AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* THE TRAGEDY OF FORCED MARRIAGES AND CONVERSION OF CHRISTIAN GIRLS TO ISLAM

* NEW BRITISH LABOUR LEADER CONFESSES HIS
ATHEISM

———————————————–

THE TRAGEDY OF FORCED MARRIAGES AND CONVERSION OF CHRISTIAN GIRLS TO ISLAM

Shah Taj, a fourteen-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan, was on her
way to school last year when a vehicle occupied by three men pulled
up beside her, grabbed her, threw her in the car and sped off. As
frightening as this may seem, her ordeal had just begun. She
described what happened:  ¢â‚¬Å“I was standing at the bus stop. Three
Muslims came up to me in a car. They were armed with weapons. They
pushed me into the car and took me to a hotel. While there, one of
them raped me. Afterwards, at gunpoint they took my thumb impression
and my signature, placing them on blank papers. ¢â‚¬ 

 ¢â‚¬Å“I tried to make noise; but they pointed their guns at me and
threatened to kill my father and my brother if I make a noise. ¢â‚¬  Taj
was forced to marry a Muslim man and convert to Islam. They had used
her signature and thumbprint to create a document saying she had
converted to Islam. Like Shah Taj, Christian girls throughout the
Islamic world are being abducted and trafficked for commercial sex
and coerced into domestic servitude. Muslim men are offered financial
incentives to marry Christian girls – an incentive designed
by fundamentalists to convert girls to Islam forcefully.

Recent investigations have revealed information exposing the criminal
phenomenon of forced Islamization of Christian girls which occurs on
an alarming scale. On April 16, 2010, eighteen members of the United
States Congress wrote to the State Department ¢â‚¬â„¢s Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) Office, concerning continued  ¢â‚¬Å“reports of abductions,
forced marriages, and exploitation of Coptic women and girls in
Egypt. ¢â‚¬  The Egyptian government and state security have routinely
denied the problem ¢â‚¬â„¢s existence, refusing to sanction cases that have
been commissioned to court.

International Christian Concern (ICC) recently visited Egypt to
investigate. Meeting with human rights lawyers and activists who have
defended Egypt ¢â‚¬â„¢s Christian minority, they obtained names, birth
certificates, and conducted personal interviews with the parents of
victimized Christian girls. Source after source exposed astonishingly
similar cases. Forced marriages are systematically orchestrated. What
appears to a girl to be a natural and inconsequential friendship with
a young man may on the contrary be a deceptive plot to lure the girl
into a forced marriage.

A Muslim man or his accomplice exploits the girl ¢â‚¬â„¢s trust by
convincing her of the man ¢â‚¬â„¢s friendship.  ¢â‚¬Å“They are planning and
organizing a plot to fool this person. it may seem like friendship or
falling in love, but in actuality, it is a planned seduction, ¢â‚¬  Bishop
Thomas of the El-Quosia Diocese in Upper Egypt told ICC. Most forced
marriages are accompanied by physical abuse and sexual violence. Once
the paperwork is finalized, it is as if the Christian girl never
existed.

The town she grew up in, the names of her parents, and the date she
was born become mere memories, known only by those closest to her.
All documents revealing the girl ¢â‚¬â„¢s childhood or family history are
burned or tucked away in bureaucratic files where there is no
likelihood the girl ¢â‚¬â„¢s whereabouts will ever be discovered. She
becomes a ghost, with no past, but only an uncertain future, but only
an uncertain future which will likely be lived-out as a resented wife
to a detached husband.

The girl is then kept captive in her husband ¢â‚¬â„¢s home. The Muslim
husband may take a second, third or fourth wife, using the
 ¢â‚¬Å“Christian ¢â‚¬  girl as nothing more than a servant. If the girl is bold
and fortunate, she may escape. However, according to a report by
Christian Solidarity International, girls who are able to escape
 ¢â‚¬Å“usually remain so heavily burdened with social and legal problems
that anything like a normal life is impossible. While they may be
successful in obtaining a divorce from their Muslim husband, they are
rarely able to obtain a reversal of their religious status. ¢â‚¬ 

In Cairo, Mamdouh Nakhla, a Coptic lawyer and the Chairman of the
Al-Kalema Organization of Human Rights, said he has reported hundreds
of cases of abduction to the police, and their response is always the
same.  ¢â‚¬Å“The police say the girl is happy with her marriage and happy
to be a Muslim and they demand that I stop looking for her. The
police know where she is, but they choose not to tell me. There is an
 ¢â‚¬Ëœunsaid contract ¢â‚¬â„¢ between the police and the kidnappers. ¢â‚¬ 

Mr. Nakhla then takes the case to the District Attorney, who orders
the man and the girl to appear in court. The man appears alone,
having prevented the girl from attending the hearing. Before the
judge, the man either denies the accusations, or professes that the
girl willingly chose to marry him and is happy in her present
circumstance. The District Attorney then refers back to the police to
verify the man ¢â‚¬â„¢s statement. The police, honouring their agreement
with the man, return with a positive report confirming the
kidnapper ¢â‚¬â„¢s testimony. With that, the District Attorney closes the
case.

According to Mr. Nakhla, since January 2006, there have been more
than 2,000 cases of girls who have appealed to return to
Christianity, but have been denied their right to testify in court.
Human Rights Watch reported,  ¢â‚¬Å“The abducted girls typically face no
difficulties converting to Islam and acquiring identity documents
recognizing their conversions, but those who subsequently wish to
return to Christianity meet with refusal and harassment from the
Civil Status Department (CSD) of the Ministry of
Interior. ¢â‚¬ 

Regrettably, the three men who abducted Shah Taj will likely never be
punished for their crime.  ¢â‚¬Å“I hate what has happened to me, ¢â‚¬  explained
Taj.  ¢â‚¬Å“They kidnapped me and raped me, that ¢â‚¬â„¢s why they must go to
prison and be punished. ¢â‚¬  Yet, Christians throughout the Islamic world
are unable to justly punish those who have violated their daughters
by deliberate assaults of planned seductions and kidnappings. Wagih
Yacoub, a Coptic human rights activist, told ICC that in Egypt, the
rights of Christians are not equal to those of Muslims.

 ¢â‚¬Å“The only way to protect yourself and protect your people is by the
law; but if the law is not on your side, then you have no assurance
of protection. We are the minority in this country. The Muslims have
the support of the Egyptian government, their religion and the police
security. The Christians cannot stand against an entire government. ¢â‚¬ 
In Egypt, Christians makeup roughly ten percent of the population,
yet they remain a marginalized religious minority on account of being
governed by Islamic Shariah law, a principle source of Egypt ¢â‚¬â„¢s
legislation.

Even though it is stated in the Egyptian Constitution that,  ¢â‚¬Å“The
State shall guarantee the freedom of belief and the freedom of
practice of religious rites, in practice, it severely violates
religious freedom. As of 2008, Christians held less than two percent
of seats in Egypt ¢â‚¬â„¢s People ¢â‚¬â„¢s Assembly and Shura Council. With little
political power, the Christian community is left vulnerable to
discrimination and oppression, incapable of defending themselves
against even the most apparent and fundamental human rights abuses.

Source: Intercessors
Network

———————————————–

NEW BRITISH LABOUR
LEADER CONFESSES HIS ATHEISM

The Labour leader’s atheism puts him in stark contrast to his
predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Mr Miliband had previously
said his religious views were a ”private matter”, and his
declaration means two of the three leaders of major British political
parties are self-proclaimed atheists. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime
Minister, also confirmed he does not believe, shortly after being
named Liberal Democrat leader, while David Cameron last year said
religious faith was ”part of who I am” but admitted he did not go
to church regularly.

In an interview on Radio 5 Live, Mr Miliband was asked by presenter
Nicky Campbell: ”Do you believe in God?”The Labour leader replied:
”I don’t believe in God personally, but I have great respect for
those people who do.”Different people have different religious views
in this country. The great thing is that, whether we have faith or
not, we are by and large very tolerant of people whatever their
view.” Mr Miliband and brother David are of Jewish descent, but
religion did not play a large part in their upbringing by their
Marxist father Ralph Miliband.

David has said publicly he is an atheist, and was the target of some
criticism for sending his son to a Church of England school. Ed said
he believed most faith schools did a ”fantastic” job in educating
children, but added he thought it best for children of different
backgrounds to be educated together. ”I’m not going to slag off
faith schools,” he said. ”I think it is important for people of
different backgrounds and faith groups to go to school together. Many
faith schools do that.”

Despite spin doctor Alastair Campbell’s famous comment to reporters
that ”we don’t do God”, Mr Blair has confirmed since leaving power
that his religious faith was ”hugely important” to his Prime
Ministership. He said he did not speak publicly about his belief
while in office out of fear voters would think him a ”nutter”.
Since leaving Downing Street, he has converted to Roman Catholicism,
and in his recent memoir, A Journey, he wrote: ”I have always been
more interested in religion than politics.”

While more private about his personal religious beliefs, former
leader Mr Brown left no doubt of the importance of his father’s work
as a Church of Scotland minister in shaping his view of life and his
political values.

Source: Intercessors
Network

Home