Iran: Christian Couple Flogged – Christian Man Tortured

Sentence of whipping , and assaulting an Iranian Christian couple

Oct. 11 . 2007- fcnn

A Christian couple were sentenced to be whipped and were announced Mortad by the Justice Court Of Revolution , for attending a home based church and having devotional time.

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. ( Acts 14:22)

FCNN_ An Iranian Christian couple ( their names are kept confidential in FCNN ) were arrested along with other believers on Sep. 21.2005 by the Government agents. They had gathered in a house in a town northwest of Tehran ( Gohar dasht ) for their regular prayer and devotional time.

After about two years , on July 2007 their case was submitted to the Court of Revolution, brach 3. According to the report , this Christian couple decided to marry seven years ago but, because of some boundaries in Iranian Churches regarding the rules of Marriage between ex-Muslims and other ethnics in Iran, they were rejected a Christian legal certificated wedding ceremony , so they decided to have their wedding outside the church by the Islamic Law.

The woman was born a Christian in an Assyrian-Iranian family and the man was converted to Christianity long before they married. According to the Court of Revolution , wedding of non-muslims by the Islamic Law is equivalent to conversion to Islam. So , the confession of faith in Christ before the Judge by the wife was an indication of turning to christianity again , therefor she was announced a Mortad ( a person who turns away from Islam, in this case the sentence is death). The same was with the husband.

According to the Court they had to present themselves to the Authorities on a regular basis and sign a paper until the court decides the punishment. The building they had to go to is located on somewhere near the Azadi Square . The only people in that building were civic agents.

The last time the wife was present there to make a signature , one of the agents ( who was called Haj Agha , a clergy man ) sexually abused her . As a result she was so terrified that she decided not to go back there again , not even for a signature!

After few days , on September 2007 , two female and 4 male agents go to this couple’s house and by showing them an official letter from the Court , execute the sentence of whipping right there in their house.

According to the latest news , this couple are under a high mental pressure right now

We would like to kindly request all Iranians and believers in Christ all over the world to pray for peace , health , and protection of this family. Source.

Needless to say, that is not an isolated case.

Torturing an Iranian Christian for his confession of faith in Christ

– Aug/1/2007

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us ” /Romans 8:18
According to the Farsi Christian News Network ( FCNN ), an Iranian Christian, A . Sh , ( for security reasons , FCNN keeps the person’s identity protected ) was arrested and imprisoned by the Security Agents , after he had a car accident with a security escort car on May 4th 2007.

Jesus in Luke 12:8 regarding the subject says :” Whoever acknowledges me before men, the son of man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God ”

Agents , after hearing that he was converted to Christianity began to beat him up severely and then tossed him into the car , transporting him to Station 102 of Islamic Military ( Sepah Pasdaran)

The report , then , adds that one of the agents inside the prison accused him of heresy by turning from Islam to Christianity , calling him Mortad , then began to torture him by whipping and lashing him severely without any legal charges or court sentence.

Finally after 2 days being in prison and tortured , he was released through the efforts of his family and by giving a financial collateral to authorities.

We as Christians , have learned from our Lord Jesus Christ to forgive our persecutors just as He, being nailed on the cross , said :

Father , forgive them , for they do not know what they are doing . Luke 23:34

Recently the Fox News Network listed Iran as the 3rd country in the world in which Christians are being persecuted. Fox News also claimed , Iran is rapidly moving to the top of the list. Source.

Sadly enough, these horror stories do not even begin to scratch the surface.

Pakistan: Violent Mob of Muslims “Ransacked and Desecrated” Church

Pakistan Muslim Militants Attack Church

Monday, 15 October 2007 (15 hours ago) By Jawad Mazhar Special Correspondent BosNewsLife reporting from Pakistan

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)– An uneasy calm returned Monday, October 15, to the village of Gowindhi, near Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore, after a violent mob of Muslims “ransacked and desecrated” the local evangelical New Apostolic Faith church, rights investigators said.

“A Muslim mob mounted on the roof of the church and hurled down its loud speakers,” on Wednesday October 10, said Khalid Gill, the regional director for Pakistan’s Punjab province of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), a major advocacy group.

“The mob of Muslim extremists also tried to destroy the boundary walls of the church and put manure on them.” They allegedly ripped up the Bible’s Book of Psalms and other Christian literature in the church. They also destroyed all the musical instruments, which were used during the praise and worship, Gill said.

Suspects were still at large Monday, October 15, apparently because local police refused to take action against them. Officials were not immediately available for comment. A 26-year-old Christian youth Sattar Masih witnessing the attack said he had informed the church’s pastor, identified as Pastor Pervaiz, about the Muslim attack at the church.

CHRISTIAN PROTEST

The pastor contacted police, but they “blatantly refused” to take action against the militants, local Christians and investigators said. A delegation of local Christian leaders, including a former member of Lahore’s district’s council, protested the refusal by police to intervene. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Gill said police officials have been “forcing” local Christians and their leadership to reconcile themselves with Muslim hardliners. The latest attack underscored religious tensions in the region. Muslim shopkeepers of Gowindhi village, apparently encouraged by Muslim militants, have reportedly stopped selling kitchen and other house hold items to Christian residents in the village.

Christians in other parts of Pakistan have also complained about violence and some have received threats because of their refusal to embrace Islam, several rights groups say. Barnabas Fund, which investigates reports of persecution of Christians in especially Muslim nations, told BosNewsLife that in one recent incident a church-run girls’ school in the area of Swat in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province was closed last month “after a letter from Islamic militants threatened to attack the school if it remained open.”

STAFF ACCUSED

Barnabas Fund said, “The letter accused the staff of trying to convert Muslim girl students to Christianity.” It also “criticized Muslim parents for allowing their daughters to attend [the school] and urged them to send them instead to Islamic madrassas,” Barnabas Fund added. Parents have reportedly condemned the letter, and police set up a 24-hour guard at the school, which re-opened on September 17.

In addition a bomb exploded at a Christian school in Bannu, also in North West Frontier Province, in the early hours of September 15. No one was reportedly injured and despite the damage to the building, the school has continued. Some groups have linked the increased
attacks against Christians in Pakistan to the government’s support to the US-led war on terror. Christians are often viewed by militants as supporting the United States, analysts say.

Barnabas Fund said the attacks against Pakistani Christians and churches also include legal challenges. “Various Pakistani politicians have attempted to reform the blasphemy law” which could lead to long prison terms for Christians, “but threats from Muslim extremists have always prevented any substantial amendments from being put in place.”

ELDERLY PRISONERS

It said it was especially concerned about the situation of two elderly Christians held on blasphemy charges, James Masih, 70, and Buta Masih, 85.

In a letter Barnabas Fund urged its supporters to “Pray that God will sustain them, and that they will soon be acquitted and released.”

Christians comprise less than three percent of Pakistan’s population of roughly 165 million people, most of whom are Muslims, according to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (Read more from Jawad Mazhar on the Web: www.raysofdevelopment.org) Source.

India: Christian Converts Threatened

Muslim fundamentalists ostracize converts, strip woman in India
Six Christian convert families have been ostracized and threatened by Muslim leaders in their village, Christian Today has learned.by Daniel Blake
Posted: Saturday, October 6, 2007, 9:52 (BST)Six Christian convert families have been ostracised and threatened by Muslim leaders in their village, Christian Today has learned.

It has also been reported that a group of Muslims forced a Christian woman to strip in order to check for any marks of conversion on her body.

The incident occurred on September 4 in Natungram village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, according to International Christian Concern (ICC), although the victims have not lodged a complaint with the police yet out of fear for their lives.

The head of a local mosque in the Muslim-dominated Natungram village, identified as Nur Islam, summoned the heads of six families that had converted from Islam to a village meeting, where hundreds of Muslims had also been called, a source told ICC.

In the meeting, the Christians were forced to deny Christ with a warning that if they refused they would be completely ostracized and possibly killed. Source.

Toronto woman disappears in Somalia

Toronto woman disappears in Somalia

Boyfriend concerned she’s in jail for refusing arranged marriage

Oct 03, 2007 04:30 AM
Michelle Shephard
Staff Reporter

The mysterious disappearance of a 23-year-old Toronto woman in Somalia has Canadian officials looking for her, and her boyfriend worried she’s being punished for their relationship.

Najah Jama has not been heard from since August when she called her boyfriend at the Toronto apartment they share, telling him she was jailed for refusing to marry a local Somali. Jama had left Toronto with her mother in March for a six-month vacation in northern Somalia. It was the first time she had ever visited her mother’s homeland.

The couple stayed in touch during her vacation, but in July a distraught Jama called her boyfriend, Seifu Getahun, to say she had been taken into custody. She said her mother had asked her to marry a Muslim man from her hometown and became upset and called police when Jama insisted she wanted to wed Getahun, a Canadian of Ethiopian Christian heritage. Ethiopia and Somalia have a long history of war, most recently exacerbated by the presence of Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu, the country’s anarchic capital.

None of Jama’s relatives could be reached for comment.

Getahun said he last spoke with Jama on Aug. 1, after she said she bribed a guard to use his cellphone. A telephone bill of that conversation shows a 27-minute call to a Somali cellphone. Calls to that number went unanswered this week. Source.

Homosexual Indoctrination Cali Schools

 Where else but in the land of the Folsome Street Fair…

This was bound to happen sooner or later.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs Bills Forcing Schools to Promote Transsexuality, Bisexuality, and Homosexuality to Five Year Olds

SACRAMENTO, Oct. 12 /Christian Newswire/ — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law two bills requiring all public school instruction and activities to positively portray transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality to children as young as kindergarten. He has also signed bills undermining marriage and infringing upon the moral conscience of business owners, churches, and nonprofit organizations.

Under SB 777, which will go into effect on January 1, 2008, the following could be eliminated from California public schools because they are deemed to have a “discriminatory bias”:

• Textbooks and other instruction that portray marriage as only between a man and a woman

• Textbooks and other instruction that say people are born male or female (and not in between)

• Textbooks and other instruction that leave out transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual historical figures

• Sex education and school assemblies that omit the option of hormone injections or sex changes

• Homecoming king and queen contests that allow only boys to run for king and only girls to run for queen

• Boys’ and girls’ bathrooms that separate biological boys from biological girls

Source.

Plans To Dig Up Historic London Gravesites, For Muslim Burial Sites

Anger over plan to dig up 350,000 bodies in historic London cemetery for Muslim burial site.

By BETH HALE – Last updated at 01:20am on 12th October 2007

Under threat: Historic Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park could be dug up to make way for a 21st century ‘multi faith’ burial site

It is a peaceful resting place for 350,000 souls – an historic graveyard which now serves as a nature reserve.

But plans are afoot to dig up the ancient graves at Tower Hamlets Cemetery – and reopen it as a 21st century burial site.

Officially it would be known as a “multi-faith” cemetery but it is likely that it would principally answer calls for a Muslim graveyard in the largely-Asian East London borough.

The local newspaper has been bombarded with letters from historians and nature lovers declaring: “There is no way we’ll allow them to dig up our ancestors.”

But the Labour-controlled council’s environment spokesman Abdal Ullah appeared to be in no doubt about the feasibility of the plan when he said: “To preserve the respect and dignity for everyone, I think most of the graves would have to be cleared out and we’d start afresh.”

He said a corner of the cemetery would be reserved for Muslims who are buried in shrouds at a depth of 6ft and on their side facing Mecca. Source.

Gaza: Christian Bookshop Owner Toutured & Killed

Protestant Christian tortured and killed in Gaza10/08/2007 10:31
PALESTINE

by Arieh Cohen
He managed the territory’s only Christian bookshop and in the past had received threats for spreading the Gospel. Hamas promises to find those responsible for the crime. For Fr. David Jaeger, an Israeli Franciscan, the martyrdom of this protestant must push Christians to be free from fear, conditioning and false “prudence”.

Gaza (AsiaNews) – A Palestinian protestant missionary was killed yesterday. He went missing Saturday October 6th in the afternoon and his body was found yesterday in a city street, tortured and with to bullet wounds to the head. Authorities from Shifa hospital confirmed that his body carried diverse knife wounds.

Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, was the director of the only Christian bookshop in Gaza, linked to the protestant organisation of the Palestinian Bible society. Ayyad had received death threats for his missionary work in spreading the Gospel. Last April his bookshop had been burnt during a campaign against “vice” launched by the group “the sword of Islam”.

Simon Azazian, spokesperson for the Bible Society in Jerusalem declared that Ayyad was killed for “his Christian faith”. Azazian confirms that October 5th, Ayyad had been followed by a car without registration plates. Saturday afternoon, as he closed his shop, he was kidnapped by a group of unknown men. Ayyad then phoned his family – his wife and two children – saying that he would be late home. His body was found lifeless the next day. Source.

False Rumors of Mohammed Cartoon Leads to Massacre of Nigerian Christians

Nigeria: 10 Christians slaughtered, 61 injured, 9 churches burned, hundreds displaced after rumored Mohammad cartoon.Kano; October 7, 2007. (WND) Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern Nigeria, according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school students claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque.The rampage occurred Sept. 28 in the town of Tudun Wada Dankadai, in Nigeria`s northern state of Kano.

According to Compass Direct News, which specializes in reporting on Christian persecution worldwide, there are 1,500 students at the high school, called Government College-Tudun Wada Dankadai, of which only 14 are Christians, and only seven of those actually live on campus. The Christian students at the school insist no one ever saw the alleged cartoon, and furthermore that no one in the tiny minority group of Christians would have dared such a feat, especially during Ramadan.

“How can we take such a risk when we know that we are a minority and cannot stand [against] them?” Christian student Shehu Bawa told Compass. “This is a lie created to have a reason to attack us.” Source.

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The Scream

 

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