RLPB 465. July Update, incl. Ethiopia-Eritrea, India, Burkina Faso, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 465 | Wed 25 July 2018

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 by Elizabeth Kendal

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (Amos 9:13 ESV)

JULY 2018 UPDATE -- this month we prayed concerning ...

* ETHIOPIA-ERITREA (RLPB 462), where the 'door of peace' has been opened. It is widely anticipated that peace could transform not just the economies of Ethiopia and Eritrea, but the human rights situation as well.

UPDATE: RAPID RAPPROCHEMENT 
The Ethiopia-Eritrea peace initiative is advancing apace. On Sunday 8 July Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr Abiy Amhed visited Eritrea. He was met at the airport by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. It was the first time the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea had met in 20 years. At an historic summit on Monday 9 July the two leaders signed a 'declaration of peace and friendship' and declared the 'state of war' over. On 10 July telecommunication systems were restored and the lines lit up. On Saturday 14 July President Isaias Afwerki visited Ethiopia. He was met at the airport by PM Abiy. On 16 July the two leaders raised the Eritrean flag at the re-opened Eritrean Embassy in Addis Ababa. On Wednesday 18 July Ethiopian Airlines resumed flights to Eritrea. After 20 years of painful separation, families torn apart by war were finally able to embrace one another. Whilst all this is wonderful, the most difficult task still lies ahead: convincing the Ethiopian military -- which is dominated by the oppositional Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) -- to withdraw from Eritrean territory. The human rights situation inside Eritrea is unlikely to change while Ethiopian troops remain on Eritrean soil. Please pray.

For a detailed report see Religious Liberty Monitoring
'Ethiopia-Eritrea: rapprochement achieved; now for implementation'
By Elizabeth Kendal, 23 July 2018

* INDIA (RLPB 463), where the Hindu concepts of caste and karma ensure India remains one of the world's most cruel and inequitable societies; while the rise of Hindu nationalism -- which exploits religion for political gain and establishes religious apartheid -- ensures India is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians.

Pastor Paul Stephen
being taken to hospital
(Morning Star News)

UPDATE:  CHURCH ATTACKED; VICTIMS CHARGED
On Sunday morning 8 July Christians were worshipping at the Jesus Power Ministries house church in Sathyamangalam, Erode District, Tamil Nadu State when a Hindu extremist, identified as Ajith Kumar, stormed in and started abusing and assaulting the believers. After beating Mrs Pratibha Stephen, the wife of Pastor Paul Stephen (who was preaching elsewhere that morning), Kumar stripped her of her sari and attempted to rape her. Fortunately others managed to drag him away.   When Pastor Paul returned home in the afternoon he insisted on going to the police. Outside his house he was attacked by a mob of Hindus. Pratibha's brother, Gyana Prashant, threw himself over Pastor Paul to protect him. Eventually an ambulance took them all to the hospital, although it was days before the family received medical care. Police questioned a church member and made a report. Then Ajith Kumar responded with counter complaint. Instead of charging Kumar, the police charged Pastor Paul and Pratibha Stephen with the non-bailable offence of 'voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons'. Pray for justice, and for the Church in India.

For more on this story, along with others, see Morning Star News: South Asia/India

* PAKISTAN (RLPB 464), where terrorism has been escalating ahead of the 25 July General Elections which threaten to usher in a parliament controlled by hardline Islamists. Pray for the Church in Pakistan.


JULY 2018 ROUND-UP -- also this month ...

* BURKINA FASO: EIGHT TAKEN CAPTIVE, INCLUDING CHILDREN

Pastor Pierre Boéna

On 3 June Pastor Pierre Boéna  was kidnapped, along with his younger son, daughter-in-law, two grandsons, a member of his church and her twin daughters, from the village of Bilhore, in northern Soum Province, near Burkina Faso's border with Mali. The reason RLPB did not request prayer for this was because, just a few days later, credible local sources reported that the family had been released. However, World Watch Monitor (WWM) has now confirmed that this was incorrect, and that the family remains in captivity. Sources suspect the kidnappers are members of a Fulani militia active along the Mali and Burkina Faso border. Pastor Pierre's son, Baowend-Som Boéna  told WWM that the kidnappers are demanding ransom from the Assemblies of God Church. Pray for the Lord to protect, sustain and deliver the captives -- along with all other captives in the Malian desert.

* CHINA: THE CCP versus THE CROSS IN JIANGXI

In November 2017 South China Morning Post reported that thousands of poor Christians in Yugan County, Jiangxi Province, were being told that they could not receive government support unless they removed their crosses and religious artefacts and replaced them with images of President Xi.
[See Religious Liberty Monitoring, The Return of 'Mao-style Terror and Control',  By Elizabeth Kendal, 25 Jan 2018.] According to China Aid Association, this struggle -- the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) versus the Cross in Jiangxi -- continues and moreover, is intensifying. In early July churches across Jiangxi were told to dismantle their crosses, replace them with either an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping or the national flag, and keep their children away from church. While some churches have complied (primarily out of fear), others are resisting. Whilst one church's cross has been forcibly demolished [a process known as 'rectification'], other churches have convinced officials to back off (at least temporarily). Pray for the Church in China.

* IRAN: PRISONER UPDATES

Pastor Victor (l), Shamiram (c), Ramiel (r)

Ramiel Bet Tamraz: On 11 July Ramiel Bet Tamraz (an ethnic Assyrian) and a friend (unnamed) were sentenced to four months jail.  Middle East Concern explains that Ramiel had been charged with 'propaganda against the state by attending house churches' which carries a sentence of between three and twelve months, rather than 'acting against national security', which brings with it longer sentences. Ramiel's mother, Shamiram Isavi Khabizeh, and father, Pastor Victor Bet Tamraz, are currently appealing their five- and ten-year prison terms on charges of 'acting against national security'. In Iran ethnic Assyrians are normally allowed to practise their Christianity quietly without reference to the Persian majority. The 'crime' of this Assyrian family is that they witness to and worship with ethnic Persians, who, despite being born Muslim, are freely turning to Christ in unprecedented numbers. Originally arrested on 26 Aug 2016, Ramiel was in Evin Prison for six weeks before being bailed. Ramiel's lawyer will appeal for the sentence to be reduced or cancelled. Pray for this intensively persecuted family: Pastor Victor, Shamiram and Ramiel Bet Tamraz.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani: On 22 July Yousef Nadarkhani, a pastor in the non-Trinitarian 'Church of Iran', was home on bail awaiting a summons to prison following the failure in May of an appeal against his conviction and ten-year prison sentence on charges of 'acting against national security'. Instead of summonsing Nadarkhani, the authorities sent some ten police officers to his home in Rasht. In an act designed to intimidate the entire Christian community, the police burst through the front door and violently assaulted both Pastor Yousef and his teenage son Danial with fists and electric batons, even though they were offering no resistance. The pastor's wife and other children were in the house at the time. Pastor Nadarkhani was then reportedly taken away to Evin Prison. Pray that Nadarkhani will experience a creative intervention from the Almighty Father, comfort from the empathetic Son, and the powerful and personal presence of the Holy Spirit.

* IRAQ: ASSYRIANS UNDER PRESSURE

Mayor of Alqosh Fayez Abed
Jawahreh with his son.
(AINA)

Nineveh Plains: As noted in 'Iraq: Assyrians at risk as Kurds "play with fire" ' [Religious Liberty Monitoring, 19 Sep 2017], the Kurds of northern Iraq are working to expand their control over 'disputed territories', including Sinjar, oil-rich Kirkuk and the Assyrian homeland of the Nineveh Plains. Their primary means is through political pressure: they usurp the will of the people by supplanting elected Assyrian representatives and replacing them with members of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) who will implement the KDP agenda. Alqosh is an Assyrian town in the Nineveh Plains. More than 80 percent of the population are Assyrian, mostly Chaldean Catholic. Fayez Abed Jawahreh is the democratically elected mayor of Alqosh. In July 2017 the majority-Kurdish Nineveh Provincial Council ousted Jawahreh and replaced him with a member of the KDP. However, Nineveh is under the authority of Baghdad, not the Kurdish Regional Government, so ultimately the Federal Court ordered Jawahreh be reinstated. On 15 July 2018, his first day back at work, Jahwareh was arrested without warrant and taken away by Kurdish political police known as 'Asayish'. He was released some four hours later, severely beaten. The KDP have warned the Assyrians of Alqosh that the KDP will decide what happens in Alqosh.

Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan: On 27 June Assyrians in Ankawa -- Erbil's majority Assyrian district -- discovered that the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) had imposed a new discriminatory business tax exclusively to Assyrian districts.  Furthermore, residents in mostly-Assyrian and Christian Ankawa pay the highest capital gains tax in the Kurdistan Region -- ten percent, compared with six percent elsewhere. A Kurdish official allegedly told an Assyrian politician that the tax was a form of jizya, justified because Ankawa is a Christian town.

Please pray for Iraq's indigenous Assyrians; the Christian Crisis in the Middle East is anything but over.


* NORTH KOREA: FORTHCOMING AMNESTY 

On 16 July the North Korean regime announced it would grant a large-scale amnesty to people sentenced for crimes against 'the state and the people'. This is the third amnesty since Kim Jong-un came to power in December 2011. The first was in 2012, to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Kim's grandfather, North Korea's founder and the 'Eternal President' Kim Il-sung. The second was in 2015, to honour of the 70-year anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule and the foundation of the Korean Worker's Party. This latest amnesty will go into effect on 1 August commemorating the republic's 70-year anniversary on 9 September. As yet there is no indication of how many prisoners will be released. Analysts suspect the latest amnesty is aimed at 'consolidating social unity ... and boosting the people's loyalty for Kim amid a changing environment after the North-US summit talks in June'.  Duyeon Kim, a visiting senior fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul agrees, adding that the North might even want to 'show [the] world it's improving human rights', although 'it remains to be seen if those included will be political prisoners'. Please pray for this process, that it will be generous and will include many Christians.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Advocacy at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom (CFF), and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).

See www.ElizabethKendal.com 

RLPB 464. Pakistan: 25 July polls bode ill for Christians

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 464 | Wed 18 Jul 2018

Please forward this prayer bulletin widely, and encourage others to sign up to the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog. "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:16 NIV)


PAKISTAN: 25 JULY POLLS BODE ILL FOR CHRISTIANS
by Elizabeth Kendal

On 25 July Pakistanis will go to the polls to vote for new National and Provincial Assemblies. Terrorism is escalating. There have been four terror attacks in the past week alone -- one by the Pakistani Taliban [Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)] on 10 July and three by Islamic State on 13 July -- leaving around 180 dead and more than 230 wounded. Tensions are soaring. Out of 85,307 polling stations, 20,789 have been deemed 'sensitive' -- that is, sites where violent clashes are likely to occur. Security is being stepped up everywhere. For Christians the prospects are gloomy indeed. The three main parties battling for control of the Assemblies are the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N, centre right), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP, centre left) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (or Justice Party, PTI) led by the London-educated former cricket captain Imran Khan (65). Khan's political position would be best described as pragmatic and populist. Despite the looming financial crisis, Khan is promising to create an 'Islamic welfare state'. He is also winning favour amongst Pakistan's Islamic fundamentalist clerics and radicalised Muslim masses with his vocal pledges to defend Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law. The military and judiciary appear to be clearing the path for a PTI victory.


The door has been opened for hardline Islamists and even jihadists to register as candidates. Headed by Maulana Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has been approved to run. The TLP shot to fame in November 2017 when it staged an anti-blasphemy 'sit-in', paralysing Islamabad for 20 days and ultimately forcing the government to capitulate to its demands, including that Asia Bibi -- a Christian woman on death row for 'blasphemy' -- not be sent abroad [see RLPB 434 (29 Nov 2017)]. The TLP (which wants Asia Bibi executed) will field 178 candidates across the country. In total, religious parties will field a record 460 candidates for the National Assembly.

Some of these religious parties are known fronts for banned jihadists and terror groups. When the Electoral Commission of Pakistan refused to register the Milli Muslim League, deeming it a front for the proscribed terror group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the MML simply shifted its 265 candidates under the umbrella of Allah-O-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), an old Islamist political party. Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), which serves as a front for the militantly anti-Shia 'Sipah-e-Sahaba', is fielding candidates through the Rah-i-Haq party. The courts have approved Aurangzeb Farooqi's candidacy despite his being on Pakistan's terror watch list. Senators from both the PML-N and PPP have expressed concern that banned militant organisations are being mainstreamed. Indian analyst Brigadier Sk Chatterji (Retd) explains that the Army -- which has long used these terror groups as 'strategic partners' -- seems keen to extend that partnership into the National Assembly. It is highly likely that whoever rules Pakistan will have to do quid pro quo deals with militant Islamist groups in order to get legislation through the parliament. Whilst that is nothing new, it could well be more costly now, with mandatory death for blasphemy high on the Islamist agenda.

As for Pakistan's Christians, World Watch Monitor reports that 'the country's minorities -- particularly its Christians -- have expressed dismay at their lack of representation among the candidates. Among the thousands of candidates contesting hundreds of provincial and national constituencies across the country, not a single Christian is nominated by any party ...' Christian leaders are encouraging Christians to 'vote for candidates and political parties that really deal with minority rights issues'. Those issues include 'religion based discrimination, violation of fundamental rights, misuse of blasphemy law, indifference from government, intolerance' and the 'biased curriculum being taught in the schools and universities' which 'inculcates religious intolerance among the students'. The total lack of political representation indicates that many (if not most) of Pakistan's elites increasingly view Christians less as a marginalised minority and more as an irrelevant irritant. This is a dangerous and deteriorating situation.

Pakistani Christian women pray. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
image source: Christians in Pakistan

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL:

* draw Pakistan's vulnerable Christian minority close to himself and shield them from Islamic terror attacks and pogroms; may every evil plot be thwarted and may 'the wicked fall into their own nets' (from Psalm 141:8-10 ESV).

* intervene in Pakistani politics, so that his precious children will not be left without a voice in parliament; may the Lord elevate influential candidates of conscience who will 'speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves' and 'defend the rights of the poor and needy' -- Christians included (Proverbs 31:8-9 NIV).

* awaken influential world leaders of conscience to the plight of Pakistan's persecuted Christian minority.


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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POLLS ON 25 JULY IN PAKISTAN BODE ILL FOR CHRISTIANS

On 25 July Pakistanis will vote for new National and Provincial Assemblies. Terrorism is escalating and clashes are expected. Together the military and judiciary are setting the stage for a win by the pragmatic and populist Imran Khan (65). His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (or Justice Party, PTI) has closed the gap with its nearest rival, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League. Along with promising Pakistanis an 'Islamic welfare state', London-educated Khan has vowed to defend the controversial blasphemy law. Hardline Islamist anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) will stand in 178 seats across the country; indeed Islamist parties will field a record 460 candidates, many of whom are known members of banned terror groups. Increasingly viewed as irrelevant, not one Christian has been nominated by any party. Please pray for the Church in Pakistan.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Advocacy at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom (CFF), and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).

See www.ElizabethKendal.com