The Rt. Rev. Timothy Yahaya, Bishop of Jalingo, Taraba State, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, told Barnabas Aid that 300 Christians have been killed in his diocese in a series of incidents over the last three weeks.

Then on Sunday (29 April), three church services in Northern Nigeria were targeted in attacks that left 27 people dead.

The first happened when people had gathered for worship in two lecture theaters at Bayero University in Kano. So far 22 people are confirmed to have died, while 23 were injured, after bombs were thrown into the building at around 8.30 a.m. and gunmen fired on worshippers. Witnesses said that the offenders first threw in explosives and fired shots, and as Christians fled, the gunmen chased them, firing indiscriminately.

Later on Sunday, gunmen opened fire on another church in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri. Five people, including a pastor, were killed in the attack at the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) building.

War on Christians
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday’s church attacks, but most people suspect militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which in March declared “war” on Christians.

This statement followed a three-day deadline, issued by the group on New Year’s Day, for Christians to leave the North. Unrelenting attacks have ensued, including the bombing of a number of churches as well as attacks on individual Christians.

Around 40 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside two churches during Easter services in Kaduna.

And two churches in the central Nigerian city of Jos were targeted in the space of two weeks; a pregnant woman and an 18-month-old child were among those killed.

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Aid, said:

The simple act of going to church on a Sunday has become a perilous one for Christians in many parts of Nigeria. They very much need our prayers as they courageously continue to gather for worship despite the unrelenting violence

Please Pray

• For all those who have lost loved ones or been injured in the anti-Christian violence in Nigeria this year; pray that the Lord, who “heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3), will comfort them.
• That the authorities will be able to restrain Boko Haram and others in Nigeria who have evil and destructive intent, and bring the perpetrators of violence to justice.
• That the Lord will grant wisdom to Nigerian Christians as they consider how to respond to the violence and practice their faith in such a hostile environment. Pray that they will be protected from further harm.

KANO, NIGERIA (ANS) – Attackers armed with bombs and guns opened fire at church services Sunday, April 29 at a Nigerian university, killing about 20 people as worshippers tried to flee, witnesses and officials said.

“Explosions and gunfire rocked Bayero University in the northern city of Kano, with witnesses reporting that two church services were targeted as they were being held on campus,” said a report from the AFP news agency.

One of the services was being held outdoors, while the second was inside a building in a lecture theater, but with an overflow audience outside, witnesses said.

Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi told AFP that it appeared the attackers, who arrived in a car and two motorcycles, used bombs and gunfire in the assault.

A witness told the AFP news agency the attackers had first thrown in explosives and fired shots, “causing a stampede among worshippers,” adding, that “they now pursued them, shooting them with guns. They also attacked another service at the sporting complex.”

Another witness spoke of “pandemonium,” and said he had seen two men shooting indiscriminately.

Officials were unable to confirm casualty figures, but an AFP correspondent counted six bullet-riddled bodies near one of the two sites.

At least another dozen bodies could be seen on a roadside by the university, but the exact number was unclear.

Musical instruments and half-eaten meals could be seen at the site of one of the services.

An army spokesman confirmed the attack but could not provide a casualty toll.

The BBC said in its report, “No group has said it launched the attack, but the violent Islamist Boko Haram group is active in Kano. It has recently attacked churches.”
Mohammed Suleiman, a history lecturer at the university, said security guards had to run for their lives when the violence broke out.

Nigeria’s central government has struggled to contain the militant group, which operates mainly in the predominantly Muslim north, but has also struck as far south as the capital, Abuja.

Kano state police spokesman Ibrahim Idris said that by the time police arrived, the attackers had “disappeared into the neighborhood.” A manhunt is under way.

But the situation at the university was now calm, according to the Red Cross spokesman.

Boko Haram carried out a bombing in Kano in January that killed more than 180 people, its deadliest attack to date.

A Red Cross spokesman said adults – possibly professors – and three women were among the casualties. Several needed urgent blood transfusions.

Mark Lobel of BBC News, based in Lagos, said, “Police say small explosives inside soft drink cans were used in the attack on the university campus in Kano – trademarks of the Islamist group of Boko Haram. There are other signs pointing to them – the use of attackers on motorbikes for instance.

MIDLAND, TEXAS (ANS) — According to ChinaAid for many years, China’s house churches, which uphold religious freedom and hold fast to the true faith, have been viewed by the Chinese government as a hostile group of dissenters and have become the target of persecution and crackdowns.

“Furthermore,” the organization says in a communiqué to Western media, “these vile acts of the government, which blatantly violate the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, have increased in frequency and severity year after year.”

ChinaAid says that in December 2010, the Communist Party Central Committee’s Public Security Commission issued a secret document to target China’s “house churches” in implementing its special suppression campaign “Operation Deterrence.”

Government officials of all levels were told to “guide” Christians attending those unregistered churches to worship in [government-approved] Three-Self churches, and to “break up” large churches like Shouwang Church into small groups, the organization says.

“Soon thereafter,” ChinaAid states, “beginning on Easter 2011, Beijing Shouwang Church was forced to hold its Sunday worship service outdoors, and various government agencies have joined together in continuous attacks on the church, which has had its former large-scale Sunday worship services ‘broken up’ into small groups meeting separately.”

“The so-called ‘house churches,’ this problem does not exist…,” Wang Zuo’an, head of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) said in an interview with Wu Xiaoli on her show “Q & A about Shenzhou,” which aired on Hong Kong’s Phoenix Satellite Television on the afternoon of Oct. 21, 2011.

“According to the Regulations on Religious Affairs promulgated by State Council, religious groups need to follow the related regulations and register with the government. Nevertheless, a well-known fact is that many Christians of China spontaneously get together and meet at illegal and unregistered locations. The number of these believers is not clear to us. They call themselves ‘house churches.’ Western countries call them ‘underground churches’.” ChinaAid says this remark of Wang’s signaled the Chinese Communist government’s new round of initiatives to eradicate house churches.

At the National Work Conference on Religious Affairs on Jan. 9, 2012, SARA deputy director Jiang Jianyong said that SARA in 2010 had started the process of certifying and creating files on clergy, and that the process is supposed to be completed in 2012. This was the starting point for promoting the implementation of the “Regulations on Religious Affairs.” The plan is to systematize and computerize the management of clergy in three years.

ChinaAid goes on to say that as a matter of fact, SARA is certifying and creating files only on clergy from government-approved religious groups; the purpose of this is to target religious groups unwilling to become part of the government-approved religious entities, to exclude them and purge and eradicate them. In this way, thousands of “house churches” in China will become “illegal” religious groups, and thousands of “house church” ministers will become “illegal” clergy.

ChinaAid states that at the same time, SARA held the first training class for “Patriots in the Christian Community” in Beijing in September 2011, and in 2012 a second class is planned for the near future. During this time, the China Christian Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM) across China have been holding “Training Sessions for Ministerial Certification,” in which “patriotic” education is conducted.

Reports of these sessions have appeared on many religious websites, in the media and in periodicals. In some CCC/TSPM “Training Sessions for Ministerial Certification” that ChinaAid’s reporter has attended, the local religious bureaus had all made special arrangements for officials of the deputy bureau chief level or higher to speak on “Regulations on Religious Affairs” and “patriotism.”

According to ChinaAid sources, SARA’s certifying of and creating files on [church] ministers and its pervasive “patriotic” education are aimed at consolidating the joint forces of the CCC/TSPM and the Communist government so as to further eradicate the foundation upon which house churches stand. The government is calling this “solidify the foundation and reinforce the framework.”

In the course of reporting, ChinaAid’s reporter learned that in September 2011, when SARA held its first training class for “Patriots in the Christian Community,” a secret document issued jointly by SARA and the ministries of Public Security and Civil Affairs was released that addressed the issue of completely eradicating “house churches.”

Its main points were:
Phase One: from Jan. to June 2012, conduct thorough, intensive and secret investigations of house churches throughout the country and create files on them.
Phase Two: in two to three years, concentrate on cleaning up the “house churches” that have been investigated and have had files created.
Phase Three: in 10 years’ time, completely wipe out “house churches.”

The main strategies for implementing the above are:

1.  Incorporate denominationally affiliated “house churches” into the CCC/TSPM management system.
2. Comprehensively implement the management model of “meeting sites attached to churches” [i.e. house churches become “meeting sites” attached to an official Three-Self church]. Within the CCC/TSPM system, register those “house churches” that are willing to register and eradicate the “house churches” that do not want to register.
3. Ban the words “house church” as well as all reports on “house churches” from all websites, media and documents, and use “house gatherings” instead of the term “house church,” that is, call “house churches” “house gatherings.”
4. Implement humane law enforcement measures for “house churches”.

ChinaAid went on to say: “We have noticed since the beginning of 2012 an increase in the frequency of persecution and suppression of house churches by the Chinese Communist government. In addition to the continuing persecution of Beijing Shouwang Church which has lasted for more than a year, the number of other similar cases has risen 20 percent over last year and has spread into other areas, including Christian education publication and bookstores.

The group added: “In a recent random survey conducted by this [ChinaAid] reporter in several provinces, cities and regions, over 95 percent of house church ministers surveyed said they had strongly felt the impact of the relevant government departments launching intense investigations into and creating files on the house churches, which has extended to grassroots-level villages and towns. Over 85 percent house church ministers said that their local religious affairs departments had already created files on them. A house church pastor from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said he had received reliable information that the provincial government had issued secret documents regarding the eradication of house churches. He said, ‘The situation this year is especially tense.’”

The ChinaAid reporter has observed that the implementation of Phase One of the eradication of “house churches” as described in the secret document issued jointly by SARA and the ministries of Public Security Civil Affairs not only has already begun but has entered an intense phase. According to the main points of this secret document, this new round of the Chinese government’s campaign to eradicate “house churches” will be rolled out in three stages of six months, three years and ten years. Compared with Operation Deterrence launched in December 2010, it is gentler, longer, and more sustained, as well as being full of “united front” strategy [that is, using persuasion to try to achieve cooperation].

ChinaAid asked how will this new Chinese government campaign to eradicate “house churches” impact house churches that are seeking a path to religious freedom and holding fast to the true faith? “We’ll wait and see.”

“Meanwhile, we also pray for China’s house churches, asking that God protect them as they journey on the path to religious freedom. May God bless the house churches that proclaim the truth of the Gospel and may God strengthen Beijing Shouwang Church in the midst of severe persecution.”

NEW DELHI (Compass Direct News) – Islamic extremists in India attacked a Christian prayer meeting in West Bengal state, beating a 65-year-old widow and other women less than a month after they helped drive a young woman out of her home and village for her faith.

Islamists in Nutangram, Murshidabad district forced their way into the home of Gaffar Shaike on March 30 at around 2 p.m., as 11 Christians from Believers’ Church were gathered for lunch and worship. In the same area of Nutangram on March 9, Islamic extremists drove 22-year-old Rekha Khatoon out of her village because she dared to give thanks for healing in Christ’s name in the predominantly Muslim village; her parents helped the Islamists to beat her nearly unconscious.

Initially seven extremists led by Mohammed Aanu Shaike stormed into the home of Gaffar Shaike and ordered the Christians to stop the meeting, said Pastor Bashir Pal, founder and pastor of the village Believer’s Church.

Gaffar Shaike said the extremists called them pagans as they kicked, slapped and pushed the Christians, adding that they reprimanded him and his wife for dismissing several warnings from them to stop leading prayer meetings in their house. A year ago, the extremists had burned Shaike’s crops for his faith in Christ, he said.

“I asked the radicals why they barged into my house and why they were not allowing us to pray in my own home,” Shaike said, adding that the extremists were so blinded by fury that they only continued beating them, calling them pagans and threatening to continue doing so until they returned to Islam.

“We want freedom to worship Jesus in our home,” he said.

As the extremists mocked and otherwise verbally abused the Christians, a mob of about 100 Islamists gathered and charged into the house entryway, which is 72 feet long and eight feet wide, shouting anti-Christian slogans and threatening to murder them as they pushed, kicked and slapped them.

When the Christians tried to flee, the extremists blocked their way. The son of Muslim extremist Ahammed Shaike, Mohammed Kuran, beat 65-year-old widow Moyazan Bewa, Christians present said. While Ahammed Shaike’s wife was called in from the front porch to beat a Christian woman at the meeting named Selina Bibi, Mohammed Aanu Shaike beat Gaffar Shaike’ wife, Aimazan Bibi, kicking her head and stomach and leaving a deep cut on her hand, they said.

Other Christians present received minor injuries. Two Christian children present at the meeting were crying in fear, the Christians said.

The Christians somehow made their way out and scattered, but Mohammed Aanu Shaike, brandishing a sickle, chased many of them, “hurling all kinds of insults and attempting to murder them all, but God saved the Christians at that moment,” said Pastor Pal.

By then about 500 Muslims had gathered and were watching in amusement as the extremists chased and harassed the Christians for about 90 minutes, the pastor said.

“The Christians were running in all directions for their lives, including the children who were crying in fear, but the [adult Christians] were stopped at every corner by the radicals who thrashed, bashed and verbally abused them,” Pastor Pal said; no children were attacked.

Aimazan Bibi said spectators took up many positions.

“Some were standing on the house roofs, some stood in front of their houses and on the road,” she said. “There was a huge number of people who were mocking, pushing and shouting at us while some were also just spectators.”

Pastor Pal added that at one point the extremists had trapped many from the Christian group.

“The Christians were cornered at one place, where they all stood petrified in fear, but somehow the almighty God saved them,” he said.

“We pleaded with the radicals to let us go, and eventually they freed us while they were still shouting at us to leave Jesus or face more sufferings,” said one of the trapped Christians, Moyazan Bibi.

The Christians fled to the outskirts of the village about two kilometers away and took refuge in the home of one of the participants in the prayer meeting, Nasima Bibi, meeting police en route and informing them of the attack.

Area Christian leaders also informed the station officer of Nutangram Thana, who immediately sent police force to the site.

“After realizing that the police had reached the village, I urged Moyazan Bewa to go out and meet the police,” Pastor Pal said. “She asked the police why the Islamic radicals were constantly attacking them.”

Assuring her that they would take action against the assailants, police took the 65-year-old widow to her home, where a furious mob of Islamic extremists had gathered, said the pastor.

Officers warned the Islamic extremists not to disturb the Christians again, but they continued to taunt and mock them, he said, treating them as criminals.

“The extremists were always passing insulting remarks against them even while they were simply walking on the road,” Pastor Pal said.

On April 5, Mohammed Aanu Shaike threatened to kill Aimazan Bibi after he found her talking to a Muslim woman on the street, he said.

“Some extremists soon gathered, and they were calling her pagan and they threatened to murder her if they ever find her talking to any Muslim again,” the pastor said.

The Muslims have since ostracized the Christians, prohibiting them to buy and sell in the area and keeping them from using the public bathroom and water well, he said. The extremists have sternly told all shopkeepers not to sell anything to the Christians, and at press time they were all complying with the order.

The Christians filed a police complaint against the assailants, but no arrests have been made.

Some of the victims have been attacked earlier. Last year Selina Bibi was beaten for her faith and, as the Muslims assumed she would have some mark on her body indicating her faith, they stripped her naked to search for one. They beat her in spite of finding no mark (see www.compassdirect.org, “Muslim Extremists in India Attack, Threaten Women,” Aug. 5, 2011.)

“Even though the radicals have beaten me many times and want to kill me, I will not leave Jesus,” she said. “I will worship Him as long as I live on this earth.”

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Compass Direct News) – Lao officials on Thursday (April 5) confiscated and sealed a church building in southern Laos after holding a two-day seminar warning against religious belief, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

Besides sealing the church building in Khamnonsung village, Saybuly district, they also warned that other unrecognized churches in the district in Savannakhet Province would soon be shut down.

Local Communist Party official Saysamorn, along with Saysana, district deputy chief of police, and Bountha, district head of religious affairs, ordered all villages to attend the seminar, held from Tuesday through Thursday (April 3 to 5) and entitled “Tricks of the Enemy.”

According to villagers present at the seminar, the officials declared that Westerners, particularly those from the United States, were using the Christian faith to destabilize the government. They then declared that the 745 Christians in the village could only meet in private homes, claiming that they did not have permission to construct the Khamnonsung church building – although it was erected in 1963, prior to the 1975 Communist takeover of Laos.

“How do these officials know that Khamnonsung did not follow proper procedures back in 1968?” HRWLRF asked in a press release issued today. “And if a permit is required for this building, why wait 49 years to tell them?”

The officials also declared that only one church in the district, located in Dongpoong village, was officially recognized and that all others would soon be shut down, HRWLRF reported.

There are a total of 30 church buildings scattered throughout Savannakhet Province – but only seven are approved by the government.

Christians Protest
On Sunday (April 1), members of two other Lao churches in Saybuly district met for worship in buildings that were earlier confiscated by authorities, according to HRWLRF.

Authorities confiscated the 37-year-old Kengweng village church building on Feb. 22 and another belonging to a church in Dongpaiwan village on Sept. 22. At 7 a.m. on Sunday (April 1), Kengweng church members removed the padlock from the door of their building, entered and worshipped there. Members of Dongpaiwan did not enter their building but assembled outside it, HRWLRF reported.

The congregations met as a protest against the continued lack of access to worship facilities, a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass.

Another church in Nadeng village was confiscated on Dec. 4, but members have not yet dared to meet in or go near the building.

Saysamorn, Saysana and Bountha also traveled to Kengweng on Feb. 21 and conducted a compulsory two-day seminar for villagers, urging them not to adopt or follow foreign religions, according to HRWLRF. At the close of the seminar on Feb. 22, they confiscated and sealed the village church building and ordered the 178 Christian not to hold services there.

Church members were instructed to submit a formal written request to village, district and provincial level officials if they wished to use the building again, according to a local church member who preferred to remain unnamed.

On Sept. 14, some 20 Saybuly district officials, military and police personnel seized Dongpaiwan village church and tore down a cross on the building on grounds that church members, numbering around 200, had not obtained prior approval for construction. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials Seize Church Building, Convert it into School,” Sept. 26, 2011.)

The villagers argued that while permission was necessary, the local government routinely denied new applications for the construction of churches, thereby creating an impossible situation and denying them the right to worship freely as guaranteed in the constitution.

Officials then converted the church into a school for fifth graders, moving chairs and desks into the building and posting a military guard on the property to prevent Christians from returning there.

Trouble in the North
In northern Laos, Officials in Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang provinces recently ordered Christians in several villages to renounce their faith or face expulsion, according to HRWLRF reports.

On March 2, some 20 officials including district police officers, Communist Party members and village security forces, summoned pastor Khamla of Dongvieng village, Viengphuka district in Luang Namtha Province, and sharply rebuked him for believing in Christianity. After interrogation, officials ordered Khamla to give up his faith within five days or “be cast out of the village.”

Khamla was the only known Christian in a district with a population of 20,000.

On Feb. 18, the chief of Hueygong village in Pakoo district of Luang Prabang Province ordered 10 Christian families in the village, a total of 65 people, to give up their faith or face expulsion. The Christians, most of whom became Christians only three months prior to the eviction order, were meeting for worship in the home of church leader Yar Yang.

Before the order was given, Pakoo district officials told Christians in the district to report the number of church members and churches and apply for official permission to adopt the Christian faith. A leader of one of eight house churches in Pakoo explained to HRWLRF that the district chief, the religious affairs office and the local secretary of the Communist Party had to give their approval before Christians could openly confess faith and worship God.

When Christians failed to comply with these orders, officials gave them a month to recant their faith or face expulsion.

Before the expulsion could take place, however, Bousee Chantuma, head of religious affairs in Luang Prabang, reportedly told Pakoo officials that they must reverse the expulsion order as they had no legal grounds to issue it, and threatened to take the matter to provincial and central religious affairs offices. He also warned them that Christians in the district could not be arrested without his permission, according to HRWLRF.

Earlier, on Jan. 13, authorities in Hueysell village, Ngoi district of Luang Prabang Province, summoned two Christian leaders and ordered them and their congregation of about 80 people to abandon their faith or be expelled.

To date the Christians have held firm to their faith, and authorities have yet to follow through on the eviction order.

A spokesman for the group, which has stepped up its violent campaign against Christians in the North since Christmas, said on Sunday (4 March): We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay

Boko Haram’s actions over recent months indicate that this is no idle threat.

Following a series of attacks on churches and other targets in five states over Christmas that left more than 40 people dead, the group on New Year’s Day issued a three-day deadline for Christians to leave the North. Unrelenting attacks have ensued, including the bombing of a number of churches as well as attacks on individual Christians.

Most recently, on 26 February, a suicide bomber drove a car into the grounds of the Church of Christ headquarters in Jos. The vehicle exploded three metres from the church building; two women and an 18-month-old child were killed, and around 50 people were injured.

The violence is having the intended effect of driving Christians from the North. Nearly 95 per cent of the Christians have left Yobe State, where 20 churches have been torched and many lives have been lost.

Some are heading to the mainly Christian South, while others are crossing the border into Cameroon. The mass migration is precipitating a major humanitarian and spiritual crisis in Nigeria; Northern Christians who have been forced to leave behind their homes and jobs are in great need, while, as the Christian presence diminishes, the Church is being wiped off the map in the North.

Boko Haram has killed around 1,000 people since 2009 in its bloody campaign to establish an Islamic state in Northern Nigeria. As well as attacking Christians, the group targets police, security forces and politicians, and also Muslim leaders who oppose its agenda. Over 300 people have been killed so far this year.

The government has been trying to curtail Boko Haram’s activities, deploying military units across the country, and arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks. But, issuing the latest threat, the group’s spokesman said that the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come”.

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) – Thirteen Christian converts have been arrested following an attack by security authorities on a house church in Iran. Three of them are being held in custody at an unknown location, according to Mohabat News.

The news agency says that February 21, 2012, at 7 in the evening, security authorities raided a home dedicated to be used a house church and seized all thirteen gathered there for worship. To date, no precise news is available regarding some of these detainees.

Mohabat News says that during this incident, security authorities who were wearing plain clothes transferred these Christians to an unknown location while insulting and abusing them.

The authorities also invaded and thoroughly searched the detainees’ homes and confiscated some of their personal belongings.

Numerous Christian converts have already been arrested in various cities in their house church gatherings, homes or workplaces by order of judicial and security authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a result of the continued anti-Christian wave in Iran during past months.

Now, in addition to Ahwaz, Shiraz, Esfahan and Tehran, this on-going wave has reached the city Kermanshah, 526 KMs west of Tehran, in the western part of Iran.

A knowledgeable source told Mohabat News that the Christian detainees may have been transferred to a building in Hafezieh Junction in Kermanshah or 22-Bahman Street which is known as the location of security and intelligence forces.

The source said that nine of these detainees (their names are not given due to security reasons) were released the next day after their photos were taken, their details and fingerprints recorded and they signed a disclaimer stating they would not attend any Christian gatherings.

Mohabat News also received word that Ms. Azadeh Sharifi was released on February 28 after enduring 8 days in custody. As yet, no detailed information has been received regarding the way she was released.

Three other detainees, Mehdi Chaghakaboudi, Mojtaba Baba-Karami and Shirin Ghanbari, however, are still being held. Some of the named Christians had also been arrested by security authorities before.

The source also stated that on February 28, Ms. Shirin Ghanbari and Mojtaba Baba-Karami were permitted to have a brief contact with their families telling them that they are in a good health. However, it seems that they were prevented by prison authorities from giving any additional information or details on their situation.

Mohahbat News further says that Masoud Delijani, a Christian convert resident of Kermanshah and a member of a house church, was sentenced to three years in prison by the Revolutionary Court of Kermanshah for the charges of having faith in Christianity, holding illegal house church gatherings, evangelizing Muslims and action against national security. He is currently being held in Deizal-Abad prison in Kermanshah to serve his sentence.

Prior to this, on January 2, 2010, the official Pentecostal church of Assyrians in Kermanshah was also closed by the order of the judicial and security authorities for spreading Christianity among Farsi-speaking Muslims and for preaching the gospel. Security authorities also arrested the pastor of the church, Wilson Isavi on February 2, 2010. He was temporarily released on bail after 54 days in Dastgerd prison in Esfahan.

Mohabat News states: “With the growth in the number of Iranian converts to Christianity in recent years, and the increased pressure by the Islamic government on Christians, especially Christian converts, the Islamic Republic is seeking to stop the growth of house churches in Iran by any means.

“The Islamic Republic considers the growth of Christianity as a religious threat against its national security and is greatly concerned about the spread of the truth of the gospel among the people.”

JOS, Nigeria (Compass Direct News) – Two suicide bombers from the Boko Haram Islamist sect drove a car laden with bombs into the worship service of a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation here this morning, killing at least one Christian girl and injuring dozens of other church members, sources said.

A man claiming to be a spokesman for Boko Haram reportedly claimed responsibility for the blast. The two suicide bombers broke through a security barrier at the gate of the church building at 7:20 a.m., a church leader said.

“When the bombs went off, I saw the dead body of one girl and four other members of our church who were injured,” said Yakubu Dutse, director of finance at COCIN headquarters, which is located in the same building.

Dutse said one of the bombers was shot dead and one was injured by soldiers posted as security guards before the bombs went off, killing the second assailant as well.

“When they were stopped at the gate of the church, they refused to stop, hence the soldiers posted to the church shot at the car,” he said.

Church member Felix Apollos rushed to the scene of the attack minutes after the bombs went off; he told Compass that he saw the bodies of five people killed in the attack, but the identities of the dead were yet to be confirmed at press time. At least 38 people were reportedly injured in the blast.

“I saw some Red Cross personnel moving both the dead and the injured into ambulances,” Apollos said. “I saw five dead bodies and about seven injured Christians being moved into vehicles. But then the number of the injured may be higher than this, as there were already some injured that were taken to the hospital before I got here.”

Apollos said members of a security force manning the church gate tried to stop the assailants, but soldiers also guarding the church ordered them to allow the bombers onto the premises.

“Just when the bombers got onto the church premises, they crashed into the church building,” Apollos told Compass.

The COCIN church holds two worship services on Sunday mornings, one at 7 and one at 10. The second service was cancelled, as were most church services throughout Jos.

The car used in the attack was blown to pieces, and seven other cars were also destroyed.

Boko Haram, the name given to the Islamic extremist group officially called Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad – “The People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad” – seeks to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on Nigeria. The name Boko Haram translates loosely as “Western education is forbidden.”

Nigeria’s population of more than 158.2 million is divided between Christians, who make up 51.3 percent of the population and live mainly in the south, and Muslims, who account for 45 percent of the population and live mainly in the north. The percentages may be less, however, as those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World.

Jos, often described as a religious fault line between the north and the south, has been the site of numerous large-scale and isolated incidents of violence containing a religious component.

COCIN is one of the largest evangelical Christian denominations in Nigeria, with a large concentration in northern Nigeria. COCIN was established in Nigeria in 1904 by the Sudan United Mission by the leadership of Dr. Karl Kunn.

A number of COCIN congregations and other churches have come under attack by Boko Haram recently in northern Nigeria. In Borno state last year, the Rev. David Usman of the COCIN church in Maiduguri was murdered by Boko Haram. The denomination’s church buildings in Geidam, Damaturu, and Potiskum, all in Yobe state, also have been bombed.

COCIN church members have also been attacked in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Government Areas of Bauchi state. Early morning attacks in Tafawa Balewa, on Jan. 22 left at least seven Christians dead and a church building destroyed. The attack on the Evangelical Church Winning All Church 2, residents of Tafawa Balewa said, was carried out by area Islamic extremists alongside members of the Boko Haram sect, with the church building and surrounding houses bombed.

Suspected Islamic extremists detonated a bomb outside a church building in Suleja, Niger state, on Feb. 19, two months after Boko Haram Islamists killed 44 Christians and blinded seven in a church bombing in nearby Madalla. The Feb. 19 blast injured at five Christians.

Officials are holding the Christians at an unknown location, they said.

The sources put the number of the arrested Christians, who belong to one of Iran’s many underground house churches, at between six and 10. Authorities often detain, question and apply pressure on converts from Islam, viewing them as elements of Western propaganda set against the Iranian regime; as a result, the converts are forced to worship in secret.

The identity of only one of those arrested on Wednesday (Feb. 8), Mojtaba Hosseini, was known. Authorities arrested Hosseini in 2008 along with eight other Christian converts on charges of being Christians, according to Mohabat News.

“I guess they have been watching Hosseini since then,” an Iranian Christian who requested anonymity told Compass.

Shiraz is not a particularly “religious” part of predominantly Shiite Islamic Iran, the Christian explained, but persecution against Christians in Iran stems from the government more than from local religious sentiment. The families of the victims have requested information about their whereabouts, but authorities have refused to provide it, according to Mohabat News.

In past years authorities have arrested Christians around Christmas time, and the Compass source said that the international community and media monitoring religious rights in Iran were expecting another crack-down last December. Instead, he said, the government was more cautious and arrested small groups over a wider period of time.

In December authorities arrested a group of Christian converts in the city of Ahwaz, about 874 kilometers (542 miles) southwest of Tehran in Khuzestan Province. Of those arrested, three Christians remain in prison: Pastor Farhad Sabokroh, Naser Zamen-Defzuli and Davoud Alijani. They are held in Ahwaz’s Karoun Prison, according to Mohabat News.

Sources have expressed concern for Sabokroh’s health. Prior to his arrest, which took place at his church’s Christmas service on Dec. 23, Sabokroh underwent cataract surgery. In prison he does not have access to the medication he needs for his eyes. His wife visited him briefly on Jan. 27 and said she was concerned about his health, as he has lost a lot of weight, according to Mohabat News.

Authorities had also arrested Sabokroh’s wife at the Christmas service and released her on Jan. 1 when she submitted the deed of a house as bail, according to Mohabat News. Christians are forced to put their homes up as bail in Iran, a practice that sources say is an extortion tactic to erode them of their finances and to better control them.

Authorities have not formally charged Sabokroh, Zamen-Defzuli and Alijani.

Noorollah Qabitizade, whom authorities arrested on Dec. 24, 2010, is also held at the Karoun prison in Ahwaz. Mohabat News reported that interrogators have put psychological pressure on Qabitizade in the last year and have forced him to sign statements in an effort to make him renounce his faith.

Farshid Fathi, who was arrested on Dec. 24, 2010 in Tehran, remains in the capital’s notorious Evin prison. Sources said a court hearing had been scheduled this month but were unable to provide more information.

Iranian authorities continue to arrest and subject Christians to harsh treatment, but many of these cases remain unknown to the outside world. At the end of January, Mohabat News released information on the case of Leila Mohammadi, whom authorities had arrested in July last year.

She spent 74 days in solitary confinement at Tehran’s Evin prison. On Jan. 18 a judge sentenced her to two years of prison for “collaborating with foreign-dependent groups, broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by forming house churches, insulting sacred figures and acting against national security,” according to Mohabat News.

Authorities released her on bail on Dec. 28, 2011, and her attorney has sent her case to Tehran Province’s high court.

Iran applies sharia (Islamic law), which dictates that converts from Islam to other religions are “apostates” and thus punishable by death. Although judges rarely sentence Christians to death for leaving Islam, one Christian, Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani, is appealing such a decision in the northeastern city of Rasht.

Nadarkhani has been in prison since October 2009. A Rasht court found him guilty of leaving Islam and handed him the death sentence in September 2010.

Behnam Irani, who belongs to the same denomination as Nadarkhani, The Church of Iran, has been in prison in Karaj since May 2011; he turned himself in after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, according to rights group Middle East Concern.

Irani was previously arrested in April 2010 and released on bail after a few months. In January 2011 a court found him guilty of “crimes against national security” and sentenced him to one year in prison. Authorities told him he must also serve a five-year sentence handed down in 2008.

Asked if there was a change in persecution trends from previous years, the Compass source said, “Nothing has changed, the issue is the same,” explaining that the attitude of the government toward Christians remains hostile.

Authorities have prohibited musical worship and Bible distribution at the Central Church of Tehran, the largest and most visible Assemblies of God church in the country. Last December officials enforced a policy under which only invited guests could attend a Christmas service at the church, and in December 2009 the church succumbed to intense pressure by authorities to discontinue its Friday services, which had attracted the most converts to Christianity.

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (ANS) — National and international rights groups have consistently criticized the recourse to the so-called “reconciliation meetings” — dubbed “Bedouin sittings” — that take place between Copts and Muslim assailants after every attack on Coptic Christians, says Egyptian journalist Mary Abdelmassih, writing for AINA — Assyrian International News Agency www.aina.org .

The meetings are conducted under the auspices of state security, Abdelmassih writes.

“Last week a series of meetings were held by radical Muslims to decide on the fate of the Copts in a village in Alexandria, and Muslims insisted that the whole Coptic population of 62 families must be deported because of an unsubstantiated accusation levied against one Coptic man,” Abdelmassih states in an online report.

According to AINA, Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (El-Ameriya), Alexandria, were attacked on January 27 by a mob of 3,000 Muslims led by Salafi leaders, who looted and torched homes and shops belonging to Copts.

“The violence was prompted by allegations made by a Muslim barber named Toemah that a 34-year-old Coptic tailor, Mourad Samy Guirgis, had on his mobile phone illicit photos of a Muslim woman,” writes Abdelmassih.

She continued: “Mourad denied the accusation and surrendered to the police for fear for his life. Muslims looted and torched his workshop and home after he surrendered to the police, and his entire family, including his parents and his married brother Romany, were evicted from the village. He is still in police detention.”

Abdelmassih reports that three “reconciliation meetings” were held at the El-Ameriya village police headquarters. They were attended by Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood representatives from neighboring villages, as well as church representative. Muslims demanded the eviction of all Coptic inhabitants from the village because “Muslim honor had been damaged.”

Abdelmassih says many believe that the mobile phone story was fabricated as an excuse to start violence against the Copts. According to the police, the woman in question denied the story and no photos were found on Mourad’s mobile phone, according to Ihab Aziz, a Coptic-American activist who is presently in Egypt.

“During the first reconciliation meeting it was agreed that only Copts who were directly involved with the Mourad incident would be evicted, and the church demanded compensation of two million pounds for the innocent Copts whose homes and businesses were torched on January 27. Muslims, especially Salafis from the neighboring villages, refused any kind of compensation and insisted on the eviction of all Copts,” Abdelmassih went on to say.

AINA reports that on January 30 a Muslim mob attacked Copts in Kobry-el-Sharbat for the second time, and torched three Coptic homes in the presence of the security forces, “which took the role of an onlooker and made no effort to stop the violence,” according to Joseph Malak, lawyer for the Coptic church in Alexandria.

“This proves that the assailants were not afraid of the security forces or the law,” he said.

The AINA report goes on to say that Muslim representatives demanded the eviction of the wealthy Coptic merchant Abeskhayroun Soliman, together with his four married sons and their families, accusing them of causing sedition by shooting in the air when Muslims broke into and torched their home while the family was inside. “No one was wounded due to the alleged shootings, which the family says never took place. The police authorities issued an arrest warrant for two of the Soliman sons,” said Ihab Aziz.

AINA stated that the Solimans have been in hiding with a Muslim family which saved them from their burning homes, and is presently giving them protection. Muslims threatened that if eight Coptic families were not evicted by February 3, all remaining 54 Coptic families in the village would be subjected to violence after Friday prayers. They called it “Friday of Eviction” and “Friday of Clean-up.”

The news agency said that on Wednesday, February 1, a hastily-organized reconciliation meeting was arranged by security authorities, and was attended by Ebeskharion Soliman and one of his sons.

The terms of the agreement which resulted were:

** Eviction of eight Coptic families, namely three of the Mourad families, in addition to five Soliman families.
** Selling of the assets of the wealthy Abeskhayron Soliman family within three months by a committee, under the supervision of Salafi shaikh Sherif el Hawary. Soliman has no right to get involved in the sale or even accompany a prospective buyer.
**The Committee is to collect any money accrued from the sale of his land, properties, businesses as well as collect promissory notes pending from business transactions by the Soliman-owned chain of stores.
** In case of non-implementation of this Agreement, all Copts in the Kobry-el-Sharbat village will be attacked, their homes and property completely torched.

AINA reports that Abeskhayron Soliman signed the agreement, which most Copts viewed as “humiliating.”

Father Boktor, who attended the meeting, described the reconciliation agreement as “utter injustice,” AINA said

According to the AINA report, Wissa Fawzi, member of the Maspero Coptic Youth Union in Alexandria, said that Soliman has nothing at all to do with the Mourad story, but signed the agreement to save his family and the Copts in the village, “otherwise there would have been a massacre of the Copts on that Friday.” He said that Security authorities pressured Soliman into accepting the terms of the agreement by threatening him with refusal of police protection for him and his family.

“What constitutes the real crisis is the complicity of security officials in the process of displacement,” said Fawzi.

AINA explained that Copts in Kobry-el-Sharbat were stunned after hearing the news of the eviction of the “top Copt” in their community, whose wealth is estimated at more than 20,000,000 Egyptian pounds. “There is a feeling of humiliation and being completely under the mercy of the radical Muslims,” said Rami Khashfa of the Alexandria Maspero Youth Union, adding:”They are terrorized and are scared of the future. Copts in the neighboring villages are also scared.” He said that Copts in the village are thinking of moving elsewhere.

Speaking on US-based Christian TV channel Al-Karma, Magdy Khalil, head of the Middle East Freedom Forum, said that reconciliation meetings made up of Salafis and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and arranged by security officials are illegal and forced eviction is one of the crimes under international law.

“Who gave them the right to form a committee headed by a Salafi to sell Christian property? This is thuggery and blatant targeting of Copts,” Khalil said

The AINA report says Khalil called on the Coptic Melli Council, which is the civilian body that represents Copts in the Egyptian State, to protest this agreement and ask for the return of the Copts to their homes.

“If we accept it, this will open the door for an avalanche of forced evictions,” Khalil said. He believes that radical Muslims have a bigger plan they hope to achieve by terrorizing the Copts, namely displacing and dispersing them from places with high Coptic population density, taking their property and weakening them economically.

Ihab Aziz, like many others, believes that “Coptic capital” is targeted everywhere in Egypt. He said that members of the Egyptian parliament have been made aware of the El-Ameriya forced displacement, and the issue will be brought before parliament shortly.