Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 165 | Wed 27 Jun 2012
By Elizabeth Kendal
JUNE 2012 UPDATE -- During June we prayed concerning . . .
NIGERIA & SUDAN (also Tunisia) (RLPB 162)
EGYPT (also Nigeria) (RLPB 163)
BURMA & SUDAN (also Nigeria) (RLPB 164)
UPDATES --
* BURMA: EYEING US-MYANMAR MILITARY TIES
On 2 June US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta intimated that political reforms underway in Burma (Myanmar) could pave the way for 'US-Myanmar' military ties. This fits in perfectly with the new US strategy of developing stronger ties with Asia Pacific militaries. Timothy Heinemann, a retired US Special Forces Colonel who works with war-affected ethnic minority communities in Burma, argues that US-Myanmar military ties would be 'wrong', both 'morally and practically', particularly while the Burmese Army 'is attacking Kachin villagers'. He argues that Kachin civilians would face increased aggression if the US were to empower the Burmese Army. Siege of Kachin State: 2012 (16mins) is an excellent new short film by Scott Johnson. Pray for the Christian Kachin.
[NOTE -- What Heinemann describes above is exactly what US-Indonesian military ties have done to the Papuans: military violence escalates but is covered up for economic and geo-strategic gain. (See RLPB 119, and Religious Liberty Monitoring: label Papua.)]
* EGYPT: ISLAMIST MORSI ELECTED PRESIDENT
On Sunday 24 June Egypt's electoral council declared Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood the President of Egypt, elected with 51.7 percent of the vote (in a turnout of only about 50 percent). Egypt is now profoundly divided. Most Christians fear that an Islamist president will further Islamise Egypt, causing persecution to escalate. According to Isobel Coleman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Morsi 'represents the older, more conservative wing of the Brotherhood and openly endorses a strict Islamic vision'. According to Eric Trager of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Morsi has been 'an icon of the extremists in the Muslim Brotherhood', pushing for an 'extreme agenda'. Morsi's power to implement his Islamist vision will, however, be severely curtailed due to the military's 'soft coup'. (See Religious Liberty Monitoring for details.) How the Islamists cope with that remains to be seen. Pray for the Church in Egypt.
* NIGERIA: CHURCH BOMBINGS AVERTED
After three consecutive weeks of Boko Haram terror, Sunday 24 June passed without a church bombing. Police uncovered a plot to bomb churches in Jos, the capital of the Middle Belt state of Plateau. While police intensified security, most churches in Plateau urged their members not to attend their worship services. In Kaduna State, an alleged attempt to bomb a church in the Sabon Gari area of Zaria, was foiled. Boko Haram did, however, successfully attack Yobe prison on Sunday, shooting police and freeing 40 inmates.
* NIGERIA, JOS: CHRISTIAN FAMILY MURDERED
On Saturday 23 June some 30 ethnic Fulani Muslim herdsmen stormed into Tidiu Village in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State around 3.30am, armed with guns and machetes. They slaughtered six members of the Dakibang family in their sleep, while two other family members were wounded as they fled and four villagers were wounded as the killers made their get-away. The victims, aged between six months and 70 years, had reportedly been living peaceably amongst their Fulani neighbours. One local resident commented that 'the killing was professionally carried out with military precision'. Pray for the Church in Nigeria.
* SUDAN: PROTESTS ROCK KHARTOUM
Since South Sudan seceded in July 2011 Sudan has been blighted with soaring food inflation and a weakening currency. Now students from the University of Khartoum are hoping to trigger an 'Arab Spring'. Protests commenced on 16 June and escalated after President Bashir's 18 June announcement of tough austerity measures. The protests have spread beyond the capital, causing considerable disruption but not as yet close to overthrowing the regime. However, as Sudan expert Eric Reeves notes, with a disillusioned and angry civilian population reeling from price hikes, and a dispirited military reeling from heavy losses being inflicted by rebel forces in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the threat to the regime is very real. But this is a brutal regime and the crackdown has begun. The situation increases the risk for Southerners who will doubtless be blamed for the economic crisis when, in reality, the responsibility lies with the corrupt, incompetent, belligerent, racist, Islamist regime in Khartoum. Aljazeera reports: 'There have been calls on social networks for a mass nationwide protest on [Friday] June 29'. Pray for the Church in Sudan (using Psalm 10).
JUNE 2012 ROUND-UP -- also this month . . .
* INDIA: LIVING 'IN A CLIMATE OF TERROR'
Christians account for only 3 percent of the population of India's north-eastern state of Assam; about one third of them are indigenous tribals. According to the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), Sajan George, the situation for tribal Christians in Assam is 'intolerable', for they are living 'in a climate of terror'. On Friday 8 June a group of Hindus met Bhageswar Rabha, a Christian from the village of Deuphaniin, Assam, and forced him to convert to Hinduism. Then around midnight a mob of about 40 militant Hindu nationalists burst into the home of another Christian, Manesor Rabha, and dragged him outside with his wife Mala and two other believers, Michael and Prashanto Rabha. Though they were threatened, intimidated, beaten and ordered to convert to Hinduism, the believers stood firm and refused to renounce their Lord. On the Sunday morning Mala, Michael and Prashanto were taken to Satribari Christian Hospital to receive treatment for their injuries. Two other Christian families subsequently fled the village. Such violent persecution is commonplace across India. It is a very serious situation, inspired by unchallenged Hindu nationalism and fuelled by impunity. Pray for the Church in India.
* IRAN: AUTHORITIES CLOSE TEHRAN CHURCH
In line with its policy of eliminating the Farsi-speaking church of ethnic Persian converts, the regime has closed down another Farsi-speaking congregation. On 5 June the Intelligence branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a military force tasked with defending the Islamic Revolution, issued orders to close down the 70-strong Assemblies of God (AOG) Church in Tehran's north-western district of Janat-Abad. According to Compass Direct News, only three churches in Tehran continue to offer Farsi-language services: the AOG Central Church of Tehran, Emmanuel Protestant Church and St Peter's Evangelical Church. More than 20 believers are in prison for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, including death-row prisoner Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani whose health is reportedly deteriorating. Please pray.
* LAOS: STILL WORKING AT ELIMINATING CHRISTIANITY
On 6 June Laotian police arrested Asa, a 57-year-old Lao pastor, at his home in Peeyeur village, Luang Namtha Province, on charges of leading people to Christ. He was immediately transferred to the provincial prison, some 50km away from his family. On 16 June Lao officials arrested two Lao and two Thai Christians in Luang Namtha, charging them similarly with 'spreading the Christian faith without official approval'. (The communist regime is unashamedly committed to eliminating Christianity and therefore never gives approval for Christian witness!) A local resident had called the police when he saw the two Thai Christians -- brothers Jonasa and Phanthakorn Wiwatdamrong -- explaining Bible passages to enquirers in a private home. The two Lao and two Thai Christians arrested were taken directly to the Luang Namtha provincial prison. Torture, including the use of stocks, is routine in Lao prisons which are amongst the worst in the world. Pray for these prisoners, and for the Church in Laos.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
RLPB 164. Burma & Sudan: warfare against Christians (plus Nigeria)
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 164 | Wed 20 Jun 2012
BURMA & SUDAN: WARFARE AGAINST CHRISTIANS (plus Nigeria)
By Elizabeth Kendal
Earlier this month two horrendous wars marked one year since the breakout of hostilities. The Islamist Arab-supremacist regime in Khartoum, Sudan, began its genocidal campaign against the predominantly Christian Africans of the Nuba Mountain, South Kordofan, on 5 June 2011. The Buddhist Burman-supremacist regime in Naypyidaw, Burma (Myanmar), launched its military campaign against the Christian Kachin of Kachin State in northern Burma on 9 June 2011. In fact these are only the most recent episodes in two long histories of military brutality, ethnic cleansing and even attempted genocide. Despite the enormity of the human suffering, the 'international community' and the mainstream media are largely uninterested, for these conflicts -- one a declared Islamic jihad, the other a blight on the Burmese fairytale -- are just too hot to handle, too politically incorrect to touch. Furthermore their poor Christian victims are actually an inconvenience to those who make decisions based on economic and geo-strategic interests, as distinct from righteousness and justice. These 'inconvenient' Christians -- victims of greed and racial-religious hatred -- need our prayers.
BURMA (Myanmar): ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE KACHIN
UN figures put the total number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Kachin State at over 62,000 with some 24,000 in camps in government-controlled areas. Another estimated 40,000 are in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) where government blockades ensure that humanitarian aid (including food and medical supplies) is scarce. The KIA puts the number of IDPs at closer to 100,000. Well over 7,000 refugees have fled across the border into China. Medics fear that without mosquito nets the rainy season will herald an explosion of malaria cases. Further to this, a Human Rights Watch consultant and Burma specialist, Matthew Smith, warns that 'the IDP camps are essentially pools of prey for human traffickers'. (See Smith's report for HRW: 'Untold Miseries', 20 March 2012.) Military violence has left some of the IDPs severely traumatised (e.g. speechless, incontinent). Churches throughout the state who are providing for and sheltering hundreds of IDPs each are struggling greatly, especially as Burmese soldiers routinely intimidate pastors and attack churches. The Kachin are a Christian people with a distinctly Christian culture and Burma's Buddhist Burman-supremacist regime wants to exploit their resource-rich ancestral lands.
SUDAN: GENOCIDE OF THE NUBA
Hundreds of thousands of displaced predominantly Christian Africans in South Kordofan are facing a slow and agonising death by starvation due to famine engineered with genocidal intent by the National Islamic Front / National Congress Party regime in Khartoum. The Nuba are a predominantly Christian African people and the Islamist Arab-supremacist regime in Khartoum is in the process of annihilating them so it can control their resource-rich ancestral lands. In refugee camps in South Sudan, some of those who have survived the long trek from South Kordofan and neighbouring Blue Nile State have been dying from dehydration, diarrhoea and sheer exhaustion. The Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan's Upper Nile State holds some 20,000 refugees. An aid worker from Oxfam, Peter Struijf, told Associated Press (18 June) that children are already perishing and the camp will be out of water in a week. Whilst the impending rainy season will provide much needed water for refugees, it will exacerbate the plight of the estimated 40,000 IDPs still trekking south.
'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armour of God . . .praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.' (Taken from Ephesians 6:12-18 ESV.)
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT --
* Jehovah-Jireh (the Lord who provides) will provide Kachin and Sudanese refugees with all their needs; may the Holy Spirit strengthen their hearts, keeping faith and hope alive, so they will seek the Lord and experience his grace and power.
* Yahweh Sabaoth (the Lord of hosts / the commander of heaven's angelic armies) will intervene for his people to deliver vengeance to their enemies and recompense to the victims (Isaiah 35:4; also 40:10).
PRAYER: 'O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.' (Psalm 10:17,18 ESV.)
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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WARFARE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN BURMA & SUDAN
A war of ethnic cleansing is being waged by Burma's Buddhist Burman-supremacist regime against the Christian Kachin of Kachin State in northern Burma. Up to100,000 Christian Kachin have been displaced, humanitarian aid is routinely blockaded, children are kidnapped and trafficked, and civilians are so brutalised by the military that many are severely traumatised. Meanwhile, genocide is being perpetrated by Sudan's Islamist Arab-supremacist regime against the predominantly Christian African populations of the 'new south' (Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile). The National Islamic Front / National Congress Party regime in Khartoum has engineered a famine that could kill 500,000 in coming months. Whilst hundreds of thousands have escaped into refugee camps in South Sudan, weak and frail children, wounded and elderly are perishing from dehydration and sheer exhaustion. Please pray!
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NIGERIA: TERROR STRIKES AGAIN
On Sunday 17 June Islamic terrorists struck five churches in the central middle-belt state of Kaduna. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility. The Kaduna state government has imposed a 24-hour curfew. Two churches were bombed in the Muslim-dominated north of the state: the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) church in Wusasa, Zaria Local Government Area (LGA) and Christ the King Cathedral Catholic church in Sabon Gari LGA, just north of Zaria city. Three churches were bombed in Christian-dominated Kaduna South LGA: the Shalom Church in the Trikania, along with two churches in Nassarawa and Barnawa. Ethnic-Christian youths responded to the massive, multiple bombings at Shalom Church with rioting that claimed seven lives and left dozens wounded. The weekend's toll: at least 52 dead and more than 150 wounded. Please pray for the Church in Nigeria.
BURMA & SUDAN: WARFARE AGAINST CHRISTIANS (plus Nigeria)
By Elizabeth Kendal
Earlier this month two horrendous wars marked one year since the breakout of hostilities. The Islamist Arab-supremacist regime in Khartoum, Sudan, began its genocidal campaign against the predominantly Christian Africans of the Nuba Mountain, South Kordofan, on 5 June 2011. The Buddhist Burman-supremacist regime in Naypyidaw, Burma (Myanmar), launched its military campaign against the Christian Kachin of Kachin State in northern Burma on 9 June 2011. In fact these are only the most recent episodes in two long histories of military brutality, ethnic cleansing and even attempted genocide. Despite the enormity of the human suffering, the 'international community' and the mainstream media are largely uninterested, for these conflicts -- one a declared Islamic jihad, the other a blight on the Burmese fairytale -- are just too hot to handle, too politically incorrect to touch. Furthermore their poor Christian victims are actually an inconvenience to those who make decisions based on economic and geo-strategic interests, as distinct from righteousness and justice. These 'inconvenient' Christians -- victims of greed and racial-religious hatred -- need our prayers.
BURMA (Myanmar): ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE KACHIN
UN figures put the total number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Kachin State at over 62,000 with some 24,000 in camps in government-controlled areas. Another estimated 40,000 are in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) where government blockades ensure that humanitarian aid (including food and medical supplies) is scarce. The KIA puts the number of IDPs at closer to 100,000. Well over 7,000 refugees have fled across the border into China. Medics fear that without mosquito nets the rainy season will herald an explosion of malaria cases. Further to this, a Human Rights Watch consultant and Burma specialist, Matthew Smith, warns that 'the IDP camps are essentially pools of prey for human traffickers'. (See Smith's report for HRW: 'Untold Miseries', 20 March 2012.) Military violence has left some of the IDPs severely traumatised (e.g. speechless, incontinent). Churches throughout the state who are providing for and sheltering hundreds of IDPs each are struggling greatly, especially as Burmese soldiers routinely intimidate pastors and attack churches. The Kachin are a Christian people with a distinctly Christian culture and Burma's Buddhist Burman-supremacist regime wants to exploit their resource-rich ancestral lands.
SUDAN: GENOCIDE OF THE NUBA
Hundreds of thousands of displaced predominantly Christian Africans in South Kordofan are facing a slow and agonising death by starvation due to famine engineered with genocidal intent by the National Islamic Front / National Congress Party regime in Khartoum. The Nuba are a predominantly Christian African people and the Islamist Arab-supremacist regime in Khartoum is in the process of annihilating them so it can control their resource-rich ancestral lands. In refugee camps in South Sudan, some of those who have survived the long trek from South Kordofan and neighbouring Blue Nile State have been dying from dehydration, diarrhoea and sheer exhaustion. The Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan's Upper Nile State holds some 20,000 refugees. An aid worker from Oxfam, Peter Struijf, told Associated Press (18 June) that children are already perishing and the camp will be out of water in a week. Whilst the impending rainy season will provide much needed water for refugees, it will exacerbate the plight of the estimated 40,000 IDPs still trekking south.
'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armour of God . . .praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.' (Taken from Ephesians 6:12-18 ESV.)
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT --
* Jehovah-Jireh (the Lord who provides) will provide Kachin and Sudanese refugees with all their needs; may the Holy Spirit strengthen their hearts, keeping faith and hope alive, so they will seek the Lord and experience his grace and power.
* Yahweh Sabaoth (the Lord of hosts / the commander of heaven's angelic armies) will intervene for his people to deliver vengeance to their enemies and recompense to the victims (Isaiah 35:4; also 40:10).
PRAYER: 'O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.' (Psalm 10:17,18 ESV.)
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WARFARE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN BURMA & SUDAN
A war of ethnic cleansing is being waged by Burma's Buddhist Burman-supremacist regime against the Christian Kachin of Kachin State in northern Burma. Up to100,000 Christian Kachin have been displaced, humanitarian aid is routinely blockaded, children are kidnapped and trafficked, and civilians are so brutalised by the military that many are severely traumatised. Meanwhile, genocide is being perpetrated by Sudan's Islamist Arab-supremacist regime against the predominantly Christian African populations of the 'new south' (Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile). The National Islamic Front / National Congress Party regime in Khartoum has engineered a famine that could kill 500,000 in coming months. Whilst hundreds of thousands have escaped into refugee camps in South Sudan, weak and frail children, wounded and elderly are perishing from dehydration and sheer exhaustion. Please pray!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
NIGERIA: TERROR STRIKES AGAIN
On Sunday 17 June Islamic terrorists struck five churches in the central middle-belt state of Kaduna. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility. The Kaduna state government has imposed a 24-hour curfew. Two churches were bombed in the Muslim-dominated north of the state: the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) church in Wusasa, Zaria Local Government Area (LGA) and Christ the King Cathedral Catholic church in Sabon Gari LGA, just north of Zaria city. Three churches were bombed in Christian-dominated Kaduna South LGA: the Shalom Church in the Trikania, along with two churches in Nassarawa and Barnawa. Ethnic-Christian youths responded to the massive, multiple bombings at Shalom Church with rioting that claimed seven lives and left dozens wounded. The weekend's toll: at least 52 dead and more than 150 wounded. Please pray for the Church in Nigeria.
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