In Post-Arab Spring Egypt, Muslim Attacks on Christians are Rising

By Sudarsan Raghavan
The Washington Post

An Egyptian Coptic Christian woman sits in the rubble of a makeshift chapel that was torched a few months ago during clashes in the Egyptian village of Ismailia, about 200 miles south of Cairo. Egypt’s Copts, who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people, are going through some of their darkest times in recent memory.

ASEM, Egypt — The Christian and Muslim villagers grew up together, played on the same soccer fields as kids, and attended the same schools in this riverside hamlet. But that didn’t matter on a recent day: An argument between boys sparked clashes between neighbors, with Muslims torching shops owned by Christians.

Gamal Sobhy, a Christian farmer, ran into the melee to protect his two sons. Someone in the crowd hit him with a stick. Then others jumped in, striking him repeatedly until he fell to the ground with blood seeping from his head.

“The Muslims were yelling, ‘Kill him, kill him,’ ” Sobhy said a few days after he was released from the hospital.

continue reading this article here

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High School Football Coach No Longer Leading Prayers Following Complaint From Atheist Group

“Any system of education which limits instruction to the arts
and sciences, and rejects the aids of religion in forming the 
 character of citizens, is essentially defective.” Noah Webster

By Heather Clark

Christian News

DUNMORE, Pa. — A high school football coach in Pennsylvania is now no longer leading prayers with his team following the receipt of a complaint from a prominent professing atheist organization.

According to reports, Dunmore High School Head Coach Jack Henzes has led his team in prayer before each game for years.

“We pray to the good Lord hoping none of our players, or the other players, are hurt because we know how hard they work,” Henzes told local television station WBRE.

But in June, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to the Dunmore School District to assert that Henzes’ longstanding practice was unconstitutional. The organization said that it had been contacted by a local resident about the matter.

“When a public school employee acting in an official capacity organizes, leads or participates in team prayer, he effectively endorses religion on the district’s behalf,” the letter read.  It asked that Henzes consequently be prohibited from leading students in prayer.

Five months later, Dunmore Superintendent John Marichak has now responded with notification that he has instructed Henzes to discontinue leading the prayers.

Christian News story continues 

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'We're Keeping Our Spirits High': Indonesian Christians Still Worshiping A Year After Churches Destroyed By Islamic Extremists

Police demolish a church at the Siompin village in
Aceh Singkil, Aceh province last October

By James MacIntyre

Christian Today

Christians are still gathering for worship in Aceh Singkil – an Indonesian province ruled under Sharia law – more than a year after churches there were destroyed by Islamic extremists and police, according to World Watch Monitor (WWM).

The churches – which have still not been rebuilt because of what WWM said was "discrimination against Christians" – were razed in October 2015 following clashes between Muslims and Christians in a separate part of Indonesia.

Some churches were destroyed by extremists and others demolished by police following demands from residents that all unregistered churches be destroyed. Imams have reportedly ordered the torching of churches, and Christians have been targeted by mob violence.

WWM said that of 11 churches demolished last year, the members of six continue to meet in tents, while the rest have joined other churches.

However, many Christians live in fear of violence, according to the organization. 

"The perpetrators live in the neighbourhood and they always watch my church members' activities," said one local Christian whose church is experiencing rapid growth.

Another local church member added: 

"I'm sad that we have to worship in tents in the middle of a palm-oil plantation. But we're keeping our spirits high."

Christian Today article continues

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An Introduction to Persecution Unveiled Cause

     

Persecution Unveiled has established this cause to educate people about the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in the US & worldwide.

To find out more about our cause, please view the video below or on our  Facebook page using this link.




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ISIS Taking Newborn Babies, Virgin Girls; on Rampage to Annihilate Christians, Says Catholic Priest

"They show beheadings, crucifixions, or when they burn people, but they rarely show when they are raping a girl, or when they are training children in terrorist camps."  Fr. Patrick Desbois

Islamic State billboards are seen along a street in Raqqa, eastern Syria, 

The billboard (R) reads: "We will win despite the global coalition."

By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian Post

A Roman Catholic priest who has been helping Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities facing genocide in Iraq and Syria said Islamic State militants separate families who live in terrorist occupied land by taking newborn babies and virgin girls while killing fathers and forcing young boys to plant bombs on the streets.

Father Patrick Desbois, a Paris-based priest who for decades has been researching the Holocaust and fighting anti-Semitism through his Yahad–In Unum global humanitarian organization, has in recent years turned to helping minority victims of the IS-led genocide in Iraq and Syria, specifically the Yazidi people.

Desbois told The Christian Post in a phone interview that IS, which he noted has also killed scores of Shia Muslims and Christians, uses a "very special" strategy to carry out its decimation of entire people groups.

"They dislocate the families, they take the newborn babies, and they put them in Islamist families," Desbois told CP, noting that the young children are trained as terrorists, and "forced to put bombs" on streets.

"The young girls who are virgins are selected by doctors and sold," he added, referring to the terror group's human trafficking and sex trade, which has seen many thousands of women and children sold to jihadists.

The men, on the other hand, are often shot in pits, he said, evidence for which are the many mass graves being discovered in territory newly liberated from IS' grasp.

Story of ISIS' Christian persecution continues

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China Cracks down On Children Attending Church

Christians in China are facing increased restrictions 

under President Xi Jinping's rule.  Reuters

By Carey Lodge
Christian Today

Christian children in China are being lured away from churches by a government scheme aimed at stopping them from taking part in Sunday services with other believers.
According to Texas-based watchdog China Aid, authorities in Zhejiang province have begun setting up community cultural centres and holding child-friendly activities at weekends to attract young people, "thus eliminating the problem of them attending church".

The scheme has so far been established in Yangy, Tengqiao, Shanfu and other towns.

Zhejiang has been the centre of a government campaign to crack down on churches and up to 1,700 churches have been demolished or had their crosses removed in the province over the past three years.

However, China Aid reports that the latest restrictions on religious activities are being implemented by local authorities across the country.

The Lucheng district of Wenzhou – known as the 'Jerusalem of the East' because of its large Christian population – is to "build a grid system to regulate religious affairs", China Aid said.

Each village will be monitored via the system, which will involve 1,500 officers from the religious affairs bureau. Churches will also be forced to conform to strict government regulations called the 'Five Entries and Five Transformations movement'.

Beijing has become progressively more suspicious of the influence of Christianity in China, and will next year implement new Regulations on Religious Affairs.

Story of China's crackdown on children attending church continues

Experts: Criticism of Islam May be Banned in U.S.

By Paul Bremmer
World Net Daily

Dutch politician Geert Wilders has spent years speaking out against the threat Islam poses to his country, and now he finds himself in legal trouble for it.

The controversial lawmaker went on trial this week on charges of “inciting discrimination and hatred of Moroccans,” according to the Guardian.

The charges stem from a March 2014 rally in which Wilders asked a room full of supporters if they wanted “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country. When the audience chanted, “Fewer, fewer!” Wilders responded, “Well, we’ll arrange that, then.”

This led the Dutch government to prosecute Wilders for “offending members of a group based on their race, and hate speech and discrimination,” according to the New York Times.

The paper added Wilders could face up to two years in prison if convicted, although other offenders in similar cases are usually fined or slapped with community service.

Don’t think for a moment something like this couldn’t happen to an American politician, says American Freedom Defense Initiative president Pamela Geller – especially if Hillary Clinton becomes our next president.

“While she was secretary of State, the U.S. voted for U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18, which calls for criminalization of ‘incitement to religious hatred,’ a subjective category that allows for the criminalization of any dissenting voice,” Geller told WND.

Philip Haney, a retired Customs and Border Protection officer and author of “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad,” agreed an American politician could be prosecuted for “hate speech” if UN HRC Resolution 16/18 and the related “Istanbul Process” are more fully enforced in the U.S. 

He said there will inevitably come a point when Americans have to decide whether they will honor their Constitution or international laws against criticizing Muslims.

“Is the First Amendment going to stay inviolable, or are we going to submit to the authority of a macro global-level organization like the U.N., and submit our freedom of speech to the resolutions like U.N. 16/18?” Haney asked.

WND article continues


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Muslim Refugees Meet Jesus

GOD AT WORK IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS

There’s a side of the Muslim refugee story you probably
have not heard in the mainstream media.

By: Eric Metaxas
BreakPoint

We’ve seen the video clips of Muslim refugees—many of them from war-torn Syria—flooding into an unprepared and overwhelmed Europe. We’ve heard accounts of some of these refugees committing ugly crimes and others demanding that the post-Christian societies that welcome them conform to the harsh demands of Islamic law. We’ve even read the stories about Islamist terror groups such as ISIS infiltrating the refugee populations in order to wreak further havoc on the West.

But chances are you don’t know, as Paul Harvey might have said, the rest of the story. It’s a story of God building His kingdom in the midst of chaos, doubt, and uncertainty. It’s a story of Muslims meeting Jesus. Take, for example, the story of Javad.

A Muslim from Iran, Javad didn’t know any Christians and didn’t own a Bible, though he had heard some Christian satellite radio. Then in 2008 he migrated to Athens, and a roommate asked him to come to an Iranian church. Javad had never heard of such a thing and, curious, he went. There, in a small, unremarkable rented room, he heard the gospel and gladly received Christ.

Continue reading this article here

           

Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. The BreakPoint.org features Metaxas and Stonestreet commentaries as well as columns and feature articles by leading Christian writers, and "Youth Reads," which offers a Christian perspective on books for teens and preteens. On "BreakPoint This Week," John Stonestreet and co-host Ed Stetzer host a weekly conversation with leading Christian writers and thinkers. These compelling discussions cover a wide variety of topics, but center on the issues shaping our culture. “RE:News” gathers need-to-know news headlines, and the BreakPoint Blog equips visitors with a biblical perspective on a variety of issues and topics.

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Justin Welby: Christianity Is Threatened As Never Before In Middle East

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby  Reuters

By Ruth Gledhill
Christianity Today

Christianity has never felt so threatened as it does now in its historic birthplace of the Middle East, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

Christians have recently been on the receiving end of persecution both from militantly atheist and religiously intolerant regimes, Justin Welby said today.

"It would not be over-stating matters to say that Christianity is both the numerically largest faith and the most persecuted.

"The historic centre of the Christian Church in the Middle East has never felt so threatened, but is also under attack in countries as diverse as North Korea and Eritrea, where Christians are harassed, imprisoned, persecuted and killed."

Sixty eight years after the United Nations agreed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this situation is intolerable, he said.

"As faith communities we must step up and hold governments to account. This is a challenge for us all everywhere but none-more-so than in countries where faith communities have serious power through numerical, political or civic strength."

In the UK, he added, the Church of England is at the fore in advocating the rights of Muslims to set up schools, madrassahs and mosques across the country.

"But the increasing integration of Muslim communities within British society, in which we rejoice, is in stark contrast to the increasing marginalisation of and outright hostility to Christian communities within many parts of the world, not least in significant parts of the Middle East."

Christianity Today article continues

The United Nations Tries to Eradicate Jewish History

By Harry Hutchinson
American Center for Law and Justice

It is absurd and astounding.

Last week, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved a resolution designed to eradicate the Jewish connection from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. 

Referring to this site revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims by only by its Arab name, UNESCO’s Executive Board simultaneously snubbed the fact that this site includes the Western Wall, a remnant of the Biblical temple, and the fact that this is the holiest site where Jews can pray. 

This decision amounts to a victory for one of the world’s leading sponsors of terror, Hamas, a Gaza-based Islamic Militant group that has sworn its allegiance to a narrative that is premised on the destruction of Israel.

As Charles Krauthammer observes, UNESCO’s resolution is simply “an Orwellian absurdity” that “makes a mockery of the Gospels, which chronicle the story of a Galilean Jew whose life and ministry unfolded throughout the Holy Land, most especially in Jerusalem and the Temple.” World history unequivocally shows that Islam did not exist until hundreds of years later.

Beyond Biblical and world history, it is unquestionably clear that the legal title of the Jewish people to the mandated territory of Israel and Palestine in all of its historical dimensions was first acknowledged and recognized under modern international law on April 20, 1920, when the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers approved the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917. 

Approval by the Allied powers gave international legal effect to the Balfour Declaration and to thousands of years of Biblical history, which preceded the creation of international law. The Allied Supreme Council decision converted the Balfour Declaration, which had only been a statement of Great Britain’s future intentions, into a binding legal document.

In sharp contrast with such history and international law, UNESCO’s resolution corresponds with the determination of proponents of the Boycott, Divestiture and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to marginalize Israel.

This campaign ignores the tragically troubled history of the world, which includes a century of horrors ranging from Nazism, the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and communism to the surfacing of Arab states staggering under the weight of plutocracy and nepotism that is bolstered by bloated bureaucracies.

UNESCO’s resolution is part of the BDS effort to demonize and delegitimize Israel, therefore imposing a fatal reputational wound on the only democracy in the Middle East. This move disregards the fact that over the past 70 years, the Arab world made every attempt to rid its lands of Jewish people (roughly totaling 900,000) while holding on to its hatred of them. 

This course of conduct preceded the creation of the state of Israel and represents the Arab world’s perpetual search for scapegoats, a process that corresponds with the capacity of the region’s dictators to adroitly channel public frustration toward external “enemies” and away from their own misrule.

ACLJ article continues

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Give Unto Caesar...Christian Pastor Refuses To Obey Order To Hand Sermons To The State

By Ruth Gledhill
Christian Today

Nearly 40,000 people have signed a petition backing a Christian pastor who is resisting demands to hand over his sermons to the state.

Walsh, a lay pastor who takes a traditional Biblical line on issues such as sexuality, was fired in 2014 from his job as a health administrator by the Georgia Department of Public Health. Officials had watched some of his sermons on YouTube.

Walsh, of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, was then ordered to hand over all his sermons, his sermon notes and his Bible and any other relevant documents going back to when he was just 18 years old to the state in a move criticized as an "unjust assault on people of faith."

He has continued to refuse to do so.

The Family Research Council petition backing Dr Walsh says: "I stand with Dr Eric Walsh's freedom to believe and live according to his deeply-held beliefs.

"The demand that he hand over his sermons, sermon notes, and all pastoral documents including his Bible represents a government intrusion into the sanctity of the church, pastor's study, and pulpit.

"Heavy-handed tactics like this have the effect of intimidating and silencing people of faith everywhere. Such targeting of the pulpit by the government is unconscionable, and I urge you to use all means of your authority to correct this egregious overreach of the state into church affairs."

Christian Today article continues

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Cuba's Crackdown Continues: Pastor Under House Arrest For Loud Worship Services

Crackdown: Over One Hundred Churches in Cuba Were Demolished in 2015 after the Government Declared 2,000 Assemblies of God Churches Illegal

By Joseph Hartropp
Christian Today

Pastor Juan Carlos Nuñez was sentenced by a civil court in the city of Las Tunas, Cuba on 22 November, Morning Star News reports. Pastor Nuñez leads the house church Apostolic House of the King of Glory, which is home to 550 worshippers.

Nuñez was sentenced under Cuba's environmental protection laws with "disturbing the peace", but a source close to the pastor said the sentence was overly hasty, giving Nuñez no chance to make a defence.

"The attorney did not have time to prepare because it was a summary [immediate] judgment, without any chance to be able to defend him," the source said. "There was no advance warning."

The charge against Nuñez came from complaints by Nuñez's neighbours that his church's sound system was too loud. Nuñez says that he obliged his neighbours and replaced the church speakers with smaller, 150 watt units. His congregation meets in the courtyard of an apartment complex in Las Tunas, for which Nuñez says the minimal amplification barely sufficed.

"We complied with the neighbors' wishes, but the case still went to court," he said.

The Cuban authorities deployed a force of high-ranking 'black beret' army soldiers at the courthouse on the day of Nuñez's trial. Local observers said that such heavy force was excessive given that the court only tries civil cases and misdemeanors, not criminals charged with felonies.

Nuñez said: "This was a form of intimidation, a show of power...You see, they feared there might be protests, because they themselves know that what they are doing is unjust."

The pastor hopes to appeal what he saw as an overly harsh sentence. "Our mission is to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are suffering for that cause," he said. "We were treated as criminals and enemies of the government. We are children of God unjustly accused and convicted."

Story of Pastor's House Arrest Continues 

ISIS Genocide Must Be Punished In Court - Leading European Politicians

MPs voted unanimously to declare genocide earlier this year by the UK government is yet to take action following this move. Reuters

By Harry Farley
Christian Today

ISIS genocide crimes must be investigated by the International Criminal Court, three European politicians urged in a letter this week.

The plea claimed the ICC did have jurisdiction to look into the atrocities because thousands of jihadist fighters came from countries under the court's watch. The letter to Prosecutor Ms Fatou Bensouda came after she refused to launch an examination into the group in April 2015, claiming the ICC could not begin proceedings under it had a referral from the United Nations Security Council.

A stalemate between Russia and the West means "it is extremely unlikely that the Council will refer the situations in Syria or Iraq to the Court", the letter said.
But it said several ISIS leaders come from countries including the UK, France, Germany and Belgium where the ICC does have jurisdiction and so does not need a referral.

The ICC was established under the Rome Statute and signatories of the treaty can be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. Neither Syria or Iraq have signed the Statute so the ICC can only investigate if they are invited to by either nation or if they receive a referral by the UNSC.

The letter is signed by the Catholic peer Lord Alton of Liverpool, the Dutch politicians Dr Pieter Omtzigt and the Swedish MEP Lars Adaktusson. It says there are more than 5,000 ISIS fighters who come from European countries and so the ICC should launch its own investigation.

"Further delay in exercising existent jurisdiction only breeds impunity," they argue. "It would be proper, then, to begin preliminary examinations of atrocities committed by these foreign leaders and under their direction."

It insists that "extremely detailed and carefully researched" evidence has proved ISIS is "committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis".

It concludes: "We therefore call upon you, Madam Prosecutor, to initiate preliminary examinations into the atrocities against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq committed by foreign fighters acting on behalf of Daesh as you empowered to do so under the Rome Statute."

ISIS Genocide article continues

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Christian Students Miraculously Saved From ISIS Terrorist Suicide Bombers: 'The Lord Blinded Their Eyes'

Iraqi security forces and people gather at the 

site of a suspected air strike at a Shi'ite mosque in Iraq

By Hazel Torres

Christian Today

Death was just an arm's length away for seven Christian girls who found themselves for hours sharing a room inside a school with heavily armed Islamic State (ISIS) fighters wearing explosive suicide belts.

Despite the grave danger, the girls found a way—with God's miraculous help—to make themselves "invisible" to the eyes of the enemy: They hid under beds.

"The Lord blinded the terrorists," Bishop Youssef Touma of the Archdiocese of Chaldeans said in a statement obtained by CBN News.

"When love and courage meet, God makes a miracle," the bishop added.

The tension-filled real-life drama took place on Friday when ISIS fighters raided a school in Kirkuk, Iraq, CBN News reported.

The school was one of several targets attacked by ISIS fighters as Iraqi security forces were preparing for a major assault on the nearby city of Mosul.

"The terrorists rushed into the surrounding buildings, including the Dominican nunnery and four homes for the [Christian] students [that] had been chartered by the Archdiocese of Chaldeans," Bishop Touma said.

One of the buildings the ISIS fighters occupied was Bishop's Touma's school, which is home to about 500 students. At the time of the attack, 30 girls were trapped inside.

Miraculous story of Christian students saved from ISIS continues 

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Iraqi Army Liberates Christian Town As US Defense Secretary Flies In For Talks

Iraqi army tanks gather after the liberation of a village 

from Islamic State militants, south of Mosul.Reuters

By Reuters
Christian Today

The Iraqi army has stormed Qaraqosh, a Christian town under control of Islamic State since 2014, as part of operations to clear the entrances to Mosul, the militants' last major city stronghold in Iraq.

The advance took place as US Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrived on a visit to Baghdad to meet Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and assess the campaign that started on Monday with air and ground support from the USled coalition.

A military statement said Iraqi army units entered the centre of Qaraqosh, about 20 kms (13 miles) southeast of Mosul, and were carrying out mop-up operations across the town which was emptied of its population in 2014, when Islamic State swept through the region.

Iraqi special units earlier this week captured Bartella, a Christian village north of Qaraqosh. The offensive on Mosul is expected to become the biggest battle fought in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. Islamic State also controls parts of Syria.

The army is also trying to advance from the south and the east while Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are holding fronts in the east and north.

A Reuters photographer on the southern front saw plumes of smoke rising on Friday from a sulphur factory near that was under the control of Islamic State near the town of Qayyara, filling the air with toxic gasses. It was not clear if the militants set it on fire to cover their retreat or if it was damaged during the fighting.

The army's media office said about 50 villages had been taken from the militants since Monday in operations to prepare the main thrust into the city of Mosul itself, where 5,000 to 6,000 are dug in, according to Iraqi military estimates.

"It's the beginning of the campaign. We do feel positively about how things have started off, particularly with the complicated nature of this operation," said a US official who briefed reporters ahead of Carter's trip to Baghdad.

Report on Liberation of Christian in Mosul continues here 

Hundreds Of Christian Refugees Beaten And Sexually Abused In German Refugee Camps

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced extensive criticism within her own

 party for allowing more than a million refugees and migrants in.  Reuters

By Harry Farley
Christian Today

Hundreds of Christian refugees have been beaten and sexually abused in German refugee camps, a report by the persecution charity Open Doors revealed.

A total of 743 Christians and 10 Yazidis were victims of religious motivated attacks in camps between February and September 2016, the report showed, but it warned the figure was the "tip of the iceberg". The report was presented to a press conference in Berlin on Monday and said "religiously motivated attacks occur frequently and nationwide".

It added "a number of unreported cases" must be assumed. Only 17 per cent of refugees affected reported the incidents to the police because they feared their situation would become worse.

Christian refugees faced death threats, sexual assault and violent attacks at the hands of the Muslim-majority cohabitants in the camps. More than half of those affected said the persecution they had received was violent and 44 reported sexual attacks against them.

An overwhelming majority, 83 per cent, said the attacks had happened "several times".

Christian converts were most at risk, the report stressed. "The highest risk in participating in the survey was taken by the converts from Islam to Christianity, according to the Quran their change of faith is considered as a crime worthy of the death penalty, therefore they are explicitly in danger."

Seperate accommodation must be provided for at-risk minorities like Christians and Yazidis, it insisted. "There must be no more 'integration experiments' at the expense of Christian refugees and other religious minorities in German asylum and reception centres."

The survey was conducted by Open Doors, Action on Behalf of Persecuted Christians and the Needy (AVC), International Society for Human Rights (IGFM), Aid to the Church in Need and Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany (ZOCD).

Open Doors report continues here

Battle For Mosul Begins - But Will There Be Any Christians Left?

Peshmerga forces advance in the east of Mosul  Reuters

By Harry Farley
Christian Today

The battle for Mosul began early on Monday morning as coalition forces sought to recapture ISIS' last major stronghold in Iraq.

Government troops backed by the US and others launched an air and ground offensive in the biggest operation in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. 

The iconic northern city of Mosul was home to thousands of Iraqi Christians before the ISIS invasion. There are thought to be few, if any, remaining.

The United States predicted Islamic State would suffer "a lasting defeat" as Iraqi forces mounted their operation. Some 30,000 Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish Peshmerga militia and Sunni tribal fighters were expected to take part in the offensive to drive up to 8,000 Islamic State militants from Mosul, a city of 1.5 million people.

"I announce today the start of the heroic operations to free you from the terror and the oppression of Daesh," Prime Minister Haider Abadi said in a speech on state TV.

"We will meet soon on the ground of Mosul to celebrate liberation and your salvation," he said.

In a statement the commander of the coalition, US Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said: "This operation to regain control of Iraq's second-largest city will likely continue for weeks, possibly longer."

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it was a "decisive moment" in the effort to defeat ISIS.

Article continues at christiantoday.com

Tell Chinese Authorities: Release Arrested Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin Now!

By Citizen Go

Chinese authorities have detained and re-located a Roman Catholic Bishop, Peter Shao Zhumin, away from his home diocese, because, following the death of the senior Bishop in his diocese (Bishop Zhu), he (Bishop Shao) was set to be installed as the new, senior Bishop (and, full administrator) of Zhejiang (Wenzhou) - which boasts a Catholic population of 120,000.

What is the "crime" for which Bishop Shao has been detained and taken "on a trip" by police (according to Asianews.it)?

The answer is that he was appointed as Bishop by the Vatican, and not by the Communist-Party-controlled "Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association", thereby making him a Bishop of the so-called "Underground Church" in the eyes of the authorities.

It is accepted, however, that, even though "unofficial", Bishop Shao had openly served as Co-Adjutor Bishop (i.e., Assistant Bishop) under the late Bishop Zhu, who was part of the "official" Church. This fact was widely known by the authorities for at least 5 years.

Either way, Bishop Shao's detention and exile is a regrettable and retrograde step where religious freedom is concerned! Especially for a country like China, which has, in recent years, made some strides in the right direction.

But, in order to welcome China into the "Developed World" of human rights, the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities- like that suffered among Christian converts in Tibet, or among the Muslim Uighurs - as well as systematic programs which try to erase Christian symbols from the landscape - like the demolition of 1,200 crosses in Zhejiang Province - must end.

And, specifically, in the case of Bishop Shao, China must recognize that the Vatican is the spiritual and juridical headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.
As such, Bishop Shao is a licitly appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, and has the right and duty to lead the flock of faithful in the Diocese of Zhejiang (Wenzhou).

Sign Petition for Release of Bishop Shao

Pakistan Steps Up Persecution With Ban On 11 Christian TV Stations

Karachi Prayer Festival organized by 
one of the banned Christian TV channels

Ruth Gledhill
Christian Today

Eleven Christian television stations in Pakistan have been declared illegal in the latest crackdown on Christians in the predominantly Muslim nation.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, a government body, has shut down Christian stations broadcasting in Urdu in an order issued at the end of September.

Ten of the channels are Protestant Christian television stations, and include Isaac TV, Gawahi TV, God Bless TV, Barkat TV, Praise TV, Zindagi TV, Shine TV, Jesus TV, Healing TV and Khushkhabari TV. They had been allowed to broadcast for 17 years.

The authorities have also banned Catholic TV, the diocesan channel in Lahore. "All the Regional Directors General are invited to take the necessary steps to immediately stop the illegal transmission of TV channels in their respective regions," the legal order stipulates.

Father Mushtaq Anjum, a Pakistan monk and priest who specializes in communications and the media, told Agenzia Fides: "The proclamation of the Good News is considered illegal.

"For some years now, with great efforts, Christian communities have organized television networks, cable or web, to talk to Christians and to speak of the Christian faith. Christians have no place in public television channels. We want to understand why they are called illegal. This is another discriminatory law that affects non-Muslims."

Worship at the Cathedral: there are nearly three million Christians
in Pakistan out of a population of more than 190 million.  Reuters

Father Anjam said the order was a serious attack on the freedom to practise a religion as well as on the vision of Pakistan founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who imagined a free as opposed to an Islamic society.  He described the bans as "intimidation".

Story of Christian persecution in Pakistan contunues 

Persecution Unveiled has been called by God to prick the consciences of this nation and all free people to speak up and act on behalf of those who have no voice.  Follow us on  Pinterest, like us on Facebook, and visit our website using this link.  

Aleppo Has Become A 'Living Hell' Warns Christian Leader In Syria

By Ruth Gledhill
Christian Today

Aleppo has become a "living hell" according to one of the most senior Christian leaders still in the besieged city in Syria.

Mgr Georges Abou Khazen, Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo, called for an instant ceasefire.

Speaking in the wake of the deaths of yet more children this week and last week in the relentless airstrikes, Khazen said: "Aleppo is now a living hell - a hell that touches everyone, east and west, full of death and destruction, refugees and lack of electricity and water, families who touch pain with their hands on a daily basis".

He said world powers must take responsibility and make "the logic of peace" a priority.

The latest deaths came in an airstrike which devastated a school in the predominantly Christian district of al-Sulaymaniyah. According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, the school was targeted in a "terrorist" attack, the term the regime uses for rebels.
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Air strikes targeting rebel-held districts of Aleppo also intensified after a lull of several days which the Syrian army said was designed to allow civilians to leave.
Khazen told Asia News: "We do not want all these deaths, this destruction. Everyone here is suffering. Families in both east and west continue to count and mourn their dead."

Christian article continues