Release International

Persecution Now is the weekly bulletin of Release International, giving the latest news of the persecuted Church.

Top story - Turkey: Church leaders claim growing nationalism and religious intolerance is behind the murders of three workers at a Christian publishing house. Acting on a tip-off, police found the bodies of the three men at the publisher’s offices in eastern Turkey. The attackers had bound their hands and feet and cut their throats. The publishing manager said militants threatened his staff and accused them of being involved in missionary activity. Police have arrested five suspects

Additional sources are given in brackets. Further details from those sources.

Persecution Now

Turkey: Church leaders claim growing nationalism and religious intolerance is behind the murders of three workers at a Christian publishing house.

Acting on a tip-off, police found the bodies of the three men at the publisher’s offices in eastern Turkey. The attackers had bound their hands and feet and cut their throats.

The publishing manager said militants threatened his staff and accused them of being involved in missionary activity. Police have arrested five suspects (Sat-7).

Nigeria: Christians fear a rise in persecution following the recent presidential elections.

Umaru Musa Yar’Adua won a landslide victory in the controversial elections which prompted accusations of intimidation and vote rigging. He is the former head of a northern state where he introduced Islamic law.

Christians under his rule say they have been denied freedom to worship and the right to build new churches – and that the man who is now the President of Nigeria refused to help them.

Iraq: Sunni extremists have issued death threats against six Christians, forcing them to flee their homes in Baghdad.

Armed Sunnis told the families to convert to Islam within 24 hours or be killed. A Muslim leader issued a fatwa for their deaths, so, even in hiding the Christians remain under threat.
 
The Dora region of Baghdad was once home to a thriving Christian community. But a spate of church bombings, priest kidnappings and the growing violence has led to an exodus of Christians from the neighbourhood. It is now a safe haven for Sunni militants (Compass Direct News).

Mexico: Evangelical Christians in San Christobal have won their stand-off with local authorities who threatened to evict them unless they helped pay for a traditional festival.

The Christians refused to support the festival, which they said was a mixture of drunkenness and religious idolatry.

The authorities cut off their water and electricity and threatened to fine or evict the 65 Christians. The evangelicals refused either to pay up or leave their homes.

It’s common practice in Mexico to force Christians to support traditional festivals, often put on by village leaders who run the alcohol industry. As a result tensions are growing. On April 14, the civil authorities pulled down a Pentecostal church in a nearby town. 

The government finally intervened to calm things down, ordering local leaders to call off their threat to evict the Christians. Evangelicals now hope the government will guarantee their religious freedom. (Journal Chrétien, Compass Direct News).

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
 
ENDS

Notes to the Editor

Additional information:

Turkey:  The three men were found at the Zirve offices in Malatya, eastern Turkey. Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel, both Turkish, worked for the Bible publisher’s: Tilmann Geske, a German, worked for a translation firm in the same city, says Middle East Concern.

Aydin, who was also an amateur actor, had recently played Jesus in an Easter broadcast on Christian satellite TV TURK-7.

These murders are just the latest in a string of attacks on Christians in Turkey. In February 2006, a priest was stabbed at the altar in Trabzon; soon afterwards an Armenian journalist was shot dead in Istanbul. In both instances, the killers claimed to be defending Islam.

Christian leaders believe Islamist nationalists are fuelling hostility towards immigrants and non-Muslims as Turkey struggles to establish its place in the world. Turkey’s (so far unsuccessful) bid to join the European Union has only made nationalists more entrenched.

See also: http://www.sat7.org/news/latest_news.asp

Nigeria: Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of the ruling People’s Democratic Party won a landslide victory in controversial elections in April, prompting accusations that voting was chaotic and rigged.

Yar’Adua, former president Obasanjo’s designated successor, was previously governor of Katsina, a northern Sharia state. AlthoughYar’Adua is considered less of a threat to Christians’ liberty than his main opponent, General Muhammadu Buhari, many churches are concerned about his victory at the polls.

The new national government is scheduled to take power on May 29 but, at the time of writing, both main opposition candidates were demanding a re-run.

Iraq: The Christians families lived in the Mualimien neighbourhood of Dora district in Baghdad. They were ordered to leave on April 14.

Mexico: See also http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article9871

Additional sources:
www.compassdirect.org 

For further information, please contact Andrew Boyd on 01730 301905 or Release International on 01689 823491 or by email at info@releaseinternational.org

Through our international network of missions RI serves persecuted Christians in 30 countries, supporting pastors and Christian prisoners and their families, supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice. RI is a member of the UK organisations Global Connections, the Evangelical Alliance and the Micah Network.

Back to top