The Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the European Community announced recently that the conference, “Persecution against Christians,” is slated for Tuesday at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.

The conference was called as a means to urge the European Union to stand up for the rights of Christians, who they said are the most persecuted religious group in the world, Catholic Culture said.

In a statement, COMECE said, “Europe cannot remain passive. The European Union must take the co-responsibility for the protection of religious freedom in the world,” according to their website.

Some 75 percent of religious persecution is directed at Christians, with approximately 170,000 believers made to suffer annually for their faith, Spero News said, quoting COMECE.

In their website, COMECE said the total number of persecuted Christians already amounts to 100 million. Forms of persecution include the existence of obstacles to keep them from proclaiming their faith, the destruction of places of worship, and banning religious education and training.

Spero News reported that COMECE will present a paper concerning religious freedom wherein they will present a list of recommendations to the EU. Speakers include Archbishop Louis Sako, Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, Bishop Eduard Hiiboro Kussala, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura -Yambio in South Sudan and Dr. T.M. Joseph, Principal of the Newman College, Thodupuzha, India.

The website says that other organizations supporting the conference are the Groups of European Conservatives and Reformists, the Christian Democrats of the European Parliament, Open Doors International and Aid to the Church in Need.

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A group of youths attacked recently a Christian house church in a Vietnam village while a worship service was ongoing.

They gang broke into the house of evangelist Mang Vuong, smashed the walls, stole over $3,000, and destroyed furniture, books and utensils while jeering at Vuong for building his Xi Thoai village home which doubles as a house church, Compass Direct News said.

The same youth gang had long been harassing Vuong and sending death threats. Vuong works for the Evangelical Church of Vietnam, the country’s largest government registered denomination, CDN said.

They formerly were part of a Christian church at Soi Nga village nearby. However as the church grew the leaders decided to build a roomy home to double as a church in Xi Thoai village, CDN said.
A month before its completion the house was attacked by the youth for the first time. In a June 12 petition sent by Vuong to officials of the commune, district and province, he states that the youth had been assembled by village officials three days before where they were given liquor, then attacked the house at midnight, CDN said.

Many among the attackers were sons of commune officials. The petition mentioned village chief La Mo Duc and his deputy Le Minh Dien (both Communist Party leaders) among others, for inciting the gang to mount the attack, CDN said.

At that time some $3,091 was stolen—newly borrowed money to pay the contractors. Christian books were burned, and everything else was either stolen or destroyed including unused building materials and tools, CDN said.

Several provincial and local police came to allegedly investigate, but no action against the perpetrators was taken. It is believed the police actually came to better identify the Christians. Neither did local officials intervene in the recent daylight raid, CDN said.

A leading ECVN leader said, “It is religious persecution, pure and simple, incited and allowed by local government officials. The inaction of higher officials casts into doubt our country’s claim to uphold religious freedom,” CDN said.

Provincial ECVN leader Vo Thanh Phe also asked officials to take action with no success. A top national ECVN leader came to the village personally to say he would petition the prime minister. He visited personally in anticipation that the phones of local Christians are tapped, CDN said.

It is not expected that another petition would bring results. These are usually referred back to local officials who bear down harder on the Christians for complaining, CDN said.

Phu Yen province, where the events occurred, has been the site of other abuses against Christians. In January Y Co and Y Du of the Vietnam Good News Mission Church were arrested and both are in Phu Lam Prison despite the fact that no charges have been filed and there has been no trial, CDN said.

The wives of the two evangelists were told their husbands would be freed if they renounce their faith, CDN said.

According to an observer, Vietnam has worsened its treatment of religious activists and further neglected human and democratic rights. Its law allowing religious freedom is largely viewed window dressing. After it already achieved its goal of obtaining U.S. trade privileges in 2006 and acceding to the WTO in 2007, enforcement of such freedoms has been lax, CDN said.

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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.

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Ethnic cleansing in Iraq has caused half of 1.4 million Christians who lived there to leave the country.

Quoting the Assyrian International News Agency, the report said that these Assyrian Christians compose less than 4 percent of Iraq’s population.

They speak Aramaic, a dialect close to what Jesus spoke 2000 years ago, and are descendants of the first converts to Christianity.

Indyposted said that post Sadaam Husssein, many traditional protections that were given to non Muslims are no longer enforced due to various Muslim factions in Iraq.

Ethnic cleansing has taken place through bomb attacks, assassinations, rapes and kidnappings, Indyposted reported.

The report adds that Iraqi Christians who have fled are oftentimes denied asylum in other countries.

Many are living underground in Sweden.   According to AINA, Iraqi Assyrians in Sweden are arrested, put in a plane, then flown back to Baghdad.

According to Indypost, instability for Iraq’s Christians has been an outgrowth of the war in Iraq.

The London Telegraphnoted that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has branded Iraq’s religious persecution “of particular concern” and called on the Obama administration to intervene before the ancient religious communities are exterminated.

So far their appeal has not moved Hillary Clinton according to the London Telegraph, adding that “In these paranoid times, to defend Iraqi Christians from their Muslim fellow-citizens could be misinterpreted as an attack on Islam.”

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The following is submitted by Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director, Open Doors USA:

Today U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling returned home to their friends and family in an emotional reunion after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il issued a special pardon. Their return came after former U.S. President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to Pyongyang to help secure their release.

Ling and Lee had been found guilty of allegedly entering North Korea illegally across the Chinese border in March and later sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. They reportedly were being held at a "guest house" during their confinement.

The North Korean News Agency said the two reporters’ pardon and release was a sign of North Korea’s "humanitarian and peace-loving policy."

That might be the case in this instance, but let’s look at the facts:

·         North Korea is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world. Open Doors, an international Christian organization which supports persecuted believers (www.OpenDoorsUSA.org), puts the number of prisoners at least 200,000, including 40,000 to 60,000 Christians.

·         North Koreans can be imprisoned for virtually any state-defined crime such as owning a Bible, making a negative comment about the regime, failing to have a picture of Kim Il-Sung in their house and traveling to China to look for food and freedom.

·         KimJong-Il’s government keeps its citizens in its grip through systematic use of torture, public and private executions, brutal imprisonment, lack of due process of law, starvation and even forced abortions.

·         North Korea has been known to arrest not only the suspected dissident but also three generations of his/her family to "root out" the bad influence.

·         This year North Korea was re-designated by the U.S. State Department as one of eight "Countries of Particular Concern" for its severe religious freedom violations. The Open Doors World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians has ranked the hermit country as the worst offender of religious freedom for seven years in a row.

The Associated Press reported last month that North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman for distributing Bibles, based on information it received from South Korean activists. Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents, according to the Associated Press. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korean groups.

Ri’s parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, according to the report, citing unidentified documents it said were obtained from North Korea.

This is the shocking reality of what takes place inside this communist country where there is no basic human rights. One colleague of mine who has traveled to North Korea described North Korea "as an on-going nightmare."

It surely was a nightmare for Kim Young Soon, a special witness during North Korea Freedom Week in April before a group of Congressmen in Washington, D.C. The North Korean refugee is one of the few survivors of the infamous Yodok political prison camp. She was thrown into prison for nine years on a trumped up charge of divulging a secret about Kim Jong-Il’s marriage. Her parents and four children were also imprisoned. In the Yodok prison camp, her parents died of malnutrition, an eldest son drowned. Her husband was shot to death in 1970 while attempting to cross the border to escape from North Korea.  Mrs. Kim’s youngest son was arrested in 1988 while attempting to cross the border and was put in prison for four years. He was executed in 1993 by a firing squad because he tried to escape from North Korea again. Mrs. Kim escaped from North Korea and resettled in South Korea.  She has made it her life’s mission to expose the cruelty and truth about the prison camps in North Korea.

She testified: "I entered prison camp No. 15 at Yodok. I spent nine years there; treated like an animal. What made me feel most mortified was the fact that my father, mother, daughter and three sons, who were innocent of any crime, were also sent to Yodok, all because of me.

"We were forced to engage in heavy labor day and night. On August 5, 1971, I lost my father. I had to wrap his body in a straw mat since there were no coffins in Yodok. Before long, my mother also died of malnutrition. Unbearable sadness cut my heart to pieces.

"Still with tears in my eyes, I was struck by another painful accident when my eldest son drowned. I was nearly mad with grief. Yodok was really a hell to me. I cried to God asking that He might burn them all to death in Yodok with lightning.

"Every mountain and field in Yodok was covered with dead bodies because of malnutrition and hunger. In 1973, two detainees were killed by public execution at a place between Sector 3 and 4 on charges of trying to escape from prison. Countless numbers of detainees were killed by public execution and torture. Due to malnutrition and hunger, little children withered to death with their stomachs swollen. Adult people were looking everywhere for young rats which they believed to be a kind of medicine to save their children. And they literally ate up all the snakes in Yodok to avoid painful death from malnutrition."

Yes, we should rejoice for Ling and Lee. They now have complete freedom in the United States.

But please join me in praying and advocating for those who have not received pardons; for those languishing in the "hell" that is North Korea.

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