Converts from Islam to Christianity targeted in Uzbekistan

Kazakhstan Destroys Bibles, Uzbekistan Attacks Convert
ICC Note:
Reports from Uzbekistan indicate that authorities are widening their crackdown on Christian converts from Islam. Details are just beginning to emerge regarding the most recent incident of police harassing a family of believers, while searching for a church leader.
3/21/2013 Uzbekistan (BosNewsLife)-… The latest incident is part of a wider crackdown by authorities on devoted Christians in Central Asia, rights activists say, with reports that in neighboring Uzbekistan an elderly man was attacked by security forces.
OFFICERS SHOUTING
“The officers shouted at the woman and her youngest son, a recent convert, and confiscated literature and CDs,” said Barnabas Fund, an advocacy group supporting Christians in heavily Islamic nations.
“They searched for her oldest son, who is a church leader, but he was not at home,” the group said, without providing more details amid apparent security concerns.
The incident, which happened late in the evening March 14, “appears to be part of a wider police crackdown on Christian converts,” the group explained. “Barnabas Fund is aware of raids at the homes of at least another three converts from Islam.”
The crackdown has been linked to President Islam Karimov perceived ruthless repression of what he views as religious extremists.
He has ruled the former Soviet nation for over two decades. Karimov. He won another in elections in December 2007, which opponents dismissed as rigged.
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