Violence toward believers in southern Mexico

Troubles for believers in southern Mexico have not ended.

Terrible violence has been sparking toward tribal believers in southern Mexico, reports ASSIST News Service.

Dr. Dale W. Kietzman, founder of Latin American Indian Ministries told ASSIST News, “While we want to be positive about the year ahead, we have to report to you a real concern for tribal believers in southern Mexico. The troubles for believers there have not ended!”

Here are confirmed reports of events that have happened just in the past few months, all from the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca:

• A pastor was waylaid and killed as he travelled back to his village after a doctor’s appointment in Comitan, Chiapas.
• Three pastors were killed in Santa Maria El Tule, Oaxaca.
• Four families of believers were expelled from the village of Chilil, Chiapas.
• The church in Llanos, Chiapas, was destroyed last June, and believers put on notice. This month, six homes were destroyed and the families expelled from the community.
• In Mitziton, Chiapas, the church and many homes were destroyed, and 50 families were expelled from the community.
• In Nachug, Chiapas, 86 families were expelled.
• At the end of 2010, 498 Indian believers were living as street people, homeless in the city of San Cristobal, where they had sought protection.

Kietzman, who is the former US director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, says much of the persecution is the result of conflict that develops when new believers decide they cannot participate in their villages' drunken fiestas to saints who have come to represent ancient pagan gods. The responsiblity for funding the fiestas is passed around to families of the community, and the conflict begins when an evangelical family is supposed to purchase the liquor but refuses to do so.

You can read the full report here.

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Chiapas and Oaxaca. Pray the Lord would make them strong to lovingly and boldly proclaim the gospel (Ephesians 6:18-20). Pray that their passion for Christ will be the light that draws their family members and fellow villagers to Jesus (Matthew 5:14-16). Pray also that increased persecution will result in increased boldness among believers (Acts 4:29-31).

‘Being offended’ comes with the territory

Albert Mohler, author, speaker and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently wrote a piece for Christianity.com titled “How Not to Fight Atheism.”

He refers to a group in Texas that began running advertisements on public buses that read, “Millions of Americans are Good Without God.” Christians expressed outrage and called for a boycott of public transportation. The transportation authority then voted to ban ALL religious ads on buses. Supposedly, both sides cheered the decision.

Perhaps the Christians should not have been clapping.

In Mohler’s words:

Christians are sometimes our own worst enemy, especially when we claim to be offended. Those pastors and concerned Christians who demanded that the transportation authority ban the atheist ads actually gave the secularists the Grand Prize. By precipitating (and, of all things, celebrating) a ban on all religious messages from this public space, these Christians surrendered Gospel opportunities simply because they were offended by an atheist advertisement. No wonder the atheists clapped.

This is a disastrous strategy. Are Christians so insecure that we fear a weakly-worded advertisement on a public bus? These bus ads represent just how weak the atheists' arguments really are, but the response from agitated Christians represents a far more dangerous weakness. Instead of responding to the ads with a firm and gracious defence of the Gospel, these activists just surrendered the space altogether, rather than to bear the offense of the cross.

Christianity has enemies, and the greatest victory of these enemies is to prevent the proclamation of the Gospel. The strategy so celebrated in Fort Worth is a route to evangelistic disaster. Religious liberty is a friend of the Gospel, and constraints on religious speech serve the cause of the secularists.

Being a Christian does not mean never having to be offended. Like the Apostle Paul, we are called to bear the offence of the cross gladly. If Paul had followed the Fort Worth strategy, Acts 17 would never have happened.

As Christians, "being offended" comes with the territory. Take a moment to read Acts 17. I'll leave you with the last three verses: "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, 'We will hear you again on this matter.' So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

Some believed! That makes everything else Paul experiences worth the offence.

You can read Mohler’s full story here.

Will Turkmenistan government respond to call for Religion Law changes?

Turkmenistan has one of the harshest
laws on religion of all 15 former
Soviet Republics.

Three years ago, Turkmenistan declared its Religion Law to be a priority in a series of reforms.

Today, according to Slavic Gospel Association, the Turkmenistan government has designed one of the harshest laws on religion of all 15 former Soviet Republics, reports Mission Network News.

The changes the government was making alarmed the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which did a legal review on the law. Its report included several criticisms of the Turkmenistan law.

Among many changes the OSCE review calls for are an end to the ban on unregistered religious activity and the private teaching of religion.

SGA’s Joel Griffith explains that the law came about because Turkmenistan saw the issues faced in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan and took some pre-emptive measures. "They are afraid of radicalism of any kind. Because there is such an increase in radical Islam right now (the whole Jihadist network), it's almost like there's a feeling like ‘if we crack down on one, we've got to crack down on all of them.'"

Turkmenistan's current restrictive Religion Law was adopted in October 2003, with significant amendments in March 2004 and further minor amendments in April 2009 and July 2009. The Review was requested by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabad in July 2009, completed in June 2010, and made public in December 2010.

Many actions by officials break Turkmenistan's own laws, as well as international human rights standards, reports Forum 18 News. These actions indicate that the rule of law does not apply in the country. They include but are not limited to the following: 

• raids on religious meetings,
• threats against and imprisonment of religious believers,
• confiscation of literature,
• bans on known active religious believers travelling abroad,
• public vilification of religious believers,
• sacking of religious minority members from public employment and
• bans on opening places of worship freely.

In our January 2011 newsletter, we told you about Turkmenistan pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, who was sentenced in October 2010 to four years imprisonment on charges of swindling (see Persecution & Prayer Alert update here). Since 2007, Pastor Nurliev’s church has repeatedly been denied registration.

Read the full Mission Network News report here.

Read the full Forum 18 News report here.

Iran arrests dozens of Christians

Iranian official complains evangelical
Christians are like "parasites."

Iran has reportedly arrested dozens of Christians, many of them converts from Islam, in a crackdown that began around Christmas. An Iranian official is accusing Protestant evangelical groups of causing a cultural invasion, reports the Assyrian International News Agency.

Iranian opposition groups are reporting the arrests of dozens of evangelical Christians, many of whom are converts from Islam. Christian groups inside Iran say that the country's Ministry of Islamic Guidance has also grilled dozens of Christians it accuses of proselytizing.

Armed security officers forcibly entered the homes of Christians, verbally and physically abused them, before handcuffing them and taking them for interrogation," reports the Cyprus-based group Middle East Concern. It adds that some were released after intense questioning and forcibly coerced statements that they would no longer participate in Christian activities.

Seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity or other religions is considered a crime in Iran and many other Islamic countries. Christian missionaries are routinely expelled and sometimes jailed for distributing Bibles and other religious material.

The governor of Tehran province, Morteza Tamadon, confirmed the arrests several days ago, complaining that Protestant evangelicals were conducting an "enemy cultural invasion." He likened Protestants to the Taliban, whom he referred to as "parasites."

Hadi Ghaemi of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran says that the evangelical Christian movement has gained popularity in recent years, along with other non-Islamic religions, due to disaffection with Iran's state-sponsored Shi'ism.

Mohammed Javad Larijani, the Secretary General of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, complained recently that the West was "unfairly targeting Iran for human rights abuses. He claims that Iran tolerates other religions, so long as they are "not cults.”

Converts to Christianity from Islam, however, are often harassed and persecuted. Two evangelical Christian pastors, whom the government says converted from Islam, were arrested last June. One, Youcef Nardarkhani has been sentenced to death for apostasy and the other's case is still pending.

You can read the full report here.

Having a living faith

“Some seed fell by the wayside; and

the birds came and devoured them.”
Matthew 13:4

How is it that some men hear the Word of God gladly, while others allow the birds—that is, wicked spirits—to devour their good seed?

The Old Testament Joseph was told a dream by Pharaoh’s baker with whom he was in prison: “There were three white baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head” (Genesis 40: 16, 17). Joseph interpreted the dream to mean that the baker would be hanged on a tree.

The renowned rabbi of Dubna was asked how Joseph could have known this. He answered, “A painter once painted a man with a basket of bread on his head. Birds came to eat from the picture, believing that it was real bread. A man said, ‘What a good painter! How natural he made the bread look!’ He was not a good painter. He did not make the man look natural enough to frighten the birds, or they would not have come. Likewise, Joseph understood that if the birds dared come to the baker, then he must be a dead man.”

The wicked spirits cannot take away the seeds of the Word of God from a living Christian, but only from one who looks rather like a scarecrow. Scarecrows don’t scare spirits. Be sure your faith is a living faith.

Excerpted from Reaching Toward the Heights by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, VOM’s founder.

Want to read more? Reaching Toward the Heights is 365-day devotional in which Pastor Wurmbrand draws upon his own experience in prison and the testimonies of other persecuted Christians to encourage us to elevate our relationship with the Lord. See what 365 days of immersion in God’s love can do for your soul. Order your devotional for $10 today!

Pray for Sudan amid historic referendum

Pray for peace in Sudan.

Sudan is a country with a long history of violence and conflict, including two civil wars between the largely Islamic North and the Christian and animist majority in the South. Christians, in particular, have endured severe opposition, and they continue to face many challenges to their witness.

In the North, believers are subject to many restrictions. Evangelism is fiercely opposed and thus very limited, and all non-Muslims face intense pressure to convert to Islam. There have also been reports of violent attacks on Christians in other regions in recent years.

In 2005, the government in Khartoum and the Southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement signed a peace agreement. This agreement, which ended the country's second civil war, established semi-autonomy in the South and called for a referendum on independence. The referendum will take place this Sunday.

While many are hopeful that the January 9 referendum will allow the South to separate from the North peacefully, there remains concern over the effect this transition will have on the country. Recent comments made by President Omar al-Bashir, regarding the reinforcement of Islamic law, have raised particular fear for Christians and all non-Muslims in the nation in the aftermath of the vote.

"If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution," President al-Bashir has said. "Shariah and Islam will be the main source for the constitution -- Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language."

Pray for a free and democratic vote in this referendum. Pray that international governments will encourage Sudanese leadership to hear and accept the voice of their people. Pray that Christians throughout Sudan will continue to entrust themselves to Christ and preach the gospel boldly, knowing Jesus is the ruler over the kings of the earth (2 Timothy 1:7-12, Revelation 1:5). Pray that many more people will come to know Christ as Lord in Sudan. Pray for true and lasting peace in the country.

30 Eritreans arrested for praying

The Christian Church in Eritrea faces
terrible on-going persecution.

Eritrean officials arrested 30 Christians for praying at a private house in Asmara, the capital, on January 2, reports ASSIST News. Some of the Christians were just recently released after being detained for their faith.

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that security officials arrested the Christians and took them to the police station in Asmara. Officials also detained another Christian on January 4. ICC says the detained Christians are members of the Philadelphia Church, an evangelical church outlawed in Eritrea.

Since 2002, many churches in Eritrea have been forced to go underground after officials required all religious groups to register. The government allows only four religious groups: Islam, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea.

More than 3,000 Christians have been detained for their faith in Christ, reports ICC. Most are kept in underground dungeons, metal shipping containers and military barracks. Several Christians have died while imprisoned due to torture and lack of medical attention.

Please pray for our detained brothers and sisters in Eritrea. Pray they would rest in the knowledge that the Good Shepherd walks with them through this difficult time (Psalm 23). Pray they will exemplify the love of God through consistent love and prayer for those who persecute them (Matthew 5:43-48). Pray for government acceptance of religious groups and for restoration of basic human rights and religious freedom to all Eritreans.

11 Lao Christians arrest; 3 still detained

Christians make up 3.4 percent of
Laos' population. Persecution against
them is often intense and ruthless.

Eleven Christians from Hinboun district, Khammouan Province, in Laos, were detained at gunpoint on Tuesday while gathering for a Christmas celebration in their village, reports Compass Direct News. Eight of the Christians, including children ages four and eight, were released yesterday and today.

Three house-church leaders remain behind bars for “holding a secret meeting,” said advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). The charge against them is a political offense punishable by law, HRWLRF said.

In December, Pastor Wanna, one of the house-church leaders, informed authorities that church members would gather at his home on Wednesday to celebrate Christmas. His notification was in line with official celebrations by the government-approved Lao Evangelical Church scheduled between December 5 and January 15.

On Tuesday, a truckload of district police officers with guns cocked and ready to shoot burst into Pastor Wanna’s house after dark, shouting, “Stop! Nobody move!” They then forcibly detained the 11 who were quietly sharing an evening meal and charged them with conducting a “secret meeting” without approval.

You can read the full report here.

Please pray for Lao Christians. At the local and village levels, they are targets, and persistent social pressure and the prevention of building new church buildings are two primary opposition strategies. Pray for perseverance and grace for those who must endure, especially those singled out by persecutors. Pray there would be an increased openness to evangelism throughout Laos.

India’s Christians facing spike in assaults

Christians in India faced an upsurge
in violence in the past decade.

At the end of December, Compass Direct News released a report on how Christians in India faced a spike in attacks in the past decade. Since 2001, Christians have faced more than 130 assaults each year, with figures far surpassing that in 2007 and 2008.

In 2010, Christians suffered at least 149 violent attacks, according to a report by the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI). Most of the incidents took place in just four states: Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in south India, and Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in north-central India. Of India’s 23 million Christians, 2.7 million live in these four states.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules three of the four states with the most persecution of Christians—Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The EFI noted that the high number of attacks on Christians in those states was no coincidence.

“While it cannot be said that the ruling party had a direct role in the attacks on Christians, its complicity cannot be ruled out either,” the report stated.

In 1998, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—India’s chief Hindu nationalist conglomerate and the BJP’s ideological mentor—targeted Christians when Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, Catholic by descent, became the president of India’s Congress Party. The attacks on Christians were apparently aimed at coaxing Sonia Gandhi to speak on behalf of Christians so that she could be branded as a leader of the Christian minority, as opposed to the BJP’s claimed leadership of the Hindu majority.

Take a few minutes to read about 14 recent attacks on Christians in India here.

Building a hopeful future on a grim past

In our December 2010 newsletter, we shared with you an update on persecution in Nigeria. In the past year, our Christian family there was repeatedly the target of brutal violence.

In January, at least 100 people were killed, hundreds injured and many homes and religious sites burned in central Plateau state. In March, Muslims launched deadly attacks on three farming villages in the state, brutally murdering hundreds of Christians. In April, suspected Islamists abducted and killed a pastor and his wife in Bauchi state. In May, Muslim youths burned down two church buildings and a pastor’s residence in northern Kano state. And those are just the first five months of the year!

Many believers in Nigeria have lost family members and friends. And, too many children have lost one or both parents.

Children just like these.

That’s where the Stephen Centre comes in. For the past several years, VOM has helped the Stephen Centre provide a home where Christian kids who have lost one or both parents can live in safety, have their basic needs met and receive education and opportunities for a hopeful future.

This year, VOM hopes to begin a similar child-sponsorship program in India, where anti-Christian violence has claimed the lives of hundreds of believers in recent years.

We’ll again share an update on Nigeria in our February 2011 newsletter. If you’re reading this and you live in Canada, and you don’t already subscribe to The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, please consider doing so. It’s free. Free and chock-full of information about persecuted Christians around the world.

Find out how you can subscribe for free here.

North Korea again named 'worst persecutor of Christians'

For the eighth year in a row, North Korea is the worst country in which to be a Christian. The Open Doors World Watch List—a ranking of 50 countries that are the worse persecutors of Christians around the globe—was released today, says Mission Network News.

President and CEO of Open Doors USA Dr. Carl Moeller said, "The biggest thing that we learned from putting the list together this year is that the entire level of persecution globally is accelerating at a really dramatic rate. Eight out of the top 10 countries on our World Watch List this year are Islamic countries where Islamic extremism has gained the upper hand."

Here are the Top 10 persecutors of Christians around the world:

1. North Korea
2. Iran
3. Afghanistan
4. Saudi Arabia
5. Somalia
6. Maldives
7. Yemen
8. Iraq
9. Uzbekistan
10. Laos

You can view the World Watch List 2010 here.

The World Watch List ranks countries according to the intensity of persecution Christians face for actively pursuing their faith. It is compiled from Open Doors' indigenous contacts, field workers, and persecuted believers based on answers to questions covering various aspects of religious freedom.

South Asia pastor falsely charged with theft

Pastor Mandal was accused of
stealing a motorcycle, much like
this one.

A Gospel for Asia-supported pastor has been accused of stealing a motorcycle by a group of anti-Christian extremists in his village in South Asia, reports ASSIST News Service and Gospel for Asia.

Mandal Bhaskar is the pastor of a rapidly growing church of about 100 people. After a funeral service on December 15, members of the deceased’s family observed a local custom by washing his body in a nearby river. Extremists, who oppose Mandal’s ministry, used this opportunity to stage a false theft. One of them rode to the ceremony on a motorcycle but arranged for it to be taken during the event, making it look like a theft.

The next day, Mandal’s opponents tried to confront the pastor by standing in front of his house and yelling at him to come outside and answer their accusations that he had stolen the motorcycle. Mandal was not at home, but his brother heard the commotion from his home nearby. He stepped out to talk to the men and assured them his brother did not commit the crime.

The men attacked Mandal’s brother, who was badly injured before neighbours were able to break him free from the mob’s grip. The accusers then made their way to the police station and filed a theft report accusing Mandal of the crime. The police immediately summoned Mandal to the station. The police released Mandal after taking his statement. Local law enforcement officials have not yet made a ruling in the case.

Pastor Mandal says that the extremists making false charges against him represent the many other residents of the village who feel threatened by the rapid growth of the church. He believes the theft scenario may have been put together to prevent him from conducting a Christmas program in the village.

Please pray God will give Pastor Mandal and his family the grace and strength to face this situation. Pray the Lord will touch the hearts and lives of the villagers making the accusations. Pray for the believers in Pastor Mandal’s church to stand strong in the face of opposition.

Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province assassinated

CNN is reporting the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his own security guard Tuesday, according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, apparently because he spoke out against the country's controversial blasphemy law.

You can read the full report here.

Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws have again catapulted into the international spotlight following the arrest of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman. She was sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws on November 8, and she is awaiting an appeals court hearing, which has not yet been set.

Asia has received many death threats since her arrest and sentence, and protesters against amendments to the law recently held a 24-hour strike on December 31. One Muslim cleric was quoted as saying, “Pakistan’s blasphemy law will change over our dead bodies.”

Please pray for the nation of Pakistan and its believers. Pray they would not be fearful but rather filled with peace. Pray for their safety and well-being. Pray God would do a work in the hearts of the officials in charge of Asia’s case.

Afghan Christian faces potential death sentence for apostasy; send letters

Pray for Afghan believers!

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a judge has given an Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity one week to renounce his faith, or else be sentenced with the death penalty or up to 20 years’ imprisonment, reports ASSIST News Service. The verdict is expected this week.

“Shoaib Assadullah was arrested on October 21 in Mazar-e-Sharif for giving a Bible to a man who later reported him to local authorities. He is currently in a prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan,” said an ICC spokesperson. “ICC sources closely following the case tell us that at a court hearing on December 28, Assadullah was told to recant Christianity and return to Islam.”

Shoaib said he was quite certain that the court officials will give him the death penalty. He said he has given his life completely into the hands of Jesus. He is happy for the spiritual fight, saying, “Without my faith I would not be able to live.”

An ICC source in Mazar-e-Sharif was told by a court official today that Shoaib was to be summoned to court this morning at 10 a.m. local time.

You can read the full report here.

Afghanistan is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). According to article 18, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Please consider writing to the Afghanistan embassy in Canada to express your concern.

His Excellency Jawed Ludin
Ambassador of Afghanistan in Canada
Embassy of Afghanistan in Canada
240 Argyle Ave.
Ottawa, ON K2P 1B9

You can download a letter-writing guide (includes Prisoners List) here.

Please pray for Shoaib’s release. Pray that God will strengthen him and his family during this difficult time. Pray that God will touch the hearts of Afghan officials who are overseeing Shoaib’s case.

Pakistan's blasphemy law will change 'over our dead bodies,' say Muslim cleric

Protesters held a 24-hour strike in Pakistan on Friday against amendments to the country's blasphemy law, reports Mission Network News and BBC News.

The strike resulted in the transportation shut down of two cities, Karachi and Quetta, and a partial shutdown of Islamabad. Demonstrators blocked traffic, and bus owners were reportedly nervous that their vehicles would be set on fire if they tried to drive them.

Currently, the blasphemy law mandates that any person to insult Islam must be put to death. Although no one has ever been executed under the law, over 30 people convicted have been murdered by mobs. Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced to death on November 8, 2010, under the blasphemy law and is currently awaiting an appeals court hearing, which the High Court has yet to set.

Muslim clerics went ahead with the strike despite the claim of the religious affairs minister on Thursday that Pakistan "has no intention to repeal the blasphemy law."

You can read the full report here.

Pray that believers would be kept safe amidst the conflict. Pray that the blasphemy law would indeed be repealed, and that if it is, Christians would be protected, as one Sunni cleric warned that any changes to the blasphemy law would happen "over our dead bodies."

Bombing in Egypt is latest assault on Christians in Middle East

Copts are Egypt's largest
religious minority group and the
largest Christian community
in the Middle East.

Twenty-one people are dead following a New Year’s Day terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt, reports the Assyrian International News Agency. The attack is the latest in a series of assaults on Middle Eastern Christian communities.

The car bomb explosion also injured 79 people just after midnight Saturday, as worshipers were leaving Mass at the Saints Church in east Alexandria, Egyptian officials said. The bombing sparked street clashes between police and angry Copts, who hurled stones, stormed a nearby mosque and threw some of its books into the street.

The attack was among the deadliest on Egyptian Christians in recent memory and the worst terrorist incident in the country since 2006.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused unnamed foreign elements of being behind the attack.

"This act of terrorism shook the country's conscience, shocked our feelings and hurt the hearts of Muslim and Coptic Egyptians," he said in an emergency address to the nation. "The blood of their martyrs in the land of Alexandria mixed to tell us all that all Egypt is the target and that blind terrorism does not differentiate between a Copt and a Muslim."

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which is being described as a suicide bombing.

You can read the full report here.

More Iraqi Christians killed in bombings

A series of 10 coordinated bombings in and around Baghdad last night appeared to target homes of Christians, police said. Two people were killed and 20 wounded, all of them Christians, said the Ministry of the Interior.

You can read a NY Times article about the bombings here.

Please continue to pray for our Iraqi brothers and sisters who have come under intensified persecution in recent months. Pray for their safety and well-being. Pray they will continue to “say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust” (Psalm 91:2).

Pakistan’s government refuses to review blasphemy laws

Pakistan's government is refusing to
review blasphemy laws like the one
under which Asia Bibi has been
sentenced to death.

The government of Pakistan has backed out its commitment to review the country’s controversial Islamic blasphemy laws, reported ASSIST News yesterday.

The government’s move is to appease Islamic religious groups who have announced that they will shutter their businesses on New Year’s Eve to protest against any move to amend the laws.

On Thursday, the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Syed Khursheed Shah, requested that merchants and those in favour of the blasphemy laws call off their nationwide, December 31 shutdown of businesses, because the government has no intention of changing or repealing these laws.

One week ago, the Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, declared that despite various pressures the government would definitely review the laws.

In the 1980s, the late General Zia-ul-Haq introduced Islamic laws against the “blasphemy” of Islam, Muhammad, the Qur’an and Islamic personalities. The laws have widely been misused against Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus and liberal Muslims. Christians and human rights groups have been demanding for the total repeal of the laws.

On Wednesday, the government in the National Assembly categorically denied any move to amend or repeal the blasphemy laws.

“The government considers that its prime responsibility is to protect this law, and it will never support any private members’ bill even from the treasury benches in this regard,” said the federal minister in a policy statement.

You can read the full report here.

In mailboxes this week

The January issue of The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter is hitting mailboxes this week. In 2011, VOM will celebrate its 40th anniversary, and this issue looks back at the past four decades of ministry.

Inside this issue:

• You’ll learn how Klaas and Nellie Brobbel responded to God’s call after reading Richard Wurmbrand’s book, Tortured for Christ. Read how persecution has evolved in the past 40 years and how VOM has stood alongside persecuted Christians around the world during that time.
• Hear the heart transformations of Ishmael, Abdulmasi and Joshua, as they share their stories of finding Christ.
• Read about orphans in Ghana and how microloans are changing lives there. Learn about a pastor in Uzbekistan under fire from the government and a pastor in Turkmenistan who has been charged with swindling and sentenced to a labour camp.
• Arrested for proclaiming Jesus Christ to be the head of the church, not the king, Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie were led to Edinburgh’s gallows in 1681. Read how the women declare God’s goodness moments before death.
• Join us for The Voice of the Martyrs’ Prayer Conferences in March and 40th Anniversary celebrations throughout the year. Special guest Helen Berhane is scheduled to attend. Helen is a formerly imprisoned gospel singer from Eritrea and author of Song of the Nightingale.

The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter is the flagship publication of The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada. Published monthly, it is available free of charge to anyone in Canada who requests it.

You can subscribe online here.

Christmas celebrations held in Orissa, India; Christian's vehicle torched

Suranjan Naik with his vehicle
(photo from GCIC)

Several Christians were able to celebrate Christmas in Orissa state, India, this past weekend, say reports from All India Christian Council and ASSIST News Service.

In Bodimunda village, Christians reportedly celebrated Christmas together for the first time in three years. In Barakahma village, police kept watch as approximately 2,000 prayed together.

The peaceful celebrations came as a relief for many, as there had been fear that the holidays could lead to a flare-up in anti-Christian violence, especially as the state has been the site of intense attacks in recent years (see here). Fear of attacks prevented Christians in remote villages from holding Christmas celebrations.

Christmas weekend was not entirely without incident in Orissa, as a believer's vehicle was set on fire in Phulbani on December 25. Suranjan Naik and his wife, a nurse, were staying on campus at the government hospital. They were away attending a Christian celebration when their vehicle was set ablaze.

Thank the Lord that many brothers and sisters in Orissa were able to gather and joyously celebrate the birth of their Saviour, Jesus Christ. Pray a spirit of trust in the Lord, not fear, will govern the hearts and minds of believers in India. Pray those seeking to harm Christians in India because of their faith will repent of their ways and come to know Christ as Lord.