Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 082 | Wed 17 Nov 2010

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BACKGROUND IN EGYPT: In July 2010 Camilia Shehata Zakher disappeared after 
a quarrel with her husband, a Coptic priest in Minya Governorate. Unaware 
that she was with relatives in Cairo, he reported her missing and accused 
Muslims of abducting her for forced conversion, a fate not uncommon for 
Coptic girls in Egypt. When Egyptian Security Forces found Camilia in 
Cairo and returned her to her husband, Muslims protested, claiming that 
Camilia was now Muslim and was being held by the church against her will. 
One fundamentalist sheikh claimed to have heard her say the shahada, the 
declaration of Muslim faith. Digitally edited photos purportedly of 
Camilia in full Islamic dress started appearing on the web. Islamic 
militants urged that Christian tourists be kidnapped and killed in 
retaliation. On 1 September a Mauritanian cleric issued a fatwa permitting 
the killing of Egyptian Copts. Camilia came to be personifying the Muslim 
fantasy of Coptic girls converting to Islam and of the church as causing 
fitna or persecution.

Then on 8 September Camilia appeared on national TV denouncing the rumours 
of torture, drugs and captivity. 'I am appearing,' she said, 'in order to 
defend my husband, my child, my church and my religion which is 
Christianity.' Fundamentalist sheikhs subsequently claimed the woman on 
the TV was not Camilia, but her 'double'. Egyptian State Security 
immediately refuted this and the Chairman of the Committee of Declaration 
of Islam at Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Saeed Amer, stepped in and denied 
that Camilia ever came to Al-Azhar or that her case ever came before him. 
Islamist propagandists subsequently asserted that Camilia was kidnapped by 
State Security forces while on her way to Al-Azhar to formalise her 
conversion. The Islamists claim therefore the State actually prevented her 
conversion to Islam. The truth is: Camilia is a Christian who never 
converted to Islam. The Camilia of Islamic fantasy -- the convert to Islam 
who is suffering persecution at the hand of the church -- is a myth. 
Nevertheless this totally debunked myth is being used as incitement and as 
an excuse to kill Christians.

INCITEMENT IN EGYPT; DEADLY CONSEQUENCES IN IRAQ. 

On 15 September, as religious tensions soared, the former secretary-
general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Muhammad Salim al-
Awwa, raged on Aljazeera international TV, falsely accusing Egypt's Copts 
of 'stocking arms and ammunition in their churches and monasteries' in 
preparation for war against Muslims. He also perpetuated the lie that the 
Coptic Church was holding female Coptic converts to Islam captive in 
desert monasteries (RLPB 079, 27 Oct 2010). As the rhetoric escalated, 
riots multiplied, forcing the government to urge media restraint for the 
sake of national unity. Then on 31 October ten al-Qaeda militants in Iraq 
laid siege to a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad. Fifty-eight died and 
more than 70 were wounded in the subsequent massacre. In claiming 
responsibility, the al-Qaeda-linked 'Islamic State of Iraq' gave Egypt's 
Coptic Church 48 hours to release from captivity Camilia Shehata and Wafa 
Constantine, an almost identical case from 2004. Otherwise jihadists would 
retaliate against Christians everywhere (RLPB 080, 3 Nov 2010). The 
incitement in Egypt being linked to the massacre in Baghdad and the threat 
from al-Qaeda shocked Egypt, prompting restraint there and temporarily 
settling the situation somewhat. 

Nothing, however, has settled in Iraq. On 9 November three Christian homes 
were bombed at night in the suburb of Mansour, western Baghdad. The 
following morning two Christian homes in al-Dora were hit by mortar fire. 
Bombs also exploded outside a church in Kampsara and outside about a dozen 
Christian homes across Baghdad. At least four Christians were killed and 
dozens were wounded and terrorised. The targeted homes could be seen to be 
Christians because of funeral notices and visible Christian insignia. Then 
on Monday evening 15 November Islamic militants in the northern city of 
Mosul stormed two adjacent homes of Christian families in the eastern al-
Tahrir neighbourhood and killed the two male heads of those households, a 
Syrian Catholic and an Armenian. Almost simultaneously a bomb exploded 
outside a Christian home in central Mosul. The next day a Christian man 
and his daughter aged six were killed by a car bomb in Mosul. This terror 
has led to a surge in Christians fleeing Iraq. They will join the hundreds 
of thousands of Iraqi Christians struggling to survive as refugees in 
Syria, Turkey and Jordan. They no longer see any reason to risk their 
lives for a state where, even if they survive, they will be condemned to 
live as second class citizens (dhimmis).

In Egypt, the lives of Copts are conditionally 'protected' as dhimmis. 
This means they will not be killed and plundered provided they submit to 
the injustice, persecution and humiliation inherent in abject subjugation 
under superior Islam. After years of impunity for attacks on Copts, their 
security is now extremely tenuous. On Monday 15 November 22 homes, two 
commercial shops, a bakery, and livestock, all belonging to Copts, were 
burnt when Muslims -- reportedly nearly 1000 -- rioted in the Upper 
Egyptian village of el-Nowahed after hearing a rumour that a Christian boy 
was in a relationship with a Muslim girl. (According to the rules of 
Islam, a Christian boy may not approach a Muslim girl but must convert to 
Islam first.)

Due to years of radicalisation and the re-establishment of dhimmitude, the 
situation in Egypt is now pre-genocidal. Meanwhile the situation in Iraq 
is undoubtedly genocidal, partly because Iraq has become a base for 
foreign-sponsored sectarian Islamic militias. Additionally there is the 
factor that, as a Western experiment in Islamic democracy (like Lebanon 
previously), the West doesn't want to see or admit failure in Iraq. 
Especially that would challenge the West's firmly held belief that 
democracy -- as distinct from the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- is the 
solution to noble (rather than sinful) humanity's problems. 

The West must end the denial and be responsible for securing and rescuing 
Iraq's Christian remnant. Once US troops withdraw and the 'real' war 
begins, it will be too late.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO: 

* level the paths, open the doors and provide safe passage for all
  Iraqi Christians fleeing Islamic terror and genocide for what may be
  an extended period of exile. 

* draw the hearts and minds of all Iraqi Christians to him, that they
  might put their faith in him alone, for he is their only hope. 

'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you 
did it to me . . . Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one the 
least of these, you did not do it to me.' (From Matthew 25:40,45 ESV.)

* intervene in Egypt, to still the brewing storm; may all Egypt's
  Christians -- Copts and Arab converts -- look to Christ and put
  their faith in him alone, for he is their only hope. 

* frustrate the plots and programs of the wicked, while pricking the
  conscience of the alliance states to Christian duty and moral
  obligation that they might respond with commitment and generosity to
  the humanitarian catastrophe that is befalling Iraqi Christians. 

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PLEASE PRAY ALSO about the Sunday 21 November trial of Afghan Christian 
convert, Said Musa (45), in Kabul. This husband and father of six was 
arrested in the sweep of late May 2010, after film emerged of Afghan 
Christians being baptised and worshipping in 'Western safe-houses' in 
Kabul (see RLPB 059, 9 June 2010, Afghanistan: Christians menaced as 
Karzai woos Taliban). Said has reportedly been severely tortured and 
forced to renounce Christ, a renunciation he subsequently recanted. He is 
also being mocked and violently abused in prison for his faith. A state-
assigned lawyer has refused to represent him because he is a Christian and 
no other lawyer is willing to. According to Compass Direct News 'Dr. Musa' 
(as he is known), himself an amputee, has worked for the International 
Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul for 15 years fitting people for 
prosthetic limbs. 

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE            
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AL-QAEDA DECLARES WAR ON CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ

When claiming responsibility for the 31 October church massacre in 
Baghdad, the al-Qaeda-linked 'Islamic State of Iraq' threatened to 
retaliate against Christians everywhere unless Egypt's Coptic Church 
released its alleged captives. The myth -- that Coptic converts to Islam 
are being held captive in Coptic churches (supposedly along with 
stockpiles of Israeli weapons) -- has been propagated by Egyptian Islamic 
fundamentalists keen to incite massacres of Copts. This situation in Egypt 
is extremely volatile. Meanwhile, genocide is unfolding in Iraq. On 9-10 
November, over a dozen Christian homes and one church were targeted with 
bombs and mortar shells across Baghdad, killing four and wounding many. On 
15-16 November, more bombs targeting Christians exploded in Mosul while 
two Christians were executed in their homes by militants. Please pray! 

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We suggest that churches and fellowships using the above Summary might 
also provide a copy of the listed prayer points to be used in their 
worship by people who are leading in prayer.  

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal's 
blog 'Religious Liberty Monitoring' <http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com>.

This RLPB was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious 
Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international 
religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC team. 
Previous bulletins may be viewed at  <http://www.ea.org.au/ea-
family/Religious-Liberty/Prayer-Postings.aspx>. 

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