ICC's January 2015 Persecution Magazine (1/4)

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JANUARY 2015

PERSECU ION

A Symbol of Hate Rallies ICC & Others To Help Iraq’s Christians FEATURE

ANSWERS

INTERVIEWS

ADVOCACY

ISIS Seeks Resurrection of Islamic Caliphate

What is ISIS? How are they threatening the Church?

Mosul Christians Share Their Stories

Giving a Voice to Christians in Iraq

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World News

Persecution News Christians In The Crosshairs

PAKISTAN

‘And then they threw them inside the furnace’ Family of Martyred Couple

A family spokesperson describes how a Christian couple was burned alive.

Riled by loudspeaker announcements from local mosques, a mob of more than 1,200 Muslims ripped the thatched roof off the office building, pulled the young couple out and broke their legs so they couldn’t run away.

A family spokesperson said, “They picked them up by their arms and legs and held them over the brick furnace until their clothes caught fire. And then they threw them inside the furnace.”

3 | UKRAINE Amid escalating violence in eastern Ukraine, evangelical Christians have increasingly found themselves caught in the deadly crosshairs of separatist rebels. These separatists, who claim to be defenders of Orthodox Christianity, are determined to purge Ukraine of any perceived threats to their Orthodox principles.

Time and again, they have shown they have no qualms with using abduction, beatings, and murder to achieve their aims. As the battle for Ukraine continues, persecution of Christians increases day by day.

This tragedy is yet another apalling example of how the blasphemy law is used to persecute Christians in Pakistan.

An ICC staffer displays the bones (bottom) of a Christian couple collected from the brick kiln (top) where a mob of Muslims burned them alive.

Couple Burned Alive 1 | PAKISTAN A young Christian Pakistani couple, parents to four with one on the way, were brutally martyred when they were accused of blasphemy and then refused to recant Christianity and embrace Islam. Sajjad Maseeh, 27, and his wife Shama Bibi, 24, were accused of burning pages of the Quran. They were locked in the offices of the brick kiln, where they were essentially indentured slaves, by the kiln owner.

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Children Among Arrested In China 2 | CHINA Even Christian children are not safe in China.

On Sunday, September 21st, more than 200 police raided a house church. More than 100 church members, including children, were arrested during the Sunday service in Foshan City, in China’s Guangdong Province. As of Monday evening, more than 24 hours later, 30 parishioners still remained in police custody.

“We don’t know exactly why they raided our church,” a local believer told ICC during an interview. “The government does not want us to get together and worship as a church.”

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Saint Catherine’s Church, Ukraine

Photography CBN

Family of slain pastor in Ukraine.

JANUARY 2015

World News

More than 100,000

Christians have been driven from their homes by Islamic militants in Iraq. Is this the final exodus for Iraqi Christians?

Photography ICC

An Iraqi boy who spoke with ICC staff while ISIS was fighting only miles away.

Losing Hope: What’s Next for Iraq’s Christians?

4 | IRAQ The ethnic and religious cleansing of Iraq has created a disaster of staggering proportions. For the Christian community that has called Iraq home for centuries, there are fears this may be the final exodus. More than 100,000 have been driven from their homes and are unsure if they will ever be able to return. The brutal attacks by the jihadist militants of ISIS and the atrocities they continue to commit against Christians and religious minorities are heart-breaking. Women — both Christian and minorities — are being sold and abused, treated as slaves and spoils of war. These acts caused one who fled his home to lament, “They are selling them! What century are we in?”

Al-Shabab Militants Massacre 28 in Kenya

Relatives of those slain in Nigeria weep.

Boko Haram Taunts Parents of Kidnapped 5 | NIGERIA In a video statement released by the leader of Boko Haram, the Nigerian extremist Islamic group responsible for kidnapping 200 girls (most of whom are Christians), the militant leader claimed he never agreed to a truce with the Nigerian government and had no intention of releasing the girls. Instead, he seems to taunt the parents, saying, “The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long ago married them off. If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you … to die from grief.” He also claimed that all the girls had converted to Islam and memorized at least two chapters of the Quran. Church leaders in Nigeria released a statement, saying, in part, “We are worried that the Christians are being systematically eliminated by members of the Boko Haram Islamic extremists. We are forced to believe that the whole attack is a deliberate plan to exterminate Christians living in the affected areas.”

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6 | KENYA On November 22nd, al-Shabab militants forcefully boarded a bus in Kenya and divided the passengers. All those who were non-Muslim, which was decided if they could not recite from the Quran, were lined up and shot in the head. A Kenyan offical reporting on the incident stated that of the 28 killed, “most of them were Christians.”

IRAQ

‘They are selling them!

What century are we in?’

Iraqi Refugee A man who was forced to leave his home in Iraq laments the absurdity of the acts being committed against female ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq by ISIS militants.

Released from Prison in North Korea

7 | NORTH KOREA On November 8, North Korea released U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, who was imprisoned in the country for his Christian faith. Bae is a KoreanAmerican missionary who was leading a tour group in North Korea when he was arrested and accused of crimes against the state on November 3, 2012. It is believed that Kenneth Bae Bae was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in a labor camp due to his Christian faith. At more than 730 days, Bae’s imprisonment is the longest on record for an American citizen in North Korea, a country widely recognized to be among the world’s most repressive places for Christians.

Terri Chung, Bae’s sister, said, “Our family could not have been sustained without the knowledge that Kenneth was in God’s care, when it seemed we were helpless to do anything.” Words cannot adequately express our relief and gratitude … this ordeal has been excruciating for the family, but we are filled with joy right now.”

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Overview

Iraqi Crisis Response ICC is reaching out to the dwindling Christian community in Iraq with practical assistance, comfort and advocacy on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

W

hen ISIS militants took the city of Mosul, Iraq, on June 10, 2014, the world once again opened its eyes to the dangers that Iraq’s Christian community is facing. One of the world’s most brutal jihadist militant groups had set its sights squarely on the heartland of Iraq’s Christian communities.

First Mosul fell, then Qaraqosh, Iraq’s Christian capital, and then many of the other Christian towns and villages across central Iraq were emptied. As many as 200,000 Christians fled their homes as ISIS militants solidified their hold on land across Iraq.

The jihadists’ from the group which calls itself the Islamic State (previously the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham or ISIS) systematically and brutally killed or abducted thousands of non-Sunni, nonArab religious minorities. By the end of 2014, the total number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) scattered across Iraq was more than 1.9 million people.

For many of Iraq’s Christians, this is just the latest — but many fear the last — chapter in a story that has been full of brutal persecution. Just since 2003, over 1 million Christians have left Iraq

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‘One of the world’s most brutal jidhadist militant groups had set its sights squarely on the heartland of Iraq’s Christian communities.’ due to violence that rocked the country as a whole, but often included specific attacks on Christians and churches. Once numbering nearly 1.5 million, the number of Christians remaining in Iraq prior to the ISIS attacks in June was just about 300,000.

Standing with the Church As we witnessed what was happening to Christians in Iraq at the hands of ISIS PERSECU ION.org

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and the dangers they now faced as so many had fled their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs, we immediately sprang into action.

ICC exists to serve as a bridge between persecuted believers and the church that is free. We seek to help serve the persecuted church by providing assistance to those in need, raising awareness of what is happening, and being their advocate and speaking on their behalf when they JANUARY 2015

Photos

Top Left A truck

load of mattresses arrives to deliver aid and comfort to displaced families.

Top Right An elderly woman from Mosul shares the story of how she lost her home to ISIS militants.

Bottom Left

An Iraqi woman receives a donated blanket to help prepare her for the long winter ahead.

Bottom Right

ICC advocates traveled to Iraq to learn the needs of pastors, churches and families in order to bring their concerns back to policymakers in Washington, D.C. Photography ICC

these churches desperately needed. We also shared their story with our supporters and donors. They responded in an incredible way by giving to the Iraqi Crisis fund to help provide resources for tens of thousands of Christians in need all across the country (page 20).

As summer and the brutal heat started to change into winter and freezing temperatures, the nature of the needs changed but the urgency did not. We continue to provide heaters, blankets, and winter clothes to help sustain Christians in Iraq.

Listening to Their Stories In times of massive crisis, it is easy for numbers — 200,000 Christians, 1.9 million Iraqis … — to become just numbers.

A team from ICC went to Iraq not just to provide aid, but also to sit and listen to the stories of those who had lost almost everything. Each of these individuals has their own story, and we want to help make sure that those stories do not get lost (page 8).

We are also working to explain the crisis — what is behind the violence? — and helping to provide answers to questions that many have about the situation and what role they can play (page 16).

A Voice for Iraq’s Christians

‘A team from ICC went to Iraq not just to provide aid, but also to sit and listen to the stories of those who had lost everything.’ cannot speak for themselves. All of these facets of ICC’s ministry have been present as we’ve responded to the crisis in Iraq.

Meeting the Massive Need In the days immediately following the fall of Mosul, we spoke with local church leaders who were on the frontlines working to show Christ’s love to their hurting brothers and sisters and the many others (Yazidi, Shabak, and other groups) who

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were now in intense need as a result of ISIS’ attacks.

As the first waves of IDPs started to arrive in Erbil and other parts of the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq, the immediate needs were for shelter from the brutal heat, food and water, and a place to sleep.

ICC started immediately working with local partners to provide the resources that

As the world was gripped with stories that have emerged out of Iraq, ICC has been working both on the ground in Iraq and with government officials in Washington, D.C., to advocate on behalf of Christians (page 26).

We visited Iraq to investigate firsthand about what was happening and whether assistance that had been sent by the U.S. government was actually reaching many of those in need.

Upon our return, we met with numerous government offices in Washington and hosted a major congressional staff briefing to discuss the ongoing threats and provide steps that could be taken to better assist the Christian community in Iraq.

The crisis in Iraq is still ongoing, and ICC continues to work to stand with the church in Iraq and with other persecuted Christians around the globe.

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A Note from the President

CONVERT OR DIE! Blaring from mosque loudspeakers or on giant speakers mounted on trucks, the message above burned fear into Iraq’s Christians as ISIS raped and murdered its way through Iraq’s heartland. They and the Yazidis fled the flood of terror to Erbil. Their abandoned homes were painted with the symbol on the cover by ISIS fighters marking them as Christian homes that were to be taken.

Jeff King, President International Christian Concern

Most fled on foot and were forced to cross the desert with only a few meager possessions.

Arriving in Erbil, they found only a modicum of rest, for Erbil was overrun with refugees, and the majority were without shelter from the sun and faced temperatures of up to 130 degrees in direct sunlight.

Sadly, many of the old and young did not survive the journey or the destination.

The Iraqi church, in partnership with Western believers, was doing an amazing work tending to the massive waves of displaced people who poured into the town. Our staff landed in Iraq in August, at the height of ISIS’ penetration, to work with the churches and relief workers in distributing water, food, tents, and baby formula.

While most of our work was among Christians, we also greatly enjoyed touching Muslim victims in Iraq, as well. Carrying out the Lord’s command to “love those who persecute you” has a devastating effect on hate.

There is only one reason we are able to do any of this. It is because of you! You are the answer and their rescuer; we are merely your hands and feet. We are your bridge to bring your touch to them.

I am profoundly grateful for your partnership with us as we build and bandage Christ’s persecuted body around the world.

As always, your donations will be used efficiently, effectively, and ethically.

I promise!

Jeff King

President, International Christian Concern www.persecution.org

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You Can Help Today!

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