RLPB 693. Libya: Christians Arrested

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 693 | Wed 10 May 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

LIBYA: CHRISTIANS ARRESTED
By Elizabeth Kendal

Arch of [Roman Emperor] Marcus Aurelius,
in Tripoli. Established AD165.

Six Christian Libyan nationals arrested during March and early April for apostasy (leaving Islam) and Christian proselytism (missionary work) could face the death penalty if found guilty. Two US citizens arrested around the same time for alleged Christian proselytism have been released and deported to Tunisia. The first American arrested has been identified as Jeff Wilson, founder of the consulting firm, Libya Business. The second American – an associate of Wilson, identified as 'SBO' – was arrested for ‘inciting our children to renounce Islam and convert to Christianity’, while teaching at a language school in the capital Tripoli. Some of the arrested Libyans are members of Libya’s non-Arab ethnic minority groups, including the indigenous Amazigh/Berbers.

Libya’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) has posted video footage on-line, showing each of the accused ‘confessing’ to their crimes. Middle East Eye reports (13 April) that in one video, a 22-year-old woman who converted to Christianity at the age of 15, confesses to having become a Christian missionary. Khartoum-based journalist Zeinab Mohammed Salih reports (Guardian, 3 May) that, in another video, Seyfao Madi, an engineer and father of one child, confesses that he converted to Christianity in 2017 and had tried to convert others. He says: ‘I joined a group of Libyans and foreigners inside Libya calling and circulating for Christianity. In 2016 my friend introduced me to other friends, among them a Christian from the US. We talked and discussed … then I converted the next year, and he baptised me.’ A lawyer who spoke to Zeinab Mohammed Salih on the condition he remain anonymous (for safety reasons), said Seyfao had renounced his Christian faith under torture.

Article One of the post-Gadhafi Constitutional Declaration of 2011 states: ‘Islam is the Religion of the State, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Shari’a). The state shall guarantee for non-Moslems the freedom of practising religious rituals.’ Based as it is on Islamic Sharia, the Criminal Code is Islamist to the core: apostasy, blasphemy and proselytism are banned. The Libyan believers have been charged under Article 207 of the penal code, which punishes any attempt to circulate views that aim to ‘alter fundamental constitutional principles, or the fundamental structures of the social order’, or overthrow the state, and anyone who possess books, leaflets, drawings, slogans ‘or any other items’ that promote their cause. In its official statement, the ISA explained that they made the arrests to ‘stop an organised gang action aiming to solicit and to make people leave Islam’.

The US Department of State report on International Religious Freedom 2021 (published 2 June 2022), raises the plight of Nigerian pastor Femi Abraham Akinboye, who was arrested in Libya by an Islamist militia in July 2021. As the report explains, Salafi Islamists operate religious police forces throughout country that will arrest and punish anyone found violating their version of Islam. [Salafi Muslims seek to follow the traditions of the ‘pious predecessors’ (salaf) i.e. Muhammad and his companions.] While the militia did not give a formal reason for Pastor Akinboye’s arrest, a relative of the militiaman who detained the pastor reportedly said that he ‘should not have established a church in our country’. According to the US Dept of State report, Pastor Akinboye had been in the process of applying for a permit for the church, with the support of the Nigerian foreign ministry, when he was arrested. Open Door’s World Watch Research (Dec 2022) estimates that there are some 34,600 Christians in Libya; around 180 of whom are Libyan nationals, with the rest being migrant workers (Egyptians, Africans, Filipinos etc). Unlike the arrested Americans (who were quickly deported), Pastor Akinboye has not been released and the family’s repeated appeals to the Tripoli-based, US- and UN-backed, pro-Muslim Brotherhood Government of National Unity [that is ‘unity’ with Islamists] have yielded nothing.

Control Map, 9 Jan 2020
Green: territory held by the US- and UN-backed, pro-Islamist Government of National Unity/Accord (with support from pro-Muslim Brotherhood Turkey).
Salmon: territory held by the elected, anti-Islamist House of Representatives and Libyan National Army (with support from anti-Muslim Brotherhood Egypt, UAE and Russia).

PLEASE PRAY THAT GOD WILL INTERVENE IN LIBYA...

* on behalf of the six Libyan believers arrested for leaving Islam and engaging in Christian missionary work (i.e. sharing their faith with Muslims). May the Holy Spirit sustain and comfort them; and may the God of all mercy deliver them. May the Lord’s angelic forces restrain violent hands. May our brother, Seyfao Madi, be comforted by the amazing grace of his Saviour, Jesus Christ.

* to facilitate the release and deportation of Nigerian pastor Femi Abraham Akinboye. Lord have mercy!

* to bring about peace, and liberate the state from the grip of Islam. Thank-you Father that al-Qaeda and Islamic State no longer hold any territory in Libya [an answer to our prayers of RLPB 353 (April 2016)]. Please now liberate Libya from the Islamists who hold political power in Tripoli; from the Salafi militias that police and terrorise the masses; and from the armed Islamists who persecute, torture and kill Christian migrants and foreign workers with impunity. Lord have mercy!

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------
CHRISTIANS ARRESTED IN LIBYA

Six Christian Libyan nationals arrested during March and early April for apostasy (leaving Islam) and Christian proselytism (missionary work) could face the death penalty if found guilty. Videos of the detained believers ‘confessing’ to their ‘crimes’ have been posted on-line. One believer is a 22-year-old woman who became a follower of Christ aged 15. Another believer is reported to have renounced his faith under torture; may he be comforted by the amazing grace of his Saviour, Jesus Christ. Two US citizens arrested around the same time for alleged Christian proselytism have been released and deported to Tunisia. Meanwhile, Nigerian pastor Femi Abraham Akinboye – arrested by an Islamic militia in July 2021 while seeking a permit for the church he had established – remains detained, his fate unknown. Lord have mercy! Please pray.

------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church.

The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth 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). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 692. Bangladesh, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT): the Christian Struggle to Survive

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 692 | Wed 03 May 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for and support the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com  
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

BANGLADESH: CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS (CHT)
by Elizabeth Kendal

Bangladesh, showing location of
Chittagong Hill Tracts.
(click on map to enlarge)

BACKGROUND: In 1947 British India was partitioned to become Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. Despite being only three to five percent Muslim, and despite the Buddhist and Christian paharis (hill tribes) having more in common with their ethnic kin in northeast India than with the ethnic Bengali Muslims of the lowlands, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) was ‘awarded’ to Pakistan. Since then, ‘all the indigenous tribes began to face discrimination in all aspects of life’. In 1971, East Pakistan declared independence as Bangladesh. Today, after decades of state-sanctioned predatory migration (colonisation) – driven from increasingly Islamist mosques and facilitated by the overwhelmingly Bengali Muslim Bangladesh Armed Forces (BAF) – the CHT is majority Bengali Muslim and Bangladesh’s most militarised region. [See also RLPB 393, ‘Bangladesh: Hidden Genocide in Chittagong Hill Tracts,’ 8 Feb 2017.]

CHT: THE CHRISTIAN STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE

In April, hundreds of the Chittagong Hill Tracts’ (CHT’s) ethnic Kuki-Chin [also known as Bawm / Bom] Christians spent Easter displaced and grieving [RLPB 691 (26 April)]. Early reports indicated ‘a clash’ had occurred ‘between’ forces of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) and the more dominant ethnic Chakma and Buddhist United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF). However, testimony indicates it was a totally one-sided, targeted massacre. The brother of one of the deceased told BBC Bangla that on 6 April, between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m., ‘a group of 20-25 members of the UPDF’ attacked Khamtangpara village in Bandarban District. ‘They threw grenades into the village’ and captured ‘as many men as they could find’. The clerk of Lalthazar Bom Primary School was killed in the attack and ‘scores were injured’. The captured Kuki-Chin men were taken away and ‘laid in the field’. Men aged over 50 were released, but the remaining 22 men ‘were tied with ropes and detained in a [nearby] school … While 15 were released in the afternoon, the remaining seven detainees were shot dead the next day.’ This testimony has been confirmed by several civil society and human rights groups in Dhaka, some of which described the UPDF members as ‘state-sponsored vigilantes’. Police recovered eight bodies.

On 8 April the families were invited to collect the bodies from Bandarban Sadar Hospital mortuary. To their horror, not only were their loved ones dressed in military fatigues, but ‘No one had the back of their head, almost all had their arms and legs broken.’ A spokesperson from the Bangladesh Armed Forces’ (BAF) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) told BBC Bangla that the victims were ‘identified as members of the armed terrorist group of KNA by their clothing’. The Bangladesh government and military have labelled the KNA as ‘terrorists’, accusing it of training Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS) Islamic jihadists/terrorists in exchange for money. The KNF/A denies it has any links with Islamic terrorists and has urged Bangladeshi media to resist publishing the military’s ‘fake news’. Believed to be linked to al-Qaeda, JAFHS emerged in 2019 as the product of a merger of several banned pro-Caliphate militant Islamic jihadist groups.

Kuki-Chin Christians fleeing
military violence in CHT arrive in Mizoram,
northeast India, November 2022.

In October 2022, the BAF launched a fresh military offensive in the CHT with the aim of preventing the remote, sparsely populated, mountainous far east from becoming a base for Islamic militants, in particular JAFHS. Because the BAF have linked the KNA to the JAFHS, the Christian Kuki-Chin are also under attack. Locals have told BBC Bangla that, not only does the BAF’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) enjoy good relations with the UPDF, it routinely operates in collusion with the Arakan Army (comprised of Rohingya Muslims). Since October, hundreds of Christian Kuki-Chin have been displaced by military violence. Hundreds have crossed into Mizoram, in northeast India; meaning Mizoram – which is around 87 percent Christian – is now receiving refugees from east and west (Burma and Bangladesh). In Nov-Dec 2022, some 500 Kuki-Chin Christians fled Cheikhiang village ahead of an assault by joint forces of the RAB and Arakan Army. Unfortunately, Pastor Sawmkhup (70) of the Bangladesh Bawm Tribal Baptist Church did not make it, but died of starvation and dehydration in the jungle en route to Mizoram. While the ethnic Mizo Christians of Mizoram are eager to embrace and assist their kin, New Delhi (India’s political capital) is less so and has ordered its Border Guard Forces to push the refugees back.

KNA worship with singing,
Bible teaching and prayer.
[screenshot from full story of KNF/A,
Zalengam media, 20 April 2022]

The Kuki-Mizo-Chin people are one ethnic group, called by different names depending on whether they are in Bangladesh, India, or Burma/Myanmar. They are a Christian people. To protect Kuki-Chin people, culture and lands, the KNF demands an autonomous state be formed comprised of several sub-districts across the CHT’s two easternmost districts of Rangamati and Bandarban (which border India’s Mizoram and Burma’s Chin states). Dominated by ethnic Chakmas (the largest ethnic minority group in the CHT) the predominantly Buddhist UPDF seeks an autonomous state comprising the whole of CHT – one in which the Christian Kuki-Chin would remain a marginalised and imperilled ethnic-religious minority (as are the Chin in neighbouring Buddhist Burma). Initially a development organisation, the KNF broke away from the UPDF to fight for Kuki-Chin autonomy in 2017. Today, while the UPDF is pursuing a peace deal with the government, the KNF continues to stand in the way of the government’s total exploitation of the Chittagong Hills. Lord have mercy!


PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR SOVEREIGN GOD WILL:

* intervene in Bangladesh to fight for and deliver his imperilled children – the Kuki-Chin Christians of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. ‘The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him’ (from Isaiah 59:14-19 NIV).

* intervene to sustain all Kuki-Chin Christians who are impoverished, cut off from aid, displaced and imperilled on account of ethnic-religious discrimination, persecution and military violence. May our Almighty and merciful Lord provide all their needs – physical (e.g. refuge and aid), emotional (e.g. comfort and counselling) and spiritual (e.g. assurance of God’s love and presence).

* intervene in New Dehli (India’s political capital), to redirect the thinking of the Indian government. Instead of maintaining neutrality/silence and pushing back against Christian Kuki-Chin refugees, may the Indian government address root causes and advocate for peace in Bangladesh' Chittogang Hill Tracts and Burma/Myanmar. ‘The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will’ (Proverbs 21:1 ESV).


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------
THE CHRISTIAN STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS, BANGLADESH

The Kuki-Mizo-Chin people are one ethnic group, called by different names depending on whether they are in Bangladesh, India, or Burma/Myanmar. They are a Christian people. In Bangladesh’s eastern Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) the Kuki-Chin demand an autonomous state where their people, lands and culture can be protected from colonisation by Bengali Muslims, and from domination by the mostly Buddhist ethnic Chakmas (the largest ethnic minority group in the CHT). For this they suffer persecution and military violence. In October 2022, the Bangladeshi government launched a military operation against ‘separatists and terrorists’ in the CHT. In April, hundreds of Kuki-Chin Christians spent Easter displaced and grieving after ‘state sponsored’ militants attacked Khamtangpara village, Bandarban District, killing one man and capturing dozens, seven of whom they later tortured and executed. Please pray.

------------------------------------------

NOTE: Scroll.in reports (24 Dec 2022) that in October 2022, the BAF’s RAB arrested 10 militants in CHT: seven JAFHS and three KNA. During interrogations they ‘confessed’ that the JAFHS had struck a deal with the KNF ‘to provide them with funds in exchange for shelter and training’. Whether or not the KNA has sought to alleviate its poverty by training Islamic militants for pay cannot be known. While it seems unlikely, it could be the case that, if true, the KNA weren’t given much choice. Or maybe it is all just ‘fake news’ from a government and military eager to eliminate inconvenient tribal infidels standing in the way of land seizures and tourist developments. We cannot know because, like Indonesia’s Papuan Provinces, Bangladesh’s CHTs are closed to reporters and observers. In August 2002, when UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, visited Bangladesh she was denied access to the CHT [RLPB 660 (31 Aug 2022)]. Generally, news from the CHT comes in the form of BAF press statements. Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact remains, the Christian Kuki-Chin of the CHT are staring down the barrel of genocide.

------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church.

The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth 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). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com