Source: http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com
Date: May 31, 2017
by Elizabeth Kendal
'When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.' (Psalm 56:3 ESV)
MAY 2017 UPDATE - this month we prayed concerning ...
* PAKISTAN (RLPB 405), where the brutal lynching of Muslim university student
Mashal Khan - on campus in broad daylight - had reignited the debate around
the infamous blasphemy law.
UPDATES
PAKISTAN: LAW REFORM STALLS WHILE ISLAMISATION PROGRESSES
Ever since Marshal Khan was accused of blasphemy and lynched, his sisters
have been receiving death threats. On 4 May some 500 Muslims in the town of
Hub, in Balochistan Province, rioted after police refused to hand over a
Hindu man whom they accused of blasphemy; a ten-year-old boy was killed in
the melee. Meanwhile, Nabeel Masih - the 16-year-old Christian boy arrested
in September for 'liking' and 'sharing' a Facebook post which supposedly
'defamed and disrespected' the Kaaba in Mecca - has again been refused bail.
Despite doing little or anything to address the blasphemy law, the Senate
Standing Committee on Religious Affairs amended the 'Respect for Ramadan'
law, unanimously approving ten-fold increases in the maximum fines for
fast-breakers, as well as prison terms of up to three months. Eateries are
not even permitted to provide food during Ramadan's daylight hours. Rights
advocates fear the law will hurt non-Muslims and fuel vigilantism. Ramadan
commenced on 27 May and will continue until 25 June. Pray for the Church in
Pakistan.
PAKISTAN: CHRISTIAN LAWYER THREATENED WITH DEATH
Jacqueline Sultan is a high court advocate and a member of the Karachi Bar
Council. She is also a human rights activist and the chairperson of the
Global Human Rights Association Alliance. A Christian, she defends people
charged with blasphemy and helps victims of forced conversion and marriage.
In mid-May, a letter was delivered to her chambers in which she was
threatened with death if she did not stop her work. The Karachi Bar
Association is taking the threat very seriously and has demanded the state
investigate and provide Sultan with extra security. Please pray for
Jacqueline Sultan; may the Lord of Hosts provide all her needs.
* NIGERIA (RLPB 406), where 82 'Chibok girls' had been released (ransomed)
from Musab al-Barnawi's Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Hundreds
of girls, mostly Christians, are still captives of ISWAP and Boko Haram.
* CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR - RLPB 407), where the de facto partition of
the state - with Christians in the south and Muslims dominating the north -
had brought a degree of peace. However, Islamic militias are fighting each
other now for control of roads, grazing land, water and diamond mines. This
strife is evolving along ethnic lines. Furthermore, native, non-Muslim
'anti-balaka' militias have allied with non-Fulani Islamic militias against
the Muslim Fulani. In retaliation, the Fulani are escalating their attacks on
Christians.
UPDATE: CHURCH FACES CRISIS AS VIOLENCE ESCALATES
On 15 May at least 20 were killed, more than 40 wounded and some 20,000
displaced as rebels clashed in Bria, the capital of central Haute-Kotto
Province. UN personnel have confirmed that an aid warehouse was pillaged,
saying: 'There's fighting taking place but we don't know who's fighting
whom.' World Watch Monitor reports that Baptist pastor Ange-Apol'eon Ngakolada
(36) was among the dead in Alindao; he leaves behind a wife and eight
children. It seems Muslims unhappy with his church exploited the chaos of 6 &
7 May and murdered him in his own home. CAR needs assistance, as it simply
does not have enough troops to contain the escalating crisis.
IRAN (RLPB 408), where, faced with a choice between the conservative but
pragmatic Rouhani and the ultra-conservative hard-liner Raisi, moderate
Iranians came out en masse on 19 May to vote for Rouhani despite Raisi being
the regime's preferred candidate.
UPDATE: EMERGING THREAT
As is commonly the case in politics today, the election's loser (in this case
Ebrahim Raisi) has moved straight from campaign mode into conflict mode,
launching a campaign designed to fire-up supporters, undermine the result and
discredit and de-legitimise the winner (in this case, Hassan Rouhani). Raisi
has accused Rouhani of electoral fraud and called for an official
investigation, even though the Guardian Council has approved the result.
Hard-liners have vowed to fight Rouhani and press their ultra-conservative
agenda. If the situation arises where Raisi incites Islamic revolutionary
rage, and/or President Rouhani feels pressured to appease hard-liners, Iran's
Christians will suffer as a consequence. Please continue to pray for Iran,
and for Pastor Victor Bet Tamraz and Amin Nader Afshar as their trial
continues in Tehran.
MAY 2017 ROUND-UP - also this month ...
* AFGHANISTAN: AID WORKER KILLED, ANOTHER KIDNAPPED
On 20 May militants broke into a Kabul guest-house run by Swedish-based
charity, Operation Mercy. A German woman who had been working in Afghanistan
for 13 years was killed, as was her Afghan guard, who was beheaded. A Finnish
woman was kidnapped. Both women (who have not been named) were aid workers
with Operation Mercy. As yet, no group has claimed responsibility. Please
pray for the captive Finnish aid worker, and for the families and colleagues
of the deceased. May the Lord have mercy.
* ERITREA: NEARLY 100 CHRISTIANS ARRESTED IN MAY
World Watch Monitor reports that on 9 May ten Christians were arrested at a
home in Ginda, north-east of Asmara having been betrayed by neighbours. On 17
May more than 35 Christians were arrested from their own homes in Adi Quala,
after a compulsory survey exposed them as evangelicals. On 21 May 49
Christians were arrested at a post-wedding celebration outside the capital,
Asmara. The totalitarian regime of President Isaias Afewerki is one of the
world's worst persecutors. Since May 2002 thousands of Christians have
suffered incarceration, hundreds have been severely tortured and at least 28
have died in custody due to mistreatment. Christians attempting to flee
routinely fall prey to human traffickers. Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune
Antonios (89) has been confined to house-arrest for more than ten years; he
had protested the persecution of 'Medhane Alem', a thriving revival movement
which exists within the Eritrean Orthodox Church.
* EYGPT: SHAHADA OR DEATH IN THE DESERT
On Ascension Day (25 May) a convoy of Coptic Christians en route to the
Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor was stopped on the desert road some
220km south of Cairo by a group of around 10 men dressed in military fatigues
and armed with automatic weapons. Claiming to be security officers, the
gunmen ordered the Copts out of their vehicles. After separating the men from
the women and children, the gunmen demanded the men recite the shahada
(Islamic statement of faith). When the men refused, the militants opened
fire, but were forced to flee when they noticed cars in the distance.
Twenty-eight Christians are confirmed dead (including two children) and 23
wounded. Islamic State has claimed responsibility. The Copts are grieving and
their grief spans the world. One Coptic Christian living in western Sydney,
Australia, lost 12 members of his extended family in the massacre. Pray for
Egypt.
* IRAQ: CONVERT, BE KILLED, OR PAY JIZYA
Undated footage emerged in early May showing the head of Iraq's Shi'ite
Endowment Fund, Alaa Abd al-Sahib al-Musawi teaching that 'the people of the
book must be fought ... to compel their conversion to Islam. Either they
convert to Islam, or else they are killed, or they pay the jizya.' [Jizya, as
mandated in the Qur'an Sura 9:29 https://quran.com/9/29 , is a form of
extortion wherein 'the people of the book' agree to pay for their right to
life.] Iraq's Christians, most of whom are Assyrian (the indigenous people of
Mesopotamia), were horrified. A group of 180 Christian families filed a
lawsuit against Musawi, accusing him of hate speech. Musawi rejected the
charge, claiming he was teaching on historic matters that are supposedly
irrelevant today. He claimed the video was leaked by parties resistant to
Muslim-Christian coexistence - by which he doubtless meant the Assyrian
Christians lobbying for a 'safe haven' or autonomous province in their
historic homeland of the Nineveh Plains. By accusing the Assyrians of
resisting what he calls 'Muslim-Christian co-existence', the cleric has
knowingly created an extremely dangerous situation.
* PHILIPPINES: SHAHADA OR DEATH IN MINDANAO
On 23 May Philippine forces attempted to apprehend Abu Sayyaf chief Isnilon
Hapilon from his hideout in the 99.6 percent Muslim city of Marawi, Mindanao.
When Abu Sayyaf called for reinforcements, some 100 Islamic jihadists from an
ISIS-inspired group known as 'Maute' stormed the city. They attacked St
Mary's Cathedral, kidnapping 15 believers, including the priest Father Chito
Suganob, some nuns, and several lay persons who were praying in the church.
The Cathedral, a Protestant College and numerous other properties were
torched. A truck transporting nine Christian labourers was ambushed at a
militant checkpoint. After being pulled from the truck, the men were bound
and ordered to recite the shahada (Islamic statement of faith). When they
could not, they were executed. The militants have occupied half of the city
using their Christian captives as human shields and are engaged in fierce
battles with the Philippine military. The Maute group has escalated its
activities over recent months as it seeks recognition from ISIS. President
Duterte has declared martial law across Mindanao. The Church is pleading for
the release of the Christian hostages.
* SUDAN: PRISONERS FREED; CHURCHES DEMOLISHED
On 11 May Christian prisoners the Reverends Hassan Abdelrahim Kodi and
Abdelmoneim Abdelmoula were released and reunited with their families.
Incarcerated since December 2015, both men were released with a presidential
pardon. Their co-accused, Rev Kuwa Shamal and Mr Petr Jasek, were released in
January and February respectively. Despite this mercy, the Government of
Sudan's campaign against the Church continues, with 27 churches designated
for demolition. Of these, two Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) buildings were
demolished in May: one in Algadisia (established in 1983) on 17 May and one
in Soba Al Aradi (established in 1989) on 7 May. The demolition in Soba Al
Aradi was particularly significant, for in 2011 Soba Al Aradi had 13 churches
and today it has none. Pray for the Church in Sudan.
* UNITED KINGDOM (UK): CHURCHES TO REMAIN ALERT
On 22 May Salman Abedi (22), a British youth of Libyan heritage, blew himself
up at a pop concert in the Manchester Arena, killing 22 people, including
young children, and wounding over 100. ISIS claimed responsibility for the
murders, warning: 'What comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of
the cross and their allies.' After the attack MI5 lamented being
overstretched, commenting that security services currently are looking at 500
different plots and have a list of some 23,000 potential terrorists,
including a 'top list' of 3,000 deemed high risk. Barnabas Fund UK has
advised churches across Britain to 'exercise extra vigilance', providing
guidance on how to reduce risk and how to report suspicious activity to
police. Pray for a revival of faith and courage in UK.