Country’s religious regulatory authority expected to consider recognition before year’s end.

NEW DELHI, November 4 (CDN) — For the first time in Bhutan’s history, the Buddhist nation’s government seems ready to grant much-awaited official recognition and accompanying rights to a miniscule Christian population that has remained largely underground.

The authority that regulates religious organizations will discuss in its next meeting – to be held by the end of December – how a Christian organization can be registered to represent its community, agency secretary Dorji Tshering told Compass by phone.

Thus far only Buddhist and Hindu organizations have been registered by the authority, locally known as Chhoedey Lhentshog. As a result, only these two communities have the right to openly practice their religion and build places of worship.

Asked if Christians were likely to get the same rights soon, Tshering replied, “Absolutely” – an apparent paradigm shift in policy given that Bhutan’s National Assembly had banned open practice of non-Buddhist and non-Hindu religions by passing resolutions in 1969 and in 1979.

“The constitution of Bhutan says that Buddhism is the country’s spiritual heritage, but it also says that his majesty [the king] is the protector of all religions,” he added, explaining the basis on which the nascent democracy is willing to accept Christianity as one of the faiths of its citizens.

The former king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, envisioned democracy in the country in 2006 – after the rule of an absolute monarchy for over a century. The first elections were held in 2008, and since then the government has gradually given rights that accompany democracy to its people.

The government’s move to legalize Christianity seems to have the consent of the present king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who is respected by almost all people and communities in the country. In his early thirties, the king studied in universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmey Thinley is also believed to have agreed in principle to recognition of other faiths.

According to source who requested anonymity, the government is likely to register only one Christian organization and would expect it to represent all Christians in Bhutan – which would call for Christian unity in the country.

All Hindus, who constitute around 22 percent of Bhutan’s less than 700,000 people, are also represented by one legal entity, the Hindu Dharma Samudaya (Hindu Religion Community) of Bhutan, which was registered with the Chhoedey Lhentshog authority along with Buddhist organizations a year ago.

Tshering said the planned discussion at the December meeting is meant to look at technicalities in the Religious Organizations Act of 2007, which provides for registration and regulation of religious groups with intent to protect and promote the country’s spiritual heritage. The government began to enforce the Act only in November 2009, a year after the advent of democracy.

Asked what some of the government’s concerns are over allowing Christianity in the country, Tshering said “conversion must not be forced, because it causes social tensions which Bhutan cannot afford to have. However, the constitution says that no one should be forced to believe in a religion, and that aspect will be taken care of. We will ensure that no one is forced to convert.”

The government’s willingness to recognize Christians is partly aimed at bringing the community under religious regulation, said the anonymous source. This is why it is evoking mixed response among the country’s Christians, who number around 6,000 according to rough estimates.

Last month, a court in south Bhutan sentenced a Christian man to three years of prison for screening films on Christianity – which was criticized by Christian organizations around the world. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Christian in Bhutan Imprisoned for Showing Film on Christ,” Oct. 18.)

The government is in the process of introducing a clause banning conversions by force or allurement in the country’s penal code.

Though never colonized, landlocked Bhutan has historically seen its sovereignty as fragile due to its small size and location between two Asian giants, India and China. It has sought to protect its sovereignty by preserving its distinct cultural identity based on Buddhism and by not allowing social tensions or unrest.

In the 1980s, when the king sought to strengthen the nation’s cultural unity, ethnic Nepalese citizens, who are mainly Hindu and from south Bhutan, rebelled against it. But a military crackdown forced over 100,000 of them – some of them secret Christians – to either flee to or voluntarily leave the country for neighboring Nepal.

Tshering said that while some individual Christians had approached the authority with queries, no organization had formally filed papers for registration.

After the December meeting, if members of the regulatory authority feel that Chhoedey Lhentshog’s mandate does not include registering a Christian organization, Christians will then be registered by another authority, the source said.

After official recognition, Christians would require permission from local authorities to hold public meetings. Receiving foreign aid or inviting foreign speakers would be subject to special permission from the home ministry, added the source.

Bhutan’s first contact with Christians came in the 17th century when Guru Rimpoche, a Buddhist leader and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation state, hosted the first two foreigners, who were Jesuits. Much later, Catholics were invited to provide education in Bhutan; the Jesuits came to Bhutan in 1963 and the Salesians in 1982 to run schools. The Salesians, however, were expelled in 1982 on accusations of proselytizing, and the Jesuits left the country in 1988.

“As Bhutanese capacities (scholarly, administrative and otherwise) increased, the need for active Jesuit involvement in the educational system declined, ending in 1988, when the umbrella agreement between the Jesuit order and the kingdom expired and the administration of all remaining Jesuit institutions was turned over to the government,” writes David M. Malone, Canada’s high commissioner to India and ambassador to Bhutan, in the March 2008 edition of Literary Review of Canada.

After a Christian organization is registered, Christian institutions may also be allowed once again in the country, given the government’s stress on educating young Bhutanese.

A local Christian requesting anonymity said the community respects Bhutan’s political and religious leaders, especially the king and the prime minister, will help preserve the country’s unique culture and seeks to contribute to the building of the nation.

END

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The story of 17-year-old Christian (formerly Muslim) convert Fathima Rifqa Bary is far from over according to the Orlando Sentinel, as she is getting surgery for cancer and will need several rounds of chemotherapy afterwards.

Rifqa Bary

Last year Bary converted to Christianity, then fled to Florida because she was afraid her parents or people from their mosque would kill her.

Now she is back in Ohio due to a court order, but lives with a foster family.

Even as her parents continue the court battle over how she should be raised, Bary has had two surgeries for cancer, and will undergo a third operation on Thursday, the Orlando Sentinel said.

While she was in the hospital, Bary’s estranged Muslim parents Mohamed and Aysha Bary were allowed to go to her hospital room without her permission, according to OneNewsNow.

“I don’t know if it was her attorney, her case worker, [but] somebody made the decision to bring her parents into the room to see her without her permission,” said Jamal Jivanjee, director of the Florida-based ministry, Illuminate, “and that caused her a lot of emotional turmoil and stress, and she objected to that and they had to get them out of there,” according to OneNewsNow.

In August last year Bary said, “If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn’t be alive. In 150 generations in my family, no one has known Jesus.  I am the first — imagine the honor in killing me,” FoxNews.com reported.

Bary fled to Florida on a bus last July after her parents learned that she was baptized in early 2009 without their knowledge. Weeks later, using cell phone and computer records, police tracked her to the home of Rev. Blake Lorenz, pastor of the Orlando-based Global Revolution Church, and his wife Beverly.  An Orange-Osceola judge ordered Bary back to Ohio in October last year, according to FoxNews.com.

Bary suffers from an aggressive form of uterine cancer.  Her doctors initially considered a complete hysterectomy, but are hoping that won’t be necessary.  The full extent of her condition will be known after her operation on Thursday, FoxNews.com said.

Fathima said that she would like to continue to stay with her foster family in Columbus.  She turns 18 on August 10 and as an adult, her court battles with her father should end, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

However, when she turns 18 she will lose her health care and may face problems with her immigration status for being in the United States illegally.  She may be deported back to Sri Lanka, FoxNews.com said.

Jivanjee said, “We’re praying that somehow she’ll be granted asylum.”  He added that with Bary’s immigration status still up in the air, and the prospect of extensive medical treatment, she is obviously scared right now, OneNewsNow reported.

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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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The Catholic Church issued recently a cautionary warning on the first synthetic cell, noting that correctly used, it could be a positive development—but only God can create life.

The Vatican issued the warning after an announcement from the United States that researchers had produced a living cell containing manmade DNA.

The scientist, genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter, said this opens a path for designing organisms that may work differently from how nature intended, according to The Herald, Scotland.

The Church warned scientists of the ethical responsibility of scientific progress and said that the manner in which the innovation is applied in the future will be crucial, according to the Associated Press.

“If …it is for the good of all, of the environment and man..we’ll keep the same judgment (that it is a great scientific discovery),” said Monsignor Rino Fisichella.

“If, on the other hand, the use of this discovery should turn against the dignity of and respect for human life, then our judgment would change,” the AP reported.

Fisichella, who heads Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, stressed there is no necessary clash between science and faith.  “But we think above all about the meaning that must be given to life,” Fisichella said.  “We need God, the origin of life,” the AP reported.

Venter’s synthetic cell is actually Mycoplasma mycoides, a type of living bacteria that is commonly associated with mastitis in goats, according to The Herald, Scotland.

Venter’s Mycoplasma mycoides are synthetic because it was made with synthetic chemicals, transplanted and activated into a cell with manmade genetic instructions.  Venter’s team is now considering creating algae that can capture carbon dioxide from the air and produce hydrocarbon fuels, according to SiliconIndia.

Naysayers however doubt that making Mycoplasma mycoides is tantamount to the creation of “artificial life.”

On the other hand, Julian Savulescu, Professor of Practical Ethics at Oxford, said “We need new standards of safety evaluation for this kind of radical research, and protection from military or terrorist misuse and abuse,” according to SiliconIndia.

The Catholic Church teaching holds that human life is God’s gift, created through natural procreation between a man and woman.  The Vatican said the first synthetic cell “must have rules, like all the things that touch on the heart of life,” according to the AP.

U.S. President Barack Obama asked that the commission develop recommendations about any actions the government should take “to ensure that America reaps the benefits of this developing field of science while identifying appropriate ethical boundaries and minimizing identified risks,” SiliconIndia reported.

Meanwhile Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said “Any form of intelligence and any scientific acquisition must always be measured against the ethical dimension, which has at its heart the true dignity of every person.”

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A popular Christian band cheated death recently through the intervention of a Myanmar general after they had illegally sneaked into the country to perform in a concert, according to CNN News.

The Irish Christian band Bluetree cheated death when they slipped into Myanmar through Thailand to sing for the Karen Christians, CNN reported.

Bluetree’s popularity soared in the United States last year when Chris Tomlin covered its praise song “God of This City” and videos of American Idol winner Kris Allen singing the tune were posted on YouTube, according to CNN.

After the concert for the Karen Christians, the band became the point of dispute between high ranking members of two different military units, both of them screaming, yelling and pointing at one another.

The band’s interpreter fell silent, and Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International (CFI), the NGO that had brought the band there said, “This is bad. This is really, really bad.”

It was only when they were back in Thailand that the band members were told it was their fates that was being debated by the troops.  “We were told later their general said ‘we’re not even going to waste our bullets with them, we’re just going to slice their throats,’ ” Boyd told CNN.

In Myanmar, Christians are targeted and killed.  The conflict between the government and the Karen and other ethnic groups such as the Karenni, Mon and Shan is considered to be the longest-running civil war in the world.

CFI’s Jim Jacobson is a wanted man in Myanmar.  He and Bluetree chose a time when the riverbeds dry up to slip into Myanmar. They brought food, clothing, Bibles and whiskey–to bribe the militia that, according to Boyd, threaten to burn down Christian villages and kill the men.

They gave the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) the booze and food in exchange for access to a refugee camp where Bluetree sang and listened to the children sing some songs, Boyd told CNN.

They could only stay a few hours, lest the Myanmar army detect them, label them as spies and execute them.  But the DKBA general who had allowed their safe passage asked them to come up to his office and demanded that they sing for him, CNN reported.

“They didn’t ask politely,” Boyd said.  They were on a balcony and even before they could sing, members of the Myanmar army saw them, and the screaming match between the generals occurred.

Boyd believes the DKBA general offered the army troops part of the bribe to dissuade the military regime’s general.  Later the general even showed Jacobson the school where his troops’ children were being educated, according to CNN.

The general “asked Jim for his help in bringing up his kids,” Boyd said. ”This, from a guy whose mission in life is to kill Christians,” CNN reported.

Jacobson and the band members left as quickly as possible, driving the five hours back to Thailand in silence.

The trip was recorded and will be released in July as a DVD documentary, Boyd said. An audio recording of the Karen children is also an added track to a live album the band recorded in Belfast in March.

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The owner of the Be With Me, The Children’s Playseum in Bethesda, Md. was told recently that no Montgomery public school would send children to her facility because her website mentioned the words “God,” “life,” and “family,” according to The Washington Post.

From her website:

“We Value

LIFE-Every child is God’s gift to this earth.

FAMILY-The most vital part of our community. We treasure the opportunity to offer you a place to create family moments and memories while using our proceeds to help a family far away.

GOD-Giver of breathe and we endeavor to honor Him in all of our affairs.”

Be With Me, The Children’s Playseum is an indoor space that mixes creative play and education.

Geina Seebachan, owner of the children’s activity center, was told however that if she edited her website, schools would send children to the playseum.

Sean Bulson, an acting community superintendent for the county system, said he was “not aware” of any countywide decision about the playseum.  He did say that many parents expressed discomfort with their children going to the facility, The Washington Post reported.

The issue came to Seebachan’s attention when Westbrook Elementary School canceled a scheduled trip to the center.

All four of Seebachan’s children had attended Westbrook Elementary School.

However, according to Seebachan, Jeff Ewald, principle, told her that parents expressed concern that the Playseum was overtly or covertly religious, The Washington Post said.

Seebachan, an evangelical Christian, has among her teaching staff one from Peru, one from Sri Lanka, one vegan, one kosher Jew, a fellow from Trinidad and a woman from Congo, according to The Washington Post.

According to the play calendar on their website, there will be activities to celebrate Jerusalem Day, Waisak Day in Indonesia, Corpus Christi in Chile, and Memorial Day in the United States.

Seebachan, who studied international relations in college, also has activities at Pthe activity center that celebrate Thai and Shinto holidays, the prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Chinese New Year and Jewish holidays.

But on her Web site, she also advertises a Christian youth group she runs, according to the Washington Post.

Seebachan had experience in leading after school clubs and daycamps, has taught in China, and lived and visited over 22 nations.  The playseum’s on-hands activities are diverse, sensitive in spirit and reflect what she has gained from her travels, according to their website.

However now the Be With Me Playseum is being sabotaged through a whisper campaign and Seebachan has been receiving threats.

Anonymous Web postings saying Seebachan handed out antiabortion literature at the Playseum, accepts support from right-wing Christian groups and plays Christian rock music at the play space, according to The Washington Post.

One anonymous post from someone who claimed to be Jewish said that Seebachan told her that unless she accepted Jesus as her personal savior, the client and her children would go to hell, The Washington Post reported.

Seebachan said she has no literature about abortion, her sponsors are all secular, including Safeway and Strosniders hardware store, and if she knew anyone of her staff who told a client that she and her family might go to hell, she would fire them on the spot, according to The Washington Post.

“I’m not marketing to Christians,” Seebachan says.  “I imagined this place like a big, refreshing swimming pool for anybody to come to and be together with their children in a different way, without computers, TVs or cellphones,”  Seebachan told The Washington Post.

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Some 3,000 angry Muslims, spurred by their imam, went on a rampage in the coastal city of Marsa Matrouh in Egypt recently, completely destroying 18 homes, 23 shops, and 16 cars owned by Christians according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The Muslims had just finished their Friday prayers when they were exhorted by the mosque’s imam to cleanse the city of its infidel Christians, whom they call Copts, the WSJ said.

During the rampage some 400 Copts barricaded themselves in their church for 10 hours until the frenzy died down.  Since May of last year, over a dozen violent incidents have occurred in villages in Egypt.  One of them was a drive bye shootout at Christians leaving a Coptic Christmas church service, resulting in seven dead and 26 seriously injured, according to the WSJ.

The Copts comprise 12% of the population of this primarily Muslim country.  The last few years have resembled a Christian purge however, with waves of mob assaults forcing up to thousands of Christian citizens to flee their homes, the WSJ said.

Despite frantic appeals the police usually arrive after the violence is over.  Then they coerce the injured to accept “reconciliation” with their attackers.  No Muslim to date has been convicted for any of these crimes, the WSJ said.

The Egyptian government insists that there is no sectarian problem in the country, and they say those who draw international attention to the Copts’ plight are traitors, the WSJ said.

The United States and the rest of the Western democracies, despite repeated Coptic appeals, have done little besides calling upon the Egyptian regime to foster greater tolerance, the WSJ reported.

Egypt’s Christian Copts suffer customary and official discrimination.  For example, no church can be built or even repaired without a presidential decree.  Also, Copts may not join intelligence and security services because they are deemed a security risk, the WSJ said.

The discrimination springs from a traditional social norm that rules the elite and large sectors of the Muslim community.  This norm, though no longer legal, lives in the social psyche that views Christian and Jewish minorities as dhimmi in Muslim lands.

The dhimmi status presumes it is unreasonable in an Islamic society to expect strict equality between Muslims and the infidels; and that an individual offense by a dhimmi against a Muslim warrants retribution for the entire dhimmi community, the WSJ said.

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A group of Egyptian and foreign Christians sought government action recently against a suit they filed against the Muslim author of a bestselling, award winning novel that they say discriminates against their Christian faith.

The novel, entitled Azazeel (Beelzebub) by Youssef Ziedan, won the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, backed by the Booker Prize Foundation.

However Mamdouh Ramzi, a Coptic (Christian) lawyer, called the novel offensive adding, “He insulted priests and bishops and said many things with no proof or evidence from books or history…He is not a Christian man, what does he know about the Church?”  Reuters reported.

The case has been joined in by Coptic groups in the United States, the Netherlands, Canada and Austria.

This reflects broader complaints by Copts that they are discriminated against and marginalized in Egypt, where they comprise only 12 percent of this primarily Muslim nation of 78 million.

“We should receive attention from the authorities or we will start to wonder why the law does not respond unless the matter includes an insult to Islam,”  Ramzi said to Reuters.

Egyptian law prohibits insults against Islam, Christianity and Judaism.  However, even Al-Azhar, the world’s preeminent Sunni Islamic institution, has published a pamphlet declaring the Bible a corrupted document and Christianity a pagan religion, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Al-Azhar’s textbook for its high-school students, called “Al Iqna’,” states that killing a Muslim is punishable by death, but if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim he is not subject to capital punishment since the superior cannot be punished for killing the inferior (p. 146).

It also states that the blood money (compensation for manslaughter) rates for a woman is half that for a man, but for a Christian or Jew it is one third that of a Muslim (p. 187); and that there can be no stewardship (such as a superior in work) of a non-Muslim over a Muslim (p. 205), the WSJ reported.

Hundreds of thousands of Azhar schools in Egypt, monitored by the state, indoctrinate and discharge annually hundreds of thousands of young Muslims into Egyptian society with an ideology of intolerance, contempt and hatred toward Copts (and even more intensely toward Jews), the WSJ said.

Meanwhile, the hand of the law is more clearly seen when it involves writings that criticize Islam—even when the author is Muslim.

For example in 1995 an Egyptian sharia court declared Egyptian intellectual Nasr Abu Zayd to be disloyal, and called him an apostate from Islam.  They took issue over Zayd’s liberal, critical approach to Islamic teaching.  As a result his marriage was annulled and he was forced into exile, Reuters reported.

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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.

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Human trafficking. Sex slaves. Child slavery.

It’s something Americans associate with a few European or third world countries. But the U.S. State Department’s 2009 “Trafficking in Humans” Report documents problems in 175 nations.

Girls, women, children and even teen boys are being deceived, kidnapped, trapped and shipped everywhere from America to Africa.

And it could be happening at our neighborhood mini-market.

The wholesale trafficking of humans

From California to New England, the problem is spreading within the United States. It’s becoming as uncontrollable as the drug war that has raged for decades, despite the government’s best efforts.

The estimated FBI numbers from sources as varied as ABC Primetime in 2006 to Christianity Today in 2010 show 100,000-300,000 teens and children under the age of 18 have been trafficked within the states per year.

It is harder to obtain statistics for adult victims, because of a finer line between “voluntary” and forced prostitution or sexual slavery.

In April 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s office brought sex trafficking charges against the Gambino family, notoriously reputed to be part of the elusive “mob” in America.

With the arrest of 14 people, the charges include trapping girls to sell for sex at high stakes poker games in the middle of busy Manhattan.

Engaging in human trafficking is a new low even for the mob, U.S. Attorney’s office representatives stated in a press conference covered by MSNBC.

Also in April, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that human trafficking has become the biggest “invisible” crime in the state. Florida House Bill 633 and Senate Bill 966 are currently being proposed to help law enforcement push back against the sex slavery trade.

How can this happen in America?
The massive amounts of money to be made through human trafficking is a powerful aphrodisiac that has enticed more people, even women, to deal in such crimes. In the Gambino case, one of the people arrested was a woman known to be involved in luring the victims.

The process of obtaining victims for human trafficking:
For most teen girls and women, if they are not outright kidnapped, they’re being enticed by the possibility of modeling or acting jobs. The Hollywood dream of obtaining fame and fortune at a young age through television and movies has become an obsession.

When they get to their destination, they are thrown into vehicles or locked in back bedrooms and sold to countless customers for sex acts, sexual abuse, and to appear in pornographic movies against their will.

They may be starved, drugged, verbally abused to the point of having no self-esteem, and threatened with death if they attempt to escape.

For girls and boys who do run away from home, criminals recognize their vulnerability, hunger and brokenness and are able to entice them into prostitution and porn films with the promise of money. The victim may receive tiny payments to keep them involved.

For children, it often starts with simple nabbing from neighborhoods.

A U.S. Government grant helped reveal the child trafficking problem:
In 2008, an organization called Shared Hope International (SHI) applied for and received a government grant to study the suspected nationwide crisis of child trafficking between states. Their resulting survey revealed that many of the children were often being misidentified as delinquents, and  punished for crimes when they were actually victims.

Since then, the FBI and agencies such as the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children & Families have started training personnel to recognize when a person is a human trafficking victim instead of a runaway or criminal themselves (HHS Fact Sheet here).

See the Underground’s previous report, “Sex + Money,” about the ongoing production of a new movie aimed at exposing the U.S. sex slave industry.

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