Bray-Missionaries.org: Pray for Persecuted Christians

Pray for Persecuted Christians

International Day of Prayer (IDOP) is November 9, but any Sunday is OK to pray. Please schedule a specific time.

World Christian Ministries Newsletter

November 1, 2008

It's not a pretty world. Yes, as we look at Creation, we can still sing, "This is my Father's world." But as we look at the human strife and torment, we can only shake our heads and cry in dismay. Why are people so bent on inflicting their fellow humans with pain and suffering? Those of us who believe the Bible already know the answer.

I hope your church is planning on participating in the International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for Persecuted Christians. Most churches are planning observances on Sunday, November 9, but some will observe the event this Sunday, November 1, or another Sunday that suits them. The important thing is: Schedule a special time to pray specifically for persecuted Christians.

Please make sure your pastor/church is planning on observing this special day. If no one has made plans, materials such as videos, stories, posters, bulletin inserts and additional information can be obtained from any of the sources at the end of this newsletter. Meanwhile, here are some brief summaries. This report took me much longer to prepare than I had planned. Links to sources used in the text are found at the end of the article. I trust you will find this article useful.

World's worst persecuting countries

The U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Open Doors USA both publish a list of persecuting countries. The lists are not identical. Combining the top 11 worst persecuting countries from both lists, we have 15 countries ranked from 1 to 26. Since the USCIRF eleven includes countries ranked 13, 15, and 17 by Open Doors, I filled in the blanks to the top 17. So here is a religious liberty commentary on 19 countries. Those appearing on the top 11 of both lists are in bright red.

1. North Korea: Its human rights record is abysmal. The regime headed by the demigod Kim Jong Il does not recognize human rights. Christians can be shot on the spot for possessing a Bible. Christians caught trying to take refuge in China are forcefully repatriated and face torture, imprisonment and even public execution. For more information consult Open Doors or North Korean Freedom Coalition. http://www.nkfreedom.org/

2. Saudi Arabia: "The government in Saudi Arabia also continues to be a source of funding used globally to finance religious schools, hate literature, and other activities that support religious intolerance and, in some cases, violence toward non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims--actions that are incompatible with the Saudi government's commitments as a member of the United Nations. In addition, the government's policy of curtailing universal rights for non-Saudi visitors to the country and inhibiting the enjoyment of human rights on an equal basis for expatriate workers, particularly the two - three million non-Muslim workers, including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others, who have gone to Saudi Arabia for temporary employment, results in severe religious freedom violations." (Cover Letter of the USCIRF in naming 11 countries of particular concern on May 2, 2008)

3. Iran: "The already poor religious freedom record of Iran has deteriorated further," stated the USCIRF in May. Religious minorities, including Baha'is, Sufi Muslims, and Evangelical Christians face relentless arrests, imprisonment, and harassment. Iran most recently passed a law demanding the death penalty for apostasy. Ironically, two pastors on trial for apostasy were recently acquitted because, according to the judge, both were still Muslims (even though they actively pastored a Christian church)! So there is still hope in the confusing world of Islam.

4. Maldives: This nation of 1200 islands stretches 885 km (535 mi) across the Indian Ocean some 300 mi (500 km) southwest of the southern tip of India. Only 200 are inhabited, with 44 devoted exclusively to tourism. Though synonymous with elite tourism, its totalitarian Muslim dictatorship represses religious freedom. The only religion allowed is Sunni Islam, and all residents are watched closely to ensure this is enforced.

5. Bhutan: This tiny, landlocked country of 2.1 million on the northern border of India is staunchly Buddhist. Christians number less than 1% of the population and dare not meet openly. Persons who become followers of Christ are usually forced out of their village. In July a GFA missionary and his followers were brought before authorities. When the Christians refused to sign a statement saying they would not to tell others of Christ, they were told they had to return and clean the government office and grounds every 15 days.

6. Yemen: This country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is a union of the former North Yemen, 66% Shiite, and South Yemen, 99% Sunni. Last June authorities arrested and imprisoned nine Yemen Muslim converts to Christianity. Christian leaders fear they may be subject to severe interrogation, torture, and even death.

7. Afghanistan: Tribal and Islamic Afghanistan has long been opposed to Christianity. Persons who converted to Christ years ago were summarily killed, and it is not any better today. "A recently issued U.N. report stated that there were more than 120 attacks targeting aid workers in the first seven months of this year alone. These attacks saw 92 abducted and 30 killed," Compass Direct reported Oct. 29. A Christian aid worker serving with a group that addressed personal, social and environmental needs and did not preach was killed Oct. 20. "The return of the Taliban is an increasingly real threat once again," the USCIRF report stated. It is interesting that the USCIRF does not mention Afghanistan as a Country of Particular Concern, possibly a diplomatic omission because of the ongoing U.S. presence there.

8. Laos: A police crackdown killing at least 13 Christians in July, 2007, was reported as one of the top ten persecution stories of 2007 by Compass Direct. Actions of Lao officials continue to trample on human rights. Churches are torn down and then Christians are arrested for meeting in unauthorized buildings (homes). Christians are rounded up by the truckload and taken out of their village. Adults and Christian leaders are commanded to renege their faith, though few do. Pastors have their hands and feet put in stocks until they grow numb. Christians who recently conducted a Christian funeral for a believer killed by other villagers were accused of "practicing the rituals of the enemy of the state," according to Compass Direct.

Uzbek Christian Pastor Dimitry Shestakov, rear, with his wife, Marina, left, and his three daughters before he was arrested and jailed on trumped-up charges in March 2007. Photo by Compass Direct.

9. Uzbekistan: Authorities in Islamic Uzbekistan are fearful of "radical" or "extremist" religious activity-from Muslims as well as from Christians. In an attempt to guard against fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam "thousands of Muslims have been imprisoned," according to Forum 18, a Norwegian-Danish religious freedom watchdog. Christians, Jehovah Witnesses, and members of other religious minorities are denounced in state-run media, causing believers to fear going out on the street. Between 2000 and 2006 38 Protestant congregations were stripped of their legality, while over 100 groups of various faiths tried unsuccessfully to gain registration. Ten members of one group were threatened with death and fined the equivalent of five years' salary. The only Christian congregations allowed to increase in number appear to be the Russian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches. Several pastors have been jailed on trumped-up charges.

10. China: Despite its celebrated hosting of the 2008 Olympics, "severe crackdowns targeting Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, 'underground' Roman Catholics, 'house church' Protestants, and various spiritual movements such as Falun Gong continue unabated. The recent, concentrated wave of repression in Tibet has thrown a glaring new spotlight on the repressive policies and practices of the Chinese government, which continues to restrict religious practice to government-approved religious associations and tries to control the growth and activities of both registered and unregistered religious groups. Ethnic minority religious groups such as Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims, unregistered [Christian] groups, and those derided and termed by the government to be 'cults' are subject to the most brutal abuses" (USCIRF). Ironically, members of the Communist Party, all of which are supposed to have no religious orientation, pick the bishops of the Three Self Patriotic Church.

11. Eritrea: Last year a 33-year-old woman was arrested at a church service, taken to the Wi'a Military Training Center and tortured to death for refusing to recant her faith. This year "Eritrea continued its race to the bottom with its abysmal record of abuses--arresting, detaining, torturing, even killing some of its citizens for merely attempting to worship outside one of the four government-approved religions," said John Hanford, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. The only four religious groups recognized by the government are the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea, Islam, and the Roman Catholic Church. During the last year authorities detained at least 125 members of unregistered religious groups without charges. According to non-governmental organizations, there are more than 3,000 Christians from unregistered groups in prison. These reports include 37 leaders and pastors of Pentecostal churches in detention, some for more that 3 years without due process. They face long-term prison sentences and torture. Many of these prisoners are crammed into steel shipping containers that sit out in the sun.

Somali Christian Manual Mohammad is held by his Islamic executioners moments before they cut off his head in public. Photo grabbed from phone camera video by Compass Direct.

12. Somalia: Known as the host of pirate raiders in the Gulf of Aiden, Somalia also hosts a brand of radical Islamists insistent on instituting and enforcing Islamic law. "From the time the government of Somalia collapsed in 1991 up to this year, we know of at least 34 people who have been killed because of their faith. The figures could be much higher because we are only talking about those known to us," a Somali Christian refugee in Kenya told Assist News Service last June. ICC said in July, "Recently, Islamic extremists have intensified their attacks against Christians in Somalia. In the past nine months alone, five Christians...have been martyred for their faith."

13. Turkmenistan: About the only religious communities that can have a place of worship are the Muslim and Russian Orthodox. There are some small churches in Aschabad, the capital, but outside the capital, there is no freedom for any Protestant or other religious group to meet. "State officials frequently violate international human rights standards on freedom of thought, conscience and belief - which the country has freely signed. Religious communities are raided and their members threatened and assaulted.... Religious believers and communities also suffer from the general denial of rights to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of movement that affect all residents of Turkmenistan." Some Protestants have been fired from their jobs because of their faith. -- Forum 18

14. Comoros: Open Doors ranks Comoros as 14th on its list, but we are not commenting here.

15. Pakistan: Despite the dramatic events inPakistan in the past year, the USCIRF found that "all of the serious religious freedom concerns, including violence, continue to persist. Sectarian and religiously motivated violence continues in Pakistan, particularly against Shi'a Muslims, Ahmadis, Christians, and Hindus, and the government's response remains inadequate. A number of the country's laws, including legislation restricting the Ahmadi community and laws against blasphemy, have been used to silence members of religious minorities and dissenters, and they frequently result in imprisonment on account of religion or belief and/or vigilante violence against the accused. The Hudood Ordinances--Islamic decrees predominantly affecting women that are enforced alongside Pakistan's secular legal system--provide for harsh punishments, including amputation and death by stoning, for alleged violations of Islamic law." (USCIRF)

In September the body of 20-year-old Younis Masih was found with ax wounds on his head and his right arm chopped off, but authorities insist he died from an "accident due to electric shock" without allowing an independent autopsy. The family he had worked for as a household servant apparently was disgruntled when he left them for a better paying construction job. This is typical of the way Christians are treated.

16. Qatar: This solidly Muslim city state on the Persian Gulf is building a church on land donated by the Emir that Christians (foreign diplomats, teachers and workers) may use. Though it is staunchly Muslim, this otherwise progressive community has recently entered into a contract with Cornel University in New York to build a branch campus there. Though Qatar is ranked 16th on the Open Doors Watch List, no additional information was found on the websites of Open Doors, Compass Direct or ICC, and is listed here simply for reference.

17. Vietnam: In 2004 Vietnam revised its constitution to allow freedom of religious expression, the legalization of certain churches, and the limited restoration of some property to them. But many feel this was merely a ploy get removed from the U.S. list of "Countries of Particular Concern" and to gain entrance to the World Trade Organization. In May the USCIRF advocated that Vietnam again be placed on the CPC list. Christians in the Central Highlands and Northwest Provinces, notably Hmong and Montagnard believers, continue under close surveillance, are pressured to abandon their faith, and are fined up to a half-year's wages for meeting for worship and prayer. Some 265 church properties have been confiscated by authorities. In March 2008 the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South) asked Christians worldwide to pray for them as they continued to beseech the government to restore confiscated properties. A prayer movement among evangelicals and Catholics continuing since last December has the faithful hopeful, but the government is invading personal privacy in an attempt to block communication with the outside world. The government has even had dummy priests testify against the prayer participants on TV.

25. Burma (Myanmar): USCIRF lists Burma as a Country of Particular Concern, but Open Doors ranks it at 25. Christians are allowed to operate, but are generally bypassed with government aid, such as after Cyclone Nargis, and opportunities to purchase government-subsidized rice. Government troops are in active warfare with Karen tribe in southeastern Burma. According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, "The military regime is carrying out crimes against humanity against the ethnic nationality groups, particularly the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon in eastern Burma, the Chin, Arakan and Rohingya in western Burma, and the Kachin in northern Burma. These crimes, which in some areas amount to ethnic cleansing and potentially attempted genocide, include: the widespread, systematic use of rape, forced labour, forced relocation of villages, use of human minesweepers, torture and killings. Since 1996, over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma alone have been destroyed by the military, and over a million people internally displaced."

26. Sudan: Though ranked No. 26 by Open Doors, the USCIRF mentioned Sudan among its top 11 Countries of Particular Concern. It said Sudan's "authoritarian government--which has pursued coercive policies of Arabization and Islamization resulting in genocide--severely restricts the religious freedom and other human rights of its population. Most of the victims of Sudan's decades-long North-South civil war were Christians or followers of traditional African religions. With the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, religious freedom conditions have improved in southern and central Sudan. However, there are serious government-directed obstacles to implementing the CPA, ...[including] continuing attacks and genocide in Darfur." (USCIRF)

Sources of additional information

Open Doors World Watch List can be found at the www.opendoorsusa.org
Up to date information on persecution is available from Compass Direct, a persecution news agency sponsored by Open Doors. www.CompassDirect.org
International Christian Concern has one of the most complete and easily searchable collections of international reports at www.persecution.org
Christian Solidarity Worldwide based in England does an admirable job of keeping up with persecution reports and advocating religious freedom www.csw.org.uk
Forum 18 monitors religious liberty violations in Central Asia, former USSR states, and certain Middle East countries. www.forum18.org
Voice of the Martyrs (USA) www.persecution.com
Voice of the Martyrs (Canada) www.persecution.net
The most recent report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is available at www.uscirf.gov.