SHORT NOTES-mailing # 482

(From Intercessors Network)
August 16, 2006

A dear friend ours, a networker, living in Nias, an island southwest of Sumatra, asks for assistance in prayer.
He works with the Spanish branch of the Red Cross, administrating aid projects among the islanders in the southern part of the island who are severely hit by earth quakes and at least one tsunami incident. Most of the islanders are Christians.

Not long ago the Red Cross were requiring quotations for their projects, and after comparing offers made by various contractors they came up with a winner. A problem occurred as one of the competitors did not accept it well that he lost the project. This particular contractor vents his anger towards our Red Cross servant as he is the “front-liner” in the organization. There are threats to bring our Red Cross worker, William, before court. This offender has been found out having a bad reputation on the island, also a Christian, going about business along the same lines whenever possible. There are other threats involved which are to be regarded as severe.

We ask you to cover this incident in prayer. We ask you to remember other areas where the weakest in the society are used for personal gain in much the same way.
We ask for prayer for brave men, who dare standing in the gap giving themselves in defending the poor and needy.
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MUSLIMS ATTACK ‘LAST CHURCH STANDING’ IN WEST JAVA’S CAPITAL

About 30 officers, Muslim youth activists and fundamentalist Muslims disrupted worship services at Batu Zaman Baptist church in West Java, Indonesia, Sunday, July 16, demanding the church close down. They insisted that no church should be seen in a Muslim-dominated area and demanded to see the church’s permit allowing worship services.
This is the “last church standing” in the Ciparay sub-district following a series of church closures in Bandung, the provincial capital of West Java. Mathias, the church’s pastor, explained that the church has attempted to obtain proper permits since opening in 1998, but local officials “were afraid to trigger social unrest.”
He added that the church received verbal consent to operate and earned acceptance by providing various community development projects such as sewing and electronics training and offering 50 scholarships to needy students regardless of faith. “But lately it seems like the locals were provoked against us,” Mathias said.
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ETHIOPIAN CONVERT HANGED ON A CROSS FOR BELIEF IN JESUS

Reports of severe persecution of Christians in western Ethiopia are trickling to the outside world by local sources who often deliver news by foot to Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

Reports of subsistence crop destruction, the razing of homes and the forced use of a Christian woman’s land to construct a mosque as part of a ‘mosque every 2 km’ plan have emerged in the last three months.
Most shocking is the incident on July 5 when ex-Muslim Shek Hamed Adem was severely beaten and hanged on a cross. The crowd yelled, “Jesus was hanged on a cross and beaten, and as His follower you also deserve the same punishment!” Team members from Voice of the Martyrs believe the persecution is the result of continued church growth.
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SAUDI ARABIA’S DEFENSE MINISTER VOWS TO BAN CHURCH CONSTRUCTION

Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, said in a recent press

conference that the Muslim nation will not allow churches to be built on its land, the birthplace of Islam. The sultan said foreigners are allowed to worship freely in their homes, but the construction of church buildings “would affect Islam and all Muslims.” The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has previously complained about Saudi Arabia’s absence from lists of countries that severely limit religious freedom, saying religious liberty “does not exist” in Saudi Arabia. The sultan came down squarely on the side of Islam saying, “This country was the launch pad for the prophecy and the message, and nothing can contradict this, even if we lose our necks.” His comments were published by Saudi newspapers and confirmed by several journalists who attended the press conference.
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CHINESE MISSIONARIES TORTURED FOR 6 HOURS IN YUNAN PROVINCE

Local police arrested four Chinese missionaries in China’s Yunan province Monday, July 24, charging them with “superstitious activity” and then torturing them for more than six hours. The head of the local police station and 10 other policemen tortured the four from 8 p.m. Monday, July 24, until 2 a.m. the following day. One woman missionary had much of her hair torn out, and all four said they were in so much pain they found it difficult to walk once released.
Police threatened to turn over the two female missionaries to a local minority tribe to be raped and said, “In this remote area, where it is far from the emperor, I can beat you until you obey. You have nowhere to lodge a complaint.” The police could not prove any wrongdoing by the missionaries and released them at about 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, after confiscating Bibles, computer disks containing hymns, and the equivalent of US$400. Two of the four missionaries had just been released in March from two years in a “re-education through labor camp” for previous religious activities.
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SUPREME COURT RULING IN INDIA MAKES CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION ‘EASIER’

On Friday, Aug. 4, India’s Supreme Court ruled that police do not require warrants to issue “First Issue Reports” and arrest or detain anyone accused of religious conversion activities. Critics say the ruling will allow Hindu sympathizers among police to act as “agents of persecution.”
The law places at risk any Christian, actively witnessing or not, whom hostile Hindu extremists bring charges against, giving rise to comparisons between this law and Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law. Previous to this ruling, Christians were “somewhat protected” because police officials were required to obtain previous sanction of the “central government or of the state government or of the district magistrate” before action could be taken. Under the new law, there is no barrier preventing police from arresting and detaining Christians accused of proselytizing.