Tag Archives: Christian Persecution

Pakistani Court Suspends Asia Bibi Death Sentence

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has suspended the death sentence of a Christian woman that many claim was falsely accused of blasphemy by Muslims.

Asia Bibi, who has spent the last five years on death row, was also given permission to appeal the conviction against her.  No date has been set for the appeal.

“The execution of Asia Bibi has been suspended and will remain suspended until the decision of this appeal,” her lawyer told reporters.

The accusations against Bibi came in June 2009 when a group of Muslim women objected to the Christian woman collecting water from a bowl after being ordered to do it by her bosses.  The women then incited a mob by saying Bibi had insulted Muhammad leading to Bibi’s beating by a mob and eventual arrest.

“Today is the happiest day for me and my five children. I am now hopeful that my wife, my children and I will get justice from the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih told reporters from a hidden location as the family is continually being threatened.

“When I have ever met my wife in her cell before, I have found her weeping most of the time, but today she is happy.”

While Pakistan has never executed someone for blasphemy, several convicted people have been lynched by mobs after their release from prison.

ISIS Claims Kidnapping of Christians in Libya

Three African Christians have been kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

The group released photographs of the men bound and blindfolded along with pictures of their passports on various social media sites sympathetic to the terrorists.

The International Business Times says the three men were all migrants from other nations:  Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana.  A source told Reuters they were kidnapped in Noufiyah, an ISIS dominated town which was later confirmed by a government source.

ISIS has been attempting to strengthen their hold in parts of Libya, using the vacuum created by the governmental strife to swoop into areas not strongly controlled by the military.  The terrorists have also attacked multiple foreign missions in Tripoli.

The capital city of Tripoli has been controlled by the rebel faction Libya Dawn since last year forcing the government to operate in exile.

Meanwhile, another kidnapping of Christians is believed to have taken place in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that Friar Antoine Boutros, pastor of the Shahba parish, was kidnapped on July 12th along with his driver.  The two men haven’t been seen or heard from since that date.

The Friar had just finished celebrating mass when he disappeared.

Husband Claims Bounty Placed On Imprisoned Christian Asia Bibi

The husband of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani woman imprisoned on false charges of blasphemy, says that a bounty has been placed upon her head by Muslims who want her killed.

Ashiq Masih, who has been fighting for his wife’s freedom, told MailOnline that Muslim clerics have put a bounty on her head in case she is freed after a hearing later this month.

“The Maulvis [clerics] want her dead,” he told the MailOnline. “They have announced a prize of [98 to $4,915] for anyone who kills Asia. They have even declared that if the court acquits her they will ensure the death sentence stands.”

The family has been also the subject of threats of violence by Muslim groups.  They have been forced to move 15 times since Asia’s death sentence in 2010.  They only go out at night and cover their faces so they cannot be identified.

Ashiq said he misses his wife and wants her home.

“I really love her and miss her presence,’ he said. ‘I cannot sleep at night as I miss her. I miss her smile; I miss everything about her. She is my soul mate. I cannot see her in prison. It breaks my heart. Life has been non-existent without her.”

Groups worldwide have been calling for Bibi’s release from the false charges.

South Sudanese Pastors Face Death at Trial

Two South Sudanese pastors charged with spying are facing death after a judge ruled prosecutors presented enough evidence and then gave defense lawyers only 15 minutes with their clients.

Supporters of pastors Yat Michael Ruot and Peter Yein Reith say they are being persecuted only because of their Christian faith.

“Pastors Michael and Peter are two of the most recent victims under the power-hungry National Intelligence and Security Service of Sudan,” Tiffany Barrans, international legal director of the American Center for Law and Justice, told FoxNews.com. “The crimes alleged against these pastors carry potentially serious sentences, including death or life imprisonment.”

Ruot was arrested in December 2014 after delivering a sermon.  Reith was arrested on January 11, 2015 after being called to the offices of Security Services.

“[T]he judge was presented with evidence far below any threshold for conviction,” Barrans said. “There is zero evidence that either pastor undermined the constitutional system of Sudan, conducted espionage, promoted hatred, disturbed the peace, or blasphemed.  Despite this lack of evidence, the judge has refused to dismiss the case,” Barrans added. “Though the defense will get its day in court, the attorney has been denied access to his clients to prepare an adequate defense.”

The American Center for Law and Justice said that defense attorney Mohaned Mustafa will have to prove his client’s innocence rather than the two pastors having to be proven guilty.

ISIS Threatens “Mass Slaughter of Christians” in Israel

Islamic militants claiming connection to ISIS are warning that they will “cleanse” Israel of all Christians and “non-believers” by the end of Ramadan unless they leave the country.

“Those who work with the Zionists also encourage Muslims to leave their religion and become more secular and open, and they spread evil,” Arabic-language leaflets warns, according to The Jerusalem Post. “They take these Muslims away from us. … We know where they are, but we need help to find them all — all those Christian collaborators.”

“ISIS soldiers will work to kill these people so this country is clean of them and … will clean this country and the Muslim Quarter from these Christians during this holy Ramadan.”

The Jerusalem Post said that no Arabic Christians who received the note would talk to them but their neighbors said the messages have rattled the community.

“They’re fearful for their lives and don’t want to go to the police because they feel that the police won’t be responsive,” an Israeli man told the Post, requesting anonymity.

“What’s most problematic is that in this case individuals aren’t being targeted but an entire group, which is pretty darn serious.  If leaflets with swastikas and similar threats were sent to Jewish neighborhoods, people would be outraged. I hope and pray it amounts to nothing at all.”

ISIS has called for terror attacks during Ramadan and has taken responsibility for attacks last week in France, Tunisia and Kuwait.

Christian Woman Falsely Accused of Blasphemy Marks Six Years in Prison

Asia Bibi, the Christian mother of 5 in Pakistan jailed on false accusations of blasphemy, has started her sixth year behind bars.

Bibi was jailed in 2009 after a group of Muslim women became upset that she took a drink of water from the same water supply they had used.  Bibi was then sentenced to death because of the blasphemy accusation and placed on death row.

The case is being questioned even among Muslim oriented media sources.  Al Jazeera America wrote that the case has “serious inconsistencies on witness accounts” and that some witnesses changed their testimony as much as three times.

The Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch says that you can see how the Muslims within the government are targeting Bibi as a Christian by brazenly taking the unconstitutional step of banning the President from issuing Bibi a pardon.

“Nobody had anticipated that any court of the land could ban the president from pardoning her. This was brazenly unconstitutional,” says Hasan. “Aasia’s case is an example of judicial bigotry and institutionalized maliciousness on part of the Lahore High Court.”

Bibi has been in failing health on death row.  Family members say that Bibi has been vomiting blood.

“When vomiting there is also shown traces of blood. Asia has difficulty feeding properly, while constant pain in the chest,” The Global Dispatch quoted the unnamed family source as saying. “Therefore it is necessary that Asia Bibi be submitted as soon as possible [for] a full medical checkup, including blood work.”

InterVarsity Allowed Back On California Campuses

A Christian student organization that was banned from official recognition on California state college campuses has been returned to full status.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship had been banned from the CSU school system because of a decision by CSU that all student groups could not discriminate based on a list of items which included religion.  This meant the Christian organization could not require their leadership to be Christians.  When the group refused to sign an agreement to support the new regulations, they were removed from campus for the 2014-2015 school year.

InterVarsity announced that the school has now reversed course and will officially recognize InterVarsity as a student group.

“Following substantive and cordial ongoing conversations, CSU clarified the intent and reach of Executive Order 1068,” InterVarsity president Jim Lundgren said in the release. “We are confident we can choose leaders who are qualified to lead InterVarsity’s witnessing communities throughout the Cal State system.”

“InterVarsity’s Christian faith compels us to welcome all people,” Lundgren said. “We support CSU in its commitment to serve the diversity of students on its campuses. In fact, InterVarsity communities are some of the most diverse groups on Cal State’s campuses. At the same time, we maintain our commitment to provide campus communities that are clearly Christian, where all students can experience and learn more about Christian community, theology, and practice. We’re grateful for this development and are looking forward to continued ministry on CSU campuses.”

During their time of exile, the group could not recruit students at activity fairs and were banned from free use of school meeting rooms.

The group noted that the fight for Christians to have equal access to school facilities continues at places such as Grinnell College, Tufts University, SUNY Buffalo and Bowdoin College.  In addition, Vanderbilt University drove Christians groups off its campus with a similar policy as that of the CSU system.

Pakistan Islamic Clerics Fight To Keep Blasphemy Laws

Islamic clerics in Pakistan are complaining to government officials who are considering changes to the nation’s blasphemy laws.

A group of Muslims gathered at an event they called a “seminar for protection of the prophet’s dignity” and are calling for the legislators to stop adding the word “intention” to the law that many Muslims use to bully Christians.

“The new bill rejects all sayings by the ‘holy prophet,'” former Pakistani justice Mian Nazir Akhtar stated. “When it comes to the sanctity of the prophet, the implementation of all man-made laws become different. Those who insult him have no rights, including no right to live. There is no need for trial or hearings.”

Many Christians have been accused of blasphemy by Muslims in Pakistan for various reason including a desire by the Muslims to seize their property to punish them for their Christian faith.  Muslim mobs routinely attack Christians accused of blasphemy and kill them without any court trial.

Currently 40 people sit on Pakistan’s death row on accusations of blasphemy including Asia Bibi, jailed because she drank water from a well that Muslim women wanted to use.

“The blasphemy law on its face flatly violates both freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Worse still, Pakistan vigorously applies this law,”  Katrina Lantos Swett, the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said. “Moreover, the weight of this law falls disproportionately on members of religious minority communities, such as Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadis.

“In addition, enforcement of such laws emboldens religious extremist groups and their sympathizers to assault these minorities — as seen most recently when terrorists slaughtered Ismaili Muslims on a bus,” she continued. “And finally, Pakistan’s zealous enforcement of these laws is in contrast to the pronounced lack of zeal bringing to justice those responsible for such attacks.”

Some Muslim leaders have threatened a fatwa against those supporting the change to the law.

FFRF Targets Christian Sheriff For Preaching In Uniform

An atheist organization is targeting a Christian sheriff in Lakeland, Florida for preaching at a church while wearing his uniform.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), who routinely targets Christians for harassment and lawsuits, is claiming they received complaints from anonymous residents about Sheriff Grady Judd speaking to churches while in uniform.

“I was invited to this church, as I am to many churches and secular events, and you know what, the message was clear,” Judd told BayNews9. “The message was uplifting. The message talked about and bragged on how wonderful our community was.”

The FFRF took issue with the appearance, claiming that by wearing his uniform Judd is endorsing Christianity.

“Promoting your personal religion using a Polk County government title and uniform gives the unfortunate impression that the county supports and endorses the First Baptist Church on the Mall and its religious teachings,” the letter read.

“Giving this sermon in your official capacity, wearing your official uniform, unabashedly promotes this church and its religious views,” it continued. “You are excluding the nearly 30% of U.S. adults and the 30% of Florida adults who are non-Christian. This message alienates both non-Christians and nonbelievers in Polk County by turning them into political outsiders in their own community.”

Judd said he will not be intimidated by the atheists.

“Let me say this clearly and unequivocally: When people call the sheriff’s office and ask me to come speak, I’m going to come speak, [and] I’m going to wear my uniform,” he told reporters. “You can guarantee it.”

Sudan’s Christian-Persecuting President On The Run

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has made persecution of Christians a major part of his Islamic dominated government, is on the run after the International Criminal Court declared him a war criminal.

The President returned to Sudan from South Africa, defying a court order to stay in that nation while the government of South Africa considered the ICC’s request for al-Bashir’s arrest.  He had been attending an African Union summit in Pretoria at the time of the warrant being issued for his arrest.

The South African government eventually issued the order for arrest about two hours after al-Bashir flew out of the country.

“We still remain quietly optimistic and determined to see justice done in this case,” deputy prosecutor James Stewart told the BBC.

U.N. head Ban Ki-moon reminded nations that have signed the ICC’s statues they’re obligated to arrest those who are sought by the court.

“The president of the assembly expresses his deep concern about the negative consequences for the court in case of non-execution of the warrants by states parties and, in this regard, urges them to respect their obligations to cooperate with the court,” said in a statement H.E. Mr. Sidiki Kaba, president of the Assembly of States to the Rome Statute of the ICC.

The charges are in connection with the genocide in Darfur and al-Bashir’s actions in setting up a strict Sharia law system in his country that included the killing of non-Muslims.  While he will be able to move freely within Sudan, he will not be able to leave the country for fear of arrest.