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.

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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.

Egyptian Islamists Join Case against Convert to Christianity

Egyptian Islamists Join Case against Convert to Christianitymercredi 10 octobre 2007Former Muslim sues Egypt for right to become Chris tian.by Peter Lamprecht

Conservative Islamic lawyers came out in support of the Egyptian government last week at the opening court hearing of a Muslim convert to Chris tianity.

In a move that has caused national uproar, former Muslim Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy is suing Egypt to change the religion listed on his identification papers to Christianity.

Islamist lawyers associated with radical cleric Youssef al-Badry attended the October 2 hearing in Cairo and legally joined the case on the government’s side, Hegazy told Compass.

Hegazy’s lawyers confirmed that Magdy al-Anany and at least three other fundamentalist Muslim attorneys filed to support the government.

Al-Badry was one of several clerics who called for Hegazy’s death in Egypt ’s national media, following the announcement of the case in early August. The radical Islamist also filed charges of inciting sectarian strife against Hegazy’s original lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhla. Source.