Muslim convert face prersecution in Egypt

August 8th, 2010

Muslim converts face persecution in Egypt
Posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 11:13 (GMT)

Muslims in Egypt who change their faith face persecution by the state and rejection from their families, an investigation by Release International has shown, according to the latest edition of the ministry’s magazine.

A Muslim woman who became a Christian told Release how she was kidnapped by her relatives, who pulled out her fingernails to try to make her renounce her new faith.

Mary, not her real name, works secretly to help women like herself – those from a Muslim background, who have chosen to change their religion. She described how some relatives tortured her to try to get her to return to Islam.

“They tortured me, pulled out my nails and burnt me but God gave me a way out,” she said.

Mary became a Christian at the age of 21, after working for a Christian lawyer. She told Release: “I saw that Jesus was fair with everyone; he was gentle with the needy.”

After changing her faith Mary had to leave her family and resorted to living on the streets. Christians she met were suspicious of her, fearing she may have been a spy. They refused to take her in.

“Some priests even told me to return to Islam and my family,” she said.

Eventually she was helped by an Orthodox priest and met other believers from a Muslim background for the first time.

Mary began to help them. But state security were aware of what she was doing and informed her family that she had become a Christian activist. Her relatives kidnapped her and tortured her for seven days before she was able to escape.

Mary is still followed by state security and has had to change her address five times.

Christians from a Muslim background also face other problems. “State security tell their employers they are converts and they fire them,” said Mary.

“Families also marry off convert girls to Muslims, or lock them away in their houses. They even disfigure the girls’ faces with acid.”

Others told Release that they have been arrested and tortured by state security for changing their faith to Christianity. Another faces a fatwa calling for his death. They are forbidden from changing the religion shown on their identity cards.

Many are under pressure to leave Egypt, yet choose to stay and bring the gospel to their people.

Despite the danger, Mary says she will carry on working to help girls who have become Christians. “Jesus Christ is someone who is worth doing this for. It is our gift of suffering for him.”

Release CEO Andy Dipper adds: “Mary has asked for prayer for protection, wisdom and power, as she cares for young girls who have converted to Christianity.

“Release is helping believers like Mary. We are supporting a safe house for Christian women from a Muslim background, and funding education for children who have lost their parents as a result of persecution. Help us to help our Christian brothers and sisters in Egypt.”

Egypt was a major centre for Christian scholarship until taken over by Islam in AD639. Today Egypt has the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Christians, mainly Copts, make up around 10 per cent of the population. Yet Christians are denied political representation and discriminated against in education and employment. Muslims who change their faith are regarded as apostates, who have betrayed not only Islam, but their families and their country.

Through its international network of missions Release supports Christians imprisoned for their faith and their families in 30 nations. It supports church workers, pastors and their families, and provides training, Bibles, Christian literature and broadcasts. Release is a member of the UK organisations Global Connections and the Evangelical Alliance.

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Religious freedom declines in Egypt

October 27th, 2009

The U.S. Department of State, in the International Religious Freedom Report 2009, reveals what human rights organizations already knew: one of the main sources of religious persecution is the failure to ensure justice using laws already in place. In other words, do nothing and let the most violent and lawless rule the land through intimidation. “The status of respect for religious freedom by the Government declined somewhat during the reporting period, based on the failure to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of increased incidents of sectarian violence,” says the report.

Translating that government-speak into real life, what this really means is that haters of Christians in Egypt have little to fear from the government if they burn churches, kidnap and rape Christian girls and women, and spark riots where Christians and their homes and businesses are attacked.

I grew up in the Deep South of the U.S. in the days when American cities suffered numerous race-related violent incidents and riots. These events didn’t just happen. They occurred because the police in these racist-strongholds quietly stood back and let it all happen. They let the mobs rule the land.

Police in Egypt are no different. They just let it all happen. And, sometimes, adding insult to injury, they arrest the victims and torture them in order to appease the mobs, so those same mobs won’t turn their fury on the government.

How many Americans have been to Egypt as tourists? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I’m sure it’s a very large figure, because Egypt is a strikingly beautiful country, with a people that have an extraordinarily gracious and delightful manner, because they are blessed with age-old customs of hospitality that put many Americans to shame. If the government of Egypt decided to change one thing – applying an even-handed, equal application of the law to all its citizens – truly this country would be a beacon of hope, a light of inspiration for noble ideas that have inspired the human race since the dawn of civilization and the earliest attempts to codify human behavior into laws. Instead, through the default of inaction, they continue to allow a small minority of trouble makers to rule this land.

I found, in growing up in a racist community in the deep South, that it didn’t take very many scary people to frighten a whole lot of people for a long time. Those willing to set fires, break windows, and beat up innocent people on the streets don’t have to number in the tens of thousands to effectively rule a country through fear.

How can we get Egypt to change? We start with our own government in the U.S. We write letters and call our politicians and explain to them that we care about Egypt’s citizens. It’s important to us that they receive an equal application of justice under their country’s legal system.

We then go on to inform people in the U.S. what the real situation is in Egypt. Many Americans tend to adopt, by simple default, a very skewed view that is promoted by the uninformed seeking to sensationalize fears following 9/11. This view leads some Americans to believe that most Muslims are dangerous, and that the Middle Eastern countries are pretty much all Muslim. Well, there are millions of Christians in the Middle East. And, there are millions of peaceful Muslims in the Middle East. There are a lot of Muslims who have been taught that Christians are infidels. Most of these Muslims, though they may certainly practice some levels of discriminatory behavior toward Christians as a result of the way they were trained as children, are peaceful, albeit prejudiced people. They are no different, in their actions, from many U.S. Southerners in the 1950s who treated African Americans with contempt and hatred because they were taught that way as children.

It’s so important that Americans understand this basic fact: Most people just want to live a peaceful life with access to enough resources so they can provide for themselves and their families. A small minority seek to be change agents through using intimidation, and fear tactics. These tactics quickly disappear when the law is evenly applied and corruption in the government is not tolerated.

Prejudice can be addressed, as it was in the United States, by enforcing reasonable laws seeking to guarantee basic human rights. We still have a long ways to go in the U.S., particularly in the way we treat minorities in our justice system. There is a great disparity in how African-Americans and Caucasian Americans are handled by the criminal justice system, and it’s been difficult to change this because it’s just so ingrained in people’s minds. The prejudice is often at a subconscious level, as research has shown. But, I can certainly say there has been a huge difference from the way things were in the 1960s in the Southern U.S., when fear reigned among minority communities.

Egypt is a great country filled with noble, highly intelligent, friendly people. It’s time, as Americans, that we show the world we can love Egypt and Her people, and we can help them conquer the same demons of prejudice and sectarian violence that have plagued our country in the past, by encouraging them to be lawful and just to all their citizens. Foreign aid to Egypt could stress these vital points, and we could encourage the country to accept foreign aid-funded programs that would, through teaching and patience, show the Egyptians a better way toward a more prosperous country.

Jan

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A scandal at heart of blasphemy case

October 20th, 2009

The following news was published four days ago:

SILIVRI, Turkey, October 16 (Compass Direct News) – After three prosecution witnesses testified yesterday that they didn’t even know two Christians on trial for “insulting Turkishness and Islam,” a defense lawyer called the trial a “scandal.”

Speaking after yesterday’s hearing in the drawn-out trial, defense attorney Haydar Polat said the case’s initial acceptance by a state prosecutor in northwestern Turkey was based only on a written accusation from the local gendarmerie headquarters unaccompanied by any documentation.

“It’s a scandal,” Polat said. “It was a plot, a planned one, but a very unsuccessful plot, as there is no evidence.”

Turkish Christians Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal were arrested in October 2006; after a two-day investigation they were charged with allegedly slandering Turkishness and Islam while talking about their faith with three young men in Silivri, an hour’s drive west of Istanbul. (End of quote.)

Last year, in the U.S., I was summoned to serve on a jury for a civil case, which took about a week of my time. As part of the process for preparing me to serve on a jury, I attended a half-day mandatory seminar on the responsibilities of jury duty. One of the most interesting aspects to the seminar was a judge’s presentation on her recent trip to Italy as a consultant on jurist issues in that country. What this judge explained to us that I was unaware of, is how unique the U.S. jurist system really is in the entire world. In Italy and many other countries, there is no concept of juries begin composed of a dozen or more common citizens chosen at random from the population. Instead, there are professional jurists of various degrees. In other countries, a judge or judges decide your guilt or innocence.

In Turkey, the courts don’t have a jury system. Judges alone decide your fate, if you are accused.

In the U.S., we have no laws condemning blasphemy against one’s notion of God. Our ancestors had suffered enough under such laws centuries ago to know that they did not want to recreate that system in the New World.

The real scandal is that anyone would be arrested for expressing their beliefs about God. The real scandal is that we Americans, who enjoy the freedom to share our religious views, accept the status quo in these other countries for the purpose of political expediency. We could, with the freedom we so generously have been given, take to the streets and demand our government puts pressure on these countries to reform their systems. We could decide that supporting free speech in the world was more important than protecting our access to power and influence and oil and all those material benefits that we enjoy while looking the other way when men, women and children are arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and killed because they said something about God that someone else didn’t like.

We could, but we don’t.

And that, my friends, is truly scandalous.

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A daunting task

October 14th, 2009

I’m back after an almost three-month leave of absence, and it’s hard to know where to begin. The news stream of cases of human rights abuses against religious minorities in Middle Eastern nations that arrives in my email box, or even populates national news websites, reminds me a little of that opening scene in the Matrix movies of the endlessly streaming lines of computer code. The stories of religious persecution, as heartbreaking as they are, in the aggregate really do seem overwhelming. Compassion fatigue is a definite threat for those who advocate for human rights.

According to Wikipedia, “Compassion fatigue, also known as a Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a term that refers to a gradual lessening of compassion over time. It is common among victims of trauma and individuals that work directly with victims of trauma. It was first diagnosed in nurses in the 1950s. [1] Sufferers can exhibit several symptoms including hopelessness, a decrease in experiences of pleasure, constant stress and anxiety, and a pervasive negative attitude. This can have detrimental effects on individuals, both professionally and personally, including a decrease in productivity, the inability to focus, and the development of new feelings of incompetency and self doubt.”

I read the news stories from organizations like http://www.compassdirect.org, and I wish I could step through a matrix of time and resources and be that Good Samaritan, but I’m stuck here in the U.S. amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and … well, I’m here and they are there. Prayers are unbounded by time and distance. But, practical advocacy and aid is needed and many Americans are so overwhelmed in coping with this huge economic change they cannot keep up with it all.

I almost think a new strategy is needed, and the tools like Twitter, and social networking sites could be a powerful thing – we saw this recently in Iran – yet, how exactly is something like that mobilized? Or, is it more of a spontaneous arising? Will Middle Easterners themselves end up being their own rescuers as they see the West more and more mired in their own often self-made quandaries?

That Statue of Liberty has been a beacon of hope – a focal point on one precious word that all peoples from time to time have seen great value in – and that is freedom. Yes, people abuse freedom and do ugly things. But, in our innermost selves, we know in our hearts we are free to believe or not to believe in ideas – religious, ethical, or political. The difficulty has been in sharing our beliefs with others without fear of being imprisoned or tortured; beaten or killed.

My leave of absence made itself a necessity even though I would have preferred to put it off: the day of reckoning came and I had to recharge because I was out of both energy and ideas. It came to me that in the area of human rights and religious freedom, the world’s economic bubble and resulting crash was mirrored throughout the non-profit universe as well. Back in 2007 and 2008 there was a lot of hope and a whirlwind of activity by many Westerners making trips to various countries, and supporting all kinds of programs. Mission tourism was a big deal. Then, a quiet descended and I wonder what has happened to all those who are still forced to run for their lives when they offended someone in their family, or their community because they made a choice to express their beliefs, or even more inciting — to change their beliefs?

I think they must still be there, living daily amid threats, weaving in and out of the busy streets in major Middle Eastern cities, which have become cities of refuge that provide the welcome camouflauge of crowds for those who must leave their homes in smaller villages, towns and cities, because their families and neighbors consider them apostates worthy of death. They are still there, because they cannot get visas to leave, or authorities seeking to pacify local religious leaders stop them from getting on airplanes, or ships, or trains and going to another country. They are still there coping with a daily struggle, meeting with others who are like-minded in small groups, helping one another survive in an incredibly stressful and difficult situation.

Would it make a difference to you if I listed the names or the details of these cases? Other organizations have listed them, and sometimes it helps. Other times, it seems it doesn’t. We received a letter this month from a Coptic priest in Egypt. It’s a letter that leaves you feeling helpless, because you know that there are so many others in the same boat – persecuted, abused, forced to flee in the night, hoping that the U.S. Embassy in Cairo will spread a little of that freedom to a few Egyptians, too. (Don’t wait on it, folks, because that is simply not their priority.) Still, these suffering ones hope, and stand in line, outside that embassy, because they believe that maybe – just maybe – that precious freedom Americans have will somehow, someday come to their own country, and spread among their own countrymen. Who has the heart to tell them it’s probably not going to happen? Who has the heart to tell them they are in it for the long, long haul? No Westerner is going to rescue them. Maybe that one case in a hundred that catches the eye of the media will result in one person finding that elusive freedom among the tens of thousands who suffer each day.

Well, back to work. One day at a time. I thank God for His grace.

Jan

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HR defenders need advocacy, too

July 24th, 2009

Joseph Francis, a minority rights defender in Pakistan, was jailed by Islamists in Pakistan on July 12th, according to Compass Direct News. According to a statement from the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement in Lahore, “His only crime was to help suffering parents of a young Christian girl who was taken away from her family.” Francis was involved in an all-too-typical case in Middle Eastern countries: a marital dispute between a Muslim and a Christian, in which the Muslim man claims to have become a Christian in order to convince a Christian woman to marry him, but after the marriage, pressures his wife to convert to Islam. These kinds of cases can be extremely difficult to resolve, because in Islamic countries, preference in laws governing all family matters is given to the Muslim spouse.

Middle Eastern human rights advocates like Francis often pay a heavy price for their moral calling on behalf of others. Human rights defenders in countries where human rights abuses flourish often suffer to a greater degree even than those for whom they advocate. This is really no surprise. Government and societal leaders who use oppressive tactics against a minority population figure that targeting the “ring leaders” will cause a serious blow to the morale of a persecuted people being denied fair treatment. They hope to instill fear in those who may then feel too weak to continue pressing for more humane treatment. Targeting a ringleader is an effective way to scare others into compliance.

Journalists and indigenous attorneys who defend minority rights, in particular, pay a heavy price. Often, human rights abuses are closely tied to government corruption. Since those who are victims of corrupt officials often seek out journalists to hear their stories, journalists often find themselves the targets of corrupt officials. Attorneys who represent those persecuted for their faith often find themselves besieged with threats of violence, even death, and harassment from governmental authorities and police.

It can be difficult to separate out the various factors that contribute to human rights abuses. Minority populations are always more susceptible to being victimized, and in the Middle East, being a member of a minority religion often means being mistreated. Government policies can either encourage or discourage what is often long-standing societal discrimination. Unfortunately, it’s uncommon for a government in the Middle East to urge its people toward tolerance and away from discrimination. As a result, people grow up with a bad attitude, essentially.

I heard of one young woman raised in an Islamic family, who as a schoolgirl, chaffed in indignation at the placement of her desk next to a Christian girl’s desk. She had been raised to view Christians as inferior. She worked hard to make life as uncomfortable as possible for her desk mate. Later, she herself became a Christian, and was confronted as a young adult with life-threatening abuse from the same family members who had reared her to hate Christians.

Magnify this story by millions of people, and you begin to see the immensity of the task these native advocates face daily.

When governments confront corruption, and expose it, there is a greater opportunity to make real progress on improving human rights. But, before governments can confront corruption – particularly in the Middle East – someone needs to confront government. Most people will take a lot of abuse before they reach the breaking point and start forming into angry mobs in the streets that demand justice, perhaps at the risk of being shot or arrested. Even though we have seen this kind of anger erupt this past year in Egypt and Iran, most people remain too afraid, and all too aware of their frailties to mount serious opposition. But, native human rights defenders are those courageous people who have counted the cost and are willing to lay down their lives on behalf of defending those suffering persecution and mistreatment.

Without these native advocates, there would be little likelihood that we in the West could effectively improve human rights in this region of the world. We’re outsiders, but they are insiders – native sons and daughters who hear an inner voice of conscience and respond.

Many of these advocates have suffered greatly. Some have been murdered. Others have had to flee for their lives. Some have had their names posted by vigilantes who urge those who may spot them on the streets to murder them in the name of God. Some have had to move from apartment to apartment- from village to village – from city to city- fleeing persecutors who are one step behind them. Others willingly allow themselves to be taken captive, hoping for an opportunity to testify in courts that have been corrupted by bribery and the darkness of prejudice, hatred, and ignorance. Still, these native advocates hope that someone will hear their voice – that conscience will be pricked and someone holding the gavel or the power to effect change will catch the vision and become part of the solution.

When we are fortunate enough to even hear their testimonies in the West – many never have their stories told outside their own countries – we should thank God for their courage and love for their fellow man. It is difficult work these advocates do. It is very hard. They work under extremely difficult conditions. There is rarely enough money available to them to take care of those among them who need medical help, legal help, and emotional comfort. Their work endangers their own families. Some never marry for that very reason. They endure all these difficulties because they have a fiery love for their fellow man, and a strong sense of both justice and mercy. They hate injustice; yet, they know that the only way to overcome persecution is to love mercy and to be willing to forgive those who abuse them.

In the end, it is this love that makes them most dangerous of all to those who fear them and seek to silence them.

Remember these native defenders.

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New Web Strategy for Advocates

July 23rd, 2009

At Advocates For The Persecuted, we have been working for the past several weeks, laying the groundwork for a major change in our web-based advocacy strategy.

We will be uploading the new website today, after much work, both in the website’s design and strategy. Future articles will be posted on our blog. These articles will focus on analysis and contexual explanations of the various human rights and religious freedom issues in the Middle East.

There are several news organizations who, through dedicated news reporters, are providing those interested in advocacy numerous reports from Middle Eastern nations. We will focus, as an organization, in helping North Americans better understand the context in which these human rights cases rest. This will increase education and awareness that we hope will lead to greater overall advocacy efforts in this region of the world.

We also want to adapt to emerging web technologies that give more immediacy and real-time involvement in human rights cases. For those who want to help us directly advocate in individual cases and in human rights issues, we ask that you follow us on Twitter. This way you will be alerted to the latest news updates.

Stay tuned for what we hope will be more effective advocacy.

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Church burning reveals opponents tenacity

July 23rd, 2009

One week ago Compass Direct News reported that villagers in the Egyptian village of Ezbet Basillious in Minya suspected local police in Egypt of corruption and collusion. The charge came in the wake of an arson attack on a church, presumably by Islamic adherents who reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar,” as they entered the church.

Following the attack, two Coptic Christians were arrested for the arson attack on their own church.

Other Coptic Christians pointed to the unsubstantiated arrests of the Copts, and that police guards who were stationed outside the church had left their posts to drink tea at a local cafe, while the church burned. Those two facts, said local Copts, indicated police collusion in the attack on the church.

Witnesses reported to Compass News Direct that one of the guards was heard telling people, “Say Reda [Gamal] set fire to the church.” Reda Gamal was one of the Copts later arrested on suspicion of having set the church on fire.

This event is all the more intriguing because it offers a glimpse into the incredible tenacity of the formidable opposition remaining against any visible demonstration of Christianity in Egypt, and particularly in Minya. This opposition continues to effectively prevent new churches from being constructed despite strides made in eliminating long-standing previous legal obstacles to church construction and repair in Egypt.

The Egyptian government requires religious adherents to petition for governmental approval to use a building for religious gatherings. Typically churches have had an extremely difficult time securing this permission, as well as gaining official approval to repair churches or construct new ones. In the recent past, the Egyptian government responded to international criticism in this area by streamlining the approval process. In this latest church attack in Egypt, this church was a house church that had been promised a prayer license on July 3rd. This permission followed a 30-year struggle, so far unsuccessful, for this church to construct a new worship facility. After finally achieving one small step in the dream of having a suitable place to worship, Islamists responded by burning the church. Adding insult to injury, the Christians were themselves charged with arson.

This kind of police collusion was seen, at one time, in Southern communities in the United States where I spent my childhood. It took a great struggle to finally break through this horrible problem and restore dignity to a suffering African-American population.

However, the U.S. did have much better laws protecting religious expression than Egypt has had. Although the country’s constitution gives lip service to protecting religious freedom, Egypt’s citizenry has lived for three decades under an official state of emergency, which has suspended constitutional protections. As a result, these laws are only enforced at the whim of local officials.

This places the onus of ensuring religious freedom on the arbitrary decisions of local Egyptian police – a most unsatisfactory arrangement for the nation’s millions of Christians and other religious minorities. Such a state of affairs is a perfect breeding ground for smoldering anger, which erupts periodically, tragically inciting injury and death to Egyptians as sectarianists rise up against their own countrymen.

There is hope, however, in native religious minority presses that are issuing appeals to the nation’s conscience. These presses publish Christian and secular articles and are operated at great risk and sacrifice by the same kind of pioneers who once pamphleteered against an oppressive government ruling over colonies that later became the United States of America.

If you would like to help further this collective voice of conscience for this historically great nation of Egypt, please visit our website.

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The dream for freedom

June 29th, 2009

To some Westerners, the idea that religious freedom can finally come to Middle-Eastern Islamic countries, where Christians and other religious minorities are persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and even killed, seems like an impossible dream.

Millions in the Middle East do not have the choice to explore, or even ask questions about any religion other than Islam. Thousands of former Muslims are risking their lives just to share their religious beliefs with friends, coworkers and family members in Islamic countries.

But, we also believe that even though it seems impossible, expanding religious freedom in the Middle East is still very much possible.

We are thankful for the many people who have supported organizations that advocate for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities mistreated because of their faith. These humanitarian and charitable organizations have brought together, in partnership, concerned citizens living in freedom with suffering people living in places of the world where they are denied religious freedom.

We join these other organizations in providing practical aid and advocacy for those persecuted for their faith in God. We, too, bring their needs, their stories, their voices, and their inspiration to North Americans.

But, we also have this crazy dream: Religious freedom in the Middle East. When we speak with our Middle Eastern partners, this is what is on their hearts and minds.

When people are allowed the freedom to express their faith and to engage in dialogue within a “marketplace of ideas,” all society benefits from this free exchange.

No one should be under compulsion to believe, or observe a particular religion. Everyone should have the freedom to choose to believe or not to believe a particular faith without suffering persecution, assault, or denial of basic human rights.

If our focus is specific, then our goal can become specific, too. When a goal is specific, then it follows that specific steps can be undertaken to change what appears to be an impossible situation. Even though it may be challenging, increasing the level of religious freedom allowed in these countries is not impossible after all.

In the past month, the world witnessed a large number of Iranians who want more freedom and are willing to risk their lives to achieve it. The same desire lies within the hearts of many other Middle Easterners.

Indigenous attorneys are at the forefront of this push for more religious freedom in Egypt — the most populous Middle-Eastern nation. They are questioning the status quo in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. Recent cases are using the legal system to fight for free expressions of religious identity. Egyptians are appealing to the courts using logical arguments, which are exposing the conflict between Islamic law and basic human rights provisions embedded in Egypt’s laws.

I’ll post more details about some of these cases over the following weeks. Such developments should encourage us to see that there is hope for more peace and more freedom in the Middle East by working through indigenous people who share a dream for more freedom. They deserve our support in this difficult struggle.

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