House Church in Baiyin, Gansu Province raided; Five people placed under Administrative Detention

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

GANSU, CHINA ANS — Several police officials went to a meeting site of a house church at Honghui Coal Mine in Pingchuan District, Baiyin City, Gansu Province on the afternoon of June 24, 2008. They detained Mr. Wang Fayun, a co-worker in charge of this gathering site and two female members who were practicing on the piano.

China Aid Association CAA says that news came on the second day that Brother Wang was placed under 10 days of administrative detention and the two sisters were placed under three days of administrative detention.

On the afternoon of June 25, officials detained two more members, Mr Chen and his wife, at the same gathering site. Like the other detainees, Chen and his wife were sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention and fined 1,000 Yuan $145 USD. When contacted, Gansu authorities issued the following statement concerning the case:

“These people are suspected of engaging in cult activities and undermining public security. According to our information, this church is a house church based on a pure belief and has had public gatherings for three years in the local area.”

China Aid says: “Across China, authorities continue to defy the law in similar ways and label their victims with groundless charges. We implore brothers and sisters to pray for the innocent Christians of ours.”

China Aid Association appeals at the same time to the relevant authorities in Gansu to release these innocent Christians immediately and assume the responsibility of state compensation for the losses they have suffered.

Women Bible College Students Attacked

GFA – On June 17, a group of women students from a Gospel for Asia Bible college faced humiliation and persecution as they distributed Gospel tracts in Andhra Pradesh, India. Anti-Christian extremists interrogated the women, and the attack eventually escalated into physical abuse at a bus station.

As the five women—all third-year Bible college students—passed out the tracts, they were confronted by three radicals. Harshly interrogating one of the women, they snatched the tracts from her hand, tore them to pieces and threw them back in her face. Then the men threatened the women and berated them with vulgar insults.

Finally, one of the students told the radicals that they would leave the station if the men let them go. But instead, the extremists called more people from their organization to come harass the women.

Now, with 10 people surrounding them, the students were forced to endure further insults. Then one extremist took off his dirty sandal and beat the women with it—not only hurting the women physically, but deeply humiliating them in public.

As the man continued to beat the students, a Christian from the local church came to their rescue. The extremists dispersed, and the believer helped the women get back to their house.

The team is staying in the village to help Gospel for Asia native missionary Ednit Sadhil and his family with evangelism through literature. The internship is part of the women’s final training before beginning their full-time ministries.

The women request prayer for safety as they continue serving in this area and for grace as they choose where to minister after they graduate. They also ask for prayer that those who persecuted them will come to a full knowledge of the love of Christ.

Pastor attacked in Andhra Pradesh state, India

By James Varghese
Special to ASSIST News Service

ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA (ANS) — A pastor was attacked and beaten up near Siddipet in the Medak district of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, June 22 at 8pm. According to news reported in www.christiancouncil.in, he was Pastor Kinnera Kanankaiah.

The site reports that the incident took place as the pastor and his wife, along with few other women believers (members of the church), were returning home after a birthday party at a place called Rangadam Palli.

A group of Hindu activists (radicals) belonging to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS National Volunteer servants) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian Peoples Party) attacked them. The site reported that, the Hindu radicals first manhandled the pastor, his wife and another woman and then poured alcohol on them and made fun of them.

The news source says this happened just outside the village, so the people who invited them for the birthday party did not know anything about the incident.

According to the website, the pastor and other victims immediately went to the nearest police station (Siddipet Rural) and gave a written complaint, appealing to the police to enquire into the incident and take necessary action against the culprits. Thereafter they went to hospital for treatment.

All India Christian Council (aicc) has condemned the attack on the pastor and his team and demanded action against the culprits. The Council has also sought protection for the Christian community in the area in the light of the growing incidence of violence against the minority Christian community.

Convert Couple Arrested and Tortured in Iran

Compass Direct News Reports that:

Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.

A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended.

Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, with Rad “very ill” and unable to walk, said the source. Rad was released on bail of US$30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of US$20,000.

“The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a female security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed.

A draft law before the Iranian parliament would make the death penalty mandatory for “apostates” who leave Islam.

Read more at Compass Direct News.

Record Fine for Baptists in Belarus for Talking About Religion

BELARUS (ANS) — Belarus has imposed a fine of more than two months average wages on a Baptist who organized choral singing and talked about religious issues outside Ushachi public market.

Belarus is located in Eastern Europe, east of Poland.

A story by Geraldine Fagan writing for Forum 18 News Service reported that after a plain clothes policeman told a group of Baptists from outside the area to stop, Vladimir Burshtyn replied that they were not disturbing public order. He cited religious freedom guarantees in Belarus’ Constitution, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The fine is, to Forum 18’s knowledge, the highest yet imposed on Baptists for unregistered religious activity. Higher fines have been levied against members of other communities.

Forum 18 said that Olga Karchevskaya, an official who witnessed the incident, defended the state’s response and the Religion Law’s restrictions. She said, “We need to know who’s coming to us – they could be destructive or acting against people’s interests.”

After the arrival of Karchevskaya, a vice-chair of Ushachi’s District Executive Committee, Burshtyn was escorted to a local police station and charged under the Administrative Violations Code (violation of regulations for holding demonstrations or other mass events).

Forum 18 reported that a local court fined him later the same day.

Olga Plisko, a member of the nearest Baptist Council of Churches congregation to Ushachi, about 20 miles to the south-east in Lepel, told Forum 18 that the Baptists involved were not local. However, she said she knew that they were preparing to appeal against the fine.

Religious activity without state permission has often been punished with large fines. In 2006, for example, the administrator of the charismatic New Life Church in the capital Minsk was fined 3,825,000 Belarusian Roubles, (1,780 U.S. Dollars).

Forum 18 said this was the third time he had been fined for unregistered religious activity Similarly, in 2005, the Pastor of a Pentecostal church was fined 4,650,000 Belarusian Roubles (2,171 U.S. Dollars), for baptizing 70 people in a lake.

Forum 18 said the Baptist Council of Churches broke away from the Soviet government-recognized Baptist Union in 1961, in protest at regulations preventing missionary activity and religious instruction to children.

Refusing on principle to register with the authorities in post-Soviet countries, Forum 18 said that Council congregations regularly face prosecution in Belarus and other states where registration is mandatory. This is a violation of international human rights standards

Forum 18 said Karchevskaya was insistent that she had nothing against preaching the Bible, saying “We’re all believers nowadays.” In specific reference to Baptists, Forum 18 reported she said, “We have our own Baptists here, and regard them positively.”

However, Forum 18 said she insisted that the approximately 20 Baptist adults and children singing and preaching in Ushachi had violated Belarus’ 2002 Religion Law.

In addition to breaking the Law’s territorial restrictions on religious activity by traveling 400 miles from Brest Region, Forum 18 reported she said they should have obtained prior permission from Ushachi District Executive Committee.

Karchevskaya added, “If they had shown us registration documents, proving they have the legal right to hold such a mass meeting, there would have been no problem. But they didn’t.”

Karchevskaya told Forum 18 that preaching has to be within the law, “As in Norway, Germany or anywhere else.”

But the Baptists who visited Ushachi refuse to abide by Belarusian law, she said. “They say they don’t recognize any secular law, only their own.”

The 2002 Law’s territorial restrictions and requirement for permission are necessary, Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya said, because “We need to know who’s coming to us – they could be destructive or acting against people’s interests.”

“It’s common courtesy to introduce yourself and say what you want if you visit someone’s home,” Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya continued. While the Baptists preached and sang using amplification, however, on this occasion, “no one was really listening as they didn’t know who they were,” she told Forum 18.

Forum 18 said that until 2004, fines for unregistered religious activity were usually relatively low – equivalent to several days’ average wages – and for the most part encountered by congregations of the Baptist Council of Churches. They and other unregistered independent Protestant churches reported 17 of these fines in 2003 to 2004.

While the comparative figure for 2005 to 2006 was 12, Forum 18 said those fines were on several occasions significantly higher. They ranged from the equivalent of two weeks to two months average wages.

Seven fines reported by the Baptist Council of Churches in 2007 and early 2008, one of which was later annulled, ranged from approximately two weeks average wages to a month’s average wages.

For more background information, see Forum 18’s Belarus religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=888.  er, Forum 18 said she insisted that the approximately 20 Baptist adults and children singing and preaching in Ushachi had violated Belarus’ 2002 Religion Law.

In addition to breaking the Law’s territorial restrictions on religious activity by traveling 400 miles from Brest Region, Forum 18 reported she said they should have obtained prior permission from Ushachi District Executive Committee.

Karchevskaya added, “If they had shown us registration documents, proving they have the legal right to hold such a mass meeting, there would have been no problem. But they didn’t.”

Karchevskaya told Forum 18 that preaching has to be within the law, “As in Norway, Germany or anywhere else.”

But the Baptists who visited Ushachi refuse to abide by Belarusian law, she said. “They say they don’t recognize any secular law, only their own.”

The 2002 Law’s territorial restrictions and requirement for permission are necessary, Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya said, because “We need to know who’s coming to us – they could be destructive or acting against people’s interests.”

“It’s common courtesy to introduce yourself and say what you want if you visit someone’s home,” Forum 18 reported Karchevskaya continued. While the Baptists preached and sang using amplification, however, on this occasion, “no one was really listening as they didn’t know who they were,” she told Forum 18.

Forum 18 said that until 2004, fines for unregistered religious activity were usually relatively low – equivalent to several days’ average wages – and for the most part encountered by congregations of the Baptist Council of Churches. They and other unregistered independent Protestant churches reported 17 of these fines in 2003 to 2004.

While the comparative figure for 2005 to 2006 was 12, Forum 18 said those fines were on several occasions significantly higher. They ranged from the equivalent of two weeks to two months average wages.

Seven fines reported by the Baptist Council of Churches in 2007 and early 2008, one of which was later annulled, ranged from approximately two weeks average wages to a month’s average wages.

For more background information, see Forum 18’s Belarus religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=888.