2014 06 persecution

PERSECU ION International Christian Concern | June 2014

‘DON’T TAKE DOWN OUR CROSS, I CAN GIVE YOU MY HEAD INSTEAD’

China’s Christians Rally to Defend Their Churches PA G E 4

IN THIS ISSUE:

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WEST WATCH

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‘DON’T TAKE DOWN OUR 14 IT’S GETTING WORSE A look at Pakistan’s systematic CROSS, I CAN GIVE YOU MY persecution of Christians under HEAD INSTEAD’ Chinese Christians rally to defend their churches.

10 THEY’RE BACK

The resurgence of Hindu Nationalism and its power-hungry party.

country’s blasphemy laws.

18 WEST WATCH

A deeper look at persecution in the West.

N OT E F RO M T H E P R E S I D E N T:

As the government came to bulldoze their church, the Christians formed a human chain around the building.

One 74-year-old Christian told the Marxists:

“Comrades, don’t take down our cross. I can give you my head instead.”

Later, she said,

Jeff King, President International Christian Concern

“Even if they take my head, I can still find happiness with God.” In these two little interactions, you can see the gifts of the persecuted Church: fervency, devotion, courage, and sacrifice! (See page 4 for more) Also, be sure to keep an eye out for West Watch on page 18. Here we focus on legal attacks and acts of persecution against the Western Church.

We will include this section from time to time in our magazine to keep up to date with the increasingly brazen attacks, legal, and otherwise, on the Church in West.

Please join with us in serving and building the amazing and inspirational persecuted Church. They are worthy of your time, prayers, and treasure.

As always, we will use your gifts efficiently, effectively, and ethically.

I promise!

EAST ASIA

‘DON’T TAKE DOWN OUR CROSS, I CAN GIVE YOU MY HEAD INSTEAD’ China’s Christians Rally to Defend Their Churches

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BETWEEN BULLDOZERS & THE CROSS

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n April of 2014, 74-year-old Wang Xuiying* offered her life in exchange for the cross resting atop of her church. Standing in front of her were bulldozers, cranes, and hundreds of heavily armed Chinese police officers, including SWAT teams, all waiting for the order to crush the human shield that had formed in front of them and begin the demolition of the beautiful Sanjiang Christian Church in Zhejiang Province. The cross, they said, had to come down.

“I held their hands and said, ‘Comrades, don’t take down our cross. I can give you my head instead.’” She later added, “Even if they take my head, I can still find happiness with God.” Thankfully, the order to forcefully remove thousands of Christians who had gathered to protect their church that day never came. The bold Ms. Wang and hundreds of her fellow church members would, after several days of sleeping on pews and kneeling in prayer in front of bulldozers, returned home when deacons from the church made a compromise with local officials, agreeing to take down two stories from an ancillary building on the church property.

Sadly, this compromise was not to last, and the threat to Sanjiang Church and several others throughout the province remains potent. At the time of writing, bulldozers have once again appeared overnight in front of the Sanjiang Church and hundreds of Christians are pouring in from around the area to form a blockade. Sharing advice on everything from food preparation to how to protect yourself from pepper spray and water cannons, these believers are determined to peacefully protect the church they poured their hearts, finances, and six years of their lives into building. At the time of writing, at least seven other churches in the area were facing demolition or “rectification” orders commanding them to demolish the cross atop their structures. One of those churches had held worship services for nine straight days in the hopes of keeping police from tearing their building down.

*name changed for security

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A human shield gathers in front of Sanjiang Church.

“I HELD THEIR HANDS AND SAID, ‘COMRADES, DON’T TAKE DOWN OUR CROSS. I CAN GIVE YOU MY HEAD INSTEAD.’” - WANG XUIYING, 74-YEAR-OLD CHRISTIAN For the rest of the world, the news of the human shield around Sanjiang Church came as something of a shock. Could the world’s largest nation and the third largest trading partner of the United States really be tearing down Christian churches? The response to this question should not only be an emphatic “yes,” but a clarion call for the rest of the world to see that the Sanjiang Church incident is only the tip of the iceberg in China, and perhaps a sign of far greater persecution that is to come.

PERSECUTION “FAR, FAR FROM OVER” Many in the West today assume that the persecution of Christians in China began to end with the death of Mao Tse-Tung, one of the world’s most

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prolific mass murderers, in 1976. As China carefully began to open up and improve its relationship with the rest of the world over the following decades, it appeared that wide-scale imprisonment, torture, and execution of Christians and other dissidents was slowly becoming a thing of the past.

While there is certainly some truth to this view, it dangerously overlooks what is still taking place in China today.

In 2013, ICC met with multiple church leaders, underground church members, and Christian human rights lawyers to assess the current situation for Christians in China.

While many pointed out that conditions were undeniably better, those with the closest connections to the underground Church and the longest memories recognized that persecution of the Church in China was far, far from over. If anything, it had simply been carefully moved out of the public eye (see September 2013 Persecution article, “The Silent Persecution of China”).

ChinaAid

Gao Zhisheng Gao Zhisheng is a human rights lawyer who was tortured by police for his work in defending Christians and others from torture and imprisonment. He has worked to increase awareness of religious persecution by Chinese officials.

A revealing example of this is the case of the brilliant Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

In 2007, Gao, who had once been hailed by China as one of the nation’s top ten lawyers, was tortured by police with cigarette butts and electric batons for more than seven weeks. He was then forcefully “disappeared” in 2009, only to reappear briefly in 2010 before being discovered in a desolate, far-flung prison in Northwest China in 2012. Gao’s crime? Defending Christians and others from torture and imprisonment while publicly drawing attention to the persecution that China has become very good at hiding.

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Today, dozens of Christian human rights lawyers like Gao are actively trying to defend the rights of millions of Christians across China facing harassment and arbitrary arrest. The system that exists today whereby Christians must either worship in a government controlled “Three-Self Movement” church or worship illegally in an underground, or “house” church, means that tens of millions of Christians can technically be arrested at any time. Almost every single underground church in China that has been in existence for any length of time has been approached at least once by the authorities. Even churches operating legally under the control of the “Three-Self” movement are facing harassment. In November of last year, nearly two dozen Three-Self Church members were arrested on trumped up charges. As of writing, the lead pastor remains under arrest and his trial has been postponed indefinitely.

THE WORLD’S GREATEST REVIVAL? Yet despite all of this, the Church in China is growing at an explosive pace. Conservative estimates place the number of Christians at around 70 million, though the real number may be closer to 120 million. In fact, by one recent estimate, if Christianity continues growing at its current rate in China, the nation is set to become the world’s most Christian nation by 2030, surpassing even the United States in terms of sheer numbers of Christians. The largest Christian revival in a generation may be taking place right now, largely out of a sight, in an officially atheist nation run by the Communist Party.

Security guard in Beijing’s infamous Tiananmen Square.

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Does this mean that the persecution of Christians in China is soon to be relegated to the history books?

Hardly. The government in Beijing

Chinese authorities mark the Sanjiang Church for demolition.

is bent on retaining power. One Catholic news organization recently reported that the number of Chinese citizens employed to monitor and report on the public is believed to have grown to almost 40 million. In fact, if not for the international spotlight on the Sanjiang Church incident, it’s questionable if the authorities would have waited more than a few hours before cracking down harshly on the Christians assembled out front. The only real question now is how the government in Beijing, over the coming months and years, will handle the rapid expansion of the church. Will there eventually be a violent backlash and wide-scale persecution? It has certainly happened in China before.

One thing is for certain: many believers in China are deeply passionate about their faith and are determined to stand up for what they believe, no matter the cost. As one of the believers standing between the bulldozers and her church put it last April, “I will guard the church until the very end, without fearing hardship or death.�

ICC is actively working to support the needs of the underground Church in China. For more information, see your dollars at work on page 26.

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...They’re Back!

The Resurgence of India’s Radical Hindu Party and Their Hatred of Christianity A CULTURE OF IMPUNITY In December of 2012, Pastor Ashok stepped up to the podium in his rural Indian church (as he does every week) to address a growing congregation hungry for the truth of the Gospel. Midway through his sermon, a group of Hindu radicals suddenly burst through the church doors, cueing a fellow nationalist they’d hidden in the crowd to jump to his feet and accuse Pastor Ashok of attempting to forcefully convert him.

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Following the infiltrator’s false accusation, the group of radicals made their way to the altar, dragging Pastor Ashok from the safety of the church to beat him publicly upon the threshold of his house of worship, bludgeoning members attempting to spare their Pastor from the violence.

The radicals dragged the unconscious pastor, beaten and bloodied, to a local police station. Their accusation that Ashok attempted to forcefully convert them served not only as justification for the assault, but for the pastor’s immediate arrest.

THE LARGEST DEMOCRACY ON EARTH All across the nation, Indians await with angst the making of history.

For weeks, citizens have turned out, one by one, to cast their votes as the largest democracy on earth elects its government for the next ruling period.

Following two consecutive national election wins by the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) traditional left-wing party the Indian National Congress (INC), opinion polls predict a reversion to the nationalistic fervor of the previous century.

Headed by Hindu nationalist and Gujurati Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has resurged in popularity amongst voters. Campaigning on a platform of cultural, ethnic, and religious reunification and economic prosperity, the BJP has successfully downplayed its violent past, outstanding corruption and complicity charges, and deeply concerning connections to Hindu nationalist organizations and alliances, even some alleged responsible for acts of terror.

Throughout the vastness that is India, Christians play out scenarios

in their minds of suffering publicly impugned discrimination, harassment, and violence at the hands of emboldened Hindu extremists.

They prepare themselves for the spread of anti-forced conversion laws—or, as they’re called in-country, “religious freedom laws”— which provide corrupt law enforcement officers and desperate Hindu clerics the tools necessary to convict and legally punish Christians for practicing their faith and growing the Kingdom of God. And they ready themselves for life as secondclass citizens in their home nation: to be treated as foreigners within their often-ancestral communities.

A HISTORY OF REPRESSION For years India has entertained a trend toward greater governmental religious restriction and higher social costs for adherence to Christianity and other minority religions. Considering its past, the recent reemergence of the BJP only looks to darken India’s present and regress its future.

In 1999, the BJP won the Indian general election, forming the first Hindu nationalist government since Indian independence. Tearing at the nation’s traditionally progressive social and political fabrics with its claws of conservative radicalism, the BJP whole-heartedly embraced

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Hindutva theology: the idea that non-Hindus are foreigners to be treated as second-class citizens.

They sponsored and passed discriminatory laws, engaged in political corruption, incited, organized and carried out religiously motivated crime, and cultivated a culture of impunity for violence and abuse perpetrated against Christians and other non-Hindus.

In their first national reign from 1999-2004 alone, national and international monitors reported hundreds of attacks on Christian leaders, worshippers, and churches, and numerous incidents of harassment, rape, torture, property destruction, violent disruption of religious events, forced renunciations of faith, and martyrdom.

Losing the general election of 2004, the BJP has repackaged itself for 2014. In an attempt to shift the party’s campaign focus toward economic development, the BJP has adopted Gujurati Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its candidate for Prime Minister.

THE NOT-SO-PERFECT CANDIDATE Though Gujurat state has seen a dramatic increase in business investments over the course of Minister Modi’s ministry, the state actually 12

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lags behind several others in addressing issues of poverty and malnutrition and continues to suffer immensely inadequate infrastructure.

In an effort to attract business to Gujurat, Minister Modi has slashed taxes and eliminated revenue-generating mechanisms for the state, accepting bribes and luxury rides in private jets as payment instead.

A former member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu extremist paramilitary group closely associated with the BJP, Modi has a radical Hinduistic past that has been largely blotted out by the party’s smear campaign throughout the election.

Banned from entering the United States for personally inciting a statewide pogrom that saw to the massacre of more than 2,000 religious minorities in 2002, Modi serves as a prime example of the distance to which Hindutva-adhering nationalists are prepared to go in their campaign to “reclaim” India as a Hindu nation.

In attempting to do so, the BJP has adopted a systematic approach to repress Christian and other minority religious communities, implementing discriminatory laws, perpetuating cultures of impunity, and aiding and abetting religiously motivated crime.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The primary, and most concerning, mechanism the BJP has implemented and used to intimidate, persecute, and stifle Christian communities and churches with, has been the systematic introduction of antiforced conversion laws.

As the name implies, the expressed intent for implementing these laws is to protect individuals from being forcefully converted to or from a given religion, when in fact, the actual application of these laws has been little more than a means by which Hindu radicals and corrupt officials are able to falsely accuse and wrongly punish Christians (especially pastors) for attempting to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed India’s first antiforced conversion law in 1968; today, six additional states across India, all of whose legislatures are controlled by the BJP, have adopted anti-forced conversion laws.

These laws have established cultures of total impunity, allowing violence committed against Christians and other religious minorities to go unpunished. Pastors and their flocks have expressed a deep fear that a national BJP-led government

will lead to an even greater spread of anti-forced conversion laws, resulting in an immense escalation in violence against the Church and its mission to save the lost, provide for the needy, and bring glory to the name of God.

Party flags of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

Photo credit: Al Jazeera English.

A DARK FUTURE At the time of press, the general election had yet to conclude. With opinion polls stating the nation’s intent on taking a regressive step, a sweeping BJP victory and Modiled national government looked only to darken Christians’ and other religious minorities’ future across India.

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it’s getting worse Pakistan’s Systematic Persecution of Christians Continues under Country’s Blasphemy Laws In the span of one week this past April, the number of Christians convicted of blasphemy sitting on death row in Pakistan quadrupled. A Christian sanitation worker, Sawan Masih, accused of making derogatory remarks about the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an illiterate Christian couple accused of sending blasphemous text messages have now joined Asia Bibi in prison to await execution for allegedly insulting Islam.

This sudden string of death sentences has many Christians concerned that religious intolerance is escalating and that the Pakistani courts are implementing a change to the blasphemy laws that could make them deadlier.

BLASPHEMY BY TEXT On April 4, Shafqat Emmanuel and Shugufta Emmanuel, his wife, were sentenced to death by a trial court in Toba Tek Singh. According to the couple’s accusers, text messages containing blasphemous remarks were sent from a mobile phone registered to the Christian couple on June 18, 14

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2013 to Muhammad Hussain and to Anwar Mansoor Goraya, president of the Gojra Tehsil Bar Association.

The case against Shafqat and Shugufta played out like all blasphemy cases brought against Christians in Pakistan; injustice as the main course with a side of insanity.

Shortly after the blasphemous texts were reported to the police, initial investigations discovered the name registered to the number that sent the messages was Shugufta’s. Police immediately arrested the couple, along with their four children, and began interrogating them in search of a confession.

Shafqat, a paraplegic limited to a wheelchair, was forced to confess to sending the blasphemous texts in front of a judicial magistrate.

The Christian couple’s lawyer, Nadeem Hassan, claims Shafqat was severely tortured into confessing to appease mobs led by Islamic clerics demanding death to all blasphemers.

The injustice visited upon Shafqat and his family didn’t end with his forced confession and torture. In court, the Christian couple was denied being given something that even remotely resembled a fair trial. Forced to hold the hearing in the jail for security reasons, the prosecution against the couple was not required to produce the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) the prosecution claimed sent the blasphemous texts; the same SIM the prosecution claimed was registered to Shugufta.

Shafqat was accused of blasphemy because of profane text messages sent from his cell phone, despite Shafqat having reported the cell phone stolen weeks earlier.

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A mob forms to share their views on blasphemers.

In an effort to guarantee death sentences for the Christian couple, the prosecution even went so far as to threaten the judge deciding the case. During the trial’s final hearing on March 28, prosecuting attorneys told the court they were “determined to become Ghazi Ilamdin Shaheed and Mumtaz Qadri if the judge did not convict the accused.”

To the judge, this statement was as powerful as a direct threat on his life.

Ghazi Ilamdin Shaheed is considered a hero by Muslim extremists in Pakistan for killing a Hindu who published a book in 1942 that is considered blasphemous. Mumtaz Qadri was a police guard who assassinated Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, because of his open opposition to Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws in 2011.

With the forced confession, sham trial, and threats against the judge weighted against them, the Christian couple stood no chance of getting justice. It didn’t seem to matter that both the husband and wife were illiterate and unable to write proper Urdu, the same form of proper Urdu that text messages sent to the accusers contained or that the mobile phone 16

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owned by the couple had been missing for over a month.

ONLY DEATH FOR BLASPHEMERS? Injustice seems to be the rule—not the exception—when it comes to blasphemy trials against Christians in Pakistan. One disturbing development from this sting of death sentences is that it has many Christians in fear of whether the courts are now punishing Christians accused of blasphemy exclusively with death.

RESTORING THE STOLEN LIVES OF BLASPHEMY VICTIMS

For years, Islamic radicals have been demanding the death penalty as the only acceptable punishment applicable under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. In December 2013, it seems the Pakistani government finally heeded their cries. On Dec. 4, the Federal Sharia Court (FSC) of Pakistan ordered the government to enact the necessary laws to make the death penalty the only lawful punishment for blasphemy.

Blasphemy laws are routinely used to settle personal scores. With Pakistan’s Federal Sharia Court advocating for the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam, now more than ever, Christian minorities need our help.

While no official action has been taken by the government to implement the FSC’s order, the fact that Pakistan has quadrupled the number of Christians accused of blasphemy on death row and has only handed down death sentences in blasphemy since the order was first decreed is telling.

For the first quarter of 2014, ICC campaigned to raise funds for 30 families to received emergency aid to restore the stolen lives due to blasphemy accusations. As of press time, funds for 20 family rescues had been collected. Thank you to everyone who partnered with ICC in prayer and finances.

Disproportionately accused and convicted under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, Christians fear this recent string of death sentences is a sign of future intensified persecution.

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W E S T WAT C H

WEST WATCH

What is West Watch? West Watch is a new special segment that from time to time will feature stories that show the growing persecution of Christians in the Western World, including the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

SCHOOL OFFICIAL TO 5-YEAR-OLD: ‘DON’T PRAY’ Gabriella Perez was sitting down to lunch and about to pray for her meal when a school employee stopped her. “She said: ‘You are not allowed to pray,’” Gabriella recounted to her parents on a video posted on YouTube. The Perez family has met with school officials, according to the Liberty Institute. Carillon Elementary School officials stated they will conduct a full investigation, after Gabriella positively identified the employee in a line-up.

orlandosentinel.com

“My goal throughout this process has been to defend my daughter’s religious liberty,” Marcos Perez said in a statement from the Liberty Institute.

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SCRIPTURE NOT WELCOME AT AIR FORCE ACADEMY “I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” sparked a controversy at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. The verse was written on a whiteboard outside a cadet’s room used for both personal and professional messages. “It clearly elevated one religious faith (fundamentalist Christianity) over all others at an already virulently hyper-funWikipedia damentalist Christian institution,” Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said. Within a few hours the verse was removed from the whiteboard. A few days later, students protested the decision by writing their own verses from religious texts on their whiteboards. The military continues to be a focal point of religious freedom debates.

NYC: CHURCHES IN OR OUT? A defeat for religious groups in a battle that has gone on for nearly two decades was over-turned by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. On April 3, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that it is constitutional for schools to ban churches from holding worship services in school buildings. The ruling specifically targeted churches, barring them from holding worship services, while other community nonprofits would be free to use the Wikipedia buildings. On April 8, Mayor de Blasio announced that NYC schools would be open to churches and faith-based organizations, stating that, “I believe that a faith-based organization has a right like anyone else […] to use that space.”

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W E S T WAT C H

N.C. PROFESSOR FACES DISCRIMINATION FOR CONVERSION A federal court ruled in favor of a North Carolina professor who had been denied a promotion and been retaliated against by university officials because of his conservative and Christian views. A professor of criminology at the University of North Carolina-Willimington, Dr. Mike Adams had an award-winning record of teaching and research, but following his conversion in 2000, he was “subjected to a campaign of academic persecution,” according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Dr. Adams.

The case represents a victory for Christian values despite the anti-Christian culture that has permeated much of academia for decades.

CALIFORNIA MOM TO REMOVE CROSS

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Annmarie Devany, a California resident, was forced to remove a roadside cross dedicated to the memory of her 19-year-old son Anthony who was killed in a car crash in 2012. An atheist organization complained to local authorities that the cross was a violation of “separation of church and state.” The incident has garnered national media attention and is only the latest in a long line of ongoing battles between Christian communities and atheist organizations who are seeking to remove all Christian symbolism from public life.

HOBBY LOBBY On March 25, the Supreme Court heard arguments on one of the most important religious freedom cases in recent history. The case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby was brought because of the mandate in the health care law to provide potentially life-threatening contraceptives. The case really 20

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takes up a much bigger question of whether for-profit corporations have the right to exercise their religious beliefs or if the government can force them to violate their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court ruling will set an important precedent for religious freedoms in the United States.

‘YOU CAN STAY, BUT WE WON’T HEAR YOUR CASE’ This was the message sent to the Romeike family by the United States government. The Romeike’s came to the U.S. from their native Germany because they faced losing custody of their children for choosing to homeschool them in line with their religious beliefs, rather than send them to government-run schools. They were initially granted asylum in 2010 and then it was overturned. Their appeal was declined by the Supreme Court, meaning they faced deportation. Just one day later, the Department of Homeland Security issued a decision allowing them stay indefinitely. So while it was a positive outcome for the Romeike family, it raises concerns about the Supreme Court’s views on the rights of parents to educate their children in line with their personal religious beliefs.

CANADIAN SUPREME COURT HEARS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CASE An important religious freedom case came before the Supreme Court of Canada on March 24. The court heard arguments in the case of Loyola High School v. Attorney General of Quebec regarding Quebec’s “Ethics and Religious Culture” (ERC) curriculum. Loyola is a Jesuit Catholic school and is petitioning the court that its teachers be allowed to teach in line with their religious beliefs and tradition. The ERC, which presents that all religions must be taught as “equally valid,” also requires that teachers maintain a stance of neutrality when teaching the lessons. At stake is the right for church schools and other religious educational institutions to be able to hold to their own system of belief and to act in accordance with it. “There seems to be confusion in Quebec’s approach between multiculturalism as a public policy and the right of the government to impose a multicultural outlook on every private individual. One is democratic, the other is autocratic,” Barbara Kay wrote in the National Post.

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YOUR DOLLARS AT WORK AID TO ACID ATTACK VICTIM IN PAKISTAN Save Our Sisters

Amina (far right) and her family are thankful for ICC’s support.

On Jan. 4, Amina Bibi (name changed for security) was attacked by her husband and horribly burned with acid. Her husband did not like how involved Amina was in her local church, and would often beat her to turn her away from Jesus. After she was attacked, Amina’s family could not cover her medical bills and considered selling their house.

ICC paid for Amina’s medical bills, including check-ups, transportation, medicines, creams, bandages and injections for her pain. Thank you to those who gave to Save Our Sisters for making this project possible!

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BIBLE DISTRIBUTION TO IRANIANS DURING PERSIAN NEW YEAR Bibles to the Persecuted

ICC representatives distributing Bibles in Turkey to Iranians on holiday.

In Iran, the house-church movement is not able to openly evangelize; even meeting with other believers regularly leads to the arrest of those involved. So the idea of being able to openly distribute Scripture is completely out of the question inside Iran.

During Persian New Year, tens of thousands of Iranians travel to neighboring countries during the four-day holiday and are outside the control of the Iranian regime. This is a time when many have the opportunity to openly receive a Bible in their native language, something that is nearly impossible to do inside Iran.

ICC is partnering with Iranian pastors and churches in Turkey, and Present Truth Ministries, to distribute 3,000 Farsi New Testaments and Jesus Films during the Persian New Year in Istanbul, Turkey, one of the most popular destinations for Iranians.

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ICC DELIVERS SPECIAL BLESSINGS GIFTS TO TRAFFICKED CHILDREN IN BANGLADESH Kids Care

The children presenting their gifts from donors!

Recently, ICC Regional Manager for South Asia, William Stark, was able to travel to Bangladesh and check in on the 120 Christian children who ICC rescued from trafficking situations in madrasas. While visiting with the children, Stark was able to deliver Special Blessings Gifts collected by churches in the United States. The children were amazed by the wonderful gifts they received and will cherish them for years to come.

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CHRISTIAN WOMEN GO FROM VICTIM TO VICTOR WITH ICC’S TRAINING CENTERS IN PAKISTAN Save Our Sisters ICC continues its commitment of assistance to the persecuted Christian women of Pakistan and the operation of four Save Our Sisters’ Vocational Training Centers. These centers are specifically designed to teach Christian women a vocational skill and equip them with the knowledge they need to run their own small business. To date, 91 Christian women have graduated from ICC’s centers and are on their way to starting their own small businesses.

A class of graduates from ICC’s Vocational Training Center. To date, 91 Christian women have graduated from the centers.

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PRINTING PRESS IN MIDDLE EAST FULLY FUNDED! Bibles to the Persecuted ICC’s partners and donors have responded in an incredible way and provided all of the funds for a printing press in a closed Muslim country. Machinery and printing costs have been covered for the remainder of 2014, and it is estimated that 5,00010,000 Bibles (and about 30,000 portions) will be printed from now until December.

BIBLES TO CHINA Bibles to the Persecuted In April, ICC Bibles were delivered to an underground Bible study for high school students in China. It’s illegal for anyone under 18 to attend church in China, so these students were incredibly grateful for the gift from ICC donors!

AID TO FAMILIES IN CHINA Suffering Wives and Children Over the past 20 years, Pastor Ma (name changed for security) has been imprisoned twice, beaten, tortured, and held for countless short detentions by police. He is a bold evangelist who will never stop working to bring the Gospel to China. ICC helped support Pastor Ma’s family during his most recent detention.

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YOU CAN HELP TODAY! SEND DONATIONS TO: ICC PO BOX 8056 SILVER SPRING, MD 20907 OR ONLINE AT WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG

GIVING TO ICC VIA YOUR WILL Provide now for a future gift to ICC by including a bequest provision in your will or revocable trust. If you would like more information on giving to ICC in this way, please give us a call at 1-800-ICC-5441.

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