Gaza Christians fear ‘those more extreme than Hamas’
| The kidnapping and killing of Rami Ayyad, manager of the Gaza Strip’s only Christian bookstore, sent shudders through the Palestinian coastal enclave’s tiny Christian community.
Spared by the summer’s fierce factional clashes in which the Islamist Hamas movement seized power by routing their secular Fatah party rivals, Christians began to worry they too might be driven from the volatile coastal strip. What scares them is a new generation of shadowy extremist movements that have crept from the rubble of a seven-year uprising, months of internal bloodletting and decades of conflict with Israel. “We are not afraid of Hamas because as a government they are responsible for protecting people,” Ayyad’s brother Ramzi says. “We are afraid of those who are more extreme than Hamas.” Palestinian Christians number around 75,000 but there are only 2,500 — most of them Greek Orthodox — living in the Gaza Strip among nearly 1.5 million Muslims, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Gaza has no history of tensions between the two communities and Christians say they are bound to their Muslim neighbours by shared suffering. |
| Twenty five year old Mohammed Ahmed Higazi (L), and his pregnant wife Zeinab, 23, read from the bible August 2 in their home in a Cairo. Higazi who converted from Islam to Christianity has launched a bid to have the change recognized officially in what is believed to be the first such case, he told AFP today. In Egypt, identity cards say whether the bearer is Christian or Muslim, but those who convert to Christianity complain that administrative hurdles prevent them being able to change their official papers |
Nigeria Steps Up Security After Militants Kill Christians
| Nigeria’s central government will deploy more police to the nation’s troubled state of Kaduna “to fight crime”, after two Christians were reportedly killed there by suspected Muslim militants, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday, October 24. |
Prominent Beijing Pastor Beaten Again By Security Forces
| Chinese Christians remained concerned Thursday, October 25, about the health situation of a prominent Beijing pastor amid reports he was beaten again by security forces after being discharged from Tiantan Hospital. |
Religious literature censorship in Uzbekistan
| Uzbekistan continues to maintain severe religious literature censorship, Forum 18 News Service notes. Current examples include two shipments of Jehovah’s Witness literature – one in transit for Tajikistan and one intended for an Uzbek congregation – which have been held for more than a year. Other religious communities, such as Protestants and Muslims, also experience problems. A Protestant, involved in sending literature requested by Christians in Uzbekistan, told Forum 18 that most shipments never arrived. “This was either through postal inefficiency or because it was rejected at Uzbek customs,” the Protestant stated. “So we have given up trying to send literature.” Many who would like to receive literature are afraid of the consequences of being identified by the authorities as Christians, from their receiving literature by post. Uzbek officials are reluctant to discuss the issue, but insist that religious material can only be received after specific approval by the state Religious Affairs Committee. Uzbekistan frequently burns religious literature, including the Bible, confiscated from Muslims, Protestants, Hare Krishna devotees and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Even legally imported literature is confiscated in police raids. |