Living together: the bad news – from Page 1LIFELINESSEPTEMBER 2019

SUDANNIGERIA

FEARS GROW FOR KIDNAPPED GIRL

Is Leah Sharibu dead? Disturbing video studied

CHRISTIAN human rights organisations are continuing to hope that a teenager being held by a faction of the Boko Haram terrorist group is still alive despite reports that she has been killed by her captors. Reports have surfaced in recent weeks that 16-year-old Leah Sharibu may have been killed after a disturbing video released by Boko Haram splinter group Iswap showed a Chris t ian a id worker pleading for her life and making reference to Sharibu and another Christian captive, Alice Ngaddah. In the video Grace Taku, an aid worker with Action Against Hunger, who is being

held by Iswap, reportedly said: "I am begging on behalf of all of us. I don't want such to happen to us and it also happened again with Leah and Alice, because Nigeria could not do anything about them, they were not released, they were also killed." Leah was one of 110 schoolgirls abducted from a school in Dapchi in February 2018. While five of the girls died in captivity, the others were released the following month with the exception of Leah, who was kept back after refusing to convert to Islam. Christian Solidarity World-wide (CSW) said its partners in the country were aware of

the reports surrounding Leah but believe she might be held by a different group from Taku and so could still be alive.

CONTiNUED OVERLEAF

Leah Sharibu

IN their efforts to bring Christianity further under government control, authorities in China have erased the words "Bible," "God" and "Christ" from classic children’s stories, including Robinson Crusoe. China’s Ministry of Education recently introduced a new school textbook to help fifth-grade students “understand other cultures,” according to Asia News. Included in the textbook are four popular stories by foreign writers, including Robinson Crusoe, The Little Match Girl, and Vanka. However, each story is censored to remove any religious reference. In Daniel Defoe’s 18th century classic novel, castaway Robinson Crusoe discovers three Bibles inside a shipwreck, which he then uses as his moral compass while stranded on the island. However, the Chinese version eliminates the word

"Bible,” instead noting that Crusoe happened upon “a few books.” The original The Little Match Girl, written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson, includes the line, “when a star falls, a soul goes to be with God.” The redacted Chinese version, however, reads, “when a star falls, a person leaves this world.” Anton Chekhov’s story Vanka includes a passage where a prayer is said inside a church, during which the word “Christ” is mentioned several times. In the Chinese version, that section is left out and every mention of the word Christ has been erased. Asia News notes that the censorship of Christian religious elements isn’t isolated to elementary schools. Several college professors also condemn classics containing religious words and confiscate

them. Among these are The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, and Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo.

In 2018 China’s ruling Communist Party implemented rules on religious practice and announced a five-year-plan to make Christianity more compatible with socialism. Efforts to make the faith more “Chinese” reportedly included a rewrite of the New Testament using Buddhist scripture and Confucian teachings to establish a “correct understanding” of the text. "There are guidelines that the new Bible should not look westernized and [should look] Chinese and reflect Chinese ethics of Confucianism and socialism," Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, previously told the Christian Post.

China erases ‘Bible’, ‘God’ and ‘Christ’ from children’s classicsCHINA

Muslims save

Christians in attack

‘Rejoice and be glad . . . for so they persecuted

the prophets who were before you.’

– Matthew 5:10-12

A GROUP of Muslims thwarted a terrorist attack planned against Christians in Northern Kenya, s a v i n g n e a r l y t w o d o z e n b e l i e v e r s f r o m d e a t h , a persecut ion watchdog has revealed.  According to International Christian Concern, the Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab had planned to storm a construction site for a new hospital in Kutulo, Kenya and kill any Christian workers they found there.  When some of the local Muslim p o p u l a t i o n h e a r d o f t h e impending attack, they rushed to the area to tell all Christians to evacuate. They then waited for the gunmen to arr ive and confronted them. While the Muslims were unable to prevent the gunmen from opening fire on the construction site, more than 20 Christians were never-theless able to flee and escape without injury. The incident mirrors a 2016 attack in which Kenyan Musllms on a bus ambushed by gunmen protected Christian passengers by refusing to be split into religious groups.

KENYA

SEPTEMBER 2019 LIFELINES 2

FROM PAGE 1

LINDA LOWRY, Open Doors

While religious persecution is spread over many countries, there are some areas where the hostility is particularly intense. Our monthly list of persecutors is not comprehensive or in any particular order. We share it not to stir up anger—although righteous anger is expected—but to move us all toward prayer and action. Jesus commanded us, directly, to pray for our enemies, our persecutors. So please use this list as a powerful prayer tool.

t

2. AL-QAEDA

THE PERSECUTORSPray also for them

WHO WE ARELIFELINES is a monthly digest of onlinenews that seeks to draw attention to the

widespread levels of suffering that thousands of Christians are facing daily.

geomul@iafrica.com

CSW said that until there was further evidence to suggest otherwise, it would continue to pray and work for her release. Open Doors USA is exercising similar caution in light of the reports and has called on the N i g e r i a n g o v e r n m e n t t o investigate the claims. "We, along with other observers, f i n d t h e c l a i m h i g h l y incredulous," an Open Doors USA spokesperson said. "Grace is clearly traumatised and under immense pressure as she tries to relay a lot of information." Leah’s mother, Rebecca, traveled to the US in June, when she told a meeting of the Heritage Foundation: “We are pleading with you to please call on our government or to step in and do something.” Open Doors USA president David Curry expressed his concern that the Nigerian government is failing to contain the threat from Boko Haram as well as Fulani militants, who have also killed many Christians. "Without the resources to protect, and the will of duly elected civil government to fight the terrorist agendas of these groups, northern Nigeria and

other surrounding areas may be lost to these Islamic extremist groups," he said. Commenting on the reports surrounding Leah, he said: "Let us all take this story as reason to double down on our efforts to intervene and decisively move to protect Leah and others like her who have fallen into the clutches of Boko Haram." Earlier this year the Nigerian Government dismissed such reports as fake and a ploy by the political opposition to tarnish the the administration’s image ahead of the general elections. Reacting to latest developments the governmemt states: "The presidency has been given assurances that contact is being made and the captors are being talked to. “These discussions have been ongoing even before this time and what this latest incident has done is to bring urgency to the efforts that the secret service is making. “The government is making contacts, in the hope that the captors will see reason to not visit hardship or even harm on these innocent individuals.”

THE rebel faction, Arakan Army, has released 52 villagers from the predominantly Christian Khumi community after they were detained for six months in a border camp.They were abducted in February in a battle with military troops who in six months have carried out extensive and systematic human rights violations against civilians in at least three states. These have included the forced deportation of more than 700 000 ethnic Rohingya to Bangladesh."

MYANMAR Rebel army frees 52 villagers,

A JUDGE has ruled that a South Carolina school district cannot allow official prayers or religious music at their graduation ceremonies, bringing an end to a years-long legal battle. The judge also ruled that students speeches at ceremonies could under certain circumstances include a prayer or other religious content provided that no-one else was asked to participate.

UNITED STATES No graduation prayers

IRAN Convert, 65, jailed for ‘propaganda’A CHRISTIAN convert, Mahrokh Kanbari, age 65, has been sentenced to a year in jail for “acting against national security" and engaging in “propaganda against the system". She has been released on bail of 2 500 USD. Kanbari was arrested last Christmas Eve by intelligence agents, who seized cellphones, Bibles and other reading matter. There are an estimated 800 000 Christians in Iran. The number is growing, thanks to a network of underground churches.

A CRIMINAL case has been reopened against eight leaders of the Church of Christ who refuse to yield control of their church to an unelected governent-appointed committee. The executive committee members have been charged with trespassing on their own property.

SUDAN Church leaders refuse hand-over

WHILE Isis is in the news Al-Qaeda has continued to fight in countries throughout the Middle East, often marking Christian communities as specific targets. In countries like Yemen, Christian converts from Islam are particularly vulnerable as they are already treated as outcasts by their own communities. As Al-Qaeda takes advantage of distracted governments, Christians in their path experience intense persecution. Their leader, Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, succeeded Osama bin Laden in 2011. His network carried out attacks in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and also some in North America and Europe. In 2012 he called on followers to kidnap Western tourists in Muslim countries. The most destructive Al Qaeda operation were the 2001 September 11 airliner atttacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in which nearly 3 000 people were killed and more than 6 000 injured.

Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri