16/07/2010 - Pentecostal Pastor Shot Dead In Dagestan

Pentecostal Pastor Shot Dead In Dagestan

Posted on: 2010-07-16 06:49:15

By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

MAKHACHKALA/BUDAPEST (Worthy News)-- The pastor of the largest Pentecostal church in Russia's violent, mainly Muslim republic of Dagestan, has died after being shot in the head, in an apparent bid to intimidate converts from Islam, Christian rights activists and police said Friday, July 16.

Artur Suleimanov, 49, himself a convert from Islam, was shot late Thursday, July 15, by a gunman who opened fire while the pastor got into a car outside his Hosanna House of Prayer Church in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, explained Barnabas Fund, an advocacy group supporting Christians in predominantly Muslim nations.

"He died from his wounds in hospital around an hour later," Barnabas Fund added in a statement to Worthy News and its partner agency BosNewsLife. A spokesman for Dagestan's police, Vyacheslav Gasanov, said it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the killing, which involved one or more attackers.

Dagestan, which is over 90 percent Muslim, is plagued by insurgent violence, with many of the militants inspired by or affiliated with Islamic separatists in neighboring Chechnya. Two militants were killed by police in a clash in the town of Khasavyurt the previous day, according to local police.

FAMILY LEFT BEHIND

Pastor Suleimanov leaves behind a wife, Zina, and five children, the youngest of whom is twelve years old, Barnabas Fund said.

"Pastor Suleimanov was a wonderful Christian brother and his shocking death is a devastating loss for the Dagestan church," added the group, which had close contacts with his congregation. "He and the Hosanna House of Prayer church were very active in ministry and outreach in particular. We see his murder as an attempt to put further pressure on Christian converts in Dagestan."

Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

The attack came after the pastor recently spokeaboutalleged harassment by authorities. He said his church had a five-year agreement allowing prison visits "abruptly canceled in early 2010" while officials also "changed" their earlier positive assessment of the church's work with drug addicts.

Forum 18, another rights group, said several Pentecostal pastors have complained that their congregations' lack of freedom was "overwhelmingly due to public attitudes, which prevent some church members from attending Sunday worship even at openly functioning churches in urban locations."

MINISTRY DENIES WRONGDOING

Dagestan's Ministry for Nationality Policy, Information and External Affairs has reportedly denied it imposes restrictions on churches' social work, but added that "the Protestants' activity must be in line with the law."

Barnabas Fund said iturged its supporters in a message to pray that God "will comfort" Pastor Suleimanovs family and protect his and other churches.

They were also encouraged to pray that those responsible for the attack will be detained, and that local "Christians will not be intimidated by this act of violence."

5/01/2010 - Tajikistan Churches Face Closures, Uncertain Future

Tajikistan Churches Face Closures, Uncertain Future

Posted on: 2010-01-05 02:38:51

By Worthy News Europe Bureau in Budapest with Worthy News' Stefan J. Bos

DUSHANBE/BUDAPEST (Worthy News)-- Devoted Christians in several areas of Tajikistan faced uncertainty Tuesday, January 5, over the future of their churches after the former Soviet republic introduced a new religion law that the United States has criticized as highly restrictive.

The Religion Law, which came into forces on New Year's Day, empowers the government to impose stricter control of religious groups in the former Soviet republic that tolerates only the state-approved version of Islam.

Under the legislation groups that choose not to register with authorities or fail to gain re-registration will become illegal. All Christian and other religious organisations need to provide the national government with written confirmation of their existence from their local administration.

Christians say however that local officials have been slow at issuing confirmation documents or have deliberately refused to do so for groups that they did not like.

Less than half of the religious organizations known to authorities have been registered, according to estimates by the Culture Ministry's Head Department for Religious Affairs (HDRA).

TERRITORIAL RESTRICTIONS

HDRA officials have also imposed territorial restrictions on the activity of some non-Muslim groups, including Christian churches, during the re-registration process, according to Christians familiar with the procedures.

The measures cast doubts about the future of groups such as the Council of Churches Baptists which refuses on principle to register with the State. Last month, a Council congregation in Dushanbe was reportedly already banned by a local court.

The new law also imposes censorship on religious literature and restricts performing rituals to state-approved venues, making it even more difficult for evangelical missionaries and other Christians to openly evangelize.

In Tajikistan, religion has been a particularly thorny issue since President Imomali Rakhmon defeated an alliance of Islamists and liberals in a 1990s civil war.

Rakhmon has defended his decision to sign the controversial legislation and other measures. Worried about the resurgent Taliban militant group in neighboring Afghanistan, he says his main goal is to maintain political and economic stability in his impoverished homeland.

POLITICAL DISSENT

However countries across former Soviet Central Asia, including Tajikistan, have been criticized in the West for using the threat of religious extremism as an excuse to crack down on political dissent and religious groups outside state-sponsored Islam.

Protestant and Jewish communities are the main non-Muslim groups that have been targeted, according to rights activists. In 2008, Tajikistan even demolished the country's only synagogue to make way for a presidential palace.

In a gesture apparently aimed at sweetening the decision, Khasan Asadullozoda, Rahmon's brother-in-law, donated a new building to the Jewish community, community members said. "We are extremely grateful," said chief rabbi Mikhail Abdurakhmanov at the time. "Now we have a place of worship again."

The Religion Law seems part of Rahmon's efforts to strengthen his power base and legalise harsh policies already adopted towards the population, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said.

"The picture for religious freedom in Tajikistan is growing dim," said the Commission, which advises the U.S. government on religious freedom in the world. "The passage of this problematic new law could severely limit religious freedoms in Tajikistan," it added in a recent report.

Like elsewhere in Central Asia, most people in Tajikistan, a mountainous Persian-speaking nation, practice the Sunni branch of Islam, but there is a substantial Shi'ite minority.

5/12/2009 - China Sentences 10 Christian Leaders To Prison, Labor Camps

China Sentences 10 Christian Leaders To Prison, Labor Camps

Posted on: 2009-12-05 13:46:52

By Worthy News Asia Service with Worthy News' Stefan J. Bos



BEIJING, CHINA (Worthy News)-- China has sentenced 10 Christian leaders to long prison terms and forced labor camps as part of a wider government crackdown on unauthorized worship services, Worthy News learned Saturday, December 5.

Chinese Christians and rights activists confirmed that the leaders are from the large Linfen House Church, whose 50.000 members meet in buildings and private homes of individual believers in Shanxi province.

Five Linfen leaders, a man named as Li Shuangping and women Yang Hongzhen, Yang Caizhen, Gao Qin (also known as Gao Fuqin) and Zhao Guoai, received sentences of two years "re-education through labor camps" on November 30, said advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA), which has close links with house churches.

They were sentenced for "gathering people to disturb the public order" when organizing a prayer rally with some 1,000 believers on September 14, after their church was attacked by hunderds of police, according to Christians.

CAA said the detentions came after Pastors Yang Rongli, Wang Xiaoguang, Yang Xuan, Cui Jiaxing, and Zhang Huamei were sentenced up to seven years in prison on November 25 for "illegally occupying farming land" and "disturbing transportation order by gathering masses."

"Sister Yang Rongli received a seven years [imprisonment] sentence on both charges. For the first charge Pastor Wang received three years, brother Yang Xuan three and a half years and Cui Jiaxing four and a half years [imprisonment]...Sister Zhang Huamei was found guilty of the second charge and sentenced to four years in prison," CAA explained.

APPEAL PLANNED

All ten Christian leaders reportedly plan to appeal and protest what CAA called "these brutal and illegal actions."

"To arbitrarily send five innocent citizens to labor camps is in direct violation against the international human rights covenants and norms the Chinese government has signed and even ratified," said Bob Fu, a former house church pastor who now leads CAA .

"This case shows the Chinese government is determined to be on the wrong side of history by clenching its power with suppressing the basic freedom of religion and conscience for Chinese citizens. We call upon the international community to hold these rights abusers accountable," he added.

China has defended its human rights record, saying Christians are free to worship with the official churches. However observers say many of the country's estimated 130 million Christians prefer to worship outside control of the Communist government.

14/09/2009 - Colombia Pastor Assassinated By Suspected Paramilitaries

Colombia Pastor Assassinated By Suspected Paramilitaries

Posted on: 2009-09-14 11:22:58

By Worthy News Staff

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (Worthy News)-- A Colombian pastor has been shot and killed at his home in front of his wife and church members, the latest in a series of deadly attacks against Christians in the South American nation, Christian rights investigators said Monday, September 14.

Rafael Velasquez, the 41-year-old pastor of the evangelical Foursquare Gospel Church in the town of Maranonal, died instantly following the attack by three masked gunmen last Sunday, September 6, said Britain-based advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

The attack took place after a church service, CSW added. "The armed and masked men broke into Pastor Velasquezs home and shot him dead in front of his wife and six young members of his church."

Paramilitary groups vying for power in the region are thought to be responsible for the pastors murder.

LARGER PATTERN

CSW said the situation in Cordoba is part of "a larger pattern of severe violations of religious liberty in Colombia." Over 200 churches have been forcibly closed and more than 35 pastors have been assassinated in different parts of the country during the last three years, CSW told Worthy News.

At least fifteen pastors in the northern Cordoba region have reportedly been threatened over the last six months. Several church leaders "have been forcibly displaced" because of the threats against them and their families, said CSW, which has close contacts with Christians in Colombia.

A new CSW report details what the group calls "systematic religious persecution in areas under the control of armed groups."

CSWs National Director Stuart Windsor said that his group has urged the European Union and Britain to urge the Colombian government to properly investigate this murder as well as the other threats against church leaders. "We urgently ask the Colombian government to bring those involved in the resurgence of paramilitary activity in Crdoba to justice".

16/10/2008 - Tajikistan Seizing Church Properties; Christians Forced Underground

Tajikistan Seizing Church Properties; Christians Forced Underground

Posted on: 2008-10-16 00:00:00

By BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest

BUDAPEST/DUSHANBE (BosNewsLife) -- Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan have begun destroying and banning Protestant churches, forcing an increasing number of Christians to meet and worship "underground" missionaries said Wednesday, October 15.

Christian Aid Mission (CAM), which supports native missionaries in the country, said it also learned that the country's High Economic Court has refused to openly announce whether one of the closed churches in the capital Dushanbe will be returned to Christians, following an August 29 hearing behind close doors.

"City officials wanted to seize the building even though it was bought legally ten years ago," CAM told BosNewsLife. "Church members have been working on it for the past nine years and renovations are still on-going. But the authorities wanted it back. The judge, barring international observers from the courtroom, refused to report on the outcome."

In addition, "a Protestant church was confiscated and completely demolished," last year, CAM explained. "To date, no compensation has been given to the church leaders. Two other Protestant churches have been banned." CAM said the latest developments are part of what officials reportedly have described as a "rebuilding program", which was launched in 2005.

COMMUNITIES "BULLDOZED"

The government has strongly denied it has banned churches. However CAM said that many communities have since been "bulldozed and hundreds of citizens were left homeless," CAM added. "Last year a Protestant church was confiscated and completely demolished. To date, no compensation has been given to the church leaders. Two other Protestant churches have been banned," CAM said.

The group told BosNewsLife that the government is making it especially "more difficult for certain religious organizations to exist." It said new meassures also include that only religious associations with at least 200 members can receive state recognition and officially operate.

"This is an obvious attempt to squelch the growth of religious minorities in a 97 percent Muslim population," CAM said. The group said it has launched starting a series of short-term Christian training programs held "underground", to avoid detection by police. "If there are no more churches available for these training sessions, they they will meet in the homes of believers," CAM stressed.

It comes at a time of international concern about Islamic extremism in Tajikistan. The Central Asian nation has been accused by its neighbors of tolerating the presence of training camps, for Islamist rebels on its territory, an accusation which the government has strongly denied.

The country has close ties with Russia. In October 2004 Russia formally opened a military base in Dushanbe where several thousand troops will be stationed. It also took back control over a former Soviet space monitoring center, developments seen by analysts as a sign of Moscow's attempts to counter perceived increased American influence in Central Asia.

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