Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 083 | Wed 24 Nov 2010

WELCOME to the intercessors who have joined the list this month.

—————————————————————-

NOVEMBER 2010 UPDATE — During November we prayed concerning . . .

BURMA, where the fraudulent elections produced a landslide victory for
the pro- military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) — the
military junta in civilian clothes. This will doubtless be presented as
a mandate for the junta’s violent subjugation of its long-suffering
ethnic minorities. The regime is demanding that ethnic groups’ defence
forces be assimilated into the centrally controlled Border Guard Force
(BGF). Groups that continue to resist this demand are destined to be
deemed insurgents, separatists and subversives, and will be attacked
with overwhelming force in the name of ‘democracy and reconciliation’.

* UPDATE: The breakaway 5th Brigade of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
(DKBA) clashed with Burmese forces in the wake of the elections (RLPB
081) and has been given 31 December 2010 as its deadline to disarm and
join the BGF. On Tuesday 9 November (two days after the elections)
Baptist Pastor Mang Tling (47) of Dawdin village in north-west Chin
State was summoned before the military junta’s hand-picked electoral
commission. A pro-USDP village headman had taken revenge on the pastor
for his refusal to wear a pro-USDP tee-shirt by falsely accusing him of
encouraging Christians to vote for the opposition. After five days of
interrogation, Pastor Mang Tling was released with orders to stop
holding worship services and to close down the church’s nursery
program. (The Chin are estimated to be around 90 percent Christian.
Chin State has a profoundly Christian culture and identity which the
pro-Burman, pro-Buddhist junta has long sought to undermine.)

IRAQ, where Islamic jihad, terrorism, hatred and intolerance specifically
targeting Iraq’s Christian community is escalating. The legacy of this
war may well be the genocide of Iraq’s indigenous Christian peoples.
Iraq’s Christian remnant is under siege and desperately needs refuge.

* UPDATE: On Monday 22 November gunmen broke into a welding shop in west
Mosul owned by brothers Saad Hanna (43) and Waad Hanna (40), both
Syrian Catholic Christians, and shot them dead. In a separate incident,
an elderly Assyrian woman was found that evening strangled in her home
in central Mosul. Islamic fundamentalists and jihadists want Christians
out of Iraq, hence the terror. Meanwhile, those keen to present Iraq as
a successful democracy and example of Muslim-Christian co-existence
want the reality covered up, hence the silence.

EGYPT, where high level Islamic incitement against the Coptic Church is
creating an extremely volatile and dangerous situation. Emboldened by
years of impunity, radicalised Muslims are escalating their pogroms
against Egypt’s indigenous Coptic Christians. On 15 November some 1000
Muslims rioted in the village of el-Nowahed, Upper Egypt after hearing
a rumour that a Christian boy had been seen with a Muslim girl. They
burnt businesses, livestock and 22 homes of Copts. The next day fields
and irrigation machinery belonging to Copts were also torched.

* UPDATE: Reportedly, Egyptian State Security forces have pressured
thirteen of el-Nowahed’s Coptic families to sign papers stating that
the fires were an ‘Act of Fate’ and were extinguished by security and
by village Muslims. According to the Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA), police have been gathering the names of Coptic youths,
presumably to use as leverage in a ‘reconciliation’ session where Copts
will be forced to give up their rights and accept total injustice in
exchange for ‘peace’. Meanwhile the Christians are too fearful to leave
their burnt out homes in search of food and shelter lest they be
slaughtered. Hossam Noel Attallah (19), the Christian boy accused of
being in a relationship with a Muslim girl, is in the military hospital
in Qena receiving treatment after being arrested and tortured by State
Security. The situation in Egypt is absolutely appalling and
deteriorating rapidly.

NOVEMBER 2010 ROUND-UP — also this month . . .

* AFGHANISTAN: The trial of Afghan Christian convert Said Musa (see RLPBs
059 and 082) has been delayed until next Sunday, 28 November 2010.
Christian groups, Jubilee Campaign and Advocates International, are
confronted by numerous obstacles as they try to get a lawyer to Musa.
Please pray for God to overcome all obstacles. Pray also for the faith,
health, strength, security and witness of Said Musa and the other
Christian prisoners.

* BUHTAN: PUNISHED FOR SHOWING JESUS FILM

On 6 October Prem Singh Gurung, an ethnic-Nepali Bhutanese citizen, was
charged with ‘attempting to promote civil unrest’ and sentenced to three
years jail for screening films about Jesus. Whilst Gurung did violate a
Bhutanese law requiring authorities to examine all films before public
screening, the charge itself is false and the sentence extremely harsh.
International Christian Concern reported on 12 November that two other
Bhutanese Christians have gone into hiding after learning the authorities
are seeking them in relation to similar charges. As Bhutan opens up to the
world and is in transition from a Buddhist monarchy to a constitutional
democracy, religious liberty is destined to be its greatest challenge.

* LAOS: MORE CHRISTIANS FACING EXPULSION

In January 2010 village officials and local security forces expelled 11
Christian families at gunpoint from Katin village, southern Laos, simply
for their Christian faith. That was after months of persecution that
included property confiscations, detentions and the torture-murder of a
Christian villager. Despite that, two more Katin families subsequently
committed to following Jesus Christ. The expelled Christian families have
been struggling with disease and hunger in shelters they have erected on
the edge of the jungle. They were told in July they may only return to the
village if they give up their faith. Otherwise they have been warned if
they try to return as Christians they will be shot. Subsequent to this,
four more Katin families accepted Christ. The Katin chief and local
security approached these six new Christian families in early November
with the ultimatum: give up the Christian faith before January 2011 or
face expulsion. Please pray for Laos’ severely persecuted Church.

* PAKISTAN: BLASPHEMY ISSUE IS EXPLOSIVE

On 19 June 2009 Aasia Bibi (45), a Christian mother of five, dipped her
cup into a bucket of drinking water. When Muslim women subsequently
complained that the water was now contaminated (by being touched by a
Christian) the offended Bibi commented derisively that Muhammad was no
prophet. Consequently she was jailed for blasphemy. The death sentence she
received on 8 November 2010 attracted international outrage. Even if she
were to be pardoned, Aasia Bibi’s life would still be seriously imperilled
as Christians accused of blasphemy are usually killed by Islamic
vigilantes who enforce Sharia with impunity. However, top Deobandi and
Barelvi clerics have joined forces in warning President Asif Ali Zadari
against granting Bibi a discretionary pardon, saying that ‘such a decision
will lead to untoward repercussions’. The organisations represented and
influenced by these clerics control many thousands of Islamic seminaries
across Pakistan, mostly in Punjab. The situation in Pakistan is explosive.
Please pray.

* SYRIA: REPRESSION TARGETS PROTESTANTS

Over recent years the number of Iraqi Christian refugees in Syria has
boomed. Consequently numerous foreign Christian humanitarian ministries —
mostly American and South Korean — have entered Syria to respond to the
desperate need. Now the regime in Damascus has introduced repressive
measures, supposedly to counter Protestant proselytising. According to Ya
Libnan (Lebanon), the main trigger for the crackdown was Syrian Catholic
and Orthodox leaders’ complaints about Protestant ‘sheep stealing’. The
delicately positioned Alawite-led government is desperate to preserve
‘religious harmony’ (read: the political status quo) and so is appeasing
Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox resentment. Hence the government is not
renewing the visas of foreigners serving Protestant churches; is closing
down independent local and foreign-sponsored Protestant worship held in
‘unsanctioned’ premises and is cancelling Protestant events. Please pray
for wisdom, grace and courage.

~~~~

‘Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise
as serpents and innocent as doves.’ (Matthew 10:16 ESV)

—————–

We usually provide a summary to use in news-sheets unable to
run the whole of an RLPB. As a summary is not practicable with
this monthly update posting we suggest one or more of the above
items be used instead.

—————–

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal’s
blog ‘Religious Liberty Monitoring’ .

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 .

If this bulletin was forwarded to you, you may receive future weekly
issues direct by sending a blank email to .