persecution | Ain't Complicated

India: More Extreme Extremists

I am again grateful for religious freedom here in the United States.

New anti-conversion legislation coupled with more “extreme” Hindu extremist cells rising up across India make the future of Christians throughout the country look much more challenging.

First, “To further its campaign against Christianity, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party BJP has demanded an amendment in the Indian constitution to check religious conversions,” according to Christian Today.

While seven states across India already have anti-conversion legislation, if this amendment passed, all of India would have to abide by its regulations and not just scattered states throughout the country.

[…]

In addition to anti-conversion legislation, accompanying the good news of BJP slowly losing ground and facing “a potentially uncertain and unstable future,” according to Christian Today, there is also more bad news for Christians.

As BJP loses popularity, new extremist groups who claim to breakaway factions of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu extremist umbrella organization, are launching their campaign against Christians. These groups go by names such as the Abhinav Bharat (Pride of India), the Rashtriya Jagran Manch (National Revival Forum) and the Hindu Dharam Sena (Army for Hindu Religion).

These new organizations viewed RSS and BJP as “too mild,” according to Baptist Press, and they advocate increased violence against Christians. These beliefs have been supported in their actions with several attacks in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jabalpur since 2006.

As persecution worsens in India, Christians need to step up and not be afraid to share their faith, Stavers said.

Also, though many actions are restricted, Christians can still do several things to reach the searching of India.

Source: Mission Network News: Political climate makes conditions even worse for Indian Christians.

Sunday: Day of…

Partying, relaxation, worship, work, leisure, rest — Sunday tends to be a Day of one or more of the above.

This particular Sunday — November 8, 2009 — gets double duty in the special Day of department.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

There are literally millions of Christians around the world who suffer simply because they call themselves Christians. In many countries, Christians are martyred for their faith. The world watched in horror the unbridled violence that was unleashed on Christians in Orissa state, India last year. There are other places in the world, such as North Korea, where acts of persecution take place, but we often don’t see or hear the full story.

This Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

President of Open Doors USA Carl Moeller says Sunday is an important day for believers. “This is a day when the church in the free world remembers and prays for our brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution in places where Christianity is not free.”

Moeller describes the type of persecution Christians are facing today. “Well over 100 million Christians face discrimination, alienation, sometimes unjust arrest and harassment, imprisonment, torture and even death.”

He adds, “These 100 million Christians, our brothers and sisters, truly need our prayer so that they can stand strong in the midst of the suffering.”

Orphan Sunday

Over 143 million orphans worldwide long for the love of a real family.

According to the United Nations, there are 80 million orphans in Africa alone, a number that is only rising. Even in the United States, 122,000 foster children are legally eligible for adoption, waiting for a family to love them enough to adopt them.

When surveyed, over 50 percent of people said that if they were looking to adopt, they would go to their church for information. Unfortunately, most churches don’t know where to direct people when asked. This Sunday, their questions may finally be answered.

November 8 is Orphan Sunday. Orphan Sunday is a day set aside for churches to recognize the needs of orphans internationally, to begin thinking of ways to implement adoption information into their congregation, and to learn more about adoption.

I wonder.

Do these special Day of days have any sort of impact on regular folks?

Persecution Updates

Here are four recent pieces from Mission Network News, the first being from Somalia:

Somalia’s Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity. According to Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Al-Shabaab members have murdered 14 believers since July 15.

Compass Direct News reports the September 15 shooting death of 69-year-old Omar Khalafe, an underground Christian who had Bibles in his possession.

On the day of his death, Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia.

Full article: Islamic extremists in Somalia hunting Christians

Next we go to India:

Since his conversion from Hinduism six years ago, Indian pastor Vanamali Parishudham has suffered opposition for his faith in Christ from other Hindus and even his parents. Most recently, Pastor Parishudham was physically attacked on his way to his home in Narketpalli, Andhra Pradesh.

On his five-kilometer walk home from a Sunday service, three Hindu extremists came up behind Parishudham and struck him hard on the head with what are being called sharp-edged metal rods. According to International Christian Concern, Parishudham was knocked unconscious almost immediately and left for dead by his attackers. He was bleeding severely from the head.

Full article: Pastor attacked by extremists

Now on to China:

An official notice was sent to government agencies last weekend telling them to “be prepared to use military force to crackdown on the churches throughout China,” according to ChinaAid. Dubbed the “Xinjiang Model,” this method was named after a violent incident that resulted in several hundred deaths in August. ChinaAid’s president says this preparation is unnecessary.

Full article: Officials prepare for violent crackdown

And finally back to India:

After being attacked by an ax-wielding young man, death was anticipated for Gospel for Asia missionary Titus Aamer.

Aamer met with this young man because he expressed an interest in Christianity: his parents had recently given their hearts to Christ. Later, however, the man attacked Aamer after being influenced by anti-Christian extremists.

Aamer suffered severe blows to the head and wasn’t expected to live; he remained in a coma until doctors were able to treat his wounds.

Full article: Militants in India launch brutal attack against missionary

Now you know.

Radar Blip: Palestinian Christians

Ed Vitagliano reports at OneNewsNow.com:

But there is another group of people whose circumstances, while increasingly precarious, are almost invisible to the world: Palestinian Christians.

A combination of threats and intimidation from Muslim extremists and the fallout from the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict are driving many of these believers from their ancestral homes.

David Parsons, media director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and contributing editor of the Jerusalem Post Christian Edition, said that the “Palestinian Christian community is dwindling fast, from about 10 percent of the population in 1948 to barely 1.5 percent today.”

[…]

Muslim journalist Khaled Abu Toameh dismisses any attempts to blame Israel above all factors. “True, Israel’s security measures in the West Bank have made living conditions more difficult for all Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike,” he said. “But to say that these measures are the main and sole reason for the Christian exodus from the Holy Land is misleading.”

The exodus is not simply the fault of the entire Muslim community, either, Toameh said. The Arab-Israeli conflict has ruined the economy in many places throughout the Palestinian region and has heightened the dangers facing Christian families.

[…]

“Over the past few years, a number of Christian businessmen told me that they were forced to shut down their businesses because they could no longer afford to pay ‘protection’ money to local Muslim gangs,” Toameh said.

[…]

The persecution is taking its toll in some locales. “Today, Christians in Bethlehem constitute less than 15 percent of the population,” said Toameh. “Five or six decades ago, the Christians living in the birthplace of Jesus made up more than 70 percent of the population.”

Squeezed between Israel and Palestinian Muslims — especially Muslims on the more radical fringe — the difficulties endured by many of these Palestinian Christians are often completely off the radar screen of believers elsewhere.

Ireland Blasphemy Law

One of my friends from Hopewell Mennonite Church recently moved to Ireland. So this story caught my attention this morning:

Ireland’s new blasphemy law labeled return to Middle Ages

The Irish government plans to bring into force a new law in October that critics say is a return to medieval justice.

The legislation, aimed at providing judges with clear direction on the 1937 Constitution’s blasphemy prohibition, imposes a fine of up to 25,000 euros – about $39,000 – for anyone who “publishes or utters matter that is intentionally meant to be grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion.”

Police with a search warrant will be able to enter private premises and use “reasonable force” to obtain incriminating evidence.

Military Internment Camps

In the USA???

American concentration camps…for American citizens???

In his piece More On Internment Camps, Chuck Baldwin (whoever he is), quotes some other guy:

“When I first heard the FEMA Prison Camp conspiracy story, it seemed ridiculous and paranoid at face value. But when I finally dug in to research it, I started by searching for the origins of the rumors, and found to my surprise that nearly all of the legal foundation and precedent for such a plan does in fact exist.”

That other guy (as I recall) had this to say at the end of his own piece on the subject of FEMA concentration camps:

FEMA Prison Camps

We choose to elect politicians who don’t want us to bring water bottles onto planes, because (for better or for worse) that’s what’s important to our society right now. I don’t remember anyone electing a politician who wants to throw millions of Americans into prison camps. To make effective electoral decisions, you need to maintain a healthy skepticism, and not go off the deep end and suppose that every Halliburton contract is a slippery slope leading to Americans being gassed in military concentration camps. If you see barbed wire around a train yard, consider the possibility of other explanations (like the train company doesn’t need stuff being stolen) before you conclude that the Illuminati are out to kill you.

So what’s the truth?

How should I know?!

But, if nothing else, it’s an interesting story that includes a conspiracy theory, American concentration camps, and the Illuminati.

We report; you deride. 😆

On the Run in Egypt

Meet Maher El Gohary

It is a clear day along the coast, but in a bungalow off the beach, Maher El Gohary sits behind a locked door with an open Bible and a crystal cross, suspicious of every voice and sandal scraping past outside.

He and his daughter, Dina, live like refugees, switching apartments every few months, not wanting to get close to neighbors. Gohary’s life has been threatened, his dogs have been killed, and it’s been suggested that he’s insane or possessed by spirits.

He is a man this Muslim nation cannot fathom: a convert to Christianity.

[…]

A tall man in blue shorts and rimless glasses, Gohary, 56, looks as if he is ready to walk the beach. But he and Dina have just moved to the three-room bungalow. Their suitcases are still packed; the only thing hanging on the walls is a clothesline. Listening for noises outside, Gohary speaks of how years earlier the teachings of Jesus, especially parables on forgiveness and loving your enemy, changed his life.

“In Islam, if you steal your hands are cut off, but in Christianity you can be forgiven,” he says. “This compassion is what attracted me.”

Back then he was a young cadet at the police academy, inspired by a Christian bunkmate who ignored the taunts of Muslim recruits. Gohary, the son of a police general, began reading the Bible.

[…]

Gohary listens at the door. He doesn’t want an unexpected knock, and says he and his daughter will stay here a month or so and then move on.

Source: Los Angeles Times — A Christian on the run in Egypt

HT: Persecution.org