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OCTOBER 2015
PERSECU ION
Overview A Global
of Persecution
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SOUTH ASIA OVERVIEW
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t’s been another tough year for Christians in South Asia as religious intolerance and persecution continue to escalate across the region, especially in India and Pakistan. These Christian communities have been forced to endure church bombings, mass forced conversion campaigns, false blasphemy accusations and innumerable assaults and insults because of their faith in Jesus. This sad state of affairs has left many wondering whether there is a place for Christianity at all in many parts of South Asia. In India, Christians have found themselves facing a growing wave of intolerance and persecution since the rise of Prime Minister Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in May 2014. “Muslims and Christians are feeling increasingly
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unsafe u n d e r Modi’s regime,” said Bishop Rt. Rev. Pran Ranjan Praricha. The first 100 days of Prime Minister Modi’s rule saw instances of persecution against Christians and Muslims, two of India’s largest religious minority groups, skyrocket with over 600 instances of religiously motivated violence recorded in Uttar Pradesh alone. Since then, the number of incidents have leveled off, but religious minorities, especially Christians, remain afraid. In the past year, Pakistani Christians have witnessed one of the worst instances of violence perpetrated against their community since the bombing of All Saints Church in 2013. In March of this year, suicide bombers from the Pakistani Taliban bombed two churches in a predominately Christian neighborhood of Lahore called Youhanabad.
T h e bombers killed 19 people and injured another 80 when they detonated the deadly payload. Enraged Christians took to the streets in riots shortly after the bombing, damaging property and killing two Muslims who were likely caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. “It was an inhumane thing they did,” Fr. Francis said. “The scene of the bomb blasts, with all the blood and body parts, drove the people mad.” Despite this depressing escalation in persecution and intolerance, there remains hope for the Christian communities of South Asia who remain faithful to Jesus. As the Gospel of Matthew says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
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OCTOBER 2015
ICC visits impromptu memorial to the victims of the March 2015 Youhanabad church bombings in Pakistan.
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Assistance for Victims of Suicide Bombs
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he bombings of Christ Church and St. John’s Catholic Church in Youhanabad forever changed the lives of many Christian families. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, 19 people were left dead and another 80 were wounded. Days after this tragic event, ICC was able to travel to Pakistan and visit both churches that had been attacked by the suicide bombers. What we discovered was a community broken and living in fear. Because we arrived on the scene so quickly, we were involved in the initial aid efforts to heal the Christian community of Youhanabad. With information gathered from that initial field visit, ICC has been able to stage three successful food distributions to Christian families in Youhanabad, as well as provide vital small business assistance to Christians who had family members killed or permanently disabled in the bombings.
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Repairing a Healing the Church Torched Broken in Wake by Radicals of Bombings
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ollowing Prime Minister Modi’s rise to power in India in May 2014, attacks on Christians have skyrocketed. Among the victims of this new wave of persecution was a small Christian community located in a village called Tadur in southern India. On January 16, after the members of Parimala Beautiful Church completed a Friday prayer service, the humble structure used as the village’s only church was torched by unknown assailants. In response to this incident, ICC replaced and repaired the items damaged by the fire. Pastor Srinivas, a pastor at Parimala Beautiful Church, was extremely thankful for the assistance. He said, “I was very discouraged and disappointed by the incident. But it is even more a blessing to learn that our church is prayed for both locally and internationally. Now, we realize that we are part of a wider family of God.”
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ver the past year, ICC has continued to support the education of 30 Christian children in Peshawar, Pakistan. These children were affected by the worst incident of antiChristian violence in Pakistan’s history: the bombing of All Saints Church. On September 22, 2013, suicide bombers attacked the church following a Sunday service. Over 100 Christians were killed and over 130 more were wounded. The scars of this tragedy are still visible in Peshawar’s Christian community today. To help heal these scars, ICC initiated a four-day trauma counseling program for both the children enrolled in ICC’s education program as well as others affected by the bombing. According to a local leader, “This program is the first professional help many have received since the bombing in 2013.” Keep this community in your prayers as ICC continues to help in the healing process. OCTOBER 2015
Safe House for Hope Remains Man Accused of for Asia Bibi Blasphemy
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n June, Yaqoob Bashir, a mentally disabled Christian from Pakistan’s Sindh province, was beaten and arrested for blaspheming against Islam after being accused of burning a booklet that carried Quranic verses. Bashir was declared mentally disabled and received treatment at a mental health facility in Hyderabad prior to the incident. Speaking with ICC, Bashir’s mother said, “My son is innocent. He does not know the sensitivity of religious feelings or sacredness of the holy books. He did not burn the pages of the Islamic literature intentionally. It was just an accident due to the ash from his cigarette. He is mentally unstable and therefore should be forgiven.” In response, ICC has provided Bashir’s family with a safe house to stay while tensions remain high, as well as with food assistance and supplies for the family to provide to Bashir.
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n July, the Supreme Court of Pakistan temporarily suspended the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother sentenced to death under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws, while the court reviews the case against her. The review is the first glimmer of hope seen in this case for many years. For many, Bibi’s blasphemy case has become symbolic of how Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are regularly abused. The accusation against Bibi originates from a dispute that took place in 2009 between Bibi and a group of Muslim women. The Muslim women became angry when Bibi, a Christian they considered unclean, drank water from the same bowl as the Muslims. An argument ensued, and the Muslim women later reported to a local cleric that Bibi had blasphemed by saying, “My Christ died for me, what did Muhammed do for you?” Bibi has been on death row since her death sentence was announced by the session’s court in 2010.
Outlawed in 50 Indian Villages
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ne Christian community hit particularly hard by persecution over the past year was the community living in the Bastar district of India’s Chhattisgarh state. After a massive attack on Christians living in the village of Sirciguda, Hindu radicals gathered leaders from many villages and pressured them to ban “all non-Hindu religious propaganda, prayers and speeches in the village” by village ordinance. When the ordinance passed, Christianity was effectively made illegal in 50 villages. For Christians living under these ordinances, life has become almost unbearable. Hindu radicals have continued to harass Christians in Bastar, imposing greater restrictions on their ability to practice their faith and leading efforts to further excommunicate them from village life. The persecution faced by these Christians will continue to be prioritized by ICC. Look out for ways to get involved in ICC’s efforts to serve these persecuted Christian communities in the year to come.
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EAST ASIA OVERVIEW
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ersecution of Christians in East Asia takes a different form than that found in the Middle East, South Asia or Africa. Nevertheless, persecution suffered by Christians there is very real and just as serious. North Korea is believed by most religious freedom groups to be the world’s worst persecutor of Christians. Under Kim Jong-un, as under his father and grandfather, Christians are not allowed to meet and worship God, openly or in secret, despite a handful of ‘showcase churches’ in Pyongyang. The North Korean regime recently introduced a paranoiac rule forbidding the gathering of three persons out of fear that they would discuss the ills of North Korean leadership. First-hand reports rarely make it out of the country, but those who have been able to escape (at great personal risk) have provided detailed descriptions of imprisonment, torture, threats and discrimination faced by Christians every day.
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Persecution in China has worsened over the last year. Local Communist government officials harass Christians in campaigns like the one in Zhejiang province, which resulted in the demolition of an estimated 1,500 church crosses and entire church buildings over the last two years. Police also raid house churches, detaining or sending Christians to jail on trumped-up charges. Most recently, human rights lawyers who have challenged the government are detained by police or suddenly disappear. Despite being the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia was considered tolerant of other religions until a few years ago. Many Christians hoped that new President Joko Widodo would bring back greater religious tolerance, but pre-election promises have not been kept. Islamic radicals have been emboldened by the lack of government or police determination to counter their illegal actions, such as destroying churches or forcing them to close. Some congregations still cannot return to their church buildings, despite having won Indonesian Supreme Court victories. The governments of Vietnam and Laos also seek to control Christian churches, allowing local authorities to intimidate Christians. Dozens of local Christian pastors, mainly in
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rural areas, have been imprisoned for sharing their faith or leading small congregations of Christians. In Myanmar, Buddhist nationalists pressure government officials to impose legislation to ‘protect’ the country from other religious or ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, persecution of Christians in East Asia, in all its different forms, is very real. OCTOBER 2015
Keeping Up with Demand
Becoming Leaders
Family Support in Vietnam
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he growth of house churches in China means there are many new believers in need of Biblically-based teaching materials, especially in areas where there are no trained pastors. ICC has purchased equipment for the mass production of albums containing nearly 100 DVDs, each with up to four years worth of well-balanced, Chinese-language pastoral training materials. The DVDs tackle such issues as avoiding cults, developing a healthy marriage and family and maturing in Christ. The DVD albums also include a multi-dialect Jesus Film, Chinese-language praise and worship songs, Chinese Bible and study notes and popular devotional materials. One contact for the project said he “needs 1,000 albums now” to begin immediately distributing across various regions of China, but due to production and funding limits, ICC cannot keep up with all the requests for these pastoral training materials.
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uring the second quarter of this year, ICC continued its support of five church planting teams in a region of Indonesia dominated by Muslims. The teams reported having shared the Gospel with 343 people, 202 of whom were open to hearing the Good News. The teams praise God and give Him the glory that 57 of those that heard the Gospel became new believers. The church planters also held a Passover celebration in April with roughly 300 believers. Many of the believers at the celebration recommitted their lives to Jesus Christ. Ten of them received baptism. In addition to their evangelistic outreach in the second quarter, the church planting teams held leadership training for 23 local believers. The church planters expect these newly equipped believers will also be sharing the Gospel with others and leading small groups of believers themselves.
ince 2013, ICC has supported 20 families of Christian pastors imprisoned in various locations throughout Vietnam. The majority of the prisoners are church elders, leaders or pastors imprisoned for their Christian leadership and evangelism and given prison sentences ranging from five to 18 years. Unfortunately, the majority of the prisoners are husbands and fathers whose families face extreme hardship and poverty as well as continued harassment by Vietnamese authorities. Last year, ICC provided a baby pig to 10 families of imprisoned church leaders in critical need. This year, we have just provided funding to purchase pigs for an additional 10 families. As the pigs grow and multiply, families develop self-sustaining businesses that provide a decent level of income for the duration of their loved one’s imprisonment, thereby alleviating much of the financial difficulty caused by the loss of the family’s primary support.
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