RLPB 604. June Update: Incl. Algeria, Azerbaijan, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 604 | Wed 30 JUNE 2021
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

To subscribe (free) or view archives, visit the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) blog. The RLPB is sponsored by Christian Faith and Freedom Inc. 

JUNE 2021 UPDATE
By Elizabeth Kendal 

DURING THIS PERIOD, WE PRAYED CONCERNING:

* AFGHANISTAN [RLPB 600 (2 June)] and its imperilled Church, as the West withdraws, Islamic State plots, and the Taliban (still closely aligned to al-Qaeda) advances. Please continue to pray: may the Lord preserve and continue to build his Church in Afghanistan.

* PAKISTAN [RLPB 601 (9 June)] after the Lahore High Court accepted the appeal of Christians Shafqat Emmanuel (49) and his wife Shagufta Kausar (52) and acquitted them of the charge of blasphemy citing a lack of evidence. Aware that the acquittal would trigger Islamic rage, prayer was requested for safety – for Shafqat and Shagufta, and their lawyer Saif ul-Malook. 

UPDATE: KILL THE BLASPHEMERS AND GO TO PARADISE!

On 15 June, Morning Star News reported that Islamic extremists had started a campaign calling for Shafqat and Shagufta to be killed when they are eventually released from prison. Included in the incitement is the promise that whoever kills Shafqat or Shagufta or their attorney Saif ul-Malook, will be assured of paradise. ‘The social media are being flooded with hate posts against us and the two judges who ordered the couple’s release,’ Malook said. ‘The lives of all of us involved in the case are at great peril.’ Malook told the BBC that he considered the current threats against him the ‘most dangerous’ he had ever received. He also criticised the government for not providing him with adequate security; ‘Not even a clerk from the Pakistani government has contacted me,’ he said. Clearly, Malook and the judges need to be granted security. Meanwhile, Shafqat, Shagufta and their family need to be granted asylum, for as long as they are in Pakistan, their lives are gravely imperilled. Please pray.

* BURMA [RLPB 602 (16 June)] as the junta – which has long been at war with the Karen and Kachin – expands its war to the Chin and Karenni. Military aggression saw some 42,000 Chin and 103,500 Karenni displaced in June. As the Tatmadaw (Burmese military) advances, it leaves in its wake a trail of devastation, including destroyed property (including homes, clinics and churches) and torched and ruined food stocks. With the junta also blockading food and medical aid, it is a Christian crisis of monumental proportions. Please pray.

* PAPUA (INDONESIA) [RLPB 603 (23 June)], as the indigenous ethnic Melanesian, predominately Christian Papuans face Islamic terror at the hands of jihadists, and state terror at the hands of the Indonesian military. Please pray.

JUNE 2021 ROUND-UP - also this month:

ALGERIA: CHURCH FACES DIFFICULT DAYS

ELECTIONS: On 12 June, around 23 percent of eligible voters participated in Algeria’s parliamentary elections. It was the lowest voter turnout in at least 20 years for legislative elections; the previous lowest turnout being 40 percent 2017. Supporters of the ‘Hirak’ pro-democracy protest movement boycotted the polls, as did the traditional opposition parties, and virtually the whole indigenous (non-Arab) Berber-dominated Kabylie region. The ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) secured the most seats, winning 98 of 407 seats (down from 164 in 2017, and 208 in 2012). Having failed to secure a majority, the FLN will need to form a coalition with at least three minor parties in order to govern. Meanwhile, the Islamist Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) party secured 65 of 407 seats (up from 33 in 2017). The ‘old guard’ (in power since 1962) might have managed to retain its grip on power, but disillusionment is soaring. Consequently, it is highly likely that repression will escalate, especially in Kabylie region. A desire to appease Islamists could also fuel an escalation in repression and persecution of Christians, many (or most) of whom live in the Kabylie region. Please pray.   

PERSECUTION: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
Update to RLPB 588, ‘Fragile State; Intense Spiritual Struggle’, 10 March 2021. 

Pastor Rachid Seighir

On Sunday 6 June, Pastor Rachid Seighir of Oratoire Church in the coastal city of Oran, and Nouh Hamimi, the salesman who managed Pastor Seighir’s Christian bookshop in Oran, were sentenced on appeal to one-year in prison (suspended) and a fine of 200,000 dinars (US$1,494). They had previously been sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 500,000 dinars (US$3,745). Their crime: ‘distributing publications or any other propaganda undermining the faith of a Muslim’; a charge many Christians would be guilty of! Refusing to submit to injustice and persecution, Pastor Rachid will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. Just days earlier, on Wednesday 2 June, the administrative court of Oran issued an implementation order to close Pastor Rachid’s Oratoire Church, along with two other churches, one in El-Ayaid (35 km east of Oran) and one in Ain-Turk (35 km west of Oran). This brings the number of churches shuttered in Algeria to 16. Everything indicates that the persecution is coming from the highest levels of government. Please pray for the Church in Algeria.

‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 6:10-12 NIV). 

AZERBAIJAN: RELIGION LAW AMENDMENTS APPROVED
Update to RLPB 595, ‘Escalating Repression’, 27 April. 

On 16 June, President Ilham Aliyev signed into law Religion Law amendments that will make it even more difficult (if not impossible) to conduct Christian ministry legally in Azerbaijan. For the first time in Azerbaijan’s short history, non-Islamic religious communities will be required to get permission from a State Committee to appoint individuals as religious leaders. The first test will come soon, for the Russian Orthodox Diocese is due to name a new Archbishop to replace Archbishop Aleksandr (Ishchein), who died on 10 June. Many of the amendments simply add to the Church’s burden. For example, as in the original law, local religious communities still require 50 adult citizens as founders. However, an amendment adds that these founders must live in one administrative district. Then, before a religious group can register a ‘religious centre’ (i.e., headquarters), the group must have at least five registered communities, located in at least five different towns, making it highly unlikely that any group other than the Russian Orthodox will be able to establish a ‘religious centre’. Furthermore, once registered, a ‘religious centre’ may only operate one religious school. It seems the increasingly Turkic-nationalist and Islamist government is determined to drive non-Turks and non-Muslims from Azerbaijan. Full report: www.forum18.org (17 June). Please pray for the Church in Azerbaijan; specifically for grace, wisdom, solidarity and creativity.  

CHINA: CHENGDU CHURCH ENDURES FIERCE PERSECUTION
-- the persecution of Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) Chengdu, Sichuan. 

Pastor Wang Yi (ERCC)
left: at home pre-Dec 2018,
right: in prison March 2020
June 2021: health deteriorating

PASTOR WANG YI of ERCC, Chengdu, was arrested in December 2018 and sentenced in December 2019 to nine years in prison for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ and ‘illegal business operations’. A photo taken secretly in March 2020 and leaked to Wang’s appointed lawyer showed a thin and pale Wang, handcuffed in a cell [RLPB 548 (2 May 2020)]. China Aid Association (CAA) reports, ‘It looks as if Pastor Wang Yi is being treated very badly in prison right now… kept in solitary confinement in [Chengdu’s] Jintang Prison, with two other prisoners guarding him.’ It appears that the authorities are preventing family members and lawyers from visiting, withholding medical treatment, and feeding him ‘mouldy rice’. CAA founder Bob Fu suspects the authorities are engineering Wang’s ‘medical deterioration’. Please pray.

Pastor Wu Wuqing

PASTOR WU WUQING of ERCC, Chengdu, has been repeatedly arrested and persecuted since the authorities shuttered the church in December 2018; he lives under 24-hour surveillance. On 4 June, Chinese officials forcibly detained Pastor Wu, his wife Xiong Meifang, and their two children, in their apartment, chaining their door and posting a security guard in the hallway. The family is not permitted to leave, and visitors are not permitted to enter. Church members have only been permitted to deliver supplies of food and water to the door. It seems the authorities are working to either subjugate Pastor Wu or drive him away from Chengdu. CAA anticipates that Pastor Wu’s imprisonment will end after Thursday 1 July – i.e. after the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. The persecution, however, will only get worse. Please pray.

ERITREA: GOVERNMENT SEIZES CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

In June 2019, the repressive government of President Isaias Afwerki (who has ruled Eritrea since 1993) seized control of 22 medical clinics belonging to the Catholic Church [RLPB 508 (26 June 2019)]. In September 2019, the government seized control of seven mostly Catholic secondary schools. On 21 June 2021, Catholic media reported, ‘procedures have begun for the confiscation or, alternatively, the closure of our remaining educational institutions, from pre-schools to intermediate primary schools, scattered throughout the Country’. Some of the schools being seized were built by Italian missionaries more than 70 years ago. The government seizure of Church-owned and run schools and health clinics is a terrible blow to the Church, which stands to lose assets and influence. Critically, it is also a terrible blow to Eritrea’s poor and needy who have long benefited from these services. Please pray for God to intervene in Eritrea.

ETHIOPIA: THE BATTLE CONTINUES

ELECTIONS: On 21 June, Ethiopians living in non-conflict zones voted to elect a new parliament in what PM Abiy noted was the country’s ‘first attempt at a free and fair election’. Due to insecurity, elections were not held in around one-fifth of the country’s 547 constituencies, including all 38 seats in Tigray and 64 others across Ethiopia. Most of the delayed polling is scheduled for 6 September, although no date has been set for voting in Tigray. The turnout was high, and the election was peaceful; results are yet to be announced. Then, on Monday 28 June, a re-grouped and re-armed Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) force stormed the Tigray capital, Mekelle. Surprised and overwhelmed, government forces were forced to retreat as TPLF forces took control of the city. Along with the military, Tigray’s interim administration – which has suffered a string of assassinations – is also on the run. A unilateral ceasefire has been declared so that humanitarian needs can be addressed. 

The Battle for Ethiopia pits the government’s vision of a strong, prosperous, and united Ethiopia against ethno-nationalists who would tear Ethiopia apart for personal (political and economic) gain. Leading the ethno-nationalist cause is the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TLPF, which dominated, terrorised and robbed Ethiopia for three decades) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Not only are these groups working together, but they receive support in the form of arms, funding and training from Egypt and the Sudanese military. During the Cold War, the US backed the Marxist TPLF against the Soviet-backed Derg; and ties remain strong. The US administration also backs Egypt against Ethiopia because it needs Egypt to mediate in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and because Egypt buys a lot of US weapons (whereas Orthodox Ethiopia buys from its long-time ally, Orthodox Russia). Citing the war in Tigray, the US has imposed sanctions on Ethiopia (one of the poorest countries in the world). If Ethiopia were to collapse it would trigger a Christian crisis of monumental proportions. Please pray for Ethiopia.

INDIA: REPRESSION TO ESCALATE IN GUJARAT 

On 1 June, a law came into effect in India’s north-western state of Gujarat which Christians fear will erode the Christian character of church-own schools, and eventually bring them under the control of the Hindu nationalist state government. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (Amendment) Act stipulates that the appointment of teachers and principals in church-owned school will now be undertaken by a Central Recruitment Committee rather than by the schools themselves. On 7 June, Gujarat’s religious minorities jointly filed a petition in the state’s High Court challenging the new law. Church leaders suspect that if the Gujarat state government succeeds in taking control of Church-run schools, then other BJP-ruled states will follow suit. In April, Gujarat amended its 17-year-old anti-conversion law to define sponsorship of a child’s education as an attempt at religious conversion, a crime that can be punished with up to 10 years in jail. Please pray.

IRAN: CHURCH FACES DIFFICULT DAYS

ELECTION: On 18 June, 48.8 percent of eligible voters participated in Iran’s presidential election. It was the lowest voter turnout ever for an Iranian presidential election, below the previous low of 51 percent in 1989. The entire process had been engineered to ensure that Ibrahim Raisi would be elected. As was expected, Raisi won with 62 percent of votes. Second place went to informal votes (mostly blank), with the other candidates lagging far behind. In 1988, Raisi served as deputy prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court which oversaw the execution of more than 30,000 dissidents over a four-month period. Journalist and author Amir Taheri incisively explains, ‘Raisi’s victory is the victory of a coterie that cares neither for Iran nor for revolution as long as it can advance its position of power and protect its ill-gained assets.’ And as Taheri explains, now that coterie has their man in the presidency, they will have no-one to blame but themselves if the domestic situation deteriorates and disillusionment skyrockets. Christians might be anxious, but they know that God is at work in their nation. INcontext International quotes a ministry leader in Iran: ‘The new Iranian president will [undoubtedly] start cracking down and arresting Christians. It’s going to be a dark time in Iran, but God will move even more powerfully.’ Please pray.

‘The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord’ (Proverbs 16:33 ESV) ‘who works all things according to the counsel of his will’ (from Ephesians 1:11 ESV).

 Milad, Amin and Alireza

PERSECUTION: On 21 June, three members of the ‘Church of Iran’ (a non-Trinitarian Branhamite sect) faced court in the 4th Chamber of the Revolutionary Court of Karaj. [As the late Nabeel Queshi explains, the Trinity can be an especially difficult hurdle for Muslims, who are taught from birth that Allah is ‘one and indivisible’ (https://quran.com/112) and that belief in a Trinity is polytheism.] Milad Goudarzi, Amin Khaki, and Alireza Nourmohammadi – all converts from Islam – are the first known examples of Christians being charged – and now convicted – under the newly amended Article 500 [see RLPB 586, ‘President Signs Law to Facilitate Persecution’ (24 Feb)]. They were denied a lawyer. The men were informed of the verdicts on 26 June: each will serve five years in prison and pay a fine of 40 million tomans (US$1,800) for ‘engaging in propaganda that educates in a deviant way contrary to the holy religion of Islam’, a charge most Christians would be guilty of! They will appeal. Please pray for the Church in Iran.

MEXICO: COUNTER-REFORMATION CONTINUES IN CHIAPAS 

Pastor Alejandro Jiménez and his sons – five families comprising 30 people – were expelled from the indigenous community in Mitzitón, San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas on 10 January 2021. The Catholics accused them of establishing a Protestant church and refusing to participate in Catholic festivals. Since then, Alejandro and his family have been living in the Alas de Águila [Eagles Wings] refuge house in San Cristóbal de las Casas. On 17 June, Pastor Alejandro returned to Mitzitón to visit his ailing mother. When the Catholics learned that he had arrived, they proceeded to arrest him and transfer him to the town centre, where he was imprisoned for an hour. The Catholics then proceeded to destroy and burn five houses belonging to Pastor Alejandro and his sons. Since 1982, Catholics in Mitzitón have staged five attacks in which 180 houses of evangelicals have been destroyed. The 180 families have all relocated and established churches elsewhere. The anti-Protestant persecution is driven by superstitious fear and jealousy, and fuelled by impunity. Please pray. 

PAKISTAN: GOVERNMENT SEIZES CHURCH SCHOOL

Church of Pakistan (Anglican) Bishop
Humphrey Peters of Peshawar (centre)
at Peshawar Press Club, 11 June.
 

Founded by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1853, Edwardes College in Peshawar is the oldest missionary education institution in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It has been managed by the Church for 180 years. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government took over the college in 2019 through an administrative action validated by the provincial High Court. On 3 June 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa government. On 11 June, Protestants took to the streets in protest. ‘The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has committed a hate crime against the church,’ Church of Pakistan (Anglican) Bishop Humphrey Peters of Peshawar told a press conference. The bishop called for the college to be returned to the Church and denounced its nationalisation as ‘a violation of the constitutional rights of the weak religious minorities’. As rights activist Zeeshan Yaqub of Peshawar explained to Fides, ‘the Christian community in Pakistan is making great efforts in the fields of education, health and other humanitarian services, which benefit the entire population, people of all religions. We ask for the protection of the rights of minorities, as provided for by the Constitution of Pakistan, even in their properties.’ Pray for the Church in Pakistan.

NO JUSTICE YET FOR PASTOR ZAFAR BHATTI
Update to RLPB 568, ‘'Blasphemy', a sword over the neck’, 23 Sep 2020. 

Pastor Zafar Bhatti

Pastor Zafar Bhatti has been in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Central Jail since July 2012 when an Islamic cleric accused him of sending blasphemous text messages; a charge the pastor strongly denies. In May 2017, a court deemed Pastor Zafar guilty, but instead of sentencing him to death (as is mandatory for blasphemy) the judge sentenced him to life imprisonment because there was ‘no concrete evidence’ against him. As is common in Pakistan, his appeals have been repeatedly adjourned. In September 2020, Pastor Zafar (then 56) suffered a heart attack in his cell. Though treated and stabilised, his health is clearly fragile. On Tuesday 22 June, an additional sessions judge in Rawalpindi District upheld Bhatti’s life sentence despite there still being no evidence against him. His lawyers will now appeal to the High Court. 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 

RLPB 582. Jan 2021 Catch up. Inc. Australia, CAR, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 582 | Wed 27 Jan 2021
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Please forward this prayer bulletin widely and encourage others to sign up to “Follow by email” on the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) blog.  ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds’ (2 Corinthians 10:4 ESV). 

JANUARY 2021 CATCH UP
by Elizabeth Kendal

'So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.' (Matthew 10:32-33 ESV)

* AUSTRALIA: VICTORIA'S 'ANTI-CONVERSION' LAW
- the church of LGBTIQ+'s war against 'apostasy'

When the Victorian parliament returns on 2 February, one of the first issues to be decided will be the fate of the government's unprecedented and far-reaching Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020. According to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, the Bill will ensure that 'cruel and bigoted practices' that 'seek to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or gender identity will be stamped out across Victoria'. The law will make it a criminal offence for doctors, psychiatrists, churches or even parents to engage in such practices or 'therapies' - be they formal (e.g. counselling) or informal (e.g. prayer) with an LGBTIQ+ person - even if they have been specifically requested. The Bill empowers the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to investigate reports of 'conversion and suppression (conversion) practices'. Criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison will apply. Please pray.

For more information see:
Victoria, Australia: The Church of LGBTQ+’s War Against ‘Apostasy’
Religious Liberty Monitoring, 27 Jan 2021 

* CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR): STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED
- a Christian Crisis of monumental proportions.

On 19 December, just eight days ahead of general elections, a rebel coalition comprising six of CAR's most powerful rebel militias launched an offensive to prevent the re-election of President Faustin-Archange Touadera. Having failed in that objective, the rebel advance now seems focused on escalating pressure on the government ahead of negotiations. To that end, the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) - whose previously waring member militias already control a full two-thirds of the country - has seized control of several major towns and transport corridors. More than 100,000 people have fled their homes. On 13 January CPC rebels launched co-ordinated attacks on the northern and western outskirts of the capital, Bangui, using rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, and mortars. With the support of UN, Rwandan and Russian troops, CAR government forces managed to defend the city and repel the rebels. However, Bangui remains imperilled and besieged. On 21 January, with food and medicine shortages looming and the price of goods soaring, the CAR government declared a 15-day state of emergency. Please pray.

* INDIA, UTTAR PRADESH: JAILED FOR UNLAWFUL CONVERSION

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020 came into effect on 27 November 2020. The law stipulates that before any conversion can take place, both the 'person seeking to convert' and the 'religious converter', must apply for permission from the District Magistrate (DM). The DM will then conduct a police enquiry into the intention, purpose and cause of the proposed conversion. If the DM deems the conversion unlawful, then criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison will apply. The Hindu reported on 18 January that of 17 cases lodged so far, 14 pertain to Muslim men who had entered relationships with Hindu women; and three pertain to 'alleged allurement to convert to Christianity'. On 19 December four aid workers (two of whom were not Christians) were arrested in Surajpur while delivering food aid for a Christian charity. On 20 December three Christians were arrested in relation to a prayer meeting in Azamgarh and on 3 January five Christians were arrested in relation to an outdoor prayer service in Shahjahanpur. Please pray.

* MEXICO: PERSECUTED FOR REFUSING TO SACRIFICE

In Mexico, 'Traditional Catholicism' refers to a Catholic-pagan syncretistic religion wherein practitioners perform Aztec and Mayan sacrifices to images of Jesus and Catholic saints, behind which are 'a whole pantheon of ancient Mayan gods'. 'Traditional Catholics' - who are often from indigenous communities - retain the animist belief that the gods/spirits must be kept appeased and that failure to offer sacrifice will result in disaster such as illness, crop failure etc. Protestant Christians who refuse to sacrifice are routinely persecuted and expelled from these communities. On Sunday 10 January Traditional Catholics from the indigenous Mayan Tzotzil tribe attacked evangelical families in the Mitziton community near the city of San Cristobal de las Casas in the highlands of Chiapas, southern Mexico, where such persecution is common. They seized and jailed evangelicals Alejandro Jimenez Jimenez and Miguel Jimenez Heredia, and destroyed the homes of five evangelical families (comprising 30 people). Please pray.

* NIGERIA: TERROR FOR CHRISTMAS (AGAIN)

Residents of several majority-Christian villages in Nigeria's northeast received terror for Christmas (again), courtesy of Islamic State affiliate, Boko Haram. Furthermore, because such terror is actually routine, residents are now too afraid to go into their fields, meaning farming has ceased and famine looms, making it 'a terror that keeps on taking'. The following attacks occurred not far from the Sambisa Forest where Abubakar Shekau has his base [RLPB 562 (12 Aug 2020)].

On Christmas Eve Boko Haram (BH) militants invaded Pemi village, about 20km southeast of Chibok in Borno State. At least seven people were killed and another seven abducted, including an evangelist named Bulus Yakura. The terrorists also burnt a dispensary, several houses and a church belonging to the Evangelical Church of the Brethren (EYN). In a simultaneous attack, terrorists invaded Garkida (the birthplace of EYN) which lies about 80km southwest of Chibok, 40km southeast of Bui, just over the border in Adamawa State. According to a 28 December statement from EYN, three churches were set ablaze - EYN Ghung, EYN Sangere and the recently rebuilt Living Faith Church Garkida - while five people were killed and five people remain missing. The terrorists looted pharmaceuticals from the hospital and food from the stores; construction facilities along the Bui Rd were also torched. Rather then celebrate Christmas in Garkida, the residents (many of whom sustained injuries) fled to the hills.

screenshot
(courtesy Morning Star News)

On 29 December Islamic State's AMAQ News agency released a short video showing the execution of five abducted Christians. Kneeling and dressed in orange jumpsuits, each captive was ordered to say their name and confirm that they are Christian. After the spokesman delivering his address, and explained that, 'This is a warning to Christians ...' the five executioners lifted their weapons and shot each of the Christians through the head. NOTE: 12 months earlier, on Christmas Day 2019, Boko Haram/ISWAP videoed the beheading of 11 Christians in much the same area, calling it a message to Christians all over the world [RLPB 534 (29 Jan 2020)]. But are Christians all over the world taking any notice? The Church in Nigeria needs our prayers. Please pray!

* PAKISTAN: PERSECUTION PLUS IMPUNITY EQUALS GROSS INSECURITY

top: Sajida and Abida.
below: their shattered families. 
source: UCA,
photo courtesy Khalid Shehzad
click on collage to enlarge

On 4 January, in Punjab Province, police in Lahore informed Mushtaq Masih that they had found the bodies of his wife, Sajida Mushtaq (28, a mother of four) and her sister, Abida Qaiser (26, married, mother of one). The sisters had been missing since 26 November. Their badly decomposed bodies were found bound and stuffed into sacks dumped in an area drainage ditch. Masih told Morning Star News that as Christians, Sajida and Abida were often harassed at the pharmaceutical factory where they worked. In fact, Sajida had confided to a relative that both she and Abida were being pressured to convert to Islam and marry their supervisors, Muslims Muhammad Mumtaz and Naeem Butt. Naeem has since confessed that the two men abducted, detained, raped and murdered the women. Please pray for justice - for an end to impunity - and that the Lord would comfort and sustain the grieving families.

* UGANDA: PERSECUTION ESCALATES IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY DISTRICTS

Uganda is divided into four administrative regions and 134 self-governing districts. Though Uganda is majority Christian (85 percent) and religious freedom guaranteed in the constitution, Christians who live in majority-Muslim districts exist as religious minorities in increasingly hostile de facto Islamic mini-states. As the political situation in Uganda continues to deteriorate, persecution with impunity will doubtless continue to escalate. [See: 'Uganda Analysis', RLM, 8 May 2017.]

On Sunday 27 December, after learning that a Muslim imam and his wife (unnamed for security reasons) had converted to Christianity, mosque leaders in Kibuku District incited a Muslim mob to beat Pastor Moses Nabwana and his wife, Lovisa Naura (a mother of eight), and partially demolish their church building. The Muslim converts had only recently joined the church which had already relocated them to a safe-house. Pastor Nabwana and Lovisa were hospitalised with multiple injuries: soft tissue injuries and broken bones. It is not the first time this ministry couple has been violently assaulted. Please pray.

Mansitula Buliro
(courtesy Morning Star News)

On 13 January Muslim woman Mansitula Buliro (45, mother of seven and 13 weeks pregnant) was preparing for evening prayers with her husband in Pallisa District when she saw a bright light and heard the name 'Yeshua' ('Jesus' in Aramaic). When she told her husband, he beat her. That night Buliro had another vision in which Jesus spoke to her saying, 'Peace be upon you - today I have chosen you to be mine.' The next day Buliro visited a Christian neighbour who counselled and prayed with her as she put her faith in Christ. When Buliro's husband found out, he took a knife to her mouth and declared her henceforth divorced and expelled from the home. Neighbours came to the rescue and took the bleeding and traumatised Buliro to hospital where she subsequently suffered a miscarriage. Please pray.

'The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.' (Revelation 3:5 ESV).

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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 437. Christmas devotion, notices and updates: India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 437 | Tue 19 Dec 2017

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) 

CHRISTMAS DEVOTION, NOTICES & UPDATES
by Elizabeth Kendal

CHRISTMAS DEVOTION: THE GOD WHO IS WITH US

Unlike all the gods humanity has ever made, YAHWEH -- the true and living Almighty Creator and redeeming Holy God of the Bible -- is with us. That first Christmas, the Son, Jesus, Immanuel, came to us clothed in mortal flesh. Today the Holy Spirit lives within all whom the Son has redeemed. God is with us not only on the mountain top, where the sun is shining and all is well. He is with us in the valley, where the shadows linger, evil lurks and life is uncertain. When we pray for the persecuted we pray to a God who is present in the prison cell, in the war zone, in the displacement camp and amidst all the suffering and evil in this world. God the eternal spirit sees and cares. He speaks, sometimes in a still small voice and sometimes with a roar. He sends his angels to defend and to minister and he intervenes with miracles to ensure the inevitable does not come to pass. While occasionally these miracles are spectacular, most are inconspicuous: the persecutor has a change of heart or health, the gun jams, the detonator fails, the weather changes, the sufferer rallies and quite inexplicably the battle is turned back at the gate.

And so we pray:

* that YAHWEH Sabaoth (the Lord of Hosts, the commander of heaven's angelic forces) will protect churches from attack this Christmas season. The high risk season includes Advent, Roman Catholic and Protestant Christmas (24,25 December), New Year, Greek Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christmas (6,7 January).

* that God will comfort and encourage every Christian spending this Christmas either in prison or in the custody of Islamic militants [see RLPB 436 (13 Dec)] on account of the name of Jesus. May they experience God's closeness and everlasting love; may they be fully aware that they are in God's 'sanctuary' (i.e., dwelling place, Hebrew: miqdas. Isaiah 8:11-14a).

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NOTICES:

This will be the last Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) for 2017. Whilst an urgent prayer alert will be issued should the need arise, the next scheduled RLPB will be issued on Wednesday 17 January 2018.

If you have not already done so, please take some time to familiarise yourself with the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) blog/website. The site contains a searchable archive dating back to April 2009. Furthermore, at the very bottom of the webpage is a keyword search that searches both the RLPB and Religious Liberty Monitoring (News & Analysis) sites combined.

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UPDATES: 

* INDIA: CONGRESS LOSES MORE THAN GUJARAT
                 -- persecution escalates as darkness sets in.

Counting in the Gujarat elections took place on Monday 18 December. Congress picked up 19 seats, 15 in the BJP stronghold of rural Saurashtra. However, despite losing 16 seats (13 in Saurashtra region), the BJP ultimately won 99 of 182 seats to retain power and its majority. It was an acrimonious campaign, resulting in Congress not only losing the poll, but all integrity. During the course of the campaign, Rahul Gandhi (47) was elected to the role of Congress Party president. For decades, Congress -- traditionally a secular party -- has timidly allowed the Hindutva narrative to advance unchallenged. Now, however, it appears to have embraced it. In Gujarat, Congress not only mimicked the BJP, it did everything in its power to avoid being labelled 'pro-minority'. Whilst Congress has been leaning this way for some time, it now seems to have officially fallen into the Hindu nationalist pit. This does not bode well for India's Christians.

Christians plead for mercy (4 Dec)
Morning Star News

On 4 December, in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, seven Indian Christians (six men and a woman) accepted an invitation to pray over a seriously ill man whose relative had previously been healed through prayer. A Hindu relative heard of it and rallied a mob of some 20 RSS Hindutva militants to attack the family and the visiting believers violently. Police arrived, arrested the believers and charged them with 'deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings' under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code. The six Christian men were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days; bail was refused. On Monday 11 December, also in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, seven Christians were arrested for handing out Bibles. Accused of insulting Hindu deities and procuring 'forced conversions', they were remanded in custody for 14 days. Also on 11 December, this time in Madhya Pradesh, 30 Christians were arrested while singing Christmas carols; eight priests who came to help were also arrested. Accused of procuring 'forced conversions', seven believers were remanded in custody for 14 days. This is the tip of the iceberg [see: Evangelical Fellowship of India, Persecution Watch, November 2017]!

* MEXICO: MORE NON-CATHOLICS FORCIBLY EXPELLED

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that, on 4 December, officials in Tuxpan de Bolanos, an indigenous Huichol community in the north of Jalisco State, forcibly expelled 64 non-Catholics. The group, comprising 22 Protestants (including 15 children) and 42 Jehovah's Witnesses, were dragged from their homes, loaded into trucks and driven into the mountains where they were dumped and abandoned. To deter them from returning, officials also destroyed their homes. The Emanuel Regional Baptist Convention, which oversees Baptist churches in the area, rescued the victims. While the 42 Jehovah's Witnesses are currently in the municipal auditorium in Bolanos, the twenty-two Baptists are sheltering in Puente de Camotlan Church in neighbouring Nayarit State. This is not the first time Protestants have been forcibly exiled from Tuxpan de Bolanos. In January 2016, 28 Baptists (including 10 children) were forcibly trucked into the mountains and abandoned [RLPB 342 (2 Feb 2016)]. May justice and righteousness roll down like a river in Mexico (see Amos 5:21-24).

* NIGERIA:  CONFLICT SPREADS SOUTH TO CROSS RIVER STATE

click on map to enlarge

Benue State's Anti-Open Grazing legislation went into force on 1 November. Since then, scores of Fulani Muslims have migrated further south with their cattle into the mostly-Christian Cross River State. On the evening of Tuesday 5 December, locals in Mbiabong Ito, Odukpani Local Government Area (LGA), Cross River, noticed that Fulani herdsmen had invaded their farms with a large herd of cattle. Desperate to save their crops, the farmers tried to chase them away. However, the well-armed Fulani opened fire, triggering a violent clash. After four Fulani were reportedly killed, the herdsmen withdrew, later returning with uniformed soldiers. While helping the Fulani gather their cattle, the soldiers fired at villagers forcing some 200 families to flee Mbiabong Ito. According to SBM Intelligence (a partner to Stratfor), the pastoralist conflict is both expanding and deepening. 'The lack of national leadership on this issue is unfortunate', especially as it results in communities increasingly taking matters into their own hands. 'If nothing is done urgently, it is going to get worse.' Indeed, tensions are escalating, and the conflict will play out along religious lines.

* PAKISTAN: CHURCH TARGETED IN TERROR ATTACK 

On Sunday morning 17 December, four Islamic terrorists attacked the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan Province. More than 200 Christians were participating in the 'Sunday School Christmas Program' when gunfire erupted outside. Two gunmen had shot dead church gatekeeper George Masih, paving the way for two bombers to invade. Security guards stationed around the perimeter and on the church roof returned fire, killing one bomber, wounding the other and forcing the two gunmen to flee. Unable to make it inside the church, the wounded bomber detonated his explosive vest outside.

At least nine Christians were killed in the blast and more than 50 suffered wounds either from bullets or from shards of wood and glass propelled by the explosion. Pastor Saimon Bashir Masih told Morning Star News that, had either of the two bombers managed to enter the church, the death toll 'would have been colossal'. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. While we lament and 'weep with those who weep' (Romans 12:15), we thank God that the full extent of evil was not realised.

LATEST:  Pakistan: mourners bury 11 killed in Quetta church suicide attack, as 50 injured, World Watch Monitor, 19 Dec 2017

'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' John 1:5 ESV

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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 345. February Update, Incl. Mexico, China, Sudan and South Sudan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 345 | Wed 24 Feb 2016

By Elizabeth Kendal

'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.' (Matthew 10:29-31 ESV)

FURTHER UPDATES added (26 Feb 2016) 
-- Mexico, China, and Egypt.

FEBRUARY 2016 ROUND-UP -- this month we prayed concerning ...

Fuente de fe, Alabanza y Poder
Zinacantan, Chiapas, 15 Feb 2016
source

* MEXICO (RLPB 342), where Protestant Christians -- especially those in rural and indigenous communities -- face persecution at the hands of Roman Catholic (particularly syncretistic animist-Catholic) majorities. Pope Francis was due to visit Mexico from 12-17 February.

UPDATE: On 15 February, the day before Pope Francis was to visit the southern province of Chiapas, a Protestant church was looted and torched in Zinacantan, a city in the central Chiapas highlands. The pastor, Ciro Díaz Mendez, has filed a complaint. Considering Chiapas has long been a persecution hot-spot, it is disappointing that the pontiff did not have anything to say about religious freedom, religious tolerance and the Catholic persecution of Protestants.

FURTHER UPDATE: Praise God, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that, two years after having their water and electricity cut as punishment for refusing to participate in Catholic ceremonies, 27 Protestant families in the village of Unión Juárez, Chiapas, have finally had their services restored. [Full story: CSW.]

* CHINA (RLPB 343), where President Xi, a committed Maoist, is consolidating power around himself as 'the core', and insisting Chinese culture -- including arts, media and religion -- be brought into the service of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Pastors in two of China's largest TSPM (CCP-approved) churches have been arrested, purportedly for corruption, but in reality for criticising the CCP policy of removing crosses and church demolitions in Zhejiang.

UPDATE
(1) ESTABLISHING CONTROL OVER THE CHURCH: In the same way that Christian lawyer and defender of the cross, Zhang Kai, and his legal assistant Liu Peng, were doubtless coerced to write the letters in which they dismiss their lawyers [RLPB 341 (27 Jan)], Pastor 'Joseph' Gu Yuese, pastor of Hangzhou's Chongyi Church was doubtless coerced to write the letter in which he exhorts the members of Chongyi Church not to protest or make inquiries, but to support their new CCP-appointed pastor. Pray for the Church in China!

Zhang Kai. [report: Epoch Times]

FURTHER UPDATE: China state media reports that Christian lawyer and defender of the cross, Zhang Kai [see RLPB 325 (2 Sept 2015)] has appeared on Chinese state television 'confessing' to his 'crimes'. 'I’ve broken the law,' he said, 'disturbed social order, endangered state security, and violated the ethics of the legal profession. I am deeply remorseful for my actions. . . I also warn those so-called human rights lawyers to take me as a warning and not collude with foreigners, take money from foreign organisations, or be engaged in activities that break the law or harm national security and interests. . .'  The CCP maintains that Zhang Kai has been carrying out a political agenda on the order of foreign forces. It took six months of secret, 'black jail' detention, doubtless replete with cruel and inhumane treatment, but the CCP now has Zhang's coerced 'confession'. We await the sentence. Zhang Kai's friends feel certain he has been tortured. Pray for China. May the Lord intervene for Zhang Kai.

(2) CONSOLIDATING POWER IN XI: On 19 February the CCP's flagship newspaper, The People's Daily, carried an editorial exhorting news reporters and editors to be 'disseminators of the Party's policies and propositions.' 'Marxist political parties have always regarded the work of guiding public opinion as a sharp weapon in revolution,' it said, adding that guiding public opinion is at the very forefront of the ideological battle, which calls for a common ideological ground for pursuing the Chinese dream. No doubt President Xi is preparing the political ground ahead of the 2017 Communist Party Congress. Some analysts have surmised that Xi might be planning to follow Mao and rule for life. Pray for the Church in China!

* SUDAN (RLPB 344), where the Government of Sudan (GoS) is preparing for a major military offensive against the African Christians of the Nuba Mountains.

UPDATE
(1) BOMBING AND ENCIRCLING THE NUBA

click on map to enlarge

The Government of Sudan (GoS) has resumed aerial bombardment of the Nuba Mountains. Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), reports that Sabat, Tujur, and Lumbry in Dalami County were targeted with seven bombs on Saturday 13 February, nine bombs on Sunday 14 February and 18 bombs on Tuesday 16 February. Two schoolgirls, Alnaya Abdalla Altaj (12) and Aisha Abdalla Altaj (14), were wounded, as was Samir Saeed (46). On Monday 15 February the GoS bombed the Alabu area in Umdorain County, killing Jibril Tia, and wounding several others. Army and militia forces are massing in the north-east, the south-west (where the oil fields are), the state capital Kadugli and Talodi. Just as in January-February  2012, it appears the GoS are preparing to drive the Nuba out of the Nuba Mountains into the Kauda valley, which leads to Yida, in Unity State, South Sudan. The plan would be to encircle and slaughter them north of Talodi. May the God of the breakthrough (2 Samuel 5:20) fight for his people.

(2) DISPLACING NUBA REFUGEES
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 1,787 starving Nuba refugees have arrived in Yida, Unity State, South Sudan, since the beginning of the year, including 609 during the first two weeks of February. Home to 70,166 registered Nuba refugees, the large sprawling informal Yida refugee camp includes markets, businesses, schools, farms and even an airstrip. Indeed the Nuba in Yida are largely self-reliant. However, the UN and South Sudan's Refugee Affairs Commission are calling now for the camp to be closed in June 2016 and the refugees to be moved to another camp where they will be confined and provided for by the UNHCR. New arrivals in Yida now receive UNHCR rations only if they relocate to Ajuong Thok camp, which the Nuba claim is not as secure as the Yida camp. Not only is Ajuong Thok closer to a Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) garrison, it is located in territory controlled by South Sudan's rebels led by Riek Machar, a long-time ally of Khartoum. Reports emerged in late 2014, exposing Khartoum's plan to starve the Nuba and empty their refugee camps. [For full details see RLPB 286 (12 Nov 2014).]  Pray for the Nuba refugees in South Sudan.

'In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.' (Psalm 10:2 ESV)

FEBRUARY ROUND-UP -- also this month ...

* BANGLADESH: ISLAMIC STATE INCITING KILLINGS
On Sunday 21 February Islamic militants murdered a Hindu priest in the far north of Bangladesh, slitting his throat in the Deviganj temple near Panchagar. Three Islamic militants have been arrested. In claiming responsibility, Islamic State boasted that the 'soldiers of the Caliphate liquidated the priest' in a temple belonging to 'infidel Hindus'. This killing stands as a stark reminder of the threat facing churches and Christian pastors in Bangladesh. May God protect and preserve the Church in Bangladesh.

* EGYPT: WHERE 'INSULTING ISLAM' IS A CRIME
In February 2015 ISIS released a video showing the beheading of 20 Copts and one Ghanaian on a Libyan beach. Days later, a Coptic teacher filmed some students mocking the pseudo piety of IS -- a piety that enables them to lift their hands in prayer to Allah one minute and then take a knife to a bound man's throat the next. Unfortunately the teacher lost his phone and the footage ended up being shared on social media. The teacher, Gad Younan (42), has since been sentenced to three years jail for insulting Islam, although he has been released pending an appeal.

The four Coptic teenage boys in the 30-second video have been charged with insulting Islam by misrepresenting Islamic prayer. They will face court on Thursday 25 February to hear the verdict. Pray for the Church in Egypt.

FURTHER UPDATE: On Thursday 25 February, an Egyptian court  sentenced three teenage Coptic boys to five years in prison for the crime of 'contempt of Islam' and 'inciting sectarian strife'. The fourth and youngest teen has been sentenced to an indefinite periodt in a youth detention centre. Defence lawyer Maher Naguib described the verdict as 'unbelievable', and vowed to appeal. The boys have already been forced out of their village in  Minya, Upper Egypt. The verdict has left the boys and their families distraught and 'terrified'. Pray for Egypt's threatened Christians.

* EGYPT: UPDATE ON SAT 7 [RLPB 331 (14 Oct 2015)]. On 17 February SAT-7 Egypt Director Farid Samir received official confirmation that the case against him had been closed and all charges had been dropped. Middle East Concern reports that cameras and other equipment confiscated by the authorities in the October raid have been returned to SAT-7. The charges were proven false and SAT-7's registration and licences are all in good order. Praise God for justice.

* SYRIA: UPDATE ON ASSYRIAN CAPTIVES [RLPB 331 (14 Oct 2015)]. On Monday 22 February IS released another 43 Assyrian captives. The Assyrian International News Agency reports: 'According to the Assyrian Church of the East, there are no more Assyrians from Khabur being held by IS. However, IS is still holding 179 Assyrians it captured in the town of Qaryatain on August 6, 2015.' Praise God for the safe return of the 43 captives and pray for the remaining captive Assyrians. Pray for the Assyrian nation, a Christian refugee nation driven from its homeland. May God protect, preserve and restore the Assyrians.

* SYRIA: DANGEROUS ESCALATION
The Syrian government made great advances in 2014. Then in early 2015 Turkey and Saudi Arabia escalated their support of the Islamist opposition. This changed the balance and by September 2015, al-Qaeda-aligned forces were pressing into Latakia (the Alawite heart) and IS was poised to cut the M5 Highway, severing Damascus from the rest of the country. Either would have been fatal and IS was poised to fill the vacuum in Damascus [see RLPB 322 (12 Aug 2015)]. It was at this point that Russia entered the fray, at Syria's invitation, to defend its own interests and help fight for the preservation of a secular, pluralist Syria. This puts Russia at odds (ultimately) with both the Sunni Axis and with Iran. Unnerved by Iran's Shi'ite sectarianism, the Syrian government is leaning increasingly on Russia. Meanwhile, with total disregard for Syria's Christians and other minorities, the West is backing the Turkey-Arab Sunni Axis, which seeks regime change in Damascus so it can install a Sunni dictator more amenable to Sunni interests.

The primary objective of the loyalist offensive in the north has been to close the Turkish border through which jihadists flow in and IS oil flows out. Syrian forces are now very close to severing the critical rebel supply-line that runs from Turkey to Aleppo. With the balance shifting again, Turkey has escalated its calls for a no-fly zone and, along with Saudi Arabia, is appealing for Western support for an invasion. Saudi Arabia has deployed fighter aircraft to Turkey's Incirlik air base, (purportedly to fight Islamic State) and is calling for the rebels to be supplied with surface-to-air missiles for use against loyalist aircraft. Any foreign invasion would be illegal and explosive. Meanwhile, the West -- which competes with Russia for markets -- is ramping up its 'Russiaphobia' to new heights. Reports even claim that Germany's migrant crisis is part of Putin's grand conspiracy to destroy Angela Merkel and all Europe with her. In truth, the migrant crisis is the result of a regime change operation gone wrong, followed by a catastrophic open-door migration policy.

The Syrian government is all that stands between Syria's imperilled minorities and genocidal jihad. Pray for God's mercy and grace and power to be manifest in Syria, for the sake of his people, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks toChristians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012), which presents a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat.

Her second book, ‘After Saturday Comes Sunday’: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East, is being published by Wipf and Stock (Eugene, OR, USA), and will be released in the coming months.  

RLPB 342. Mexico: needing a word from Pope Francis (plus China update)

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 342 | Wed 03 Feb 2016

MEXICO: NEEDING A WORD FROM POPE FRANCIS
-- Plus China Update: Pastor Gu Yuese arrested.
By Elizabeth Kendal

Pope Francis will visit Mexico for a six-day tour over 12-17 February. His itinerary will include visits to poor and indigenous communities and his message will 'highlight issues of economic justice, migration, drug-related violence and the rights of indigenous peoples'.

source

His tour will commence in the south and end in the far north, in Ciudad Juárez, from where he will enter the US, apparently in solidarity with migrants. While in Ciudad Juárez, Pope Francis will visit a prison to meet with prisoners. Though not on the agenda, hopefully he might also get to meet Ciudad Juárez’s angels: poor Protestant youths, from a small evangelical church known as 'Psalm 100', who have risked their lives to present a message of repentance and righteousness to Ciudad Juárez’s drug-trafficking murderers, and in doing so changed their city. [See Religious Liberty Monitoring (Feb 2012)]

Though Mexico is overwhelmingly Catholic (around 80 percent of the population), the Catholic Church is in decline, riddled as it is with the rapidly growing Satanic cult of Santa Muerle (Saint Death) and the syncretism so prevalent in historically animist indigenous communities. In this context, Protestant Christianity has grown from 4.9 percent of the population in 1990 to 7.6 percent in 2010, arousing jealousy and angst in the Catholic Church. Though Mexico has excellent religious freedom laws, the situation on the ground is far from satisfactory and Protestants are in the firing line. Sometimes the persecution is incited by jealous Catholic clergy. At other times it is driven by fear that Protestant refusal to participate in idol worship or animist rituals will attract the wrath of belligerent spirits. More often than not it is a mixture of both.

In the most recent case, Baptist officials have confirmed that ten Baptist families, comprising 18 adults and 10 children, have been expelled from Tuxpan de Bolanos, an indigenous Huichol community in the north of Jalisco State. (Some reports give double these numbers.) In December the village assembly adopted a resolution vowing to expel the Baptists if they did not return to Roman Catholicism, which the assembly described as 'the traditional faith'. Even though state and federal government officials and the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission were alerted, no action was taken to save the believers from forced displacement. On 26 January the Protestants were informed a truck would come to their homes to take them away. They were warned that if they failed to co-operate they would be lynched. According to the National Baptist Convention of Mexico (NBCM), after being taken away by the truck the group was 'abandoned' in the mountains. The NBCM collected the believers and transported them to safety in Puente de Camotlan, in neighbouring Nayarit.

Such persecution occurs frequently in Mexico, especially in indigenous communities. Despite Mexico's excellent religious freedom provisions, persecution persists primarily because the country's laws are not upheld and the persecutors are never punished but are protected by Catholic officials. If Pope Francis really believes in justice and really cares about indigenous peoples and the poor, then he should raise his voice of authority and call for an end to Roman Catholic persecution of Mexico's Protestant Christians, most of whom are poor and indigenous.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT 

* God, our merciful father, will provide for the displaced Baptists of Tuxpan de Bolanos, supplying all their needs and securing justice on their behalf.

'Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. . . . For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.' (Psalm 100:3,5 ESV)

* Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, will lead and guide Mexico's Protestants, especially their local shepherds/pastors, as they risk much to offer life and hope to a troubled land and a desperately needy people.  Lord, in your grace and mercy, continue to bless their courageous, sacrificial and costly witness.

* the Holy Spirit will move Pope Francis to raise his authoritative Catholic voice in defence of religious freedom and in the cause of justice, for the sake of Mexico's mostly poor and indigenous, persecuted Protestants.


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN WHOLE ARTICLE
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PROTESTANTS PERSECUTED IN MEXICO

Mexico's population is 80 percent Roman Catholic, but that Church is declining while Protestant Christianity is growing. Despite excellent legislation for religious freedom, Mexico's laws are not upheld and Roman Catholics who persecute Protestants are never punished. The problem is most severe in indigenous communities where Catholicism is blended with traditional animist beliefs and practices. On 26 January ten Baptist families who refused to return to Catholicism were forcibly expelled from their indigenous community in Jalisco. Despite the authorities being alerted, no action was taken to protect the Protestants who were loaded into a truck, driven into the mountains and abandoned. The National Baptist Convention of Mexico went and took them to safety. Such persecution is frequent in Mexico, especially in indigenous regions. Please pray for Mexico and its Church.

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CHINA UPDATE: PASTOR GU YUESE ARRESTED

Pastor 'Joseph' Gu
(source:shanghiist)

Last week's RLPB 341 reported that the Three Self Patriotic Movement (China's official Church) and China Christian Council (official organisation) had dismissed Pastor 'Joseph' Gu Yuese as pastor of the 10,000-strong TSPM Chongyi Church in the Zhejiang capital, Hangzhou, after he criticised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policy of removing crosses in Zhejiang. On 27 January police arrested Pastor Gu at his home and placed him in secret detention where he is reportedly being investigated for corruption. According to reports, 'The incident has sparked significant uproar in the Christian community in China.' As China Aid head Bob Fu told the BBC, the charges are nothing more than 'political revenge' for disloyalty to the CCP. Please pray.

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today 
(Deror Books, Dec 2012).

RLPB 302, March Update, Incl. India, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Mexico, Nigeria, Syria

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 302 | Wed 25 Mar 2015

By Elizabeth Kendal

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2 ESV)

MARCH 2015 UPDATE -- During March we prayed concerning ...

* INDIA (RLPB 299), where Hindu nationalism is turning India into a tinderbox of sectarian tension.

MOTIVATED BY HATE AND IMPUNITY

click on map to enlarge

Early on Saturday 14 March a group of around eight men broke into the Convent of Jesus and Mary School at Ranaghat, Nadia District, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Because the attackers reportedly fled into Bangladesh -- and may indeed be Bangladeshis -- the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is handling the investigation. Christian leaders told Morning Star News they are convinced the attack was not random and that convent was targeted precisely because it is a Christian institution.

The attackers held a pistol to the guard's head, tied him up and entered the convent at 2:30am. They can be identified as their faces were caught on CCTV security cameras. After disconnecting the phone lines they proceeded to loot the school of US$19,255. Instead of leaving with the loot, the attackers proceeded upstairs into the nun's quarters where they demanded to see the most senior sister, whom they gagged and violently pack-raped for over an hour. They then proceeded to ransack the offices systematically and desecrate the chapel. The 72-year-old nun who was raped was taken to hospital in a serious condition. On 20 March she was flown out to an unknown location. 'My heart is broken,' said the nun, who also said she forgave her attackers. This was a robbery and a hate crime. Knowing that Christians can be attacked with impunity doubtless also contributed to the target selection. Pray for an end to impunity. Pray for the Church in India.

* IRAN (RLPB 300), where ascendant Iran's strategic power is acting as a cover for the state's systematic persecution of Christians.

UPDATE / CORRECTION: Middle East Concern reports that the charges leading to Behnam Irani's six-year sentence in remote Zabol were dropped on appeal on 15 December 2014. Behnam Irani remains in Ghezal Hesar Prison in Karaj and is due for release in 2017. Praise God for courageous, faithful, principled lawyers like Moshkani Farahani; may the Lord have mercy on him and bless him. Pray for Behnam Irani and the other Christian prisoners; may the Lord sustain and bless them.

* PAKISTAN (RLPB 301), after suicide bombers from the Pakistani Taliban targeted two churches in Youhanabad, the largest Christian colony in Lahore.

UPDATE: ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE
As noted in RLPB 301, in the wake of the twin bombings youths from Youhanabad violently lynched two Muslim youths they believed had been involved in the terror attacks. It was a terrible and deeply unfortunate turn of events, triggered (but not justified) by the extreme level of insecurity that all Christians (devout and nominal) have to live with on a daily basis. Such insecurity can drive people paranoid with anxiety. Instead of focusing on the trigger (the bombings and insecurity), Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan called for 'tolerance' and focused on the lynchings, describing them as 'the worst form of terrorism'. He minimised the bombings by saying such incidents occur all over the world, while noting, 'A similar incident occurred right in the heart of Paris where a synagogue was attacked. But the minority Jews did not react violently in the French capital.' Thus Pakistani Christians are worse than the Jews, a statement that anti-Semitic Islamic jihadist forces would doubtless interpret as justification or even as incitement. Social media subsequently ran hot with anti-Christian hatred. Pray for the traumatised and exceedingly vulnerable Church in Pakistan.

MARCH 2015 ROUND-UP -- also this month ...

* IRAQ: DISEASE HITS DISPLACED CHRISTIANS 

source AINA

In August 2014  IS (formerly ISIS) overran Qaraqosh and other Assyrian towns in the Nineveh Plains, displacing well over 130,000 Christians. Some 70,000 displaced Assyrians now live in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. In Ankawa, an Assyrian district in Erbil, a Christian businessman opened his building site up to displaced Christians. Now 420 families comprising some 1,800 displaced Christians live in the unfinished shopping mall. Everything is in short supply and life is difficult. The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reports that chicken pox, lice and scabies have broken out now in the complex. Like other displaced Christians (such as those in Sudan) these believers were driven from their homes precisely because they are Christians. May the Lord sustain and provide for all displaced believers.

* LIBYA: ASIAN AND EUROPEAN MEDICAL STAFF UNABLE TO LEAVE
On 16 March at least 30 IS gunmen abducted some 20 foreign medical workers from the Ibn Sina Hospital in IS-controlled Sirte. The hospital had come under attack and the medical workers, who were in the process of evacuating, were seized as they attempted to board a bus for Tripoli. The medical workers -- reportedly from the Philippines, Ukraine, India and Serbia -- appear to be the last foreign medical workers in Sirte. They were all released unharmed after they agreed to stay in Sirte and treat wounded IS jihadists. Pray for all Christians in Libya.

* MEXICO: PROTESTANTS UNDER PRESSURE
Protestants in Mexico can face serious pressure from often-syncretistic Roman Catholics who view Protestantism as non-traditional, foreign, divisive and problematic. Pressure can include denial of services and even expulsion from their village. One group of Protestants expelled from Buenavista Bahuitz village in Chiapas State in 2012 received assurances from the government on 1 December 2014 that their rights would be protected. Yet when they returned to Buenavista Bahuitz in January they were denied access and are now displaced again and living in the Jesus is the Way Church in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas. Furthermore, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that on 12 March Casto Hernandez Hernandez and his cousin Juan Placido Hernandez, both Protestant Christians in Hidalgo State, were arbitrarily imprisoned in appalling conditions for 30 hours and then expelled from their community, along with their families, after refusing to renounce their religious beliefs. Despite religious freedom being a constitutional right, state authorities rarely intervene. Pray for the Catholic Church to intervene in defence of religious freedom. Pray for Mexico's Protestant Christians.

* NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ON SATURDAY 28 MARCH 
Nigeria's presidential election will be held on Saturday 28 March. Whilst there are 14 candidates, it is really a 'two-horse race' too close to call. If a second round of voting were to be needed, it would be held within seven days of the result being announced.  President Jonathan's bid for re-election is controversial, as he (a Christian from the south-south / Niger Delta) effectively inherited the presidency during the Muslim north's turn to hold power and many believe he should not be running. A win by Muhammadu Buhari could see the ruling PDP lose power for the first time since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999.  If Jonathan wins, northern Muslims will be angry. If Buhari wins, the militants in the Niger Delta will be angry. Whatever happens, the result will doubtless be challenged and there is a high probability of violence. Boko Haram has been driven out of all but three Local Government Areas (LGAs), but not primarily by the Nigerian Army, as most of the 'heavy lifting' has reportedly been done by mercenaries and the regional military coalition [see RLPB 296 (10 Feb 2015)]. Any insecurity in the north-east could put the election result in doubt. Please pray for the Church in Nigeria.

* SYRIA: BATTLES RAGE IN WEST

While Western politicians and the media remain firmly focused on IS and its threat to Iraq, al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra is still fighting in western Syria, destroying cultural heritage and targeting minorities. Jabhat al-Nusra and IS do not differ in their treatment of 'infidels', they differ only in their treatment of Muslims. The Syrian government is engaged in fierce battles in Aleppo and Idlib Provinces [both border Turkey] where jihadists have razed archaeological sites, smashed Byzantine cemeteries, blown up churches, looted antiquities and are targeting the Assyrian/Syriac and Armenian communities. The well-armed rebels are shelling government-held areas of Aleppo and have launched an offensive to seize Idlib. Existentially threatened Christian communities are especially concerned that neo-Ottoman Turkey is training and arming the jihadists and are dismayed that the West is also. The situation for Christians in Syria is just as threatening as the situation for Christians in Iraq. Please pray.

* SYRIA: CAPTIVES IN THE NORTH-EAST 
Well over 200 Assyrian Christians seized by IS from their villages on the Khabour River in Hasseka in February, remain in captivity. [See RLPB 298, (24 Feb 2105)] Please pray.

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes." (Psalm 118:8-9 ESV)

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today 
(Deror Books, Dec 2012).