COMPASS DIRECTGlobal News from the Frontlines

July 19, 2002 E-Mail Version

Compass Direct is distributed monthly 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 is acknowledged as the source of the material.

Copyright 2002 Compass Direct

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

CHINA(1) House Church Leaders Shaken by Cult KidnappingsChristians determine more vigilance is required.

(2) Christian Bookstores Open in ChinaModest breakthrough still leaves much to be desired.

(3) China’s New Church LeadersAppointees signal the government’s intention to maintain strict control.

(4) Persecution in Southwest ChinaLocal officials close minority churches.

COLOMBIA(5) Weary Christians Look to the FutureSome welcome the president-elect’s hardline stance, others fear a bloodbath.

(6) Priest Gunned Down The murder in Cali followed evening Mass.

INDIA(7) Secret Circular Encourages Killing and Maiming of ChristiansIllegal tactics are used to spread extremist Hindu idealogy.

(8) Translation of the Secret Circular

(9) Thousands of Christians Forcibly ‘Reconverted’ to HinduismHindus recruit for an evangelistic brigade.

(10) Politically Savvy Christians WinUniting Votes with Muslims defeats a pro-Hindu candidate.

MALAYSIA(11) A New Day or a Colored Dawn?Malaysia’s leadership succession raises religious freedom questions.

NIGERIA(12) Anglican Church Condemns State GovernmentsIslamic law threatens peaceful co-existence.

(13) Islamic Extremists Kill a Christian Policeman Radical Muslim preacher claimed the officer trampled a Quran.

PAKISTAN(14) Pakistan Sentences Another Christian to DeathNow two are on death row and five are appealing life sentences.

(15) Under the Shadow of Pakistan’s ‘Black Laws’

(16) Eleven Pakistani Christians Currently Jailed on Blasphemy Charges

(17) Jailed Pakistani Christian Attacked in His CellViolence against alleged ‘blasphemers’ escalates.

PERU(18) Evangelical’s Prison Release Stalled***Judicial complexities continue to thwart justice in de Vinatea’s case.

ROMANIA(19) Restitution of Greek-Catholic Churches Unresolved Churches were confiscated during the communist regime.

(20) A Draft Law on Religions by the End of the Year?An interview with Laurentiu D. Tanase, Secretary of State for Religious Affairs.

TURKEY(21) Stranded Iranian Family Granted Visa Extension*** Turkish court convicts Iranian Muslim for harassing converts.

(22) Christian Acquitted of Slander Charges***Diyarbakir church construction still stalled.

(23) Turkish Police Close Iskenderun Protestant Church***Congregation’s activities are accused of ‘offending society.’

VIETNAM(24) Church Leader Felled by Heart AttackPastor faced high expectations from colleagues and heavy pressure from authorities.

(25) Hundreds Attend Pastor’s Funeral

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

***********************************(1) China House Church Leaders Shaken by Cult KidnappingsChristians Determine More Vigilance is Requiredby Alex Buchan

LONDON (Compass) -- On June 19, the China Gospel Fellowship declared that 34 of its evangelists mysteriously kidnapped two months earlier by a shadowy cult called Eastern Lightning (EL) were safely back with their families, ending one of the most bizarre events in Chinese house church history.

“This incident has shaken us to the core,” said one of the leaders of the China Gospel Fellowship (CGF) in Hong Kong in May. “The kidnappings were so well planned, the enemy so clever, that it is quite clear that the fight against cults will have to be conducted at a much higher level of vigilance than before.”

According to sources in the CGF, the incident began in the fall of 2001 when a young woman joined a house church in Tanghe, Henan province. She showed all the outward characteristics of deep piety, and it was through her an invitation was issued to 34 evangelists and teachers to come to various locations on April 16, 2002, and allegedly receive teaching from representatives of the Haggai Institute of Singapore, a well-known missions training college.

The invitation was completely bogus, however. The leaders arrived at their various points and were transported in twos to houses in remote locations. At first, they did not suspect abduction. Their mobile phones were taken away as “a security precaution,” but after a day or two they began to suspect something was terribly wrong.

According to one source, “The leaders were subjected to concentrated teaching by Chinese men that began to sound very strange. They realized these were not teachers from the Haggai Institute, and pretty much by the second day all realized they had fallen into the clutches of the Eastern Lightning cult.”

Also known as Lightning from the East, this group believes that Jesus has returned to China in the form of a woman, Mrs. Deng, and that orthodox forms of Christianity have been superceded and must be repudiated. The CGF estimates the cult has over a million members in 20 provinces.

The cult is known for its coercive and violent tactics in winning converts and punishing those who leave. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the China Gospel Fellowship -- an umbrella term for a number of large Henan- and Anhui-based house church movements -- set up prayer teams in each region affected and reported the disappearances to the police.

Some of the CGF leaders were able to escape and others were gradually released, sometimes with police intervention. Families of the kidnapped evangelists gathered in Beijing and continued to pressure the authorities until all were released. By June 19, the CGF released a statement on their website (www.chinaforjesus.org) saying all 34 were finally accounted for and that “the EL conspiracy to undermine and destroy the church has ended in utter failure.”

They did add, however, that a few of the kidnapped evangelists were “... not doing well because of the drugs given to them.”

The ramifications of the kidnappings have rippled out to all sections of the house churches. One leader in Wenzhou said, “It has made me much more wary of people suddenly joining the church. It puts a lot of questions in your mind like, are they genuine? What if they are really EL? Is that handsome young man that has joined the fellowship under orders to seduce my wife?”

The good news, according to three house church leaders in Shanghai, is that “the attack on the house churches was effectively repulsed ... the CGF displayed great unity, coolness and organization in the midst of this crisis.”

The bad news, they added, was that “Eastern Lightning are getting more bold. This is the first time they have attempted a mass kidnapping. They may well try again. We will have to be so much more vigilant.”

A former “Shouter,” Mr. Zhao Wei Shan founded the cult in 1989. He soon joined forces with a woman called Mrs. Deng, and together they began to teach that a new kingdom era had begun. Taking their name from the text in the New Testament book of Matthew (24:27), “For as lightning comes from the East,” they taught that Jesus had returned to earth in the form of a Chinese woman -- Mrs. Deng. They argued that no one needed to read the Old Testament, because Jesus superceded Jehovah, and now no one needs to read the New Testament, because the female messiah has superceded Jesus.

Their tactics for spreading the message are well known. First, they target successful house church groups. It seems they do not go after non-Christian movements, only Christian ones. Second, they show great patience, sending members to infiltrate fellowships and wait up to two years before declaring themselves as Eastern Lightning. Third, they can be extremely immoral and ruthless. It is not uncommon for EL adherents to try to make pastors fall in love with them, to break up marriages, and even to physically attack and threaten those who prove unresponsive.

For some observers, what is even more worrying is that EL, which is most active in remote, rural, poorer areas, has lots of money.

“This is the mystery we all need solved ... where do they get their funds?” said a Shanghai pastor.

The kidnappings are case in point. It took large sums of money to arrange transport for all the evangelists to so many separate locations. It was clear that many large homes were owned and operated by EL for brainwashing purposes. There is speculation that Mrs. Deng is now living in the U.S. and raising funds there.

China’s government deplores the rise of cults, but house church leaders are not slow to point out the hypocrisy of the official stance.

“Chinese Christians will always be troubled by cults because the government does not allow us to have freedom to practice religion,” said a Beijing house church leader. “If we had, we could print literature, hold seminars, and even use the media to spread good teaching around, but we are still an underground movement thanks to the government.”

China continues to have one of the world’s fastest growing churches. Many estimate that more than 3 million people become Christians each year, adding to the 60-90 million Christian population. [Return to Index]

***********************************(2) Christian Bookstores Open in ChinaModest Breakthrough Still Leaves Much to be Desiredby Xu Mei

SHANGHAI (Compass) -- A new Christian bookstore opened in Shanghai on April 1. Run by a young Christian entrepreneur, it is one of a handful of public Christian bookstores now operating in China.

But this is a Christian bookstore unlike any overseas. At first glance it looks very similar, with its modern décor and rows of paperbacks and Christian giftware. But closer inspection reveals that not one Bible is for sale. In fact, the owner of another Christian bookstore in a northern Chinese city was recently fined 10,000 RMB ($1,200) for illegally selling Bibles.

The Shanghai manager explained that it is now possible to obtain permission to open “speciality” bookstores from the municipal government, and he proudly showed his new certificate. However, only books with an ISBN number are allowed to be sold. The ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.

Christian books (including Bibles) published officially by the China Christian Council and the Amity Press are only given a provincial imprint and therefore are not permitted to be sold openly to the public.

Across China there are a few hundred large official state churches in cities that operate book tables or small book rooms. These are usually open only on Sundays to churchgoers and are not open to the general public. The range and number of titles in state-church book rooms are still very limited. The 2002 catalogue for the China Christian Council lists only 88 book titles (excluding Bibles and hymnbooks).

In sharp distinction, these new retail outlets are open to the public and represent a pioneering breakthrough. At least five stores are now open in major cities. Most opened during the last few months. The one in Shanghai attracts about 50 customers and browsers every day, of whom more than half are non-Christians. Knowledge of the existence of the shop is passed by word of mouth.

The owner does not expect to make a profit in the near future. It is expensive to stock the shop with Christian titles. Across China, many secular publishers for reasons of profit are publishing the occasional Christian book. These range from erudite academic books on the theology of Thomas Aquinas or Luther to Bible dictionaries and even illustrated Bible storybooks. Most come in modest print-runs of 2,000 to 10,000. The key for the manager is to call upon a range of “scouts” who track down new titles all over the country. These are then sent from the various publishers in small quantities to the bookshop.

The continuing growth of the Chinese church means that there is an insatiable demand for Christian literature of all kinds. It also means that the supply of Christian books from overseas is still an urgent necessity.

However, the opening of these few Christian bookstores is a significant, if modest, breakthrough. The hope must be that censorship and control will ease still further, to allow for the publishing of Christian material within China on a scale commensurate with what is probably the largest evangelical church community in the world. [Return to Index]

***********************************(3) China’s New Church LeadersAppointees Signal the Government’s Intention to Maintain Strict Controlby Xu Mei

BEIJING (Compass) -- At the end of May, China’s state-controlled Protestant church held its national conference in Beijing. New leaders were appointed for both the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and the China Christian Council (CCC), known in China as the lianghui -- the “two organizations.” Both are firmly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although nominally independent as “people’s

organizations,” both are supervised by the Religious Affairs Bureau and the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

Rev. Cao Shengjie, who was born in 1931 and has been assistant general secretary of the CCC since 1980, was appointed president of the CCC. Mrs. Cao has a poor reputation among many older Chinese Christians. She belongs to the generation of church leaders who in the 1950s collaborated with the Party and today are dubbed by many Chinese Christians as laosanzi -- “old Three Self.”

As such, she is politically motivated and well-trained in the liberal theology, which neatly dovetails with communist ideology. According to several well-placed Christian sources within the TSPM, she is nicknamed “Mrs. Marx” by many pastors. During China’s Cultural Revolution, a decade of anarchy that started in the mid 1960s, she reportedly led Party cadres to search believers’ homes to confiscate Bibles.

Writing in the TSPM magazine Tianfeng in September 2000, Cao stated: “Over the past 50 years, the Chinese church in its theological reflections has not been concerned for such doctrinal abstractions such as ‘the Trinity’ or ‘the Two Natures of Christ.’” She continued in the same article to attack evangelical theology and Wang Ming Dao, China’s most noted evangelical preacher in the 20th century. She also strongly attacked overseas ministries, condemning their efforts to “evangelize China” as the work of “hostile forces.”

She concluded: “We will never support the ‘evangelization of China.’ Because if we do not pay attention to the welfare of the Chinese people but go about ‘preaching the gospel’ on a great scale, we will not only politically fall into the camp of enemy forces but we will harm the church itself. … Is our theology actually compatible with socialism or with the demands of overseas hostile forces?”

It is not surprising that some evangelical pastors working within the TSPM and CCC are now stating that the “theological construction” campaign pushed by Cao and other top TSPM leaders to make all Christian theology “compatible with socialism” is a dangerous heresy.

Less is known about Elder Ji Jianhong, who was appointed chairperson of the TSPM at the May conference. He was born in 1932 and comes from a Little Flock background. The Little Flock church was founded by Watchman Nee.

Since 1980, he has been working in Jiangsu province for the TSPM. According to one source, he became more politically motivated to support the CCP during the 1950s. At that time, he reportedly came under strong pressure from authorities and was forced to denounce his father at one of the many political campaigns that tore the church apart during that troubled period.

Chinese pastors working under the TSPM/CCC umbrella report that they see little hope of genuine openness under the new leadership. Rather, their appointment is a sign of

the Party and the government’s intention to maintain strict control of the church through the old TSPM hierarchy and a politicized theology. [Return to Index]

***********************************(4) Persecution in Southwest ChinaLocal Officials Close Minority Churchesby Xu Mei

HONG KONG (Compass) -- A letter written by a Christian living in Zhaotong in the southwest province of Yunnan details recent persecution by local government officials and police.

Zhaotong is a remote area of northeastern Yunnan. According to reliable reports, there are about 150,000 Protestant Christians there, mainly belonging to the Miao minority tribal group. They are the faithful successors to the original converts of Methodist missionaries who preached the gospel about a century ago.

The letter, dated April 4, 2002, states:

“In November 2001, the pastors, elders and deacons of 16 churches here were severely attacked by the police. The reason was that in November 1999, two of the local church pastors reported a case of corruption in which the township head, the police and local government secretary had killed a farmer’s sheep worth 150 RMB. They were criticized and received political re-education, so thereafter they hated religion.

“On November 9, 2001, the Christian leaders were notified by village government security officials to go to the township government office to attend a legal studies class. Presiding over that day’s conference were the heads of the Public Security Bureau, Wu and Long, the township head, Lu, and other leaders from legal, governmental, United Front and Religious Affairs departments.

“At that day’s meeting, township head Lu announced that the Christian organization headed by X* was dissolved. They gave as their reason that ‘religious bodies which have not been permitted by the government are illegal religious organizations.’ They also said that Hong Kong and Taiwan Christian radio stations were overseas and gave out propaganda that the church set up by the Three Self Patriotic Movement was wrong, so listening to them was to accept control by foreign forces. They also said that Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are overseas, so the local police confiscated all the Bibles, hymnbooks and Christian books sent to us by Christian radio stations.

“They detained Mr. Gu, a local Christian, for 15 days. But I have decided with two other fellow workers to set up a small gospel team to preach the gospel to the minority peoples. Please pray for our Christian church here in Yunnan.”

The letter reveals the narrowness of local Communist officials who close churches and confiscate Christian literature. In this case, they appear to treat Hong Kong and Macau as if they were not part of China and even ban listening to Christian radio stations. But it also shows the spirit of Chinese Christians who are determined, even under persecution, to continue to engage in vigorous evangelism.

*Name withheld for security.[Return to Index]

***********************************(5) Weary Colombian Christians Look to the FutureSome Welcome the President-Elect’s Hardline Stance, Others Fear a Bloodbathby Deann Alford

AUSTIN, Texas (Compass) -- Colombia’s president-elect Alvaro Uribe campaigned with the slogan “Firm hand, big heart” and promised a hard line against rebels who have waged war on the country for 38 years. Colombians frustrated with war and death voted him into power by a landslide on May 26.

Some Colombian Christians, like many of their fellow citizens, welcome Uribe’s firm hand. Others are cautiously optimistic that he’s moving the country in the right direction -- away from years of futile peace talks with guerrillas bent on waging war.

Others, however, fear that the man who takes office August 7 will start a bloodbath that will pour even more misery on war-ravaged Colombians.

“People are tired of terrorism. They’re going to do whatever it takes to take action against this problem,” said Pedro Hernandez, head of the Medellin pastoral association AMEM and national director of Christ for the City International (CFCI).

And people are tired of corruption. Voters regarded second-place finisher Horacio Serpa, who finished with 31 percent of the vote to Uribe’s 53 percent, as a status-quo candidate who tolerates corruption and openly supports former president Ernesto Samper. Corruption scandals clouded Samper’s 1994-1998 administration. Samper has admitted that his campaign received millions of dollars in narco-trafficking money.

In contrast, Uribe, as Medellin’s mayor in the early 1980s and as governor of Medellin’s department, or state, of Antiochia, gained a reputation as a clean politician.

“Many feel Uribe will bring Colombia into the 21st century by knocking out useless bureaucracy and a political system given to corruption,” said missionary Andrew McMillan, who pastors Christian Faith Community Church in Medellin. “But the true reform comes from people with renewed hearts who want to serve and not rape the country.”

Asked whether Uribe would end the war, Hernandez said, “No. This problem of so many years isn’t going to end from one event to another. It would be very hard that one man could be the whole solution. I’m not with those who look to the new president as if he were the new messiah. But he could be the start of something different.”

Stay Out of Politics“Most people feel we are in for a hard time followed by recovery,” McMillan said.

“The church should keep its distance from Uribe not so much for fear of the FARC but for not confusing political power with Kingdom power.” The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the nation’s largest and most powerful guerrilla group.

The church is staying out of politics in Medellin, and that’s a good thing, says Medellin-based CFCI missionary Kelly Green. “If the church just sticks to preaching Christ and meeting the social needs of Colombian society, she’ll be better off,” he said.

Colombia’s war pits the FARC and other leftist guerrilla groups against the nation’s army and rightist paramilitaries. Added to the mix are narco-traffickers linked with all sides. With the rest of the war-torn nation’s citizens, Colombia’s Christians suffer threats, violence and kidnapping. The war has displaced upwards of 3 million Colombians from their homes. No place in the country is safe as the warring sides bring their battles to Colombia’s cities.

The evangelical church made no political endorsement in the election, though some individual pastors did publicly support Uribe for president. Around Holy Week, Cesar Castellanos and his wife Claudia Rodriguez of the International Charismatic Church of Bogota invited Uribe to speak at their church. Uribe’s website posts an article about a May 20 campaign-closing service at that church that claims 6,000 Christian supporters attended.

“But as a result of that, FARC immediately targeted all ministers and pastors as a military target,” said a Colombia watcher who asked not to be identified. “It’s because of this meeting that [Uribe] attended where they just blanketly said that the church was identified with him as far as the FARC is concerned.”

In mid April, the FARC forced 11 evangelical churches in Arauquita, a town near Colombia’s Venezuelan border, to close because, FARC leaders allege, evangelical Christians supported presidential candidate Uribe.

Ricardo Esquivia heads Justapaz, a Bogota-based Mennonite peace group that provides humanitarian aid to refugees and promotes non-violent solutions to Colombia’s conflict. He is also a leader of CEDECOL, Colombia’s evangelical church alliance. Esquivia said that FARC threatened CEDECOL because, the rebels believed, the church supported Uribe. CEDECOL issued a communiqué affirming that it wasn’t supporting any candidate.

“What Castellanos did was very wrong,” Hernandez said. “When Castellanos presented Uribe in the church, it wrongly gave the message that Uribe was from the evangelical church. It exposed our brothers in rural areas even more to the conflict.”

Frontline NGOsEsquivia says that Uribe’s plan to create a “community state” calls for the state to

contract with non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, to carry out social services that relieve misery, in essence privatizing relief work. Uribe’s 100-point “Democratic Manifesto” says that his plan will reduce red tape and thus get aid more efficiently to those who need it.

The plan means that the state will control NGOs, Esquivia says. The state won’t necessarily fund these social services but rather rely on the NGOs to pay for the added work they’ll be asked to carry out, freeing more state funds for the war effort. He questions what will happen when an NGO opts to end a relief program.

While churches aren’t mentioned in Uribe’s plan, “It’s implied because [churches] are among NGOs,” he said. Currently, Bogota church groups are receiving people who fled from their homes in San Vicente del Caguan when the FARC ordered all government officials to leave and closed some two dozen churches. One Colombia watcher estimated 600,000 evangelicals were among the 1.5 million people who fled the area.

In Chocó state, where three months ago 119 people were killed as they hid in a church during a battle, virtually all believers in the region were displaced. “The church is directly affected by all these actions,” Esquivia said.

And making churches and other NGOs into state agents jeopardizes their political neutrality, which could make them targets in the conflict.

Esquivia fears that Uribe’s plan to strengthen presidential power and cut the size of Congress will hinder democracy. It will, he fears, limit citizens’ -- and the church’s -- voices to counter anything they may disagree with.

What could prove to be Uribe’s most controversial proposal is creating a million-citizen national information network to combat the FARC. His plan even calls for arming some of the 1 million citizens.

Adam Isacson of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for International Policy, says the plan is based on Convivir, or “Coexistence,” a program that Uribe set up during his 1995-1997 tenure as Antiochia’s governor. President Andrés Pastrana ended the program because of the violence it brought about, Isacson said. Uribe’s 100-point plan uses the word “convivir” to describe his proposal.

A Colombia watcher who lived in Antiochia during Uribe’s governorship said that if Convivir is set up on a national level, it will mean a bloodbath.

“The church really suffered” under Convivir, the Colombia watcher said. “There were a lot of pastors killed. Let me tell you, the church is not going to be exempt from [suffering]. FARC has a real strong hold on Colombia. Pastrana gave them time to dig in their heels.

“[Such a plan] is just going to cause more heartache, more widows, more [orphaned] children,” the Colombia watcher said. “We’ve already got 3 million refugees internally. Our situation is second to Sudan. What are you going to do with all the widows and children? All the people who are displaced don’t have a place to live.”

True Change“Anyone here can get a weapon,” said OMS missionary Jeannine Brabon, who is

Hebrew professor at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia in Medellin and the Antioquia regional president of Colombia Prison Fellowship. “This is not the answer; it only generates more violence. La violencia aflora en el corazon del hombre -- ‘Violence blossoms in the heart of man.’ I know the change has to come from within the heart. Many think the answer is military power. But I have witnessed the most violent men, who once trusted in weapons, turn to the most powerful weapon, the Bible, and it has transformed their lives, and become their sole defense and protection, the key for holy living.

“Government legislation will never break the power of moral evil. It is only the regeneration of the soul of man that can transform fallen society.”

Brabon knows perhaps better than anyone that there truly is hope for peace in Colombia. She works in Medellin’s Bellavista Prison, where she helped plant a Bible institute after a revival swept the prison in 1990. Its murder rate plummeted from as many as 60 a month to one or fewer per year -- only 12 homicides in 12 years. No other prison is free from weekly deaths and massacres.

“I see the Lord working. We see tremendous opportunities” for the gospel, she said. As many as 6,000 inmates from all sides in the war are jailed at Bellavista. Right now about 500 of them are Christians who were leftist guerrillas, rightist paramilitaries, police officers, military men, murderers for hire and drug traffickers.

“All these young brothers are studying together, learning about the Bible in the prison. If you want to see what can be done, come to Bellavista. We have all the warring factions here, and they all live peacefully.”

Brabon cited a recent example of the difference Christ has made in Bellavista: All its 5,000-plus prisoners gave up their food on Mother’s Day. It was sent to the families of 119 victims of the Boyaja massacre in Choco. Sixty families of believers were affected by this tragedy and had to flee.

A lesson for Colombian Christians is that less than 10 percent of Bellavista’s inmates have had an impact on the rest. In comparison, Hernandez estimates that eight percent of the Colombian population is evangelical.

“The whole prison is not converted,” Brabon said. “but the Christians are a nucleus of salt, which has an effect on the entire prison.”

She added, “Intercede for the church in Colombia that it might be a pure and holy channel through which the Holy Spirit may flow freely. The strength of the church behind bars in Bellavista is the transparent, holy living -- it portrays a powerful message in a corrupt society.”[Return to Index]

***********************************(6) Priest Gunned Down in Colombia The Murder in Cali Followed Evening Massby David Miller MIAMI, Florida (Compass) -- A gunman shot Father José Hilario Arango to death at close range in front of the Santa Teresa church in Cali on June 27, just after the priest had celebrated evening Mass.

Arango became the third Roman Catholic priest to die at the hands of assassins in Colombia this year. In April, gunmen murdered Father Juan Ramon Nuñez in nearby Huila state as he served communion in his church. That murder followed the highly publicized assassination of the Archbishop of Cali, Isaias Duarte Cancini, on March 16.

Police suspect members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of involvement in the Nuñez murder and believe Cali drug traffickers, allied with corrupt politicians, masterminded the attack on Archbishop Duarte. At press time, the investigation into the death of the 47-year-old Arango continues.

According to witnesses, a lone gunman approached Father Arango as he was leaving the Santa Teresa church at 7:30 p.m. and fired three pistol shots into the priest’s head and neck. As the assailant fled, onlookers reportedly called police on a cellular phone. Officers responded and chased the suspect into a nearby wood. A gun battle ensued. Police shot and killed German Oquendo, a close friend and house mate of Father Arango. They later charged Oquendo, 22, with the priest’s murder.

However, parishioners who knew Oquendo say that it is unthinkable that the young man would have killed José Arango.

“The day he was killed, the father and I met for prayer from 6:00 to 7:30 a.m.,” Robinson Cataño, a fourth-year seminary student told the Bogotá daily El Tiempo. “Afterward we talked about German and how proud he (Arango) was of him.”

Oquendo, an accounting student at Cali University, lived in the parish household and assisted Father Arango with youth ministry. According to family members, the priest referred to the young man as “my nephew” and was helping Oquendo complete his professional studies.

Some observers believe the FARC might be responsible for Arango’s murder. A report in the Vatican news service Zenit described the slain priest as “critical of leftist rebels” and pointed out that his murder came just days after the FARC demanded that mayors and other community leaders voluntarily resign from office or face assassination.

Regardless of who killed Arango, the crime left Colombia mourning yet another fallen church leader. Since 1988, homicides have claimed the lives of 29 Roman Catholic priests and 65 Protestant pastors.

“These acts of violence leave us in complete dismay,” said Father Edgar de Jesus Garcia. “We ask God for His help, may He have mercy upon us.”

Father de Jesus Garcia assumed the post of Archbishop of Cali following the assassination of Isaias Duarte in March.[Return to Index]

***********************************(7) Secret Circular in India Encourages Killing and Maiming of ChristiansIllegal Tactics are Used to Spread Extremist Hindu Idealogyby Alex Buchan

LONDON (Compass) -- Raping Christian women during riots, selling Christian girls into the flesh trade, recruiting doctors to dispense poisoned drugs and assassinating anti-caste activists -- these are only four of 34 anti-Christian tactics recommended in a chilling and confidential circular from India’s elite Hindu extremist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

With instructions that “this paper is to be burned and destroyed after passing these instructions along,” the undated RSS circular, numbered 411/RO 303 11/RSS C03, is believed to have been in circulation for two years and originates from the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Maharashtra state. Sent to local RSS operatives, it recommends a series of mostly illegal tactics to spread Hindutva, the extremist ideology that demands India become a Hindu state.

“It frightens me that the leaders of our country, while telling the world they respect freedom of religion, are really working for an organization that has no problem killing, raping and poisoning those of other religions to advance their agenda of Hindu extremism,” said a pastor in New Delhi. “This is a wake-up call to the church. We cannot argue that persecution is just a spontaneous over-reaction of a few Hindus to over-aggressive evangelism, but it is a carefully planned chaos originating from the Hindu extremists themselves, with the long-term implications all worked out.”

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani are both leading members of the 750,000-member RSS, which directs the many other organizations that serve the Hindu extremist agenda, including the governing political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Indeed Advani, a notorious hardliner, was promoted in June after a cabinet reshuffle, where the BJP has 56 ministers in a 77-member cabinet. Christians are bracing themselves for an onslaught of extremist rhetoric as the BJP seeks to reverse electoral losses during 2002.

Terror CampaignThe four-page circular, in the form of a memo, calls for a terror campaign to be

waged against tribals, Backward castes, Muslims and Christians. Detailed instructions are given that include violence. Article 7 calls for “induction of Christian/Muslim girls into flesh trades.” Article 11 calls for “mass rapes of Muslim/Christian women during riots … no mercy to friends and acquaintances.” Article 32 calls for “killing of anti-Hindus and anti-Brahmins to continue. Disposal of bodies as per direction.” In other words, if a Christian condemns the Brahminical form of Hinduism, which insists that the poor stay in low castes, they are a legitimate target for assassination.

Yet the violence is not confined to riots, rape, or assassination. Almost incredibly, Article 4 calls for doctors to be recruited and induced to inject newborn Christian babies with diseases that will handicap them. The full article states, “Promotion of Hindutva among doctors and chemists, disposal of expired and specious drugs to Christians, tribals and Muslims. Injection for handicapping newborn Christians ….”

The circular contains a total strategy for persecuting, weakening and marginalizing the Christian, tribal and Muslim communities through economic boycotts, media onslaughts and conflict provocation.

This includes the deliberate plan to starve non-Hindu groups. Article 26 calls for “malnutrition of Christians to continue. Liquor poisoning as per direction. Food poisoning to continue.” Said a pastor after reading this, “This is sheer fascism, the kind of ethnic cleansing that went on in Bosnia, and it’s all happening in a so-called democracy receiving lots of Western aid.”

Lies RecommendedIn the propaganda area, lies are recommended. Article 12 calls for local RSS leaders

to “place images/idols under the ground near non-Hindu religious structures … new literature to be fabricated to prove all old churches … are old Hindu structures.” This has proved a durable tactic. As one pastor in Bangalore put it, “The easiest way to get a mob together to destroy a church is to say that it has been built on a Hindu site.”

Indeed, one could argue that the entire electoral fortunes of the BJP were built on this tactic, when Advani raised thousands of disgruntled Hindus to storm the Babri Masjid mosque in December 1992, triggering massive tension that swept the BJP into power in

1996 and 1998. He claimed the mosque was built over the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram.

RSS operatives are directed to destroy Christian literature, disseminate their own, and print lies about other religions if it serves to advance Hindutva. Even the promotion of “superstition” among the tribal populations is a legitimate tactic, as that weakens the Christian influence.

Provocation is another tactic, not only of non-Hindu groups, but also of police and armed forces against these groups. The circular also calls for the recruitment of anti-Muslim writers, the infiltration of communist groups and increased control over newspapers.

The manipulation of education is not left out either. More and more Backward caste Christian children are to be admitted to RSS run schools, and “history teaching as per direction.”

Of course, none of these tactics will come as a surprise to India’s Christian community. But the actual documentation proving that much of the recent persecution against them originates at the highest level and is meticulously planned is significant. The RSS is an extremely secretive organization and only rarely do internal and highly confidential circulars fall into Christian hands.

Three Significant AreasThe significance of the circular can been seen in at least three areas, according to a

group of India watchers polled by Compass.

First, the church at large needs to awaken to how well organized the Hindu extremists are. They have funds, long-term vision and utter ruthlessness in the pursuit of their aims.

“We’ve been too naïve for too long. It’s clear that there is a complex background to most incidents of persecution, and we have to have a better understanding of all the forces that are arraigned against us,” said a Bombay pastor.

Second, it shows that the Hindu extremist leaders are not just about motivating mobs to intimidate Christian evangelists -- the kind of incident that dominates persecution reporting. Rather, the extremist leaders are more often using stealth tactics, for example, infiltrating educational and mass media spheres, organizing malnutrition and changing the entire culture over the long term.

As one India watcher said, “The persecution of Christians in India is not primarily about mobs letting off steam. It’s about ruthless men in high places changing a culture of tolerance into a culture of intolerance by carefully crafted lies and cleverly creating chaos.”

Third, it should help other nations to realize how serious a problem the RSS-inspired violence is against religious minorities. Western nations have been slow to register the fact that as of the late 1990s, India is among the world’s worst countries for the killing of Christians. The Evangelical Fellowship of India reckons that since the BJP formed the majority in the national government in 1998, there have been over 100 deaths of Christians at the hands of Hindu extremists and well over 1,000 acts of anti-Christian violence.

Needless to say, with the BJP in government, prosecutions are impossible in the vast majority of these incidents.

Not all of India’s 40-million-plus Christians are in the firing line. The violence is targeted at the evangelists and those working to empower the lower castes. But the level of violence is expected to rise throughout the rest of this year as the BJP returns to a more nationalistic agenda to regain votes. [Return to Index]

***********************************(8) Translation of the Secret Circular

Instruction to the RSS officials to harass the origins among the suppressed Adivasis [indigenous peoples], OBC [Other Backward Castes], Muslims, Christians.

To Local Leaders,

In addition to the old ones, some additional duties are being entrusted. Some are to be modified. Instruct the patriots and volunteers. Reactions to be reported to headquarters. This paper is to be burned/destroyed after passing the instructions.

1. Procurement of firearms and explosives to be intensified.

2. Winning back Awarnas [literally, “those without caste,” a synonym for Christians] and Backwards to fight against Muslims and Ambedkarites [untouchables that converted to Buddhism].

3. Promotion of Hindutva among officials to be intensified.

4. Promotion of Hindutva among doctors and chemists, disposal of expired and specious drugs to Awarnas, tribals and Muslims. Injection for handicapping newborn Awarnas, Shudra’s [lowest caste in the Hindu system] children. Blood donation camps. Pronunciation of “Om” and “Jai Shri Ram” [Praise to Lord Ram] in the areas of newborn children of Awarnas and Backwards.

5. Boycott of anti-Hindu (anti-Brahmins) pseudo-secular programs.

6. Personal help of offenders to increase income from liquor, health narcotics, drugs, gambling, lottery in Backward’s and Awarna’s areas population. In government offices, organizing more religious functions Jagran Chanda for new Mandir construction/old Mandir, [collecting donations to build temples] propaganda. Hindu businessmen and banias during riots. Bania [caste of traders] to be looted in non-Hindu, Muslim areas.

7. Induction of Awarnas/Muslim girls in flesh trades.

8. Retardation of physical and mental development of school-going children, specially Awarnas and Ambedkarites, by harmful eatables, through volunteers, vendors and teachers.

9. More and more SC/ST [basically lower caste] Awarna’s students to be admitted to our schools. History teaching as per direction.

10. Provocation of communal riots against Muslims/Ambedkarites/Buddhists to be instilled. During riots, deployment of men of the volunteers far away from their own localities with new local goondas. Provocation of police/armed forces against anti-Hindus.

11. Mass rapes of Muslim/Awarna women during riots. No mercy to friends/acquaintances. Surat model to be followed.

12. Placing images/idols under the ground near the non-Hindu religious structures to be continued. Headquarters to be contacted for help needed. New literature to be fabricated to prove all old churches, masjids, stupas, as old Hindu structures.

13. Publication of anti-Muslim/anti-Buddhist literature to be intensified. More materials to be fabricated to prove Samrat Ashoka [past Buddhist king of India] a non-Buddhist.

14. Destruction of anti-Brahmin literature, Dalit literature, Ambedkar literature and communist literature to be accounted. Checking of entry of such literature in public/government/libraries to continue.

15. Propagation of our literature on Ambedkar amongst Awarnas and Backwards.

16. Keeping backlog (SC/ST) as per directions. [May refer to intelligence gathering on target groups.]

17. Production of more stickers, calendars, pamphlets of Lord Ram.

18. Acceleration of Ramkathas and Jagrans. [Revival meetings]

19. Propagation of superstition in Awarnas and Backwards has to be intensified. Use of Sadhus and Babas [ascetics] to continue.

20. Hinduization of Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs to continue. Worship of Rama in more and more Jain temples. Patna Path to be followed. Development to be reported to headquarters.

21. Attack against communism/communist/Awarnas/Shudras to be used.

22. Anti-Mandal [policy of reverse discrimination in favor of lower castes] agitation to be held up.

23. Provocation of conflicts between different castes among Awarnas/Backwards. Kootniti [possible code word -- meaning uncertain] to be followed.

24. Damaging of Ambedkar’s statue to be continued.

25. Practice of Gandharvism [possibly prostitution] against Awarnas and Ambedkarites without condition. Exposing the genitals of girls, kisses, photographs. Use light intoxicants.

26. Malnutrition of Adivasis/Awarnas to continue. Liquor poisoning as per direction. Food poisoning and slow poisoning to continue.

27. Control over newspaper to be increased. More materials to be written (anti-Muslim/anti-Mandal/pro-Hindu/pro-Ram). More local newspaper editors to be influenced under Hindutva.

28. Winning more leaders from Backward communities (SC, ST/OBC) for our political party, under the spirit of Hindutva. Usual methods to be followed.

29. Winning anti-Muslim writers, leaders from the Muslim community and anti-Mandal writers from Backwards to continue. Use of pseudo-secularism coin.

30. Persuasion of traders and jeweller-bankers to practice policies of economic drain of non-Hindus.

31. Observation of activities on non-Hindus and anti-Hindus/anti-Brahmins to be reported to headquarters.

32. Killing of anti-Hindus and anti-Brahmins to continue. Disposal of bodies as per direction.

33. Poornima [Festival of Full Moon] meetings of volunteers to continue.

34. Whistles to continue. [Tactic of blowing whistles to draw youths to attend meetings.]

“Jai Shri Ram”

411 / RO 303 11 / RSS C03

(Translated by Abhijeet Prabhu)[Return to Index]

***********************************(9) Thousands of Christians Forcibly ‘Reconverted’ to Hinduism in IndiaHindus Recruit for an Evangelistic Brigadeby Abhijeet Prabhu

BANGALORE, India (Compass) -- Over 5,000 Christians have been reconverted to Hinduism by the militant World Hindu Council (Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP) during the past two years, and Christian leaders claim the reconversions are forced. The VHP is an organization that is increasingly being supported for its anti-Christian activities by expatriate Hindus from Britain and the United States, sources revealed.

The VHP released the figures in mid June, proudly claiming that over the past two years Christians from the Oram, Munda and Khadia tribes in the Sundargarh district of Orissa province in northeast India have been reconverted to Hinduism.

Sundargarh has a population of 2 million, of which over 400,000 are Christians. There are over 1,100 churches in that district.

In the latest reconversion drive, 143 tribals belonging to 46 families of the Oram, Munda and Khadia tribes were reconverted at a special function organized by the Rourkela unit of the VHP at Tainser village on June 16.

The VHP claims that they do not force the Christians to reconvert, but that the conversion of a Christian to Hinduism must be seen as a “homecoming.”

However, Christian leaders have two objections to these reconversion drives. First, they claim the conversions themselves are coerced, because the VHP uses intimidation and violence in the villages. Second, the tribals -- who mostly became Christians 100 years ago -- were never Hindus in the first place, making it nonsense to talk of their “homecoming” to the Hindu faith.

The Global Council of Indian Christians has demanded an inquiry into the conversions.

Sajan K. George, the national convener of the council, said that the conversions were done in contravention of the provisions of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act and with the connivance of the government.

The VHP claims that conversions were not forced but a result of mobile health programs that have been launched to counter Christian medical work in that district.

Meanwhile, the VHP is seeking applicants for Hindu evangelists. The applicants must be “resolute Hindus, ready to die for their religion.”

Ironically, the VHP wants to recruit its evangelists from the state of Kerala. According to the VHP, more than 80 percent of India’s Christian missionaries hail from Kerala, and the VHP thinks that its evangelistic cadre could marshal a fitting reply.

After a month-long training program, the Hindu recruits will be dispatched to tribal areas to stop conversions to Christianity. They would also help return converted Hindus to their origins.

The VHP had earlier claimed that thousands of youth were ready to fill the new posts. Expecting a large response, it had limited the first group to 100. But the numbers fell short of its expectations, forcing it to extend the application date.

Another setback to its drive is that the age of more than half of those who have applied is between 40 and 60 years old.

However, VHP organizing secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan said he was satisfied with the numbers. “It is just the beginning. Teething problems are there. Once the first batch is out, more youth can be attracted,” he said.[Return to Index]

***********************************(10) Politically Savvy Christians Win in India Uniting Vote with Muslims Defeats a Pro-Hindu Candidateby Abhijeet Prabhu

BANGALORE, India (Compass) -- Persecution has given Indian Christians a new shrewdness in politics, as they are uniting with Muslims in Dhumka to defeat a Hindu extremist candidate in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heartland state of Jharkhand.

In a stunning turn of events, Christians in Dhumka mobilized during the last week of June and defeated the pro-Hindu candidate to the Lok Sabha (House of Commons) in the National Parliament by a substantial margin.

The action may reverberate around the country if Indian Christians, who have thus far been politically shy, fight the fundamentalist Hindu bullet with the secular ballot.

Dhumka has had a sizeable tribal Christian population. But ever since a Catholic

priest named Fr. Christudoss was stripped and paraded naked down the main street in full

view of the local authorities in September 1997, Christians had become the target of Hindu fundamentalism.

Christians aligned themselves politically with the local Muslim population and pledged to vote against the local pro-Hindu BJP candidate, who was sponsored by the ruling national party.

The result was a stunning defeat for the BJP’s Romesh Hembrum and an overwhelming victory for Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) president Shibu Soren. The JMM party represents tribal interests and contains a number of Christians.

Soren’s victory margin of nearly 95,000 votes included votes from the non-Christian and non-Muslim tribal communities, which form 40 percent of the state’s nearly one million voters. Muslim voters number 160,000 while Christian voters number over 60,000.

The pro-Hindu BJP loss has deeply embarrassed Prime Minister Vajpayee’s ruling party.

Observers were also surprised that Christians did not vote for S. Marandi, the candidate of India’s main opposition Congress Party who is a Christian. Marandi secured less than a sixth of the total votes.

“The main aim of the Christians was to defeat the BJP that, in their opinion, is once again becoming pro-Hindu,” said a news analyst. “They knew that Soren stood a better chance than Marandi and therefore voted for the JMM,” he added.

“It is remarkable that the hitherto exploited tribal Christians are becoming so politically discerning that they will not even be tricked into voting for a token Christian, unless they are convinced that both the party and the individual will take up their cause seriously in Parliament,” Rev. L. Minz, a local Lutheran pastor, told Compass. “We now have a tribal voice in Parliament who will hopefully take up the cause of the tribal Christians and other minorities in Jharkhand. If only Christians all over the country become more seriously involved in the political process, we will be able to combat the BJP on their own turf,” he added.

Jharkhand had become a BJP stronghold in the last decade. The Christians and other minorities, however, continued to largely vote for the Congress Party. But the Congress Party did not keep its promises, sources said.

Meanwhile, a church was vandalized and statues of Jesus and Mary were smashed, police said, in the neighboring district of Ranchi, where tribal Christians are most dominant.

The statues, gifted by the Vatican to the local Catholic church in 1998, were regarded as precious by the local community. However, they were found destroyed in the early hours of Sunday, June 30.

Opposition politicians say the attack is part of a conspiracy to fuel communal tension in the state.[Return to Index]

***********************************(11) A New Day or a Colored Dawn in Malaysia?Malaysia’s Leadership Succession Raises Religious Freedom Questionsby Christopher Epp

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Compass) -- Religious freedom often hangs on the shoulders of one leader whose identity intertwines with that of the country he rules. One such leader is Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has led Malaysia for the last 21 years. Mahathir announced his resignation on June 22, leaving in question the direction of religious freedom in this Southeast Asian country, which is threatened not so much by his successor as by the political party Parti Islam si-Malaysia (PAS).

After pleadings from his fellow leaders, Mahathir quickly recanted his resignation only to announce three days later that he would step down in late 2003 and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would succeed him. Mahathir was a stabilizing if controversial force in this Muslim-dominated, multi-ethnic country made up of Malays, Indians and Chinese. The latter two groups have the largest Christian populations.

Mahathir’s strong-minded leadership bent all independent institutions, such as the press and the judiciary, to his will. And while his departure raises concerns about the future of religious freedom, most Malaysian Christian leaders are cautiously optimistic.

“The new prime minister will continue to uphold the constitutional provision for religious freedom in the sense that it is enshrined in the constitution,” said Rev. Wong Kim Kong, general secretary of Malaysia’s National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF).

Malaysia’s Constitution upholds religious freedom but prevents proselytizing among Muslims. Article 11 states, “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.” The fourth clause adds, “[F]ederal law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam.”

Analysts believe Abdullah is better able than Mahathir to fend off ultra-nationalist Muslims such as the PAS from gaining too much ground in the country’s leadership.

“He can’t live up to Mahathir’s record on the economy, but he can respond better to the question of the Islamization of Malaysia,” said Professor Shamsul A.B. of the

University of Malaya. Abdullah comes from a long line of religious teachers and Muslim scholars with Arab ancestry. These credentials may allow him to engage Malaysia’s political conservatives on a different level than Mahathir, who was more confrontational.

But Abdullah’s strong Islamic credentials frighten some observers, since it could mean that Malaysia’s identity will become increasingly Islamic and hold greater authority over the church.

Nevertheless, many Malaysian Christians are hopeful current religious freedoms will be maintained. Abdullah is a substitute in the eyes of the Malaysian people for the more extreme PAS. However, he must walk the delicate balance between upholding constitutional provisions for religious freedom and keeping the more extreme Muslim forces at bay.

“Being new [the prime minister] will be cautious in doing anything that exceeds what is provided in the constitution,” said Rev. Wong.

Another Malaysian Christian echoes this confidence. “We are not worried because Mahathir has made preparations,” she said. “We do not see any threat.”

The real threat to religious freedom in Malaysia is the PAS, which has grown in power in recent years.

“Despite what Mahathir has done, how is it that PAS has taken control of one state, then two, and keeps them?” said an observer who asked not to be identified. “PAS has no respect for non-Muslims. This is the main worry.” PAS has asserted that they will take control of Malaysia’s Parliament.

The Terengganu state government in northeast Malaysia, which is dominated by PAS, passed a bill on July 8 to implement the Islamic penal code, including death by stoning for adultery and cutting off hands and feet for theft. However, PAS has little chance of imposing the proposed law as the federal government has vowed to block it, the BBC reported.

The state government in Kelantan, the other Malaysian state controlled by PAS, passed similar laws in 1993, but they have never been enforced because of federal government opposition, the BBC report said.

Malaysia Stats

Population: 23.3 millionMalay (Muslim): 65.1%Chinese (mostly Buddhist): 26%Indian (mostly Hindu): 7.7%Other: 1.2%

Of the above groups, Christians (mostly Chinese, Indians, East Malaysians) make up 9.1% of the population.

Source: National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia[Return to Index]

***********************************(12) Nigeria’s Anglican Church Condemns State GovernmentsIslamic Law Threatens Peaceful Co-Existenceby Obed Minchakpu

KADUNA, Nigeria (Compass) -- The Nigerian Anglican Church condemned the Kaduna state government in northern Nigeria for the religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians that have threatened peaceful co-existence in the state.

The church also condemned other northern state governors where sharia, or Islamic law, is being practiced, for persecuting Christians and propagating a system that has nothing to do with Christians.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the church’s synod on June 16, the church leadership urged Nigeria’s federal government to “contain ethno-religious conflicts that have become the hallmark of the peoples’ existence in the country.”

The Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Anglican Bishop of Kaduna, who signed the communiqué, described as worrisome “the incessant destruction of lives, property, and the attack on Christians.”

The Anglican Church said, “The present situation calls for caution and restraint.”[Return to Index]

***********************************(13) Islamic Extremists Kill a Christian Policeman in NigeriaRadical Muslim Preacher Claimed the Officer Had Trampled a Quranby Obed Minchakpu

KATSINA, Nigeria (Compass) -- A Christian policeman was killed on June 6 by Muslim extremists in Katsina state in northern Nigeria after he warned an Islamic preacher to stop inciting Muslims against Christians.

While preaching to a crowd at the Batsari market, the Muslim leader accused the Christian officer of trampling a Quran, the Muslims’ holy book. The accusations attracted other Muslims who reacted by clubbing the Christian to death.

“The killing of the policeman led to pandemonium, and quite a number of people sustained various degrees of injuries,” said S.D. Fakai, the Katsina state police commissioner.

The commissioner described the Muslim preacher as “notorious” and said he was directing abusive language at Christians. Then, thinking he was about to be arrested, the preacher began shouting “God is great” while accusing the officer of trampling the Quran.

“Soon after the [preacher’s] alarm, there was fighting between Muslims and Christians and pandemonium in the market, which almost spread to the police station,” Fakai told Compass. Police mobilized and quickly brought the crowd under control.

“A few suspects were arrested and the incident is under investigation,” Fakai said.

Christian-Muslim tensions have increased in northern Nigeria during the last three years as fundamentalist Muslim leaders have pushed for the implementation of Islamic law.[Return to Index]

***********************************(14) Pakistan Sentences Another Christian to DeathNow Two on Death Row, Five Appealing Life Sentencesby Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL (Compass) -- Another Christian was sentenced to death in Pakistan, joining Ayub Masih in the line-up of Pakistani Christians on death row for alleged blasphemy against Islam.

Augustine Ashiq “Kingri” Masih, 25, was convicted June 29 by the Faisalabad District and Sessions Court on charges of slandering the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Under the mandatory execution statutes of Section 295-C of the Pakistan penal code, Masih must be hanged for the alleged offense.

Presiding Judge Chaudhry Mohammed Rafique also assessed an additional fine of 50,000 rupees ($830) against the young Christian.

Masih was jailed in May 2000 on accusations that he made derogatory remarks against the prophet Mohammed while some Muslim acquaintances were questioning him about changing his religious faith.

Two years earlier, Masih had reportedly converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim girl, taking the name Mohammed Abdullah. Under Islamic family law, a Muslim woman is forbidden to marry a non-Muslim man.

But the young man was never allowed to marry the girl after converting to Islam, a representative of the Catholic community to which Masih and his family belong told Compass on July 1. Months later, Masih officially changed his religion back to Christianity. The laws of Pakistan allow citizens to change their religion, although

Muslims who do so are branded “apostates” and subjected to strong family and societal pressures.

According to a three-page inquiry report obtained by Compass which the local deputy commissioner of police prepared on the incident, Masih’s accuser, Rana Mohammed Nisar, had questioned Masih on March 17, 2000, asking whether it was true that after “embracing Islam” he had returned to Christianity.

Nisar claimed that Masih told him in the presence of four other eyewitnesses that he had become a Muslim so he could commit adultery with Muslim girls, declaring, “Your prophet was also very fond of this practice.” Nisar told the police he slapped Masih for these remarks, but then some 15 to 20 Christians nearby came to Masih’s aid, giving Nisar a beating that put him in the hospital. Muslims and Christians reportedly threw bricks at each other during the clash, which was eventually broken up by local police.

The police commissioner’s superior, identified only by his handwritten initials RDM, initialed the police inquiry on April 27, authorizing a formal case to be filed against Masih on May 3 at the Ghulamabad police station in Faisalabad.

In a statement reported on July 1 by the Daily Times, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) head Afrasiab Khattak declared that Masih’s verdict should be appealed “because we know that previous cases like this were eventually discarded by higher courts.”

Now moved to death row in the Faisalabad District Jail, Masih must file a high court appeal of his judgment. Masih has already served more than two years in jail without benefit of bail.

Local human rights advocates confirmed that although they had long been aware of this case, they had not been in direct contact with the prisoner, his family or his lawyer since the June 29 verdict. “I think he had a court-appointed lawyer,” said a representative of the HRCP, which is trying to obtain a copy of the official verdict.

Kingri Masih is the second Christian sentenced by Faisalabad’s lower courts in the past two months under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.

Elderly Christian Given Double Life-SentenceDespite only hearsay evidence, an elderly Christian named Aslam Masih was

convicted of alleged blasphemy on May 7. Faisalabad Additional Sessions Court Judge Mian Safdar Saleem ordered the defendant to serve double life-sentences in prison, along with paying a fine of 100,000 rupees ($1,660).

Illiterate and in his 70s, Aslam Masih was accused in November 1998 of preparing a charm with verses from the Quran to hang around a dog’s neck. The defendant, who was badly beaten and never given proper medical treatment, has been jailed without bail ever since.

The prosecution’s star witness denied before Judge Saleem’s court that he had even been present at the incident or lodged any complaint against the elderly Christian. “He accused the police of making up his statement,” the Daily Times reported on May 9. His defense lawyers had also argued that it violated criminal procedure codes for the sessions court to hear this particular case, since it had not been registered by either provincial or federal government representatives.

The high court appeal for Aslam Masih, who is “very weak physically, and shaking all the time,” is expected by his lawyers to take at least two more years.

Currently two Christians are on Pakistan’s death row on blasphemy charges, with five more appealing life sentences and an additional three still under trial, awaiting their verdicts.[Return to Index]

***********************************(15) Under the Shadow of Pakistan’s ‘Black Laws’by Barbara G. Baker

The Pakistan government claims that international critics are unfair in allegations that the 1986 amendments to its harsh blasphemy laws target the country’s religious minorities.

According to Interior Ministry statistics, nearly 75 percent of the country’s blasphemy cases registered every year implicate Muslim citizens. But except for a few prominent cases, most Muslim defendants are granted bail soon after their arrest, while judicial proceedings continue on their case.

By contrast, Christians charged with blasphemy are routinely refused bail by local judges, who justify their incarceration as “protection” from possible attacks while under trial. As a result, a Christian victimized by blasphemy charges typically spends years in jail until his verdict by a lower court, and years more while his probable conviction is being appealed to the higher courts. Once acquitted, as all have been to date, most flee the country for asylum abroad in order to escape ongoing extremist threats against their lives.

The bulk of blasphemy cases accusing minority citizens are filed against Ahmadi (Qadiani) members, a sect defined by Pakistan law as heretical and thus non-Muslim.

During 2001, human rights activists confirmed that at least 40 Muslims, 23 Ahmadis, 10 Christians and two Hindus were known to have been charged under Sections 295-A, -B or -C for committing alleged blasphemy against either Islam, the Quran or Mohammed.[Return to Index]

***********************************(16) Eleven Pakistani Christians Currently Jailed on Blasphemy Charges

Sentenced to Death:

Ayub Masih* (35): Arrested in Arifwala near Sahiwal on October 14, 1996, Ayub Masih was accused of blasphemy against Mohammed by encouraging a Muslim villager to read Salman Rushie’s book, The Satanic Verses. He was convicted and sentenced to death on April 27, 1998, by the Sahiwal Sessions Court. After more than three years on death row, his appeal was denied on July 25, 2001, by the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court. His final appeal is now pending before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Unmarried, he is in a solitary cell in the New Central Jail in Multan. He has survived two attempts on his life since his arrest.

Ashiq ‘Kingri’ Masih (25): Arrested in Faisalabad on May 3, 2000, Kingri Masih was accused of slandering Mohammed to some Muslims who questioned him about changing his religious faith. Born into a Christian family, the young man had reportedly converted to Islam in an effort to marry a Muslim girl, but later changed his religion back to Christianity. He was convicted and sentenced to death on June 29, 2002, by the Faisalabad Sessions Court. Unmarried, he is on death row in the Faisalabad District Jail, with an appeal pending before the Lahore High Court.

Appealing Life-in-Prison Sentences:

Aslam Masih (70+): Arrested in Faisalabad on November 5, 1998, Aslam Masih was accused of preparing a charm containing verses from the Quran to hang around a dog’s neck. He was convicted on May 7, 2002, by the Faisalabad Sessions Court, which sentenced him to serve double life-sentences in prison. The verdict is under appeal before the Lahore High Court. He is imprisoned in the Faisalabad Central Jail.

Amjad and Asif Masih (29 and 28): Arrested in Jhang near Faisalabad on February 4, 1999, for allegedly selling drugs, these two Christians were later accused of burning some pages from the Quran in their cell. According to a local bishop, police officers who failed to extort bribes from the two men fabricated the blasphemy charges. They were convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 21, 2001, by the Jhang Sessions Court. Their appeal has been pending before the Lahore High Court since April 2001. Amjad is married with four children, and Asif is unmarried. They are imprisoned in the Jhang District Jail.

Rasheed and Saleem Masih (35 and 31): Arrested in Pasrur near Sialkot on June 2, 1999, these two Christian brothers were accused of blasphemy against Mohammed during a dispute over ice cream bowls with a Muslim street vendor. They were convicted and sentenced to 35 years in jail on May 11, 2000, by the Pasrur Sessions Court. Their appeal hearings have been adjourned repeatedly by the Lahore High Court, now on recess until September 2002. Both married with children, the brothers are imprisoned in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail. Currently under Trial, Jailed without Bail:

Ranjha Masih (54): Arrested in Faisalabad on May 8, 1998, Ranjha Masih was accused of throwing stones that damaged a shop sign on which was written a verse from the Quran. He was charged seven weeks later with blaspheming against Mohammed. Trial hearings on his case did not begin for another two years before the Faisalabad Sessions Court, which by June 2002 had yet to hear the defense side of the case. He is married with six children and several grandchildren. He is imprisoned in the Faisalabad Central Jail.

Pervaiz Masih (34): Arrested on April 1, 2001, in a village near Sialkot, Pervaiz Masih was accused of slandering Mohammed to several teenage Muslim boys he was tutoring several months earlier. A well-known high school principal, he has been refused bail, and the police did not complete their prosecution brief on his case until the first week of July 2002. He is being tried before the Daska Additional and Sessions Court. Unmarried, he remains imprisoned in the Daska Jail.

Anwar Kenneth: Arrested on September 25, 2001, at the Gawal Mandi police station in Lahore, Anwar Kenneth was accused of making derogatory remarks against Mohammed. His case is now under trial before the courts in Lahore, where he is imprisoned in the Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Shahbaz Masih (24): Arrested on June 4, 2001, near Faisalabad, Shahbaz Masih was accused of tearing up leaflets with verses from the Quran and desecrating the grave shrine of a local Muslim holy man. According to his family, the defendant is mentally unstable, having been admitted to a mental hospital twice in the past five years for treatment. Trial proceedings in his case began in June 2002. Unmarried, he is imprisoned without bail in the Faisalabad District Jail.

*The name “Masih” is a derivative of the word for “Messiah” or “Christ.” It is used as a family name by many Christians in Pakistan to identify themselves as members of the Christian minority community, which constitutes 2.5 percent of the population.[Return to Index]

***********************************(17) Jailed Pakistani Christian Attacked in His CellViolence Against Alleged ‘Blasphemers’ Escalatesby Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL (Compass) -- A Christian high school principal jailed 15 months ago by Pakistan authorities for alleged blasphemy against Islam has been attacked while asleep in his cell.

Pervaiz Masih, 34, was struck twice in the head by another inmate before he awakened enough to wrestle with his attacker and call the jail guards, a Christian human rights advocacy group in Lahore confirmed on July 6.

According to the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), Masih was asleep on the night of June 17 when another inmate named Akhtar Bashir attacked him. His assailant started beating him, drawing blood when he struck him in the face with a sharp fragment of glass. He also tore Masih’s Bible and other Christian materials in his cell before prison guards intervened.

“Pervaiz seemed to be under a lot of distress,” Pakistani journalist Sadia Bokhari told Compass after visiting him in Daska’s Bukshi Khana Jail last week. “He had a slight scar that could be seen over his left eyebrow from the attack,” she said.

The Daily Times reporter said Masih was well-respected in the Daska prison, where the jail superintendent has allowed him some freedom of movement within the facility and even assigned him duties over some prisoners. “Everyone there knows the allegations against Pervaiz are false,” she said.

But after this attack, Masih admitted to her he was feeling quite insecure. He said he had no idea why the other prisoner decided to attack him. Masih was allowed to telephone his brother-in-law, who then informed CLAAS about the incident.

Details on the attack against Masih were only learned when he was brought before the Daska Additional and Sessions Court for a hearing on his case. After months of delay, the local police finally submitted their prosecution brief on his case at the July 6 hearing. But in the absence of presiding Justice Khalid Bashir, the trial was continued until July 20.

Masih has been refused bail since his arrest in April 2001, when he was accused of slandering the prophet Mohammed several months earlier to three teenage Muslim boys he had been tutoring. Sajjad Ahmed, a Quran teacher in the Chelay Kay village near Sialkot, filed the case against him.

According to CLAAS coordinator Joseph Francis, at least 10 other prisoners accused of blasphemy have been attacked or abused in Pakistan’s jails during the past three months, in addition to one defendant who was murdered in his cell.

Three alleged ‘blasphemers’ in Faisalabad’s Central Jail, including Christian Aslam Masih, have been harassed by other inmates, Francis told Daily Times in an article released on July 8. Threats against another seven, including Christian Anwar Kenneth, have been reported in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Since the June 11 murder of Yousaf Ali in his Lahore cell, local and international human rights advocates have renewed appeals to the military government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf to keep prisoners accused of blasphemy in separate cells from other inmates. Jailed four years ago, Ali was a 60-year-old moderate Muslim whose death sentence was still on appeal before the high court when a fellow prisoner shot and killed him.

In an open letter to Musharraf on June 21, Amnesty International blasted the Islamabad government for failing to “clearly and publicly condemn such acts, investigate

them promptly, independently and impartially and ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

‘Blasphemer’ Label Sparks Deadly AttacksMeanwhile, the volatile tensions already igniting Pakistan’s fanatic Islamist

movements continue to fuel deadly vigilante attacks against moderate Muslims, as well as Christian and other minority citizens long targeted by the controversial “black” laws.

On July 5, a Pakistani Muslim was beaten and stoned to death as a “blasphemer” by a village mob incited by their local mosque prayer leader. The same day, a visiting American Muslim of Pakistani heritage only narrowly escaped a similar fate by calling the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad while attackers were pelting his house with rocks and chanting death threats.

Zahid Shah, 40, was killed in Chak Jhumra near Faisalabad on the night of July 5 after Imam Faqir Mohammed urged villagers over the mosque loudspeaker to “come out of their houses and kill Zahid,” the Dawn newpaper reported. Local police, who came four hours later and turned his body over to a relative, described the murder as an “accidental incident” that was not a “cognizable offense.”

Although the police later registered a case against 300 unnamed villagers for the crime, it was only after both President Musharraf and Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool reportedly took “serious notice” of the incident that they identified six persons, including the imam, as the mob instigators. None have been arrested or charged to date.

Earlier the same day, U.S.-born Faraz Jawed, 30, was attacked after Friday noon prayers in the village mosque in Jaranwala when he objected to the prayer leader’s speech cursing the Pakistan government and America.

“Instead of blaming America, you should better tell us Islamic teachings,” Jawed told Imam Hafiz Abdul Latif, according to a report in the July 8 Dawn newspaper. Angered, the imam declared Jawed guilty of blasphemy and ordered those in the mosque to kill him. Although Jawed managed to escape to a relative’s home, the imam called on village elders to punish him.

But by the time some 50 men armed with iron rods, sticks and guns had gathered to attack the house where Jawed was hiding, Jawed had called the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. In response to the embassy’s request to protect the life of an American citizen in danger, Jaranwala police promptly came to the scene, Dawn reported. Two cases have been filed against Imam Latif and 12 other villagers for provoking the attack and themselves violating Section 295-A of the blasphemy law. The imam and two of the named suspects were arrested July 7.

“The Punjab government must … ask the police chief and other senior officials for an explanation why such incidents are on the rise,” the daily Jang newspaper concluded in an editorial July 8 on the Chak Jhumra stoning.

Since harsh amendments were added to the blasphemy laws in 1986, the vague statutes have been misused regularly in Pakistan to settle personal grudges, family feuds and business rivalries. Although no one has yet been executed under the laws, several hundred have been jailed for years while under trial, and most Christians acquitted have been forced to flee the country for asylum abroad.[Return to Index]

***********************************(18) Evangelical’s Prison Release Stalled in PeruJudicial Complexities Continue to Thwart Justice in de Vinatea’s Caseby Deann Alford

AUSTIN, Texas (Compass) -- The judge in imprisoned Peruvian evangelical David de Vinatea’s narco-trafficking case told his lawyer that she won’t rule on his bid for early release until the lawyer withdraws a similar request made to another court.

Lawyer Gino Romero said that Judge Pilar Carbonel Vilchez of the 28th Penal Court of Criminals in Prison told him June 26 that de Vinatea may be eligible for early release through a prison benefit called “conditional freedom,” which he has asked for and she has been named to grant or deny. But, she said, as long as de Vinatea’s March request for “semi-freedom” is pending in the Second Superior Court of Criminals in Prison, she can’t rule on the matter.

De Vinatea, 50, is serving a prison sentence for narco-trafficking crimes he says he did not commit. A coalition of international Christian organizations, citing many judicial irregularities in his trials and in the legal proceedings concerning his case, believe that he is an innocent victim of corruption.

From a legal standpoint, “[Carbonel Vilchez’s reasoning] sounds strange, but judicially it has some validity to it,” Romero told Compass.

Under Peruvian law, prisoners may request “semi-freedom” after they have completed one-third of their sentences. “Conditional freedom” may be requested after one-half of a sentence is completed. Prisoners released through semi-freedom are under greater restriction than those released under conditional freedom.

De Vinatea’s wife, Chely, said that two years ago de Vinatea began asking the courts for semi-freedom, most recently in March, since he had served more than one-third of his 16-year sentence. Judges denied all four of his requests for semi-freedom. Carbonel Vilchez herself denied two of those requests.

Romero said he argued to Carbonel Vilchez that two different prisoner benefits were at issue. De Vinatea asked for semi-freedom before President Alejandro Toledo signed a March 28 commutation, or reduction, of his 16-year sentence to eight. With the sentence

reduction, de Vinatea is eligible for “conditional” freedom because he has served six years -- more than half of the now eight-year sentence.

Romero said that he will immediately withdraw de Vinatea’s bid for semi-freedom.

“He has to be freed because now there’s no argument, neither juridic or otherwise, that justifies his staying in prison for more time,” Romero said.

Corruption, however, is an issue that has clouded de Vinatea’s case from its start in 1995.

“Certainly we can’t be blind to the existence of corruption or dark interests behind some people or procedures,” Romero said. “There are a lot of criminals who have committed crimes and have been freed. Unfortunately, I know that justice in my country isn’t carried out in a just way, with equality.

“What were trying to do is fight so that justice can be carried out,” Romero said. “There are obstacles, but we’re trusting in God to bring out the truth and bring about justice. We hope that with national and international support, we can get Colonel de Vinatea out.”

***Photographs of David de Vinatea and family are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.[Return to Index]

***********************************(19) Restitution of Greek-Catholic Churches in Romania Unresolved Churches Were Confiscated During the Communist Regimeby Willy Fautré

BUCHAREST, Romania (Compass) -- Despite establishing a Mixed Commission for Dialogue, which brought together Romanian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic representatives to discuss the restitution of Greek-Catholic churches confiscated by the communist regime in the late 1940s and given to the Orthodox Church, a number of cases remained unresolved. Two are now pending before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and more complaints may be lodged soon.

The first case concerns the Greek-Catholic Church of St. Vasile Polona. In 1992, the local Greek-Catholic community began legal action to get back the church, the parish house and a plot of land for which they have had title deeds since 1892. They asked for eviction of the current occupant, an Orthodox community.

Court hearings started in February 1992 and continue today. So far, all court pronouncements have avoided making a final judgment. The court has said, however, that the Greek-Catholics did not have the right to file a case because more Orthodox believers were living in the houses surrounding the Church of St. Vasile Polona than Greek-

Catholics. The court also said that this case exceeded the scope of the judiciary and referred it to the Mixed Commission for Dialogue.

So in January 2001, the Greek-Catholic community, addressing the European Court of Human Rights, claimed infringement of its rights, including its right to a speedy trial.

They also charged that the Romanian government did not observe Resolution 1123 (1997) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which asked Romania to solve the problem of the restitution of the confiscated assets, especially regarding the church.

The Greek-Catholic parish asserted that by depriving them of the use of their place of worship, the right of the Greek-Catholic believers to free exercise of religion has not been and is still not being respected. The believers cannot perform religious services in their own church and are forced to attend religious services in a church that belongs to another religious denomination and for which they must support with personal financial contributions.

The Greek-Catholic believers in Bucharest say they are at a disadvantage because of their religious minority status, which they allege has been used against them by the national courts and the majority Orthodox Church. They believe the problem is reducing the number of Greek-Catholics because their community cannot offer normal religious and education services, especially among their youth.

A second case concerns the Greek-Catholic parish in Sambata, in Bihor county. The parish started legal action for the restitution of the Greek-Catholic church currently occupied by the local Orthodox Church. They went to the court asking for a decision that would allow services in the contested church to alternate between Greek Catholic and Orthodox.

In October 1996, the Beius Court allowed the application regarding alternating services, a solution endorsed by the Bihor Court in May 1997. Presiding over the appeal by the Orthodox parish, which opposed alternating services, the Oradea Court of Appeals dismissed the two previous rulings in January 1998 and rejected the action brought by the Greek-Catholics as inadmissible. The Oradea Court argued that the courts do not have the authority to judge such litigation, which could only be solved by a joint commission consisting of the representatives from the two religious denominations.

The Greek-Catholics took the case to the European Court in September 2001, claiming that the ruling of the Oradea Court of Appeals violated rights guaranteed in Articles 6 and 9 of the European Human Rights Convention. They asserted that the final decision denying authority of the courts on this issue was a denial of justice and that a commission consisting of the parties in litigation cannot be considered an independent and impartial court in the sense intended by Article 6.

They also stated that the refusal of the Oradea Court of Appeals to judge the application regarding alternating religious services breached the freedom of faith of the Greek-Catholic believers in the parish.

Mr. Laurentiu Tanase, Secretary of State for Religious Affairs, told Compass, “I think that the two parties somewhat exaggerate the problem. Before World War II, there were 1.5 million Greek-Catholic believers for 16 million inhabitants, and one Greek-Catholic church for every 600 worshippers. In the 1990s, there were, according to the national census, 230,000 Greek-Catholics for 23 million inhabitants, and one church for every 650 worshippers. The Romanian state has guaranteed the restitution of buildings of which it became owner by confiscation under communist rule and is not responsible for the remaining controversial issues.”

He added, “With regard to the real estate and movable property of which the state is not the owner, a Mixed Commission for Dialogue independent from the state has been created to permit the two churches to come to an agreement.”

However, a member of the Romanian Helsinki Committee told Compass that Romania is still responsible for the restitution of the religious buildings that the state confiscated and gave to the Orthodox Church.

“The Romanian state has tried to wash its hands by creating the Mixed Commission, but it is still a party in the problem.”[Return to Index]

***********************************(20) RomaniaA Draft Law on Religions by the End of the Year?

On June 10, 2002, Compass correspondent Willy Fautre met in Bucharest with Laurentiu D. Tanase, Secretary of State for Religious Affairs, and asked him about the future of relations between the state and religious organizations in Romania.

Compass Direct: Since the fall of the Ceaucescu regime in December 1989, Romania has been living with communist legislation regarding religious matters. Isn’t that strange?

Laurentiu D. Tanase: You are right, and I fully regret this situation. This legislation, which recognizes 15 religions, is now unsuitable and has become inapplicable as such. A draft law has been rejected by the Parliament and has been largely criticized abroad, even in an amended form. For the last 12 years, the situation has been blocked, and I do well have the intention of unblocking it. Moreover, I can count on the total support of our prime minister. A draft law should be ready by the end of the year.

Compass: Can you guarantee that the new religious law will respect minority religions?

Tanase: I want to be completely sincere. The new law will be very democratic and in harmony with the European Convention of Human Rights. I want to respect the prestige of the majority religion at the same time as excluding all forms of discrimination with regard to other religions. The law will not be very detailed. It will be short and will evoke the grand principles that should orient religious life.

Compass: Do you think you will be able get a consensus on this law?

Tanase: The secretary of state for religious affairs will consult with the representatives of diverse religions in Romania and with foreign experts. After considering their opinions, the secretary will submit the draft law to various organizations for the defense and promotion of religious liberty, as well as to the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and other inter-governmental organizations.

Compass: How will you approach the “cult” question?

Tanase: Recently, a Romanian television station interviewed a selection of people off the street to find out what the word “cult” brought to mind for them. Baptists, evangelicals, Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses were the names that recurred most often. What to do? I am for the organization of conferences … that would contribute to inter-denominational dialogue and to better relations between the state and religions. I am in effect convinced that dialogue leads to tolerance. We don’t want to stigmatize religious groups that have been called “cults.”

Compass: Still, new religions are not treated the same as recognized religions.

Tanase: It is a bit difficult to give a brief answer to this question. Since 1990, after the fall of the totalitarian communist regime, religious life in Romania has started to adopt the normal pace of a modern democratic society. As a result, many associations with religious aims have been granted legal recognition in order for them to enjoy freedom without any ideological and political restrictions. Among these associations, we can point to evangelical and Pentecostal groups, the Mormons, the Baha’is, Jehovah’s Witnesses and so on. Hundreds of missionaries from various countries and denominations have been able to come to Romania, and dozens of prayer houses have been built throughout the country.

Besides religious associations, 15 religions enjoy the legal status called “recognized religion” -- the Romanian word is culte. They are in fact “historical” religions. They enjoy some fiscal facilities and are entitled to receive financial support from the Romanian state. Among them is the Romanian Orthodox Church, whose believers make up 86.6 percent of the country’s total population, but also the Catholic Church, the Reformed Church, the Jewish Communities, etc.

It is not easy to change the legal status from a “religious association” to that of a “recognized religion” because, according to prevailing Romanian legislation on religious life, there are a series of conditions that have to be fulfilled. Still, the Supreme Court of

Justice recently decided to declare a new religious movement a “recognized religion,” which is a first. Without questioning the correctness of this judicial decision, it must be said that its enforcement does have serious implications, especially in the economic, financial and social fields, with ramifications even for the state budget. That is why the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs has drawn up an administrative act for enforcing the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice. This act will have to be approved by the Romanian Ministry of Finance and others before being discussed in government session. As you can see, a democratic procedure provides for the access to the status of “recognized religion” and can be used by new religious movements.[Return to Index]

***********************************(21) Stranded Iranian Family Granted Visa Extension in TurkeyTurkish Court Convicts Iranian Muslim for Harassing Convertsby Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL (Compass) -- Police authorities in central Turkey renewed the expired residence permits of the stranded Erfani family, showing them a document from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) headquarters in Ankara authorizing the surprise visa extension.

Iranian Christian Mahmoud Erfani told Compass by telephone from Nevsehir that he had been summoned on July 5 by the local police, who informed him they had received official UNHCR authorization from Ankara to extend the Erfanis’ residence visas, which had expired on March 28, for another six months.

The Turkish officers told Erfani, who cannot read Turkish or English, that the document indicated he had been granted formal U.N. refugee status, pending further procedures to immigrate abroad. No further interviews or application procedures would be required by the UNHCR, he was assured.

“It’s a miracle!” Erfani said, admitting he had feared the police would give him a deportation order when he reported on July 5. But so far, he has received no direct confirmation from either the UNHCR or the Canadian Embassy regarding any change in the status of his case.

The convert Christian family had been granted temporary residency in Turkey three years ago, after applying for refugee status with the UNHCR on the basis of the persisting religious persecution they had faced in Iran. Both Erfani and his wife converted from Islam to become baptized Christians 21 years ago in their home city of Mashhad.

But without any documents to substantiate their case, the UNHCR rejected the family’s application and two subsequent appeals. This past April, the Canadian Embassy in Ankara also denied them immigration status, leaving them liable for deportation back to Iran by the Turkish authorities.

“I think the appeal I took to the Canadian Embassy two weeks ago has made an impact,” a relieved Erfani said. On June 18, Erfani submitted a written appeal to the Canadian Embassy’s denial of his application, based on “new and relevant information” regarding his case.

Prepared with assistance from the Colorado-based Iranian Christians International (ICI), the appeal documented specific government persecution of Erfani’s relatives in Mashhad since the family fled Iran. Both his brother and brother-in-law were repeatedly detained and interrogated by Ministry of Information (MOI) agents.

He also produced a Turkish court document proving that his family had been threatened and harassed in recent months by an Iranian Muslim who moved into his neighborhood in Nevsehir. Identified as Mohammed Amin Ebrahimzadeh, the Iranian had expressed great interest when he learned that the Erfani family were Christians, asking for a Bible and Christian literature and posing many questions about their faith, worship and baptism.

In early April, Erfani invited Ebrahimzadeh to attend the small house church that met in his home for worship. Ebrahimzadeh observed their prayers, hymns and Bible study. But a few days later, he came to Erfani’s home at midnight, pounding on the door and waking up the entire family.

When Erfani opened the door, the man grabbed his collar. “He began insulting my Christian faith and made offensive remarks about Jesus Christ,” Erfani said. “At the end of his tirade, he gave us an ultimatum: My family could either leave our apartment and neighborhood, or expect the worst.”

“As a Muslim, [Ebrahimzadeh] was angry at my family for abandoning Islam and embracing Christianity,” Erfani stated.

Shaken by the threat, Erfani reported it to the police, who asked him to produce witnesses. Six of Erfani’s neighbors went on his behalf to testify to the police, who then detained Ebrahimzadeh. In an April 15 verdict signed by the Nevsehir state prosecutor, Ebrahimzadeh was found guilty of slander under Article 344 of the Turkish penal code.

“This episode is exactly the sort of treatment my family and I can expect if we are forced to return to Iran,” Erfani said in his June 18 appeal, “only the persecution could be much more serious.”

In a separate exhibit attached to the appeal, Erfani detailed his recollection of the specific questions, answers and comments given during his interview in the Canadian Embassy two months earlier. A Turkish Muslim immigration officer conducted the one-hour interview on April 18.

Noting that “any Muslim must harbor a strong dislike for my family and me due to our conversion from Islam,” Erfani requested that his appeal and any further interview on his case be processed through “non-Muslim officers” of Canadian immigration.

A Canadian Embassy official declined to comment on the Erfani case, citing privacy regulations on all immigration matters.

The UNHCR’s apparent reversal of the Erfanis’ rejected refugee status is expected to pave the way for Canadian authorities to admit them to the application process for immigration to Canada, where a Toronto church has pledged sponsorship for the family.

Erfani’s wife, Atefeh, who has suffered from advancing multiple sclerosis for the past eight years, is now in a wheelchair. Their daughters Arezoo, 19, Atoussa, 15, and Armineh, 9, have not been able to attend school for the past three years while living in Nevsehir.

The Erfanis’ home city of Mashhad is known as a center of Shiite fanaticism in the Islamic Republic of Iran. After a local convert pastor was hanged for apostasy in 1990, the only two Protestant churches in the city were forced to close, and a number of converts to Christianity fled the country to escape arrest and execution.

Erfani himself was subjected to repeated abductions by the secret police in 1998, who then forcibly evicted his family and confiscated all their household furniture and appliances in the spring of 1999. Weeks after moving his family to Tehran, he learned that other converts were being arrested and questioned about him. Secretly, he packed up his family and fled with them across the Turkish border on July 1, 1999.

***Photographs of the Erfani family are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.[Return to Index]

***********************************(22) Turkish Christian Acquitted of Slander ChargesDiyarbakir Church Construction Still Stalledby Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL (Compass) -- A Turkish Christian facing up to a year in jail for an alleged insult against Islam was acquitted on June 26 by a criminal court in southeastern Turkey.

Diyarbakir’s Fourth Criminal Court ordered all charges dropped against Kemal Timur, a member of a local Protestant Christian congregation who was arrested two years ago while legally distributing New Testaments in the city.

“We certainly did not expect my acquittal to come yesterday,” Timur told Compass from Diyarbakir on June 27. His lawyer had advised him not to attend the hearing, he

said, since it was expected that his accusers would fail to produce the documents ordered at the last hearing, forcing another delay in the case.

“We had argued at the last hearing that it was unnecessary for the police witnesses who had been transferred to another post to be interviewed by the court,” advocate Kadir Pekdemir said. “So the judge changed his mind and dispensed with their missing depositions, ordering the case dismissed.”

“This is the Lord’s work!” Timur declared happily. “It is a miracle for me and my family,” he said.

Timur, 33, was accused of making a slanderous comment against the Muslim prophet Mohammed in May 2000, when he was detained for 24 hours for distributing free New Testaments on a public street.

Turkey’s laws on freedom of religious expression allow such distribution activities, although police officials routinely arrest individuals on the basis of an alleged complaint from some “anonymous citizen.”

Timur was released without charge after being held overnight and beaten by local police, but six months later, the state prosecutor opened a slander case against him.

The acquittal came in the seventh hearing on the case since his trial began on January 30, 2001.

Timur credited the prayers of Christians around the world for his acquittal. Beginning in March, he said, he has received hundreds of letters and cards in many languages from various countries, including Germany, England and the United States. “There have been sacks full of them,” he exclaimed, “and every one told me they were praying for me!”

Inquiries regarding Timur’s case had come to the Turkish government from a variety of human rights advocacy groups, including the International Sakharov Committee in Denmark and Sign of Hope in Germany. Four foreign observers were among a dozen individuals who attended the last hearing on the case in February.

Congregation Sealed OutMeanwhile, the Protestant congregation to which Timur belongs is still waiting for

official permission to finish its nearly completed church building in Diyarbakir. Ordered to stop construction last November over so-called “zoning and building code” violations, the congregation has been sealed out of the premises by government order and forbidden to finish the building’s interior.

The three-floor structure is designed to include living accommodations for Pastor Ahmet Guvener and his family, as well as the church’s sanctuary and related facilities.

Guvener was put on trial for making “illegal changes” in the architectural plan of the building. At the initial hearing on May 28, Guvener said that it was “very obvious” to the court that his building plans and documents proved that the purpose and required permissions for the construction had been open and complete. “My next hearing is set for October 8,” Guvener told Compass, “and I expect it to be the last one.”

“It’s pure harassment,” a recent visitor to the region observed, in describing the criminal charges made against both Guvener and Timur. “But it’s not clear exactly where the real objections are coming from at this point.”

In the meantime, the Diyarbakir Council for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Riches continues to stall on any official response to the church’s revised set of architectural plans, submitted weeks ago for approval. Guvener and his architect were told the blueprints will be examined at the council’s next meeting.

***Photos of Kemal Timur, Ahmet Guvener and the unfinished Diyarbakir Protestant Church are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.[Return to Index]

***********************************(23) Turkish Police Close Iskenderun Protestant ChurchCongregation’s Activities Accused of ‘Offending Society’by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL (Compass) -- Turkish security police ordered a Protestant Christian congregation meeting for 40 years in the southeastern port city of Iskenderun to close its doors in mid June, declaring the church had “no legal basis” and that its activities were harmful to society.

Pastor Yusuf Yasmin, 71, was served official notice by the security police of Hatay province to close and stop all activities of the New Testament Church in Iskenderun.

The abrupt order was dated and delivered on June 14 to Yasmin, who was ordered to remove the church sign and list of worship services from the building by 5:00 p.m. the same day.

According to a copy of the directive obtained by Compass, the church was ordered to close “because your activities will incite religious, sectarian and dervish-order discrimination; will harm religious and national feelings; and will create offense in the society.”

Signed by District Security Director Salih Gokalp, the order declared that the church’s location had not been approved in the municipal zoning plan and that no religious or other private education of any kind could be allowed on the premises without the express permission of the Ministry of Education.

The church has met in its current location for the past seven years without previous complaints from the Turkish authorities.

Yasmin and the majority of his congregation, averaging 80 to 90 worshippers at Sunday services, are Turkish citizens from a variety of ethnic Christian backgrounds. The Protestant church has met for worship in the city since 1963, although after its original place of worship was torn down in 1970, the congregation met in the church facilities of the local Armenian Orthodox Church for 25 years.

In 1995, the congregation purchased and moved into its own church facility in Iskendurun’s Piri Reis district, notifying local authorities on June 26, 1995, of the location and set times of worship, Bible studies and religious seminars.

In compliance with local zoning regulations, Yasmin informed all the other owners of residences and shops in the building that his church had purchased Flat C to be used as a place of Christian worship. “None of them had any problem with this, and all of them signed the notarized forms giving their consent,” Yasmin said.

In an indirect admission, the police order acknowledges that “there is no provision in our laws concerning the construction and use of ‘places of worship.’” But it goes on to insist that “it is not possible for places of worship to be built in random places” under the country’s zoning laws.

“We are not enemies of the state,” a bewildered Yasmin said today by telephone from Iskenderun. “We love our nation. So why are they doing this to us?” After pastoring and preaching for 43 years, Yasmin admitted he had found it very difficult to be forbidden to worship with his congregation for the past month.

A lawyer retained by the New Testament Church confirmed on July 9 that he is preparing to file a case before the administrative courts on behalf of the Iskenderun Protestants to regain their constitutional rights to freedom of worship and religious activities.

Iskenderun is located just 25 miles from Antakya (ancient Antioch), where the New Testament says Christ’s followers were first called Christians. With a population of 160,000, Iskenderun still bears the name of its 4th century B.C. founder, Alexander the Great.

***Photographs of the New Testament Church in Iskenderun are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.[Return to Index]

***********************************(24) Vietnam Church Leader Felled by Heart AttackPastor Faced High Expectations from Colleagues and Heavy Pressure from AuthoritiesSpecial to Compass Direct

HO CHI MINH CITY (Compass) -- The Rev. Pham Xuan Thieu, president of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), died of a heart attack on June 24 in Ho Chi Minh City. He was 61.

The Rev. Thieu, a professor of theology, had been elected president of the ECVN (South) in February 2001. He was hospitalized with a variety of infirmities only weeks before his election, which he reluctantly accepted. He later testified to being healed of “many weaknesses” after he accepted the leadership of the church organization.

After the government confirmed the legal recognition of the ECVN (South) in April 2001, the Rev. Thieu had the task, as he described it, of “rebuilding a building out of complete rubble.” For 26 years since the fall of South Vietnam to the communist regime, the ECVN (South) had been alternately ignored, harassed and persecuted. The Rev. Thieu kept a heavy schedule of visiting churches and of receiving pastors of harassed churches from around the country.

A friend close to Rev. Thieu recently remarked that he feared the pressure on him was unbearable. Some of the pressure was from ECVN members whose expectations following legalization were “unrealistically high.” Government authorities have kept the church heavily restricted, and a few pro-government pastors were lobbying against Thieu’s leadership.

House church leaders criticized the Rev. Thieu for his visit to the U.S. in May with the Bureau of Religious Affairs. But he told friends that he feared consequences from the government for not going would be worse than criticism for going.

ECVN (South) members are very concerned about the immediate future, a source reported. Thieu’s successor, ECVN (South) first vice president the Rev. Doung Thanh, is considerably older than Pastor Thieu, physically infirm and “no longer sharp and astute in his dealings.”

A funeral service for the Rev. Thieu was held on Friday, June 28. An estimated 3,000 Christians attended. The Rev. Thieu is survived by his wife, Phuong Lan, and two sons.[Return to Index]

***********************************(25) Hundreds Attend Pastor’s Funeral

A colleague who attended the funeral of the Rev. Pham Xuan Thieu in Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon) wrote a moving letter describing the experience. Here is a translation of excerpts from the letter:

Saigon -- June 29, 2002

Dear Brothers,

Concerning the funeral of the Rev. Pham Xuan Thieu -- the Lord was with us.

The ceremony of preparing the body and committing it to a coffin took place at the ECVN president’s manse at 30 Ho Hao Hon Street, District 1 at 5:00 p.m. on June 25. The second vice president of the ECVN (South), the Rev. Tang van Hi, preached the message.

The ceremony of bearing the coffin to the church began at 6 a.m. on June 26. It was taken to the Saigon Church on Tran Hung Dao Boulevard.

The ceremony of viewing and paying respects began at 8 a.m. on June 26 and continued until the evening of June 27. There were delegations from the National Fatherland Front and the National Bureau of Religious Affairs. The consuls general of the U.S. and Canada also came. Prime Minister Pham van Khai sent a wreath. Representatives from churches all over Vietnam came as well. There were over 200 wreaths. … On both evenings there was a time for prayer and a message.

The funeral service began at 8 a.m. on Friday, June 28. There were at least 3,000 Christians in attendance and over 100 cars. The service was led by the Rev. Phan Quang Thieu (pastor of the Saigon Church). The funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Duong Thanh (the first vice president of the ECVN -- South). The messages of condolences were read by the Rev. Le Van Thien. … The Ho Chi Minh City representative of the National Fatherland Front spoke on behalf of the government. The widow of Pastor Thieu gave words of thanks. She spoke very sincerely and openly. Her words of thanks to God moved everyone deeply.

It was after 10 a.m. before the funeral procession left the Saigon Church and went to the Christian cemetery at Lai Thieu. And it was past 12 noon before we dropped earth on the coffin in the grave and the committal service was finally finished.

The church is strong as it faces an unknown future. The Lord will care for His church![Return to Index]

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