Persecution Blog

Special Prayer Request

If you follow VOM on Facebook, then you already know about this special prayer request, but if you don't, I wanted to tell you about it so that you can offer a prayer for our friend in Turkey who will be debating and Islamic scholar.  And if you are not yet apart of our Facebook Fan page, please see the right side bar of this page and join us today.  

Thank you for praying!  We love you!

A believer in Turkey has been asked to appear THIS FRIDAY on national TV to debate with an Islamic scholar on the reliability of the New Testament. Pray for wisdom for him, and the ability to clearly speak Truth (John 14:6).

Take New Steps to Free Gao!

With the exciting news of the release of Maryam and Marzieh, let me remind you that our brother Gao Zhisheng is still missing and we are still trying to find out how his health is and where he has been taken. 

We do know from recent reports that Gao is living, however we need to continue to put pressure on government officials, as well as pray, so that Gao will become free just like Maryam and Marzieh.

Here's more information from China Aid and The Voice of the Martyrs.

Even after delivering over 106,000 signed petitions to the Chinese embassy, officials there have refused to provide any further details of human rights attorney, Gao Zhisheng's whereabouts or physical condition.

During recent committee hearings in Washington D.C., six Chinese human rights legal defenders spoke on the human rights abuses in China, including the specific case of Gao Zhisheng.

A number of concerned US government officials, including Rep. Frank Wolf and Rep. Chris Smith, committed to continue putting pressure on the Chinese government. Thirty U.S. House Representatives then signed a Congressional Letter to President Obama on November 10th, calling on him to raise awareness of human rights issues while in China - listing the treatment of human rights lawyers first.

Most U.S. Representatives remain unaware of the kidnapping and brutal torture of Gao, a man nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 2008.

And they will remain unaware unless we take action.

We have set up a special page on www.FreeGao.com to assist you in contacting your state representative by email and making him or her aware of Gao Zhisheng's tragic situation.

After entering your email address, you will receive complete instructions from China Aid on how to send your message. The whole process will take you less than 10 minutes.

You will also have the opportunity to make a financial contribution to help China Aid keep this campaign and others like it moving forward and ultimately to free wrongly persecuted individuals like Gao Zhisheng.

Please remember to share this campaign with your friends and family. The more voices we add to the petition and hold our US Representatives accountable through our emails, the greater the volume of the outcry and the stronger chance we have of helping return Gao to his family.

For complete instructions on contacting your state representative on behalf of Gao Zhisheng, please follow the link below.

www.FreeGao.com/actionsteps

Thank you for taking action today!

Chinese Human Rights Attorney Jiang Tianyong Arrested and His Wife Beaten in Front of Their Daughter

Breaking News from our friends at China Aid.  

BEIJING--At  7:40 AM (Beijing time) on Nov. 19, Jiang Tianyong and his wife attempted to leave their home to take their daughter to school, when they were barred from leaving the apartment building by Public Security Bureau officers assembled at the gate. Before Jiang could speak with them, four officers grabbed him violently and forced him into a police car. A police officer named Wang Tao threw his wife to the ground and began striking her. Jiang's 7-year-old daughter cried helplessly as she watched her father being dragged away to detention by the officers.

Jiang Tianyong was arrested and held in detention at the Yangfangdian PSB office of Haidian District, Beijing for over 13 hours, under the guard of Officers Li Aimin and Wang Tao. He was allowed only one meal during his detention. A dozen human rights lawyers rallied in front of the station to demand Jiang's release and to show support for their colleague. He was released at 9:26 PM (Beijing time) to return home to his family.

Immediately after learning of Jiang's arrest, ChinaAid contacted the US Embassy in Beijing and several U.S. Congressional offices, notifying them of Jiang Tianyong's brutal treatment and detention. A US Embassy official quickly responded and said that the Embassy had called the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and formally registered the U.S. Government'sconcern and opposition to this action. The embassy further reported the incident to theNational Security Council and the State Department, all prior to Jiang's release.

...

Yesterday, on November 18, Jiang Tianyong and a fellow legal researcher attempted to arrange a meeting with President Obama before he left China, hoping to follow through with the lawyers' request for US acknowlegement of the current dire situation. After receiving a phone call from the U.S. Embassy, informing him President Obama would not be able to meet with the group of five human rights lawyers who had gathered, 200 police officers immediately pulled up, and interrogated Jiang and one of his colleagues in the hotel for over an hour. They were informed they "were not allowed to meet President Obama" and would "be held until he left" yesterday afternoon.

The brutal assault of Jiang Tianyong, his wife, and their daughter is an unjust an inexcusable attack on the rights of peaceful Chinese citizens. Jiang's family now suffers even more from this abuse, as their well-being was taxed after Jiang's license to practice law was revoked and his tenure at the Beijing Global Law Firm was terminated in April of this year. 

ChinaAid denounces the cruel and inhumane treatment of human rights Attorney Jiang Tianyong. We urge the Chinese authorities to stop their harassment of Attorney Jiang and the other human rights lawyers and their families who have been detained during President Obama's visit.

ChinaAid further calls on the international community to pray for healing from this unjust persecution, in the wake of Jiang's courageous tour in the United States, and to call on American leaders to voice their opposition to human rights abuses in China.

Valedictorian's Case Dismissed

Today I wanted to share with you another example of discrimination here in America towards Christians (and there is  a lot of it!)

A few years ago in 2006  maybe you heard about Brittany McComb who was the valedictorian for her high school class, who had her microphone shut off while she was giving her speech.  Her crime? - It was speaking about her Christian faith.

Sadly, we have just found out that her case was not accepted by the United States Supreme Court, which is a huge loss for freedom of speech.

Here's some of the article from The Rutherford Institute who have been defending Brittany.  Read the full article here and see Brittany give her speech.

On Thursday, June 15, 2006, McComb delivered her commencement address to over 400 fellow students, families and staff. However, believing that the district’s censorship of her speech amounted to a violation of her right to free speech, she attempted to deliver the original version of her remarks in which she shares her personal beliefs about the role that her Christian beliefs played in her success.

When school officials found her to be straying from the approved text, they unplugged her microphone, thus ending the address. Despite extensive jeers from the audience over the school officials’ actions, McComb was not permitted to finish giving her valedictory speech.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed a First Amendment lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Brittany. In their complaint, Institute attorneys asked the court to declare that school officials deprived McComb of her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In filing suit against Foothill High School officials, Rutherford Institute attorneys stated, “Brittany’s stellar academic performance qualified and entitled her to address her classmates at graduation in her own words, yet the Defendants sought to censor her speech, coerce her into giving a different speech in violation of her conscience, and interfere with and censor the delivery of her speech, all based upon her religious belief and viewpoint.”

"This is yet another example of a politically correct culture silencing Christians in order to not offend those of other beliefs," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Brittany McComb worked hard to earn the right to address her classmates as valedictorian and she has a constitutional right-like any other student-to freely speak about the factors that contributed to her success, whether they be a supportive family, friends or her faith in Jesus Christ."

The First Amendment lawsuit against Foothill High School officials was filed in July 2006. In June 2007, the U.S. District Court for Nevada rejected the school district's second attempt to have the case dismissed and affirmed that the lawsuit raises substantial claims of infringement of McComb's right of free speech. School officials subsequently appealed and, in March 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case. Three months later, The Rutherford Institute appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In November, the court refused to hear the case, thus ending her fight. “This is a sad day for the cause of freedom," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, in response. "When the Supreme Court cannot clear their calendar to hear a case of this magnitude, then our freedoms are in jeopardy. Such censorship and discrimination should not be permitted in America."

Another Christian Has Been Killed in Somalia

Sadly, we have another report of a Christian who has died as a result of their faith in Christ Jesus.

Somalia (MNN) ― A human rights group has learned that members of al-Shabaab (a Somali Islamic extremist group) have killed yet another leader of an underground church in the Somalia capital of Mogadishu.

Washington-based International Christian Concern (ICC) reports that on Oct. 10, Pastor Ali Hussein Weheliye was returning home from a worship service when two masked members of al-Shabaab ambushed and shot him. He was later taken to Darful Shifa Hospital.

ICC's Regional Manager for Africa and South Asia Jonathan Racho says Pastor Ali died of his injuries. "This is very sad news because this year alone, Ali is the 15th Christian to be killed by Islamic extremists in Somalia."

According to ICC, Ali converted from Islam to Christianity in 1999 while working in Somalia's capital as a linguist. In 2002, he started pastoring an underground house church. He is survived by his wife and a daughter who are now in hiding, fearing for their lives.

ICC reports that al-Shabaab has previously declared Somalia as an Islamic state, vowing to eradicate Christians. Just this year, the group has killed a dozen Somali Christians. Several Christians have also left the country due to the intense persecution. Racho says, "Christians in that country are underground. They're living double lives. Some of them are even going to the mosques just to appear to the Islamists that they are just Muslims."

Racho adds, "The underground church in Somalia is enduring untold suffering; al-Shabaab and other Islamic extremist groups are hunting down and killing Christians. By killing Christians, the Islamic extremists have repeatedly demonstrated utter disregard for human life and freedom of religion."

RELEASED! Maryam and Marzieh Set Free After 259 Days in Prison

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VOM’s friend, Elam Ministries, which serves the growing church in Iran, has announced that Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh have been released from Evin Prison in Tehran. Family members picked them up at the prison this afternoon, Iran time.
   The two women immediately expressed thanks to Christians around the world who had prayed for them during their 259 days in prison.
   “Words are not enough to express our gratitude to the Lord and to his people who have prayed and worked for our release," they said.
   The pair was released without bail, but charges against them have not been formally dropped and they may still face a court hearing in the future.
   Maryam and Marzieh were arrested March 5 and have been held in the notorious Evin Prison since then. Though their health has suffered greatly during their incarceration, they have steadfastly refused to denounce their Christian faith.
   “We are thankful to the Lord for sustaining Maryam and Marzieh—physically and spiritually—during their time in prison,” said VOM’s Todd Nettleton. “We also thank all those who prayed for them and wrote letters to them at www.prisoneralert.com.”
   Please continue to pray that Maryam and Marzieh will recover physically from their ordeal, and pray that all charges against them will be dropped. Pray also for other Christians in Iran who are persecuted for their faith in Christ.

Christian Convert Who Came in on Hijacked Plane Given Asylum

Everyday as I read through stories of Christian persecution, I am amazed at the faith of believers all over the world.  I am especially moved by the fact, and it is truly a FACT, that if a person leaves Islam to follow Jesus Christ, in many cases it is a death sentence.  So as you read this, consider whether or not you'd follow Jesus if you knew you could die for it.  Thankfully this story is good news for our brother in Christ.  Read on...click here for the full story.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, used human rights rules to overturn a previous Home Office decision to refuse him asylum.

Lawyers said there were fears that, as an apostate – one who rejects the Muslim religion – the man, originally from Mazar-i-Sharif, but now living in Hounslow, west London, would face persecution, or even death, if returned.

The former Kabul hotel worker had arrived in the UK as a Muslim, but converted to Christianity, was baptised and now regularly attends a west London church and bible classes.

But his conversion had met with hostility from other Afghans and Muslims, who spat at him in the street when rumours spread, the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Tribunal was told.

He was even threatened with death by two Afghans with whom he had shared a house in London and warned by others that he would be killed if he went back to Afghanistan.

Although the Afghan Constitution allows non-Muslims to practise their faith, the small Christian community practises exclusively underground and it is forbidden for Afghans to abandon Islam.

Obama Promotes Religious Freedom in China

As most of you know President Obama has been on a tour lately, and one of the nations he has visited was China.  Many of us who look at persecution issues and religious freedom have been wondering what the outcome of President Obama's visit to China would be, since China has some very bad policies with human rights.  Today, Mission Network News is reporting the following:

China (MNN) ― Religious freedom advocates are pleased following President Barak Obama's visit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who spoke out about the need for religious freedom in China. President Obama also emphasized the importance of freedom of information in a question-and-answer session with college students in Shanghai.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says this is good news. However, this may be a change in policy for the Obama administration. Nettleton says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made conflicting remarks on her recent visit to China. She said, "We wouldn't be holding China accountable on the issue of religious freedom, or human rights issues. There were more important things like trade and global warming and those types of things."

Nettleton says it's hard to know where the administration stands on the issue. Nettleton says it's also interesting that President Obama made these comments in Shanghai, "which, just within the week before he was there, had just closed down a large house church. Some of the members of the church have been literally hunted down to try to get them off the street and make sure there wasn't any kind of public spectacle while Obama was there."

While Nettleton is grateful to President Obama for his remarks and keeping the discussion on the table, "When push comes to shove, [the United States owes] the Chinese government and the Chinese people a huge amount of money, so it's very hard for us to put any teeth with our proclamation about human rights and religious freedom."

And Still They Kept Coming…

Last weekend The Voice of the Martyrs had a conference out here in Southern California, and unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, but a dear friend of mine was. So I asked Kathi Macias, to share with us her experience at the VOM conference.  Click here to visit Kathi's website and to learn more about her, she's a great writer.

For Southern California, it was a cool morning...sun shining with the temperature hovering just above sixty. Anyone who flew in for the “Bound with Them” conference from anywhere east of Murrieta no doubt thought they had landed in the tropics.

      Registration began at eight, though the conference itself wasn’t scheduled to start until nine, so when I drove into the Calvary Chapel parking lot at 8:10, I thought I’d be the first one there. Not so. The main parking lot was already filling up…and still they kept coming. Before long people were parking in the lower parking lots and hiking up the street to the beautiful campus, making their way inside to register and mingle, to have a free cup of coffee and a breakfast snack, to pray and wait expectantly.

      By nine o’clock, the large auditorium was filling quickly…but still they kept coming. Parents brought their children, couples came arm-in-arm, the elderly and infirm came on walkers and in wheelchairs. Those of us already seated squeezed together and made room, as the number of attendees grew and the level of expectancy continued to rise.

      Melodious harp music filled the air as we came together for a brief time of worship…and then the speakers began to present their testimonies, their stories, their calls to action. And people responded, as passion for the lost and compassion for the suffering flowed from hearts afire with love for the Savior.

      “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body” (Heb. 13:3) was the rallying cry…and still they kept coming, some who had been unable to break away from prior commitments to arrive in time for the opening sessions but who came as soon as they were able. All were of one accord, as we discovered while talking and sharing during breaks and lunchtime, or just visiting at the resource tables.

      Everyone agreed that it was a joy and a privilege to gather together with so many who shared in their love and support of the persecuted Church around the world. What an honor to hear speakers who had actually been a part of that persecution and who now love Jesus more than ever!

      I for one will never be the same. Though I have long supported VOM, this was my first opportunity to attend one of their conferences; I pray it won’t be my last. I encourage anyone who has a chance to do so in the future to be sure you are numbered among those who “kept coming.” It is an experience you won’t soon forget.

If It's God's Will, Today We Won't Die

Seated on logs under the shade of a tree, the 230 Christian students were just beginning their English lesson when they heard the terrifying sounds overhead. A plane roared across the sky above the school yard. Within minutes, the Islamic army had dropped five bombs from a large Russian-made bomber.

    Terrified and screaming, the children immediately started running. Two of the bombs landed in dry trenches around the village, and another failed to detonate.

    Unfortunately, the other two nail-studded bombs landed squarely among the frightened students. The explosion was tremendous. The damage, unthinkable.

    By 9:15 A.M. the bomber was gone, and the horrible reality began to set in. Students wandered dazed around the school yard, crying and bleeding. Twelve of their classmates ranging in age from nine to sixteen had not survived the blast. Their beloved young teacher, Roda Ismail, also lay dead among the rubble.

    Another seven students lost their battle for survival in the days following the attack, and three had to have limbs amputated.

    The very next day, children showed up for school as usual. The exhausted and despondent schoolmaster told them to go home. “I cannot tell you when or if we will resume classes.”

    A ten-year-old boy approached him and said, “Please let us continue. We want to learn, and if it is God’s will, then today we won’t die.”

Life at the crossroads. We’ve all been there, wavering between giving up and going on. Like the schoolboy, the crowds who were following Jesus one day realized the path they were on was fraught with danger. Like the despondent schoolmaster, many in the crowd headed for home, not able to say if or when they would continue to follow Christ. Yet Peter and the other disciples remained. The schoolboy’s solemn request echoes Peter’s response, “Let us continue.” When we are tempted to give up, let us continue. When it seems like following Christ is too difficult, let us continue. Are you facing the crossroads of commitment? Ask God to give you the strength to go on instead of give up.