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INDEPTH ANALYSIS:
Egyptian ID cards cause of suffering for religious minorities
An Egyptian news article -- Islamic Experts Call for Mohammed Hegazy's Death -- is a revealing window into what religious minorities face in Egypt.
We are concerned that Middle Eastern Christians fleeing persecution are having more difficulty obtaining asylum in the United States. Click here to find out why.
LATEST NEWS:
June 25, 2008: (Campaign to Ban Torture) A call on the President for an executive order banning torture was released on Wednesday by a broad bipartisan coalition including former national security and defense officials from the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bush Administrations and leaders from evangelical, Baptist, Catholic, and other faiths. They said that such a ban would improve national security and recommit America to its values. Their call coincides with ongoing debate over the treatment of prisoners and comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of habeas corpus for prisoners at Guantánamo. Click here to read more.
June 25, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church. A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended. Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, said the source. Click here to read more.
June 23, 2008: (HRW) Iranian judicial authorities should guarantee two Kurdish women’s rights activists transparent court proceedings when their cases come up for a hearing, Human Rights Watch said today. Activist Hana Abdi is appealing a five-year prison sentence, while Ronak Safarzadeh is on trial on charges that could lead to a death sentence. Human Rights Watch urges Iranian authorities to ensure fair and open court proceedings for both women. The government’s previously documented patterns of restricting freedom of association and expression using broad security laws raise concern that the officials are prosecuting both women only on the basis of their involvement in Kurdish rights and women’s rights activism. Click here to read more.
June 22, 2008: (Assist News) An Eritrean Christian, Million Mesfin Berhe, has revealed how he was imprisoned, beaten and tortured for 14 months for practicing his faith, before he managed to flee his country for a new life in Malta. As millions marked World Refugee Day around the world on Friday, he spoke to Ariadne Massa of the Times of Malta (www.timesofmalta.com) about his punishing journey and new found freedom as a refugee in Malta. Click here to read more.
June 22, 2008: (Free Copts) Barely a few weeks after the attacks on the Abu Fana monastery in El-Menya, Coptic homes and businesses in the village of Al Nazla, in the Fayoum province south of Cairo were attacked by their Muslim neighbors. The attackers shouted “Allah Akbar” and “Kill the infidels” as they hurled stones at their Christian neighbors’ homes. Click here to read more.
June 21, 2008: (Yahoo News) Police arrested 20 people when hundreds of Egyptian Muslims attacked Coptic Christian property after a woman who converted to Islam went missing, a security official said on Saturday. Click here to read more.
June 21, 2008: (Assist News) Unidentified gunmen kidnapped nine Pakistani Christians on Saturday in an attack on a religious gathering in the northwestern city of Peshawar. “The gunmen came in six vehicles and attacked the house where the Christian people were praying and took away at least nine people with them,” a senior police official, Imran Shahid, told Reuters reporter Faris Ali. Click here to read more.
June 21, 2008: (Washington Post) Israel's tiny community of Messianic Jews, a mixed group of 10,000 people who include the California-based Jews for Jesus, complains of threats, harassment and police indifference. Click here to read more.
June 20, 2008: (IFEX) ANHRI condemns the efforts of the ministerial council of Arab information ministers, held in the headquarters of the Arab League on 20 and 21 June 2008, to further restrict satellite television broadcasting. The meeting resulted in the release of a document employing overly broad terms to define a proposed regulatory framework for satellite channel transmissions. The meeting clearly pressured for the implementation of these guidelines, which were worded for ready adoption as national legislation - even though the participants insist the document is intended only as a "guide". Representatives from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria in particular pressured for the document's use to amend the national legislation of participating countries. Click here to read more.
June 20, 2008: (Assist News) In February 2006 Algerian President Bouteflika signed the controversial 'Presidential Order Concerning Religion' which severely restricts Christian worship and practice. The Order was then passed by the upper and lower houses of parliament without debate. However for two years it sat on the books without being implemented. Then in early 2008 the government finally caved in to pressure from intolerant Islamic groups and, as reported in RLP 466 (20 Feb 2008), a crackdown began... multitudes of Algerians are sick of Algeria's intolerant Islamists and its non-transparent government constantly covering up human rights abuses and cutting deals with militants. Algeria has a presidential election scheduled for April 2009, so this is a strategic time for debates about Islam, religious liberty and the future of Algeria. Click here to read full report.
June 19, 2008: (Compass Direct News) A court yesterday postponed until next Wednesday (June 25) a hearing in west Algeria for a church leader on trial for evangelism. Already convicted of evangelism and blasphemy in two separate cases this year, Rachid Muhammad Essaghir, 37, believes he is being targeted for his work with Christians in Tiaret. The convert to Christianity, who regularly posts his telephone number on evangelistic Christian satellite TV programs, said that he has received death threats from Algerian journalist Haitham Rabani in recent months. Click here to read more.
June 19, 2008: (Assist News) Four hundred Eritrean refugees deported recently by Egypt face torture, prison and even execution on returning to Eritrea ... The Washington, D.C.- based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC), reported the June 11 and 12 deportations in a news release. ICC also received reports of the deportation of additional Eritreans after June 12. Click here to read more.
June 18, 2008: (MEMRI) In the wake of the growing tensions between Copts and Muslims in Egypt, which were precipitated by the murder of four Copts in Alexandria and by violent attacks on Copts by Muslims in Upper Egypt, former Jordanian information minister Salah Al-Qallab published an article in which he called for peaceful coexistence between the majority Muslim population and Christian communities in the Middle East. Click here to read more.
June 17, 2008: (Compass Direct News) Convicted of blasphemy and evangelism in two separate cases this year, an Algerian Christian goes on trial in west Algeria for a third time tomorrow, again for evangelism. Rachid Muhammad Essaghir (previously reported as Seghir), 37, will be tried in Tissemsilt, 110 miles southwest of Algiers, for “distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims.” An evangelist and church elder for a small community of Muslim converts to Christianity in Tiaret, Essaghir believes that local police have targeted him for his religious work. Click here to read more.
June 13, 2008: (Asia News) A mentally disturbed Christian girl, 12, was allegedly raped by group of Muslims in Pakistan. The three are accused of attacking a twelve-year-old girl suffering from mental disturbances. Her father did not immediately report the crime because of threats; thanks to the support of Christian activists, he is now asking for justice. The girl will be cared for at a centre of religious sisters specialised in psychological illnesses. Click here to read more.
June 13, 2008: (Compass Direct News) In a snap ruling that surprised local Christians, an Ethiopian court has sentenced three Muslim men to life imprisonment for a deadly machete attack on two churches last March. At the initial hearing on March 26, the West Arsi Zone Higher Court handed down four sentences – life in prison for three attackers, and a three-month suspended sentence for an accomplice – for the March 2 assault in south Ethiopia that killed one and injured 17. The victims’ families said they had been told the hearing would take place on April 25 and only learned of the sentencing after their right to appeal had expired. Click here to read more.
June 12, 2008: (HRW) The Libyan government should exonerate and release 11 peaceful political activists convicted on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said today. A state security court in Tripoli on June 10 reportedly sentenced the men to 6 to 25 years in prison.
The men are part of a group of 14 arrested in February 2007 for planning a demonstration to commemorate the death of 11 people during a clash between protesters and police a year earlier. In May 2008, the authorities released one of the men, Jum`a Boufayed, and a second man, `Adil Humaid, was released on June 10. A third man, `Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi, has been missing since his arrest. Click here to read more.
June 12, 2008: (HRW) Western countries looking to increase engagement with Syria should know that Syrian authorities continue to arrest, try, and harass political and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. In May 2008, Syrian authorities detained a political writer, began the trial of two activists, and restricted the travel of at least seven others. Amidst increasing calls in Western countries to increase engagement with Syria, Human Rights Watch urged that an improvement in the treatment of these activists be at the heart of any future talks with the Syrian authorities. Click here to read more.
June 12, 2008: (U.S. Copts) Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat - Sheikh Ibrahim Bin Abdullah Al-Ghaith, General President for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), has expressed his personal willingness to fulfill the request of any country that wishes to incorporate a similar committee in its own government services. Click here to read more.
June 12, 2008: (Centre for Legal Aid) In just one month, three Christians Dr Robin Sardar, Danish Masih and Revd Frank John have been allegedly accused of blaspheming against the prophet Mohammad and of desecrating the holy Q’uran. Cases have been registered against them under section 295-C which has a mandatory death penalty. Click here to read more.
June 10, 2008: (Assist News Service) Police in the Turkish capital of Ankara have warned a legally recognized church that it would be closed in three days. That news comes from the Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC). Click here to read more.
June 10, 2008: (IFEX) Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, a veteran journalist and one of Yemen's most prominent democracy advocates, has been sentenced to six years in jail with hard labour for supporting an alleged terrorist group, report the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and other rights groups. Click here to read more.
June 9, 2008: (Compass Direct News) Iran continued a wave of arrests against Christians in recent weeks, detaining a Tehran house church leader who was previously held and tortured for religious activity. Eight policemen arrested Mohsen Namvar, 44, from his Tehran home on May 31, refusing to provide any reason for his arrest. His location remains unknown. An Iranian pastor residing outside the country said that Namvar had anticipated that police would come for him. “I know that if they decide to kill me as a martyr, you will care for my wife and my children,” the father of two told the Iranian pastor last month. Iranian police also arrested 10 Muslim converts to Christianity from the southern city of Shiraz last month. Click here to read more.
June 9, 2008: (Compass Direct News) A Jordanian Islamic law court has annulled the marriage of a former Muslim because of his conversion to Christianity. The North Amman Sharia Court in April dissolved the marriage of Mohammad Abbad, on trial for apostasy, or leaving Islam. The 40-year-old convert fled Jordan with his wife and two young children in March after another Christian convert’s relatives attacked Abbad’s family in their home and his father demanded custody of Abbad’s children. Click here to read more.
June 7, 2008: (Free Copts) On Saturday evening the 23rd of the Coptic month Beshens, also known as the 31st of May, 2008, an attack with automatic weapons was carried against unarmed monks of Abu Fana Monastery, by the village of Mallawi, Minya Governorate. The attack lasted until early the following day (Sunday) and resulted in four monks injured with bullet wounds. The attack also resulted in the kidnapping of three other monks, who were stripped of their clothes, tortured, whipped and beaten; and threatened with death after the kidnappers tried to forcibly them to convert to Islam by asking them to give the confession of Islam. Click here to read more.
June 9, 2008: (Assist News Service) Baptists from around the world will soon have their own designated site upon which to celebrate the baptism of Jesus. Cilck here to read more. The government of Jordan has designated a plot of land for the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) for such a site.
June 9, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Iran continued a wave of arrests against Christians in recent weeks, detaining a Tehran house church leader who was previously held and tortured for religious activity ... Eight policemen arrested Mohsen Namvar, 44, from his Tehran home on May 31, refusing to provide any reason for his arrest. The officers confiscated a number of the Christian’s personal belongings including his computer, printer, CDs, books and money. His location remains unknown. Click here to read more.
June 5, 2008: (Human Rights Watch) Iranian authorities should immediately grant three men detained on politically motivated charges access to proper medical care, Human Rights Watch said today. Cleric Ayatollah Kazemi Boroujerdi, journalist and activist Mohammad-Sadiq Kaboudvand, and prominent human rights defender Emad Baghi are in poor health and urgently require specialist medical attention... Boroujerdi espouses an interpretation of Islam that calls for the separation of religion and politics. It appears likely that the authorities have targeted him for his critical views about the current form of the Iranian government. Click here to read more.
June 4, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – An attack on a Christian school in Gaza last weekend has created fear among the strip’s tiny religious minority, a Palestinian Christian said. Click here to read more.
June 3, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Two Iranian converts to Christianity jailed for the past few weeks have been released by security police, who demanded valuable property deeds as bail collateral. Click here to read more.
June 3, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – An Algerian court gave four Christians suspended sentences and fines today for seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity, a Protestant church leader said. Click here to read more.
June 2, 2008: (Breitbart) A blogger released after weeks behind bars over deadly protests at Egypt's biggest textile plant for higher pay and controls on prices, said Monday he and his fellow detainees suffered weeks of "torture" ... "We were subjected to electric shocks, to beatings and there was no food and or drink for the first few days," blogger Karim el-Beheiri told AFP a day after his release. "We went through weeks of torture and humiliation." Click here to read more.
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