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FEBRUARY 2015
PERSECU ION
Freedom In
Chains Iranian Believers Set Free in the midst of prison and persecution by discovering that Jesus is worth it all.
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INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
A Note from the President A young man came to Jesus and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to continually keep the commandments. The young man said to Jesus, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matthew 19 (ESV)
Jeff King, President Friends,
International Christian Concern
Have you ever considered that almost all the victims of persecution we introduce you to are in control of their own fate? That is, if they were simply to walk away from Jesus, all the pain would stop. But in the words of Peter, they ask, “Where can we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life.” For a large number of believers in the world, there is a real cost to following Jesus. In freer countries, Christians may be mocked or experience light discrimination, but in persecuted countries, Christians are at the bottom of society’s heap. They will be crushed financially, their kids will get a very poor education, and they may be raped, imprisoned, tortured, or killed. As Jesus promised, there is a cost to following Him. This cost for following serves to weed out the lukewarm and worldly from the Body. It is why persecution strengthens the Church and why the Church grows fastest where there is persecution. Persecution speeds up the process that the Lord wants every believer to go through. It makes the believer face the same dilemma as the rich young ruler. The Lord wants true devotion. We cling to far too many idols and treasures. The Lord wants to be your treasure. First and foremost. This is why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything. In essence, he said, “Your wealth is your treasure, but if you want real treasure (eternal life), you must let go of your false idol and cling to me.” This newsletter is full of stories of great loss. But as you read, you will see how the most dangerous chains for the believer are not found in prison but in the false idols to which we so desperately cling because we think they bring us life. You will see how loss actually creates true spiritual wealth. As you read these stories, take stock of your life and ask the Lord to show you where your treasure is. He must be first. All of us are sheep that wander and lose sight of this truth, but the Lord will always be working to be first in your life. If you have wandered away and find yourself lost spiritually, come back to your treasure. Please join me in serving this amazing community of those who have lost all to hold on to Jesus. 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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News
World
Christian Girls Abducted and Raped
3 | PAKISTAN According to reports from Pakistan, two Christian girls from Pakistan’s Punjab province were abducted and gangraped at gunpoint by a local landlord.
PAKISTAN
‘She was forced to sign blank papers at gunpoint.’
“I did not want to,” she said. After her escape, she attempted to bring charges against her captors, but the authorities would not register the case. She then turned to the courts in an effort to force the authorities to bring a case against her captors. She continues to find neither the local police nor the court accommodating.
Pastors Arrested In Bangladesh A Christian woman who was abducted and repeatedly raped by Muslims in Pakistan said her captors held her at gunpoint and forced her to convert to Islam.
Woman Forced to Convert at Gunpoint 1 | PAKISTAN Forced conversion continues to be among the major abuses Christians, especially women, face in Pakistan. According to reports, a Christian woman from Nishtar Colony was forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint after being abducted and raped several times. She claims she was forced to sign blank papers at gunpoint. Based on previous cases, these papers could be falsified into “legal” statements of her “conversion” to Islam or marriage to her captor. She was also forced at gunpoint to recite Muslim prayers and verses from the Quran.
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2 | BANGLADESH Two pastors in Bangladesh were sharing the Gospel with a small crowd when they, and all 41 people listening, were arrested. Local Muslims were enraged and demanded to know who gave the pastors “permission” to share the Gospel. When the pastors told them that they did not need permission to share their beliefs, the Muslim mob became violent and the police arrived to arrest the pastors. If convicted, the pastors could face up to two years in prison.
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The girls, 14 and 16 years old, were found lying unconscious on the road several kilometers away from their village. Once found, they were quickly rushed to the hospital, where they were declared to be “out of danger.” Christian women often face their own unique brand of persecution in Pakistan for being both the wrong religion and the wrong gender. They are seen as easy targets for sexual assault and forced conversion because of their low social status. Sadly, this means situations such as the one these two girls experienced are not a rarity in Pakistan. The police have arrested the landlord; however, at the time of printing, the three accomplices remain at large.
FEBRUARY 2015
A letter from a
nun in Iraq reveals that Christians in Iraq are “living a nightmare” and depend on our prayers to carry them to Jesus.
Christians Are Bleeding
4 | IRAQ “We have been living a nightmare. Christianity in Iraq is bleeding … many still are forced to stay in unfinished buildings on construction sites. In one place, a mall has been remodeled to accommodate families, with the hall divided merely with partitions. Although they are better than tents, they resemble dark, damp cages with no ventilation. … We desperately count on your prayers, and we need you carry us to Jesus like the men who brought the paralytic to Jesus.” — Portion of a letter from Sister Maria Hanna, Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in Iraq
Boko Haram Kills Scores With AK-47s 5 | NIGERIA Boko Haram, a radical Islamic insurgency bent on eradicating Christians in order to establish a separate Islamic state in Nigeria, killed scores of people in the predominantly Christian town of Shani at the end of 2014. A survivor, one of the thousands who fled during the attack, recounted, “They came on about 10 motorcycles, well armed with AK-47 rifles, improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs, wreaking havoc without confrontation as there was no military operatives nor police to assist the unarmed civilians who were running for their lives.” Boko Haram is the group most recently infamous for the mass abduction of more than 270 predominantly Christian schoolgirls from Chibok in April of 2014.
Boko Haram gunned down scores of people in the largely Christian town of Shani, Nigeria.
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Liquidate Your Churches 6 | AZERBAIJAN Churches in Azerbaijan have been told that their previous applications for registration are no longer valid. Not only do they have to fill out an entirely new application (an arduous process), they also have to “liquidate themselves as an existing community, form a new community and apply anew.” In the last count of religious communities whose registrations have been approved, 555 were Muslim and 21 were a mix of other faiths; the bias is obvious.
Threat Against Churches Growing 7 | SUDAN The Sudanese government continues its persecution of Christians. In mid-2014, a Sudanese government official in support of a ban on new church buildings said that there were “enough churches” for Christians. An alarming trend in 2014 saw a rise in churches being closed and demolished by Sudanese officials. The Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church saw authorities break in, beat worshipers, arrest 38 believers, and partially demolish the church building. Though a judge released the Christians, saying they had done nothing wrong, another judge levied a large fine on each of them. Not long after, authorities tore down the entire building.
The Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church was demolished by government authorities.
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News
World
A rise in radical Hinduism is threatening the Church in India.
Radical Hinduism on the Rise 1 | INDIA As extremist Hindu ideology sweeps across India, radical Hindu organizations are passing laws and ordinances against Christianity in certain states, and Christian communities are under continual attack.
last May. Attacks on Christians, churches and other minorities have skyrocketed while arrests and convictions for these crimes have plummeted. Even the Christmas holiday was not safe. In the weeks before Christmas, leaders of the radical RSS group in India claimed they would reconvert thousands of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism over the Christmas holiday in a massive re-conversion ceremony. Across India, reconversion campaigns have been led by Hindu radical groups and, in many cases, entire communities of religious minorities have been forced to convert to Hinduism or face dire consequences. In the past, these consequences involved beatings, murder, being cut off from government aid, being ostracized and being expelled from the village.
In late October, a Christian family in India’s Odisha state were lured to a public meeting where they were beaten nearly unconscious by Hindu extremists. Religious violence and anti-Christian sentiment has continued to escalate under the new BJP government that took power
Will the government of India step in to ensure freedom of religion is being upheld, or will these massive re-conversion movements and this wave of persecution continue to wash over Christian communities? It remains to be seen if the government of India will step in to secure the rights of all of its citizens. So far, it has remained disappointingly silent.
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Recently, in Maharashtra state, four Christians were beaten and jailed for two weeks after being accused of “rioting.” The incident stemmed from Christians refusing to donate money to a Hindu festival. After refusing to donate, the Hindu extremists attacked the Christians, forcing them to flee into the forest and await police assistance. Unfortunately, the police arrested the Christians instead of their Hindu attackers.
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
Asia Bibi Remains on Death Row 2 | PAKISTAN
Release Unlikely Without Pressure The lawyer who represented Asia Bibi before the Lahore High Court has urged the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to release her and reform the controversial blasphemy laws.
Muslims Protest Election of Christian 3 | INDONESIA Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is the first Christian to hold the position of governor in 50 years. Not everyone in Indonesia was happy when a Christian was elected as governor. Muslims reacted, saying, “It is forbidden to have an infidel as the head of Jakarta [president of Indonesia]; Muslims took to the streets we reject him to be the to protest the election of a governor of Jakarta.” Christian governor. Many took to the streets INDONESIA to protest. They chanted, waved flags and batons, and even burned the governor-elect in effigy. Despite their protests and demands that a Muslim hold the position, the Christian, Purnama, was sworn in as governor at the end of 2014.
‘We reject [the infidel] to be the governor of Jakarta.’
FEBRUARY 2015
News
Four Christian Children Beheaded By ISIS 4 | IRAQ Four Christian children were beheaded by ISIS militants in Iraq when they refused to deny Jesus Christ and convert to Islam. “ISIS turned up and said to the children, ‘You say the words that you will follow Mohammed,’” said Canon Andrew White, a leader in the Anglican church. “The children, all under 15, four of them, they said, ‘No, we love Yeshua [Jesus], we have always loved Yeshua.’ ISIS chopped off all their heads.”
Four Iraqi Christian children (not pictured) were beheaded by ISIS militants for refusing to recant their faith, saying, “No, we love Yeshua [Jesus], we have always loved Yeshua.”
Al-Shabaab Kills 64 People in 11 Days
Pastor Still Under House Arrest
5 | KENYA Al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic insurgency with ties to al-Qaeda, massacred 64 people, most of whom were Christians, in just 11 days at the end of 2014. In all of these attacks, the militants separated Muslims from nonMuslims by having passengers either speak in Somali or recite an Islamic creed. Those who failed were executed on the side of the road — either shot through the head at close range or slowly beheaded with a machete.
6 | KAZAKHSTAN A pastor arrested for allegedly putting hallucinogens in the communion juice remains under house arrest, but has relative freedom of movement, a source told ICC. The false accusations are widely believed to be a cover for the pastor’s true “crime” — leading many Muslims to Christ.
Many Christians were among the 64 people massacred by AlShabaab in an 11-day span.
Christians Unsettled After Burning of Church 7 | INDIA St. Sebastian Church, located in the Dilshan Garden area near India’s capital, New Delhi, was burned down by unknown assailants in the early hours of December 1, 2014. Witnesses noticed flames and smoke coming from the church at about 6 a.m., but by then everything inside the church had been burnt to ashes, including the pulpit, altar, benches, Bibles and other Christian literature. Eyewitnesses said they found a kerosene container and also smelled kerosene fumes coming from the church. A Christian leader said, “The incident has shaken the whole Christian community, particularly the independent and house churches. …If they can attack a well-established and one of the largest churches in New Delhi, we can understand the vulnerable status of small independent churches. Many Christians in India are driven by a fear that the Hindu radicals could come and attack at any time.”
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St. Sebastian Church was burned on December 1.
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est atch Feature
News
Judges in NC Told to Officiate Same-Sex Marriages or Resign
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For the judges, this meant giving up more than $50,000 a year in income.
When a formal request to exempt officials with certain religious convictions was denied, six judges chose to resign, refusing to be compelled by law to violate their faith.
When Magistrate Bill Stevenson was asked why he gave up his livelihood over the law, he responded, “It was something I had to do out of conscience. I felt that to perform same-sex unions would be in violation of the Lord’s commands, so I couldn’t do that. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul?”
n October, the state of North Carolina legalized same-sex marriages. Soon after, the state’s 670 county magistrates were given notice that they should begin to officiate same-sex weddings as a part of the legal responsibilities for their position.
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship “De-Recognized” in California
S Chase Windebank
After three years of leading fellow students in prayer and worship at his high school, Chase Windebank was ordered to stop by his assistant principal.
tarting in the fall semester of 2014, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a large, evangelical Christian college campus group, was officially “de-recognized” by the entire California State University system. The “de-recognition” came after the group refused to remove several core belief requirements from its list of qualifications for leadership, including the requirement that
Colorado School Orders Students to Cease Praying, Singing During Free Time
A Christian legal organization is taking the case to court in the hope of reversing the ban on Chase and his fellow students.
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The “de-recognition” will potentially leave 450,000 students of the nation’s largest university system without access to InterVarsity Fellowship. Raise your voice in support of Christian students across California today. Call the Chancellor of the California State University system, Timothy P. White, at 562-951-4800 and politely but firmly let him know how strongly you disagree with this decision.
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or three years, Chase Windebank led a group of fellow students in prayer and singing inside an empty choir room on the campus of Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs. Suddenly, in September of 2014, the assistant principal summoned Chase and informed him that the group had to immediately cease praying or singing Christian-themed songs while on campus. Citing state law and school district policy, the principal told Chase that students were only permitted to pray before or after school, but not during “instructional time,” even though the group only met during free time in the afternoon. Chase was told the group could still meet, as long as they didn’t engage in prayer or religious song.
leaders be professing Christians. The state argues this qualification is discriminatory, essentially asking Christian clubs whose entire purpose is to promote Christianity to allow their groups to be led by nonChristians or by those who don’t support orthodox Christian values.
UK Street Preacher Charged with “Religious Aggravation”
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n October, police in the United Kingdom took their investigation into street evangelist Mike Overd to the next level by charging him with “religious aggravation.” While preaching, Overd compared the perfect life of Jesus with the life of the prophet Muhammad. A complaint was filed, and the police informed Overd they would be charging him with three violations of the Public Order Act. Before the charges were filed, a local police sergeant gave an interview to the BBC urging residents to film Overd preaching in an attempt to catch him making offensive statements.
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Modern-day silencing of street preachers in the United Kingdom is not new. Two other street preachers, including one American citizen, have been detained by UK police in recent years.
FEBRUARY 2015
News
Mayor of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons
Oklahoma Man Threatens to Behead Christian Coworker
n October, Christians across the United States were shocked when the city of Houston sent subpoenas to five area pastors demanding they hand over emails and sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity, or the city’s first openly lesbian mayor, Annise Parker. If the pastors refused, they would be held in contempt of court.
n September 25th, Alton Nolen, a recent convert to Islam who kept photos of Osama bin Laden and beheadings on his Facebook page, attacked his 54-year-old coworker, Colleen Hufford, and severed her head with a knife. He then tried to behead a second coworker before being shot by an off-duty sheriff. The police department decided the motive for the attack was Nolen’s anger at being suspended from work earlier in the day, though the FBI was brought in to investigate a terrorism connection.
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The subpoenas were issued in an aggressive legal attack by the mayor’s office as a bid to crush resistance by the churches to a new city ordinance allowing adults to use public bathrooms of the opposite gender if they self-identified as that gender. The move was met with a wave of backlash by Americans and other concerned citizens around the world. Rallies were held and prominent Christian leaders voiced their support for the pastors, who refused to hand over the sermons. Less than two weeks later, Houston’s mayor backed off, instructing the legal team to withdraw all of the subpoenas. The battle over the city ordinance, however, continues.
Annise Parker
Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor issued subpoenas demanding that area pastors hand over sermons dealing with homosexuality or gender identity.
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Ministers Faced Jail in Idaho for Refusing to Perform Same-Sex Wedding
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wo ordained ministers in Idaho, Donald and Evelyn Knapp, were facing a 180-day jail term and a daily $1,000 fine after politely refusing to perform a same-sex wedding in the wedding chapel they have owned and operated for more than two decades. The city, Coeur d’Alene, had declared the privately owned wedding chapel a “public accommodation” and therefore subject to Idaho’s “non-discrimination” statute. Christian lawyers for the wedding chapel sued the city in a preliminary attempt to stop any form of prosecution, and Christian media outlets began picking up the story. ICC also issued a call to action, asking concerned followers to call the city’s mayor and voice their support for the wedding chapel owners. A little less than 24 hours later, the city backed off after “taking a closer look” at the non-discrimination ordinance and decided the wedding chapel, as a religious corporation, was exempt. Thank you to everyone who took the time to make a call. Your voice makes a difference.
The very next day, Jacob Muriithi, a Kenyan native also living in Oklahoma, was arrested after threatening to behead a fellow coworker. He reportedly told a female coworker that he represented ISIS and that they killed Christians. When asked why, he responded, “This is just what we do,” before telling her he planned to “cut her head off” after she left work. The coworker called the police and Jacob was arrested.
Colonel’s Column Removed for References to Jesus
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or 36 years, Colonel Florencio Marquinez served faithfully in the U.S. military. In an article for the Air National Guard’s newsletter last year, Colonel Marquinez attributed much of his success in life to his faith in Christ, saying, “I would not be the man that I am today if it wasn’t for my mother leading our whole family to Jesus Christ.” He went on to advise members of the military to cast their burdens on the Lord and pointed out that “In God We Trust” is the national motto. Not long after the article was published, advocates from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation contacted the Pentagon and demanded “that odious and offending proselytizing commentary” be stricken from the record. The Air National Guard complied, pulled down the article, and sent a base-wide email letting everyone know the article had been removed from the newsletter.
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