Persecution Blog

Court: Prosecution for Humanitarian Aid Was Persecution

The following two news items talk about how a Chinese citizen of North Korean descent provided humanitarian aid to two Christian North Koreans in 2002, and how he was finally able to get asylum here in the United States.  In some ways this story is unbelievable, and in another it's the sign of the times.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday revived the claim of one of three Chinese nationals of North Korean descent who sought asylum based upon alleged persecution for rendering humanitarian aid to North Korean refugees in China.

Ruling that the Board of Immigration Appeals’ finding that Chinese authorities’ alleged arrest and torture of Xun Li as a valid prosecution for a criminal act of harboring foreign citizens rather than persecution on account of political opinion lacked substantial evidence, the court granted Li relief. The court rejected the consolidated petitions of the two other nationals, Xiangzhe Cui and He Yun Fang, in unpublished memoranda.  Read the full article.

Meanwhile, CBS 5 reported this about Li.

Li, a Chinese citizen of North Korean descent, said he was asked by his Christian pastor to provide shelter to two Christian North Koreans in 2002. He said Chinese police beat and kicked him, stripped him to his underwear and left him in below-freezing temperature, and sent him to a labor camp where other inmates beat him. The appeals court said that according to U.S. State Department figures, up to 50,000 North Koreans have been driven by famine and repression to flee to China. The appeals court noted that a U.S. law passed in 2004, the North Korean Human Rights Act, sets a policy of encouraging aid to North Korean refugees. The court said it would be "an odd form of justice" if Li took actions consistent with U.S. policy "and yet, when persecuted on that basis, was declared unfit to seek asylum here in the United States." The case was sent back to an immigration judge for further proceedings. The panel said there is a presumption that Li "has a well-founded fear of future persecution" in China, but that U.S. Justice Department lawyers could try to argue that conditions in China have changed.

  Read the full article

Please take a few minutes to pray for those suffering in North Korea, China and for the Lord to open up a way of escape for those who need deliverance.

Judeo-Christian Violence vs. Islamic Violence

Doing some research this morning for this blog, I came across this very well written article from Raymond Ibrahim of Jihad Watch. The full article is worthy of being read.  Click here to read the full article.  Here are a few snips from it, worthy of thought.

Nonetheless, history attests that these Crusades were violent and bloody. After breaching the walls of Jerusalem in 1099, the Crusaders slaughtered almost every single inhabitant of the Holy City. According to the Medieval chronicle, the Gesta Danorum "the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles." Moreover, there is the 1204 sack of Constantinople, wherein Crusader slew Christian.

In light of the above-one a prime example of "Hebraic" violence from the Bible, the other from Christian history-why should Islam be the one religion always characterized as intrinsically violent, simply because its holy book and its history also contain violence? Why should non-Muslims always point to the Koran and ancient history as evidence of Islam's violence while never looking to their own scriptures and history?

While such questions are popular, they reveal a great deal of confusion between history and theology, between the temporal actions of men and what are understood to be the immutable words of God. The fundamental error being that Judeo-Christian history-which is violent-is being conflated with Islamic theology-which commands violence. Of course all religions have had their fair share of violence and intolerance towards the "other." Whether this violence is ordained by God or whether warlike man merely wished it thus is the all-important question.

Columbia: Six Months Later, Pastor Still Missing

This story comes from our friends at Compass Direct.  Read the full story here.

Please take a few minutes to offer up this family and the Rev. William Reyes in prayer.  Pray for their peace and comfort and for a break in this case.  Missing someone is hard, but not  even knowing where a person is, is even harder.  Thanks for praying today for this dear family and situation.

The Rev. William Reyes’ wife awaits word, fears for safety of her children.

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, March 23 (Compass Direct News) – Six months after the disappearance in Colombia of the Rev. William Reyes of Maicao, La Guajira, no one knows what happened to him. This week marks six months of agonizing uncertainty for the family of Rev. Reyes. On Sept. 25, 2008, the pastor of Light and Truth Inter-American Church disappeared en route home from a ministers’ meeting in Valledupar, a city in the neighboring department (state) of Cesar. Family members and friends fear that guerrilla fighters kidnapped the veteran minister; they have not seen or heard from him since his disappearance. Rev. Reyes and colleagues in the Fraternity of Evangelical Pastors of Maicao had received repeated threats from illegal armed groups operating in the La Guajira peninsula since March 2008. Guerrillas or their paramilitary rivals may have assassinated Rev. Reyes and disposed of his body, and some observers even speculate that he may have fallen victim to rogue units of the Colombian army that murder innocent civilians to inflate the body counts of “terrorists” killed in battle. But nobody knows for sure what happened to the 41-year-old father of three, ages 9 to 19. “Some days I feel so desperate, I don’t know what to do,” his wife, Idia Miranda de Reyes, told Compass by telephone from her home in Maicao. Through tears, she added, “My daughter Estefania helps me stay strong. She tells me, ‘Mama don’t cry,’ remember that God is with us.’”

A Christian Missionary, Who Grew Up a Muslim Extremist

  I wanted to share with you this gem of an article I found written by By Steve Zalusky at the Daily Herald.  I found it inspiring, and I hope you do too.  Read the full article here.

Given his background and upbringing, Hicham Chehab makes an unlikely missionary.

A Muslim in Lebanon during the Civil War between Christians and Muslims, his first experiences with Christianity were violent and threatening. He was attacked, and his brother was killed, by Christians.

Trained by a Muslim extremist group, he was taught how to use rocket launchers, mortars and rifles, and was told, "If you want to shoot straight, imagine that there is a Christian in your sights." Eventually, he participated in the Civil War as a sniper.

Today, he is a missionary at Salam Church, located at Peace Lutheran Church in Lombard. The Lutheran Arabic Church, which just celebrated its first full year of existence, is attended by refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Palestine. It is called Salam, the word for peace in Arabic and Persian, because, he said, only the Prince of Peace, Jesus, can bring reconciliation to the hearts of people in the Middle East.

Extremists Place Unreasonable Demands on Believers

The following news is from our good friends at Mission Network News.

India (MNN) ― Last year, anti-Christian violence affected nearly half of India's districts and targeted believers in 310 villages, according to the All India Christian Council.

The World Bible Translation Center reports that Hindu radicals have recently placed unreasonable demands on Orissa's believers. Extremists are requiring Christians to reconvert to Hinduism, and in light of next month's elections, vote for the Hindu fundamentalist party. Believers also must withdraw any reports of violence that were submitted to the government.

Last year's anti-Christian violence was one of the reasons for the split between India's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); BJD was one of its oldest allies. According to the All India Christian Council (AICC), the 2008 anti-Christian violence killed nearly 60 people, including 2 pastors. Christians in over 300 villages were targeted; 4,400 houses were burned, and 50,000 people were left homeless. Nearly 20,000 individuals were injured in attacks, and two women were gang-raped; one of them was a nun. Hindu extremists now are forcing Christians in Orissa to vote for the fundamentalist party in elections beginning April 16.

Anti-Christian violence in India has continued, and Voice of the Martyrs Canada received several reports in recent weeks. On March 9, Hindu militants armed with rods and hockey sticks forced entrance to a pastor's home in New Delhi where they beat him, his wife and son. The militants also stole 15,000 rupees ($370 CAD) and threatened to return and murder his family if he didn't leave within a week.

On March 11, another pastor was attacked by Hindu extremists after a prayer meeting. Radicals beat the pastor and told him to stop conducting prayer meetings. He suffered fractures to his back and ribs. Pray for healing for these believers, and ask God to give wisdom to church leaders in India.

Pray for God's wisdom and blessing to be upon Indian Christians, and that they would stand strong in their faith.

WBTC-India distributes Easy-to-Read Oriya Scripture to India's believers. This version, written at a third grade reading level, is well-suited for those in the region who are poor and undereducated. WBTC-India provides this written Word for house churches.

If you would like to help, click here.

 

When You Forgive, You Are Like Christ

“Before we finish this funeral service,” her words rang out clearly to the thousand people in attendance, “I want to tell you what my husband told me before dying. He asked me to tell all his murderers that he goes to heaven loving wholeheartedly everybody, including his assassins. He has forgiven all for what they have done because Jesus loves and will also forgive them.”

    She stood over her husband’s coffin. There were tears in her eyes, but her voice was strong. The bruises on her body told the mourners that she, too, had been beaten.

    As Christians, she and her husband had refused to take a Kikuyu tribal oath that wasn’t consistent with their Christian faith. For this, her husband was beaten to death, and she was beaten and hospitalized.

    The crowd was still, silenced by the power of the widow’s words, and her will. Many living in Kenya in 1969 had also faced harassment and attack for valuing their faith over tribal loyalties.

    “I, as his widow, also tell all of you, in the presence of my dead husband, that I hate none of those who killed him. I love the killers. I forgive them, knowing that Christ has died for them too.”

    No one in attendance that day would ever forget the widow’s words or her example of extreme forgiveness and grace.

Forgiveness is an extreme example of what it means to be like Christ, to extend his grace to others. No one has ever had to forgive more than Jesus Christ. Nothing can compare to the weight of an entire world’s sins on his shoulders at Calvary. Therefore, when we forgive those who hate us, we are never more like Jesus than at that moment. Forgiveness does not make the wrongs that were done to you right. Forgiveness makes you all right. Forgiveness does not mean letting your perpetrators off the hook. Forgiveness means letting yourself off the hook and getting released from the tyranny of vengeful thoughts. Forgiving others for their wrongs gives you a chance to shine for Christ like never before. Where will you shine the light of God’s forgiveness today?

Eritrea Releases Elderly Detained Christians

We have some good news to report today via our friends at Open Doors and BosNewsLife.  They are both reporting that three elderly Christian men have been released on bail from a military prison camp and police facility in Eritrea.

The physical condition of the three Christians, who are all in their 80s, was not immediately clear, said Netherlands-based Open Doors, a Christian advocacy group investigating reports of persecution.

Open Doors told BosNewsLife that two men, arrested in November, were jailed in Mitire-camp, a military concentration camp in northeastern Eritrea, where many Christians are are believed to be detained.

"There are some 360 prisoners held in Mitire, many of them in underground prisons or shipping containers, without enough food and medical care," Open Doors said.

Please read the full story here.

Turkey: Insulting Turkishness Case Proceeds Under Revised Law

This is from our friends at Compass Direct.

Ministry of Justice decision suggests spreading Christianity may be unlawful in Turkey.

ISTANBUL, March 20 (Compass Direct News) – Turkey’s decision last month to try two Christians under a revised version of a controversial law for “insulting Turkishness” because they spoke about their faith came as a blow to the country’s record of freedom of speech and religion. A Silivri court on Feb. 24 received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Justice to try Christians Turan Topal and Hakan Tastan under the revised Article 301 – a law that has sparked outrage among proponents of free speech as journalists, writers, activists and lawyers have been tried under it. The court had sent the case to the Ministry of Justice after the government on May 8, 2008 put into effect a series of changes – which critics have called “cosmetic” – to the law. The justice ministry decision came as a surprise to Topal and Tastan and their lawyer, as missionary activities are not illegal in Turkey. Defense lawyer Haydar Polat said no concrete evidence of insulting Turkey or Islam has emerged since the case first opened two years ago. “The trial will continue from where it left off – to be honest, we thought they wouldn’t give permission [for the case to continue],” said Polat, “because there was no persuasive evidence of ‘degrading Turkishness and Islam’ in the case file.”

Uzbek Christians Face Persecution and Discrimination Even After Death

The following news is from AsiaNews.it

The police and town authorities oppose a funeral for a man because his wife and son are Christian. Later they allow it, but in practically concealed form. Christians sentenced to prison solely because they gather together and pray. Persecution expanded against those who do not adhere to the country's official religion, Islam.

Tashkent (AsiaNews/F18) - The Uzbek National Security Service (NSS, the secret police) and the leaders of the mahalla (local governing body) in the city of Khodjeli (Karakalpakstan) opposed the burial of Zhumabai Smetullaev, a Muslim. Sources for the agency Forum 18 speak of genuine discrimination against the wife and son of the deceased man, both of whom are Christian.

Mob Brutally Attacks Missionaries

The following was a press release distributed today from Gospel for Asia.

 Mar. 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- A large mob of anti-Christian extremists brutally attacked two Gospel for Asia-supported missionaries in Himachal Pradesh, India, on Saturday, March 14. After stripping them naked and beating Murari Jay and Atul Rajesh, the vicious group burned all their belongings and then had the missionaries arrested.

The mob of about 30 people barged into the place where Murari and Atul were staying. Humiliating the missionaries, the group tore the men's clothes off and beat them. Murari sustained severe injuries to his back after mob members repeatedly kicked him, and Atul suffered acute head trauma. Other members of the mob set fire to everything the missionaries owned.

After assaulting the missionaries, their attackers grabbed Murari and Atul, forcing them to go to the police station. Authorities took the two men into custody. When GFA leaders in the area heard about the attack, they immediately went to the police station to help the missionaries. After much discussion, authorities released Murari and Atul at 11:30 p.m.

Even in this difficult situation, the missionaries were praising Jesus and told the GFA leaders that they felt the experience increased their faith in Him.

"It was a great privilege to be persecuted for the Gospel of Christ," both missionaries responded when asked about the attacks.

The next morning, the two missionaries had to go back to the police station to clear the case. After investigating the situation, the police found no fault in the mob for the unproved beatings, and the missionaries were not charged with any crime.

Murari and Atul also received treatment at a local hospital following the attack. They are now home and, through medical care, are recovering quickly.

Gospel for Asia is an evangelical mission organization based in Carrollton, Texas involved in sharing the love of Jesus across South Asia.