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Today’s News Headlines:

CHINA HEADS LATEST LIST OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VIOLATORS JORDANIAN CHRISTIAN WIDOW ORDERED TO SURRENDER HER CHILDREN REPORT: AFGHANISTAN MAKES MAJOR STRIDES IN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 27 LAO CHRISTIANS REFUSE TO DENY CHRIST AFTER WEEKS OF INTERROGATION UGANDA REVERSES IDI AMIN’S ‘REIGN OF TERROR’ STUDY: AMERICANS HAVE ‘SMORGASBORD OF BELIEFS’

Today’s News Stories:

CHINA HEADS LATEST LIST OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VIOLATORS The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has identified 12 countries as the world’s worst violators of religious liberty. A report released Sept. 30 named China, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Myanmar (formerly Burma), North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. The commission, an independent federal agency, is charged under U.S. law with designating countries that are engaged in, or tolerate, “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Once identified as a “country of particular concern,” the law requires the president to take specific actions to oppose these violations. A press release issued by the commission states that “particularly severe violations in China have actually increased in the past year.” The Chinese government has intensified its violent campaign of repression against evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists and groups such as the Falun Gong which have been labeled as “evil cults.” Also singled out for specific mention were India, with severe violence against religious minorities; Pakistan, for failing adequately to protect religious minorities from sectarian violence; Vietnam for its repressive policies toward all religious believers; and Saudi Arabia for its continuing violations. (Adventist News Network)

JORDANIAN CHRISTIAN WIDOW ORDERED TO SURRENDER HER CHILDREN A Jordanian Christian widow has been ordered to surrender her children to her Muslim brother. Middle East Concern reported that Siham Qandah, 37, was told by the Ministry of Justice on Oct. 7 that she had five days to hand over her daughter, Rawan, 14, and son, Fadi, 12, to her brother, Al Muhtadi. The order came eight months after Jordan’s Supreme Court upheld earlier rulings granting legal custody of the children to the brother. Qandah was told that if she failed to comply with this order, the children would be taken by force. The family is threatened with separation because she is bringing them up as Christians rather than Muslims. A lower court ruled that she had proved herself to be “unfit to be a custodian of her children” by “distancing them from Islamic rituals and doctrine.” Qandah has registered her children in a Christian school. Her troubles began when she applied through the civil courts for the transfer of her late husband’s army pension to her. The sharia court stopped the process, saying her husband had become a Muslim three years before he died in 1994. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

REPORT: AFGHANISTAN MAKES MAJOR STRIDES IN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM The demise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has brightened the prospects for religious freedom in Afghanistan, says John Hanford, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for religious freedom. Citing a U.S. State Department report released Monday, Sept. 30, he said that Afghanistan has shown “significant improvement” in its acceptance of minority religions — in large part because the war on terrorism rid the country of the Taliban. In the 2001 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, Afghanistan was one of the seven worst nations cited as barriers to the free practice of religion. Less than a year after a new governing body was established, led by Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan has shown improvement in the 2002 report. “We feel there’s been marked improvement,” Hanford said. “Some of the harsh ways in which the Taliban forced conformity to their rather radical approach to Islam have been addressed across the board.” In 2001 Afghanistan was listed along with Myanmar, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam as countries that used “totalitarian or authoritarian attempts” to control religious beliefs. Afghanistan was the only country removed from that list this year. (Religion Today)

27 LAO CHRISTIANS REFUSE TO DENY CHRIST AFTER WEEKS OF INTERROGATION A recently received report tells how Christians in Laos are being faithful to Christ despite enormous pressure to deny Him. The report said that Lao authorities detained 27 Christians from villages on June 13. Six were from Somsaad, 14 from Nonsompon, and seven from Pongseema. Another village, Khammahing, is also experiencing difficulties with authorities. While in prison the detainees were sustained by food brought by other believers. They were told that they would be released only if they denied Christ. Yet after 23 days of interrogation, all of them remained faithful, and the Lao police finally let them go. (Christian Aid Mission)

UGANDA REVERSES IDI AMIN’S ‘REIGN OF TERROR’ Almost a quarter century after Idi Amin’s reign of terror, Uganda is experiencing a spiritual harvest. The pastor of a local megachurch estimates that 92 percent of the country’s 24 million people embrace Christianity with more than 75 percent being born again. Robert Kayanja, who leads the Miracle Center Cathedral in the capital city of Kampala, told Charisma magazine that it was “incredible” to see thousands of people lined up for miles walking barefoot through the city to attend church. His church’s $7 million, 10,500-seat sanctuary is fills up four times for Sunday services and once on a Friday night service geared to troubled young people. During Amin’s eight-year reign, he killed between 300,000 and 500,000 people and left thousands mutilated. He lives in exile in Saudi Arabia. After Amin’s demise, other ruthless presidents took his place until 1983 when a spiritual warfare victory helped turn the tide back to the church, Kayanja said. “A witch who challenged me said I would be dead in three days,” he said. “Instead, the witch died. They found his body in the middle of the road, his severed head lying on the roadside. His family came and took his body, and they moved away.” Miracle Center Cathedral has planted more than 1,000 churches across Uganda. “Twenty-five years ago, 22 percent of the population was Muslim,” Kayanja said. “Today, only 6 percent is Muslim.” The rate of HIV/AIDS infection in Uganda has also dropped significantly in recent years. (Charisma News Service)

* HCJB World Radio, together with the Evangelical Churches of Kampala and FEBA Radio, broadcasts the gospel locally in Uganda on two FM transmitters. HCJB World Radio also worked with Jesus Focus Ministries to put a 500-watt FM station on the air in Masaka. Programs air in English and Luganda.

STUDY: AMERICANS HAVE ‘SMORGASBORD OF BELIEFS’ A study released this week by Barna Research indicates that the views of Americans on most theological issues differ widely from biblical positions. The study covered issues ranging from the reality of the Trinity to sin and salvation. Most adults reject the notions of original sin, the existence of Satan and salvation by God’s grace alone. Americans tend to think that the core documents of the world’s major faiths, such as the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon, are “different expressions of the same spiritual truths,” and that praying to the dead can reap personal benefits. Americans are also nearly as likely to say that Jesus Christ sinned as to believe that He lived a sinless life. (Religion Today)

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier HCJB World Radio U.S. Ministries Communications Director E-mail: Phone: 1-719-590-9800 Fax: 1-719-590-9801 Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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