Today marks the anniversary of last year’s four-hour siege on a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad that ended with al-Qaida linked militants massacring 58 worshippers. The attack was the worst against Iraqi Christians since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and enticed many of the already dwindling Christian population in Baghdad to leave the city permanently.
“We've had enough now. Leaving Iraq has become a must,” Jamal Habo Korges, a Christian mechanic and father of three, told the United Nation’s humanitarian news outlet IRIN. “We've been suffering since 2003 and we can't take it anymore. The latest carnage is the final warning.”
“For many years, successive Burmese regimes have suppressed freedom of religion and imposed serious restrictions on Christians and other religious minorities..."
Members of the GKI Yasmin church have been meeting on the sidewalk outside their church building ever since they were evicted from the building by the local government. Despite a supreme court ruling overturning the ban, the mayor of Bogor has refused to allow the church members admission to their building.
The Masih brothers worked on land owned by the Dogar family. The latter are Muslim and some of its members used to get drunk and beat the tenants. When Asif and Khadim decided to quit, they were abducted. Nothing has been known about their fate since September. The authorities have not investigated the matter because one of the Dogars is a policeman.
"Ongoing attacks against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East and in other parts of the world point to the need to pay more, not less, attention to religious freedom."
After a long march from Shubra, Viviane Magdi and her fiancé Michael Mosad finally reached their destination at the State TV building in Maspero in downtown Cairo where a mass crowd of demonstrators had gathered. Upon arrival, however, the protest that Michael and Viviane had joined took an unexpected turn.
“The protest was wonderful at first,” Viviane told the BBC through a translator. “We felt united. There were Muslims and Christians. People were chanting and marching together… But when we reached Maspero the atmosphere had changed.”
Above the chants for freedom and the end to military rule, the couple could hear screams and the crackle of gun fire rising from among the demonstrators into the evening air.
...Click here to read Viviane's full story on our blog.
We’re asking for urgent prayer on behalf of Ruqqiya Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for “defiling the Qur’an” by touching it with unwashed hands. After eight months in prison, she is now applying to be freed on bail. A court is scheduled to conduct a bail hearing for Ruqqiya on November 10, 2011.
Ruqqiya and her husband were found guilty of blasphemy for their crime of “defiling the Quran” and both sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Pakistani court on March 2, 2010.
Today's featured video to raise awareness for the persecuted church comes from Brad! Very touching piece that highlights a number of recent Christian martyrs and what we can do to help the persecuted.
To vote for Brad, click here and click "vote now" under Brad's video.
“Another group of men came and took me away from them. I stayed with them two days and I don’t know how these two days passed by. There were five of them. They were all in the room with me at the same time. I couldn’t tell the difference between day and night – I was raped 24/7. No less than 50 men raped me. After that my father found me and brought me back home.” - Just one of countless horror stories of Christian girls who have been abducted in Pakistan. Make sure you sign up for our e-newsletter today to get our special edition on this crucial issue.
Americans should think twice before applauding the victory of the Islamist party Ennahdha in Tunisia, in “what will likely be a long and brutal lesson for Tunisia on what happens when religion is enchained with politics,” The Westminster Institute reports. The Ennahdha Party is headed by the ‘great Islamic reformer’ Rashid Ghannouchi whose objective is to institute Sharia law. Tunisian Christians will be among the first to experience the cruel ramifications of the Arab Spring.
The Egyptian military has threatened to demolish a fence surrounding a monastery even though it has the necessary permits, the Assyrian International News Agency reports. Hundreds of Coptic Christians mobilized outside the monastery to protect its walls the day the army was expected to arrive.
Mohabat News reports that a conference is to be held in Rasht, Iran where ‘converts’ from Christianity to Islam will ‘answer’ questions about the Bible and downplay Christianity.
“A European Parliament delegation will visit Cairo this week to discuss the recent tensions regarding the Coptic Christian community in Egypt,” Al-Masry Al-Youm reports. “The visit comes after the European Parliament in Strasbourg passed a draft resolution Thursday accusing the Egyptian and Syrian governments of persecuting their Christian minorities.”
Indian officials are investigate the suspicious death of Fr James Mukalel in 2009. The priest was found dead in India state of Karnataka, a state where there has been rampant attacks of Christians by Hindu radicals.
" At the slightest provocation, they will just start attacking us. But God has been helping us. Many people have relocated from Chwalnyap. Our people are relocating and selling their houses..."
What is more urgent is not to turn the bill on religious tolerance into law, but “to come up with a bill that guarantees the freedom to practice one’s faith,” said Fr Benny Susetyo Pr, from the Interfaith Commission of the Indonesian Bishops of Conference.
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party is lobbying to have Islamic law expanded in Malaysia to cover criminal offences as well as civil legislation. Although the proponents point out that the law would not apply to non-Muslims, cases of Islamic law dramatically effecting religious minorities exist. A recent rally in Malaysia by Muslim groups protested the perceived expansion of Christianity.
ICC is constantly monitoring the state of Christian persecution in countries around the world and looking for ways that we can act as bridge between our supporters and the persecuted church. Beyond the projects you see above, we are working in many other areas to provide practical assistance to our brothers and sisters in Christ. View our other projects page to understand more of our work and keep up to date on our current projects.
