Iraqi General Election where 275 members are to be elected to the National Parliament and election of Officers to the district councils in the 18 provinces...

The Struggle of Iraq's Christian Assyrians One day last October a small parcel was left at Sait Yildiz's home in Sodertalje, Sweden. Sait, who is the Chairman of the Assyrian Democratic Association of Sweden, realized that something was amiss when he saw that there was no return address and that the CD that it contained was unlabelled. When he, despite his misgivings, played the CD he realized that it was a video. It begins with men chanting Islamic fundamentalist slogans, accompanied by a mixture of soft pop with Arabic folk music. Shortly someone can be heard shouting "Traitors! Betrayers!...

FIGHT BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS IN PALERMO: 3 INJURED (AGI) - Palermo, Feb. 8 - Orthodox Christian and Muslim nomads living together in a nomad camp at Palermo's Favorita ended up in a violent fight causing the injury of 3 people, later arrested by Carabinieri forces. Investigation on the reasons are under way but Carabinieri forces believe they can be found in the permanent climate of tension between the two groups belonging to different ethnic and religious groups. The fight apparently started on the pretext of a loud squealing of tyres by one of the arrested near the caravans of...

Severe Islamic Persecution Reported in Rural Ethiopia VOM sources in Ethiopia have compiled a disturbing report from the town of Alaba (K'olito) and surrounding area in the Southern Region of Ethiopia. VOM has documented recent cases of severe physical abuse, confiscation and destruction of property, extortion, kidnapping, forcible marriage and the unlawful imprisonment of evangelical Christians in the area. VOM has also learned of the martyrdom of a Christian student named Serkalem on February 1, 2005, who was repeatedly stabbed by assailants as he returned home from school. His family has appealed to authorities but if past experience is any...

Christians Continue to Face Challenges in Indonesia Fire at VOM's Medical Treatment Centre Three separate stories from Indonesia in the past week demonstrate the continued difficulties faced by Christians in the most populous Muslim nation in the world. On January 25, The Voice of the Martyrs received the news that our medical treatment centre and storage facility in Indonesia had been totally destroyed by fire.  Valuable medical supplies and items for distribution to persecuted believers in the country were destroyed.  Thankfully there were no injuries.  The cause of the fire is under investigation.  Pray that the supplies needed for...

PEACE-KEEPING SOLDIERS KILL CHRISTIAN WOMAN Kano family fears missing son killed while in custody. February 7 (Compass) -- Judith Lan’guti, a young Christian woman in Numan, a town in the northern state of Adamawa, Nigeria, was shot dead without provocation on January 28 by soldiers who had been deployed to keep peace in the town following the outbreak of violence between Muslims and Christians. “The murder of Miss Judith is coming 19 months after the killing of our Rev. Esther Jinkai Ethan by a Muslim fanatic,” Mahula Tika, a Christian community leader in Numan, told Compass. “Up to this moment,...

BARKAT-- A Victim of the Blasphemy Laws of Pakistan: Dr. Stephen Gill One of the victims of the blasphemy laws is Barkat who was "arrested and imprisoned for 15 months on fabricated charges of insulting the prophet Mohammed. Barket was acquitted with honour by a Karachi court in January 1993. Under the controversial blasphemy laws in force in Pakistan, his conviction would have meant a mandatory death sentence. But despite full legal exoneration, Barkat continued to receive death threats and harassment from Muslim extremists after his release, causing him eventually to flee the country." Barket's neighbour told Campus Direct that...