LOS ANGELES, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.
A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended.
Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, with Rad “very ill” and unable to walk, said the source. Rad was released on bail of US$30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of US$20,000.
“The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a female security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed.
A draft law before the Iranian parliament would make the death penalty mandatory for “apostates” who leave Islam.
“They went to a court hearing just for show,” the source said, “as secret police had already taken their signatures by force with a statement that they had not changed their religion.”
The charges, however, are still open, said the source, a close friend of the couple.
The female security police official warned Rad that if she and her husband continued attending a house church and holding Bible studies, they could be imprisoned “for a very long time” and would lose their daughter, Odzhan Arya. An officer also told Rad that authorities could concoct a drug case against them, “and you will be punished as drug smugglers.”
A male security police official also threatened Rad, who along with her husband received Christ as savior about three months ago, the source said.
“He told Tina during the interrogation that if she doesn’t cooperate and tell some names and addresses, she won’t see her daughter for a long time,” the source said. “They said, ‘Next time if we catch you, you are going to miss your whole family forever.’”
An officer also told Arya that authorities could place his daughter “in a protected religious institution.”
The charge against Arya of “activities against national security” was based on his allowing Bible sessions with Muslims in his apartment and trying to go to the house church, the source said.
Confirmation from the couple’s denomination of their arrest and mistreatment was not immediately available.
Forced Statements
The couple was forced to sign a statement, the source said, that they wouldn’t go back to their house church and that they would have no contact with other Christians – and that if they did, “they will be punished by the law of Islam.”
The charges and forced statements seem to contravene the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, giving it the force of law. Article 18 of the covenant stipulates that everyone shall have the right to adopt a religion or belief, as well as freedom individually or in community in public or private to manifest one’s religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
The couple would forfeit their bail and their freedom if secret religious police catch them engaged in Christian activities, they were told in the court before their release.
“They were tortured psychologically and physically,” the source said. “There are a lot of blue places on their bodies. Tina can’t walk well and is very ill, and her husband Makan is still very shocked.”
The couple was arrested after a relative of Arya informed security police of the couple’s Christian activities. According to the friend of the couple, officers confiscated their personal computer, satellite dish and television set, as well as all books, videos, CDs, DVDs and even a photo album.
“Tina is very sick, and because of the pain on the right side of her head from the torture, and the shock of the whole situation, she can’t leave the house and their daughter,” the source said. “She knows for sure that they are monitored in all their communications.”
Societal Hostilities
Following their arrest, the husband and wife also suffered at the hands of family and area Muslims.
In order to make the bail payments, Arya obtained financial help from his father – on the condition that he promise to divorce his wife.
“So he did [promise], and now of course he refuses to divorce,” the source said. “So his father gave him an ultimatum. There is discrimination even in the family against them.”
After their release, the couple found the window of their clothing shop had been smashed.
“Almost the whole street knows about them, so imagine how difficult their business is,” said the source. “They want to change the shop and go somewhere else. Every day and night they get some calls from unknown people, and their life at this moment is under invisible and visible surveillance.”
On Monday (June 23) Arya received letters at both the clothing shop and his home stating that he must place evidence on his new window pane indicating his Islamic faith by displaying a statement and photos, or else he would have to buy a new window every day.
The source said Arya displayed a photo of Islamic leaders on the window, “but they want to go somewhere else.”
Arya went to area police asking for protection, the source said, “but they told him not to lie and to ‘go do something about it if you are a real believer of Islam.’”
Archive for the 'religious freedom' Category
May 2, 2008 8:41 PM
Muslim rebels have forced hundreds of mainly Christian families off their farms in the southern Philippines, escalating tensions in the region ahead of the withdrawal of Malaysian peace monitors next week.Rolando Garcia, mayor of Kalamansig town on the troubled southern island of Mindanao, said that heavily-armed members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claimed the farmers’ land belonged to the Muslim minority.
“We have about 1,200 people in our temporary shelter areas…afraid to return to their farms,” Garcia told reporters, adding rice was about to be harvested when the rebels came late on Wednesday.
The 11,000-strong MILF is meant to be observing a ceasefire and a spokesman for the rebel group said he was unaware of any land seizures.
“We have not received any report on that,” Eid Kabalu told reporters, adding the MILF leadership has ordered units to abide by a 2003 truce even after the Malaysian peace monitors withdraw.
Some MILF members are frustrated that long-running peace talks with Manila for the creation of a homeland for Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic country have been stalled since December 2007.
Last week, Malaysia said around 20 of 41 peacekeepers would leave on May 10 and the rest will be withdrawn by the end of August because the peace process, which Kuala Lumpur was chairing, was not moving fast enough.
Garcia said many Christian communities in the south feared of similar MILF attacks on their farms and villages as frustration boils over.
But analysts have said they do not expect the ceasefire to break down because most MILF members are war weary after a near 40-year conflict that has killed 120,000 people and displaced two million.
The MILF has questioned the sincerity of the government in wanting to create a Muslim homeland in the south.
Although President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has repeatedly said she wants peace, hawks in her cabinet are opposed to giving large swathes of land to Muslims and politically powerful Christian clans in the south would oppose a deal.
Source: Reuters
04/24/2008 13:27
INDONESIA
In Padang, Islamic law is now imposed on all
by Mathias Hariyadi
The controversial local laws inspired by sharia are now being applied to non-Muslim citizens. Female students who do not wear the headscarf are suspended, and few have the courage to rebel, because of fear of reprisals.Jakarta (AsiaNews) – In Padang, capital of the province of West Sumatra, the atmosphere is increasingly that of an Islamic state. Female students who do not wear the headscarf (hijab) are frequently suspended from school. The requirement to observe Islamic customs, sanctioned by the controversial regional law of 2005, is also imposed on non-Muslim girls, and has generated an atmosphere of strong pressure on religious minorities. The proliferation of local laws inspired by sharia (perda syariat) is a growing phenomenon in Indonesia, but the central government has chosen not to intervene for now, in spite of protests from religious minorities and human rights NGO’s.
The situation is not limited to Padang alone, where the most active promoter of Islamic laws is the mayor himself, Fauzi Bahar. In this province, which has an overwhelming Muslim majority, since 2002 more than 19 districts have ratified the so-called “perda syariat”, norms that are, however, supposed to be applied only to Muslim citizens: some of them criminalise behaviours prohibited by Islamic law, like adultery, prostitution, games of chance, and consumption of alcohol, while others restrict the freedom of women. Men as well are required to wear Islamic dress: the traditional white robe called the “koko”.
The application of the headscarf law in Padang is going beyond all imaginable limits, the inhabitants of the area say. An anonymous Catholic young woman admits: “Wearing the headscarf is not pleasant for me at all, and it bothers me while I am studying in school”. Other female students in various schools complain about the same thing. If they are interviewed by journalists, the young women ask not be named, because they are afraid of “being persecuted by fundamentalists”. “We have to adapt”, they say, “we have no choice, otherwise they will send us home”. Sudarto, one of the members of a local NGO that works for interreligious dialogue, reports that the headscarf law is applied strictly in at least four schools in Padang.
Other residents report with concern that since 2003 in Padang, mayor Fauzi has moved forward “enthusiastically” the project of “creating a more Islamic atmosphere” in the city. Among the other norms inspired by sharia, they recall the obligation for students in the elementary schools to learn the Qur’an by heart.
Exactly what happens when Islamic fundamentalists gain the majority and step into the political area, gaining political control.
Think about it people!
Saudi Arabian Hypocrisy!
I am not shocked. And I would not expect any less from the mangy Saudis. They fund various Islamic related groups, mosques and collegiate studies in the US and elsewhere. For them to expect the Catholic Church to accept Mohammad (as a prophet) as prerequisite for Church’s in Saudi. Is a mind blowing arrogance. Recognizing Mohammad as a prophet would be going against the faith. They may as well be saying say convert or else. It is as simple as that. Of course that would still mean no church’s. There would be no longer be any need for Catholic Church’s (anywhere). Since Catholicism will have dissipated. The Catholic faith accepting Mohammad as a prophet would be a blasphemous act.
It is a lose, lose situation. Basically they are saying no to church’s in Saudi. Because surely even in their wildest dreams they do not believe that the Catholic Church will go along with such a demand.
Saudi Arabia: No churches unless prophet Mohammed recognised, says expert
Riyadh, 20 March (AKI) – No churches should be permitted in Saudi Arabia, unless Pope Benedict XVI recognised the prophet Mohammed, according to a Middle East expert.
While Saudi mediators are working with the Vatican on negotiations to allow places of religious worship, some experts believe it will not occur without this recognition.
Anwar Ashiqi, president of the Saudi centre for Middle East strategic studies, endorsed this view in an interview on the site of Arab satellite TV network, al-Arabiya on Thursday.
“I haven taken part in several meetings related to Islamic-Christian dialogue and there have been negotiations on this issue,” he said.
“It would be possible to launch official negotiations to construct a church in Saudi Arabia only after the Pope and all the Christian churches recognise the prophet Mohammed.”
“If they don’t recognise him as a prophet, how can we have a church in the Saudi kingdom?”
Ashiqi’s comments came after a declaration launched by the papal nuncio of the Persian Gulf, the archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, at the opening of the first Catholic church in Qatar last week.
The prelate had announced the launch of “treaties to construct a church in Saudi Arabia where it is banned to practise whatever religion they want outside Islam”.
El-Hachem estimated three to four million Christians in the Saudi kingdom who want to have a church.
A member of Saudi Arabia’s Consultative Council, Abdelaziz al-Thinani, rejected the prelate’s claims saying that there were no Christians among the Saudis who were all Muslims.
“Those few Christians do not reside in the country permanently, they come and go,” he said.
He denied there were four million Christians in the kingdom and said the issue of human rights should not be used to call for the construction of a Christian church.
Most of Saudi Arabia’s Christians are foreign workers. There are 8.2 million foreign workers in a country of 25.6 million people according to a report by the Saudi Labour Ministry.
Iran Mulls the Death Penalty for Apostates—Perhaps with Worldwide Jurisdiction
Life for so-called apostates in Iran has never been easy, but it could become literally impossible if Iran passes a new draft penal code. For the first time in its history, Iran is considering the death penalty for apostates. In the past, authorities have executed apostates. But punishment by death has never before been set down in law.
The text of the draft penal code uses the word Hadd, which explicitly sets death as a fixed punishment that cannot be changed, reduced or annulled. The rest of the code is little better. By using ill-defined terms, other provisions also open the door to abuse Iran’s already beleaguered religious and ethnic minorities.
Article 225-1 states “Any Muslim who clearly announces that he/she has left Islam and declares blasphemy is an Apostate.” Article 225-2 adds that “Serious and earnest intention is the condition for certainty in apostasy.” So an accused person could claim that he made his statement reluctantly, or ignorantly, or while drunk, or through the slip of a tongue, and he would not be considered an apostate.
The penal code also identifies two types of apostates: innate (Fetri) and parental (Melli). An innate apostate has at least one parent who was a Muslim at conception, who declares himself a Muslim after maturity, then later leaves Islam. Maturity occurs at puberty, usually around 12 or 13. By contrast, both the parents of a parental apostate were non-Muslims at his conception. A parental apostate becomes a Muslim at maturity, then “later leaves Islam and returns to blasphemy.”The code adds another condition for the parental apostate: anyone who has “at least one Muslim parent at the time of conception but after the age of maturity, without pretending to be a Muslim, chooses blasphemy is considered a Parental Apostate.”
To dispel any confusion over the required punishment for apostasy, the draft code says outright that “punishment for an Innate Apostate is death.” However, parental apostates do receive a slender reprieve: After sentencing, they have three days to recant their beliefs. If not, they will be executed according to their sentence.
Interestingly, the punishment for women is lighter than that for men. Punishment for a woman, whether innate or parental, is life imprisonment with hardship “exercised on her.” If a woman recants, she will be freed immediately. In a side note, the code’s authors said religious laws would determine “the condition of hardship.”
The code would also further erode the rights of minorities such as Bahá’ís or Christians by labeling them apostates. “False prophets”—a term undefined in the code—are to be sentenced to death. Any Muslim who “invents a heresy” or a sect contrary to Islam is also an apostate.
Also worrying for minorities is Article 133-3, which declares that anyone who uses a minor to commit a crime will be punished. As past experience shows, parents of Bahá’í or Christian youth who share their teachings with children other than their own could find this article applies to them. Also, two or more people who get together to commit a felony constitute a group or band. This reference can be used for any organized action by a group of people, including any activity carried out by groups the government considers dangerous, such as Bahá’ís, Christians, or Azeris.
The code’s authors go even further, extending its jurisdiction beyond Iran’s borders to those acting “against the government, the independence and the internal and external security of the country.” The law does not define the term “security.” This means that groups around the world that Iran’s regime consider dangerous could be liable for actions they take outside the country.
Iran already has an abysmal record when it comes to oppressing religious minorities and political dissidents. The current draft penal code only provides more scope to abuse the fundamental rights of Iranians. For anyone who dares question the regime’s religious ideology, there could soon be no room to argue—only death.
Joseph K. Grieboski is the President of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
No worries they just need a good talking to. 🙄
Westerners cautioned in Qatar
Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:33:42
Western embassies in Qatar urge their citizens to be alert after a militant website opposed the opening of the first church in the country.
The British embassy in Qatar said the website flagged the opening on Friday of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Doha, the first of five to be built in the gas-rich state.
The authorities are aware of this and are taking appropriate security measures,” the embassy said on its website, without indicating what the unidentified militant website said.
British citizens should “maintain a high level of security awareness, particularly in public places… you should avoid large gatherings and demonstrations,” it said.
In March 2005, a suicide bombing in Doha killed one Briton and wounded 12 people.
The US embassy in Qatar on Thursday also released a warning that the new Doha church might be a target for attack.
Qatar is a close ally of Washington and hosts the command headquarters for US forces in the Middle East.
The Australian embassy in the United Arab Emirates, which is responsible for affairs in Qatar, said it was aware of the militant website’s reference to the church, which has no bells or crosses on its exterior.
“We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Qatar because of the high threat of terrorist attacks,” it claimed on its website.
On a side note: Saudia Arabia does NOT allow Christian churches. Though they fund Mosques and CAIR in the US.
Ethiopia: Christian persecution
Christian Businessman Released from Prison
January 9, 2008CHINA – On January 4, Christian bookstore owner, Shi Weihan, along with two dozen others. was released from prison in China.
According to China Aid Association (CAA), the Chinese government decided against a formal trial for Weihan and dropped all criminal charges against him and the others. CAA reported, “Eye witnesses said, ‘Weihan was in good spirits and in a relatively stable physical condition when he was released from prison.’”
Weihan and two dozen other individuals had been in prison since November under charges of illegal printing and distribution of Christian literature. Weihan is one of many Christians who have been imprisoned in China because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Pray for believers in China as they faithfully serve the Lord in the midst of great persecution. Source.
New Year’s Day Attacks On Christians In India
By Santosh Digal, BosNewsLife Asia Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR (BosNewsLife)– There were new reports of attacks by suspected Hindu militants against Christians in India on New Year’s Day, shortly after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to protect the country’s minority Christians in a letter to the widow of an Australian missionary killed nine years ago.
Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned alive in January 1999 as they slept in their car in Orissa state by a right-wing Hindu mob who accused them of trying to convert the local population.
“The government will take all necessary steps to safeguard the fundamental rights and liberties of all sections of our society and protect their religious freedom,” Singh wrote to Gladys Staines, according to a statement from his office obtained by BosNewsLife. “We will not tolerate any efforts aimed at disturbing the communal harmony or secular fabric of our country,” the prime minister said.It came as about 5,000 Christians in Orissa were believed to have become victims of week-long Hindu-led attacks, in which up to nine Christians died. Roughly 70 churches, other Christian institutions and many more homes were destroyed since the violence began December 24, with Hindu mobs disrupting Christmas celebrations in Orissa’s volatile Kandhamal District, church officials said.
MORE ATTACKS
Elsewhere, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, 30-year-old Pastor Krishnappa and several other Christians gathering at his church were attacked in the early hours of Tuesday, January 1, said Sajan J. George, president of advocacy group Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) in a statement to BosNewsLife.
Two Christians, identified only as Anand, 29, and Raju, 28, were still in a “serious condition” following the attack by some 25 suspected Hindu militants on the Seventh Day Adventist’s prayer hall in the Basavanahally area of Karnataka’s Chickmaglur district, he said.
“The radicals entered the church with metal rods ,knives and started merciless to attack the [200] peaceful worshippers,” George added. Police officials have reportedly described the incident as a “minor skirmish,” but GCIC’s George said the tiny Christian community is “living in fear.”He said the New Year attack was the latest in some 100 violent incidents against Christians in Karnataka since January 2006. Police and local officials have been accused by human rights watchers and church leaders of not doing enough to stop violence against Christian believers.POLICE INVOLVEMENT
In addition, the Christian Legal Association has said in published remarks that Hindu extremists in at least some cases cooperate with local police. In Karnataka’s capital, Bangalore, police reportedly arrested and harassed five Christian workers recently from the Indian Church of Christ after Hindu militants attacked the believers.
In Orissa state, where most of the violence against Christians occurred in recent days, church leaders and other officials have also complained about a lack of police protection. Police denied the charges, saying they have arrested suspects and stepped up patrols in several areas of the troubled region.
Yet, speaking to BosNewsLife, local Christians said they are concerned about a new outbreak of violence in Orissa, after a tense calm returned there Monday, December 31. A priest from Orissa’s Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese told BosNewslife: “You can’t trust police and government officials at all levels anymore.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fears of reprisals, the priest said he had lost all his belongings and money in the clashes which began in the town of Bamunigam. “I had gone there for Christmas…,” he added.
ATTACKS “PLANNED”
The priest said he never expected that the attacks “were so well planned by Hindu fanatics,” adding that “police inaction to protect Christians and church properties” were “clear signs” that the local government “subtly supported” the Hindu rampage.
He stressed there were concerns of more future attacks on the tiny Christian community of Orissa of roughly 900,000 people.
http://www.christianpersecution.info/news/new-years-day-attacks-on-christians-in-india/
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