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Today’s News Headlines:

FEBC BROADCASTS MESSAGE OF HOPE AFTER COUP ATTEMPT IN PHILIPPINES TAJIKISTAN COURT FINES BAPTIST MAN FOR WITNESSING ON STREETS MUSLIMS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHRISTIAN EGYPTIAN GIRL IN BRUTAL CAMPAIGN GROUP CRITICIZES PAKISTANI OFFICIALS FOR LACK OF ACTION AFTER MURDER CHURCH LEADERS MEET WITH PRESIDENT MUGABE ON ZIMBABWE CRISIS IRAQI PASTOR REALIZES DREAM OF OPENING EVANGELICAL CHURCH

Today’s News Stories:

FEBC BROADCASTS MESSAGE OF HOPE AFTER COUP ATTEMPT IN PHILIPPINES Christian radio provided a strong voice of encouragement during a 19-hour military coup attempt in the Philippines last weekend. More than 300 junior officers and enlisted men demanded the resignation of President Gloria Arroyo. Senior officers loyal to Arroyo helped her retain power. Far East Broadcasting Co. President Jim Bowman says listeners are more apt to tune in to Christian broadcasts during times of national crisis in search of news and spiritual solace. Bowman believes the coup attempt took place “to express some kind of frustration over the corruption that just kind of continues. This was stimulated over the apparent ‘deal making’ with the Islamic forces in the Philippines.” (Mission Network News)

TAJIKISTAN COURT FINES BAPTIST MAN FOR WITNESSING ON STREETS A member of an unregistered Baptist church in Tajikistan has been fined for “talking to passersby about God” and threatened with property confiscation if he does not pay the fine. Andrei Reimer was fined the equivalent of US$8 for conducting religious meetings in the courtyard of the communal block of apartments where he lives and witnesses on the streets. Reimer, who lives in a suburb of Khudzhand, the principal town in the northern Tajik region of Sogdi, was fined Friday, July 18, by the local Chkalovsk District Court because he refused to provide a written assurance that he would not stop preaching. Reimer is a member of the Council of Churches, an unregistered Baptist denomination that split from the All-Union Council of Baptists in 1961. The denomination has more than 3,705 congregations scattered across the former Soviet Union. The fine was levied even though the country’s 1994 religion law does not prohibit either religious gatherings in private homes or street evangelization. (Forum 18 News Service)

* HCJB World Radio has been airing weekly Christian programs in the Tajik language via shortwave since 1999. More than 4 million people speak this language.

MUSLIMS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHRISTIAN EGYPTIAN GIRL IN BRUTAL CAMPAIGN A 17-year-old Coptic Christian girl in Egypt became the latest underage kidnapping victim of radical Muslims June 30 in a growing campaign to force young non-Muslims to convert to Islam. Unidentified Muslims snatched Nermine Stephanos from in front of Alexandria’s Isis Secondary School where she was attending. Her father later received a telephone call from an anonymous person that Muslims had kidnapped his daughter and were forcing her to change her religion to Islam and marry a Muslim. He immediately reported the case to the Alexandria police and sent telegrams and faxes to numerous security authorities without any success. The father is prevented from advertising this case in any Egyptian newspaper or television station. Police refuse to call this a kidnapping, labeling it an “absence case.” The Canadian Coptic Association has asked Egyptian and international human rights organizations to intervene and find solutions to the escalating attacks against young Christian girls in Egypt. “Since we did not get any response from any Egyptian authorities nor any Egyptian media concerning kidnapping and forcing underage Coptic girls, we are reporting these cases in the international media,” said Selim Naguib, president of the Canadian Coptic Association. (Canadian Coptic Association)

GROUP CRITICIZES PAKISTANI OFFICIALS FOR LACK OF ACTION AFTER MURDER The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (AMPA) reports no one has been arrested, and the government appears to be taking no interest in the case after a Catholic priest was murdered while he slept earlier this month. Six militants entered the home of 38-year-old Catholic priest George Ibrahim at 1 a.m. Saturday, July 5, and shot him to death. He lived in Renala Khurd, about 180 miles south of Islamabad. They also wounded Pervez Masih, his parish assistant. Ibrahim had been receiving death threats ever since provincial authorities returned the local school to Catholic ownership. The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (AMPA) labeled the killing as a “heinous and brutal act of terrorism.” In a July 27 press release the AMPA criticized officials for their apparent lack of action in the case and failure to publicly condemn the killing. APMA representatives held a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, July 29, to express their concerns regarding security for Christians and other religious minorities. (Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin)

CHURCH LEADERS MEET WITH PRESIDENT MUGABE ON ZIMBABWE CRISIS Three prominent Zimbabwe church leaders met with President Robert Mugabe Friday, July 25, in an attempt to reconcile the government and its main political opposition. Bishops Patrick Mutume of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Sebastian Bakare of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical Fellowship met with Mugabe and senior members of the ruling party to discuss the church’s role as a mediator in the country’s political crisis. An avowed Roman Catholic, Mugabe has criticized the church for meddling in politics in the past. Zimbabwe has been paralyzed by a political stalemate since the president’s disputed re-election last year. Mugabe’s opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, refused to recognize the election results of the vote which human rights groups say was heavily swayed by ruling-party militants. Mugabe has been accused of mismanaging the economy during his 23 years in power, causing unemployment rates to skyrocket and aggravating a food shortage that the U.N. Food Program estimates will leave 5.5 million of Zimbabwe’s people at risk of starvation. Earlier this month, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, which represents all of the 12 Christian denominations, issued an apology for its failure to fight hunger, poverty and political violence. (Religion Today)

IRAQI PASTOR REALIZES DREAM OF OPENING EVANGELICAL CHURCH “People are hungry for Christ,” says Iraqi pastor Ghassan Thomas, who in the past used his kindergarten as a vehicle to share the gospel. Speaking in his office with explosions and shooting often audible, he recalls how “the regime of Saddam Hussein did not allow the establishment” of new denominations. “I was involved in an indirect ministry through the kindergarten, as I did not get permission to officially operate and evangelize. However, people soon came to me and said: ‘this is like a church.'” With American soldiers in town he was finally able to realize his dream and open his Evangelical Alliance Church this month. Less than two weeks later, his congregation can hardly accommodate the hundreds of people that are attending its meetings in the rented church building. The “hallelujahs” and “amens” reverberate throughout the small, but lively congregation, as Pastor Thomas explains the hope of Christ. Among those in the audience are Christians who were forced to fight in the army of Saddam Hussein. (Assist News Service)

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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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