Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Persecution Index 11: Orissa

One of the biggest waves of anti-Christian violence for some years is currently sweeping through the state of Orissa in India. Websites and blogs from the area have for many months been reporting deaths, mainly of Dalits or low-caste Indians, and thousands fleeing for their lives. But as sites here are reporting now, the persecuction is reaching a new intensity. The All Indian Christian Council has this today: 'The situation in Orissa's riot-hit Kandhamal district continues to be volatile on 02 September 2008 with at least 80 houses being torched in fresh violence.' And our own Lapido Media is carrying a report that  eight churches have been burned down and 15 Christians murdered by Hindu extremists.

Persecution Index 10: Iran

Sinister turn of affairs in Iran where the plight of the unfortunate Baha'is, persecuted there for a century and a half, worsens. Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm, all prominent members of the faith, have been arrested. In addition, Mahvash Sabet has been held in custody since 5 March this year after she was summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence to answer questions, ostensibly about the burial of an individual in the Baha'i cemetery in that city.

Persecution Index 9: Burma

Poor Burma. Its people's troubles are endless, as the story from which this pic is taken shows. There is a long history of persecution of Christians in Burma, as this article from January last year illustrates. But really Christians there are not targeted more than any other group, as the writer of the piece makes clear. The Buddhist religious are equally victims, as we have seen recently, of a regime determined to keep itself in power, even when its population is dying by the thousands  because of a freakish 'act of God'.

Comment of the Day: Anglican shot dead in Somalia

Comment of the Day, from Joe: 'This is to let you know the sad news that David Mohamed Ali, a Somali Christian evangelist and a long-standing member of St Matthew's, was shot dead last week by two Islamist terrorists in Badoia, Somalia, because of his Christian faith. He had been sent to Badoia by Ethiopian and Somali border police, for reasons that are not clear. David was an intelligent and gifted evangelist who thought deeply about his faith.'

Read it all here.

Persecution Index 8: United States

It appears that the pig is being persecuted in the United States. Please don't laugh. A regular reader of this blog has sent me the following from Front Page Magazine: 'The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers.'

Read the rest here.

Meanwhile, some blogs have picked up the AP report that leaders of Ireland’s main Christian churches were barred from praying at Jerusalem’s Western Wall yesterday because they refused to remove the crosses they were wearing. 'Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady, Church of Ireland Archbishop Alan Harper and Presbyterian and Methodist Moderators John Finlay and Roy Cooper arrived at the wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, without giving prior notice to Israeli authorities, Brady told the Irish broadcast network RTE.'

I look forward to hearing how they got on when they tried entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque without taking their shoes off.

 

Persecution Index 7: Saudi

A divorced Saudi woman from Saudi Arabia cannot board a plane without her son's permission, Tom Gross reports on his website.

Tom writes: 'The Gulf's largest and most important Arab state continues to practice severe discrimination against many minorities and against its female half of the population.

'Over the years, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch has been much criticized by many people (including myself) for obsessively condemning the U.S. and Israel while all but ignoring far worse human rights offenders around the world, including those in Arab countries. I am glad to say that HRW has this month finally produced a comprehensive report critical of Saudi Arabia'

Persecution Index 6: United Kingdom

Today, Christian Solidarity Worldwide is publishing an important report that examines the consequences of apostasy in Islam around the world. You can read the full report hereand pretty grim reading it makes. Yesterday's paper carried a report. One case involved British convert Nissar Hussein, 43, born and raised in the United Kingdom but who converted from Islam to Christianity with his wife, Qubra, in 1996. The report says: 'Relationships with both their families were severed following conversion and Nissar has not heard from his parents or siblings since. What makes the story of Nissar and Qubra so unpleasant is how the Pakistani community in Bradford, where Nissar grew up, reacted to his conversion. Nissar and Qubra stated in an interview with Christian Solidarity that the initial response to their conversion was that their
friends severed relationships and asked them never to visit or talk to them again. As news of their
conversion spread, people on the streets, in shops and at their children’s school began to ignore them, or to insult them, and on one occasion, Nissar was called a 'Jewish bastard' 'by strangers.

Persecution Index 5: Singapore

From the Becket Fund: 'Two Singaporeans, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng and Ong Kian Cheong, have been charged under the Sedition Act and the Undesirable Publications Act after giving an Evangelical Christian publication to two people last year, Agence France-Presse reported on April 16.  Specific details of the publication are unknown, though it allegedly contained a negative portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.  Singapore is known to take severe action against anyone who is thought to have increased tensions in the community, previously jailing two men for anti-Muslim blogs and warning another for posting cartoons online which mocked Jesus Christ.'

Persecution Index 4: South Africa, Pakistan

Muslim parents have taken over the school governing body of a Christian-majority high school in Kwazulu-Natal, SoutMuslimh Africa, the Barnabas Fund reports. By law meetings must be held to elect members of the governing body. 'Apathy among the Christian parents meant that hardly any Christians showed up at an electoral meeting, allowing the Muslim parents to seize control of the governing body by winning six of the seven elected positions. In South Africa the curriculum of the school is set by the government, but almost all other management issues relating to the school are decided upon by the governors. This includes decisions on the headmaster, staff, sport, culture and ethos.

Persecution Index 3: Jordan

According to Middle East Concern, a convert to Christianity has fled Jordan after being charged with apostasy and threatened with the loss of his children. Muhammad Abbad Abd al-Qader Abbad, a 40 year old Jordanian who converted to Christianity 15 years ago, left Jordan on Friday March 28 after being charged with apostasy before the North Amman Shari'a Court. Muhammad and his wife Muna al-Habash, have two children: Joy, age 11, and Salam, age 9. On Sunday 23 March, Muhammad and Muna were attacked and beaten by several brothers-in-law of another convert to Christianity who had sought sanctuary in Muhammad's home. Muhammad's son, Salam, was also hit several times as he tried to protect his father. After the beatings Muhammad's father reported his son to the police and asked for custody of the couple's two children.

Persecution Index 2: Saudi

The Becket Fund reports today: 'Officials in Saudi Arabia have sentenced a Turkish citizen to death for blasphemy, after the man was accused of using 'obscene language' to refer to God Today's Zaman reported on April 19.  Sabri Boğday, a Turk who has resided in the Saudi Arabian province of Jeddah for the past ten years, allegedly used the offending terms in the course of an argument with his neighbor. Turkish officials fear that Boğday has been falsely accused, according to Today's Zaman, and worry that because he is a foreigner, he will be dealt with in a particularly harsh manner. Immigrants are said to be at greater risk for convictions in Saudi Arabia; in the last year alone, 76 foreigners were executed in the country.'

Persecution Index 1: Zimbabwe

This might not look like the average Mothers' Union meeting as we know them in Britain, but in terms of peacefulness, good works, child-centredness and Christian goodness, the Mothers' Union branch in Harare is no different from its UK counterparts. Having known more hardship, its members are probably even more good than the unsung English stalwarts who keep the churches here upright in every sense. There can be no true explanation then for why, shortly after this photograph was taken, this meeting was broken up by Zimbabwe riot police.

Benazir: 'I am not afraid of death'

'I am not afraid of death,' Benazir Bhutto told me when I interviewed her for the Daily Mail in November 1985. She was just 31 at the time. 'My religion teaches that I will rejoin my father and my brother when I die. It is the living who have to suffer the grief and the pain,' she said. In an attempt to pay tribute, although nothing I can say will ever be enough, I've reproduced the full interview below.

UK Imam's daughter gets death threats for apostasy

An imam's daughter who converted to Christianity after fleeing an arranged marriage is under police protection after receiving death threats from her family. Read our exclusive report on this at Times Online. The story of Hannah, aged 32, will be unveiled tomorrow at the launch of a new charity, Lapido Media, in London. The aim of the charity is to promote religious literacy in world affairs. I spoke to Hannah, who uses a pseudonym, earlier today. Her story is chilling, and provides a sobering reflection on what it is to be Muslim, or a Muslim convert to Christianity, in Britain today. Also today, as we report, Saga have released a poll showing how many over-50s are worried about the downgrading of Christianity in society, and MPs at Parliament have debated whether there is Christianophobia in the UK.

Iran ruthless in persecution of peace-loving Baha'is

This student is from Iran's long-suffering Baha'i community. She is studying music in the UK, and is here practising a piece by a composer from her homeland. Soon, she must return to Iran. There, her future like that of her family and all Baha'is is uncertain. We cannot identify her for fear of putting her family in danger. It's more than a year since I last addressed this issue. Things since then have got worse. Far worse.

Bishop of Iran: Concern for Christians in Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto was the first ever woman leader of a Muslim nation.She wants to fight Al Queda, to stamp out Islamist terror, to stop the Taliban in Afghanistan. So naturally, as soon as she sets foot on her home soil again, she is subject to a deadly assassination attempt that results in the deaths of dozens of innocent others.

Archbishop taken to task over Iraq

This picture and the one below show the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, on his recent visit to Syria, when he spoke with Iraqi refugees who were victims of persecution. We reported this last week, but mention must now be made of left-wing commentator Nick Cohen who on Sunday took the Arcbhishop to task for failing to mention who were the true persecutors of Iraqi Christians. As Nick rightly notes, it is not Britain or the US. The main difference the war in Iraq has made, it seems to me, to the plight of Christians in these countries is that now we are beginning to find out about ithe persecution because we are over there.

Persecution in Pakistan

Pakistan's Christians are facing renewed persecution in the country. This month Christians in the North West Frontier Province region of the country were sent threats of "dire consequences and bomb attacks" if they didn't "embrace" Islam within 10 days. An 84-year old Christian was the latest to be imprisoned under the blasphemy laws, his house was seized to be turned into a Madrassah and his wife forced to convert to Islam by saying the Sunni Islamic creed.

Malaysian malaise

This picture, taken from the religion section of the Malaysian Mamakk blog, illustrates perfectly the beauty of abandonment in Malaysia. This is where the Archbishop of Canterbury was meant to be this week, chairing the sixth Building Bridges seminar between top Muslim and Christian scholars from around the world. As we report, the conference was cancelled at the last minute after the Malaysian government intervened, and Dr Williams, who did indeed visit Malaysia to preach at the consecration of Bishop Ng, is now on a hastily-arranged visit to Sri Lanka. (update: Malaysia's Council of Churches has now asked the Malaysian government to reconsider its decision, as Episcopal Life Online reports.)

Poisonings and beheadings

On Remembrance Day last year, a 73-year-old English missionary priest died in Malawi. Canon Rodney Hunter merited a short Times obituary and was much mourned by those who knew and loved him here and in Africa. But he was elderly, and had had cancer. There seemed little in his death to arouse suspicion. Now, it turns out, he was poisoned. Mutterings that all was not right with his death began a few weeks back, and police in Africa have this week confirmed the worst.

Christians' throats slit in Turkey

Middle East Concern has sent me this report of an horrific story, also covered in today's Times. Three Christians have been killed by five young attackers on Wednesday early afternoon. The three victims, two Turks and a German, were discovered at the Zirve publishing house in the eastern city of Malatya. They were bound to a chair and their throats had been slit. This picture of police wrestling an unidentified man after the attacks comes from Christianity Today.