JANUARY 2008 NEWS REPORTS:
January 31, 2008: (Advocates For The Persecuted) Egypt’s administrative court issued two historical verdicts on Tuesday: one restricting religious freedom for citizens wishing to change from Islam to another faith, and another opening a possible window of freedom for the nation’s small number of adherents to the Baha’i religion. Click here to read more.
January 31, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – In a blow to religious freedom in Egypt, a Cairo court has ruled against a Muslim convert to Christianity who requested that his religious affiliation be changed. Click here to read more.
January 29, 2008: (AFP) - A Cairo court on Tuesday ruled to allow Egyptian Bahais to leave their religion blank on official documents, in effect restoring their access to jobs, schools and medical and financial services. The Court of Administrative Justice ruled in favour of two cases seeking to leave the religious affiliation field blank on official documents. The first case involved a lawsuit by Rauf Hindi, who was seeking legal birth certificates for his 14-year-old twins, Imad and Nancy. Click here to read more.
January 29, 2008: (Barnabus Fund) Threatened by murder, kidnapping and intimidation, Christians are coming under pressure both from lawlessness and from Islamic radicalism in Pakistan`s North West Frontier Province which borders Afghanistan. Most recently, on January 17th a church minister, Sajid William, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital city of the province. Click here to read more.
January 29, 2008: (IFEX) – A staggering 500 trials were launched against journalists, writers and bloggers in Egypt in 2007. Click here to read more.
January 29, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Jordan has increased pressure on foreign Christians living in the kingdom, expelling many long-time residents over the past 13 months in what local churches see as an attack on their legitimacy. Click here to read more.
January 26, 2008: (Advocates For The Persecuted) – An Egyptian Administrative Court hearing on a controversial petition by a Muslim convert to allow him to change his religion to Christianity raised the stakes for the nation’s converts, when Islamists gave the court a list naming those who help converts, and accusing a human rights worker of being a convert. Click here to read more.
January 25, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian judge is scheduled to rule next week on the case of a Muslim-born convert to Christianity whose court hearing threatened to turn into a brawl earlier this month. Click here to read more.
January 22, 2008: (AP) – An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said. The three-judge panel sentenced Sayad Parwez Kambaksh to death for distributing a paper that humiliated Islam, said Fazel Wahab, the chief judge in the northern province of Balkh, where the trial took place. Click here to read more.
January 21, 2008: (IFEX) During a three-hour visit to the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh on January 16, President George Bush told President Hosni Mubarak: "I appreciate the example that your nation is setting," and praised Egypt's "long and proud tradition for a vibrant civil society." Bush referred to Egypt's human rights record only obliquely, praising Egyptian journalists, judges, and "other strong civic and religious leaders who love their country and are determined to build a democratic future."Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division, said: "Given the deterioration of human rights in Egypt since President Bush initiated his so-called 'Freedom Agenda,' he should have been much more forthright in expressing support for the Egyptian activists who have been trying to exercise those rights." Click here to read more.
January 17, 2008: An Egyptian Christian, Onsy Zakhary, is in danger of imminent deportation from the U.S. to Egypt and faces probable torture if returned, say advocates. Click here to read more.
January 17, 2008: An Egyptian Christian pressured to convert to Islam, who fled to the United States in 1998, has gained a ruling from U.S. District Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie detailed in a 53-page ruling that said Sameh Khouzam made a "credible showing" that he had been tortured by Egyptian law enforcement officials before. Vanaskie ruled the government could not deport Khouzam on the basis of diplomatic assurances that Khouzam would not be tortured without court review. Sources said Khouzam was finally released from a U.S. prison yesterday. "The State Department said it has received reliable assurances that Khouzam will not be tortured if he is deported back to Egypt. Government attorneys said the court must defer to the executive branch's determination that Egypt's assurances are sufficient... 'In light of the government's refusal to expose the Egyptian diplomatic assurance to any sort of impartial review, the government may not proceed with the removal of Khouzam,' wrote Vanaskie, a judge with the court's Middle District of Pennsylvania in Scranton." This case is considered a victory for those who face deportation and torture despite U.S. State Department claims that Egypt will not torture those deported who have been outspoken about persecution of Christians.
January 15, 2008: Barnabas Fund has revised it's response to “An Open Letter and Call from Muslim Religious Leaders," published on Oct. 13, 2007. The Yale Center for Faith and Culture's response,"Loving God and Neighbor Together," offered an apology to Muslims and "effectively embraced the Muslim arguments in the 'Open Letter and Call,'"which was signed by senior evangelical leaders. Comments from Arab Christians refuting Islamic arguments and pointing to the lack of rights Christians continue to suffer in Islamic countries have now been included in Barnabus Fund's revised response. Click here to read more.
January 15, 2008: (IFEX) "In an open letter, the International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, criticises the ongoing failure of the Turkish government to reform the internationally denounced article 301 of the Turkish penal code. This criticism comes in the week of the first anniversary of the murder of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist and IPI World Press Freedom Hero." Click here to read more.
January 14, 2008: Egypt (Egypt News) -- Egyptian attorney general yesterday ordered the release of a Coptic Christian woman jailed due to a mix-up over her religion after her father briefly converted to Islam more than 45 years ago. Click here to read more.
January 11, 2008: Reporters Without Borders today called on US President Georges W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who are both making official visits to the Middle East this month, to use their trips to promote freedom of expression, which is widely violated in the region. Click here to read more.
January 10, 2008: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Pres. Bush to press for release of Saudi Arabian and Egyptian bloggers. Click here to read more.
January 8, 2008: Istanbul (Compass Direct News)A Turkish judge in the Black Sea coastal city of Samsun on Sunday (January 6) set free a teenager who confessed to making death threats against a pastor and his church, a day after authorities arrested the minor. Click here to read more.
January 8, 2008: Mosul, Iraq (ANS) -- Iraq's minority Christian population has been targeted in a series of apparently coordinated attacks in Mosul. Click here to read more.
January 6, 2008: Peshawar/Tank, Pakistan (ANS) -- Suspected militants associated with Commander Baitullah Mahsud on Friday kidnapped five Christians in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), Pakistan’s English Daily “The News” has reported. Click here to read more.
January 7, 2008: (Los Angeles) -- Mounir Bishay, President of Christian Copts of California, asks President Bush: "Why are attacks against the Coptic Christians of Egypt by their Muslim neighbors escalating alarmingly during your rule?" Click here to read more.
January 7, 2008: New York (Human Rights Watch) --"The Iranian government is relying on its broadly worded 'security laws' to suppress virtually any public expression of dissent, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. It uses these laws to subject those arrested to prolonged incommunicado detention without charge, solitary confinement, and denial of access to counsel." Click here to read more.
January 2, 2007: Istanbul (Compass Direct News) – Turkish authorities over the weekend arrested a young suspect allegedly plotting to assassinate a Christian pastor in Antalya during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Click here to read more.
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