Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources said.

The warning in a Jan. 3 letter to church leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) arrived a few days after Sudan President Omar al-Bashir told cheering crowds on Jan. 3 that, following the secession of largely non-Islamic south Sudan last July, the country’s constitution will be more deeply entrenched in sharia (Islamic law).

“We will take legal procedures against pastors who are involved in preaching or evangelistic activities,” Hamid Yousif Adam, undersecretary of the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment, wrote to the church leaders. “We have all legal rights to take them to court.”

Sources said the order was aimed at oppressing Christians amid growing hostilities toward Christianity.

“This is a critical situation faced by our church in Sudan,” said the Rev. Yousif Matar, secretary general of the SPEC.

Another church leader said the order was another in a series of measures by the government to control churches.

“They do not want pastors from South Sudan to carry on any church activities or mission work in Sudan,” he said.

Sudanese law prohibits missionaries from evangelizing, and converting from Islam to another religion is punishable by imprisonment or death in Sudan, though previously such laws were not strictly enforced. The government has never carried out a death sentence for apostasy, according to the U.S. State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report.

Christians are facing growing threats from both Muslim communities and Islamist government officials who have long wanted to rid Sudan of Christianity, Christian leaders told Compass. They said Christianity is now regarded as a foreign religion following the departure of 350,000 people, most of them Christians, to South Sudan following the July 9, 2011 secession.

Sudan’s Interim National Constitution (INC) holds up sharia as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to the state department report. Christian leaders said they fear the government is tightening controls on churches in Sudan and planning to force compliance with Islamic law as part of a strategy to eliminate Christianity.

As he has several times in the past year, Al-Bashir on Jan. 3 once again warned that Sudan’s constitution will be more firmly entrenched in sharia.

“We are an Islamic nation with sharia as the basis of our constitution,” he told crowds in Kosti, south of Khartoum. “We will base our constitution on Islamic laws.”

His government subsequently issued the decree ordering church leaders to provide names and contact information of church leaders in Sudan, sources said. Christian leaders said the government is retaliating for churches’ perceived pro-West position.

Muslim scholars have urged heavy-handed measures against Christians to Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Hostilities

Christians in (north) Sudan celebrated last Christmas amid several threats from officials in Khartoum, and some followers of Christ were arrested for their faith, sources said.

Yasir Musa of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) was arrested along with two other church members by national security agents in Khartoum on Dec. 23; they were detained because they were Christians and therefore suspected supporters of southern military forces. Released shortly afterward, they said authorities threatened to arrest them again if they did not comply with orders not to carry out Christian activities in the Islamic nation.

SCOC leaders said they have complained to the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments and were told that the three were arrested for security reasons.

In another case, sources said that Islamic militias loyal to the government in civilian uniform abducted a church leader and two church members as they were returning from a worship service and demanded $1,000 in ransom. They were released after two days, according to Christian sources in Khartoum.

Christians in Khartoum increasingly fear arrests by militias loyal to the Islamic government, the sources said.

Security agencies in Khartoum have also ordered local Christians not to organize Bible exhibitions, as some churches have done annually, the sources said.

The pressures on Christians come as war in Sudan’s South Kordofan state has led leaders there and in North Kordofan to incite hatred against Christians, with officials in both states calling for holy war against the predominantly Christian Nuba people.

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Attacks against Christian Assyrian businesses in northern Iraq over the weekend, which local sources said were organized by a pro-Islamic political party, marked the first such destruction of Christian establishments in the Kurdish region.

The rampage threatens the frail security of Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, sources said.

After mullah Mala Ismail Osman Sindi’s sermon claiming there was moral corruption in massage parlors in the northern town of Zakho on Friday (Dec. 2), a group of young men attacked and burned shops in the town, most of them Christian-owned.

The businesses included liquor stores, hotels, a beauty salon and a massage parlor, according to Ankawa News.

“The interesting thing with this incident is the place where it happened,” Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East said. “KRG [the Kurdish Regional Government] is, for the most part, safe and secure, and all inhabitants enjoy prosperity and security, until now at least. The future is, by all means, bleak for the Christians and other minorities living there.”

Some of the assailants waved banners stating, “There Is No God but Allah,” according to Ankawa News. Sources said local authorities were slow in responding, resulting in heavy financial losses.

Thousands of Christians had fled to the Kurdish region since the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq in 2003.

Mullah Sindi denied accusations that he provoked the violence against northern Iraq’s Christian community, according to Ankawa News. After Sindi’s sermon, a man reportedly stood up in the mosque and said that since there were un-Islamic massage parlors in Zakho, Muslims should go destroy them. The mob started with the town’s only massage parlor and continued to stores selling liquor and three hotels, where they lit fires, according to Ankawa News.

Later on Friday, the mob tried to attack the Christian quarters of Zakho, but authorities stopped them.

Violence also erupted on Saturday morning (Dec. 3) on the outskirts of Dohuk in two Christian neighborhoods, where groups attacked liquor stores and burned a Christian cultural club. Yesterday (Dec. 5) small pockets of violence against Christian communities were quickly extinguished near the Kurdish capital, Erbil, and in the center of Sulaymaniyah, 200 kilometers (124 miles) south.

In Zakho, near the border with Turkey, owners of liquor shops and other establishments whose shops were burned and vandalized found leaflets on the walls of their destroyed shops yesterday (Dec. 5) threatening to kill them if they re-opened, according to Ankawa News. Some of the shop owners were Yezidis, a local religious sect.

The attacks were reportedly organized by the Kurdistan Islamic Union party, which is inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the region’s oldest Islamist parties and founded in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood strives to influence governments in the region toward more Islamic values.

In retaliation for the Zakho attacks, members of the Kurdish ruling party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Friday evening (Dec. 2) burned an Islamic Union office in Zakho.

Over the weekend, KDP members ransacked and destroyed 10 Islamic Union offices in Dohuk province. The KDP claimed the Islamic Union planned the weekend attacks, and the Islamic Union blamed the KDP for storming their offices in retaliation, according to Ankawa News.

The unrest in the KRG in the last few days is a reflection of the unrest in the region, and as commonly happens, Christians were caught in the middle as innocent victims, Christian sources told Compass.

“I think these attacks were organized,” Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako said. “They might be connected not only to domestic issues, but also to events outside the country. Unfortunately, it’s always the Christians who pay the price.”

The motives of the mobs in Zakho were not purely religious, according to General Secretary of the Chaldo-Assyrian Student and Youth Union Kaldo Oghanna.

Some of the young men may have attacked the mostly Christian establishments out of religious motives, but Oghanna said many of them joined the attacks only out of frustration toward the government. Others probably joined for personal benefit, as some members of the mob stole money and even liquor from the shops they destroyed, he said.

Most importantly, however, the attacks reflect the attitude of intolerance and discrimination that threaten the stability, safety and democratic process of the Kurdish region, Oghanna said.

“This attack is not a normal attack,” Oghanna said. “It threatened our businesses, and it is threatening the situation in Kurdistan. They attacked the democracy of the Kurdish region, its safety and security. Of course, we think there are international and domestic influences that made this situation escalate, but we also think this is in the mentality of those people: that they do not tolerate those who are different. This is our real struggle here.”

The greatest challenge of Iraq’s Christian Assyrian community since 2003 has been its dwindling population. The waves of the Iraqi Christian exodus have usually come after violent attacks on their communities. Archbishop Sako said he fears this attack may inspire more to leave.

“Now, maybe, because Christians are shocked and afraid, they will start to emigrate, and this is a bigger challenge,” he said. “We are encouraging them to stay.”

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After grenade attacks on a church in northern Kenya blamed on Islamic extremists, religious leaders said they were redoubling inter-faith peace efforts. At the same time, about 100 kilometers away, Christian relief agencies were carrying out humanitarian work in Dadaab, the world’s biggest refugee camp, despite security threats.

Two grenades were lobbed into the East Africa Pentecostal Church compound in the town of Garissa on 5 November, killing two people and injuring five others. The attack has been blamed on al-Shabab militants who are facing a Kenyan military operation in southern Somalia.

“We are alarmed by this blatant attempt by evil forces to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims,” Sheikh Adan Wachu, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims told a news conference on 10 November in Nairobi.

Speaking under the auspices of the Interreligious Council of Kenya, he said the militants had hoped to ignite Christians-Muslims violence, but had failed. He said the faiths were united against groups that misuse religion to cause anarchy and would be preaching that message in churches, mosques and temples.

“We have lived peacefully with one another for long. Therefore we choose not to interpret this as religious war,” the Rev. Joseph Mwasya, a clergyman from Garissa said on 8 November at a news conference.

At Dadaab, many agencies have scaled down since October when threats escalated, but the Rev. Eberhard Hitzler, the director of the Department for World Service of the Lutheran World Federation said on 8 November the organization will continue to deliver humanitarian relief at the camp.

“We have not yet the impression that the current situation in Dadaab constitutes a serious crisis, despite the security risks increasing for the organization; so we should set up a team to respond to it,” said Hitzler whose organization is responsible for housing and security in the camp. The 20-year-old settlement now contains more than 460,000 refugees who have fled war, famine and disease in Somalia.

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JOS, Nigeria, August 2 (Compass Direct News) – Security officials are trying to determine suspects and motives for two weekend bomb explosions in predominantly Muslim areas of Jos where three churches and the residences of Islamic sect leaders are located.

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The leader of Pakistan’s Christian political party slammed recently the move by a Muslim political group in to ban the bible in Pakistan because they claim that it is blasphemous.

Nazir Bhatti, head of the Central Council of the Pakistan Christian Congress issued a statement saying that the move by Maulana Abdul Rauf Farooqi, a leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, to ban the bible on the grounds of blasphemy will not prosper, the Pakistan Christian Post said.

Bhatti also said derided the claims of “an illiterate Muslim cleric” who expressed doubt about the health of the bible in a Lahore press conference. Bhatti said in his statement that only the bible points the way to eternal life, the Pakistan Christian Post said.

Bhatti said in his statement, “Christianity is [the] only religion on [the] globe that has spiritual, scientific and historical evidence to prove [the] health of [the] holy bible,” the Pakistan Christian Post reported.

Bhatti noted that the Islamic World has only one copy of the Qur’an which is displayed in Tashkent Museum [that was] written in [the] Kofi language in 300 years according to Hijra Calendar, the Pakistan Christian Post said.

By contrast, many museums have manuscripts of the holy bible that have been preserved for hundreds of years, and many scholars have translated the bible into different languages, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.

Bhatti said, “It is Islamic history which calls Caliph Omar as “Mujtaba-ul-Qur’an” meaning a title for Hazrat Omar on “Compiling Holy Qur’an.” The Islamic history goes on to state that during rule of Caliph Omar, different Muslim tribes were reciting different editions of holy Qur’an, therefore Caliph Omar ordered every tribe to assemble in with their versions of holy Qur’an,” the Pakistan Christian Post said.

Bhatti said, “The Islamic history further reads that Caliph Omar collected copies of [the] holy Qur’an from every tribe and burnt them. Then Caliph Omar called [those] who were experts in recitation of [the] holy Qur’an and ordered them to recite verse by verse. When one verse was seconded by [an]other Qur’an reciter, It was written and likewise Hazrat Omar compiled [the] holy Qur’an. But [the] Islamic world is unable to present that copy to the world, even,” the Pakistan Christian Post reported.

Bhatti also said that the JUI has an Islamic school in Akhora Khatak which produces “Taliban, not Islamic scholars.” He noted that the students in the school are not taught science or technology, the Pakistan Christian Post said.

Bhatti said that if the JUI tries to file its appeal to the Supreme Court in Pakistan, it will be dismissed because “Judges have studied in [the] 20th century education model, not in Akhora Khatak Maddrassa,” the Pakistan Christian Post reported.

Bhatti said the Pakistan Christian Congress is formulating a plan of action that will be implemented if JUI tries to petition a ban on the bible in Pakistan, the Pakistan Christian Post said.

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Shiite clerics and media in Iran have stepped up a deliberate campaign recently that is designed to quell and intimidate religious minorities through threats and intimidation, especially Christians.

Much of the persecution comes from the militia and media that is linked to security forces, and is particularly focused on Muslims who have converted to Christianity, according to Assist News.

An article in Mohabat News noted that the gravitation of Iranian citizens had been a source of “aggravation” for the government and Islamic clergy, citing the “Pasdaran Militia and media outlets belonging to these organizations” which it said leveraged “ever-increasing pressure on Christian families and those who have recently become Christians,” Assist News reported.

Woman flees country in fear

Human rights groups have slammed “gross violations” by the government against Christians in Iran, including jailing Christians for blasphemy and recently, executing a Christian couple in secret, This is Derbyshire said.

Even just being found with a bible in one’s bag can lead to fear of death. This was the experience of Mina Aminoo, who has fled to the U.K. where she is seeking asylum, after police in Tehran told her, “Be very afraid. You have done a bad thing by having a bible,” according to This is Derbyshire.

The 56-year-old woman spent her life savings to get false papers to flee to escape to the U.K. She told This is Derbyshire, “The police were watching me, that’s what they said.”

The bible was found in her handbag at the Iranian airport when she was coming back from a vacation in Turkey. Aminoo told This is Derbyshire, “I was told that it was forbidden in Iran for anyone to convert to Christianity and I was asked if I was going to preach the words of the Bible in Iran.”

Aminoo told This is Derbyshire, “I tried to explain that I’d been given the Bible from a woman in the local church in Istanbul – but the police didn’t believe me.” Aminoo was lucky to escape, but many other Christians who are still in Iran continue to face serious danger.

False Christians

Ayatollah Sobhani from Southern Khoarasan Province, in a meeting with leaders of the Islamic Guidance Foundation warned of the activities of “false” Christians referring to Protestants and born-again Evangelicals, Assist News said.

Sobhani did not define “false Christians,” but said, “[T]hese Christian evangelists have converted 600 people to Christianity in the city of Neyshabour.” He did not mention where he got his statistics, according to Assist News.

However, Assist News noted that Sobhani’s claims came after another Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, claimed to have statistics of Christian converts from Islam in Qum City.

Khorasani slammed Iran’s government and security forces, saying they were neglecting this issue. He demanded forceful action. He also criticized Pope Benedict XVI whom he accused of working actively to spread Christianity in Iran, Assist News said.

Khorasani warned the Vatican that if it persists in doing this, there will be a harsh expose against the Catholic Church of issues that will cause it grave harm, according to Assist News.

The article in Mohabat News said, “These confrontations between the security forces with Christians, especially those who have recently become Christians, proves that despite the ongoing suppression of believers and measures that have made life more and more difficult for the Christian community, people still and willingly embrace the Christian faith as their personal belief,” Assist News reported.

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The planners of a foiled bombing attack on a Christian church on Good Friday had planned to have the blast filmed for local and international media.

This was discovered when the 20^th suspect in the foiled plot, a media man, was picked up by police authorities. Cameraman Imam Firdaus of Jakarta-based Global-TV was recruited by Pepi Fernando, the group’s leader, the AP said.

Firdaus was tasked to film and broadcast the bombing and other acts of the terrorist group, the AP said. He was also asked by Fernando to invite foreign media to film the church bombing, Jakarta Globe said.

The suspects were picked up in a series of raids that the national police conducted this week, Col. Boy Rafli Amar, national police spokesman, told the AP. “He is now being questioned to determine his role in the group,” Amar said.

Amar told Jakarta Globe that Fernando wanted the church blast to be broadcast live. Some of the 20 suspects are also linked to a foiled book bombing campaign, the bombing of a police compound and a suicide blast last week at a Muslim mosque, AFP reported.

Plotters’ profiles

Fernando, who majored in Islamic religious education, graduated from Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University. He is married to Deni Karmelita of the National Narcotics Agency. They have three children, Jakarta Globe said.

Many of the other detainees also have university degrees, and some of them could be linked to the suicide bombing last week in a
local police compound in Cirebon, West Java, police told AFP.

Family members of the suspected plotters would not speak to media. However, friends of Firdaus said the arrested media man had secular beliefs, even if he studied at an Islamic university, the AP said.

Foiled church blast

Police defused nine bombs around the 3,000-capacity Christ Cathedral Church in Serpong, Jakarta, some devices weighing up to 175 lbs, the AP reported. Some bombs were positioned beneath a gas pipeline. The blast was timed to occur on Friday morning when thousands of worshippers were expected to be present, Jakarta Globe said.

Mastermind arrest

Police arrested Fernando in Banda Aceh on Thursday, in connection with the foiled book bombing campaign plot which he also masterminded. Upon interrogation, they then learned of the planned attack on Christ Cathedral, Jakarta Globe said.

In the foiled book bomb plot, which took place last month, several bombs were mailed to a number of people, including a counter-terrorism government official and some liberal Muslim leaders for their “sins against Islam,” the AFP reported.

Mosque blast

Some of the arrested suspects are also linked to a suicide blast in a mosque last week where 30 people were injured. This is the first time that a suicide bombing occurred inside a mosque in this nation of 240 million, said to be the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, the AFP said.

Some 20,000 police were deployed to safeguard Christian Easter celebrations in Jakarta, the AFP said. While 90 percent of Indonesia is Muslim, most of the people are moderates who hate violence, the AP said.

Fringe terror groups

In recent years, regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah attacked several areas in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings. The AP reported that small, extremist fringe terror groups are emerging in recent years which tend to be more vocal and more violent.

International Crisis Group, a think tank in Brussels, said there is a new trend of terrorism where small groups adopt “individual jihad” directed at police, Christians and other local enemies, the AFP reported.

Fernando learned how to make bombs through the internet, a source told Jakarta Globe, adding “Just Google it and you’ll find how to do it easily.”

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Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is trying to get himself out of the hot seat by stirring up the present war and portraying it, amid intervention from coalition forces, as another religious crusade of Christians in the West against all Islamic armies.

Gaddafi is hoping, in doing so, to provoke anger and reign in support not only from Muslims in Libya, but also from Muslims outside of the country, according to Barnabas Fund.

Coalition forces have reigned in Gaddafi and are keeping him under pressure with continued air strikes, and he is responding with religious rhetoric. Over the weekend Gaddafi declared that he was the defender of Libya and the country’s dignity against France, the U.S. and Britain, according to Barnabas Fund.

Gaddafi said in his government controlled media, “The Christians…are in a pact against us,” and said he would wage a “long-drawn war,” adding, “We have Allah with us, you have the devil on your side,” Barnabas Fund reported.

Last Tuesday Gaddafi made a public appearance—his first since the coalition declared Libya a no-fly zone. Gaddafi told supporters that there is a “new crusader battle launched by crusader countries on Islam,” according to Barnabas Fund.

Gaddafi added, “Long live Islam everywhere. All Islamic armies must take part in the battle, all free [people] must take part in the battle. In the short term, we will beat them. In the long term, we will beat them,” Christian Today reported.

Divisive

According to Christian Today, there have been some elements of division caused by the coalition’s intervention, threatening support from the Arab League, which expressed concern that it may have exceeded the boundaries of the UN resolution.

The US, according to Christian Today, has taken great effort to lay responsibility on Europe. After a series of talks, France, the U.K. and the U.S. agreed that NATO will take charge of the no-fly zone.

Amid all this, the U.K. Evangelical Alliance stated that the coalition must focus on protecting civilians. In a statement, it warned against the conflict escalating to the point where Libya becomes “another Iraq,” Christian Today said.

The Evangelical Alliance said the coalition should limit its operations to destroying Gaddafi’s capability to harm his own people, and ensuring a return of the country to normalcy as soon as possible, Christian Today said.

Steve Clifford, general director of the Evangelical Alliance said in a statement, “We ask that the current UN campaign does not go beyond its mandate and that civilian lives are protected in every possible way,” Christian Today reported.

Christians in Libya

Gaddafi’s newest strategy puts Libya’s vulnerable Christian community in harm’s way, as they may become targets of revenge for anti-Western wrath by Gaddafi supporters, according to Barnabas Fund.

The church in Libya is mainly comprised by expats, mostly coming from sub-Saharan Africa. It is likely many of them will leave due to the country’s unrest. Of greater concern is the safety of Libyan Muslims who converted to Christianity, Barnabas Fund  said.

Libyan converts live in isolation and are fearful of having contact with foreigners. They also fear meeting among themselves due to government infiltrators, according to Barnabas Fund.

Invoking al-Qaeda

Gaddafi has also responded to the international intervention by threatening to join al-Qaeda, saying, “If they [the West] behave with us as they did in Iraq, then Libya will leave the international alliance against terrorism. We will then ally ourselves with al-Qaeda and declare a holy war,”  Barnabas Fund reported.

Gaddafi has long dreamed of making Africa into a single Muslim government, ergo a United Islamic States of Africa. Now he is appealing to radical Islamists to help him overcome the coalition, according to the Barnabas Fund.

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