Release International

Persecution Now

Today’s top story: Indonesia: two hundred militant Islamists have besieged a Christian school. They burned down school buildings and threatened to bring a crowd of 1,000 people to close the school down.

Two Islamist groups are believed to be behind the attack which lasted for three hours. It took 400 police officers to quell the violence. It’s the latest in a series of attacks by militants cleansing Christians from Indonesia and converting them to Islam by force. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide).

Burma: Members of the mainly Christian Karen tribe have reported incidents of state-backed violence to a British MP. Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, has just returned from visiting 3,000 Karen people who’ve been driven from their homes.

One woman told him how her husband was tied to a tree, tortured, blinded, then drowned. Another described how her son was beheaded.

Mr Mitchell was the first British MP to meet a representative of Burma’s ruling junta for 10 years. He described the regime as ‘wicked and illegitimate’. (CSW).

Burmese Church leaders have told Release International how the authorities are trying to establish a Buddhist-only nation. Pastor Barnabus said they were taking Christian children from their homes to bring them up as Buddhists:

‘They want to destroy their faith. They want to convert it into Buddhism. So many times they take their children without the parents’ permission. They force them into Buddhist school and never see their parents again.’

In Nigeria, Muslim students have set fire to a newly rebuilt school chapel, which had been torched by Islamists three years ago. Militants sent letters warning they would attack the school unless Christian students and staff left the establishment (CSW).

Release International’s Nigerian partner, Mark Lipdo, says militants have now destroyed 600 churches in Nigeria in the continuing violence.

‘I want Christians in the West to know that persecution has come to stay. We have seen it repeatedly here. There is only one way to live as disciples. Christ said that men will know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another.’

In Sri Lanka, a pastor, his two sons and one of their friends have been reported missing. The four men were last seen leaving their town en route for the capital Colombo.

Christians are coming under growing pressure in this predominantly Buddhist country which is teetering on the brink of civil war.

Release International serves the persecuted Church in 30 nations. For video reports download our monthly webcast ­ - World Update - available from the Release International website: www.releaseinternational.org 

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