June 2015 Persecution Magazine (1 of 4)

WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG

JUNE 2015

PERSECU ION

Failed States

Christians flee crumbling nations

PERSECU ION.org

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

President’s Letter

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”

Matthew 24:6-7 (ESV) “What is going on in the world? Everything seems to be breaking down.”

Have you had a conversation like this lately? If so, you are not alone. The Middle East and North Africa are in flux as jihadis expand throughout the region. Radical Islam is gorging on blood and has taken control of parts of the most strategic real estate of the world — the oil fields. Gaining that real estate rewards them with massive wealth, which they can spend on spreading their cancer to new areas and digging in with more and better weapons.

Jeff King, President International Christian Concern

These jihadis are setting up shop and creating an “Islamic State.” As they do, Christians face the choice of “convert or be killed.” The existing states, as bad as they were for Christians, seem to be giving way to something even worse that leaves no place for Christians.

The United States’ leadership role in the world is weakening by the year. Financially, the kingdoms of the world are staving off deflation and seem to be sitting on a debt powder keg.

Jesus spoke about the end days, saying people’s hearts would melt with fear as the world came unglued (Luke 21:26).

Whether we are seeing the arrival of those days or we are experiencing some temporary chaos as one world empire relinquishes its leadership role to another, remains to be seen.

Whatever the case, in times like these, it is easy to be consumed with fear and anxiety. If you find yourself in this place, I have a word for you.

In God’s temple, everything says, “Glory!” The LORD sat as King at the flood (Psalm 29:10).

In other words, while the flood destroyed the world (the ultimate chaotic event), the true King sat on His throne in peace and order while everything around Him cried, “Glory to the King!”

Everywhere you look, there is chaos and a continuing unraveling of the existing order, but none of this is a surprise to the Lord. His plan unfolds, and the existing world order must break, so we need not be surprised at the chaos engulfing the world.

This unraveling is having a massive impact on the Christians of the Middle East and North Africa. As states are failing, many of them have fled, and those who’ve stayed are in enormous danger. Please join with us as we serve them and build and bandage the persecuted Church.

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

I promise!

Jeff King

President, International Christian Concern www.persecution.org

PERSECU ION.org

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

2

News

World Still Waiting for Boko Haram to “Bring Back Our Girls” from Captivity

ISIS militants prepare to behead 21 Christians.

Persecution Continues for Families of the 21 Martyred in Libya 1 | LIBYA In February 2015, the world watched with horror as 21 Coptic Christians were martyred by ISIS militants on a beach in Libya. Unfortunately, the tragedy is still continuing for the families and friends of those who lost their lives. The families and other community members gathered to establish plans to erect a church in honor of their martyred loved ones.

However, when the community was gathered at their present church, a mob of Muslim extremists arrived at the scene chanting that they would not permit the construction of the new church.

The situation quickly escalated and turned violent as members of the mob began to throw rocks and small explosives at the church. The attackers also set multiple cars on fire, including one that belonged to a relative of one of the 21 martyrs. Several of the church members were injured during the attack.

Though police eventually arrived at the church, the attack was already over and the protesters had already fled the scene.

3

2 | NIGERIA On April 14, the world recognized the first anniversary of the abduction of Nigeria’s Chibok girls. Just a year prior, a group of militants from radical Islamist terror group Boko Haram stormed Chibok Government Secondary School. During this attack, they kidnapped 276 young girls, the majority of whom are Christians. Shortly after, the group released a statement saying that they planned to sell the girls as slaves into lives of forced marriages and sexual servitude. Although some of the girls have been able to escape captivity, 219 remain in captivity as the world waits with little insight as to where they might be.

The abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls quickly drew global concern and gained worldwide attention through social media. The “Bring Back Our Girls” hashtag began to spread and has since been tweeted hundreds of thousands of times.

As the days continue to pass, the challenge of finding all of the remaining girls mounts. Military operations in Boko Haram strongholds that were expected to lead to signs of the missing girls have unfortunately proven unsuccessful. If the Chibok girls are still alive, they will undoubtedly, as time goes on, continue to face various forms of abuse.

For those who profess Christianity, the threat of abuse will be even greater because of their faith.

PERSECU ION.org

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

Sudanese Pastor Endures 300 Lashes for Refusing to Deny Faith 3 | SUDAN Pastor Adam Haron, a leader of a church in South Sudan, was imprisoned and tortured for over three months after being accused of being a spy. Haron, a Christian pastor and former Muslim, received more than 300 lashes with a tree branch because he refused to deny his faith.

Though evangelism is legal in South Sudan, three days after his arrival to the country, six armed men stormed Haron’s hotel room, searched his belongings and brought him to a detention facility.

Haron’s life was threatened on multiple occasions by Muslim extremists who told him that they would kill him if he refused to stop evangelizing to Muslims near the Sudanese border.

During his imprisonment, the men who captured Haron took 2,600 South Sudanese pounds ($820 USD) from him.

In spite of the difficult odds that Haron faced, he has repeatedly stated that trials strengthened his faith.

JUNE 2015

Mob of Police and Locals Beat Missionaries Outside a Police Station for Evangelizing in India 4 | INDIA It is reported that 20 Christian missionaries in India were attacked by police and locals alike for openly evangelizing. The attack took place in the city of Jaipur when the group was spotted distributing faith-based pamphlets. According to witnesses, the crowd who initially noticed the group of missionaries took them to a local police station, where they beat and hit the missionaries with belts before eventually allowing them to go free.

Muslims Burn Young Boy to Death 5 | PAKISTAN A 14-year-old boy, Nauman Masih, has died from severe burns after being attacked by a group of unidentified Muslim men in Pakistan.

In Nauman’s statement to police, he stated that two Muslim individuals approached him and asked him about his religion. When he responded that he was a Christian, the men began to beat him. When he attempted to run away, the men doused him in kerosene and set him on fire. Although a group of onlookers began to throw sand on Nauman in order to extinguish the fire, the damage was already too severe, and he passed away a few days after he was brought to the hospital.

This 14-year-old boy died from severe burns after Muslims doused him in kerosene and set him on fire.

PERSECU ION.org

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

Roman Catholics in Mexico Give Protestants 18 Hours to Flee 6 | MEXICO Two Christian cousins from Hidalgo State, Mexico, were detained for approximately 30 hours by village authorities for refusing to abide by a local campaign which attempted to prohibit Protestants from participating in religious activities outside of Roman Catholicism.

When the men were released from detention, they were informed they and their families had only 18 hours to flee their village.

Chinese Pastor Imprisoned 7 | CHINA In his efforts to defend the cross, Chinese pastor Huang Yizi received a one-year prison sentence. The pastor was convicted by Pingyang County’s People Court with the charge of “gathering crowds to disturb social order.” The accusation arose when Huang asked the local government to explain why police officers attacked a group of churchgoers as they were protesting the removal of the church’s cross. Shortly after Huang’s arrest, the cross from Salvation Church was officially removed. The trial brought in over 400 people, many of whom were Christians from the area there to support their pastor as he awaited his verdict.

Chinese authorities sentenced a pastor to one year in prison for “disturbing the social order.”

4

News

1 | KENYA On April 2, a group of men from radical Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, carried out a major attack against Kenya’s Garissa University College. The gunmen stormed past campus guards at the main entrance and began spraying bullets indiscriminately. By the end of the heinous attack, at least 148 people were murdered and 79 others wounded. Once they made their way past the main entrance, the militants then began separating students according to their religion — letting the Muslim students go free and killing the Christian students.

As witness testimonies began to emerge, the horror of what took place the morning of the attack began to take shape. Some of the students who survived the attack have reported that the gunmen forced them to call their parents to inform them that they were about to be killed. Other students were forced to line up and wait in silence as they anticipated their inevitable shootings one by one.

The university is located within 100 miles of Kenya’s Somali border. This makes the school an easy target for the Islamist group, whose aim is to eventually expand beyond Somalia and impose Islamic Sharia law on Kenya. Some survivors who were forced to call their parents report being told to tell their parents to contact the president of Kenya, requesting that he cease military attacks against al-Shabaab.

Despite the horrendous nature of this attack, the world continuously downplayed its severity.

U.S. President Barack Obama received intense criticism for refusing to publicly acknowledge the faith of either the Christians who were targeted or their Muslim attackers. Though he and many other world leaders expressed their condolences and condemned the attack, few acknowledged religious persecution as the source of the violence.

5

PERSECU ION.org

A woman weeps in the aftermath of an Al-Shabaab attack that left at least 148 dead and 79 wounded in Kenya’s Garissa University College.

World Silent on Religious Motive Behind the Murder of 148 in Garissa

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

“The [Christian] group was locked out ... and told that they may no longer hold meetings on campus.”

University Revokes Recognition of Campus Christian Ministry Group 2 | UNITED STATES The Christian ministry group, Chi Alpha, had their official recognition as a campus organization revoked after being accused of “religious discrimination” by California State University-Stanislaus.

The complaint initially arose because the group required that those who held leadership within the group be Christians. Within only a day of being informed of their revoked recognition, the group was locked out of their regular meeting place and told that they may no longer hold meetings on campus. Though Chi Alpha allows anyone to join the group, it simply requires that the leaders adhere to the national organization’s core Christian beliefs. Chi Alpha is a prominent student-led ministry organization with branches in more than 300 universities throughout the United States. The decision to deny the recognition of the group has caused controversy throughout the country, with many stating that the school administrators were the only ones guilty of discrimination.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has come to the defense of Chi Alpha, strongly urging the college administration to restore the group’s title as an official campus organization. This incident is one of many recent occasions in which Christian organizations have been reprimanded for requiring their leaders to be Christian. Another similar instance occurred when California State University revoked the recognition of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

JUNE 2015

Muslim Migrants Murder 12 Christians Aboard a Ship Traveling to Italy 3 | ITALY A group of 15 Muslim migrants have been arrested by authorities in Italy after allegedly killing 12 Christians from Ghana and Nigeria who were traveling aboard a boat heading toward Italy, likely to escape poverty and violence. Following the murders, the bodies of the Christians were subsequently thrown overboard. Witnesses report seeing the Muslim men murdering the Christians and throwing them over the edge of the boat after a fight broke out. According to the BBC, once the boat arrived in Sicily, the men were taken into custody and charged with “multiple aggravated murders motivated by religious hate.” Though police have yet to explain the origin of the initial brawl, they have confirmed that religious discrimination was a primary cause for the murders.

Christians embrace after a church bombing in Cairo.

Christians in India protest the rape of an elderly nun.

Bombings Continue to Rock Churches in Egypt

Elderly Nun Raped by Gunmen in India

4 | EGYPT In a series of recent instances of violence against Christians in Egypt, Islamic extremists struck Egypt’s two largest cities in early April. In one day, radicals carried out a bombing in Cairo and an attack on a church in the city of Alexandria. The incidents left one police officer dead and seven others injured. Just prior to the attacks, the founder of the radical group Ajnad Misr, which has attacked police officers and military personnel in the past, was killed by security forces. Minor bombings such as these have grown to be increasingly common throughout Egypt in recent years.

5 | INDIA In the early morning of March 14, a group of men stormed into West Bengal’s Convent of Jesus and Mary and raped an elderly nun. The gunmen overpowered a security guard at the entrance of the convent and began to ransack the grounds for cash. After they gathered the money, the group demanded the eldest nun, who is in her seventies, and proceeded to sexually assault her. Though at least two men have since been arrested, the incident caused great frustration among Christians throughout India who have been calling out for greater protection for religious minorities.

Double Church Bombings in Pakistan Lead to Riots 6 | PAKISTAN On March 15, 15 people were murdered and more than 70 were injured following two church bombings in the predominantly Christian city of Youhanabad, Pakistan. The attack occurred when a suicide bomber approached St. John’s Catholic Church during their Sunday morning prayer services. Just minutes after the first explosion, another suicide bomber carried out a second attack against Christ Church, located in the same city. Shortly after, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Following the church attacks, riots broke out which led to the lynchings of two individuals who were suspected to be responsible for the attacks. In response, local authorities arrested approximately 200 people, many of whom are Christians. They were indiscriminately taken into custody without first being identified. Most were not informed of where they would be taken, and their families were unable to contact them. Sixteen Christians were officially indicted for the lynchings.

PERSECU ION.org

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

A woman mourns following two back-to-back church bombings in Youhanabad, Pakistan.

6

You Can Help Today!

PERSECU ION.org

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

SEND DONATIONS TO: ICC PO BOX 8056 SILVER SPRING, MD 20907 OR ONLINE AT WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG OR BY PHONE 800-ICC-5441

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.

© Copyright 2015 ICC, Washington, D.C., USA. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce all or part of this publication is granted provided attribution is given to ICC as the source.

International Christian Concern (ICC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) (all donations tax-deductible).

ICC makes every effort to honor donor wishes in regards to gifts. Occasionally, situations arise where a project is no longer viable. ICC will then redirect those donated funds to the fund most similar to the donor’s original wishes. ICC uses 7.5 percent of each restricted donation to carry out the mission of its segregated funds. facebook.com/persecuted

@persecutionnews