God's Church of Faith


John 3:16	Go ye into all the world, and preach the gopel to every creature. Mark 16:15

Persecution Against Christians

•	Our Faith
•	Know Jesus ?
•	Our Pastor
•	Prayer Request
•	Recommend Us
•	Mailing List

•	Poetry Page
•	Journey of Faith
•	Inspirational
•	In The Word
•	Online Bible
•	Today's Word

•	Classified Ads
•	Message Board
•	Guest Book
•	Our Forum
•	Submit a Site
•	Directory





	Link to Us

PERSECUTION WATCH: SUDAN
March 7,2002

The government has enacted a harsh Muslim punishment on a Sudanese Christian, who had his right hand amputated for alleged theft. According to Compass Direct, church and family members said Anthony James Ladou Wani's hand was severed in January. Wani, a Kakwa tribe member in South Sudan, had been jailed in a Khartoum prison since May 2000, when he was convicted and sentenced for allegedly stealing spare car parts.

Swiss-based World Organization Against Torture reported that Wani had no legal representation at his trial, and there had not been enough evidence to convict him. "Even if it had been proved, he is a Christian," a relative of Wani told Compass. "He is not a Muslim. So he should not have been punished under Islamic law."

Released from prison shortly after his amputation, Wani is now recovering at home, although his arm has not healed. "He needs prayer, just to adjust to his situation, and accept it," the relative said. According to Sudan Victims of Torture Group, an emergency court in the southern Darfur city of Nyala gave amputation sentences in December to two other Christians, both expatriates studying in Sudan, Compass reported.

PERSECUTION WATCH: NEPAL
Feb 26, 2002

A former Buddhist-turned-missionary has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being framed on a murder charge, Gospel for Asia (GfA) said. The Christian worker was accused of killing someone by villagers who objected to his ministry, said GfA in an international appeal for prayer.

Friends and co-workers of the 26-year-old -- identified only as Manja -- are "stunned" by last month's sentence. Manja's lawyer said that there is enough evidence of his client's innocence for an appeal, which he has begun working on.

A one-time follower of Buddhism, Manja had become an atheist until his parents became Christians, GfA said. When Manja fell seriously ill and doctors were unable to help, Manja was prayed for by his parents and miraculously recovered. "Preaching Christ became the most important thing in my life," he told GfA.

Married with two small children, Manja moved with his family to an unreached village, where he began preaching and holding church services until he was arrested. He was held in jail for a year before being convicted and sentenced.

PERSECUTION WATCH: SUDAN

As an appeals court overturned the death sentence imposed on a pregnant Christian woman for alleged adultery, further details emerged about the case that caused an international outcry.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), 18-year-old Abok Alfa Akok told police that she had been raped during her husband's six-month absence in Khartoum. But the man she named denied the charge and was acquitted because Akok was unable to produce the four male witnesses required under Muslim law to validate her testimony.

Akok was subsequently sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery under Islamic Shariah law. The sentence prompted complaints by religious and human rights groups that said the strict Muslim code should not be applied to people of other faiths. Reuters reported Monday that an appeals court had overturned the death penalty and ordered a "rebuke" sentence instead.

CSW chief executive Mervyn Thomas said that he welcomed the decision. But he remained concerned that non-Muslims were subject to Shariah law. "This and the continuing restrictions faced by Christians in the north clearly violate Sudan's own constitution and international standards of religious freedom."

PERSECUTION WATCH: SUDAN
Feb 08, 2002

A convert from Islam has gone into hiding after being beaten by state security police when he tried to leave the country. Aladin Omer Agabni Mohammed was turned back for the second time in five days when he tried to check for his flight at Khartoum airport Sunday.

Security police confiscated Mohammed's passport and money, and beat him. They told him any Muslim who converted to Christianity was an animal, and threatened to "eliminate" him if he told anyone how he had been treated, reported Compass Direct. After his release, Mohammed went into hiding.

The 34-year-old became a Christian 11 years ago and has been harassed by police since then. He has had his left hand broken, been tortured with melting blocks of ice placed on his chest, and was beaten.

When he first tried to leave the country Jan. 30 - intending to fly to Kenya to enroll in a seminary - he was refused permission and ordered to staying Khartoum, reporting to security police several times a day. A Christian leader in Khartoum told Compass: "The government here will not allow any Muslim to convert, and yet they are talking about Muslim-Christian dialogue."

PERSECUTION WATCH: TURKEY
Feb 07, 2002

Authorities have made sweeping moves against the country's house-church network, warning more than 20 congregations that they face prosecution for meeting illegally. Members have been told they could be fined or face imprisonment if they continue to hold services.

Police have delivered formal notifications to groups in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakir, Bursa and Mersin in the last two months, Compass Direct reported. The papers refer to zoning laws that prohibit homes and shops from being used as places of worship. Several congregations have already announced that they intend to defy the order and keep meeting, arguing that they are not breaking any laws. Only a handful of the country's evangelical churches currently meet in officially recognized buildings

According to Compass, the authorities' actions stand in marked contrast to official attitudes toward Muslims. The government admitted in November that 81 percent of mosques under construction in the country had no license, but no crackdown has been taken.

Mustafa Demir, the lawyer representing most of the Istanbul congregations involved in the legal battle, said: "Given recent changes in the constitution, and the existing zoning practices allowing Muslim prayer houses, there is no reason for these Protestant Christians to be intimidated. We will certainly win all these cases."

PERSECUTION WATCH: GEORGIA

Supporters of a defrocked Orthodox priest stormed a Baptist warehouse and set fire to piles of Bibles yesterday. A mob of around 150 forced their way into the building in Tbilisi to protest the work of evangelical groups in the country. No one was injured.

Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, the head of the Baptist Union, was handed a copy of a partially burned Bible after the attack. "[It] was still warm," he told Keston News Service (KNS). "I felt incredible pain. It was a copy of the Bible burnt in the name of Christ and religion."

The raiders broke open locks with iron bars and doused the pile of thousands of Bibles with gasoline before setting it ablaze. Half the volumes destroyed belonged to Baptist churches, with the rest the property of the Georgian Bible Society, an umbrella group including Baptists and the Orthodox.

Songulashvili said the entire warehouse was "turned upside down," KNS reported. The attack was the latest incident in a "long-running reign of terror" against religious minorities orchestrated by Father Basil Mkalavishvili, he added. Mkalavishvili was removed as an Orthodox priest in 1996.

Persecution Watch: China

A Hong Kong businessman feared to be facing the death penalty for smuggling Bibles to the mainland has been jailed instead for two years. Observers believe that Li Guangqiang was given the unexpectedly light sentence to try to deflect criticism of China's record on religious freedom, in advance of President Bush's visit next month.

Guangqiang, 38, was convicted of "illegal operation," the Associated Press (AP) said. He had been detained last May after taking more than 30,000 Bibles into China for the Shouters movement, which has approximately half a million members. Two Chinese Christians involved in the incident were sentenced to three years' imprisonment.

Rose Wu, director of the Hong Kong Christian Institute, said that she believed Guangqiang's treatment was politically motivated, the AP reported. "It is not an indication of greater religious tolerance in China," she added.

According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, also in Hong Kong, two Shouters leaders were charged Friday with recruiting students as church members. Wang Xuexiao and Liu Xishu had been detained at a church meeting last August.

PERSECUTION WATCH: NORTH KOREA

Pregnant women held in prison for their faith have been forced to abort their babies - some not long before they were due to give birth. Authorities believed that "people with bad ideology in them" should not be allowed to give birth, a former inmate told a religious freedom hearing in Washington, D.C.

Speaking to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last week, Soon-Ok Lee told of laws that forbade expectant mothers to give birth in prison, even if they were in their eight or ninth month of pregnancy, reported Baptist Press (BP). When one baby was born alive, a jailer stepped on its neck to kill it, she said.

Tortured during her seven-year imprisonment, Lee said Christian prisoners were separated from other inmates to stop them from sharing their faith with others. "I didn't know God when I lived in North Korea because I was brainwashed to worship [former leader Kim Il-Sung]," she said, urging U.S. pressure for change.

The World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission said North Korea was one of the most repressive countries in the world, where jailed believers were "often beaten, systematically tortured, killed or left to die, often freezing to death in the extremely harsh winters."