Demonstration amid Pakistani elections, which can harbor religious conflict.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A Muslim political candidate suspected of murdering a Christian has instigated calls from mosque loudspeakers for attacks on Christians, whom he blames for his May 11 election loss.

Tensions were high in Punjab Province’s Okara district after provincial assembly seat candidate Mehr Abdul Sattar, sought by police in connection with a 2008 murder, on May 13 arranged for mosque calls for violence against Christian villages.

“Burn their homes to the ground … Punish them such that they forget Gojra and Joseph Colony,” blared village mosques in the district, according to Younas Iqbal, chairman of the Anjuman-e-Mazareen Punjab, a peasant movement fighting for land rights.

Iqbal told Morning Star News by phone that that when unofficial election results were announced on May 12, Sattar’s supporters ambushed a convoy of about 100 Christians on their way to congratulate his opponent on his victory.

“They destroyed two motorcycles and threw them in the canal, besides damaging a tractor,” Iqbal said. “We went to the Okara Saddar Police Station to register a case, but the police officials refused to move against Mehr.”

Recent religious furor has been easily stoked in Pakistan. In Lahore on March 9, about 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians in Joseph Colony, destroying 175 homes, after rumors spread of an alleged remark against Islam by a Christian (see Morning Star News, March 11).  In Gojra in 2009, eight Christians were burned alive, 100 houses looted and 50 homes set ablaze after a blasphemy accusation.

Sattar has targeted Christians in several villages, designated by number-letter combinations from British colonial times, particularly village 8/4-L, for voting against him, Iqbal said. Christians largely voted for Mian Yawar Zaman, also a Muslim, for a provincial assembly seat in the general election on May 11.

Iqbal said that early on May 13, Sattar’s men prevented the Christian principal of the Government Primary School, Shamoun Masih, men from entering the institution.

“They told Shamoun that since the Christians had voted against Mehr, he wouldn’t be allowed inside,” he said. “They also roughed him up, but there were no serious injuries. In 3/4-L village, Amjad Masih was harassed.”

Iqbal added that Sattar’s supporters had also forcibly occupied land of some Christians.

“The threat of violence in 8/4-L is most serious because of the tiny Christian population there,” Iqbal said of the village of roughly 600 Christians. “Sensing the gravity of the situation, we immediately informed Zaman, the legislator-elect, who pressed the police to deploy personnel in the village.”

Okara Police Chief Rao Jabbar told Morning Star News that officers would take all necessary measures to protect the Christian peasants.

“We have taken notice of the inciting speeches made by Mehr Abdul Sattar, and I have assured the Christians that we will initiate legal action against him,” Jabbar said. “Meantime, I’ve directed all police officers concerned to remain vigilant and ensure that there is no damage to life and property of the Christians.”

Police have been helpless in the face of Sattar, though, Iqbal said.

“Even though the district police chief has promised to protect the area’s Christians, the danger will always remain there,” he said. “Several cases have been registered against Mehr, but no action has been taken against him. In January this year, the police tried to arrest Mehr and his men in a murder case, but his supporters blocked three main highways for several hours, forcing the police to abandon action against him.”

Police sought Sattar in connection with the murder of Javed Masih, a Christian who had opposed Sattar in a 2008 election.

“The late Javed Masih used to tell the peasants to vote according to their conscience and not get intimidated by gangsters like Mehr,” Iqbal said. “His efforts bore fruit, and Mehr lost the general election in 2008. Unfortunately, Masih had to sacrifice his life for the cause, while several others were injured in an armed attack by Mehr’s men.”

In this month’s election, Iqbal likewise told Christians to vote for the person they thought best. Zaman belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which has emerged as the single largest party in national and Punjab assemblies.

“The humiliating defeat further stoked anger in Mehr, and he’s now bent upon punishing us,” he said, adding that Sattar has targeted no Muslims for opposing him.

“Our application against Mehr Abdul Sattar is still pending with the police, but it seems more Christian blood will be shed before he is brought to justice,” Iqbal said. “But this will not deter us from using our right to vote. We refuse to give in to the tyranny of criminals like Mehr.”

Besides village 8/4-L, the threatened Christian areas in provincial constituency PP-191 are village 10/4-L, with an estimated Christian population of 3,000; 11/4-L, where 2,000 Christians live; and 26/4-L, in which around 1,000 Christians are settled.

The peasant land movement that became the issue of contention for Sattar arose more than 10 years ago in response to what Iqbal calls the Pakistan Army’s illegal occupation of 64,000 acres in some 10 districts of Punjab. Catholic Capuchins had relocated Christians to the area of central Punjab Province to provide dairy products to the British Army during World War II, and the British turned the land over to the Pakistan Army when the sub-continent was partitioned, Iqbal said.

“At the time of partition of the sub-continent, the Christians were not given the land rights which were promised to them by the Capuchin fathers,” he said. “Because of this, Christians are at the forefront of the peasants’ movement, which is facing the powerful Pakistan Army for their due right, as the Britons had handed over the lands to the Army after the partition.”

Sattar had initially worked with the peasant cause, he said.

“But then he began creating fissures in the movement, coaxing the Muslim members not to take directions from the Christian leadership,” Iqbal said. “He then left the movement and got involved in criminal activities, subsequently landing in politics. However, Mehr’s political career failed to take off because thousands of Christians of the area don’t vote for him.”

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Islamic extremists pulled down a Church of God building in Kianga, Zanzibar in April 2012. (Morning Star News photo)

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremist attacks and land grabs on this semi-autonomous island off the coast of Tanzania have continued unabated even as violence has increased on the mainland.

The May 5 bombing of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Arusha killed a 45-year-old woman, a 16-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. Of the two Tanzanians and four foreigners arrested – now officially identified as one from Saudi Arabia and three from the United Arab Emirates – only one Tanzanian national reportedly remains in custody as a suspect.

While Islamic extremist activity has increased in Tanzania, Christians on the Zanzibar archipelago have recently suffered attacks by Islamists and the separatist group Uamsho (Re-awakening). Uamsho, the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, has issued explicit threats to Christians on Zanzibar Island since October 2012.

At midnight on April 20, Islamic extremists in Kianga, 16 kilometers (11 miles) from Zanzibar City, demolished most of the Pool of Siloam church building, a church leader said. Three suspects were arrested, only to be released after three days.

“When we tried to follow up the case, we found out that some of the information concerning the pulling down of the church was missing,” church pastor Israel Baraka Elijah told Morning Star News. “Hence, we decided to give up all together.”

Damages were estimated at $2,500, he added. Muslim extremists had attacked the church building before, setting part of it on fire on Feb. 19 and battering it with sledge hammers in November 2011.

Buildings aren’t the only targets. Suspected Islamic extremists on Feb. 17 shot and killed the Rev. Evaristus Mushi, a 56-year-old Roman Catholic priest, in the Mtoni area outside Zanzibar City. The murder came nearly two months after the Christmas Day shooting of another Catholic priest, the Rev. Ambrose Mkenda, that seriously injured him. Uamsho had left leaflets threatening to kill church leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Tanzania Assemblies of God and Pentecostal Church denominations.

A Tanzania Assemblies of God church building damaged in May 2012. (Morning Star News photo)

The Islamist group is fighting for full autonomy of the Zanzibar archipelago; it arose after Zanzibar’s primary opposition, the Civic United Front, formed a government with the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in 2010.

How Uamsho’s separatist agenda could overlap with Islamic extremists’ objectives on the mainland remains to be seen, but the Zanzibar-based group has increased in stature by appealing to Islamist sentiments. While Tanzania’s population is 34.2 percent Muslim and 54 percent Christian, according to Operation World, the Zanzibar archipelago in the Indian Ocean about 25 miles off the Tanzanian coast is more than 97 percent Muslim.

Islamists burned several church buildings in various parts of Tanzania last October after an argument between two children about the Koran resulted in a Christian boy allegedly defiling Islam’s sacred book (see Morning Star News, Oct. 19, 2012). In Kigoma, on the western border, two church buildings were set ablaze on Oct. 14, 2012, and the roof of another one was destroyed. In Dar es Salaam, where two boys’ argument over the Koran set off the violence, three church buildings were set on fire on Oct. 12, and another was destroyed on Oct. 18.

The attacks on church buildings came after Muslims began falsely asserting that Christians had sent the Christian boy to the Muslim boy to urinate on the Koran in the Mbagala area of Dar es Salaam on Oct. 10, sources said.

On Oct. 17, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania leaders released a statement saying church buildings had also been set ablaze in Mdaula, Mto wa Mbu, Tunduru and Rufiji. The Mbagala attacks, they stated, resulted from inflammatory statements by local religious leaders.

Land Deprivation

On the island of Zanzibar, Islamist attacks have been relatively primitive, but extremists have more subtle ways of oppressing the church. When a non-Muslim organization or person buys land from a Muslim, church leaders said, Islamic extremists commonly force the sellers to return the money, claiming, “Why receive money from an infidel?”

Those who resist such pressure are persecuted, they say, and partisan government machinery does not help matters.

Anna Filipo Barihuta, a 55-year-old widow whose late husband had sold land to a church in 2007 only to have Muslim extremists destroy it in 2008, finds herself the object of Islamists’ hostility as they try to wrest the land from her.

The Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church in Chukwani, outside Zanzibar City, is still the owner of the land, but the Muslim extremists have been challenging that in court. At a hearing on the disputed land on April 28, the court postponed the case until Aug. 19, Barihuta said.

“When I returned from court,” Barihuta said, “I found a heap of human feces at the door of my house, which to me is a warning sign that I was no longer wanted in the place.”

An Islamic sheikh who asked not to be named for security reasons concurred that Muslims are pressuring her to leave the area.

“The Muslims always say I am an infidel, and that I have welcomed a big infidel,” she said. “The Muslims claim that my family forcefully entered the area and that we allowed the church to be built in an Islamic environment, but they want to put up a mosque instead of the church.”

In their bid to contest Barihuta’s late husband’s right to have sold the land to the church, the extremists have altered the name of the woman who sold it to him from Amina Zadiki to Amina Sarehe, Christian leaders said. The sons of Amina Sarehe are denying the land was sold to Barihuta’s late husband, Harun Gikaru, they said.

Since 2008, the church and the former owner have spent 10 million Tanzanian shillings (US$6,000) on legal fees, Barihuta said.

“This case has drained the family resources, such that at the moment I am not able to meet the cost of paying the school fees for my eight children, one boy and seven girls,” she said. “Four of my children are in high school.”

Barihuta added that she is behind on payments to the attorney.

“I see that if justice is not done then soon,” she said, “I will lose the whole land, including that which I sold to the church.”

Partisan Government

In Fuoni, about six kilometers (nearly four miles) from the capital, a pastor whose name is withheld said his church has endured constant attacks.

“Every Sunday when we are worshipping, the Muslims throw stones on our church’s roof to interrupt our service,” he said. “At times, the Muslims forcefully enter into the church and switch off the sound systems, saying it is disturbing the residents.”

In Mbweni, a Church of God congregation has also suffered at the hands of extremist groups. Muslim extremists prohibited the church from worshiping on land it purchased on May 24, 2012, even after a district commissioner verified church ownership.

The extremists complained to Regional Commissioner Abdalla Mwinyi that residents did not need a church there, spurring Mwinyi to write to the church, “We have to listen to the voice of the residents. Please do not worship or construct the church, because it is a residential site.”

The stunned church protested in writing, and in July 2012 Zanzibar church leaders sent a delegation to the regional commissioner’s office to air their grievances, with Muslim leaders also present. The commissioner became furious, church leaders said.

“I am shocked at the letter that the church wrote,” Mwinyi told the group, according to the church leaders. “This is not the Tanzania mainland. I need a written apology saying, ‘We are sorry for using strong words,’ then I will allow the church to worship.”

The church complied, church leaders said, but Mwinyi still prohibited them from worshiping at the site. One Christian leader quoted Mwinyi as saying, “We only know of one religion in Zanzibar, which is Islam.”

In Kianga, Uamsho helped a gang of more than 50 people ruin a building belonging to the Church of God on April 4, 2012.

“The church was pulled down, leaving no place to worship,” said a church leader whose name is withheld. “No arrest has been made up to this point.”

The church is trying to erect a new structure.

“The sad news in Zanzibar is that all the bishops have been earmarked for assassination,” the pastor said. “It seems as if the government has no voice, yet we have a constitution which provides for freedom of religion. We need prayers. We are like people in fire. We welcome all those who are willing to help us put out this fire.”

In Maungani, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Zanzibar City, a Baptist Church pastor said his building was destroyed by Muslim extremists last Nov. 11. The previous Sept. 23, his children narrowly escaped death when his oldest was knifed, he said.

The local primary school unregistered their children, and the family has been forced to leave the area after receiving death threats from the Muslim community, he said.

Chipping Away at Church

On the archipelago’s island of Pemba, Muslim extremists in Wete have consistently shown hostility toward churches. Wete has only an Anglican and a Catholic church, and in 1970 the Muslim community pressured the Anglican congregation to move to a gravesite outside town.

In May 2012, several powerful Muslims encroached on that land and begun putting up structures, church leaders said. Others started cutting the barbed wire that marked the church boundary and began removing the sign of the cross on the land. The church has filed a court case, but encroachment has expanded.

The church building is in danger of collapsing due to loosening soil as buried bodies decay, church leaders said. The building has a large crack and a leaky roof.

“If nothing is done, then the church will collapse, the Muslims will take the church premise and soon there will be no church in Wete,” said a Christian whose name is withheld. “Our members are decreasing owing to sustained threats of attacks. Sometimes we are two, while other times we are 15.”

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News. 

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

The Rev. Faye Pama Musa, slain at his home by suspected Islamic extremists on Tuesday (May 14). (Photo courtesy of CAN)

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Gunmen believed to be members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group yesterday killed the Rev. Faye Pama Musa, secretary of the Borno state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). He was 47.

The gunmen reportedly followed the long-time Christian leader from his church building, where he was holding an evening Bible study, to his house in the Government Reservation Area in Maiduguri, and shot him dead there, said the Rev. Titus Dama Pona, chairman of CAN’s Borno chapter.

“Rev. Faye Pama was killed last light,” Pona said this morning by phone from Maiduguri, the state capital. “I am right now with his family, and they are still consulting on what next to do.”

The assailants reportedly dragged the pastor from his home and shot him outside, in front of this daughter, who had followed them out pleading for his life. Pama was the father of three children.

Senior pastor of a Pentecostal church, Rhema Assembly, Pama often spoke out against persecution of Christians in Borno state, epicenter of Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria. He had been involved in ministry leadership for more than 26 years.

The shooting happened within an hour of President Goodluck Jonathan declaring a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, allowing the government to send more troops and take other special measures to try curbing violence by Boko Haram. The group has reportedly killed more than 4,000 persons since 2009, and the state of emergency comes after a gun battle between the military and Boko Haram in Baga, Borno state last month that some say took more than 100 civilian lives.

In a 2007 interview, Pama had said that he would not leave Borno state in spite of the danger to his ministry and life from Islamic extremists.

“I am an indigene of Borno state, and God has called me to work among my people,” he said. “I believe that the best people who reach a people with the gospel are those who understand the culture of these people.”

Pama believed that only by showing love to Muslims could they be won to Christ, “and not through fighting.”

An outspoken critic of the marginalization of and discrimination against Christians, Pama began preaching first with a Pentecostal ministry in Maiduguri, the Word of God Mission, in 1996, before he left to start Agape Ministries and planted Rhema Assembly. Rhema Assembly has an associate pastor and about 200 members.

He once served as secretary of Borno state’s chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.

President Jonathan had also imposed a state of emergency in 2011 on 15 areas within four states in embattled northern Nigeria, with little success. Boko Haram, which Borno’s governor says threatens to take control of the state, seeks to destabilize the federal government in an effort to impose strict sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria.

Boko Haram has attacked Christians particularly in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, destroying Christian-owned businesses as well as harming churches. Many Christians have fled as displaced persons or become refugees in Cameroon.

Suspected members of the Islamic extremist group also attacked a police barracks on the outskirts of Bama Town, Borno state early on Sunday (May 12), according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. CSW reported that insurgents arrived shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater]” before launching explosives and fuel bombs, and the army dispersed them before lives were lost. The previous week, according to CSW, some 200 Islamic militants attacked Bama Town, killing 47 people.

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour, a first-year teacher accused of insulting Islam.

CAIRO, Egypt (Morning Star News) – A Coptic Christian teacher in Egypt accused of committing blasphemy and evangelizing in school was released yesterday after posting nearly $3,000 in bail.

A judge reversed a May 11 order that elementary social studies teacher Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour remain in jail for 15 days after she posted bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US$2,864). She awaits a court hearing next week to see if she will be formally charged with a crime, rights advocates said.

Mohammed Noubi, a human rights advocate with the Luxor office of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who is working with Al-Nour’s lawyers, said Al-Nour was at home struggling under the weight of the accusations and investigation.

“The situation is really bad; she is emotionally devastated,” Noubi said.

Her court hearing is set for Tuesday (May 21), according to court documents. The prosecutor general’s office continues its investigation; if attorneys there decide to formally charge her, prosecutors could go forward with a trial the same day.

On April 10, three elementary schoolchildren at Sheikh Sultan Primary School in the village of Al-Edisat, Luxor Province, along with their parents and some teachers, complained to the school administration that Al-Nour had made blasphemous comments while teaching. Two days earlier, she taught a class about the pharaoh Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, who did away with all other Egyptian gods in favor of sun worship in ancient Egypt.

Al-Nour reportedly expressed her admiration for the former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the late Pope Shenouda III, in class. In some versions of the alleged incident, she also made comparisons between Shenouda and Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

When the complaint was made, a group of head teachers and parents, known as the School Council, conducted an investigation into the allegations. They found there wasn’t any reliable evidence that Al-Nour had committed any offense, according to EIPR sources.

When the students were questioned, three of them said she had said or done something wrong. The rest of the class however, 10 students in all, said Al-Nour was blameless, EIPR found. A survey of the staff at the school revealed that she was widely respected by her colleagues, according to EIPR.

The School Council’s report was turned into the provincial governor’s office and to the legal department of the local office of the national Ministry of Education, which then conducted its own study; like the School Council, it found no crime had been committed.

The case likely would have been dropped, but two attorneys representing the parents of one student went directly to the prosecutor’s office, obligating officials to conduct their own investigation. In what are known as “hisba cases,” Egyptian law allows citizens to file lawsuits against anyone who has transgressed the “exalted right of God.” Many blasphemy cases are filed in such a manner.

On Thursday (May 9), a judge ordered that Al-Nour be remanded to jail while prosecutors investigated the incident. Two days later, the judge then ordered that she be held for 15 more days, and the order was negated when the family was able to post bail.

During her imprisonment, Al-Nour went on a brief hunger strike, but her family talked her out of it, according to EIPR and Al-Nour’s attorneys. Contrary to reports by multiple media outlets, Al-Nour was never hospitalized because of the hunger strike.

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour, a first-year teacher accused of insulting Islam.

CAIRO, Egypt (Morning Star News) – A judge in Egypt on Saturday (May 11) ordered 15 days of additional incarceration for a Coptic Christian teacher jailed last week on accusations of blasphemy and evangelism.

Three elementary schoolchildren and some teachers in the village of Al-Edisat, Luxor Province had complained on April 10 about social studies teacher Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour, who rotates among three schools in the area. They accused her of making allegedly blasphemous comments while she was teaching on April 8 about Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, a pharaoh who introduced a form of monotheistic theology to ancient Egypt.

Accounts differ, but in some versions of the alleged incident, Al-Nour also made comparisons between the former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the late Pope Shenouda III, and Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

The three students from Sheikh Sultan Primary School, along with their parents and a handful of teachers, complained to the school administrator, and school officials contacted legal authorities. Al-Nour has not been charged, but on Thursday (May 9) the judge ordered her to be held in prison for four days pending the outcome of an investigation by the general prosecutor’s office.

Human rights group Amnesty International condemned the detention and demanded Al-Nour’s release in a press statement.

“It is outrageous that a teacher finds herself behind bars for teaching a class,” stated Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy Middle East and North Africa program director at Amnesty International. “If she made some professional mistake or deviated from the school curriculum, an internal review should have sufficed. The authorities must release Dimyana Obeid Abd Al-Nour immediately and drop these spurious charges against her.”

The blasphemy and evangelizing accusations against Al-Nour reflect two growing trends in Egypt – disproportionate use of the nation’s blasphemy statutes against members of Egypt’s Christian minority, and blasphemy charges against people working in education, human rights officials said.

“The education system in Egypt is not based on thinking and freedom of expression, but on copying without knowing, and the absence of a forgiving culture, and refusing the other – not accepting the other,” said Ishak Ibrahim, freedom of religion and belief officer for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

Ibrahim said people are targeting Christians using the nation’s blasphemy statutes as a weapon. An EIPR study to be released at the end of this month found that 41 percent of blasphemy cases taken to court from Jan. 25, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2012, were filed against Christians, who make up only about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 83 million people.

The total of 36 blasphemy cases involved 63 people. The country’s Sunni Muslim majority, which makes up almost 90 percent of the Egypt’s population, were charged in 59 percent of the cases.

Of the 36 blasphemy cases brought to court, only one case was filed against someone for blaspheming Christianity – in spite of a near-constant din of insults by the nation’s religious leaders against Christians and Christianity on Egypt’s television and radio airwaves. That single case, a blasphemy charge against Sheik Abu Islam for publically burning a Bible in front of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, was dismissed. A private Coptic attorney is trying to re-file the case.

Al-Nour, in her early 20s and in her first year as a teacher, is not alone as an educator accused of blasphemy. Ibrahim noted that approximately 30 percent of the blasphemy cases filed have been filed against someone in an education environment.

Not all those charged have been sentenced, but so far five teachers, one schoolmaster, one school secretary, one activity supervisor, three students, three university teachers and five university students have either been sentenced to prison, fired from their jobs, forced from school or forced out of their homes by the courts or decisions handed down by “reconciliation councils,” according to EIPR.

Along with the disproportionate number of Christians charged with blasphemy, sentences are harsher for Christians compared with those handed to Muslims, EIPR noted. The study notes that the sentences are also unusually harsh in relation to the nature of the offenses.

One case of biased punishment involved Makarem Diab, 50, a Christian who received six years in prison on Feb. 29, 2012 for what amounted to an argument with a Muslim coworker over religion. Diab and Abd Al Hameed worked at Deer Al Gabrawy Prep School in the town of Abnoub in Assuit Province.

While Al Hameed made the inflammatory claim during the argument that Jesus had had sex with at least 10 women, Diab countered by stating that Muhammad had more than four wives – a view commonly held by Islamic scholars, though disputes arise over whether he had more than four wives over the course of his life or at one time.

Al Hameed was not charged for his comment.

“It’s bigotry,” Ibrahim said. “One person got sentenced, and the Muslim got away with it.”

Ibrahim said he expects to see an increase in charges against Christians; the new constitution employs vague language that could prohibit evangelism, though evangelism is not specifically illegal. At the same time, the new constitution more explicitly criminalizes criticism of Islam.

“It is getting worse, with the change of the constitution, as there is a specific sentence that punishes those who insult Islam,” he said.

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News. 

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

The Rev. Moses Thliza, head of Christian Faithful Fight AIDS in Nigeria.

MIDLU SHALMI, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Anti-Christian hostility drove an Islamic extremist killing spree in this village in northeastern Nigeria, though the attack was portrayed mainly as politically motivated, an area Christian leader says.

In the course of an attempt to attack the deputy governor of Adamawa state last month, gunmen from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram killed 14 Christians, including the cousin and two nephews of the Rev. Moses Thliza, head of a Christian organization dedicated to preventing AIDS and caring for AIDS patients and orphans.

“My cousin, Bulus Buba, was dragged out at gunpoint from his house by the Boko Haram members,” Thliza told Morning Star News. “They collected his car keys, demanded money and asked him three times to renounce his Christian faith, and three times he declined to do so.”

Samuel Bitrus, volunteer AIDS worker and one of 14 Christians killed in Boko Haram attack.

Thliza’s two slain nephews were skilled volunteers at the organization he heads, Christian Faithful Fight AIDS in Nigeria (CFFAN), and their passing has left huge gaps in the organization, he said. CFFAN’s work centers on AIDS prevention, care of orphans and treatment of those infected with HIV and AIDS, as well as training of pastors. The organization provides services in Plateau, Gombe, Taraba, Adamawa and Borno states.

Thliza and another eyewitness, Usumam Ijarafu, said about 30 of the masked attackers – identified in local press reports as members of Boko Haram – arrived in two vans in Adamawa state’s Midlu Shalmi village, in the Madagali Local Government Area, at about 1:40 a.m. on April 7 and set upon a Church of the Brethren Church (EYN) building. Over the next three hours, they also attacked the residence of the deputy governor of Adamawa state in the village and a house where Christians were mourning at a wake.

“They also went the pastor’s house of our [EYN] church in the village, where on sensing that armed men had stormed the church, the pastor escaped, but the attackers held his wife, Shuwa Ishaya, at gunpoint,” Thliza said.

The gunmen ordered her to lead them to the house of the church treasurer, but as they approached, he too escaped from his home, Thliza said. The Islamic extremists then proceeded to the house of state Deputy Gov. Bala James Nggillari, where they killed two guards keeping watch and held a third at gunpoint.

“The attackers met three guards on duty, killed two of them by cutting their necks with knives, and then proceeded to take the third guard, Amtagu Samiyu, at gunpoint to lead them to where the keys of the deputy governor’s house is,” Thliza said. “He led them to the house of my nephew, Ezra Isanga, about a kilometer south of the village, where his wife keeps the key to the deputy governor’s house. Ezra on opening the door of his house discovered that the men wore masks, and then he shut the door and ran out through a back entrance, raising alarm that Boko Haram men were in the village.”

The members of Boko Haram, which seeks to destabilize the Nigerian government and impose sharia (Islamic law) nationwide, took Isanga’s wife, Amina Ezra, at gunpoint. They took her also to the house of the deputy governor, gaining access with the keys in her possession. The official was not at home, so they only stole some items from his house, Thliza said.

“The noise from the confusion outside attracted the attention of two brothers, Ibrahim and Samuel [Bitrus], who as I said were my nephews,” Thliza said. “Both went out to see what was happening, and they were held at gunpoint, dragged into a room and shot by the Boko Haram members.”

Boko Haram identified two other people in the village square as Christians and killed them, he added.

Christians were observing the wake two kilometers away. Thliza said assailants asked to know what was going on there, and when they learned that people were saying prayers for an elderly Christian woman who had died, they charged in and shot into the crowd.

“The attackers went there and shot indiscriminately at the worshippers, killing eight Christians – two women and six elderly men,” he said. “In all, we buried 14 Christians. Some were injured and taken to the hospital.”

Christian leaders made efforts to contact security officials during the shootings, but no help came until the following morning, he said.

“Bulus Buba’s car was taken away too by the attackers after they killed him,” Thliza said. “While the attack on our village lasted, another group of Boko Haram members went to Abuja and kidnapped the daughter of the deputy governor, who hails from our village, but she was released shortly after.”

It was the first such attack at Midlu Shalmi, a village some eight kilometers (five miles) off the Maiduguri/ Yola highway about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Yola, the state capital. Among those killed in Midlu Shalmi, according to Thliza, were Issa Ngga, Ayuba Yuguda, Ijabani Wagai, Hiszikia Joseph, Uludili Thlimda, Zara Ijabani, Jesse Waida, Iliya Buti, Kwaji Buti, Mjigimtu Usumana, and Mara Ijigil.

Neighboring villages were attacked prior to the Midlu Shalmi assault, Thliza said.

“The other villages attacked earlier include Madagali, 12 miles from my village, and Gulak, nine miles away, on two different occasions,” he said.

Besides the EYN church, Midlu Shalmi village is also home to Deeper Life Bible Church and Roman Catholic charismatic congregations.

“Political motive has been read into this attack, but this is not true because all the victims are not politicians,” Thliza said.

Jihad

The deadly assault was one of the latest religiously motivated attacks by Boko Haram. The group has stated that the sole purpose of its campaign of violence is to establish an “Islamic state like during the time of Prophet Muhammad,” though the U.S. Department of State continues to insist that the group is motivated by poverty and marginalization.

In its annual report released last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) notes, “The U.S. government consistently has urged the Nigerian government to expand its strategy against Boko Haram from solely a military solution to addressing problems of economic and political marginalization in the north, arguing that Boko Haram’s motivations are not religious but socio-economic.”

Advocacy group Jubilee Campaign, in an April 29 report on the State Department’s most recent country report on Nigeria, objected to the government’s position.

“The claim that the Muslims of northern Nigeria have been marginalized politically and economically by the federal government and responded to ‘legitimate grievances’ with violence is not credible,” the Jubilee Campaign report states. “This has been used to give unconscionable and undeserved legitimacy to violence committed against Christians in northern Nigeria, whether by terrorist actors such as Boko Haram or others.”

Jubilee Campaign states that Boko Haram has used religion as its primary recruiting tool, and that statements by the Islamic extremist group’s leaders reveal their motive for violence is “unambiguously waging Jihad.”

“No reference is made in the DOS [Department of State] report to their declared motive,” the Jubilee Campaign report states.

Thliza said the government of Nigeria must do more to stop Boko Haram.

“The truth is that Boko Haram is waging a Jihad, a religious war against Christians and the government, with the intention of establishing an Islamic state,” he said. “No government should allow a group of people to forcefully take over the governance of the people.”

Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population of 158.2 million and live mainly in the south, while Muslims account for 45 percent and reside primarily in the north, according to Operation World.

While Christians have shown great restraint in the face of attacks by Boko Haram and other Islamic extremists, the government must see Boko Haram violence as problem that requires bold confrontation, he said.

“As Christians, our prayers have always been that God should touch the heart of terrorists, that they will repent, and that their evil plans against Christians will be revealed,” he said.

Loss

A photo of Ibrahim Bitrus, an AIDS worker killed by Boko Haram.

Thliza’s slain nephews, 39-year-old Ibrahim Bitrus and 29-year-old Samuel Bitrus, were the sons of his younger brother Bitrus Kutiji Thliza.

“The murder of Ibrahim by the terrorists is devastating to us, because he has died leaving behind and aged mother and three kids – one of them was just born in January,” he said. “His death is no doubt devastating to our ministry and family.”

Ibrahim Bitrus was an information technology expert and program manager in three states for the ministry.

“Ibrahim, whether or not we have money, was prepared to work,” Thliza said. “He worked hard back home teaching at the Government Secondary School and at the same time serving the ministry. So, his death has impacted heavily on our ministry.”

The elder nephew, born in Thliza’s house while his father was serving in the military, had been trained at the ECWA Information and Computer Science Institute in Jos through Thliza’s sponsorship.

“Nobody has the training and capability of Ibrahim – even though he was not a health care worker, he had acquired enough experience in serving the ministry, which enabled him to do extremely well,” he said. “I relied on him without doubt to handle any project.”

Besides heading the program office in Madagali, Ibrahim Bitrus handled AIDS projects in Taraba and Gombe states, he added.

“We are praying that God will raise someone to replace him, but his death is indeed a great loss to us,” Thliza said.

Samuel Bitrus worked as an accountant and information technology expert as a volunteer, he said.

“This is a health care project, work that requires specialized training,” Thliza said. “More so, this is a faith-based organization. So we need people who share in the vision and who will work sacrificially in obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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 © 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News. 

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Naghmeh Abedini, wife of Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini. (Facebook photo)

ISTANBUL (Morning Star News) – An Iranian-American pastor spent his 33^rd birthday in solitary confinement today, suffering from untreated injuries from beatings by prisoners and officials in an Iranian prison.

Saeed Abedini has spent six months in Tehran’s harsh Evin Prison, known for housing political dissidents and government protestors, where he is serving an eight-year sentence for planting house churches from 2000 to 2005. Although there is no law against house churches, the government termed his involvement a threat to “national security,” even though he had ceased such work after agreeing in 2009 to limit his ministry to humanitarian work.

An international letter-writing campaign for his birthday resulted in more than 52,000 letters arriving at the maximum-security prison. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an advocacy group that represents his family, worked with intermediaries to send the notes to Evin Prison.

The large number of letters also serves to let Iranian officials know that the international community is still fighting for his release, said Tiffany Barrans, international legal director of the ACLJ.

“We know from former prisoners that letters are a source of encouragement, that the guards are required to translate every incoming mail, and that these letters put the government of Iran on notice that it is being watched,” Barrans told Morning Star News.

Abedini was sentenced on Jan. 27 for threatening “national security,” a catch-all phrase often used by Iranian courts to imprison converts from Islam for various sorts of evangelistic activities.

In late April he was put into solitary confinement following a “peaceful, silent protest” in an outside courtyard with other prisoners over the lack of medical care and threats against visiting family members, according to Mohabat News Agency.

He and nine others were placed into solitary confinement. Abedini suffers severe internal bleeding from beatings.

His wife, Naghmeh Abedini, released a statement today describing her feelings.

“There is a deep piercing pain in my heart knowing that you will spend your birthday in solitary confinement, constrained to a small room, not knowing when it is day or night,” she stated. “Under constant torture and abuse by radicals who are trying to break you and have you deny your faith in Jesus.

“With tightness in my throat, pain in my heart, and tears streaming down my face … so very weak, I promise to stand strong in the strength of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fighting with every strength of my being until you are united to our family again.”

Guards have stepped up harassment in recent weeks. Yesterday (May 6) officials prevented his father from visiting. On April 29, other family members in Iran were turned away and told they would no longer be able to visit Abedini.

This shift came after guards fed him false hopes of medical treatment. On April 15, prison officials took him to a hospital but brought him back without any treatment and beat him severely that day, according to International Christian Concern.

His family members, who visited him that day, said that his cellmates threatened to suffocate him in his sleep and make the death look like an accident.

The treatment is an intentional strategy by prison officials to force the pastor renounce Christianity, said ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow.

“We know that a tactic used by the Iranians is to place prisoners in solitary confinement in an effort to get them to give in to the demands of prison officials – in pastor Saeed’s case, to recant his Christian faith,” he said.

Abedini has traveled back and forth between the United States and Iran since becoming a U.S. citizen in 2010. He has made over nine humanitarian trips to Iran since 2009 and planned to establish an orphanage on his most recent trip.

Between his conversion in 2000 and 2005 he worked to establish house churches at a time of relative religious freedom in Iran. After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2005 election as president, however, crackdowns on Christians intensified. Abedini was arrested in 2009 and released on the condition that he only engage in humanitarian work.

He was on such a trip last year when he was arrested. He was working with his family’s non-profit organization, whose Farsi name translates to “Morning Star,” which works to house and educate orphans.

Abedini’s family members assert that the charges for his original arrest – that he was working with illegal church groups – is not only unjust but false. No criminal law in Iran penalizes private religious gatherings in a person’s home, regardless of whether they are affiliated with a church, Barrans said.

“If there were such a crime, the Iranian government would have charged pastor Saeed with that crime,” said Barrans. “But because pastor Saeed’s actions of gathering with fellow believers were lawful, the Iranian government had to charge pastor Saeed under the vague and manipulable ‘national security’ offense – thus allowing the government to assert that a perfectly lawful act was intended to undermine the national security.”

Moreover, Naghmeh has said that the house church Abedini was working with before 2005 was legal at the time because it was sponsored by a legally recognized church.

The international push for his release is slowly gaining momentum. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s annual report, released last month, cited Abedini’s case as one of many reasons it considers Iran a “Country of Particular Concern” for “egregious religious freedom violations.”

In March, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for his release, as did State Department officials at the United Nations.

Organizations that have publicly called for his release include the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, which raised Abedini’s case at the U.N. Human Rights Council. The European Union also demanded at the United Nations that Iran release him.

Over 580,000 have signed a petition for his release at savesaeed.org.

Behind the scenes, private diplomatic efforts continue to try securing his release.

Naghmeh and their two children, a 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, reside in Idaho. Abedini was ordained as a member of the American Evangelistic Association in 2008.

The family was shaken by the news that he was put into solitary confinement, Barrans said. Sekulow added that until he is released, advocacy groups are continually working to lift the pastor’s spirits and apply pressure on the Iranian regime for his release.

“We want pastor Saeed to know that he is not forgotten, and thousands upon thousands of people are fighting for his freedom,” Sekulow said. “It is also an important opportunity to let Iran know that we will not forget about this persecuted pastor. Iranian officials will be reviewing and paying attention to these letters. They will feel the incredible pressure of the world community calling for pastor Saeed’s release.”

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Arusha is a popular base for tourist adventures to nearby national parks. (Wikipedia photo)

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Fear and grief rocked a predominantly Christian area of northern Tanzania yesterday after an unidentified man reportedly hurled an explosive device at the inaugural Mass of a new church building, killing two worshipers.

The Vatican ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, was in attendance as Mass was about to be celebrated at the new building on the outskirts of Arusha. Neither he nor Arusha Catholic Diocese Archbishop Josaphat Louis Lebulu were among the more than 40 people injured, a source in Tanzania told Morning Star News.

A hospital confirmed two people were killed in the explosion at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, which occurred before 11 a.m. when an unidentified man on a motorcycle reportedly hurled an explosive device over the church fence. One of those killed was identified as Regina Loning’o Kuresoi, and among the injured were two 12-year-olds, according to press reports.

Worshipers were packed into the new church building when the explosion went off, the source said.

“It was a colorful celebration with joyous mood when a frightening explosion took place, coupled with loud shouts and crying of the church members,” one church member told the source.

Police reportedly said four Saudi Arabian nationals and two Tanzanian citizens had been arrested, including the driver of the motorcycle. Officials urged calm in the face of furious residents. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Terrorist groups have not been active in Tanzania since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998, but President Jakaya Kikwete termed Sunday’s explosion a terrorist attack. Previously police had warned of possible violence by Al Qaeda that could include involvement of its Somalia-based partner, Al Shabaab, the source said. At the same time, some area residents believe elements bent on creating religious conflict were behind the explosion, he added.

Tanzania and especially its Zanzibar archipelago have recently suffered attacks by the separatist group Uamsho (Re-awakening). Uamsho, the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, has threatened Christians on Zanzibar Island since October 2012.

With a population that is 34.2 percent Muslim, Tanzania is 54 percent Christian; most of the rest of religious adherents hold ethnic tribal beliefs, according to Operation World.

Tanzania Episcopal Conference Secretary General Anthony Makunde said the blast was part of ongoing, religiously motivated chaos that has left church buildings destroyed and Christian leaders dead. Suspected Islamic extremists on Feb. 17 shot and killed a Roman Catholic priest in Zanzibar; two assailants on a motorbike approached the Rev. Evaristus Mushi as he arrived in his car to the Mass he was about to officiate in the Mtoni area outside Zanzibar City (see Morning Star News, Feb. 20).

Last Christmas Day, suspected Islamic extremists on a motorcycle shot the Rev. Ambrose Mkenda, a Roman Catholic priest, through his cheeks and in the shoulder as he arrived home in Tomondo, about four miles from Zanzibar City (see Morning Star News, Dec. 30, 2012); he survived.

Islamists burned several church buildings in various parts of Tanzania last October after two children’s argument about the Koran resulted in a Christian boy allegedly defiling Islam’s sacred book (see Morning Star News, Oct. 19, 2012). In Kigoma, on the western border, two church buildings were set ablaze on Oct. 14, and the roof of another one was destroyed; on the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean some 25 kilometers (16 miles) off the Tanzanian coast, Muslim extremists on Oct. 13 demolished a building belonging to the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania (EAGT) in Fuoni, near Zanzibar City; and in Dar es Salaam, where two boys’ argument over the Koran set off the violence, three church buildings were set on fire on Oct. 12, and another was destroyed on Oct. 18.

The attacks on church buildings came after Muslims began falsely asserting that Christians had sent the Christian boy to the Muslim boy to urinate on the Koran in the Mbagala area of Dar es Salaam on Oct. 10, sources said.

On Oct. 17, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania leaders released a statement saying churches had also been set ablaze in Mdaula, Mto wa Mbu, Tunduru and Rufiji. The Mbagala attacks, they stated, resulted from inflammatory statements by local religious leaders. They also blamed media outlets for instigating religious hatred.

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Mosque tower in Marrakech, Morocco. (Wikimedia)

CAIRO, Egypt (Morning Star News) – A Moroccan fatwa calling for the execution of those who leave Islam has left many Christian converts in turmoil.

There is still much debate over how the fatwa, which only recently came to light after the government’s top authority on Islam issued it last year, could change laws in Morocco. But a Moroccan Christian convert active in the house church movement said many former Muslims who are now Christians fear for their lives.

“The fatwa showed us that our country is still living in the old centuries – no freedom, no democracy,” he said. “Unfortunately, we feel that we aren’t protected. We can be arrested or now even killed any time and everywhere.”

The Marrakech resident, who requested anonymity, said many Moroccan converts feel the same way.

“The majority of the Christian Moroccan leaders have the same feeling,” he said. “We are more followed now by the secret police than before. Only the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us courage and peace.”

The governmental High Council of Ulemas, the highest religious authority in Morocco, issued the ruling last year, but only released it in April upon request of the government’s Delegation for Human Rights of Morocco, according to Arabic-language daily Akhbar al-Youm. The human rights delegation was seeking clarification on the Islamic stance on freedom of religion. But Mahjoub El Hiba, a senior human rights official in the government, denied there was any such request to the Moroccan Press Agency, Morocco’s official government news service.

In a publication explaining its ruling, the high council said it based its decision in part on verses from the Koran, and in part on verses from the Hadith – one that quotes Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, as saying, “If somebody [a Muslim] discards his religion, kill him.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3017)

Islamic scholars use the Hadith, also known as the “Sayings and Deeds of the Prophet,” along with the Koran as a basis for determining sharia (Islamic law).

Members of the high council are appointed by the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs, which is led at least in theory by King Mohammed VI. But the high council is essentially an advisory body, has no connection to Morocco’s criminal judicial system and cannot enforce its ruling. Whether the fatwa will have any effect on Moroccan criminal law remains to be seen – there are too many variables, said a representative of Middle East Concern, an advocacy group for persecuted Christians.

“A fatwa doesn’t automatically become part of the criminal law,” the representative said. “The fatwa doesn’t all of the sudden become an amendment or an addendum to the penal code; that’s why we don’t actually know what it’s going to look like in practice or principle. We can’t say it’s actually going to affect people, because we don’t know.”

Laws in Morocco

Still, the ruling could represent a major shift within the government – currently apostasy isn’t against the law in Morocco.

According to Christian converts in Morocco and some advocacy groups that help them, even if the ruling never becomes law, it sets a dangerous precedent for how converts and Christians in general will be treated in Morocco. If leaving Islam is seen as an act worthy of death, then “proselytizing” – which is illegal – could then be treated as a much more serious issue. Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code bans proselytizing, which carries a penalty of between six months and three years in prison and a fine of up to 500 dirhams (US$60). Part of the code forbids using material incentives to persuade someone to change their religion.

In addition to a possible crackdown on sharing their faith, Christians fear law enforcement officials who may be uncertain about how to deal with apostates may opt for harsh treatment of converts because of the fatwa. Christian converts in Morocco say police already harass them.

“The oppression is everywhere,” the Marrakech Christian said. “The police follow us or arrest us everywhere.”

A Christian of European nationality who went into Morocco for more than 10 years to help converts before the government banned him said the fatwa sets a tone for more persecution.

“It will give the secret police a tool to persecute Moroccan Christians,” he said. “It will certainly increase persecution – I’m sure.”

He added that he thinks the fatwa will be used to discourage converts from being able to express their faith to others.

“For those who are already Christian, it can increase their burden, but it will really put the threat on any type of outreach and evangelism,” he said.

Apostasy in Morocco is complicated by the fact that Islam is the official religion of the state, and the king of Morocco, whose titles include, “The Defender of the Faithful,” is seen as the leader of Muslims in Morocco. With politics and religion thus essentially united, spiritual quests can be seen as an act of political dissent or even treason.

Punishment for Leaving Islam

Experts say it is difficult to make across-the-board generalizations about how converts are treated in Morocco. The way they are treated depends on factors such as age, economic standing, whether they live in rural or urban areas and, most importantly, how outspoken they are about their faith.

According to the MEC expert, older Christians who are economically secure, live in a large city and are mostly private about their faith will be persecuted less than other converts. The representative said persecution comes in many different forms, much of it harassment from family members humiliated that someone in their family became a Christian.

The European expatriate, a pastor, said almost all converts experience some sort of harassment by police as well. It is known as a second baptism of sorts for new Christians.

“When a Moroccan comes to Christ, sooner or later, they are going to be confronted by the police,” he said. “It’s what they call ‘police baptism.’ Police baptism is what happens when someone gets confronted by the secret police.”

The purpose of interrogation is to intimidate Christians into abandoning their new-found faith, the pastor said. In some cases, police have been successful.

There have been several public instances of harassment and persecution of converts that have gone beyond police interrogation. On Dec. 28, 2005, Christian convert Jamaa Ait Bakrim was sentenced to 15 years in prison for proselytism and for destroying the goods of others by burning two abandoned telephone poles touching his property. He remains in Kenitra Prison.

In March 2010, the government expelled at least 33 Christian foreign residents from the country. Among them were 10 adult Christians, along with their children, who were running The Village of Hope, a foster daycare center for orphans. The foster children were turned over to the care of people they did not know.

In addition to the expulsions, roughly 81 people were declared “persona non grata” for alleged proselytizing. None have returned. As recently as February, one of those blacklisted tried to gain reentry but was detained and then deported.

There are about 8,000 Moroccan Christians out of a population of almost 35 million people, according to the 2012 International Religious Freedom Report published by the U.S. Department of State.

Moderate Morocco

Morocco has taken pains to maintain its image as a moderate Islamic country. Any deviation from that image could cost Morocco in foreign trade, tourism revenue and international prestige, but observers believe the laws against proselytizing and the recent fatwa threaten the country’s reputation as religiously moderate.

“It is imperative that they are seen in alignment with Western standards of freedom of religion,” the MEC representative said. “This would be a very significant step away from standards that Morocco has agreed to in the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. It would go against the progress that Morocco has made over the past 10 years.”

The expatriate pastor sees the fatwa as part of the region’s tide toward “political Islam” and a bid to silence hardline Islamic critics of the regime.

“Arab Spring has become Christian winter,” he said.

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© 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

A Sudan Pentecostal Church building the government bulldozed earlier this year. (Morning Star News photo)

JUBA, South Sudan, April 30, 2013 (Morning Star News) – Sudan has stepped up its targeting of Christians for deportation, with interrogation including threats to bury them alive, sources said.

Besides the deportation to South Sudan of the secretary general of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference on April 12, other Christians have been targeted in the past several weeks for arrest, interrogation and/or deportation. On April 21, as a South Sudanese church elder was worshiping at a Sunday service in Khartoum, officials from the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained him to pump him for information, the elder told Morning Star News.

Authorities questioned him for four hours before releasing him, he said.

“They told me to reveal to them 12 names of Christians who are active in evangelism in Sudan, but I told them I have no idea,” said the elder, whose name is withheld for security reasons.

The right to manifest one’s faith is a key provision of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Sudan is a signatory.

NISS officials have required staff members of a university campus-based ministry to report to them weekly following their arrest on Feb. 23; initially they were held and interrogated for a week, one said.

“The security officers verbally threatened to bury us alive if we did not give information on who was supporting these Christian activities,” the Christian worker said.

After the Christian workers were released, for two weeks security officials ordered them to report to NISS offices on a daily basis for interrogation about links with Christian organizations, said the worker, whose organization name is withheld for security reasons. NISS officials confiscated the organization’s equipment, vehicle and documents. They also went to the home of organization members and took academic papers, laptops, digital cameras, mobile phones and iPads, among other personal belongings, he said.

Authorities deported three of the group’s workers to South Sudan in March after monitoring their movements and telephone calls, another member told Morning Star News.

“They gave me only 72 hours to leave the country,” the Christian worker said. “They came to my house while I was away and took five laptops of my sisters, as well as my documents, identity cards, school documents and mobile phone. I thank God that He has been with me during the interrogation with the Security.”

Some Christians from South Sudan have been given only 24 hours to leave Sudan, sources said.

On Monday (April 29), various church leaders in Omdurman, on the Nile River opposite Khartoum, organized a meeting to pray over the crisis facing congregations in Sudan.

Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, when President Omar al-Bashir vowed to adopt a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic culture and the Arabic language. South Sudanese lost citizenship in Sudan and were ordered to leave by March 1, 2012, but an estimated 500,000 of them were reportedly stranded in the north due to job loss, poverty, transportation limitations and ethnic and tribal conflict in South Sudan.

Sudan and South Sudan signed an agreement on Sept. 27, 2012 to hold negotiations on citizenship rights for South Sudanese in Sudan and northerners living in South Sudan, but there has been no progress, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)’s annual report, issued this month. South Sudanese Christians in Sudan have faced increased hostilities due to their ethnic origins – though thousands have little or no ties to South Sudan – as well as their faith.

South Sudan’s secession has served as a pretext for Bashir’s regime to bulldoze church buildings once owned by South Sudanese and to deport Christians based on their ethnicity, sources said. The government’s determination to rid the country of Christianity was evident on April 12, when security forces deported the secretary-general of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Santino Morokomomo Maurino, and two colleagues to South Sudan.

Sudan Catholic Radio Network reported that NISS officials detained him in Khartoum and gave him three days to leave. Michael Fleury of France and an Egyptian identified only as Brother Hossam, both members of the De La Salle Christian Brothers in Khartoum, were also deported.

In a report issued this month, Christian Solidarity Worldwide noted an increase in arrests, detentions and deportations of Christians since December 2012. The organization also reported that systematic targeting of Nuba and other ethnic groups suggests the resurgence of an official policy of “Islamization and Arabization.”

Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999, and USCIRF this month recommended that the country remain on the list this year.

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 © 2013 Morning Star News. Articles may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

 Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world and in countries violating religious freedom about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.