Source: http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/
Date: August 30, 2023
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 708
AUGUST 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal
UPDATE: DURING AUGUST 2023 WE PRAYED CONCERNING
THE MISSING [RLPB 704 (2 Aug)] During August, we prayed and asked the Lord to shed light on the plight or fate of church leaders, missionaries and human rights lawyers who have gone missing after being abducted or arrested. We prayed specifically for a pastor and three elders abducted by troops in Burma’s Chin State; for Gratia Pello (40) theologian and apologist in Indonesia, who has not been seen since being arrested for ‘blasphemy’ in December 2022; for Reverend Hans-Joachim Lohre and Father Père Joël Yougbaré, two Catholic priests abducted in the terrorist-infested Sahel; and for Gao Zhisheng, a Christian human rights lawyer, missing in China for nearly six years since his capture in late 2017. We pray for their deliverance; but at the very least, that their loved ones would know the truth. Lord have mercy.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! (from Psalm 139:7-12 ESV)
INDIA [RLPB 705 (9 Aug)], specifically the high cost of faith in Uttar Pradesh (UP) where dozens of pastors and believers – many of them young women/mothers – are languishing in various jails as radical Hindu nationalists exploit the state’s severe anti-conversion law to persecute Christians. Like ‘blasphemy’ in Pakistan, luring people toward religious conversion is a non-bailable offence in UP; the accused go straight to jail. We prayed especially for Pastor Harendra Singh, his wife Priya and their three-year-old son who has been incarcerated with his mother. In the words of one Christian leader, ‘The situation has reached such a stage that holding a prayer service or reading the Bible at home can land you in jail.’ Please pray.
CHINA [RLPB 706 (16 Aug)], where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) new Measures on the Administration of Religious Activity Venues will, in the words of Bitter Winter, ‘convert places of worship into branches of the CCP propaganda system.’ We also prayed specifically for Christian human rights lawyer Yang Maodong (pseudonym: Guo Feixiong). Detained in January 2021, Yang was only formally arrested in January 2022 (two days after his wife died). On 11 May 2023, Yang was deemed guilty of subversion, and sentenced to eight years in prison. However, his whereabouts remain unknown. Yang Maodong now joins the ranks of ‘the missing’. Please pray.
PAKISTAN [RLPB 707 (23 Aug)], after radical Islamic fundamentalist clerics exploited a local accusation of blasphemy to incite a mob of up to 10,000 fanatical Muslims to attack the Christian colony in Jaranwala city in Faisalabad district, Punjab province. The Jaranwala pogrom of 16 August has left the Christian community totally shattered. Tensions remain high; harassment and threats continue; Christians fear justice will elude them. Please pray. We also prayed for Christians currently languishing in prison because of vexatious blasphemy allegations – especially for those who have been sentenced to death: including Noman Masih (22), Ashfaq Masih (34) and the long-suffering and ailing Pastor Zafar Bhatti (57). Lord have mercy.
UPDATE: A RELATED ‘BLASPHEMY’ ARREST
On Saturday night 19 August, police in Sahiwal (100km southwest of Jaranwala) arrested Ehsaan Shan Masih (27) and charged him with blasphemy under Section 295-A of Pakistan’s Penal Code which criminalises ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.’ Morning Star News (MSN) reports (22 Aug) that Eshaan Masih – an illiterate labourer and father of two children – reportedly uploaded images of the material that triggered the Jaranwala pogrom. Pastor Daniel told MSN: ‘[Ehsaan] came across a video on social media related to the attacks in Jaranwala that he posted on his TikTok account. Ehsaan was probably not even aware that sharing such content is a crime…’ Bishop Abraham Daniel of the Sahiwal Baptist Church told MSN that it was only due to prompt action from local police, who took Eshaan and his family into 'protective custody' [where members were subsequently beaten], that another major crisis was averted. Blasphemy is a non-bailable offence in Pakistan, and so Eshaam Masih remains in jail on judicial remand. He could face years of incarceration before his case is finally resolved. Please pray for Eshaam and for the Church in Pakistan.
AUGUST 2023 ROUND-UP – ALSO THIS MONTH
* INDIA: UPDATE ON MANIPUR
Background: RLPB 694, Manipur Burns, 17 May 2023
David Thiek: tortured and beheaded.
screenshot from short film by Vishal Arora
During his most recent trip into Manipur (July), Indian Christian journalist Vishal Arora saw first-hand what ethno-religious hatred looks like in Manipur. While Vishal was in the area, a Meitei Hindu mob attacked a Kuki Christian community, killing a Kuki youth. A survivor told Visal how the Meitei mob tortured David Thiek (24) by severing his arms and legs before they beheaded him. They showed him where the Meitei put David’s severed head on public display to be mocked. Vishal reports that the near daily attacks on Christian Kuki-Zo communities are being perpetrated by ‘the Meitei extremist groups Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun. But what is most striking,’ says Vishal, ‘is a claim by Kuki-Zo leaders. They say the Manipur Police, including their elite commandos, and the India Reserve Battalion, or the IRB, which reports to the state government, are present alongside the Meitei groups during these incidents of violence.’ Please pray.
Recommended
Article: The Men Behind Violence in the Indian State of Manipur, by Vishal Arora. Published by Religion Unplugged, 18 August 2023
Video (YouTube): The Men Behind Violence In Manipur, India (11:30 mins), by Vishal Arora. Published by Religion Unplugged, 16 Aug 2023.
WARNING: video footage is graphic and distressing (recommended for adults only).
* IRAQ: AN EXISTENTIAL CHRISTIAN CRISIS
Update to RLPB 695, Iraq: An Existential Christian Crisis, 24 May 2023
and RLPB 702, Final Solution in Iraq, 19 July 2023
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has published a detailed report on what RLPB has been calling ‘an existential crisis’ for Iraq’s indigenous Assyrian Christians. Written by N. Moses, and dated 23 Aug 2023, the MEMRI report opens by rightly noting: ‘Although it has been five years since the Islamic State (ISIS) was defeated in Iraq, it appears that the danger to the Christians in the country remains, and is in fact escalating.’
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Cardinal Sako vs Al-Kildani
A major struggle is underway over leadership of Iraq’s Chaldean Christian community and control of its resources. The struggle pits Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, the Patriarch of Baghdad and head of the Chaldean Church, against challenger Rayan Al-Kildani. A fellow ethnic Chaldean/Assyrian, Al-Kildani commands the Babylon Brigades (a militia within the Iran-backed Shi’ite-dominated Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)) and leads its political arm, the Babylon Movement. The crisis attracted international attention on 3 July when Iraq’s president, Abdul Latif Rashid – whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is the more pro-Iranian of Iraq’s two main Kurdish political parties – entered the fray on the side of Rayan Al-Kildani. MEMRI rightly concludes: ‘These internal conflicts over the identity of Iraq’s Christian community are likely to further weaken it and endanger the future of this historic group in the country… The involvement of President Abdul Latif Rashid, which harms Sako, does not bode well for the future of the Chaldean Church and Christianity in Iraq generally… Iran’s man Al-Kildani seems to be following a pattern seen elsewhere, in both Syria and Lebanon, where Shi’ite militias and their non-Shi’ite front-men push for advantage against vulnerable religious minorities.’ An existential Christian crisis indeed! Lord have mercy.
Recommended
In Iraq, Struggles Over Power and Control of the Chaldean Catholic Church’s Resources and Identity; Iraq’s Interim President Sides With Patriarch Sako’s Rivals.
By N. Mozes, for MEMRI, 23 August 2023
* NICARAGUA: JESUITS TARGETED
Background: RLPB 660, Ortega Moves to Silence the Church, 31 Aug 2022.
On Tuesday 15 August the government of President Daniel Ortega ordered the confiscation of all assets belonging to the prestigious, Jesuit-run, Central American University (UCA) in the capital, Managua, after a judge labelled it a ‘centre of terrorism organised by criminal groups.’ Then, on Wednesday 23 August, the government banned the entire Society of Jesus (Jesuits) – from the country and ordered the confiscation of all its assets, claiming the religious order had failed to comply with tax reporting. At the time of writing, only 11 Jesuits remained in the country. The government has been pursuing the Catholic Church since April-May 2018, after it opened its doors to shelter the victims of deadly state violence. Reuters notes (23 Aug) that, since the anti-government protests of 2018, the government has ‘outlawed or closed more than 3000 civic groups and non-governmental organisations’. In its report, The Tablet notes (16 Aug), ‘Since 2021 the government has imposed restrictions on 25 private universities, including the Protestant Martin Luther King University.’ In May of this year, the government ordered the Nicaraguan Red Cross shut down, accusing it of ‘attacks on peace and stability’. In June, the government confiscated properties belonging to 222 forcibly exiled political prisoners, comprising church leaders, rights activists, journalists and lawyers [see RLPB 681, Forced Exile and Imprisonment, 22 Feb 2023]. Please pray for the Church in Nicaragua.