COMPASS DIRECT NEWS
News from the Frontlines of Persecution
January 2007
(Released February 1, 2007)
Compass Direct is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct News is acknowledged as the source of the material.
Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News
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IN THIS ISSUE
WORLD
Compass Direct News’ Top 10 Stories of 2006 ***
ERITREA
68 More Christians Arrested in New Clampdown
Government ministry officials jailed, conscripts’ Bibles burned.
INDIA
Another State Passes Anti-Conversion Bill
Christians term Congress Party’s move in Himachal Pradesh a ‘cruel joke.’
Anti-Christian Attacks Mark New Year
Hindu extremists beat believers, damage vehicles and stage protest rally.
Hindu Extremists Beat Four Pastors
‘Christ shed his blood – now you do the same,’ youths tell pastor.
Christian Weds Despite Hindu Protests
Extremists try to halt marriage of couple on false charge of allurement.
‘Disappearance’ of Children Alleged at EMI Orphanage
State turns away returning kids, then serves notice on mission in Rajasthan state.
Mystery Shrouds Death of Christian Convert in India
Believers suspect Hindu extremists pushed 18-year-old from train.
INDONESIA
Service Cancelled in Otherwise Quiet Christmas
Muslims help protect churches during Yuletide season.
Police Raid Nest of Islamic Terrorists in Poso
One suspect and one teacher, not a suspect, are killed; mourners later murder policeman.
Extremist Confesses to Murder of Christians ***
Islamist admits taking part in beheading deaths of three girls and killing pastor, attorney.
IRAN
Government Still Holding House Church Leader
Authorities demand heavy bail payments for arrested leaders’ release.
NIGERIA
State’s Policies Said to Strangle Christianity ***
Muslim governor of Nasarawa promotes Islamic dominance in leadership.
PAKISTAN
Court Overturns Life Sentence for Christian ***
Another ‘blasphemy’ suspect, Shahid Masih, is freed on bail.
SUDAN
Police Deny New Year’s Church Attack ***
On national television, vice president demands prosecution of culprits.
TURKEY
Church Vandalized, Pastor Threatened ***
Landlord demands eviction as two-year campaign against Black Sea church continues.
Police Clamp Strict Security on Christians’ Trial ***
Measures follow murder of Armenian journalist; defense lawyer smells conspiracy plot.
UZBEKISTAN
Secret Police Arrest Andijan Pastor
Jailed Protestant leader accused of treason and ‘inciting enmity.’
VIETNAM
Police Detain Members of Pastor’s Family
Authorities arrest 17 people at prayer meeting this morning, demolish part of building.
*** Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
§ Indicates that an update or correction was made to the story.
(Return to Index)
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Compass Direct News’ Top 10 Stories of 2006
1 – Silent Waves of Persecution in Iran
Working quietly beyond the international media spotlight, Iranian authorities followed through on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vow in November 2005 to “stop Christianity in this country.” A campaign to curb burgeoning house church growth in predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran emerged in 2006 as waves of arrests hit Christian leaders. When Issa Motamedi Mojdehi was arrested on July 24, officials told the convert from Islam that he must renounce Christianity or face years in jail and possible execution for “apostasy.” Originally facing drug trafficking charges commonly leveled at “undesirables,” Motamedi Mojdehi endured strong psychological pressures, including threats to kill his family and other Christians, as secret service agents and a professor of Islamic theology urged him to recant his faith. He refused, and on August 24 authorities released him “for the moment,” but not before a judge in the northern city of Rasht had a new accusation. He accused Mojdehi’s 8-year-old daughter Martha of trying to lead other children to Christ. Rasht police also shut down the shop of another believer in his church, as depriving converts to Christianity of employment became a common government ploy to force them to leave Iran.
In one southern city, police beat two young Christian women in their homes, arresting one for several days, and daily threatened to re-arrest her and members of her family. In September, Iranian secret police arrested a Christian couple in the northeastern city of Mashhad, forcing them to leave behind their 6-year-old daughter. Authorities released Reza Montazami, 35, and his wife Fereshteh Dibaj, 28, by order of a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad only after Montazami’s elderly parents posted bail – turning over the title deed of property worth US$25,000. In December, Iranian secret police raided and arrested leaders of an indigenous house church movement in Tehran, Karaj, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali. Several detained Christians were released, but four of eight jailed Christians remained in custody until Christmas, facing accusations such as “evangelization activities” and “actions against the national security of Iran.”
Even progress in justice was tinged with repression. Hamid Pourmand, whom a military tribunal in Tehran baselessly found guilty of deceiving the Iranian army by allegedly concealing his conversion from Islam to Christianity, was released on July 20 – with the warning that attending church services could result in him being sent back to finish the remaining 14 months of his three-year prison term.
*** Photos of six of the Iranian house church leaders arrested in December and of Hamid Pourmand are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
2 – Eritrea Tightens Noose
Defying international pressures with brazen denials, the increasingly isolated regime in the Horn of Africa tightened its stranglehold on churches in 2006, torturing Christians to death and wresting control of ecclesiastical leadership and assets. Security police killed two Christians on October 17, two days after arresting them for holding services in a private home south of Asmara. Immanuel Andegergesh, 23, and Kibrom Firemichel, 30, died from torture wounds and severe dehydration in a military camp outside the town of Adi-Quala. Seven other men and three women of the evangelical Rema Church were kept in military confinement with Andegergesh and Firemichel and subjected to “furious mistreatment.” The deaths came after officials re-imprisoned popular Christian singer Helen Berhane, who was hospitalized as a result of spending 29 months in a metal shipping container; she was released without explanation later that month. Berhane’s leg had been seriously damaged as a result of beatings she received for refusing to deny her faith while imprisoned since her arrest in May 2004.
More than 2,000 Eritrean citizens, mostly Christian, are known to be jailed solely for their religious beliefs. In October, Eritrean authorities detained 150 Christians from at least five unrecognized churches. Local sources confirmed to Compass that police authorities were subjecting the detained Christians to beatings and other physical mistreatment. According to eyewitnesses, at least 10 nursing mothers were among the new prisoners, all of them forced to leave their infants behind. In May, two days after a Christian mother was arrested from her home and jailed by Eritrean police, her 6-month-old son died on his sickbed in Nefasit, 10 miles east of Asmara. Ghenet Gebremariam was arrested on May 8 with two other Protestant women who are also mothers with children and members of Nefasit’s banned Full Gospel Church. They were detained on accusations of “actively witnessing about Christ.” Two days later, Gebremariam’s baby, Hazaiel Daniel, died of unknown causes. Subsequently Gebremariam was released on bail.
In September, the Eritrean government demanded that Kale Hiwot Church surrender all its property and physical assets to the government – all church buildings, schools, vehicles and other assets. While Eritrea has banned all such independent religious groups not under the umbrella of the government-sanctioned Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran or Muslim faiths since May 2002, in 2006 restrictions and controls on even the four recognized religions accelerated to unprecedented levels. In December, the regime wrested financial and personnel control from the Eritrean Orthodox Church, demanding that all offerings and tithes be deposited directly into a government account. The monthly salaries of all Orthodox priests were to be paid from this government-controlled fund of church income. The government also announced new limits for the number of priests to be allowed to serve in each parish, specifying that any “extra” priests beyond quota would be required to report to the Wi’a Military Training Center to perform required military service. The regime of President Isaias Afwerki had removed the church’s ordained Patriarch Abune Antonios from office in August 2005 and placed him under house arrest.
*** Photos of six of the imprisoned church leaders, of Patriarch Abune Antonios and of Helen Berhane are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
3 – Christians Targeted in Iraq
Christian leaders were increasingly targeted by Muslim militants in Iraq who have found kidnapping lucrative. Muslim extremists in Iraq murdered a Presbyterian Church elder after kidnapping him following worship services at the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Mosul on November 26. The body of the clergyman, identified only as 69-year-old Elder Munthir, was found on a Mosul street on November 30 with a single bullet to the head. The kidnappers had said by telephone that they would “kill all the Christians, and we will start with him.” In October, Muslim kidnappers abducted and beheaded a Syrian Orthodox priest, leaving his corpse in an outlying suburb of Mosul. Father Boulos Iskander, 59, was kidnapped on October 9. The kidnappers had demanded US$350,000 ransom, and then reduced their demand to US$40,000 with the stipulation that the priest’s church publicly repudiate Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks about Islam in September. The family paid the ransom, and the St. Ephram parish of the Syrian Orthodox Church placed 30 large signboards on walls around the city, distancing itself from the pontiff’s comments – all to no avail.
A Chaldean priest kidnapped in front of his Baghdad home was released on December 10. Father Samy Abdulahad Al-Raiys was freed six days after he had been abducted in Baghdad’s Al-Sinaa street while driving to his parish. He was the fifth priest kidnapped in 2006. Commented one Baghdad priest who requested anonymity, “So many of us are frightened. We are asking, ‘Who will be the next?’” Al-Raiys’ disappearance came only five days after Baghdad Chaldean cleric Douglas Yousef Al-Bazy was released on November 29, his nose broken and requiring surgery. Iraq’s young Christian women have also become open targets for insurgents plying the kidnapping industry. One girl subjected to gang rape took her own life while still hostage, and another was reportedly so traumatized by the torture and sexual violence she suffered that she committed suicide even after the ransom had been paid and she had gone home.
*** Photos of Father Boulos Iskander and Father Samy Abdulahad Al-Raiys are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
4 – Islamic Rage Triggered
Cartoons in a Danish newspaper portraying Muhammad as violent, and then a papal quote of a Byzantine emperor’s reference to Islam’s violent history, touched off Islamic violence in various countries. Christians were sometimes targeted. In Nigeria, Catholic priest Matthew Gajere of St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Maiduguri, Borno state, and 50 other Christians were killed on February 18 when Muslims extremists enraged by the caricatures burned 31 churches in Maiduguri and Katsina state. Rioters also torched the residence of the bishop of Maiduguri diocese. On February 23, Muslims angry over the cartoons killed 10 Christians and set ablaze nine churches in Kontagora, Niger state.
In Turkey, Father Andrea Santoro, 60, was shot twice in the back with a pistol after Sunday mass on February 5 as he knelt at the altar of the Santa Maria Catholic parish in Trabzon. Oguzhan Aydin, then 16, reportedly said he had murdered the priest as revenge for the Danish cartoons. The killing, for which Aydin received a prison sentence of nearly 19 years, was said to contribute to a deterioration of the religious climate in Turkey. Days later, a Franciscan friar was attacked and threatened by several Turkish youths in Izmir. In the second week of March, a young Turk in the southern port city of Mersin chased two clerics and a group of Catholic youth inside their church, cursing Christianity and threatening them with a butcher knife until he finally surrendered to local police. In July, an elderly French Catholic priest in Samsun, on the Black Sea, survived a knifing by a Turkish Muslim known for spreading false rumors against both Catholics and Protestants in the city.
In Pakistan, cartoon outrage indirectly affected Christians. With emotions running high over the cartoons in massive demonstrations in three major cities, on February 19 a crowd of 500 Muslims burned down two churches and a convent school in the southern province of Sindh over an alleged desecration of the Quran. Wielding gasoline bombs and other flammable chemicals, the mob attacked St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Savior’s Church of Pakistan in Sukkur, leaving them gutted. Protests against the caricatures had taken place almost daily in Sukkur.
Muslim hysteria erupted anew in September when Pope Benedict XVI, delivering an academic speech on faith and rationality at Regensburg University in Germany, quoted a remark by 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus that Muhammad had commanded Muslims “to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The veracity of the quote aside (it is supported by Islamic historians and the Quran), the pope – twice stating that the quote was not his own – was referring to the emperor having argued that historical Muslim violence was not rational. This ironic subtlety was lost on Islamic leaders and media worldwide, who misconstrued the quote as the pope’s own words and labeled his speech as offensive, thus riling up masses that have a sharia sanction to perceive any criticism of Muhammad as “blasphemy.” The following month, Iraqi Muslims who kidnapped a Syrian Orthodox priest in Mosul added repudiation of the pope’s remarks to their list of demands. (See above, “Christians Targeted in Iraq.”) After kidnapping 59-year-old Father Boulos Iskander on October 9, the Muslim extremists lowered their demand from US$350,000 to US$40,000 but added that the priest’s church must publicly spurn Benedict’s comments.They beheaded the Orthodox priest even though the family paid the ransom and his parish placed 30 large signboards on city walls distancing itself from the pontiff’s comments.