THE AID AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
www.barnabasfund.org
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
CHRISTIAN WOMEN UNDER THREAT IN THIS ISSUE
Women and girls persecuted for Christ … and how Barnabas is helping them
s e l t i T t Grea 13 for 20
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My Devotional Journal Patrick Sookhdeo My Devotional Journall is an inspiring collection of short testimonies, poems and prayers from Christians around the world, as well as uplifting Bible verses and pages for you to record your own thoughts and reflections throughout the months. ISBN: 978-0-9825218-2-3 | No. of pages: 96 | Cover: r: Hardback | P&P: £2.00 | RRP: £7.99 Special Offer price
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Brothers and Sisters Loving our Persecuted Family This resource enables children’s leaders to run a lesson or event on the challenging theme of Christian persecution. It is packed with useful ideas, including a Bible lesson plan, games, music, stories and more. It explains carefully how and why our some of our Christian family are suffering, and encourages compassion, prayer and practical help. ISBN: 978-0-9853109-7-4 | No. of pages: 40 | Cover: Paperback | P & P £1.50 | RRP: £5.99 To order these books, please contact Barnabas Fund, 9-10 Priory Row, Coventry, CV1 5EX or call 02476 231923. Cheques should be made payable to “Barnabas Books”. Or visit barnabasfund.org/shop.
The paper used in this publication comes from sustainable forests and can be 100% recycled
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
Available as eBook Heroes of Our Faith Inspiration and strength for daily living Patrick Sookhdeo This outstanding devotional book contains 366 stories of brave Christians who gave up their lives for their Lord. Their stories inspire us to live wholeheartedly for Christ. Spend a year with these great heroes of faith and allow God to touch your life. ISBN: 978-0-9825218-9-2 | No. of pages: 386 pages | Cover: Hardback | P&P: £2.50 | RRP £11.99
Front Cover: An Ethiopian Christian woman at prayer (Source: Steve Evans, AKA Babasteve) To guard the safety of Christians in hostile environments, names may have been changed or omitted. Thank you for your understanding. Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version®. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission for stories and images used in this publication. Barnabas Fund apologises for any errors or omissions and will be grateful for any further information regarding copyright. © Barnabas Fund 2012
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WELCOME FROM THE DIRECTOR
A New Beginning
L
uke 2:21 tells us that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. In Jewish thought, the number eight signifies a new beginning, because it was on the eighth day that God returned to work after creation. The week began again. It goes without saying that the birth of Jesus ushered in a new age. God would do a new thing in the world. A new creation would begin. A new day would dawn. In the darkness, light would come. In the despair, there would be hope. In a world devoid of meaning, reality would enter. Hatred would give way to a new kind of covenant love. At the age of 40 days, Jesus was taken to Jerusalem for the traditional purification ceremony, where He was recognised by Simeon as the Lord’s Christ who would bring salvation to both Jews and Gentiles (Luke 2:25-32). According to Christian tradition, old Simeon was blind, yet his words show that he had powerful spiritual sight and discernment. He even foresaw that Jesus’ mission would bring grief to His mother, Mary (Luke 2:35). During the past year we have seen the Arab Spring turn into a Christian winter. We have seen fledgling desires for democracy give way to autocracy. Instead of secular democratic institutions and political parties developing, we have seen religiously oriented institutions shaped by a fundamentalist, absolutist ideology take power. These have brought with them mayhem and war and have caused endless suffering for Christians in Syria and other coun-
tries. Like Mary, many Christian women are grieving for their children. The ripple effect of these events is now being felt much further afield. The temptation is to give way to despair. Yet we need to remember that with the coming of Jesus a new age has begun. And for this new year we need to pray that a new dawn will break in Muslim-majority countries, that Jesus the Light will dispel the darkness and, as Redeemer, rescue us from tyranny, that God’s covenant with His people will not be broken, that His love will not be denied, that He will hold His people in His arms and carry them through another year. The name given to Jesus at His circumcision, announced by the angel before His birth, means “Saviour”. In the Christian winter there are arising shoots of new life, for there are many who are appalled at the rise of extremism and yearn to embrace freedom. Some are finding this freedom in Jesus the Saviour and Redeemer. Now there is beginning to be repeated in the Arab world what happened in Iran a generation ago after the 1979 Islamic Revolution: life under strict Islamic rule has resulted in an unprecedented number of converts from Islam to Christ. Praise God that we are now seeing these shoots of new spiritual life, of hope coupled with love, springing up in new parts of the world, as God continues to build His Church. The desert is blossoming, with the joy of the redeemed (Isaiah 35).
We need to remember that with the coming of Jesus a new age has begun
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo International Director
Contents
4 Compassion in Action Empowering Christian women in Pakistan and South Sudan
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16 11
Testimony A Christian woman in Pakistan longs to speak out for justice
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In Touch Great response to the Day of Prayer
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Campaigns Proclaim Freedom goes to Europe
Spotlight Sisters in Christ suffering for His sake
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Newsdesk Christian children: arrested, forcibly converted, killed
12
Windows on Islam Why are Christian women converting to Islam?
PULLOUT
Advocacy Helping displaced Christians far from home
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COMPASSION IN ACTION
how barnabas £17,127 running costs for 2012 and guard for girls’ rescue home (US$27,350; €21,388) £6,178 for roofing five churches (US$9,826; €7,729)
Burundi: roofed churches for returnee congregations
T ee of the Thr th Chris Chris Ch ristia stia ian ia an girl i s from fro m the e hom me
Return Ret urned ed d Bur B und undian ians s can can now worshiip in worshi in tthei heirr own own chu church rch ch
Hunted by several men last summer, four girls were able to reach the safety of Cana Rescue Home, a haven for Christian girls escaping abuse, without being caught.
Ves estter te is now a trainer er
“I was happy to be able to help a community in a practical way,” said Vester, now a trainer of an innovative farming method in Zimbabwe. “People in rural areas cannot afford fertilizer and so the teaching on compost-making was so helpful to them. I would like to thank God for the opportunity I have received to learn from [the ministry] and now be teaching here.”
A flourishing congregation in Burundi is delighted finally to have a roofed church. “After years of gathering under the strong sun, [we] praise the Lord Jesus Christ for helping us,” their pastor said.
The pursuing men were intent on dragging the girls back to their parents, who were planning on forcing the girls to practise their traditional African religions, for example by making them undergo a “female circumcision” rite and marry bridegrooms who were not of the girls’ choice.
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Zimbabwe: farming transformations
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
Many members are very needy. They have only recently resettled in the area after having lived in exile in neighbouring countries for many years to escape a long and violent conflict that ended in 2008. Still, the congregation is continually expanding; at present 37 new members are preparing for baptism, three of whom are converts from Islam.
Project reference 67-1041
Project reference 25-663
The members, eager to have their own building, had collected stones for the foundation and erected the walls with bricks they made themselves. But they were too poor to buy nails and iron sheets for the roof. Barnabas stepped in by funding the roofing materials for a total of five churches in the area.
Vester was one of eleven trainers whose salaries Barnabas Fund provided for one year after they were coached in teaching. They taught 860 farmers in north, central and east Zimbabwe how to get significantly higher crop yield by changing their farming routines. Besides teaching farming, the trainers aim to disciple people by strengthening them in their Christian faith and showing them that true transformation in their community can take place only when they start loving and serving each other the way Jesus did.
Project reference 91-751
Girls safe at Cana Rescue Home, Kenya
The four are now living with 72 other girls at the home, in a safe and loving environment where they are encouraged to study hard at school and helped to grow in their Christian faith. Barnabas has been supporting the home’s running costs for many years and has also funded the building of the living quarters and dormitory. Recently we also sent a grant for the salary of a security guard for one year in order to prevent family members from breaking in to kidnap the girls.
£31,379 for training in farming (US$49,908; €39,255)
is helping £9,548 for leadership training (US$15,186; €11,944)
COMPASSION IN ACTION
Strengthened and encouraged. This is how many Christians feel when they receive support from Barnabas Fund. Thank you for helping to make this possible. Below and on the following pages are just a few examples of the many ways we have recently assisted persecuted and pressurised Christians. Please pray as you read.
£2,611 for primary schools (US$4,153; €3,266)
India: leaders strengthened by training before church attack
£11,604 for building 10 new houses (US$18,456; €14,516)
Brave flood victim gets own home in Pakistan
Exceptional schools in Bangladesh
R i and Ran and nd he her e fa amil mily y have av a new home hom e
Two Barnabas-funded primary schools in Bangladesh are exceptional for several reasons. Both have clean water and latrines for the children to use, “luxuries” that are usually absent from Bangladeshi rural schools.
A church attack in India last summer brought home what the leaders had just learnt at a Barnabas-funded leadership training.
But what makes the schools truly remarkable is that they are Christian in a country with a very large Muslim majority. All thirteen staff members are Christians, and they teach the children about the life of Jesus. Barnabas Fund recently sent them another grant to provide for the schools’ running for six months. All 222 school children, most of whom are Christian, were also very happy to receive new uniforms, books and pens.
Project reference 04-933
The school buildings are also attractive and well-built, and are used as shelters during the regularly recurring cyclones, tornadoes and floods.
Project reference 21-1069
A total of 334 church and ministry leaders throughout Orissa and West Bengal received leadership training last summer with help Barnabas Fund, and another group will soon receive similar training.
She and her husband converted from Hinduism to Christianity some time ago. But disaster struck three years ago when her husband had a severe accident that incapacitated him and prevented him from providing for the family. And then a year later their home was destroyed by floods that submerged a fifth of Pakistan. Undeterred, Rani ran a handicraft business, making and selling purses and key chains, while they stayed at her sister’s. This brought in enough to cover the family expenses. She also started teaching her skills to other women.
Project reference 41-1014
Ma Man a y chur an hu urch ch c h le eader ader ders de s said aid d that tha at w what ha hat a th they ey lea earnt e rn was wa as ins nspir pir irati ation ati onall and ona n rel re eleva e ntt to eva to the eir cirrcum cumsta stance sta nce c s
At a three-day workshop in June 2012 the ministers from that church, together with dozens of other leaders in their area, had received Biblical teaching about “standing firm in the midst of persecution”. After the attack the ministers of that church were able to be strong in their faith despite the violence and injustice they had just experienced. And their congregation realises now that the Lord can protect and save them from opposition.
“Rani is a very brave and skilful lady,” writes a Christian ministry contact in Pakistan. Thanks to Barnabas Fund Rani’s family now have a new home.
Witth tthei h ir new heir hei w un uni nifor for fo orms orms m
In total ten families who had converted from Hinduism to Christianity and were made homeless by the floods received new homes from Barnabas Fund.
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 5
COMPASSION IN ACTION
bringing hope, EMPOWERING CHRISTIAN WOMEN South Sudan: in business to fight poverty Receiving a loan with support from Barnabas was a great blessing to Kila. It enabled her to start a small business through which she can now provide for her children. The snacks and bread that she sells on the market are popular with customers, because Kila makes sure that they are fresh and clean. She has already paid back most of the loan and hopes soon to take out a larger one to expand her business and earn more money for her family.
Kila at work at the market
The Christian microfinance ministry that gave Kila a loan has set up a successful scheme to help hardworking Christian women in Juba get out of poverty. Last year, thanks to support from Barnabas Fund, 197 Christian women received microloans for starting up or expanding small businesses.
One of the reasons why the loan scheme is fruitful – currently 89% of the women are repaying their loans – is because of the meetings the ministry regularly organises for all participants. There the women are inspired and galvanised by each other’s experiences.
£60,000 for business start-up costs (US$95,000; €74,000)
Project reference 48-965
Health awareness in Pakistan All the women present raised their hands when they were asked if the doctor should continue with her health presentation. Packed together on a church floor, 80 Christian women watched the remainder of the doctor’s slide show with rapt attention. They learnt about the importance of vaccinations and of sterilised equipment during childbirth, information that was new to many of them, as many of them are illiterate and work as farm labourers in rural Pakistan. Health presentations are one of the diverse ways that a ministry in Pakistan aims to empower impoverished Christian women. Barnabas Fund has regularly sent them support. Much in the health presentation was new to these Christian women
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BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
A recent grant from Barnabas enabled the ministry to open two more sewing schools, increasing the total number of income-generating centres run by the ministry to ten. They also organised twelve doctor’s visits, during which the women received free medical consultations and prescriptions, and arranged seminars where they encouraged women to bring positive change in their own communities just as women in the Bible did. £14,176 for women’s ministry (US$22,639; €17,699)
Project reference 41-697
COMPASSION IN ACTION
transforming lives
Kyrgyzstan: Refuge for the oppressed “Amangul” (left) was much encouraged by her stay at the safe house
period of respite and recuperation. This is what a safe house, constructed with support from Barnabas Fund, is bringing to suffering believers in Kyrgyzstan. Christians can stay at the church-run shelter for several weeks or months while they regain strength after experiencing persecution from their Muslim relatives, community or from authorities.
A
Care from her new Family “Amangul” was reinvigorated by her stay at the safe house. She had previously been fired from her job as a teacher after she converted from Islam to Christianity. All her Muslim friends and relatives also broke off contact with her. But despite this she stayed strong in her faith and even started leading a home group in her village. When her health deteriorated, Amangul had to travel many miles to receive specialist medical
care. Without the support network of her Muslim relatives, care and shelter from her new brothers and sisters in Christ was invaluable to her. The contact with fellow Christians was also a great encouragement. Now fully recovered, she has returned to her village, where she has resumed leading the home group. Undaunted by intimidation For Shashanbek the safe house provided a temporary place of refuge. The young church leader, a convert from Islam, had to flee his home town early last year when Islamists from a local mosque ordered him to “repent and go to the mosque”. They also threatened to beat him if he did not do as they said. Shashanbek prayed about the harassment. On his return to his town after staying at the safe house, he continued to share the Gospel. And yet
his relationship with his persecutors improved. Shashanbek’s conclusion is that “the Lord has made this [happen]”. Barnabas Fund helped the church meet the costs of the land purchase and construction of the safe house. The congregation had decided to build a refuge when the need increased so much that individual members could no longer house the suffering Christians themselves.
£15,132 for safe house (US$24,165; €18,894)
Project reference 26-966
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
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SPOTLIGHT
Our suffering sisters The plight of persecuted Christian women and girls
W
omen are honoured in God’s family, but tragically the experience of many Christian women around the world does not reflect this. Our sisters in Christ who live in places of persecution and pressure may experience a double problem of ill-treatment, in which they suffer for both their faith and their gender. For example, under Islamic sharia law a woman’s testimony has half the legal worth of that of a man, and the testimony of a Christian is worth only half that of a Muslim. So a Christian woman is seen as worth only a quarter as much as a Muslim man. There is a similar sliding scale for compensation due for injuries, with Christian women getting much less than Muslim men for the same injury.
Thi his s Chri Christi s an woman is one of the female pr soners pri er Barnabas supports in Su udan, who are often locked up for havin ing g infringed aspects of sharia la aw suc ch as restrictions on dress
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BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
Nadia a Naira’s life in Pakistan was torn apart wh when she was abducted and forcibly married to o a Mu M slim man when she was just 15
SPOTLIGHT
In recent years two high-profile examples of the persecution of Christian women have shocked the world. Both Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl with Down’s syndrome, and Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother, stand falsely accused of “blasphemy” in Pakistan; Aasia has been
sentenced to death, and Rimsha still faces trial despite evidence that she was framed. Their lives have been torn apart: even if they were to be acquitted, they and their families might never be safe, as those falsely accused of blasphemy are often murdered after their release.
But an extremely vulnerable legal status is only one aspect of the persecution that Christian women can face. They suffer many forms of violence and injustice from non-Christian sources. This article looks at some of the most common kinds of persecution that they endure.
Sexual abuse The use of kidnapping, rape and sexual violence against women as a weapon in campaigns against Christian communities is a particularly abominable practice. In Burma (Myanmar), women are especially at risk in the government’s military campaign against mainly Christian ethnic minorities, who are targeted for both their ethnicity and their faith. The Burmese military has been using sexual violence as a weapon of war in its recent offensive in the territory of the Kachin, who are 90% Christian. Sixty cases of rape were reported between June 2011 and February 2012. It is very difficult for victims of rape to bring their abusers to justice: a representative from a women’s group in Thailand, where many Burmese Christians have sought refuge, said that the Burmese soldiers appear to have a free rein to “rape and kill ethnic women with impunity”. In Nigeria, the Islamist group Boko Haram threatened in March 2012 to “strike fear into the hearts of Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women”. Often, as here, the abuse of women is not an end in itself but a means of driving out Christian communities. Christian women are similarly at risk in Eritrea, which is ranked among the world’s worst persecutors of Christians. Hundreds of Christians flee the country each month. Women seeking to escape harassment and the threat
of imprisonment in their homeland face severe dangers as refugees. They have to put themselves in the hands of people-smugglers, and many are taken hostage for ransom by Muslim Bedouin nomads in the Sinai Desert as they seek to make their way, via Egypt, to safety in Israel. There they are often subject to sexual assault and severe beatings. Christian women may be forced by crushing poverty to work as domestic workers in the homes of people who are hostile to them, putting them at risk of sexual and other violence. For example,
Boko Haram threatened to “strike fear into the hearts of Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women” Pakistani Christian women may have no choice but to work in a Muslim household. Here they are in an isolated and vulnerable position, and some may even have to take their children to work with them. Christian women may also be seen as having loose morals, as some people associate them with the women they see in films and other media from the “Christian” West. This may be used as a justification for attacking them.
It is not only domestic workers who are in danger at work. Zubaida Bibi, a Pakistani Christian mother of four children, was brutally killed by a Muslim colleague in October 2011. After Zubaida resisted the man’s attempts to rape her at the factory where they worked, he pulled out a dagger and slit her throat. Zubaida’s grieving husband said “I want justice… My wife was an innocent and noble lady. She was working for our children.” In a particularly brutal attack, a grandmother from the predominantly Christian Kachin ethnic group in Burma was gangraped and tortured by Burmese soldiers in May 2012. The 48-yearold woman was hiding in a church building when troops invaded her village. The soldiers who found her there beat her with rifle butts, stabbed her with knives, stripped her and gang-raped her over a period of three days. After the soldiers left, she was found semi-conscious by some villagers and taken to hospital. She has been reunited with her family, but the horrific ordeal has left her deeply traumatised and mentally disturbed.
Forced marriage and conversion Although sexual assault is not lawful in Islam, some Muslim men believe that the kidnap, rape and forced marriage of Christian girls is an exception. Muslims also consider that a wife will automatically follow the religion of her husband, and that all the children of such a marriage will do the same, so marrying or impregnating Christian girls can be seen as a means of spreading Islam, and a financial reward may be offered for doing so. Barnabas recently received a report that in one high school in East Africa, twelve Christian girls were made pregnant by Muslim boys in three months; three of them are the daughters of pastors. The boys are reported to be paid £30 ($50, €40) to impregnate a Christian girl.
Pakistan and Egypt have been ranked as the two worst places to be a Christian woman in terms of the number of reported attacks on them. Christian women and girls in these countries are in danger not only of kidnap and sexual assault, but also of then being forced to convert to Islam and to marry their Muslim abductors. A person is considered to be a Muslim after simply reciting the Islamic creed, even when forced to do so. Disturbingly, this trend is growing; it is estimated that there are now over 700 such cases every year in Pakistan. In Egypt, a recent report suggests that Christian women and girls have become more vulnerable to such incidents since the so-called “Arab Spring”.
The report’s title, Tell My Mother I Miss Her, is a quote from a recording of a telephone call that one victim managed to make to her family. In Egypt and Pakistan, a woman’s religious status is changed from Christian to Muslim on her identity card after a forced marriage. The report says that four lawyers in Egypt collectively report 550 cases brought over a five-year period by women wishing to restore their Christian identity following disappearances, forced marriages and forced conversions. The authorities in Pakistan and Egypt will rarely exert themselves to protect women from this devastating practice or prosecute the abductors, and a victim’s family may be told that she has
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 9
SPOTLIGHT
converted and married of her own free will. A recent UN report found that in the contexts where such forced marriages occur, “law enforcement agencies systematically fail to provide effective protection for women and girls”. Women converts from Islam to Christianity are also at severe risk of violence, even from their own family. While Christians of both genders from Islamic backgrounds are targeted, women are even more vulnerable because the family honour is seen as more dependent upon them. When they
leave Islam, any measure may be taken against them to remove the shame brought on the family
by their conversion. Converts may even be killed by members of their family.
In November 2011, a Pakistani Christian woman escaped from a ten-year ordeal in which she was abducted, married to her abductor and held captive. Nadia Naira was 15 years old when she was taken at gunpoint and forcibly converted to Islam, again at gunpoint, two days later. Her husband threatened to kill her and her family if she went to the police, and although her family immediately reported the incident, the authorities refused to arrest him. Nadia’s husband continued to be violent to her and became a drug addict. During her captivity, she gave birth to five of his children before she was eventually able to escape.
Forced compliance with religious norms Christian women in areas where other religions are in a powerful majority are also at risk of being forced to comply with codes of behaviour or practices that are not their own. Sharia law enforces strict dress codes on women and imposes other restrictions, such as forbidding them to go out without a close male family member. Christian women may be subject to violent punishment if they do not comply with these rules. After northern Mali was taken over by Islamist rebels in early 2012, women were forced to wear the hijab and raped as Christians were driven from their homes. Christian women in strongly Islamic Sudan are also vulnerable. They have long been subject to imprisonment or barbaric corporal punishment for wearing trousers in public or not wearing the hijab. Since the mainly Christian South
became independent in 2011, Sudan’s president has threatened to enforce sharia law even more strongly, claiming that the country’s new constitution will be one that is “100% Islamic” and that “serves as a template to those around us”. In some countries, a female convert from Islam may be unable to marry a Christian-background man, because if her conversion is not legally recognised she is still viewed as a Muslim woman. Sharia forbids a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man, and some countries follow the same rule. Christian women and girls who have converted from traditional African religions may still be vulnerable to being forced into polygamous marriages to much older men, or being subject to
female circumcision in accordance with traditional teaching. Silva Kashi, a Christian girl aged 16, was walking near her home in Khartoum, Sudan, in December 2009 when she was arrested by police for wearing a knee-length skirt. Sharia law was and is in force in Khartoum and is applied to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Silva was immediately brought before a judge, who sentenced her to 50 lashes. Her parents were not even aware that she had been arrested until after the punishment had taken place.
Our sisters in Christ suffer greatly owing to these and other forms of persecution. Please pray that persecuted Christian women will be protected from abuse and strengthened in their faith, and that they will know the Lord’s peace despite the pressure they face. Ba Bar arnab nab nab bas as s sup up ppo po tts por s the th these hese eC Chr Ch hristtia ian n gi girls girls ls in in Kenya, Ken ya, wh ya, ya who o were were re e at a ri r sk s of har harm m from from m th he ttea ea achi chi hings n of Af ngs A ric rican rican an tra adit d ion onal al rel re igi g ons
The he ese e Pak Pakiista ista ani nii Ch Chris ristia an women ome o om me m n receive ec e ece ce ceiv ve ed tra rra aiin ini n ning ing n in sew ew wing i an in and d so they he he ey ca can n earn rn a liv iiv vin ing iin ing n sa safe fe e co con ondit dition ions s
Turn to page 6 to see how Barnabas works with projects that support Christian women.
How are women viewed in the Bible? In the New Testament, women are affirmed as of equal worth to men. This equality is first suggested in Genesis, when God “created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27, NRSV). Our Lord Jesus Christ strongly confirmed it by His actions. Flouting the
10 BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
social conventions of his time, Jesus invited women into His circle of followers. He shocked His contemporaries by speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:27), and He praised Mary for listening to His teaching rather than preparing food as was expected of her (Luke 10:38-42). He defended the actions of the
woman who poured expensive perfume over Him at Bethany, saying that “wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Matthew 26:13). After His resurrection, He showed himself first to a woman, Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18).
For better or for worse?
EQUIPPINGON WINDOWS THE CHURCH ISLAM
WHY ARE CHRISTIAN WOMEN CONVERTING TO ISLAM
E
very year in Britain approximately 10,000 people Islam. This is happening particularly in sub-Saharan Africa convert to Islam. (These figures come from recent and certain parts of South-East Asia. research done by the University of South Wales.) Many of the British converts are young people. Some Many of these converts are women. Amongst them are of them have parents who are regular church members, who ever increasing numbers of Christian women, who are have brought them up in a strong Christian tradition, who marrying Muslim men and converting to Islam at the same love them and pray constantly for them. The parents come time. Considerable numbers also convert to Islam in the from a range of denominations; many are Catholics,some conviction that it is the right pathway to God. Such conver- are members of the Brethren, some are Anglican, some sions are happening across the church and society at large. are Baptist and some are from other evangelical traditions. In other parts of the world there are also many Chris- Their sons and daughters have been brought up in the Christian women and girls marrying Muslims and converting to tian faith, and many have accepted Christ into their lives.
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
I
WINDOWS ON ISLAM
Why are Christian women converting to Islam? They have been church members, attended youth groups and been an integral part of the Church. They have gone to university and been members of the Christian Union. However, it is not only young people who are marrying Muslims or converting to Islam by conviction. After a Barnabas Fund church meeting in the UK on “How Christians should understand Islam”, a woman in her late fifties came up to the speaker. Much to his amazement, she told him that the main purpose of her coming to the meeting was to become a Muslim and she thought he would be able to help her. She had looked at society and felt that it was crumbling and its moral base was deteriorating. She had looked at the Church and felt it had nothing to offer. So she began to look at Islam, which she thought could be a good alternative, as it appeared attractive from the outside. She was searching and was willing to try anything that would give her spiritual satisfaction. She is representative of a number of men and women who are converting to Islam. They are disillusioned with Christianity and society and think that Islam will have the answer. Another category of Western Christian women who are converting to Islam are those who are divorced or have been widowed and are very lonely. These are often women in their fifties or older who are educated, own their own homes and are financially well off. Because of their financial status they can become targets for marriage to Muslims and conversion to Islam. We tend to think that certain categories of people are immune from any possibility of conversion to Islam, such as church workers, church leaders and missionaries. But this is not so. Only quite recently an evangelical missionary society saw one of its missionaries in Africa convert to Islam. The wife and children from another missionary family had to return home for a short while for family reasons. They received a letter from the husband telling them not to bother to return as he had fallen in love with a Muslim girl and was going to marry her and convert to Islam.
with any of the other students. She does not realise that this form of friendship across the sexes hardly exists within his culture. Oblivious to the effects of just being friendly, the woman gradually falls in love with him. Sometimes the relationship can proceed so quickly that she has difficulty in extricating herself from it and becomes trapped into marriage. Engagements tend to be short, and many women who marry Muslim men do so within a short space of time. The couple often meet and marry within the year. The young Muslim man can appear very Western, as he is away from his family and culture and seems to behave like every other student. He could be an overseas student who is from a Muslim country and, in a student environment, appears to act in a Western way. In this situation the woman can perceive little difference between his culture and her own. There are also very many young Muslim men who have been born, brought up and educated in Britain and other Western countries, and they can appear to be the same as their Western counterparts in every respect. The woman does not realise that under the surface the Muslim may well belong to a totally different culture and follow a very different way of life, and it is not until after they are married that she begins to understand this. Before the marriage there are many things about him that she thinks are wonderful, such as his close family ties and the welcome and hospitality she receives. After the marriage she begins to realise that she has married not just an individual but a family and a community. What seemed wonderful before they were married can slowly begin to look very different.
The main reason that women convert to Islam is that they fall in love with a Muslim man and marry him
Targeted for a visa or for Muslim mission
It is not unusual for Muslim men to target Western girls for the sole purpose of obtaining a visa. Some Muslim men really want to live in the West, and they know that by marrying a Western girl they can realise their dream. They sometimes seek out Western women who are on holiday in order to form relationships with them. Many women Why women convert to Islam meet their Muslim husbands while on holiday in places The main reason that women across the world convert to such as Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco and Egypt. Their guard Islam is that they fall in love with a Muslim man and marry may be down, and they are looking for a good time, love him. Some convert to Islam at the time of marriage; some and companionship. They fall in love and cannot bear to convert at a later date; a few never convert but experience be separated, so they marry in a very short period of time. great difficulties if they want to follow Christ or bring their But there are many women who marry Muslim husbands children up as Christians. who then leave them shortly after getting a permanent visa to stay in the West. Falling in love with a Muslim man Many reports from Africa speak of deliberately orThis can often happen in universities and colleges, especial- ganised campaigns for Muslim men to marry and convert ly in the West, as relationships are forged here across many Christian women, as part of a strategy of dawa (Muslim cultural and racial barriers. Enjoying freedom from parental mission). The men are often paid for each Christian they authority, often for the first time, a young woman is able to marry, and sometimes, it is reported, more if she is a paspursue her own relationships away from the critical eyes of tor’s daughter. her family. It can be in naivety that she forms a friendship In Pakistan and Egypt, where there are large comwith a young Muslim man, in the same way as she would munities of very poor Christians, young Christian cou-
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Why are Christian women converting to Islam? ples often cannot afford even the small amount of money needed for a simple wedding and a few basic items to start married life together. But in these cultures it is unthinkable for a woman to remain unmarried. Therefore the Christian family may end up arranging a marriage for the girl with a wealthier Muslim man, perhaps as his second or third wife.
divorce his wife, and that a Westerner or former Christian may be despised by the family, and even by her husband, especially if he has other wives.
Supposed similarities between Islam and Christianity
Some women convert to Islam because they are not aware of the differences between Islam and Christianity. They It is not only younger Western women who fall in love think the religions are very similar, so it does not matter with Muslim men, but also women in their forties, fifties which one they follow. Muslims speak about God and Jesus, and older. These women are usually unmarried, divorced how Jesus was born of a virgin, was sinless, performed or widowed and are often finanmiracles and ascended into heavcially well off. But they may also en. They also mention many of be desperately lonely and looking the prophets of the Old Testament, for companionship and love. They the End Times, the coming of the go travelling to Africa or Middle Antichrist, and practices such as Eastern countries and meet Musprayer, fasting and reciting the lim men, sometimes considerably creed. People can be confused younger than they are, and marry because these are also Christian them. As Western societies bethemes. Many Christian women come more fragmented, with disconvert to Islam when they get astrous effects on families and communities, many women married, thinking there is very little difference between are looking for a sense of belonging. They are finding this the religions. This can happen particularly in Africa, where in an Islamic context, where they seem to be warmly wel- many Christians do not know much about their faith, and comed into families and communities. think that, in comparison to the pagan beliefs of traditional African religions, Islam is much the same as Christianity.
Older women and Muslim men
A woman married to a Muslim man would often have difficulty even speaking to a man who was not a relative
Believing the man has become a Christian Many a Christian woman has believed that the man she was marrying had accepted Christ into his life, but as soon as they were married the “commitment” evaporated away. Sadly it can be a means of convincing the Christian woman that she is right to marry him. Christian women need to be wise and careful in relating to men who have very recently converted from Islam, being aware that Muslim culture has little place for platonic friendship between men and women. But that is not to say that women should never marry Muslim converts to Christianity. It is very different if a convert is established and going on in the faith before the woman meets him. Some women marry a Muslim man because they believe that if they pray for him, the Lord will save him and he will leave Islam. Whereas this is possible in theory, as nothing is too hard for the Lord, in practice it happens very rarely.
Simplicity One attraction of Islam is that the practices and beliefs of the religion are set out simply and are very easy to understand. Islam is not a complex religion and is in fact a set of rules. It tells you how to pray, when to pray, how to fast, when to fast, what to believe, how much money to give and so on. All this is laid out clearly. Some people are attracted by this simplicity, with everything set out and organised for them. The Islamic creed is very simple: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” Muslims must recite this creed at least once a day. Some women convert to Islam because they believe that it is genuinely the right path to finding God. These are women who are aware of a spiritual vacuum within their lives, or they can be people who are very lonely and looking for friendship.
Relationships between the sexes Emphasis on community and morality
In Muslim culture, relationships between the sexes are Another attraction of Islam is the emphasis on community totally different from those in Western culture. Women and family. The close-knit ties and bonds offer an attractive in Islamic communities ideally speak only to women and alternative to the individualism of Western societies and to male relatives, and the men in theory speak only to men and a Western culture that debases women. The women feel that female members of their own household. Islamic culture they will be secure, safe and honoured in a Muslim family. does not permit casual friendships across the sexes like However, the downside of this is that close com- those in Western countries. Therefore a woman married to munities can be oppressive and deny individual freedom. a Muslim man would often have difficulty even speaking Western women desiring community do not always see to, let alone having a long conversation with, a man who this negative aspect. They do not realise that when they was not a relative. It would be totally alien to the cultural marry they may have to give up their individual freedoms, norms of the society, and would promote jealousy and as they will be marrying into a family and a community suspicion within the marriage. It would also bring shame that may dictate their behaviour and function. They also do on the family within the community. not realise that it is very acceptable in Islam for a man to
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Why are Christian women converting to Islam? In Muslim societies the fear of shame is the controlling force in people’s lives, and as a result people do not have the freedom to act as they want. They must always act honourably so that the honour of the family can be upheld at all times. This may mean that a married woman is not free to go out alone, work, or talk to men, as people will think she is flirting or having an affair and this will bring shame on her family. These are tensions that someone who marries a Muslim man must take into consideration, as she may well need to adhere to these cultural norms. Sexual control of women is often seen as necessary within Islam, so dress becomes important and must be modest. In most Muslim communities the woman must be well covered. Wearing short skirts, jeans or clothing that is too tight is considered immoral and brings shame on the family. The woman’s shame would cause the men of her family to be shamed as well, since it implies that her male relatives are too weak to control her.
and ask friends, family and church members to pray as well. We can commit ourselves to serious intercessory prayer and pray the Word of God into the situation. We have to realise that we are in a spiritual battle and need to pray accordingly. In Ephesians 6:12 we read, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” It is by prayer, intercession and releasing the forces that bind people that we are able to see breakthroughs in the lives of those we love who are considering converting to Islam. Because of the finished work of Christ we have been given power and authority over the powers of darkness. We need to pray in the name of Jesus and with the blood of Jesus that the forces of evil will be defeated and that the person will be released. Zechariah 4:6 says, “‘Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord.”
What can be done?
Christian teaching on marrying non-Christians
There are a number of actions we can take to help Christian women who are considering marriage to a Muslim man or conversion to Islam. For example, we can keep in very close contact with the woman and be a listening ear for her. For parents this is very important, especially if they are not happy with the relationships or the actions of their daughters. It is important to stand alongside them and love and care for them; any hint of opposition or criticism can make them even more determined to go through with their plans. We should be open and try to get them to share their true feelings, as they may well have doubts about the relationships. We can invite their boyfriends or fiancés into our homes for a meal, befriend them and try to influence them. We can encourage the couple to have a longer engagement instead of a quick one. We should also not hold back from speaking about our faith. Many women convert when they marry without having a proper understanding of Islam. We can help them to understand the religion of Islam and Islamic culture, so that they can be as informed as possible when they make their decision. Church pastors also need to educate their congregations on how to understand Islam and the implications of conversion.Above all we should “pray without ceasing”
These days many Christians forget or discard the traditional teaching that a Christian should not marry a nonChristian. We read in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers,” and Amos 3:3 says, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” Marrying someone who is not a Christian means that there are vitally important areas of life that cannot be shared. It also does not bring the blessing of God. We can acknowledge the dilemmas of single Christian women who long for marriage and children but find they greatly outnumber single men in the Church, but marrying a Muslim is never the answer. If we are concerned about the number of Christians converting to Islam and want to stop this happening, it is necessary for pastors, parents and church leaders to make sure all Christians are educated about their own faith and the beliefs of others. It is only when people understand both Christianity and Islam and the differences between them that this tide can be stemmed. Churches need to make sure every member has thorough Bible teaching, so people are able to understand the tenets of their faith. We need to return to teaching Christian theology clearly in our churches, to enable people to be strong enough in their faith to withstand the encounters with different religions and worldviews that they are sure to have in today’s world.
If you would like to know more about the issues raised in this article, you may like to read Why Christian Women Convert to Islam by Rosemary Sookhdeo. This is available at the offer price of £5.00 including postage (RRP £7.99) from www.barnabasfund.org/shop. Alternatively please contact your nearest Barnabas Fund office (addresses below). E-books in e-pub and .mobi formats are also available.
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BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
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CAMPAIGNS
Barnabas attends key human rights conference Sttaff S f fro rom m Barn arnaba bas atte attte ttende nd n d d the de e OSC O E co fer con erenc enc nce e iin n Wars Wars arsaw aw w in Oct Oc Oc ctto obe ber
Please send us your petition sheets! Our Proclaim Freedom petition will be closed on 31 December. If you still have any petition sheets with signatures, can we please ask you to send them to your nearest Barnabas office as soon as possible? It does not matter if they arrive in January! The more signatures we have, the greater impact we can make.
Barnabas Fund’s Proclaim Freedom campaign aims to press Western governments to promote freedom of religion, human rights and justice in other countries, especially for the millions of persecuted Christians, and for those who incite or engage in anti-Christian hatred and violence to be held accountable.
illions of Christians live in contexts of persecution, discrimination and disadvantage. In this threatening context it is encouraging to see international bodies promoting human rights and religious freedom.
M
Barnabas Fund has registered status as a Non-Governmental Organisation with the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). As part of our Proclaim
Freedom campaign, two Barnabas staff members attended a conference convened by the OSCE in Warsaw at the beginning of October 2012. The event, which is Europe’s largest annual conference of its kind, provides a platform for governments and interested groups to discuss issues of human rights and religious freedom. The OSCE has 56 member states from Europe, Central Asia and North America. Christians in some of these states see churches closed, pastors and evangelists harassed, converts under pressure, and Bibles and Christian books restricted. These problems, which are particularly relevant to Proclaim Freedom, can result from constitutions or laws that limit freedom of religion. Hungary, Russia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have recently introduced more severe restrictions. Although guidelines issued by OSCE do not carry legal weight, member states are expected to implement them. The guidelines can also influence other countries, in the Middle East and Central Asia. One of the keynote speakers at the conference was the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom, Professor Dr Heiner Bielefeldt. He said that the enjoyment of religious freedom as a right should not be granted by governments as an act of mercy; rather it should be a fundamental assumption based on the inherent dignity of every human being.
The Barnabas staff took the opportunity to make contact with representatives of individual states who gave reports on their countries’ progress. These included a number of Central Asian nations where Barnabas provides support for persecuted Christians. Barnabas was concerned by the discussions about the protection of religions from defamation, which was a highly charged issue in the context of the recent film Innocence of Muslims, which portrayed Muhammad negatively, and the violent reactions against it by Muslims around the world, which often targeted Christians. The Turkish Prime Minister has also declared his intention of asking the UN to include “Islamophobia” among recognised hate crimes, and he has suggested that his government might make it a criminal offence. Barnabas reiterated our stance that belief systems should not be protected, but rather must be open to free and fair debate, especially when some of them generate persecution of those who hold different beliefs. A criminal offence of “Islamophobia” would severely limit free speech, effectively preventing even legitimate criticism of Islam, and would put Christian (and other) minorities in Muslim-majority contexts in greater danger. Barnabas Fund was invited with many others to attend a day-long consultation on the content of new guidelines for participating states on the Recognition of Religious or Belief Communities. These guidelines, which are being drafted with help from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (the organisation within the OSCE that promotes human rights), will set out concrete ways in which participating states can ensure compliance with OSCE commitments and international standards in this area. This provided us with a unique opportunity to explain the challenges Christians encounter when trying to practise their faith in countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 11
NEWSDESK
CHRISTIANS TOLD TO TAKE PART IN ANIMIST RITUALS OR FACE EVICTION LAOS – Christian families from three villages have been threatened with eviction if they do not take part in traditional animist rituals, in the latest incident in an ongoing campaign to force Christians in Savannakhet
over which a spirit medium had pronounced an incantation, they would lose their right to stay in the village. The rituals amount to a public statement of their return to the Lao traditional religion and renouncing
similar threats have been made to Christian families in Allowmai and Kengsaiyai villages. In Allowmai, five Christian leaders were detained when the Christians refused to participate in the rituals. Three of
Thirteen Christian families were given an ultimatum
Chr C h istian stians s in in Laos aos s of oft ften te co ome me und nd nder der e ext xtrem r ep rem pres res essur surre from r the their heir lo ocal oc cal com commun mun mu u it ity t
province to renounce their faith in Christ. In early October 2012, 13 Christian families in Vongseekaew village were given an ultimatum by the authorities. If they did not participate in rituals involving oathmaking and drinking “sacred water”
CHRISTIANS INCLUDING DISABLED WOMAN BEATEN IN POLICE RAIDS CENTRAL ASIA – An elderly pastor and his family were physically assaulted and arrested during a police raid on a house-church service in Turkmenistan. Pastor Begdjan-aga, who is 75, was pushed out of his house by police when they raided the gathering on 23 September 2012. His wife was physically assaulted, threatened and sworn at by a police officer, and his son was beaten when he asked police to produce their documents. The congregation, apart from the pastor’s wife, was rounded up and arrested. In another brutal incident, a disabled Christian woman and her mother were beaten when police raided their home in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 6 August. Six plain-clothes officers broke into the flat that Natalya Pleshakova (26) shares with her mother Valentina (53)
with sticks and bats. Natalya, who walks with the aid of crutches, was dragged into the kitchen and beaten, while blows were rained on Valentina. Their home was turned upside down, and Bibles and other Christian literature were seized, before they were arrested. At the local police station, officers tried to pressure the women into accepting Islam. When they refused to comply, Natalya and Valentina were beaten and threatened. They were not released until the early hours of the following morning, after enduring ten hours of ill-treatment. Later that day a court convicted them of an offence relating to the illegal distribution of religious materials. The court ordered the destruction of the literature and fined the women heavily, although the fines were later cancelled.
12 BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
of their Christian faith. When the Christians refused, they were told they would be evicted. The village elders have also threatened to seize and tear down their homes. Although a district chief intervened in Vongseekaew to protect the villagers’ right to religious freedom,
them, Bounlert, Adang and Onkaew, are being kept in police custody despite the provincial authorities having ordered their release. The police have threatened to imprison them for two to three more years if Christians in Allowmai do not perform the rituals.
NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY KILLED IN TERRORIST ATTACK ON SUNDAY SCHOOL KENYA – A young boy, John Ian Maina, was killed and several other children injured in a grenade attack on a church in Nairobi on 30 September
Police suspect that sympathisers of the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab were responsible 2012. An improvised explosive was thrown at a classroom in St Polycarp Church, where the children were waiting for their Sunday school
session to begin. Police suspect that sympathisers of the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab were responsible. On the previous day, police had warned that the group might carry out attacks such as this in retaliation for the Kenyan capture on 29 September 2012 of the Somali port of Kismayo, which is a strategic base. Kenya sent troops into southern Somalia, which is largely controlled by al-Shabaab, in October 2011. It accuses the group of being behind a series of kidnappings and cross-border attacks. Al-Shabaab has been responsible for numerous acts of anti-Christian violence carried out since this time. The attack on St Polycarp Church comes after five churches in Mombasa were attacked during rioting in late August.
NEWSDESK
MORE CHRISTIANS ARRESTED AS THE GOSPEL CONTINUES TO SPREAD IRAN – Christians in Iran continue to be vulnerable to arrest, detention and trial, as the unstoppable spread of the Gospel has been acknowledged in the country’s media. Seven Christians were rounded up in a raid on a prayer meeting in Shiraz on 12 October 2012. Mohammad (Vahid) Roghangir, Suroush Saraie, Roxana
The regime’s harsh crack-down has not hindered the spread of the Gospel
Forughi, Eskandar Rezaie, Bijan Haghighi, Mehdi Ameruni and Shahin Lahooti are now being detained at the Intelligence Ministry’s infamous detention centre. Vahid Zarday, a Christian artist who was arrested in a house church raid in Mashhad in May, has been temporarily released pending his trial. He was held for four months in Vakil-Abad prison, which has been
Thiis Chri Thi r stian stii n co co ou uple l ,P Past astorr F Fa Far arh had ad d Sa Sabok bokrouh and his wif bok wife Shahnaz Jeizan, we were pre previo vious usly arre rreste s d ste and we and w re r sen senten t ced te ced to a yearr beh hiind bar h ba s on o 15 Octoberr (S Source: Mohabat New ws) s)
described by human rights activists as “hell on earth”. He will face trial, as will five other Christian converts who were arrested in Shiraz in February. The regime’s harsh crack-down on the house-church movement of
Muslim-background Christians has not hindered the spread of the Gospel. A report in a government-backed Iranian newspaper acknowledged that 200 house-churches are now operating in Mashhad, and a senior
Islamic cleric, Akhond Sobhani, also felt the need to speak out as a warning against the growth of Christianity. He claimed that 600 people had become Christians in Neishabour alone.
BOKO HARAM MASSACRE FOLLOWS ELECTION OF CHRISTIAN IN STUDENT UNION POLL NIGERIA - Many Christians were among at least 46 university students killed in a massacre that followed the election of a Christian student in a students’ union poll. The attack, on 1 October 2012, targeted students at a college housing complex at Federal Polytechnic Mubi in Adamawa State, in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. The perpetrators went from door to door, calling out their victims by name
before they shot them, stabbed them or slit their throats, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“Allah is great”). The bodies of
were Christians or Muslims, and then asked Christian victims to deny Christ. Christian students who refused to do
The attackers also set fire to a church the slaughtered were lined up outside the student accommodation. One eyewitness said, “The gunmen were asking students if they
so were killed instantly.” The Christian student who was successful in the poll is thought to be among those killed.
The attackers also set fire to a church in nearby Tudun Wada. Thirty suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident, 16 of whom are members of Boko Haram. This attack is part of an ongoing campaign of violence against Christians and other targets by the militant group, who are seeking to eradicate Christians from the North and create an Islamist state.
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 13
NEWSDESK
TWO MEMBERS OF CHRISTIAN FAMILY SHOT DEAD EGYPT – Two Christians were shot dead when a notorious Muslim gang leader attempted to kidnap a female member of their family. Ephrem Marzouk (24) and his 61-year-old father Ibrahim were killed when Ali
family managed to get Hiyam out of the village before the raid. In the onslaught, Hussein was also killed, and although it is not clear who was responsible, Christians have been blamed. Hussein and his men have been
Hussein and his men have been terrorising Christians in the village since January 2011 Hussein and members of his gang stormed their home in Deir Mawas on 14 October 2012. Hussein had threatened to kidnap their relative, 25-year-old Hiyam Zaki Zaher, unless the family paid him 1,000,000 Egyptian pounds (£100,000; $165,000, €125,000). The
terrorising Christians in the village since January 2011, seizing homes and property, extorting money, raping women and kidnapping children. The Christians’ plight looks set to intensify, as his 300-man gang plus other local Muslims have now threatened them with revenge for Hussein’s death.
CHRISTIANS SUCCESSFULLY CHALLENGE “ANTI-CONVERSION” LAW INDIA – In a significant move towards religious freedom, a draconian “anti-conversion” law in the state of Himachal Pradesh has been partially struck down in a legal challenge brought by Christians. The Himachal Pradesh Religion Act 2006 included a section that requires people wanting to become Christians to give official notice and be listed in a public registry. The Evangelical Fellowship of India argued that the law was unconstitutional because of the ways it was being used, especially by Hindu extremists, to stop people becoming Christians. People wanting to become Hindus did not need to give public notice. Also, listing new Christians in the public directory endangered them, as it was checked by Hindu extremists who then tracked down, persecuted and even murdered
them. Christian evangelists have faced false accusations of forcibly converting Hindus, for which they have been beaten and arrested. The judges ruled that the state
The judges ruled that the state has no role to play has no role to play if anyone converts to a different religion of their own will, and the court removed some sections of the law, including the one that required the giving of public notice. But the case will now go to the Indian Supreme Court, where the ruling is expected to be challenged by Hindu extremist groups.
CHRISTIAN AREAS BOMBED AND INVADED AS SYRIA CONFLICT RAGES ON
Barna Ba Bar nab n bas as is he hel h ellpin elpin ing to mee eet the basi siic n need eeds of Sy eed yri y rian n Chr Ch ist s ian ans aff ffect ect ect ected c ed d by vio iolen le len ence ce
14 BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
SYRIA – Christians continue to suffer in the violent conflict between government and opposition forces. Ten people were killed and 41 injured when Islamists carried out a car bomb attack in Jaramana, a predominantly Christian and Druze suburb of Damascus. This attack, on 29 October 2012, occurred despite a cease-fire having been called; the truce agreed for a four-day holiday period was violated as soon as it began. Our partner in Damascus said, “There is no police station or governmental building on the spot of the explosion. This is a purely residential area. The explosion was horrible and it terrified the innocent people.” Churches continue to be targeted in Syria. A Presbyterian church in Aleppo
was bombed in early November, and was so badly hit that half of the building collapsed. A church and attached Christian school in Dair-Al-Zor, which had been built up by the Christian community over a ten-year period, were destroyed by dynamite on 27 October. These bombings came after residential quarters of Aleppo, which has become a key battleground city, were invaded by opposition fighters on 25 October. Two major Christian areas, al-Syriaan al-Jadide and al-Syriaan alQadime, fell to the opposition, and snipers were positioned on roofs in both places. In the former, the Free Syrian Army set up two checkpoints in front of a Baptist church building and took over a Christian school.
NEWSDESK
CHRISTIAN CHILDREN TAKEN AND FORCIBLY CONVERTED TO ISLAM
St den Stu den nts nts ts at on one ne n e of of th the e Chri Chri hriisti hr s an st a sch hoolls tthat hat h att Ba Barn rnabas bas as Fu Fun nd d supports in Ban ngla g desh
BANGLADESH – Christian children are being taken from their families under false pretences and sold to Islamic schools, where they face forced conversion and suffer physical abuse if they resist. Eleven children, ten boys and one girl, have escaped and revealed the conditions endured by children who are taken in this way. Parents from poor tribal Christian families are targeted by intermediaries from the same tribe, who convince them that their children will be taken to
“boarding schools” where they will be fed and educated for a fee of between 6,000 and 15,000 Bangladeshi taka (£45-£115, $75-$185, €55-€145). In fact, the youngsters are taken to other parts of the country and sold to Islamic schools. At the schools, the children are forced to take part in a gruelling schedule of Arabic lessons, Quran readings and five-times-daily Islamic prayers. Children who refuse to take part may be subjected to physical violence. Although the exact number
of children affected has not been confirmed, one source reports that almost 300 have been taken to these schools. The girl, who had scars on her hands from being struck with a cane, was rescued by her father, while the boys managed to escape after being told they would be circumcised and that if they were ready to give their lives for Islam, they would be rewarded with a place in heaven.
CHURCHES ATTACKED THREE MORE CHRISTIAN CHILDREN ACCUSED OF AND TORCHED IN “BLASPHEMY” MUSLIM RIOTS TANZANIA – At least four churches were pulled down in the suburbs of Dar es Salaam during two nights of violence by Muslim rioters in the Mbagala area. The mob began rampaging on the night of 12 October 2012, when at least three churches were destroyed. The cars and other property of church members were damaged, and shop
Anti-Christian hostility is becoming increasingly common in Tanzania windows were smashed. On the following night, when the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania Church was pulled down, the flag of the Islamic separatist group UAMSHO (Association for Islamic Mobilisation and Propagation) was raised at the scene. Police have since arrested 122
members of the group. The destruction of the churches, as is often the case, is an example of an entire Christian community being disproportionately targeted as revenge for the actions of one of its members. In this instance, the anti-Christian violence was sparked by an incident on 12 October involving two boys, one Christian and one Muslim. The 14-year-old Christian boy was drawn by his friend into committing an act considered by Muslims to be desecration of the Quran. After the Muslim boy told his parents and they reported it to the local mosque, an angry mob formed at the scene, threatening the Christian boy’s life. The police took the boy into protective custody. The Council of Islamic Organisations has since blamed the subsequent violence on “police laxity”, claiming that they “failed to give the matter its due weight”. Anti-Christian hostility is becoming increasingly common in Tanzania, especially in the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, where radical Islam is spreading violence.
PAKISTAN AND EGYPT – Three more young Christians were accused of “blasphemy” and detained, in two separate incidents in October. On 10 October 2012 in Karachi, Pakistan, Ryan Stanten (16) was accused of sending a blasphemous text message containing material deemed offensive to Islam. An angry Muslim mob attacked Ryan’s family home, ransacking it and setting fire to numerous household items. The Christian family had already abandoned the house. Ryan said that he did not send the text, nor was there any record of the sent message on his phone. He had however lent his phone to a friend while on the way to a cricket match the day before. He faces charges not only of making derogatory remarks about Muhammad, which carries the death penalty, but also under Pakistan’s AntiTerrorism Act and Telegraph Acts. Ryan’s arrest follows that of two Christian boys in Egypt, Mina Nady Farag (9) and Nabil Nagy Rizk (10), who were detained on 2 October
after being accused of tearing up pages of the Quran and urinating on them. Nabil’s father pointed out that as both children are illiterate, they could not have known what they were doing when they came across a plastic bag containing torn papers in the street. Nevertheless, the imam of the local mosque in their village of
An angry Muslim mob attacked Ryan’s family home, ransacking it Ezbet Marco in Beni Suef pursued legal action against them, because he felt that they had not been chastised appropriately by the church minister. The charges against the boys were dropped after an agreement was reached between Muslims, Christians, and security officials in the area.
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 15
ADVOCACY
Christian Refugees Syria is blighted by lawlessness and civil war, many of its endangered Christians are trying desperately to escape their stricken country. Hundreds of families have put themselves in the hands of human traffickers or endured treacherous journeys to reach Europe. Some have sold all their possessions to pay for their passage, or have almost died en route. Yet when they arrive, they may not be welcome or safe.
As
This tragic and continuing story highlights the plight of so many Christians around the world who are forced by persecution to become refugees far from home.
These Iraqi Christian refugees receive food packages through Barnabas Fund
The sufferings of refugees Jesus Himself was a refugee. In the Gospel of Matthew we read that Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to flee their homeland soon after His birth and find refuge in another country in order to escape persecution. Refugee status is also something that many Christians experience today. The challenges they face are immense. Many arrive in other countries with few or no possessions, lacking even basic legal papers such as a passport. Many are traumatised by what they have fled from. Some face immediate deportation, and others endure constant harassment at the hands of the local police. “Home” for some becomes a refugee camp where everything is temporary, although on average it will be “home” for 17 years.
Barnabas Fund supporting displaced Christians and Christian refugees Barnabas is helping displaced Christians in a number of practical ways: 1. We provide food, medical aid and other basic needs for many displaced Christians who have been driven from their homes or homelands by anti-Christian hostility and violence. These include Iraqi Christians, Syrian Christians, Afghan Christian converts now living in neighbouring countries, Burmese Christian children, and Eritrean Christians. 2. Barnabas is arguing the case of Christian refugees at an international level. We encourage Western countries to welcome them, advocate changes to the assessment process, and provide reports giving accurate information about the persecution that they face.
3. Barnabas Fund is creating a manual for Christians, Christian organisations and Christian leaders who wish to help refugees in their local community. This
provides practical guidance on how to support individuals seeking refugee status. It also explains ways in which to engage in advocacy on behalf of asylum-seekers at a local, national and international level. Its main focus is the UNHCRbased system, but the information is equally applicable to countries that process applications for refugee status through their own state institutions.
Vulnerable and mistrusted Those who have become refugees because they have converted to Christianity face additional grave difficulties. They often continue to be at risk of religious persecution in the countries to which they have fled. This can result from the dominant religious beliefs in the host country, and/or a lack of commitment by the authorities to protect individuals seeking refugee status, and/or state-sanctioned intolerance towards minority religious groups. Christian converts also face a number of unique obstacles when they apply for refugee status, a point acknowledged recently by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief in his interim report for 2012. These include suspicion on the part of those assessing the applications that their conversions are not authentic and just a means of securing asylum. Even well-meaning non-Christian officials may find such assessments difficult, and inappropriate questions (for example, about church history) have sometimes been asked in their attempts to get at the truth. Some officers and interpreters (especially those from the same country as the applicants) may also be hostile to the applicants’ decisions to convert to Christianity and therefore be biased against them. Many applicants are not given an adequate opportunity to present their case.
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The vision behind the manual is to see churches empowered to support refugees within their communities. In addition we hope that as a result of greater engagement by churches in the refugee system, both state authorities and the UNHCR will be better able to understand and respond to the needs of Christian refugees, especially converts. Barnabas Fund is not in a position to assist with individual applications for refugee status, but various organisations exist for this purpose. The manual will be available shortly. More details to follow.
LEARNING FROM THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
Will I be silenced by fear?
A Christian woman activist in Pakistan longs to speak out against oppressive “blasphemy laws” but is hindered by a climate of intimidation.
see myself as an extrovert person and cannot stop speaking out against injustice and inhuman practices that suppress women and religious minorities in Pakistan. Being a member of a minority community I have always felt I must speak out against the blasphemy laws in my country for their blatant sanctioning of discrimination, prejudices and miseries.
I wanted to say much more as she kept on accusing the governor. But with grief I submitted to silence.
In 2010 I visited Aasia Bibi in prison. The case of this Christian mother was receiving international attention at the time after she had received a death sentence following a false accusation of blasphemy. I accompanied the late Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, a Muslim, with his wife and daughter.
I had spent only 45 minutes travelling with the governor and his family. But the impression he gave was that he was a person of strong nerves and courageous outlook. On my way back home the sentence that repeated over and
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Islamic religious parties and advocates of Islamic extremist groups openly condemned the governor’s support of Aasia through media and public protests. A few leaders of mosques passed religious decrees calling for the governor to be killed. On 4 January 2011, while I was in class, a classmate entered with the terrible news of the governor’s murder by his own bodyguard, who confessed publicly that he had killed the governor because of his opposition to blasphemy laws and support for a Christian woman. I was too shocked to grasp this news. My pain further increased when one of my classmates thanked Allah and condoned the killing. With tears filling my eyes I expressed my displeasure.
I did not have the slightest idea that following this incident a fear would start mounting within me that would discourage me from speaking up against blasphemy laws. I could not sleep for five days.
With tears filling my eyes I expressed my displeasure. I wanted to say much more… But with grief I submitted to silence. over in my mind was: “The governor was acting out of his true passion for humanity and was highly concerned about the misery of a Christian woman.” I wanted to write my account but was stopped by my family and friends, who were worried that it might bring me into some problem. I was also told categorically by the editor of a newspaper that I sometimes write for that I should not mention my visit to Aasia Bibi with the governor. From that day onwards I tried to soften and
dilute my expressions and descriptions. My fear increased further when I saw that the majority hesitated to speak against blasphemy laws in public. The level of fear went so deep that when I attended a seminar on Women’s International Day at the premises of the Lahore High Court, a woman speaker emphasised that Islam is the only religion that gives women equal rights. I wanted to reply to her that Christianity allows fullness of humanity but my fear of being misunderstood stopped me from saying a word. This fear keeps telling me that I should not get into a debate with hardline Muslims, who do not allow space for dissent or disagreement. For my thesis I had decided that I would study the portrayal of religious minorities in school textbooks and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan. But many of my interviewees were so suspicious about my motives that I was forced to change the questionnaire I was using. It convinced me that I could no longer pursue any genuine scientific research on these topics, and I submitted my thesis with half-heartedness. Now I am faced with a big question: should I leave my country in order to continue my studies? On the other hand, my job at the church gives me peace and joy as I witness the positive results of the small-scale women’s development projects that sustain and hold me in my country. But the feeling of being intellectually controlled really disturbs my inner peace.
BARNABAS AID JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 17
IN TOUCH TOU OUCH CH
Praying ffor the persecuted Church
Barnabas Aid d in Uganda
We are so encouraged to see how far Barnabas Aid trave ls. A supporter sent us this photo, which he received from a village pastor in eastern Uganda. Barnabas Fund is so thankful to those who share the news of our work and for the praye rs of Christians in Uganda, and around the world, for our persecuted brothers and sisters. They so appreciate ou r intercession.
As we remember our Lord’s suffering in the weeks leading up to Easter, so this is a very appropriate time to pray for His people around the world who are persecuted. Barnabas Fund invites you to join us in prayer for the persecut ed Church at this time. Look out for your copy of the 2013 Barn abas Fund prayer booklet, et, which will be mailed with the March/A pril edition of Barnabas Aid, and which we hope you will find a useful aid to your y pray p aye yers. rsss..
d 20th Barnabas Fund’s Anniversary Tour – “Our God is Faithful”
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Barnabas Fund will be touring the UK in 2013 to celebrate 20 years of God’s itee faithfulness since the work began. Please join Dr Patrick Sookhdeo as we unite and decades two last the in in thanksgiving, look back at what has happened view the current challenges faced by the persecuted Church.
Coming soon – Regular giving without the hassle
with e it will be possible for supporters By the time you receive this magazin ct Dire by rch to the persecuted Chu UK bank accounts to sign up to give rnet, without filling in paper forms. inte the Debit, either by telephone or via for further details. asfund.orgg or call 024 7623 1923 Please visit www.barnabas
g ab nd.org/tour. www.barnabasfu Look out for details of the tour visiting your region at www.bar
r* International Day of Prayer captures imaginations Christians in the following countries joined us in prayer: ran, Iraq, Japan, Australia, Cameroon, Chad, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Guyana, India, Iran, s, Puerto pines, Philippine Pakistan, Nigeria, Niger, , Nicaragua Nepal, Mali, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Syria, dan, Sudan, Lanka, Sri Sudan, South Africa, South Leone, Sierra Rico, Romania, Russia, States United the and Kingdom United Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, page * see also backk page
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International Day of Prayer Encouraging and inspiring response to Barnabas Day of Prayer
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Barnabas Fund… never leave us to stand alone with those who are being persecuted. We appreciated your time to pray with us.
Barnabas partner in Sudan A big thank-you to everyone who took part in our Day of Prayer for the persecuted Church on 1 November! We have received many encouraging and inspiring reports from our partners around the world, who rallied local Christians to pray for their persecuted family elsewhere.
The Day of Prayer also had a significant online following as prayer points were posted on our Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus pages. Our daily reach on Facebook trebled on 1 November from an average of around 3,000 to over 9,000 people.
A group of Afghan Christians, in exile in India because of their faith, held a prayer meeting. They told us:
Our prayer guide, featuring 48 countries, was accessed by over 3,700 people online, while around 1,900 printed copies were distributed from our UK offices.
All brothers were happy and thankful to the Barnabas Fund for organising this prayer meeting which gave us a reason and opportunity to come to gather and pray especially for the persecuted church.
How to Find Us UK 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Telephone 024 7623 1923 Fax 024 7683 4718 From outside the UK
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Events took place in at least 35 countries*, from Costa Rica to Turkey, Japan to Sierra Leone, Iran to Pakistan. In India, 4,440 churches participated.
This chorus of voices raised in prayer sends a message to our suffering brothers and sisters that they are not alone. *Please turn to page 18 to see a map showing the countries that took part.
You may contact Barnabas Fund at the following addresses: Jersey Le Jardin, La Rue A Don, Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands JE3 9GB Telephone 700600 Fax 700601 Email bfjersey@barnabasfund.org
Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Email info@barnabasfund.org Registered charity number 1092935 Company registered in England number 4029536 For a list of all trustees, please contact Barnabas Fund UK at the Coventry address above.
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barnabasaid the magazine of Barnabas Fund Managing Editor: Steve Carter Published by Barnabas Fund
The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK: Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org © Barnabas Fund 2012. For permission to reproduce articles from this magazine, please contact the International Headquarters address above. The paper used is produced using wood fibre at a mill that has been awarded the ISO14001 certificate for environmental management.
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