"After four years of legal battle in a Turkish court, a judge acquitted two Christians of insulting Turkey and its people by spreading Christianity, but not without slapping them with a hefty fine for a spurious charge.

Four years ago this month, Turan Topal, 50, and Hakan Tastan, 41, started a legal battle after gendarmerie officers produced false witnesses to accuse them of spreading their faith and allegedly “insulting Turkishness, the military and Islam.”

At the Silivri court an hour west of Istanbul, Judge Hayrettin Sevim on Thursday (Oct. 14) acquitted the defendants of two charges that they had insulted the Turkish state (Article 301) and that they had insulted its people (Article 216) by spreading Christianity. Sevim cited lack of evidence.

He found them guilty, however, of collecting information on citizens without permission (Article 135) and sentenced them to seven months of imprisonment each. The court ruled that the two men could each pay a 4,500 lira (US$3,170) fine instead of serving time, said their lawyer Haydar Polat.

At the time of their arrests, Topal and Tastan were volunteers with The Bible Research Center, which has since acquired official association status and is now called The Association for Propagating Knowledge of the Bible. The two men had used contact information that individuals interested in Christianity had volunteered to provide on the association’s website. "

Christian Wulff

"In his speech, Wulff stressed immigrants need not give up their cultural identity or background. But those living in Germany should respect and protect the values of the German constitution, including freedom of speech, equality and the right to a religiously and ideologically neutral state.

'Those who wish to live in Germany must follow these rules and accept our way of life,' he said.

Wulff also touched on the subject of religion, calling on Turkey and other Islamic countries to be more open to Christianity. 'We expect Christians in Muslim countries to have the same right to live their faith publicly, to educate their youth in theology and build churches [as Muslims do in Germany],' he said.

'Without a doubt, Christianity belongs to Turkey,' he said, recalling his Unity Day speech from earlier in October, in which he stated that Islam had become part of Germany."

A Christian protestant church, GKI Taman Yasmin in the regency of Bogor, Indonesia was forced to cease activities by Bogor's regency on Sunday night. The police and Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) surrounded the church, disbanded a church meeting, then sealed the building by the city's order.

The Public Order Agency's main purpose is to help the police and local government maintain public order. However, given the rather militaristic and sudden action, some fear the church closing is actually inspired by a broader Islamist campaign against Christians and church groups in the Muslim majority nation. Last week, two church leaders were stabbed in Bekasi Regency, on the eastern border of the capital city, Jakarta.

...The church building permit was first revoked by the Bogor Administrative government on February 14, 2008, two years after the issuance of their permit. The administrative government cited public disturbance as an excuse to close down the place of worship. However, the court of justice overturned the Bogor administration's decision, and the church was reopened August 27 only to be re-closed a few days after.

Violence against Christian girls is “unfortunately common” in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, according to Father Khalid Rashid Asi, vicar general of the Diocese of Faisalabad.

Lubna Masih, 12, was going to a store to buy milk when five Muslim young men forced her into a car and raped and murdered her, according to the Fides news agency. Terrified by the prospect of reprisals, her family has not pressed charges.

Kiran Nayyaz, 13, was working as a maid in a Muslim’s home when another Muslim employee raped her. Now pregnant, she is under the protection of the Diocese of Faisalabad. “The family is traumatized and the entire Catholic community fear reprisals,” said the diocesan vicar general. “But cases of violence such as these are unfortunately common.”

In July, according to Fides, three Muslims kidnapped, tortured, and raped a 16-year-old Christian girl in Punjab, and a group of Muslim students raped a 12-year-old Christian girl in Rawalpindi.

“Episodes of violence and abuse of Christian girls are part of daily life,” a Fides source said. “Those that make the news are just the tip of the iceberg.”

• First One here.
• Second One here.

"Catholics are terrorists and accomplices of rape". "Spain was invaded by the Jews, not Muslims." This was said Wednesday in an anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish rally in the auditorium of the University of Valladolid (UVA). At that meeting, which lacked only in insults to Blacks and Asians, a buffoon (called Leo Bassi, right) mocked the signs of illness and old age who suffered (the late Pope) John Paul II. Three months ago the government fined Intereconomía not insulting, because they criticized the march of 'gay pride'. But Intereconomía is Catholic and right-wing, of course. Things change if the left insults and slander Catholics and Jews and mocks a deceased elderly person. In that case even offers the auditorium of a public university to launch better insults. By the way: Is this what the left means by "education for citizenship"?

Incidentally, and considering the serious crimes charged upon us, are we to assume he wants to see all the Catholics in prison? Or does he prefer for us something more progressive and which does not require testing for trapping the divergent, as a gulag or a torture chamber? I say this because accussing of false crimes to an entire social group is a typical practice of many totalitarian groups, and has often been a precursor to crack down on members of this social group.

On the other hand, I wonder what following acts will be authorized by the University of Valladolid for these facilities paid for with public money, ie, taxes paid, among others, Catholics and Jews insulted and maligned at the rally. Will the program include a cross burning by members of the anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic also Ku Klux Klan? Will they present a new edition of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a talk in which blame the Jews of being the cause of all evil and wanting to rule the world? Or maybe there will be a meeting in which they will made a mockery of the disabled? What will be the next lecture of vileness, hatred and intolerance provide this University will provide?

What is clear is that neither the University will consent nor these leftist groups will convene a meeting to insult, slander and make fun of Muslims. Faced with an orgy of insults to Muslims like the one on Wednesday launched against Jews and Catholics (which I seem as reprehensible as of yesterday), the left would be the first to air allegations of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and fascism as we have seen many times before with much less strong adjectives thrown from certain sites against the followers of Mohammed. The case is that almost all countries are democracies from the Judeo-Christian tradition - will this be what bothers you the fool? - while in many Muslim majority countries to certain persons are hanged for being gay, and some women the stoning for adultery. But that does not seem to matter much to some leftists, who feel very comfortable with radical Islamism that shares their rejection of Western Judeo-Christian roots.

The Armenian Apostolic Church on Saturday condemned the holding of a Muslim prayer hundreds of Turkish nationalists organized in an old Armenian cathedral in eastern Turkey with the permission of Turkish authorities.The Nationalist Action Party (MHP opposition) had organized a Friday prayer in congregation in the Cathedral of Our Lady Ani, the ruined capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom located near Kars, near the border with Armenia to Turkey.This ceremony was widely interpreted as a response to mass history allowed for the first time in 95 years by the Turkish authorities on 19 September, the Armenian Church of the Holy Cross, Van (east). It was the first Mass ever celebrated since the massacres and deportations of the First World War.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) announced earlier this week its intention to bring together supporters on Friday to a group prayer in the Cathedral of Our Lady and the party won regional authorities and the Ankara government permissions.On August 16th 1064, the Seljuk leader Alparslan Ani won the city and he dropped the cross of the cathedral and said a prayer on Friday. Aktash, who is head of the branch of the party wanted to reproduce the event in Kars after 946 years.According to a previous press release, the president of the nationalist Devlet Bahceli decided to begin the campaign for elections to the parliament with this prayer in the Cathedral on October 1.

Escuchar

Leer fonéticamente

The Cathedral of Ani is a pearl of the original architecture of the Caucasus. Ani was the capital of an Armenian kingdom in the Middle Ages, which extended largely on Armenia and eastern Turkey today.The Cathedral was founded by order of King Sembat II and was completed under the patronage of the wife of King Gagik I, Queen Katranide. The Cathedral was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was built by the talented architect Tiridates, which was said monuments of the 10th century that they prefigured the Gothic style that came to Europe several centuries later.

Islamic extremists killed a Christian lawyer, his wife and their five children in northwestern Pakistan this week for mounting a legal challenge against a Muslim who was charging a Christian exorbitant interest, local sources said.

Police found the bodies of attorney and evangelist Edwin Paul and his family on Tuesday morning (Sept. 28) at their home in Haripur, a small town near Abbotabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (previously known as the North-West Frontier Province, or NWFP), according to Haripur Station House Officer (SHO) Maqbool Khan.

The victim and his wife Ruby Paul, along with their five children ages 6 to 17, had been shot to death.

"On Sept. 28 at around 8 a.m., we received a call from Sher Khan colony that people heard gunshots, and there was a group of people who ran from a house and drove away," Khan said. "We went and found seven bodies in a house."

Libya released on Saturday two South Koreans who were arrested this summer for violating the religious law of the African country, South Korean FM said today.

The release comes two days after Lee Sang Deuk, Grand National Party MP and brother of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, met with the head of state of Libya, Muammar Al Gaddafi.

The prisoners were handed over to their families in the presence of South Korean ambassador in Libya, explained the minister, as recorded by The Korean Times newspaper.

Koo and Jeon, as identified by their relatives, were arrested in June and July, respectively, accused of having carried out religious activities in the country. In August, both were taken to prison after being interrogated by the authorities.

A quiet but steady hemorrhaging of Iraq’s ancient Christian presence is underway and little is being doWritten threats, kidnappings, bombings and murder by Muslim extremists are driving thousands of Iraq’s minority Christian population out of their ancestral homeland, fleeing for safety to neighboring Jordan and Syria.ne to stem the flow.

“The Christians are experiencing an absence of leadership,” explained Hala Hikmat, a recent arrival from Baghdad who has joined thousands of her countrymen in Syria. “We have no leaders who are communicating our urgent needs to the authorities, so consequently each person has to take care of themselves.” Their urgent needs, as expressed by Hikmat, are for protection and for a stand to be taken on Christians’ behalf.

A string of church bombings in August and September sent anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 Christians fleeing the country, according to estimates by Iraqi government and church officials. And they admit that hundreds more families out of Iraq’s 750,000 Christians are leaving each week.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) disputes these figures, saying they are too high. But UNHCR offices in Amman and Damascus admit that it is hard to know exactly how many Iraqi Christians are currently in Jordan and Syria.

Of the 4,000 Iraqi families officially registered as refugees with the agency in Damascus, more than half are Christians. It is believed that there are larger numbers of Iraqis in Syria because it is cheaper to live there than in Jordan. Iraqi Christians also said they have stronger cultural and spiritual ties to Syria. Syrian authorities estimate there are about 300,000 Iraqis in the country.

"The Syrian government ordered the closure of numerous 'house churches' for meeting in places the government deems inappropriate for worship. Many congregations in Syria cannot afford to buy a plot of land and build a church, so instead they purchase an apartment and turn it into a place of worship. However, during the past few months, the government has enforced a law stating that congregations must only gather in buildings that resemble a church.

Many Syrian Christians, however, believe that the government's 'legal' excuse for closing churches is merely a cover-up for a wider government crackdown against evangelical Christian activity in Syria. 'Syrian Christians that are active in their faith know that they are watched very closely and the government is waiting for an excuse to crack down on them,' a Syrian Christian told ICC. 'The government is targeting all religious activities which are considered 'extreme' -- from Muslim extremists all the way to Christians… It is generally believed that the government is getting reports from Orthodox and certain denominations as well as secret police and certain Islamic congregations.'"

Two Algerian Christians have been tried for breaking Ramadan fasting rules, with hundreds of people protesting outside the courtroom against judicial authorities.

Hocine Hocini, 44, and Salem Fellak, 34, were arrested on August 13 on the building site where they worked in the northern region of Kabylie after they were spotted eating lunch.

The pair admit to eating but insist it happened in a discreet place.

Muslims are not allowed to eat during daylight hours during the Ramadan holy month.

In Algeria breaking the fast can be punished with three months in jail.

Turkey's once-flourishing Greek community is fading away. The country is predominantly Muslim and led by a secular government that's had a complicated relationship with the patriarchate.

If Turkish laws, demographics and attitudes aren't changed, Bartholomew could ultimately be the last Patriarch of Constantinople.

"We are not all in despair for the future of our church," Bartholomew said. "It is not easy, but it is not impossible."

The Turkish government can veto any candidate put forward for the position of patriarch. And it requires the patriarch be a Turkish citizen. Bartholomew is, but most of those best qualified to succeed him are not.

So the government has proposed offering Turkish citizenship to Orthodox archbishops overseas. Several have applied; so far, none has been approved.

The Turkish government also refuses to recognize the title Ecumenical Patriarch, or Bartholomew's role as an international religious leader. (NOTE: There are approx 250 million Orthodox in the world whose visible head is Patriarch Bartholomew).

A Pentecostal church in Karachi has been attacked and vandalized by militants still angry over a threat to burn Qur’ans in the United States earlier this month. (NOTE: The Koran was not burned.... and yet...).

Nine copies of the Bible, three hymn books and three wooden crosses were found burnt on Sept. 18 at the Nasri Pentecostal Church in Shah Latif Town, Karachi.

The area is home to about 120 Christian families.

A dholki or hand-held drum used in gospel music was also found damaged.

“The church gates were open and the locks broken. The attackers broke open a cupboard and vandalized religious items at around midnight,” said Pastor Peter Shahzad.

He was speaking to ucanews.com after a Sept. 19 Sunday service in which he urged the government to punish the culprits under the country’s blasphemy laws.

Pastor Shahzad later led his congregation to a protest rally at the Karachi Press Club, a popular venue for demonstrations.

Nearly five years into the prison sentence of the only Christian in Morocco serving time for his faith, Moroccan Christians and advocates question the harsh measures of the Muslim state toward a man who dared speak openly about Jesus.

By the end of December Jamaa Ait Bakrim, 46, will have been in prison for five years at Morocco’s largest prison, Prison Centrale, in Kenitra. An outspoken Christian convert, Bakrim was sentenced to 15 years prison for “proselytizing” and destroying “the goods of others” in 2005 after burning two defunct utility poles located in front of his private business in a small town in south Morocco.

Advocates and Moroccan Christians said, however, that the severity of his sentence in relation to his misdemeanor shows that authorities were determined to put him behind bars because he persistently spoke about his faith.

“He became a Christian and didn’t keep it to himself,” said a Moroccan Christian and host for Al Hayat Television who goes only by his first name, Rachid, for security reasons. “He shared it with people around him. In Morocco, and this happened to me personally, if you become a Christian you may be persecuted by your family. If you keep it to yourself, no one will bother you. If you share it with anyone else and start speaking about it, that’s another story.”

A photographer of Portas Abertas is traveling through Pakistan to report on the flood's disaster. The circumstances are difficult and threatening. "I had to travel by night to the affected area and could only stay there for some hours. I had to go back to a safe city before there was talk of a foreigner in the region".

The photographer visited two villages. "Of course I had heard stories about Christians being overlooked during the relief effort of the government and Islamic organizations. In the first village that was a harsh reality. The town was still flooded with people camped on high ground. The Muslims were in tents nice and firm. Christians were situated a few hundred meters down the road, with makeshift tents made of branches, leaves and grass".

Fataho was a long-time Christian deeply involved in the activities of the small, secret Christian community, sources said. Area Christians said they suspected someone had informed the insurgents of Fataho’s faith.

The assailants abducted his wife and children, later releasing her on the condition that she surrender the little ones to be trained as soldiers, sources said.

“We know they have taken the children to brain-wash them, to change their way of life from Christian to Muslim and to teach them the Quran,” said one source. “Al Shabaab was aware that her husband was a Christian, but they were not sure of her faith.”

On March 30 an administrative judicial court in Egypt dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Camilia Lutfi, mother of the Coptic Christian twins boys Mario and Andrew (right), against the Interior Minister, and the director of the Civil Status Department for refusing to re-instate the Christian religion on their birth certificates, and invalidate those which were forcefully changed to "Islam" in 2005 by their father Medhat Ramsis Labib, who had converted to Islam.

After his conversion, Andrew and Mario became Muslims in what is called "Islamization by dependence," by which children follow the religion of a converted parent (to Islam only) until they reach the age of puberty (fifteen), because Islam is "the best among all religions," according to Egyptian Court rulings.

The purpose of Lutfi's litigation was to restore back to her twins their identity as Christians, before reaching the age of 16 in June, when they will have their national ID cards issued. Camilia said that because of the developments in their case, her worst nightmares would materialize, in which they would have Islam as religious affiliation on their ID cards. "If they change to Christianity after that, they will be considered apostates," she told Freecopts advocacy. She expressed her surprise at the intransigence of the judiciary in dealing with the issue of her sons, especially after they have already reached the legal age of 15-years, when they can choose their own religion. "The boys have lived this tragedy for the last ten years, through no fault of their own."

ElYoum 7 Newspaper reported that 15-years-old Mario and Andrew were extremely disappointed with the court verdict, saying "faith is not by force, we want to remain Christians and we do not wish to become Muslims." Both boys are practicing Christians and were consecrated last year as deacons in their regular church in Alexandria.

The court explained in its verdict, which was issued on April 14, that Camilia Lutfi has not presented a verdict from a relevant court (it did not say which court) proving the change of her sons' religion from Islam to Christianity. "How come that when their father changed their religion from Christianity to Islam, he required no court verdict, and now that they want to revert back to Christianity, the court requires a verdict?" she told Freecopts.

Although the mother's lawyers presented to the court a portfolio containing 15 different certificates proving they are Christians, contradicting what was written on their birth certificates, the court said in its reasoning that it does not recognize the validity of a certificate issued by the Church as a document of change of religion from Islam to Christianity, as "churches by law are not competent to issue such certificates." The courts only accept certificates of religion change from Al-Azhar (the Muslim theology school in Cairo). Moreover the Court said that there is no law to force the Interior minister and the Civil Status Department chief to change the religion of the boys on their documents without a court ruling to this effect.