BBBBRRRRRRRR ITS COLD
It has to be the coldest day this winter here on the Mid North coast of New South Wales, Australia. I know I felt extremely cold today and I don’t normally feel the cold all that much. It was truly winter today and that for the first time really in more than one winter season.
The high today at Tea Gardens was 9 degrees Celsius – the coldest day that I can remember in a long time. Not only that, there was also a cold wind blowing and a fair bit of rain around as well. A real blast of winter today, that’s for sure.
There was a fair bit of snow around the state today as well, with snow in the Barrington Tops and near Walcha, to just name a couple of areas.
More of the rain and winter weather tomorrow as well.
Still – I haven’t felt the need to stop wearing my work shorts at work yet. Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment!
SONNY BILL WILLIAMS OUTRAGE
Finally the NRL is taking an extremely tough stand on players that breach their contracts. Sonny Bill Williams, as I mentioned in an earlier post today, has walked out on the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs to play rugby in France on a 2 year $3 million dollar contract.
The NRL is threatening to ban Williams for life if he takes up the Rugby Union contract in France and have also appealed to the Rugby Union authorities in France to not allow Williams to play union until such time as his current Rugby League contract runs its normal course.
Understandably his Canterbury team mates are in shock and extremely disappointed in Williams. They believe he has let them all down, especially since he left without any warning.
IRAN: TORTURED CHRISTIAN FLEES
'I have no doubt they wanted to kill me,' says former Muslim.
ANKARA, July 21 (Compass Direct News) – Days after his release from a month of interrogations and severe torture under secret police custody, Iranian Christian Mohsen Namvar has fled across the border into Turkey with his family.
Traveling by train, the badly beaten Christian arrived July 2 in eastern Turkey with his wife and son.
Namvar, 44, had been held incommunicado by a branch of Sepah (the Iranian Revolutionary Guards) from May 31 until June 26, when authorities told his family they were releasing him "temporarily."
Although the secret police demanded $43,000 in bail, officers refused to issue a court receipt for the family's cash payment.
At the time of his release, Namvar was experiencing fever, severe back pain, extremely high blood pressure, uncontrollable shaking of his limbs and recurring short-term memory loss.
"I have no doubt they wanted to kill me," Namvar told Compass.
According to Namvar, who converted from Islam to Christianity as a teenager, his severe physical mistreatment stemmed from his refusal to give the police any names or information about other converts and house church groups in Iran.
In the spring of 2007, he had been arrested and severely tortured with electrical shocks, allegedly for baptizing Muslims who had become Christians. Three months after back surgery for those injuries, he regained the ability to walk, but still suffered pain and discomfort.
Namvar presented himself last week to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ankara to apply for status as an asylum-seeker.
He and his family were assigned by the UNHCR to relocate in one of 30 designated satellite cities in Turkey, where he is required to sign in daily at the local police station. They must wait 11 months, until June 8, 2009, for a UNHCR interview in which they will detail their reasons for requesting asylum.
"We are tired in our minds, and very sad," Namvar's wife said after learning they must wait nearly a year in Turkey before even presenting her husband's case. "We were under so much pressure in Iran, and again we are facing it here."
While her husband was under arrest, she had been subjected to a second police ransacking of their home, repeated telephone calls filled with slander and death threats and one attempt to kidnap their son from his school.
Namvar said he was surprised that the interviewing officer at the UNHCR spent only six minutes registering information from their passports. Following standard UNHCR protocol, the official did not ask why they had fled from their country, nor did he collect copies of documents they had brought concerning his case.
Nearly 15,000 applications for refugee or asylum status are now in process at the Ankara office, which is the largest UNHCR center in Europe apart from the Geneva headquarters.
"But even if they have strong evidence for their case, at best it takes three to four years for someone to be resettled through our office," UNHCR external affairs officer Metin Corabatir told Compass.
Police Pressures
Although he earned his living as a miner, Namvar had been active in preaching and teaching the message of Christ across northern Iran since the early 1990s.
His first brush with the authorities came when he was caught in 2001 giving out Christian literature at a gas station. "I spent three days in jail," he recalled.
After that, local police demanded that he obtain permission each time he wanted to enter the city near his home, in effect banning him from the region.
"The police created a very bad atmosphere there against us," Namvar said, "so no one would even respond to our greetings on the street."
Because of this, Namvar moved his family to Tehran. But he was unable to find work, due to his police record and the requirement on all job applications to state his religion.
For the past seven years, he has supported himself by translating books from English into Farsi, while continuing to visit and minister among various house church groups.
"I never knew God until Jesus showed Himself to me in a dream," Namvar said, recalling his conversion to Christianity 29 years ago. "But ever since then, I have followed Jesus and told others about Him."
Under Iran's hardline Shiite government, a Muslim who converts to Christianity has committed apostasy, which is punishable by death.
Iranian Christians Mahmood Matin and Arash Bandari have been jailed since May 15 in Shiraz, where they were arrested on "suspicion" of apostasy.
Under a draft law under discussion this month in the Iranian parliament, the "optional" death penalty now in force for apostasy would become obligatory.
Report from Compass Direct News
IRAN: EX-MUSLIMS DETAINED FOR APOSTASY
Police interrogate converts to Christianity about faith, political activity.
ISTANBUL, July 9 (Compass Direct News) – Iranian authorities have detained two converts to Christianity in the southern city of Shiraz for eight weeks on suspicion of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam. In Iran, apostasy is a crime that can be punishable by death.
Mahmood Matin, 52, and Arash Bandari, 44, remain imprisoned in a secret police detention center known by its address, Sepah Street 100, located in the center of Shiraz since their arrest on May 15 (previously reported as May 13).
A draft penal code under discussion in Iran’s parliament this month may make the death penalty obligatory for those who leave Islam or use the Internet to encourage others to do so (see below).
During a visit on June 24, Matin’s wife was able to speak with him for five minutes as officials listened in, a source told Compass. Seated in a dimly lit room behind a glass window, the prisoner told his wife that there had been a misunderstanding and that he could not teach Christianity any more.
“They are pushing me to tell them that I am connected to a church outside [Iran] and that I am receiving a salary, but I told them that I am doing it on my own,” he told his wife, according to a source who requested anonymity for security reasons.
Despite Matin’s claims that he was being well treated, his wife told the source she believed otherwise.
“He was just trying to make me calm; that’s what I could see because he’s my husband and I know his face,” Matin’s wife said, according to the source. The source said that Matin was not even aware where he was being held until his wife told him during the visit.
The June 24 meeting was the first and only face-to-face contact Matin’s family has had with him since his arrest in May.
Matin and Bandari were detained with 13 other Muslim converts to Christianity while meeting together in a park in Shiraz. Police confiscated the group’s cell phones and “temporarily” released everyone except Matin and Bandari over the subsequent days.
According to the source, the 13 have been told they have an ongoing court case against them. They remain under house arrest and have been called in for questioning about alleged political activity and Christian faith.
Officials have not informed the 13 released Christians of the specific charges against them. But the nature of their questioning has led them to believe that they are suspected of apostasy and political crimes against the government.
Matin telephoned his wife several weeks after his arrest to tell her that he had been charged with apostasy and to request that she acquire a lawyer to take his case. But on June 22, she received a call from an official telling her that Matin did not need legal representation and inviting her to visit her husband in Shiraz.
“The caller did not say who they were, just that they were from the secret police and that the family could visit Matin on June 24 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.,” the source said. He said that Matin’s wife traveled 17 hours by bus from her home in Tehran to visit her jailed husband.
Matin has had no further contact with his wife and three children, ages 22, 18 and 12, since the June 24 jail visit.
Mandatory Death for ‘Apostates’ Debated in Parliament
ISTANBUL, July 9 (Compass Direct News) – A penal code that would mandate the death penalty for those who promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy even on the Internet is expected to go to debate soon in Iran’s parliament.
If passed, the penal code drafted last January would require execution of any Muslim who converts to Christianity. Under sharia (Islamic) law, apostasy is one of several “crimes” that can be punishable by death, although Islamic court judges are not required to hand down such a sentence.
The draft of the penal code under consideration explicitly sets death as a fixed punishment that cannot be changed, reduced or annulled.
Many believe that the government intends to use the proposed penal code to clamp down on the surge in conversions in Iran over the last few years. Commentators have called the surge a “mass exodus” from Islam, which in its Iranian Shiite version imposes harsh limitations on lifestyle and personal freedoms.
On July 2 Iran’s Members of Parliament voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for harming mental security in society,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported last week. The news agency noted that the draft bill also includes the death penalty for “establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy.”
According to the current penal code, the death sentence is already applicable to rape, adultery and armed robbery, among other crimes. The draft adds apostasy and cyber-crimes to the list and stipulates that those convicted of these crimes should be punished as “mohareb” (enemy of God) and “corrupt on the earth,” according to AFP.
Over the last few years, the Internet and media such as television have been conduits of information on Christianity and are feared as sources of “corruption” of the Iranian people. The Internet is widely used in Iran despite restricted access for thousands of websites with “immoral” content or content – including Christian ones – deemed as insulting religion and promoting political dissent.
The number of executions in Iran reached 317 last year, up from 177 recorded by Amnesty International in 2006. Human rights organizations have criticized Iran for making excessive use of the death penalty, but Tehran insists it is an effective deterrent that is carried out only after an exhaustive judicial process, reported the AFP.
In a statement earlier this year, the European Union (EU) criticized the penal code draft and particularly Section Five on the death penalty for apostasy. The EU said this section and other parts of the code violated Tehran’s commitments under international human rights conventions.
Christians in particular have suffered persecution in Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979. No converts to Christianity have been convicted of “apostasy” since international pressure forced officials to drop the death sentence of Christian convert Mehdi Dibaj in 1994. But in the years following the convert’s release, Dibaj and four other Protestant pastors, including converts and those working with converts, have been brutally murdered.
The murderers of the Christians have never been brought to justice, and local believers suspect the government played a role in the killings.
Christian converts are regularly arrested and imprisoned without due process, tortured and placed under surveillance. Muslims who have embraced Christianity have no right to practice their newfound faith, and the printing of the Bible in Farsi, the national language, has been banned.
Report from Compass Direct News
CRUDE OIL PRICE FALLING
The price of crude oil continues to fall, yet despite the continued falls the price of petrol in Australia remains high. On Friday the price of petrol was still $1.65 per litre. The price of oil per barrel has now fallen to $123.26 US.
It’s incredible how the oil companies are so quick to pass on the rise of oil in their petrol pricing, yet when the price of crude falls they seem to be so slow in passing on the price reduction. Maybe it’s just me or is this not a display of greed and a consequence of a lack of competition?
The price of crude is falling due to a number of factors I believe, including the slowing of the global economy, which is due to a large degree to the overwhelming price of petrol at the bowser (as well as the global credit crisis). There is also a rise in supply of fuel, largely due to the fall in demand I expect rather than any increased output by OPEC countries.
The increase in demand for oil, which led to the record price of $147.27 US a barrel on the 11th July 2008, has been led by the booming economies of China and India. These two countries alone now have a population well over 2 billion people and the oil required to fuel these two economies must be enormous. It is unlikely that the 200 000 barrels a day increase in output by OPEC to about 32.9 million barrels a day is unlikely to hold the price of oil to the current lower price for long. The price of crude can only go up as these two economies begin to pick up once again.
SONNY BILL WILLIAMS DEPARTS NRL
One of Rugby League’s big names, Sonny Bill Williams, has abandoned the Canterbury side to which he is bound by contract to sign a two year deal with a French Rugby Union team, Toulon. The deal is said to be worth $3 million dollars.
There are a number of things that I find disturbing about this whole situation for Williams and I am by no means a Canterbury supporter. I support the Parramatta Eels and I am something of a ‘sworn’ enemy of the Bulldogs since the great Eels and Bulldogs encounters of the eighties grand finals. Yet I can only imagine the disappointment that loyal Bulldogs supporters must be feeling after Williams flew out to France without even warning the club to which he is contracted.
Firstly I believe Williams to be overrated, though to be fair he does on occasion show brief glimpses of promised brilliance, yet these displays are few and far between.
There is also the very public spat that he had with some Bulldogs players that worked out to join such teams as the Roosters when the Bulldogs club was in the middle of some very public troubles. Williams was the very outspoken champion for Canterbury. However, his latest actions can only demonstrate that of a complete hypocrite.
The Sonny Bill Williams walkout once again displays the apparent disregard with which contracts are held in the NRL. There appears to be no real intent in many players to honour contracts which they themselves have signed. Surely it is beyond time for a contract breaking player to be held accountable for breach of contract and surely Sonny Bill has plenty to answer to in this regard.
There is also the gutless side of this whole situation. Sonny Bill heads off to France without even telling Canterbury of his intentions, let alone his many devoted Canterbury and NRL fans. It really is a childish and disappointing display by one of the games big draw cards.
It is believed that Canterbury have placed the Williams case in the hands of its lawyers and all the best to them I say.
Would it have been different if Canterbury were going better in the NRL competition this year? Perhaps if Williams was a team player it could well have been so.
SAVED BY WORKS... NO, GRACE
This is a cartoon I found somewhere – it sort of sums things up don’t you think?
Those who think they contribute to their own salvation by accepting Jesus, doing something such as being good, evangelising, etc, deciding to follow Jesus or whatever – this cartoon shows what you are trying to do, as well as showing how ridiculous your efforts are.
Clearly salvation is of grace or there can be no salvation!
FACEBOOK VERY REVEALING
Since joining Facebook some time ago I have found it to be a very interesting and revealing place. I have discovered all manner of things about people that I thought I knew and I dare say, some have found out things about me that they didn’t know. It is a very revealing place this Facebook.
Often we live lives that are guarded in many ways, whether it be some secret sinful habit or some aspect of our lives that only a select few have an insight into. Whatever it is, at some point the guarded often becomes the unguarded and the secret the revealed.
I am sure there is some good in this, as there is undoubtedly cause for concern in certain circumstances also. Misunderstood patterns of behaviour can perhaps become clearer as a ‘friend’ observes interaction with other ‘friends’ within the Facebook environment via ‘The Wall’ or some other Facebook application. Certainly the ability to maintain contact during what would previously have been lengthy periods of non-contact is something that most users of Facebook cannot fail to appreciate.
However, the Facebook environment does reveal certain disturbing aspects of some with whom we have varying degrees of interaction. Perhaps it is a person we thought we knew but only ever had the occasional chat with, only to find on Facebook that we didn’t know him/her as well as we thought. Then there is that person with whom we have shared many a social outing, only to find that there are some hidden aspects of their life and/or personality that shock us.
It is a very interesting place is it not?
FACEBOOK AND SCRABULOUS
Like many people I have come to enjoy a game of Scrabulous or two on the social networking site Facebook. However, this could soon be coming to an end as Hasbro Inc is currently suing the makers of the online version for infringing on their property rights as the owner of the game Scrabble. Facebook has itself been notified of the suit and has been requested to no longer host the Scrabulous application. So it would seem that the days of Scrabulous on Facebook are numbered.
The suit has been filed in the Federal Court in New York and it names Scrabulous creators Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, as well as RJ Software as the defendants in the case.
Though I enjoy playing my online friends in Scrabulous I have to say that I am constantly amazed at how many ‘unrecognisable&rsq uo; words are passed off as words in my constant defeats. Perhaps the demise of Scrabulous will mean the end of my misery at the hands of those who traffic in made-up words.
FACEBOOK DRAMAS Unable to use at the Moment
Following the alleged improvements to Facebook that are currently in Beta development I believe, I went to have a look at them. Of course I am on Facebook already and was interested in what my profile page might look like when the improvements kick in. So off I went for a look.
Immediately Facebook told me I was using a browser that could not view Facebook properly. That was interesting given that I use the latest version of Internet Explorer that is currently in use (7). So all I could view was this warning and nothing else, no matter what I did. Even the return to the old Facebook profile didn’t work and nor was I able to reach help or support. It refused to let me do anything. Been that way for a couple of days now, though the site assures me that they are trying to fix the problem with going back to the old Facebook profile. So much for the improvements it appears.
So at the moment I am unable to use my Facebook profile – how wonderful an improvement!
Hopefully my friends will be able to see this Blog post as it comes up on my profile and contact me using email – it should be there on the profile somewhere.
Sorry friends – the improvements have shut me out!!!
WORLD YOUTH DAY, OR WAS THAT WEEK, NOW OVER
Following the apparently hugely successful World Youth Day, it is a tremendous relief to me to hear the end of the overworked use of the word ‘pilgrims,’ as well as that of the phrase ‘the faithful’ in reference to the many Roman Catholics and hangers on that were in Sydney over the last couple of weeks. I am over it as most can possibly discern. Not a big supporter of the event at all – actually, not a supporter of it to any degree. Of course I’m not, I am a Protestant after all and a Reformed one at that.
I already have the feeling that a good number of people out there in cyber world are already flexing their fingers as they eagerly prepare to engage this old fashioned Calvinist over his anti-Rome attitude. Before you do though I should warn you that I’m not about to engage in any slanging matches with Papists and their poorly informed attack dogs. This is a Blog after all and I’m allowed to rant and rave and ramble on about pretty much anything should I feel the urge.
You have to remember that the forefathers of this heretical crowd used to burn my spiritual forefathers and carry out all manner of other atrocities on Protestants. ‘Oh, but their different now.’ How soon we forget that this mob’s claim is that they never change and given the opportunity this crowd would be only so happy to do the same to me and others like me (Protestants) as they did to the early non-conformist Protestants.
I am truly thankful that the Pope has now left these shores and gone back to his superfluous sized home and barns, more than likely satisfied at his recent performance and blinded flocks of sheep that incoherently followed about various pieces of wood and old pictures.
An interesting postscript to the recent Catholic activities was what I read today in the newspaper – apparently the brothels are very keen for the event to return to Sydney again. There was a massive increase in earning during the time of the Pope’s visit and the celebrations in Sydney. Strange what ‘pilgrims’ and ‘the faithful’ are into these days.
THE END OF EVANGELICALISM
Have we reached the end of Evangelicalism? This is the question the church needs to ask in this day and age – if it is at all interested in asking the question that is.
This Blog posting is being written by someone who is a non-conformist in many ways, refusing to attend a church simply because I should do so (according to most ‘Christians’ anyway). It is written by someone who has a high regard for the local church as being central to the purposes of God in the salvation of the elect and the building up of the saints.
Yet I am asking this question – has Evangelicalism reached its end? Can there be any hope for Evangelicalism in this age of pragmatism and liberalism? Has the local church reached the end for that matter? If it is no longer the bastion of Evangelicalism and Truth, what is the point of the local church?
My argument is that the local church is pointless in its current state with its all in inclusive acceptance of all and every whim under the sun going by the name ‘Christian.’ If it has a description of being ‘Christian’ than the church accepts it as such with little questioning.
A look at any Koorong Bookshop shows clearly that there is no longer any standard of truth that defines Evangelicalism in this day and age. If it is called ‘Christian,’ it is enough for inclusion.
The Evangelicalism of a past era is now quickly passing away. The church which was to be the ground and pillar of the truth has yielded ground and error has come sailing in to the point where it is hardly ever challenged.
These days you are more likely to have ‘Evangelicals&rsquo ; saying that ‘you will never find a perfect church’ or similar sentiment, while being content to stay with a church because it is better to stay with ‘Christians,’ because we need each other. There are so many good things and reasons to stay in a church, so believers are unlikely to cause a fuss despite glaring omissions from the Scriptural standard for the local church.
There will always be errors and problems in local churches, that is true – but do we need to find this an acceptable state of affairs? Is Evangelicalism dead and buried? No, it is not! It still exists and there are churches in which it is clearly so. However, there are plenty of reasons why believers need to begin considering (and indeed this has long been the case) whether it is time to come out and to be separate, forming new congregations of local churches that are faithful to the Biblical standard. These churches may well be small, but this is probably the way of the future except the Lord of the Harvest revive His work.
FUEL PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE
The price of unleaded petrol in Australia reached 173.9 cents a litre this past week, with expectations that it may well reach $2.00 a litre by the end of the year. A report from the CSIRO stated that petrol prices may well reach $8.00 a litre by 2018.
With the way that fuel prices are continuing to rise, petrol is rapidly becoming a luxury item that low income earners will soon be unable to afford, if they can still afford it now.
There are various ways that Australians are trying to cope with the rise of fuel prices – use less petrol, ensure you do everything you need to do with the one car journey, use petrol reduction dockets when possible, no longer purchase some items or take part in certain entertainment, etc.
What does the future hold for ordinary Australians? Surely there will be a major shift in the way we live our lives should there be no alternative to petrol in the near future. There may well be major economic consequences with various industries collapsing (such as tourism) and staff being unable to get to their jobs, etc. Perhaps there will be employer funded transport (such as company bus runs, etc). It is likely that public transport will soon be under major stress and the need for increased public transport infrastructure will soon become apparent.
One thing is sure – something will soon have to give. Things cannot continue the way they currently are.
IRAN: MANDATORY DEATH FOR APOSTATES DEBATED IN PARLIAMENT
ISTANBUL, July 9 (Compass Direct News) – A penal code that would mandate the death penalty for those who promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy even on the Internet is expected to go to debate soon in Iran’s parliament.
If passed, the penal code drafted last January would require execution of any Muslim who converts to Christianity. Under sharia (Islamic) law, apostasy is one of several “crimes” that can be punishable by death, although Islamic court judges are not required to hand down such a sentence.
The draft of the penal code under consideration explicitly sets death as a fixed punishment that cannot be changed, reduced or annulled.
Many believe that the government intends to use the proposed penal code to clamp down on the surge in conversions in Iran over the last few years. Commentators have called the surge a “mass exodus” from Islam, which in its Iranian Shiite version imposes harsh limitations on lifestyle and personal freedoms.
On July 2 Iran’s Members of Parliament voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for harming mental security in society,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported last week. The news agency noted that the draft bill also includes the death penalty for “establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy.”
According to the current penal code, the death sentence is already applicable to rape, adultery and armed robbery, among other crimes. The draft adds apostasy and cyber-crimes to the list and stipulates that those convicted of these crimes should be punished as “mohareb” (enemy of God) and “corrupt on the earth,” according to AFP.
Over the last few years, the Internet and media such as television have been conduits of information on Christianity and are feared as sources of “corruption” of the Iranian people. The Internet is widely used in Iran despite restricted access for thousands of websites with “immoral” content or content – including Christian ones – deemed as insulting religion and promoting political dissent.
The number of executions in Iran reached 317 last year, up from 177 recorded by Amnesty International in 2006. Human rights organizations have criticized Iran for making excessive use of the death penalty, but Tehran insists it is an effective deterrent that is carried out only after an exhaustive judicial process, reported the AFP.
In a statement earlier this year, the European Union (EU) criticized the penal code draft and particularly Section Five on the death penalty for apostasy. The EU said this section and other parts of the code violated Tehran’s commitments under international human rights conventions.
Christians in particular have suffered persecution in Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979. No converts to Christianity have been convicted of “apostasy” since international pressure forced officials to drop the death sentence of Christian convert Mehdi Dibaj in 1994. But in the years following the convert’s release, Dibaj and four other Protestant pastors, including converts and those working with converts, have been brutally murdered.
The murderers of the Christians have never been brought to justice, and local believers suspect the government played a role in the killings.
Christian converts are regularly arrested and imprisoned without due process, tortured and placed under surveillance. Muslims who have embraced Christianity have no right to practice their newfound faith, and the printing of the Bible in Farsi, the national language, has been banned.
Report from Compass Direct News
IRAN: EX-MUSLIMS DETAINED FOR APOSTASY
Police interrogate converts to Christianity about faith, political activity.
ISTANBUL, July 9 (Compass Direct News) – Iranian authorities have detained two converts to Christianity in the southern city of Shiraz for eight weeks on suspicion of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam. In Iran, apostasy is a crime that can be punishable by death.
Mahmood Matin, 52, and Arash Bandari, 44, remain imprisoned in a secret police detention center known by its address, Sepah Street 100, located in the center of Shiraz since their arrest on May 15 (previously reported as May 13).
A draft penal code under discussion in Iran’s parliament this month may make the death penalty obligatory for those who leave Islam or use the Internet to encourage others to do so (see sidebar below).
During a visit on June 24, Matin’s wife was able to speak with him for five minutes as officials listened in, a source told Compass. Seated in a dimly lit room behind a glass window, the prisoner told his wife that there had been a misunderstanding and that he could not teach Christianity any more.
“They are pushing me to tell them that I am connected to a church outside [Iran] and that I am receiving a salary, but I told them that I am doing it on my own,” he told his wife, according to a source who requested anonymity for security reasons.
Despite Matin’s claims that he was being well treated, his wife told the source she believed otherwise.
“He was just trying to make me calm; that’s what I could see because he’s my husband and I know his face,” Matin’s wife said, according to the source. The source said that Matin was not even aware where he was being held until his wife told him during the visit.
The June 24 meeting was the first and only face-to-face contact Matin’s family has had with him since his arrest in May.
Matin and Bandari were detained with 13 other Muslim converts to Christianity while meeting together in a park in Shiraz. Police confiscated the group’s cell phones and “temporarily” released everyone except Matin and Bandari over the subsequent days.
According to the source, the 13 have been told they have an ongoing court case against them. They remain under house arrest and have been called in for questioning about alleged political activity and Christian faith.
Officials have not informed the 13 released Christians of the specific charges against them. But the nature of their questioning has led them to believe that they are suspected of apostasy and political crimes against the government.
Matin telephoned his wife several weeks after his arrest to tell her that he had been charged with apostasy and to request that she acquire a lawyer to take his case. But on June 22, she received a call from an official telling her that Matin did not need legal representation and inviting her to visit her husband in Shiraz.
“The caller did not say who they were, just that they were from the secret police and that the family could visit Matin on June 24 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.,” the source said. He said that Matin’s wife traveled 17 hours by bus from her home in Tehran to visit her jailed husband.
Matin has had no further contact with his wife and three children, ages 22, 18 and 12, since the June 24 jail visit
Report from Compass Direct News
INDONESIA: CHURCH IN WEST JAVA BULLDOZED
Officials give no viable alternative to church caught in land dispute.
JAKARTA, July 8 (Compass Direct News) – Public Order officials on June 26 demolished a church building in Cimahi regency of Bandung district, West Java, to make way for a new shopping mall and bus terminal after church leaders failed to convince authorities that they owned the land on which it was built.
Since the Indonesian Anglican Church of Cirebeum village was established in 1992 – with a letter of approval from 20 families in the immediate neighborhood – courts have dealt with a succession of people claiming to be the rightful owners of the property. Even as the church building was demolished, a civil tribunal in Bandung district was considering a verdict on rightful ownership following a hearing on June 24.
Public Order officials on June 26 arrived at the site with a demolition order issued by the mayor of Cimahi regency. They proceeded to demolish the building – first breaking and removing furniture before bulldozing the structure. As pastor Raman Saragih tried to stop them, one of the men hit him in the face and chest. Several others then joined in until another church member intervened.
Saragih and his church members are pursuing legal action against the Cimahi government – but it will be too late to save their church building, which now lies in ruins.
At the same time, the Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI), a sub-group of the Anti-Apostasy Alliance Movement (AGAP), has continued to forcibly close churches in Bandung district, citing the lack of necessary worship permits.
Under a Joint Ministerial Decree issued in 1969 by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs, houses of worship are required to obtain a permit from both the local religious office and the head of the local neighborhood unit. Many pastors claim that a 2006 revision to the decree has made it virtually impossible to obtain the appropriate permit, making their churches prime targets for extremist groups.
Most recently, a mob attempted to demolish two buildings in a church compound used by three congregations in Jatimulya village, West Java, on June 14. The initial dismantling of a roof, doors and fence came to a halt only after a Public Order officer from Bekasi regency fell from the roof of one of the buildings. Authorities had sealed the buildings shut in 2005. (See Compass Direct News, “Indonesian Islamists Try to Destroy Church Buildings,” June 24.)
In August 2005, respected Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra, rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, demanded that police take action against FPI and AGAP for forcibly closing churches.
“This group has taken the law into their own hands and they have to be punished in line with the law,” he told reporters at the online news portal Detik.com
Azyumardi insisted that only the government had the authority to close down houses of worship. Extremists, however, have continued to act with impunity.
Church Told to Relocate
Earlier this year, as debate raged over ownership of the Cirebeum village Anglican church building, Cimahi regency official Asep Syaifulah asked Saragih to relocate his church meetings.
Saragih demanded an alternative building site and a building permit for a new church in Cirebeum. On June 18, however, the Cimahi regency sent a letter stating that it had authorized the demolition of the church because it did not have the required building permit. Syaifulah also told Saragih he could not build another church in Cirebeum because it was a Muslim-majority area.
Asep offered Saragih 50 million rupiah (US$5,445) in compensation, but Saragih rejected the offer.
The chief of Cirebeum village also met with Saragih several times to discuss the future of the church. Saragih insisted that the church remain in Cibereum in order to serve its members; he asked that local authorities provide new land and a building permit for a new church, but they refused.
Saragih claims to have bought the land in 1991 from a farmer, Yus Boyoh, who gave him a simple receipt rather than a legal title deed. At the time Saragih and his fellow church members firmly believed the sale was legitimate.
In 1994, a man named Nunung Hidayah visited the church, claiming to be a descendant of the original landowner, Soma Bin Wargadiredja. Hidayah showed Saragih a title deed to the property.
Indonesian courts then declared Hidayah the rightful owner of the land, but the church was allowed to continue operating.
Four years later, in 1998, a woman named Ida Rosliah lodged a counter-claim. The Supreme Court eventually declared Rosliah the rightful owner, although Hidayah still held the title deed.
Buoyed by the court’s decision, Rosliah in 2003 sold the land to a man identified only as Idris. Idris in turn sold the land to the government of Cimahi regency in 2007, offering Saragih compensation of 125 million rupiah (US$13,550).
Saragih refused, as this amount would not cover the expenses associated with purchasing new land, obtaining a building permit and constructing a new church.
In April, Cimahi regency officials announced the construction of a new shopping mall and bus terminal on the land in question.
In response, Hidayah appealed to a civil tribunal in Bandung on June 24, producing his title deed and insisting that his ancestors had not sold the land to anyone.
Report from Compass Direct News
ALGERIA: CHRISTIANS SENTENCED FOR SPREADING FAITH
Converts from Islam report discrimination following convictions.
ISTANBUL, July 3 (Compass Direct News) – A court in western Algeria convicted two Muslim converts to Christianity yesterday for illegally spreading their faith.
The court in Tissemsilt, 110 miles southwest of Algiers, handed Rachid Muhammad Essaghir, 37, and Djallal Dhamani six-month suspended sentences and 100,000-dinar (US$1,660) fines. The men were found guilty of “distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims.”
“Once they get the written sentence, they will appeal straight away,” a close friend of Essaghir told Compass following the trial.
The case has received both local and international publicity following a wave of trials this year against Algerian Christians for evangelism and illegally practicing their faith.
In most cases the Christians have been charged under a presidential decree from February 2006 that restricts religious worship to government approved buildings. The decree, known as Ordinance 06-03, also outlaws any attempt to convert Muslims to another faith.
Though no Christian has yet served jail time on religious charges, several still on trial or appealing their convictions have said that negative publicity has damaged their businesses and family life.
Habiba Kouider, facing a three-year sentence after police stopped her while she was carrying several Christian books, has been kicked out of her family’s home. Kouider’s brothers learned about her conversion to Christianity after her case sparked national and international media attention.
“When her brother found out she was a Christian, he commanded her to leave the house without worrying about what would happen to her,” an assistant to defense lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun wrote in an e-mail last month. The convert to Christianity is temporarily staying with another sister while searching for more permanent accommodations.
Chaban Beikel, a pastry maker, was fired after his boss discovered that he was one of four Protestants convicted of evangelism in Tiaret city last month, the same source said.
Third Conviction
For Essaghir, yesterday’s ruling is his third conviction for illegal religious activity this year.
Police had stopped Essaghir and Dahmani in the vicinity of Tissemsilt in June 2007 while transporting a box of Christian literature in one of their cars. Unknown to them, the two men were convicted in absentia in November 2007 and each given two-year sentences and 5,000-euro fines.
After discovering the court ruling in May 2008, the Protestants requested a retrial, their right under Algerian law.
At a hearing in Tissemsilt last week, the state prosecutor backed down from the initial jail sentence and fine, not requesting any punishment for the men. The move gave defense lawyer Khalfoun hope that her clients would be acquitted.
“It could have possibly been an order from someone above him,” Khalfoun’s assistant wrote, speculating on the prosecutor’s retreat from the previous verdict.
Essaghir was also previously convicted with Beikel in June on charges of evangelism and handed a six-month suspended sentence and a 200,000-dinar (US$3,282) fine.
In February Essaghir and two other Christians were charged with “blaspheming the name of the Prophet [Muhammad] and Allah” and threatening the life of a convert to Christianity who later returned to Islam.
In a written verdict published on May 28, the three men were handed three-year suspended sentences and 500-euro fines. The Christians’ appeal is due to be heard on July 15.
‘God Is In Control’
Essaghir has now moved from Tiaret to the coastal city of Oran with his wife and 1-year-old daughter after police shut down his Internet café in April.
Officials closed the business for failure to obtain necessary written permission from local police. But Essaghir said that this was just an excuse to harass him for his work as an evangelist, as many Internet cafés in Algeria function without such permission.
“Essaghir is doing very well, it’s a miracle,” said his close friend, who spoke with the Christian following yesterday’s trial. Despite his numerous convictions, the friend said, “he doesn’t care anymore; God is in control.”
Algerian government officials claim that Christians are not discriminated against in the North African country. In recent months several officials have made statements that the aim of certain evangelical missionaries in Algeria is to politically destabilize the country.
Report from Compass Direct News
IRAN: AUTHORITIES TEMPORARILY RELEASE BADLY INJURED CHRISTIAN
Local police demand US$43,000 bail from convert’s family.
ISTANBUL, July 3 (Compass Direct News) – After four weeks in police custody, Iranian Christian Mohsen Namvar was released “temporarily” last week to return to his home in Tehran.
A doctor summoned to Namvar’s home after his release last Thursday (June 26) administered medicines and serum to treat the badly beaten prisoner.
The physician reported that the 44-year-old house church leader had a fever and very high blood pressure. “His body is still in shock,” one Iranian Christian told Compass, “and his hands and feet are shaking all the time.”
The source added, “Maybe they were afraid he would die in prison.”
Arrested on May 31 from his home in Tehran, the convert from Islam was kept incommunicado until his release on June 26. Although once someone called his home saying he was all right, “It was not his voice,” a source told Compass.
Namvar has refused to answer questions from his wife about his weeks under arrest, saying, “Don’t ask me anything.” He has also avoided removing his clothes in her presence to prevent her from seeing the extent of his injuries.
“They put a great deal of pressure on his body and his mind,” the source said. “No one knows exactly what they did to him during those four weeks.”
Noting that government authorities know a great deal about Namvar’s Christian activities and want to punish him, the source said, “We praise the Lord that they have not killed him.”
Namvar was unable to walk for several months after he was arrested and severely tortured with electrical shocks in the spring of 2007, allegedly for baptizing Muslims who had become Christians.
Stiff Bail Demand
Last week local secret police authorities demanded that Namvar’s family put up just over US$43,000 in bail to secure his release, which they cautioned would only last for “a short time.”
Relatives came up with half of the bail demand and then borrowed the rest, but when they requested a formal receipt for the cash handed over on June 26, police refused to supply one.
“Don’t say anything,” a police official reportedly ordered them. “Give thanks to God that we are not keeping him under arrest.”
The imprisoned Christian’s case did not come before any local court or magistrate, his family has confirmed. “All of the authorities are thieves,” commented one Iranian Christian living abroad. “This bail was not ordered by a judge at all. The police are just putting this money in their own pockets.”
Police authorities who raided Namvar’s home while arresting him had already confiscated a large sum of cash along with his computer, printer, CDs and books.
During the past few years, courts have ordered arrested Christians to turn over their property deeds as bail collateral before releasing prisoners. But over recent months, the secret police have dispensed with court proceedings and demanded cash payments from the prisoners’ families.
Ongoing Threats
Ten days after Namvar’s arrest, police again ransacked and searched his home, threatening his wife Fereshteh and making intimidating comments to her.
About the same time, the couple’s 12-year-old son was approached at school by a stranger who offered to take him home, “because your father is not here.” But the lad first called his mother, who instructed him not to accompany the stranger. Since then the worried mother has escorted him to and from school every day.
During the weeks Namvar was under arrest, his wife was also subjected to a number of threatening telephone calls. Because she and her husband had rejected Islam, the anonymous callers said, “We must punish you, and we must kill you.”
At least 14 other Iranian Christians have been reported arrested in separate incidents in Shiraz and Tehran since early May. Most have been released after interrogations, some with pending charges of activities against either Islam or the state.
But Mahmood Matin and a second man identified only by his first name, Arash, have remained in custody since their arrest in Shiraz on May 13.
Report from Compass Direct News