They were captured after police entered several monasteries and homes of church members, who fall under the responsibility of the Serbian Orthodox Church's "Ohrid Archbishopric" in Macedonia, said Centar 9, or 'Center 9' in English, a major Balkan religious rights watchdog.

"Prosecution of monks, nuns and believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia continues," Center 9 General Secretary Drasko Djenovic told BosNewsLife. "[It is] the situation in that ex-Yugoslav state," he said.

The raid reportedly began early Monday, May 21, when police in the eastern Macedonian town of Stip "was looking to arrest Bishop Marko of Bregalnica" area but he was not present as he attended the spring session of the Serbian Orthodox Church Synod in Belgrade, Serbia, according to investigators. However a nun, identified as Pelagija, was said to have been detained in that raid.

Elsewhere, in Macedonia's capital Skopje, police entered a monastery of the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God looking for Bishop David of the ancient town of Stobi, Center 9 added.

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According to Church sources, the Catholic community in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has faced a series of suppressive acts by authorities aimed at forcing “underground” clergy to join the government-sanctioned Catholic Patriotic Association.

“It is very likely that the faithful have to quietly pass the Pentecost this Sunday, one of the four major Church feasts widely celebrated in China, as they did so at Easter,” a source said.

To avoid arrest, underground priests remain in hiding and cannot carry out normal pastoral work because they have refused to support the independent Church principle, the source said.

Father Joseph Gao Jiangping, an underground diocesan administrator, has been confined in isolation at a detention center in Hohhot, the regional capital for more than three months since he was taken into custody on February 15.

Church sources said the priest, in his 40s, is in poor physical condition because of torture and continuous interrogation.

Local officials may continue his detention, as they hesitate to make a formal accusation against him, “worrying that his influence among local Catholics would be enlarged, or they would incur international criticism if he is sentenced,” one source said.

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During his hearing before the Jakarta District Court on Monday, the mixed Arab-Javanese Muslim terrorist from Central Java known as 'demolition man' who was involved in several deadly attacks, acknowledged his errors and said he was ready to atone for them.

His request for forgiveness elicited different responses among ordinary Indonesians. Some believe in the sincerity of his words. Others are more inclined to think he is trying to obtain the judges' clemency to avoid life in prison or the death penalty.

"I personally ask for Christians' forgiveness for what I have done to them," Umar Patek al Hisyam bin Ali Zein said. "I am sorry for my misdeed."

After rejecting all charges against him, he eventually pleaded guilty, saying that his late admission of responsibility was due to "strong pressures" from extremist leader Dulmatin, his accomplice in crime who was killed by Indonesian Special Forces in March 2010.

'Demolition man' was arrested by Pakistani police in January 2011 in Abbottabad, the same town where al-Qaeda's founder and leader Osama bin Laden was killed. After long months of negotiations between Jakarta e Islamabad, he was handed him over to Indonesian authorities.

Speaking about the church attacks, he said he did not intend to kill innocent people because "they were not involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Many Indonesians hope the terrorist's request for a pardon may be heeded and that Patek may receive a pardon because his remorse is genuine.

Others see him instead as criminal genius and believe that his statement before the judges is just another attempt to escape justice or at least the maximum penalty under the law.

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Check out our recent blog post to get the scoop on Jonathan's visit to Northern Nigeria.

ICC Note:

A Christian is being nominated for president of India. This role seems to be mostly ceremonial, but perhaps could bring discussion for equality of the Christian minority to the forefront. It’s interesting to note that it is not only Christians who support this candidate, but Hindu’s and other minorities as well. This is something we will have to keep an eye on.

By Ritu Sharma

5/20/2102 India (EurasiaReview)-A Tamil Nadu-based political party has proposed the name of M. M. Rajendran, former governor of Odisha, as a Christian president of India.

“Rajendran has always been very service-oriented. He has given exemplary contribution to the society and has an unblemished career,” said P. Sivakami, head of Samuga Samatuva Padai Party (a party for social equality), in a press conference in New Delhi today.

Sivakami said that the president needs to be active physically and mentally and should have a vision for India and “Rajendran fits to the post entirely.”

She said that in view of the 2014 general elections in the country, India needs a non-political, common and a low-profile person at the top post as “he/she would not be biased toward any political party.”

Sivakami, who is a Hindu, said she was campaigning hard to mobilize support for Rajendran and has already conducted press meets and met political leaders in the northeastern and southern India.

She said that she has met Congress senior leader Digvijay Singh regarding the matter and is due to meet another senior leader of the party Ahmed Patel next week.

Sivakami said that although the post of a president is a ceremonial one, a president from the Christian minority will work on the minds of people.

“It will affect the people in terms of feelings, emotions and culture,” she added.

She said that at first there was not even a talk about a Christian president and now people have started talking about having one with some regional parties supporting former Lok Sabha speaker P. A. Sangma, who is a Roman Catholic and tribal, for the post.

Asked why her party is not supporting Sangma, she said that the latter is very high powered and in the midst of power politics.

Rajendran, who lives in Chennai, retired as a governor of Odisha in 2003.

The 77-year-old administrator, who is a Protestant from the Church of South India, topped the 1957 batch of the Indian Administrative Services.

He was a member of the UNICEF executive board and vice chairman of its program committee at New York.

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ICC Note:

The date is rapidly approaching when Nepal’s new constitution will come into play.  Tribal groups want the country partitioned on ethnic lines, Hindu’s want it divided on religious lines, and Christians are praying that their rights as minorities will be represented in the implementation of the new constitution. The constitution comes into effect May 28th . The days leading up to this have been full of violence, based on ethnicity and religion,  despite the plea for non-violence from Christian, Hindu and Muslim leaders.
By Kalpit Parajuli

5/21/2012 Nepal (AsiaNews) - In the past 25 days, tribal groups have brought the country to a halt with strikes and violent demonstrations ahead of 28 May, date when the new constitution will come into effect. Tribals want an ethnically based federal state. The government deploys troops to avoid more clashes between ethnic minorities and Hindus. Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders have appealed to tribal leaders "to stop immediately violence among ethnic groups and work for peace in the country". This comes after tribal groups brought the country to a standstill to push for greater protection in the constitution set to come into effect on 28 May. Religious leaders call on tribal and ethnic minorities to respect each other and stress the need to favour a climate of reconciliation after 11 years of civil war.

As the date when the new constitution will come into force, the country's ethnic groups are trying to shape the new state institutions to their own benefit. For the past week, pro-federalism tribal minorities have clashed in Kathmandu with Hindus opposed to the country's partition along ethnic lines. Police arrested 50 people.

Yesterday, thousands of tribals, including Newar, began a general strike in the Kathmandu Valley that could spread to the rest of the country.

To avoid further interethnic clashes, the government has deployed troops in the centre of the capital and in high-risk areas.

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai announced today a state of alert. He also said that school and many public buildings would remain closed.

In some cities, multiethnic security teams have been working with police.

Mgr Anthony Sharma, archbishop of Kathmandu, said that because of the general strike, thousands of people are going hungry. In western regions, Himalayan villages are without supplies of food, drugs and drinking water.

"Sectarian violence makes no sense. It has never brought anything good," he said. "At this historical moment, people of different faiths must be more tolerant and not fight each other."

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ICC Note:

Christian converts in Iran are in even more danger now than they were before. With the government demanding their names and ID numbers, they will now be even easier to track and arrest or persecute later on bogus charges. This move is most likely an attempt at emptying church buildings, however, the Christians will end up going to house churches. The Church in Iran has shown that it will not be shut down, but instead grows stronger the more they are persecuted. If you would like to help us get Bibles to the Church in Iran click HERE. 

5/17/2012 Iran (MohabatNews)-In addition to the increased restrictions against Iranian Christian converts, the Ministry of Intelligence has now ordered the leaders of the central AOG church in Tehran to compile a list of the names and National ID numbers of its members and submit it to the security authorities.

According to Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, reports from Tehran indicate that leaders of the central AOG church of Tehran asked their congregation in Sunday May 6 service to voluntarily present them with a list of their names and National ID numbers so that they submit the list to the officials. This reveals the identity of Christian converts and enables security authorities to record detailed information about the Christians.

It is clear that such a decision by the leaders of the AOG church, is a result of pressures the security authorities have been imposing on them. This seems to be a precautionary move by the security organizations to identify Christians and possibly use the information later to arrest Christian converts and watch the activities of the church even more closely, especially to prevent them from receiving new people. Such orders by security authorities make Christians' relationship with their church riskier than ever.

This security move by Iranian authorities reveals that even after cancelling the Farsi services in some churches, they have not been successful in reducing the number of Christian converts and the trend by other people to attend the church. In recent months, organizers and operational groups of the Ministry of Intelligence ordered the last two churches in Tehran still holding Farsi services, to cancel these services. However, this has not stopped Christians from attending church services and illustrates the failure of all these repressive plans and threats which were designed to deal with spread of Christianity in Iran.

In February, 2012, the Farsi services in two churches in Tehran were cancelled following an order issued by the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic. The two churches were the Protestant Church of Emmanuel and the Evangelical Church of St. Peter. These two were the only churches in Tehran offering Farsi services on Fridays. Prior to this, in 2009 the same thing happened to the central AOG church in Tehran and its Farsi services on Friday were discontinued.

Many members of the central AOG church in Tehran have been martyred by terrorists of the Islamic regime of Iran and the church itself has been under close watch for a long time. Some 20 years ago, also, the security authorities of the Ministry of Intelligence demanded such a list of names and personal details of the members of the church, but the church leaders at that time refused to submit to this demand.

Although the threats, arrests, imprisonments and tortures of Christians converts have backfired, and instead of preventing it the growth of Christianity in Iran has increased.The Ministry of Intelligence believes that the implementation of newer tactics and restrictions such as demanding Christians personal details would put them in quandary and confuse them whether give their information to the church or not. They assume that these would cause people to stop attending church services.

On the other hand, as part of their anti-Christian strategies, the officials in the think tank of the Ministry of Intelligence, design these orders to terrorize Christians and somehow show that the Islamic republic has sufficient power to identify Christian converts and summon or arrest them whenever it chooses to do so.

It is also obvious that the Ministry of Intelligence is giving a signal to dissuade Christians from attending church services by requesting their personal details, and thereby cause a drop in the number of attendees at church services. Some of those converted to Christianity are students at universities or are employed by government-run organizations, and thus it would certainly impact both their record and their future.

- The other side of the coin

However, the positive point in such actions is the spread of "House-churches". Christians who are forced out of official churches would attend house churches which help spread Christianity among families. This has created an opportunity for Christians to have a house church in every corner of the city.

- Why the Islamic Republic cannot shut down churches

Considering the prevailing situation in Iran, one wonders why the Islamic republic has not been successful in closing churches despite all the measures it has taken to achieve this goal? The Islamic republic pressures and restricts churches and uses different tactics to empty churches. At tines, security authorities attend Sunday church service to spy on Christians. It is also said that they have installed hidden CCTVs in some church hallways and yet they have not been successful in their anti-Christian plans.

One of the answers could be that it seems the official churches are only exist in the Islamic Republic for display purposes to be able to say that churches are operating in Iran and to create a positive image from the regime in the international community and also to show them off to the few tourists who travel to Iran and make them believe Christians enjoying freedom in Iran and announce that the doors of churches are open to Christian minorities and have played a fundamental role in religious coexistence!

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ICC Note:

 With many of their homes currently occupied by  militants, and shops looted, many Christians have moved away. The remaining Christians fear they will be “expelled from the country in one day” if the current regime collapses because they are certain Islamic extremists will fill the vacancy. Perhaps, they are taking their cues from the current dilemma in Egypt.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

5/15/2012 Syria (TwoCircles)-Christians living in conflict-torn Syria are afraid their community would fall victim of religious extremism if President Bashar al-Assad's regime collapses and Islamists come to power.

"I am afraid that we will suffer bad times," a member of Damascus's Christian community, who identified himself as Jorge, told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.

A full-fledged civil war will break out in Syria if Assad's enemies and their western supporters continue efforts to topple the president, he said.

"If the regime falls, Islamists will come to power," Jorge said.

Islamists "wrongly believe that we support the current regime", and for that reason they will complicate the life of Christians, he said.

"Sunni Muslims who predominate Syria think that if President Assad's regime representing the interests of the Alawi minority falls, they will live better. But I personally think that they are wrong. Syria is a secular state and its people, including Muslims, will not like it if the new power starts thrusting orthodox Islamic norms of moral and behaviour on them," he said.

According to Jorge, extremist forces rather than liberals would come to power in Syria.

Another Syrian, an engineer from Homs, said on condition of anonymity that he is sure that if Assad's regime falls, Christians will be "expelled from the country in one day".

Presently, the situation in Homs is quite complicated. Almost all of the local Christians have moved away. Their homes have been occupied by militants and their families, and the shops have been looted. Refugees are temporarily living in other regions of the country.

Jorge said Islamists are trying to show that if the regime changes, Christians would not come under attack.

"They do it to appease them (the Christians), attract them thus losing their support of the regime," he said.

Muslim leaders put messages on social networks saying that Christians and Muslims have for centuries lived together in Syria. They have also tried to distance themselves from the damage that has been inflicted on Christian homes and churches in Homs.

The engineer from Homs said that government forces could have "pushed out" Islamist militants from Homs if they continued shelling the city for at least three more days.

"But then they adopted (UN and League of Arab States ambassador) Kofi Annan's plan and gunfire was terminated. But this does not bring anything good to us. Our homes remain occupied by militants," he said.

He said the majority Christians do not consider emigration a possibility. "This is our homeland. Christians have been living in Syria long before the Muslims. Why should we move away?"

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USAID, therefore, has launched a program titled Project PEACE – an acronym for Programming Effectively Against Conflict and Extremism.

PEACE says it will hire contractors to help the agency analyze the “true” causes of conflict and consequently provide more effective humanitarian and conflict-resolution assistance, according to planning documents that WND located via database research.

The cost of Obama’s new “knowledge generation, dissemination and management” initiative is $600 million.

The unveiling of PEACE comes as the slaughter of Nigerian Christians is on the rise.

As WND reported earlier this month, an international Christian ministry says Muslims recently killed hundreds of Christians gathering for worship.

Patrick Sookhdeo, international director for Barnabas Fund, said at the time: “The simple act of going to church on a Sunday has become a perilous one for Christians in many parts of Nigeria.”

Indeed, Nigerian media have reported that the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram has pledged to “eradicate Christianity.”

The USAID documents, however, contend that Boko Haram simply shares with other groups anger “over the nation’s poor governance.”

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