Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

RLPB 584. Iran: Christians as Enemies of the State

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 584 | Wed 10 Feb 2021
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

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IRAN: CHRISTIANS AS ENEMIES OF THE STATE
By Elizabeth Kendal

According to the Iranian regime, Iran respects religious freedom and Christians currently serving prison sentences in Iran are not in prison because of their faith. Rather, it insists, the condemned Christians have all been found to be members of 'enemy groups' that, 'under cover of promoting Christianity', spread 'evangelical Zionism with a view to enmity and confrontation with the Islamic Establishment and subversive acts against it ...'

THE BUSHEHR EIGHT

(from left) Pooriya Peyma (27) and his wife Fatemeh Talebi (27),
Maryam Falahi (35) and her husband Sam Khosravi (36),
Sam and Sasan's mother Khatoon Fatolahzadeh (61),
Sasan Khosravi (35) and his wife Marjan Falahi (33),
and Habib Heydari (38). [July 2019]

On 27 January the 4th Branch of Bushehr Court of Appeal upheld the custodial sentences against Habib Heydari and brothers Sam and Sasan Khosravi. The three men were among a group of eight believers (four men and four women; including three married couples) arrested on 1 July 2019 in a house church in the city of Bushehr in south-west Iran [for details see: RLPB 510 (10 July 2019)]. While Sam and Sasan's mother was released because of her age, the remaining seven believers were charged with 'actions against national security', 'gathering and collusion against the state' and 'membership of an illegal organisation'. They were released on bail on 16 and 17 July 2019 and sentenced on 21 June 2020. The three women/wives were hit with fines and work bans while the men received custodial sentences. Pooriya Peyma was sentenced to 91 days in prison, while Habib Heydari and the Khosravi brothers were each sentenced to one year in prison, after which the Khosravi brothers must also serve two years in internal exile.

After hearing the appeal, Judge Hedayat Rahavi ruled that the men are indeed guilty of 'organisation of house-churches and promotion of Christianity, which are clear examples of propaganda against the state'. Mansour Borji, the Director of Advocacy for advocacy group 'Article 18', said the ruling exposes as a lie the regime's claim that 'no-one is put in prison in Iran simply because of their beliefs'. 'These people [the Bushehr eight] have done nothing that could be construed as "propaganda against the state" or "acting against national security", but nevertheless they have been treated so unjustly'. Human rights lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz maintains the ruling reveals the 'hatred and resentment' felt by Iran's intelligence agencies towards Christian converts in Iran.

Maryam, Sam and Lydia (2)

Meanwhile, Sam and his wife Maryam continue the fight to retain custody of their daughter, Lydia, a special needs child whom they adopted from an orphanage as a three-month-old baby in February 2019. In July 2020, in the wake of the sentencing, the court ordered that Lydia be returned to the orphanage because, as Christians, Sam and Maryam were 'not fit' to raise her [RLPB 571 (14 Oct 2020)]. Thus Maryam - who, because of the ruling, has lost her job as a nurse - is now faced with the prospect of also losing her husband to prison and their now two-year-daughter to state care. Please pray!

EBRAHIM FIROUZI

Christian convert Ebrahim Firouzi (34) has endured a decade of severe persecution. After six years in prison - five of which were spent in the notorious Rajaei Shahr prison in Karaj (a maximum-security prison housing the state's most violent criminals and terrorists) - Firouzi was released on 26 October 2019 to serve a further two years in internal exile in Sarbaz County, some 1600km southeast of Tehran, in Iran's remote south-east [RLPB 526 (30 Oct 2019)].

Ebrahim Firouzi's public protest on Facebook.
February 2021 (Article 18)

In September 2020 police stormed Firouzi's home in Rask village, Sarbaz County. They confiscated his laptop and mobile phone, along with the textbooks he was using to study theology online - textbooks published with the permission of the Ministry of Guidance. Subsequently, Firouzi was summoned to the local prosecutor's office to answer fresh charges of 'insulting the sacred', which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence and 'propaganda against the state through promoting the Christian faith', punishable by up to a year in prison. On 27 September the prosecutor threw out the charges due to lack of evidence. In early February 2021, with the authorities still refusing to return his property, Firouzi publicly protested his treatment in a series of videos published on the Facebook page of a Swiss-based activist. It only took days for the regime to strike back. On 7 February Ebrahim Firouzi was given five days to report to the prosecutor's office in Sarbaz city to answer the allegation that he has engaged in 'propaganda against the Islamic Republic in favour of hostile groups'; a charge which could see him returned to prison for another three years. Please pray!

PLEASE PRAY: MAY GOD OUR MERCIFUL FATHER ...

* sustain all Iran's incarcerated and suffering Christians, especially for the 'Bushehr Eight': for Habib, Sam and Sasan as they commence their custodial sentences; and for Khatoon (Sam and Sasan's mother) and the wives and children left behind; may the Spirit of the Lord provide comfort, faith and peace, and the 'rest' (Matthew 11:28) that comes from trusting the God who is faithful. May Jehovah Jireh (God our provider) sustain them in every way.

* intervene on behalf of Sam and Maryam as they continue their struggle to retain custody of their adopted daughter Lydia (2), a helpless and needy child seemingly at the mercy of the hostile Islamic state, yet ultimately in the hands of the compassionate Almighty God. (Matthew 18:10) Lord have mercy!

* intervene on behalf of the long-suffering and faithful Ebrahim Firouzi; may he be assured of the Lord's eternal presence and sustaining grace; may Firouzi's 'light' (Matthew 5:14-16) continue to shine brightly despite all efforts by the regime-of-darkness to suppress it.

And may the Lord Jesus Christ continue to build his Church in Iran. 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts' (from Zechariah 4:6 ESV).

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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CHRISTIANS AS ENEMIES OF THE STATE IN IRAN

Iran claims to respect religious freedom, insisting Christians are never imprisoned for their faith but for being members of 'enemy groups'. On 27 January a court upheld the custodial sentences against Habib Heydari (38) and brothers Sam (36) and Sasan (35) Khosravi, three of eight converts arrested in a house church in Bushehr in July 2019. In July 2020 a court further ruled that, as Christians, Sam and his wife Maryam were 'not fit' to raise Lydia, the special-needs child they adopted as an orphaned infant in February 2019; their struggle to retain custody continues. Meanwhile, Ebrahim Firouzi (34) - currently serving a post-imprisonment term of exile - is facing fresh charges of 'propaganda against the state through promoting the Christian faith', charges that could see him returned to prison. Please pray.

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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

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

RLPB 583. India, Madhya Pradesh: anti-conversion law ramped up.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 583 | Wed 03 Feb 2021
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

INDIA, MADHYA PRADESH: ANTI-CONVERSION LAW RAMPED UP
- protecting tribal culture vs respecting tribal liberty.
By Elizabeth Kendal

On 9 January 2021 Madhya Pradesh (MP) Governor Anandiben Patel gave her assent for the 'Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020' - a draconian anti-conversion bill - to be enacted as law. The Ordinance replaces the state's more than 50-year-old 'Freedom of Religion Act, 1968' and incorporates many elements of Uttar Pradesh's recently enacted anti-conversion law [RLPB 582 (27 Jan)], including the requirement that the conversion first be approved by the District Magistrate, and penalties of up to 10 years in prison. Easily weaponised by Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) forces, such laws do nothing but stoke suspicion and fuel persecution.

On 11 January Azad Prem Singh, a local leader of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) led a mob of angry Hindu nationalists on a march through Jhabua city (west of Indore in MP's far west). Singh presented the District Magistrate/Collector with a hand-written memorandum and threatened violence if the local government did not meet its demands in the next 30 days. Singh's demands include that all tribal churches established on tribal land be shut down, that action be taken against priests and pastors who engage in 'illegal conversions' and that converts be denied access to social welfare. Speaking to media, Singh explained: 'As per the special provisions of the Indian constitution, the traditions, cultures, languages and other practices of the indigenous people are bound to be protected and nobody from outside is allowed to change them.' On 26 January Hindu nationalist leader Kamlesh Malviya met with Jhabua District's village elders to insist that villagers must disassociate themselves from Christians and persecute those who refuse to return to Hinduism. Comprising a mere four percent of the population, the Christians of Jhabua district are extremely vulnerable.

Hindutva forces invade Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra.
Indore, 26 Jan 2021 (Photo: UCA News)

Also on 26 January a Pentecostal group was holding a prayer service at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra - a Catholic media and training centre in Indore - when up to 100 activists from the Bajrang Dal (a militant Hindutva youth movement) barged in chanting Hindutva slogans and accusing the believers of procuring illegal mass religious conversions. A 25-year-old woman issued a complaint, accusing her parents of luring her there on a false pretext. 'I was born a Hindu and I practise the same religion,' she told police, 'but my mother and those present there were forcing me to convert my religion.' Nine believers - including the complainant's parents - were arrested, while two others remain wanted by police; cases have been registered against all eleven. According to Bajrang Dal local unit head Tannu Sharma, the roughly 300 attenders had been lured for the purpose of illegal conversion. However, the attendees told police they had come freely of their own volition and had no complaints.

On 27 January, in Balaghat district, 431km east of Bhopal, police arrested government school-teacher Mr Chhatar Singh Katre (a Hindu) along with a Christian priest and another believer whom Katre had invited to attend his daughter's 20th birthday. Mr Katre has held the priest and Christianity in high regard since the priest had graciously helped him 'cure' his desperately ill wife [presumably through prayer and/or provision of medical aid]. Militants from the Bajrang Dal stormed the party with police who accused Katre and the priest of procuring illegal conversions by offering to pay villagers to convert while threatening them with bad fortune should they refuse. Three arrests were made. The wives of two of the accused immediately wrote to the district Superintendent of Police demanding the immediate release of their husbands whom they insist had been framed by police who forced villagers to register the complaint.

On 29 January the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh State Government challenging the constitutionality of the anti-conversion law. The plea - which was filed by final year law student Mr Amratansh Nema - alleges that the provisions contained in the ordinance are motivated by religious intolerance, are a grave violation of 'constitutional provisions' and are 'a blatant attack on the religious autonomy of individuals.' The plea also asserts that because the Ordinance was promulgated in utmost haste and in an autocratic manner, without proper consultation or due process, it constitutes an abuse of power. The Bench has posted the matter for further hearing after eight weeks. Please pray!

click on map to enlarge

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

* intervene in Jhabua District to prevent a Christian Crisis; may District Magistrate/Collector Shri. Rohit Singh [contact details] reject the demands of Hindutva forces, and respect and guarantee the liberty and security of tribal Christians. If that is not to be, then may Yahweh Sabaoth (the Lord of Hosts; i.e. the commander of Yahweh's heavenly armies) shield, protect, rescue and sustain his precious Church in the event that violence erupts against her.

'For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another... All the horns [Hebrew, qeren: strength/power] of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up' (Psalm 75:6,7,10 ESV).

* sustain and comfort those who have been falsely accused and arrested in Indore, Balaghat and elsewhere, may each one experience the Lord's love and faithfulness and may Mr Chhatar Singh Katre (a Hindu) place his trust in the one true, living, loving and omnipresent God (whom he has met, but not yet embraced). Matthew 10:16-39

* use for his glory the case that has been filed in Madhya Pradesh's High Court, challenging the constitutionality of the anti-conversion law; may religious intolerance be exposed and condemned; may the Lord protect and bless law student Mr Amratansh Nema, along with all who dare to resist Hindutva forces and raise their voice for religious liberty in Madhya Pradesh.

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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ANTI-CONVERSION LAW RAMPED UP IN INDIA

On 9 January the governor of Madhya Pradesh (MP) gave her assent for a new draconian anti-conversion ordinance to be enacted as law. Hindu activists moved quickly, targeting several perfectly legal Christian gatherings, accusing the believers of procuring illegal conversions. Arrests have been made. Meanwhile, a final year law student has filed a plea in MP's High Court challenging the constitutionality of the law. The Bench has posted the matter for further hearing after eight weeks. Critically, a Christian crisis is brewing in Jhabua District. On 11 January Hindu nationalists marched through Jhabua city and delivered an ultimatum. They gave the District Magistrate 30 days to implement their demands to shut Christian churches, move against Christian pastors and deny welfare to Christian converts - otherwise, violence will ensue. Please pray.