AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* NEW LAW TO CRIMINALISE MEN WHO PAY FOR SEX WITH TRAFFICKED WOMEN

* MURDER IN MOSUL SPARKS FEAR AND PANIC

* CHOLERA OUTBREAK HITS ZIMBABWE AS AUSTRALIA INCREASES AID

* PAKISTAN ON A PRECIPICE WITH CHURCH AT RISK

* SHARIA BEHIND ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY LAW IN INDONESIA

* REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO DESPERATELY NEEDS PRAYER

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NEW LAW TO CRIMINALISE MEN WHO PAY FOR SEX WITH TRAFFICKED WOMEN

New prostitution laws being considered in Britain will mean a man who pays for sex with a woman who has been trafficked or is under the control of a pimp could face a charge of rape, which carries a potential life sentence. A plea of ignorance will be no defence. The proposed new laws are likely to have widespread impact. Police have estimated that 70% of the 88,000 women involved in prostitution in England and Wales are under the control of traffickers. It forms part of a wider package of reforms to tackle street prostitution and give police greater powers to close down brothels.

The package marks a sharp change of approach for the Government, which four years ago proposed a partial decriminalisation of prostitution, allowing women to work together in self run brothels to provide protection for each other. An earlier proposal, was blocked, reportedly because of fears of a hostile media response. The change in the law follows a six-month Home Office-led review of prostitution laws which included visits by ministers, including Harriet Harman and Vernon Coaker, to Amsterdam and Stockholm to see how the law worked there.

The flow of women brought into Britain by human traffickers has been described as “a modern slave trade”, which only exists because men are prepared to buy sex: “So to protect women we must stop men buying sex from the victims of human trafficking.” Home secretary Jacqui Smith, has made clear that under the new offence it will not be enough for a man to say “I didn’t know”. The new offence will include a “strict liability” test so that police will only have to prove that the man paid for sex, and that the woman had been trafficked. There will be no need to prove he knew it at the time.

When it was put to Smith that the law was unfair to men, she replied: “I will tell you what I think is more unfair. That’s that there are women in this country who are effectively being held in slavery. There would not be this exploitation, there would not be this slavery of women, controlled in the way that they are, if there was not the demand for prostitution.” She said that in the past the government has concentrated on addressing the “supply side” issues relating to prostitution. Now the government wanted to curtail the demand.

“At the end what we also need to recognise is that if there is no demand for sex with women, there will be less trafficking,” she said. Smith also explained why the government had decided not to adopt the approach taken in Sweden, where the government introduced a total ban on men paying for sex. She said that in Sweden there were only around 1,500 prostitutes, compared with around 80,000 in Britain, and that there was “no strong support at the moment” for a total ban in Britain.

Source: The Guardian

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MURDER IN MOSUL SPARKS FEAR AND PANIC

Iraqi Christians who returned to their ancient city after a wave of violence and intimidation are in shock after two sisters were stabbed to death when attackers broke into their home. Lamyaa Sabih and her sister, Walaa, died from their injuries sustained at their house on November 12th, in the residential area of the northern city of Mosul. Their mother, who lived with them, was also stabbed and is in a critical condition. Police rushed to the scene and on arrival a security car was bombed, killing three policemen and badly damaging the Sabih family’s house.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Lamyaa was single but Walaa was married with two teenage children, a boy and a girl. The sisters, both in their 40s, had worked for a local provincial council since the 1980s and were known to be devout Syrian Catholics. Initial reports received by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), show how the incident has sparked fear and panic within the Christian community. Christians and other minorities are saying that the incident casts doubt on the Iraqi’s government’s bid to improve security with a massively increased police presence.

Police were sent in after a campaign of violence against Christians prompted a mass exodus of more than 2,000 families from Mosul. After repeated government assurances about improved security, up to 500 families had returned to Mosul in the past two weeks. This latest incident however is having a “dramatic” effect on the faithful, who fear another wave of attacks with many thinking of leaving Mosul again.” The incident comes just a week after the decision by the Iraqi parliament to offer Christians just three seats in the January provincial elections, 10 fewer than was earlier proposed.

In the meantime a Christian bishop in Iraq has received a threatening letter from an extremist Al Qaeda group ordering Christians to leave the country “immediately and permanently.” The letter reads: “The Secretary General of the Islamic Brigade have decided to give the Christian infidels of Baghdad and the other provinces one last warning, to leave Iraq immediately and permanently. There’ll be no room in Iraq for the Christian infidels from now on,” the letter continues, threatening that those who remain will have their throats slit “as is happening to the Christians of Mosul.”

Iraqi Christians have faced severe persecutions in recent years, with some being forced to pay protection money and some women being made to wear the hijab headscarf. The Christian community has also suffered forced conversion to Islam, rapes, murders and the destruction of homes.

Source: Christian Newswire

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CHOLERA OUTBREAK HITS ZIMBABWE AS AUSTRALIA INCREASES AID

Fifty-three cholera deaths have been recorded in Zimbabwe in a single day the United Nations says, putting the death toll since August at 366 and the number of cases at 8887. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also warns of reports being received from South Africa’s health ministry of suspected cholera cases in Botswana. South African health officials are also meeting to tackle the cholera outbreak which has also claimed lives in South Africa with 3 reported deaths amongst 168 patients.

In the meantime Australia will provide a further $8 million of urgent food and other assistance to the people of Zimbabwe in response to the escalating humanitarian crisis. The situation in Zimbabwe has become extremely grave, with critical shortages of food and clean water. Currently in Zimbabwe, 28 per cent of children under five are chronically malnourished. The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that over five million people – nearly half Zimbabwe’s population – will require food aid by early next year. Australia will contribute:

$6 million to the World Food Programme; and

$2 million to NGOs in partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). This assistance brings Australia’s support for Zimbabweans to nearly $20 million in 2008-09.

Australia’s contribution will assist those most vulnerable to hunger, in particular orphans, those affected by HIV/AIDS and people displaced by politically motivated violence initiated by the Mugabe regime. It will also protect livelihoods and improving access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. The Australian Government remains gravely concerned by the ongoing political crisis in Zimbabwe, where people continue to be denied a democratic and representative government and will maintain targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime which has caused so much of the suffering.

Source: Compiled by APN from various sources

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PAKISTAN ON A PRECIPICE WITH CHURCH AT RISK

Wahhabi Islam was introduced into Pakistan after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Islamic radicalization escalated through the 1980s, fuelled by the ‘jihad’ against the communists in Afghanistan. At the same time the rights and security of Pakistan’s Christian minority declined. Pakistan’s infamous anti-blasphemy law, one of the most savage tools of religious persecution in the world, mandates that any person accused (no evidence is required) of blasphemy against Islam or the ‘prophet’ Mohammed be immediately arrested and tried often under a cloud of Islamic threats and hysteria. The constant threat of an accusation of blasphemy is a sword at the neck of every Pakistani Christian. Taliban jihadists now control most of Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. They hold on to power through terror and the regular execution of ‘traitors’. From their bases they plot the assassinations and terror attacks perpetrated in major cities across Pakistan. Wide-scale reform is desperately needed and wanted by the majority of urban Pakistanis. A Taliban victory in Pakistan would be disastrous for global security, and devastating for Pakistan’s three million Christians.

Please pray:

* for God to shield Pakistan Christians from terror and sustain and provide for those presently suffering under Taliban repression, persecution and advancing jihad.

* that the Lord draw the Pakistani Church into the scriptures and prayer, building their faith, maturity and unity.

* for the Holy Spirit to empower the witness of the Pakistani Church so that confused, disillusioned Muslims may be transformed by the gospel of grace.

* that God demonstrate His radical grace by witnessing directly through dreams and visions to jihadists.

Source: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission

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SHARIA BEHIND ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY LAW IN INDONESIA

Religious groups in Indonesia are denouncing an attempt to introduce a new Islamic law against “pornography”. The proposed law gives broad scope for fundamentalists to repress “popular customs and traditions”. The Indonesian religious and ethnic minority groups claim that the law on pornography is concealing an attempt by the more fundamentalist branch of Islam to introduce sharia law. The fear is that the proposed law would allow fundamentalist Islamic groups to have free rein to attack cultural norms under the pretext of “preserving the purity of Islam.”.

The most serious criticisms are directed at the Indonesian Islamic Defender Front (FPI), responsible in the past for violent acts and, which under the new law, would exercise the role of “moral police” and punish any dissent or behaviour contrary to radical Islamic ethics. In order to protect pluralism and prevent the adoption of sharia, the nationalist party (PDIP), together with the Christian Peace and Prosperity Party and the Democrat Party, has begun a series of demonstrations calling for the rejection of the proposed law.

The minorities claim, that rather than seeking to prohibit pornography, the law is really aimed at promoting the “rigid observance of Islamic law”. Under it sharia would be applied not only to DVDs, films, and performances that are “contrary to morality”, but would end up censoring cultural expressions and traditions such as on the island of Papua, where it is common to wear only a loincloth, and for the women to leave their breasts uncovered. Also on the island of Bali, famous for its tourism, it would no longer be possible to sunbathe in a bikini, or to drink alcohol at the nightclubs.

Source: Asia News

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SHARIA BEHIND ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY LAW IN INDONESIA

Source: Asia News Religious groups in Indonesia are denouncing an attempt to introduce a new Islamic law against “pornography”. The proposed law gives broad scope for fundamentalists to repress “popular customs and traditions”. The Indonesian religious and ethnic minority groups claim that the law on pornography is concealing an attempt by the more fundamentalist branch of Islam to introduce sharia law. The fear is that the proposed law would allow fundamentalist Islamic groups to have free rein to attack cultural norms under the pretext of “preserving the purity of Islam.”. The most serious criticisms are directed at the Indonesian Islamic Defender Front (FPI), responsible in the past for violent acts and, which under the new law, would exercise the role of “moral police” and punish any dissent or behaviour contrary to radical Islamic ethics. In order to protect pluralism and prevent the adoption of sharia, the nationalist party (PDIP), together with the Christian Peace and Prosperity Party and the Democrat Party, has begun a series of demonstrations calling for the rejection of the proposed law.

The minorities claim, that rather than seeking to prohibit pornography, the law is really aimed at promoting the “rigid observance of Islamic law”. Under it sharia would be applied not only to DVDs, films, and performances that are “contrary to morality”, but would end up censoring cultural expressions and traditions such as on the island of Papua, where it is common to wear only a loincloth, and for the women to leave their breasts uncovered. Also on the island of Bali, famous for its tourism, it would no longer be possible to sunbathe in a bikini, or to drink alcohol at the nightclubs.

Source:

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REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO DESPERATELY NEEDS PRAYER

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is both a country of tragedy and promise. A fragile ceasefire agreement between the Congolese government and rebel commander Laurent Nkunda collapsed in August, resulting in heavy fighting. More than one million people have been forced to flee their homes. Camps and the dilapidated hospitals are crammed with injured civilians. The Congo is once again facing the prospect of becoming the centrepiece of another brutal regional war. The country continues to face severe security and development problems.

Nearly one-quarter the size of Australia, the DRC is home to important tropical forests, vast hydroelectric potential, and resources ranging from lithium, zinc and diamonds. It is also home to an ongoing humanitarian disaster. A war that began in 1998 caused widespread death and displacement. Though it officially ended in 2002, violence has continued, particularly in the east. The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than five million Congolese have died since 1998 – including more than 500,000 per year since the official end of the war. Let us intercede accordingly.

Source: Intercessors for America

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