COMPASS DIRECT
COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
October 10, 2003
Compass Direct is distributed monthly to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct is acknowledged as the source of the material.
Copyright 2003 Compass Direct
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IN THIS ISSUE
COLOMBIA
Christians Consider Prospects for Peace
Presidential initiative creates alternatives, draws criticism.
‘I was Looking for Peace and Found it in Christ’
A converted felon reflects on life in the guerrilla ranks.
The Battle for Public Opinion
ERITREA
More Evangelicals Arrested ♦
No word on fate of 57 young people jailed at Sawa.
INDIA
Staines’ Killers Found Guilty ♦
Orissa court delivers guilty verdict against Dara Singh, 12 co-defendants.
Death Sentence for Murderer of Missionary ♦
Assassin wants to become ‘martyr fighting against conversion.’
Singh’s Death Sentence Troubles Christians
Supporters of convicted murderer continue to spread hate.
India Prepares National ‘Anti-Conversion Rule’ ♦
Government aims to stop low-caste Hindus from embracing Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.
Murder of Christian Preacher Remains Unsolved ♦
Police refuse to investigate evidence provided by Christian community.
INDONESIA
Authorities Illegally Detain Christian Leader ♦
Damanik’s appeal of a three-year prison sentence is pending before the Supreme Court.
Attempted Bombings, Assassination Target Indonesian Christians
Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected in attacks on churches.
Opponents Force Indonesian Church to Forfeit Sanctuary
Five months after mob attack, evangelical congregation still meets in private homes.
JORDAN
Widow’s Legal Tangle Intensifies ♦
Desperate appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.
NIGERIA
Local Government Council Bans Christian Worship
Kano governor pledges to give Islamic law priority in his state.
Laws on Alcohol, Prostitution Used to Jail Christians
Enforcement of sharia tramples on rights of non-Muslims, church leaders say.
Death Penalty Debate Highlights Religious Differences
Two Muslim women sentenced to death are set free.
SENEGAL
Tensions Abate Following Attacks on Church
Stone-throwing neighbors complain of loud music.
SRI LANKA
Buddhist Monks Lead Violence against Christians
Churches burned, female workers attacked.
VIETNAM
Pastor Tortured ‘Like Christ on the Cross’
Believers in Kontum province are targeted by anti-Christian campaign.
♦ Indicates Former Flash News release
***Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Colombian Christians Consider Prospects for Peace
Presidential Initiative Creates Alternatives, Draws Criticism
by David Miller
MIAMI (Compass) -- In the eyes of many Colombians, President Álvaro Uribe has completed the first year of his four-year term with notable success on two battle fronts: the war on drugs and the campaign against rebel insurgents.
“Colombia has experienced great changes during the first year government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez,” an evangelical Christian pastor from the torrid Urabá region told Compass. “I don’t believe any Colombian was expecting that this man could achieve so much in such a short time.”
Uribe has had help, of course. The U.S. contributed $700 million last year to help the Colombian military eradicate coca plants (the raw material from which cocaine is produced), intercept narcotics shipments and pursue guerrilla bands.
Foreign aid notwithstanding, many give credit to Uribe’s aggressive leadership for progress made against drug traffickers and insurgent groups. The former mayor of Medellín currently enjoys a 65 percent job approval rating.
Some evangelical church leaders say their lives have changed for the better since Uribe took office. “The government has taken back control over the highways,” the Urabá pastor said. “It was impossible to travel over some roads in the past. Pastors are now able to go from one place to another, and the church is doing a good work.”
Not all church leaders would agree with that assessment, however. In fact, some evangelical ministers -- those in particular who live in “red zones” where armed groups are active -- find themselves in greater danger since Uribe assumed office.
Churches that minister to the poor, reach out to refugees displaced by the fighting or raise their voices against human rights abuse report that such activities have placed them under increased scrutiny. These Christians face greater risks of being mistaken for guerrilla sympathizers, sources say.
Colombian Christians seem to be in unanimous agreement at one point: the violence is not likely to end anytime soon.
Despite their differing views on Colombia’s chief executive and his impact on the nation, Colombian Christians seem to be in unanimous agreement at one point: the violence is not likely to end anytime soon.
“I think, at this moment, that peace in Colombia is still far away,” the church leader said. “I don’t see a green light, no green light at all.”
The conflict waged by the FARC and ELN guerrilla armies, the AUC paramilitary forces and the national army continues to claim four to six thousand lives annually, despite a 40 percent decline in violent attacks against the civilian population over the past year. Thousands of non-combatants have died, among them, some 30 evangelical pastors and hundreds of lay believers.
Indiscriminate violence continues to disrupt life in South America’s third largest nation. Three million Colombians live as war refugees. According to estimates of the Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL), 400 local churches remain closed in rural areas due to the displacement.
Despite the government’s recent military gains, the insurgents show no sign of giving up anytime soon. A principal reason for their tenacity is economic. The war in Colombia makes money, enough money to keep guerrilla forces and right-wing militias in business for as long as they choose.
Three illicit businesses provide millions of dollars in annual income for outlaw armies: cocaine trafficking, kidnapping and extortion (demanding payoffs from businessmen and professionals to avoid kidnapping or assassination).
Armed groups convert ill-gotten gains into attractive salaries for the young men and women who join their ranks. As the country’s ravaged economy slides into recession, unemployment has skyrocketed. Thousands of youth have opted to join the fighting in order to earn a steady paycheck, despite the obvious risks. (See the profile of an ex-guerrilla in this month’s Compass Direct.)
“The war in Colombia has become an industry in itself,” the Urabá pastor said. “It creates jobs.”
Given such financial inducements, government leaders recognize they cannot ultimately defeat insurgent groups unless they somehow entice the rank-and-file to desert the cause. To that end, the Uribe administration announced a plan in late September to grant amnesty to 13,000 AUC militiamen.
Under terms of the amnesty, the government promises not to prosecute AUC commanders for war crimes if the paramilitaries agree to disarm and disband. AUC leaders must also agree to compensate families of their victims, provide community services, surrender land holdings and pay fines.
Critics both at home and abroad have voiced strong opposition to the deal. Detractors include 56 members of the U.S. Congress, which has the power to approve, or rescind, the $700 million in military aid to Colombia.
Uribe counters by pointing out that, if the AUC disbands, his government will have 13,000 less armed opponents to face, making it easier to cope with the FARC and ELN.
For their part, Christian leaders in Colombia unanimously favor negotiated settlements over “military solutions,” which they believe only breeds more violence. That does not mean, however, that they necessarily endorse the amnesty deal.
Some think it does not do enough to call the AUC to account for heinous crimes and serious human rights abuses the group has committed. They say that if justice issues are neglected now, it will foster more abuse in the future.
Yet, whatever view they take on President Uribe’s latest attempt to pacify Colombia, Christian leaders staunchly agree that the gospel must play a key role in building a durable peace.
“I believe the church holds the answer for Colombia,” said Ricardo Esquivia, director of CEDECOL, the Commission on Human Rights and Peace. “Only through the message of Jesus and His church can changes come.”
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‘I Was Looking for Peace and Found it in Christ’
A Converted Felon in Colombia Reflects on Life in the Guerrilla Ranks
by Deann Alford
COLOMBIA, South America (Compass) -- Sub-commander Mateo* of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia knew that a good guerrilla obeys orders, so when his cadre arrived at the evangelical church, he did as told: he set fire to the building.
The 1999 attack took place about 7:30 p.m., in the dark, in Toches, a village so small it doesn’t appear on most maps of the tiny Colombian department (state) of Quindío. About 50 worshipers were meeting inside for a midweek service at the time.
Mateo fired warning shots in the air to give the Christians a chance to flee to safety. His superior scolded him. The guerrillas then poured gasoline around the church and ignited it. When the church erupted in flames, the 50 worshipers rushed outside.
The pastor confronted the attackers. Guerrillas shot him and two church members, killing all three.
Two years ago, Mateo’s crimes landed him in prison. Mateo is not his real name. Revealing his true identity and location would endanger his life.
Prison is the best thing that ever happened to the former guerrilla fighter. There he met inmates who had become Christians.
Prison is the best thing that ever happened to the former guerrilla fighter. There he met inmates who had become Christians. In early 2003, Mateo, now 24, accepted Christ through prisoners who themselves became Christians while incarcerated in Medellín’s Bellavista Prison. Bellavista has become a pulpit for all of Colombia, as prisoners who meet God there are transferred to other penitentiaries to plant churches behind bars.
Like thousands of other guerrilla fighters in war-torn Colombia, Mateo was born into a poor peasant family that eked out its living working coffee and plantain plantations. The rebel recruiter that called on teen-aged Mateo seven years ago was his older brother, who had spent 22 years in the guerrilla ranks.
Mateo eagerly received the message that taking over Colombia’s government and imposing communism would solve all the woes that he, his family and other impoverished Colombians suffered. He believed rebel leaders who told him they were fighting for true democracy in Colombia. They intended to confiscate the riches of the wealthy and redistribute them to those in need. No one would ever again suffer lack.
Perhaps the biggest incentive to join the rebel army was the promise of 100,000 pesos ($100) a week -- more money than Mateo had ever dreamed of earning. He became a guerrilla.
Mateo enjoyed his first year as a fighter. Revolutionary educators taught him to read and write. He lived in the “demilitarized zone,” territory that former President Andrés Pastrana conceded to the rebels in 1998 as an incentive to join peace talks. After peace talks broke down in February 2002, Pastrana sent commandos to retake the zone.
Rebel leaders called on Mateo to rob, kill and kidnap. Once he killed a 14-year-old boy to steal his plantains. He killed people accused of being allied with enemy paramilitaries. Other victims -- including children as young as five -- he killed for no reason at all. “After that, I couldn’t sleep,” he said.
Then came the church attack. An informant had said the church was full of paramilitaries and that congregational members were storing weapons.
“It was a lie,” Mateo said. “They did it for pure pleasure, no other reason.”
Mateo’s reward for carrying out the attack was $200. He said that at the time, he was proud of what he had done.
Then his crimes caught up with him. He was captured in 2002, charged with rebellion, kidnapping, extortion and cocaine growing. His sentence was 19 years and 10 months. A few months after being imprisoned, he began seeking God through a small Christian community. In February he accepted Christ.
“I was very bad when I belonged to this group,” Mateo says. “I couldn’t stay that way. I had to seek God to keep going.”
His Christian life has not been easy. A comandante burned his Bible, which guerrilla leaders don’t want him reading. A man in the guerrilla ranks can’t be involved in religion, Mateo said. He takes risks to sneak away to fellowship with other Christians in the prison; a friend holds in safekeeping the Bible that fellow believers gave him to replace the one the comandante destroyed.
Mateo carries a heavy burden for his past deeds. “I feel deceived and bad,” he said. “I lost my family and my wife. They could visit me here, but they’re afraid to.”
He struggles to survive in prison with no money; his family is too poor to send him any. He cried as he shared with a fellow ex-guerrilla his grappling with guilt and doubts fostered during his tenure in the ranks. He fights constant temptation to forget his woes through alcohol and has fallen to temptation. Mateo asked for prayer to surmount the dangers, difficulties and temptations he must face for the next 18 years he serves in prison.
But the ex-guerrilla raises his hands in praise as he worships with his fellow inmates and eagerly participates in a Bible study on the Gospel of Matthew.
“That isn’t a life for anybody,” he says of his years as a guerrilla. “I wouldn’t go back and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
“That didn’t motivate me,” he adds. “I was looking for peace and found it in Christ.”
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(For the sidebar) The Battle for Public Opinion
by Deann Alford
Colombian pastor Alfredo Torres of Christians for Peace has negotiated with armed groups to free hostages. Once Torres asked a member of the Secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) why the group persecutes evangelicals. The FARC official gave the following justifications:
• Evangelical pastors live well, at the expense of the people. He cited as an example a pastor of a church of 1,000 members who left San Vicente del Caguan. The pastor took his herd of cattle with him, rather than leave the animals for the needy of the community.
• Evangelicals take up offerings, but do not have a vision to improve society. The FARC leader noted the lack of an evangelical school in San Vicente. When the FARC organizes community projects, such as building bridges, everyone but the evangelicals pitches in to help. Yet the evangelicals are the first to use the bridge. The church places great emphasis on saving souls but does little to relieve physical suffering.
• Evangelicals are agents of U.S. imperialism.
• Evangelicals organize corrupt political parties.
• Evangelicals are anti-guerrilla. They believe the FARC are the only bad guys and that everything the government does is good, despite its rampant corruption.
Compass read this list of charges to Sub-commander Mateo. Is this really what the FARC believes about evangelicals? we asked.
Yes, he replied, in addition to other things.
• When peasants join a church, they will not follow the FARC.
• Guerrillas can’t get a foothold in a community with a church.
Thus, armed groups promote an image of the church based on gross ignorance or lies. For example, they allege that a woman who wants to join a church must first have sex with the pastor. They charge that the church is just a business; pastors keep tithes for themselves and have parties with the church offerings. Evangelicals, they maintain, are government agents who pacify people to make them submissive to the state.
These outrageous notions about evangelicals are obviously false. Yet Colombian church leaders acknowledge the church should do more to alleviate poverty and help the millions of displaced persons who have flooded the nation’s cities. Some prominent church leaders are indeed wealthy, while their churches turn away the poor who need help.
When asked how the church could improve its image among the armed groups, Mateo said simply, “Change.”
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More Evangelicals Arrested in Eritrea
No Word on Fate of 57 Young People Jailed at Sawa
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES (Compass) -- Police in the Eritrean capital of Asmara continued the country-wide crackdown against independent Protestant congregations during September, arresting another 12 evangelicals on September 7 while they were meeting in a private house for prayer and worship.
With the exception of an older man hosting the prayer meeting in his home, the arrested Christians were described as young people, all members of the Dubre Bethel Church in Asmara.
On September 16, after nine days in custody at Asmara’s Police Station No. 5, the 12 prisoners were given an ultimatum by the police chief. He demanded that each one sign a commitment to deny his or her faith in order to be released.
When the six women and six men refused, the police chief ordered that all their food rations be withheld until they signed the agreement.
“Up to now, no one among them has been willing to sign the paper,” a local source confirmed on September 17.
Parents of the young people who have visited the police station have been told they can only see their children if they agreed to try to convince them to sign the denial paper. Several parents agreed to the conditions and were reportedly promised they could see their children on September 17. Other parents refused, declaring that their children were over 18 and qualified to make their own decisions.
At least 230 evangelical Christians are currently jailed for their faith in Eritrea.
Meanwhile, local evangelical church leaders have not been able to learn anything further regarding the fate of 57 young people arrested and locked into metal containers since August 19 and 20 as punishment for having Bibles with them during their summer military camp at Sawa.
Although the majority were 11th grade students, some have been confirmed to be older conscripts in their 20s who were already in training at Sawa. An additional five of their number who signed pledges to renounce their evangelical faith were released a week later.
Military commanders confiscated a total of 315 Bibles in the Tigrinya language from the military camp barracks at the time of the youths’ arrest. Translated several centuries ago, the Tigrinya version of the Bible is printed and distributed legally by the Eritrean Bible Society to all churches in the country, including the Eritrean Orthodox Church.
Local authorities have also refused to give any information about the status and whereabouts of 10 evangelicals arrested in Massawa on August 24. However, it was confirmed four days after the arrest that the 10 Protestants had been transferred to a very remote area, down the Red Sea coast toward Assab.
“This is a military area, where disobedient soldiers are sent to be punished,” one source explained, “so we have not been able to find out anything more about them.”
At least 230 evangelical Christians are currently jailed for their faith in Eritrea, where the government refuses to give recognition to any faith except the four “official” religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran.
Some 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic denominations which represent 20,000 adherents have been targeted since May 2002, when they were ordered to close their church buildings and stop all meetings for worship, even in private homes.
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Staines’ Killers Found Guilty in India
Orissa Court Delivers Guilty Verdict against Dara Singh, 12 Co-defendants
by Abhijeet Prabhu
BANGALORE, India (Compass) -- More than four years after the tragic murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, prime suspect Dara Singh and 12 others were convicted of the killings on September 15 by the district and sessions judge of Orissa state, India.
Delivering the judgment to a packed court room, Justice M.N. Patnaik convicted Dara Singh, alias “Ravindra Kumar Pal,” and 12 other defendants on counts of conspiracy, unlawful assembly, burning of a vehicle and house, and murder.
One of the accused, Aniruddha Dandapat, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The triple murder of Staines and his sons Philip, 11, and Timothy, 7, sent shock waves around the world and proved the case for the persecution of Christians in India. However, the wheels of justice spun torturously slow in bringing the killers to account. The case has been characterized by political interference, judicial delay, evidence tampering and the intimidation of witnesses.
Expecting communal violence against Christians and church institutions, authorities tightened security measures in and around the state capital of Bhubaneswar. Intelligence reports indicated that large groups of “Dara fans” drawn from various parts of the state left for Bhubaneswar on Sunday to hear the court verdict. Singh’s supporters reportedly planned to hold a protest rally in the capital.
A Home Department official said police were providing security cover for the Australian missionary’s widow, Gladys Staines, who resides at Baripada.
Graham Staines worked among lepers in Orissa from 1965 until his murder on the night of January 22, 1999.
He and his two young sons were burned to death by assailants, led by Dara Singh, who attacked the Staines late at night while they slept in the family station wagon parked outside a church at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district. The group set fire to the vehicle and prevented the Staines from escaping the flames.
Singh escaped and lived in hiding for over a year after the incident. During that time, he reportedly committed two more murders; one of a Muslim trader named Rehman in Thakurmunda, and the other of Father Arul Doss, a Christian missionary from Balasore.
Because he had attained near-hero status as leader of a Hindu cult, police suspect locals helped Singh avoid their dragnet for a year. Many militant Hindus that sympathized with Singh’s campaign against Muslims protested his innocence. Some even defended his “legitimate” right to kill the missionary.
Eventually, police arrested 55 people in connection with the murder. Singh himself was arrested in a forest in the Keonjhar district on January 31, 2000. However, due to poor investigations, most of the suspects were released. The investigation was then transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took nearly five months to frame charge sheets against Dara Singh and 17 others.
The trial produced several bizarre twists as witnesses rapidly turned hostile. In one case, a witness even accused the missionary of molesting a tribal woman. The breakthrough came when defendant Daya Patra admitted before the court that he had witnessed Dara Singh set the Staines’ vehicle on fire.
According to defense lawyer Banabihari Mohanty, Singh plans to appeal the verdict.
Mark Webslor, a diplomat with the Australian High Commission, was present in the court and expressed satisfaction over the judgment. “The Australian government had taken keen interest in the case and I have come here on behalf of the High Commission,” he said.
People of all faiths, including Hindus, responded with touching messages of sympathy, praising the spirit of Gladys Staines and her testimony to the gospel. “I have forgiven Dara,” she said.
People of all faiths, including Hindus, responded with touching messages of sympathy, praising the spirit of Gladys Staines and her testimony to the gospel. “I have forgiven Dara,” she said. “I have said that earlier and it has not changed. I forgive him.”
Mrs. Staines now directs her energies to the welfare of leprosy patients her husband cared for.
“I was not very involved earlier. But after he was killed, I took up his mantle. As a result, the people and the place have become very dear to me,” she said.
Graham Staines’ brother hoped the 13 people convicted of the murders would be spared the death penalty. “There are other people who could get hurt,” John Staines told the Australian Associated Press.
“The thing is, we have forgiven them in Christ’s name,” he added. “I think that these men have to face up to what they’ve done. By the same token, I don’t want to see them put to death over it. Anything that man does in these things doesn’t really count for very much, because God is the final judge.
Finally, in a church near the Staines’ home in Baripada, prayers have been said, not only for the Staines family, but also for the man who ended the lives of Graham, Timothy and Philip.
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Death Sentence for Murderer of Missionary in India
Assassin Wants to Become ‘Martyr Fighting Against Conversion’
by Abhijeet Prabhu
BANGALORE, India (Compass) -- The severest punishment under Indian law, the death penalty, was awarded to Dara Singh by a designated Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday, September 22, for his role in the murder of the Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons.
Pronouncing the verdict before a packed courtroom at 4:35 p.m., the district and sessions judge, Mahendra Nath Patnaik, handed out the death sentence to Dara Singh under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, and sentenced his 12 accomplices to life imprisonment.
Christians fear that the death sentence will make Singh a martyr for the militant Hindu cause. As he left the courtroom, Singh said, “Injustice has been done to me. I am not going to appeal in the higher court. I would prefer to be a martyr fighting against conversion.” Criticizing the judge, he claimed that “utter injustice” had been done to him. “I had earlier appealed to shift my case to a different court, but that was not done,” Singh said.
Armed police personnel took him handcuffed out of the courtroom into the van for Choudwar Jail, about 30 kilometers from the court in Bhubaneshwar, capital of Orissa state. Singh had stated previously that he would appeal to the High Court.
K. Sudhakar, CBI counsel for prosecution, urged the court to award stringent punishment to the 13 defendants, saying they killed Graham Staines and his two sons without provocation.
Earlier in the day, K. Sudhakar, CBI counsel for prosecution, urged the court to award stringent punishment to the 13 defendants, saying they killed Graham Staines and his two sons without provocation. Citing several Supreme Court judgments, Sudhakar said that it was a fit case for awarding the extreme penalty.
The defense counsel, Bana Mohanty and Gyana Acharya, asked for leniency for the 13 accused on the grounds that most of them were tribals and the sole breadwinners of their families. However, the defense counsel said that they would not appeal on behalf of Dara Singh since he had told the defense not to challenge the order in the High Court.
The death sentence awarded to Singh has to be confirmed by the High Court under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. In Indian law, the death sentence is exceptional. The Supreme Court has laid down five criteria for capital punishment to be pronounced only in the “rarest of rare cases.” It is significant that Singh’s murder of the Staines family fits all of the five criteria.
Graham Staines and his sons, Philip (11) and Timothy (7), were burned to death while they slept in the family station wagon parked outside a church at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district shortly after midnight on January 22, 1999. They were attending a jungle camp, an annual gathering of Christians for fellowship and teaching.
Meanwhile, speaking from Baripada in Bhubaneshwar, Gladys Staines, widow of Graham Staines, sent out a biblical message of forgiveness. “I have forgiven the killers and have no bitterness, because forgiveness brings healing and our land needs healing from hatred and violence. Forgiveness and the consequences of the crime should not be mixed.”
On the day Singh and the other 12 defendants were convicted, BJP (Indian Peoples Party) workers burned hundreds of Bibles and evangelistic tracts in Uttaranchal in response to the sentence, while police stood by watching silently. BJP activists attacked several schools in Doiwala and Ranipokhari villages in Dehra Dun district and raised slogans against Christian missionaries for distributing “offensive” literature designed to convert people.
“The tendencies of some religions to pollute our culture cannot be tolerated in Uttaranchal,” BJP state President Manohar Kant Dhyani said.
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Singh’s Death Sentence Troubles Christians in India
Supporters of Convicted Murderer Continue to Spread Hate
by Joshua Newton
KOCHI, India (Compass) -- Christian leaders are maintaining a vigil after a mob of about 500 assailants attacked villagers building a church in the northern Indian state of Orissa on September 9. They fear more violence could erupt as a consequence of the September 22 death sentence handed down to Dara Singh for murdering Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons.
The attackers beat villager Biadhar Bindhani, his friends and family members as they were constructing a church and forced them to bow before Hindu deities, police said. Bindhani converted to Christianity three years ago. Hindu activists from nearby villages opposed building the church on the grounds that it was too close -- 200 meters -- to an old temple.
Four years ago, an enraged mob from the neighboring district of Keonjhar burned alive Staines and his two sons, after trapping them at night in the family car. Two weeks after a special court sentenced Dara Singh to die for those murders and sent 12 of his accomplices to prison, the mood in the area remains charged with tension.
Members of “Dara’s Army,” an extremist group in the area, have sent a threatening letter to Father Kuriakose, pastor of a Catholic church in Mayurbhanj district. The letter maintained the priest would be killed if Singh’s conviction was not reversed. Father Kuriakose has handed over the letter to police. Armed policemen have since been posted at the priest’s residence and church.
Mayurbhanj is the district in which Graham Staines was working with leprosy patients and where his wife Gladys Staines continues his work. Mayurbhanj and the Keonjhar district have been principal staging areas for Dara Singh’s operations in Orissa.
Many Christian leaders have expressed fears that the sentence will stir up more extremism. They point out that punishing Singh does not help solve the issue.
Many Christian leaders have expressed fears that the sentence will stir up more extremism. They point out that punishing Singh does not help solve the issue.
“This measure will be a deterrent to those who persecute minorities,” Rev. Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, said in a prepared statement. “But the sentencing of Dara Singh would not bring the necessary healing.
“Singh is a product of a systematic hate campaign unleashed against the minority communities by the perpetrators of the ideologies of hatred.”
Christian leaders are calling upon the authorities to take appropriate steps to ensure reconciliation and healing instead of hatred. Adding to social uneasiness is the September 1 Supreme Court ruling which denied a Christian petition. The petition challenged an Orissa law restricting religious conversions, which petitioners said gives state officials a free hand to stop conversions.
Rev. Ruben Senapati, bishop of the Cuttack diocese of the Church of North India, expressed hopes that public protests over the sentencing of Dara Singh would not gain popular support.
“The people are silent,” he said. “They know this judgment is as according to the law.”
But during the last week in September, a Hindu organization began circulating provocative leaflets against both Christians in general and the court verdict against Singh, raising more fears of communal tension.
The leaflet, written in the local language and circulated in villages of Orissa, said, “Dara, you have to die because you don’t have white skin. If you were a white man, you would have survived. So you deserve to die even if there is no clinching evidence against you.”
Meanwhile, Anirudha Dandapat, who was acquitted by the court in the Staines murder case, was arrested again by the police. He is being held for “fomenting communal tension” in Mayurbhanj district, where Staines was killed. Dandapat is the self-appointed state secretary of Dara’s Army.
Although right-wing Hindu politicians have maintained distance from Singh since his arrest, some have openly endorsed his politics. Nivedita Pradhan, a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator in the Orissa legislative assembly, openly supported his campaigns against conversions. Dara’s Army has made it clear that after the hanging of Singh, activists will carry his ashes in an urn to different parts of the country.
The Times of India, India’s major daily newspaper, commented that “the death penalty can actually act as an instigator of further similar acts on the part of fanatics who wish to wear the crowns of self-imposed martyrdom.”
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India Prepares National ‘Anti-Conversion Rule’
Government Aims to Stop Low-Caste Hindus from Embracing Islam, Christianity and Buddhism
by Joshua Newton
KOCHI, India (Compass) -- India’s coalition government, led by the Hindu nationalist party BJP, is about to introduce fresh rules to prevent religious conversion among backward Hindus across the nation.
Entitled “Change of Religion of the Members of SC/ST (Regulation and Approval) Rule,” the law will come into effect once published in the official gazette.
Framed by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the rule has no approval from the Indian parliament. The BJP is vigorously opposing conversion of backward Hindus to Christianity and Buddhism.
“This rule is not against conversion. We are just trying to regulate forcible conversion,” Bizay Sonkar Shastri, chairman of India’s National Commission for SC/ST, told Compass. “Our aim is to ensure that secular nature and the principles of equality are not violated by conversions,” he said.
Once implemented, the law will insist on anyone wishing to change religion to apply with affidavit before the District Collector (a chief government executive) or an equal authority. Further, the official must provide a written order granting his permission. If violated, the person could be punished with a fine of 1,000 Indian rupees ($21) per-day, from the date on which the conversion took place until he or she is charged with the offense.
In a country where 350 million people are illiterate and 260 million fall under the poverty line, the rule demands aspiring converts to have undergone a secondary education.
In a country where 350 million people are illiterate and 260 million fall under the poverty line, the rule demands aspiring converts to have undergone a secondary education.
“This will effectively deny large section of Indians their right to religious faith ensured by India’s Constitution,” said Oliver D’ Souza, of the All India Christian Council.
He said Indian Christians will fight the rule if implemented.
If aspiring converts lack the required educational qualification, the law recommends setting up of a panel to “guarantee freedom of conscience of the uneducated.” The District Collector shall appoint an observer for such conversions, who shall be a civil servant “belonging to the same denomination to which the said conversion is sought to be effected.”
All District Collectors are expected to submit a quarterly report to the state governments and an annual report to the federal government on all religious activities related to conversion.
Observers feel that India’s Supreme Court abetted the present move to bring new laws on conversion by its September 1 ruling that there is “no fundamental right to convert” anyone from one religion to another. It further stated that the authorities can impose restrictions on religious conversions.
Church groups across India have already expressed disappointment over the court decision, which in effect allows the federal government to prevent people from changing their religion.
But some are hopeful about a review of the judgment.
“This judgment and the present rule can be questioned on the grounds of fundamental rights,” said D’ Souza. “The ruling will have to come up before a Constitutional bench of the court, where we stand a chance.”
“We will make sure that religious rights of the minorities are protected,” he added.
Christian leaders also point out that the rule can be put to discussion in the Parliament, allowing elected representatives to debate the issue.
“The national commission for the socially backward is showing its true colors,” said D’ Souza. “By aiding the rightist Hindu rulers to prevent Dalits from leaving the Hindu fold, it has virtually turned into a national commission for fascism,” he said.
Conversion to Christianity is a highly controversial issue in India. In January 1999, Australian Baptist missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons were burned alive, by Hindu fundamentalists who accused Staines of converting tribal peoples.
The Indian states of Orissa, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, where BJP or its allies are in power, have passed laws to prevent conversions. (See reports in Compass Direct, April 2003.) For some time, the BJP has been pushing for other Indian states to pass similar laws.
Critics say these rules are specifically aimed at Christian missions working among tribal peoples, the poor and the low-caste Hindus known as Dalits.
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Murder of Christian Preacher Remains Unsolved in India
Police Refuse to Investigate Evidence Provided by Christian Community
by Vishal Arora
DEHLI (Compass) -- The murder case of Yesu Dasu, a 52-year-old Christian preacher and government employee who was beheaded on September 11, 2000, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, remains unsolved three years after his death. Police have been unable to find even a single clue.
Investigators have apparently ignored information pertinent to the crime supplied by the All Christians Welfare Centre (ACWC) of Andhra Pradesh. The names of four suspects belonging to a fundamentalist Hindu group were submitted to the superintendent of police, Karim Nagar, by the ACWC. In a letter to the police, the ACWC also stated that Yesu Dasu was threatened by fundamentalists and told not to preach in Jakkapuram and Murraipet Thanda village.
According to an article published September 12, 2000, in The Deccan Chronicle of Andhra Pradesh, the brutal murder took place on the outskirts of Mustabad, Karimnagar district. The report stated that unidentified assailants tied Yesu Dasu’s hands and inflicted multiple injuries with an axe, severing the head.
The mutilated body of the preacher was found in a pool of blood at a cattle shed.
The mutilated body of the preacher was found in a pool of blood at a cattle shed near Kothakunta along the Mustabad-Siddipet highway, three kilometers from Karimnagar. Several pieces of the body were found scattered at the scene of the offense.
According to bereaved family members, the report stated, two persons riding a motorcycle came to his house the evening of September 11 and took Dasu away, saying that someone wanted to speak to him. When Dasu failed to return home later that evening, his anxious wife and children searched vainly for him in the village. On the morning of September 12, villagers informed the family that the mutilated body of the preacher had been found.
Instead of acting on the evidence supplied by local Christians, police detained as a suspect one of Dasu’s close relatives who did not get along well with the dead man. Following two days of detailed interrogation, the relative was released.
Later, the police questioned a pastor of a church who, some years ago, was involved in a small dispute with Dasu over the registration of church property. The pastor, too, was found to have no role in the murder.
Christians have no assurance that police will take action against fundamentalist suspects in the Dasu case. In recent years, violence has increased against the Christian community. Hindu fundamentalist groups have perpetrated such incidents as the murders of Graham Staines and his two young sons, and the murder of Roman Catholic priest Arul Doss, both occurring in Orissa in 1999. (See related article in Compass Direct.)
At the time of his death, Yesu Dasu was working as a non-medical assistant among leprosy patients. He was respected by the villagers of Mustabad as a humble and simple man who served society and preached the tenets of Christianity.
For about 11 years, Dasu worked with leprosy patients through India Mission leprosy clinics in Cherial, Bhongir and Ramannapet, helping them to live with dignity. Later, he joined government service to work in the health sector, again attending to leprosy patients.
Observers in India say incidents such as this should serve as a wakeup call for the human rights organizations monitoring police apathy and corruption, factors that have led to a rise in the incidents of violence and discrimination against religious minorities in India.
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Indonesian Authorities Illegally Detain Christian Leader
Damanik’s Appeal of a Three-Year Prison Sentence is Pending Before the Supreme Court
by Geoff Stamp
LONDON (Compass) -- Christians in Indonesia have issued an urgent call for prayer for the release of the Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, whose prison detention in Palu, Central Sulawesi, should have come to an end on September 15, according to Indonesian law.
Lawyers representing the Christian leader, who has earned an international reputation for aiding refugees from both sides of the Central Sulawesi conflict, went to Palu prison where Damanik is detained on the evening of September 15, the day Damanik’s extended detention order expired. The lawyers asked for Damanik’s immediate release, but the prison authorities refused the request without clearance from a higher authority.
Damanik’s imprisonment is now illegal.
Damanik is appealing a three-year prison sentence for allegedly transporting illegal arms. Sources in Indonesia say his trial and imprisonment are part of the Indonesian government’s attempt to blame the minority Christian community for the violence in Poso. Conflict between Muslims and Christians there has caused hundreds of deaths and injuries, and created tens of thousands of homeless people since December 1999.
The Supreme Court, where Damanik’s appeal currently lies, must issue an extension order for his detention. Otherwise, under Indonesian law, prison authorities are forced to release him.
Damanik’s imprisonment has already been extended five times by the High Court of Central Sulawesi. However, due to his pending appeal, the Central Sulawesi court is no longer entitled to extend his prison term. To date, the Supreme Court has issued no extension order of its own.
Jubilee Campaign, an international, non-government advocacy organization, believes the hesitancy to release Damanik is due to his criticism of the Indonesian government.
Damanik has been openly critical of the mismanagement and embezzlement of refugee funds and of the government and military’s apparent complicity in the conflict, said a recent statement by Jubilee Campaign.
“From the start, Damanik’s case has been rife with legal and procedural violations. Sentenced to three years on a dubious weapons charge, advocates have accused the local police and others of framing Damanik in an attempt to scapegoat him and the minority Christian community by imputation as the perpetrators of the violent religious conflict,” the statement added.
“If my freedom means more violence, then I would rather remain in jail for the present time,” Damanik said from prison. “I only want to act within the law and avoid further conflict.”
Since September 15, Damanik’s lawyers have visited the prison every day and have complied with every condition demanded by the prison authorities and the local ministry of justice. Mr. Gusman, the head of Central Sulawesi’s Justice Department, told Damanik’s lawyers on September 17 that if they persisted in their demands on his behalf, they themselves could face arrest.
Unconfirmed rumors have circulated that the local Christian population was preparing to confront the police and authorities over Damanik’s illegal detention.
Predictably, Rev. Damanik’s reaction to the rumors has been conciliatory.
“If my freedom means more violence, then I would rather remain in jail for the present time,” Damanik said from prison. “I only want to act within the law and avoid further conflict.”
He has instructed his lawyers to continue his advocacy by peaceful means, presenting a letter every day to the prison authorities requesting his release.
Meanwhile, the violence in the Poso region has not ceased, despite recent claims to that effect from the Ministry of Social Welfare.
On September 12, a day marking Christian harvest celebrations, a bomb was detonated in Kasiguncu village. The explosion occurred at night in front of the village chief’s office and resulted in five people being hospitalized.
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Attempted Bombings, Assassination Target Indonesian Christians
Jemaah Islamiyah Suspected in Attacks on Churches
by Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA (Compass) -- In recent weeks, unknown assailants have targeted Christian churches in Indonesia with attempted bombings and bomb threats.
The latest church bombing attempt occurred on Sunday, September 28, at the Gereja Kristen Sulawesi Tengah (GKST) church in Tomata village, Tojo district, reports Mona Saroinsong, a senior church official in Sulawesi. A church worker found the bomb before the 9 a.m. service and reported it to the police. The police removed the bomb and exploded it harmlessly in the street. This incident joins a half dozen other bomb threats involving Christian churches in recent weeks.
Police believe Jemaah Islamiyah and other terrorist networks are behind the assaults.
Two days after a powerful car bomb exploded at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on August 5, unknown attackers tried to bomb a Protestant church in North Sumatra, Compass has learned.
According to witnesses, on the morning of August 7, a motorcyclist placed a suspicious bundle tied up in black plastic against the wall of the Batak Protestant Church in the village of Penyampehan, Deli Serdang, then quickly fled the scene.
When church leader Japen Ginting arrived a half hour later and saw the package in the church yard, he immediately reported it to the Pancurbatu police. A police bomb squad responded and opened the package, finding a clock, remote control, battery and cables inside.
“The bomb was inactive,” local police commissioner Bagus Kurniawan said. Nevertheless, he ordered an investigation to determine who might have fabricated the device.
This was the second bomb incident involving a Christian church in Pancurbatu. In 2001, a bomb was discovered at another church near the Batak Protestant Church. It, too, failed to explode.
Kurniawan said that the recent case might be the work of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a separatist organization fighting for an independent Islamic state.
Local church leaders suspect Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists of involvement in the incidents. However, Kurniawan said that the recent case might be the work of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a separatist organization fighting for an independent Islamic state. That opinion gained support when a GAM operative was later arrested in North Sumatra.
According to reports from Jakarta, several churches in the capital have received bomb threats in recent weeks.
Albert Spenser, an official of the Tiberias Church in North Jakarta, said an anonymous caller made repeated phone calls to the church on August 12 and 13, claiming he had planted explosives in the building. Spencer immediately reported the incident to local police, who searched in vain for a bomb, then placed guards at the church.
In a similar incident, Rev. Siahaan, pastor of the Protestant church in Pejompongan Street, received an anonymous call indicating that a bomb had been placed in the church yard and would explode within minutes. The church sexton immediately called police, who promptly came and searched the church property but found nothing.
According to sources, the Bethel Church in the city’s northern district of Cilincing, a Protestant church in West Jakarta and other local congregations in the Indonesian capital have received identical threats in recent weeks, prompting police to provide extra security at the sites, especially on worship days.
The recent arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, in Ayutthaya, Thailand, may shed light on the rash of bomb threats. Hambali has been linked with 39 bombing attacks in Indonesia, some involving churches.
Among Hambali’s alleged targets are the Santa Anna Catholic Church in Jakarta, the Indonesia Christ Church and the Protestant Christian Church in Medan. He may also be involved in attacks against the homes of Protestant pastors in Riau and Medan.
In other news, a former Muslim named Jono was killed by three bullets to his back while riding his motorbike in Pandiri village, 22 kilometers from Poso, on October 1. Two men escaping from the murder scene shot and wounded a passenger of a car which gave chase. Villagers of Tagolu village who saw the second shooting followed the two men to Kebang Rejo village in Poso city, but stopped chasing them there, as the village is populated with Muslims.
Saroinsong reports that Jono, 44, was a civil servant in the education department in Pamona district, near Tentena. He was also a newspaper agent, delivering papers from Poso to Tentena and its surroundings. His wife is an elementary school teacher and an elder in the Moria congregation, one of GKST’s churches in Tentena. Saroinsong reported that Jono converted a long time ago and was a faithful Christian up to his murder.
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Opponents Force Indonesian Church to Forfeit Sanctuary
Five Months after Mob Attack, Evangelical Congregation Still Meets in Private Homes
by Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA (Compass) -- Because of the ongoing threat from Muslim activists, the Jakarta Baptist Church in Kali Jaya, Tangerang province, has been unable to worship in its sanctuary since mid May. The congregation has since been meeting on a rotating basis in private homes.
In May, a mob of several hundred villagers led by Muslim clergyman Sanusi Syafei attacked the building on a Sunday, breaking windows and destroying part of the roof. Syafei and his followers protest the existence of Baptist Church because they claim it is situated too close (50 meters) to the Al-Falah Mosque. The head of local state land office, however, has determined that the church property lies 200 meters from the mosque.
According to Rev. Hengky Setiawan, pastor of the six-year-old congregation, protestors claim that local zoning laws prohibit worship centers in the residential area where Jakarta Baptist Church is located. The also say the predominantly Muslim community is opposed to the church being there. These reasons are “nonsense,” Setiawan said, asserting that the real motive is Syafei’s fear that the church will influence Muslims.
Congregational leaders have met twice with local Muslim and government officials to resolve the issue. “We are under a lot of pressure from them to stop worshiping in that area,” Setiawan said.
Congregational leaders have met twice with local Muslim and government officials to resolve the issue. “We are under a lot of pressure from them to stop worshiping in that area,” Setiawan said.
At the second meeting, church leaders signed a compromise agreement. Terms call for closing the present church and providing the congregation with a new place for worship in another area of town.
“They just closed the church, but didn’t search for a new place,” Setiawan said. “So how can we worship?”
Setiawan said that the church has reported the incident to the central government, the National Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations. “This problem must stop. If not, discrimination will always happen to Christians and churches in Indonesia,” he said.
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Widow’s Legal Tangle Intensifies in Jordan
Desperate Appeal Pending Before the Supreme Court
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL (Compass) -- Confirmation of a new warrant for the imminent arrest of Jordanian Christian widow Siham Qandah marked an alarming turn the third week in September in the mother’s legal battle to retain custody of her two minor children.
On September 17, an Islamic court in northern Jordan ordered Qandah to turn over her daughter Rawan, 15, and son Fadi, 13, to a Muslim guardian within three days or go to jail.
The Irbid lower court’s ruling violated a restraining order issued by the Supreme Islamic Court in Amman on August 3. Under the restraining order, the arrest warrant against Qandah and removal of her children are both stayed until the higher court first rules on a pending case to change the children’s guardianship.
But the Irbid Islamic court reportedly ignored the restraining order, despite the fact that Qandah’s lawyers had put it on file in Irbid more than two months ago.
“Without the hearts and prayers of Christians around the world for us, I would have already lost the children,” Qandah told Compass a few hours after she learned of the new arrest order. “But God always opens the way in front of us, delaying these court decisions against us.”
Qandah’s lawyer reportedly filed a new appeal with the Irbid courts. “This is our only chance to gain a little time, maybe one or two more weeks,” Qandah said.
Over the summer months, the prominent Amman law firm which had agreed to represent Qandah “pro bono” (free of charge) appeared to be backpedaling on the case.
When Prince Mired bin Raed of the Jordanian royal family met with Qandah in May, he commented that the Christian widow appeared to have suffered from a lack of expert legal counsel on her case. So at the prince’s request, his personal attorney in the Petra law firm began researching the case.
Petra lawyer Mohammed Shaheen al-Tamimi told Compass that his firm had obtained “documents to prove” that the Muslim guardian of Qandah’s children was “disqualified to exercise custody” and had “misused his authority.”
During an interview in his Amman law offices on May 22, Petra lawyer Mohammed Shaheen al-Tamimi told Compass that his firm had obtained “documents to prove” that the Muslim guardian of Qandah’s children was “disqualified to exercise custody” and had “misused his authority.”
Al-Tamimi had estimated that he would win a court decision within a month to remove Abdullah al-Muhtadi as the children’s guardian, saying he had “illegally appropriated” about $20,000 from the children’s trust funds which they were to inherit at age 18.
On June 16, a representative of the Petra firm confirmed by telephone from Amman that they were about to file legal action on Qandah’s case “during the coming few days.” The lawyer specified that the presiding judge of the Supreme Islamic Court of Jordan was giving “all his support” for the case.
But a week later, investigating lawyers learned that in fact al-Muhtadi’s withdrawal checks from the children’s trust funds carried the signature of this judge, who is a relative of attorney al-Tamimi.
The judge himself later informed Qandah that he and his assistant had signed the guardian’s checks from the children’s orphan benefits. One of the unexplained withdrawals was for 6,000 JD, more than $8,800.
After this discovery, the Petra firm appeared to shelve its efforts to press for a “quick resolution” on the case. Finally on July 26, when Qandah was facing imminent arrest, the firm filed an “administrative appeal” to the Supreme Islamic Court, requesting an investigation of al-Muhtadi’s handling of the children’s financial affairs. To date, the Islamic court has not responded to this appeal.
In the meantime, the Irbid Court of First Instance had again issued orders to jail Qandah for 30 days if she failed to turn over her children to their Muslim guardian by July 26. Qandah and her children live a few miles from Irbid in the small northern town of Husn.
After two consecutive appeals filed by Qandah’s local lawyer were refused by the Irbid court, the desperate widow found another Amman law firm willing to represent her. These new lawyers won the restraining order issued two months ago by the Supreme Islamic Court.
With four lawyers now working on several legal briefs in both Irbid and Amman, Qandah faces about $5,000 in lawyers’ fees in the near future. All the cases focus on the questionable trust fund withdrawals, changing the children’s guardianship, certifying her daughter’s legal maturity under Islamic law and appealing the forced transfer of child custody from their mother to their Muslim uncle. Jordan’s Islamic courts will consider all the pending cases.
The first hearing, to change the children’s guardianship, was set to begin in Amman on September 21. With the whereabouts of al-Muhtadi unknown, Qandah placed an ad in the local newspaper on September 14, as required by Jordanian law, to summon her brother to the court hearing.
Shortly after Qandah’s soldier husband died in 1994, an Islamic court produced a certificate alleging that her husband had secretly converted from Christianity to Islam three years before his death.
Estranged from Qandah and the rest of his Christian family since he converted to Islam as a teenager, al-Muhtadi is the children’s maternal uncle. Shortly after Qandah’s soldier husband died in 1994, an Islamic court produced a certificate alleging that her husband had secretly converted from Christianity to Islam three years before his death. The claim could not be contested, so under Jordanian law, their two children automatically became Muslims.
But as a Christian, the mother could not collect their monthly military benefits. So Qandah asked al-Muhtadi to serve as their court-designated guardian.
But her brother often proved unwilling to transfer the children’s benefits to Qandah, and three years later he opened a court case demanding custody so he could raise them as Muslims. After four years of court proceedings, Qandah lost her last Supreme Court appeal in February 2002 and was ordered to turn over her children to al-Muhtadi.
Over the past 18 months, the widow and her children have gone into hiding several times to avoid police enforcement of the ruling, disrupting their lives and schooling for weeks at a time. The children are blacklisted by court order from leaving Jordan.
***Photos of Siham Qandah and her children are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Local Government Council in Nigeria Bans Christian Worship
Kano Governor Pledges to Give Islamic Law Priority in his State
by Obed Minchakpu
KANO, Nigeria (Compass) -- Authorities of Kumbotso local government council in the state of Kano, Nigeria, have banned Christians from holding worship services.
“This directive by the Kumbotso local government area for Christians not to conduct Sunday worship services anywhere within the estate which belongs to the federal government has raised a lot of concern,” Rev. A.U. Uba, secretary of the Kano state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass on September 14.
He added that the decision has increased tensions between Muslims and Christians in the area.
Uba stressed the need for Muslim leaders occupying political office to treat all people equally, irrespective of religious affiliation.
The government of Kano state has reportedly seized lands belonging to Christian schools to use for sites to construct business shops.
“You can’t believe that a government, which claims it is working to promote religious tolerance, is the same government that has been seizing landed properties from Christian schools and allocating them to rich Muslims for the building of shops.”
“You can’t believe that a government, which claims it is working to promote religious tolerance, is the same government that has been seizing landed properties from Christian schools and allocating them to rich Muslims for the building of shops,” Uba said.
“Religious harmony is essential for any community willing to make meaningful progress, especially in areas where religious misunderstanding has led to violent clashes in the past.”
In another controversial development, Kano state officials appointed a Muslim to lead a Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
In reacting to the accusations, Kano state governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau said he was prepared to step on toes in his bid to implement the Islamic legal system in the state.
Shekarau told journalists at a September 17 press conference in Kano city that his priority is “to work judiciously in accordance with the Islamic provisions of governance under the sharia.” He revealed plans to enact a law banning women from commuting in the same vehicles with men and stressed that the law would apply to all people of the state, irrespective of their religious affiliation.
Shekarau outlined a plan to establish mobile courts to try offenders of sharia and said that, if necessary, his administration would support the implementation of the Islamic legal system by strengthening vigilante groups.
Meanwhile, religious conflict between Muslims and Christians continues to simmer as residents of Plateau state marked the two-year anniversary of bloody riots that engulfed Jos city in September 2001.
According to statistics compiled by CAN officials, the violence has led to the destruction of 175 Protestant and Catholic churches, the deaths of an estimated 10,000 Christians and millions of dollars in property damage for Christian businessmen and homeowners in Plateau state.
The areas that have experienced the most recurring skirmishes between followers of the two religions are Wase, Kanam, and Langtang districts.
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Laws on Alcohol, Prostitution Used to Jail Christians in Nigeria
Enforcement of Sharia Tramples on Rights of Non-Muslims, Church Leaders Say
by Obed Minchakpu
JOS, Nigeria (Compass) -- Three years into the implementation of the Islamic legal code known as sharia, Christian leaders in northern Nigeria say that 12 Muslim-controlled states are using regulations related to alcohol consumption and prostitution to persecute Christians.
Officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) say that recent clamp-downs on Christian girls by Islamic security agents are clear cases of persecution committed under the guise of arresting prostitutes.
In the state of Niger, five Christian women have been sentenced to two years in jail on prostitution charges, while another 75 Christians are being held by police for the consumption and sale of alcohol.
“So far, we have received reports of Christians who have been convicted by sharia courts in the states of Niger, Bauchi, Borno, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Yobe,” Archbishop Peter Jatau, Roman Catholic bishop of the Kaduna diocese and CAN Chairman, told Compass Direct.
“These arrests and convictions have been carried out by Islamic courts under the directive of Muslim-controlled state governments. This can no longer be said to be the enforcement of sharia, which they had (originally) claimed was applicable to only Muslims.”
In the state of Bauchi, all girls above the age of 16, whether Muslim or Christian, have been given 90 days to marry or face arrest and charges of prostitution.
In the state of Bauchi, all girls above the age of 16, whether Muslim or Christian, have been given 90 days to marry or face arrest and charges of prostitution.
In justifying the policy, Alhaji Babangida Mohammed of the Bauchi State Sharia Commission told Compass, “We would do everything possible within the limits of the legal powers vested on us to ensure that the Islamic legal code is fully implemented in this state. Sharia is our way of life and must be enforced here. All those living in this state, including non-Muslims, must live their lives in accordance with sharia.”
When asked why officials are applying sharia to Christians, Mohammed said, “Because there is a general belief among Muslims that Christians support the consumption of alcohol and prostitution.”
Reacting to Mohammed’s claim, Rev. Peter Ameh of Bauchi said that certain Muslim leaders are spreading these kinds of allegations as a ploy to persecute Christians.
“Christians are not against the practice of sharia legal system in Nigeria,” Ameh said, “but against the trampling on their rights to worship as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.”
In a separate incident, some Nigerian schools have made it compulsory for female Christian students to wear the traditional Islamic veil or hijab. The move is aggravating tensions between Muslim and Christian youth, according to sources in the country.
In some cases, Muslim fundamentalists have invaded Christian and public schools to enforce the wearing of the hijab.
“Christian students are now being forced to wear the dress reserved only for their Muslim counterparts,” Deacon Saidu Dogo, secretary-general of the northern Nigerian chapter of CAN, announced at a press conference held last month in Yola, Adamawa state.
According to CAN leaders, states implementing the Islamic dress code include Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Yobe and Borno.
“Kano is one state government that has made it compulsory for all girls attending both public and Christian schools to wear the hijab, whether or not they are Muslims,” they said.
Ishaq Mahmoud, Kano state commissioner for education, told journalists that obligating all female students to wear the hijab, regardless of their religious affiliation, is necessary to ensure that “the teachings of Islam are applied in each and every aspect of governance.”
Christians are warning that the policy could lead to more violence between the adherents of the two faiths. Last February, Muslim and Christian students in the southwestern state of Oyo clashed over enforcement of wearing the hijab, prompting the government to close primary and secondary schools for one month.
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Death Penalty Debate in Nigeria Highlights Religious Differences
Two Muslim Women Sentenced to Death Set Free
by Obed Minchakpu
JOS, Nigeria (Compass) -- The Nigerian government has been under intense pressure recently to review the death penalty law, said Akinlolu Olujimi, the country’s justice minister, at the Conference of Nigerian Lawyers on August 25. The debate on the death penalty has degenerated into a verbal war between Muslims and Christians in the country.
The question of capital punishment in Nigeria came up three years ago following the implementation of the Islamic legal system, sharia, by 12 states in northern Nigeria. Sharia imposes death by stoning for adultery and requires amputation for theft and other offenses that had previously received minimal punishment.
Pressure by human rights organizations and the international community has begun to alter the practice of Islamic law, say analysts.
Two Nigerian Muslim women, Amina Lawal and Safiya Tungar-tudu, were recently sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. A leader of Nigeria’s Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, to die in the place of one of them. However, both women were set free by Islamic appeal courts due to flaws in their trials.
Both Muslim and Christian leaders in Nigeria feel the death penalty debate threatens the already fragile religious peace.
Both Muslim and Christian leaders in Nigeria feel the death penalty debate threatens the already fragile religious peace. Nigeria’s Christian community comprises about one-half of the country’s 124 million people.
Muslim leaders said that revoking capital punishment interferes with the Islamic law as practiced in Nigeria.
In contrast, Rev. Okogie, archbishop of the Lagos archdiocese, says that no power on earth has the right to take an innocent life.
“Just as the government has the duty to punish criminals, prevention of crimes lies elsewhere other than in the death penalty. The roots of crime are embedded in sin, poverty, deprived environment, broken homes, and alcoholism. I therefore urged the government to resist the attempt to retain the death penalty in our laws,” Okogie told Compass.
Rev. Folu Soyauonwo of Nigeria’s Anglican Communion asserts that, by insisting that the death penalty be retained in Nigerian law books, proponents of Islamic law are trying to persecute Christians.
“Even if somebody has committed sin, capital punishment is not the solution to the problem,” Soyauonwo said.
Leading the campaign for keeping the death penalty are the governments of 12 predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria; Jama’atu Nasril Islam, an umbrella body of all Muslim sects in Nigeria; and the Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN).
Dr. Datti Ahmed, president of SCSN, said that the call for abrogation of the death penalty constitutes an assault on Islam and sharia.
“If the federal government (of Nigeria) is that stupid and insensitive to ignore our feelings, then we will mobilize the people to get rid of this government. We will encourage civil disobedience, no matter the consequences, because it is better to defy the federal government than to disobey the law of God,” Ahmed said.
Dr. Lateef Adegbite, secretary general of Nigeria’s Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, told Compass that the Nigerian government has no right to erase a law decreed by Allah.
“Nobody has the right to reverse a penalty that is authorized by Allah, and there is no way we can abandon the death penalty because Allah has prescribed it in the Quran,” he said. “Those guilty of certain offenses must pay the penalty, which is death.”
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Tensions Abate Following Attacks on Church in Senegal
Stone-Throwing Neighbors Complain of Loud Music
Special to Compass Direct
DAKAR, Senegal (Compass) -- Tensions within a neighborhood in Dakar, Senegal, have eased in the wake of two recent attacks on an Assemblies of God congregation after some residents raised angry complaints that music and praise during the church’s late night programs kept them awake.
According to Senior Pastor Mignane Ndour, the first signs of difficulty for Bethel Church in Dakar’s Dieupeul III district surfaced on July 4, during a monthly prayer vigil held from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. About 60 church members meet on the first Friday of each month, starting their vigil with singing outside the church building where it is cooler. After midnight they move inside.
A woman living in an adjacent house came and said they were preventing the neighborhood from sleeping. She said she would raise the issue with the community and threatened to burn down the concrete block church, Pastor Ndour told Compass.
At the next prayer vigil on August 8, she returned to the church and, calling the believers “undisciplined,” repeated her threat to set the church ablaze. She then started to enlist neighborhood backing with a petition against the church, which was eventually signed by 54 families.
The first violent attack on the church took place two days later, during the first of a series of Sunday praise concerts during the month of August held from 5 to 8 p.m. At about 7:30 p.m. as the band was playing just outside the church, a group of about 50 young people started pelting stones “en masse,” Ndour said. Two women aged 16 and 45 were hurt.
As the neighbors were throwing stones, Ndour went to the nearby police station, but he was told there were no available officers to send. The next day, August 11, the pastor lodged an official complaint against the woman as the “main instigator” of the attack.
During the evening praise concert the following Sunday, a group of young men burst into the church grounds around 7:30 p.m., tearing down part of a fence. Sticks and stones rained down from adjacent buildings, smashing a windowpane and sending people running for cover. An 11-year-old boy was hit with a stone on the forehead and was hospitalized for three days.
Three others were also hurt in the attack. Church officials retained medical certificates as proof of the injuries.
“If they would come to us and tell us that our program of prayer vigils prevents them from sleeping, we would find a solution. We are here for peace. But it is necessary that the people ... recognize the right of worship and the Constitution of Senegal (which guarantees freedom of religion).”
A police van arrived at the scene some minutes after the pastor went to the police station and identified some of young people involved in the attack. Two of them were arrested and spent the night in jail.
Sources said these incidents were not the result of religious tensions in this historically tolerant society, but rather an issue of sound systems, drums and neighbors who thought the praise music was simply too loud.
“If they would come to us and tell us that our program of prayer vigils prevents them from sleeping, we would find a solution. We are here for peace. But it is necessary that the people ... recognize the right of worship and the Constitution of Senegal (which guarantees freedom of religion),” Ndour said.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Senegal and many churches have expressed their support for the Bethel congregation. About 60 percent of those attending the church, which has been in the neighborhood for several years, are expatriates from other African countries.
“It’s a problem of cohabitation,” said Pastor Raphael Dione, national president of the Association of Assemblies of God Churches in Senegal and a former pastor of Bethel Church. “For the moment it is important to calm the spirits within the community and continue to look to reconcile and find solutions.”
He noted that relations with many community members involved in the incidents have already improved, and that the congregation has temporarily suspended its monthly all-night prayer meetings.
Dione said that church leaders have met with the mayor and prefect (governor) regarding the attacks. Protestant and Catholic representatives will seek an audience with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in the coming weeks to bring to his attention incidents of this kind which have happened in recent years.
Over 90 percent of the population of Senegal is estimated to be Muslim; nevertheless, the small Christian minority enjoys religious liberty as guaranteed by the West African country’s constitution. In reporting the August 17 incident, the daily Walfadjri newspaper noted: “It’s certainly true that Christians make up a weak minority in Senegal, but they have never been the object of a sentiment of hate from Muslims. Being in the majority does not mean denying others the right to exist and to express themselves.”
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Buddhist Monks Lead Violence Against Christians in Sri Lanka
Churches Burned, Female Workers Attacked
by Gail Wahlquist
LOS ANGELES (Compass) -- Increasingly violent attacks against Christian workers and churches have shaken the small Christian community in Sri Lanka. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (EASL) reports that on September 17, four female Christian workers were assaulted and brutalized in an attack organized by a prominent Buddhist monk. On September 23, unidentified motorcyclists set fire to the Assembly of God church in Kotadeniyawa, which is associated with the four women. The structure was destroyed.
At 2 a.m. on September 25, the Assembly of God church in Kesbewa burned after being soaked with petrol and filled with tires. The church was completely gutted, reported EASL, who said that the fire was reported at 4:30 a.m. That was too late for the fire brigade to bring it under control.
The church had survived months of harassment, with windows broken and bottles of burning oil thrown repeatedly into it, stoning, and a previous bomb attack on August 14 (see related article in Compass Direct, September 12).
The organized violence at Kesbewa is being spearheaded by Chandrasiri Katuwawala, who enjoys the support of a major Buddhist temple in the area, stated EASL. Kumara Perera, the pastor of the Kesbewa Assembly of God, said the senior Buddhist monk in the area wields considerable power and has threatened the pastor and other believers.
In the earlier incident in Kotadeniyawa, the four Christian women were erecting a fence on September 16 around property belonging to the Assembly of God church. Sister Ayesha, pastor of the branch church, and Sisters Shyama, Indika and Sharmila were setting concrete posts in place when a monk named Buddhapriya from the Erabadda Temple, demanded with foul language that they stop work immediately or face death.
The monk said, “You may have to be hospitalized in the process,” according to EASL.
Sister Ayesha immediately called Vernon Perera, senior pastor of Calvary Center, an Assembly of God church in Ja-Ela. He counseled her to go to the Kotadeniyawa police station and lodge a complaint, which she did.
The officer-in-charge asked Buddhapriya to come into the station and heard from him that he vehemently opposed the presence of the Christians. The monk demanded that the Christian workers leave the area.
The church had purchased the property at Green Gardens, Mihirigama Road, located about 45 kilometers from Colombo, six months before. The women continued fencing the church property that day and lodged overnight in a church member’s house next door. Around 10 p.m., they heard concrete posts being smashed, and looking out, saw about 30 men destroying the fence posts.
The men demanded that the young women confess that Buddha was God. The women resisted, managing to foil the men’s attempts to rape them.
When the men saw them, they charged the house and broke down both the front and rear doors. The men dragged the women out, beating them and saying, “Do not convert our good Buddhists by offering them money.” The men demanded that the young women confess that Buddha was God. The women resisted, managing to foil the men’s attempts to rape them.
The women screamed for help, but nobody came to their rescue. The men made the girls march along the road, kicking and beating them as they followed. Once they arrived at the Kotadeniyawa police station, the assailants fabricated a complaint, saying that they had raided a brothel and dragged these “prostitutes” to the police.
In extreme pain, the women were forced to wait until midnight for the officer-in-charge to arrive. They waited until 2 a.m. while he had discussions with the assailants. The officer did not listen to the women’s story or visit the attack site.
At 2 a.m., a police jeep took the women to the Divulapitiya hospital, where Pastor Perera met them. The district medical officer examined them and recommended that Sister Ayesha be admitted to the hospital. However, police officers insisted that the women return to the police station to record their statements.
The women, exhausted from lack of sleep and in unbearable pain, were made to wait as their statements were recorded and police visited the site of the attack. Perera requested permission of the officer-in-charge to take the women away, but was told that the officer’s superiors had requested him to produce the young women in court.
Three of the women were required to appear in court at 11:30 a.m. on September 18 – still shabbily dressed as they were following the attack -- and publicly humiliated by the charge of prostitution. However, the judge reprimanded the officer-in-charge for accusing the young women of prostitution without any medical evidence. They must now undergo a medical examination to prove that they are not prostitutes.
The three women were released on bail, as were their assailants, and required to be in court again on October 6.
“We plead for justice and equal rights (that) every citizen is entitled to,” Perera stated in his report of the incident. “We have done nothing to violate the laws of this country. We are appealing to you to bring those violators of the law to justice.”
Evangelical Christians comprise less than one percent of the population in Sri Lanka, numbering about 120,000, according to the EASL.
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Pastor in Vietnam Tortured ‘Like Christ on the Cross’
Believers in Kontum Province Targeted by Anti-Christian Campaign
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES (Compass) -- Authorities in Vietnam’s Kontum province have found a way to add cruel symbolism to their unwarranted persecution of Christians.
When Pastor A En of the Chu Pa Evangelical Church answered a summons to appear before local security police on August 20, he was forced to stand “like Christ was hung on the cross,” with arms outstretched, but on one foot only. A En was forced to hold that position from 8 until 11 a.m. When he moved or put down his other foot, he was taunted, punched and kicked.
When the police finally released A En, he crumpled to the ground, unable to move. An elder of his church had to carry him out of the police station. Pastor A En’s church of 70 members was disbanded and does not dare meet together for worship.
Pastor A En’s church of 70 members was disbanded and does not dare meet together for worship.
Most of the reports of oppression of Vietnam’s minorities in the Central Highlands has focussed on the large provinces of Dak Lak and Gai Lai. However, reports from the smaller, more remote province of Kontum, which borders Cambodia and Laos, indicate that Christians there have not been spared.
Several incidents reported by indigenous Christian workers earlier this year have just come to light. Evangelist A Yen was summoned to the police station in Dak Rim Commune and ordered to give up his faith and his pastoral activities. They told him if he would not cooperate, they would use “another method.”
When A Yen resolutely refused, they muttered that he was a “very hard-headed boy” and pretended to let him go. As he was walking out of the door, a policeman named A Hoai was waiting for him with a thick stick. The policeman batted A Yen viciously across the knees three times. When he fell to the ground, officers pounced on his leg, opening a deep wound which bled profusely.
Alarmed at the large amount of blood, police released A Yen, who fled to the home of a colleague in the next province of Quang Ngai. He recovered there before daring to return to his home in Kontum.
In separate incidents, two evangelists who returned last February to Sa Thay District in Kontum from a Bible study seminar in the south were summoned by the public security police of their respective communes. Evangelist Ksor Lui was hit in the face repeatedly by police, who questioned what he had studied. Ksor Lui was ordered not to leave his home to propagate his faith.
Evangelist Ksor Lor was hit on the head so hard that he was unconscious for several minutes. Officials forbade him to gather any Christians for public worship. Neither man can now hold church services, but they courageously meet to instruct Christians in cells of a family or two.
Compass received the report on Pastor A En from a source in Vietnam who managed to bypass Vietnam’s censors and send out an e-mail with related photos. A portion of the source’s compelling appeal, written in late August and translated from Vietnamese, follows.
“Dear Sirs,
“I am sending herewith photos concerning Christian Montagnards who have been savagely persecuted by Vietnamese communist authorities. Many have been beaten and jailed. Others must abandon their homes out of fear. Wives and children flee to the forest for safety.
“Please do not forget the Montagnard Christians, who are of the same blood as we. Please join hands with us and send this to the media -- journalists and TV networks -- and to human rights groups and representatives of the people of conscience around the world.
“The Montagnard Christians -- what crime have they done to warrant such gratuitous suffering? Their only crime is to believe in God and to meet with others to worship Him.”
“Do communists have a conscience? The Montagnard Christians -- what crime have they done to warrant such gratuitous suffering? Their only crime is to believe in God and to meet with others to worship Him. Government officials refuse to grant permission for this.
“But why should people have to ask permission for what is freely allowed in most of the world where individual and communal rights are respected? Why in Vietnam do people have to beg their government to do honorable and worthy things? If Christians don’t ask permission, and go ahead and worship anyway, they are treated as criminals. The public security police threaten them as if they were hardened criminals. Why? Why?
“The kind of ‘freedom’ the communists brag about falls a million times short of the freedom in many other countries of the world. It is ‘communist freedom.’ Did Ho Chi Minh -- and does the Communist Party today -- really hold to such freedom?
“It is impossible to know how much blood and how many bones were sacrificed to liberate our people. But what is the result of this ‘liberation?’ The people of Vietnam are only bound in the freedom of the communist variety. If you compare the meaning of freedom in most countries of the world with the freedom of Vietnam, they are different beyond imagination. In our kind of freedom, the very essence of real freedom is missing.
“Vietnamese authorities are fond of bragging that our people are much freer than most other people in the world. But you must understand that communist freedom is the inverse of real freedom.”
(Return to Index)
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COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
David Miller, Managing Editor
Gail Wahlquist, Editorial Assistant
Suzi Quinones, Design
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