———————————————————————- Missions Insider Report by Christian Aid April 2 2003 Vol. 4 No. 13 Visit our website at http://www.christianaid.org ———————————————————————– John Lindner, Editor ———————————————————————–

1. Pakistan Christians Fear Slaughter 2. North Korean Escapees Tell of Horrors 3. Syrian Christians Help Iraqi Refugees 4. Jordanian School Trainee Incommunicado After Returning to Iraq 5. Jordanian Christian Widow and Children Still in Jeopardy 6. Photo of the Week: Wood Bearers

Note: Missions Insider refrains from mentioning names that could make the subjects targets of anti-Christian activity. Names are sometimes mentioned of ministries conducting work commended by authorities or located in areas of greater religious freedom.

———————————————————————– 1. Pakistan Christians Fear Imminent Slaughter

A Pakistani Christian leader says believers there fear a slaughter of Christians may begin today.

The leader said that mosques were filled with anti-Christian rhetoric last Friday. Sermon titles announced “War Against Islam” and “War Between Truth and Evil.”

“Mohammed said fight the infidels with everything you have,” and “Fight the followers of the devil,” some of the Muslim clerics preached, identifying Christians with Americans.

In light of that, religious extremists allegedly have scheduled a demonstration today, April 2. It is expected Muslim clerics will rail against President George W. Bush and his “War Against Islam” and speak against Christianity. Pakistani Christians fear the rhetoric may spark an attack on Christians, possibly as soon as the current All-Muslim holy days end.

“Tension and fear are increasing day by day,” a confidential spokesman told Christian Aid. “Please pray that our Heavenly Father will give us wisdom and courage to face this situation.”

In a separate report, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (UK) said that North West Frontier Province is on the verge of enacting legislation that will quickly lead to “Talibanization.” The Provincial Cabinet unanimously adopted the Islamic Shariah Act adopting Sharia (Islamic) law. It is expected that it will pass the Provincial Assembly without resistance, since the radical Islamic party holds two-thirds of the seats. Already, music programs and cinemas have been banned in most of the province, cable TV and other media are under scrutiny, and some commercial banks reportedly have been asked to cease charging interest on loans.

The new law, if adopted, will make praying five times a day mandatory for all residents; all business will have to cease during those times, wearing the national dress will be compulsory, women’s freedoms will be greatly curtailed, and Islamic education will be compulsory for all.

“Christians are particularly concerned that the implementation of Shariah law will formally legitimize the persecution of non-Muslim communities,” the report said. That complete report can be read at http://www.csw.org.uk.

———————————————————————– 2. North Korean Escapees Tell of Horrors

The following shocking report is a slightly edited version of a report issued by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and provided here to inform Missions Insider readers.

Two North Koreans who had once served in the regime’s horrible prisons told the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva last Thursday the ugly conditions and brutal treatment drove some prisoners to cannibalism and suicide.

“Kang Chul Hwan was arrested at age nine along with several members of his family because of his grandfather’s alleged political crimes,” the report said. “He spent ten years in a prison camp in North Korea where he witnessed children being kicked to death, worked to death or publicly executed.”

Kang told the U.N., “A third of the children died of malnourishment. In order to survive, I ate rats, cockroaches and snakes. Children simply disappeared from the camp.”

Lee Min Bok is a former North Korean Plant Genetic Engineer who was sent to prison camp after being caught attempting to flee to China. He survived terrible brutality at the hands of guards in both China and North Korea before being sent to the State Security Police Detention Centre in Hyesan City.

He said: “The food situation was so bad that cannibalism was quite widespread. A woman who had just given birth was so hungry that she ate her own newborn baby. Brothers ate their own brothers in order to survive.

“There were no sanitation facilities and no showers and your body became full of insects. There were tens of thousands of lice all over my body. There was no freedom to kill them. The concentration camps in North Korea today are like Hitler’s concentration camps.”

Kim Sang Hun, a South Korean who has worked for 20 years as a UN official and has devoted the last six years to aiding North Koreans, said: “Even using the most conservative estimates, the number of victims of extra-judicial killing in North Korea over the past 50 years of the regime’s entire history stands close to one million, or five percent of the entire prisoner population of 300,000 each year.

“We are of the conviction that unless we stop such crimes against humanity from being committed in North Korea today, they are bound to spread elsewhere in the world in the generations to come. In contrast to the recent case of the U.N. inspection team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a good number of reliable witnesses are available today to identify the locations of these camps and of prisoner burial sites in North Korea.”

The speakers met with diplomatic missions and others to urge the Commission on Human Rights to adopt its first resolution on human rights in North Korea during this session. A full text of the message can be obtained from CSW at http://www.csw.org.uk or by writing .

———————————————————————– 3. Syrian Christians Help Iraqi Refugees

Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria bear the emotional scars of war, according to a direct report received by Christian Aid.

A team of Jordanian and Syrian Christians visited several cities in the northeastern tip of the country between Iraq and Turkey. There they found hundreds of Iraqi families who had left their homes searching for peace, support and rest. Most were from Christian background.

Most of them had left some of their family members behind. Almost all came from Baghdad. Forty percent were children age 15 or under. All told sad and discouraging stories.

The children had left their schools and friends behind. Their emotional state was shattered. “Their eyes are full of tears with astonishment and wonder,” the leader said.

He said the people were staying with other Christian families–two or three families to a house. In some cases five families shared a house while their hosts lived elsewhere.

The team left food and in some cases offered medical assistance, as many were suffering from major health problems.

The team leader said he was expecting to visit hundreds of other Iraqi families in the next week.

“We are sharing a huge burden,” the leader said, who is pastor of a small Christian church in Syria. “The problem is bigger than what we have, but we believe that the Lord is giving us a unique way to serve Him.”

Gifts to help Iraqi refugees can be given by credit card at Christian Aid’s website http://www.christianaid.org or by calling 1-800-977-5650.

———————————————————————– 4. Jordanian School Trainee Incommunicado After Returning to Iraq

An Iraqi graduate of a theological school in Jordan who returned to pastor a church in Iraq has not been heard from since March 17.

The young man, brought up in the Orthodox Armenian Church, was won to the Lord by an evangelical pastor in 1994, and went to Jordan in 1997 to acquire more knowledge of the Bible. He completed his bachelor’s degree last spring and enrolled in the master’s degree program.

He was on course to complete his second degree this spring, but the Lord began dealing with him about returning to Iraq. He left last November to return to Iraq to minister to his people. He was hoping to open a church in Baghdad that had been closed, but instead was assigned to a church without a pastor in Basra in January.

Please pray for him and his congregation during these troublous times. To learn more about the Bible school ministry, write and put MI-413 420-JETS on the subject line.

———————————————————————– 5. Jordanian Christian Widow and Children Still in Jeopardy

A Christian widow who has been ordered to turn over her two children to be raised as Muslims or go to jail is still in jeopardy in Jordan.

Hussam Rasmi Issa Jibreen was a soldier with the Jordanian Army when he died while on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo in 1994. Upon applying for widow’s benefits, Sahim Qandah was told her husband had secretly converted to Islam three years earlier. As proof, a document signed by two witnesses was shown. In place of her husband’s signature was only an X.

At first Mrs. Qandah learned benefits for her children, Rawan, 15, and Fadi, 13, could be received as long as they went to a Muslim guardian. So she authorized her brother, a Muslim cleric, to receive them. Records show, however, that very little of that support reached the children.

Subsequently, courts ruled Mrs. Qandah was an “unfit guardian” for her own children because she distanced them from Islamic rituals and ordered her to surrender the children to authorities who would turn them over to her brother. If she failed to do so by February 5 she could be jailed.

The deadline came and went and the order to jail her has not been enforced, thanks in part to the number of letters, e-mails, faxes and petitions sent from the international community.

The issue is not a mere matter of Islamic law. Advocates for Mrs. Qandah point out first of all that there is no hard evidence that her husband ever converted to Islam.

Secondly, when the courts have ruled that Mrs. Qandah was unfit on religious grounds, they contravened the Jordanian Constitution, which says that “Jordanians shall be equal before the law,” “there shall be no discrimination…on grounds of …religion” and that “personal freedom shall be guaranteed.”

Moreover, some are now considering going to court to have Mrs. Qandah’s brother judged as an unfit guardian of the children because he did not use the child support funds appropriately.

Christian relatives in neighboring lands have offered to receive Mrs. Qandah and the children, but thus far the widow and her children have been barred from leaving the country.

The bottom line is that authorities have thus far failed to enforce the judgment, and continued international attention seems to be helping. It is reported that Prince Hassan, brother to the late King Hussein, has taken an interest in the case and seeks to resolve the situation to benefit Mrs. Qandah and her children. Polite letters of concern can be faxed to King Abdullah II at (011) 962-6-535-3025 and to Prince El Hassan bin Talal at (011) 962-6-463-4995.

This report is provided with input from Elizabeth Kendal of World Evangelical Alliance, and is given in gratitude for Missions Insider readers who have prayed, sent letters of concern, and made inquiries concerning Mrs. Qandah’s status. We will not give further reports until something specific happens.

———————————————————————– 6. Photo of the Week: Wood Bearers

http://www.christianaid.org/pow/pow-4-13.asp

A mother and her child carry firewood and fodder on their backs up a long mountain path in Uttaranchal State of India. Life is hard in this part of the world and countless hours are spent gathering the basic necessities of life in order to survive. Much of business by rural folk is done by barter, and not many families have a regular cash income. Ministries supported by Christian Aid take the gospel to these people and have planted hundreds of churches in this region. To learn how you can help write and put MI-413 660-NLC on the subject line.

———————————————————————– Mission Statement:

Missions Insider is a free weekly email report from Christian Aid Mission, your link to the world of indigenous missions. We seek to establish a witness for our Lord in every tribe and nation (Matthew 24:14) by supporting highly effective native missionary ministries based in poorer countries overseas, or where believers are persecuted. Christian Aid has contact with more than 6000 indigenous ministries that have a total of 300,000 missionaries on the field or ready to go when support is available.

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