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COMPASS DIRECT NEWSNews from the Frontlines of Persecution

July 2007(Released July 31, 2007)

Compass Direct is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct News is acknowledged as the source of the material.

Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News

****************************************************************************IN THIS ISSUE

AFGHANISTAN

Some Korean Hostages in Poor HealthAid workers criticized at home, but remaining in country reflected unique motives.

BANGLADESH

Officials Offer Protection for Attacked ConvertsThreatened Christians allowed to return to fields, but children cannot attend local school.

Christians in Village Again Beaten, Threatened Police assigned to protect Durbachari for three months pull out after only a week.

CHINA

Government Cracks Down on Rights Ahead of Beijing OlympicsChristians report arrests, Bible shortages; foreign believers expelled.

EGYPT

Government Orders Retrial on ‘Apostasy’ Case ***Constitution’s Islamic law clause called “a sword aimed at the neck of Christians.”

Police Torture Christian Convert WomanEstranged Islamist relatives vow to kill young wife.

Police Release Christian to Her Violent FamilyIslamist relatives beat young woman; her life is threatened by Muslim extremists.

Compass Direct News for July 2007 1

INDIA

Briefs 7/10/07: Recent Incidents of Persecution

Death of Pastor Remains Unsolved ***Police claim accidental drowning; family, villagers convinced he was murdered.

State Again Tries Secret Survey of ChristiansGujarat high court takes note; Hindu extremists use data to target religious minorities.

Briefs 7/24/07: Recent Incidents of Persecution

IRAQ

Court Upholds Christian Girl’s Murder Sentence ***As killing was not premeditated, teenager’s sentence reduced to 3.5 years.

MEXICO

‘Traditionalist Catholics’ Demolish Another Church ***State battling town bosses in San Juan Chamula; other Christians still without water lines.

NORTH KOREARefugees Facing Crackdown Veteran minister says controls tightened on both sides of the border.

PAKISTAN

Passage of Bill on ‘Apostates’ Called UnlikelyGovernment fighting extremism; death threats in two villages prove unfounded.

Mob Confesses to Church Attack ***Christians forgive attackers, receive no compensation for damage and injuries.

TURKEY

Converts Subjected to Official Harassment ***Local district fines Christians for collecting tithes and offerings.

Prosecutor Demands Christians’ Acquittal ***Accusers, he says, have provided no evidence that converts ‘insulted’ Turkey or Islam.

*** Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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**********************************************************************Some Korean Hostages in Afghanistan in Poor HealthAid workers criticized at home, but remaining in country reflected unique motives.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, July 27 (Compass Direct News) – South Korean aid workers held hostage by Taliban forces in Afghanistan for more than a week are believed to be in poor health, according to a member of their Korean congregation.

The 23 volunteers from Sammul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, South Korea were kidnapped by rebel Taliban forces in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province on July 19 while traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar. After extending an ultimatum to execute the hostages three times, the kidnappers shot the group’s leader, 42-year-old Bae Hyung Kyu, on July 25 – his birthday.

One of the hostages, who underwent an operation for thyroid cancer over three years ago, is likely in bad health without his medication, a member of the Sammul church told Compass.

“This is an important day to pray for their release and that they make it back to Korea safely, because some of them are sick,” said the church member, who requested anonymity.

Two new deadlines for the exchange of hostages and Taliban prisoners have already passed since Bae’s death, but Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Munir Mangal said today that the hostages were “alive and fine,” according to Reuters.

Reuters said that a purported Taliban spokesman had promised his side would no longer set deadlines for their demands to be met.

“All of us are sick and in very bad condition,” one of the kidnapped women told U.S. television station CBS in a telephone interview from captivity.

Though there were conflicting reports about the woman’s name, Voice of America identified the speaker as Lim Hyun-joo.

According to members of her church in Korea, who spelled her name “Lin,” she was one of three women doing aid work permanently in northern Afghanistan who had agreed to help translate for the visiting volunteers.

Lin worked as a nurse in a public health center while the two other translators taught health education to Afghans in the city of Mazar e Sharif. The volunteers from Sammul Church had spent three days helping the women with their work before traveling together back to Kabul, and then went on to Kandahar by bus when no flights were available.


The group had planned to spend several days volunteering at a hospital and kindergarten in Kandahar, where a single Korean woman teacher and two doctors, a husband and wife, from their church also were residing permanently.

“The people in that city love them,” said a member of the Sammul Church, who confirmed that the three Koreans in Kandahar had not been targeted in the kidnapping incident. “In Kandahar, they treat up to 150 patients a day.”

The three aid workers had previously received threats from the Taliban, the church member said, but local Afghans had taken action to protect them.

Unique MotivesOn Tuesday (July 24), Afghan villagers in the Ghazni province held a rally demanding that the hostages be released, The Associated Press reported.

One evening later, after the body of Bae had been found with 10 bullet holes through it, a Korean aid worker living in Afghanistan went on local television to make an appeal in Dari for the lives of his fellow countrymen, a Kabul resident said.

“That was quite powerful, my own family were all in tears,” the native Afghan told Compass. In a reference to the Korean War, “He said that [the Koreans] are here because they know what suffering is, and they have been through the same situation that Afghanistan is in right now.”

A close friend of Bae’s from the Sammul church told Compass by telephone that the pastor’s body would most likely be flown back to Korea on Saturday (July 28). There, he said, the church’s head pastor, Park Eun Jo, would conduct the funeral service.

Formerly pastor of Sammul Church’s singles group, Bae leaves behind a wife and 9-year-old daughter. In his work with unmarried university graduates, Bae helped prepare young people for volunteer trips to do aid work in developing countries, said his friend, who had helped Bae with the singles group.

Under Bae’s leadership, he said, members of the group had begun visiting eight countries each year, undergoing weekly cultural and basic language training to prepare for their travel abroad.

Members of the church had begun traveling to Afghanistan in 2005 to work at orphanages and hospitals.

Korean media as well as some members of the international community in Kabul have criticized the group for being naïve and entering the country ill-prepared.


But Bae’s friend from Sammul told Compass, “They were well prepared for the trip. In a country where there is war, when things get hard, everyone leaves. If we leave the country, who will stay to help the people?”

A church worker in Korea said that even after Bae’s death, Christians need to continue to help majority-Muslim nations, showing them the love of Christ through aid work.

“Despite this incident, we do not wish bad things upon either Afghanistan or Muslim countries,” the worker said. “Because they don’t know about Jesus Christ, we have to share the love of Jesus Christ with them.”

Such commitment indicates uniquely Christian motives, suggesting that the Korean aid workers are suffering for their faith even if they were not specifically targeted for being Christians. The church member said he did not believe the kidnapping had anything to do with the volunteers being Christians. Both Sammul church leadership and the Korean government have also insisted that the group was in Afghanistan for humanitarian reasons.

“Kidnapping is a very successful policy, and I order all my mujahideen to kidnap foreigners of any nationality wherever they find them, and then we should do the same kind of deal,” Taliban military commander Mansour Dadullah told Britain’s Channel 4 television according to the BBC. Dadullah was freed in exchange for an Italian journalist earlier this year.

South Korean chief presidential security advisor, Baek Jong-Chun flew to Afghanistan yesterday (July 26) to boost efforts to release the hostages.

Taliban spokesmen have made differing demands in exchange for the hostages’ release, ranging from a prisoner exchange, to ransom payment, to the withdrawal of 200 South Korean troops from Afghanistan. The South Korean government says it was already planning to remove those troops by the end of the year.

Kabul’s government has instituted new strict security measures in order to protect foreign citizens working in the country.

Foreigners wishing to travel outside Kabul must submit an application to police two days in advance of the trip a local Afghan told Compass by telephone from Kabul today. He said that new checkpoints had been instituted at all of Kabul’s main roads to enforce the travel ban.

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***********************************Officials in Bangladesh Offer Protection for Attacked ConvertsThreatened Christians allowed to return to fields, but children cannot attend local school.by Sarah Page


DUBLIN, July 3 (Compass Direct News) – Intervention from high-ranking police officers and government officials has ensured temporary security for a group of Christian converts beaten last week in Nilphamari district, Bangladesh.

Muslim villagers had attacked the Christians on June 26 and on Wednesday (June 27) given them a 24-hour deadline to leave the village or face further beatings and the destruction of their homes. (See Compass Direct News, “Christians in Bangladesh Beaten; Mob Threatens to Burn Homes,” June 28.)

Police have stationed a special protective team in Durbachari for three months, allowing the converts to stay in their homes and return to work in their fields; but their children can no longer attend the local madrassa (Islamic school) – the only form of education available in the village.

Attacks in Durbachari and neighboring Laksmirdanga villages followed the June 12 baptisms of 42 men and women from Muslim backgrounds in a local river. Muslims in both villages bound both male and female Christian converts in their homes and beat them severely. Several victims required hospital treatment, and one house was destroyed in the attacks.

Advocates DetainedAfter repeated appeals to local police failed, human rights advocates contacted James Hilton, a retired government official, who in turn contacted the senior police commissioner in Dhaka and his subordinate in Rajshahi Division.

An investigative team was quickly formed consisting of the divisional commissioner and several district and sub-district police officers. The team traveled to Nilphamari on Thursday evening (June 28) and interviewed some of the victims, who insisted that they had become Christians of their own free will – not through bribery or inducement as claimed by their Muslim neighbors.

While the investigation took place, three advocates who had gone to the local police station to file a complaint on behalf of the converts were taken into police custody. Police rejected the complaint and locked the Rev. Hirak Adhikari and his two companions in a room at the station at around 11 p.m. Adhikari managed to phone friends and inform them of his whereabouts before police confiscated his mobile phone.

Several associates, including the chairman of the Bangladesh Bible Society, called the station asking for fair treatment of the detainees. One of Adhikari’s friends set out to visit him at the police station but turned back after hearing that Muslim vigilantes were waiting nearby.

Police told a journalist who visited the station on Friday (June 29) that they had arrested the men on charges of “inducing Muslims to convert to the Christian faith.” When the police were contacted by phone, however, they denied making any arrests and said the


three were being held “for their own safety” while officials tried to reach a compromise between Muslim and Christian parties in the village.

Adhikari and his associates were finally released at about 2 p.m. on Friday. “After being released, I immediately went to visit every believer’s house to comfort and encourage them,” Adhikari told Compass. “A temporary police camp is now there, and they said they would be there for three months.”

Biased Media ReportsAdhikari said many local journalists had also arrived in Durbachari village by Friday afternoon, but “they received false reports from Muslim villagers that the Christians were converted through offers of money, jobs and houses. Even the village chairman falsely testified about this to local newspapers.”

Another local source confirmed that both print and television journalists had interviewed Christians and Muslims in Durbachari. Some reported in favor of the Christians and others in favor of the Muslims. “One newspaper, the Naya Diganta, reported on Monday (July 2) that five Christian organizations were converting people in the village through offers of rice, jobs and financial security, a charge that the local Christians flatly deny,” the source added.

Yesterday a senior police constable called a meeting between Christian and Muslim parties in Durbachari, stressing the need for religious tolerance.

“He made his point very strongly that every person in Bangladesh had the right to practice their own religion, and if anyone made further trouble for the Christians he would take serious action,” Adhikari said. “But he also said, ‘If anyone offers bribes for a Muslim to convert, that person will also be punished.’”

The parties then formed a village committee to maintain peace between Christians and Muslims. Adhikari was pleased with the outcome but had some reservations.

“I am thankful to everyone who prayed and intervened on behalf of these Christians,” he said. “If we had not called for help, the situation would not have calmed down so quickly. Now the believers can stay in their homes and return to work. But they have been separated from their community, and their children can no longer study at the madrassa. They may have to build their own school, but they lack the resources.”

As another local source commented, “These Christians will need ongoing help to ensure that their rights are respected.”

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***********************************Christians in Bangladesh Village Again Beaten, Threatened Police assigned to protect Durbachari for three months pull out after only a week.


by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, July 18 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic radicals in a Bangladesh village have meted out more beatings and death threats to Christians after a special police force meant to offer protection for three months withdrew after only a week.

The Islamic extremists in Durbachari village, Nilphamari continued their violence against Christians last week.

Moreover, a national newspaper on Sunday (July 15) printed an article about the Nilphamari Christians, clearly naming – and thus targeting – the Rev. Albert Adhikari as a key advocate for Christians in the area.

The article quoted the leaders of three prominent Islamic groups, who called for a ban on the activity of Christian individuals, churches and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout Bangladesh.

Violence in Nilphamari district arose after 41 Muslim converts were baptized in a river on June 12. Two weeks later, on June 26, Muslim villagers attacked and severely beat Christian converts in Durbachari village. On June 27, they gave the Christians a 24-hour deadline to leave the village or face further beatings and the destruction of their homes.

Last-minute intervention from local officials provided temporary relief; officials also agreed to station a special police force in the village for three months. (See Compass Direct News, “Officials in Bangladesh Offer Protection for Attacked Converts,” July 3.)

Christian Bound, BeatenWhen Adhikari paid a repeat visit to Durbachari on July 11, he expected conditions to be vastly improved. He soon learned, however, that the special police force assigned to the village had withdrawn after only a week.

He also learned that Muslim villagers had seized a local Christian, known only as Hatem, the previous night (July 10). They beat Hatem, a fruit salesman, and questioned him about his conversion from Islam before binding him with ropes and leaving him in a food storage area overnight.

When Hatem’s friends phoned the village chairman on the morning of July 11 and asked for help, the chairman intervened and Hatem was released at around 11a.m.

Adhikari later visited Hatem and found him lying in bed, covered with bruises.

The Christians were also suffering the effects of social ostracism. Soon after the baptism, villagers had banned them from using the village well. This left them no option but to carry water from a river about 600 meters away from the village, but the contaminated river water had left both adults and children with serious stomach problems.


A Christian NGO provided enough funds for Adhikari to buy four tube-wells for the Christians. But when the tube-wells were purchased, none of the Muslim residents of Durbachari were willing to help install them, forcing Adhikari to hire labor from a neighboring village.

Further Attacks, Death ThreatsOn July 12, Adhikari and a local Christian known only as Sanjoy visited several Christian homes in the area to assess the situation and encourage the believers.

Later that night, as Sanjoy prepared to return home, Christians in the village phoned him and warned him not to return by his usual route, as Muslim villagers were lying in wait armed with sticks and other home-made weapons. Forewarned, Sanjoy took a longer route and arrived home about two hours later.

On Sunday (July 15), Adhikari learned that nine people carrying guns and other weapons had visited the home of another Christian in Durbachari, issuing death threats. Thankfully the believer, known only as Barek, had taken shelter elsewhere in the village and escaped injury.

That same day the Inkelab, a Bengali daily newspaper, published an article calling for a ban on the activity of Christian individuals, churches and NGOs in Bangladesh in response to the events in Nilphamari.

The article quoted the leaders of three prominent Islamic groups, including Mawlana Eusuf Ashraf, leader of the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, who accused Christian NGOs of converting “the poor and helpless people of Nilphamari in the guise of service.”

Muhammad Abdur Rakib of the Nejame Islam Party accused Christians of converting 41 people in Nilphamari by providing “financial help, loans, jobs and other kinds of temptations.” He further asked the government to ban all Christian activity leading to conversions.

The article also quoted a spokesman from the Islamic Intelligence Front, who claimed “American people” had “a long-term plan to destroy Islam by converting the poor and helpless with financial enticement.” The spokesman added, “To resist such activities is the duty of our faith.”

These claims completely ignored statements from the Christians of Durbachari that they had chosen to convert from Islam of their own free will and not for any material or other inducement.

In light of recent developments, observers say immediate and ongoing intervention is necessary – with both local and national officials enforcing the state’s commitment to religious freedom – to prevent further harm to the Christian minority in Nilphamari and elsewhere in Bangladesh.


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***********************************China Cracks Down on Rights Ahead of Beijing OlympicsChristians report arrests, Bible shortages; foreign believers expelled.by Sarah Page

DUBLIN, July 12 (Compass Direct News) – Christians throughout China fear tough restrictions on their freedom to worship in the coming year following the launch of a government crackdown ahead of August 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Christians across China are reporting a shortage of Bibles, even in cities where Bibles previously were readily available. There are reports of ongoing house church raids and arrests, and an unprecedented number of foreign Christians have been expelled from China in recent months.

The crackdown comes in the wake of several important developments in recent years. These include the publication of the book Jesus in Beijing,” which alerted government authorities to the increasing influence of Christianity in academic and professional circles; the release of the DVD series “The Cross,” which stressed the growth and commitment of the house church movement in China; and the outcome of a religious survey that in February estimated the total number of religious adherents in China at more than 300 million, three times higher than the official figure of 100 million.

In addition, research presented at a government meeting in January revealed that the number of Christians in China may have reached 130 million, including 20 million Catholics – much higher than previous government estimates, according to a report from the China Aid Association (CAA).

Chinese officials have also reacted negatively to media reports that several large Christian organizations – many of them foreign organizations – are planning outreaches during the Beijing Olympics. For example, The Associated Press on March 22 reported the plans of several mission organizations to “send thousands of volunteer evangelists” to the games.

Mass ExpulsionsIn February, even before plans for Olympic outreach were leaked in the Western media, Chinese officials met to address the growing influence of Christianity. An “anti-infiltration” campaign code-named “Typhoon No. 5” was launched that month with the goal of drastically reducing contact between foreign Christians and Chinese believers.

For years local authorities had turned a blind eye to foreign Christians working in universities, hospitals, orphanages and business ventures throughout China. Now, however, it seems the government is prepared to revoke visas for any foreign Christian suspected of sharing their faith with Chinese citizens.


A CAA report released on Tuesday (July 10) claimed at least 100 foreign Christians had been expelled or deported from China between April and June. Most were based in Xinjiang, Beijing, Tibet or Shandong provinces, although expulsions were also reported in other provinces such as Xian.

Crackdown in the Northwest Foreign Christians in the northwest province of Xinjiang have been particularly hard-hit – although it seems the Xinjiang crackdown is part of a separate joint project between the Chinese and Kazakh governments, aiming to restrict the activities of alleged Uygur separatists living on both sides of the border.

Uygur Christians are doubly suspect as the government assumes – incorrectly – that they are both separatists and allies of “Western powers” who hope to change the political climate in Xinjiang.

CAA’s report claims that China has evicted at least 60 foreign Christians from the province since June. Compass sources indicate the expulsion of foreigners began in late September 2006. Some who have worked in the province for as many as 18 years say this is the worst crackdown in the northwest since the Communist takeover in 1949.

As one source in Xinjiang who preferred to go unnamed told Compass in April, “It’s increasingly clear that there is a large, coordinated persecution of sorts hitting believers across Kazakhstan and Xinjiang.”

While foreign Christians are expelled, local Christians face harsher treatment. “For example, a local newspaper recently printed an article about a Uygur believer, naming him as an illegal evangelist and promising to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law,” the source added. “Officials have forbidden local believers to meet and are watching them closely.”

Another foreign Christian expelled from Xinjiang in May said authorities accused him of using a legitimate business to “support the illegal propagation of Christianity” and of “endangering national security.” His “crimes” included sharing his faith with local believers, baptizing people and distributing Bibles and related materials.

Raids, ArrestsWhile China allows limited freedom for the members of five officially-recognized religious groups, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), raids on house churches have continued unabated this year.

On January 24, police raided a house church service in Zhangchong township, Jinzhai county, Anhui province. They took photos of every Christian in the room and asked for names and identification. Most of the Christians were released immediately, but three church leaders were taken for interrogation, according to a CAA report. Police also confiscated bibles, hymn books and musical equipment without providing a receipt.


In February, members of the underground Catholic church in Hebei province reported a door-to-door police search for underground priests. Once caught, police pressured the priests to join the government-approved Catholic church. Those who refused were arrested or lost their jobs. CAA reported at least 20 Catholic believers and two priests imprisoned at the time of this campaign.

On March 14, police arrested 54-year-old Gu Changrong for sharing her faith with Yu Mingfu, the secretary of the Communist Party in her village in Qinggyuan county, Liaoning province. Yu called the police and accused Gu of “poisoning Communist Party members” with the Christian message. She was sentenced to one year of re-education through labor for “using evil cult organizations to obstruct the exercising of state laws.”

Back in northwest China, police raided a meeting in Akesu City, Xinjiang on April 19 and arrested 30 Chinese house church leaders along with four U.S. Christians and their translator, Jinhong Li from Beijing. CAA reported that eight Chinese pastors were released on April 20, but at least six others were detained for 30 days and accused of being involved in “evil cult activities.”

Police also raided a house church meeting in Kunshan, Jiangsu province on April 29, declaring the meeting an “illegal assembly” and confiscating a notebook computer, data projector and other equipment. House church members Cui Chengnan and Liu Riguo filed a protest application, claiming the charge of holding an “illegal assembly” was a violation of the state’s policies on religion.

Police have carried out multiple raids and arrests in several other provinces in recent months. As recently as June 29, two house church leaders were accused of “using an evil cult to obstruct the law” and sentenced to one year of re-education through labor in Jining City, Shandong province, CAA reported.

CAA also recorded at least 600 arrests throughout China in 2006.

Shortage of BiblesAt the same time, believers across China are reporting a shortage of Bibles and other Christian resources.

The China Christian Council (CCC) claims that Amity Press, the only legal publisher of Bibles in China, is producing enough Bibles to meet the demand. The Council, however, puts the total number of Protestant believers in China at only 16 million – including only the members of government-approved churches – whereas a survey carried out by the East China Normal University in 2005 and 2006, published in February, stated that China had 40 million Protestants.

The survey listed the total number of religious adherents at 300 million, more than triple the official government figure of 100 million.


Other China observers estimate the number of Protestant Christians is at least 60 million, and some estimates of total Christians – including now the Chinese government’s own internal research – rise to 130 million.

Amity Press has printed a little over 40 million Bibles since it was founded in 1987, but a significant percentage of those Bibles were for export outside China. In addition, many Bibles have been confiscated, burned, or worn out due to overuse; in some areas, house church members still take turns reading the only available copy of Scripture.

In March, Compass spoke with several house church leaders in Kunming who reported an acute lack of Bibles – in a city where Bibles previously were readily available from TSPM churches. Bibles also have been deliberately withheld from house church pastors; one such pastor told Compass he was refused Bibles when he approached a TSPM church. The same pastor reported multiple visits from police in the first quarter of the year, asking him to register his church through the TSPM.

Both house church and TSPM pastors reported a shortage of Bibles and other Christian materials in the northwest, the northeast, Beijing, and the southwest. Church growth in tribal areas also has created an urgent need for Bibles in minority languages.

Ironically, Anthony Liu Bainian, vice-chairman of the CPA, suggested in March that 20,000 English Bibles should be put in hotel rooms during the Beijing Olympics to “clear up foreigners’ misconceptions about religion in China.”

Olympic HeadacheAs preparations continue for the 2008 Olympics, critics around the world are calling China to account for ongoing human rights abuses – including religious freedom abuses.

In its 2006 annual report on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department said China had failed to live up to promises to respect citizens’ faith, persecuting Christians, Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists who refused to accept official controls.

When the report was released, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the report was a “continuation of groundless accusations of China’s policies on religion and ethnic minorities.”

China observers will be watching closely for “grounds” for these accusations as the Olympics approach.

(Return to Index)

***********************************Egypt Orders Retrial on ‘Apostasy’ CaseConstitution’s Islamic law clause called “a sword aimed at the neck of Christians.”by Barbara G. Baker


ISTANBUL, July 6 (Compass Direct News) – Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court this week quashed a previous ruling that had denied Coptic citizens the right to regain their legal Christian identity, ordering a retrial on the hotly contested case.

The 45 Coptic plaintiffs and their supporters greeted the ruling with cheers and ululating trills echoing through the courtroom, declaring it a victory for “citizenship rights,” sources at the national weekly Watani told Compass.

The court stated that it had based its ruling on the legal opinion of the State Commissioners Authority, which noted that Egypt’s civil law contained no reference to ridda [abandoning Islam], which is punishable by death under Islamic law.

Held under tight security on Monday (July 2), the final appeal hearing was punctuated by heated arguments between lawyers, angry chants from Islamists crowding the courtroom and near fist fights at one point.

When defense lawyer Naguib Gabriel declared that Egypt should be a civil state, not an Islamic state, courtroom observers began to chant, “Islamic! Islamic! Egypt is an Islamic state!”

The evening before the awaited verdict, Gabriel appeared on the “Al-Ashira Misa’an” (“Ten O’Clock P.M.”) talk show on the satellite TV Dream channel. Quoting Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution, which declares Islam the state religion and Islamic law the main source of legislation, Gabriel said this clause would always be “a sword aimed at the neck of Christians.”

The plaintiffs’ defense team of well-known Coptic lawyers included Mamdouh Ramzi, Ramses el-Nagar and Mamdouh Nakhla.

When government lawyer Mansour Abdel-Ghaffar declared to the court that the converts to Islam who then wanted to return to Christianity were “manipulators of religion,” defense attorney Ramzi reminded the court of the Quranic verse declaring, “There is no compulsion in Islam.”

Both Ramzi and Nakhla emphasized “glaring discrimination” against Christians in regard to religious conversion. Although a Copt can be legally declared a Muslim in a matter of 24 hours, they said, a Muslim’s conversion to Christianity remains “next to impossible.”

According to El-Nagar, this week’s ruling has established that the same legal principles apply to Muslim and Christian citizens alike. Because it applies “indiscriminately” to all conversion cases, the lawyer concluded, it thus obligates the Interior Ministry to change religious identities without the applicants having to take their cases to court.

During the initial appeal hearing on June 18, defense attorney Ramzi asked government lawyer Mazhar Farghali what he would do if a Muslim wished to convert to Christianity.


“I would cut his throat,” Farghali replied.

According to a report published July 1 by Watani, Farghali had insisted in his remarks that changing the religion category from Muslim to Christian “threatens public order.”

In response, El-Nagar expressed “amazement that correcting a mistake in one’s ID papers to reflect the true status of the holder . . . is described by the government’s attorney as ‘endangering public order’ instead of ‘defending public order.’”

El-Nagar had also pointed out that the nation’s laws restricting the right of religious conversion were clear violations of the international treaties that Egypt has signed.

Another state lawyer, Abdel Meguid al-Enani, had insisted that Islam was “a one-way road.” For a Muslim to leave Islam constituted “high treason,” he said.

“Just look,” Al-Enani had said, looking around the courtroom. “All the church is present here. It’s a conspiracy against Islam.”

The only Christian visitor to the courtroom was one Coptic priest.

Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz set September 1 for the case to be retried before the Supreme Administrative Court.

In an interview with the Middle East Times, El-Nagar predicted a “positive outcome” at the September hearing, declaring that this week’s ruling proved there was “still a window of freedom in Egypt.”

END

*** Photographs of lawyers Naguib Gabriel and Mamdouh Nakhla are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

(Return to Index)

***********************************Egyptian Police Torture Christian Convert WomanEstranged Islamist relatives vow to kill young wife.by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, July 18 (Compass Direct News) – Security police in Alexandria, Egypt have repeatedly tortured a young woman convert to Christianity in custody since Monday (July 16).

Fanatic Islamist relatives of Shaymaa (Eman) Muhammad al-Sayed, 26, attacked her two days ago while she and her husband were strolling through a local fair in Alexandria.


Although police intervened in the street-side fracas, they promptly arrested the victim herself, allegedly to protect her from her Muslim family.

Each day since then, El-Sayed, 26, has been transferred to a security police headquarters in Alexandria, where inside sources confirmed to Compass that she has been subjected to hours of interrogation and severe physical torture.

At 3 p.m. today, Egyptian authorities again sent the young woman back from the local police station where she was arrested to security police custody. Sources in Alexandria confirmed again today that SSI officials at the El-Fraana police headquarters have subjected El-Sayed to severe torture, including electrocution of sensitive parts of her body. Together with her husband, also a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, El-Sayed was browsing through a fair in Alexandria’s Al-Azareeta district on Monday afternoon (July 16) when she was spotted by her brother and an uncle.

Since their marriage four years earlier, the convert couple had managed to avoid any contact with her family, all members of the fanatic El-Salafiyeen group of Sunni extremists.

El-Sayed’s male relatives immediately grabbed her and began to beat her with their hands, attempting to shove her into a car and vowing to kill her.

But when El-Sayed began screaming loudly, people in the crowd called the police, who interfered in the attack and took her into custody.

Meantime, El-Sayed had called to her husband, urging him, “Go! Escape from here before they catch you!” Her husband managed to flee the scene, escaping from both her angry relatives and police detention.

But his wife was taken under arrest to the nearby Bab-Sharky police station, on the orders of officer Khayree Nasar. Soon afterwards, her family members ringed the police station, demanding that she be turned over to them to be punished for abandoning Islam.

When El-Sayed was searched and found to be carrying Christian identity papers, local police then transferred her to State Security Investigation (SSI) officials in the El-Fraana district of Alexandria.

To intimidate her with the threat of public shame, she also had been forcibly disrobed and photographed naked at the Bab-Sharky police station.

“This is not legal treatment, but it is happening all the time,” said Rasha Noor, an Egyptian convert now living abroad and tracking reports of overt persecution against Christians in her homeland. “The Christians from Muslim background can’t change their identities, so they are always pushed by the authorities to return back to Islam – or else.”


Converts Targeted In a similar incident in April documented by Compass, a Christian convert couple living in a Cairo district far from their relatives were targeted after aggressive Islamists noticed the husband did not attend mosque prayers.

Mounting a deliberate watch, the Islamist vigilantes followed the husband until they finally saw him go into a church.

Soon afterwards, a group of 10 men stormed the couple’s home without warning, accusing them of committing “apostasy.” They made a neighborhood spectacle by searching their house and dragging them off to the police station.

There the wife was raped twice and her husband savagely beaten. When the Islamist vigilantes finally released them a day later, they threatened the convert couple with prison if they dared to tell anyone what had happened to them.

The husband was subsequently fired from his well-paying job, and local shopkeepers refused to sell them food or other goods. They were eventually forced to move away to a remote village, where he found work as a day laborer.

Although a growing number of Muslim-born Egyptians have left Islam and quietly converted to Christianity, they are forbidden to change their official religious identity.

In order to become part of local Christian congregations and raise their children as Christians, some converts acquire forged Christian identity papers, classified as a misdemeanor under Egyptian law.

“Egyptian society is not prepared to face this problem of converts,” one Egyptian Catholic leader told Compass recently. “Whether it’s Christians or Baha’is or whoever, there’s a lot of personal prejudice and discrimination.”

He said he has told SSI agents that, in the next five to 10 years, the government must resolve how to protect converts. “They have to deal with it, without making a fuss over this issue of apostasy, because people are wanting real freedom of speech and belief,” he said.

In contrast to the restrictions against Muslims converting to Christianity, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, stated last year that some 7,000 Coptic Christians had openly converted to Islam between the years 2000 and 2006.

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***********************************Egyptian Police Release Christian to Her Violent FamilyIslamist relatives beat young woman; her life is threatened by Muslim extremists.


by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, July 23 (Compass Direct News) – Egyptian police in Alexandria who last week arrested a Christian convert woman today handed her over to her fanatical Islamist family, who beat her before driving her away.

Eyewitnesses said family members of Shaymaa (Eman) Muhammad al-Sayed, 26, today dragged her screaming from the police station where she had been closeted. According to the eyewitnesses outside Alexandria’s Bab-Sharky police station, Al-Sayed’s relatives severely beat her in the Shatby Cemetery behind the police station at 4 p.m.

She was then forced into a family microbus and driven off toward the district of Abeis, east of Alexandria, where her father’s knitting factory is located.

One week ago, on July 16, these same family members openly threatened to kill Al-Sayed for leaving Islam to become a Christian, after spotting her walking through a fair in Alexandria.

Local police promptly took her into “protective custody,” allegedly to prevent her physical harm at the hands of her irate Muslim relatives.

But instead of protecting her, local police and State Security Investigation (SSI) officials have subjected the threatened woman to days of severe physical and emotional torture. Her maltreatment included electrical shocks, beatings and being photographed naked.

Her repeated requests to press charges against her family for attempting to kidnap and kill her were ignored.

At one point, Col. Abdel-Ghany Hamada of the Division of Public Affairs commanded four of his officers to beat her with their shoes while he interrogated her for hours about her forged Christian identity papers.

After becoming a Christian in January 2003, Al-Sayed had obtained Christian identity papers under the name of Maryan Eleya Saleeb and married a Christian man. Egyptian law does not permit anyone born a Muslim to change his or her religion, nor can a Muslim woman marry a Christian.

On Saturday (July 21), Al-Sayed was transferred to Cairo, assumedly to be arraigned on forgery charges before the Division of Public Affairs.

But after being shuttled around Cairo from an SSI headquarters to a holding cell of the Division of Public Affairs and then to the Al-Mosky police station, Al-Sayed was sent without explanation back to Alexandria last night.


At noon today, authorities then transferred her from the Bab-Sharky police station to the SSI headquarters in Al-Faraana, where Lt. Col. Issam Shawki and Lt. Col. Adel Nafie continued to issue dangerous threats to her.

About the same time, Lt. Col. Waleed Fayyed of the Bab-Sharky police station sent word to Al-Sayed’s father, uncle and brother around noon today to come and take custody of her from the police station.

Although fully aware of the family’s threats to kill Al-Sayed, the police failed to require her family to sign any guarantee that she would not be harmed. Despite the young woman’s legal adult status, she was unable to obtain any restraining order to secure her personal safety.

After El-Sayed’s family learned of her conversion to Christianity in January 2003, they had severely abused her as they were determined to force her to return to Islam and marry a cousin active in the Al-Salafiyeen extremist movement.

Since she fled home four years ago, her father has reportedly filed three missing person’s reports with the police in attempts to track her down.

“But she is not a minor, she is an adult,” Egyptian Christian advocate Rasha Noor told Compass today. “Why did the authorities give her over to her family, when they know that her relatives want to kill her?”

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***********************************India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecutionby Vishal Arora and Nirmala Carvalho

Karnataka, July 10 (Compass Direct News) – About 10 extremists from a newly formed Hindu militant group, Ram Sena, on July 8 beat two Christian workers and paraded them half-naked to a police station for what an advocacy group called false charges of “hurting religious feelings” in Bangalore, Karnataka state. The extremists dragged the victims, identified as G. Mohan and M.G. John, out of the house of a Christian, Nanda Gopal, in the Wilson Garden area, and assaulted them, Dr. Sajan K. George of the Bangalore-based Global Council of Indian Christians told Compass. Police arrested the Christians for “hurting religious feelings” and “creating enmity between religious communities,” while the extremists went free. The Christians were later released on bail. The two independent workers meet in Gopal’s house every Sunday for worship. – VA

Chhattisgarh – Hindu extremists from the Dharam Sena (Religion Army) on July 6 beat an independent pastor, Vikas Masih, put a garland of shoes and slippers around his neck and took him to the Telibandha police station in Raipur. A local news channel filmed the incident at 1 p.m. in the Thelipancha Ring Road area and televised it the same day, Arun Pannalal, general secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told Compass. The


extremists had threatened Masih the previous day while he was returning from a prayer meeting. After the assailants forced Masih to the police station, officers ensured that he received first aid but later arrested him for “hurting religious feelings.” A magistrate remanded him to judicial custody, a police sub-inspector told Compass. Masih remained in jail at press time. Police said they had arrested Kishore Kothari, chief of the Dharam Sena, along with four others, for the attack, but all of them were soon released on bail. Kothari allegedly has led several other attacks on Christians in Raipur. – VA

Karnataka – Subhas Chalawadi, allegedly a member of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal, and 15 others beat Dyamappa Chalawadi and his wife Geetha on July 4 in Baloga village, Khanapur taluk, Belgaum district, Karnataka, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). Evangelist Santosh Basappa and a pastor from Trinity Church in Baloga were visiting the couple when the group led by Subhas Chalawadi barged into their home and dragged Dyamappa Chalawadi out. They kicked him and hit him with wooden sticks on the palms of his hands and soles of his feet. Some of the assailants pulled his wife by the hair and pushed her against the wall, and Basappa told Compass they grabbed her arm, hit her on the shoulders and back and told her, “We will kill you and your husband if you continue your Christian prayers.” Khanapur police refused to register a complaint from the couple, saying “there are no bleeding injuries,” said Dr. Sajan K. George of the GCIC. Dyamappa Chalawadi became a Christian in April, while his wife Geetha received Christ a year ago. – NC

Karnataka – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal attacked Christians identified as C.J. Samuel and Pastor Moses on July 4 at Belthur, near Kadugodi, Bangalore, Karnataka, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). Pastors of the independent Pentecostal Atmanesar Church, Samuel and Moses were returning home from a Bible meeting in Belthur when a group of around 15 Hindu extremists waylaid them on a lonely dark stretch of road, the GCIC’s Dr. Sajan K. George told Compass. The extremists slapped and punched their heads, arms and legs and cursed their Christian faith, accusing the pastors of converting poor villagers to a foreign religion. More than 50 others joined the kicking and punching as the pastors writhed in pain on the ground. Local sources told Compass the assault lasted for nearly an hour, ending with the extremists threatening to kill them if they visited Belthur again. The pastors were admitted to Baptist Hospital for treatment of their injures. “The pastors are too terrified to lodge a complaint against the extremists for fear of reprisals, as the extremists made threats to their life,” George said. – NC

Madhya Pradesh – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council), beat three pastors and held knives to the throats of their wives on July 2 in Madhya Pradesh state’s Rewa district. They attacked pastors Amos Singh, Prem Masih and Ram Pal with iron rods and sticks at about noon after a prayer meeting at the Evangelical Church of India (ECI), said Sam Mathew, a local representative of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “When the wives of the victims tried to rescue them, they kept knives on their throats warning them against intervening,” Mathew told Compass. The attackers also vandalized music and audio equipment and furniture. An ECI pastor had invited


Singh and Pal, independent pastors, for a two-day Christian meeting in the church, which he organized together with a police inspector, Sri Bhonsle, also a Christian. The extremists accused Bhonsle of helping local Christian workers to convert Hindus by fraudulent means. The assailants had visited and taken video of the meeting on July 1, but because of police protection could not attack. Police arrested four people in connection with the assault but soon released them on bail. – VA

Karnataka – “There is a great threat to the country owing to conversion initiated by Christians in the name of social service,” Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, a leader of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said on July 2, according to the Daijiworld News Network (DNN). Bhat was speaking at “an anti-conversion awareness” meeting organized by the Hindu extremist Hindu Janajagruti Vedike and Bajrang Dal in Kundapur. He claimed bias in newspaper reports by a journalist of Kundapur about an attack on priest Sylvester Pereira on June 25. “In the last 250 years, Christian missionaries have indulged in conversion through schools, orphanages, hospitals, etcetera,” Bhat said. “Hence, there is a great threat to Indian culture and thoughts.” The RSS leader also defended Ramanna Shetty, who assaulted Fr. Pereira. DNN quoted Krishna Prasad Adyantaya, managing trustee of Kollur temple in Karnataka, as praising Bajrang Dal leaders for foiling anti-Hindu acts of Christians. “Dara Singh, who burned Christian missionary [Graham] Staines [to death] at Orissa a few years ago, is a role model to us,” Adyantaya reportedly said. “There are many Dara Singhs in Kundapur who can foil the attempt to convert.” Hindu extremist Sangh Parivar leaders were also present on the dais. – NC

Chhattisgarh – About 50 Hindu extremists disrupted the Sunday worship service of a church, beat the pastor and church members, and stole music equipment on July 1 at Gandhi Chowk, Rouabandha, Bhilai Nagar, Durg District, Chhattisgarh state. “About 30 believers were worshiping at the Living Grace Ministries Church when the extremists belonging to the Dharam Rakshak Sena (Army for Protection of Religion) of the Bajrang Dal stormed the church at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday,” Pastor Sam Mathew, a local representative of the Global Council of Indian Christians, told Compass. The assailants beat Pastor Mannepalli Ramanaiah Israel and Ravi Kumar as well as a female church member, Radhika, with iron rods and sticks, besides punching and kicking them. They also kicked Bibles and stole all music instruments. The three Christians suffered several internal injuries. The attackers accused Pastor Israel of converting Hindus by offering money. The police did not register a complaint, though the victims gave names of the assailants to police. “The situation continues to be tense, as another church member, Raju Sivansi, on July 5 was threatened by some unknown people, who said they would break his hands and legs if he went to attend the church,” Pastor Mathew added. – VA

Orissa – A group of 20 to 25 Hindu extremists said to belong to the Hindu Jagaran Samukhya (HJS, or Hindu Awakening Front) on July 1 attacked Chandu Markose, 35, a priest from the Church of South India in the remote village of Gelabaza, Tabada Block, Deogarh district in Orissa state. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said the extremists, with saffron bands around their foreheads, shouted a Hindu devotional slogan, “Jai Mataji [Hail to the Mother Goddess],” while others


cursed Christianity as they attacked Fr. Markose. Asit Kumar Mohanty, a regional coordinator for the GCIC, told Compass the priest was returning home on a bicycle on a lonely stretch of mud road after he had finished Sunday worship services in Gelabaza village when the extremists waylaid him. After slapping, punching and kicking him, they flung a hand-made bomb at him in an attempt to kill him, Mohanty said. “The bomb fell on his left leg, resulting only in fractures of his toes, and caused injuries on his arms and stomach and back,” Mohanty told Compass. Fr. Markose managed to reach home, and his family took him to a hospital at Deogarh. Markose was transferred to the Jesus Mary Joseph Hospital at Sambalpur, where he underwent emergency surgery on his left foot, George said. At press time, no one had been arrested. – NC

Karnataka – Police in Mangalore region of Karnataka state’s Dakshina Kannada district disrupted the Sunday worship of an independent church, Jehovah Rapha Divine Centre, in Hosabetta area on July 1. They told the pastor, T.V. Chacko, to obtain permission to hold worship services from district authorities, Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians told Compass. “The authorities are harassing Christians by misusing an order passed by it earlier this year,” George said. The Regulation of Public Gatherings (Dakshina Kannada) Order, implemented on March 20, 2007, requires prior permission for any “public gathering,” the definition of which includes worship services, from district authorities. The application for permission must be signed by at least three persons no fewer than three days prior to the proposed public gathering. But the order does not mention if the permission for a recurring gathering can be sought through a single, one-time application. The order was passed because “public gatherings were leading to law-and-order problems,” according to the district head, Maheshwar Rao. “Pastor Chacko has applied for permission to hold the worship service,” George added. – VA

Karnataka – Hindu extremists on June 29 attacked a pastor involved in social developmental work and later filed a false police complaint against him in Sunderplaya village in Karnataka state’s Kolar district. The assailants beat the Rev. P. Ravi, pastor of an independent Pentecostal church who was assisting people in the Kolar Gold Field area, leaving him with internal injuries, said Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “A day later, the extremists lodged a police complaint against the pastor, alleging that he was converting Hindus by ‘force’ and insulting Hindu gods,” George said. Police promptly arrested Rev. Ravi, and the extremists prevented his lawyers from contacting him. The pastor was finally released on bail the following day. George said police showed a “visible bias” in arresting Rev. Ravi and letting the attackers go free without charges. – VA

Madhya Pradesh – A mob said to belong to the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on June 16 thrashed a pastor associated with BEAM India Mission in Anuppur district. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) identified the victim only as 52-year-old Pastor Khakha. Sam Mathew, Madhya Pradesh coordinator of GCIC, told Compass that 16 people had assembled for Bible study and prayer in Kotma block, Anuppur district in Madhya Pradesh. A group of 50 to 60 RSS extremists “barged into the prayer hall, grabbed Pastor Khakha by his collar and dragged


him out of the church punching, slapping and kicking him,” Mathew told Compass. The extremists shoved the pastor into a jeep and took him to a Bhadra motor stand, where they pulled him from the vehicle and beat him. They then took him to Jamuna colony, near Government High School Square, where they again punched and kicked him. The extremists repeated the assault at nearby Chandini Chowk and at Sikh Gurudwara, finally leaving him swollen and bruised at the bungalow of the general manager of coal mines. Threatening to beat more pastors and Christian workers, they said they were connected to Bhopal’s RSS office, said Mathew. Police in Kotma block refused to register a First Information Report when Pastor Khakha tried to file a complaint. The GCIC has approached the National Human Rights Commission for immediate intervention. – NC

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***********************************Death of Pastor in India Remains UnsolvedPolice claim accidental drowning; family, villagers convinced he was murdered.by Vishal Arora

GUDIVADA, Andhra Pradesh, July 10 (Compass Direct News) – Family and friends of Pastor Goda Israel, whose body was found in a pond in Andhra Pradesh in February, say they are still convinced that Israel was murdered, despite police claims of “accidental drowning.”

The body of the 29-year-old pastor was found on February 20 in a fishpond near his home in Pedapallparru village, Gudivada. (See Compass Direct News, “Young Pastor Found Dead in Andhra Pradesh, India,” February 27.)

A source in the Rajasthan state-based Emmanuel Mission International (EMI), with whom the slain pastor’s brother works, had told Compass that stab wounds were found on Israel’s body. Police would not confirm this at the time, saying they were still waiting for the results of an autopsy.

Police Sub-Inspector P. Venkateswarlu (previously misidentified as Venakt Rao), however, told Compass by phone in February that a case had been filed under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with “a certain case of murder, based on visible injuries.”

The president of Gudivara Pastors’ Fellowship, Pastor Appikatla Joshua, told Compass he had “personally seen the body with wounds on the back.” Local villagers also reported seeing wounds on the body – although they did not specifically describe them as stab wounds. A photo of the pastor’s battered, wounded body being dragged from the mud was printed in a local Christian newspaper; Joshua also provided photos of the body to police that showed the wounds.

Strangely, police have yet to interview any of the witnesses who saw the body being removed from the pond, local villagers told Compass in late June.


Police now say that Israel drowned accidentally while relieving himself near the fishpond. Sub-Inspector Venkateswarlu told Compass three weeks ago that the autopsy report gave probable cause of death by drowning, and that “no injuries” were noted on the body. He also said the case had subsequently been filed under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which deals with “suspicious death in which murder is a possible motive.”

Another official told Compass that the police had sent some organs of Israel’s body for chemical examination to confirm whether he had in fact drowned to death. The report was awaited at press time.

Accident DoubtedIsrael’s family, church members and neighbors refuse to accept the police version of events.

When Compass spoke a few weeks ago to Israel’s widow Aruna, his brother Pastor G. Prashant Raj, his mother Rajamma, and several church members, they all reported seeing obvious wounds on the body.

“Also, when he left home he was wearing a shirt with a vest, pants and shoes – but when the body was found, he only had the pants on,” a family member said. The family believes this almost certainly rules out the possibility of Israel drowning while relieving himself.

Relatives said Israel went missing on February 17, four days before the body was found; whereas at least one policeman has claimed Israel went missing on February 19 and was found the following day.

The family reported Israel’s disappearance almost immediately, but police refused to search for him.

At press time, police still had not contacted any other family member or villager to gather facts about the case.

But Israel’s wife Aruna told Compass that a local government official, Narsimha Rao, had offered compensation of 50,000 rupees (US$1,237) for her husband’s death if she agreed to accept the death as an accidental drowning.

Convinced that her husband was murdered and fearing retaliation, Israel’s wife has rejected efforts of the Gudivara Pastors’ Fellowship to press ahead with a murder case.

Suspects, MotivesBoth family and church members said they did not believe Hindu extremists were responsible for Israel’s death.


“There was no tension between Hindus and Christians in the village, although earlier on some extremists in a nearby village had threatened Israel,” said Israel’s brother Prashant. “In fact, everyone including Hindus in the village loved Israel.”

The villagers were stunned by Israel’s death. Within days they began to suspect leaders of the New Apostolic Church Ministry (NACM), which manages the church Israel had inherited after his own father’s death. Some villagers said other senior members of the NACM were offended, as they had hoped to take on the position.

Israel went missing on February 17; he was due to be ordained by the NACM on February 23.

“In fact, when the NACM leaders came to visit the family about a week after he died, some villagers caught them and handed them over to the police as possible suspects,” a church member told Compass. “But the police did not find any truth in the allegations.”

Later, both family and local residents suspected – and continue to do so – a distant relative of Israel, Gummadi Paulraj, who had come to Israel’s home to take him to the fishpond on February 17.

Paulraj, an agricultural laborer, lives in the same village but attends the Church of South India in a neighboring village.

“When Paulraj came back alone on February 17, we asked where Israel was,” a family member told Compass. “He told us Israel had gone to pray and would return later. But Israel never came home.”

In May, Israel’s family wrote a letter to the police, naming Paulraj as a suspect. Police arrested and detained Paulraj for three days before releasing him without charges.

While the circumstances of Israel’s death remain shrouded in mystery, Aruna and her two children now struggle to make ends meet, along with Israel’s mother who is battling cancer. The family told Compass they have lost hope of a fair and unbiased investigation.

Israel was previously reported to be a graduate of the Emmanuel Bible Institute, run by Emmanuel Mission International in Kota, Rajasthan, but Compass has since discovered that it was Israel’s brother Prashant who attended the Institute; Israel attended only a simple training session run by EMI in Andhra Pradesh state.

END

*** Photos of Israel Goda with his wife, mother, brother and children; his church; and the Rev. Appikatla Joshua are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************State in India Again Tries Secret Survey of ChristiansGujarat high court takes note; Hindu extremists use data to target religious minorities.by Vishal Arora

NEW DELHI, July 20 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat state has resumed the secret survey of Christian institutions it began eight years ago. Extremists have used such surveys to target religious minorities for violence.

In response to a petition filed by the All India Christian Council (AICC), the Gujarat High Court on July 2 took note of the survey, allegedly conducted by police in Zone 6 of Gujarat’s Ahmedabad city in April.

“This is the fifth time that the Gujarat government has gathered information about Christian institutions in the state,” petitioner Samson Christian, Gujarat state head and national executive member of the AICC, told Compass. “We fear that the data would be handed over to Hindu extremists for launching organized attacks against Christian institutions.”

Christian said police interrogated workers of several Christian institutions, including Operation Mobilisation (OM), Church of North India and Salvation Army, in Ahmedabad.

Raju Christie, Gujarat head of OM, confirmed that police interrogated his workers.

“Policemen came to our office in Behrampura area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Kagra Peet police station, in my absence, and asked my staff objectionable questions like where the money comes from and how many people in the organization are converts,” he told Compass.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner J. Mahapatra categorically denied to Compass that any such survey was underway in any part of the city.

But the head of Kagra Peet police station, R.K. Patel, admitted that officers visited Christian institutions in the area. “We did make a list of Christian institutions, as we were asked to do so to ensure peace and protection of ‘vital installations,’” he said. “But that was a few months ago.”

State governments designate certain structures, monuments and buildings of government institutions as “vital installations,” which police protect against possible terror attacks.

On July 2, the high court issued notices to federal minister Ram Vilas Paswan, federal home secretary and secretary general of the Lok Sabha (House of the People), in connection with the survey. A Dalit, Paswan is also president of the Lok Janshakti Party.


“The Gujarat government had earlier told the court that in 2003, Paswan asked all the states to gather information about Christian institutions as a basis for a national law against conversions,” AICC leader Christian explained. “This is why the court issued notices to Paswan and the federal government.” Christian added that the BJP was trying to punish Paswan, known as a pro-minorities official, by making a false allegation against him.

At the next hearing, which took place yesterday, the federal government sought more time to file its reply. The court deferred the hearing, which is yet to be scheduled.

Earlier Attempts Community surveys in Gujarat first began in 1999, in the wake of the anti-Christian violence in the Dangs district. Officials maintained that they were gathering information in order to ensure the security of the Christian community.

A judge of the Gujarat High Court, M.R. Kella, took note of the survey on February 16, 1999, based on a report in the Asian Age newspaper.

In 2001, the government again started collecting data on Christians. The AICC filed a petition in the high court against it, resulting in an order to halt the survey.

The state government again carried out a similar survey – under the pretext of a criminal investigation – in March 2003. Christians saw it as a build-up to the anti-conversion bill later introduced in the state assembly. (See Compass Direct News, “Christians Outraged by Surveys in India’s Gujarat State,” April 11, 2003).

The AICC again approached the state high court against the census. The Gujarat government again gave an assurance to the court that it would not conduct any such survey.

The Gujarat government, however, yet again resumed the survey in May 2003. The AICC again filed a petition challenging it. As a result, the Gujarat High Court on May 29, 2003 issued a desist notice.

“During the killing of hundreds of members of the Muslim minority community in various parts of Gujarat in 2002, the Hindu extremists, who came from outside the areas where they shed blood and vandalized property, knew well which houses or shops belonged to Muslims,” Christian said. “In the light of this, such a survey of Christians is nothing less than fearful.”

The state assembly election is expected to take place in Gujarat later in December.

There are only 284,092 Christians in Gujarat, which has a population of close to 50.7 million.


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Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecutionby Vishal Arora and Nirmala Carvalho

Madhya Pradesh, July 24 (Compass Direct News) – A dozen masked men wielding cricket stumps and clubs entered the grounds of a Catholic religious community in Satna district, Madhya Pradesh on July 18, and six of them assaulted four men. The men belong to the Eucharistic Covenant Community in a worship center called Akasha Paravakal in Satna Town. One of the four, Emmanuel Vadakedathaparambil, said, “The assailants barged into the room as we were resting and attacked us. I’ve received eight stitches on the left side of my head.” Of the other three men, Yohannan Thadathil’s injuries included swollen arms and legs, Ajish Pullatkudiyil’s breathing has been impaired, and Xavier Pottanamuzhi suffered fractures in one leg and both hands. Satna Police Superintendent Kamal Singh Rator registered a case against the 12 unidentified people, local sources told Compass, but at press time no arrests had been made. – NC

New Delhi – The Supreme Court of India on July 19 ordered the federal government to clarify its position on extending affirmative action benefits to Dalit converts to Christianity. In a hearing that took place after seven deferrals since August 2005, the government, which was supposed to give its view on the issue, asked for more time, saying it was now awaiting comment from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes or Dalits. The court told the government to respond within two months. An advisory panel, the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, on May 14 had submitted its report to the government recommending repeal of a clause in the Indian Constitution entitling only Dalits from Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism to governmental affirmative action. Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables,” have traditionally occupied the lowest place in the Hindu caste system. It is estimated that more than 65 percent of Christians in India are from Dalit backgrounds. – VA

Bihar – Suspected Hindu extremists attacked Catholic priest with a sharp weapon on July 17 in his house in West Champaran district of the eastern state of Bihar. The Rev. V. Michael from Our Lady of Assumption parish of Chauri Mission, Bettiah diocese, was recovering in a hospital from serious injuries to his head and stomach, said Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians. Rev. Michael, who underwent abdominal surgery, has lost much blood and one of his kidneys is damaged, added George. According to police, more than a dozen people entered Rev. Michael’s house while he was still asleep the morning of July 17. According to an initial inquiry, the motive for the attack was not robbery, as all valuables in the priest’s house were untouched. – VA

Tamil Nadu – Hindu extremists demolished the house of a 51-year-old Dalit pastor, Paul Chinnaswamy, on July 16 in Dharmapuri district of the southern state of Tamil Nadu. “Extremists threw out the independent pastor and his four family members and damaged his humble house in Hosur area of Dharmapuri district,” Dr. Sajan K. George of the


Global Council of Indian Christians told Compass. Chinnaswamy was attacked twice earlier this year. On May 5, eight Hindu extremists broke into his house and assaulted him with a screwdriver, besides insulting his wife and threatening to harm his 4-year-old daughter. The attackers also took away 2,750 rupees (US$64), claiming that the amount was given by foreigners for conversion. Chinnaswamy had set aside the money to pay his electricity bill. On April 22, extremists beat Chinnaswamy and vandalized his kitchen. “Chinnaswamy has not filed a police complaint even once, as he fears that he would be killed if he did so,” George added. – VA

Maharashtra – Hindu extremists demolished the house of Christian convert Arjun Pashi, 38, on July 16 in Nursery Baugh, Vasai, Thane district, Maharashtra. Vivian Correa, a member of the state minority commission, told Compass that about a dozen Hindu extremists led by Sagar Mhambre barged into Pashi’s house armed with wooden clubs. They slapped him, repeatedly hit him on the head, “and abused him in filthy language for his Christian faith,” she told Compass. Pushing his wife to the wall as she tried to protect their meager belongings, the extremists began destroying the furniture in Pashi’s home and then demolished his small, one room house. They left after threatening Pashi, who became a Christian a year ago, with more harm if he continued in his faith, Correa said. Fear of further persecution kept Pashi from registering a complaint, but Mhambre, facing the prospect of arrest after representatives of the Maharashtra All India Christian Council visited the scene on July 21, agreed to rebuild Pashi’s house within a week. – NC

Andhra Pradesh – Five Hindu extremists on July 16 attacked a pastor and his associate and filed a police complaint against them for “forcible” conversion in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh state. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians told Compass that the assailants, apparently members of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), beat the two Christians, identified only as Pastor Isaac and Yedbez from Bethel Church, while they were returning from a believer’s house in Afzul Gunj, near Charminar area in Hyderabad. The two had gone to the believer’s house to pray for him. “Pastor Isaac managed to escape, but the extremists dragged Yedbez to the police station and lodged a complaint against him,” George said. Police arrested Yedbez, who was subsequently released on bail. The two Christians received minor internal injuries in the attack. – VA

Madhya Pradesh – Villagers allegedly instigated by the Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), disrupted the screening of a film based on the life of Jesus Christ and threatened the organizers on July 15 in Bahera village, Detalath area, Madhya Pradesh state. “About 12 villagers, who were drunk, came to the site where an independent pastor, Heeralal Khushwaha, was screening ‘Daya Sagar,’ and caused a commotion, using filthy language against the pastor and other Christians,” said Sam Mathew, local representative of the Global Council of Indian Christians. The following day, the villagers threatened a believer identified only as Ramu as he returned from Pastor Khushwaha’s house. They said they would burn down his house if he attended any Christian meetings. Pastor Khushwaha on July 18 filed a police complaint against the assailants, but police did not register it. Hindu villagers submitted a written complaint to police accusing Inspector Sri Bhonsle, a local believer, of supporting


“conversion activities” in the village. “Pastor Khushwaha did not conduct the Sunday worship on July 22 out of fear,” Mathew said. Extremists had attacked three pastors in the same district on July 2. – VA

Karnataka – A police sub-inspector in Haveri district, Karnataka state, on July 15 beat Pastor Ravi Benjamin and an evangelist identified only as 23-year-old Vijay of Spirit Filled Church of Tadas village, Shiggaon Taluk. Local Christian sources said Sub-Inspector V.K. Manjappa disrupted the Sunday worship of Pastor Benjamin’s house church, called him and the evangelist outside, shouted obscene insults at them and beat them with his baton. Taking them to the Tadas police station, he angrily questioned them about their Christian activities for about three hours, and then released them. Rev. Peter Jamkhandi, director of Christian Outreach Ministry of India, told Compass, “Manjappa told me that the Christians were only taken for questioning, and he denied any manhandling of the Christians.” On July 16, Rev. Jamkhandi and about 100 believers from Shimoga district met the Haveri deputy superintendent of police to demand either the suspension or transfer of Manjappa for harassment and intimidation of the Christians. – NC

Madhya Pradesh – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Dharma Sena (Army of Religion) thrashed three evangelists from the Christian United Prayer Band Church on July 14 in Dohania village, Dindori district, Madhya Pradesh; police then questioned the victims for nearly four hours, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). The evangelists, Hamlin Paniselvan, Joseph Alphonse and one identified only as Sanjay, were standing at a bus stop when a group of about 15 extremists accompanied by two policemen approached them. The extremists grabbed the Christians’ satchels and emptied the contents – booklets of Bible stories and gospel tracts. They “slapped the three evangelists and cursed them with filthy abuses, stating that they had been closely monitoring the movements and conversion activities of these three Christians,” said the GCIC’s Dr. Sajan K. George. “The activists also made allegations of false conversions against them.” Police then angrily questioned the Christians and issued then a stern warning not to visit Dohania village again. – NC

Karnataka – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal on July 13 threatened Pastor Calvin Jeffrey Vedarathna, 34, of Holy Mountain Prayer Ministry, in Bhadravati Taluka, Shimoga district of Karnataka state. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at 6:30 p.m., Pastor Vedarathna, along with Magabhusan Babu, was attending a small prayer and fellowship meal at the house of a believer identified only as Jayamma, 63, in Hutha colony, Bhadravathi, when her Hindu neighbor identified only as Satish and five others came to the home and threatened the pastor with “serious consequences” if he visited the Jayamma house again. Satish, a member of the extremist Bharatiya Janata Party, also falsely accused him of forcible conversions before police, said Dr. Sajan. K. George of the GCIC. Pastor Vedarathna told Compass that police arrived at the house and took the believers to New Town police station, where they were questioned for an hour and released. – NC

Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad


(VHP) – accompanied by Andhra Pradesh police personnel in Kanipackam – beat 50-year-old Pastor Swaminathan Devakumar on July 5, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). The VHP extremists barged into Devakumar’s house and kicked and punched him in front of his family members, also damaging furniture and destroying Bibles. Police then charged the victim with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings” and violating a recent state ban on non-Hindus in 12 temple towns, including the Sri Varsiddhi Vinayaka Swamy Devastanam in Kanipackam. Pastor Devakumar was treated for internal injuries for three days at Christian Medical College in Vellore. “This is the first attack and arrest of non-Hindus in implementation of the unconstitutional [ban] passed by the state government of Andhra Pradesh,” said the GCIC’s Dr. Sajan K. George. Sam Paul of the All India Christian Council (AICC) told Compass that places in which non-Hindus are banned is “neither published clearly by the government in any newspaper, nor is it available. It is deplorable that police were watching the VHP activists assault the pastor.” Mary Bayya of the AICC state district legal cell demanded an enquiry into police behavior. – NC

Karnataka – More than 50 Hindu extremists beat members of a missionary team of Seventh Day Adventists on July 5 in the Sira area of Karnataka state’s Tumkur district. According to a report by the Global Council of Indian Christians, the team of about 10 missionaries visited Sira to provide medical and other services. The same day, a local believer identified as Narsimha had a house-warming ceremony, to which the missionaries were invited. Soon after the ceremony, the assailants stormed the house and struck the missionaries with knives, chains and wooden sticks. At least four Christians, M. Emmanuel, Leonard Anthony, P. John and Narsimha, received head, stomach and shoulder injures. – VA

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***********************************Iraqi Court Upholds Christian Girl’s Murder SentenceAs killing was not premeditated, teenager’s sentence reduced to 3.5 years.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, July 26 (Compass Direct News) – Iraq’s Kurdish regional high court has reduced jail time for a teenager who fatally stabbed her uncle as he beat her for converting to Christianity and “shaming” the family by working in public.

After reviewing the case for more than two months, the court in Erbil on April 30 upheld an earlier decision by Dohuk’s juvenile court that Asya Ahmad Muhammad was guilty of killing her uncle, though she acted in defense of herself and others. Clearing her of an original conviction for premeditated murder, the court reduced the 15-year-old girl’s sentence from five to three-and-a-half years.

In a written statement submitted to the regional high court in February, Muhammad’s lawyer, Akram Al-Najar, had argued that it was incorrect to try his client for “intentional premeditated killing” under article 406 of the Iraqi penal code. According to Al-Najar,


the high court agreed in part, changing the sentence to article 405, which covers non-premeditated intentional killing.

Muhammad stabbed her uncle in July 2006, when he came to her family’s kitchen utensil store outside of Dohuk and began beating her, her mother and brother.

After Muhammad’s mother fled the premises, Muhammad’s uncle began hitting her with one hand while tearing at her hair with the other, Al-Najar said. The lawyer said that his client’s head had been forced down, and that she had grabbed the first thing that her hand came to rest upon, a kitchen knife, striking blindly upwards and accidentally driving the knife through her uncle’s heart.

“The defendant was not carrying a weapon prepared to kill,” Al-Najar told Compass. “Also, if Maria [Muhammad’s Christian name] had wanted to kill her uncle, she would have repeated the stabbing to make sure he was dead.”

According to Al-Najar, his client should have been tried under article 411-1 of the Iraqi penal code, which prescribes three months to five years in prison for “accidental killing.”

But local Christians said they thought Muhammad’s sentence was light, considering that it was culturally acceptable for an uncle to beat his niece. “She is actually very lucky that her sentence was not longer,” one Christian said. “The penalty for murder is death, though as a minor she would have been given a life sentence.”

Muhammad’s jail time also means that she does not have to fear reprisal attacks from her relatives.

“It will be dangerous for Maria when she gets out of jail,” Muhammad’s mother, Mayan Jaffar Ibrahim, told Compass. “We are afraid that another uncle will come again and do the same thing. We might have to change houses.”

Muhammad’s uncle had previously tried to kill her father five times because of his conversion to Christianity, Ibrahim said.

After her uncle’s death, Muhammad’s relatives, led by her grandmother, demanded that her father be killed. Later the grandmother agreed to “reduce” her demands, requiring a large sum of money and Muhammad’s death.

Ibrahim said that for the past four months, their relatives, who live only 30 minutes away, have ceased to threaten them but are still angry and demanding US$60,000 to compensate for the loss of Muhammad’s uncle.

“If released, she would have to move away from Dohuk to get away from her relatives,” lawyer Al-Najar said, echoing the family’s concerns.


The knowledge that jail is the safest place for her daughter is of little consolation to Ibrahim, who misses Muhammad deeply.

“Pray that Maria can get out of jail,” she said quietly as tears formed in her eyes.

Al-Najar, who took Muhammad’s case pro bono, said that he had received two anonymous written threats prior to the initial ruling in February because of his role in defending Muhammad.

The Chaldean lawyer said that he took Muhammad’s case because he felt that it was important for both freedom of religion and women’s rights.

“In the Islamic religion, women should be [inside] the house,” he told Compass, citing the reason Muhammad’s uncle had given for attacking her and her mother. “It was even worse that this family had converted to Christianity.”

Both issues are up for public debate in northern Iraq as the Kurdish government works on drafting a regional constitution. In recent months, women’s rights groups have conducted a public campaign against female genital mutilation, while Kurdish converts to Christianity have begun to discuss petitioning the government for the right to change the religion status on their identification cards.

Kurdish leaders have taken increasing steps to meet the needs of Kurdish converts from Islam to Christianity, who now number in the hundreds. Two churches, one in Erbil and another Suleymaniyeh, have been registered with the government, and believers are able to conduct public evangelism.

Still, converts remain unable to change the section on their ID cards that identifies them as Muslims.

END

*** Pictures of Asya Ahmad Muhammad and her family are available electronically. Please contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************‘Traditionalist Catholics’ Demolish Another Church in MexicoState battling town bosses in San Juan Chamula; other Christians still without water lines.by Jeff M. Sellers

LOS ANGELES, July 26 (Compass Direct News) – Chiapas state officials arrested 14 “traditionalist Catholics” following the destruction on Sunday (July 22) of an evangelical church in a community of San Juan Chamula, near San Cristobal de las Casas, in Mexico’s Chiapas state.


State Public Security officers arrested several of the traditionalist Catholics, who practice a blend of traditional Mayan religion and Roman Catholicism, for tearing down Prince of Peace Pentecostal Church in Nishnamtic, evangelical pastor and attorney Esdras Alonso Gonzalez told Compass.

In retaliation, Nishnamtic village bosses or caciques on Sunday jailed five evangelicals; those officials in turn were arrested early Monday morning and the Christians freed, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Undaunted, according to the attorney general’s office, Nishnamtic traditionalist Catholics on Monday (July 23) then illegally locked up seven evangelical women, including one carrying her 9-month-old baby, in the municipal jail of San Juan Chamula. Authorities in turn rescued the women and infant, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

“The seven women were detained on Monday morning by traditionalist Catholics in response to the rescue operation of the five evangelicals in Nishnamtic,” according to the attorney general’s office. For this reason, it added, the state government arrested the additional village officials.

In all, according to the state attorney general’s office, Public Security officers arrested 14 traditionalist Catholics, including seven Nishnamtic officials.

The Chiapas attorney general’s statement makes no mention of the church demolition, saying only that in coordination with Ministry of Public Security officers it rescued the evangelicals from traditionalist Catholics who had jailed them for “refusing to pay the fees for the patron saint festivals of the town.”

“For this reason,” the statement continues, “the traditionalist Catholic authorities had denied them [the evangelicals] access to potable water and education services.”

Alonso noted, “The government statement doesn’t make any mention of it, but the arrest of the traditionalist Catholic caciques has to do with the destruction of the church. At three in the afternoon they went to destroy the church, and they jailed the brethren until they were rescued.”

The attorney general’s office notes that state officials were able to negotiate peacefully with the indigenous authorities of Nishnamtic for the release of the evangelicals. Those freed were seven women – Paulina Pérez Díaz, Dominga Hernández Patishtán, María Gómez Pérez, Verónica Gómez Ruíz, Verónica Gómez López, Verónica Hernández López, Teresa Hernández Gómez – and the 9-month-old infant, Elías Hernández Gómez.

The five men earlier freed were José Gómez Jiménez, 32; Jerónimo Gómez Jiménez, 40; Mateo Gómez Ruiz, 61; Rosendo Gómez Gómez, 20; and Artemio Gómez Hernández, 27.


Nishnamtic officials jailed were Julio Gómez Hernández, president of the education committee; Salvador Gómez Pérez, second municipal agent; Domingo Gómez Díaz, first municipal agent; Manuel Gómez Pérez, potable water representative; Miguel Hernández Jiménez, of the education committee; and Domingo Gómez Gómez, secretary of the education committee.

Other Nishnamtic traditionalist Catholics arrested, according to the attorney general’s office, were Domingo Pérez Gómez, Andrés Gómez Pérez, Manuel Jiménez Hernández, Agustín Pérez López Mayol, Salvador Pérez Díaz Mayol, Vidal Pérez Gómez Mayol, Manuel Gómez Mayol and Juan Gómez Boch.

Alonso said Sunday’s attack was the second church destroyed by traditionalist Catholics in San Juan Chamula this year; on April 14, they demolished a Pentecostal church in Las Ollas.

Los Pozos WoesIn the village of Los Pozos, also near San Cristobal, state officials are racheting up pressure on traditionalist Catholic caciques who have continued to defy an agreement to stop harassing Christians.

Town officials had signed an agreement on April 23 pledging to reconnect water lines they had cut off from evangelicals, to stop withholding government food aid for children, and to allow outside Christians to visit. All of those provisions continue to be violated, Alonso said.

“They’ve not reconnected the water of the brothers, and a few days ago they didn’t allow a visit from pastors and others that came – they closed off the road,” Alonso said. “They’re not respecting what was signed, but the government is visiting them to speak with them, and they’re speaking more strongly with them.”

Children have continued to go without food aid from the federal SEDESOL program, as the caciques have conditioned distribution upon paying a “fine,” he said.

“There are government officials going out for inspections regarding the federal aid to children – they’re inspecting what’s being distributed,” Alonso said. “Before, the caciques were charging a 300 peso fine. Now the government has sent delegations telling them not to withhold food from these minors.”

The state intervention has cleared the way for representatives of the Christians to begin talks with the town bosses about restoring water lines, he added.

“The government has sent delegations to talk with the local authorities of Los Pozos to tell them to stop doing these things,” he said. “The government has made clear its position that it’s not going to let these things happen.”


The arrest of traditionalist Catholics in Nishnamtic has sent a message to authorities in Los Pozos and to the officials of the Huistan municipality to which it belongs, he added.

“In Huistan, in fact, hearing that Chamula is incarcerating people, they are now afraid,” Alonso said. “Before the law was not being applied, but now with these operations of arresting them, we’re waiting to see how this situation in Los Pozos is going to work out.”

END

*** Photos of Esdras Alonso Gonzales and Los Pozos villagers are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************North Korean Refugees Facing Crackdown Veteran minister says controls tightened on both sides of the border.by Jeff M. Sellers

LOS ANGELES, July 31 (Compass Direct News) – Douglas Shin is a Korean-American pastor living in Los Angeles who has built “underground railroads” for North Korean refugees since 2000 as leader of the “Exodus 21” movement. Compass Direct News caught up with him by e-mail in Seoul, South Korea, where he discussed the communist country – run by reclusive dictator Kim Jong Il, who requires North Koreans to worship him – that tops most religious persecution lists. The dictator is said to be the author of various atrocities, and under his regime refugees hunted down in China are often sent back to unspeakably harsh conditions in North Korean detention camps.

What is the best strategy for pressuring China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees?

Boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

What makes North Korea any worse a violator of religious rights, in comparison with, say, a country like Saudi Arabia?

The Saudis can come and go out of the country as they please, but North Koreans are all in captivity – a prisoner of Kim Jong Il. For that matter, the whole country is a gigantic gulag.

What are now the most important items for prayer for North Korea?

The early demise of Kim Jong Il, whose health is obviously failing rapidly nowadays, and smooth transition of power to a less horrible tyrant or tyrants after that.


The Chinese government recently said there are about 50,000-70,000 North Koreans in China. Is it true that about 70 percent of them have accepted Christ?

70 percent is a fair estimate, but the number of refugees may be bigger.

It is said that about half of the North Korean refugees who have reached South Korea between 2000 and 2005 were Christians, but only 30 percent of them have maintained their Christian faith. Why?

It is true. It’s basically the pervasive fault of the Korean church, which emphasizes outwardness. They don’t give true choice to people before they come to the Lord, but almost force them to do so, dangling some carrot before the eyes of these poor refugees. It’s almost like, ‘Accept the Christ, or risk not being helped (or being helped last instead of first).’ That’s worse than being ‘saved’ by a Buddhist who says nothing before throwing the rope to the drowning man. We need to learn to be more still before the Lord and let Him do the work.

In general, how do South Koreans view U.S. policy toward North Korea?

The public generally has no particular view toward the U.S. policy for North Korea, because they don’t care enough. Those in the minority who do care are evenly split between pro-U.S. and anti-U.S./pro-Kim Jong Il in almost every way.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken Korean aid workers hostage and apparently killed at least two of them – how could South Korean media and others blame the victims for wanting to do good?

The reasons are two-fold: Korean Christians, while numbering less than 3 percent of the population early in their history during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), were the spiritual – as well as physical – leaders of Korean society. With the outward growth since 1970s concurrently with the economic growth of the country, our faith has become very corrupt, emulating the secular sector, not vice versa. We have shown many bad examples to the people, so they’ve come to hate us now.

These Sammul Church folks are the cream of the crop of Korean believers, and Koreans have very little for which to blame them — except for that picture they took at the airport [before a government sign warning of the dangers of traveling to Afghanistan], and the tourist bus they chartered in Kabul — yet, they are vulnerable to the avalanche of criticism from the Netizens and the media because of the general social ethos here that is willing to shoot down any Christian at any time for anything whatsoever.

Also, the North Korean spy apparatus has infiltrated South Korean liberals and made them their tools for the propaganda war during critical times like this. I think the Internet agitators have as their ultimate goal a demonization of the Afghan/Iraqi wars and the withdrawal of Korean troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Then those who have been crying out for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Korea – a long-time priority on


Kim Jong Il’s wish list from the days of his father [former dictator Kim Il Sung] – will gain a lot of wind under their wings. And these Internet agitators are very powerful opinion leaders in Korea now.

What word do you have on the case of Son Jung Nam, awaiting execution for preaching Christ in North Korea?

His younger brother, Son Jung Hun, said in Seoul before he left for Washington, D.C. – and just now, too, by phone – that the last time he heard from North Korea was last spring, and that there’s a strict blockade on any information leading to his brother’s whereabouts now. But Pyongyang is aware of the CNN coverage and the U.S. Congressmen’s letter to Kim Jong Il, etcetera, so I think he has not been and will not be executed.

I think Son Jung Nam is the Private Ryan of our day within Christendom. In 1998, he left North Korea for China and, in 1999, began studying with a South Korean pastor for about a year. He was ordained in China by the pastor who equipped him. After dedication, he carried Bibles and the gospel across the river into North Korea several times.

On January 20, 2000, he was arrested in China after another North Korean defector living in China, supported by the same South Korean pastor, had been arrested and told the Chinese authorities about him. At that time, the younger brother, having left North Korea in 1997, was also living in China at a nearby location. The 7-year-old daughter of Son Jung Nam, who was living with her dad, ran over barefoot to the South Korean pastor’s place and told him of her father’s arrest. (She now lives safely in China.)

In April 2000, Son Jung Nam was repatriated to North Korea with a record of working as a gospel/Bible runner attached to him. Due to that record, he had a tough time during his detention, and he also witnessed many fellow North Korean Christians who had received Jesus in China persecuted for their faith.

In April 2004, with the help of many relatives who were positioned at high places in the Workers’ Party, Son was released and again, with the help of relatives, was placed at the North Korean Army’s Rocket Research Institute with a de facto pledge not to defect again. But he defected again several times, before he was arrested in January 2006.

Has the number of refugees from North Korea increased in the past five years?

I don’t have any field information, but from what I read and hear, I think the number of crossings has decreased because of the beefed up security by North Korean border patrol. But corruption in North Korea has worsened, so it’s actually easier to get to China if you have the money. In China, crackdowns on North Korean refugees and on refugee workers have increased very much because of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Olympics may be a time of festivity for the Chinese economy, and the world that may be watching, but it definitely is a terrible menace to these people on the run.


The number of the entire North Korean refugee population in China may have actually grown because of the accumulation over the years. Many North Koreans have adapted to Chinese soil by now and somewhat rooted their existence in China, albeit precariously. It’s been over a decade now since Exodus 21 – the 21st century-version of the biblical Exodus – has begun.

Where are refugees arriving?

They come to Thailand, Mongolia, Laos, and Vietnam, then on to South Korea – all through China first, because China is the only country that North Korea shares a land border with. The North Korean refugee population in South Korea reached the 10,000 mark around last December, and it is increasing steadily by a rate of 2,000 per year. There are virtual North Korean refugee camps – though no government, neither the United States nor South Korea, nor any host country, will call it by that name, due to political sensitivity – in Mongolia and Thailand holding far more than 1,000 and 500 North Koreans respectively.

Are most refugees fleeing mainly famine/economic failure, or mainly human/religious rights violations?

Mostly economic failure, but more and more are fleeing for freedom in general, including very seldom the freedom of faith.

Is relief work within North Korea getting more difficult?

I think it will get easier soon, because North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, is thawing up. He has only a few months/years to live, according to what I hear. The six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is getting a lot done these days. This is because Kim Jong Il wants to take advantage of George W. Bush’s waning popularity and gain the maximum amount of carrots for its nukes – before he’s done in. In the end, I think North Korea will open up and accept more foreign aid and aid workers. Currently they want to convert the foreign relief aid to developmental aid by being accepted into the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. For that to be done, the U.S. government must drop North Korea from its terrorist-supporting countries list.

Is relief work in China and other border areas getting more difficult?

Because of the pre-Beijing Olympic crackdowns of any potential source of negative news on China, it’s getting really tough at the border.

What is your purpose is for being in South Korea now?

I’m just working as an assistant pastor teaching a Bible class in English at a Korean church. I’m not doing much of what I used to do now.


It is said that there are between 200,000 and 400,000 Christians in North Korea, and that about 50,000-70,000 of them are in labor camps – do those estimates seem accurate to you?

I think it could be true, but you never know anything for sure with North Korea.

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***********************************Passage of Pakistani Bill on ‘Apostates’ Called UnlikelyGovernment fighting extremism; death threats in two villages prove unfounded.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, July 13 (Compass Direct News) – Christian and government leaders yesterday said they are hopeful that Pakistan’s parliament is unlikely to support the death penalty for Muslims who abandon their faith.

Critics have worried that the Apostasy Act 2006, proposed in May, signaled further reduction of religious freedom in Pakistan, where vigilante enforcement of strict sharia law has been on the rise.

In the most high-profile example of such vigilante activity, burqa-clad members of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid or Red Mosque and religious schools had kidnapped people they accused of being prostitutes and harassed police and music/video-shop owners in recent months. The activities prompted a government siege and raid of the heavily-armed mosque members this week in which at least 102 people died.

The bill likely will not be approved in its original form by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice, where it is being revised, a member of the committee said.

“The person who changes religions of his own will and wish, according to his own thinking, should not be punished at all,” Dr. Sher Afgan Khan Niazi told Compass from Islamabad. “Therefore we don’t consider that it will be passed in this way.”

Proposed by the Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, the bill states that the testimony of two Muslim male witnesses would be sufficient to sentence to death a male “apostate” or man who changes his religion from Islam. A female “apostate” would receive life imprisonment.

According to article 5 of the draft, a convicted “apostate” would have up to 30 days to revert to Islam and avoid punishment. But repeat male offenders who committed “apostasy” a fourth time would not be given a chance to repent.


The draft drew condemnation from human rights organizations and the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which denounced the bill as “repressive” in a June 11 press release.

Peter Jacob of the Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace told Compass the bill was politically motivated. The MMA, he said, was trying to create “a kind of frenzy” by stirring up religious feelings.

With elections approaching this fall, Jacob said that the MMA also wanted to appear not to be sitting idle but rather pushing for a form of Islamization.

Jacob said that the bill was unlikely to resurface as the government was busy fighting religious extremism. Besides the storming of the Lal Masjid this week, the government is countering extremism in madrassas (Islamic schools) and brooking protests from lawyers across Pakistan over President Pervez Musharraf’s dismissal of the Supreme Court Chief Justice in March.

In the aftermath of fighting at Lal Masjid, tens of thousands of people protested throughout the country following Friday prayers. The protests, called by the MMA and the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, a body of Islamic scholars representing more than 10,000 madrassas, were peaceful.

But in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan, police reportedly arrested three men with a car full of explosives, as well as seven explosive vests for suicide attacks.

Death Threats FadeAt the same time, calm returned to two Pakistani villages where death threats against Christians who refused to convert to Islam have not been carried out.

Christians in the villages of Shanti Nagar and Charsadda had feared for their lives after receiving letters threatening death if they refused to become Muslim in June and May.

Despite rising popular enforcement of strict sharia, the Christians in the two towns have concluded that the unfulfilled ultimatums to convert to Islam in recent months were isolated incidents and not cause for concern over a systematic campaign of violence.

Ten pastors and Christian political leaders in the majority-Christian village of Shanti Nagar in southern Punjab on June 12 received anonymous hand-written letters telling them and their families to convert to Islam.

“We invite you to accept Islam; in fact, we advise your family also to enter into the circle of Islam,” one letter to Union Council Member Kaleem Dutt said. The letter ended, “Don’t consider it as just a threat; we can impair you right now. Accept Islam, otherwise death!”


According to a report by the Lahore-based Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, the Christians became increasingly worried when one of the threatened pastors’ sons, Abi Saloom, received two phone calls the same day telling him to take the letters seriously.

Church leaders immediately reported the incident to district police officer Shahid Haneef, who stationed a night guard outside of the village, CLAAS reported.

Shanti Nagar residents took the threats seriously, in part because their village took the brunt of one of Pakistan’s worst episodes of anti-Christian violence in 1997, when 13 churches and 800 Christian homes were demolished by a mob of tens of thousands of Muslims.

But as threats failed to materialize, local Christians began to suspect that the letters were no more than low-level harassment.

“We find nothing serious or alarming, and this should not be taken as a reality,” Victor Azariah, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Pakistan, told Compass three weeks after the incident.

One month prior, on May 8, Christians in the town of Charsadda, North West Frontier Province, had fled their homes upon receiving a similar threat.

More than 50 Christians left the area upon hearing that Christian Union Council member Michael John had received an anonymous, hand-written letter threatening the community with death if it did not convert to Islam within 10 days.

The threat was repeated 10 days later, chalked on a wall opposite the town’s Protestant church.

According to sources in Charsadda, a young man named Jamsheed eventually confessed to having written the threat on the wall. Two other young men, Abdul Hasnat and Adur Rashid, were arrested on May 31 for sending the initial letter.

According to June 21 article on the website Countercurrents.org. the young men claimed to have written the letter to take revenge on two Christian young men with whom they had quarreled.

Though Islamist groups in Charsadda have continued to bomb music/video shops deemed un-Islamic, including one blast on June 26 that damaged a dozen stores, threats against Christians have not been carried out.

“These incidents are proven to be individually motivated, and they don’t have the backing of any of the major [radical Islamist] organizations,” Jacob said, referring to Charsadda and Shanti Nagar. While Jacob admitted that the incidents constituted


harassment of Christians, he cautioned against believing that they were part of a systematic persecution effort.

Christians make up 1.5 percent of Pakistan’s population.

(Return to Index)

***********************************Pakistani Mob Confesses to Church AttackChristians forgive attackers, receive no compensation for damage and injuries.by Peter Lamprecht

ISTANBUL, July 16 (Compass Direct News) – Muslims have apologized for attacking a church last month in Pakistan’s Punjab region, but they offered no compensation for injuring Christians and damaging the building.

In addition to wounding seven Christians and destroying books at the Salvation Army church in Chak 248, a village 20 miles north of Faisalabad, the perpetrators admitted that a Muslim resident had planned to burn a page of the Quran – punishable with life imprisonment under Pakistani law – and blame the Christian community.

“We are sorry and promise that this will not happen in the future,” Faizur Rehman, one of 41 Muslims originally accused with attacking the church on June 17, said in a June 28 notarized affidavit.

“The Christian people have forgiven them,” lawyer Khalil Tahir Sindhu, legal representative for the Christian community, told Compass after attending the June 28 meeting between the Christian and Muslim groups, arbitrated by 12 local Christian and Muslim politicians. He said that both parties had dropped court cases in which they accused each other of instigating violence, though he admitted he was not in favor of the out-of-court settlement.

“This is called impunity,” the lawyer protested.

The mob stormed Chak 248’s lone church with guns, axes and wooden sticks at 5 p.m. on June 17, a Sunday, only one hour before the start of an evangelistic meeting. Christians inside the building fought back but were unable to prevent many of the congregation’s Bibles and hymn books from being destroyed. Several Christians, hit with the blunt side of an axe, suffered broken bones.

Armed Muslims had broken into the home of Christian Sawar Masih the previous evening, June 16, and injured his teenage son, Shahbaz, and daughter, Robeela. They warned Masih, a member of the group organizing the outreach event, to cancel the meeting.


But local Christians, fewer than 50 families in the village of 10,000 residents, decided to go ahead with the program, encouraged by having received written permission from the union council to broadcast the sermon by loudspeaker from the church roof.

Following the violence, many Christians fled their homes in fear that reprisal attacks would follow, only registering a police complaint with the help of a Christian lawyer on June 19.

According to local Muslims, their fears were not unfounded. In the June 28 affidavit, Faizur Rehman said that one Muslim resident, identified only as Gogi, had planned to burn a page of the Quran to “teach a lesson to the Christians.”

Mob JusticeThe village’s Muslim representatives promised to debunk any future accusations that Christians had blasphemed against the Quran.

Punishable with life imprisonment under the country’s penal code, blasphemy against the Quran is an emotionally charged issue that often triggers mob action in Pakistan.

Last October in Faisalabad, more than 500 angry Muslims attempted to lynch two elderly Christians accused of unintentionally burning pages of the Quran. Following a trial that drew crowds of religious fanatics, James and Buta Masih were convicted in November and handed 10-year prison sentences.

Critics of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have pointed out that they are easily abused, with unsubstantiated accusations often landing innocent victims in jail or subjecting them to mob violence.

In a recent attempt to amend the legislation in May, National Assembly Member M.P. Bhandara, a member of Pakistan’s tiny Parsi community, noted that the law discriminates against non-Muslims, as it provides the death penalty for blaspheming Muhammad but only minor punishments for insulting other faiths.

“Islam is our religion, and such bills hurt our feelings,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr. Sher Afgan Khan Niazi said in response to Bhandara’s proposed reforms. The reform bill was scrapped on May 8, the same day it was proposed.

In light of the highly charged atmosphere surrounding “blasphemy,” and with Muslim extremists enraged over the government’s crackdown on Islamabad’s Red Mosque, Sindhu said that the out-of-court settlement in Chak 248, though unfair, was prudent.

Authorities had shown an obvious bias against Christians from the Salvation Army church when they had attempted to register their complaint, the Muslim attackers admitted.


Policeman Rana Attaur Rehman had falsely written in the incident’s First Information Report that the Christian complainant had turned the event into a religious issue in hopes of gaining asylum abroad, the June 28 affidavit stated.

“Everything is safe now,” Sindhu commented. And the affidavit, he said, “it will be evidence for the future.”

END

*** Photographs of Khalil Tahir Sindhu and Christians from Chak 248 are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

(Return to Index)

***********************************Turkish Converts Subjected to Official HarassmentLocal district fines Christians for collecting tithes and offerings.by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, July 3 (Compass Direct News) – In a bizarre twist in the criminal prosecution of two Turkish Christians for “insulting Turkish identity,” an administrative district authority in Istanbul has ordered the converts from Islam fined for “illegal collection of funds.”

Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal, on trial for insulting Turkishness under the nation’s notorious Article 301, were summoned to Istanbul’s Beyoglu police headquarters on Sunday morning (July 1) just before church services began at the Taksim Protestant Church, where Tastan is a member.

“Three plainclothes policemen were waiting for me at the church,” Tastan said, “saying I was wanted at the police station.” With their lawyer out of town, he telephoned Topal, and the two agreed to go along to the police station.

“I thought probably the police were acting on last week’s Interior Ministry decree,” Tastan told Compass, referring to a June 28 directive sent to all the nation’s governors ordering extra security for Turkey’s religious minorities in the wake of rising violence against non-Muslims. “But it turned out to be something entirely different.”

The two Christians were both presented with a separate “penalty” sheet from the security police division linked to the Beyoglu district, ordering each one to pay 600 Turkish lira (US$461) for breaking a civil law.

According to the one-page decisions, the two men were guilty of violating section 29 of civil administrative code 2860, which forbids the collection of money without official permission from local district authorities.


Evidence of the alleged misdemeanor, the forms noted, was in the hands of the gendarme headquarters in Silivri, 45 miles west of Istanbul, site of the two Christians’ trial.

The men were shown no documents or alleged evidence of the accusations against them.

“What is this? Just more harassment,” Topal told Compass. Both he and Tastan have been subjected to surveillance and even secret filming by Turkish gendarme and police authorities over the past year.

“This is ridiculous,” the men’s attorney, Haydar Polat, told Compass today. “It has nothing whatever to do with the original case against my clients. Now we will have to open a case against this administrative order within 15 days, and it will take at least a year to get these unsubstantiated charges dropped.”

At a previous hearing in January, leading prosecution attorney Kemal Kerincsiz had accused the congregation of Tastan’s church of breaking Turkish laws by collecting offerings without official permission from local civil authorities.

Former Muslims who converted to Christianity more than a decade ago, Tastan and Topal were arrested for two days last October and then put on trial before the Silivri Criminal Court in late November.

In addition to charges under Article 301’s restrictions on freedom of speech, the two Christians are accused of reviling Islam (Article 216) and secretly compiling files on private citizens for a local Bible course (Article 135).

‘Poisoning Youth’Before the Christians’ third trial hearing on April 18, prosecutor Kerincsiz spoke at length to journalists gathered outside the Silivri courthouse about the case.

Deploring changes in Turkish law that he said “removed missionary work from being a crime” in Turkey, the ultranationalist lawyer called the two Christians part of a “dangerous group.”

“They have a large amount of money from an unknown source,” Kerincsiz was quoted as saying in an April 18 report from Ihlas News Agency. Claiming they had “poisoned hundreds of youth” over the last two years, the lawyer demanded that the government take action against them.

He claimed the defendants lived luxurious lives, using everything from expensive cars and sexual temptations to deceive young people in grade school and high school into converting to Christianity. In court, however, Kerincsiz has failed to produce any solid evidence of these allegations.


During the hour-long hearing on April 18, a representative testified from the regional gendarme headquarters that ordered the initial investigation, along with one of the teenage boys accusing the converts.

A 17-year-old identified as Oguz Y. took the witness stand for the prosecution, although he admitted under questioning that the defendants had never forced him to change his religion or join in their activities.

At the close of the hearing, the presiding judge warned local police that he would open a contempt case against them if they failed to produce all three of the plaintiffs at the next hearing, set for July 18. The trial will take place in the tense run-up week before Turkey’s snap parliamentary elections on July 22.

Despite a large media contingent on the scene, national coverage of the Silivri trial was muted the following day, after news broke that same afternoon of the brutal murder in Malatya of three Christians. The two converts from Islam and a German Christian had been tortured for several hours at a Christian publishing house office before the five young attackers slit their throats.

Ankara Warns CourtBut two days later, the nationalist Yeni Cag newspaper reported on the Silivri trial with a front-page banner headline, “Missionary Fear,” followed by an inside page headlined, “The trial that scares the [Justice] Ministry.”

According to a Justice Ministry communiqué partially reprinted in Yeni Cag’s April 20 edition, the Turkish government warned the Silivri court that news about the case in the international press could cause the European Union to “call us to account.”

The Silivri court was reportedly requested to send copies of the indictment and the complete case file to the Justice Ministry in Ankara.

More than 300 of Turkey’s writers, journalists, historians and other intellectuals have been indicted under Article 301 for defaming “Turkishness,” a concept which remains undefined.

A majority of the country’s influential nationalist factions supporting this law also oppose Turkey’s bid to enter the European Union (EU), warning that Europe wants to force Western values and reforms onto Turkey which are contrary to its Muslim heritage.

The EU has demanded that Turkey either scrap or amend the restrictive law to meet European standards of freedom of speech.

END

*** Photographs of Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.


(Return to Index)

***********************************Prosecutor Demands Christians’ AcquittalAccusers, he says, have provided no evidence that converts ‘insulted’ Turkey or Islam.by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, July 19 (Compass Direct News) – A Turkish state prosecutor demanded acquittal yesterday for two Turkish Christians on trial for “insulting Turkishness” under the nation’s controversial Article 301.

State Prosecutor Ahmet Demirhuyuk told the Silivri Criminal Court on Wednesday (July 18) that there was “not a single concrete, credible piece of evidence” to support the accusations filed against Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal nine months ago.

Former Muslims who converted to Christianity more than a decade ago, Tastan and Topal were arrested for two days last October over complaints filed by three young men, two of them minors.

For the first time, all three plaintiffs were present in court to give testimony and be cross-examined by defense lawyers. At the last hearing on April 18, Judge Neset Eren had warned local police they would be charged with contempt of court if they failed to produce the accusers.

The two converts are accused of insulting Turkish identity, reviling Islam and secretly compiling files on private citizens for a locally registered Bible correspondence course. Conviction on one or more of the charges could result in prison sentences ranging from six months to three years.

In his remarks to the court, the state prosecutor declared it was clear from the defendants’ testimony that they were converted Christians committed to spreading their religion. But he noted that their accusers remained unable to substantiate their claims that the two men had cursed Turkey and Islam and then tried to force them to accept Christianity and be baptized.

Rather, Demirhuyuk emphasized, the plaintiffs had given contradictory explanations of their claims and had produced no documents whatsoever to prove their accusations.

“Just as during the previous Seljuk and Ottoman states, there is absolutely no system or practice to consider it a crime for Christians to learn or spread their religion, or to gather for worship,” Demirhuyuk said. “Exactly the contrary, within the scope of freedom of religion and belief, everyone is guaranteed the right under the Constitution and laws [of Turkey] to live and spread his chosen faith.”


He also dismissed charges that the defendants were guilty of “secretly compiling” personal data on private citizens. “If this constitutes a crime, then all the corner stores and retailers and tourism companies must be considered guilty of this,” Demirhuyuk said.

A final court verdict on the case is expected to be handed down at the fifth hearing, set for September 12.

The two converts went on trial last November 23 facing a team of seven prosecuting lawyers led by Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultranationalist notorious for filing dozens of cases against Turkish intellectuals for alleged defamation of “Turkishness.”

At the advice of their attorneys, Haydar Polat and Gursel Meric, neither one of the defendants attended yesterday’s hearing, held in the charged atmosphere just four days prior to national parliamentary elections on Sunday (July 22). Earlier this week, an independent candidate in Istanbul was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting.

Despite considerable media presence, including film crews from several national television channels and dozens of reporters from the major newspapers, no known news coverage emerged from yesterday’s hearing.

Echoes from Malatya Tastan and Topal were present in the Silivri courtroom at their last hearing on the afternoon of April 18, when nationwide news broke of the vicious slaying of three Christians in the eastern Turkish city of Malatya.

Since the Malatya murders, Compass has documented an alarming rise in verbal and written threats against Turkish and expatriate Christians across the country. Security police protection has been provided to several openly targeted church leaders, along with regular guards at some church buildings and Christian institutions.

In announcing the arrest last week of 28 members of a criminal gang based in western Turkey, Turkish security authorities named to the media a Protestant pastor whom they said suspects had confessed they planned to assassinate.

After living in Turkey for 16 years, one European Christian couple who had been sent a death threat linked to the Malatya murders bowed to their embassy’s advice and left the country this week.

END

*** Photographs of Hakan Tastan, Turan Topal and their lawyers are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.

(Return to Index)


**********************************************************************COMPASS DIRECT NEWS

News from the Frontlines of Persecution

Jeff Sellers, Managing Editor

Bureau Chiefs:Barbara Baker, Middle EastSarah Page, Asia


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