MARCH 2008 NEWS REPORTS:
March 28, 2008: (Human Rights Watch) - The Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa should raise the case of detained political and human rights activists in his meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad during the Arab Summit in Damascus on March 29-30. Click here to read more.
March 30, 2008: (Christian Newswire) - Bill Keller, the world's leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, has received numerous death threats from Muslims who want him dead for posting the controversial anti- Muslim movie Fitna on his website. Fitna is a film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Dutch parliament. The movie offers his view on Islam and the Qur'an. Click here to read more.
March 28, 2008: (Compass Direct News) -Police issued written orders for three Algerian churches to cease activity this week, bringing to 19 the number of congregations told to shut down since November, an Algerian Protestant leader said. Click here to read more.
March 26, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Christian-born converts to Islam in Egypt wishing to return to their former faith have found their way blocked by an appeal before the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court. Judge Muhammad Husseini asked Egypt’s top judicial body on March 4 to review the constitutionality of a law granting citizens the right to change religions. Click here to read more.
March 25, 2008: (HRWatch) "Saudi Arabia should urgently enact a penal code to protect all criminal suspects against arbitrary arrest, Human Rights Watch said in two reports released today... Current practices in Saudi justice cannot be seen as fair, said Joe Stork, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Suspects are stuck in a faulty system without any semblance of due process and fair trial rights." Click here to read more.
March 19, 2008 (Compass Direct News) Days after the body of a kidnapped archbishop was found buried in northern Iraq, fresh kidnappings and murders continue to haunt the country’s Christians this Passion Week. “We have people threatened, people kidnapped, people killed – this is Holy Week,” Kirkuk’s Chaldean Archbishop Luis Sako said. Click here to read more.
March 18, 2008 (Committee to Protect Journalists) Iranian authorities should immediately disclose the legal status of Afghan journalist Ali Mohaqiq Nasab who was arrested in the north-central city of Qom 10 days ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Click here to read more.
March 18, 2008: (IFEX) Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court began deliberations March 17th to consider the appeal filed by Judge Abdul Fattah Murad against the judgment of the administrative court on December 29, 2007, which supported the freedom of the Internet and freedom of expression in Egypt. Click here to read more.
March 18, 2008: (Compass Direct News) The fourth trial hearing yesterday against the murderers of three Christians in southeast Turkey was postponed for another month after court clerks failed to file a request to replace judges accused of bias. Click here to read more.
March 17, 2008: (Compass Direct News) Police ordered two Algerian churches to cease activity last week, the latest in a series of 10 church closures and further court cases against foreign and local Christians. Click here to read more.
March 17, 2008: (Compass Direct News) In an effort to prolong the trial of two Turkish converts to Christianity accused of “denigrating Islam and Turkishness,” three gendarme soldiers on Thursday (March 13) were summoned to testify before the Silivri Criminal Court in northwestern Turkey as witnesses for the prosecution – which has yet to provide any evidence for its case. Click here to read more.
March 17, 2008: (Advocates For The Persecuted) Egyptian police arrested an Egyptian Christian bookstore employee midday Saturday, confiscating books, compact discs, and issues of a newspaper read by Christians in Egypt. Shenouda Armia Bakhait, who was working in the bookstore at the time police raided the shop, was interrogated for five hours. Mr. Shenouda was released Sunday night after posting bail in the amount of 500 EGP. According to sources in Egypt, Egyptian authorities have said a summons will be issued for Shenouda to appear in court. It is not clear what, if any, formal accusations have been made. Concerned North Americans are urged to contact Egyptian embassies to express their concern about this police raid on a Christian bookstore in Cairo, in which Christian materials were seized and police interrogated him for hours. For Egyptian Embassy contact information, and a suggested letter, click here.
March 13, 2008: (IFEX) Press group asks Jordan to reconsider new Internet cafe regulations. Click here to read more.
March 13, 2008: (Christian News Wire) The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop has been discovered following his kidnapping in late February. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted in the northern city of Mosul by men who killed his driver and two guards. Click here to read more.
March 7, 2008: (IFEX) One year after blogger Kareem Amer was sent to prison, HRinfo stated that the campaign launched by some independent newspapers has proven that Kareem Amer is innocent of the charge for which he was convicted: insulting the president. Amer was sentenced to one year's imprisonment over an article that reported on an Islamic charity assembly in Damanhour city of Delta, stating that this assembly had described the president of the Republic as the "prince of believers" (like a Khalifa in old Islamic history). Click here to read more.
March 7, 2008: (Compass Direct News) Karachi police announced the arrest last week of three Islamist militants who have reportedly confessed to the unsolved murders of seven Pakistani Christians in September 2002. The three suspects were captured February 26 at a hideout in Akhtar Colony in Karachi’s Korangi district, where the Sindh police said they also recovered a “substantial quantity” of weapons and explosives. Click here to read more.
March 6, 2008: "John Eibner, who heads a worldwide Christian human rights group, says although the U.S.-led military surge is reducing violence overall in Iraq, the situation for Christians is still tense and dangerous. A Catholic archbishop was recently kidnapped in eastern Mosul, and his two bodyguards -- who were both Christian -- were shot and killed. This is the latest in a long line of violent acts targeting Christians throughout Iraq. Since the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, more than 400,000 Christians have been forced to flee the country." Click here to read more.
March 4, 2008: (IFEX) The General Staff has charged lawyer and human rights activist Eren Keskin for "denigrating the army" under Article 301, and asked the Istanbul Bar Association to carry out a disciplinary investigation against her. Click here to read more.
March 4, 2008: (IFEX) Reporters Without Borders has strongly condemned police who detained and beat Tunisian journalist, Sihem Bensedrine, president of the working group on press freedom in North Africa, and her husband, Omar Mestiri, managing editor of the newspaper "Kalima" on their arrival at la Goulette port on 3 March 2008. Click here to read more.
March 3, 2008: (IFEX) The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the one-year jail sentence handed down in absentia to an Iranian-American journalist working for U.S.-backed Radio Farda by a Revolutionary Court on Saturday. Click here to read more.
March 2, 2008: (Reuters) An Egyptian court on Saturday upheld a lower court ruling obliging Egypt's Coptic Christian church to acknowledge an Egyptian man's right to remarry after a civil court granted him a divorce, judicial sources said...Some Egyptian Christians convert to Islam to obtain a divorce, to get married, or to get a second marriage. Click here to read more.
March 1, 2008: (Assist News Service) Three buried following bishop’s abduction in Iraq -- Funerals were held today for the driver and two bodyguards of Archbishop Faraj Rahho. No official word received yet on the condition and whereabouts of the shepherd of Chaldean Christians in Iraq. Click here to read more.
March 1, 2008: (Compass Direct News) Kidnappers are demanding a huge ransom for a Chaldean Archbishop abducted last week in northern Iraq, sending fear through the country’s Christian community, a local priest said.
Since the Friday (February 29) kidnapping in Mosul, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho’s captors have refused to decrease the amount of money they are demanding for his release, according to Father Najeeb Mikhail. Click here to read more.
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