Last year an Egyptian girl wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama from a Coptic Christian  website.

She told the president that Muslims in the United States are treated much better than Copts in Egypt, Compass Direct News (CDN) reported.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem and her father have been on the run for two years due to religious persecution in Egypt.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, 16, has been in hiding since 2008 with her father, Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary.  They have suffered constant persecution whenever people discover their identities, CDN said.

Dina asked Obama to pressure the Egyptian government to ensure religious rights, and expressed hope that she and her father could migrate to the United States, CDN reported.

Last week Dina and her father lived in a tiny, two-bedroom apartment in an unidentified city in Egypt.  The floor was littered with grime and trash. Clumps of dust and used water bottles were everywhere.  El-Gohary had taped over the locks and the inside of windows and doors to guard against eavesdroppers and intruders.

He taped over all the drain holes of the sinks and the shower so no one could pump in natural gas at night.  When the neighbors learned he was a Christian, they threw rocks and pebbles at his home, enough to litter the porch.  El-Gohary couldn’t open a window because rocks might get thrown in, according to CDN.

Whenever he leaves, he padlocks the door, wraps it with a small plastic bag and melts the bag to the lock with a match.  But he rarely leaves the place because it is not safe to go out.

Last month while walking to a market with Dina, someone poured acid over her jacket.  When El-Gohary saw it sizzle and dissolve he immediately ripped it off of her and threw it away before she was hurt, CDN said.

He can’t work and relies on other Christians to bring him food, water and the occasional donation. He cannot count on his own family for help.  When the food runs out, he has to brave going outside.

El-Gohary can’t attend a church more than once, nor can they go to a supermarket more than once.  He has been a Christian for 36 years, but he was forced to go into hiding after August 2008, because he sued the national government to allow him to change the religion listed on his state-issued ID from Islam to Christianity, according to CDN.

El-Gohary didn’t want his daughter to be forced to take Islamic education classes or have her declared an “apostate” by Egyptian Islamic authorities if she decided to stay a Christian into adulthood.  This is why he asked for the ID change.

Dina is required by law to possess an ID card, which is used for everything from opening a bank account to receiving medical care. The ID also determines whether Egyptians are subject to Islamic civil courts.  Dina is considered to be a Muslim because her father was born a Muslim, CDN said.

Conversion

El-Gohary became a Christian after he read the account of Jesus meeting a woman caught committing adultery.  He was touched by the level of mercy that Jesus showed her, CDN said.

El-Gohary said. “The basis of Christianity is love and forgiveness, unlike Islam, where it is based on revenge, fighting and war.”  He also said of the two religions’ versions of heaven, that the Islamic heaven is about physical pleasure, while for Christians it is about being with God, CDN reported.

El-Gohary was forced to hide because the State Council, a consultative body of Egypt’s Administrative Court, charged him with apostasy, the penalty for which is death, CDN said.  The case is still ongoing.

El-Gohary believes that he and his daughter are being used to set an example to other Muslims who want to convert.  Also, he thinks they fear that if he is allowed to leave the country, he will talk about how Egypt persecutes Copts.

He said, “We are trapped in our own country without even the rights that animals have.”  When the mosque across the street learned of his identity and of his case, they began to blast messages from their minaret megaphones on how to deal with Christians, CDN reported.

The imam shouted, “Do not shake their hands. Do not go into their homes. Do not eat their food.”  Since he has become a Christian, El-Gohary has been beaten, forcibly detained, endured death threats and poverty.

Still, he and Dina have no regrets about having become Christian, and they have no dreams to become Muslim again, the CDN said.

Muslim teachers at a public girls’ school in Punjab, Pakistan regularly discriminate against Christian students, beat them, and pressure them to convert to Islam according to Christians living in the area, Compass Direct News reported.

Muslim teachers at Government Higher Secondary School in village No. 79-NB (Northern Branch), Sargodha, Punjab were so abusive that two of dozens of Christian girls dropped out, CDN said.

A 16-year old student, Sana, told CDN they are teased and mocked all day and made to daily clean school toilets, the compound and classrooms even if there are staff to do the work.

The Christian students were told that such work was handed down to them from their parents and forefathers.

The abusive teachers mentioned were Muzammil, Sumaira (Islamic Education & Arabic Language teacher), Gullnaz (Math teacher and Ferhat Naz (principal).  Naz and Sumaira subject the girls to beatings regularly.

During recess the Christian girls were also made to polish the teachers’ shoes and wash their undergarments and clothes.

When they completed their studies they were denied certificates of completion rendering them inadmissible to other schools and universities.  For this reason many Pakistan Christians are undereducated and unemployed, according to CDN.

The Higher Secondary School in village No. 79-NB is the only government school of higher education for girls in the village and adjoining areas.  The education department officials of Sargodha Region have been asked to investigate, CDN said.

When CDN questioned Principal Naz about the abuses, she said some Christian girls left the school due to domestic problems.  Naz said she would hold an inquiry of the accused (although she is also among them).  Protesting residents gathered outside Naz’ office last week, asking for an independent body to conduct the investigation, CDN reported.

Meanwhile Dr. Nazir Bhatti, president of Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC) decried the fact that Christian schools only admit 0.5 percent Christians, and 99.5 percent Muslims, according to the Pakistan Christian Post (PCP).

Bhatti noted that hundreds of Christian missionary schools and colleges all over Punjab and the rest of Pakistan admit Muslims in favor of Christians.  Reasons cited by Bhatti were:

• The secretary in charge of admissions in some of the schools is a Muslim.
• Missionary schools are run like businesses by the Catholic Church of Pakistan and the Church of Pakistan, hence they cater to wealthy Muslims.
• The clergy takes bribes in the shape of donations from wealthy Muslims in exchange for admission of their children.
• Christians are very poor and unable to make large donations for admission.

Bhatti said if these Christian convents and other English medium missionary schools had given priority to Pakistani Christians after the country was independent in 1947, Christians might today have a 100 percent literacy rate, the PCP reported.

Instead, Christian children must enroll in Muslim dominated public schools and colleges where they are not allowed to drink water from the same glasses nor eat from the same plates as Muslim students because they are viewed as infidels, the PCP said.

Bhatti appealed to the Catholic Church of Pakistan and the Church of Pakistan to give Christian students priority in admissions.  “They deserve it in schools which are established in their name,”  Nazir Bhatti told the PCP.

Two Christian girls, aged 3 and 5 years old, were rescued recently after being held hostage in Yemen for 11 months, according to Compass Direct News .

The girls, Lydia hentschel, 3, and Anna, 5, were rescued through a collaboration of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni security forces in what was described as a “humanitarian gesture” the BBC reported.

They were kidnapped with their parents and two-year-old brother while on a picnic in the northern region of Saada in June last year, according to the BBC.

Also kidnapped were four other Christian foreigners.  Three of the adult hostages, a Korean and two German women, were murdered shortly afterwards, the BBC reported.

The foreigners worked in a hospital near Saada city.  No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and it is not known if they were kidnapped because of their faith, according to CDN.

The parents, Johannes Hentschel,  a mechanical engineer and Arab speaker, and Sabine, a nurse, sold their belongings seven years before and left their home in Lauske, Saxony for Yemen as part of a long-held dream, according to guardian.co.uk.

According to the Guardian, they worked at the Protestant al-Jumhuri state hospital in Yemen, employed by Worldwide Services, a Netherlands Christian charity.

They had planned to return to Germany this year for Anna to start school.

According to CDN, at present it is unknown where the girls’ parents and 2-year-old brother Simon are; as well as the Briton, only known as Anthony.  The Briton works as an engineer.  According to a report by the news magazine Spiegel, the Hentschels’s kidnappers had demanded $2m ransom for their release. The German foreign ministry refused to comment, according to the Guardian.

Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest country and is struggling with a secessionist movement in the south, an on-off revolt in the north, and intensified al-Qaida militancy, according to the Guardian.

Over 200 foreign nationals have been kidnapped in the country in the last 15 years. Most have been released unharmed, the Guardian reported.

After five months of living in the jungle 48 Lao Christians who were expelled at gunpoint from their homes are contracting critical illnesses, and one has already died, according to Compass Direct News (CDN).

The Christians were expelled from Katin village for refusing to renounce their faith.  In the jungle they contracted diarrhea, dehydration, eye and skin infections, fainting and general weakness due to prolonged lack of adequate food and water, CDN reported.

One Christian, Ampheng, died suddenly in April while praying for one of two other Christians who were hospitalized for illnesses caused by their living conditions.  However the exact cause and date of Ampheng’s death is not known, and local officials did not permit the deceased’s remains to be laid to rest at the local burial ground, according to CDN.

After the Christians were driven away they built temporary shelters at the edge of the jungle some four miles from the village.  They survived on food found in the jungle and water from a hand-dug well that is unfit for cooking or drinking, CDN reported.

The registration papers of the homes of the Christians were confiscated along with their water buffaloes, which are essential for their work in the fields.  Katin’s village chief recently warned other residents not to make contact with any of the Christians, otherwise their personal possessions would be confiscated and their homes torn down, CDN reported.

Meanwhile in Washington DC a demonstration was held at the Lao Embassy recently to call for the release of hundreds of political and religious dissidents and thousands of Lao-Hmong refugees currently held in detention in Laos, according to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).

The demonstration followed a one-week series of policy events held with American policymakers, members of congress and non-governmental organizations, the UNPO said.

“Many Laotians and Hmong have been persecuted, tortured, have disappeared, or been killed … in Laos for merely expressing their political or religious views, peacefully protesting or practicing their faith,”  said Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. (ULDL), according to the UNPO report.

Laos is a communist country where the populace is 1.5 percent Christian, 67 percent Buddhist, and the remainder unspecified.  Article 6 and Article 30 of the Lao Constitution guarantees the right of Christians and other religious minorities to practice the religion of their choice without discrimination or penalty, CDN reported.

Three Christian laborers in a garment factory in Sialkot, Pakistan were illegally arrested recently on trumped up charges by their employer, according to Compass Direct News (CDN).

Atif Masih, Kamran Masih and Naveed Gill reported for work as usual on May 4 at 9 a.m. Two hours later they were arrested by the SHO [station house officer], severely beaten, and forced to state that they sold alcohol.  In Pakistan it is forbidden to sell alcohol to Muslims and illegal to sell it without a permit, CDN reported.

Upon their arrest their boss Rana Ejaz had not filed a First Information Report, nor had he registered a written complaint.  However Ejaz reportedly said, “I did all this on the advice of the SHO, Zulfiqar, so that I could terminate the Christian workers.”  A source who requested anonymity said the Christians were detained only because Ejaz is a good friend of the SHO, according to the CDN report.

Kamran Masih said Ejaz seemed to object to the crosses the Christians wore to work.  “He …used to look at the cross with strange looks,” Kamran Masih said. “Then since February, he said that no one will be allowed to wear a cross at work.”

In March Ejaz began to demand that only Christian employees come to work on Sundays.  The three laborers requested , permission to go to church on Sundays, but were threatened with dire consequences, CDN  reported.

Authorities released them after three days after local human rights groups filed charges.  Paka Garah police SHO Zulfiqar Ali refused to comment after their release.

Meanwhile in a separate incident eight Christian laborers in Khushab, Pakistan were freed recently after their employer illegally detained them in the factory, and allegedly forced them to work as bonded laborers to pay their debts, Persecution.org reported.

The International Christian Concern (ICC) said the Christian brick kiln laborers were allegedly forced to work as bonded laborers to pay their debts, Persecution.org reported.

Persecution.org said that Mushtaq Gill of the Democratic Minorities Alliance filed an habeas corpus petition asking the district and session judge to seek the release of the Christians.

The court appointed a bailiff who raided the kiln and found the eight detained Christians.  Brick kiln workers in Pakistan live in slave-like conditions and are routinely mistreated and often illegally detained by their Muslim employers, Persecution.org reported.

The freed workers are Norman Bhatti, Salman Nabeel, Sharoon Bhatti, Haroon, Ishtiaq Masih, Razzaq Masih, Saleem Masih and Nadeem Masih.

The court ordered the police to register a case against the employer, Muhammad Ramzan for forced labor and illegal detention.  The court also ordered Ramzan to file a recovery suit to solve the alleged money dispute.

On April 6, Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng thought he could return to a normal life after 13 months of imprisonment.  But his “release” was a farce to please the international media, and on April 20 Gao disappeared again, last seen with four policemen, Compass Direct News (CDN) reported.

Gao, a self-taught lawyer and Communist Party member until 2005 was once viewed by China’s Ministry of Justice as among their top 10 lawyers, according to CDN.

Gao defended some of China’s most vulnerable people, including workers seeking redress, underground Christians and the banned Falungong spiritual movement, according to Telegraph.co.uk.

In a press conference held shortly after his April 6 release, Gao said he wanted to be reunited with his family, who fled to the United States in January 2009 over his daughter’s attempted suicides when she was blocked from entering school.

Meanwhile, Gao hoped to visit his in-laws in Urumqi, according to CDN.  Gao would no longer continue his legal work, he said, and he could not comment on his treatment while in captivity.  Now, no one knows where Gao is.

On Feb. 4 last year Gao was taken from his Shaanxi home and held incommunicado for 13 months.  Chinese authorities filed no formal charges and issued no arrest warrant while he was jailed, Telegraph.co.uk reported.

A demonstration in Hong Kong to demand information about Gao Zhisheng's whereabouts on 4 Feb 2010/Credit: Voice of America

The Telegraph quoted friends and colleagues who said that when he was released on April 6 he was still being tailed by police.  On April 30 Gao visited his father-in-law in the company of four police officers.  He just spent one night there before the police took him out again.

Gao’s brief release from jail is believed to be in response to demands by western governments and international rights groups who repeatedly demanded to know his whereabouts and sought his release.  It is believed the police feared Gao would talk of his treatment while he was incarcerated, according to the Telegraph and CDN.

In 2005 Gao wrote open letters to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao accusing the government of torturing Falungong members.  As a result his law license was revoked and his law firm shut down.

In 2007 Gao was detained, tortured and threatened with death.  His captors also threatened to harm and torture his wife and children if he spoke of his treatment in jail.  Under duress, Gao “confessed” and was under house arrest, the CDN said.

An AFP report said human rights lawyers in China are constantly harassed and threatened.  For example:

• Tang Jitian, 41, lost his livelihood, rarely sees his family, and must constantly change homes because authorities pressure his landlords.  He has defended the Falungong, people who were displaced from their lands, and hepatitis B carriers who are subject to discrimination.
• Authorities once set up video cameras outside Tang’s home in Jilin, filming through the windows.
• Tang and colleague Liu Wei, in her 30s, have had their licenses revoked while defending Falungong.  In April last year they walked out of court due to constant interruption of their defense by the judge.
• A legal research center for human rights was shut down on July 2009, and the Beijing Justice Bureau suspended the licenses of 53 lawyers.
• Authorities set restrictions on lawyers taking up cases related to the 2009 protests in Urumqi.
• New rules will be enforced in June this year stipulating punishments for lawyers and their firms that are so vaguely written that they can be arbitrarily interlpreted in terms of disciplinary measures.

China foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said last week that attorneys are free to work as they please.  “Chinese citizens enjoy their lawful rights and interests, which are also guaranteed by the laws and the Constitution,” Yu said, according to the AFP.

In the past few years, the number of rights lawyers in China has soared — from about 10 in 2007 to around 100 today in Beijing alone.