Christian Man Killed by Muslim In-Laws After Wife Gives Her Life to Jesus
by Samuel Smith
Christian Post

A Muslim family in Lahore, Pakistan, has abducted, tortured and shot their 23-year-old daughter and her Christian husband, leaving them for dead, in retaliation for their daughter's conversion to Christianity.

The 28-year-old husband, Aleem Masih, was killed in the late-July incident after taking three shots, including one to the head. His wife, Nadia, was shot in the midsection and remains in critical condition in the hospital, the Christian persecution monitor Morning Star News reported.

The Masihs got married about a year ago after Nadia gave her life to Jesus at the dismay of her Muslim parents. The Masihs decided to flee to the Narang Mandi, a town about 37 miles from Lahore, to avoid being victimized by an act of honor violence from Nadia's family after Aleem and his family members were continuously threatened.

"The couple fled to Narang Mandi, some 60 kilometers [37 miles] away from Lahore, as Nadia's Muslim family launched a manhunt for them to avenge the shame their daughter had brought upon them by recanting Islam and marrying a Christian," Aneeqa Maria, an attorney from the human rights organization The Voice Society, told Morning Star News.

Although the Masih couple filed a petition with the Lahore High Court for government protection, it is believed that Nadia's parents were informed that the couple was going to visit to a doctor in the Youhanabad district of Lahore where the couple was later kidnappped by Nadia's fathers and brothers.

Witnesses recall Nadia's father, Muhammad Din Meo, and her brothers stopping a rickshaw that the couple was riding in and abducting the couple at gunpoint. The family then took the married couple to a farm where they beat and shot the husband and wife...

Christian in Egypt Kept in Prison on False Charge of ‘Blasphemy,’ Attorney Says
Second arrest in one month of a Christian for ‘evangelism.’

August 25, 2015 
By Our Middle East Correspondent 
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ISTANBUL, Turkey 
Morning Star News

An Egyptian Christian who was arrested earlier this month for alleged evangelizing of Muslims in suburban Cairo could be held indefinitely in prison on a false accusation of blasphemy, his lawyer said.

Medhat Ishak, a 35-year-old Christian from Ebid village in Minya Governorate, was arrested on Aug. 7 while handing out Bibles to Muslims outside El-Arab Mall in Sixth of October City. Mall security guards took Ishak into custody and then turned him over to national police, who accused him of evangelism.

The day after his arrest, a judge amended the charge against Ishak to “defamation of a revealed religion” and ordered him held for 15 days. On Monday (Aug. 24) the judge extended Ishak’s detention for another 15 days, said Ishak’s attorney, Rafik Rafaat.

He added that he suspects the judge will keep extending the detention order, in violation of Egyptian law, until the case falls out of the public eye, and then hand Ishak a prison sentence of one to five years.

Rafaat said there is no such criminal charge as “evangelism” under Egyptian law, and that handing out Bibles or even promoting Christianity does not constitute “defaming a revealed religion.”

“Inside the mall he met a young man, and he didn’t know if he was a Christian or not, and he offered him a copy of the Bible and told him he should take it to know God more,” Rafaat said. “So that young man told him that he was a Muslim and doesn’t read the Bible, and Medhat apologized and left.”

The young Muslim man, however, told Ishak, “I am not going to let you go,” and informed mall security that a man was evangelizing in the shopping complex, Rafaat said.

“The mall security called the SSI [the former State Security Investigations Service, now known as Egyptian Homeland Security] and told them that a man was evangelizing,” he said. “Then they arrested him and questioned him and found a few Bibles with him.”

The security officials took an official statement from the Muslim stating that Ishak was distributing Bibles inside the mall and produced other witnesses who said they saw Ishak handing out Bibles.

“The word ‘blasphemy’ means that he was insulting the other religion, but he didn’t do that, and he didn’t talk about Islam or prophets or anything like that to be accused of blasphemy,” Rafaat said. “So, now we are surprised that the attorney general accused him of blasphemy when he didn’t commit any act of blasphemy.”

The attorney said that at a prior hearing he described the innocuous exchange at the mall and provided the judge the rationale for releasing Ishak and dropping the charges, “but the judge totally ignored all the evidence.”

Ishak’s arrest was the second such arrest of a Christian in Egypt for evangelizing in a month. In the early morning hours of July 11, three Christians, one a minor, were arrested for handing out small bags of dried dates in Alexandria during the Muslim observance of Ramadan. In addition to the dates, a snack Muslims commonly eat when breaking the Ramadan daytime fast, the bags contained a statement about God’s love and omniscient nature.

A Muslim detained one member of the group, Fawzi Osama, 16, and took him to police. Two friends of Osama, Shady Saeed, 20, and Stephen Botros Fayed, 21, heard about the arrest and went to the police station, where they were detained as well. The next day, all three were released on a bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US$1,280) each.

Hamdy Al-Assuity, one of the attorneys representing the three Coptic Christians, said the attorney general’s investigation is finished. The results, however, have yet to be released. Al-Assuity intends to file a complaint with the general prosecutor’s office about the incident soon.

“Their case has not gone to court yet. However, the case has badly affected these boys and threatened their families financially,” Al-Assuity said, adding that chances of charges being filed against his clients have increased because of the attention Ishak’s case has drawn.

Rafaat, a Coptic Christian, and Al-Assuity, a Muslim, both have considerable expertise with “blasphemy” cases and said such cases are a violation of Egyptian law.

“I am against the idea of arresting people and accusing them of evangelism or taking them to jail for talking about other religions,” Al-Assuity said.

Accusations of evangelism against Christians for handing out religious materials could be considered a degree of religious persecution, as Muslims in Egypt are allowed free rein to hand out all types of religious literature in public places, including Korans, while Christians are restricted or even arrested for doing the equivalent. Rafaat said pressure to criminally charge Christians with evangelizing comes from Muslim extremists or those acting alongside them.

“They claim that inviting others to Christianity is considered telling people to leave their religion, and that that is an insult,” Al-Assuity said, adding that prosecution is all too common when this attitude is combined with police corruption or incompetence.

“A police officer at a station or an officer who makes an arrest always takes the information and states that the case is evangelism, whether it was true or not,” he said. “In all the cases where Christians are accused of blasphemy or evangelism – and I am a Muslim – religious extremists are always somewhere behind it, and they describe the incident as evangelism. In many cases, they make false claims, or act toward the people they are accusing as if they had legal authority, like a police officer.”

Ishak has not been treated well in prison, which is typical for “evangelism” suspects, but Al-Assuity said reports of him being tortured, as some news media have claimed, are false. His next hearing is scheduled in about two weeks.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that that can orient you on how to get involved.  

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/donate/?   

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© 2015 Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.http://morningstarnews.org 

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.

Death Threats, Forced Conversions of Christians Cited in India
Hostilities continue through long, hot summer under new prime minister.

August 28, 2015 
By Our New Delhi Correspondent 
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NEW DELHI 
Morning Star News

Heightened hostilities against Christians in India that began late last year continued through a hot summer, with Hindu extremists threatening Christians and forcing them to “reconvert” to Hindusim, church leaders said.

In Rajasthan in the northwest, 10 Christian families in Nakhnool village, near Alwar, have fled after intolerant Hindus harassed and threatened to kill them, area church leaders said.

“Since June 27, we have not been able to have any kind of worship meetings,” area pastor Malkeet Singh told Morning Star News. “The extremists threatened to harm us if we utter the name of Christ or conduct any Christian meetings.”

Tensions grew on July 19 when members of the Hindu extremist Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the village held a “homecoming” to Hinduism (Ghar Vapsi) in front of Pastor Pratap Singh’s house.

“About 600 people gathered in front of Pastor Singh’s house, put up the idol of the Hindu god Hanuman, forced Pastor Singh and 10 family members to worship the idol and forced him to sign a paper which said, ‘I am willing to be a Hindu,’” said Rajamman Johnson, regional secretary of the Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMBP). “They forced them to drink water procured from the Ganga River and put kumkum [red marks] on their foreheads to show that they were now Hindus.”

As the Hindu extremists had threatened to kill him if he continued to lead worship meetings, Pastor Singh had been in hiding for a month. The extremists found him and took him to his house for the ritual, Johnson said.

“The extremists had been following the movement of Pastor Singh closely for a long time, and then they dragged him back from his hiding place to forcefully convert him along with 10 members of his family to Hinduism in an hour-long Ghar Vapsi ceremony,” he said.

Pastor Singh, who had been ministering in the village for 15 years, began receiving death threats since last Christmas, church leaders said. Hindu extremists undertook a series of largely bogus,forced conversion ceremonies during the Christmas season after the BJP-led coalition government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in May 2014.

“The extremists boldly claimed that they were the ruling [BJP] party in the state, and that they can stop whatever they like,” Johnson said. “The support they get from the police and the village head emboldened their actions.”

Anil Masih, another area Christian leader, told Morning Star News that Christians in the village have stopped meeting and are living in fear.

“The extremists threatened to socially boycott the Christians if they continue to worship Christ and threatened to kill them if they submit a police complaint against anyone,” he said.

About seven miles away in Narpur village, Hindu extremists on June 28 held a “reconversion” ritual in which 50 Christians were forcefully converted to Hinduism, said Johnson of the FMBP.

“The Hindu extremists collected 50 Christians from Nakhnool, Kota and Nikkach villages and conducted a Ghar Vapsi on the land of the FMBP, and the extremists further threatened to kill and cut the Christians into pieces if they ever go back to church again,” he said.

In Bandholi, about nine miles from Nakhnool village, Hindu extremists secretly planned to demolish the FMBP building on July 18, he said, adding that they also threatened to harm the family of local evangelist Malkeeth Singh. Christian leaders approached the Alwar Superintendent of Police, and as a result the extremists abandoned plans to destroy the church building.

They continued to threaten to kill the Christians, however, if they hold worship meetings in the area.

Stopping Worship in Maharashtra

In Maharashtra state on India’s western coast, Hindu extremists since July 19 have been massing to stop village Christians from worshipping.

“On every Sunday for more than a month now, around 100 Hindu extremists gathered near where we are conducting Sunday meetings and threatened to harm some of our church members if they continue to attend the prayer meetings,” said Pastor Benjamin Gomes of New Life Grace Ministries in Pinguli village, Kudal, Sindhugurh. “Even the village head told us to stop the meeting.”

The extremists submitted a police complaint alleging forced conversion against the Christians. Police later summoned the Christians and told them to stop meeting, but church members went to the police station and told officers that they attended the church of their own free will and said there was no forceful conversion or defaming of Hindu gods, said the Rev. Anand Chougule, an area pastor.

Police have since provided some measure of protection to the church, but mobs continue to form to try to stop them from meeting every Sunday.

“On Sunday [Aug. 23], the extremists sent some women to stop us from conducting Sunday services,” said Pastor Gomes. “Somehow, we still managed to continue our prayer meetings under pressure.”

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that that can orient you on how to get involved.  

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/donate/?   

###

 © 2015 Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.  

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.

Struck Down, but Not Destroyed
Persecution Magazine, August 2015
Persecution (dot) Org

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